Friday

 

Today feels just like "a day".  Just doing "stuff".

I got up at 4:45am and ran 11 miles (~18 km) this morning. With the bit of running outside I did just before dark yesterday (an additional 3.1 miles beyond my normal 9 on the treadmill earlier in the day), I have now met my goal of a minimum of 52 miles (~84km) for the week.  So, I do not really need to run anything on Saturday (may still do a few or at least walk five) and I always walk on Sunday.  

I am working hard on lectures for next week and grading papers.  I was at the U for a while during the morning to work on some projects in my lab.  

I was able to wrap and hide the Valentine's Day gift I had acquired about two weeks ago for my wife.  The gift had been hiding in my "pipe tool box" that I keep in my truck (I wrote about that tool box a few weeks ago, I think). Now the wrapped gift is hiding in the closet under my pile of clean exercise sweat shirts and sweat pants. 

We had a few inches of snow through the day today.  I *should* probably try to shovel it before dark, but I am not really "feeling" it.  I may wait until Saturday morning (and I MAY regret that decision if I do).

I really do not know what to do with my pipe situation.  My thoughts about what to do ricochet back-and-forth all over the place.   Pat mentioned the idea of joining an on-line pipe group for that feeling of camaraderie.  I actually did this about a year-and-a-half ago, because I was missing my pipes and I thought it might help.  It is an interesting enough place, and I have contributed to several discussions.  But it really isn't giving me the deep enough sense of "community" that I am missing.  

I do not really have any "new" thoughts about what I should do.  I *want* to go back to my pipes.  There has really NEVER been anything ever about the hobby I did not relish and enjoy. Pipe smoking was a full-immersion pleasure from my very first bowlful so many, many decades ago.  

At the same time, the "worries" have crept in from elsewhere in my mind.  And, unfortunately it is not as easy nor AS enjoyable to be a pipe smoker in 2021, nor is it AS enjoyable without other pipe smoking relatives and friends.  

Well, that is about it for the moment.  No particularly "deep" thoughts today.  Just a list.

PipeTobacco