New Year's Resolution

There it is. A New Years Resolution that paid off. I think the key to making an excellent Resolution is making it very attainable. Take the resolution: "I'm going to work out every day this year." There is no way that resolution even CAN be kept. There is going to be a sick day, a vacation a holiday that gets in the way and slowly chisles away at the bedrock of your resolve. But lets be honest resolutions like that aren't nearly attractive once the 18th of January rolls around, but I digress. The good resolution? The things you actually want to do. Or even better the things you will do anyway. What is all of this babble about? I finally had this years NYR (New Years Resolution) pay off. I had tried Petersons "Sweet Killarney" and had not particularly enjoyed it (I imagine you could find a review of it somewhere in teh back postings). But I wanted to work out my issues and learn to love this carmel flavored dream. So the journey began. It started with a good number of tongue bites, and a decision (like any adolescent dating relationship) taht we may need a few months apart. However, we are not so immature anymore, and the time eventually came to crack the tin and try again. I will have truly failed in my NYR if I didn't work things out until next January, but then the original resolution really did not have any timeline. Nevertheless, today was the day. It was hot and a nice light aromatic was in order. But it was dry. Not dried out, just more dry than I usually allow my tobacco to become. Great scott! The problem was solved! I have never really experimented with a range of different moisture levels with my tobacco. I had just assumed that there was a sort of "baby bear" zone into which all tobacco should fall. Yet, this makes no sense at all. Each tobacco that the smoker knows well get's packed a bit differently. Each tobacco that is well known may even get smoked at different rates, or in different pipe sizes. Why should we not also control the moisture level of the tobacco in order to find its ideal smoking conditions (ISC). So it was. I enjoyed this delicate carmel creme flavored blend. Still smoking slowly and with great care. The dryer blend didn't have the same level of the aromatic flavor to it, however, it did have a delightfully playful note of it over the (previously noted) high quality virginia flavor. So, there is my lesson learned for the day! I cannot ignore a single factor and expect the best experience with each tobacco. Hooray for learning!