I don't really know where else to post this, so I figured my comrades at Hexbear might appreciate it.
A couple months ago I was coming back home from the weekly Palestine solidarity rally. On my way back home I needed to somehow obtain a $5 bill to tip the grocery delivery guy that weekend, and thought "Hell, I haven't had a cigar in a while, maybe I'll pick one up". There's a cute little Cuban cigar shop down the road, so I popped in.
The owner is a short Cuban man, and he was rummaging through his cigars doing whatever cigar-store owners do in their down-time. I walk in the door. He looks at me, then looks at my keffiyeh, then back at me, then back at my keffiyeh, and then says "...Palestine?" Not knowing his politics, I reluctantly say "...yes 😬?"
This triggers a 40 minute long discussion, whereupon he goes off on how fucking despicable what's Israel is doing in Gaza is how they are getting away with mass murder in broad daylight, doing "exactly what the nazis did" etc etc. He had clearly been following what's been happening and was sickened by it and I got the impression he didn't have much of an outlet to express his thoughts (as many of us don't).
I wanted to buy two small cigars (the ones on the right in the photo) and he said that he'd give me a discount, and ended up giving me three free of charge, on the condition that the next time that I was out protesting the genocide in Gaza that I "yell a little louder for him" ✊, to which I of course agreed (there are only two in the photo because I've smoked one already) I honestly tried as hard as I could to give him my money but he simply would not accept any.
Although I left the cigar shop without the $5 bill I went in for, I did leave with three exquisite Cuban cigars free of charge.
So, I felt I needed to repay this guy for the ~$100 of free merchandise he gave me. I ordered him a keffiyeh made in the West Bank just like the one I was wearing. When it arrived, I popped back into the cigar shop and said " I have something for you." and put it on his desk.
I will never forget this for the rest of my life. How much did you pay for this?
I lied and said "Only about $60, don't worry about it."
You're lying. What cigars are your favourite?
I insisted that he not give me any more cigars because I was trying to pay him back, but he wouldn't take no for an answer. He ended up giving me four deluxe Cuban Bolivar cigars straight from Havana. On the way out he gave me a fist bump accompanied by a "Free Palestine".
So Hexbears, this is how I unintentionally stocked my cigar humidor with solidarity for Palestine 🇵🇸✊
I'm going to save a spare one so that maybe one day I can smoke it on the beaches of Gaza when Palestine is free.
I will disagree with anarchoilluminati here, I love mixing up humidification systems; wood humidors are always a bit leaky, and even in my tupperadors I like having a 72% gel disc running in parallel with some 70% boveda packs. Bovedas are the GOAT, and will totally eat up excess humidity as well as provide it, so by topping off the gel I end up just recharging the vastly superior bovedas continuously because they eat the excess above their target.
Oh, Jesus. I'm worried for you with those high numbers! Haha I'm a 62rH fan myself and have a wineador to provide some cool temperature to some select cigars as well, which I prefer. But one of my best friends is a 70/70 wooden humidor fan so I know it can work too.
I still disagree generally with recommending mixing though, it sounds like you know your system, but our comrade here is starting out and needs it simplified. And, as you said, Bovedas are the current GOAT so might as well just stick with that.
What are you reading on your hygrometer though, out of curiosity? It's smart of you to have the Bovedas at a lower rH than the gel, because then the 2-way system isn't overworked and they don't dry out prematurely but then it just sounds like if you are at 72rH then the gel is doing the work and your Bovedas are just sitting pretty. Wondering what benefit you get from it.
Lol I'm probably down in the 50s because I don't remember when I last refilled. I'll go restock those today.