Carl, I can imagine how hard quitting would be. My late father smoked from age
17 until the day he died at 80. Of all of the stupid things I have done to
myself, luckily, I have avoided smoking.
-----Original Message-----
From: blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
<blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> On Behalf Of Carl Jarvis
Sent: Wednesday, September 9, 2020 1:22 PM
To: blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [blind-democracy] Re: Where there's smoke there's fire!
That reminds me of the many times I "quit" smoking, only to be out with my
buddies and tell myself that "just one cigarette couldn't
hurt". Nicotine is so addictive and so deadly that it's hard to
believe that the product hasn't been outlawed and the CEO's thrown in prison.
For the last ten years that I smoked, I bought a pack each day, so if I decided
to quit, I wouldn't have the rest of a carton sitting at home. I knew that if
I had any loose packs, I'd convince myself that I'd quit just as soon as the
last pack was gone. I'd gone down that road several times.
Oh, the horror stories all of us former smokers could tell. I remember when
Cathy's dad died at 57 years of age...from heavy smoking and heavy drinking.
We had not smoked for over three months, but as soon as the service was over we
rushed outside and cornered our sister-in-law and bummed cigarettes from her.
Quitting was hard, but staying quit was even harder.
Carl Jarvis
On 9/9/20, Miriam Vieni <miriamvieni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
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
