More on The Impulse

In the first week of smoking abstinence, I was faced with regularly renewed horror at many points in each morning, day and night. The horror is sustained during periods in which I would normally be lighting up in frequent succession, such as in the car on weekend morning errands, revolving around acquiring and consuming a highly caffeinated bevarage.

Simple tasks during such outings became a scatterbrained, nervous undertaking, requiring herculean effort of concentration. I almost ran a red light, and stopped suspiciously soon at another, both incidents with a cop in close proximity.