Chrysalis

dentist :angry:

demon

Dancer responded to Bakon's other shout-out yesterday. She seems to be doing well. Mike--not so much.

run

For those of you who live in the southeast, there is a TERRIFIC haunted house in Atlanta called Netherworld ( http://www.fearworld.com/ ). It's open during the month of October each year. It's got actors like this thing on Ellen plus wonderful spooky effects, spider webs, chains, etc. Teens and twenty-somethings love it, of course, but us 60+ kids love it, too. Come to Atlanta, spend the night, and take in this show. It's worth it.

Congratulations, MQ! Thank you for being such an inspiration to us newer quitters and for setting up this wonderful web site! You are one of those people who really made a difference with your life. Enjoy life on the Lido deck!!

present and accounted for

minuet

Hang in there, Wendy, you're doing great! I'm sorry that you're having so much trouble right now, but everything you describe is common when people quit smoking and these symptoms are all temporary. The hardest part is to find the patience to deal with it. Just outlast it! Patience was always the hardest part for me. With an autistic son you must have huge reserves of patience (well, on most days, anyway). So keep reminding yourself of why you quit in the first place and practice deep breathing for a few minutes several times a day (4 seconds inhale, hold for 4 seconds, 4 seconds exhale). HANG TOUGH! You can DO this!

tiptoe

Whoever owns these flip flops sure got their 99-cents worth, and then some! :D

Nice try, Nancy, but MaryAnn is way too tame for this crowd. I bet Daisy Duke would get some of these old engines purring, don't you think?

Love it, Colleen, love it!! :lol2:

Great post, Bakon! I agree 100% with what you said. I would like to add, however, that there may be some confusion or even disagreement about what we mean by "WANT TO QUIT". That does not mean that you totally, completely, unreservedly want to quit and you have no ambivalence about it. I did NOT feel that way when I quit (6 months ago). Certainly, I wanted to quit for a lot of good reasons. But part of me also wanted to keep smoking. I didn't want to lose my "friend" and I was afraid of horrible withdrawal symptoms. I could imagine quitting for a few days, maybe even a few weeks, but quit smoking FOREVER??!! I don't think so. At my first major life stressor I'll probably reach for a cigarette again. I was not 100% committed to never smoking again like some people are. What I learned is that you only have to want to quit smoking more than you want to smoke. Now that I could handle. Whenever I got hit with a craving, I learned to remind myself of all the reasons I quit in the first place. I would say to myself, "Which do you want more, to go back to smoking or to be able to go mountain biking this autumn?" or "Which do you want more, to go back to smoking or to get your mortgage completely paid off before you retire?" Note that I learned to tell myself that the only alternative was "go back to smoking" and not "smoke one cigarette". That was VERY important! It's easy to give yourself permission to smoke ONE cigarette, but the experience of many, many people over many, many years tells us that ONE cigarette will inevitably lead us right back to full-time smoking. So don't tell yourself the lie that you will only smoke ONE-- that's bs. So that may be one thing that is different for you this time around. You will teach yourself to keep reminding yourself about why you chose to quit in the first place and how desperately you want that good outcome. Remind yourself of this over and over again. Keep your eyes on the prize!

mountains

Beth and Beacon, you're setting a good example. One of the main reasons I quit smoking was so that I could get fit enough to go mountain biking. I was working on it pretty regularly for a while but then slacked off. Because of you I'm going to get back to it. It will definitely help that the weather is cooler now. Let's all do this!!

I think the absolutely MOST aggravating thing about winter was scraping the snow and ice off your car MANY TIMES A DAY!! We didn't have a garage, so many winter mornings it was scrape the snow and ice and sit in the car for 10 minutes waiting for the defroster to work. Then you do it again at lunch time because you have to go run an errand. Then do it again after the errand to get back to work. Then again after work. Aarrgh!! What a royal pain in the neck! By the way, in Georgia you have to get your car emissions tested every year by or before your birthday. Last week I asked the tester if his work was seasonal. He said, "Absolutely! September is by far the busiest month." So that tells you what people do for entertainment in January. :D

Fall has always been my favorite season. The only downside to Fall was the impending Winter. However, now that we live in Georgia there IS no winter! You just get 3 months of weather that is cool enough for golf and go right into Spring. So yes, Fall is my favorite season. By the way, some years ago I went to Kenya for a couple of weeks. As hostess gifts, I brought boxes of notecards that had photos of Autumn foliage on them. One hostess asked me if this was for real. All her life she thought that such colorful trees must be a myth. I assured her that, indeed, it looks just that way. She was amazed!

sunset

Where do you live that you got snow already? Do you usually get such an early snow fall?

My new shelter dog buddy, Sammy, is a sweetie! Last week I figured out that the shelter dogs I have been walking are getting no training and darned little human socializing. That's why they were all so hard to handle. So I decided to work consistently with only one or two dogs and really focus on training them. I've been working with Oliver for the last few weeks. I like Oliver. He does know all the standard commands (sit, stay, down, etc) but he only obeys when he feels like it. And while he doesn't get all goo-goo jumping around and licking people, he does wag his tail when you scratch his ears. So I think that with some intensive training he can make good progress in "canine good manners" and become more adoptable. I'm also working with another dog, Sampson (aka Sammy). He's young (maybe 14 months) and he has TONS of energy and he loves people. He knows most of the commands but he gets easily distracted by people, dogs, cars, birds, leaves... (you get the picture) so he needs a little more training before he'll be a top adoption candidate. This morning Oliver was away at an adoption fair so I spent my time with Sammy. After 3 weeks of walking a whole series of difficult dogs, Sammy was a dream. First we had 15 minutes of vigorous play. He had a wonderful time playing ball with me and shaking the rag doll I brought him. Then during the training session, he really tried to sit and stay and so on. Fortunately, he LOVES hot dogs so it was easy to get his attention. So although I like Oliver and I think that he needs my attentions more than Sammy does, it was fun for once to just go play with and do some simple bits of training with a friendly, cooperative dog. I think this new system (more time with fewer dogs) may work out better for me and for the dogs. And I will finally be able to get some exercise (which is where this whole thing started :) ).

id

You already used our "solved" feature-- you said, "That worked. Thanks." You're welcome. :)

horn

Yeah, Mike, I agree with you. Large .gifs in signature lines annoy me. To me that's sort of like shouting to demand attention or typing an email in all caps. You can hide the signature lines. Click on your name in the top right corner. From the drop-down menu select "Manage Ignore Preferences". On the top of the Ignore Preferences page is a check box to turn off all signatures.