I’m not taking it up again, I swear…
This is a sort of a ‘day in the life of weasel’ story. So I had to get an Amazon order up to £20 to cut loose the add-on items (does Amazon do this over there?), so I added a bag of mugwort tea, because I read that it helps you sleep. I like sleep. The tea came yesterday.
And then I read that mugwort makes you dream vividly if you smoke it before bed. I love dreams (I love smoking, too, but I haven’t done it in 21 years). It got me thinking whether I had a tobacco pipe around the house (I used to have a really cool one I bought at auction). Nope. Couldn’t find it.
So I spent an hour after work today going through the little antique-and-junque shops in town (of which there are many) looking for a tobacco pipe. I was told that smoking memorabilia was ‘in’ a few years ago, but nobody will touch the stuff now. Finally, at the eighth or so shop, I found the pipe in the picture.
Only it didn’t look like that when I bought it. The stem was a dull greeny-yellowy color which, the internet tells me, is to plastic what rust is to metal. Recommended to soak it in bleach for an hour (which suited me fine, as the idea of smoking some old dead man’s pipe is rather ick) and give it a good polish with fine grit. So I did.
Which just left the interior. As it happens, we had to swing out for some weekend shopping which took us close to my favorite hardware store. You should have seen the look of blank incomprehension on the young man’s face when I asked for pipe cleaners. I described. I mimed. I asked him if he ever took a craft class in elementary school. I wondered if his father was around today. Honestly, he had no idea. He sold me a bottle brush (I’ll use it for something else).
So. I await pipe cleaners. There’s a big craft shop in town that I feel sure will have them, even if they will probably be all glittery, so I’ll do that Monday. As dog is my witness, I am not putting that thing in my mouth until a dozen gin-soaked pipe cleaners have been pulled through the stem.
It’s a handsome and tactile little object, anyway. The inscription is ‘CLUBMAN – LONDON MADE’. I am pleased.
Have a good weekend, everyone!
April 6, 2018 — 9:35 pm
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