Hi Jenny,

My son actually works at the schools in Gobles.  Gobles is about a 25 minute drive from our town.  Our town is much bigger than Gobles. I hate the winters here but like the other seasons.  

My youngest brother lives in Colorado.  He sent me a video of about 20 moose walking on a somewhat busy country road.  It was cool.  The moose were oblivious to the traffic , they were on a mission I guess.

I have to get some housework done and prepare papers for my 1st PT appointment tomorrow at the new to me place.  I am not motivated to do anything .  Maybe a cup of coffee is required. I have a crap load of medical appointments this month .  It is stressful for me and burns me out.

A month without smoking today .  Yay me.

What has been up with you?

                                                     Lisa 

Lisa, 

Your son works in the tiny town I grew up in? How crazy is that?? I don’t suppose you live in Kalamazoo? That’s the other city that sounds familiar to me, but I’m not sure it’s where we lived, too. I just looked it up and it’s 27 minutes from Gobles, lol. I’d have to ask my dad if we lived there, though. It may just be that my dad mentioned it was near Gobles, so I remember the name of it. It really is a cool word, right? I wish I remembered more from our time there. At least I remember 2 seasons. Snow tunnels for winter and dressing cats in the gazebo for summer.

I’ve been to Maine and wished to see moose while there and also Canada, but never to Colorado. Maybe I need to visit there, haha. Not where I would’ve thought of to look. I think my best bet is to visit some kind of animal reserve on a cool day. My friend in Sweden said they have a nice one where they can often be seen, but it seems a bit far away to go see a moose.  

I hope your housework and paperwork goes quickly today. A new PT place has to be a bit stressful. I don’t think I’d like to start all over with people who know nothing about all the stuff I’ve been working on. Or is it a good thing for you? Guess it depends on whether your old ones were doing a good job or not. Sometimes it’s nice to get fresh eyes on stuff, whether someone’s doing a good job or not, of course. I hope it helps! Sounds like you have a rough month ahead with a lot of appointments. Do you find it more stressful when it’s medical appointments? I think almost all appointments I have these days are medical appointments, so I can’t say if other kinds are less stressful for me. 

I seem to have a bit of a reprieve from medical appointments this month, now that I’m done with my marathon of procedures. I got the RF ablation done on my back the other day, so I’m waiting for that to help. I’ve heard everything from “it’ll be a miracle” to “it’ll take the edge off”, so I don’t really know what to expect. There’s a chance it won’t help at all, but I’m trying hard to pretend that isn’t really an option. With how much the steroid and anesthetic injections helped in the past, it really ought to help. It could take a couple weeks or more to start helping, so I’m being patient. I’m just annoyed while being patient. And hopeful. Hopefully annoyed? Is that a thing??

I was hit by a surprise craving today. Not super bad, but enough that it surprised me by how strong it was. I think I just wanted something to do and that was the thought that occurred to me. I’ve watched so much tv this past month that it doesn’t sound good. I’m thinking maybe my arm is good enough to try out my cross stitch again. I have the holder that will help with the left arm part anyway, so it might be just fine. Would certainly keep my hands busy and I desperately need something more to do. More than just for those occasional cravings, I’m just going crazy with restlessness these days. 

HUGE congrats on your one month quit!!! Yay!! Are you doing anything special? 

I’m still shocked your son works in Gobles… I want to tell my dad, but I still haven’t told him I ever started smoking again, so I’ll have a hard time explaining who you are.

Jenny

Hi Jenny,

We live in a town closely near Kalamazoo.  Gobles only has 1 elementary, and no middle school.  Middle school grades are in the High school.  Much less populated than the town we live in.

I have made a small amount of progress around here. Currently taking a break of many. The plan tomorrow was to have take out dinner with my brother later on after he takes me to my appointment.  Instead he might have to head home right away. We are suppose to get a snow storm tomorrow starting around noon. It is suppose to be 8 inches of that wet, heavy snow.  I am going to be super unhappy if I lose power which can happen with that heavy snow.  In the county I live in folks are still cleaning up big limbs and trees and other damage from the ice storm last week.

Watching the CBS World news earlier I see lots of States are having difficult times with weather including yours.  You had mentioned to someone else that where you are in California wasnt effected , good news.

I like the PT place I normally go to and darn it they know me well. I really like my usual therapists. I have had more than my share of PT since 2019. The new to me PT place has these video goggles to check for tiny small eye movements when they put me in different positions.  My usual PT place does not.  I still dont have a solid diagnosis for my vestibular issues and the goggles can help rule out a thing or two or rule in an unusual BPPV .  This PT gal I am going to see is suppose to be a vestibular guru.  All my appointments are medical and yes they are all stressful. I got a little break the last half of February because I was sick and the Dr office  I was suppose to have an appointment at last Friday lost power due to the storm so they cancelled. So this month is catch up and restarting PT. 

I hope the ablation helps your back and is in the miracle category and lasts for a long time. Enjoy your break from medical appointments.  I get hopefully annoyed and it is a thing .

Hopefully you can get back to your cross stitch soon , if it hurts I guess it is too early.  Sounds like you can use the distraction. I use to cross stitch a lot some years ago not sure if my hands could take it now and my eyes are a lot older.  I failed at crocheting a few years ago.  

I am not a fan of those craves .  The more stressed I get the more frequent they are.  I need to get back on track with the Calm APP. I was doing good with it and then slacked off when I was sick.

Crap, we just got upgraded from a winter storm watch to a winter storm warning.  My spell check is not working for some reason , so excuse any errors.  Long break is over and I am hungry.

                                              Lisa 

Congrats on a month, Lisa. 

Be well everyone, Paul

The Gobles connection with you two . . . seriously what are the odds!!!!????  Wowww.  Just more proof from the universe that this is our time to quit, forever.  

Jenny I laughed like a little kid when I read your posts about dressing your cats up while sitting in your Gobles gazebo and also about your current "tiny moose obsession."  You have a way with words, lady!  So awesome!

I saw a gang of elk in Montana a long time ago and was so captivated by them.  Been a fan of the woods ever since.  I too would love to see a moose in the wild (so long as it doesn't charge me) and I am hoping that will happen this summer during our road trip around Lake Superior.  Some of those parks in Ontario have more moose than people.  Fingers crossed.  

Thanks Paul.  Have a good weekend.

                    Lisa 

Erika's last post re Elk had me thinking .  I dug up the video my brother had sent me that he took on the road in Colorado and they were Elk not Moose and there was at least 40 of them.  Not sure why I was thinking they were Moose.

                                    Lisa 

I was in Jackson, WY last year and it is filled with elk. They turn antlers (they shed each year) into everything from jewelry to furniture. 

I love Jackson Hole!!!  And antler art . . . I saw a chandelier made from antlers that was so cool looking.  Would go great in a woodsy cabin.  #goals

I had a bad craving yesterday, not for nicotine but for smoke.  It was so weird and out of nowhere.  I ended up borrowing my neighbors portable fire pit and making an extra smoky campfire in our shared driveway.   This seemed to do the trick!    The craving passed and I woke up this morning with pride that I didn't have "just one cig" like I've done in the past.  

I am glad for the collective wisdom on this site--what I've learned here is that cravings always pass and you just have to say NOPE to smoking in response to all of them.

Have a great smoke free weekend everyone!

Lisa, 

I see what you mean about the new PT. It’s the special PT place. How was it for you? Did they feel confident they’d be able to help?

I had dizziness problems after the first brain surgery did something to my auditory nerve. I saw a specialist who did some stuff. They didn’t have goggles, but they did some different movement stuff. One thing they did was throw me on a table (for lack of a better description, lol) and my body gave quite a response! It did start making a difference after seeing them a few times, oddly. I really hope your person figures out what’s going on and helps you! I still have some balance issues, but I think it’s mostly because I have a weakened core. I don’t need my cane anymore, though, which is a huge thing. Well, I used it when I had the splint because it was so important I didn’t fall, but then I put it away again. 

I really hope you didn’t lose power again! The storms really have been awful. We’ve been so fortunate to not be where the snow is horrible. We were hit bad with the rain and wind over New Year’s. Our county had over 100 trees comes down over 2 days time and lots of flooding along with some fatalities.  That was right about when I quite smoking, actually. I was outside smoking as the wind was whipping around like crazy, thinking I was completely insane.

I asked my dad about Michigan the other day, which resulted in him calling me to tell me all about it, haha. So apparently we lived in Gobles and also in Bloomingdale. He wanted to tell me all about some rivalry between the two towns and how it was about some fight about electricity. Apparently that was a big deal to him back in the 80’s. I also got some interesting stories about my brothers doing strange boy things like lining up with their friends on porches to pee out into the snow and see who could go the furthest. I could’ve done without that thought about my brothers, really. I guess that’s a variation of a watermelon seed spitting contest??

Anyway, today is my 2 months! I noticed a few of us have been close to big anniversaries and had some bigger cravings. I guess it’s normal to do that close to those dates, maybe? I dug up my cross stitch bag and am going to try a little bit today. It will really depend on how the angle works out, but hopefully I can at least make it work for at least a bit at a time. I’d sometimes only do 10 minutes at a time or less before, so that would work now. I’m determined to get this thing done before June! I keep seeing tiny mistakes and wondering if I’ll have time to fix them or if I’ll be able to leave them and hope they aren’t noticeable, lol.

I hope your weekend is restful.

Jenny