Pipeology - The Fine Art of Pipe Smoking and Thought

 Okay, I was born in Iowa and lived there for about the first six months of my life until my family moved to Illinois.  I thought the town where I was born was just a wide spot in the road until I recently learned it has a population of about 75,000.  But that isn't where my family lived.  My dad had to travel about a half hour to get to the hospital.  And since I lived in Iowa for such a short time in my little life, I have no memories of ever having been there.  But it's what my birth certificate says and that is all I know.   I've seen photos of Iowa my dad took back then, but that is all I know about Iowa.  Absolutely nothing.  So, why bring it up?  Because Google put Barnum, Iowa on the map.  It is a dinky town of 174 people with one bar.  I won't give advertising to the bar, but Google has put all kinds of things on the map.  People the world over are finding UFO crash sites, military installations, strange form...

 The photo above is of a feral cat I took just this early morning.  It's a Saturday morning as I sit on the deck of our NY home.  I can hear no manmade noises.  Just a lot of birds, and occasionally, the chickens next door.  And their rooster is crowing announcing the arrival of morning, although he does crow most any time of day.  But it's mostly the birds I hear.  Just a very uneventful cloudy Saturday morning.   I am smoking my Boswell pipe this morning, as I await the possible arrival os light showers this morning.  I am almost down to the last of my Lane 1-q.  In a day or two, I'll have to open my can of Captain Black Original.  I have my next tobacco order ready to go.  But I have plenty until it arrives early the next week.  My pipe makes no noises.  I ask myself as to what is on my mind this morning that I can write about. Actually, since arriving here in NY, my mind has been relatively quiet.  I rea...

 I think I have now found my two favorite English tobaccos, with Old Professor being number one and Haunted Bookshop being number two.  Old Professor has never been in the top 100 list on Smoking Pipes, but while I can't feel totally responsible for it happening, it has now moved up to make that list.  It deserves to be there.  But of all the English tobaccos I have smoked that is the one my wife hates the most. But that isn't why I like it.  Old Professor is Old School, pardon the pun, English tobacco.  It's not the name or that it evolks memories of the old professor smoking a pipe in his office, but just that it is what a good English tobacco should be.  It does evoke memories of English tobaccos back in the day.  A lot of pipe smokers smoked Captain Black or Prince Albert, but whenever a pipe smoker would smoke English tobaccos it seems Old Professor nails it perfectly.  It is what a good English tobacco should be. Haunted Bookshop says i...

 I was trained to be a theologian.  With a background in philosophy.  I had no business acumen.  So, of course after I left the church I felt lost and probably was.  My Spirituality saved me, but I didn't know what to do with it and in some ways I still don't.  I kind of had this tunnel vision about life having been raised in the church.  So, I AM a fish out of water, so to speak. But at my age is it too late?  I'm thinking it isn't.  I have been molded into the man I am today.  I no longer see my Spirituality I keep to myself.  I have another month here in NY to prepare for going back to Florida.  And what I've done here is mostly listen.  What do my Spit Guides WANT me to do?  In a way I've already begun even if it is just a person at a time.   My wife seems to think I spend too much time with my pipes, but I do enough to stay busy around here.  I was going to mow yesterday, but my wife and I spent ti...

 I thought about writing about another pipe this morning, but I got to thinking about other pipes that are used recreationally for something like Marijuana.  Can a bong be used for tobacco, for example.  Actually, tobacco can be smoked in most anything designed for smoking.  There are novelty pipes made of various plastics that are used recreationally for Marijuana that can be used for tobacco.   But the most enjoyment of tobacco is from a good Briar pipe.  Clay has been used.  Stone has been used.  Glass has been used.  In fact a pipe can be fashioned from most any wood.  Meerschaum pipes are wonderful.  And the opposite is true for smoking weed.  Marijuana can be smoked in most any kind of pipe, including Briar.  But why a Briar pipe for tobacco?  Tobacco tends to burn hot.  And Briar has been found to be the best wood for tobacco pipes.   Tobacco can be smoked in a vapor pipe, but I caution anyo...

 Introverts have a hard time in today's world where people have an immediate reaction to what goes on around them.  I'm not as extroverted as I used to be, but in a way, Spiritual people are drawn into themselves.  I'm like this.  Ministry forced me into being an extrovert and I didn't like it there, probably just for that reason.  But I've learned it's okay to be introverted, but maybe not too much.  You won't find introverts on today's game shows.  And introverts aren't generally performers.   Introverts are the IT people who work on computers all day.  But I've found smoking my pipe suits my personality quite well.  I can get lost in my own worlds from time to time.  And I know that isn't good.  And in today's world pipe smoking as a hobby isn't really going to force one to meet a lot of people who do the same.  I'm quite comfortable talking one-on-one, but not so much in groups.   But I've found that is ...

 Around the end of June and the first of July I am thinking about getting another year older, but not in a good way like a kid anticipating being a teenager at 13.  I used to think of 73 as being old.  Now I look at obits of celebrities and want to know how old they were when they died.  Anyone dying under 70 is too young to die and now 90 or older seems about right.  But I don't think about death and dying but more about my body at 73.  Particularly my mind.  I'm not as sharp as I used to be, but both my wife and I are still blessed with pretty good minds. We have a story of steps in this house we have to go up and down, but I do more of that than my wife does.  Doing laundry for example, requires several trips.  And then I go to the garage several times a day.  There are stairs off the deck that I'll go up and down several times in a week or so.  Then there are several trips up and down to carry in groceries.   But is 73...

 It's not often I come across a straight stem pipe I like.  But I do like the handmade design of this $100 Danish Estate pipe by Johs.  I recently bought a straight stem Peterson pipe and now own about three or four of them.  But the partial rustication on this pipe caught my attention along with the price of this unsmoked example.  In addition is the natural color of the Briar wood of this pipe in contrast to the black stem and design really sets this pipe apart. I have several handmade pipes and some that look as though they are handmade, but are machine made.  The style of bowl is called a Brandy, which is deeper and cylindrical in shape.  The style of this pipe is Canadian, which is attributed to a straight stem pipe such as this.  I didn't have much for this morning and thought I'd look for an unusual pipe on the Smoking Pipes website which is where I downloaded this photo from. Johansen is the carver of this pipe and he carves about 1,000 pi...

 I'm not sure it's worth writung about and I'm not sure it's worth even mentioning, let alone writung a whole post about it, but back around 2000 or so I created a moniker for myself that I still use exclusively for YouTube.  I went through the vids that YouTube had for me yesterday and I scrolled through the entire list, which I so seldom do, because I'll find something, watch it, at least for a bit and refresh my browser and start over.   I hesitated o give out the moniker, but since I hardly use it, I'm not sure it matters.  But does YouTube, after a dozen years or so, have me figured out?  I'm thinking YouTube is still figuring me out.  Which is fine with me.  I'm hoping they never figure me out.  But they do know one thing:  That I'm a Spiritual old guy with leanings to both Buddhism and Christianity.  I can't hide that from most anyone, but my moniker gives that away.   But if I watched every video YouTube gives me, ...

 When I smoke my pipe, I'm not pretending to be a Mark Twain, a Tolkien, or a C. S. Lewis.  In fact I'm not pretending to be anyone but myself.  There are costume pipes for those who want to pretend they are Sherlock Holmes or from the Shire.  The tobacco I smoke is not pretend tobacco.  Yesterday I smoked my Peterson Sherlock Holmes pipe. But not once did I pretend I was Sherlock Holmes  I don't smoke a pipe to pretend.  My pipes, while not being Dunhill's costing over a grand each, are too good for pretending.  There is too much to smoking a pipe that does not allow for pretending.  There are too many tobacco blends that do not allow for pretending.  The blending of various tobaccos is a serious business and no retailer sells tobacco so pipe smokers can pretend.   I won't get into health issues, but there are none for those who pretend.  I discount health issues though, because I've never inhaled pipe smoke into my lungs...

  I have but one task my Spirit Guides said I would perform.  I do that task by living.  But I'm not sure I can explain this.  I belong to no religion, except that I am very Buddhist in my thinking.  I am to prevent the taking of any human life, although I'm not sure I've done a very good job of that considering how much of it is done on a daily basis.  And that could apply just to myself and my own orbit of people.  Human Life matters most to my Spirituality.   But does my smoking a pipe have anything to do with it?  In a word, it does.  And in that regard most any Buddhist would not smoke a pipe.  But I find the world to be a very stressful place with this kind of thinking.  A pipe helps me deal with it all.  So, instead of tobacco being harmful to me, I see it as a way to relax in a world that could cause me great stress.  The pipe is my hobby. As I said yesterday, I might be able to write for publication on t...

 I had a couple of posts written for this morning, but I deleted them thinking they were too much of my theological thinking.  I'm at the age where fifty year reunions become meaningful.  I'm not interested.  There might be those whom I knew in college and seminary living in Florida and might be relatively close to my son's house, but I'm not really sure I care.  I could go back to social media and look up certain people, but I don't want to.  We've remained close to a couple we knew in both college and seminary and our wives stay informed with each other.   It's not that I don't care, but it's more about me than them.  I am not interested.  I'm not sure what to call my Spirituality, because it's not a religion.  It is simply that:  Spirituality.  And my beliefs are different.  My path has been pretty much my own for 30 years.  So, the things I once had in common with those I knew are things no longer in common....

 Some people think I need to write for publication.  Doing so would give us some extra money in our golden years.  If I was worried about death and dying, I'd be worried about many things.  But I haven't taken anything off the table in terms of earning money.  My Spirituality is my own.  No one can duplicate it.  But as to whether I have anything meaningful to say is the question.   Sure, I write here about pipes, Tobaccos, stuff related to pipe smoking, and my Spirituality, but I am relatively unknown in the pipe smoking community.  I am known to Smoking Pipes on-line store, but they are a big outfit and draw from all over.  Pipe smokers tend to be quite erudite and verbose when it comes to writung.  My style is relatively simple and straightforward.  Hemingway was often told he wasn't a great writer, but he told stories so well.   A good storyteller doesn't need a fancy vocabulary nor do they need an acumen for...

 Okay, writung about a new lighter isn't much to write about, but I didn't bring a pipe lighter with me to NY.  I have two Zippo pipe lighters I wasn't going to risk getting them through screening. One especially was a gift from my son and I wasn't going to risk losing it.  But can I write a whole post about a Zippo lighter?   First of all, it's not a pipe lighter, and secondly, I'm not taking it back with me to Florida.    I went on Amazon to find the cheapest lighter I could find.  I found a can of lighter fluid here I left behind, so I didn't want a fancy lighter.  I figure that ten bucks for a Zippo was going to be my price.  The lighter I chose was a $20 lighter at half off.  And it was the cheapest Zippo I could find.   I had been using just a plain old BIC lighter and figured it would last me until my new lighter arrived.  A pipe lighter directs the flame downward into the bowl, but I find most any lighter or m...

 Tolkien's tobacco of choice was Capstans Medium Navy Cut tobacco.  It sells for about $20 for a one and 3/4 ounce tin.  In a shop a tin might be close to fifty bucks, but Smoking Pipes sells something close to it for $20.  I am smoking Longbottom Leaf one my sons gave me for Father's Day.  I have just finished my second bowl.  It is Virginia, Burley, with Cavendish and is an Aromatic tobacco with notes of chocolate and Vanilla.  The tobacco is mentioned in The Hobbit and is not to be confused with a Marifjuana by the same name.   It is a sweet flavorful tobacco that I have found is sold only in one place, Shop Ansteads, an on-line retailer which may have a brick and morder shop, and is in North Carolina.  But is it good?  It is an excellent Aromatic that retains it's flavor throughout the entire bowl.  I am a kind of unusual pipe smoker in that I enjoy a flavorful Aromatic and strong English tobaccos.  At first, I thought...

 I have a pretty specific formula for making coffee and I've never reviewed coffee here mostly because I could say coffee is coffee.  But I have found one coffee I really like.  Sam's Club sells a two pound bag of Guatamalan coffee for an unbelievable proce of about $14.  I could order on-line, but there are too many problems on getting it shipped.  We just don't go to a Sam's Club too often.  But lately when we've gone we'll buy several bags at one time.   I just haven't reviewed coffee or at least I haven't said much about coffee here, except to mention what I'm drinking with my pipe.  I've found a nice glass of Cabernet goes well with a good English and I think once I had a shot of Whiskey with a pipe, but I'm not a Whiskey drinker.  But in the mornings with my first pipe is always the best and nothing is better for my first pipe of the day to be a good English tobacco, especially something like Old Professor.   I have smoke...

 I just watched an informative video on why we haven't been to the moon in 50 years.  First of all, there are those who insist we never went.  Try to explain how the US spent nearly 300 billion dollars in today's money to get there.  That right there says a lot of money was wasted on nothing.  NASA's budget was 5% of the entire US budget at the time.  And you can believe if NASA faked it...  well, just let me say, "No Way!!"   We lost three astronauts in training and nearly lost three more coming back.  No.  National pride was at stake then.  The Russians were our fiercest enemy and national pride said we had to beat them.  And we did it with less computing power than the first Game Boy.  There were people back then who had stuff in their heads about how to do it.  A lot of stuff about the Saturn V rocket was in the minds of many people.   Going to the moon back then involved a lot of brain power in min...

 My life was interrupted by life events from late 1968 until about 1972.  I didn't follow culture very closely and maybe really didn't much prior to 1968.  I don't try to remember the sixties and early seventies as much as I seek to know what the sixties and early seventies was all about.  It wasn't drugs but maybe being removed from culture having spent those years in small towns as a preacher's kid. Music from that time period is about all I listen to apart from some classical music that has been the same for hundreds of years.  But I don't seek to remember as much as I seek to know what I missed.  I Watch vids of what was on TV then and remember very few of those old shows.  It is said many don't recall that period of time because of drugs.  I was removed culturally and not because of drugs.  Because I had my AM transistor radio I knew the music, but living in small town America isolated me.   So, for me, I seek to know what I mi...

 I have a degree that covers philosophy, psychology, and English, but really a BA in Liberal Arts won't get one very far in life.  The trend in college today is focused more on business and business management with an emphasis on being an entrepreneur.  It used to be that Liberal Arts shunned anything having to do with business, with the thinking that anyone can have a business without being trained for it.  But back in the day it was thought that a BA was more about teaching or a profession like ministry that required my kind of degree.   And if I seem like a philosopher, I might be more than I am a theologian.  Mostly because I don't care if one has a religion, what it is, or if one even doesn't belong or believes.  I really don't care about one's politics, nor do I really care about what one's sins might be.  I am a Spiritual person and my background helps me understand this.  But I don't force it on anyone, or at least try not to, be...

 We are sharing our house with others while we are here, but we don't mind as the others basically sleep here.  We had grilled hamburgers with a couole who were Chinese from Toronto with their 16-year-old daughter who spoke very good English and translated for us.  Of course the conversation turned to their shared path with my wife and they wondered why I didn't share that path.  We said I kind of do, but I said I was basically Buddhist. As we were talking the father said in Chinese to his daughter to say I sounded like a philosopher.  My wife and I both laughed.  I told the daughter to tell her father my degree is in philosophy.  I have some understanding of most philosophical thought and I believe Buddhism defines me best.  I care mostly about human life, which is essentially what Buddhists believe.  Then we talked about how we came together to share dinner with each other. In some ways it was truly remarkable how we came together for that ...

 I remember being asked by someone that if they made a movie about me, who would I want to portray me in the movie.  Maybe for me it could be Bill Murray, but then really, who wouldn't want Brad Pitt or Ben Afleck to portray them if they are male?  I've been working on an autobiography for years and think about it from time to time, but I'm not an adventurer and I've not fought in any wars.  All my traveling has been mostly as a tourist.  My life is boring and if my life was portrayed in film, I'd rather it be an unknown, because in my own way it's what I always wanted to be. I'd rather not the world know of my Spiritual birth.  In fact I grew up often wishing I could be invisible.  Maybe I finally have my wish.  I'm mostly quiet on purpose.  I think that is why I smoke a pipe.  It's a very quiet hobby.  It requires relaxation!  I really don't care whether I become known.  A lot of famous people would love to not be so fam...

 I continue on my path today, but as I have stated on other Sunday's it is a special day for me as it is for a lot of people.  Sunday might be a day for special activities from doing absolutely nothing to enjoying a special activity one might do only on Sunday's.  For me, it is the day I reserve for smoking my Nording Angel pipe and we might grill out on Sunday's.  But it is a very special day for me.   I am maybe what I call a religion of one and some might wonder if I don't get lonely in my Ivory Tower.  I know I can't bring others onto my path because I have no witnesses to my Spiritual beginning.  It wasn't an experience shared by anyone else.  As far as anyone knows I may be making it all up or it was a psychosis that may have been even drug induced.  I have been told it was that, or I lied, or it was demonic.  Any explanation could be as believable as what I say it was.   That makes me 100% responsible to my Spirit G...

 It's Saturday morning and I usually work on a post the morning before posting.  I began this on Thursday, but went over it this morning and made all my corrections and additions before posting.  But this morning it is and I'm sitting here as I have been all week just listening.  There are things I need to do while we are here, but the fact is that I do enjoy taking care of a house.  It is our investment and we need to care for it while we are here.   But really, I'll do whatever needs to be done.  I'm not here to just sit on the deck, listen, and smoke my pipe.  I'm here to do some work too.  My wife is limited in what she can do.  Sure, I'd rather sit on the deck, smoke my pipe, and watch flies buzzing around, but things need to be done.  We are sharing the house with renters, but my wife works downstairs and I'm out of the way on the deck most of the time.   But my quiet times involves listening mostly.  I'm n...

 My wife and I have been finding things in the house here that we should have taken with us when we moved to Florida.  We'll be taking a few things back with us when we return.  I just hope we have room for it all, or maybe we'll leave a few things behind.  But things are just things and I realize this, but I didn't know we had so many things.   It's early morning as I sit here on the deck listing to the birds and although I didn't see him I heard a buck snort as he meandered into the woods behind us.  It may have been the same buck I photographed the other evening.  There is all kinds of nature here and although the trees and the mountain blocks our view of sunsets here, just my sitting here and listening to the birds singing reminds me of what being here is all about. There are too many flies, but I'm willing to put up with them just so I can sit here and enjoy it.  The grass has been freshly mowed and the scent lingers in the air and thing...

 It might get old for me to write about my tobacco orders, but I have an order that should arrive tomorrow.  I placed an order for Lane 1-Q, which is eight ounces that should last for several weeks.  Lane 1-Q is a top five best seller in Smoking Pipes website.  It is a top seller world wide.  It is one of those Aromatics that is loved by most pipe smokers.  It has a very pleasant room note and smokes so we'll.  It is like Captain Black Original in that regard. Some say it is Captain Black Original but I can tell most anyone it is different.  They're both from the same company but they are different.  Captain Black Original is the top seller world wide and has been since it's introduction in 1956.  While being similar Lane 1-Q is a tad more flavorful with a different top note.  But according to Aromatic pipe smokers they are two of the best.   I didn't order any English tobacco this time, but I still have Bayou Morning and ...

 I don't take risks with my heart.  I find recently I don't have the energy I used to have, but since my heart attack I've slowed down quite a bit and my wife doesn't get around as she used to do.  Traveling these days requires more planning and work for both of us.  We need more luggage to stay here for two months, or at least that was her plan.  My thinking is still shorter, but we shall see.  We don't have a car here, so all we do requires some planning.   I'm not worried about my heart as I have had no chest pain since my heart attack.  But still I take care of my heart and listen to my body more.  I'm getting plenty of exercise just going up and down a flight of stairs here.  But we're both listening to what our bodies tell us.  I have said my Spirit Guides will protect my heart.  But what I've found most important is to listen to my heart.  And I do. The heart is about feelings and I have always had a tendency t...

  The above photo is my first deer I spotted since our arrival on Sunday.  Now that we are here, I'm happy to be here.  I get a lot of Spiritual strength just by being here.  There is something about the area.  And I'm not sure what it is but a lot of people derive Spiritual strength just by being here.  I love to sit on the deck in the mornings and just listen, but this morning as I am writing this there are a lot more flies that I remember.   I might have breakfast here on the deck and I'll drink my coffee and write, as I am this morning, and just listen.  It's not that I can't be just as Spiritual in Florida.  There are fewer distractions here.  Maybe except for the flies buzzing around.  The sounds of nature are different sounds.  I can hear a woodpecker in the distance.  The birds aren't the same song birds as in Florida, but there are far less human made noises here. On morning in March a couole of years ago, we...

First of all, I want my family to know that all I need are accessories for pipe smoking.  I do not need a new pipe.  But every once in awhile I come across a pipe I really like and is what I call affordable at around a $125 price range.  No one needs to spend more unless one finds a pipe one really likes and can afford it.  I consider $125 to be the price of a good affordable pipe price range. It's a Chacom and is priced at  $119.85, which checks all the boxes.  The above pipe is called a Churchill named for the famous British Prime Minister Winston Churchill.  I showed this pipe to my wife who said it was really a nice looking pipe.  I like pipes that boarder on the unusual.  But perhaps it's the bent stem shape.  The grain is quite unusual as is the sandblast pattern of this pipe.  The stem gives it an old school look.   The brass fitting around the stumel is what sets it apart.  This could be a pipe for formal occa...

When I sit down to write, a post either flows from me or it doesn't.  If I'm thinking too much about what I want to say here, it's a post that usually is deleted.  An idea has to flow.  It's almost as if I'm not thinking.  I get an idea and if I'm thinking too hard, it wont flow.  This is my opportunity to write for quite a few.  If I didn't ebjoy doing this, I wouldnt do it.  My Spirit Guides move my fingers on my phone, but it's them that have to do it.  I am but an instrument and I'm quite human.    We're in NY this morning waiting for our ride to our home.  I'm finally comfortable with that, but for quite awhile I wasn't.  What changed?  Me.  I changed.  I came to accept it.  But for quite awhile I didn't.  And maybe even still I am still struggling to accept it.  But that's okay.  I said this blog wasn't for therapy.  No, but it is partly about my own Spirituality. In fact everything...

 We're leaving for NY later on today.  So, obviously NY is on my mind this morning.  My wife says we'll be back here in Florida by the end of July.  We have some things to care of while we're in NY.  Yes, at first I didn't want to go.  But we've been packing and I'm taking some pipes and things to go with me.  But what changed my mind about going?  I was tired of stressing about it.   That pretty much says it all.   It might be two months or only a month, but it isn't a long time and we'll still know what is going on here.  But mostly I thought about our house in NY.  Neither my wife and I like the isolation there, because we can feel isolated.  But there is some insulation there too.  It's more like a retreat for a month or two, and I think we both need the change in scenery.  There are things to love about our house in NY.  It will be different smoking my pipe on the deck.   We know a l...