Need the weekend to recover
2004-09-20, 11:32 p.m.

Days 27 - 29

Well, that was one fun packed couple of days. Got a body that won't work, a wiff that can't stay sober, and a whole weekend to kill. What to do, what to do.

Actually made it through the golf ok yesterday. One of the guys in our foursome is a smoking buddy, and we were also golf partners for a few years. The links to smoking with this guy are pretty good. He was really cool about the whole thing. He's not a real heavy smoker anyway, but he did manage to stay down wind of me when he did smoke. Which really wasn't all that often - especially considering how many times we were just sitting, waiting to take our next shots. That part used to kill me golfing. You invariably have moments where you have to wait for a few minutes. It's so easy to just light up a butt to help pass the time. That's one of the tricks to quitting - finding that something ELSE to do, rather than light up again.

So Saturday was a blast. Had my morning coffee, did the crossword puzzle (Saturday NY Times - finished!!), looked for things to do. My body was still pretty sore, so farting around on the computer seemed like a really good idea. About the only other thing of note I did all day was change my arrows over to field tips (for target shooting), put some yardage markers out at 15 & 25 yds from my target, and shoot 25 - 30 arrows, just to knock a little rust off. Sighting seems fine, I need to practice a little more to tighten up my groups. My Monster Bag is also about ready to pack it in. Time for a new target. No, not the wiff (as a target). Time for a new wiff?? Good question.

Archery practice could develop into a good not-smoking diversion too. In limited form. I did get a bit of tendonitis one year from over-doing the shooting a bit. Moderation is the key.

Wiff finally got up around 10 am. No doubt pretty hung over. No coffee for her - that's a telltale sign her head is in a bad way. I should have a little fun with it, but I resisted the urge.

Oh yeah - paid bills Saturday too. More fun, no? Since I now knew what I had left for groceries, I started to do a grocery list. Wiff said one wasn't necessary, we weren't going shopping. Guess we didn't need whiskey or ginger ale, why else go?

Day 28

Wiff tries to be nice. Gets up before me, makes coffee. Gets paper. Smell of coffee finally gets me up - 7:15 ish. Read the sports, make a few final tweaks to my fantasy teams. Eat cereal for breakfast - wiff didn't seem to be preparing to make anything else. She still won't really talk to me. I don't know if she thinks she's mad at me (like I did something) or if she's embarrassed by her actions (if she were, would she keep repeating them?) Wiff decides today is a good day to go grocery shopping. I agree, mostly because the liquor stores aren't open. Get groceries. I let her get a new stainless steel braising pan, with a glass lid. She thinks I'm being nice to her, but I just wan't the pan. Deer season coming up, braising a venison roast can't be too far off.

She heads off to a craft store with one of her friends (who doensn't suspect how bad her drinking is, really). I go mow the lawn. At my neighbor's (Barb) house, her son (Scott) has stopped by to start the fall chores. I have about half the lawn done wghen Scott calls me over. There's a bee's nest in Barbs yard, underground. There's 4 - 5 dozen bees flitting around at any one time, and a hole in the ground maybe 1.5 inches in diameter. I can see maybe 2+ inches down into the ground before the hole makes a turn. This is one large nest. Didn't see it at all before today. Scott dumps about a pint of gasoline down the hole. I dare him to follow it up with a match, but Barb comes around the corner with a can of wasp spray. Scott grabs that and dumps a bunch of that into the hole, then starts the anti-aircraft shooting at the bees/wasps/hornets left buzzing around. By now, they're really starting to get a little pissed off, so we decide to get out of the way for a while, let them settle down some. I go finish the yard (takes me a little over an hour if I go non-stop with a 22" self propelled). Finally get the yard wrapped up.

Went inside, grabbed lunch, comandeered the TV. Wiff watched Lifetime ALL DAY SATURDAY. I will watch football ALL DAY SUNDAY. Period. See ya later.

Bills lose again. Offense looks like it needs geritol and a brain. Defense looks really good. Too bad they can't score 2 - 3 times a game.

Fantasy teams split. The team I have in our league of work guys is winning going away. Have a 10 point lead & McNabb playing Monday night. Other guy is finished. So I'm 2 - 0 in that league. Other team looks like it's going to lose a close one, will end up 1 - 1. Had a running back get hurt in practice & didn't think to grab his replacement in the draft soon enough to start him. At least I have him for the future.

Wiff still smoking. Didn't drink at all Saturday (too hung over) but had started in Sunday pm (at least she waited till after noon) Of course, she had little for lunch (grilled cheese maybe?), and has been drinking all afternoon. She starts to get a little snipey as the booze builds up. She starts to bitch about thiongs just to have something to bitch about. 2 hours prior, the identical issues wouldn't have (didn't) bother her at all. I think the drunker she gets, the more she needs to find wrong with other things, so she doesn't seem quite as bad herself. A form of denial I guess.

J stopped over Sunday evening, did her laundry, had some dinner with us, picked up her photo supplies. Too bad she has to see the wiff like this. Hope it doesn't scare her away from Z. The two of them have talked about getting married - but they're looking 3 - 4 years off. After they're both done with school and settled into the real world. I'd be thrilled. J is a really nice girl, has her head on straight, bright, not shy, gets along with everyone (that I've noticed anyhow). Also has the ability to talk Z out of doing some silly things, or at leastgetting him to see his Mom's point of view (also sometimes silly).

Day 29 - work happening. Wrote most of these last 2 updates over lunch. Will have to sent this one home to finish. Need to think up a schnazzy tag line for the end. Finally got the type conversions straightened out in my VHDL. Now I just have to find out why the memory isn't recieving the correct data - it's getting written to, but it appears to be some undefined crap, not the data I thought was being sent.

Anyhow - trudged through another day without lighting up. Due to hear from the instructor for that cessation class - my last support call. I think she'll be rather pleased. Plus - I need to set up a time to get my $25 course fee back from her. Could use it to pay for some bowling the next week or two. Also must remember to go get my hunting license this weekend.

29 days down - > $118 saved, ~580 cigarettes NOT smoked.

If you use a pop-up blocker, hit "Ctrl" when you click to leave a comment