You never know what you'll miss till it's gone

It's coming up on 11 weeks since I quit smoking and I've picked up around 15 pounds and tonight after stepping on the new, weight watcher scale - I decided that's it.

The weight irritates/depresses me and that puts a squelch on anything creative, so... that's the fucking end of that!

If I can quit smoking cold, I can drop the weight or at least tone everything up to an acceptable point. When I quit smoking I said I would accept staying the same clothes size. I'm sticking to that line and so far - it's not a problem.

I'm being reasonable, not radical [at least at the moment]. I'm not 30 so things are a little more resistant to change.

So, out of irritation and an excess of energy I started an exercise regimen outside tonight while the dogs were out. Very Army, albeit lightweight on the repetitions for the first few days. I'll talk to the doctor on Friday about getting more aggressive and the resident cyclist at work about where to take my mountain bike for a tune up.

If I start working the nastiness out at night I might have a chance to get back into the mosaic pieces I have on hold... hopefully I can snap out of the funk I've settled into and get back to it.

Happy Thanksgiving

A comment going out through the ether to all and sundry: Happy Thanksgiving to all and may all have a safe upcoming Holiday Season.

Speaking for myself, I just got back from a phenomenal Thankgiving feast put on by a friend of my sisters.

Dinner for about 20 served on the veranda of their log house... sigh.

So, uh... I am stuffed on: turkey, ham, asparagus and hollandaise sauce, green bean casserole, Waldorf salad and a wondrous coconut cream pie with a 4 inch loft of meringue - that tempted me for thirds [small bits mostly of meringue].

The slight buzz comes from two Michelob Amber Bock's not chased by coffee.

The dogs have been out, the next plan is fix their dinner and then I'm going to bed... oh, at around 8 p.m.

Hopefully I can get somethings moved out of the way of the birdbath so I can get back at it.

It's fall... and things change

It has been a while since I posted - indeed, since I have picked up a piece of tile in a creative manner.

I did rock out of my lethargy long enough to enter a piece into the SAMA 'Beneath the surface' conference... more on that later.

Hurricane season - soon to be over - does that to me. So does attrition of people at work. So far, we are down two editors and one reporter and coming up - the paginator. However, we are getting a replacement editor next week.... everything else is in the works.

Big changes throw off the creative drive temporarily... I know, I quit smoking in August and it's been eight weeks [I think].

I lit the last cigarette the day before the first editor quit. Held my ground when the second one quit, and the reporter is gone as of this week. While I really like him, his leaving doesn't affect me as directly as the loss of the editors.

When you quit an addiction such as smoking, medical things that hadn't shown up before raise their heads... I had a full battery blood test run and I am [thankfully] healthy and within range on all the tests. My EKG was fine. The small snag I do have is a lite case of high blood pressure, more related to not having a replacement for the smoking - I quit cold.

So when I would stress out, walk out and lite up - I don't have a support for that. I will walk out and wander around outside, which doesn't quite make it. But, I haven't given over to eating either. I am still within 8 pounds of where I was when I quit.

I have picked up a small addiction to replace the smoking - it's called iced mocha latte and I need to go make one NOW.