1.58 miles around the reservoir, two times, no excuses. Life’s ordinary trials and tribulations shrink in the face of deep breaths, sweat, and one foot in front of the other.
Long time pickabar readers will remember that I quit smoking for about a month and a half a year ago. I even put a little javascript counter on the homepage that ticked off every second I went w/o a puff. Well, an MC5 concert in Central Park, and a flight to Seattle got me back on the nicotine train. I surreptitiously removed the counter and never mentioned it.
Realizing that life is short, I’m giving it another try. It’s been about two months so far without a slip, and only a few really tempting moments. I’ve been running three miles twice a week, two times around the Central Park Reservoir, which really helps. The gunk that came out of my lungs during the first run have made me want to never see another cigarette.
You might wonder why I am posting this, after being quite a bit embarrased about my last public failure. Well, I’m using the five or six pickabar readers out there as leverage to help me in the good fight. If you see me, please ask me about the quitting. If I tell you I’m still on the straight and narrow, please share all of the positive feedback you can. If you see me near smokers, please mention for all to hear that I shouldn’t even be near cigarettes. That’s right, I’m giving free and open rights to all to nag me.
I’m going to keep at it until I get this!
For the last three or so years Sarah and I have thrown our pocket change into a Seagrams novelty bank at the end of the day. Well, about a month ago the bottle was finally full. We weren’t quite sure how to open the bank exactly, but a small crack at the bottom of the bottle made that a moot point. We pocketed a screwdriver, loaded the bank into a shopping cart, and set off to find a Coinstar machine that could handle our booty.
The Commerce Savings bank on 94th and Broadway had just such a machine, and the bank manager was kind enough to give us a hand. He removed the actual change counting machinery from the cosmetic display case for our convenience, and was right there to replace the bags of counted coins with empty bags as needed. A gentleman who seemed to be a big fan of the coin return process sauntered over to observe after finishing up with his own coins. For a few moments, we were minor coin return celebs. It was all over in about five minutes.
A few days before declaring the bottle full, I bet Sarah that it would add up to more than a thousand dollars. Well, the final tally was $1029 and some change. Over a thousand dollars from pocket change!
With the addition of some of my tax return, that change is now a shiny new Westinghouse 42w2 42 inch 1080p LCD HDTV monitor. That’s right, pickabar headquarters is now an HDTV household…and I’m suddenly enthralled by watching cows grazing in a field at sunrise. I’m also spending a crazy amount of time on the AVS Forums getting tips on tricks, especially the Time Warner NYC and SA 8300HD threads.
Now we just need to buy a new piggy bank! If anyone has a lead on a Jameson bank like the Seagrams bank above please do post a comment.