We’ve turned the corner into almost full-bore summer, given today’s temperatures and the afternoon thunderstorms. They’re the popcorn kind that are a Southern Thang — borne of the afternoon heat and the chunky air. But by about 8:30 or so at night, the cooler air has taken over and, though it’s still humid and warm out, the storms have pretty much dissipated. This gives way to what I call a Cigar Night — the kinds of evenings when it’s good to sit on the front stoop with an Adult Beverage and smoke and watch the neighborhood drift by. Sometimes it’s a solitary event, but so often it turns into conversation, more Adult Beverages and, at times, an impromptu party. The fact that it’s midweek makes little difference.

I used to indulge in cigars periodically, but they were little understood (and, I guess, looked a little silly) when my friends and I were in our 20s. Then came the time of raising small children and doing so damn many things and this and that and them other things that cigars and too many other lay-back pleasures were pushed aside. But (thanks in part to my brother-in-law Tyler — a truly good human being) I returned to cigars a couple of years ago. I’m fortunate to live near a very good tobacco outlet (Mayan Import on Magazine) and there are several others in the city as well.

Much of what I enjoy so about good cigars is that they drive away the annoying, the malingerers and the Just Plain Weird. As soon as you fire one up, you’re pretty much done dealing with the health nuts, the yammerers, the hipsters, the posers and the wannabes. You’re either left on your own or you’re left with those who Really Get It.

I like that. I really do.

Related posts:

1. National Night Out Against Crime
2. Kinda cool…
3. The Shim Sham’s Last Night and the Deterioration of 80s Night
4. Warm night
5. A night out