It's a great question, and you're not rambling.
But I think it's interesting the way you pose the question -
"I guess what I am trying to ask is, how do you accept that you can't drink?"
I know where you're coming from, but that isn't the thing I accepted. What I accepted was that I couldn't stop drinking. Curiously, because I accepted that I couldn't stop, I was able to stop! I know it sounds a bit convoluted, but when I cam to the realisation that I couldn't stop, I was able to accept that there must be something different about me. Now, I choose to call that a "disease", something I was very anti- before I actually did it. I thought calling it a disease was a cop-out. But I carried on drinking until I had no other sensible explanation left - there must be something different about me, because no matter what I do I can't stop drinking. So, now on a dialy basis, the most important thing I can do is simply - not drink. I accept that if I pick up again, I don't know when, or if I'll ever stop.
They say alcoholics are all or nothing people. Well, I am when it comes to drink. And today it's nothing.