Pipeology - The Fine Art of Pipe Smoking and Thought

I've been told my tobacco reviews are good.  Okay, as an English blend just by itself, I really ebjoy Haunted Bookshop by Cornell and Diehl.  virginia tobaccos are naturally sweet and while it might have a touch of Perique, there might be more there than I like.  The flavor is spot on.  But the Nicotine in it is just too much.  I'm not ordering any more Gambler tobacco, but I had some in the humidor container that is over a year old.  I had to check it out to make sure the Gambler wasn't moldy or stale.  The humidor isn't airtight, but close to it and I figured there was about six ounces I had left. I have a scale I use for weighing tobacco, but my thinking was that I had about six ounces of Haunted Bookshop just by itself.  I'm currently searching for a good Aromatic much like Gambler I can use as a blending tobacco once this is gone.  But to the twelve ounces of the blended tobacco, I blended in about two ounces of a rich black Cavendish....

 I thought about this the other day as I thought about turning 73 in a week or so.  My Spirit Guides have done a pretty good job of caring for my body.  I still get around pretty well and some man bagging at the grocery store called me "son" the other day as we were checking out.  And I almost told him how old I was, but bit my tongue when I began to realize he wasn't all there.  Each encounter I've had with him hasn't been pleasant.  But I came to the conclusion he had mental issues.  But he's the wrong person for customer relations and decided the store wasn't sure where to put him. But all that aside, I decided that for being 73, I'm not in too bad of shape, both mentally and physically, for my age.  I tire easily if I do too much.  This is why I want to get back to the gym.  I need to build my stamina.  And the heat can get to me.  But overall there is nothing I can't do if something needs to be done.  I'm just a littl...

I've asked the question whether my thoughts are just thoughts or whether they are actually prayers.  And what is the difference?  I've found there is no difference.  At least for me there isn't.  My wife has had pneumonia for over a week and she gets more of my attention, but do I just think about her and her illness, or am I spending time in prayer for her?  It's both.  I've learned that thoughts are very powerful. I wrote about this the other day, but wanted to contiiue writing about it, because I think time I spend alone gives me time to think, reflect, and ponder.  As I said the other day there is power in being positive.  So, I'm thinking there is power is positive thoughts.  But when I take time to connect with my Spirit Guides, I'm thinking there is nothing they can't do.   Being around people more gives me less time for quiet meditatiion.  So, I'm thinking God wants me to have my quiet time not so much for myself but fo...

I'm a baby Boomer and I know with some things I say and do that the younger generations might say, "Okay Boomer" rather sarcastically.  I'm not far from being 73.  And I know for some of you that is getting up there.  Because I smoke at all, the Death Clock says I should have died in 2016.  I almost did in 2015, but not from tobacco.  So technically, my life should have ended then.  I was in the hospital for nearly three weeks recovering from a ruptured appendix.  But when there are so many reasons to live, death takes a holiday.  Which is a title of a 1924 Italian play.  I won't get into that, but in my case, it applies.  My Spirit Guides say I'll help prepare the way for the Divine Intervention to come.  Only time will tell whether they are correct.  I've told my wife rather jokingly that it's my fault it hasn't happened yet.  But then I may have already done the work.  All I have to do is live and they'll do the re...

I think of my Spirit Guides as Stress Managers.  In 30 years my Spirit Guides have removed a lot of stress from me.  I don't worry about death and dying.  I can worry about pain, both physical and psychological.  I should have no worries and little stress.  But I'm not totally cut off from people.  For a long time I wanted too be, but more recently I find I need more people in my life and not fewer.  But I want to add more slowly.  And only a few know the secrets between myself and my Guides and I'd like to keep it that way. But I realize in today's world it's important more know me without my revealing those secrets.  What's important is that I don't cause MORE stress for others.  But people in general can be cause for stress.  Situations can be stressful.  And I don't live a stress-free life.  It might seem I sit around smoking my pipe.  I'm doing a lot more than just sitting around.   I'm doing the  ...

 The whole world could just go to hell.  But for some reason I'm some kind of crazy old man with a smile on my face.  I don't believe for one moment it will.  I inherited my mom's optimism about life.  She was the most upbeat person I have ever known.  One of the things my Spirit Guides left me with was mental health.   I don't smoke a pipe and sit around and ruminate.  Been there done that.  I don't look at my past and wish.  I have lived my life so far as my Spirit Guides wanted me to live it.  But most of all and maybe most importantly, I am not anxious about the future.  I have no anxiety about my own future.  I smoke a pipe to focus on the now.  I'm not sure I can say a lot more in the blog I haven't said, but I write to keep my mind sharp.  And I explore many things and ideas throughput the day to think of things I want to say. But back in the 50's futurists were optimistic mostly about nuclear energy....

I 've been working on this one for about a week and think I have it now.  Instead of my writing about two different lives, I now say the first 42 years of my life prepared me for the next 30 years.  This is how I see it.  I have had two lives.  Anything prior to my experience with my Spirit Guides were just preparation for what was to come.  Before I lived with belief and after I had limited knowledge.  So, whenever I reminisce about the past, especially going back to the 50's and 60's, all that was preparation for what was to come. I wanted to write about my two lives, but really I've said a lot about them.  It was Thanksgiving night in 1993 when everything changed.  And I simply cannot forget.  I don't mind re-visiting the past, and as I said in my post the other day, I listen to a lot of music from about the mid-60's to the mid-70's.  That whole decade brought the world the best in pop culture.  There was just so much good music ...

 Okay, I probably need to go back to around 1967, 1968, 1969, and maybe early 1970 to write about a change in American culture. In March of 1966, John Lenon declared that the Beatles were more popular than Jesus. The following month in April of that same year, Time magazine plastered on it's cover a very simple three word question:  is God Dead?  Which was a question posed by a theologian named Hamilton from Colgate Rochester, NY.   Add to all this was the Vietnam War, which was not a popular war, and a youthful culture influenced by a sexual revolution that was taking place during this period.  I don't have the space here to cover those years specifically, because there is just so much out there pertaining specifically to these years in American culture.  But it was the time when LSD was first introduced in San Fransisco in 1965.  A common phrase was "to tune in, turn on, and drop out." Around this time the mini skirt was introoduced as a way for...

 If not for the Vietnam War I might have gone into military service.  The war was the reason for the protests at the 68 Democratoc National Convention.  I never protested except to maybe my dad who knew my feelings about war and that one in particular.  But now that I look back on it and see the benefits of servicemen and women do I sometimes wish differently?  No.  That is my short answer. A lot of Vietnam vets have a lot of issues from the war and they need support.  And not every vet from that period do quite well.  But the war soured me on military service and sometimes still does.  I think a lot of it was the draft itself.  I just felt so much was wrong at the time and still feel that way.  I'm not alone with these feelings about war and service.  My generation changed the voting age from 21 to 18.   But the Democratic Conventiion was just held in Chicago and the protests today are about Gaza.  I won't get i...

 My wife liked my post about old things we remember.  And a lot of what I remembered was good.  But there was some bad things back then that are different today.  Back in the 50's and 60's and even into the 70's advertising in both magazines and TV were incredibly sexist.  I don't have the space in one post to list all the ads, but really they can be summed by saying that a lot of advertising was incredibly sexist. I 've mentioned my wife lit my pipe for me just a few times, but these days she can barely tolerate the aroma of my most flavorful Aromatic tobacco.  She liked everything I said in that post except my mentioning Old Professor pipe tobacco.  Ironically, I like Old Professor the most and she hates it the most.  So, when I mentioned it, she did too.  But back in the day a man smoking a pipe was his lifestyle.  Today, it's a hobby, and not just for men. But too back in the day, no woman could walk down the street without some perv...

 I have had my Spirit Guides for nearly 31 years.  I was going to write about my two lives--a life prior and a life since.  But really all I need to say is that my life prior was messed up.  My life since has been about them.  But what about stresses and my moods?  I still have them, but for 30 years I learned how to deal with stresses and moods.  But it took some learning. Before I could say no one understood me, but even afterwards I said no one understood my Guides.  But instead of seeking help from others as before, afterwards I learned to rely on them.  Maybe this is what faith does in regard to believing, but since it has been about my knowing.  I know they are always present.  It's not about belief, but knowledge. But it was my lack of faith in people that caused me the stresses and my moods.  I had to learn on my own about the power of thought and what I worked on the hardest was my anger to the point where I had none....

I'm not referring to kissing, but C. S. Lewis famously once said that a pipe closes the mouth of the foolish.  But in my case I write while smoking a pipe.  One writer, and I can't remember who, said that writing is the window to the soul.  And others say it is the eyes.  My mom could always tell whether I was lying by my eyes.  She'd say, "Look at me and say that."  I learned early not to lie to my mom and probably is the reason I don't lie to this very fay.  I have a very strong guilt complex probably because of her. But getting back to writing, while I might be quiet verbally, I do a lot of writing.  Conversations are better because we get to see the other person.  And a pipe forces me to listen.  I've had my best conversations over pipes and coffee, because a pipe keeps my mouth shut.  I like to think about what I want to say while smoking a pipe.  And doing that engages me in conversation.  Without my pipe, I'm genera...

 Okay, I'm an old guy.  I've been watching a lot of videos on how things used to be.  I was born in 1951.  I'll let you do the math, but it seems YouTube knows how old I am.  And I can remember a lot of things that kids today would never understand.  I still pick my phone up to dial a number and I'm still expecting a dial tone.  In fact a phone today has replaced many things that are no longer needed.  I still miss the sound my computer made when connecting to the Internet.  But I don't miss paying a dollar a minute for connection charges. I think what I miss most are books.  All books are now on-line.  I miss the smell of a book, although my wife still reads books.  And if my eyes were better, I'd probably read more books.  But even encyclopedias are no longer needed.  Every question can be Googled.  In fact, Google has replaced tons of books that used to be needed for research papers.  Any historical figur...

 I was off on a Spiritual bent and decided to write about something different.  It's about stupid ways people have died.  I don't know, I get caught in a groove and I need something different.  Death doesn't scare me, but I'm not going to risk my life.  Sure, we take risks flying, driving, or recreationally, but many risks are calculated and generally we are safe in most things we do.  But some people just do dumb things and it costs them their lives. Be Amazed is the YouTube channel which describes stupid ways people die.  There are examples here of Darwin Awards of how people died.  I won't list the various ways here, because they are simply too numerous to mention.  Einstein once said as limitless as imagination is, nothing is as limitless as peoples' stupidity.  But it seems the most numerous ways people die are people taking selfies. They fall off cliffs or fall into waterfalls only to hit rocks below and drown.  One man went i...

 I am defined by my Spirituality.  I can no longer say no one understands me.  But I said this about myself for a very long time.  Little did I know I'd have to wait.  It was the waiting that has been most difficult.  But the waiting is over.  I never feel lonely or alone as I once did.  Social media didn't help, but in some cases made it worse.  I can do without social media.   But why did it take so long?  It's the way it had to be and through the waiting the one thing I learned was patience.  And in the process, I became the person The Divine wanted me to become.  I was in the process of becoming, not yet having to arrived.  But only other Spiritual people can understand and now they are plentiful.  I still keep secrets between myself and my Spirit Guides, but at least a few know those secrets. And even though there can be separation by miles the connections are there.  This is why I never feel alone...

I used to get along with Atheists and Agnostics the best, but more recently, no.  I had an Atheist friend who shared my interest in smoking pipes.  After my experience with the Divine I had to give him up.  It wasn't about his Athiesm, but I can't associate with those who have not always respected all Human Life.  It was the hardest thing I had done up to that point.  My father once asked me if I still had my Atheist friend.  I probably got along better with most Atheists than I have many Christians.  But 30 years ago I was just beginning to find my way. Now I have done a few things just as difficult, but now I consider it all just a journey on my path.  I tried going back to the Church and after sitting in the pew every Sinday morning for two years asking myself why I was there, it occurred to me that if I had to ask that question every Sunday morning, I didn't belong there.  I've never asked it since.  I've had to learn that I belong a...

 I was once into exotic sports cars thinking a car I wanted to own was an Aston Martin DB9.  But those days are long gone.  As most of you know we no longer own a car, but we'll borrow our son's Mustang convertible and often drive with the top down unless it's too hot and sunny.  But we can get by with ride sharing services.  My wife says if we need a car we can pick something up as we don't drive much these days. But the other day I got to thinking that a little two-seater convertible would be fun to own.  Something like a Mazda Miata MX-5 could suit us quite well as we don't need much space.  And a five-speed manual would be fun and cheap to own.  I wouldn't buy it new, but just something to get us around.  But my thinking is that something like that just might be too small for my wife.  I just don't know. Sometimes I'll still miss my MGB-GT.  It wasn't a convertible, but that car was a blast to drive.  It was the quintessent...

I limit myself to about five to eight paragraphs per post, because I'm not writing a tome here, nor am I going into great depths with my writings.  I'd rather give morsels than a five course dinner.  Instead of short essays, I could be writung chapters or a book itself.  I give insights to my life and touch on some philosophical content, but this is supposed to be light and fun as opposed to some deep thinking.   Once in a while I'll fail, but I pay attention to my wife's comments on each one.  She usually has something to say after reading each one.  My background is both philosophy and theology, with a more recent focus on my Spirituality.  I can't avoid the topics and try not to venture off into the unknown.  But in some ways all of life is philosophical in some form or another, but politics is the one area of life I vehemently try to avoid.   My Spirituality is strictly my own and I never seek to evangelize.  I won't even e...

 I enjoy listening to light jazz that one might hear in a coffee shop and there is a scene of a coffee shop on a YouTube video.  I sometimes wish I could go to a place like that with my pipe, drink some coffee, and maybe do some writing on a computer.  Some might suggest a cigar bar would be favorable.  But it's not the same.  I've been to cigar bars and the atmosphere isn't the same.  Years ago, I spent such time in coffee shops, but today I am relegated to the patio as I drink my coffee and smoke my pipe. Conversations are different in coffee shops from cigar bars.  And there is something special coffee adds to a conversation.  I can miss conversation at times.  My wife fills in the gap, but sometimes I miss the ambience a coffee shop has to offer.  Maybe these days people spend too much time on their phones to converse, but I guess sometimes I get nostalgic about how things used to be.   I've told my wife I have thought of b...

 Always in August football season begins.  It's the pro's first and then by September college football begins.  And every year I say the same thing:  I won't watch.  But every year I watch.  Why?  I know football is a violent sport and hardly ever does a former player lives to see 90.  And if it isn't their bodies, it's their minds.  But why do I watch when I say I won't?  It's not about the violence of the game, but the game itself. A quarterback might be a star, but it takes a team and his leadership skills.  It takes great coaching.  In fact, football involves everyone on a team.  In college ball, it might start with the president of a school or in pro ball, it begins with front office, from team ownership on down.  Then there are the fans, some of whom are rabid and willing to suffer loss when it happens.  It's just everything about football.  And maybe that is why I watch. But the elephant in the room i...

 What I left out in yesterday's opening comment was that my wife brought out to me a candy bar.  So, I had to put my pipe down to eat it.  THAT was her point.  She reminded me yesterday why she said  I had a choice between cancer or diabetes.  I forgot about the candy bar.  It was a miniature Pay Day candy bar.  So, if I said that in context yesterday it would have been so much better.  But I get to say it this morning.  Now you know! But for an old codger, in spite of my smoking a pipe, I'm actually doing quite well.  My wife says I'm still not an old curmugeon, nor am I even a grumpy old man.  I find myself getting irritated by small things, but still I am neither.  I weighed about 220 when I had my heart attack and still hover around 190.  I get shortness of breath and can still feel off-balance at times, but overall, I'm quite healthy for my age.  My wife will call me to do something and it takes a little lon...

 My wife gave me an ultimatum of sorts.  I can die from either cancer or diabetes.  We went for a check-up with our doctor  yesterday and I am fine.  No worries.  I could have other things wrong, but if I feared dying that would be one thing.  I don't take risks with my life.  According to the death clock for when I was born I have two years left.  As a non- smoker, I do.  But as a smoker I should have died in 2016.  Go figure.  I still don't consider pipe smoking the same as smoking.  But this one isn't about my health, although I suppose it could be.   I received my tobacco order yesterday and everything I ordered arrived as expected.  I put the Lane 1-Q in one humidor and put the Old Professor in another.  I have never had Black Kathy Cavendish before and instead of just dumping it in with my Special Blend, I thought I would smoke a bowl of it.  I read the reviews, which were only six, so it's n...

 Physicists are seriously asking whether the entire universe is in a kind of giant computer simulation or at least that earth is.  One physicist said the odds were one to billions, but it is Neil deGras Tyson who says it's mote like a 50-50 chance we are controlled by some superior being, but he does not say God, but more like an alien race of beings.  But physicists seem to agree the question might be more philosophical or even theological and not for physicists to answer. I really love the question.  And recently I read about a group of physicists who are exploring the idea.  The human brain is capable of exploring ten trillion thoughts a seconds.  Okay, I have enough problem thinking one thought a minute.  But if you multiply those ten trillion thoughts by about nine billion, well you get the idea that a massive computer or a Master mind has to be some kind of thought machine.   But it all comes down to the golden ratio of 1.618 to one....

 If we knew what heaven was like, we'd fall all over ourselves wanting to get in.  But what are we going to do once we get there?  Are we just going to stand around praising God?  My wife posed this question to me not long ago and it got me thinking about what heaven would be like.  I once said if you got ten thousand theologians in a room to describe heaven, all their thoughts together won't equal heaven.  Some like fishing.  Some like golf.  Some, like myself, enjoy being alone smoking my pipe. Someone told Bully Graham once he didn't want to go to heaven unless it had golf courses.  Bully Graham said if golf courses were needed they'd be there.  I said yesterday religion was like insurance just in case.  I don't know.  But in some ways, the way my wife thought about it seemed boring.  Boredom won't exist in heaven.  Maybe we'd become Angels for the New Creation.  I have no idea.  But sometimes for some li...

 Maybe I spend too much time watching YouTube vids, but after dinner I like to go to our room and relax in the evenings watching those old shows.  I can take my mind off the events of the day and just get lost in a world I used to know.  Sometimes I'll doze off and just let YouTube choose my vids.  I'll wake up in the middle of something of which I have no idea what it is.  Then I'll just refresh the browser and start all over scrolling through offerings just to see if something interesting is there. I set my alarm to take my meds at nine, and then I just settle in until it's time to pull back the covers and go to sleep.  If I'm not sleepy enough, I'll find something that will lull me to sleep and at some point during the night, I'll put my laptop away and go back to sleep.  But it seems YouTube knows when I'm ready for bed, because it seems the algorithm changes.  YouTube knows my viewing habits.  I watch news programs during the day, but at...

I wanted my wife's reaction to my post from yesterday before I got started on my post for this morning.  She wanted more humor, but she liked it, so I thought I would just have some fun with this for today.  Today's topic is simply about nicotine in tobacco, because it seems that when I find a tobacco I like after a few bowls, I need more time with it.  I've found two tobaccos I liked, but no longer.  I spent a lot more time with Autumn Evening and thought I really liked it.  But I quit ordering Autumn Evening for the same reason I'll never order more Hainted Bookshop.  Both have a high nicotine content.  Nicotine makes me sick to my stomach.  Literally.  I like Haunted Bookshop just enough to smoke only small bowls of it.   I then decided to blend Haunted Bookshop with something else.  Once in a great while I'll find something I like, but find it doesn't like me.  Maybe if I had smoked cigarettes more it might not bother ...

 I like videos that are about funny signs.  I can't just recall all the funny signs I have seen, but one that made me laugh the hardest was about a cowboy who was told to get along little doggy.  So he bought himself a Dachshund.  Some things I'll think about to this day and get a big belly laugh.  I believe God loves humor, otherwise there'd be no laughter in the world.  One sign said that if the earth was flat all the cats would have pushed everything off the edge. One sign caused some reflection in me, but it's not why I drink or wine, but it was funny all the same.  It said, "I drink coffee to change the things I can, but I drink wine to change the things I can't."  Too much wine distorts reality.  But that isn't why I drink either.  Both can make me think, but too much of either isn't good for me.  I don't enjoy too much of either.  Too much caffeine isn't good for my heart and too much wine makes me ill.   But n...

 I debated about posting this one this morning.  I began it yesterday.  I had to sleep on this one, but I feel good about it.  If I didnt, it would have been deleted.  What few I told about my Spirit Guides, at the beginning, didn't believe me.  This included my wife at first.  I went public with the Angels the first time about five years ago.  I had to wait that long to share their story.  It's about them and what they'll do.  I've decided what I do is channel them.  I am the conduit for them.   I'm still a human being that claims to know how God will judge the world.  If I say all that matters is Human Life, can I be as forgiving as I say God is?  Let me put it this way, I try.  In fact this is something I've had to work on the most.  It was about forgiving unbelief.  I ha'd given up one good friend I had before because he had taken Human Life in warfare.  I have to be careful as to whom I c...

 I really don't care about beliefs or even whether one believes.  What matters most to me is how one values Human Life.  It all comes down to this.  I've spent a big part of the past 30 years in much solitude, simply because I needed the time.  I've had a lot of garbage to sort through in order to find the pearls of wisdom I would need later on.  But I had no idea the "later on" would be 30 years.  But it seems God wanted me quiet for most of that time. I often wondered why but God had to teach me patience.  I had a lot of learning to do.  And it was all done in a lot of solitude.  But I'm beginning to understand why.  Others might not understand, but I do.  And really, as long as I do, what others now think doesn't matter.  I did what I had to do.  The Spirit Guides made sure they would do what was needed of them.  But I'm thinking that now I have one basic need that I feel I must do. I feel a need to be around ...

 I was listening to Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture and thought to myself how much things have changed since his day. He was born in 1840 and died in 1893.  Back then people would dress up to go to the opera house and listen to music performed by a full orchestra.  It was the only way they could hear it.  There were no recordings of any kind.  And there I was listening to it on YouTube.  I could say the world has changed a lot since then.  Alexander Graham Bell co-founded the American Telephone and Telegraph Company known as AT&T in 1885. The Internet was invented on January 1, 1983 almost 100 years later.  It wouldn't exist without the Telephone.  Bell made everything we have in a Smartphone possible. The Simon Personal Communicator was invented in  1992 and the first iPhone came out in 2007.   I was born the year my father brought home the family's first television.  I grew up with television.  Now I mention all thi...