Saturday at the Hut - 8/6/11

First, a heartfelt and sincere apology for not writing the blog last week. Joe K was out of town and was relying on it to find out what he missed and Tom L has suddenly become my biggest fan, addicted to everything I write. When he walked in today, he practically screamed at me for not writing the blog last week (in fact, he did scream at me - it was very frightening).

Thankfully I already had my pipe loaded when Tom launched into his tirade. My hands were shaking so badly afterward, I don't think I could have managed to put more than a few crumbs of tobacco in it. Much like the measly economic crumbs Tom and his neo-conservative friends allow to trickle down to the masses. C'mon! I'm the token liberal in the group...I'm allowed the occasional jab at Tom, et al.

Anyway, today found me smoking a David Jones rusticated billiard filled with G.L. Pease's very tasty Westminster. It has the perfect amount of Latakia in it and has a great flavor. The aroma will probably only be pleasing to fellow smokers. It's been my experience that tobaccos with Latakia don't have a particularly nice aroma to non-smokers. Oh well, I was surrounded by smokers and nobody complained.

Last week we discovered that Lou was a telegram courier in an earlier life. It was his first job, working for a company called Postal Telegraph Company. Alas, they couldn't compete with Western Union, perhaps because they didn't give Lou a bicycle with which to deliver his telegrams. Instead, he walked. We all had some good natured fun picturing Lou walking leisurely along making his urgent deliveries. I was able to locate an image of a Postal Telegraph telegram on the web and display it here in the hopes that it will bring back fond memories for Lou.

Need to get a message to someone fast? Use Postal Telegraph and ask for Lou!

Lou also revealed that shortly after the telegram courier job, he went to work for a florist. Not as a florist, but making deliveries primarily (walking?). He did say that he occasionally arranged some of the flowers as well. Good to know that Lou is in touch with his feminine side.

And it's OK for a man to be in touch with his feminine side. Note to Paul O...I'll have you know I enjoyed Key Largo very much.

Before we get too far afield, today's attendees included Tom L, Joe K, Peter G, Paul O, Adrian, Lou, and myself. Joe was in Atlanta last week, helping his son James close on his first house and get settled in. Congrats to James on the house! We will naturally be expecting invitations to the housewarming party. Of course, none of us were invited to the wedding, so I'm not going to hold my breath for the housewarming party.

The talk turned to politics, not surprisingly with the rancor in Congress about raising the debt ceiling, but our discourse was actually fairly civil. I think it shows that among reasonable people, the anger and disgust is actually aimed toward our esteemed lawmakers in Washington (of both parties), who are far more concerned with positioning themselves well for the next election than doing what's right for the country.

Joe and I talked computers and Tom is considering purchasing an iPad. Probably if Apple was on the verge of releasing an iPad 3, Joe would have sold Tom his iPad 2 in the store, as he is wont to do from time to time.

I regaled the assembled with tales from the book I'm currently reading, King Leopold's Ghost: A Story of Greed, Terrorism, and Heroism in Colonial Africa by Adam Hochschild. I know Joe especially likes to hear what book I have my nose in, but I didn't realize how much Paul was eager to hear about it. I suppose the snoring should have clued me in.

We also came dangerously close to talking about women's stuff, with an extended discussion about couponing. Fortunately, the talk turned to sports or something before we moved on to makeup and shoes.

After Joe, Paul, and Tom left, Peter and I discussed how things were going with his new job and sales in general. Adrian arrived but not in time for a game of chess. No matter, I'm still the reigning champion. He pledged that he would come in earlier next week so perhaps I'll offer him a rematch. In any case, when we do play again, Adrian will be white. We know Adrian secretly prefers to be white, as do most folks. Being black puts you at a disadvantage right off the bat. Truth be told, I can't remember who played what when he beat me three games in a row, so in the end it probably doesn't make any difference who plays with the white pieces and who plays with the black (plus I've run out of racial double entendres).

Cheers!
 - Bob