Saturday at the Hut - 5/4/13

We had a great turnout today at The Tobacco Hut! I was still recovering from last night's inaugural Pipe Night (see the post below for a full report with pictures) that ran a little late, so didn't make it in this morning until close to eleven o'clock. Of course, nobody could really determine what time I got there 'cause the damned clock is gone.

Let's start with the lengthy roll call. When I arrived there was Rob, Joe K, Vic, Mike, Don, Aaron, and Pete. Rob was gracious enough to give up the big leather recliner-that-doesn't-recline to me. Of course, he was leaving anyway, and as I was shaking Vic's hand, he held on with an iron grip and gestured to Joe to grab the chair and abandoned his folding chair. I blocked Joe but the old man threatened to kick me with his steel tips in an area that would preclude me from having further children. Vic was kind enough to release the handshake and I quickly slipped into the enveloping comfort of the recliner.

L-R, Mike and Don. (Click to enlarge).

L-R, Aaron, Joe, Vic, Pete. (Click to enlarge)

I fired up my Ascorti with some Baker Street - a little mellower than the Searchlight I enjoyed the night before - and got up to speed on the comings and goings of the day. Vic was seated in a position where he really didn't have easy access to an ashtray, and we pointed out that it was too bad that the Cuesta Ray canister ashtray was missing.

You know, what's with all the looting of the store that took place when Lou was closing it? Clocks, ashtrays, signs, tobacco jars, etc., etc. It's absolutely shameful.

At one point, we were talking about Eric Rudolph, the guy who bombed the abortion clinics and the Atlanta Olympics, and disappeared into the mountains of North Carolina. (Funny, we were talking about him last night at Pipe Night, but couldn't remember his name). We were specifically discussing how even with his survival training he had difficulties making it in the rough terrain. He was finally caught Dumpster diving, according to Mike. I started to make the point that someone like me out in the woods, with no training, wouldn't last -- and the room erupted in laughter. I guess the notion of me, me in particular, out in the woods, trying to survive struck the collective funny bone.

My survivalist mettle was tested later tonight however, when I had to wrestle a lizard from the washing machine. See my Facebook posting - and Mike G's comment - in the screenshot below:

A short time later who should walk in but Jim S. Haven't seen Jim in quite awhile. I was ready to kick Don out of one of the club chairs but Jim couldn't stay. Too bad - maybe he'll come back for the Grand Re-Opening on May 18th or the next Pipe Night on June 7th. Jim works in the defense intelligence industry and always has interesting stories to tell. He usually stops short of telling us enough that he has to kill us though and, for that, we thank him.

Mike and I were talking about pocketknives when all of a sudden who should appear in the doorway but the Knife Guy himself, Scott R. That was a little spooky. Just talk about the guy and he appears. Anyway, Mike had been telling me about a knife designer (is that the right term?) called Todd Begg who apparently has some sort of knife show on the Discovery Channel. You can check out his website here. Pretty interesting.

Anyway, Scott showed us his latest acquisition, a Case pocketknife. I don't remember the particulars of it, but it was a very sharp knife (pun intended!). If you haven't looked at it recently, Scott is still going strong on his pocketknife blog. For my handful of readers here who criticize me for missing a week or two, you'd love Scott's blog. He writes regularly on his subject, and writes well. Maybe if I had had one of the pocketknives Scott has so generously given me, my encounter with the lizard from above would have gone a bit better.

A little while later, Scott's brother-in-law, Jeff arrived. I think they both settled down with a Kane Blue, or some such thing. I don't know, I'm a pipe smoker, I can't keep all these cigars straight. They both liked it though.

Scott - "The Knife Guy" (Click to enlarge).

L-R, Jeff and Pete. (Click to enlarge).

Jeff was telling us about his latest purchase, a Google Chromebook. He's very impressed with it so far. At only $250, it looks like a sweet little computer, aimed at the computer user who primarily uses it for surfing the web, Facebook, and email.

I think Jeff's assessment of Windows 8 is about the same as Joe's. Both are concerned that long-time Windows users, especially older folks, are a little bewildered by the changes in the operating system. I would recommend a Mac at that point, but that's just me.

Everyone but Scott and Jeff had left at that point, and the talk turned to football. I raised what I thought was a good question...how many first round quarterback draft picks have gone on to greatness? I think the expectations and pressure is so high that it's almost impossible for most of them to excel.

Scott and Jeff had left and I was packing up my pipe kit (or "mass kit" as Mike used to refer to it as) when who should I see walking across the parking lot? Barry C! Haven't seen the man in months. I stuck around for a while and got caught up with him. Congratulations are in order as he is a grandfather, or Pop Pop as he prefers to be called.

Barry was hoping that Scott was here because he had a knife he wanted to see if Scott could look at. Too bad you couldn't have made it just twenty minutes sooner. Scott was wrapping up his knife show, or should I say "Heavy Things With Sharp Edges Show". Scott not only showed us his new Case pocket knife, but brought in a hunting knife that he re-handled, and then a frickin' hatchet that he restored. I was a little afraid when he left for the final time he was actually going to bring in an axe and go all Jack Nicholson in The Shining on us.

Anyway, great to see all the familiar faces today. Start planning now to attend the Grand Re-Opening in two weeks! Saturday, May 18th, all day. Pete has lined up some door prizes, raffle items, etc. It promises to be a great time. More details to come! BTW, not sure if they were serious, but Vic promised some home made New York liverwurst for the party...

Cheers!

Saturday at the Hut - 1/12/13

It's been awhile since I've posted - remember, I'm on a bit of a hiatus - but I have some exciting news to share. The Tobacco Hut lives! As most of you know, Lou has had the business up for sale for some time now but with no buyers, he had started the process of shutting the store down. Dotty is slated to come home soon and he wanted to spend his time with her. So every week the inventory would diminish and the shelves looked more and more bare. I steeled myself for the inevitable - no more Saturdays at the Hut. My wife wasn't too happy about the prospect either, as she practically pushes me out of the house on Saturdays.

Mike G (left), explains to the Hut's new owner, Pete (right),
that he gets free shipping to Tennessee when he places an
order. Lou quickly disavows even knowing Mike.
(Click to enlarge)

But, at the eleventh hour, a sale has been announced! Pete Yates and his wife Lori (hope I spelled her name correctly), from Clearwater, have stepped forward and purchased the store. It was a whirlwind romance - Pete came in two Fridays ago, and inked the deal with Lou this past Tuesday. Today was Lou's last Saturday as owner of The Tobacco Hut as Pete and Lori take over this Tuesday.

Lou reminiscing before the gang
arrived. (Click to enlarge).

It was bittersweet for us, most of all Lou, as it's been a great ride for the last 28 years. I've been coming to the shop since 1996, and hanging out on Saturdays since 1998. Others have a longer history, such as Mike G who I think was coming even before there was a Tobacco Hut, or even a shopping center there. I think Mike would just stand in the field at the corner of 54 and Madison and smoke a cigar.

So a tip of the pipe to Pete and Lori for keeping the legacy of the Hut going. And my wife sends her heartfelt thanks to you as well.

So besides the announcement that today brought, what else happened at the Hut? Well, let me start with who was in attendance today. We had a full crowd: Lou, Paul O, Don W, Peter G, Joe K, Vic T, Mike G, Scott R, Corey, Jeff D, Tom L, Ross, Pete & Lori, some kid who came in to buy It's a Girl Cigars and stayed to smoke a cigar, and me. The smoke was pretty thick at times, but it was a beautiful day so Lou had the door open which did a good job of keeping the room clear.

Vic (right) showing off his meat
to an eager Joe. (Click to enlarge).

Other than the good news of the Tobacco Hut's continuation, it was also Celebrate Vic's Meat Day. It's only natural that Vic bring us his meat since some of us have sampled his nuts. I guess technically it's not Vic's meat, but some friend of his in New York who makes liverwurst and capicola (also spelt capicollo, capicolla, or the Italian spelling, capocollo. Capicola is a traditional Italian cold cut made from dry-cured whole pork shoulder or neck). He also brought in some New York maple syrup. Some of the guys had put in an order with Vic a couple weeks ago and today he unveiled his meat for all to see. He even sliced some of his meat to try on crackers that Joe had brought.

Scott brought some knives with him, and Vic showed him one of his. We kidded Vic about how useful the knife would be since he keeps it in a sheath, in a box, locked in the trunk of his car. Hope he's not mugged - he'd have to ask the thug to wait five minutes while he gets to the knife.

Joe's paper towel carelessly left on
floor. Vic had nothing to do with it.
(Click to enlarge).

As the new owners take over, let's hope that Joe is more mindful of the paper towel that he constantly leaves on the floor. The photo at left was taken shortly after he left for home. We all noticed it and just shook our head. Maybe Joe was still feeling the effects of the Lido Gomez cigar that kicked his butt today.

Not sure who mentioned it, but someone said that they want a picture taken of Lou actually paying for a cigar. Lou took a lot of good natured ribbing today from all of us. And he was in such a good mood that he didn't mind a bit. I think someone could have lit a fire under his chair and he wouldn't have minded. Oh wait, Joe did that.

The new owners, Pete and Lori, have pledged to keep things at the Hut pretty much the same, although they will restore the store hours at least back to Monday through Saturday. We tried to convince them that Lou bought us all pizza and wings on Saturdays but they weren't buying it. Lori did bring in a container full of homemade cookies. Mike polished them off fairly quickly so was pleased when Lori said she'd bring in a fresh batch every week.

I didn't find out if Lou negotiated the use of the "king's chair" when he visits. Guess we'll find out. Lou will be at the Hut during a transition period while Pete and Lori get up to speed, and plans on making an appearance on Saturdays from time to time. Of course, his first priority is getting Dotty settled in, but I'm sure he won't be able to stay away for too long.

Joe (left) and Lou (right) look on eagerly as Vic
unveils his meat. (Click to enlarge).

Left to right: Joe, Vic, Mike, Don. (Click to enlarge).

Left to right: Scott, Joe, Corey, Mike, Vic. (Click to enlarge).

Lou, I think I speak for everyone when I say congratulations to you in this new chapter of your life. A lot of friendships have been forged at the Hut through the years and we have you to thank. We can also thank you for emptying our wallets. And even some abuse along the way...but we wouldn't have it any other way.

Good luck my friend and enjoy your retirement.

Saturday at the Hut - 5/5/12

Aaron digging into Don's delicious BBQ
(click to enlarge). For other photos,
see The Tobacco Hutters.

We celebrated Cinco de Mayo in style on Saturday at The Tobacco Hut. Well, we didn't really celebrate Cinco de Mayo per se, but we did have some fantastic BBQ and other fixins from Don W. He announced on Thursday on The Tobacco Hutters that he was bringing his world famous BBQ on Saturday and it was well worth it! Don urged folks to bring Coronas for the minor Mexican holiday, but nobody obliged. But no matter, his BBQ'd pork butt and shoulder was out of this world! He supplied buns and his secret sauce, as well as boiled peanuts (yechh!) and I brought some potato salad. It was all very well received and we had a full house enjoying the feast. A big thank you to Don for supplying this and all his preparation - 12 hours to smoke it properly!

So who was there chowing down? Peter G, Joe K, Scott R, Jeff D, Bob (not me, and not Bobby M, but another Bob), Aaron C, Don of course, Tony, Lou, and myself. Paul O probably would have been there but he's in Vegas on some company junket.

Paula and I enjoying the Rays game
from the Times suite Friday night
(click to enlarge)

Allow me to back up a little...Paula and I hosted the Times suite at Tropicana Field on Friday night and watched the Rays beat up the Oakland A's, 7-2. David Price was on fire with 12 strikeouts, striking out every batter in the lineup at least once. Looks like they're playing okay without Evan Longoria who's out for several weeks with an injury. I would have strolled over to the Cuesta-Rey Cigar Bar to enjoy a smoke but, as host, I had to stay in the suite for the duration of the game. In any case, we had a great time, even though the food and beer tab was outrageous. A thousand dollars to feed 15 people wings, hotdogs, peanuts, and beer.

A little discussion came up on The Tobacco Hutters recently about attendance at the Trop and the reasons why it's so low. There are a lot of factors involved, ranging from the lousy economy to every game being televised to a short tradition of the game in the area. All I know is that right now the Rays have the best record in baseball and are playing exciting ball and to be ranked 28th out of 30 teams in terms of attendance is pretty crappy. They deserve better from the Tampa Bay area.

So if you're not a member of The Tobacco Hutters and have missed the e-mails I've sent out about it, you might be thinking, "What is this 'Tobacco Hutters' he keeps mentioning?" Well, it's our own social network, just for customers and friends of The Tobacco Hut. As of this writing, we're up to 22 members after just a week and participation and content is growing steadily.

It's a virtual space that is intended to be an extension of the real Tobacco Hut, a place that friends can come together, talk to one another through forums, write their own blogs on topics important to them, post status updates, upload photos and more.

How is it different from the blog you're reading right now? Well, The Sweetest Smoke is my blog where I write seemingly endless drivel and a handful of people read it. But there's very little room for discussion and the commenting mechanism is clunky and problematic. The Tobacco Hutters, however, is easy to participate in and is not meant to be just me creating content. It's your space, your community. Use it in whatever way you want.

It's free to join, but is not open to the public. To become a member, simply click on the highlighted links above, or right here: http://bit.ly/TobaccoHutters. I'll get notified that you've clicked on the link and approve your membership. Feel free to invite your friends if you like what you see. I encourage everyone to sign up though, if you haven't already - the more the merrier!

(The group is limited to 150 members - after that I have to go up to the next level which is quite a bit more of an investment. But that's a good problem to have and I'll cross that bridge when we come to it. If it comes to that, I'll probably lay out the cash for it and then accept advertising on the site to defray the cost. No worries about that now, however.)

Toward the end of the afternoon, most of the folks had split for the day and who remained were Don, Peter, Scott, Lou and myself. We started talking about the "good old days" in radio and music, got into a debate about who the greatest guitarist ever was (Scott's vote was for Eddie Van Halen, Lou voted for Les Paul, and I topped them all with Jimi Hendrix), and finished with an informal game of "Name That Tune". We all tried stumping each other by naming a song and the others trying to guess the artist.

Scott stumped us a couple times with some April Wine songs (didn't know Scott was such a fan of the Halifax band), Peter tried to stump us with the song "96 Tears" but I immediately shouted out the answer - ? and the Mysterians. A little aside, there was a customer that wandered in during the quiz show segment of the afternoon and he said that Todd Rundgren wrote the song "96 Tears", but I can find no evidence of that, no connection whatsoever between him and ? and the Mysterians. The group formed in 1962 and the song was written by band member and lead vocalist Rudy Martinez. The only connection I could find between Todd Rundgren was that he covered the song in 1998 with his band Utopia.

Peter stumped us with "Come On Down to My Boat" by Every Mother's Son, which frustrated me because I have the song on my iTunes collection.

Scott maintains that Kansas was a one-hit wonder with "Dust in the Wind". Peter and I vehemently objected to the notion that they were a one-hit wonder but when Scott challenged us to name another song of his, we had to quietly agree with his assertion.

Anyway, we had a lot of fun shouting out song names and artists, especially the one-hit wonders, and even employed my iPhone to play samples of the songs. Lou was feeling a little left out so I played the opening couple notes of Glen Miller's "In The Mood" and he nailed it right away.

We were having so much fun playing Name That Tune that something happened for the first time ever, I think, at the Hut. I failed to finish my pipe. When it was closing time, I had about a third of the bowl left. I was so busy looking up songs on my iPhone and racking my brain trying not to be stumped by what Peter and Scott were throwing at me that I simply neglected my Ser Jacopo filled with G.L. Pease's Westminster tobacco. It was a fine smoke but, alas, I got too wrapped up in the fun to finish it.

And that brings me to the finish of this week's blog. See everyone next week, and see you around The Tobacco Hutters!

Saturday at the Hut - 4/14/12

Okay, okay, I don't write a blog for a couple weeks and - in honor of Easter last weekend - I get crucified. Sorry, that was in bad taste. I'll try to resurrect my weekly blog postings. In my defense, I have been quite busy. We've had family visiting this week and have been getting the house ready for guests. In fact, last week I smoked the Cassini pipe I bought in Boston a couple years ago...in honor of Paula's brother and family visiting from Beantown.

Last week at The Tobacco Hut was too far back for me to remember everything, but Mike G made a surprise visit from Tennessee. We had a great visit with Mike, recalling a lot of good times at the Hut over the years. Oh yes, I found this photo of Mike on Facebook. Nothing more need be said.

Mike G bustin' out the moves
(Click to enlarge)

A couple pictures from last week...

Joe K and Mike G. Mike is most certainly spinning some tale.
(Click to enlarge)

Tom L and Peter G. Tom appears to be looking
lustily at Peter.
(Click to enlarge)

Me and my Fox Run Winery shirt from the Finger Lakes
area of New York. Joe thought I had converted to
Fox News. Sorry, buddy. It's all NPR for me.
(Click to enlarge)

Alright, today at the Hut found me walking in a little late after I had gotten in from Orlando this morning. We had gone over last night to hang out with my brother-in-law at Downtown Disney. I got to the shop around 12:30 and had to plant my sore butt on a broken folding chair. Paul O was in my usual seat, Don W was in one of the club chairs along with Jeff D. Well, let me explain that. Don and Jeff weren't sharing the chair, there are two of the white club chairs and they each were in one. Joe K brought his own folding chair and Scott R was in one of the store folding chairs. A little while later Paul V came in sat in one of the wooden stools. Later Scott switched places with me so I could have some place to put my pipe smoking accoutrements. Soon after Scott folded up the chair and came out with the cushioned stool from behind the counter. There. The seating arrangement has been fully explained and we can continue.

Probably the greatest entertainment of the day was watching Joe smoke cigar after cigar. Unlike the rest of us, Joe typically encounters difficulties whilst smoking his cigars. It doesn't matter which ones, they all seem to tunnel or canoe on him and it's been a pretty regular complaint that we hear from him week in, week out. Today was unprecedented however, as he went through not one, not two, but three cigars. And that third one started acting up as well, but I think Joe was at his credit card limit and couldn't buy a fourth. It was Joe's day in the barrel, so after he smoked most of his third cigar he packed up his folding chair and left.

Peter G came in and as soon as Don got up to check out, he sat down in Don's chair - the very one I had been wrangling for all afternoon. But, as Peter pointed out, they were his chairs to begin with so he gets first dibs on them. Fine.

Later, when Paul O got up to leave, he motioned to Scott to enjoy the chair by the window, which he promptly did. Thank you very much Paul and Scott. Only when Jeff finally left did I have a chance for a comfy chair.

Ed F stopped by for the first time in a long time. He's been busy hauling cars cross country. Scott perked up when he heard that most of Ed's trips take him to Buffalo and Rochester. Before I forget - Ed, this is for you - that forum I told you about where the truck drivin' pipe smoker posts is Smokers Forums. You might have to become a member to see the posts (it's free), but find the Off Topic Chat section and look for the thread titled "Where the Pipe Smolders II". It's written by Mason, the truck driver, and is pretty interesting.

Scott showed off his latest acquisition, a Case pocketknife. I really liked this one. It is a "canoe" shape because it, well, looks like a canoe. Maybe I'm drawn to pocketknives for the same reason I'm drawn to pipes - they each have names for the various shapes. Today I was smoking a freehand Crown Viking I bought from Lou several years ago and last week I was smoking a David Jones billiard. As I said, I really liked this particular knife and commented about it several times to Scott. Since he knew I liked it and he had stolen my chair when Paul got up to leave, I thought he might simply give me the knife, but he didn't.

Since Scott was there I had to bring up another puzzler for him. And, no, I didn't bring a deck of pre-arranged cards for him to shuffle and ruin the trick. This was a brain teaser and went like this...John and Marsha were teenagers in love and carved their initials five feet high on a tree twenty five years ago. They had gone there separate ways but reconnected today and thought it would be nice to find their initials. They located the tree and the question is, if the tree added 20% of its height every year for ten years, and 10% of its height every year for the next ten years and 5% of its height every year for the last five years, how high up the tree would their initials be?

Scott was wary of doing all the heavy lifting only to have someone else (Joe) shout out the answer at the end, so he pretty much kept quiet. Paul V, however, knew the correct answer - the initials would still be five feet up the tree. As a tree grows, its height is added to the top, not from the bottom. New growth always occurs from the top.

Happy Easter to Peter! He and Ed were talking about some sort of egg battle that their families engaged in every year. It sounded, well, odd. But I suppose my family's tradition of sacrificing a -- oh, never mind.

Saturday at the Hut - 3/17/12

Today at The Tobacco Hut saw me enjoying a bowlful of G.L. Pease's outstanding Chelsea Morning tobacco in the Stanwell that Paula surprised me with for Christmas. It smoked well all the way to the bottom of the bowl, providing a great taste and excellent room note. The rest of the gang was smoking cigars and there was a fair number of us so it was welcome relief when Lou decided to prop open the door to air it out a bit.

This is probably close to what
Jim's iPad looked like after
being run over.

In attendance today were Lou and myself, of course, Scott R, Jeff D, Paul O, Paul V and - toward the end of the day, Jim C. I'll open the blog with a tale that Jim recounted about his iPad. He received it as a gift from his wife but several days ago, whilst driving on US 19 near S.R. 52 with the windows open and the iPad on his dashboard, made a turn and promptly sent it flying out the window. Unfortunately, he didn't notice it until he got home and then retraced his path and discovered it in the middle of the road, having been run over multiple times. But, guess what? Apple replaced it! Jim is now a full believer in Apple. If it hadn't been replaced, I was going to suggest that he get in touch with Joe who is probably ready to sell his iPad 2 now that the latest version is on the market.

After Scott and Lou conducted a little business (the former had sold some of the latter's old lighters and other collectibles on eBay and was delivering the proceeds), Scott and I got down to our business. Specifically, the solution to the brain teaser I had posed in this space a couple weeks ago, regarding the 911 dispatcher's help to the man suffering from a heart attack. Probably the only people that cared were in attendance today, but I'll give the solution here in a moment. It actually didn't take Scott long, after a few carefully considered questions, to hit upon the answer. Although maybe it was a repeat from a couple weeks ago where Scott did all the "heavy lifting" and Paul O actually answered it...I can't remember. Okay, for those of you were wracking (or "racking", either is acceptable) your brain for the solution: The dispatcher had the man read off the license plate of the car parked in front of him, she ran the registration through the computer, and directed the ambulance to the address, saving the man's life.

A little later when Paul V arrived Scott had me pose the same question to him and, with some more heavy lifting from Scott, he worked out the solution.

We had some good sports discussions...who the Bucs had picked up and their prospects for the coming season, how the Rays were looking, the ongoing NCAA March Madness tournament, and the "good ole' days" of sports television when you basically had on option for watching sports - ABC's Wide World of Sports which showed the highlights from various games from the previous week. Now, as Scott pointed out, you can watch practically every game live, start to finish, but there still doesn't seem to be anything good on.

I was feeling lucky so I sprang another puzzler on Scott and the boys. I produced a deck of cards and asked Scott if he could cut the deck exactly in half. He didn't think so, but he actually did pretty well, cutting 28 cards. I then had him shuffle the two halves together and deal some piles of cards face down. There were several piles consisting of just two cards, a few piles of four cards and two piles of thirteen cards each. As he dealt each pile, I bet him what each pile would consist of: the pairs of cards would contain one red and one black card, the piles of four would consist of one card from each suit, and the two piles of thirteen cards would each contain ace through king. As the odds of each of these bets got longer and longer, Scott had no problem betting against me, especially since we were using "hypothetical" money, not the real thing. But, sure enough, after he had dealt through the deck, the cards were turned over and I was correct on each pile.

I emphasized that Scott had cut and shuffled the cards and done the dealing, so there could be no pre-arrangement or sleight of hand since he had shuffled and handled the cards. I've always enjoyed legerdemain, especially when it comes to playing cards. Next time, Scott, we'll see how well you do separating the reds from the blacks, sight unseen. And if you want to invite me to your next poker game...

Lou made a sad, but not entirely unexpected, announcement. The lease for the store is up at the end of April and he has decided that without a buyer, he will be forced to close the doors so he can devote more of his time and energy in taking care of Dotty. He would prefer to sell the store and keep it open - and has lowered his asking price considerably - but will have to close down if he is unable to sell it. Now is the time to spread the word if you know of anyone who would like to take over the shop. After almost 28 years it's an institution in Pasco County and I think we all share Lou's desire to see the store continue, even under different ownership.

 - Bob

Saturday at the Hut - 12/31/11

We had a full house at The Tobacco Hut today! Lots of folks in attendance and lots of fun. Nice to see a great turnout to support Lou. Let's get started with the roll call and then I'll dive into the highlights. Today saw Joe K, Tom L, Paul O, Ed B, Scott R, Jeff D, Don W, Brian J, Barry C, and a new guy, Aaron C. Aaron is a friend of Don's and may have been in before, but this is my first time meeting him, so I'll just call him the new guy. (Jim S, it looks like you're no longer the new guy). BTW, Aaron, it's customary for the new guy to bring pizzas for everyone even though Jim never did. Not that we're bitter or anything.

My new as yet unsmoked Stanwell
pipe and Erik Nording Hunter
Blend pipe tobacco
(Click to enlarge)

Paula got me a shiny new pipe for Christmas and I was so looking forward to smoking a bowl from a brand new tin of tobacco, but I've been sick all week so arrived at the Hut empty handed. When I have a cold, I don't feel like smoking anything. Tom L, on the other hand, was sick last week but lit up anyway so he's obviously more of a man than I am. Hmm...Tom was sick last week and now I'm sick this week. Coincidence? Anyway, hopefully next week this is the pipe you'll see me lighting up for the first time. It's a Stanwell Vario quarter bent w/acrylic stem. Can't wait to fire it up.

It got to be pretty crowded after awhile and it was such a nice day that most of us moved outside. We did leave Joe and Lou inside so that Joe could get some help with his upcoming trip to Vegas. Below is Lou pointing out on Joe's iPad where the Bunny Ranch is. (Click to enlarge).

Below are a couple shots of the gang enjoying their cigars. It really was a perfect day to be outside and I'm only sorry that I couldn't enjoy the fun and been able to light up as well. But I certainly enjoyed all the smoke that wafted my way.

Lou and Joe
(Click to enlarge)

Tom L, Ed B, Paul O
(Click to enlarge)

Scott R, Lou, Joe K
(Click to enlarge)

Tom L, Ed B, Paul O, Scott R, Joe K,
Out of frame: Jeff D, Aaron C, Don
(Click to enlarge)

We soon noticed that the fruit shipping place next door was getting an awful lot of traffic, even though it was closed for the holiday. Every five minutes some old person would hobble out of their car up to the door and tug on it in frustration, anxious to get their half gallon of orange juice or pint of orange-flavored ice cream.

In a flash of pranking genius, Tom L came up with the idea of creating a sign that read "Back in 5 Minutes" and taping it to the door, so that's what we did. We sat back and waited for the ensuing hijinks. Well, we waited and waited and nobody showed up so after our crowd had thinned out a bit, we moved back inside and kind of forgot about it.

Just having a little fun with the
customers of the store next door.
(Click to enlarge)

It didn't take long though for the first victim to come along - an orange colored pickup pulled up and promptly pulled away, presumably after reading the sign. A few minutes later a couple came up, hung around for a minute or two and left. Then the same woman in the white Buick from a month ago (see earlier post) arrived, read the sign and went back to her car to wait. And wait. And wait. Ed finally took a little pity on the lady and went out to inform her that the sign had been there all day and they were probably closed.

A little later a Phyllis Diller-look alike arrived and took the record for waiting. She stood outside the door for easily fifteen minutes. At one point, she even stood in front of our open door drilling us as to where the owners were. We expressed the proper indignation that they weren't there and sent her on her way. She was soon joined by another woman and when they finally left in a huff, we could hear one of the women say that she had already called the business and left a nasty message. 

Phyllis Diller look-alike
waiting impatiently
for the 5 minutes to be up.
(Click to enlarge)

A short time later, a woman carrying an almost-empty bottle of orange juice arrived in our doorway inquiring about the shop next door. She said she wanted to return the orange juice as it was sour. Of course, it was practically gone, but I'm sure the store has a very liberal return policy. In any case she, for some reason, found it necessary to tell us to remember the "Three A's" to please a woman. I tried to block out this whole portion of the afternoon, so can't recall exactly what she was talking about.

Ed joking with crazy O.J. Lady
(Click to enlarge)

Wanting to take the prank to the next level of immaturity, we decided to update the "Back in 5 Minutes" sign and add Joe's phone number to it, so that's what we did. Joe had already left for the day, so we couldn't ask him if it was okay. I'm sure he won't mind.

We just had to make a small
addendum to the sign.
Sorry Joe!
(Click to enlarge)

Barry continues to attract the crazies to the Hut. This time it was a lady who was walking past the store and glanced in, obviously attracted by Paul's pretty shirt. Paul waved hello but Barry beckoned her in and invited her to sit in Lou's chair. Fortunately for Lou, he wasn't sitting in it at the time, but he was not happy when he looked from behind the counter and found this woman sitting in his chair. She got on a tirade about presidential politics which was good for a laugh or two especially when Barry urged her to vote for Bob Harrison and she had never heard of him. Paul assured her that he was an idiot though and not worthy of her vote. I concurred.

Barry with his new
crazy friend of the week.
(Click to enlarge)

A quick note upon closing...let's plan on a get-together to celebrate Scott's 50th birthday on Sat, Feb 4th. Scott's usually a morning guy, so how about around 10:00? I'll bring the Doritos and Mountain Dew - just kidding Lou!

P.S. Aaron, we're just joking about bringing pizza. Of course, if you did we wouldn't turn it down.

P.P.S. Don't worry Joe, we took the sign down right after I took the photo of it. I think.