As the title says, I registered this account a long time ago, my deployment last your to be exact, and I've just now gotten the nerve to try and contribute to the forum here.
I started pipe smoking on that previous deployment, but I had messed around with my late paternal grandfather's pipe long before enlisting. I quite like how it felt in my hand and messing around with the stem in my mouth while I did school work was pretty enjoyable. As of now the stem broke off in the shank after it fell of the kitchen counter onto the tile floor, much to my dismay. Now since my folks divorced it remains locked up in storage somewhere, but I'm determined to find the damn thing and get it restored and repaired.
Now then, I had originally started smoking with cigars, and I still do smoke them on occasion, but messing around with grandad's pipe got me more interested in pipe smoking, even if I did play a lot of Metal Gear. I had been wanting to try pipe smoking for a while, but military life had me moving too fast to pick anything up before I was shipped out. Luckily, my mother visited a tobacconist in San Luis Obispo, and the gentleman there set her(and by extension, me) up with a few of his aromatics to try and a lovely bent Crown Billiard, which is still one of my favorite pipes. Since then I've gotten my hands on a couple of other briars, one cheap and one very pricy, and plenty of cobs.
When it comes to tobacco, I'm learning to rotate what I'm smoking throughout the week. It reminds me of some advice one of the SNCOs gave me about tasting different spirits, you need to drink them in succession in order to notice the differences better. I can tell you this, Doug's Abbey blend is a whole other animal after smoking 965 the previous day. So now a modest amount of my pay goes towards procuring all sorts of tobacco I haven't tried yet(especially after what's happened with the FDA), and I thank my family for being patient enough to hold onto that stuff for me until I get get it.
Till then my predilections is for English blends or very burley heavy ones.
I'm looking forward to a smooth end to my enlistment and chatting with you guys(and gals) here.
I started pipe smoking on that previous deployment, but I had messed around with my late paternal grandfather's pipe long before enlisting. I quite like how it felt in my hand and messing around with the stem in my mouth while I did school work was pretty enjoyable. As of now the stem broke off in the shank after it fell of the kitchen counter onto the tile floor, much to my dismay. Now since my folks divorced it remains locked up in storage somewhere, but I'm determined to find the damn thing and get it restored and repaired.
Now then, I had originally started smoking with cigars, and I still do smoke them on occasion, but messing around with grandad's pipe got me more interested in pipe smoking, even if I did play a lot of Metal Gear. I had been wanting to try pipe smoking for a while, but military life had me moving too fast to pick anything up before I was shipped out. Luckily, my mother visited a tobacconist in San Luis Obispo, and the gentleman there set her(and by extension, me) up with a few of his aromatics to try and a lovely bent Crown Billiard, which is still one of my favorite pipes. Since then I've gotten my hands on a couple of other briars, one cheap and one very pricy, and plenty of cobs.
When it comes to tobacco, I'm learning to rotate what I'm smoking throughout the week. It reminds me of some advice one of the SNCOs gave me about tasting different spirits, you need to drink them in succession in order to notice the differences better. I can tell you this, Doug's Abbey blend is a whole other animal after smoking 965 the previous day. So now a modest amount of my pay goes towards procuring all sorts of tobacco I haven't tried yet(especially after what's happened with the FDA), and I thank my family for being patient enough to hold onto that stuff for me until I get get it.
Till then my predilections is for English blends or very burley heavy ones.
I'm looking forward to a smooth end to my enlistment and chatting with you guys(and gals) here.
