SEABIRD MISERY

The seagull overhead was very clearly expressing unhappiness, even complete emotional anguish. What makes a seagull so miserable? Do seagulls feel love? When you're a seagull life is supposed to be simpler and more even keeled. This seagull was not dealing well with his or her with despair. It was heart rending.
I felt for the seagull. So did the crows, who vocalized sympathetically.
Despair. Avian angst. Sadness, loss.


Early mornings in San Francisco are lovely, if one ignores traumatized birds.
After going back and forth over the houses several times, it flew off.


The rest of the day was marked by low tide at the mud flats, half buried tires, foreign tourists, fermentive smells, a faint odour of either distant skunk or ganja, and an old man repetitively asking what cigar he was smoking. It was a Tatuaje Havana VI Verocú Blue No.1, which is a Nicaraguan puro. A very nice cigar produced for Pete Johnson by the Garcia family.

Also, the pipe club met today. I have no idea what they smoked, because I only joined them during lunch and didn't ask. I may have come across as quite insane at that point, being high as a kite on overmuch caffeine. I smoked three bowls of Sun Bear Mountain Flower today.

SUN BEAR MOUNTAIN FLOWER (SMALL BATCH)
Blended By Jeremy Reeves
Bright Virginias and Oriental leaf, cased with tequila, elderflower and honey.

Let's ignore the fact that the description sounds pretentious and frou-frou. This is a fine product. Thickish broken flakes, loose press, with a slightly floral tin reek. It is smooth, slightly earthy, faintly spicy. I like this, but I won't publicly recommend it as I do not want the local supply to dry up too fast. I'll probably end up buying another half dozen tins. It makes a good casual smoke. Unlike many other honey augmented tobaccos, it isn't impossible to dry out, and does render nicely to ash. Of the bowls I've smoked this weekend only a couple left shreds at the bottom.


Jeremy Reeves more and more is hitting it right out of the ball park. Palmetto is a dynamite Balkan that reawakens memory strata that were long buried -- my college years at Drucquers in Berkeley -- while Anthology, despite the startling tin note of Limburger cheese (which other smokers have chosen to call "bready" and "yeasty", is one of the most delightful Virginia products I have found in years. I've stashed several tins of both. Sun Bear is nice enough to make sure I've got enough. I lost that opportunity on the previous edition (Sun Bear Black Locust), which by the time I woke up had been gone from the shelves for over an hour. What happened was that Calvin brought an open tin to the meeting of the pipe club last month, and the members went ape and cleared it out that day.

See, Calvin has gravitas. People automatically respect his opinions. Whereas I come across as everyone's wicked uncle Bertie, who seems to be incorrigible and a bit of a type. Which is actually more like Bernard, who last anyone heard was galavanting around in Northern Syria for inexplicable reasons. Along with M., who moved to Boston years ago, the Netherlandish contingent sort of dominates, as Calvin and Bernard are also overseas Dutch. Even though there have always been way more Anglo Americans in the club, we "cheese" are kind of strong flavoured .....


On a different note I made sure that everyone heard about the time William, Nick, and myself were at the Occidental, when young lady decided that Nick with his silver hair and elfin good looks was the cutest and most delightful old fellow she had ever seen, and got close enough to bury her tongue in his ear.
John expressed regret that he had left the bar early and missed it.
But surely things like that happen to all pipesmokers.
So it's only a matter of time.



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