I realized recently, that although I 1st signed-on to this site on 6/7/2010 I never did get round to introducing myself so here goes, hope y'all will forgive me for being 4006 days late, lol.
I had been a long time cigarette smoker and rarely smoked cigars although I had tried a pipe for a few months ~ 30 years ago.
Then one in day in 2002 I was sitting in my doctors waiting room and picked up a magazine, ( for those of you under 30 years old, magazines are something we old folk used to read in the days before smart phones and the internet!
) can't remember what the magazine was but it had a quarter page add by Thompson cigar for a humidor complete with a 10 pack (I think) sampler of cigars, I don't recall what the cigars were, probably not very good, but good enough because I was hooked! From then my passion grew, I bought a bigger humi, more cigars, an even bigger humi, and even more cigars, started hanging out in B&Ms and other fine establishments that allowed or preferably encouraged cigar smoking, this was at the time when cigarette smoking was being completely banned in more and more places.
My cigar consumption did not match my purchase rate so I saw my 'collection' grow to more than 1300 at one point, I continued till some time in 2010, around when I 1st signed up here, then due to my work-life taking its toll, not having room for more humidors, lol, lifestyle changes and well I just don't know all the reasons! But I stopped smoking and tailed off buying them from that point, taking a 9 year hiatus, although I still cared for my humidors.
Some time in 2019 and somewhat due to my wife asking 'what are you going to do with all those damn cigars that are sitting around the house!' I started cigar smoking again on occasion. Then, last year when 'The Rona' put an end to my commute among other lifestyle changes, I found I had much more time available at home to rekindle my passion and enjoyment of cigars. So now I typically smoke at least one cigar a day, more if I can find the time, I have tried lighting up while I am doing something like yard work but find I don't get as much pleasure out of it I am not focused on actually enjoying it sitting arounf blowing smoke!
My 'cigar time' is usually when I walk my 13 year old dog in the mornings, we both move at such a leisurely pace that it doesn't interfere with my cigar.
So here we are, I have managed to reduce my 'collection' down to a little over 700 cigars, although I have bought more since 'restarting' my passion. One benefit of the Hiatus I took is that I have had an extremely good choice of very well aged cigars to choose from for the past couple of years!
