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Mute

Has my muse left me? As of this moment I have no pressing issue I wish to write about. My mind is a rather mushy and hazy at the moment, although is because I got up a bit on the late side for a very early meeting I had with the administration (at 7:45 this morning). Typically I am awake very early (usually by 6:00am at the latest, usually earlier). Today, however, I awoke at 7:10am... and for no reason I can fathom. So, instead of my normal routine, I instead had to hurry through the most basic subset of my routines for the morning. Simply put, all I did was hurriedly brush my teeth, rapidly shaved the neckline of my beard (my neck becomes rather furry after a weekend of not shaving), hopped in the shower, dressed, grabbed my pipe and my bag, and drove off.

Now, hurrying to meet a deadline is not my favorite task, as it is not for others as well. But, for me, it is especially jarring on the nerves and mindset to hurry through the morning. It shows too, as I have had several rough spots already:

1. Although I brought my pipe, I did not bring a lighter nor a pouch of tobacco with me. In my haste this morning, I was thinking I had left a pouch of tobacco and a lighter in my workbag. In order to save time on this hurried morning (which sounded like a grand idea instead of needing to run back upstairs to the bedroom to retreive my most used pouch and lighter off the nightstand), I decided I would simply use the pipe tobacco I had in my extra pouch in my bag holding my work papers and assignments I graded over the weekend.

As I speed towards the University in my vehicle, I grip the pipe between my teeth, drive with one hand (a manual transmission, by the way) and rummage around in my bag for my extra pouch and the lighter. It is not there! No leaf, no flame, no damn luck at all!

I sigh with frustration and a tinge of sadness, but then I recall I can simply use some of my stash in a can of Sir Walter Raleigh I keep in a desk drawer in my laboratory. Likewise, the flame will be no problem as I can use either a bunsen burner or an alcohol lamp, both of which I have in my lab. I could probably scrounge up some matches as well somewhere (in the lab we no longer typically use matches as we have "strikers" now which are basically large, hand-held devices that are flint holders and they make a beautiful spark for the Bunsen burner or the alcohol lamp) if I look long enough.

So, I get to my office and quickly grab papers needed for the early morning meeting and head off. All the while, I am thinking about my pipe. I arrive at the meeting, and as usual it is a bunch of windbags yimmer-yammering about nonesense. Honestly, they are good people who try hard, by and large, but this meeting was pointless. So after the meeting I rush back to my lab and rummage around my lab-desk drawer looking for my can of pipe tobacco, and a striker. I feel like an idiot and a fool, when I open the cannister of Sir Walter Raleigh (the 14 oz can) and of course, it is empty! I was not thinking and forgot I had smoked the last of the pipe tobacco in this canister nearly a week and a half ago and have been meaning to get more (if you recall, I have been smoking a fair amount of Prince Albert lately... partially because SWR has been more of a challenge to find in my usual stores).

I curse quietly under my breath and feel resigned to my fate. I go to my primary office and sit in there dejectedly.... because I have office hours until 9:30.

2. No coffee either this morning! Damn. I can alleviate that right now.

(Roughly a minute later...)

At least part of the morning doldrums can be helped right away by this coffee. I have until 9:30am to sit in my office waiting for students to visit, but then I am heading off to the store. I am bound and determined to not let this fiasco happen again. I am going to travel a bit farther, but I am going to go and buy TWO of the 14 oz cans of Sir Walter Raleigh, probably TWO of the 14 oz cans of Prince Albert, and two new zippered tobacco pouches. I shall leave one can of SWR and one can of Prince Albert in my lab-desk drawer, I shall leave one can of each at home, and I shall fill both new pouches to the brim, keeping one in glove box of my vehicle and one in the desk drawer of my primary office at work.

That should help to prevent another morning like this.

Hopefully, my muse will return along with the melding of flame and leaf in the bowl of my pipe in only a short while.

PipeTobacco