Just random writing today…whatever pops into my head.
Today is Tuesday. I’ve had over one month now since my last cigarette and even though I still get cravings, I haven’t found it necessary to pick up a cigarette. For that, I am grateful. I’ve avoided smoking 584 cigarettes over the twenty-nine-day period and have saved $169 by not lighting up. It’s still just one day at a time, but I’m pleased with my progress.
I’ve taken my car to get the oil changed and to have its yearly inspection completed. I’ll then need to renew my license tag at the local tag office. My strategy is to not renew my personalized tag and get a regular one. If the new random tag doesn’t have any particular meaning, I’ll then apply for another personalized tag. I’ve done this for several years and am following the same course of action for this year.
Tomorrow I have a doctor’s appointment to check up on the medicine I’m taking for ADD. I’ve been pleased with the results thus far. I have had a sore throat for the past week or so and ended up in urgent care on Sunday. Good news was no covid, no strep…but still no answers as to what was causing the symptoms. So I’ll likely have my family doctor weigh in on what the thinks it might be.
I also have an appointment with my therapist tomorrow afternoon. I don’t have anything, in particular, to talk about with him, except to discuss my twenty-year abstinence from alcohol and my continued recovery from smoking. I was able to speak with a friend yesterday who’s struggling with a family member’s addiction and gave him my therapist’s name as a possible resource, as well as the name of another therapist I’ve utilized in my recovery. It’s always good to be able to use my life experiences to help someone else when they’re struggling. It’s also a part of why I think it’s important to break my anonymity with selected folks from time to time. They then have a resource call upon they might not otherwise have.
I will be going back to school next week. I’m going to be working Monday through Thursday, which are teacher workdays. I’ll need to get my classroom ready for the first day of school on the 29th of this month. It’ll be good to be back in the flow again and I’m looking forward to being with some of my former teacher friends again, as well as some new faces. For good measure, I even had a teacher dream last night, which is very common as the new school year approaches.
We’re getting a break from the heat and humidity this week. It was partly cloudy yesterday and we did get some much-needed rain. This morning we awoke to cloudy skies and cooler temperatures once more. I know we’re still going to have some of those ninety-degree-plus days before the end of summer, but it’s nice to get a break from the heat.
I’ve been walking each day as a way to replace a bad habit (smoking) with a good one. I know there will be those times when I’m not able to walk each and every day once school starts, but I’ve found it helps me both mentally and physically to exercise each day. I’ve been walking at a local park and have begun seeing some of the same faces each day as I walk. I have an app on my phone that gives me a summary of the distance I’ve traveled, as well as calories burned for that day. It even has a map of the route that I took. Any gadget that gives me motivation is good in my book.
So that’s it for today..random thoughts that hopefully make some degree of sense.
David Lee
David Lee 