VW Bug

 

I had the very distinct pleasure this morning during my run, of seeing a fellow come up to a traffic light I was at (preparing to cross) who was driving a fully restored, Volkswagen Beetle that was either a 1965 or a 1966 (those two years are so close together in appearance that they are hard to discern, even though I can differentiate most years of the Beetle from 1949 through 1977 with relative ease).  It was beautiful in all regards.  Unlike the image I have posted here, the color of the beast I saw was of the deeper turquoise color that was available in that era.  

I have always had a fascination with VW Beetles, and owned two of them (sequentially) during my much younger years.  They were wonderful to drive (other than in the Winter, due to their almost non-existent heating system), and I always liked their quirky charm.  I have been happy seeing VW Beetles while I watch reruns of Canon and also reruns of Mannix.... but seeing one in person, puttering down the road was an added treat.  And, just as happy and unexpected an occurrence, the fellow who was driving the vehicle was smoking a pipe!  I was able to discern a whiff of the extremely pleasant aroma of his pipe tobacco as well.... it was some type of vanilla-tinctured leaf.  Very, very pleasant an aroma.  The simple aroma caused a cascade of beautiful memories to flood through my thoughts.  I believe this fellow may be the first pipe smoker I have seen in person (outside of Iwan Ries in Chicago) since at least a year before the pandemic started.  He was a grey-haired, grey bearded fellow, of a similar age to myself. 

• 9.2 miles (~15 km) this morning to finish out my mileage goal for the week.  Two days of not having to hoof a lot of miles awaits me!  
• I am over 1/2 of the needed miles to "Run the Year" as well.  This means, if I can keep up this pace, I should hit 2,023 miles sometime in October..... I think. 
• I am working on my goals of becoming more patient, and less angry.  When I listened to the priest's discussion again of the deadly sin of anger and the virtue of patience again..... it really rang so very true to me, that it has helped in my resolve to keep TRYING to let anger go in my life.  While there may be circumstances that could justifiably result in surges of anger in my daily life.... I have to keep firmly at the forefront of my mind that the anger I feel does not a) do me any good, b) does not do others any good, and c) does not help me to be of service to others.  In the heat of various moments, those three things are hard to keep in mind.... but I can work to better keep that sort of focus.  If I can learn to wrangle in my own emotions better, I should be able to foster in myself greater patience.
• My wife and I were able to meet up for lunch today, which was extremely pleasant.  The place we dined at had a quite interesting offering of vegan "mushroom & cabbage, chipotle soft tacos"  That is what I chose, and it was quite delicious!  My wife had one of her favorites as well, she had a beef stir-fry.  

PipeTobacco