A 1-year update

Three attaboys, Don.

We hope to keep you around for many more decades.

--Winston

Way to go Don!

I'm two years next month - no slips either.

Feels good to breathe, don't it?

Bravo! Im at 8-10 smokes a day. Shrug..Unfortunately I live in a house with 3 other adult smokers. I was off smokes totally for 3 weeks, then came home and lasted almost another week.

Once the kids move out next month...Ill be off of them inside of 2 weeks. The ex can smoke outside.

Well done Sir..well done indeed!

Gunner

"Somewhere a True Believer is training to kill you. He is training with minimum food or water,in austere conditions, day and night. The only thing clean on him is his weapon. He doesn't worry about what workout to do--- his rucksack weighs what it weighs, and he runs until the enemy stops chasing him. The True Believer doesn't care 'how hard it is'; he knows he either wins or he dies. He doesn't go home at 1700; he is home. He knows only the 'Cause.' Now, who wants to quit?"

NCOIC of the Special Forces Assessment and Selection Course in a welcome speech to new SF candidates

You're my hero! I remember quite well the support when I started to quit smokes. I HAVE accumulated some gun cash but I cant get excited about anything I don't already have. I don't have a .40 or a 10mm or a .50 for that matter. Any ideas?

Excellent. My anniversary was May 6th. This is one of those things where the first anniversary is way more important than the 23rd. That goes for 1 day, 1 week, 1 month anniversary's also.

Common Gunner, imagine the VC are thick, not moving, camped almost on top of you, you are laying out there in your gilii suit with a pack of menthols that will be noticed if you light up even if the bad guys are smoking.

You might want to look into rifles. Uncle likes to fire, check the target, walk back, fire again. Good exercise. Keeps ammo costs down too.

Tofu and grass? Why stay alive. There is plenty of room for the taters next to a broiled steak. Taters go good with chicken too.

Wes

Good on ya, Don. Did you catch a fish to celebrate? Official state holiday you know.

FWIW, I had to quit SIX times. Next to last time had been a full two years - I had a couple (well several) beers and then bummed a smoke. I was up to a pack a day within a week. I'm up to 10 years this time - still would like a smoke with my morning coffee - and i had to swear off the local pub too.

Karl

Good deal! Had a girlfriend that made me quit smoking 15 years ago, she was the best! Now if I pick up a conversation with a woman and smell ashtray, I just turn around and walk away, no matter her looks or demeanor. My exercise consists in riding a few hill climbs on my YZ250 every day on my way to work. The shop is 1/2 mile from the house, and the hill climb is the hard way around through the woods. Last gun purchase was a browning over under for quail. cheers T.Alan

Heartiest congratulations, Don !! Hey, you're on for another dinner when the Delta Queen starts running again up the big muddy.

And Wes - you too Buddy !! I didn't notice you being the least bit jumpy when we were at NAMES going on 11 months since you broke free.

I've bought four nice handguns with the money I've not spent on butts in the past year. The most recent was for Mary,her choice on her permit, and she is already scarey good with it. Sig P232 if it matters. I can't hit crap with it (yet) but it sure works for her. The challenges and perils the likes of we must overcome now are rather different than we faced during the '60's and '70's but no less potentially lethal albeit somewhat quieter. Old dogs must learn new tricks if we wanna become even older dogs. But it's still discipline. Hike the brisk 3 miles every freakin' day. I don't have to like it, do have to do it. Hikes up and down range doesn't count: I march my miles before I load up and go to the range for grins and giggles.

The cardio doc says I now have the cholesterol numbers of a chimpanzee. He's too much of a gentleman to similarly comment on my intellect or general demeanor... He's a well-bred Paki, luck of the draw and damned good luck for me and we. We like him a lot. Good man. Someone close to me got a bit out of sync, atrial fib doncha know, Dr. B got that corrected with a single 200-joule shot. Bit of a bounce but it got 'er done. You may know that 50 joules is quite sufficient to vaporize the end of a good-sized screwdriver.

We're not subsisting on tofu and rabbitfodder by any means, just being sensible most of the time. We're meateaters, carnivores to be sure, counting fowl and fish as meat.

Yes, rifles indeed during the good-weather months. I often have the range to myself on weekday afternoons. I get lots of mini-hikes (200 yd, 400 yd, etc). Also bring that little rubber prairiedog spinner and a .22. Those things are unreasonably fun, particularly with two shooters.

to a broiled

Roger that! We also like rice a lot. Basmati.

Nope. Just occasional looking and handling gets it done for me. I about never go looking for guns but once in a while a particular piece jumps into my hand and persuades me to give it a good home.

On Sun, 10 May 2009 00:07:09 -0700, the infamous Winston scrawled the following:

Yeah, congrats and megadittoes re: what Winnie said, Don. I've had 21 smoke-free years as of last Feb, never regretting one single moment of it, and will have 24 sober years in July. No regrets on either lifestyle change whatsoever.

-- No matter how cynical you are, it is impossible to keep up. --Lily Tomlin

On Sun, 10 May 2009 05:42:39 -0400, the infamous "Buerste" scrawled the following:

The Barrett M82A1A gets my energetic nod, Tawm. Oh, darn, that's for military folks only. I guess the M82A1 is civilianized, tho.

Or howzbout their little AR style popgun, the 98B, in .338 Lapua? Sweet!

-- No matter how cynical you are, it is impossible to keep up. --Lily Tomlin

On Sun, 10 May 2009 11:53:40 -0500, the infamous Don Foreman scrawled the following:

to a broiled

Ditto the Basmati. If you have Trader Joe's near you, their Brown Rice Medley is ta die for. It's brown rice, black barley, and dikon radish seeds together. Scrumpdiddlyumptious!

-- No matter how cynical you are, it is impossible to keep up. --Lily Tomlin

Good effort Don - after a year off the smokes, hope its getting easier - I been off em for 6 weeks now, after going into cardiac failure when they were cutting out a kidney tumor . Impaired lung function due smoking, nothing in reserve. I reckon if your lucky, you get one warning - if you ignore it, well, its your decision.

Haven t actually got the money saved from cigggys, I know its significant, want to get more tooling - a target rifle would be nice, but don't need another obsession.

Don, your doing the exercise stuff as well -good on ya! - haven't got to that stage yet, still healing up from the surgery (buggerit!) , missing school time, lots of projects still to do but cant manage the cutoff saw and manhandling lengths of steel. Cant lift things down from the top shelves in the workshop.

Oh, and I gotta say this (sorry) - but I DID TELL YA YOU WOULD BE OK WITH MIG WELDING.......in spite of the woozies here getting into facts/ figures/speculation.....

Take care mate, Andrew VK3BFA

The kids are smoking in your house when they have been requested not to? Do you need backup to explain "My roof, My rules"?

They either go outside for five minutes, or they go outside and stay out permanently - simple choice.

-->--

Easy to say, nearly impossible to enforce. With luck, they will be moving out next month.

Ive been keeping my smoking on a VERY short leash.

Gunner

"Somewhere a True Believer is training to kill you. He is training with minimum food or water,in austere conditions, day and night. The only thing clean on him is his weapon. He doesn't worry about what workout to do--- his rucksack weighs what it weighs, and he runs until the enemy stops chasing him. The True Believer doesn't care 'how hard it is'; he knows he either wins or he dies. He doesn't go home at 1700; he is home. He knows only the 'Cause.' Now, who wants to quit?"

NCOIC of the Special Forces Assessment and Selection Course in a welcome speech to new SF candidates

I thought about this some more, Tawm. My philosophy has been that spending money formerly spent on butts (to my detriment) should now be spent as rewards to help encourage me -- at least for awhile. I decided that whatever I get should be fun and enjoyable. Frivolous is not only OK, it's encouraged.

My first butt-money reward, bought last summer, was a Ruger Mark III Hunter .22 pistol. We've had a LOT of fun with that and one of those rubber spinner prairiedog targets that won the NRA Golden Bullseye Accessory Of The Year. I wasn't looking for anything at the time, just browsing a travelling display of Ruger and Springfield products in a semi parked in a rural gunshop's lot for a day. When I picked up that piece my grin moved my ears. Milady grinned too, said "go for it, Foreman" so I did. Coulda bought an Elsie Pea for $250 that day but I didn't fancy an Elsie Pea. Still don't. They're going for a lot more now.

The second was a Ruger GP100, 4" barrel, in .357 Mag. I wasn't looking for one of those at all but when we visited a shop we'd not visited before and the gruff guy asked if there was anything we might like to see, that popped into my head and out my mouth. Yeah he had one, he found it and handed it to us. We already had a minty S&W

686-1 .357 with 6" barrel but the double-action trigger on this Ruger was remarkable. Milady handled it, said something like "oh, my, nice!" It followed us home. Since then, an experienced shooter tried it and said the DA trigger on our Jeep is at least as good as the one he owns that has had a professional trigger job. It's a lot of fun to shoot, very accurate.

Enforce? You can't enforce because you can't whup them, won't shoot them and ken no other modes of motivation or leadership? What about respect? You're in So Cal, not quite UP midwinter. How hard is it for them to step out for a smoke? Who's in charge of your quarters?

Beyond that, their choices need not be yours. I was quite comfy around smokers a month after my last butt. I enjoyed it. Since then, my favorite smokers (my two adjacent neighbors, both shooters) have quit, who knows why. Bummer, no more second-hand smoke for me.

Very good question. Obviously Im not in charge. I did try to enforce it for a week. Got so much backflap I simply gave up and try to stay away from them.

Shrug..I ALWAYs enjoyed smoking. Shrug. Each time I quit..once for 6 months..I still wanted a cig whenever I encountered one burning. Ive been smoking since I was 14...45 yrs.

So all I can do is avoid smokers until the desire goes away.

The kids are moving out first of next month..the ex plans on quitting when they leave..so with luck..all temptation goes away.

Oddly enough..its the only addiction Ive ever had. I dont care to drink, do any sort of drugs etc etc, but its one thats well drilled into me.

So I smoke 6-10 a day..mostly 6-8..and keep on getting stronger each day as I recover from the surgery and the stroke. Not what Id planned in the slightest..but its the horse Im hooked to.

Ive had the best luck with hypnosis, thats what go me free of them for 6 months. I needed a follow up, but foolishly didnt go for one. If I have to..Ill spend the money and get hypnotized again. And get the follow up...get as many as needed.

Gunner

"Somewhere a True Believer is training to kill you. He is training with minimum food or water,in austere conditions, day and night. The only thing clean on him is his weapon. He doesn't worry about what workout to do--- his rucksack weighs what it weighs, and he runs until the enemy stops chasing him. The True Believer doesn't care 'how hard it is'; he knows he either wins or he dies. He doesn't go home at 1700; he is home. He knows only the 'Cause.' Now, who wants to quit?"

NCOIC of the Special Forces Assessment and Selection Course in a welcome speech to new SF candidates