Shaving Memory

I am using a straight edge razor. I am looking in the mirror at my left cheek and I am angling my arm across so that I can get the razor into position. I can't really see my whole face in the mirror and the mirror isn't very good and I find that kinda stressful. I can see my eyes. They are very blue. A nice bright shade of light blue. The mirror isn't clear at all. I am not even sure it is a mirror. It looks more like the back of a silver platter. I can hear the razor scraping against my face as I pull the edge gently up, which is really dangerous. Normally I shave with the blade moving down. I shack the razor off in the water below without looking and I keep my eye on my face as I inspect the smoothness with my fingers. I remove whatever was bothering me.

I grab a towel and wipe my face clean and dry. I seem to be rather intent on inspecting my face for any flaws in my shaving. This is a terrible mirror. I am wearing a white shirt with a tab collar. I am unsure where I am. It seems to be mid to late morning since the lighting in the room makes me think that. I still don't know where I am. It could be a hotel room. The wash basin and mirror is in the same room as the bed. The mirror has a simple wooden frame that is holding it to the wall. When I turn towards the bed, I can see a quick flash of the city that is outside. I am several stories up. About two or three. I need to be somewhere for lunch? I still do not have my uniform jacket on yet. I go to the night stand to make sure I have everything such as my pocket watch, some money, and I think, a small pocket knife, and a white folded handkerchief. I stuff these items into my trouser pockets. I then think about getting my Uhlan tunic.

Suddenly, I am buttoning up my jacket while looking out the window or spacing off. It looks like it is about 11 am. This town has cars and carriages driving on the road in front of the place that I am staying in. I am now outside walking. It is sunny out. It's a lovely early spring day. It feels absolutely wonderful. I can't imagine doing anything inside on a day like this. I think about eating at a place that has outdoor seating. There are a lot of people on the sidewalk walking. Some people eyeball me while I am invisible to others. The colors of the clothing are very conservative. I see lots of dark brown, light grey, dark grey, white, black, and occasionally navy blue. The red piping on my uniform seems very colorful at the moment. I have women smile at me. Men nod at me respectfully. Young women bashfully glance and giggle off at me. I seem to be walking fairly far. And the crowd is amazingly large. I don't like crowded streets.

I am approaching an area where to my left on the other side of the street, I think there is a large body of water like a river! The amount of buildings on the other side of street diminishes and I can see a river. A large river! Where am I?!! A breeze is in my face suddenly. I feel like I am walking away from the center of the town. There is a hillside to my right that is behind a few buildings that are along the street. The hillside is covered with green vegetation. The site of this greenery makes me feel more comfortable. The road starts to curve. I was walking in a southwest direction and now I am walking in a more westward direction. Where am I going?! The road is turning away from the big river and going towards these foothills covered with trees.

I am getting the impression of a small house with a short wooden fence around the yard. I open the gate to this fence and walk down the little dirt path that has small round river stones pushed deep into he ground to keep the pathway to the door from getting too muddy. I knock on the door. The air is comfortable and fresh. The sun is comfortable and pleasantly warm. A woman answers the door. She is older and wearing an apron. She greets me and says something about someone expecting me and that they are sitting outside in the backyard. The house seems really dark after being outside and I follow my hostess by voice and she leads me to another open door. A half and half door, a dutch door? The top portion is open. I push this open and go outside. There is a small garden. And pebbled pathway and a table with some kind of umbrella? To shade from the direct sunlight. I am getting a flash of other uniformed men sitting at the table. They get up to greet me and I shake hands with them. Everyone is in very good spirits. I sit down in a chair that was facing towards the little house. The house must be elevated a little up from the river because I can see the sun sparkling off the river about half a mile away.

The table looks like white wrought iron. The older woman comes out with food for me. The others had already started to eat their lunch. I think I am a little late. I apologize to the lady. She smiles and acts like it is no problem at all. The other uniformed me are drinking tall glasses of beer. We chat for awhile as I eat my lunch and the others finish theirs. I think there are about three other uniformed men here besides myself. I have this feeling like I can relax for a couple of hours and just enjoy myself. I cannot focus on the other men's faces. The sun occasionally hits me in the eye, so one man I can not focus upon, but the other two are in the shade of the umbrella where I can see. At least one of them smokes a little.