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Like most of the Planet, courtesy of the COVID-19 pandemic, I'm stuck at home. Worse than that, I'm stuck at home working.
When I'm at the office, I work through my high-stress job with coffee -- LOTS of coffee with four packs of saccharin per cup. Oh, and plenty of Swedish Fish gummies, which my employer provides free of charge (in lieu of a pay increase, I believe).
When the Planet was normal, I went through, on average, two 1.8 ml menthol-flavored Alto vaping pods per week.
Now that my high-stress job is now in the comfort of my own home though, I find I am going through one pod every two days, if I'm careful. If the cat keeps jumping up onto my new, corporate-provided Surface Pro, I can easily go up to one pod per day.
At first, I was wracked with guilt. I had started vaping over two years ago as an alternative to smoking; it worked -- I haven't smoked a cigarette since. But I had promised myself not to exceed a certain number of pods per week, mainly because I'm a bit of a control fanatic, but if I'm honest, because of the cost (hard to believe but yes, toxic, cancer-causing, chemically-laden cigarettes are less expensive than much-safer vaping devices).
Am I losing control, I thought? Will I got back to smoking cigarettes now? Why am I doing this?? Just short of thinking about rationing my "puffs" though, I took a moment to think, and remember:
- I still have a job
- I'm earning more now. Overtime is approved for the duration of the emergency.
- I'm not spending money on public transport
- I'm saving money on laundry and dry cleaning
- My local 7-11 has my vaping products stocked a-plenty, and on sale
- I don't have COVID-19, thanks be to God but, just as important,
- I no longer smoke
I finally got the message. In a climate of caution, stress, worry and fear, whether I consume one pod a day or twenty makes no difference for the duration. I need to remind myself to stay calm and remember the things I haven't lost.
When the Planet returns to normal, my vaping will return to normal.
Excuse me now, I'm going to go "blow a cloud", as we vapers say.
