Originally Posted by
Fumus
Gotta say that of all the interesting threads I've read here, this one really stands out for me. Very cool to hear how others have come to their monikers. As for my own handle, please bear with me as I've been told that my Welsh heritage can occasionally lead me to be "loquacious to a fault".
A few years ago when I was in my early to mid 40's, I started smoking a pipe. Had researched it and based on what I found and my own observations (seemed like every old guy with a pipe that I spoke to, had been puffing for 20years or more), I came to the conclusion that there is a big difference between cigarettes and pipe smoking, and while no one is claiming tobacco is healthy for you, neither are big macs, soda pop, and diesel exhaust. So, one day I'm sitting in my back yard with my very first Missouri Meerschaum and a pouch of Prince Albert and my wife comes out and sits down beside me. She doesn't say much for a while (neither one of us had ever been smokers before), then after a bit she says "honey, I think you need to keep doing this". Somewhat surprised I asked her why, and she responded that she had been worried about my stress levels for some time, and she could see me visibly relaxing with every puff. I told her that I didn't think I'd been that stressed out, and she said "honey, you've been wound up so tight that when you fart, only the dog can hear it". So I wound up joining a pipe smoking site on line and discovered a great bunch of folks there with a drama free environment, and the handle I chose for myself there was Fumus, which as I understand it is Latin for "smoke". Incidentally, a couple years later the good Lord allowed some things to happen and I got to experience my very first bout of genuine depression. That was an eye opener. Let me tell you folks, it ain't just "feeling sad". Never had anything knock me on my back side like that before. Spent about a year just staring at a wall. Not happy not sad, "no I don't want to talk or do anything else really. Just leave me be" Worst part was it scared the heck out of my wife as she had never known me to not work. Eventually the good Lord brought me out the other side of it and I started working again and fishing for crappie (my dads favorite fish). Can't tell you how good it felt getting back to work, and crappie fishing is now my therapy.