I Guess It's a Reasonably Good Sign ...

... that the second anniversary of "Tom quit smoking as of today!"* went by on the first day of last month and I didn't even notice.

That's not to say I never get a craving for a cigarette. But these days that's not very often, and it's almost always when I see someone smoking, live or on a TV screen,  or hear a song about smoking. The first month or so, that craving was always there, though the Chantix, etc. helped knock it down a few notches. And the craving was what I'd call "frequent" (at least once a day, for at least a moment) for most of the first year.

I've tried (and I think succeeded) to not be one of those people who constantly talks about how they quit smoking, or quit drinking, or whatever. But I thought it was cool that I actually forgot when I'd done so. Feels like ... progress.

Listening to this song this morning didn't trigger a craving, really ... but did remind me that I used to smoke and stopped smoking at some point (I had to look the date up).

I did have a brief craving yesterday, but less for a cigarette proper than for an over-priced product (not an affiliate link) that triggered nostalgia for the good old days when most guitar players seemed to be smokers, most guitar players who were smokers seemingly stuck their lit cigarettes between a string and the guitar's headstock when playing, and clip-on guitar tuners weren't a thing yet:

I can't see myself spending fifty bucks on such a thing (I typically spend less than ten bucks on a clip-on tuner), but I have added it to my Amazon Wish List just in case anyone really thinks I should have it. From a technical standpoint, it does seem like a superior tuner in two respects: The screen faces the player to its right in a way that makes it easier to see, and it's USB-rechargeable instead of requiring those annoying flat, round batteries.

I can already feel one of those "playing guitar, a lot" periods approaching. I recently tested my sub-$10 wireless rig (no cable!) with my cheap Glarry jazz bass while stringing/tuning that thing, and also came across three sets of strings I'd set back to use "eventually" (which probably means "soon") -- Ernie Ball Primo Slinky 9.5-44s for the Glarry Telecaster, Martin Retro acoustic mediums for the Epiphone Hummingbird, and some Temu nylon classicals that I may put on the old Recording King parlor guitar. 

I'll probably mess with the Tele first -- the last time I was playing much, it was that guitar with my fairly minimal pedal board -- while I think about finally upgrading from little practice amps to a head (probably this one -- not an affiliate link, also on the wish list) plugged into a decent speaker I have lying around.

* I did smoke about half a cigarette over Memorial Day weekend in 2024; that was a pretty stressful weekend at a Libertarian National Convention, and I was hanging with a smoker and bummed one. But I only made it through half before not really liking it much, so I put it out.