Penguin

Congratulations on your successful quit! I think you touched on a couple things that are really important. One, there's a shift in one's thinking when they reach a successful quit, from "I quit smoking" to "I don't smoke." For many of us, we need that shift in our mindset. When we no longer identify as a smoker, it doesn't erase our past, but it does set us up for success for the future. The second thing is, quitting doesn't have to be hard. Oftentimes it is, but if you can quit without cravings or irritability or fear, that's great. Some people can do that. For my part, I spent a long time being afraid of quitting, but when I finally did quit, all that fear and hesitation was gone. I think the bottom line is this: don't let the fear of what could be keep you from trying for success.

A few months before my lung collapsed last year, I started exercising. Naturally, I've been hesitant to exert myself ever since my hospital stay. However, since it's been over a year since I quit smoking, I'm going to ease back into exercise in 2025. To that end, tomorrow I'll be working out with my dumbbells at their lowest weight. Due to my disability, I can't always stand or sit "the way you're supposed to," so I've got to work out what is safe and effective for me. In January, I'll start exercising with actual weight. Here, I'll keep track of my health. Just as keeping track of the data helped encourage me in my quit, I hope it will encourage me to stick with my exercise and nutrition.

5

They say the Q-Train is always on time, if you want it to be. It was for me. One minute I was in the hospital, and the next? It's hard to describe. The first thing I noticed was the smell, like a wet ashtray. That rancid stench clung to the air, and came down in a brown rain that painted everything. Dense smoke crowded the air as I stumbled blindly forward. Then, to my left, an ear-splitting hiss that just about slapped me out of my skin, I don't mind saying, and an even louder whistle. I fell on my side, and clapped my hands over my ears, and clenched my eyes shut as shut gets. I unclenched when it finally stopped, but nothing could've prepared me for what I saw. All that dense smoke was gone, and the brown rain with it. I mean, it was still there over everything, but I could see my hand in front of my face. I could breathe, and I did. All that clean air in my lungs didn't mix too well with the smog I'd been breathing down for so long, and I fell into a cough. After a minute, I felt a hand on my back, and followed it back to the face that went with it. Somehow he was hard to see, but not because he was blurry. He was just so very plain, apart from the kindness in his eyes. "All aboard?" he asked, and raised his free hand toward the behemoth idling on the tracks before me. It looked, for all intents and purposes, like a train out of the Old West, but without the smokestack. The thrum of electric engines purred lowly beneath the warm and gentle breeze. Sunlight peered down through the clouds high above, and shone off the clean metal hull of the train. It was painted in blue and silver and orange, with a large "Q" near the steps where a line of passengers stood, waiting to board. I looked to the man, and for the first time I noticed he wore the uniform of a conductor, in the same color palette as the train he conducted. "I don't have a ticket," I told him. "Oh? What's this?" He reached into my shirt pocket where I'd always kept my cigarettes, and showed me the ticket in his hand. He gave me a coy smile, tore the stub from my ticket, and stepped past me. From that point forward it was as though my feet carried me for themselves, toward the back of the line. I stood behind an old man, bald and wrinkled, wearing a hospital gown. He turned back and smiled at me, but there was something sad there. Behind me, a young woman held the hand of a boy who could only be her son, while her other hand cradled her barely pregnant belly. Her smile was brighter, and her son's was the brightest of all. At length, I found myself standing at the bottom of the steps to the Q-Train, with warm air from the motors rushing over my feet, as if to lift me upward. I reached for the rails on either side of the steps, and pulled myself up. ((Now that I've set the stage, somewhat, I'd like you to imagine a train that isn't bound by the normal rules of reality. Imagine a train that encompasses a universe, and it can hold whatever you can dream. What sort of things might you see as you move from car to car? Much like Dr. Who's TARDIS, the Q-Train is bigger on the inside, and what looks to be a train from the outside may very well hold vast mountain ranges, tropical islands, frigid oceans, galaxies, and the list goes on. Use your imagination to describe what all you might see aboard the Q-Train.))

@jillar When I moved into my apartment, I was a smoker, and smoking was allowed in the building. Now that smoking is prohibited and I've quit smoking, I smell just how much that stench has soaked into the walls, even when I'm walking through the public hallways. They're going to renovate my apartment once I move out, and I've been telling the maintenance staff for years, "I was a smoker and this place will need to be stripped down to the concrete." Hopefully I'll be able to move out to a cleaner place within the next few years.

19

Thank you. I may find some pertinent occasion to share my X-rays from my lung collapse. I've been thinking lately about the costs associated with smoking.

It would seem these instructions are out of date, but you can still get a ticker at TickerFactory.com. Once you've customized your ticker, you'll come to a page with links you can copy and paste. You want to copy the top link, without any extra [url] or [img] tags on it. Then go to your account settings and edit your signature. Once you paste the link into your signature, it should automatically turn into an image that will change on its own as time passes. I hope that helps people who want a ticker for their signature. I find it especially motivating during cravings.

Is there a rule against sharing X-ray images and the like? I understand such things could be disturbing, but I assume that's what the spoiler capability is for.

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Incorrect. (Do I reveal which one is the lie now and let someone else have a turn? Is that how this works?)

13

Congratulations on 7 years clean, @notsmokinjo!

Two truths, one lie: 1. I once fell 30 feet, landed on my face, and walked away. 2. I hiked the Appalachian Trail in my teens. 3. I've never broken a bone in my body.

12

You're not wrong. I would much prefer to live in a world where people realized their behavior was negatively impacting those around them and adjusted accordingly, but that rarely happens. I think I may try an awareness campaign first, and see how that works. It might increase support if and when it comes down to actual legislation mandating where people can smoke. Normally I'm a big fan of the greatest amount of freedom for the greatest number of people, and in this case it's a matter of the proper boundary. Smokers have a right to do to themselves as they please, but they don't have the right to negatively impact the health of non-smokers.