Pipeology - The Fine Art of Pipe Smoking and Thought

 Today is Easter and today's post could be religious in nature.  But the religious about Easter is as well-known as the Easter Bunny.  But this post is about the Easter Bunny today.  Why an Easter Bunny and where does he come from?  We can compare the Easter Bunny to Santa Clause for Christmas.  He gives gifts to good Children.  But while the traditions of Christmas are ingrained in us, the Easter Bunny isn't.  We just know that colored eggs are a part of the Easter Traditiion; along with egg hunts and other games for children.   It all began with the early Pagans who had a festival of Eoster.  It was the Germans that were first known to celebrate Easter with a hare they called Oschter Haws.  Easter came to America in 1700 by the Pennsylvania Germans with their celebration of Easter and Oschter Haws.  It was celebrated for the children with what are now traditional celebrations.  It wasnt just to celebrate Easter reli...

 Kindness is lacking these days.  It was noted among Sputhwest passengers how kind an agent for Southwest was to passengers waiting for a flight.  This shouldn't even be newsworthy but it was.  Just because his kindness was noted by many.  Anyone who has dealt with any customer service related problem knows that kindness is lacking.  But really this shouldn't even be a thing.  But it is. I'm not sure I can write a whole article on kindness.  I wrote about love vs. hate recently, but my thinking is that people just wear out those whose intentions are good, but people in such professions simply get wore down.  Where is the kindness?  We've taken it away from each other.  I see things just getting worse.  So, in today's world it seems kindness is a thing.  But my point is that it shouldn't be.  We almost expect customer service to be rude and uncaring.  And too often they are.  But why? I hate to refer to the p...

 Spirituality can't be taught.  At least my kind of Spirituality isn't taught.  Most anyone knows what love is when they feel it, but Spirituality is acquired over time and patience.  It HAS to be sought after.  It doesn't happen overnight, nor does one just simply decide to be a Spiritual person.  My purpose here is not to evangelize.  Some of my posts here are home runs and some are duds.  Some are just informative, but my bread-and-butter is about my Spirituality.  And maybe my thoughts about love hit some soft spots. I just can't teach what I've acquired over the years.  I could write every post about love and Spirituality, as I enjoy commenting on the unusual, but it seems the world is in short supply of both love and Spirituality and I could spend all my time writing about both, because they seem to go hand-in-hand.  And since I consider myself a kind of theologian/philosopher, I could just park myself there. As my wife might ...

 Spring breakers aren't headed to Miami Beach.  Instead they're going to New Orleans, New York, and Orlando.  Miami Beach has passed ordinances that make the rules on the beach more strict, with a greater police presence as well.  And Walt Disney says the crowds are so low this week that there is virtually no waiting in some lines with a maximum wait time of 20 minutes. Okay, so I never really traveled for Spring Break choosing instead to go home.  But Walt Disney World has had these issues before because of an early Easter.  But it seems to me that Spring Break isn't a thing much any longer, but it's relatively early for Spring Break.   I don't know how much to say about it here, but maybe I'm not the one to write about it, other than reporting on what I've read.  I asked my wife if she ever took a Spring Break trip.  Neither of us ever did.  We were either working or visiting with family.  Neither of us really took a break....

 I made so many comments about love for Valentine's Day that I wasn't sure I wanted to tackle the subject again, but I read a news article about some stewardesses on an American Airlines flight that simply made me smile.  As passengers were getting off a plane the stewardesses on the flight said not only thank you, but they said, "We love you," to each and every passenger.  Most of the comments on Reddit were positive with very few negative comments. I read the story where a few comments were posted.  I thought to myself that was something I could write about.  It WAS something different.  And it got me thinking about how much better love feels than hatered.  Jesus has a lot to say about love.  Love simply does no harm.  Love conquers all.  Sure, I have a lot of hippie in me left over from the turbulent 60's, but I've had to learn it too.  Love IS always better than hatred. Everyone in an airplane is happy to have landed safely....

 Writers are usually two types of people.  They say it in their writungs and are quiet otherwise, or they say it in their writings and can't shut up about most anything on their minds.  I say it in writing and am otherwise quiet.  I've been told to beware of the quiet types.  There are writers who have been known more by what they've said than by what they have written.  A quote is easier to read and understand than a book.  And unless one wants to read more, a jacket cover gives a synopsis.   Many people want to know what a book is about before they read it.  This title of this blog says everything, because I smoke a pipe while writing and share here what is on my mind on most any given day.  But I don't always reveal my most inner secrets.  I'm a quiet type, but am always in thought.  I'll ponder what I say here on most any given day.  A lot has been on my mind in recent days as I watch events unfold in the news or ...

 Continuing where I left off yesterday, we sold our car.  I wasn't sure how much I wanted to say about it here, but it wasn't an easy decision.  We've never been without a car often having two.  But without going into details, we decided it would save us a lot of money.  We believe we can live without it.  We'd have to ship it to NY and back and that is a big savings right there.  We no longer have monthly payments with monthly insurance costs.  Plus the maintenance and gas.   Apart from this my wife might think I smoke my pipe too much, but I don't sit here by the pool and just smoke my pipe.  I'm doing other things including helping her when she needs my help.  I'll still go places with her thinking she just needs me to be there.  Sometimes I'm thinking I'd like to hang out at a cigar bar once in a while, but then it's good  I'm around the house.  I have no desire whatsoever to hang out in public places. ...

I always have something on my mind, and this morning I'm thinking we'll be in NY until after the leaves fall from the trees up there.  We'll be back in Florida by Thanksgiving.  It might be a little early yet to be thinking fall when Easter has not yet arrived.  But already we are thinking of leaving here and heading back to NY.  We learned a few things about country living in NY.  We've learned a lot about deer up there and what not to grow that deer like to eat.   I'm looking forward to watching the deer mosey across our back yard in the early evenings when they are most active.  We've learned a lot about the deer up there.  They seem to be fearless about humans up there.  And they seem to be most attracted to the aroma of any Cherry flavored tobacco I might smoke while sitting on the deck of our NY home.   The antlers of the bucks begin growing in late summer and there are a lot of rutting noises from the bucks in early fall...

 It's difficult to avoid the news these most recent days because so much is going on.  But I deal with it as most everyone has to deal with it all no matter which side you are on.  Again, this is NOT a post about politics or political figures, but just that we are constantly being bombarded with political news.  I have my own way to deal with it al.  I've had to learn that the person is more important to me than their politics.  Due to the nature of my Spirituality, I do NOT take sides.  I've learned to listen more and talk less.  I have my own thoughts.  But with rare exception I keep my thoughts pretty much to myself and I don't let anything I read or hear bother me.   I have been an information junkie since the Angels without judgement.  I believe these are the Last Days, but I've believed this since around the year 2000.  I've been expecting Divine Intervention since that time and I haven't given up.  I had anothe...

 My wife commented this morning that I'm like a kind of a monk.  I've been told that I am sort of monk-ish in my lifestyle.  I probably am.  I've given thought to how I should dress even once having ordered a monk outfit with the monk hair to go with it and a cross I could wear around my neck.  I wore the outfit for about an hour and decided that wasn't me, but maybe the image of a monk suits me best. My kind of Spirituality suits me best.  After my experience with the Divine I withdrew.  I became very inward and withdrawn.  That experience is stull an obsession.  No doubt.  It's been my obsession for thirty years.  We talked briefly about my thoughts and I told her that I feel my thoughts CAN change the world.  I want to ponder about the kind of world I want to live in.  I DO think I influence tomorrow with what I do today. I AM a kind of influencer, but in a Spiritual way.  I actually believe I can influence my Spir...

 I watched an hour and a half video on the Florida man and decided to do some research into the myth of the Florida man.  The first reference to the Florida man appeared in February of 2013 on Twitter and the Florida man took off from there.  Because of the sunshine laws in Florida, court records can very quickly become public knowledge.  And because of the lack of services for the mentally ill, it seems that mental illness, drug addiction, alcoholism. and homelessness, Florida man seems to be everywhere in Florida. All these factors contribute to the myth of the Florida man who has done most anything a person can imagine any person doing.  But instead of saying that a man in Florida did this or that, it's just easier to say that a Florida man did the weirdest possible so Florida man becomes a meme for most anything a man in Florida has done, including running for president as reported by the Miami Herald. One can type in a birthdate and find out what some Flori...

 Some people my age and younger are in retirement homes, while others play golf every day.  I am far from a retirement home.  My wife and I get around quite well.  We just finished wallpapering a bathroom, although that took a few days and we didn't end up killing each other.  But we did it.  I make sure the bed is made every day and my wife enjoys fixing meals.  My hobbies are rather sedate.  I enjoy both reading and writing, but most of what I read is the news on my phone or I'll watch vids at night on YouTube. I watched some college hoops over the weekend and now that the committee has selected the teams for the Big Dance I might watch some basketball in the next few weeks.  It won't get interesting until after the first 32 games are played and see which major teams get upset.  It happens every year.   Collegiate basketball might be a nice distraction for the next few weeks, but there is a lot going on everywhere in the worl...

 I'm usually up before most anyone in the household.  I have my alarm set for 8:00AM, but I'm usually up before it goes off.  I wrote recently that I'll meditate while smoking my pipe while drinking a cup of hot black coffee.   But for me it's taking time to listen to nature as the song birds sing their morning hymns.  I love the peace and calm of these Florida early mornings.  I'm looking forward to getting back to nature at our house in NY.   I love the peace and calm of the setting of our NY home.  Here in Florida it's more suburbia, yet we seem to be surrounded by song birds throughout the day.  But apart from the various noises made by humans, I can still listen to the quiet.  This is when I enjoy meditating with a pipe the most.  There is something magical about the morning quiet broken only with hymns of the various song birds.  They all seem so happy.  And their morning happiness is infectious. There isn'...

 I belong to a few pipe smoking forums, but I don't go to them very often.  I belonged to a pipe club years ago, but no longer do I belong to one.  I have a profile on Smoking Pipes if anyone bothered to look me up, but I don't believe anyone has.  I'm pretty anonymous on the Internet.  But you know, I don't care.  I was smoking my Nording Angel pipe the other day and asked Google about smoking a Harmony pipe by Nording.  It's a wrapped pipe with a design on the special wrap pattened by Nording. My Angel pipe is a wrapped pipe with a design on the outside.  I wondered whether a Harmony pipe by Nording should be smoked.  The advice given was that Nording makes fine pipes in all grades and there was no reason not to smoke it.  I had my Angel pipe for a year that I put on for display only and didn't smoke it all that time.  One day I decided to smoke it and am glad I did. The advice given was spot on.  If it's a Nording and it's a...

 What's the poop on St. Patrick?  I dug into it and found there was a lot of it.  Because the Celts used storytelling as a way to preserve history, so are there stories about St. Patrick and why so much revelry on this day.  Today being Sunday might mean any number of things on this St. Patrick's Day.  The partying might be somewhat subdued today.  But there is a culture around this day that makes it what it is. First of all, St. Patrick was never canonized by the Catholic Church as a Saint.  He wasn't the first missionary to Ireland.  He never drove smakes out out of Ireland. He did one thing and did it well.  He became beloved by the Celts, because he incorporated many of their celebrations of nature into his teachings of Christianity.  He incorporated the image of the sun, which the early Celts worshipped, for example, into the symbolism of the Christian cross, giving us the Celtic cross as we know it today.   He actually wa...

 What if women ran the world?  I'm not a liberal saying women need to be like men.  Sometimes I wonder what if we had a woman president or a woman like Musk or Bezos or any wealthy man with that kind of power.  What if roles were reversed?  I'm not saying they should be.  But I am saying women think differently from men.  It used to be said that every great man had a woman behind him.  I'm not sure this is true anymore.  A lot of great men these days have had a lot of women it seems. But what if the roles were just somewhat reversed with more women having greater control over power and wealth.  Would this world be full of women like Oprah, Taylor Swift, or even a Hillary Clinton?  I can't say for sure, but there are two women on the opposite political spectrum on the Supreme Court that have come together saying there needs to be more civility in discourse.  And while some women might be a bane with power, women just think diffe...

 Today could be just another day, but as I mentioned the other day, today is our 49th anniversary.  I give more credit to my wife for the way our two sons have grown into men, but they're still our kids.  For most of you it's just another day, but it is the Ides of March.  The Ides of March was the 74th day of the Roman Calendar and was a day of settling debts.  Julius Ceasar was assassinated on this day in 44 B.C.   My wife had planned a June wedding, but her father was battling cancer.  She wasn't sure he'd make it that long so we moved the date of our wedding to this date.  Of course, we heard all the jokes about being married on the Ides of March, but it seems neither of us seemed to care and still don't.  So, a shout out to my wife today!  We made it this far.  I'll give a hint to my son's that next year will be our 50th.   I don't really have much to say otherwise today and I could recap our marriage of 49 years...

There is nothing I enjoy more than quiet mornings with my first cup of coffee and a good English tobacco. March Madness in college basketball begins this week with the NCAA bracket announced Sunday evening after the conclusion of the tournaments for the various conferences.  Then the following Wednesday the real madness begins.  I've commented on all that here but I'm not going to pay too much attention to the first 33 games.  Never-mind the NIT.  I don't care who's the best 66th team.  I could never understand the meaning of the NIT. But when it gets down to the Sweet Sixteen, I begin to start paying attention and by the Elite Eight, I'll start choosing teams I want to see in Final Four.  It just depends on who the Final Four might be.  Of course I'm a Big 10 fan and I'm thinking Purdue might make it that far, but the money seems to be on UConn and maybe Houston in the final depending.   But the NCAA men's basketball is not all that predicta...

 This blog is far from making any money.  But I spend two to three hours a day on it.  Why?  One it keeps me busy; and two, I'm not thinking about other things.  My mornings are spent on this blog and come afternoon, I'm doing other things.  I'd like to write about some Karen or about a Florida man, but lately the news has been too political for my tastes.   Throughout the day, I'm reading the news.  I just don't want this blog to be political commentary.  It could very easily be.  Everything is political these days.  I'm actually tired of political news.  I like that which is unusual or different.  But it is what it is.  I read of a lawyer who was killed by his own gun when he took his pistol, which was registered, into an MRI room.  The magnetic force of the MRI machine caused his gun to discharge and he was killed instantly. The lesson here is to not take any metal objects into an MRI room.  The magn...

 I had some fun looking up Batbie's real size if she were a real woman.  I got a height of 5 foot 9 inches with measurements of 39-23-33, as she was portrayed in the movie, to seven feet tall with measurements of 39-18-33.  Her waist seems to be most disportiinant but it seems Barbie's shoe size is about a 3.  It's an agreement she wouldn't be able to walk.  But Barbie does have a figure to make any boy's libido run wild. The fact is Barbie can't be a real human.  I can't remember when I last saw a naked Barbie.  I know my sister had her share of Barbie dolls.  I mention this because the Barbie movie was an Oscar nominee for Best Picture.  I'm just happy she was beat out by a real scientist.  I can't imagine a fictional character like Barbie winning best picture.   Barbie would have to be a CGI character for her actual dimensions!  A seven foot tall woman with a 39 inch bust might be good for any boy's libido, but I just c...

 I received my new pipe Saturday afternoon, but didn't smoke it until yesterday.  It is a very nice pipe.  The band around the stummel is made of silver, and as I said earlier, it takes years of training to become a silversmith for Peterson.  My Dunhill is by far my best pipe with my Angel pipe being my favorite pipe.  My first pipe is my most special pipe, but I consider this new Peterson an anniversary gift from my wife.  So, it's already in one of my best category.   I have pipes that were given as gifts.  Each one of those are special pipes like my first one.  My Gettysburg pipe isn't really much of a pipe except that it smokes so well.  My Lee Van Cleef Meerschaum deserves a mentiion here as it too is a favorite pipe.  But each one of my pipes have a story to tell.  However, there are some I like better than others.   This new Peterson has already become a favorite having smoked several bowls in it yesterday...

 My pipe is just one of those things.  It could be something else.  It could even be a Pet Rock for those of you who remember that far back.  It could be a worry stone.  In fact, it could be most anything you'd want to name.  But it's a pipe.  It's just one of those things.  I've given them up for short periods of time, but keep coming back to them.  Cigars didn't do it for me.  I tried.  And I've tried other things including just giving up smoking all together after my heart attack.  But I keep going back.  But why? I don't need to smoke a pipe.  I've gone days without it, but it's not that I need it, but want it.  My pipes are a hobby, as most pipe smokers consider pipe smoking a hobby.  But why a pipe?  Well, I could go in depth about the nature of my Spirituality, but I've done that.  My answer is simply because.  Because nothing else works like a pipe.  That's all there is to it. A p...

 Everything in life is about choices.  Out of some 9 million cars made in the US each year, which does not include a world wide production of about some 80 million and we need a car, we choose one, or maybe two.  Those made doesn't include used cars on the market at any given time.  How can we possibly choose?  We do.   My brother was an overseas missionary, who when he came back to the States, couldn't believe all the choices available for most things here in the States.  We have many choices we make every day.  Smoking Pipes has several thousand pipes I can choose from whenever I buy a pipe.  But how did I choose them to buy from when I can buy from so many places? I simply narrowed my choice.  Over the years I have ordered from them over some 30 times, including a number of pipes.  I first heard of them by watchung a few pipe smoking vids.  They seemed to be mentioned most often.  I checked out their website placed...

 Apart from what I've written here about my Spirituality, I'm actually pretty quiet about it.  Writing is a window to the soul.  I've not been too vocal about smoking a pipe, but pipe smoking for me goes hand-in-hand with my Spirituality.  This is my only outlet for doing both.  This is a post as to when I'll be more vocal about both pipe smoking and my Spirituality.   When that time will come I will know.  But I'm thinking my Spirituality can change the world.  I don't write about how I want the world to change, but I do.  Of course love and peace are pretty generic and universal.  I don't get into specifics here because I don't want to do this.  Skepticism has always bothered me the most.  So, I don't wish to add fuel to the fire of skeptics  I was quiet about my Spirituality for years just for this very reason.  And I'm not a proseletyzor either for Spirituality or pipe smoking.  I'm fairly quiet about bo...

 Dates have been given for Florida's hurricane predictions.  In SW Florida even the mentiion of a hurricane causes anxiety.  Not only do we have to worry about hurricanes, but tornadoes as well.  It's early evening as I am writing this and all seems relatively calm.  We'll be in NY during most of hurricane season, which begins on June 1, although May can be somewhat worrisome.  It's spring in most parts of the country, but while hurricanes won't be until later, the weather here can be somewhat unpredictable.   I enjoyed sitting on the lanai in our condo last summer during storms if it wasn't raining too hard.  I loved watching the lightning strikes and the cloud formations.  We were invited back by the lady who owned the place, but decided on NY instead.  We have fond memories of that condo.  The storms were often enjoyable to watch.  So, we'll just have to wait and see what the hurricane season will be. Moving on to other...

 I follow the news each day, but a lot of what I read I don't want to write about.  It seems most everyone has opinions about Taylor Swft these days.  It seems that she has motivated her Swifties to date hunks.  Never mind the 98 pound nerd, who's probably going to be rich.  We're talking hunks here.  She has a hunk of a boyfriend.  So, whatever she does, she's copied by millions of teenage girls.  If a Swiftie isn't dating a hunk, she's not one of the group.  I don't know what to say about this except, whatever.   My brother-in-law and I had a conversation not too long ago about advice we gave our kids about dating.  He has three girls and his advice to them was to avoid dating jocks and musicians.  Most musicians aren't built like jocks, but jocks and musicians think a lot alike about girls.  He didn't want those guys to break his girls' hearts.  Jocks and musicians are often heart-breakers.  And they both...

 I wanted to comment more about pipe smoking, but thought I had said enough until I watched a video by a young man who couldn't have been much over 20.  Pipe tobacco in a retail pipe tobacco shop will run between five and six dollars an ounce.  He had purchased a 14 ounce tin of Prince Albert pipe tobacco at his local shop for $35, which is about half the cost of regular pipe tobacco.  He thought 14 ounces was way too much, but that he'd give it a try. He spent five minutes describing the plastic can it came in.  As I watched the video, at first I thought it might be a waste of my time, but I wanted to hear what this young pipe smoker had to say.  He may have been about my age when I first smoked a pipe.  I'm familiar with all those "old codger" blends that go way back.  He said Prince Albert has been around for a hundred years.  Some old codger blends go back far.   It took him a few minutes of vid time to get the lid off.  Bu...

  I'm thinking the above pipe is my next pipe.  I put it in my wish list on my Smoking Pipes list.  It is a Peterson Irish Harp pipe which sells for about $125 and has a retail value of $170.  I just don't want to spend more than this for a new pipe these days.  And while I don't need new pipes, I'm always looking at pipes.  The band is made of silver.  Silver craftsmen at Peterson study years to become master silversmith's.  The pipe is a Canadian style and is more of a dress pipe for formal ocassions.  But I like this pipe and so does my wife.  I have some Irish Blessing Aromatic pipe tobacco in my wish list as well in celebration of St. Patrick's in a couple of weeks.  Irish Blessing is a honey and spice blend tobacco that should have a very nice room note my wife might like, besides her being Irish. Maybe I'd only smoke this pipe on my son's patio or our deck in NY, but I have only one pipe similar, which is a Savinelli.  I...

 I've been alive for almost three quarters of a century.  I enjoy seeing vids and reading about how things were "back in the day."  If I were to write about the changes I've seen, I'm not sure where I would even begin.  I smoke a pipe.  I could start right there and just write about how attitudes about smoking have changed.  I could write a book about that.  Cars have changed.  They no longer make cars that have cigarette lighters, but the plug has remained for all our electronic accessories we need for car travel in addition to lots of USB ports. That would take me to how cars have evolved, including ashtray removal these days.  Cars used to come with ashtrays for every occupant in a car with the higher end models having a cigarette lighter in every ashtray.  And I could write a book about ashtrays.  Every home used to have ashtrays, even homes of nonsmokers.  Second grade kids used to make ashtrays as gifts to their parents a...