Cut-down test run #1

I'm considering quitting smoking using an eCigarette system--I hadn't bought it with that in mind, but the difference between eCigs and analogs is pointing up things I didn't notice about how smoking smells and tastes once you're not drowning yourself in tobacco smoke, so I'm giving the idea serious thought since I have something that seems to make it easier than anything else I've ever tried to quit with before. I'll post the whole rambling story about how I got to this point from "Gee, I'm sick of paying ridiculous taxes on cigarettes--it's time to save a few bucks" later on.

When I got up this morning I thought that since I only smoked 6 cigarettes yesterday, a dry run of a cut-down might be interesting. I set out to limit myself to 5 analogs today, just as a dry run to see how this is going to rattle my cage in general. I either picked a really good day for it, or a really bad one.

Morning and early afternoon went all right--stuck to my 2 analogs in the morning, then 1/2 to 1 after meals, then Asuma (who deserves a gold star on his report card) and I remembered we had to pick up some stuff at a couple of places today. I checked my cartomizer and battery--seemed like the cart had a decent amount in it and the battery was good on charge (this system's are lasting me a day and a half), so I left my analogs at home and we took off.


Nasty surprise--the cart started giving out shortly after we left the house. Normally I'd smoke 3-4 while out in the van, and I had to go really easy on the Vea or I'd cook my cart (they're good usually for 2-4 fills and I was on the 2nd. No sense wasting carts--while they're about $2 each I have to get them online, so add shipping to that and it's not exactly like dropping $4 on a cup of coffee, so I want to make them last as long as they can). By the time we got back to the house I was having my first real nic fit, so I went for the easy supply and had an extra half a smoke--part of #4, but did it before eating the hot food I brought home. Not a move I wanted to make but I also didn't want to be too unreasonable while I dealt with the need for tobacco smoke. During the shopping run I'd felt antsy and easily annoyed so I wanted to get a lid on the moodiness before it wrecked the first good weekend I'd had in a month, since I spent most of September sick and hadn't seen much of Asuma during the month.

Turns out that was a less bad thing than I first felt--it took quite awhile to get a handle on the nic fit, longer than I expected, so putting the smoke first probably helped me more than putting it off and being impatient while eating because I felt like I had to get it out of the way to get at what I really wanted.

I was getting back on track after supper and my other half smoke, and was better for a few hours. Then the cart I'd switched over to started tasting bad and acting like it's nearly time for it to die. It happens--the carts are semi-disposable, it's just that it picked a craptastic time to do it. I'd just topped the Tundra (a strong menthol taste very light on tobacco, currently my regular favorite) when we got home, the Rainier (a very tasty cherry, one many say is close to Blu brand's Cherry Crush) cart was close to dry so I had to top it and once they're topped they seem to work better if they sit about 8 hours, so I pulled out a new pre-filled Arctic Menthol (one of the two menthol flavors I'd ordered), then remembered it's close to bedtime and I'd want a full cart then, so I popped on the Chocolate Truffle cart. Ooooohhhhhhhh, baby, this stuff's like nibbling Godiva! I put the eCig to my lips, closed my eyes and prepared for dessert...

...and discovered that the battery picked that precise moment to fucking die.

*Facepalm*

Easy enough to fix--my set's got 2 long-life batteries to make this happen and the pass-through feature would let me vape while it was charging too, it was just the topper. But I didn't toss it at the wall and grab a Newport--I'm watching one battery charge while the other feeds me sweet sweet cocoa-flavored nicotine until time for my bedtime cigarette.

So--I went one over on the allotment I was trying, had a rough evening trying to get on top of a snag, and learned things.

1. My boyfriend is one patient dude. I knew this before, but the depths still amaze me.
2. Shit happens. Prepare for it.
3. Keep a 5-pack of pre-filled Tundras on hand for times like this.
4. Shit happens. Prepare for it.
5. Take a damned extra cart along and avoid hours of annoyance.
6. Shit happens. Prepare for it. 
7. A pocket-sized pack that will hold my Vea and 1-2 extra carts, preferably leak-resistant or leak-proof, would be a nice way to spend a few bucks in the interest of making this work if I decide to go all the way and quit using my eCig to deal with the transition.
8. Did I mention that shit happens and I should expect it to happen, and thus should prepare for it?
9. It's not quite time to set a quit date, but I'm toying with October 31. 

(Oh, shut it--it's my blog and I get to be derpy if I want to--no one's paying me to do this and no one's Superglued your browser to this page so give me a few posts to locate my funny again.)

I think I'll give a 5-analog limit another try tomorrow. It's something I need to learn to deal with, since it's looking like I've gotten to the point where I've found the hard-to-skip analogs and it's time to figure out the coping skills I'll need.

Wish me luck.