The Thoughts of a Frumpy Professor

............................................ ............................................ A blog devoted to the ramblings of a small town, middle aged college professor as he experiences life and all its strange variances.

Tuesday, October 20, 2020

Automaton


 

I cannot use "cyborg" each and every day, so I will spice up my writings during this state of being grafted onto a machine perpetually with a variety of other synonymous terms.  Today, I am going to go with being an automaton.  

In the state of being an automaton, I find that I have even fewer dreams that I recall than usual.  I attribute this to my perpetual state of dead-dog tiredness.  My wife even notes that she has on several occasions awoken worried about me as I have not moved at all during sleep and she sometimes cannot even say for certain that I am breathing until she nudges me and I grumble (I am not cognizant of any of this).  Typically I move around while sleeping quite abundantly, so this suggests to me that I am fully "tode mude" (German, for "dead tired").

Today actually is the birthday of my sadly deceased father-in-law.  He was an  incredibly important friend and a second father to me as well.  This is the third birthday we have reached since his passing.  I miss greatly our discussions, I miss his advice, I miss his being my drinking and pipe smoking buddy.  

In a little bit more than a month, it will be my deceased father's birthday as well.  This year he would have been 97 years old.   I greatly miss him as well.  I have one of his pipes in the rack in front of me as I speak.  I miss him for his great wisdom and guidance and advice.  I miss his being my pipe smoking buddy too, even though it has 26 years now since he has passed. 

This pipe is beautifully shinny and polished, as I recently (on Sunday) rotated into this rack all freshly shined up pipes I had not had out in my racks for a while. I have so many beautiful pipes, and eventually they all get their turn to be on display in my racks.  When not on display (or in my pocket), I have most of them in a storage box, and I have always regularly rotated through them on what is approximately  a month-or-so basis.  My three pipe racks that are the pipes I keep "out-and-about" in a given cycle are a) the one in my home office, b) the one in my U office, and c) the one in my garage. It is always pleasant to see all the old friends who had been in hiding for a bit, come back out during a rotation.  I liken each transition to being akin to a new art exhibit just for me to view each time I swap them out.   

 PipeTobacco


5 Comments:

Blogger peppylady (Dora) said...

After you mention that your father would of been 97, I had to figure how old my mother would of been in September also 97. Your dad must of been born in 1923

Tuesday, 20 October, 2020  
Blogger PipeTobacco said...

Yes, November 1923.

Wednesday, 21 October, 2020  
Blogger Forsythia said...

My dad would have been 107. Mother, 105. Stepmother, 111. Yes, she was older than Dad, but it was a secret. Until now.

Wednesday, 21 October, 2020  
Blogger Tom Cochrun said...

I appreciate your comments about your father. My dad would be 103. He's been gone 30 years, but remains vibrant in my memory. He was my best friend, as well as a man I admired.

Wednesday, 21 October, 2020  
Blogger Anvilcloud said...

They are working you like a dog. I feel for you.

Wednesday, 21 October, 2020  

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