Delete as you go is the only way, otherwise you're basically paying Adobe rent for a blurry photo of your own thumb.

You said dead reckoning with a stopwatch. Did you have a backup compass too?

Elizabeth900 is right about the coarse hair thing, I learned that the hard way when I tried shears on my buddy's thick afro and it looked like a lawnmower got angry at him. I still use clipper over comb for the initial shape and then shears for the fine finish, keeps me from crying into my comb later. You ever try that two-step method or just full send with the shears?

Did he tell you to leave a little more fat on the flat side too... I always wonder about that balance.

Oh man, those pepper thieves sound like they had a whole system going! I had a similar deal with a family of raccoons one year. They figured out how to unscrew the latch on my compost bin and would help themselves to all the kitchen scraps, leaving a huge mess every morning. But then one night I watched them actually roll a whole watermelon right out of my garden patch and down the driveway. They'd even stop to take turns pushing it along, like they had a plan. The fence really is the only answer once they know where the good stuff is.