Ever Have One of Those Days
No, not one of those days burdened with the minutia of making a living, I've long sinced conditioned myself that work is...well just work...a means to an end...a necessary evil. My memory of a bad day at work only lasts as long as the walk to the door at five o'clock. I work hard for my money and give it my all during the work day but I figure that once I've earned the days wages, they can no longer lay claim to anything that is mine and I'm no longer obligated to care so I don't.
What I'm talking about today is something far more important and far more uplifting, pipes and tobacco. Every once in a while you have one of those days where everything seems in perfect harmony in the pipe and tobacco world and every smoke, every combination of pipes, tobacco and timing is remarkable and seems divinely inspired. That's the kind of day I had today and it was the bee's knee's.
Last night, before I went to bed, anticipating a morning smoke of SG Chocolate Flake I took a long flake out of my jar and left it out for a bit of drying. Fresh out of bed this morning, I folded and stuffed it into my KW Relief Grain Billiard. I smoked this stuff for a good half hour before I left for work and for the entire drive to work of nearly another hour. I drove over the Bayside Bridge as the sun was rising on another perfect weather day. All the while thinking how glorious life was and what a fine smoke I had to go with this fine morning. Dismounting my truck in the parking lot I inverted the pipe and ash followed by a dottle (good for no more than two or three more pulls) fell to the ground without much coaxing at all. I walked into work thinking "You know, if the rest of this day totally sucks, it just doesn't matter when you can start it like this." But wait, there's more, my mid-morning,lunch time, and mid-afternoon smoke was Haunted Bookshop (alternately from a vintage 50's or 60's KW Carburater Canadian, and a pre-1940 7713B Bent Author). Now as fine a tobacco as HB is, by the drive home I had heard the siren song of Joey Krantz so I loaded up the aforementioned Canadian for the drive home. What a line up! Damn if this wasn't the closest thing to perfect! Like the man says, "Every day a holiday and every meal a feast." I was left to wonder how many other perfect pipe days I had had in the past but was too preoccupied to notice. Nice to know that an existential re-boot is no farther away than a couple old pipes and some good tobacco. It was that kind of day where you just felt like you were in on the greatest secret that most of the rest of the world was totally ignorant of. What a feeling! No I'm not still hitting the cold medicine and I've had no anti-depressants but it was just that good of a day.
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Ya know...
Sometimes I think I have potential for those days, but as you say, I'm so damn preoccupied, I just cant see it. I would say I will try, but I think it is one of those things that just has to happen.
Great post though, glad to hear your day went well.
"The pipe draws wisdom from the lips of the philosopher, and shuts up the mouth of the foolish; it generates a style of conversation, contemplative, thoughtful, benevolent, and unaffected..." - William Makepeace Thackeray
My Collection - Sparks Space
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Funny you should mention it...
as nearly everyday becomes better and better for me which, of course, increases my smoking pleasure.
Prior to reaching 50, four years ago, I made some changes in my life which have allowed me to slow down quite a bit and lead a more relaxed lifestyle. At work, my job has shifted from a physical role to more managerial.
For some odd reason, I have found that when the national economy is bad, I seem to have more to spend. There always seems to be a source of extra income and/or my expenses drop to offset the inflation...it's happened in every recession!
Ahhh, but the dog days of summer are right around the corner and anyone who knows me knows that I will become cranky with the heat and pipe smoking won't be the thrill it is now...until September.
I know my "luck" won't last forever, but right now I'm enjoying the ride!
"If you can't send money, send tobacco." -George Washington to the Continental Congress, 1776
In the Five Years Ago thread
Bob said "simplify & consolidate". That's pretty good advice. Like you, I opted out of the corporate mainstream a little while back. When I saw the gooks who hung in unhappily till the bitter end, retired & then wondered what to do with their lives, it was an object lesson. Most days are now pretty good - mainly because I set the pace & the direction. I smoke in my office - where the coffee machine is. I suspect that having "one of those days" is all about attitude - just appreciating what you have & being content to be just where you are. And if that's with a pipe of good tobacco, so much the better - that's wealth.
today
Is one of those days.
All bowls of GH - Rum flake I have smoked today have been nothing but delicious, the pipe behaves like a true friend. the smoke is cool, the smoking session is long lasting, and no dottle at the end.
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