It's very sad pathetic the addiction issue, but addictions are Broken. I was born to a drug alcohol addict father and he was a loser, he lost so much of his life as he did NOT attempt to Clean Up. He did so much damage to himself and his family, but he did NOT smoke....
My brother and sister and I checked outselves often enough as we drank socially, me the most probably, but if my sister had an addiction issue, it was to sugars and carbs and I believe those things worked on her body as she dealt with MS and took tons of drugs from the docs. but did NOT clean up her sugar addition..she died at 68.
My father died when I was 20 years old. We all drank. The three who died of cancer (and another brother) also smoked. One was into "other stuff." That's what sometimes happens when you are the product of a destructive broken mess. It's interesting, but the one who was least into alcohol was also the least self-responsible (dropping out of high school, quitting jobs without another one lined up, sponging off of relatives)...the rest of us were "highly functioning alcoholics." I quit drinking in 1990, and sometime later one of my younger brothers did, too. He was severely alcoholic, and by the time he quit I had enough recovery under my belt to help him...and I was glad to do it. The alcohol nearly killed him before the cigarettes did (he had just turned 60.) My motivation to help the others is topic for another conversation.
los·er [ˈlo͞ozər] NOUN a person or thing that loses or has lost something, especially a game or contest: "he was the loser in the race" runner-up a person who accepts defeat with good or bad grace, as specified: "we won fair and square—they should concede that and be good losers" a person or thing that is put at a disadvantage by a particular situation or course of action: "children are the losers when politicians keep fiddling around with education" INFORMAL a person who fails frequently or is generally unsuccessful in life: "a ragtag community of rejects and losers" As a former smoker, I think it's fair to say that smoking puts us at a disadvantage in a lot of ways so, while I try to restrict my use of the term to people who I beat at cards or other contests, it wouldn't be inaccurate to use the word to describe a smoker.
My son in law, is one of 5 boys, 3 are gone from alcohol and cigs and finally cancer. The last 2 still living and one still smokes, he's 60something and does other weeds and the youngst son is pretty clean...he's in charge of the real estate trust that the boys inherited when parents and aunt/uncle were gone. So much to live for financially, maybe that was too easy in their lives. The 5 boys parents smoked... Thinking about my dad and his being in the bar scene, his parents owned a bar and when they died he and my uncle got it...he was around booze and cigs all the time... amazinf he never smoked...the uncle did and came back from militrary a smoker....he died in his 60's, dad made it to almost 95....no cigs
Yes, I learn some Spanish by translating English into Spanish and then memorizing enough to get my needs met. When shopping, I make a list, in Spanish, in case I can't locate what I need.
Good for you for making it work. Every so often we should all take a moment to sit back and marvel at what we are capable of when the situation demands it. I took 3 years of Spanish in high school. I never studied at all when I was in school (chaotic home life), but I always attended class. If it came naturally to me (math & Spanish), I got straight As. If it did not stick just from listening in class (history), I would barely pass (or even fail once,) I liked Spanish because I never understood the parts of speech until I got into Spanish class. Because conjugations follow such consistent patterns, I suddenly realized what past/present/future participles were. Since I had that foundation of knowledge I did not want to lose, for the rest of my life I've picked up free Spanish newspapers and read them as best I am able.
I want to pay a compliment to this forum, I have been a member of several Senior online forums, over the years. I still visit and participate in them off and on. This forum though has many excellent topics and as I browse about, I am impressed with how many of the members engage themselves with one another, it is so good to view this. So far I am very much enjoying my visits here, and I love to read, as so I am doing with a wide range of topics, and I've just begun... Regarding smoking, that never became a vice or big interest for me, except for at the age of 24 years old, I was determined to smoke 52 cigs, and so I did over the time frame of one year. Then I stopped and that was the end of it. There are those family members of mine who have successfully stopped and others who are still in motion. My father was a life long smoker from age 9 to the day he died. My mom never touched a cig or like myself no real interest. For all those on this thread hoping to one day stop, it is wonderful to have this topic to bounce thoughts and opinions off of to one another. Very great topic!
LOL, good one John. liberals don't care about others; they only care about popular agendas. The most hateful people I've known were liberals.
"not going into it all", looks like you got pretty far 'in' to me. But thats ok we cigarette smokers understand control freaking is a hard addiction to break. And cigarettes are a bad habit.