As it turns out, I need a permit for the project I am working on in the back yard.
Lets be honest here. I want to do a good job, and I want the work safe and don't want to do anything substandard. I would like to save as much money as possible. The permitting folks are understanding that I want to do as much as possible to save the maximum amount of my money. However, as I am adding to an existing septic system, I have to get it certified. As a minimum, I need my treatment plant pumped out and a one-year service contract. I'm not sure what that will cost, but those are absolute requirements before the health department will give me a permit. I need the health department permit before the planning commission will give me a building permit.
I did get out this morning and located my water line and septic lines, and it turns out that they are within six feet of where I am building the pool house. That is good news, as trenching will be minimal. I'll dig a trench myself so the plumber will have the absolute minimum of effort when he hooks everything up. Stringing electricity out there might be a problem, but I am going to get some expert help with that.
I'm sweating every day. I'm starting to feel it in my arms and legs and it feels good. My work isn't physically demanding. Like most guys my age, I don't get nearly enough exercise. I'm not overdoing anything, but working a couple of hours in the morning and the evening with a shovel is a good thing.
I'm also trying to quit smoking. I have been a steady, addicted cigarette smoker for the last 35 years. Pack and a half a day. Sometimes two packs during high stress times. June 1st I started quitting. Every day since, I have quit smoking again. I intend to keep quitting till I get it right. I'm using the patch and it seems to help quite a bit. I may have to get the gum to finish for good.
I know one damn thing. I used to smoke quite a bit sitting near this computer. I also used to smoke a lot while writing. Working on reports, or an essay, or trying to get a sentence to flow, I'd sit back, light a cigarette, and let the words curl around the smoke. Smoking hasn't caused me any health issues. I'm a smoker and I've only taken off sick two days in the past four years. However, I know the years are advancing on me. I know the health risks. I know it is time to quit.
In my case, it isn't an issue of being scared into quitting, it is the cumulative effect of years of education and knowledge. Smoking is bad for me. I know that. But I like tobacco. I've always liked tobacco. And it hasn't bitten me yet. Like losing an old dog who has outlived his span of years, or putting down an old horse, I look at quitting smoking with mixed emotions. Yeah, it is the right thing to do, but damn, we had some good years. I'm a little sad, and a little melancholy about it.
Don't tell me how much better off I'll be when I quit. I know all that. Like telling someone how much better things will be once a loved one passes on. Yeah, I know that, but saying it is just a bit tacky. How'm I doing, you ask? After 35 years of smoke, I am down to a couple a day. Maybe three. I'm quitting and that is that. The pack I opened on May 31st still has cigarettes in it. I doubt I'll ever need any more.
Still, I have a building to construct and permits to obtain. Let the bureaucratic games begin.
5 comments:
I'm a non-smoker.
My mom smoked.
My granny smoked.
I greatly dislike smoking.
But if you want to quit smoking, all I'm going to say is good luck, and when you've licked it, let me know and I'll hoist a glass in your honor.
If you were to continue to smoke, I'd say go for it, because I believe we should be able to do any damn thing we want as long as it doesn't hurt someone else. And for the second hand smoke Nazi's, I'm not convinced so go piss up a rope.
Hey Freddy, come spend an hour at the bar in the local honky tonk. I've counted several times, and at least 75 % of the patrons smoke--and sitting at the bar and drinking beer, they chain smoke. But I do have a choice, so when the joint starts filling up with smokers and the air gets thick, I leave.
If I stay, I cough all the next day. When I pull off my t-shirt after leaving the bar, the fabric passing by my nose smells so bad it invokes a gag reaction.
On the point you made about smoking "doesn't hurt someone else" I say: (1) the smoke hurts each and every person it contacts for any length of time; and (2) I once read a survey which claimed that every single cigarette costs society $1 each.
That $1 cost per cigarette sounded far fetched until I estimated the costs of my several heart surgeries due mainly to smoking. It was at least $500,000 and all paid by taxpayers via the VA Hospital.
So, Pawpaw, go the full six weeks on those patches or one of these days you're going to cost the taxpayers a pile of money.
I forgot to add something. If the Great Spirit was to tell me, "J, you gonna be a dead man in six months," I'd immediately RUN out and buy a carton of Marlboro Light 100s. And I'd make secondhand smoke like crazy.
J. You would? Why is that?
>You would? Why is that?
Because they taste wonderful.
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