Yesterday's Festivities: Guess we're all creatures of habit. Once I get into the tobacco trial stage of a recently broken in pipe, I overdo it and get tung byte. Always. So I'll skip the whining as somehow, I think, I'm not alone. And it serves me right!
I remember an interesting post from the always interesting TheIronMonkey, in which he said he had a Brulor Pipe that was so tiny that he just used it as a test pipe. Following his lead, I use my pipsqueaks for the same purpose, or a short smoke of around 20 minutes or so when I feel so inclined.
Thus it was yesterday. I used three of my little guys, all biased for similar tobaccos, to investigate the suitability of similar tobaccos that I wanted to add to the rotation. Spaced the smokes throughout the day so that the dreaded tung byte wouldn't engage for a couple of minutes and I could decide on the tobacco at least with some sense of security. Here's what transpired:
Included in the display is a picture of the cigar I smoked in the evening. Y'all know and are mostly nauseated by my taste in these sticks, so I won't include it in the tobacco analysis. Yeah, I use a small flower pot holder as an ashtray. Cheap and works great. $2 bucks for a pack of three at the Dollar Store.
Top pipe and tin, my
McQueen Miniature Prospector (cherrywood) biased for English/Balkan Lats. Tried my own
Whiskey Style Balkan, one of my favourite personal blends. Winner.
Second pipe, the
McQueen Miniature Fable (briarwood) biased for codger style baccys with Oriental content, with
Amphora Absolute (Rich in the USA). Excellent addition with a stellar tobacco.
Bottom Pipe, the
McQueen Miniature Barrel Rider, (briar), dedicated to Mad Fiddler, which I still haven't smoked since coming off the meds, cause I may have to go back on another round of antibiotics. No big deal, just a precautionary measure says the doc. Searching for a similar tobacco to augment my somewhat limited stock of MF,
SG St James Flake fills the bill. Virginias and Perique. What this fine tobacco lacks is the Kasturi content of MF which gives it a mid-smoke kick, but otherwise is a great companion piece to my favourite smoke. Love it and will buy it again when I can get it. St James Flake shows up sporadically on the Reserve Store.
Will return this evening and go back about 3 or 4 pages from this post to do the commenting/emoticon thing. Going out for dinner now.
Shocking admission and question for you in Skippable Drivel, which follows directly.
Skippable Drivel. Today, a day off for me, I turned down a full day trip fishing, an offer from Pete, a former student of mine who loves to flyfish.
Horrors!!!! I initially showed him the ropes, and we work well together on the water. I would never have done this in the past. I'm dead serious.
Reason?
IT WAS TOO COTTON PICKIN' COLD. Now this would not have affected me in the least in the past, but it has come to my realization that I'm now an old fart, and I am completely cold intolerant. Can't stand anything less than tropical heat in the house, and am too fumble-fingered to use the 2 or 3 weight rods and 2 pound test leader necessary to fit into the eyelets of the size 18-20 flies I used to, plus the disturbing fact that I can't see well enough to thread this almost invisible mono into the tiny little flies. I'm going to have to go to a 5 weight rod with 4 or 6 pound mono leads to function, along with the vulgar size 10-14 flies that'll balance the line and stick. Am also going to have to spend this month's tobacco budget on a new and ultra warm outdoor jacket.
Need to know, at least for sympathies sake, if some of you other old dudes have experienced a similar climate based abject dislike of cold. Yeah, I'm serious. Misery loves company. Pete and I will try again next Wednesday.
Be back tonight unless I kill myself.
