This was my first visit to The Tobacco Hut in a couple weeks. My son Ryan was visiting from Ohio, and try as I might I just can't get him to take up pipe smoking. The photo of Ryan with a pipe was him goofing around while getting his senior pictures taken last year. Ryan is headed off to Ohio State in a week, my alma mater. He's kind of excited and nervous at the same time, but he'll do fine I'm sure.
Joe K and I arrived at the Hut at roughly the same time on Saturday and - Wow! - were we in for a treat. It was "Grumpy Lou Day" at The Tobacco Hut. Well, more so than usual. He did show us pictures from the store's anniversary party as well as when he and Dotty renewed their vows a couple weeks ago and that seemed to cheer him up slightly. But it was short lived.
Joe commented on how his Padron 1964 wasn't smoking well and Lou about bit his head off. I was about to ask if we could adjust the air conditioning by a degree or so, but thought better of it.
Joe's son James called on Joe's cell phone and as soon as Lou knew it was James he grabbed the phone and let fly with a burst of obscenities that would make a longshoreman blush. Then he simply handed the phone back to Joe. Of course, this is nothing out of the ordinary.
I didn't speak to James, but he said he was sorry he couldn't be there in person to see me and rub it in that he had two kidneys versus my one. Ouch!
I bet Lou was even grumpier after Ohio State's loss to USC Saturday night. You know, to be fair, Lou did say he wasn't feeling the greatest, but it's more fun to not cut him any slack and just call it "Grumpy Lou Day".
Peter timed his arrival perfectly as Joe was just leaving, but soon afterward Steve and Barry arrived. Barry just happened to be wearing a football jersey that sported the USC colors, in sharp contrast to Lou's OSU shirt. Congrats to Barry for surviving the round of layoffs at the county and it sounds like Steve has a solid marketing plan in place for his growing landscaping business.
Speaking of business [shameless commerce plug alert], my online t-shirt business, The Erudite Outlet, had its best day over the weekend! In one day, I sold over $200 worth of t-shirts and other merchandise.
And on another business note [shameless commerce plug alert], Paula has begun to ramp up her jewelry making for the holidays. The latest creations coming out of HeartStone Jewelry can be seen at her shop on 1000Markets.
At the Hut I smoked a bowl of Frog Morton in my Ascorti Canadian. Another pipe smoker came into the store and we had a brief chat. Always nice to see another pipe smoker as we seem to be a dying breed.
I did watch a movie Saturday night that featured two - count 'em - two pipe smokers. I had recorded Manhandled (1949) from TCM a couple weeks ago, starring one of my favorite actors, Sterling Hayden. In the film, two police detectives are questioning a suspect and both are smoking pipes. Pretty rare to see pipe smokers in movies these days.
Until next week...
- Bob
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