Two Months, I am Amazed

It's been two months since I quit smoking. Honestly, I'm amazed. I've tried before, and made it 3-6 weeks at a shot before I found a reason (usually bad) to go pick up a pack of cigarettes. This time I haven't.

My recent heart issues and health scares have definitely helped this time around. 'Knowing' cigarettes are a big contributor to heart problems is one thing, experiencing it is quite another.

The other thing that has helped has been my lovely wife, who has also quit. She's been 3 weeks without a cigarette, and I couldn't be prouder of her. She noticed yesterday afternoon she'd forgotten to put on her nicotine patch, and didn't miss it.

As for the down side to quitting, I don't see Andrew, the clerk at 7-11 nearly as much as I used to, but I still stop by once in a while to get the wife a candy bar (her new vice) or a jug of milk. The other down side is my income taxes will probably go up. I figure as much as I was paying a year in cigarette taxes to Illinois the state will have to raise income taxes to make up for what I'm not giving them.

Read The Full Post!

Jury Duty

So, this week I'm doing my civic duty by serving (maybe) as a juror. They say that this only happens to you once every four years if you get picked for a panel. That's pretty accurate, since the last time I did this was just about 4 years ago.

So far today, I've gotten to watch a video, listen to a judge, and get the rules told to me. Other than that I've smoked 4 cigarettes (inside the building!), drank some coffee, and gotten a little work done.

It's just slightly after 11:00 am, and they have yet to call anyone to a panel today, which means I'll probably be back at least one more time this week.

Back to the cigarette thing; the jury holding pen is one of the few areas left in a public building that you can smoke in the county. On the first of the year it will be going away, and I'm thinking that isn't such a great idea.

You see, while you are waiting to get called to a jury, there is a very limited area you can go, and outside for a smoke isn't one of them. So, come the second week of January, the trial docket gets going again, there will be a bad surprise for some folks. Nicotine deprived jurors, who may have been sitting around for hours waiting for a ciagrette. I'm thinking that the sympathy level for defendants will go down proportionally to the length of time that some of the jurors have been forced to stop smoking.

As for "not being smart enough to get out of jury duty", I don't have a problem with doing it. My company pays me for 8 hours a day while I'm here, actually have time to get my scheduling done for the next month, and I don't have customers to worry about, at least for a few days. It's like a mini-vacation without burning my time off.

Read The Full Post!