Happy Thanksgiving!

It's one thing to be thankful for stuff - family, material stuff, status in life overall, whatever.

It's another thing to be thankful to someone - God, family, employer, whatever.

It's still another thing to be thankful for surviving and prospering through a situation or season of life.

It's still another thing to Give Thanks.

As I celebrate Thanksgiving this year, I want to emphasize the Giving part of Thanksgiving, intentionally and specifically in every paradigm of life. I am Thankful. But just now, in addition to being thankful, I want to Give Thanks.

Vancouver Bans Door Knobs. Really?

"And I thought Oklahoma City trying to ban E-Cigarettes was bad."

So, as if the world needs proof that government is getting too big, to invasive, too restrictive, too much, our neighbor to the north drives the point home.

Do we really need government on any level meddling with how we open doors? Whether a door is opened with a knob or a lever just doesn't seem to pass the importance test as far as I'm concerned. The fact that there are city councils, county commissioners, state committees and federal agencies that have absolutely nothing better to do than study such things demonstrates clearly that there should be no budget deficits. There is a lot of money that just doesn't need to be spent.

I could rant about this forever, and get totally depressed for the future of human life. No wonder government is so broke. If I catch anyone in our business worrying about such trivial issues, I make it a point to give them something more important to worry about. On one occasion, I suggested that a certain employee work on his resume instead of the BS he was so worked up about.

What a bunch of crap! I think I'll use the door knob on my office door to close it long enough for a nap so I can forget I read about Vancouver banning door knobs.

No More Excuses

"If my breathing is OK, why can't I jog more the 2 minutes?"

Well, the sleep study results are in, and I don't need a CPAP. Further, the Dr. did a PFT (Pulmonary Function Test), and I passed with flying colors. There is virtually no damage to my lungs after 30 years of smoking. My lungs are clear and strong. Any shortness of breath I experience while working out is related to conditioning, not smoking.

I think the Dr. was giving me good news. He thought I should be thrilled, and I am from a certain point of view. It's fun to know that I will probably not follow in line with my father and grandfather, who died in their early fifties from COPD, emphysema and other smoking related complications. But there's another angle to consider.

My standby excuse for poor performance in the gym, general lethargic lifestyle, the amount of time I spend asleep (or wishing I were asleep), lack of interest in almost everything and life overall has been taken away. I had a stress test and some other routine 50 year old stuff done earlier this year, and my heart is as strong as ever too. So the two main concerns with my 30 year smoking addition have pretty much evaporated for now.

So, why do I get so winded after just a couple of minutes running slowly on the treadmill? I could understand it before. Last year while I was still smoking, I could barely walk fast for a few minutes. I am doing a lot better.

I remember back in college when I was encouraged to run. I had friends who very much enjoyed going for a good run in the morning. I never could do it. After just a few minutes, I just ran out of air. From then on, it was just meaningless torture to run more. And that was before I ever smoked a cigarette.

So I'm trying to work on breathing better. Maybe pushing my lower jaw forward and stuff. I tried it on the treadmill this week, and it seems to help a little. Maybe the bottom line is that I just need to do the one thing I don't know how to do...

Try harder.

The Vaping Backlash Exposed

"Water looks like Vodka and Gin, so don't drink it because it could lead to alcoholism and death."

I am now approaching the one year anniversary of mostly vaping instead of smoking. I am not alone. My brother (who ridiculed me for months before he actually tried it) hasn't had a cigarette since May. My mom is on day 15 of vaping instead of smoking - after telling me under no uncertain terms that after 63 years of smoking, she was not going to vape instead.

These stories are neither unique or atypical. Thousands and thousands of people in the U.S. and Europe have finally found a way to stop smoking without killing anyone - a feat that Medical Science and the Tobacco industry have attempted and failed at many times over the past fifty years.

Yet the backlash against vaping is loud and strong - especially from the very industries that should be reveling in its succes. The reason behind this stance is that the anti-tobacco industry has become just that…an industry.

It is a body composed of many parts. There are the pharmaceutical corporations who make billions of dollars off of Chantix, Wellbutrin, Nicorette, etc. There are organizations such as Truth. org which employ many people who are dependent on the continuing panic of tobacco-induced health risks for job security. There are doctors, lawyers, etc. who have concentrated their practices on tobacco-related issues. There are many government agencies who benefit from the tobacco taxes. So the mere mention of something that could possibly make many of these different companies and organizations obsolete is a frightening and threatening proposition. This makes no sense at all.

The main arguments against vaping are:

It looks like smoking, therefore must be bad. (The quote above demonstrates how silly that argument is.)

It lends itself to a false sense of security that may entice people to become addicted to nicotine who would never smoke. (Try applying that argument to condom use as a way to reduce teenage pregnancies or the spread of STD's.)

We don't know whether they're safe. There's not enough data. (We know that smoking isn't safe, and kills thousands each year. Let's save some of those lives while the research continues, eh?)

They contain arsenic and other bad chemicals. (As does baby food, the patches and gum they're so proud of and thousands of other products we use every day. The FDA can't find anything harmful about the nicotine juice that doesn't apply to all kinds of other products they have deemed safe for human consumption.)

There really aren't any more substantial reasons for the bitter, hateful opposition to e-cigarettes. And there have already been many, many efforts to find a smoking gun in this fledgling industry.

Experience is everything. My experience, and that of many close to me and thousands in the world around me is nothing but positive. Why can't we just leave it there and let everyone go on with their lives?

It Was So Fun The First Time

"Mom's going back for more heart stints."

I took my mom to the cardiologist for her follow up appointment after her heart attack. They said she's recovering nicely and they want to schedule the procedure for the other two stints in a couple or three weeks. They're telling us it's not nearly as traumatic when we do it on purpose - and not in the middle of a coronary 'incident'.

Mom is doing much better. She's almost back to where she was before the first incident. Maybe gets tired a little quicker.

I'm recovering too. Most people lose their parents at some point in life. The other way around is really not fair. Parents should never have to bury their children. I lost my dad in 1991. I probably came closer than I want to know about to losing Mom a couple of weeks ago. Of course I had to think about that a little. Books have been written on losing loved ones and coping with it. I think I shall not need to read them.

At Mom's house while she was in the hospital, I looked around at all of the accumulated stuff from several generations of our family. It's all the stuff that Mom loves. I love a little of it too, but not much. I remember thinking that when she dies, all of this will turn to dust as far as I'm concerned. Then I thought about how callous that would sound if I put it in my blog.

I don't mean for it to be callous or hard hearted. It's just how it is. I have been a good son to Mom, and she has been a terrific mother. The day will come when that role is completed for both of us. When she dies, I will miss her. But I will not grieve much. I have no regrets. I've lived my life the way I have for these 50 years to avoid having to look at someone important that I've lost, regretting things that I did (or didn't) do or say.

I know. That all sounds good. We'll see what happens when the time comes.

The good news is, that day is not today.

Eleven, Twelve, Thirteen

"It doesn't work in Europe."

I can find absolutely nothing profound to say about 11/12/13. I can't even think of anything smart-ass to say about it. But it's still cool.

Somebody should have predicted the end of the world today. It makes as much sense as 12/21/12. But as far as I can tell nobody did.

(Does that actually make it more probable that the world will end sometime today?)

So I thought of an idea. Why can't eleven/twelve/thirteen be a day when something good happens to each and every person on the planet? That is every bit as likely as doomsday, isn't it? Or perhaps today can be a day that begins a whole new cycle of goodness such that the world has never experienced before. What if today could be a day when the whole culture shifts from self centered, self saturation to something better?

Well, it's just a thought.

Mom Had A Heart Attack

"Some days, the world turns faster than others."

At 74 years old (the last 63 of which as a smoker), my mother experienced a heart attack last Thursday.

It wasn't the sudden catastrophic kind. It was the more subtle, don't feel a bit good kind. After 36 hours of feeling bad, she started having a hard time breathing, and we called for help. Within 45 minutes, the EMS folks took her to the Oklahoma Heart Hospital, the staff diagnosed the problem and completed the stint procedure to completely open up a 100% blocked artery. From 911 call to recovery was a total of 45 minutes. That's amazing.

She was in the hospital all weekend, resting and being pampered. I was up there with her, taking care of her house and dogs, intercepting calls from friends and family (how fast the gossip channels work!), talking to doctors, fetching chocolate pudding, worrying and contemplating life without her, etc. By the time she came home Sunday night, I was exhausted.

Our family has a history of leaving this world through heart attacks - the sudden kind that come from nowhere and are over as fast as they start. Mom's older brother died that way in 1996, and Mom's mother died that way in 1984. My mom has always said she wants to go that way, and even told the cardiologist that before they did the stint procedure. "I'm going to die of a heart attack. But not today."

The events of the weekend have caused some serious reflection, and some awesome circumstances surrounded the main attraction. More about those coming soon, I'm sure.

But for now, it's great that she's home and feeling better - and that I can get some rest.