Winter's Early
2007-12-05, 5:03 p.m.

Day 1200

1200 days without a smoke. It�s funny, parts of me still remember what it was like to smoke � all the actions and feelings associated with the habit. Other parts of me also remember what it was like to not be able to jog even a mile, get winded going up a couple flights of stairs, or having to take a break to get through seemingly simple tasks.

Not anymore. Bike 30 miles � sure. Run a 5K? Sign me up. Being able to hang with the youngsters playing sports? Pretty sweet. Can�t ever see me going back. Money saved? Huge. Figure an average of $4 the first 400 days, $5 the second 400, $5.75 the last 400. If you do the math that�s roughly $5900 not spent trying to kill myself. Half of that has been spent on gym membership fees over that time, but I think it�s been worth it. That increased stamina (everywhere, wink, wink) is nice. Now if I could just get a job at the Y and get that free singles membership as a benefit . . .

Boy, winter has arrived here in the north east. Locally, we got a little over a foot in the last two days. Not so bad � most schools didn�t close and only one evening was really bad for travel. Areas around us were worse, some schools closed, but we�re used to it. It�s just starting a little early this year. Maybe it�ll end early too? Yeah, right.

Al Anon meeting last night was sparsely attended (only 3 of us, till a new person came in a little after we started. 4 person meeting � woo-hoo!!) Weather wasn�t THAT bad, only had to brush an inch or twp of fluffy snow off my van after the meeting. For an 90sih minutes of sitting there that�s not too terribly bad.

Work issues are kicking my butt. Been on the same issue in assembly for 3 days now. I�m currently taking a bit of a brain break. My head hurts from trying to find what subtle little thing changed to screw up the way my board works. What sucks is that I can make a little tweak and fix it, but that tweak involves weeks of testing to get approval for shipping. We suspect that a change in vendors for one part in particular is a contributor, but we can�t say it for sure. It�s like changing one part a leeeetle tiny bit has aggravated a borderline condition - the wrong way. We�re making arrangements to have our supplier return to the previous vendor for this suspicious part, but even that takes time, and there�s old stock to use up, parts in the pipe, all sorts of logistical nightmares. What sucks is that these new parts were tested 4 or 5 months ago and the tests came out fine. This time around, something is fishy. Makes me hate coming in to work lately. Until payday anyhow. Which is NOT this week. Dang it.

Bowling coming up tomorrow night. Hope we don�t run into a buzz saw like we did last week. That will damage our position in the standings a bit. Need to pick up the pace a wee bit and make up some ground tomorrow. Be nice to bowl a little better too.

Geeze, in the last 3 weeks, 2/3 of our bowling team has gotten older (one�s b�day is today actually � he�s a young 45 � married, two great girls). My birthday own is slinking along, but it�s not really a significant year (it isn�t, really!!), so I�m just going to let it slide.

While I�m at the store, I�m going to check again for those raspberry swirlies. If they�re not there, I think the store manager deserves a swirlie of his own for forcing me to venture into the Evil Empire in search of my needed chocolate/raspberry goodness. And if our favorite grocer once again fails to cough up the goods, tonight I will have to visit the very gates of hell and see if the devil himself stocks them - because I have a schedule to keep folks, and shipments to make. Plus, I want some of those darn cookies.

Speaking of schedules, I need to get moving along. Have to pick up milk (skim please) and some fancy pants bread for dinner tonight. We�re having some Moroccan style lentil soup (with cinnamon, cumin & turmeric for seasonings) and a big honking tossed salad. So we need some nice, heavy, grainy bread to go along with it. And raspberry swirlies, damnit. (and I really will get that recipe sent out soon � like before Christmas even.)

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