We'll I figured I'd get my two cents in too.
Dave and Luanne you guys will be missed! Thank you both for your hospitality over these last few years, opening your home to a group cigar smoking, whiskey drinking guys! It won't be the same without you. We will just have to change as life is always changing. I hope that you hook up with a new group of guys out there and are able to enjoy the cigar smoking past time. As Vern said we'll have to try and set up a "virtual herf".
I want to wish you guys good luck in this new stage of your life. Lucky bastards! (I wish I could move out of California too.)
Dave, there will always be a chair open for you to join us whenever you visit. Luanne, there will be one for you too, just upwind.
Kim and I look forward to visiting you guys soon.
Best of luck and a safe trip!
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
Sunday, January 18, 2009
The Tradition Continues
As I write this Dave and the gang are more than likely fast asleep in a Phoenix hotel room. Before I go any further, I must repeat what has already been said; We will miss you Dave and Louann. You've been more than friends, you guys are family. God's speed and blessings on all y'all.
In the spirit of what Dave started some five years ago, the Tiki Bar will continue, we will meet at either Keith's house or my house here in Brea. We'll have adult beverages, music, lively conversation and of coarse, cigars. Perhaps, when Dave gets settled we can have a "vertual herth" with him via Skype. I'll have to learn how to get that working. Though I don't have a web cam, I can set up my video camera. That will be fun!
I'll blog more often if I can remember my damn password!
In the spirit of what Dave started some five years ago, the Tiki Bar will continue, we will meet at either Keith's house or my house here in Brea. We'll have adult beverages, music, lively conversation and of coarse, cigars. Perhaps, when Dave gets settled we can have a "vertual herth" with him via Skype. I'll have to learn how to get that working. Though I don't have a web cam, I can set up my video camera. That will be fun!
I'll blog more often if I can remember my damn password!
Friday, January 16, 2009
Last Things
I've been promising myself that I wouldn't get overly sentimental and weepy in these blog posts, but there are times...
In 48 hours I'll be resting from the first day of the "great adventure" as we head across America from the Pacific time zone to the Eastern time zone. We'll be in Phoenix, AZ that night and I will have left California after spending all but 2 years of my life living here. My wife has spent her entire life living here. We both have wanted to escape for years, but now that the time is here, it's hard not to linger on those things we are losing.
Tonight I had what is likely the last cigar I will smoke on the back patio of our house in La Mirada. It was a La Flor Dominicana Ligero Lancero. I enjoyed it with the last of a bottle of Russell's Reserve bourbon and finished it quickly so I could hurry inside and watch William Peterson's last episode of CSI. All things I've come to enjoy very much in the last few years.
Last night I took time out from the packing and craziness to spend one last time smoking cigars with all my best friends at Taps. Someone asked "What will you miss? Besides us, I mean." The answer is...not much...and everything. I've lived here all my life, but never felt that strong a connection with SoCal. When I was a boy I wanted to move to Colorado to be with my cousins and aunts and uncles there, but most of them have died or moved on..and the place is just too cold in the winter (even if it is a "dry cold").
My wife and I thought about Oregon until we saw that the housing prices were rapidly increasing. Then we realized that we really didn't know anyone there, so it just seemed like a huge mistake even if it is a beautiful place.
So Tennessee it is. The land of my birth. The land of the birth of my father and mother. The land where my mother's father worked the land and died before I was born. The land where my parents moved back to because it was "home." There were times I swore I would never call it that, but time has changed me, it seems.
For those of you I am leaving, I miss you already. I hope there is a time we can all be together again...maybe at the Big Smoke later this year (Ray promised!). I hope there's a way that some of you may one day live within a decent driving distance. I hope that you carry on the tradition of the Tiki Bar: a place where friends can come together, smoke a good cigar, enjoy an adult beverage, and talk about the things that concern us with passion but with the understanding that we don't have to agree on everything to be friends...brothers.
Another last...tomorrow is my last full day as a resident of California. It will be filled with work, packing, friends, last minute plans, errands, and all other manner of insanity. But I think it will be a good day.
In 48 hours I'll be resting from the first day of the "great adventure" as we head across America from the Pacific time zone to the Eastern time zone. We'll be in Phoenix, AZ that night and I will have left California after spending all but 2 years of my life living here. My wife has spent her entire life living here. We both have wanted to escape for years, but now that the time is here, it's hard not to linger on those things we are losing.
Tonight I had what is likely the last cigar I will smoke on the back patio of our house in La Mirada. It was a La Flor Dominicana Ligero Lancero. I enjoyed it with the last of a bottle of Russell's Reserve bourbon and finished it quickly so I could hurry inside and watch William Peterson's last episode of CSI. All things I've come to enjoy very much in the last few years.
Last night I took time out from the packing and craziness to spend one last time smoking cigars with all my best friends at Taps. Someone asked "What will you miss? Besides us, I mean." The answer is...not much...and everything. I've lived here all my life, but never felt that strong a connection with SoCal. When I was a boy I wanted to move to Colorado to be with my cousins and aunts and uncles there, but most of them have died or moved on..and the place is just too cold in the winter (even if it is a "dry cold").
My wife and I thought about Oregon until we saw that the housing prices were rapidly increasing. Then we realized that we really didn't know anyone there, so it just seemed like a huge mistake even if it is a beautiful place.
So Tennessee it is. The land of my birth. The land of the birth of my father and mother. The land where my mother's father worked the land and died before I was born. The land where my parents moved back to because it was "home." There were times I swore I would never call it that, but time has changed me, it seems.
For those of you I am leaving, I miss you already. I hope there is a time we can all be together again...maybe at the Big Smoke later this year (Ray promised!). I hope there's a way that some of you may one day live within a decent driving distance. I hope that you carry on the tradition of the Tiki Bar: a place where friends can come together, smoke a good cigar, enjoy an adult beverage, and talk about the things that concern us with passion but with the understanding that we don't have to agree on everything to be friends...brothers.
Another last...tomorrow is my last full day as a resident of California. It will be filled with work, packing, friends, last minute plans, errands, and all other manner of insanity. But I think it will be a good day.
Saturday, January 10, 2009
One Week to Go...!
My wife just got home from what I just dubbed "the last real trip to the grocery store" in California. Except, she pointed out, it wasn't even a real trip. Seems like half the stuff she bought was extra stuff to pack away for when we first get to Tennessee. For some reason, Trader Joe's has not see fit to open a store near where we are moving yet...the nerve! :) They've got one in Nashville, but until they open one in the Chattanooga area, we are unlikely to be able to shop at TJ's on a regular basis. So she bought four cans of the TJ's coffee that I like so I wouldn't have to find a new brand right away and she bought a bunch of extra vitamins and supplements that she takes for the same reason--Lord knows we'll have enough to do the first month or two without having to decide what kind of coffee or vitamins we would prefer on an ongoing basis.
Just brings to mind that we are going through a lot of "last time" things lately. Last time we'll go to Ruby's for dinner. Last trip to our regular PetsMart for food (also the same place we've taken our cats for veterinary care). Last time we'll be able to get together with my wife's family for dinner. It brings a feeling of sadness to think that so many things we've gotten used to over the years we are going to lose...we will discover new ways of doing things. That's not necessarily bad, but it does make you mourn for what you are losing.
Hopefully in a few months that feeling of loss will be less and we will be more of a celebratory mood for the new things we gain with our move. I wish we could just take the best of both chapters in our life, but that's just not possible.
On the topic of "what's left to do"...the answer is "way too much." There is a lot of box-packing to be done still and quite a few loose ends to tie up. Every time you think you've settled things, more things pop up. The next week will be a flurry of activity...packing, making phone calls, saying "so long" to friends and family. This weekend begins that in a spectacular way as we go to celebrate Tiki Bar member Keith's birthday...in some ways this will be the first Tiki Bar gathering at one of its new locations: his house.
Just brings to mind that we are going through a lot of "last time" things lately. Last time we'll go to Ruby's for dinner. Last trip to our regular PetsMart for food (also the same place we've taken our cats for veterinary care). Last time we'll be able to get together with my wife's family for dinner. It brings a feeling of sadness to think that so many things we've gotten used to over the years we are going to lose...we will discover new ways of doing things. That's not necessarily bad, but it does make you mourn for what you are losing.
Hopefully in a few months that feeling of loss will be less and we will be more of a celebratory mood for the new things we gain with our move. I wish we could just take the best of both chapters in our life, but that's just not possible.
On the topic of "what's left to do"...the answer is "way too much." There is a lot of box-packing to be done still and quite a few loose ends to tie up. Every time you think you've settled things, more things pop up. The next week will be a flurry of activity...packing, making phone calls, saying "so long" to friends and family. This weekend begins that in a spectacular way as we go to celebrate Tiki Bar member Keith's birthday...in some ways this will be the first Tiki Bar gathering at one of its new locations: his house.
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