~cattleman cafe~ & another 24...

[abcowboy]

5:22am in Alberta, I'll have another 24 please, and thanks...

In the last 24 hours, these friends have joined in for 24 hours of wellness:
Jude58 dill Rava Ginger999

Today is going to be a darn good day not to drink!

[abcowboy]

Love your butterfly diamond art Ginger! And great to hear you're getting close to that 1 year mark.

You have a good outlook Rava, you don't need to count your days if it's not your thing, just take it one day at a time if that works for you. Those days will add up quick if you stick with it. Hopefully your dad will get the care he needs while he's at home.

Waves to the rest of the gang, let's all just have a day of freedom today.

[Ginger999]

Busy day here so quick check in! I'll take another day of freedom! Ps....it sure is easier to string days along when hubby isn't drinking. He seems pretty committed. I hope it sticks!

[dill]

Ginger, I searched for that diamond art kit by typing it in the amazon search bar. It didn't come up, so that must be why the link you tried to insert didn't work. But there were loads of other small projects that look like great "samplers" for me to try. I haven't settled on one yet though. Thanks for that suggestion! It got me further along in my quest. I don't want to jinx you on reaching a year, so I won't say another word about that!

Rava, you are right to look at your quit wholistically. There are many ways to get this job done. Finding what works and adding it to the mix is one of them. We are all doing the best we can here and we all share the same goal. You are not the only one who slips. I still slip now and then too. But my slips are farther and farther apart, thanks to God and this group. And I hope one day to be like Ginger, tip-toeing up to a year. But I'm not there yet, not by a long shot. One day I hope to be, and I hope you all will be here to share it with, if I ever get there! I keep a sobriety calculator app on my phone. I don't want to think about how many times I've reset it to 0. I can't drink normally, and every slip is a quiet disaster. I wake up the next morning full of sadness and no memory of the evening before. The day after the slip is always a physical and mental struggle and a day full of self-loathing.

Waves to Jude, Cowboy, Slo and Mul.

24 more for all of us here, please and thank you.

[Mulburry]

Rava, thank you for your honesty regarding your slip; I know it's not an easy thing to admit. It's in the past, so let it stay there. I have been struggling with cravings for a couple of days now, and yesterday I came very close to chugging down a few cans of Mr. J's beer. I don't know what came over me but the urge to drink was intense. It was so scary, but somehow sanity took over. The alcoholic mind is cunning, baffling and powerful but we can overcome it.

It never quite leaves does, just sits dormant for a while waiting to strike. I've been doing well with daytime cravings recently, but my subconcious still seems fixated on the Al, had another one of those drinking dreams last night: started out fun, drinking with friends, but then at some point I realized I'd actually been drinking every day for a while, and was terrified of being back in the shit (so to speak). Was quite relieved to wake up and realize it was just a bad dream. My dreams seems so livid and real sometimes, it almost seems like an alternate reality; in fact, I had a dream the other day where I was sure I was in an alternate reality and then as I portal-ed back to my own (in a cacaophony of sound and light) I woke up.

[Jude58]

Good morning cafe! Hot and muggy is the word of the day, but I guess that it's better than the cool rainy days that we've had over the last couple of months.

Mul, your dreams are even stranger than mine! it's funny how real they seem when you wake up, but quietly slip away during the daylight hours.

Ginger, did Mr. G quit drinking for good or is he just taking a break? I do know how hard it is to stay sober when there's a frig full of booze in the house. Hopefully his quit will stick and that will be one less temptation for you to worry about.

Twenty four more for all of us please...

[Rava]

Good morning Cafe. Thanks for your honesty Dill about your issues as well. This book I mentioned yesterday is a woman just like myself. Drinks to the point of blacking out and has no filter as to when that shift occurs. I am really enjoying it and stayed up until 1030 pm reading it. I am soaking it all up. I need to remove alcohol from the equation and stop thinking about it. It is taking up too much headspace and trying to ruin my life. If I was still drinking like I did in my 30s’s I would be dead by now. That is fact! Mul, glad your dreams are only dreams and not reality. Ginger,I hope Mr. G sticks with his quit. Going to spend the day at the pool with my daughter and grandsons. Wishing everyone a safe and sober day. 24 more please and thank you.

[abcowboy]

5:20am in Alberta, 24 more please, and thanks...

In the last 24 hours, these friends have signed in for 24 hours of wellness:
Jude58 Rava Ginger999 dill Mulburry

Today is going to be a darn good day not to drink!

[Slo]

I got my sister-in-law off to the airport yesterday morning. Now I am at D1’s house to babysit while they have their first OB appointment for their pregnancy.

My foot is really bad, like the bones move around too much. The pedorthist yesterday has referred me to a podiatrist for tomorrow. I can only wear the one shoe; an Archie’s slide. I wear compression hose and tight plantar fasciitis socks to help hold it together.
The smooth rubber on the built-up sole has no traction, and it slipped on the wet pavement yesterday and I landed on my knee replacement. Now that hurts, and I’m so worried that it got damaged!
The bodywide neuropathy is going crazy lately.

Grandson Beckett is here, so I have to go. More later.

[abcowboy]

I didn't realize that Mr G had stopped drinking as well Ginger, do you know what his reasons were, he didn't sound like a problem drinker.

My dreams seem so real as well Mulburry, thankfully I don't have any drinking dreams, at least not in a long time.

Don't worry dill and Rava, I'll be around to celebrate those one years with you.

Hot and muggy sounds okay after all the rain Jude. We've had our hot and muggy and now it's back to rain lol.

[Ginger999]

Muggy is the worst to me! We just don't have humidity in central Washington so our first trip back east was a shocker! It's stifling. Not sure I could live with it but I guess if that's where God would have planted me I'd have gotten used to it

Mr G quit in solidarity to his "slippy" wife and after a few weeks he felt so much better that he stayed with it. I hope he sticks with it because it's so much easier when he doesn't drink!

Slo, you poor thing! I hope your knee is OK. That must have hurt like hell. Keeping you in my thoughts_/\_

Dill, if you get the small diamond art to try, i think you'll love the results. Mine hangs in my window and catches the sun. I love it.

Rava, have fun at the pool! Hey Mul and Jude! Here's to an easy day of freedom from the AL beast!

[dill]

Late check in here as today was volunteer day. I really enjoy the interactions I have with the patients that come through. I feel so fortunate that I found the perfect volunteer job for myself.

I had a vivid drinking dream just a couple of nights ago, Mul. It's strange how real they are and all the emotions that are bottled up in them...all negative. Anxiety and guilt and fear.... no enjoyment what-so-ever. Of course I can't recall the details of the dream at this point, but I do remember the negative emotions...

Ginger, I think you may be right about diamond art being a good hobby for me. I will definitely give it a try. The only immediate drawback that comes to mind is that it may be hard visually. I have developing cataract which are not bad enough yet to warrant surgery, according to Mr. Medicare. But my eye doctor says she cannot improve my acuity anymore because of the cataracts. She says once I have them removed, my acuity (with glasses) will improve. I used to enjoy doing melty bead projects with the grands and I see it as somewhat similar to placing the diamond dots, so we shall see.
For many years Mr. D never drank and we had no al in the house. But in the last year or so he has begun keeping beer in the fridge. He is totally able to drink one beer and he's done. But I am finding that just having the beer around and seeing him be able to drink so normally, well, it has been a bit of a trigger for me. I have never mentioned it to him because I don't think it's fair to make him feel he can't enjoy that. It does him no harm. So, I have remained silent and am just dealing with it. It's not a big deal, but it is a niggling thought.

Slo, I'm so sorry you slipped and fell on that knee! I almost can't bear the thought of how that must have hurt. Hope it's OK today. You've really been struggling so lately.

Waves Jude and Cowboy.

24 more for all of us here, please and thank you.

[Jude58]

Cool and breezy today, might be a good strawberry picking day! No time for booze, so I'm in for another twenty four!

[abcowboy]

5:20am in Alberta, another 24 for me please, and thanks...

In the last 24 hours, these friends have joined in for 24 hours of wellness:
Jude58 Rava Slo Ginger999 dill

Today is going to be a darn good day not to drink!

[abcowboy]

Ouch, I imagine that did hurt Slo, hopefully it's feeling okay today.

Funny how we're all looking for hobbies as we get older, it wasn't long ago that drinking was my hobby. What a waste of time that was!

No lake trip this weekend, supposed to rain for most of the weekend and that's not good for trenching in the sewer line. So it's cross our fingers that next weekend will be better.

Have a great day everyone!