I stopped smoking with great difficulty and then after several years, after I
returned from my first Evergreen trip which was to Spain, I began drinking a
glass of sherry before dinner each night, and I had this great urge to have a
cigarette with that glass of sherry. Just one cigarette with one glass of
sherry, how could it do any harm? Before long, I was back to smoking a pack a
day. Incredible, after all of that suffering and sacrifice to give up smoking
years before. So then about 6 years later, Fred was in the hospital, dying of
brain cancer, and he asked me to promise him that I'd stop smoking. He wanted
to save me from possibly dying from lung cancer, a fate that had befallen one
of his brothers. I promised, and stopped. It was the only gift I could give to
him at that point.
Miriam
-----Original Message-----
From: blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
<blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> On Behalf Of Carl Jarvis
Sent: Wednesday, September 9, 2020 11:53 AM
To: blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [blind-democracy] Where there's smoke there's fire!
From the news you'd think all the West Coast was going up in flames.
It sure smells like it, but Cathy reports that all she sees is smoke haze. I
can smell it, and considering how I've damaged my sense of smell with too many
years of cigarettes, it has to be fairly strong for me to get a whiff.
And just for any who might be taking up the primitive art of sucking smoke into
the lungs, the sense of smell never returns to its full power. This Labor Day
weekend marked the 29th anniversary since Cathy and I smoked our last
cigarette. We drove to our cabin on Friday night, with three cigarettes each.
When I smoked my last cigarette sometime mid Saturday, Cathy refused to drive
me into town. She never did weaken, but I kept the car keys in my pocket,
anyway.
We came out of that weekend still married and still speaking to one another.
But years of smoking had taken its toll on my nose and my taster.
A 29 gun salute to our Great American Tobacco Industry, a standout example of
Capitalism and the Free Enterprise System that has kept that mighty American
Standard in business spreading death to millions around the world and spreading
millions of lies as it waddles to the bank.
But I digress.
. So far the Olympic Peninsula has reported no fires. In other news, reported
cases of COVID-19 in Jefferson County stand at a grand total of 70, with no
deaths. This proves that distancing does work, since most of us live hundreds
of feet apart. Port Townsend is the County seat, and the county's only
incorporated town, having fewer than
10,000 residents.
So today I will do my best to obey Governor Jay Inslee's request that we stay
indoors and avoid strenuous work...I just love that governor.
Carl Jarvis
