Positives & Negatives

 

First.... the bullets:

• The TMJ flare-up has subsided somewhat, so that is very good.  It often takes 2-3 days to fully dissipate.

• I ran 10.2 (~16.5km) miles as usual this morning.  I am already at 51.8 (~83km) miles for the week, so since I try to stay between 53 and 54 miles for the week, technically, I can get away with just a short, 2 mile run on Saturday.  In order to make it meaningful at such a short distance, perhaps what I should do is try to push my pace as absolutely fast as I am able to do for the entirety of the two miles.  That may make it helpful to me.  

• I do not know if I mentioned this before, but I bid on and won a set of ten, quite vintage, unused (I guess I could call them NOS), very high-quality bass clarinet reeds a while ago.  I am estimating from the packaging that they may be from the late 1940s or early 1950s.   I bought them because I was able to get them for a tremendously cheap price (I think you all know I like to penny-pinch).  I am thinking perhaps some folks were thinking they were old, grubby, gungy things.... the exterior packaging of the box was rough.... but I could tell from images of the reeds themselves that they were NEVER USED, pristine reeds.  Even though there should be absolutely no discernible playing difference.... I think it will be enjoyably entertaining TO ME to know I am playing my beast using reeds that are roughly 70 years old.  

* * * * *

 I was thinking of some of the "positives and negatives" of my thwarted "adventure":

A.  It is a positive to me that I went there with the intention to enjoy myself.  That the place was not to my liking does not diminish the success of that intention.

 B.  It is also a negative that I went there.  When I found out I could not smoke my pipe there, maybe that should have simply killed the adventure?  As I mentioned before, I have never really desired to purposefully have a cigar.  The few that I have smoked across my life, were enjoyable, but almost all were given to me by someone.  

C.  It was a positive to me that I did not STAY in the bar, simply because I was there.  It was not a place that felt enjoyable, and there was pretty much no one to talk with.  Sure I could have had a drink or two, and could have smoked a over-the-top priced cigar.... but I am not thinking it would have been ENJOYABLE.  It was not an EXPERIENCE like it would have been in pretty much any of the three different scenarios I had anticipated finding.  

D.  It was a negative that I did not stay in the bar.  Perhaps I should have just done what I said I would do, and gotten it over with?  Maybe smoking a cigar would have helped me to know whether I should just stay fully "quit" from pipes and pipe tobaccos, or if I should continue trying to have occasional "experience" approaches with pipes and pipe tobaccos, or if I should just revert back to what was my prior proclivities?  

E.  It was a positive that I did not spend some outrageous amount of cash for a single cigar.  Even though I did not look at the drink prices.... I would not be surprised to see they were outlandish as well.  

These are the basic ideas I have been percolating in my mind.  A few others may arise if I think further.  But that is it for today.  

PipeTobacco