Wednesday 6pm

You're welcome!

My mantra today is "I just don't smoke anymore".

Simple but it works for me.

Good day (one at a time),

Andrew

I like that mantra:  I just don’t smoke anymore.  I will use that over the next few days.  My brain needs to hear that!!

Welcome Tony. The literature on the site is good, but if you can't find something, just ask.

Paul

Paul:  Thank you. I will indeed contact you if needs be. 

Oh, by the way.

Oh by the way, this section is not just for seniors. I may be 68 but truly I am only 16 in my heart. I never thought I would ever become 68 (or a senior). Having started this habit when I was only 16, I  feel that I am only beginning to grow in my decision to quit.... Then, I was a reckless kid never thinking that I would ever become an adult or have to make adult decisions. 

How did I continue to be misled into thinking smoking was an OK thing to do? All these years I never considered it to  go on this long. I thought I would wake up sooner than later. Fast forward to 2022 and I have remained  a slave to this terrible addiction for some 50 years... It's really crazy if you think about it. 

I don't mean to be so philosophical but I now value myself more than this stupid habit. How long it took! I'm tired of making bad decisions with this miracle called life.

The way I see it is that life is about change, think of all the things you have done in the past, some truly amazing, others not so. We only have so much time on this earth and I personally want to take advantage of everything I can before I leave. 

Food for thought Anthony.

Hope you are well tonight.

Good day,

Andrew

Good morning all.  Very hot here like just about everywhere.  At least not like the south, only 93 here. 

A little cooler today.  Nights must be warm in the concrete city. 

Kitty and I stopped smoking in 2007.  We are still very thankful to get out from under feeding the addition.

Our Cocoa dog was born December 2006 and I jogged with her every morning before work or enjoying the

weened days.  She's gone now and Brandy after her is gone also.  I love them and miss them still.  Now we

are gifted with having Chloe and Belle.  I walk them at 4:15 AM between one and two miles for their first

year while their bodies develop.  They have to learn to avoid traffic.  Some day we will go 5 to 10 miles.

For now I put in 3 hours a day on the elliptical with morning and night sessions.  I'm not just exercising

in my post smoking war, I'm a diabetic in remission so if I stop exercising I have to take all the meds and

eventually on to insulin, then worse.  Diabetes is always progressive so the more I can do now, the longer

before more critical steps.  I was jogging for 10 years, starting around 2000, before I was diagnosed with

Diabetes so I just kept going and sometimes further than I was. 

I believe Paul just stopped the poison smoke this year, hope I'm right on that.

I did venture out in the heat to get test strips yesterday and wife did a little shopping.  Worked on an old

Kenwood audio amp in the basement for a while after that.  Most stages in the amplifier are working now

but still not totally working, did a mod on it replacing much of the amp. 

Everyone have a great day

Ernie.

Cocoa, front, and Brandy, 2016.

Yes, Ernie. I stopped this year. Had quit for several years some time ago, but that got busted. 

I was on the phone with an Oklahoma client yesterday and it was 111 degrees. Can't imagine that. 

Have a great day all.

Words of wisdom, for sure, Andrew.  I, too, never thought I’d be a smoker in my early seventies.  Yet, time flys, and before I knew it, I ‘ve been smoking off and on for 50 years.  E gads!!!  Fortunately for me, I’ve always been involved in athletics all of my life and even as a smoker I continued to play squash, tennis, bike, kayak, swim and jog, to name a few.  I have read that athletics will mitigate the damage from smoking.  In my case that appears to be true.  And yet I still have dark shadows in my mind, worrying that someday in the future I may get lung cancer as my “reward” for smoking cigarettes.  I pray this never happens.  

Today, after my early bird swim, I was driving home and on the car phone to my insurance company.  I got so angry with the automatic voice on the other end, that I started to yell into the phone.  After I hung up, I felt a craving for a cigarette.  Then I made the association of anger and smoking.  As though a cigarette would “calm me down”.  So I said to myself, “Anthony, one day at a time.  And remember Andrew’s mantra, “I am not a smoker any more”.  By the time I pulled into my driveway the craving was gone.  Thank god I did not stop at my local convenience store to purchase a pack of smokes.

I really need to be good to myself the next several weeks while I go through withdrawals.  And avoid situations that provoke my anger.  Or any other negative emotions for that matter.  So today I will show myself some respect and give myself a low stress day.  One day at a time.

I liked your philosophical post and I thank you for your sharing.

Have a smoke free day, Andres.

Anthony

Good morning Paul and everyone.  111 is hot, I remember being out at the Sturgis bike rally

and seeing 105 up on the display years ago.  I don't remember hitting 100 here at home but

we might have.  Only 82 here this morn, must be really hot mornings in the city these days.

I imagine if you are still jogging it's during dark hours.  When I could jog it was during my working

years so usually very early in the morning except in the Winter on days off.  Then I would try to

wait until after it was a little warmer.   Glad you managed to quit again. 

Went to clean the air filter in my bike yesterday and the foam gasket that seals it was falling

apart.  Made a new gasket out of a thick rocker arm cover gasket and glued it on.  Bike engines

are very finicky about their air intake.  Won't even start without the air filter installed.  Hope that

was part of the reason it skips or misses sometimes.  That's about the only task I did outdoors.

After the sun came up anyway.  It's getting so the only time I ride is my trips down to PA.  If you

told me that while I was still working I would've had a hard time believing it.  I get busy in so many

directions.  My Monte Carlo SS sees even less action but the paint is still curing and it burns a lot of

premium fuel to keep that 383 stroker engine screaming. 

Keep up the good fight Paul.  Some of us are in a different part of the war against smoking.  It's more

like a chess game after 15 years.  Just have to remember I am still wired for the addition to the receptors

in my brain and can't ever smoke one cigarette or I will be a full blown smoker again.

Have a great day.

Ernie

One of my GS1100Gk bikes at Yosmite National Park out in Calif.  Fires there now.