Kris

Good Morning Linda, I am okay. You know me, I have these bouts of insomnia that I ust can't explain. It is not my favorite thing when I get like this. I have ambien the doctor just gave me, it works great once I can get to sleep but does not seem to help me fall asleep. Looks like I need to go in and see the doc again. I am so confused about this. There was a time when people asked me what are your hobbies, normally I would say reading and sleeping. I can't seem to either anymore. I hope everything is good for you,, the holidays can be hard even without the covid worry. What is happening there, what are your plans for Christmas? Are you going to just stay home with your furbaby? That is my plan for now.

I am a nope but I must say @notsmokinjo I wondered about Happy Gravy Day. You know the drill, went to the google. I did not listen to the song but I have always (almost) known the importance of gravy. I was married at 20, that first week I cooked a dinner that included mashed potatoes. I worked hard to make that dinner. I made a plate for my new husband and placed it on the table. " This looks great, Honey" where is the gravy? Apparently, mashed potatoes were never served without gravy in his mother's house. It never happened again. My husband's whole family was obessed with gravy. At every holiday meal, the boys were in the kitchen like little chicks. Mom are you sure you made enough? That does not look like enough. When dinner was served they were like wild animals fighting over the gravy bowl. All of them, you took to much, give me the bowl, it is my turn, pass it this way. Well, I have always known how to make gravy, if you are a girl in the south, you knew how to make gravy. Sausage gravy over biscuits, brown gravy over roast beef, cream gravy for fried chicken and chicken fried steak. I just did not realize how important gravy was. After I demonstrated this skill, I knew I would never have marital problems. You can solve every problem with a good bowl of gravy and something else..... K

@Gus Glad you are getting a well deserved break. Yep, do still not go out much. Holidays kinda in a holding pattern, DIL has covid, so they are in quaratine. Son was negative a couple of days ago but now not feeling good, scratchy throat and losing his voice earlier today. Going to get a retest today. I am good, just want them to be good too! Happy Holidays to you and yours!!

@GusI guess you are up early and I am up late. If I remember correctly, you work at a school and now are at Christmas break. That is such a gift to the people that work in education, to have a long Christmas break, at least I always thought it would be a great job to have. I hope you and your loved ones are all well this holiday season. K

@Boo Who are you and how do you know so much about so much. I just danced with my husband. Him in a tux and me in a white and silver ballgown with a full skirt so the lights could sparkle as I turned. The unusual thing about it, my husband did not dance, he has been in heaven these last 11 christmases and I have never worn a ballgown. But I did tonight thanks to you! K

Hi @TONY Welcome, glad you found the site and you will glad you have. I found it about a week in to my quit. I am now six months in and could have not done it without the people on this site. They have been supportive, encouraging, helpful and constant. I can come here day or night and find someone here to help. They (I) only want the best for you. You are doing great but you must be prepared for what may sneak up on you. Please go through old threads that will give you strenth and inspiration to keep going! Talk with you soon. K

@Mac#23 Merry Christmas to you and everyone you love!

@MLMR I feel your pain and struggle. I am blessed that I was able to take an early retirement when my health went south. Yes, it is good to have social security but it alone is not enough to be able to have a comortable income. My husband and I planned for old age early on and invested well. For now, I do not have to worry on the financial part of it. The biggest problem is the situation we are in. We have no choice but to isolate, there is no one there to help us thru the anxiety and depression that floods our lives. I am sorry that your relationship with your partner has ended, but if it was not solid before it would be harder now. For me, I would prefer to be alone instead of putting my faith in someone I could not count on. You can count on you, if the right person comes along, you will know it. We can only have hope we will get through this the best way we can. K

@Katgirl, I will agree that we are all suffering mentally from the strain of fear. I, like you, have always suffered from anxiety. I have gone thru therapy for the condition and have done well with it for the last 25 years. This is a whole different animal. There is something to fear, first we have mandated isolation, now we have self imposed isolation. I have tried to use all my coping skills to get by. I find it more difficult by the day. I have discussed with my doctor. The only thing she added was some ambien. I just can't go to sleep. I will be up to 4 in the morning and then sleep till noon. I know that is not good. I need to get back to a normal sleep schedule but have not been able to do it on my own. I also leave the house only about once a week. I live alone and I know it is not a good thing to isolate. I just do not see anyway to fix the problem. I just have no idea what to do like millions of others.

My son tested negative yesterday but this afternoon is losing his voice and having scratchy throat, going for another test tomorrow. DIL still sick but not bad. From stuff I have seen on the net, you could test negative in the morning and be positive by the afternoon. My son was going to come over tomorrow but in light of everything he is hearing and the fact he is having throat issues he is not coming. I am glad I got out today for my booster and restock of food for me and the dogs. I would say if you do not have to be out do not, if you can order in what you need do that. As much as I hate to say it you should think about not planning any get togethers for the holidays. So many of us have underlying health issues that could make us so sick if we got covid. I am a little freaked because my son has allergy related asthma and this is a bad time for him already. Will update, can anyone else share what is happening where they are

I can't remeber if I had a smoking dream right now but the last couple of nights I have had dreams of my youth that included all the people I have lost. They were good dreams not nightmares, maybe a gift from them I am doing well

It is no surprise to me, you have done great with your quit so it only follows you would do well with your workouts. I hope to someday tackle that too!

So happy for you!! Hope I reach the stars too!

Thanks to all, could not have made it without you. Today of all days, I thought I real need to get a smoke. Stupid Huh! Did not do it. I ventured out today, covid booster, had an appointment but the place was overbooked, did get it done. Went to the grocery, wanted to get stocked up with everything needed to the new year. Did not realize everyone else had the same idea, it was a madhouse but I got it done. With a stop at customer service, charged me twice for one item and did not give me the sale price on four others. Pocketed the refund with a smile and let them know this happens all the time and I catch it all the time. Would they want the older people in their lives taken advantage of. Went to the happy liquid store, that was okay but for the big truck that parked right next to me and I mean next to me. What did he do, look in the store and see the fluffy lady, yeah, that this is her car and I am going to park 6 inches close of her drivers side. I will not be ashamed that I like pizza and ice cream. I went straight to the passenger side, thru in the booze, put my big butt in the air and crawled over to the drivers side with a big smile on my face. Last stop, lookng forward to it, visit to the animal shelter with food donations and damned if they had'nt moved it. Back home, looked up where they are now and will take it tomorrow..so have a Meowie Christmas and a Barkless New Year. Be careful out there, sabotage awaits!!

OOOH, those memories and now we struggle to get to the bathroom. It went by so fast, did not seem like it at the time but looking back we woke up one morning, able to join AARP, retire and go on medicare. All I can say is WTF! I kept telling my son these are your glory years so pay attention and enjoy before the real adulting begins. Well he is adulting now and finding it not as easy as he thought it was going to be. What did he think his Dad and I were doing all those years...flying off to the south of France on our jet. No, we were going to the market shopping food sales, coming up with the money for soccer, private trumpet lessons, paying for school trips, paying the cost for his braces. We would have sold a kidney for that kid. Now he really gets it as his friends have college loans to pay off but he does not because we always planned and saved for his college.Hopefully we taught him well so he will do okay.

I wrecked many but not the pinto

Thats okay, I knew the weather was bad. If has forced me to watch a netflix show set in Sweden, I think, hard to keep up with the subtitles, but there is snow.

Just a side note for you that missed dinner, I think I am getting my mojo back, probably the best lasagna I have cooked in ten years. Guess that happens when your sadness takes a day off and let's you be happy in the kitchen.

Kel. it was my first stick shift, I took it to a little hill in town and taught myself, not to pop the clutch or roll backwards.

They both sound great. Is it sweetend coconut like use for baking? K

Don't you miss them, they were such great little cars!

I must say I did love that car, white on white with the crager wheels of the time. I would be happy to drive it today. Oh the things we long for from our youth. It many sound silly but prior to the grand prix I had a little white and tan hatch back ford pinto. I also loved that car and in fact when I dream of my youth that is what I am driving. I sometimes go online checking classic car auctions to see if I could find one. No luck so far but it does not hurt to look

Oh my god, was it one of the red rubber bands? I would think it might be part of an instestine or something. I would be to afraid. I would have spent 400 at the emergency vet just to have them laugh in my face but they would still want the money.

@jillar she is beautiful, the only reason I do not own a cat is my son and I are both allergic. @Linda, I must confess there have been times I had to pull something out of the dogs bottoms, I thiink they were my sons socks. Since he moved out I have not had to do that. My poor sister has a dog that she has to clean his bottom everytime he goes. Whoever docked his tail messed up his whole back end. Can you imagine a dog yelling "i'm done, come wipe my butt"

Well at least you did not put your hog on the table!! In my youth I owned a grand prix with a 454 four barrell. Guys would pull up for a race and I would just laugh and go on at regular speed. I did find out later that when my sis would borrow my car she was out there burning rubber. LOL