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Approaching a 10 year milestone...

Hello, All!

I'm about to hit a personal milestone: 10 years of not smoking! Okay, it's not like some other addictions, but it's still worth celebrating. Especially since we had a layoff on my 1st year anniversary & my plans were thwarted due to being in a financially precarious position. I don't actually hit that milestone until March 15, 2019

For the 1st year anniversary, I was planning to purchase a Monster Nessie -- a large, Nessmuk-style cleaver-type knife made by Dan Koster. At this point, I was still drawn to cigarettes, & in hindsight was not out of the woods with the addiction yet. I was planning to order every special customization I wanted, & was planning to drop about $400+ on it. But then my wife's employer betrayed us & decided to cut her after a dozen years of performing her position incredibly well -- but I digress...

Now, it's about of a third of a year before I'll hit that landmark date. I've already had a number of health check-ups related to my smoking past (including a lung screening), & fortunately (I'm knocking on wood now), all is well with my physical health, at least so far. (In case anyone was going to ask.) I'm hoping to purchase a bladed item of some sort to commemorate the event, which is why I'm writing to y'all.

It's not that it gets easier by the year. Rather, it was pretty tough at first but then wasn't tough anymore really at all by about 18 months in. Getting to year 1 was MUCH harder than getting to year 10. But I haven't really celebrated the accomplishment at all.

So what do y'all think I should do to celebrate this milestone? And what would you do for yourself?

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2021 CalendarPermalink Reply by John Bamford on November 25, 2018 at 11:44

Congratulations DLKG I am on 17 years non-smoking now it gets easier as you go on but to me, I still get the urge to smoke at times.

I would buy a straight razor and embark on a lifetime of little morning adventures.

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2021 CalendarPermalink Reply by Ricky Ray on November 25, 2018 at 13:19

Add up all of the money you have saved over the past ten years by not smoking, and get yourself something of that same price! Sounds like a nice custom blade to me! Congrats!

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FeaturedPermalink Reply by dead_left_knife_guy on December 3, 2018 at 23:13

Nice, John! You know, I tried to get into straight razors but just didn't take -- that time, anyway. I said the same thing about kukris, karambits, & butterfly knives, & then suddenly I got into all of them, in quick succession...

But you reminded me, by suggesting a new ritual, but yeah, I'm totally open to non-knife ideas too! I'm still trying to take up meditation, working out, & journaling. But maybe I've been trying too long & hard to take up those habits daily that trying something different might be a good way in.

And congratulations to you too, John! I still miss what smoking was to me, but remembering how rough it would feel to smoke again really, really helps when I get that urge. Not that you need the advice, because clearly whatever you're doing is working. And that's awesome.

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FeaturedPermalink Reply by dead_left_knife_guy on December 3, 2018 at 23:56

Ricky, I like your idea so much, I already ran the numbers (before I even posted this)!

When I quit, cigarettes were about $5.50 a pack. Now, they average about $8.10 a pack (nationally, anyway). I averaged this out to $6.80 per pack over those years (not terribly accurate, but good enough). I smoked about 2/3 pack per day. 2/3 pack a day at $6.80 per pack over the course of 10 years comes out to be well over $16,000.

I will have saved over $16,00 by quitting smoking 10 years ago. $16,000!!!!!

I love the idea of spending $16,000 on knives -- but I just can't do it. Aside from the fact that it would be better to put most of that money into repairs & improvements around the house, turns out we easily spent that money (& then some) by sending two kids to daycare for several years each.

Now I'm not saying I'm against spending a little on a knife or two or three (or an axe, tomahawk, or cleaver) -- but maybe limited to $400 or $500...

(Actually not even sure I'm comfortable with that -- I've never spent more than $200 on any bladed object in my collection -- so I should start saving up!)

Ricky Ray said:

Add up all of the money you have saved over the past ten years by not smoking, and get yourself something of that same price! Sounds like a nice custom blade to me! Congrats!