I went to Walmart on December 24th. Yes, I was dumb enough to wander into the den of evil on Christmas Eve. Thankfully, I only had a few things to get, and I was able to get into a relatively fast “20 items or less” checkout line.

I bought some of the 50 cent pies that Nat mentioned in his blog. They are pretty good, but Kathy says that Hostess pies are better, and they are three for a buck at the Hostess store.

While I was at Walmart, I bought a new shaver. I am hopeful that this one will give me a few years of service.

These fancy electric razors are not cheap, but they really do make the job of shaving faster and easier. If they didn’t, the companies that make them would not be able to get anyone to pay so much for them.

Anyone who has known me in person in the last few years is aware of my facial hair. I have bushy hair on my face because I am lazy, not because I enjoy it. Kathy does not like the hair. She very much prefers me to have a smooth face, and I enjoy being hair free as well. I look much younger when I shave. There have been a lot of scientific and non-scientific studies done that show people, especially women, tend to have more trust in a man who shaves. We haven’t had a president with a beard in amost 100 years.

Even so, I really hate to mess with disposable razors and shaving cream. I hate it so much that I will go a month or more without shaving, rather than deal with them.

A few years ago for Valentines day, Kathy bought me a Braun Syncro shaver (model 7526). Like the one I just bought, it’s a self-cleaning razor.

A month or so after I got it, it broke. I never got around to calling Braun for warranty replacement, which I probably could have gotten, but in the end I figure the new one would have broken in a similar manner.

The nature of the problem is, in my opinion, a major design flaw in the cleaner. The top part pushes down into the end of the razor, providing power for charging and cleaning. The problem was that the top would not stay down — the latching mechanism deep inside broke. There is a spring inside, designed to disengage the power from the razor at the touch of a button. Because it would not lock in the coiled position, the cleaner was completely broken unless I spent 20 minutes holding it down. The only thing I ever found to wrap around it effectively to as a jury-rig was so hard to attach and remove that it wasn’t worth doing.

This problem effectively rendered the entire shaver useless, because its blades are designed to be cleaned daily. If they are not cleaned daily, excess hair accumulates and the razor stops working effectively. Cleaning the razor manually is a major chore — I would rather get out the shaving cream and the disposable razors.

The Remington razor I just bought also receives power at the top of the cleaning mechanism. I don’t believe there is a design flaw here, because the spring, located in the bottom under the blades, works to push the razor into the power source, rather than separate it.

The Braun company does seem to be aware of this design flaw. Their newest razor doesn’t have this problem — you drop the razor into the base and it’s ready to go. I would have bought this razor, but Walmart was out of them.