Greetings fellow Vapers, my name is Mark Timblin, I live in a small town on the east coast of Florida, along what is know as the Treasure Coast, after the Spanish lost several of their ships during a hurricane in the early 1700s.

A few days ago I was given an opportunity that, at first, I was totally dumfounded with.  Flabbergasted, if you will.  I received an email from Dave at Spinfuel offering me the unique opportunity to be a guest columnist for Spinfuel!

This opportunity arose from some of the ‘lengthy’ comments I made after reading a review. One comment mentioned something to the effect that I wished that I could write like some of these folks who write the reviews or post opinions, but I am not, nor will I ever be, much of a writer.

I don’t remember the exact phrase I used, but Dave said, in effect, ‘Oh…wait a minute buddy you can, and do, write very well.’  He then offered me a position as a guest columnist.  “You can do a weekly column on anything and everything vape related.” He said.  NO SHIT!  Are you serious…he… is…really, well, otherwise I wouldn’t be doing this column now would I?  I was told to think about it and to let him know.   I read this email around 10 or 11 in the morning, around 5 maybe 5:30 that evening I said I would do it.  So…let’s get to it shall we!

Vape … As Up In…

To start my first ever column as a writer…a writer, still sounds strange to my ears.  Anyway, I have been vaping for almost 3 years now.  I started not to get off cigarettes like so many do.  I started vaping to end a 45-year love affair with; dip, snuff, smokeless tobacco whatever-you-want-to-call-it, but at the age of 56 (I will be 59 in August) I guess it was May, maybe early June, when I first started…with…cig-alikes.

To someone who quit smoking cigarettes 20 years ago, cigars 4 or 5 years at that time, I was dipping 2, almost 3, cans of this worm dirt a day!  Yup…3 cans a pinch between yer cheek and gum at a time. This went on all through the cigarettes, my pipes, cigars, through it all, it was the ‘dip’ that kept me going.  At the time ‘dip’ was almost $8 a can, even at 2 cans a day it adds up pretty quickly! Do the math; at $8 a can at 2 cans a day (that was a conservative number), you could probably add another can to that and it would be a bit more realistic in numbers.  But we’ll keep it at 2 cans just to make it easy, 2 at $8 is $16 a day times 30 days that’s $480 a month!

We’re talking $500 a month, for dirt, that you put in your mouth, what the hell was I thinking…at 11 years old I wasn’t thinking, by the time I was 15 my parents knew, they didn’t approve, but they figured as long as I wasn’t smoking, it didn’t matter.

I knew I had to do something different to get me off Copenhagen Long Cut, I knew I wasn’t gonna beat the odds, maybe I might see old age, but how much face would I have left after all these years?

I started looking around and saw the ads online for the cig-alike scam…saw through that immediately, but I wanted something similar though because at first all I wanted was something to help me cut down on how much I dipped.

My wife was up for anything that would get me off the worm dirt, so I did get a little cig-alike setup; a couple small batteries and a 10-pack of prefilled cartomizers, and off I went.

In the first three months I cut down about a third, so I went from 3 cans to 2 cans, but…the little light bulb came on, dim as it was, but I had a vague idea that maybe some day I could quit.  That September, after doing some research online, I figured that if I really was serious about quitting I needed a larger battery and some kind of tank to hold more juice.

I Found a place up near Chicago that had just what I wanted and so, my vaping in earnest began that September.

Vape… As Settling in…

I quickly moved my nicotine levels lower and lower, starting at a very high 34mg or 36mg nicotine level and by January I was down to 12mg nicotine level. On January 22, 2014, I took the last dip out of my last can of Copenhagen Long Cut!  January 23, 2 days after our son’s 27th birthday I was finally tobacco free…I had quit dipping, it had taken me 7 months to do it, but I did.

I figured ‘slow and steady’ would work best because, well, ya gotta remember, I had been dipping for 45 years! I mean I was hooked on snuff and it wasn’t gonna be an overnight thing for this kid.

I have since moved onward and upward, owning way too many mods and way too many tanks, and what seems like at least a gallon of ejuice in one flavor or another.

But…we’ll leave that and other interesting facts about the vaping lifestyle, my journey, that I have since taken to heart.

Thank you all for reading my first ever column, I am interested in any and all comments you may have, good, bad or otherwise.  If you have any questions for me that I may be able to answer please do ask, I am on Facebook, Twitter, Tumbler, Pinterest and Linked In.

Be well, stay safe, God bless and… VAPE ON!

Mark “Tim” Timblin