Today wasn't the usual hijinks at The Tobacco Hut, as I made an early day of it. Of course, I don't mean to imply that only when I'm there is it a fun and lively bunch. But since I wasn't there for most of the afternoon, I can't report on it. Any readers of this post are free to fill in the blanks, as it were, in the comments section below.
I arrived around 11:00 am and left shortly after two o'clock, to meet some old friends of the family for dinner. At least I thought I had arrived around eleven o'clock because shortly after I sat down and lit my pipe I glanced at the clock and saw that it was almost 12:30. What kind of bizarre Twilight Zone was this? Like an alien abductee, was I experiencing "missing time"? Were there probes involved?
When Joe arrived, he too was confused by the weird time vortex and almost left an hour before he had planned. It didn't take long before we solved the mystery of the apparent rip in the space-time continuum. It turns out that Lou had turned the clocks ahead that morning for Daylight Savings Time. He didn't want Dotty to have to adjust the clocks Monday morning, so he did it Saturday morning when he opened. Why he didn't wait until closing time and forestall his customers' confusion will remain a mystery.
Once that was settled, I loaded up my Peterson Donegal #408 (pictured above), purchased many years ago at Lou's, with some of his Alaskan Gold tobacco. This is a fine English blend, light on the Latakia and the perfect amount of bite-free Burley. This is far from the most expensive pipe I own, but it is probably the most consistent, best-smoking briar in my stable. And once again, it didn't disappoint. By the end of the afternoon, nothing was left in the bowl but a fine, light gray ash.
As has been reported earlier, Joe K announced that his son James is planning a trip from Oregon to grace us with his presence sometime in May...and that he wants a party thrown in his honor. Sounds like a certain west-coaster has gotten a little uppity! We will, of course, welcome the store's prodigal son back to the fold and light a cigar in his honor when he arrives. And if he wants to bring some potato salad or something to share, that'd be fine.
Cheers!
- Bob
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