Hi from Georgia!

[Piping Abe]

Welcome from Lowndes County Georgia. Glad you found us!

 

[Zack Miller]

Greetings from Texas. I grew up in Augusta back when anyone could go to The Masters.

 

[cigrmaster]

Welcome from Florida. Patience is the key, pipe smoking has a big learning curve compared to cigars and cigarettes. Read all you can and enjoy the journey.

 

[Streeper541]

Howdy and welcome aboard from Ohio

 

[Derby]

Welcome from Minnesota ?

 

[Morrison Jeremiah]

Hello and welcome from London

 

[STP]

Welcome

 

[anotherbob]

Georgia, the US state, not the country, although I hear it's a nice place. Not Atlanta, but in the south part, the boondocks.

I just joined this forum today and thought I'd make an introduction. I teach high school English and college Latin and do a little farming on the side. Also, I'm engaged to a lovely second-grade teacher. She and I work at the same school.

I have to ask which is harder the high school English or the College Latin. I don't mean for the students but for you.

Strange how things come to be sometimes, and for a few weeks I've been writing a story that may never see the light of day. It's up over 30,000 words. But, to wit, there's the main character, a 16-year old young man, and then his dad, whom the young man relies upon for a great many things he faces as he is becoming a man. The dad is not unlike me, although he's a little taller and more muscular, of course, and he played college baseball, which I didn't do. The dad smokes a pipe, and no idea why I decided to include that in as a part of it, but the dad started out smoking cigars with his two best friends (twins) when they were in high school. He still smokes cigars sometimes, too, but he also has smoked cigarettes for quite some time as he followed the family tradition like his dad and dad's dad. He wants to quit them since he and his son lift weights as a part of baseball training they do together, and the dad has found he is winded more quickly than in his younger days. He regrets somewhat that he let this oldest son start smoking cigars with him, but things happen. However, the dad has never been one of those cigarette smokers who inhale so very deeply and thoroughly that they nearly exhale nearly nothing, which is probably why he, at 48, can still bench, squat, deadlift, etc. with little trouble and is still a rather strong fellow with a decent physique.

Remember it's worth finishing it just to have climbed that particular mountain.

So to add some verisimilitude to the story, I was researching pipe tobacco flavors on various sites, and the next thing I knew, I'd found a Lorenzetti bent-apple pipe I liked. Next thing I knew, I'd ordered it along with two types aromatic pipe tobacco and a Czech tool. Vanilla and cherry may be trite, but that is what I picked. It is all arriving tomorrow. Never having smoked a pipe before, I am sure it will be a learning curve, but I have done some research. It will be something new.

Only problem is that something Vanilla and Cherry is more likely to bite then many other things you could have picked. Frankly I don't enjoy flavors like that as often as more tobacco forward blends, but when I enjoy them I enjoy them just as much.

It is hard to explain, but I have gotten tired of smoking cigarettes after a fashion, something I've done for too long now, maybe over 30 years, although I have never done it in excess and don't inhale deeply, mostly just taking it into the mouth and sometimes exhaling through the nose. I, too, just turned 48, and like the dad in the story, I have gotten back into weightlifting for over two years now, losing a good 30 pounds in the process, and I am enjoying the journey of becoming jacked old guy. Yet desire oftentimes triumphs over reason. I never have been able to reconcile how I think it is a good idea to finish lifting in the early morning and then smoke, but that is what happens. I have the morning ritual of coffee and smoking that is inured into my behavioral pattern. I'm think ready to move away from the cigarettes, although I've just come in off the front porch from smoking one to sit down at the computer, so we will see how this works out. I may not pull it off. I go all day at work without smoking, but then, before my foot hits the ground at home, I'm lighting one. Add to that that the future mother-in-law, future brother-in-law and several others I'm around a good bit smoke cigarettes like proverbial sifters. The sifter may be a regional term, but I have always heard it. I picture a flour sifter and the dust it produces while vigorously sifting. At one time, I had developed a taste for Macanudos, and at times, I've chewed tobacco, but it is so messy; the juice gets in my beard. I could probably get away with chewing tobacco at school. I noticed the softball coach goes around with a big wad of tobacco in his cheek sometimes at break, and one day one of the football assistant coaches asked me if I had any chewing tobacco. My first reply was that I didn't think we could do that at school, but apparently you can. I told him I didn't have any. It all comes down to a nicotine addiction, obviously.

But, I thought I'd give the pipe a go. Whenever I was in elementary school, I can remember the headmaster of the school smoking a pipe and the wonderful smell of the pipe smoke. It is so unlike cigar or cigarette smoke. I grew up with my dad smoking cigars in the house and everywhere else, and a grandad who was a cigarette smoker par excellence, and I guess that is why I fell into it all since I was de facto smoking from birth onwards. I never have been one to smoke indoors, but as pleasing as pipe smoke is, I might just try it. It seems like it would be highly relaxing to have a pipe and sit back in the recliner and watch a little Star Trek.

the one thing to keep in mind it can take a little while to get the pipe to where you can just smoke it and not worry about burning your tongue or over smoking and killing the flavor. But it's totally worth it.

 

[Dudditz]

Welcome aboard from New Jersey!

 

[mateusbrown]

Welcome from Lowndes County Georgia. Glad you found us!

I'm just an hour or so up the road from Valdosta!

 

[mateusbrown]

I have to ask which is harder the high school English or the College Latin. I don't mean for the students but for you.

Remember it's worth finishing it just to have climbed that particular mountain.

Only problem is that something Vanilla and Cherry is more likely to bite then many other things you could have picked. Frankly I don't enjoy flavors like that as often as more tobacco forward blends, but when I enjoy them I enjoy them just as much.

the one thing to keep in mind it can take a little while to get the pipe to where you can just smoke it and not worry about burning your tongue or over smoking and killing the flavor. But it's totally worth it.

High school is more of a challenge, mainly because you have a room full of 15-16 year olds (10th this half of the year) you have to keep under control, not that they are bad kids--they are mostly awesome. I learned somehow to balance between keeping on task and having fun with them at the same time. It works most of the time.
I'm letting the story rest a few days, but going to get back on it and make some major edits.
I've just tried the tin of cherry so far (four bowls), and yes, it did bite a little, and yes, it was a little hot maybe; bowl felt slightly warm, and yes, I probably smoked it too fast, but I really did enjoy it despite my beginner's ineptitude. The smoke smell/aroma is awesome. Who needs to worry about a scented candle when you can make the house smell like pipe smoke. Got the pipe lit this morning in the kitchen with the coffee brewing at the same time, a nice way to get the day started!

 

[cosmicfolklore]

 

[kurtbob]

Welcome from the coast of Georgia!

 

[Puffaluffaguss]

High school is more of a challenge, mainly because you have a room full of 15-16 year olds (10th this half of the year) you have to keep under control, not that they are bad kids--they are mostly awesome. I learned somehow to balance between keeping on task and having fun with them at the same time. It works most of the time.
I'm letting the story rest a few days, but going to get back on it and make some major edits.
I've just tried the tin of cherry so far (four bowls), and yes, it did bite a little, and yes, it was a little hot maybe; bowl felt slightly warm, and yes, I probably smoked it too fast, but I really did enjoy it despite my beginner's ineptitude. The smoke smell/aroma is awesome. Who needs to worry about a scented candle when you can make the house smell like pipe smoke. Got the pipe lit this morning in the kitchen with the coffee brewing at the same time, a nice way to get the day started!

I worked as a health aid in a public elementary school for a couple years aiding a boy with cerebral palsy. I was young 18 just outa high school. I have to say those kids were crazy, they cussed more then sailors and did just as many drugs ??. IN Elementary. I couldn't belive it. To be a teacher these days is not an easy Job and I believe teachers should be paid better then anybody else, Not because being a teacher is a hard job( which it is). But because the shaping of our future is through the teacher. That's worth more to me then any politician could ever be.

 

[riverbream]

Welcome from Thomasville GA.

 

[MtnGeo]

Hi mateusbrown and welcome from northern Colorado.

 

[WVOldFart]

Hello and welcome from West Virginia.

 

[Sgetz]

Welcome from Durham in the UK