nonamedufus

I've been smoke free for about 15 years now.  That's some accomplishment.  I began smoking when I was barely out of knee-pants.  At 13, my father - a several pack-a-day man - philosopher that he was, told me he'd give me his permission but not his approval.  Good enough for me.  A 30-year habit was born. There were many times I attempted to snuff out the dreaded weed.  Cold turkey, gum, patches - you name it, I tried it.  Once I quit for a year, only to start again at a party.  Stupid.  And expensive.  And in my teens I recall emptying out the ashtrays after a party and grinding the hard, stale tobacco into a pipe bowl to smoke because I'd run out of cigarettes.  Oddly, that didn't make me quit.  It just made me go out and buy a pack of smokes. Well, I tell you maybe I would have quit if something like this had happened to me. Some poor guy in Indonesia, where men apparently light up cigarettes more often than their libi...

The other night my wife and I were partaking in our favourite nocturnal activity. No, not THAT one. We were watching TV. We were glued to some mindless drivel when a commercial came on. Now normally we reach for the remote and turn down the sound because the volume level of commercials must be 10 times louder than the shows we watch. But we weren't quick enough and we began watching an ad for a smoking cessation product. I quit smoking about 15 years ago, after several unsuccessful attempts over the close to 30 years I puffed those cancer sticks. I started at 11 or 12 years of age and asked my smoking parents for permission to smoke when I was 13. I think they were disappointed, but what could they do? After all they already stunk up the house, the yard and my lungs. The best way my Dad could put it was "I'm giving you my permission but not my acceptance." And so 30 years of going from a social "with-it" to being a social "misfit" - a r...