Thinking Out Loud

I have been smoking cigarettes for just over 30 years and came to the conclusion that I must quit, first and foremost, for health reasons and secondly for financial reasons. My state has the lowest tobacco tax in the country and the legislature feels guilty about it and has been trying for the past few years to raise it. They will raise the tax, budget some government service on the new tax revenue, people will quit, revenue falls, service funding falters, its the same old story. My state puts a 7 cent per pack tax on cigarettes, the legislature wants to raise it to 57 cents per pack, the state education secretary wants it to go up to $1.34 per pack. So the smokers are going to help fund the state schools and colleges, if the education secretary gets his way, the legislature will write their budgets accordingly. As noted, this so called new cool source of revenue will falter if smokers stop being smokers and the legislature will not build in any safety measures if the revenue source begins to dry up and it will. What sin taxes, like those placed on tobacco, beer and booze should do, is have their revenue placed into the general fund to retire state debt, therefore you avoid budget shortfalls in the other more meaningful government programs. I guess the smokers in the state should be thankful that they are not living in New York or New Jersey, both states competing to see which one can have the highest tax on tobacco and both seemingly raising their taxes on a annual basis. Taxes do appear to get Democrats sexually excited!

I have always bought my cigarettes ahead, I made what I thought was a decision to quit smoking back in December, I had several and I mean several packs on hand, then I just stopped buying them. The supply ran out finally on February 20th 2010, at which point I got up on 02/21/2010 and slapped a patch on my shoulder. Some more background is in order.. Prior to any decision to quit, I had imbibed in for several months those Nicotine lozenges, at work. This cut my smoking back considerably at work, no more running out to the front sidewalk whenever I was bored or having a nic-a-fit. Working in retail like I do, it did get frustrating to go out, light a fresh cigarette and then get called back in because someone was living their life on the telephone.

Anyhow, as things turned out, I did the bulk of my smoking here at home when I was in front of the computer, often chain smoking one after the other, so I figure that I smoked a pack and a half on a work day, and perhaps two and a half packs if I was off.

On Sunday 02/21/2010, I was miserable, even though I was receiving measured doses of nicotine from the patch, I found myself thinking of holding a cigarette in my hand and puffing, I thought I had the bases covered, toothpicks, hand exercise devices and mints. Sitting here at the computer, I found no motivation to do anything on it, well actually any of them, I have a few..

I decided to forego the patch the next day, and I decided to use just the lozenges, so I went to the store to reinforce my existing supply of lozenges after getting off of work. (The work day was fine). I decided to get the 2mg lozenges, a pill splitter and yes, I broke down and purchased 3 packs of cigarettes.

The 2 mg lozenges are for later, so I took my existing 4 mg lozenges and split them in 2, I use these at work. I saved several of them and split them into fourths for here at the desk.

On Monday night I did break down and have a cigarette, even after only 36 hours by that time, it tasted so good.. (read real nicotine rush)

Of that first pack, it took me to Friday 02/26/10 to smoke it, which of course is not too bad when compared to 30 to 50 smokes a day. This despite the fact that I fell off of the wagon so soon, but my case is not unusual.

What I failed to do is modify my behavior at home, like I did for work and I should have done so before trying to quit. So for those times when I have to have a real smoke, I am forcing myself outside into the garage or the driveway to smoke, I figure that eventually I will tire of this and have the behavioral mindset in place.

I also got one of those electronic cigarettes see this link here.

Hopefully I can really whip this thing for good, but I really can grasp the behavioral part of the addiction and understand why it is so hard to quit.

I read a story about a Willmar Minnesota man being charged with assault after spraying some teens with Fox Urine..

Read the Story Here .

Seems he got a little tired of having toilet paper being draped all over his yard as he was a common target for teenage pranksters. So using night vision goggles and a super-soaker filled with the Fox Piss, he decided to get the upper hand on them one night and decided to douse the teens with the fox pee.

As the story outlines, the man was accosted from behind and a struggle ensued, apprarently someones finger got broken, the homeowner is the one whom reported the incident to the police.

What I dont understand is why the man is getting charged..

Lets look at some facts here:

• Just because teens will be teens and commit pranks, does not mean homeowners “HAVE TO” endure these pranks.
• Every homeowner has a right to defend their property, I doubt any of these teens pay this mans mortgage or property taxes.
• If this had happened in a more urban setting, these teens could have faced the business end of a firearm.
• If the teens felt they had a right to trespass on the property of another, then the property owner had every right to make the teens experience more memorable by giving them a smell they would not soon forget.
• If the teens were choking this man, as the story suggests, then a broken finger isnt nothing.

When I was a teen, I was very much involved with pranks, toilet papering, throwing snowballs at peoples doors, knocking on doors/ringing doorbells and running etc.. I used to be a newspaper delivery boy for a Washington DC area newspaper, afternoon deliveries during the week and morning deliveries on the weekends, on the weekends I was generally delivering my route between 5am and 7am. I decided to be cute by flattening the mail box of a person on one of the streets on my route, he was not a customer of mine, but I faithfully flattened it every saturday and sunday morning over the course of a few weeks. He always straightened it out and in that time, once replaced it, yet I still flattened it out, even the replacement. Eventually he did the math and figured it all out that it was happening on a set pattern and not randomly. So one morning he got up early and waited, sure enough I come along and I flatten the mailbox again, this time he popped up from behind some bushes and busted me.. He was rather cool about it, he could have called the police and would have been right to do so, he went on to tell me that when he was my age, he did the same sort of things.. He made a deal with me, he gave me 2 weeks to give him $15 to cover the cost of a new mailbox, in return he would not tell my customers on the street or my parents, DEAL! I gave him the money within a week and from that point forward I grew up and my prank days were done. He even subscribed to the newspaper!!

With this toilet papering/Fox pee incident, there is no way the victim should be charged given the facts I read all this does is send the message to teenagers that they can carry out these pranks with no fear of punishment be making their victims responsible for their pranks.

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