I've been thinking for awhile of how important cigars and this forum were to me. I was active in the "former" forum and this one and really enjoyed the time I spent here and realized I missed a lot of banter with my "cigar buddies".
In March of 2010, I was at our local cigar/pipe shop and remembered how much I enjoyed my pipe back in late 60's, early 70's until I ran over my pipe with a CAT front end loader. After trying to find a pipe that smoked as well as the GBD that I "squished", I gave up and spent 40 years chewing Skoal. Twenty years ago, I smoked my first cigar, an Ashton Aged maduro. I became a big cigar fan and at the end of my cigar "career", I had two, 120 quart coolers with 65% beads and circulation fans, full of cigars.
As cigars became more expensive and I experienced more "plugged" cigars, I became less "enchanted" with them. The constant increases in my health insurance along with the decline in the economy caused me to easily switch over to pipes. For what I was spending per year on cigars, I now have a 8-10 year supply of pipe tobacco in the cellar.
I bought 5 or 6 briars, two meers and now have 10 MM cobs. The cobs provide such a wonderful smoke, especially when considering price that I'm going to sell a meer and all but one of the briars.
I'm really into pipe tobacco and have traded most of my cigars for pipe tobacco. I still have 100 or so cigars left and still smoke one every few weeks but find I can hardly wait for it to be over so I can light up my pipe. Fortunately, I have several friends who like cigars so, when they come over, I'm the "supplier".
I've gravitated to other sites more in tune with pipes and haven't frequented the pipe section on this forum but will try to do better. And, I guess I can always post in this section of the forum.
After twenty years of cigars, I can't believe that I can hardly look at a cigar anymore. Never thought that would happen. On the bright side, I have lots more money to pay those blood suckers at BC/BS. The sob's raised our rates to $17,400 for $10,000 deductible starting in Jan. of this year. I now have "extra" $$$$ to give to them instead of cigar vendors but it's all good as I really enjoy the pipe and, if I get sick, I might even get some of my money back.
Anyway, hi to all my old cigar buddies. I sure enjoyed my time with you. Maybe I'll come across you again when you've attained the level of sophistication that I have and take up the pipe
:-)
WyoBob
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