Smoke Alarm

I am back. Not that I really went anywhere. I have returned from holiday and from my sickness. Last week was to be a very quick week after the Christmas holiday and some relaxation prior to celebrating the impending New Year was on the docket. This scenario did not work out as planned. As you know from my last posting, I had obtained a really good illness. Usually, an illness will come and go and maybe last a couple of days at most. Please note that due to my ever increasing bad luck, this time the flu kicked my butt. I suffered through last Tuesday, barely able to do any work. Thankfully, my job could be done by monkeys and I was able to fake my way through the day. Wednesday saw me come to work and leave not too long after lunch. This doesn’t benefit me too much as I carpool with The School Girl. I took a nap in the parking lot at her job while listening to the new CD by The Who. Not too shabby. After my fever almost hit 102 degrees, I pretty much decided that unless my cold (or whatever it was) had completely disappeared, I would be staying home on Thursday. So Thursday afternoon, after a good nap and some cold medicine, I managed to hook up my new DVD burner to the television and started to burn some concerts I TiVo’d from VH1 Classic. (Lynyrd Skynyrd, The Faces, Thin Lizzy, Elton John, etc.). I think I started to get better as the day wore on.

Saturday afternoon, The School Girl and I traveled to W’boro to visit her brother who had come into town (the previously mentioned El Capitan).



The weekend was pretty low-key. We managed a trip to the mall in Florence, AL and I got my brakes fixed. (Finally!) The big news; however, is my smoking situation. For Christmas, I decided that I really did want to quit smoking and my wife has been hounding me forever about it. As a good faith gesture, I decided that I would create an actual contract spelling out the specific terms of my agreement to quit smoking. Well this agreement or matrimonially binding contract went into effect at 12:01 a.m. this morning. Truthfully I haven’t smoked anything (meaning cigarette or cigar, my dope-fiend readers) since 5:00 p.m. yesterday evening. The fun has not been ripped out of life forever even though I have remained true to my word (so far!). I am not too grumpy (not more than normal anyway!) and I haven’t craved a smoke too much. It did feel odd at break time that I was not headed outside to puff away but I may actually be able to handle it this time. Luckily, my contract allows for me to smoke when I drink. Another get-together is planned for the Green Machine/Hoosier Girl place in a few weeks so if I can just make it that long without pulling out my hair (not that I could) I think I can survive.