Happy Birthday U.S. Coast Guard…
Today is the 221st Birthday of the United States Coast Guard. I’ve always felt the Coast Guard was the best of the military services to belong to, but I’m biased. I’m a retired Coastie. (21 years, 9 months). I’ve often told people it was a great 21 years but then I woke up one morning and realized that I wasn’t having fun anymore. Oh! The places I’ve been and the things I’ve done though…
Cigars thoughts…
I don’t remember what my first cigar was but it was probably back in 1972 while I was stationed in Seattle aboard a Coast Guard icebreaker. (USCGC Staten Island, WAGB 278, for the record). I had never smoked a cigarette. I started with a pipe and whatever pre-packaged pipe tobacco that caught my eye (Borkum Riff sound familiar?), but eventually I tried a cigar. Couldn’t tell you what kind but it was probably some type of machine made like a King Edwards or White Owl or something like that. Hey! I was only 19 years old!
Anyway, I was a pipe smoker on and off for about the next 10 years or so, with an occasional cheap cigar thrown in for poker games. But even then I was never really an every day smoker. Sometimes I would go weeks or longer without smoking my pipe. But anytime I went to a poker game, or had a long road trip or assignment, I always took a cigar with me. I had progressed somewhat – ok, maybe progressed is the wrong word – and found that I really liked Backwoods cigars. They were an improvement over what I had been smoking. I remember giving one to a friend who was a chewer and he said it was better than the tobacco he had been using.
Let’s just say that over the years since then, my tastes were slowly starting to evolve and I started trying better and better cigars. I spent three years in Miami in the mid-80s and even had the opportunity to try some hand rolled cigars made in Florida. Then I went into what I call a dormant smoking phase because our youngest daughter developed allergies and asthma. That phase lasted until she was out of high school and moved to college. I still had an occasional cigar but didn’t really expand my knowledge too much. And, I still don’t allow smoking in the house.
I guess it was around ’96 that I started getting interested in premium cigars again and that started with me trying a Fuente Curly Head Deluxe. I know, not really that much of a premium, but I still thought it was a good cigar. That’s not a knock against the Curly Head, I smoked quite a few of them before I started moving up in the price and quality level.
Now, I always keep a few of the Fuente 8-5-8 maduros in my humidor. In fact, I can safely say that I have never had a bad Fuente of any kind. I don’t smoke a cigar everyday and I don’t smoke a Fuente every time I have a cigar, but its one of my top 5 cigars.
other random thoughts…
- It’s too hot to sit in the back yard and enjoy a cigar. And, if it’s not too hot, then it’s probably raining. I think we had over 13 inches of rain in the month of July in south Louisiana.
- It’s a tragedy when anyone dies but a recent death in Houma, LA gives us another candidate for the Darwin awards. A young man was allegedly trying to still some copper wiring. From an electric company substation. He used a bolt cutter to cut through one of the thick copper wires going TO the substation. Needless to say his body was found by electrical company workers investigating the power outage.
- Usquaebach Pure Highland Malt Scotch Whiskey is a good, smooth scotch that pairs well with a Fuente 8-5-8 maduro. I like mine with a single ice cube, no water, and just enough scotch to cover the ice.
- I think everyone anointing the Philadelphia Eagles as the favorite team to win the Super Bowl based on the free agents they have signed this year is great. Once they start believing all the hype, they will fail. Horribly. Go Saints!
- Don’t you hate those “people” who start following you on Twitter who have never made a tweet and who has absolutely no information in their profiles? How about the ones that send you a message with a link to a page telling you that you have won an Ipad2?
- If you are ever in Baton Rouge, go eat at the Belle of Baton Rouge Hotel & Casino. The executive chef is good.
