As The Vancouver Canucks march forward toward the Stanley Cup Playoffs ( fingers crossed ) I’ve been biting my nails during the games and wondering when the game will appear when we can lead a game by more than one goal.  Games have been very very close and at no time do I ever feel as if we can sit back and rest during a period because of the tough opposition we’ve run into in these post season games…..

Tonight was a little different……..  We just won game two in the series against San Jose with a score of 7-3….. Well there ya go, thats more like it..  It was a Cohiba Siglo IV night in front of the television and I was able to get a little more than 2 periods out of the Corona Gorda with a 5.6 inch cigar with a 46 ring gauge…. That was quick, maybe too quick, I tend to smoke slower but I think that tonight’s game had me puffing a bit more furiously than usual…..

These are usually a bit milder and creamier than your more traditional Cohibas but whats funny is that I felt that the strength of this cigar was ramped up a bit more than usual.. Ha…. Serves me right!!!!!  The mild bean flavors were definitely there from time to time and I can recall a bit of a creamy taste, which I love in a cigar, but I must have been on a bit of a smoking rampage….

I think that when I watch playoff hockey I would be wiser to light up something in the Jose L. Piedra price range rather than go towards the Cohiba humidor, but when was the last time a Cuban cigar junky made a smart decision…. Hey, maybe I’m being a bit hard on myself here…… ( I do have a problem though, and am not ashamed to admit it )…..

The Sedin line for Vancouver was on fire tonight and looked to be unbeatable….. If anyone from San Jose is reading this tonight, I have to say I’m very sorry for what happened to your team tonight.  Maybe the best thing for us to do is just to win the next 2 games and make it a four game winning streak so your boys can get back out on to the golf course and forget that nights like this ever happened….

After Tiger finished the front nine today at Augusta I was clipping off the cap of a Cohiba Genios and was getting ready for a long awaited victory for the red shirted wonder.  Yeah, maybe I jumped the gun but I really didn’t care that I was celebrating a bit early, I wanted to smoke the cigar anyway and it was wonderful to see his name on the leader board so high up…

The win went to the golfer representing South Africa, Charl Schwartzel, who’s last year’s result was a tie for 30th.. Talk about a big day for a young man who just won his first major..  His shots on the front nine propelled him up the leader board when he started getting birdies and a fabulous eagle on a par four.

Now back to Tiger……..  Although I watched him slowly get edged out by the others I was so impressed with his ability to be a contender on this course and I wondered if this is the beginning of a strong comeback from this champ..  I know that I’m not alone when I say that I really want him to return to his former game and, with all that he has learned in this last year or so, become even more of a driven competitor… Time will tell..

So the Genios burned evenly and tasted wonderful as I watched these new young guns come up the field and I wondered if we are now seeing a whole new batch of fierce players completely take over…. Not if Tiger has anything to say about it, I’m sure…..

For the last week I’ve been glued to the Cigar Aficionado site so I can read Gordon Mott and David Savona’s daily posts about their experiences at the 2011 Habanos Festival in Havana.  Although I’ve been to havana and smoked cigars in that beautifully intoxicating city, I’ve never been to the festival….. Next year will be different…

I’ve loved hearing about the new cigars that are coming out this year and in particular I’m interested in the Cohiba 1966 and the Montecristo Gran Reserva…. BUT…. I love cigars from H. Upmann and Partagas as well so 2011 just may be a year to remember….

Reading short reviews about the cigars from these guys has been very entertaining but more to the point, who do you really want to hear a cigar review from?? You want to go to the ones who have had this passion for many years and have devoted so much of their time and energy in dissecting the subtle nuances of a cigar’s profile and writing their thoughts in their own prestigious publication that informs cigar lovers around the globe.  That’s called TRUST !

Also too, these men are educated and very adept at expressing their feelings and experiences in a writing style with a quality and beauty that towers over the rest of us mere mortals’ attempts at describing the flavor of a cigar or the surroundings in which it was smoked.  Bravo !

I’ll still continue with this blog since I love writing and will continue to so…. Hey, nobody has lost an eye yet!

Although we were promised a long winter of foul cold weather, extreme differences of winters we’ve ever had before, the Pacific Northwest has been a place to golf…. All…. Winter !! I ask myself as I watch the weather reports about storms and record snowfalls in other parts of our continent I have to tell myself how lucky we are for being able to get out on a great golf course, play on lush green grass, putt on excellent greens, smoke cigars when its not too windy in December, January and February !!

A place that I spend a lot of time at is Riverway Golf Course in Burnaby, British Columbia. This course has, through the years, spent a lot of time developing their 18 holes into a scenic links course and has ended up being the busiest place to golf in the Vancouver area. Their drainage on all of the fairways is such that they can have a good rain in the early morning and allow their golfers you to drive a power-cart on their fairways that same morning….. 12 months of the year.. Sure we go out for the exercise but let me drive right up to the ball, put my cigar down, select a club and if I’m lucky I tell myself that choosing the right club is the only issue worth thinking about at that moment in time. Thats living life to the fullest, those are the days you’ll be remembering when you’re too old to get out to golf…

Now to the cigars…

In the early part of the winter, in December for example, I brought out some very nice Cohibas, Montes or maybe a Partagas, but after a few colder days and me thinking that I might want to save the better cigars for warmer locations, I started taking out Cuban Bundle cigars or maybe a Non-Cuban just in case the wind came up… Nothing can ruin a good day like watching your cigars burn quickly and un-evenly in a cold wind.. Save the Esplendidos for the rec room and a game of billiards with a good buddy.  A quality Cuban bundle cigar, even when young and excitable, can be a wonderful companion on the links.