The time has come for us to say so long and good riddance to my faithful clump of matted hair. Zed the dread made it to month seven. He got the experience a little bit of Malaysia. He has seen it all on the race. Costa Rica was his beginning. We saw amazing beaches, killer monkeys, and experienced what a month one for world racers looks like. Nicaragua brought the beautiful city of Grenada. We crammed on chicken buses and shared a kitchen with 50 people. With Honduras came the crazy children and that was the end of my dread being a cool thing. It was declining fast. Philippines, Vietnam, Cambodia- kids were scared of the beast. They didn’t want to touch it- they didn’t know what it was. The dread was out of control. What started as a cool bucket list thing had become a parasite- slowly sucking in more and more hair. Growing thicker and more out of control. Still, it was a goal to make it at least to the end of the race, maybe even a few month after. But now we have hit Malaysia, and I’m sorry to say he could not go on.
As it turns out in his last days Zed betrayed me (thus ending his life) by becoming central station, time square, a main city or tourist spot for those pesky little bugs called lice. I really thought we would make it through the lice infestations. While right and left squad mates and teammates were being attacked, we were there to stop those attacks. To pick out nits for hours and squish them as needed (always). But it was never me being the one picked. I was in the clear. No lice making a living in my head. I had to protect my hair, because if lice happened, my dread would be no more. I thought I had made it through….until this month.
An itchy head proved lice had moved in. Until the 12th we had no idea just how serious it was. For the better good of everyone involved and the rest of my hairs- Zed had to be cut out. All that is left in his place is a little tuff of short hairs that will not fit into my pony tail for another 2 years.
So the time has come for us to saw goodbye to Zed the dread. May he rest in peace. I would like to say that he will be missed, but so far he has not.
Change is inevitable. Apparently so is lice.
