Last Smoke of the Day Thoughts and Musings

Today was a busy but decent day. The weather was sunny and clear, the temperature varied between 72-76F with very little humidity. I spent a couple of hours sitting on my deck with Valentino, my nine year-old German Shepherd Dog. In between watching the cars pass by and the occasional neighbor walking a dog, Valentino enjoyed the time by napping. I, on the other hand, was fielding some phone calls and e-mail conversations on my Blackberry while gently sipping on some Peretti's "Park Square" in a small Stanwell straight grain. My oldest daughter was home from school today so she was running around the yard trying to catch bugs with a net.

I was in the middle of typing an e-mail when suddenly Valentino started barking at something across the road. I looked up and saw a man walking out of the woods! He put some branches down then started back towards the woods when I noticed something strange around his face. I looked closer and saw that in his mouth he held a half-bent Peterson System pipe! He went into a nearby house that had recently been sold to some new people so I am assumming that he might be a new neighbor. This is incredibly cool since he would make the third pipe-smoking neighbor of mine. If you went down the line of houses on my street you would find five cigar smokers, three pipe smokers and myself. I made a mental note, and a Blackberry note, to myself to meet the new neighbors and talk pipes. I just hope this one is actually knowledgeable about them instead of the "No-frills aromatic in a Grabow/cob/basket pipe" like the other two guys on the street.

My thoughts of having another piper to chat in-person with were interrupted by my son's pre-school calling to tell me that he woke up from his nap with a high fever. I packed up and took him to the doctor's office. The diagnosis was a simple viral bug he must have picked up at school. You would think that having a fever would slow an almost-five year-old boy down but not my kid! Despite a temperature of 101.8F he was still a spinning blur like that of the old "Tazmainian Devil" cartoon character.

So now the house is quiet, the brats...err...children are all in bed and I am sitting here enjoying some Peretti's "Omega" blend in a Nording Signature freehand. I made some tea I got from Singapore that is extremely dark and bitter. I enjoy a good tea with my last pipe of the day because it really slows things down nicely. I use an old three-minute sand timer for steeping the tea at which time I gently fill the pipe. If everything is done properly I will be taking the final sip immediately after the final puff of the bowl. It's just a little ritual and method I like to employ on occasion. Valentino is sleeping again only now it is in front of the children's bedrooms. My three cats are all curled up and napping....which is what they do for 22 hours every day.

I hope you enjoyed reading this bit of my evening as much as I am enjoying living it.