Whaddya gonna do?

♪ Here I sit

broken hearted ♫

♫ moved to Florida

and it’s still too dang cold to smoke a cigar tonight. ♪

 

Being born, raised, and spending my first 26 years in the mountains of East Tennessee, I once had ways of coping with cold weather.  However, I’ve spent the past twelve years in Florida and I find myself very put-out by the cold this week.  Tonight is forecast to be the coldest in a very long time in these parts, and it’s just too friggin’ cold to be out – even for  a cigar.  Normally, our winters are fairly mild and even on the coldest nights my garage provides a suitable respite.  But…19°F?  That should never happen.  Not here.  I feel like Al Gore owes me a personal apology.  I would prefer to run out to a nice, toasty cigar shop for a smoke – I am near Tampa after all, with any number of great shops within an hour or so.  Problem is, most of them are on the far end of that 60 minute range, which makes for a late night preceding an early morning during the week.  Workable, I suppose, but not optimal.  The only shops that are in the immediate area close early.  So, it looks as if I’ll just sit here, indoors, and vent to you fine folks tonight.  But next time, I must be prepared.  Fire pit off the patio?  Heater in the garage?  Put on every shred of clothing I own until I look like the kid from A Christmas Story?  There’s little chance of ever actually smoking indoors while maintaining any marital harmony whatsoever.  My wife is favorable to cigars, and will even partake herself on rare occasions – but smoke residue in the house ain’t happening.  It’s probably not feasible to move even further south, either.  I assume some of you, especially in the northern climes, are finding yourself cigarless tonight also…what do you do?  Do you just (horror of horrors) abstain?  Do you have a segregated area to smoke in?  Igloo?  Tepee?  What’s your plan for the rest of the winter?