Wait... Why Did He Shave and Change His Hair Color?

I am a middle-aged man, with an appropriate mixture of grey in my hair. And I have worn some form of facial hair almost continuously since I was first able to grow a scraggly beard. But, for the moment, I have changed my look.

This has nothing to do with running for Lewes city council and everything to do with playing a small role as a navy seaman in the Possum Point Players production of South Pacific. We open on April 4, get your tickets!

The directors have asked me to shave and remove the grey from my hair and I have done so. This is the first time I've been clean-shaven since March of 1988, when I played a Russian soldier in the Possum's Fiddler on the Roof. And I've had some sort of hair-color camouflage applied to hide the grey.

I have mixed feelings. I'm not without vanity and the idea of being younger is appealing. But I'm also a realist: I know that I am not a young man. And, The Lovely Karen has pointed out that I have a baby-face. That's a major reason for the beard in the first place. As a couple, we've always been proud to own our grey (and blame it on our kids).

So both the grey hair and likely the facial hair will return after the play is done. The hair color will fade (luckily, it doesn't have to grow out). And I expect I'll grow some sort of facial hair again. Exactly what will be decided in consultation with my wife and daughters. After all, they have to look at this face.

Bonus irony: Those of us old enough to remember TV commercials in the 1970s will recall the Clairol commercial which turned the Song "I'm Gonna Wash That Man Right Out of My Hair" into "I'm Gonna Wash That Grey Right Out of My Hair."

Some Thoughts About Lewes

Here is a small selection of Lewes-related posts from my blogging history. In no particular order.

• Marking 25 years in Lewes (June, 2012)
• In memory of Mayor George HP Smith (September, 2005)
• In memory of Howard Seymour (December, 2004)
• In memory of Mayor Al Stango (May, 2008)
• Thanking Barbara Vaughn for her time on council (February, 2012)
• Preparing for the Lewes Zoning Code public hearing (May, 2010)
• A letter to the editor encouraging citizen input
• A slide show presenting the Zoning update to Mayor and Council
• On the (at that point) new Canalfront Park (November, 2009)
• On the land-use issue that preceded the new park (October, 2004)
• On the loss of a manufacturing use in Lewes (January, 2008)
• Thinking about Lewes' blue-collar history (December, 2007)
• On John Ellsworth, an early neighbor (November, 2007)
• On the need for connecting neighborhoods (September, 2007)
• A symphony concert in Lewes (August, 2006)

Hey, Lewes Folks, Please Vote for Me

Today I filed paperwork to run for Lewes City Council. The election is Saturday, May 10.  I hope you will vote for me.

I have lived in Lewes since 1987. This is where the Lovely Karen and I started married life. She's proved her patience and good humor for more than 25 years.  Together we've raised two lovely young women who will always call Lewes their home town.

I have served on the Lewes Planning Commission since 1999. I've had the honor of serving as Chair of the Commission since 2009. Over these years I've learned a great deal about the city and how it functions. I've helped in the drafting of updates of the City Comprehensive Plan, the City Zoning Map, the Zoning Ordinance and the Subdivision Ordinance. And I've been involved in making recommendations to Mayor and Council on some wonderfully complex and controversial proposals.

I was born just over 52 years ago in Washington DC and grew up in the Maryland suburbs of that city.  In 1984, I graduated from Colby College, in Waterville, Maine, with a Bachelor of Arts. I was an English major.  I learned how to learn.  And I've had great fun doing just that, ever since.

I first moved to eastern Sussex County, in 1986, for a job at WGMD radio. In 1989 I began a career with state government that has included working as a public information officer, a business research director, a data coordinator, Governor's Liaison to the Census Bureau for the 2000 and 2010 Census counts, and (most recently) as Acting Director of the Delaware Government Information Center. I have worked at DNREC, DEDO, the Office of State Planning Coordination and the Department of State.

As a by-product of the jobs I've held, and because of the intimate size of the state of Delaware, I've worked closely with the leaders of many of the major state agencies that interact with Lewes.  My jobs have brought me into close contact with many legislative leaders and our last four governors (and probably some of the next few, if my guesses are correct). I can offer a comprehensive knowledge of how Delaware works, at the municipal, county and state levels.

You are reading this (shameless) autobiographical sketch on a blog I started in 2004 as a place to exercise my writing muscles. I haven't regularly updated this site for several years. My writing and photographic urges have shifted to facebook, twitter, flickr and instagram. But there's record here of what I was thinking here that you may find useful.

Many of my posts have been about Lewes.  I've done no pruning, so you'll find a representative slice of what I was thinking at various times.

And I hope you will consider voting for me.