It just dawned on me earlier this evening that as of June 2nd it’s been 8 years since I gave up being an out of control, fifth of straight whiskey every night, hard core alcoholic.
Yay me.
Bustednuckles
Documenting The Death Of America
It just dawned on me earlier this evening that as of June 2nd it’s been 8 years since I gave up being an out of control, fifth of straight whiskey every night, hard core alcoholic.
Yay me.
Something to be proud of ehh?
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Is that your Canadian accent?
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Well, I have lived close to them… first in Oregon and up in Spokane and then in South Dakota. They are all interchangeable…
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I’ve a phrase I like to use. “There’s only two things I can’t stand. Intolerance. And those gotdamned Canadians,” Heh. My ma likes to inform me her dad was born in Canada, though his folks came from Austria. He spoke german with a Canadian accent. Charmng. Yep. I was born and raised in South Dakota. I get this.
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Good on ya, Phil!
Yes, Cederq, yay him.
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Congratulations man!!
That’s an awesome accomplishment!
Keep it up, you and your wife!
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Congratulations my friend!!
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Shit., where is the fun in that? I can barely get through the day without a
pint of vodka and OJ topped off with 6-pack. My secret is to never get
falling-down drunk. The trick is to pace oneself. I am an on-again and
off again drinker and tobacco user. I can quit both habits at any time.
Life served me a lot of lemons and COVID bullshit left me with nothing
better to do!
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Hang in and congratulations. I quit drinking one day when I realized I didn’t need any help being stupid.
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March 9 was 15 years without a bottle of tekillya daily
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Congrats Phil. Now you gotta quit the butts. That ones harder.
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Many congrats, Phil.
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You have a gallery of support behind you Phil, good on you remaining upstanding sober.
Not to be a nag but at about age 50 my dad was told by our family doc to quit the coffin nails or he was heading for a massive heart attack,. He quit cold and was with us up to age 80 (did play with pipe and cut tobacco, but did not suck that into the lungs like he would cigs.).
Replacing the drink with tool collecting seems to be a fair trade 😉
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Good on ya.
It’s kind of nice when you reach the point you have to remind yourself that another year has passed, isn’t it?
If I make it to the first week of December I’ll have 24 years (I have to word it that way because I’ve learned not to take anything for granted).
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Congratulations!
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Ugh… I might have to do that. My doc says my blood tests aren’t quite right so this Monday I have an ultrasound for my liver. Granted, I don’t do a fifth a day that often but still average about a case of 1.75 Liters a month before going to the bar. Not sure I can put up with people sober.
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How did you do it?
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I sat down on the end of the bed after my new wife had taken the kids to her parents because I was out of control and drunk constantly. Then I asked myself if being drunk all the time was worth losing everything, again.
The short answer was no so I sat the bottle down and walked away.
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Thanks for you story. I hope I can do it too.
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It is totally something you have to do for yourself. I’m not trying to say it’s easy but once you make that decision and get a new routine it does get less and less difficult.
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I don’t know about Phil, but for me, I just had to make the decision every single day to not drink that day. If you set goals, you have the weight of those to help, eg. I’ve been 1 week, I can go another. or I’ve made it a month, wouldn’t want to waste all that hardship… and before you know it, you only have to consciously make the decision on some days. And those days will get farther apart.
11 years, 5 months, and about 6 days. I’m not counting, I did the math….
nick
oh, and I spent a while tapering off before quitting completely. I gave up hard liquor for 2 years before stopping beer and wine.
The alcoholic neuropathy that my dad suffered started to show up and that scared me. And I wasn’t as unhappy in my life anymore (good wife and kid on the way) so I decided not to commit slow motion suicide.
FWIW, I didn’t get any outside help, my reasons were good enough for me.
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Good on ya mate! Ain’t a thing wrong with a drink now and again, even one, maybe 2 a nite, but let it nor control your life… Let nothing control your life… and kneel before none but your creator to ask forgiveness for screwing up the time He gave you upon this earth so bad…. Hey, it wurks fore me….
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I figure there HAS to be a reason I’m not dead yet because I should be two dozen times over. I don’t know what that reason is but I believe God has his reasons.
Even if it’s just to be that guy people point at and warn their kids about.
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Looked up Life Expectancy calculators, surprised to see 1 “drink” per day would add 3 years over a non drinker.
But when you can’t or won’t or don’t want to stop at one, we all know it won’t work out well long term.
“healthy” wife is pissed because hers says I’m going to outlive her by 5 years!
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Congrats!
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Now, if we could get you to eat some cheese burgers to get some meat on ya!
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3 years June 30th.
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25 years this past February. Lost a house, a wife, my friends, my race car, all of my tools, lived in a vacant warehouse for a while, the whole 9 yards, and kept on drinking. Got to the point where I was just about to lose the last thing I had that I valued, my job, and I saw the light.
Lived in a men’s sober living house for a year, took AA to heart, and things got better.
Help is out there, If You Want It. You have to want it for yourself. Not the wife, not the kids, not your parents. You have to do it for YOU. One of the very rare, very few times in life when you have to be as selfish as you can be, and do it for YOU.
Because if you can’t be good to yourself, you can’t be good to anybody else….
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Well said buddy.
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The saying is this: Fun flies when you’re doing time.
Learned that one on my many 9 month cruses to vet nam.
Earned my Tonkin Yacht Club patch after the second cruse.
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Congratulations! 32 years for me. Gets easier every year. Keep it up.
jack
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