Wednesday, October 18, 2006

Sick and tired, Oh well.

The Ranter
The Views of The Ranter

I often write of news, military, our troops, God bless them, as well as whatever else may be of interest to me on that specific day. I spent this morning reading about North Korea, Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan and every other hot spot on the globe and decided that today was going to be different, but I was wrong.

I am sick and tired, fed up to my overflowing emotional top with war, violence, death, destruction and just about every other worst case situation in the world. I turn on the television in a weak attempt to find something entertaining, that is not to be and why, because we passed that platform long ago. We are inundated with more violence, heroes, antiheros, bad people, good people and ad nauseam.

I really need to laugh till my sides hurt over some stupid comment, television show, magazine article, something, but this too is evasive, or it simply no longer exists because we are so far into war and death that we can never see over the top again.

I need Bugs Bunny now more than ever, Daffy Duck, Popeye, anything that can bring a smile to my face again, make me once more believe in the American dream, the house with the white picket fence.

I guess I am just stressed to the maximum end of my limits. I have been trying to quit smoking for two weeks now, seven days without one single smoke then boom! I blew that one big time. Stop smoking patches, I think I only recharge the darn things! They do work if I allow them to, that and a whole lot of Tootsie Pop suckers. The generic patches are an absolute waste of money, time and energy. They do not work, pure and simple.

My litmus test for patches is simple. When I was on the generic, (insert generic name here) patch I could smoke as many cigarettes as I wanted without becoming nauseated or worse. The Nicoderm CQ patch is a horse of another color altogether. If I try to cheat, sneak into the bathroom and light a smoke, I become ill. They work!

My closest friend in life is my strongest supporter. Seventeen years of friendship has earned her the right to say whatever she wishes to me. She believes in me and loves me for what and who I am, not what I need to be to placate someone’s idea and I love her dearly and deeply. I would climb a mountain, ford a river or jump out of a plane for her and yet I let her down too. However, I am back on the path to purity once more, patch on my arm and cherry Tootsie Pop in my mouth as I write this. The beautiful part of my friend, my partner in crime, my soul mate, she forgives and encourages me on.

Yes, I need happiness, laughter and a smoke, but I am managing. I am getting sick of Tootsie Pops and even sicker of all the sadness in the world, but I will survive to write and rant another day. As far as smoking, well I know that eventually I will succeed. If not today then next week and I will try until I do and my buddy will be by my side encouraging me on and forgiving me when I am weak, but I will make it one of these days.

7 comments:

Wild Bill said...

Hang in there with the stoppin smokin, Buddy..

I guess if you need a humor lift, that means I need to send you some some stuff I have.. Just make sure you swallow your mouthfull of pizza first if you see my name in your mailbox !!

Anonymous said...

Sorry yer havin such a hard time of it with the smokes. E is having a hard time too. He went without for the last week. Sez he hates it when he starts again but has noticed how it hurts him when he does PT and runs.

Sez it kept him alive on patrol and in the guard tower---that is A O.K. with me.

Too bad the stuff is so addicting. I never try to be judgmental, we all have our cross to bear.

you and E will quit when you are able. One day it will just be right and you will put them down, be good on yerself til then.

As a nurse on hospice the deaths that are the hardest on me are the lung cancers. Not only must we give the morphine and dilaudid to quell the pain but ppl feel such anxiety from not being able to breathe we must also give them ativan and haldol. It makes the staff anxious as well. We can't fix it and it is painful to watch. Sometimes our patients are not even smokers. It is horrible.

If you can't quit could you not cut down and smoke less?

Be kind to yerself Ranter. You have seen alot of darkness in yer time and yes the times are very dark now, we all have our ways of dealing with it. I enjoy a patron silver marguerita bout 2-3 X a week, works for me.

Anonymous said...

Oh, oh sorry. Forgot to sign my name---hate to be anon....it is me above the great Mamabear!

The Old Ranter said...

Yep, I need more jokes Wild Bill. I am still recovering from the last ones and a few I shared.
Ranter

The Old Ranter said...

Thanks Mamabear,
Yes, it is hard. I wached my Mother die in Hospice from COPD and it was not pretty. My brother stopped then, I smoked more.
It will happen.
Ranter

The Old Ranter said...

It okay Mamabear,
I knew it was you. Only one with an E that I know. Smile
Ranter

The Old Ranter said...

My friend has two mini Daschunds snd they are the cutest little things. I'll make it.
Thanks Yankeemon
Ranter