My beard.

So, I've had a beard for just about as long as I could grow one and a few weeks ago I had to cut it. Now, I know what you're thinking; there's got to be a girl involved for my hansomification, but you would me mistaken.

The real reason was that I had to get fitted for a respirator for work, and you are required to be mostly clean shaven in order for the fit test to be completed. Basically if I don't want to breath in poisonous zinc fumes from galvanized welding, it is in my best interest to comply with the requirement.

The fit test was an interesting process. It consisted of placing the mask on your face and them spraying some really nasty smoke in your face as you breath, talk, and move your head normally to test the completeness of the seal. How do I know the smoke is some nasty stuff? You are required to breath it in at one point to see if it will make you cough. It did. I coughed up a storm for almost four minutes.

The great thing about the respirators is that you can't smell anything with the filters on. That means that when the guy that smokes three packs a day comes up to you and starts explaining your project you don't have the gag reflex to suppress. The unfortunate thing is the fact that the filters are large enough that the hoods don't come down as far as they should, so you have to pull some interesting maneuvers in order to see what you're welding. If I can get my hands on one of those tube sets that allows the filters to be worn at different locations, then I might just try to wear the respirator all the time. It'd look kinda funny, but I can defiantly tell that my lungs feel better after a day of wearing the mask than a day without it. The guys at work say that the air quality at Universal is really good compared to other shops in the area, but I still feel like it's a hostile environment to your health.

However, on the flip side of the health aspect, the experience and fabrication skills that I've been introduced to allows a lot of learning, even if there are long spells of mindless labor between those times. Not too far removed from my past experience growing up in a farm community. The swine buildings still need to to be washed out, or fifty parts of the exact same weld need to be laid down, but someone's got to do it.