Do You REALLY Want To Be Sober?

[abcowboy]

On Saturday, Canada will celebrate it’s 150th birthday, lots of special events planned in communities across this great nation. In our small community those events take place on Friday instead of Saturday this year. A few years back the town council noticed that the attendance to the Canada Day celebrations was getting smaller and smaller and they attributed it the fact that a lot of people head out camping or to lake cabins for the long weekend, so they decided to hold the celebrations the day before. Not bad thinking on their part I figure.

I was looking at the planned activities for tomorrow in the local newspaper and saw something that I found a bit hard to believe. One of the town’s committee’s, the Goodlife Committee, is sponsoring an event on main street from 11am till 1pm, free beef on a bun, coffee, juice, and beer tasting!! Free beer from 11 till 1 on a Friday, what are they thinking!! Do they think the free beer will draw more people to the activity?? The sad thing is, it probably will….. and lots of people will return to work after the lunch smelling of booze, but it’s okay as the Town approved it.

Tis’ a sad state when we start offering free booze to get the numbers up on people attending functions…

[Lizann]

Re: Do You REALLY Want To Be Sober?

That is sad cowboy. I'm not one for beer, but the beef on a bun, tats another story! Enjoy!

[ssd858]

Re: Do You REALLY Want To Be Sober?

[MENTION=6262]Cowboy[/MENTION] - that is crazy. It seems that you can carry a drink around most all of the amusement parks. Here at the San Diego zoo its acceptable to walk around drink in hand. I think Legoland is the only local park that is alcohol free. Last time my sister was here it drove her crazy she couldn't drink at Legoland.

[dill]

Re: Do You REALLY Want To Be Sober?

Free beer will definitely attract more people. Hopefully not people like us! That would just get the likes of us started! However for the normal drinkers, it's a nice idea really IMHO. I used to be able to do that and quite enjoy it!

On my flight down to New Orleans the lady across the aisle ordered a glass of chardonnay. I kept glancing over her way and was just amazed at how long that glass lasted! Then even more amazed when she didn't order a second one! Mind-boggling to we who have crossed the line, eh?

[abcowboy]

It's so true how alcohol is everywhere and how it's become an acceptable part of everyday life and available almost everywhere! I'm not bothered by the fact of the free beer tasting, God knows how many of those I took part in and how it was just the start of an afternoon drunk for me lol. What bothers me is the time! Why not have it at 5 to 7pm, but then I guess it might tempt people to keep drinking because they don't have to head back to work. Funny how an alcoholic's mind works eh lol.

Not even free beef on a bun for me Liz, I'm at the farm to cut grass and take out some old cross fences that we no longer need or use. Bubba and Hank will be coming out in the afternoon to spend the long weekend out here if it doesn't rain lol. Usually every June 30th we go over to our son and dil's to sit around the campfire, cook smokies and smores, and watch the fireworks at the park by the lake 2 miles away. Life is indeed good!

[ssd858]

Re: Do You REALLY Want To Be Sober?

^Sounds like a wonderful weekend! Especially the smores around the campfire!
We might have to do some smores this weekend!

Smores.jpg

[abcowboy]

Time to get back to my journal, a few things to get off my mind so that I can let them go.

I heard back from the Vicar at the Edmonton Archdiocese, and it wasn’t what I was hoping to hear. My old annulment can’t be reopened as too much time has gone by. But I can start all over from scratch and reapply with the new annulment guidelines. I thanked the Vicar for his time, but told him I wasn’t about to go through the whole process over again. Bubba is/was Ukranian Catholic but hasn’t attended Mass for many years. A couple of years ago, our 93 year old next door lady fell and dislocated her shoulder, and she wasn’t able to drive while her shoulder healed so Bubba has been taking her to Church every Sunday morning. This past Christmas I went along for the Christmas Eve celebration and was amazed how similar the Anglicans are to the Roman Catholics. I had Bubba ask the Pastor how my situation would be accepted by the Anglican Church. I would be more than welcome to join their community and if I gave them a copy of the Provincial Trubunal’s annulment approval I’d be more than welcome to partake in the Sacraments again. So now I have a decision to make, I’m going to talk with the Big Guy upstairs and see if He will help guide me with my decision...

[dill]

Re: Do You REALLY Want To Be Sober?

So glad to see your return, [MENTION=21602]abcowboy[/MENTION]! And a very interesting turn of events for you in your spiritual journey. I offer no advice because this is such a personal decision. I'm sure the Big Guy will help and guide you. But I will suggest a couple of TV series loosely related to the topic! Have you ever heard of the PBS miniseries "Wolf Hall"? It was a really interesting series based on the novel of the same name, well acted and beautifully filmed. It covers the events of the time period of the beginnings of the Anglican Church during the time period 1500-1535. http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/masterpiece/shows/wolf-hall/

Another PBS series, called Grantchester, is a delightful (IMO) mystery series set in the 1950s, England. The main character and sleuth is an Anglican vicar. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grantchester_(TV_series)

These two shows have very little in common, but I thoroughly enjoyed them both. Grantchester is still a running series on PBS.

Thanks for this update. I had been wondering how things were going for you.

[abcowboy]

Thanks for the links [MENTION=7944]dill[/MENTION], I'll look at them tonight when we get home from the farm. I did do a lot of reading on the Anglican Church and their philosophies and I'm thinking it might be the right fit for me to continue my spiritual growth. It is afterall, the reason I'm sober...

[abcowboy]

Like most everyone else here on MWO, I feel bad for someone who slipped and they occupy my thoughts for a few days after. Was there something I could have said or done to help them get through that craving or crisis? Is there anyway I can help them to carry on and make sure it doesn’t happen again? Can I put myself in their shoes and figure out how I might have handled it? But unlike most people on MWO, I will not agree that whatever the craving or crisis was, it was a good enough reason to drink over!

There’s not a whole lot of true “newbies” on MWO, a few for sure, but most of the active members have been around for a while. Not sure why that is, but I have my suspicions. We’ve all had our share of slips/relapses, many of us have finally gotten to a point that it doesn’t matter what happens in our lives, it’s just not a good enough reason to give up our quit. And that attitude and determination takes time to grow and be ingrained in our thinking.

I was over reading on one of the abs threads and something Mick said really made sense to me;

you know it was a shit decision to drink ..you knew that no good would come off it you knew that you would feel crap about it you knew that it wouldnt help you knew that there was a shdful of people here to support you.....

That statement applies to each and every one of us except for maybe Mick because he got it right the first time. But we can all put our name in front of that statement even if we are still drinking, trying to quit, slipped or relapsed, or even if we have some sober time in because we’ve all been there! But what I liked most about that statement was the word “you”, not “we” because it all begins with you, always has, always will…

You are the most important reason to quit drinking! That, and there’s never a good enough reason to pick up that first drink! You need to find something else to take the edge off, not turn to alcohol for relief. And you keep trying to find what works for you. You can’t keep making up excuses to drink….otherwise alcohol wins again...

[Mick]

Re: Do You REALLY Want To Be Sober?

Like most everyone else here on MWO, I feel bad for someone who slipped and they occupy my thoughts for a few days after. Was there something I could have said or done to help them get through that craving or crisis? Is there anyway I can help them to carry on and make sure it doesn’t happen again? Can I put myself in their shoes and figure out how I might have handled it? But unlike most people on MWO, I will not agree that whatever the craving or crisis was, it was just not a good enough reason to drink over!

There’s not a whole lot of true “newbies” on MWO, a few for sure, but most of the active members have been around for a while. Not sure why that is, but I have my suspicions. We’ve all had our share of slips/relapses, many of us have finally gotten to a point that it doesn’t matter what happens in our lives, it’s just not a good enough reason to give up our quit. And that attitude and determination takes time to grow and be ingrained in our thinking.

I was over reading on one of the abs threads and something Mick said really made sense to me;



That statement applies to each and every one of us except for maybe Mick because he got it right the first time. But we can all put our name in front of that statement even if we are still drinking, trying to quit, slipped or relapsed, or even if we have some sober time in because we’ve all been there! But what I liked most about that statement was the word “you”, not “we” because it all begins with you, always has, always will…

You are the most important reason to quit drinking! That, and there’s never a good enough reason to pick up that first drink! You need to find something else to take the edge off, not turn to alcohol for relief. And you keep trying to find what works for you. You can’t keep making up excuses to drink….otherwise alcohol wins again...

ab thats bang on ...we doesnt seem like the finger is pointing..almost like a what do you think folks ..should I drink... almost like a shared culpability....belongs in the same box as ..only the one ,I can handle it it doesnt control me.... one thing you did get wrong ...yep I did it first time ...but believe me there were plenty of start tomorrows and also times when I could have...but instead chose to listen to the sensible moi...

[abcowboy]

I think we're all pretty much alike Mick, we get to a point where we know that we have a problem with alcohol but we're not ready to accept it, we still have this crazy notion that we can somehow control it. Then more time goes by, more stupid drunken things happen, and we realize and accept that something has to be done so the I'll start tomorrow, or right after this wedding, anniversary, party etc excuses kick in till finally we hit the point that something has to be done.

I think it was about 10 years ago that I knew my drinking was getting out of hand and I did all the things most of us do, switch drinks, no drinking till a certain time, no drinking on certain days, but all that does is prolong the agony. I remember waking up in my truck almost 5 years ago, in the ditch, stuck in 3 feet of snow, and not even remembering how I got there. You'd think that would be enough to make me quit drinking for good! Nope, I had to have 3 more slips before I hit my rock bottom! I guess it's true that we all need to hit our rock bottom before we quit drinking for good, but how many rock bottom's are there until you reach the most permanent one of all...

[abcowboy]

My little (big) brother was a proud papa yesterday as he gave away his youngest daughter to a new son-in-law! It was a great day for an outside wedding!

IMG_5565.jpg

The supper and dance followed and was an equally great time. I wondered how I would react with the temps so hot and all the free ice cold beer to be had, but it was needless worry, I did just fine! My brother even had Perrier water on ice just for Bubba and me!! And twice I was asked to be a designated driver, once when my brother wanted a drive home to change in more casual clothes, and another time when my other niece asked if I could give her boyfriend a ride back to the house as he had a few too many. It made my non-drinking something to be proud of, and useful, not only to myself but to those around me.

I know it's easy to wonder if our decision to quit drinking was right, or if quitting drinking really has any value, but those two times I was asked to help out just reaffirmed that it’s okay to be a non-drinker in this day and age! You just never know when someone appreciates it even more than you do!

[NoraC]

Re: Do You REALLY Want To Be Sober?

Glad the wedding was great. Really glad that ice cold beer didn't bother you. Very nice that your brother had thought ahead and had Perrier for you. How wonderful that you were available to be a designated driver. It's the little things that remind you what a better life this is.

[Guitarista]

Re: Do You REALLY Want To Be Sober?

Great stuff AB. :thumbsup: