It’s been ten days since I’ve officially quit smoking. The actual physical addiction is long gone, but the desire is still there.

Well, not really. The current Socialist bitch of a Governor in Delaware and her policies haven’t forced me to quit. That’d be like admitting defeat to the Vichy French. Funk that.

Today, April 19th, I’m officially quitting smoking. I haven’t had a cigarette and I’m not going to. Hopefully not for a long time. Hopefully never. This isn’t to say smoking wasn’t pleasurable or enjoyable. Quite the contrary. I loved smoking and enjoyed it immensely. But each day I will have that little tapping in the back of my mind telling me that I should have a cigarette. It’s going to be a contest of won’t power each and every day. Being an addict isn’t a disease. That’s an easy way for someone to say it isn’t their fault. I knowingly started smoking. I made the conscious choice to start smoking and I’ve always been more of a 60/40 social/gottahaveitnow smoker.

On Friday, April 6th I came down with a horrific bout of food poisoning. When you spend six hours with the usual effects of food poisoning, it gets old. I tried smoking the next day and it was the absolute worst taste ever. I couldn’t finish even half a cigarette. That was the decisive factor making it my time to stop smoking and take the opportunity to work on a New Year Resolution. Over the next couple weeks it would be a test of whether or not I could make it through the day without a cigarette. Usually one-half to a whole cigarette would be all I could stand. Unless it was a clove. Those are just dangerously tasty.* During that time my cigarette intake was down to one a day or sometimes I’d skip a day.

Now I’m making the conscious choice to have a daily struggle against the desire for a cigarette.

*Because there is going to be some schmuck on the internet crowing about my advocating smoking, let me say the following: This is not me advocating anyone pick up the habit of smoking. Now stop being an over-sensitive ponce of a wanker.

The following is a great visualization of J.S. Bach’s Tocatta and Fugue in D Minor.