It was a dreary, overcast day as I took the first steps of my journey into Dark Moor. The persistent mist threatening to turn into a smothering deluge as the darkening clouds defeated the sun’s attempts to pick away the clouds. Even the cawing of the ravens clinging to scraggly waterlogged trees had succumbed to the heaviness in the air. …
I bought a new bicycle. After looking at various bikes for about a month – both on-line and in bike shops – I decided on a beach cruiser. I purchased a Huntington Beach Bicycle Company (HBBC) Old Skool with seven gears from O’Wheelies in Mandeville, LA. The ability to “step-though” the frame to get on the bike played an important …
It is an unfortunate truth that available pipe tobacco blends constantly change. Lost forever are old, revered tobacco blends. New blends go on sale. Then suddenly become hard to find or disappear. Old blends lost, new blends found is the constant we live with today. Hundreds of old pipe tobacco blends dating back to the late 1800s have completely disappeared. …
Keep Calm and Have A Pipe… Or is it have a pipe and keep calm? Either way works for me. I have always found pipe smoking to be relaxing and contemplative. There are times I light up my pipe just to relax and decompress. There are times when I light my pipe free my mind to think about… anything it …
So, you decided you don’t like walking. Well, If you’re going to ride, you will need a bike. How hard can find a bike be? “It’s as easy as riding a bike.” The intent behind that quote is basically, once you have learned to ride a bike, you never forget. An article in the New York Times stated once we …
(Warning: Even though I have stayed at a Holiday Inn Express many times, I am not a medical professional. The following does not constitute medical advice, it is just a recounting of what I have done over the past 10 months to be more proactive with my physical and mental health.) First, some background… One of the things I have …
Hello again. Remember me? I used to write about several different topics like pipe smoking, fishing and life in general. Then, I stopped. Life started getting in the way. Sometimes I just got busy. Occasionall I would start to write but stopped because I felt that I had nothing to say. Sometimes, I would have ideas but not the words …
Over the months since my last post, I have been enjoying a number of new (to me) blends I have found. Meistermischung blends are produced by Kohlhase & Kopp and I suspect that at one time they had fancier names. Meistermischung translate to English as “Master Mix” and there are at least 10 different blends ranging from Nr. 11 to …
Why the name The Untouchables Special Mixture was chosen for this blend is unknown to me but maybe they should have named it “Unfindable.” I only found it by painstakingly going through every blend available on the Estervals Pipe House website (http://www.tecon-gmbh.de/index.php?language=en) in May 2021. While it is widely available in Europe. Don’t bother searching U.S. retailers for The Untouchables …
One of the things I’ve “enjoyed” doing during the past year is exploring new tobacco blends. Define “new tobacco blends” as blends I haven’t smoked before. Since July 2020, I have become an even bigger fan of Rattray’s, HU Tobacco, Kohlhase & Kopp, and Dan’s Tobacco. The problem is that many of the blends I enjoy are hard to find …
