Changes

Changes are scary for everyone. When I got out of the Navy, it scared the life out of me to think that I hadn't already had a job lined up. Once I got that job and worked there for a little while, my wife and I realized that we really didn't like Florida. So we started looking for positions in the Nashville area (because we'd always liked the area). I was offered a position in Franklin with a considerable increase in pay and this would allow us to move up to this area. We were thrilled. I came up first (while she got our house in FL ready to sell) and looked for a place to live. I found a house for rent (remember, we didn't know the area) in Bell Buckle. So, I went down, picked up the wife and our dogs and cat, and we headed up here to live. The new position is working out well. We absolutely LOVE the area around here except there's no Catholic Church in Bell Buckle (not very surprising though considering there are only about 400 people in town). Regardless, we both absolutely love this area. The people are really nice, there are hills, there are curves in the roads. Trees, birds, and furry woodland creatures aplenty. It was rather scary when we first decided to move to Bell Buckle, since we came from a town of 795,000 (1.3 Million for the Metro). We were so tired of having a lot of people around us. Regardless, it was still scary moving out here. Especially when the deputy showed up at my door within hours of me signing the lease. He was looking for the previous tenant. He asked me how long I had lived here, I asked him what time it was. He didn't think that was funny…at least not until I told him that I had just signed the lease about four hours ago. It was kind of scary when we realized I would be driving 55 miles each way to my office (didn't really think that ahead). Soon though, I realized that the ride to work in the mornings (providing I'm not in a hurry and on the interstate) is a very nice, relaxing ride to work. It gives me time to wind up and get ready for my day. The ride home gives me time to wind down after work. I rarely have anything to complain about from my job, and keep home and work separate (as much as possible since I can log in from home if I need to). Well, all of these changes worked out VERY well for me so far. A couple of days ago, I stopped smoking. I was walking my dogs the other evening and noticed that when I tried to inhale all the way, it kind of hurt. So I decided that I was going to quit smoking. This is also kind of scary since I'm usually rather edgy when I quit, but I haven't been so far this time. It was scary, but so far, this has worked out very well (just like the earlier changes I'd made) and I'm really hoping it continues to do so. So, if there's anyone else out there trying to quit because your wife/husband is nagging at you, or your kids complain about it. Or if your boss complains about you smelling like smoke. Don't quit for those reasons. Quit because you WANT to quit. Until I noticed that little bit of pain when I inhaled while I was walking the dogs, I "kind of" wanted to quit, but I still enjoyed it…at least up until that point. Oh, I would imagine that I'll be smoking a cigar every great once in a while. But it'll have to be a REALLY nice cigar and I'm no cheapie when it comes to my stogies. Anyway, I guess the moral of this long entry is that not all change is bad, we should embrace the changes that we make in our every day lives and work on making things better for us now…so they'll be better for us, and others, down the road.