I quit

I’ve been wrestling with how to end this blog. I think it needs to be done.

Making this less difficult to accept is that not many people have noticed my last post was May 7.

I haven’t posted in two weeks because I don’t have much else to say.

I realized that this morning, and I knew it was time to quit what I started in mid February.

I stumbled into an audience along the way, and for that I am grateful.

I do not in any way intend to diminish the efforts of those who quit around the same time I did, and who have faithfully followed the blog while offering steady, valuable comments.

But let me be perfectly selfish, as I have consistently been since I started polluting thestar.com with my words more than three months ago …

The blog was only ever meant to be a quitting device, a way to purge my fury and frustration as I blundered my way through the most unpleasant stages of quitting.

I never pretended to offer any serious advice to other quitters. I did not, for the most part, follow any news related to smoking. I had not put much thought into how long I would blog about quitting, but I knew there was no way anyone would be remotely interested in day 188 or 245 of my quit ...

    Hi everyone. It’s me, remember? The guy who quit smoking last year? Yeah, well, I am still quit, and fatter than ever. I hate running clubs. I love peanut butter … still. I know, right? What’s with peanut butter? It’s soooo good. Anyway, just checking in with you, my fans, on this glorious smoke-free day.

I have not relapsed. I am still quit. And I plan on staying that way.

But I have run out of anger. I am now just tired of the energy it takes to quit, and want to obsess about other things.

I was ready to go nuts over the Blue Jays but watching those guys play makes me want to smoke three packs a day.

Maybe I could start a new blog about what it’s like to work in a struggling industry and watch your co-workers get down-sized. But odds are I would be preaching to the converted.

Barack Obama I am totally obsessed with, but the world needs another Obama pundit like I need more beer and peanut butter.

Any suggestions for a new blog topic?

I don’t know if the people who run thestar.com will continue to link to the blog homepage. I hope so. You should feel free to send in comments and thoughts and ravings and criticism.

I will read them, if you want me to.

I may even add a blog post sometime down the road, but I promise to do so only if there is something newsworthy to report, like if I relapse, become morbidly obese, or take up murdering raccoons.

 

 

One reader has something to say ...

I don't normally stray from the sarcastic and silly in this blog, but a reader has something important to say:

Hi - I wrote you a couple months ago about my boyfriend who would not quit smoking. How I could tell it was making his health worse and I was scared and angry about what he does to himself. And I was thinking about leaving him just for that reason. Well let me add that I really loved him so much. I guess that was making it worse. He was telling me how I should leave it up to him when he is ready to make that decision. Well he just died. That is it, nothing more. He is gone.

He smoked a lot and that was basically the way he dealt with everything - so mostly he seemed to be a person who can deal with anything that comes his way, but in reality, he was killing himself. At 55, he got a massive heart attack. I know you would say people get heart attacks and do not smoke, but in his case that was obviously the cause.

And I knew and I was basically begging him to stop ... I mean, the heart problems could still be there, but I believe he would be able to get out of it ... if not for smoking. I was mailing him some of the comments that I found on your blog ...

Anyway, if you have not quit and are thinking maybe it is not such a big deal after all ... believe me, it is. He started a successful business, he has a child, he actually had a lot to live for. And he was such a nice person ... so hard for me now without him.

I miss him so much ... and he would still be here if not for the cigarettes. He thought he must get to that point one day, on his own, when he decides to quit. Well it just does not work that way in real life, unfortunately. And we miss him so much ... and he is not coming back.