Serious question, what happened to the street cleaning schedule?

When I bought my house ten years ago, the streets were swept every month without fail. Now, I see leaves and trash pile up for weeks. It makes the neighborhood look bad and might hurt our home values. I asked the city about it and they said budget cuts. But come on, we pay taxes for this. Maybe we can all write letters or something. Idk, just feels like things are slipping.

Getting a tricky texture to lay flat for a cut

Had a guy come in today with hair that was both super thick and had a weird wave pattern. I usually struggle with this kind because it never sits right to see my lines. This time, I dampened it more than usual and used a comb to stretch each section as I cut. I went real slow, checking after every pass with the clippers. When I was done, the hair actually behaved and the shape looked clean. He kept running his hand over it in the mirror, which is always a good sign. Felt like I finally figured out a method that works. Those little victories are what make this job fun for me.

Am I the only one who thinks plastic spacers in bricklaying cause more problems than they solve? Had to redo a whole patio because of them.

Appreciation post: My backyard pergola lift taught me about load control

I just finished building a pergola in my backyard and had to lift the main beams into place without a crane. In my experience, handling heavy timber at home is tricky, so I set up a simple A-frame and winch system. The beams were around 200 pounds each, and I used slings I had from work to secure them. Your mileage may vary, but I found that keeping the load close to the center helped prevent sway. I did have one close call where a beam tilted because my anchor point wasn't perfect. Now I'm wondering, what do other operators do for small home lifts like this? Any advice on judging weight distribution when you're working alone? Take this with a grain of salt, but slowing down and double-checking my knots saved me from a big mess.

Just realized a dab of conditioner on my comb stops static in dry hair

I was doing a blowout on a client with very dry hair. The static was making it fly everywhere. On a whim, I put a tiny bit of conditioner on my wide-tooth comb. It smoothed the hair without weighing it down. Now I do this for all my clients with similar issues. It saves time and keeps the style neat. Plus, it uses product I already have on hand.