Happy New Year to anyone who still reads my blog.
I've been terrible at updating my blog over the last year and I do apologize for that.
I am not going to look back over the past year as that is in the past. Instead I will look to the future and "try" to be the best person I can be.
Normally I don't make New Year's resolution but I did make one this year - to quit smoking. It just happened to coincide with the New Year. My insurance will not cover Chantix for a 2nd round so this will be an out-of-pocket payment. I'm on day 2 of the Chantix and set a quit date for 1/08/09.
Last year I did find that blogging about my attempts to quit smoking help considerably. I'm going to do the same this year. Your words of encouragement helped more that you can imagine.
I've discovered I really need to do things that keep me moving. Housework is great for getting me moving but I have to force myself to clean. Anyone have suggestions on how to make housework fun? Keep in mind, I have problems breathing and can't do anything too strenuous. Another option is to continue to teach myself to crochet. I have the yarn and started an afghan but never completed it.
The Bernie Blog
It boggles my mind....
Sunday, January 04, 2009
Saturday, August 23, 2008
Arrrrggghhhh
Some people are just SO lazy and stupid!!! On July 28Th, CBS switched to a new voice mail system. People were sent instructions about 2 weeks prior on how to log into the new system, create a new password, set up greetings....and they could do this before the system went live.
The first week this system was live, our call volume more than doubled!! One co-worker took 100 (not a typo) phone calls in one day! A busy day is about 40-45 calls. Here it is, a month later and we're still getting calls because people don't know how to log into the voicemail.
The way these people are acting, you would think they're being asked to build nuclear reactor! It's not rocket science people - it's a voice mail system -- RTFM! How difficult is it to understand: Dial 7113 enter your mailbox number followed by # sign, for your password enter "12, your mailbox number followed by # sign. This number is also your old password. You will be prompted to create a new password when you first log in.
I had a call last night. The person yelling because she absolutely had to get into her voicemail and check messages. Mind you, she hasn't listened to her voicemail for at least 3 weeks. She has been "too busy" to call the help desk for assistance accessing her voicemail and she locked herself out of the system. I very nicely told her I would contact the manager at home, to have her voicemail unlocked. What I really wanted to say was "You stupid asshole! You haven't check VM in 3 weeks and suddenly it's such an emergency that I have to contact a manager, at home, on a Friday because your too lazy and stupid to read the email you were sent a month ago."
The saddest part, she's not the ONLY person still calling about her voice mail!
The first week this system was live, our call volume more than doubled!! One co-worker took 100 (not a typo) phone calls in one day! A busy day is about 40-45 calls. Here it is, a month later and we're still getting calls because people don't know how to log into the voicemail.
The way these people are acting, you would think they're being asked to build nuclear reactor! It's not rocket science people - it's a voice mail system -- RTFM! How difficult is it to understand: Dial 7113 enter your mailbox number followed by # sign, for your password enter "12, your mailbox number followed by # sign. This number is also your old password. You will be prompted to create a new password when you first log in.
I had a call last night. The person yelling because she absolutely had to get into her voicemail and check messages. Mind you, she hasn't listened to her voicemail for at least 3 weeks. She has been "too busy" to call the help desk for assistance accessing her voicemail and she locked herself out of the system. I very nicely told her I would contact the manager at home, to have her voicemail unlocked. What I really wanted to say was "You stupid asshole! You haven't check VM in 3 weeks and suddenly it's such an emergency that I have to contact a manager, at home, on a Friday because your too lazy and stupid to read the email you were sent a month ago."
The saddest part, she's not the ONLY person still calling about her voice mail!
Sunday, August 17, 2008
Long time no post
Life has been so-so lately and I've been keeping busy. The quit smoking hasn't worked out at all but I am finally gearing up to give it another try.
So what's been going on..... let's start with the work. What can I say except -- it's there. We've have several people leave. The most recent being Vincent and I will hopefully be taking over his hours (7:30 AM - 4:00 PM). For now, I'll be going in at 11:00 daily and getting in some OT while I can. Former co-worker, Brian, will be coming back to Global but working at ESPN instead of the CBS Help Desk.
This years flower garden has been overrun with ferns and weeds :) Everytime I would plan to work in the garden, it would rain or I had other plans come up. One thing I did grow is a pink flamingo! It appeared in my garden overnight. My neighbor was visiting family in FL. When she saw the flamingo she decided it would look cute among the flowers with my gnomes.
July 4th I spent vegging with Karl, Victoria and family. We had a cookout and watched fireworks in Waterbury. I enjoyed watching the fireworks but it was also a big let down -- there was no big display at the end. They just sort of stopped. It seemed even the people controlling the lighting at the stadium were confused. They turned on the lights, then turned them off. When nothing happened they turned them back on. Afterwards, Bill set off his own fireworks in the backyard.
The big event this summer was Heather & Jason's long overdue wedding! Finally!! After 11 years of being together they got married!!! The big day was 8/2/08, the anniversary of their first date. Marsha came up the week before the wedding and we spent it visiting family, friends and preparing for the wedding. You can see some of the photos in my webshots album.
While Marsha was here, my brother Rick flew in from Hawaii. We greeted him at the airport and drove him to my parents house. We had a short visit with my family before heading home because the wedding was the following day. I did get to visit again the following weekend and we had great time. My neice Amanda showed up with her financee and her mom. Now, this was a surprise to me! I had no idea Amanda was engaged!! Mom simply forgot to mention it to me -- 18 months ago! They haven't set a date. Amanda wants to finish school and chemo before she even thinks about wedding date.
Now for the biggest news :) Marsha and I will be baking our bods in Nassau on Thanksgiving Day! Yep, we booked cruise #11 for Thanksgiving week. We leave on Monday for Nassau and Key West. With this being an older ship, balcony cabins are for the suites. So, we booked a Cat. 11 suite on the Fascination. I had comtemplated flying or driving to NC for Thanksgiving. When I saw the price for air fare, then calculated the costs for gas, tolls not to mention drive time -- I decided "what the hell, it's only money" and suggested we really splurge and book a cruise. Well, you don't have to ask Marsha twice when it comes to booking a cruise. Before we knew it, we were booked. Now we're waiting to hear about the flights and pre-cruise hotel.
So what's been going on..... let's start with the work. What can I say except -- it's there. We've have several people leave. The most recent being Vincent and I will hopefully be taking over his hours (7:30 AM - 4:00 PM). For now, I'll be going in at 11:00 daily and getting in some OT while I can. Former co-worker, Brian, will be coming back to Global but working at ESPN instead of the CBS Help Desk.
This years flower garden has been overrun with ferns and weeds :) Everytime I would plan to work in the garden, it would rain or I had other plans come up. One thing I did grow is a pink flamingo! It appeared in my garden overnight. My neighbor was visiting family in FL. When she saw the flamingo she decided it would look cute among the flowers with my gnomes.
July 4th I spent vegging with Karl, Victoria and family. We had a cookout and watched fireworks in Waterbury. I enjoyed watching the fireworks but it was also a big let down -- there was no big display at the end. They just sort of stopped. It seemed even the people controlling the lighting at the stadium were confused. They turned on the lights, then turned them off. When nothing happened they turned them back on. Afterwards, Bill set off his own fireworks in the backyard.
The big event this summer was Heather & Jason's long overdue wedding! Finally!! After 11 years of being together they got married!!! The big day was 8/2/08, the anniversary of their first date. Marsha came up the week before the wedding and we spent it visiting family, friends and preparing for the wedding. You can see some of the photos in my webshots album.
While Marsha was here, my brother Rick flew in from Hawaii. We greeted him at the airport and drove him to my parents house. We had a short visit with my family before heading home because the wedding was the following day. I did get to visit again the following weekend and we had great time. My neice Amanda showed up with her financee and her mom. Now, this was a surprise to me! I had no idea Amanda was engaged!! Mom simply forgot to mention it to me -- 18 months ago! They haven't set a date. Amanda wants to finish school and chemo before she even thinks about wedding date.
Now for the biggest news :) Marsha and I will be baking our bods in Nassau on Thanksgiving Day! Yep, we booked cruise #11 for Thanksgiving week. We leave on Monday for Nassau and Key West. With this being an older ship, balcony cabins are for the suites. So, we booked a Cat. 11 suite on the Fascination. I had comtemplated flying or driving to NC for Thanksgiving. When I saw the price for air fare, then calculated the costs for gas, tolls not to mention drive time -- I decided "what the hell, it's only money" and suggested we really splurge and book a cruise. Well, you don't have to ask Marsha twice when it comes to booking a cruise. Before we knew it, we were booked. Now we're waiting to hear about the flights and pre-cruise hotel.
Saturday, March 01, 2008
Day 6
WOW!!! I've even managed to impress myself, making it to Day 6. Yesterday, I realized, it's not the urge to smoke that I need to control. Instead it's the urge to buy a pack TO smoke. The cravings are still there but I can ride them out, if a pack of cigarettes isn't handy. There have been a couple of nights, this week, that I've come close to buying. I had to talk myself out of stopping for a pack while on the way home from work. It's ends up being split second final decision -- turn left for home, or right for cigs. So far the "turn left" has won.
Yesterday the oxygen tank was delivered along with a portable. The tank had 50 FT air tubing. I can wander all over the apartment, cleaning, sleeping....whatever. Only problem, I need to somehow get the kitties to understand, the tubing is NOT for them to chase and capture! Poser has caught me a couple of times already.
Speaking of kitties. Shadow somehow managed to open the cellar door yesterday. Debbie came home to discover Shadow was at "knocking" at her cellar door. I had managed to keep Poser and Bean from even knowing about the cellar -- not anymore. Bean was down cellar when I got home. Poser was dusty enough for me to tell he'd been exploring to. Oh well, I tried to keep them upstairs.
WOW!!! I've even managed to impress myself, making it to Day 6. Yesterday, I realized, it's not the urge to smoke that I need to control. Instead it's the urge to buy a pack TO smoke. The cravings are still there but I can ride them out, if a pack of cigarettes isn't handy. There have been a couple of nights, this week, that I've come close to buying. I had to talk myself out of stopping for a pack while on the way home from work. It's ends up being split second final decision -- turn left for home, or right for cigs. So far the "turn left" has won.
Yesterday the oxygen tank was delivered along with a portable. The tank had 50 FT air tubing. I can wander all over the apartment, cleaning, sleeping....whatever. Only problem, I need to somehow get the kitties to understand, the tubing is NOT for them to chase and capture! Poser has caught me a couple of times already.
Speaking of kitties. Shadow somehow managed to open the cellar door yesterday. Debbie came home to discover Shadow was at "knocking" at her cellar door. I had managed to keep Poser and Bean from even knowing about the cellar -- not anymore. Bean was down cellar when I got home. Poser was dusty enough for me to tell he'd been exploring to. Oh well, I tried to keep them upstairs.
Thursday, February 28, 2008
Take Two, Day 4
I've made it to day 4, again, and doing pretty good! There have been a few moments where I would have happily smoked a cigarette if one had been within reach. My co-workers are discovering I talk to the email tickets (or telephones AFTER I've disconnected) a little more than I used to. It's usually along the lines of "stupid fool". Thankfully I am able to control the language I use :) What I really want to call them are "dumb assholes".
Yesterday I had the breathing tests, follow up to my Echocardiogram and all the fun stuff. I'll start with the bad news.
The results of the breathing were horrendous. The inhalers have helped but not enough. The diagnonsis "severe emphysema". I was given a choice going on oxygen (about 16 hrs. daily) or staying with just the inhalers. I chose the oxygen, in hopes that it will increase my energy levels. I'm breathing much better with the inhalers. While it's still not the best, it's better than I was previously doing.
Next to the good news, the echocardiogram shows that my heart is doing great. There are absolutely no problems with my heart!
Now the very good news --- even after yesterday's visit, I didn't light up a cigarette! I wanted to but then I thought about it. Lighting up a cigarette to deal with the news of emphysema sure wasn't going to help me any. It was also the cause for the diagnosis. Lighting up would have been just plainly stupid.
Sometimes things need to hit me over the head for it sink in. It's now time to accept the choices I've made in life and deal with them. I sit here regetting the day I picked up my first cigarette but I also had a choice. No one forced me - I simply made a very bad choice, a long time ago.
I've made it to day 4, again, and doing pretty good! There have been a few moments where I would have happily smoked a cigarette if one had been within reach. My co-workers are discovering I talk to the email tickets (or telephones AFTER I've disconnected) a little more than I used to. It's usually along the lines of "stupid fool". Thankfully I am able to control the language I use :) What I really want to call them are "dumb assholes".
Yesterday I had the breathing tests, follow up to my Echocardiogram and all the fun stuff. I'll start with the bad news.
The results of the breathing were horrendous. The inhalers have helped but not enough. The diagnonsis "severe emphysema". I was given a choice going on oxygen (about 16 hrs. daily) or staying with just the inhalers. I chose the oxygen, in hopes that it will increase my energy levels. I'm breathing much better with the inhalers. While it's still not the best, it's better than I was previously doing.
Next to the good news, the echocardiogram shows that my heart is doing great. There are absolutely no problems with my heart!
Now the very good news --- even after yesterday's visit, I didn't light up a cigarette! I wanted to but then I thought about it. Lighting up a cigarette to deal with the news of emphysema sure wasn't going to help me any. It was also the cause for the diagnosis. Lighting up would have been just plainly stupid.
Sometimes things need to hit me over the head for it sink in. It's now time to accept the choices I've made in life and deal with them. I sit here regetting the day I picked up my first cigarette but I also had a choice. No one forced me - I simply made a very bad choice, a long time ago.
Monday, February 25, 2008
Take Two, Day 1
I'm ready for my 2nd attempt at quitting and today is Day 1 again. This time, I KNOW I can make it though a few days, so the anxiety isn't as great as the previous attempt. I bought a bag of hard candy and I have my trusty pencil to keep my hands busy.
Whenever Spring decides to arrive, I want to spend as much time outside as possible. Of course, I'll plant another flower garden. Tending the garden will help to keep me busy and out of the house. In the meantime, I guess housework will be my "busy time". It would be great if we had a bout of warm weather so I could open the windows and air out the apartment. For any of you gardeners, where and when can I buy Strawberry plants?!?!?! I've looked for the past couple of years and haven't seen any.
I see Dr. Wasserstein on Wednesday for testing. At the same time I need to speak to him about one of the inhalers. One of the side effects is that it can cause Thrush, and they highly recommend thoroughly rinsing the mouth after the dosage. Well, I've been brushing my teeth AND rinsing with Listerine and it hasn't helped any.
Growing up with all the babies from Catholic Charities, I can recall several babies that had Thrush and it wasn't a pretty site! Mom would use a pacifer dipped in Gentian Violet and it seemed everything would turn this really pretty shade of purple. The baby's mouth, pacifer, bibs, burping diapers, clothing.... Yes, this stuff stains!! While I love the color purple, I'll opt for some other form of treatment.
I'm ready for my 2nd attempt at quitting and today is Day 1 again. This time, I KNOW I can make it though a few days, so the anxiety isn't as great as the previous attempt. I bought a bag of hard candy and I have my trusty pencil to keep my hands busy.
Whenever Spring decides to arrive, I want to spend as much time outside as possible. Of course, I'll plant another flower garden. Tending the garden will help to keep me busy and out of the house. In the meantime, I guess housework will be my "busy time". It would be great if we had a bout of warm weather so I could open the windows and air out the apartment. For any of you gardeners, where and when can I buy Strawberry plants?!?!?! I've looked for the past couple of years and haven't seen any.
I see Dr. Wasserstein on Wednesday for testing. At the same time I need to speak to him about one of the inhalers. One of the side effects is that it can cause Thrush, and they highly recommend thoroughly rinsing the mouth after the dosage. Well, I've been brushing my teeth AND rinsing with Listerine and it hasn't helped any.
Growing up with all the babies from Catholic Charities, I can recall several babies that had Thrush and it wasn't a pretty site! Mom would use a pacifer dipped in Gentian Violet and it seemed everything would turn this really pretty shade of purple. The baby's mouth, pacifer, bibs, burping diapers, clothing.... Yes, this stuff stains!! While I love the color purple, I'll opt for some other form of treatment.
Friday, February 22, 2008
Mental Determination
I've had a set back in my determanation to quit smoking. Yes, Monday was a bitch of a day and the work week has not gotten any better. In an effort to make up for my lost work time, on Monday, I've been working 10 hr. days. This week at work has also been horrendous. I've been taking 40+ calls every day, not to mention maybe another 30 - 40 tickets that come in via e-mail and handling follow up calls on existing tickets. We've also had an unsual amount of "idiot" calls this week. You know those jokes about people using the CD drive for cup holders? Well those people are REAL and they call our help desk! Not only did I buy a pack of cigs on Monday but I've purchased 2 more packs since then. I guess the good side (if there is such a thing) of that is previously, I would have purchased 5 packs by now and getting ready to buy another.
I haven't given up on quitting. I'm just having a difficult time getting the mental motivation going again. It's like starting from the beginning in setting a "quit date" and working myself up to it again.
I've had a set back in my determanation to quit smoking. Yes, Monday was a bitch of a day and the work week has not gotten any better. In an effort to make up for my lost work time, on Monday, I've been working 10 hr. days. This week at work has also been horrendous. I've been taking 40+ calls every day, not to mention maybe another 30 - 40 tickets that come in via e-mail and handling follow up calls on existing tickets. We've also had an unsual amount of "idiot" calls this week. You know those jokes about people using the CD drive for cup holders? Well those people are REAL and they call our help desk! Not only did I buy a pack of cigs on Monday but I've purchased 2 more packs since then. I guess the good side (if there is such a thing) of that is previously, I would have purchased 5 packs by now and getting ready to buy another.
I haven't given up on quitting. I'm just having a difficult time getting the mental motivation going again. It's like starting from the beginning in setting a "quit date" and working myself up to it again.
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