I did enjoy a birthday get together with my family and kids on the weekend. I turned 46 on the 7^th. Rachel, her birthday was on the 10^th, and I combined our birthdays together and shared ice cream and cake.

I am feeling better day by day. I have very little energy. I am thinking about what to smoke when the urge hits me. I have a Montecristo White Label Churchill that has been resting for a few months, I think that will be my first smoke since the surgery. Maybe I’ll fire it up this weekend and try to get back in the groove of smoking again.

Patrice has been an absolute angel before and after the surgery, she is truly a gift from God to me. She has been the perfect nurse and looks pretty damn good in her white nurses’ outfit!

The surgery went very well, so says the doctor, however I can’t tell if the original pain is gone due to the surgical pain now present. Now I can look forward to four months of bed rest, no pressure on my left foot for the same four months. I am getting around out to the patio with wheel chair and walker, it just takes a lot of energy out of me to go very short distances.

Right now I have no desire to smoke a cigar, that sure sounds funny coming from my lips but I guess the meds and other factors have an effect on my tastes. I do have a couple of reviews in the recorder that need to be put into print. I’ll try to get those up in the next week or so, no promises though.

The Diablo Picante is 5″ in length and a mere 40 size ring gauge. General Cigar introduced this petit corona in 2004 during the week of Halloween. The wrapper, from Ecuador, is a dark brown, Colorado Maduro, color. They use a Connecticut binder with either a Dominican Republic or Nicaraguan filler for this firecracker.

The Diablo Picante has a devilish black cigar ring trimmed in gold with Diablo inscribed in a wicked red raised script.

The smoke volume was amazing for such a small stick. I wondered if someone had worked some kind of magic over this fine cigar before it left the company to produce such a large amount of thick, abundant smoke. I would classify this stick in my must haves for any smoke ring contests in the future.

Besides the ample smoke volume the Diablo Picante maintained a solid base of ash from start to finish. The ashes were white to medium gray and only after a solid tap dropped off into the ashtray. In addition, the cigar never needed a touch up and never went out during this leisurely smoke of 30 minutes.

The initial light up of the Diablo Picante stung my palate with a strong biting spice that I hoped was where it got its name from but once lit it mellowed out. The spice lasted only several drags and changed into a strong earthy flavor. The earthiness was stronger than I have previously experienced in a cigar and lasted to the halfway point of the cigar. The Diablo Picante mellowed out even further leaving me with a floral aftertaste that continued until the nub.

The Diablo Picante is much like the devil, its namesake, insomuch as it has its deceitful ways, leading you to believe its name is its game. But it is not to be. I enjoyed smoking this tasteful little cigar and will continue to do so in the future, because I now know what to expect and will not be disappointed with what is delivered from this great little smoke. At $3.43 a stick I would recommend it to anyone needing a descent cigar to smoke in a 30 minute time span.

My oldest son, Ryan, needed my truck to pick up a new couch and dining table for mom and dad, so we could kill two birds with one stone. When I arrived I discovered that I would be left to my own devices as to getting the router up and running, while mom, dad, Robert, and Ryan picked up the sofa and table. Ryan drove my truck to a friend’s house to hook up a trailer and meet mom and dad at their destination.

I decided I would begin this task with a cigar and a cigar review. I packed a Indian Tabac Super Fuerte Robusto to smoke in celebration of completing the installation of the router but decided to smoke it in a pre-celebratory act.

The Indian Tabac Super Fuerte Robusto represents my standard robusto, 5″ in length with a 50 size ring gauge. It is box pressed, aged 4 years and has a Honduran Corojo seed natural wrapper. The wrapper is light medium brown with few veins, however, I can see where the wrapper leaf makes it final wrap. There is a light sheen of oil on the wrapper and it has a tobacco and cedar aroma.

I took my place on the back porch to smoke and watch the bird feeders my brother has set up in the backyard.

The ashes were tight through about 1/3 of the smoke and then began to get flakey. It was too bad the ashes never recovered from this flakey condition.

The smoke volume was rich and luxurious. The Indian Tabac Super Fuerte Robusto easily made the grade for making smoke rings. No one was around to comment on the aroma of the smoke but it seemed to be fine to me.

The Indian Tabac Super Fuerte Robusto did have a difficult time staying lit. Also, at times the burn would stray and need to be corrected. I re-lit the cigar about four times in the 35 minutes it took to smoke it.

I purchased the Indian Tabac Super Fuerte Robusto at ABC Fine Wine & Spirits for $3.86, that included a 10% discount for buying five plus cigars. The flavors were fine for this stick but it did not pass muster with constantly having to relight it and the uneven burn. I had hoped for a better experience from this cigar to go along with Mother Nature’s show at the bird feeder.

May 25 - 30 2006 – This is the set date of my surgery on my left SI joint. Surgery is at 7:30 and I’ll be in the hospital for about 5 days. Then bed rest and no pressure on my left leg for at least 4 months or so. I’ll be posting from my bed or patio most of the time after this date.

In the book Travels with Charley in Search of America John Steinbeck travels America with his dog, Charley, in a huge loop from Sag Harbor, New York over the plains to the Northwest, down through California, across the West and down into the Deep South of New Orleans and back home again. This book was written in the turbulent ’60’s, a time of racial tension, and a revolution of self expression from young Americans.

He travels in a customized 3/4 ton pickup truck with a camper top, complete with stove, heater, refridgerator and chemical toliet. Mr. Steinbeck has chosen an appropriate name for his home on wheels, Rocinante, named after Don Quixote’s horse.

As I read, John Steinbeck reproduces the highs and lows of his travels in America. I was struck by the fact that in our own time we are experiencing the tumoils of race relations and the tension of a war overseas. I wondered if Mr. Steinbeck were to take his trip again, same places, different time, if the resulting trip would create a similar writing.

I enjoyed this book immensely, well written and it draws you into the travelling itself. For me, the highlight of the book was his visit with the old gang back at his childhood home town, Salinas, California. The lowest point in the book was the narration of his visiting the cheerleaders in New Orleans.

I highly recommend this book to all who want to travel with John Steinbeck during the ’60’s and have him lull you into the adventure of a lifetime.

Now Aroma’s is an upscale cigar bar and requires appropriate dress, as the sign on the door warns, I thought that that early in the morning I could get away with jean shorts and a pull over shirt.

The Rocky Patel Vintage 1990 Robusto has a dark brown Honduran Broadleaf wrapper which glistens in the light due to the amount of oils present. This robusto is box pressed and measures 5 1/2” in length with a 50 size ring gauge. The wrapper has a negligible tobacco aroma that really surprised me, I thought it would have a more pronounced aroma. It appeared to be of a high quality construction with a tight feel and few veins.

On the initial light up the Rocky Patel Vintage 1990 Robusto had a definite spicy flair and a nice even draw. I used a small punch to pierce the cap and the cigar handled the flame from my Colibri lighter very well and began to burn evenly. The spiciness lasted for about 1 1/2” and was mostly replaced with a heavy chocolate mellowness. As I continued to smoke the Rocky Patel Vintage 1990 Robusto the flavor changed from chocolate to a mild leather taste. It finished with a mixture of leather and chocolate, with the spice not returning at all.

As the cigar burned it exhibited an uneven burn and the ashes began to turn flakey, to the point that my lap looked as if I had a bad case of dandruff. I had to correct only once for the uneven burn only because it self corrected about four times during the smoke.

The smoke volume was heavy and rich. I think the neighbors must have thought that I had a small fire on the patio with all the smoke billowing from under the eaves.

Overall the Rocky Patel Vintage 1990 Robusto was a great smoke with regard to its flavor, however, with a price of $8.00 per stick I expect a better handling cigar, tighter ashes and better burn. I will probably add this stick to my humidor by the boxful, from an online source that doesn’t require appropriate dress and a better price point value.

I picked up a couple of Rocky Patel Vintage 1990 Robustos again, from Aroma’s down the street. I promised a review of them after receiving a recommendation of them from CigarFan. I say again because I smoked 5 of these sticks before we moved into the new condo last month. I had recorded a review of the cigar and somehow during the move I lost the recorder. So to be fair and to get to smoke a few more of these under the pretext of “reviewing them” I purchased two more today.

I’ll be posting a few reviews starting tomorrow and maybe Saturday. I have some in draft form that need to be polished before hitting the blog.

Let me say that the tech support woman I got last night, Anne, was an angel. She was very patient with me and always polite. It seems that the Westell DSL modem that I use to connect to Bellsouth DSL uses the same ip addresses that the Linksys router uses and therefore caused a major headache for me and Anne.

Later tonight I will wander over to the pool area to see if this router has the purported power and signal strength it claims to have. I’ll see what kind of connection I can get from about 60 - 70 feet away.

Hence the need for a laptop computer, my first, I ordered a Dell with everything upgraded from RAM to video card and video RAM and a 80G hard drive. I added the better, or recommended, wireless card and a wireless router. It should get here in time to get everything hooked up and working plus adding my own software I use regularly.

I will be out of touch with a computer in mid-May, while in the hospital and recovery at home, but will try to resume posting in June. At the very least I will update you on my condition as well as try to review a few stogies.