Boo

Top shelf quit. Nice work Despair Not.

Good job Steven. Congratulations.

A bit of Van for St. Patrick's day...

A toast: May you have all the happiness and luck life can hold, and at the end of all your rainbows may you find a pot of gold. Raise a glass. Now that I'm sober, a jar of healthy green juice is as festive as I get.

I experimented and obsessed over finding the perfect combination of stain to get the new flooring in Maddie's nursery to match up perfectly with the rest of the house. Eventually, figured out that "close enough" was going to have to do. Most of the floor in there is covered by rugs now, so it doesn't really matter. Those nursery rugs we bought claimed to be "stain resistant." I suspect the little gal is going to put that claim to the test.

Stumpy is quickly becoming one of my heroes....He's like a mini-bull. He has been working out consistently three-days per week, doing compound barbell lifts, and sticking with the plan of linear progression. The young fella is getting stronger with every workout. With his strength, wide build, and being low to the ground...Stumpy is becoming an immovable force of nature. Stumpy even built a pair of Farmer's Walk handles that he uses at home...I'm proud of the boy.

Sugar Britches was watching HGTV one night. A couple of guys knocked down a non-load bearing wall to open up the floor space a bit and put down new hardwood floors. They did a good enough job, but this particular pair of chucklenuts acted like they had just recreated the Sistine Chapel. I'm all for taking pride in your work, but at some point...give it a rest already.

Have a good one Jill. I didn't get you a cake, but I did get you some french fried pa-taters...the bigguns!

I get excited over far more simple things these days. This afternoon I saw a farmer I recognize setting up his tables downtown. This guy has the best fruits and vegetables. I helped him unload his truck and made small talk about strawberries. Now that I'm in good with the farmer, he said he would set aside a few items just for us...SCORE!

Great job IQ4me. Congratulations on one year smoke-free. The lido deck is the perfect spot to savor the flavor of freedom.

Learning to hate the tobacco companies gave me even more incentive to stay quit. I vowed to never give those vultures one more penny of my money. A bit of righteous indignation can be a powerful motivator. I take responsibility for the choices I made. I also think it is important to identify those who profit from the demise of others and do everything within our power to relegate them to the ash heap of history.

Welcome aboard the Train Phoebe. You only have to quit for good once.

Yep.

And now we celebrate....responsibly.

Five years ago today, I decided to take the leap. I stopped making excuses. I stopped "planning." Figured if I was going to quit smoking it was time to stop tap dancing around the subject and get to it. I didn't have full confidence that I would be successful. I had failed the challenge so many times before there was bound to be some doubt creep in. There was no momentous shift in my mindset. I didn't have some sort of epiphany at the beginning of my forever quit. Any clarity about the process of quitting smoking came later and was earned by having quit. Took things one day at-a-time in the beginning. Those days turned to weeks. Weeks turned into months...and so on. Now I have five years under my belt and have full confidence that I will never touch a cigarette again. I really didn't know what to expect when I started this process. And if someone had told me how the simple act of quitting smoking would effect my life, I probably wouldn't have believed them. Success breeds confidence and that confidence carried over into every facet of my life. As I was successfully doing the thing that I had told myself I couldn't do, I started to ask what else was possible. As I learned to deal with life without cigarettes, I had to do some serious self-examination to figure out how to actually confront issues rather than just stepping outside and smoking one-after-the-other. The process stripped me down to the bone and forced me to deal with issues for the first time in my adult life; I'm far more resilient now than I was five years ago. The initial goal was to get off of the smokes. The final result was a better version of myself and a much improved life. I joined the Quit Train the same day I quit smoking; one of the best decisions I ever made. I received support from the other folks on the Train from day-one. Gained invaluable knowledge. On top of all that...had a good time and made some great friends along the way. It has been an honor to ride this Train for the last five years.

Congratulations Linda. You have fought through the baptism by fire moments in your quit and stayed true to your commitment. Great job.

Good job Ace. You have earned your stripes...and badges.

Welcome back Ray. Good call on giving up the smokes. That is entirely doable. Quitting smoking, like most things in life, is all about the choices we make. Make the right choice.

I put a wall up from time-to-time. The trick is knowing when and where to put them up and when to knock them down. A certain level of detachment is a fine tool to keep in your survival kit. The question is often asked: how do you deal with irrational people? My answer is: you don't, not anymore than you just have to. Someone who is unreasonable, irrational, dishonest, and an all-around pain-in-the-ass is not worth the time. I wouldn't let someone like that in my house, why would I let them in my head?

Good job Mac. Prepare the deck, we've got another one coming in hot.