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Not one puff ever! Tulip Festival in Ottawa, Courtesy of iStock

nope

NOPE!

Nope...not happening

G’day NOPE .....Not One Puff Ever.... (replace Ever with Min,Hour, Day as required.)

NOPE!!

G’day NOPE .....Not One Puff Ever.... (replace Ever with Min,Hour, Day as required.)

NOPE!

NOPE!!

NOPE!

NOPE

NOPE!!

The Nicotine Addiction Story. Quitnet Re-post, November 23, 2005. From GidgetPicklebrain on 11/23/2005 12:47:15 PM THE NICOTINE ADDICTION STORY The Nicotine Addiction Story Nicotine is probably the most addictive of all drugs we know of. The addiction process is very complicated, with dopamine receptors, neurotransmitters, etc. This illustration is an oversimplification of the process, but helps smokers to understand the reason for the difficulty in quitting. Imagine that you have a factory in your brain which makes acetyl choline (you really do, but it doesn't quite work this way.) The acetyl choline workers work 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, no breaks, no vacations, no union representation. Acetyl choline is an essential part of our nervous system and without it we could not function very well (ask a smoker who is trying to quit how they feel and you will know how acetyl choline works.) These factory workers work day and night and produce as much acetyl choline as the body needs. That amount is determined by the foreman who does continual blood testing to make sure there is an adequate amount available. After about 10 or 12 years you decided to try a little tobacco (either smokeless or smoking.) In 7 seconds th nicotine is in the brain and the foreman cannot tell the difference between acetyl choline and nicotine. He announces to everyone, "I don't know what is going on, but there is plenty of acetyl choline available. It looks like you can take a break". The factory workers go out on the lawn, in the sunshine and have a glorious time. They are only out there about 30 minutes and the foreman calls them back in. He tells them that the acetyl choline levels have dropped and they will have to resume production. The factory workers continue to work 24 hours a day, but they also remember how nice it was out on the lawn. You decided to have another cigarette. The foreman hardly gets the words out of his mouth and the factory workers are all out on the lawn. Again because the half-life of nicotine is just one half hour, they are soon called back in. You try tobacco again, with their encouragement — and again — and again. Pretty soon you are smoking quite regularly and the factory workers are on the lawn most of the time, having a wonderful time. So you become fully hooked and smoke on a regular basis. The factory foreman tells the workers, "You haven't been needed for quite some time. Why don't you go on vacation. I'll call you if you are needed." So they take off to the Caribbean. They are there for many years. Finally you decide you've got to quit smoking. You stop. The foreman checks the blood levels and panics. He starts trying to round everybody up, by sending letters and telegrams and making phone calls. The factory workers have to say goodbye to all their friends, find their cool-weather clothes, make airline reservations and prepare to leave. They are not happy and they let the foreman know that. He passes that information on to you and you give in and start smoking again. One day you finally make it. You quit. It takes one month for the factory workers to get home and start working again — but they never forget the Caribbean.

NOPE

Congratulations MQ Thank you, Thank You for giving us this Wonderful Train

NOPE!!

The Tobacco Companies work very hard to make sure the poor smoker stays hooked They keep adding more crap to the cigarettes The cigarettes you buy today are nothing like the cigarettes I first smoked at the tender age of 11 . I promised I wouldn’t give them another penny of my hard earned money .

Happy anniversary, @MarylandQuitter! And thanks for all you do to keep us chugging along!

Thanks for keeping the Train running and congratulations on eleven years!

Cheers Theme Music Video

He was a Beautiful Person Will never be forgotten

Congratulations MarylanQuitter, on this epic quit. Plus, thank you for everything you do here on the train..

Missing our Invisible Man...

this is one of the more beautiful posts i've read- i remember quite a few great posts from jwg.

Congratulations on 11 years smoke free @MarylandQuitter and thanks for all that you do to keep the Train running.

Gday congrats ….. well deserved!

Congratulations @MarylandQuitter on 11 years!! That is amazing! And thank you for creating this forum to help all of us quit! I don't think I could have done it without the help of everyone on here!

Congratulations on 11 years quit @MarylandQuitter, you took paying it forward to a new level when you created this place and we are all so grateful you did so thank you!

Such a moving post @jillar. He was a very unique person who travelled the same roads as all of us and yet could not out run his fate. Yet, he did leave others some very interesting insights into the struggles against our addiction. Timeless stuff really.

Watching a tv show and they mentioned the Guadalupe river and it reminded me of jwg's beautiful post...

Bump, this one is so sad ?

I read this with tears... He was special.....

So nice to read this again, thanks Jillar. I see some other treasures have been resurrected - thanks!!

It is soooo beautiful and I love reading it. But it does make me cry ?

Mine too @despair not

This was one of my favorites of his.

A lazy Texas river spanning form Kerr county Texas to the San Antonio bay on the Gulf of Mexico. If you ever need to find a place to relax enjoy the sunshine while refreshing from the hot Texas sun, nothing beats a lazy day tubing down the slow winding of deep greens and blue. Some place your arm able to reach down and feel the stones polished by the millenniums. Hiding secrets of the Alamo and days gone by. A sacred place, where no worries in the world can follow, No troubles from work are allowed to enter, only you and your desire to be at peace can break the waters edge. In my resent ventures over this past summer I had the opportunity to experience the river , its majesty and glory , Not only was I with the river I was with the finest people in the world to share the experience. By day floating lazily carefree and by night telling stories lounging about the cabin or sitting under the stars on the porch, cooking out burgers some night or fajita’s.. I often think of that trip and the fun we all had, to go back in time , even in memory can be so nice . Some days we would float solo or holding hands keeping close together. other days we banded are pack together by twine and traveled the river as one , like a Robin Hood and his merry men , or maybe Tom Sawyer and some of his boy hood chums. One particular day we were going solo , but I lashed the tube with the cooler to my rig 6 hours or so , surly you need some sort of refreshment and maybe even pull up on to a clear shore line for a bite to eat.. And so we did. After lunch two of are young explores Decided to forgo the tubes, swim a bit and comb the bottom of the river for secret hidden treasures,, Lost sunglass or the mother load a Iphone or other such valuable loot. Now with no use for there tubes , the young explores piled them on top of the cooler . So there I was, in my tube tied to a stack of three tubes and a cooler. To which the wind had greater strength to control then the slow easiness of the river current. Some times I would find the wind speeding me along , while others the wind dragging me back and my group of merry band of men flowing down the river far in front of me. While still enjoying the river the ride and the scenery I really had no control of the speed of my travel , to which side of the river I would coast. Sometimes the wind would bring me in to the tree line . Catching me on limbs and others casting me out into the deeper waters. Basicly I was at the mercy of powers much greater then myself.. As history repeats itself ,, this is where I find myself once more, only today laying in my hospital bed. With each day that passes more tubes are added to my burden, and now with each tube the wind carries me faster down the river then we could have ever imagined. Just a few hundred yards back the option of chemo loomed in the air to slow the winds and the current giving me more time to enjoy the river, but now once more due to powers beyond my control I find myself helpless. My illness grows faster then can be controlled. I am at peace, I am comfortable. I am in my tube enjoying every last minute of my ride Down the Guadalupe I can not see the end to the river nor do I look forward to its end.. I have my friends , I have my family , I have you all , and I have the love of a beautiful women , my angel, my everything to comfort and care for me I love you all And will to my best keep you posted In the mean time Don’t put things in your mouth and light them on fire !!