Quitting: Day Thirteen

Cigarettes Today: 2

Not exactly my zero target but not bad considering my lapse over the last three days.

Quitting: Day Twelve

Cigarettes Today: 6

The last of the pack I bought the other day. With those gone I'll be able to get back on track. My target for tomorrow is zero ciggies.

Quitting: Day Eleven

(Posted late)

Cigarettes Today: 8

The side effect of buying that damn pack yesterday; just knowing I have ciggies in my pocket makes it almost impossible not to have one when I feel the urge.

Well, that leaves five for tomorrow. If I burn all five that's the end of it, and I can go back to where I left off the other day.

Quitting: Day Ten

Cigarettes Today: 6

Bad day. Whoever's supposed to take care of the roads around Denver should be fired - there's still snow left lying all over the place, and in some places it is of course compacted by the traffic.

The upshot of this is that the back end of the car broke away just after I negotiated the curve from I-25 onto 6th avenue; I got control of it but as the back end snapped beck into line it overshot and went the other way. I steered into it again and got it back, but by that time I was pointing at the barrier, on snow - I gentled the brakes but there was just no traction and I hit at maybe 15 mph - not even enough to fire the airbags.

I was a little bit shaken up but more than anything I was just angry - if I'd still been working at the USDA I could have worked from home, but where I am now they insist on my presence even though there's useful work I could have done without coming in.

In any case I lost it and bought a pack at a gas station on the way in, and I've burned six. I'm trying as hard as I can to make those the last for the day.

Quitting: Day Nine

Cigarettes Today: 1

It snowed all night, from the look of things, and although it wasn't heavy it built up to about four or six inches. The main roads had been ploughed, though, so it wasn't too bad for the first hour of driving to work - I wasn't about to do the speed limit but fifty or even sixty in places was okay.

Then I got down to about mile 217 and ran into heavy snow, and everything slowed to a crawl. It took another hour to cover the last fifteen miles to work, and it was pretty nerve-wracking in a few places because there was almost no traction; in one place I hit the brakes and even with the antilock the car started to slew. I'm pretty careful in these conditions and I had a big gap between me and the car in front, but I was more concerned that I'd slide into the lane to my right since I lost the steering for a moment. Scary.

So by the time I got in I was twitchy again, the willpower went again, and I scrounged another cig off Leo (a guy I work with). That set me straight and I'll be okay now for the rest of the day.

Quitting: Day Eight

Cigarettes Today: 0

Basically the same situation as yesterday; no stress but I have to guard against boredom, because that gets me thinking about a smoke.

Yesterday I watched The Matrix and about half of The Matrix Reloaded on my portable DVD player; today I watched the second half and then completed the trilogy by watching The Matrix Revolutions. That kept the boredom at bay but right now it's not quite 3pm and Kate has Miss Potter on TV - a good film but it's been on about a dozen times in the last couple of weeks; I could probably quote Ewan McGregor's lines from memory.

So the plan is, first, to run up to WalMart to pick up some milk, eggs and a few other things including some silicon-based sealant; second, to use said sealant to fix Kate's little table fountain in the living room; third, pick out another movie to stay occupied - I'm thinking about the X-Men films, but we'll see.

Quitting: Day Seven

Cigarettes Today: 0

It's Saturday, so I don't have to worry about driving to work, or work itself, and the associated stress bringing on any craving for a smoke. What I do have to consider is other factors such as boredom, since it's habitual to light one because of having nothing to do. So I'm trying to stay busy to keep that from happening.

Quitting: Day Six

Cigarettes Today: 1

(Actually posted on Day Seven...)

Not doing so bad today. The drive in was okay but I got feeling a bit twitchy in a gap between meetings this morning. Same as yesterday, I wasn't able to concentrate on reading some important technical documents, and had to scrounge a thinking stick off a colleague. The good news is that I haven't had any cravings since then - about five hours ago as I write this.

Quitting: Day Five

Cigarettes Today: 1

I was trying to read the documentation for Metro (a web services package from Sun); there's a lot to it and it's quite heavy going in places, and the craving was making it almost impossible to concentrate. I caved in for the sake of sanity and scrounged a smoke off a colleague; at least I'm now able to focus on what I'm reading. I had to make a commitment to myself that this one would be the one and only for the day.

A note on the colour coding; if the number of cigs shows in red that means I'm not happy with it - it means I had more than I meant to (which for the most part means more than zero). If it's in green that means I feel okay about it.

Quitting: Day Four

Cigarettes Today: 0

Another rough traffic day but this time I was able to resist the urge when I got here despite the twitchiness - thanks to coffee, chocolate covered blueberries and Eclipse chewing gum.

Quitting: Day Three

Cigarettes Today: 1

I got stuck in traffic on the way to work and when I got there I was so twitchy I couldn't stand it - I had to scrounge one off a co-worker. I made it last all day by just getting a few puffs at a time then putting it out. Shameful, but better than breaking down and buying a whole pack, as I was sorely tempted to do.

Quitting: Day Two

Cigarettes Today: 0

Would have been easier if I'd realised, or someone had told me, that today is Martin Luther King Day and therefore a federal holiday. As it was I drove to work and only found out when I got there, and had to turn back. It would have been extremely easy to drop into a gas station and get a pack of twenty, since it's an hour and a quarter drive home. I managed to resist the urge although it was a close thing. That was about 9am, and since I got home it's been mostly okay; although I've had the cravings a couple of times I've managed to suppress them by keeping my mind on other things.

Quitting: Day One

Cigarettes Today: 1

What's the Cigarettes thing?

I've decided to make a concerted effort to quit smoking, and as part of the effort I'm planning to put a little note every day to keep a track of progress - nothing too long, and some days no more than the heading. I'll probably only write more when there's something worth writing.

Watch This Space.