Buddy’s Ring of Fire

There is no describing the delight that I felt when I went to the post office and picked up my package. I wasn’t really sure what it would be. It was from the States, that much was evident by the packaging. U.S. Postal Service, Express Mail, Extremely Urgent (I liked that) it read on the outside. From Hawaii. Then I knew.

The Celebration pipe (www.celebrationpipes.ca) that I won from a Contest from Treating Yourself (www.treatingyourself.com) had arrived!! I sat in
the car and carefully opened the package. Inside the outer envelope was a box and inside the box was another box. This one green, printed across the top Celebration Pipes. I opened this box and inside was a Certificate of Authenticity, dated and signed by the Artist, also a black velvet bag. It had a nice weight to it as I picked it up and when I pulled open the drawstrings and peered inside, the warm reflections of Gold sparkled in my eyes. “Ooohhhhh!” escaped my lips, I pulled it out and the smile on my face broadened into a Cheshire Grin. It was Beautiful. Probably the most beautiful pipe I’ve ever had the pleasure of possessing. I placed it back
into its pouch, back into the box and put in under the car seat, knowing that I would have to wait until tonight to delight in its promise of pleasure.

A little background; I used to smoke just for pleasure. Now I smoke mostly for pain relief (I have a spinal fusion at S1 – L5 plus some other angry discs.)
and usually at night before I go to bed. It helps me to sleep. I need all of the help I can get, I don’t sleep much. Ask anyone.

Shoot forward to the night time. My work is done, or at least as much work as I feel like doing this night. I have been hoarding a small piece of Beaver Dung, awaiting the arrival of this prize. Then I realized; I don’t have a screen!! Now where I live, I have to travel an hour in each direction to get such a thing. I’m not using foil. I refuse. I take out the pipe to see what I might be able to do and lo and behold, the fine folks at Celebration Pipes took care of me there as well. Right where it should be was a nice silver screen! Thanks Guys! I shut out the lights and used the glare of my monitor to see by. I carefully took out my Dung, pinched off a small piece and place it into the bowl. With the reflection of the blue light bouncing around the golden bowl, I lost sight of the Dung and thought that I had dropped it, but no it was just hidden in the soft light. When I hit it with the lighter and then removed the flame, the glow from the dung reflected around the gold inside of the bowl, creating a Ring of Fire! It’s very cool.

Call me a geek, but the first thing I thought was, ‘Sauron’s Ring!’ But afterwards what stuck in my head was ‘The Ring of Fire’ (pictured below). All of the Pacific Rim Countries have a lot of seismic activity (Volcanoes and
Earthquakes). And if you look in the Pacific, right in the middle of the Ring of Fire, sits Hawaii. Sweet. It’s a very cool and beautiful pipe and I’m lucky to have it. I do have one criticism, but it’s not really about the pipe, it’s about the screen. The way that the pipe is constructed a standard sized screen really doesn’t quite do the job. It doesn’t sit well inside and has to be very carefully placed. So, if you include a screen, it should be an oversized one. I gave my pipe (#30 in the 22kt Gold finish) a name, that’s right, “Fire
Ring”. It’s a pipe that’s well worth it. It’s one of the very few pipes that I’ve ever enjoyed smoking from. The smoke comes through cool and tasty; very flavorful and it’s virtually unbreakable!