Feeling Latakish On A Hot Summer Evening

Here in Birmingham we've been in the nasty southern summer weather holding pattern of "feels like" triple digit days and early evening thunderstorms. For whatever reason the smell of the rain and the heat made me feel Latakish. I just opened a tin and smoked my first ever bowl of 2003 Ravens Wing, a "dark, full Latakia mixture" and it's the most Latakia forward tobacco I've ever smoked. It is to tobacco what espresso is to coffee. It's seriously bold, stout stuff. It honestly tastes exactly one would suspect such a mixture would and the years in the tin have certainly done it's due diligence. The only thing even remotely unsuspected was the burn. I hit it with a match once and it burned as perfectly as I've seen a tobacco burn leaving perfectly fine ash. Anytime I smoke anything with the Syrian Latakia I can't help but be a little sad knowing that I've just reduced the global quantity of an irreplaceable tobacco... But not sad enough to stop smoking it happily. I've got three tins to go through and I'll do so very happily.

I'm both happy and sad that I'm not alone in the summer heat. This time of year I PROFOUNDLY miss my time at school in Montana. I can dress for cold weather, but sleeping in a pool of your own sweat, well it's just undignified and not at all restful nor helpful. If God forbid I were to outlive my family here in Bama, I'd mourn their loss for certain, at which point I'd pack my car and drive away from Bama forever with utmost haste.
I took a photo trying to capture the beauty of the Ravens Wing ash. I failed, but instead took this photo thinking the glowing single ember looked kinda cool against the grey.