The Cigar Life

  Monday, June 9, 2025 Went in this morning to finish cleaning my classroom and turn in my keys. Dale came to help. Was out of there by 10:00. Two cigars today. First was a Hoyo Excalibur. The second was a Romeo y Julieta. Ready to get my summer break and sabatical underway. 

 Sunday,  August 18, 2024 Gorgeous day.  Perfect for a cigar.  I lit up an Oliva while Dale was taking a walk.  Mike texted me earlier that he was on Sanibel Island. I texted him back.  Reading up on Paris as Dale and I are hoping to go there next year. 

Saturday, June 15, 2024 My new Old Fashioned glass arrived with the mail this morning. Couldn't wait to fill it with an Old Fashioned.  Lunch with Noel at W.A. Frost in St. Paul. Picked up some cigars at Stogies On Grand including a couple Camachos, my new favorite. Lot's of rain today. Set up in the garage around 5 pm.  The rain prevented Marcia, the evil Cockapoo next door, from being outside. Andrea got some kind of clicker that emits a high frequency tone that only Marcia can hear. She clicks it when the dog starts barking and it startles her and quiets her down so Andrea can tell her to stop. It's somewhat effective. However, it's nice to get a break and not have to listen to her at all. The sound of the rain was so relaxing.  I really need to working on straightening out this garage but I'm not gonna worry about that right now. We've gotten so much rain this spring and it's nice to see everything so lush and green.              ...

Sunday, September 4, 2022 Dale and I went to the State Fair this morning. This afternoon I smoked a little Romeo y Julieta in the backyard after lighting up in the garage. While smoking I continued to reminisce about the summer of 1982 which is when I began to indulge my cigar obsession.  The appeal lay in how completely masculine it was to me. 

Saturday, September 3, 2022 Labor Day Weekend is here. School starts next week. As always it all went too fast.  I think of that first summer of cigars in 1982. Walking up to Salk Drug Store on Lyndale Avenue to buy Swisher Sweats and Dots. My cigar intake was much more sporadic and infrequent back in 1982. I would go for months and sometimes a few years.  Lighting up became a little more frequent once I moved out on my own. I'd sometime walk up to Golden Leaf in Calhoun Square for a cigar and then drive around smoking it in my Toyota Corolla. I liked how the car smelled the next day.  There's a bunch of other stuff I remember about the summer of 1982: the above album; Twilight Zone the movie seen with Mom, Dad, Sam, and Pete at the France Avenue Drive-In; my bicycle accident and the hospital stay that resulted from it; watching Brideshead Revisited on PBS; staying up late because I couldn't sleep or because I would sneak one of Dad's Swisher Sweets; watching NBC Ove...

Tuesday, August 30, 2022 Had my good friend Mike over a couple weeks ago or so. It was great to see him. Love lighting up and having a cigar together. Above photos are from that night. We each smoked a Romeo y Julieta. Tonight I had the same kind of cigar. I've been back at work for a week now to get my classroom set up and I'm trying to enjoy the pleasant temperatures while they last. We still have a number of nice days ahead but eventually they'll start to become fewer and farther between. Not that colder weather has kept me from smoking cigars outside. No time like the present though. Dale came out with some wine to sit with me. He's been on vacation from work and goes back the day after tomorrow.  Although I'm back at work I won't have students until Tuesday of next week. We talked of retirement which is on the horizon and are looking forward to new possibilities.  Had Orville on the Bose.  Like I said, the weather was very pleasant. 

Sunday, August 7, 2022 From the article More Than a Cigar by Evan J. Elkin as appearing in Cigar Aficionado in the Winter 94/95 issue: "When Sigmund Freud's nephew Harry declined a cigar at age 17, his illustrious uncle started as if thunderstruck. He paused and then, weighing his words carefully, admonished Harry: "My boy, smoking is one of the greatest and cheapest enjoyments in life, and if you decide in advance not to smoke, I can only feel sorry for you." (Freud: A Life for Our Time. Peter Gay, 1989, Anchor Books/Doubleday.) For Freud, the decision not to smoke was surprising, even illogical. Indeed, one can hardly think of Freud, father of psychoanalysis, without thinking of cigars. He was seldom photographed without a cigar in his hand, which is no surprise, since he typically smoked 20 per day. As he wrote, analyzed patients and took his daily walks, Freud smoked continually." https://www.cigaraficionado.com/article/more-than-a-cigar-6051 Wow. Twenty a d...

Thursday, July 21, 2021 Another beautiful day to sit in the yard.  Listened to music.   And enjoyed the beautiful warm, sunny, clear day. 

At the end of this week I'll be halfway through my summer break. I'm trying to enjoy the weather and take advantage of the time off.  It's warm but pleasant in the shade. Listening to ABBA's recent album. I remember listening to ABBA The Album a ton back in the summer of 1977.