Wow, you waited 15 years to smoke again!! I had long periods without weed as well, but when I rediscovered it in 2005, and the incredible kind bud that was being grown, there was no turning back. Yes, you do have patience.
Here's my experience on grow 2: After my weed was dried and the RH was down to around 65% in the cure jars, I gave it a try and it smoked well. It seemed to smoke better a coupla weeks later around 60-62%. That was around the beginning to the middle of March. It smokes fabulously now: my friends a couple of weekends ago said it was like butter, and that it's gotten harder to smoke and taste the weed they get elsewhere because there's no comparison. I hear some folks say that a long cure doesn't make that much difference, and I wasn't sure for a while, but now I feel very strongly that a long cure is a very good thing for weed.
It's important to make sure it's in the right dry range when you put it in jars so that you don't get any problems with mold. It's also a question of how much humidity there is in the environment. I learned everything about the proper dry and cure on GWE, and took tons of notes from there that I still consult.
I use these hygrometers (after trying some cheaper ones that were shit):
https://www.amazon.com/Caliber-Digital-Hygromter-Western-Humidor/dp/B00JXOKQVW
This is the one recommended by Nebula, and I would have saved a chunk of change if I had bought it in the first place... Oh well. Anyway, when I get the dryness down around 65%, that's when I put the buds in my jars with hygrometers and make sure the RH doesn't climb back up above 69%. I keep my jars in the coolest and darkest closet in my house. If the RH stays around 65, I let em breathe for a few minutes daily and shake them gently to unstick them from each other, until RH is down to around 60-62. Then I take out the hygrometers and put in Boveda 62 packs, and let them cure away. If I am out of cured bud, of course, I test the curing weed on a regular basis... ;-}
I keep the Boveda 62 packs in my cured weed now, and I love them. They keep the bud from drying out.