COFFEE, PIGEONS, MEDULLA OBLONGATA

Life has been reduced to long walks, lots of reading, caffeinated beverages, and smoking stogies as the first fully awake conscious act of the day. Sad, when you consider that I used to be such an active outgoing fellow, jogging five miles before a wholesome breakfast of oats and soy milk, while doing all my stock trading over the internet ere six in the morning.
A healthy successful lifestyle!

Okay, while y'all roll that ridiculous scenario around in your heads, I'll head out to front steps to light up a cigar. It's an Asylum 13 Medulla Oblongata Toro, from the genius of Christian Eiroa and Tom Lazaka, all Honduran leaf, the wrapper is a lovely corojo. Well made. Almost fruity on the cold-draw, the smoke is mellow and somewhat earthy. Good for contemplating the flock of pigeons scrounging at the bus stop.

Didn't bother getting fully dressed. Plaid pajama pants, a bright orange tee-shirt advertising a different cigar brand, and a grungy grey flannel bathrobe. Suitable gear if not planning to wander more than a block away from the apartment building.



For your information I don't jog, and both oatmeal and soy milk are not part of the program, never have been. A proper breakfast consists of savoury small dumplings and steamed snackipoos at a crowded Chinatown tea house with buckets of hot guk-pou cha, surrounded by yelling people and their hyper-active kids and grandparents. Followed by a smoke, for that necessary period of anti-social peace and quiet afterwards.

Naturally I need a cup of strong coffee beforehand.

Not really being a breakfast person, the coffee and the cigar will have to suffice. Much like they did before the shelter-in-place order. Anti-social peace and quiet were always a given anyway.

And I can't stand joggers.



Per Wikipedia:
"The medulla oblongata or simply medulla is a long stem-like structure which makes up part of the brainstem. It is anterior and partially inferior to the cerebellum. It is a cone-shaped neuronal mass responsible for autonomic (involuntary) functions ranging from vomiting to sneezing. The medulla contains the cardiac, respiratory, vomiting and vasomotor centers and therefore deals with the autonomic functions of breathing, heart rate and blood pressure as well as the sleep wake cycle."

Yeah, I don't really understand the gedankenwelt underlying 'Asylum 13' and naming one of their product lines after a brain part. Loony bins and things in your head. But the coffee fits right in. As well as the bathrobe, suggesting, subtly, that I've escaped.

Maybe I should offer to rochambeau those pigeons for whatever it is they're pecking at. The joggers are no fun.




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