I Love my Pipe

I have a confession to make. At age 15 my first love was my pipe until I started dating Miss Teen Toronto (wow).

It’s a Brigham pipe and looks like this:

Mine is a little more Sherlock Holmes style with a bigger bowl and a more pronounced bend in the stem. Of course it’s not the only pipe I own and I have several in fact. I can only imagine how stupid I must have looked smoking it at age 15, but at this stage in my life it probably looks a little more natural than it did them.

I have another confession. Since my wife and daughter have been away I’ve had a huge hole in my gut. I especially miss the sounds of my chatterbox 12 year old daughter. The house is so quiet without them and some of our friends don’t call as much as they used to (that tells you something).

My cat Cookie has become my best friend and I’m starting to talk to myself when I go out for long walks (that must also tell you something). Sigh! But I regress…

Not even blogging has been able to fill the aching void. So amidst all the self-pity and loathing that I’ve been feeling, I remembered my good old friend the pipe with whom I’ve considered renewing relations throughout the years. Yes I know it’s bad for my health, but….So the other day I managed to find it in a box where I had left it 18 years ago. It looked sadly neglected and begged for puff.I dusted it off and noticed the old lacquer that I had put on the stem. Yes, I was that dumb at the time and I lacquered it to revive the shiny blackness of the stem that disappears over time.I scraped it all off and it’s a wonder that I have any brain cells left (that should also tell you something).I found my old humidor that was still half-filled with 18 year old tobacco. It was dry as a bone and I figured it was probably no good any more. But I thought I would try to revive it, so I soaked the clay insert and threw in a piece of orange leaving it to sit overnight.Well let me tell you there are some things that really do improve with age, and this is one of them. It tastes even better than I remember, and the aroma! Mmmmmmmm.

You just have to be here to smell it. But since you can’t, believe me when I say that it’s heaven on earth, and chasing it down with a glass of white wine life just doesn’t get any better than that.

My wife once told me one of the reasons that she considered marrying me was because I was non-smoker. So I’m wondering what she’s gonna say when she gets back.

Do divorce lawyers cost much these days?