New Year Old Year update

So I'll try to make this short.
Gadget Girl and I went to visit our friend Kimmie when it turned out we both had the same week scheduled off. ROAD TRIP!!! GG hates to drive, and she's an excellent copilot/navigator, and I like to drive, so it works out. We discovered this when my dad passed in Florida and we had to drive back and forth a few times.
Anyhoo, the road trip to Missouri was end of August/Labor Day/Week after. We had a blast, I might be able to post a few pics here with any incriminating evidence blacked out.
Oh yeah, and I *planned* to smoke on this trip. What else do you do in a car for 900 miles? Sheesh.
So we get back to Houston, and Hurricane Ike is heading our way. So the next weekend we get to put up with Ike. btw, I'm still smoking during this stressful weather incident. We make it thru ok, mostly damage to chain link fence and a tree across the 1962 Streamline 24' Duke with the pink stove and sink. Big ol' pine tree went across it. Insurance didn't quite see the value that I did, so it paid out less than what I bought it for. Bastards. And the killer tree lifted up the fence where it's roots were and crushed the fence on the other side of Duke. A couple of other trees lost some major limbs but that was about it as far as damage goes, so we were pretty lucky. Ended up getting a bunch more pine trees cut down that were hanging over the house and otherwise being a nusciance. That cost some $$.
So, after the hurricane, a week later, my boss goes on vacation for 2 weeks, then back for 2 days and off for 3 days. This is still not a good time to quit. Stressed out is a mild way of putting it. Then, they fire her. This got Cindy and I to the point of crying from stress/frustration quite a few times. I was smokin a lot! Then they hired a new gal, and it turns out she's pretty nice but slow and hands off her work to others. It's finally getting mostly back to normal.

So, I decided to quit again. Unfortunately I still had 3 packs, so I officially started weaning myself starting January 5th, and smoked my last one Friday January 23rd. Not too bad. I've had a couple of URGES over the weekend, but I figure those urges will be stronger when I get in the car. That's my strongest trigger, and that's about the only time/place I was smoking for the last 3 weeks.

So I reset the quitting clock.

Happy New Year everyone!

Ashtray, anyone?

So, I cheated. I had a really ugly bad day (week) at work, and I wanted a cigarette sooo bad on the way home. And I actually waited a couple of hours after I got home, but I still wanted a fresh cigarette. I think I’ve mentioned that I have an open pack of cigarettes that I occasionally take a few puffs from, maybe adds up to less than 2 cigs a week since I quit. It was open when I quit and there’s still about 5 cigarettes in there, and I have a couple of half cigarettes in my hidden stash. Since they’ve been open for weeks they’re getting a bit stale and don’t taste so hot, but I figured that was a good thing – I’d be less likely to want to smoke if they tasted crappy. But Friday I decided to hell with it, I wanted a FRESH cigarette. That would taste goooood. That I could smoke with relish and enjoyment.

I opened a new pack, and fired one up.

Boy, was I disappointed. It tasted just like the stale ones. Let me rephrase that. I was PISSED. I did not get what I wanted. (insert big sigh) And then, it was a couple of hours later, I rubbed my nose. And boy-o-boy, did my fingers stink!!! Is that what they smelled like all the time when I smoked? And I couldn’t smell it? Ick.

But really. Even when I was a non-smoker, and I’d light a cigarette for a cheap buzz, the first ½ inch would taste okay/pretty good. I didn’t even get THAT. Or the buzz. I could cry. But I’m glad I quit. I think I could actually smoke a few, like at a happy hour thing, without going back to full-blown smoking. We’ll see, I haven’t tried that yet. Because I still want one when I get in a car, or when I’m getting really stressed at work, which is almost constantly lately. I was seriously considering stealing one from Cindy on Friday. But I didn’t. I was good. I made it thru the stress. I waited for six hours. And I was disappointed. There's still 19 cigarettes in the "fresh" pack. I guess I'll give it to my friend.

Okay, so I sorta cheated

So, I sorta cheated. I wasn't even really CRAVING a cigarette, I just WANTED a few puffs. So I got a cig out of an open pack, and it wasn't that nice. The pack I've had open and laying around for over a week is getting a bit stale, which is a good thing. Every time I decide to be BAD I'll just smoke part of one of those nasty suckers. Yech. So five puffs cheating out of 98 cigarettes not had is still a passing grade in my book.

Nothin really new and exciting going on. Ho Hum...

Quitting Update

Well, it's been 66 hours, 42 minutes since my last cigarette. I've only had a few bad moments, like RIGHT NOW. And it would be soooo easy to give in and have "just one", but I don't want to.
I've tried quitting a couple of times before, but decided to quit as my birthday present to myself. It will be nice not to smell like cigarettes and spend all that money on cigarettes. Heh, I was generally only smoking about 8 cigarettes a day - since the first time I tried to quit the rule was no smoking in the house, so that cuts down a LOT. You have to really want to smoke one to go outside, get dressed, it's either cold or way too f'kin hot (the majority of the time). If I was still smoking in the house I'd probably be smoking about a pack a day. When I was at Sydney's over the 4th of July weekend I was smoking OVER a pack a day. Which is why I didn't quit ON my birthday, I knew I was going over to her house and that would be like setting myself up to fail. I figure I won't be able to visit her much for a while, until I get over this shit.
I might have to have a test cigarette, right? To see if it tastes like crap yet? Is it too early to do that?
I've only been smoking for 10 years... I'm almost NOT looking forward to being a non-smoker, going to bars you'd always smell like an ashtray, and when you're with friends that smoke the smoke always seems to blow in your face, or they forget to open the window while you're driving so you always seem like a whiney asshole. When you smoke, all that crap bothers you a lot less. Heheh, Sydney already smokes outside when her sister or daughter-in-law comes over, I guess I'll just add to that list of inconvenience. :)

Post-Independence Day

Well, it was a nice long weekend. I went to Sydney's house Friday afternoon. So did everyone else, looks like! Her son and daughter-in-law were there with 3 (or 2?) of their friends, and her brother Freddie, and neighbor Merle. Then Ryan shows up with his wife I presume and like 4 kids...and Bobby's sons show up for a bit.
It was crowded!
I had to go hide out in Bobby's office for a bit just to get away from the noise and bodies. lol
But the food was great, the music was good, most of the comedy marathon was good, and it was nice and quiet when everyone went home. With the exception of Freddie, he's NEVER quiet! haha.
Saturday we hung out for most of the day, then got fishing licenses for R & S, then out to eat. Looked for Yanni's Italian and Greek restaurant, but was closed due to a fire (plus I figured it was on Uvalde but was actually on Normandy) so we decided to go to Antonio's or something like that in Deer Park, but it was closed, so went to Char Burger in Deer Park due to some good reviews I read about it.
It was vastly over-rated. Both Sydney's and my order were messed up, the burger had pretty good flavor but was like one of those preformed burgers instead of a GOOD burger that's handmade, ya know? And ran outta burger long before I ran outta bun. Fries and onion rings were good. But overall, a disappointment.
Next stop was Harbor Freight, where I didn't spend a dime - I left my 15% off coupon at the house, and I want to buy a baby air compressor. This is the one I'm looking at:
http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/displayitem.taf?Itemnumber=96087
I like the fact that it's on wheels like a little suitcase. :) It'll run a brad nailer for the little Shasta that I'm supposedly fixin up. But, what I really really want it for, is kick-ass dusting. LOL It should be interesting. The coupon is good for about another 2 weeks, so I have time.

Anyhoo. We watched a couple of movies which were....all...very good, "The Bucket List", "Fool's Gold", and "National Treasure 2". Ended up going to bed at 03:30...and slept til almost noon Sunday. Sunday we farted around and mainly added toys to the blog. And Sydney created a blog, woo hoo!

I had my last cigarette Sunday night, after smoking like nobody's business all weekend. I usually smoke about 7 cigs a day, but I was smoking over a pack a day. Hasn't really been that bad, except for driving. That's the worst "habit" smoke I have, is getting in a car. I light up. But made it thru all 4 drives today without. I bought some sugar-free hard candies and some gum today at lunch. Figured it might help. So wish me luck! It's going to be hard to be around my friends for a while, except for Melodie, since she quit almost a year ago.

On the work front, one of our LAX truck drivers was killed in a traffic accident on Thursday night/Friday morning. From what I understand, they were just 30 miles (minutes?) out of the LAX terminal when a drunk driver cut them off, and the truck overturned and caught on fire. The passenger was ok, but the driver was killed. A lot of the freight was damaged in the fire. We did not know the driver, as far as I know. I was looking at the LA Times, but couldn't find anything on it.

We had someone coming into the office to pickup freight that was supposed to arrive on that truck, and he was like "Oh, that's bad, sorry to hear that". He was almost outside the door when he came back in and asked "So does that mean ya'll are hiring?". lol We had to laugh, mostly at the audacity to do that I think. He came back about an hour later and apologized, which was considerate.

Other news from Thursday, when I went to customs and lunch, I took my little timer with me since I'm allowed 30 minutes for customs and 30 minutes for lunch. During my lunch, I stopped by Walgreens and picked up some of the single-serve drink mixes (for water) and a candle and prolly some other crap. Then stopped at Jack in the Box and made it back to the office in exactly 1 hour, which Cindy and Melodie verified. But Jooooonior went and told his daddy that I was gone for more than an hour and I had SHOPPING BAGS (GASP!!!) with me when I came back. So now, I have to drive to customs, drive back to the office, punch out for lunch, drive to get something to eat, drive back. Stupid stupid STUPID. I want a voo-doo doll. I hate that boy. He just turned 21 but he acts like he's 12. It's so nice when he's not at work.