Mornings Are Different

Most mornings find me hunched over a cup of coffee, cigarette in hand, Miami Herald in front of me, trying to catch up on the news. Some days it works. I get to read the paper undisturbed. Some days I'm joined by one (or two) of 3 or 4 guys in my age range. One of them rides his bike over there and always buys a New York Times. He thinks that the Miami Herald is way too liberal, so we have a bit of leeway for getting into a good discussion. One of the other guys is from Austria and has a bit of an accent. He's either going to or coming from the tennis courts, or complaining that it's too windy to play, or it's supposed to rain. He lives for his tennis. Still, he's a good conversationalist and very up on international current events, as well as the history behind them. The third gentleman has a sign shop towards the other end of the strip mall. I've never been there.

Only the bike rider, a health nut in his 70's, doesn't smoke, but he puts up with us if we sit downwind. The Austrian doesn't stop smoking. Puts one out, lights the next! I guess that I really don't smoke that much because it's such a hassle to roll one each time. It also seems to solve the problem of others bumming a smoke when you then hand them the tobacco pouch. There is one pretty blonde lady, however, who occasionally asks me to roll one for her. Maybe its the pheremones in my saliva? Maybe some day I'll get lucky enough to find out. :-)