Six Days in Hell… But the Cigars Were Great…
We all love our creature comforts, don’t we? There’s nothing like coming home to a warm house, sitting down to a nice dinner, firing up a great cigar, then watching a good movie or your favorite TV show or going online and yakking with your friends, and then crawling into a nice cozy bed and sleeping like a baby ‘til the sun comes up. Doesn’t that just sound like a great night?
A little over a week ago a bizarre nor’easter hit my area hard, dumping an incredible 19 inches of snow in my little pocket of northwestern, New Jersey. (Yeah, that’s my front porch view on the left). In all my life, I’m not sure I ever even remember snow in October let alone a foot and a half in one day. Now this was no ordinary snow – the temperature was a little above freezing and the snow was wet and three times heavier than the normal stuff we get. Unfortunately, snow that heavy snaps trees, power lines get ripped down, and transformers explode like it’s a late celebration for the 4th of July. Long story short: My home was without power for six whole days this past week.
As you can imagine, it was a horrible week as my family lived like frozen rats. I had no generator, no kerosene heater, and a minimal amount of firewood. The stores were completely out of stock on these items and every hotel in North Jersey was booked. Since I have a home office, I had to work from the back room at a friend’s local business on my itty-bitty net book. And while my wife went to work and my kids off at school, the temperature in my home dropped to 43 degrees, which made getting up in the morning a living freezing hell. Luckily, when we came home we went to dinner and then to my brother in law’s house for showers and warmth. But by 10 pm, we headed back to our frosty home and attempted to sleep for the night.
Sounds pretty hellish and stressful, right? Oh yeah, it was, actually worse than I thought it would be. But there WAS one thing that kept my sanity in tact and my will to live in check: CIGARS.
First off, like a gift from God himself, my buddy allowed me to smoke cigars in his back office. I can’t tell you what an amazing bit of stress relief this was being able to puff my favorite gars while trying my best to get my deadlines done on time. Now, if you wanna hear about some great timing, I had just stocked up on smokes with a big-ash order that came the day before the storm, as the man in brown handed me my monolithic JR order. Call it a vision, or call it dumb luck, but I bagged a gaggle of premium hand rolled goodness, including the Punch Rare Corojo, La Aurora 107, the Perdomo made Counterfeit Cubans, and the new Macanudo Cru Royale (a cigar that is loaded with flavor, and NOT your grand pappy’s typical Macanudo!) The very first cigar I lit up while working on day one was the Romeo Y Julieta Reserva Real, medium bodied, and the perfect start to the day with a cup of hot java (and no idea when my power would come back on.) That sweet and woody Connecticut seed, Ecuadorian wrapper is so amazingly flavorful and such a good choice for an early day smoke for me.
After work the family either went out to eat or we chowed down at the in-laws. (I barbecued on the second night to use up some of our rations before they went bad.) After dinner I bundled up and headed to their big, old fashioned porch, (complete with rocking chairs) and fired up a much deserved smoke as I let the awful stress of living like a vagrant fade away, as each puff of thick blue smoke swirled above my head and into the dark and starry night. Sunday through Thursday it was the same routine – work, eat, smoke, then freeze in our beds… until finally on Friday afternoon, I got a call from my neighbor that the power was back on! I raced home, flipped on the lights and took in the heavenly smell of a freshly heated furnace. That night we ate take out food in the comfort of our very own kitchen (as a good $500 worth of chow went bad and was tossed the day before.) And just like every evening prior that week, when diner was over, I bundled up and headed out back with a smoke, but this time it was a celebratory cigar, a sweet and luscious Connecticut Broadleaf wrapped JR Ultimate Belicoso Cabinet.
The nightmare was over as my family was safe and secure once more in our home, enjoying all the creature comforts that life has to offer. But if there was one thing that saved me from losing my mind, it was those amazing cigars that I savored during that stretch of brutal days and nights. Ah yes, life is indeed good again, once more.
And HEY GUYS… don’t forget to let your Congressman know that we DON’T WANT the FDA messing with our CIGARS! Click the link below and let the political world know!
> CLICK HERE & LET CONGRESS KNOW THAT THEY CAN’T GOVERN OUR CIGARS! <
JR Cigars Blog with the Zman
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