Maybe I Should

My writing yesterday's post got me thinking.  Pipes and pipe tobaccos are both a part of my Spirituality.  And maybe I need to spend more time writing aboth both pipes and pipe tobacco.  I enjoy smoking a pipe while sharing here as to what is on my mind.  I have ventured off into other areas, but writing while smoking my pipe.  We have a family doctor that wants me to quit smoking all together.  I just don't tell her why I smoke a pipe, because most doctors today want every one of their patients to not use tobacco all together.

But I think of my pipes as a kind of investment.  Some cigar smokers have cigar humidors hosting thousands of cigars with an average price of about $20 per cigar.  This takes into account cheap ones at about $5 each to more expensive ones at $50 or more each.  But such humidors hold many brands of cigars at varying prices.  It takes years to accumulate the wealth many cigar smokers need to sustain their hobby.  Cigar smoking is generally a much more expensive hobby than pipe smoking.  

Some pipe smokers have a various sampling of pipe tobaccos in their cellars.  But a tin of the best pipe tobacco isn't nearly as expensive as one cigar might be.  I tend to think of cigar smokers as fairly wealthy extroverts.  There are pipe collectors that can have many pipes costing in the thousands, but pipe smoking compared to cigar smoking is simply relatively cheaper.  And there are many pipe smokers who also smoke cigars.  It just depends on how much extra they have to spend on their hobbies.  

I am typical of an average pipe smoker for as long as I've been smoking pipes.  I am typical for my age group.  We have a lot invested in our hobby.  Sure, I can tell my kids to sell my pipes as estate pipes and see what they can get for them and overall they might be worth mote than what I've spent on them.  But I have very little tobacco I have saved over the years.  I generally have purchased what I've needed cellaring relatively very little.  I pretty much consume whatever I buy and once I get low, I just order some more.  

I've never run out of tobacco but always have enough until it's time to order more.  My tobacco use probably costs me just about $50 a month plus taxes and shipping costs.  If I do buy enough to cover shipping costs, it just means I won't order as often.  It takes a lot of tobacco to get to free shipping.  And if I do buy a new pipe, usually it means less tobacco.  So, I have to budget more carefully.  Cigar smokers aren't generally concerned about costs, but generally pipe smokers don't spend nearly as much as cigar smokers do.

These are my thoughts this morning about my hobby and as a hobby cost goes, pipe smoking is relatively cheap.  But if costs were a factor, I might spend my time and money on something else.  I'm thinking I need to go back to the gym and I might join a Silver Sneaker Club once we get back to Florida.  And if I do, it might mean less time with my pipe.  My wife is thinking about activities she'd like to do.  She can't do much at a gym unless it has a pool and she can participate in group exercises.  But in some ways I miss not going to the gym.  But today it is my Duhill Rhodesian pipe with some Haunted Bookshop.  My coffee this morning is the last of my Ethiopian Guji coffee I have enjoyed very much.  Thank you for your time and Peace to each one of you.

Dave