Seven years sober!

[DougGuy]

Today, I almost didn't even think about it, it almost slipped my mind, but we had a little band practice tonite, and me being the old guy having to school some of the younguns, did some digging and some story telling about times when my bar tab averaged 18-22 shots of Beam a night. And some of the stupider things came up, like riding a Harley 170mph on a public right of way, and blowing through red lights at 100+mph, but there were as many good stories and good days as there were stupid. Touring and playing bass in 2000 I drove 45,000 miles in 3mos and played all the shows since I was the only band member that had a valid license, and all that time never got pulled, never put a trailer tire off the road, never hit anybody or anything, and still played good.

It was like I loved to drink so much, that I was extra careful and tried extra hard to do things right so people couldn't throw that at me. I got pretty good at it after a while. Good enough that I was able to keep it up for years and years without really having issues related to or coming from the alcohol. I was a professional functional alcoholic. I made it work. <--- This... I will attribute to letting me pretty much wear out drinking, I had done everything I wanted to do, I had exhausted the subject and THEN some. Because of that, when I did eventually get a DUI in 2008, it made it easy for me to quit. There wasn't anything left anymore that made it fun, and I had become what they call a maintenance alcoholic, one who drinks not to get drunk, but to maintain. It was a day in and day out habit.

When I got my DUI, I got out of jail the next morning, I went back to my vehicle still sitting on the side of the road. There was a 6pk in there, and I simply slid the side door open (van) and tossed them into the ditch. At that moment, I *knew* I was done. And because I had wondered even, for years, what would make me quit, I *knew* there would come a day, that I would see the reason why and I would know, it was time.

I don't think I would have had the sense to quit, had I not completely beat that horse to death, I think it would still have held some temptation here and there to drink, but because I was SO thorough in totally exhausting my habit, all I had to do, was make the decision, and be sure I was going to stick with it. It would have been much harder had things forced me to quit earlier, I am not sure I would have been successful. I was lucky beyond belief that nothing really bad happened to me, or to somebody else, in those whiskey years. I look back on some of the things I did, and shake my head. It's anybody's wonder why I am still here.

To anyone who wants to quit, I say the will is within you. It will be much more effective if YOU can find the will on your own, instead of it being forced on you by the courts or by other reasons beyond your control. A lot of people don't get this luxury, a lot aren't quite so lucky, and if you feel like are holding a decent hand and life hasn't dealt you Aces and Eights, and you feel like you can do it, put your money on YOU winning this, throw the cards on the table and call. You have everything to gain, and nothing can hold you back once you are committed to the win.

I don't know if this will be a help to anyone or not. It was kinda hard to write the farther along it got. It was something I had to do on my own, I never was a friend of Bill, and I never walked the twelve steps. Bless those that do. This was my rite of passage. This worked for me. This is how I became sober, 7yrs ago today.

[GoodOlBoy]

congratulations on seven years... it's a heck of an accomplishment.

GoodOlBoy

[jmort]

Good for you. People have to bottom out, it seems to move on. Hope this helps someone make the first big step.

[TXGunNut]

Congrats, DougGuy. Can only imagine what this means to you. I've seen firsthand the tragedy and carnage that DUI's cause and I'm glad you saw the handwriting on the wall, some folks never do. Some never will.

[Beagle333]

Congrats!! That is really great that you've stayed sober. Here's to many more years of sobriety!!! http://www.marlinowners.com/forum/images/smilies/new/tee.gif

[leadman]

Glad you were able to beat the addiction and move on. Seen so much wreckage alcohol and drugs have caused.
Takes a real man to write what you did and hope it inspires others to follow your advice.

[alrighty]

Congratulations!!! That is very good of you and hopefully it will help others overcome a hurdle.

[Bored1]

One day @ a time, on foot in front of the other. That's how I did it, when I quit drinking. I haven't made it 7 years yet, but I will. I can remember thinking "I don't know what tomorrow will bring, but I WILL NOT have a drink today." The knowledge that if I continued to drink I would either end up in prison or dead actually made it an easier decision for me. Not sure why it took me as long as it did to realize the truth, but once it sunk it, it wasn't as hard the final time as the others to quit.


You will help more people than you know, and CONGRATS on the 7 years. Treat yourself to some coffee and pie!!!

[sthwestvictoria]

COngratulations on your seven years.

[Butler Ford]

Congratulations on 7 years!! Well done!

BF

[Outer Rondacker]

Congratulations!! I did the same thing with smoking. We (the misses and I) where at the doctors office and I said can you figure out what is wrong with her doc. Yup ok what? Take a seat son. You guys are going to be parents. I grabbed our smokes and they hit the can rite there in the doctors office. I have not had one since. That was 15 years ago. So now that I shared my story I would like to say this. Its not always a rock bottom issue but as DougGuy said the will is in you. My wish for the best for my coming child was enough for me. I had been a 2-3 pack a day guy for 8 years.

Keep up the good work DougGuy. And keep them youngsters in check too.

[RugerFan]

Congrats and keep it up!

[tryNto]

Congrats on the time Sober, great story also.
I agree on the will to quit being there and needing to find it within.

I started Drinking & Doping in 1968. My share and enough for half a dozen others till July 2nd 2003 decieded my Wife and Life were more importent then the high. 11 years, 6 months 2 days Sober and my 60th Birthday..

Again Good job for you.

[Hogtamer]

"It's anybody's wonder why I am still here."

No wonder at all Doug. A man named David wrote about this long ago. We can read it in the book of Psalms, #139, right in the middle of the Bible. Take a look! And congratulations for finding your way to this point. God has big plans for you! Discover what that purpose is!

[RogerDat]

To everything there is a season, sometimes the blessing is surviving our season of young and stupid. Congratulations on this new season of your life. May its blessings and joys be as rich to savor as those of wilder times.

[CastingFool]

Congrats, DougGuy, that is an awesome accomplishment! I pray that the Lord will give you strength and help you continue to want to stay sober.

[Hickok]

Doug, just wish I had the chance to put my one hand on your shoulder and give you a handshake with the other!

[jcwit]

Congratulations on the 7 years and getting the monkey off your back. I got the monkey off my back 12 years ago, stopped cold, I was drinking 3 bottles of vodka a week and smoking 3 packs a day, stopped 1 one day the other the next. Have never felt better about myself.

[**oneshot**]

Congradulations!!!!!!

[Adam10mm]

Awesome! Gives me something to work toward. Today marks 6 months for me. One day at a time...

[nvbirdman]

Nine years for me, after forty years of my hand always curled around a beer can. I met a girl that I was very attracted to, but I knew that all she saw was a guy that drank like a fish. I was beaten before I could start, and I made up my mind right then that the next time I was that attracted to a girl she might reject me but it wouldn't be because I was a boozer. And no, she never had any idea that she was the reason I quit. She probably doesn't even know that I quit.

[w5pv]

After a couple of DUI's and the grace of God I put all of my drinking days behind me.It is a monkey that I wish on no one's back.

[richhodg66]

Today, I almost didn't even think about it, it almost slipped my mind, but we had a little band practice tonite, and me being the old guy having to school some of the younguns, did some digging and some story telling about times when my bar tab averaged 18-22 shots of Beam a night. And some of the stupider things came up, like riding a Harley 170mph on a public right of way, and blowing through red lights at 100+mph, but there were as many good stories and good days as there were stupid. Touring and playing bass in 2000 I drove 45,000 miles in 3mos and played all the shows since I was the only band member that had a valid license, and all that time never got pulled, never put a trailer tire off the road, never hit anybody or anything, and still played good.

It was like I loved to drink so much, that I was extra careful and tried extra hard to do things right so people couldn't throw that at me. I got pretty good at it after a while. Good enough that I was able to keep it up for years and years without really having issues related to or coming from the alcohol. I was a professional functional alcoholic. I made it work. <--- This... I will attribute to letting me pretty much wear out drinking, I had done everything I wanted to do, I had exhausted the subject and THEN some. Because of that, when I did eventually get a DUI in 2008, it made it easy for me to quit. There wasn't anything left anymore that made it fun, and I had become what they call a maintenance alcoholic, one who drinks not to get drunk, but to maintain. It was a day in and day out habit.

When I got my DUI, I got out of jail the next morning, I went back to my vehicle still sitting on the side of the road. There was a 6pk in there, and I simply slid the side door open (van) and tossed them into the ditch. At that moment, I *knew* I was done. And because I had wondered even, for years, what would make me quit, I *knew* there would come a day, that I would see the reason why and I would know, it was time.

I don't think I would have had the sense to quit, had I not completely beat that horse to death, I think it would still have held some temptation here and there to drink, but because I was SO thorough in totally exhausting my habit, all I had to do, was make the decision, and be sure I was going to stick with it. It would have been much harder had things forced me to quit earlier, I am not sure I would have been successful. I was lucky beyond belief that nothing really bad happened to me, or to somebody else, in those whiskey years. I look back on some of the things I did, and shake my head. It's anybody's wonder why I am still here.

To anyone who wants to quit, I say the will is within you. It will be much more effective if YOU can find the will on your own, instead of it being forced on you by the courts or by other reasons beyond your control. A lot of people don't get this luxury, a lot aren't quite so lucky, and if you feel like are holding a decent hand and life hasn't dealt you Aces and Eights, and you feel like you can do it, put your money on YOU winning this, throw the cards on the table and call. You have everything to gain, and nothing can hold you back once you are committed to the win.

I don't know if this will be a help to anyone or not. It was kinda hard to write the farther along it got. It was something I had to do on my own, I never was a friend of Bill, and I never walked the twelve steps. Bless those that do. This was my rite of passage. This worked for me. This is how I became sober, 7yrs ago today.

This is very inspiring, thanks for posting. I never was a big drinker and rarely have more than one or two beers every couple of weeks nowadays and then it's while sitting at home with the wife. I don't have anything against it, I just don't really want to do it anymore.

I have seen it mess up a few lives though. It's a problem in the Army for sure.

I teach high schoolers now and the section we were on before Christmas break is on substance abuse and prevention. A lo of the kids know a surprising amount about all kinds of things I was blissfully ignorant of as a teenager. They have challenges today I was not faced with growing up. It would help if guys with stories like this could talk to groups of teens about it more.

[RED333]

When I was young, dumb and full of myself I was a bad drinker and drug user.
At 25 I would wake up and did not know how I got there, sometimes did not know where I was.
Now at 56 (next month) I can say I am clean, lean and straight.
No it aint easy, the best things in life are not easy.
Congrats to all who can stop and make a better life.

[WILCO]

I don't know if this will be a help to anyone or not.

We never know just how many people we touch during our lifetime.
If you're learning and sharing, then you're growing as an individual.
Congratulations on seven years.

[MrWolf]

We never considered ourselves alcoholics, we just drank every night for fun. After 17 stitches in my hand while having a "discussion" and knowing I was getting married soon, I just quit. I swore my kids would not have to grow up with what I saw. That was April '88. In the last ten years or so, I will have an occasional Kahluha and cream, maybe one or two a year or an occasional shot of tequila (I get the worst tasting junk just to keep it as medicine) when my back stops me from sleeping. Congrats on taming the beast.

[histed]

What Wilco said. We also never know who's watching what we do. Your family for sure. Congrads on your will power. Hang in there - one heartbeat at a time.

[opos]

Congrats...Been on that sober path for a long time and every year about this time I have a moment to reflect the time when the music stopped and there were no chairs left to sit in....it was a time I hope I never have to repeat..God willing on Wed. the 14th it will be 34 years..my Wife just celebrated 40 years clean and sober last August 26th..but just being further away from the last one doesn't change the fact that I can toss it all away with one drink. Let's just keep doing to "do's" and "don'ting the don'ts" as an old friend said many years ago...

[blackthorn]

Good for you!!! Congratulations!

[Uncle R.]

Doug:
Well done and congratulations to you. It may have been difficult to write but I think your testimony might help others make good decisions. Best wishes and a happy new year to you and yours!
Uncle R.

[LUBEDUDE]

Congratulations to Doug and others that testified!

I believe with all my heart that my marriage of 35 yrs would not have gone down the tubes had my EX not been an alcoholic.

Y'all keep up the good fight.

[shooter2]

Well done indeed! My wife has 33 years in the program and would not miss her Sunday night meeting. For herself, but also for others.

[DougGuy]

Nine years for me, after forty years of my hand always curled around a beer can. I met a girl that I was very attracted to, but I knew that all she saw was a guy that drank like a fish. I was beaten before I could start, and I made up my mind right then that the next time I was that attracted to a girl she might reject me but it wouldn't be because I was a boozer. And no, she never had any idea that she was the reason I quit. She probably doesn't even know that I quit.

Oddly enough, that's one of the major factors that got me to quit smoking. I was living in Podunk, VA in a town SO small, in the middle of nowhere, and I was single and dating online. There were a lot of women that I could get along with that would not date a smoker. I saw this as a serious impediment to my chances of finding me a good one. I went to the Welplex clinic and got the shots, and from that moment, was a non smoker. That was July 17 2007, and it has stuck.

Eventually I met my current gf who was not a smoker, and wouldn't have dated one over about a week, and also wouldn't have dated a daily drinker. She is a keeper, we have been 4+yrs now and it still seems like brand new sometimes, other times it feels like we have known each other much longer, but we fit and both really enjoy things the way they are. We are the best of friends, and there are reasons beyond my comprehension why I wound up here, but it feels like I belong.

Thank you for the compliments, thank yourselves for the sober years too!

[snuffy]

August 8 of this year will be 32 years sober. And a few months later 32 years since I had any kind of tobacco.

My deciding factor was a car accident after going to Milwaukee Brewers with a group from work There was a keg on ice in the aisle of the bus. Drank at the game as well. But abstained on the return trip. So I was not drunk, but drinking always made me think like "damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead."

A drunk ran a red light on the way home in my car. I just beeped my horn, instead of tapping the brakes to let that idiot go through the intersection. Wham, my firebird took the whole front clip off his dodge car. Bent my front end pretty bad.

Well I had just become a father. I couldn't shake the thought that my 3 month old son COULD have been, might have been it the back seat. I couldn't shake that what if??? I quit cold turkey. I was a binge drinker. Mostly beer. I could go days without drinking, but watch out for Friday night! I never got a DUI, but I certainly deserved one often. No cop saw me, yes, I was lucky.

To those that are thinking I can't do that, yes you can! You CAN have fun without drinking. In fact more fun because you're not impaired.

Good going doug guy Keep up the good work!

[clintsfolly]

Read this this morning and have been thinking about this and my late friend Paul. He had a life changing event and quit drinking before I meet him. He shot a dime out of his buddy fingers with his small bore rifle one night and they returned to the bar. The next morning he sold his rifle and never drank a drop again. He helped others stop. Later he lost a leg in a bike /car wreck and helped many with there loss. Had a great way to get there attention. Would get fast food and go see them and have lunch. After eaten would get out jacknife and clean his nails as talking about how how they had to get over there loss and on with there life. He then would stick the blade into his fake leg. No one ever know he had a peg leg till that point. Doug Thanks for giving me the spark to think of my old friend and Keep up the good work. Clint

[leeggen]

It is great to hear all of you that decided to get it together and stop drinking. I am really proud of each of you. It is not easy to do, takes alot of will and freinds that don't drink or drug around you. I reached 22 yrs.last October with the help of Bill and his freinds. At the age of 18 I was drinking a fifth of wiskey and a case of beer everyday, but I didn't get cleaned up until I was 41. Life is really great some days are just harder to get thru than others, but it would be harder to do if I was still drinking.
CD

[tdoyka]

congrats!!!
this is my 3rd year for being sober. of course i had a little bit of help. at age 39 i had a stroke(right side of my body and my speech). i used to drink all night and when i wasn't working i drank too! now, it doesn't even bother me. i just wish deer hunting went all year!!!!!:smile::smile::smile:

[wv109323]

I was never a drinker,thank God.
I grew up beside an alcoholic that was a down and outer all his life. He beat his wife,wrecked several cars,probably molested his step daughters, and was constantly fighting with wife and family members. On multiple occasions firearms and shots fired were involved in the fighting.
Multiple times his daughter/step-daughters would seek shelter at our home screaming "He is going to kill mommy". He died by going in convulsions and beating his head on the porch floor bad enough that he fractured his skull and bone particles in bedded in his brain and he died of swelling/bleeding.
I also had an uncle that drank until he was non-functional in life. His wife(s) and daughter abandoned him in life because of the problems caused by alcohol. He died at age 59 alone.
I never did acquire a taste for it.

[oldfart1956]

Congratulations my friend. For me, Jan. 19th. will be 8 years. Audie...the Oldfart...lost in my thoughts..

[454PB]

Good on ya!

I, too, am a musician. I started playing in bands at 16, and I'm still doing it.....another bass player.

I saw early on what addictive personalities musicians have. Over the years I've probably worked with 50 different guys. Many drank themselves to death or bad health, but early on it was illegal drug use that took them at the age of 30 or less.

[kopperl]

The 9th of February will start my 8th year. Quit smoking in '84 but kept on drinking. Not sure how I did that.

[SWANEEDB]

7 years, a day at a time, sometimes even a minute at a time, if I behave and no drink today I feel blessed, Jan 19th will be 22 years sence I put the plug in the jug and never looked back, there are times when I can still taste the booze, have dreams about my endulging days and wake up in a sweat wondering if I did have a slip. I think I can say that AA was my biggest help and the folks whom I now hang around with. "If it is to be it is up to me"

[DLCTEX]

I quit drinking in 1974 after putting Coors Brewing on easy street. Sometimes I have the thought that I could probably handle it now, I'll not risk it and it smells terrible. Life has been so much better here on the dry side.

[starmac]

I reckon I was an oddball and lucky drunk, I closed the bars every night they were open for several years and was always the designated driver. I never put a scratch on a vehicle and never got in any trouble. I did get hauled in once, but refused the test and after a while he took me back to the pickup. I done most of my drinking at bars, never even thought about drinking alone. Got in a bar fight every once in a while and even shot in one one night, but I never missed an hours work or had any run ins with the law, finally decided the price of beer over the counter was just getting to high, so basically quit, It has been several years since I have drank over 2 beers at any one time and even at that only a time or two a year, I keep a six pack in the fridge for times when someone comes over and wants one, but doubt I have bought over 2 six packs in one year for probably 10 years or more.

[NavyVet1959]

I've never been one for whiskey / bourbon. I'll drink a quart of eggnog during the holidays with scotch and the bottle will stay in the fridge untouched until next year. Sometimes a frozen daiquiri on a hot summer day or even a frozen lemonade with rum in it. Never been one for hitting the bars because I was too cheap to pay their inflated prices for drinks. For the "sports clubs" that actually had good cheap food, I have always been pretty good about nursing a single beer for a lot longer than it would take my liver to process it while eating their free buffet or cheap food. I like a good dark beer though. In fact, I have a refrigerator converted into a kegerator and keep it stocked with a full keg of a microbrew. A keg (15.5 gallons) lasts me around 6 months or so -- an average of about 11 oz per day. In fact, my current keg has been in the kegerator exactly 4 months today. I might go a few weeks without even a single drink and then I might have 3 or 4 glasses on Saturday and Sunday. I'm not a fast drinker, so by the time I get on the road, my liver has processed most of it. Never had a DWI. Mostly though, I have a glass of beer with my meals or when I'm casting / smelting / reloading / working in the garage / etc. Some people when they drink, they get belligerent, others are mellow. I've always been the latter.

Sorry that your drinking ended up becoming a problem for you. Good luck with the current path you've chosen.

[bullet maker 57]

Congratulations on seven years sober. Not an easy thing to do.

[FISH4BUGS]

I also did the music thing in a prior lifetime. I played in bands starting at about 12 years old right through to about 30 when I got married and had kids. I went to Kansas State in 1966 and dropped out in 1967 and went on the road with a band. I tried to do my duty and enlist but blind in one eye and flat feet made them say "don't call us, we will call you".
Since the statute of limitations has long since run out, I will admit to doing things that I certainly did a lot of. I guess I was lucky because when I quit the road in 1970, I just stopped doing it all. I still played in bands and had a beer or two but that was about it. I guess I didn't inherit that addictive gene from my father, who was from a long line of alcohol and substance abusers.
The only thing left over from those days now are some posters, and my Hammond A105 with a Leslie 251 here in my home office.
....it was hard work but man was it fun. Good thing I was young....no way I could do that now at 66! I know why many musicians engage in substance abuse. If you really work it at it, it is hard work. Finish a gig, pack up, load the bus, drive to the next gig, set up, rehearse, take a nap, play the gig, tear down, load the bus, drive to the next gig, and on and on. That was before roadies. One nighters are a killer. I guess you get into drugs and alcohol almost by default.
My uncle left me his AA 20 year pin in his will. It meant a lot to him. I am learning from others just how much that does mean to someone that struggles with alcoholism or drug abuse. It is a daily struggle to stay sober. My hat is off to you.

[Lloyd Smale]

never had to fight it but have family members who have fought drug and alcohol addictions and I know that it took a great deal of fortitude to accomplish what you did and you should be dammed proud!!!

[Linstrum]

Congratson 7 years of sobriety and staying that way.
Everyalcoholic is different!
I'm not sure of the date of my sobriety, but it was probably in November of 1997 just over 17 years ago when I needed minor skin surgery and the surgeon said he wouldn't do it unless I was sober for three days first plus quit smoking. He gave me some Seconal to help with the alcohol withdrawal and then prescribed Darvacet for the minor basal cell growth surgery pain on my face that helped. I didn't go through D.T.s or withdrawal from tobacco for some reason, probably because Darvacet works on both the receptors involved with nicotine and alcohol. When the prescription for the Darvacet ran out two weeks later I was alcohol and smoke free and have been ever since. As a drinker I was a professional drunk, where I had to have 750 ml vodka every day to function, and I was a better driver after a few drinks than sober, a phenomenon noted in World War Two with some fighter pilots who did better when slightly intoxicated – read up on the group of P51 pilots called "Duffy's Tavern". I was 47 when I quit and I never got in any accidents in heavy Los Angeles freeway driving, the craziest place to drive in the Western world. If the surgeon had not required that I quit drinking alcohol I would have very soon quit anyway because it was starting to affect my health, mainly my liver. I'm 64 now and I don't seem to have any permanent liver or other damage. Sober feels better!

[DougGuy]

Sorry that your drinking ended up becoming a problem for you. Good luck with the current path you've chosen.

Funny, the drinking never was a problem. I loved it. I had just wore it slam out and it was time to move on.

An ex said once that I was like a dog that gets hold of a snake and shakes it until there is nothing left, and so it was with the alcohol.

[35isit]

Congrats on 7 years. 39 for me. I was smart enough at age 18 to quit. Chewing tobacco was a different matter. I fell out of a deer stand 11-3-2013. I broke my back, pelvis, 3 ribs, collapsed a lung and had a concussion. I spit out my chew and haven't wanted one since after 40 years of chewing.

[PS Paul]

Congrats on seven years. Eight years for me this April.

Funny thing is, I'm in the liquor and wine business and am around it every day, but the desire to imbibe has long since left me.

Keep it up, friend!

[DougGuy]

Some GREAT posts in this thread, I'm tellin' you..

Like Linstrum says every alcoholic is different. I'm inclined to believe this because our bodies crave different things. I had quit once a few years earlier, and I craved the sugar that my body had been making out of the alcohol, and I dang near got addicted to Sprite pretty bad but then something else happened that derailed that attempt at quitting. I was 4mos without alcohol and I went and seen an old gf whom we were always good in the sack, so after I am at her place almost a week, I can't finish! Started freaking me out after 5 days, and I says well, I am NOT ready for THIS! Went and got a 12 pack, drank 2-3 of them, ahhhhhhh problem solved. But it started me back where I had left off, and I drank for 4 more years.

In the meantime I did some research, and apparently there are more than one vise or habit that sends messages along the same neurotransmitters to the pleasure center in the brain and if you really upset one of these paths it can upset the path that other things use as well. This young female psychiatry major told me to keep reinforcing those other messages while I was trying to quit drinking. So I figured well, I might should wait until I am with a regular girl then try again to quit drinking while she could keep the other urges for satisfaction the body has, ticking along without missing a beat. When I did quit drinking in 2008, this theory proved itself to work.

Another thing I noticed, I had a real craving for NA beer too after quitting, and I was drinking about 6 of those throughout the space of a day for the first cpl years, and then it finally began to taper off and by the 4th year, I was down to 1 or 2, and then sometimes I would forget and not have any. There was something in beer, that my body was craving, something it was addicted to besides the alcohol because there isn't enough alcohol in a NA beer to feed any kind of addiction. I have no idea if my system was getting protein from the NA beer, but there was something it wanted awfully bad and I was getting it from the regular beer and when I quit that, I needed a replacement and the NA beer served that purpose. I have no idea what was in it but there was something that I craved really bad because that stuff tastes terrible. It's been a couple years since I had one and out of curiosity I tasted one a good while back, oh nasty.... Good thing to get rid of! We used the leftovers to catch slugs in the garden.. Even they didn't much care for it..

[Magana559]

Congratulations, alcohol can be a SOB. Keep on keeping on.

[kbstenberg]

CONGRADULATIONS I know what you have gone through. Both my SIL are at 1 year.

[JeffG]

Good for you Doug. That's great!

[rexherring]

Congrats, heck of an accomplishment. Good thing you did most of that stuff before I-phone and youtube.

[popper]

FISH4BUGS (http://castboolits.gunloads.com/member.php?619-FISH4BUGS) You practice in Marlett Hall cafeteria?
When I was kid I worked with a old guy who kept a little notepad in his shirt pocket. Every day he pulled it out, looked at it and marked in it with a pencil. He eventually told me he had several, marked each day since he'd had a drink. He'd lost his wife, don't know if she left or passed, but that was his start day.

[ozarkhillbilly49]

30+ yrs sober and straight here. tough week tho. my best friend died of cancer yesterday. he got so protective of me after the doc told me the kidneys were going. plus one of my cousins and his grand daughter were shot and killed. a drink of good corn likker sure would sit good right now.