{"id":498,"date":"2013-02-24T01:23:53","date_gmt":"2013-02-24T01:23:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thehalfcenturian.com\/?p=498"},"modified":"2019-09-12T19:06:44","modified_gmt":"2019-09-12T19:06:44","slug":"smokin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thehalfcenturian.com\/index.php\/2013\/02\/24\/smokin\/","title":{"rendered":"Smokin&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>OK, so I know this is odd&#8230;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I reached my fiftieth year in life without ever having smoked anything. As a child of the seventies I know that is hard to believe, but it&#8217;s true. In fact, the only time I had ever had a lit cigarette in my mouth was as a character in a play. Unlike our former president, I really didn&#8217;t inhale.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So, last summer before I turned fifty, my group of close friends was having a get-together in New Orleans. I decided that I wanted to give each of them some cigars at the event. I did not know anything about cigars, so I set out to educate myself on what makes a quality cigar.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Side note &#8212; when my doctor told me I needed to start drinking a little red wine every day for health benefits, I did the same kind of research and became fairly knowledgeable about wines. Apparently, this behavior was not an aberration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Now I am fifty, and I enjoy a good cigar a couple of times a month. We live outside of Houston, so the weather in the winter is fairly comfortable. We have a fire pit and an ever-replenishing supply of wood to burn in it due to our heavily-treed lot. So during this time of year we can frequently be found on the back porch with a fire going, music playing and enjoying a glass of wine and a cigar.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I stress the word &#8220;we&#8221;. When I decided I wanted to try cigars I told Peggy that I thought it would be cool if we found a cigar that she would enjoy, too. She thought it was weird but agreed to try. I found some coffee-infused cigars that she really enjoys, so we share these evenings on the back porch.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I know it&#8217;s unusual to wait until fifty to start smoking, but I don&#8217;t really consider it smoking. I consider it enjoying a good cigar with a beautiful woman.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Who is absolutely smokin&#8217;!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img loading=\"lazy\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" src=\"http:\/\/www.thehalfcenturian.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/022313.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-483\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.thehalfcenturian.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/022313.jpg 640w, https:\/\/www.thehalfcenturian.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/022313-300x225.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><figcaption>Beautiful girl on a beautiful night!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>OK, so I know this is odd&#8230; I reached my fiftieth year in life without ever having smoked anything. As a child of the seventies I know that is hard to believe, but it&#8217;s true. In fact, the only time I had ever had a lit cigarette in my mouth was as a character in &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thehalfcenturian.com\/index.php\/2013\/02\/24\/smokin\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Smokin&#8217;<\/span> <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[6],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thehalfcenturian.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/498"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thehalfcenturian.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thehalfcenturian.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thehalfcenturian.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thehalfcenturian.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=498"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.thehalfcenturian.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/498\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":499,"href":"https:\/\/www.thehalfcenturian.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/498\/revisions\/499"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thehalfcenturian.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=498"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thehalfcenturian.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=498"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thehalfcenturian.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=498"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}