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[Note: As you read this post, please imagine your "Frumpy Professor" sporting a broad, furry-faced grin of happiness and anticipation.... almost a Cheshire cat-style grin.]

It is bound to be a good day.... knock on wood. Several items are afoot that should make today be enjoyable. First, the weather is grand! Today is predicted to be bright and sunny (only an occasional occurrence in my cloudy, rain-infused envrion). Second, I have made a truly good start on a grant application I am excited about. Third, yesterday at a boring-as-hell faculty dinner, I let my mind wander into my own thoughts and came up with what I believe could be an excellent sabbatical idea. Fourth, all of my loved ones are feeling fit and healthy simultaneously (again, knock on wood), and the Fifth, (grin.... the perfect designation for this item) my elderly father-in-law phoned me this morning and hinted in a round-about way that he would like to be driven to the pipe shop for new leaf and perhaps have a few drinks afterwards back at his home. I am jumping at the chance! It should be a wonderful afternoon of delightfully rich smoky frangrances, gentle inebriation, and grand, raucous talk about politics, gardening, and life.

Today I feel like a very lucky man.

PipeTobacco