Hiya folks! Just thought I'd pass through and post a "hi" to everyone. I'm still alive and kicking. No recording since my album was finished in January. I retired in March and enjoying doing what I want to do for a change. Only one problem with doing NOTHING ---- I never know when I'm through.........
Completed 5 months of NO-SMOKING........ smoked 46 years.... earned C.O.P.D. and now I'm through with the habit. Think about them everyday........ desperately want one, but know I can't do that. They were killing me. If I can quit, anyone can. I loved my cigarettes!!!! But they weren't my friend. They double-crossed me! Such is life.
Wife and I got us a new doggie. Our Maltese passed away in 2007 after we had him for 12 years.
If you want to see what the new one looks like, go
HERE! Just updated my BIAB and RealBand. Maybe when the weather gets cooler, I'll record something...... maybe not........ dunno........ Need to at least practice or I'll forget everything I know.
Take care, everyone!!
Glad to hear your doing well, and doing what you want. Congrats on the quit smoking deal! Stay the course!
Looking forward to more Ray tunes
Hi Ray,
Good to see you back, Buddy. Starting to worry when we hadn't heard from you for a while. Congrats on staying off the coffin nails!!
Welcome back, Ray. Always nice to see you. I'm very glad you quit smoking, and yes, after over a year, I still desperately want a cigarette every now and again, but I promise you, it will get easier.
Take life easy, enjoy and relax, but don't let it slip by you, enjoy it all you can.
Gary
Great to hear from you, Ray!
Congrats on retiring, I hope to be retiring early from my business next year if I can perduade my partners to buy me out, but I have a feeling the distaff side will be making lists for me each day so I don't think it's going to be all songwriting and recording...
I'm so glad to hear you quit the fags (that means cigarettes here in the UK), those things are costly as well as deadly. Now you can show how much money you've saved and spend it on studio gear!
As you say over the pond, don't be a stranger y'hear?
John
Hi Ray
I was wondering where you had got to,it's nice to hear you are doing well.
Not smoking is great,I quit 3 years ago and yes I still get the urge to have one.
I don't think it ever goes away,it just gets more manageable.
C.O.P.D,yeah,got that as well as a couple of other nasties,now you know how
important it is not to smoke.
Come back soon,and post something for us.
Best Wishes to you all
Alan
Hi, Ray!
Good to hear from you and know that all's well. I haven't been around much myself until the last few weeks (personal issues). Hang in there with the no smoking - try a spot of hypnosis, it helps wonders (I should know, I am a hypnotherapist among other things)
Hi, Ray -
Good to hear from you. I listen to your CD every now and then and really enjoy it! And just think, now that you've quit the cowboy killers, you'll have more money for GAS.*
* Gear Acquisition Syndrome
Hi Ray,
Good to hear from you again.
Enjoy your retirement.
Congrats on the quitting smoking.
I'm about to do it again. I'm also a COPD guy.
REMEMBER...There's no such things as "just one cigarette" for a long-time smoker.
When I stopped last year, for 3 months, (the longest stop in 52 years!) I decided to have "just one".
One is too many...and a thousand is not enough.
Take it a day at a time.
I'll put you in my prayers.
Mick
Good to see your name in there again Ray. Stay with the music. It’s your best friend. When I quit smoking (they were .15 cents a pack) and they would sell you just one cigarette for one penny at that time. I quit because they were 15 cents a pack and they were going up to 16 cents.
I had problems when I did something for the first time since I quit. I went fishing two years later and wanted a cigarette because I always smoked while fishing. I just let it pass and from then on I never had any more problems when I went fishing.
After I had gone and done all the things I did when I smoked and let each pass, smoking was history for me. I tell you this so you know it will pass. Very nice looking dog. It looks like a small deer to me with those long ears.
Ditto to the friendly posts above, Ray.
Keep your faith in Him who created all things and you won't need anything else.
--Mac
Whaddya say, Ray - welcome back!
Stick with the no-smokes rule. It will pay off.
I'm trying to remember the last collab that I did with you - what was the name of it? I had laid down some country licks on electric guitar. I was trying to find it the other day to no avail. You were collaborating with someone else on the song as well.
Anyway, welcome back!
Ray,
Good to see you back on the forum!
Cool dog - non smoker?
Hey Ray, welcome "home"
RE smoking - what Mac said, it worked for me.
Hiya Ray, good to see ye again. I smoked the pipe for 30 yrs + I enjoyed it and the doc said it wasn't really doing me that much harm.
However my other doctor ( wife ) forced me to give after I had a stroke a few years ago. I didn't stop when SHE told me to as we were going through a lot of stress at the time. I kept it secret until one day I decided to quit myself. I'd been out for messages & on the way home stopped in a quiet parking space & threw my pipes & tobacco into the trees. That was that.
Gettin' too darned expensive here in the uk anyways. Nearly $10 for a packet of 20 cigarettes & I think it's about £4 ( $ 8 ) an oz of pipe tobacco.
Good to see you Ray.......I think about you every now and then. I'm still benefiting from your tutorials. Now there is a hobby for your retirement time, new tutorials on Real Band, Real Tracks, etc. Might even make some money hehehe.
God bless
As a hypnotherapist, I can confirm what Graham wrote above. The time is right when YOU are ready to stop. HTH
always good when longtime friends resurface looking forward to your future post
Hi Ray, it's good to know that you are still kicking. Keep looking up!
Don S
Put me in that number, I'm also happy to hear from your Ray. Don't stay away so long this time.
Later,
Yeppers............. everyone, thanks for all your kind comments.
Life is changing for me... I go to Walmart now and I have to ride a card cause I don't have the wind to walk through the store. People older than I look at me kinda funny.
I'm on ADVAIR puffer and it helps a little bit. I hope I don't have to go on OXYGEN and tote one of those masks and tanks around all the time, but I am so short-winded. I can't hold out hardly to even cook a meal without sitting down at least 3 or 4 times as I am preparing it.
SMOKING WILL KILL YOU.................... I knew it and smoked anyway. We pay for our stupidity.
Thanks, Guys/Gals
Ray,
It saddens me to hear you are having such a rough go of it. Best wishes from my home to yours and of course I will pray that the man upstairs lightens your load.
Later,
ray, i smoked for 20 years and was up to 3 packs a day when i quit cold turkey. it was the hardest thing i have ever done. i quit in '73 and have never felt better. smoking contributed to my stroke, i'm sure. to tame the tactile impulse i carried chewing gum in my breast pocket where i had carried my smokes. that helped but food started to taste good again and i soon gained 60 pounds. so i had a new obsession to overcome. watch out for that.
Ray:
Good to hear from you again - I kept one of your midis, and when I play it in Pianoteq you sound better than ever. Should I e-mail an mp3 to you?
Wouldn't mind some more - your playing is nice to listen to.
Glenn
Prayers goin' up, bro.
Take it easy, take yer time.
--Mac
I am sorry to hear that. I know how terrible it is not to be able to breath. I had surgery and one of my lungs has not come back to its normal copacity. Something that has helped me alot is walking. When I first started walking I could not hardly make it to the end of my street. I just kept adding a little bit more every week. It has helped my lung alot. I hope this helps!
Hi Ray. I didn't know about your health issue. I've been away from here for so long I lost track. I quit smoking in '74, on the stage, no less. I'd been sick for 2 weeks and couldn't even stand to go to the club to play much less smoke. When I was over it and went back to work I bought a pack of cigs. They had jumped from 35¢ a pack to 65¢ a pack that very day. I bought Pall Mall king without filters. Yeh I was a tough guy.
For some strange reason that night they turned all the lights on in the place. I looked down and my pants were covered with ashes. They were all over my feet. My guitar neck was burnt from putting butts in the neck strings. My fingers were yellow. Suddenly I pictured those fat cats in Virginia laughing at me and pulling money out of my pocket. I went ballistic. I handed the pack over to the bass player and told him to keep 'em. I've never smoked since nor had a desire to. I already enjoyed food and was gaining weight before I stopped smoking.
So I had to learn how to eat in moderation.
If you can visualize those fat cats sitting on your chest and holding you down and laughing at you while pulling the money out of your pocket, then chances are you will be affected the same way I was. Vengence is sweet. I like to visualise them all sitting there, crying and broke.
You will get better now. Not smoking will help as time goes by. When I retired 17 years ago I could not go a flight of stairs without stopping to rest. Now I can go 6 flights without stopping. It was not smoking for me. I quit in my 20's it was the dirt, dust, and welding fumes of construction. After years of retirement my lungs cleared just by being out of that environment.
I use a cart too Ray and feel like you do when people look at me. Especially when the day before I mixed 20-80 Lb bags of concrete in a wheelbarrow to pour a sidewalk. I use a cart because of my knee and only when I am out where I have to walk all day. Get a doctor you like.
When I first got out of the hospital after all that surgery awhile back, the wife took me on an excursion to a WalMart.
For the first time in my life I decided it would be better to try one of those little scooters.
Well, everything I wanted to put in the cart turned out to be way up on the higher shelves in the WalMart grocery section.
Couldn't even see the labels from way down there.
Was too proud to ask other folks to help me, I guess, or maybe too timid, so I started doing the Jack-in-the-Box thing, getting in and out of the cart to see the top shelves and select things.
Turns out that darn cart ended up giving more excercise than if I had just stayed on my feet.
Besides that, you put handlebars in front of me and this old biker gotta try to grab the tank with the knees, put the center of G on the pegs and I gotta LEAN to turn. heh
--Mac
Quote:
For the first time in my life I decided it would be better to try one of those little scooters.
I identify with that. Been there and done that and hopefully not again.
Don S.
Good to see you Ray......been missing your presence here. Sorry to hear about the health issues, been there as well. After a liver transplant, went from wheelchair, to walker, to walking stick, to nuttin in about 6 mo or less. Docs kept telling me to slow down, but I just couldn't do that......when you've looked at death real close, you want to live life as much as you can, even if it kills ya..........
Keep hanging in there buddy, and whatever you do don't give up or quit trying.
Rob
Just do it a little bit at a time, my friend, don't push it, you may have to start with an every-other-day regimen, but keep at it.
A little at a time.
Like practicing the piano, it is the repetition that gets it.
--Mac
Great to see you Ray !!
You can do it brother, I have faith in you.
Trax
ray, you don't have to run a marathon, just a few yards to start then build from there. use your walker if it helps you feel more secure. plan your route between places to sit down to rest. they have inexpensive (under $100) walkers with locking hand brakes and a seat so you can sit down to rest. you should be able to get one through medicare with your doctor/physical therapist's prescription. keep us posted and all the best to you.
here's one:
http://www.nextag.com/Drive-Cleaver-Lite-Walker-534986680/prices-html
Go for it, Ray! Get movin' man! We take no prisoners here on the forum and we need your input.
Wow.............. did I make things sound that bad?
Don, I don't have a walker................ yet..............
Moreover, I'm not on Medicare yet-----------I'm 62.
But there are times I would gladly give $$$$$$$ for a tank of oxygen!!!
Quote:
...will be difficult, cause I'm already short of breath, and ARTHURitis is getting so bad........ and I have fluid in my feet.... they are swollen a bit and I sometimes wear compression hose on my feet and legs to help compress out the fluid. Sheesh! I'm falling apart here.
i had compression hose for bad edema in my calves and feet but it proved to be an adverse side effect from lipitor and zocor, meds for cholesterol and high bp.
Dear Ray:
I may not be a Christer like yourself -- 40 years as a physician has drove it outa me -- but I would instead pray for you to the Gods of science, and evolutionary adaptation (aka wisdom of the body, healing potential).
I myself smoked 1-2 packs for almost 40 years, and quit a few years ago, with the assistance of Nicotine gum, and Wellbutrin (an antidepressant repackaged as Zocar for smokers). And, lest I forget, exercise.
It worked -- I never thought I could quit. But don't be in any big hurry for restoration of your wind... it takes years, and, as several others have suggested, serious regular activity, as tolerated. But it works. I am taking long hikes and bike rides, and running a few (slow) 5k runs.
I am still profiting from your Mix/Master tutorials. Hope you can find energy to keep working on these -- they are helping a lot of us.
Be well,
Brad.
Hi Ray
The Doc is right,as you know I also have COPD,but it is'nt so bad,yet.
I quit smoking years ago and it is correct,the exercise does help,and although you won't feel any benefit
at the start,it will get easier to breathe.I know It works for me.
My Doc used to say I had done more than medicine could do, just by stopping smoking.
Three steps forward one back and you WILL get there.Each time you feel breathless,stop and rest
until you recover,then carry on.
And yes,you are supposed to feel breathless,the idea is to make the heart and lungs work.
Sorry for preaching at you,do these things and you can feel better,promise.
Alan
Congrats on the smoking quit, Ray! A major accomplishment!
One of my favorite sayings:
"The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step."
In your case, that's true literally and figuratively. Start slowly.
Best to you!
Sincere special thanks to all of you who have responded! I started my walking this morning. It's on a small scale, but it's a start. I live in the mountains/hills of North Georgia, so the ground isn't very level for any real serious walking... but my yard is fairly easy to navigate without horrible terrain. I just finished walking around the perimeter of my yard 8 times.... 3, 2, 2, 1 ---- and of course had to take breaks and I did have a bottle of water with me. It is something I CAN do to at least start the process. And I will do this 3, 2, 2, 1 for a week and then step it up slightly. I will do this twice a day... morning and late afternoon. It takes about 17 minutes each 8 time session........ so at least I am moving some.
Thanks for ALL your input. It will be a journey, but one I must travel if I expect to ever breathe well again.
Attaboy.
don't overdo it.
Because in three weeks we are going to have the neighbor's dog come over and chase ya, speed up the program a bit...
--Mac
nice doggy , good doggie !! Hey stop that , help somebody, good boy good boy !!!
