Year and a Half Pipe Reflections

So it’s been a little over a year and a half since I started down the pipe smoking path. It’s been an enjoyable ride and I have much to thank this forum for. Although I’m not on this forum regularly, it’s made the past eighteen or so months a richer experience. So after a bowl of Haddo’s Delight, I figured I would put pen to paper and jot down a few thoughts about my time with the pipe.
It’s harder than it looks but that’s a good thing. Anything worth doing never comes easily and pipe smoking is no different. Sure, it can be frustrating at times, but the reward is well worth any aggravation.
You can’t rush. Anything. Whether it be packing, tamping or smoking, rushing it always yields poor results.
There is no substitute for experience. The internet and this forum are a great knowledge base, and one I dip into regularly, but sometimes it’s too much information, particularly when starting out. The varying opinions on every aspect of this hobby can be a bit dizzying and sometimes confusing. We’re all individuals and we each have to figure out what works best for ourselves.
Nobody else has your taste buds. What tastes delicious to someone else may taste horrible to you. Everyone’s palate is different. Just because the guy next to me loves Cuban food and can’t recommend it enough doesn’t mean I will love it or should be made to feel like I have to love it. Ditto for pipe tobacco.
When first choosing tobacco, start with the benchmarks. When I first began, I decided I wanted to start with English. But instead of just buying an English standard, something like Squadron Leader to form a bit of a baseline, I opted to buy one ounce samples of half a dozen English blends with varying degrees of latakia and oriental. In my mind, buying a whole bunch of samples was a safer bet than committing to buying one whole tin. I would bounce from one to the next and in the end, I just confused myself. Better to start out with a quality standard to help form a foundation.
Tobaccoreviews.com Does everyone posting there have the palate of a master sommelier and smoke each bowl down to fine what ash with only one light? Take anything you read there with a big grain of salt.
There is no right or wrong. If smoking a cherry/latakia blend out of a melting piece of PVC requiring fifty re-lights makes you happy, keep smoking! Okay, maybe not the PVC. Lose the PVC and get yourself at least a corncob. But seriously. The bottom line for pipe smoking is enjoyment. And as long as it’s enjoyable to you, keep doing what you’re doing.
I could have added a few more thoughts but for the sake of brevity, I tried to narrow it down. Enjoy your Sunday and thanks to everyone here.

newbroom, most of the time I'm a one bowl in the evening kind of guy most of the year. I live in South Florida and it's too damn hot to smoke outside, which is where I'm relegated to. But that may change. My wife was gone for a week and I smoked indoors the entire time. She just got home and I haven't gotten any comments about the house smelling, so there is hope! As far as pipes and tobacco here's a photo showing what I have so far:

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Well that evidently didn't work. I'll try this:

Had a good laugh Nate at your "bunch of losers and degenerates" comment. Funny stuff. Thanks for the compliments crashthegrey and beastinview. To answer your question crashthegrey, I find myself going for the meers more and more. My father-in-law lives in Turkey (defense contractor) and gifted me with three of them this past Christmas! Sounds like a kingly gift, and it is to be sure, but meers are as you can imagine, a hell of a lot cheaper in Turkey than here in the US. The meers are incredibly cool and dry smoking, extremely light in hand and mouth, and in my mind, seem to be a purer smoke. Personally, I can't recommend them enough. That said, they lack any tactile gratification for me. The truth is, despite the meers being great smokers,I simply like the feel of briar in my hand.