This is my second thread here, thank you to those who replied in my first. It was a humbling experience and most of your viewpoints were received with gratitude. I work in a technical field and technicalities are both my strength and my weakness. It is this very thing that brought pipe smoking to me. One day at work a couple years ago, a boss of mine dropped an estate briar on my desk and a tin of Samuel Gawith Grousemoor and said, "You need to chill out bro, you are locked on but you are going to burn yourself out. Let's have a smoke."
Seven years ago I had purchased a Grabow and a couple pouches of tobacco that I did not finish, they were not very good and I gave it up quickly. I packed and lit this Grousemoor in my new briar like I was riding a clunky old bicycle, and started to hobble it along. I very quickly noticed this tobacco was much better than what I had first smoked. Many more free partially smoked tins of very good tobacco followed in the coming months. This time, smoking the pipe stuck.
My friend is no longer my boss, but we have both transferred to the same area and still enjoy some tobacco together once every week or so. I still have the tendency to attack every problem furiously and it has served me well professionally, but as some of you already know, not so much online. I have rounded this out in my personal life over the years, but apparently still have room to grow in this regard. I have spend the last ten years or so off of the internet, maybe this is why. It looks like the trusty pipe has brought me back to give it another go.
I know several of you already dislike me and I did earn that with a poor first impression. Maybe I will be welcomed to stick around, maybe not. When this work trip is over I wont have a hole in the clock to fill, so I'll just see where this goes. Either way, best wishes to you all in your endeavors, and thank you for the experience thus far.