Charon

Well, I messed up - was in too much of a hurry yesterday evening to make a complete load and forgot my cell phone in the pocket of my jeans and found it whan I was putting the wash into the dryer. Oh well ... It was ancient, handed down to me from my Daughter when it was too old for her, probably 10 years ago - so I guess it isn't much of a loss. I wonder if I can keep the old number or if I have to have a new one - which would be a minor PITA. I tasked my Son for a recomendation for a replacement. I could give a ... I only have a cell so my Dad (90) can contact me 24/7 no matter where I am in case of emergency. As long as it functions it fine.

Dee74

I've done the same thing....twice Charon, lol

sometimes if you leave them a few days they dry out (not the battery tho of course) but if it's that old maybe it's time for a new one anyway...?

I'm willing to bet you can keep your old number...maybe with a small fee involved...
D

Zencat

Charon, if the SIM card is in tact you won't have to change anything except the phone, I think.

LOL Karilynn, yes I am a poet, a bad one but a poet all the same.

Although we follow differing paths to a life free from drugs/alcohol, the destination is the same. I follow the 'free will' philosophy, its a carry over from my old Christan ways.
Being able to choose a new direction to take my life was the 'turning point' that put me on the path to healing. Everyday in my active addiction I was faced with a simple choice: continue to get what I was getting or change in a new direction. The problem as I see it then, my choices were obscured by my ignorance. I was protecting my addiction because I did not know better. I did not know how to save myself from myself or know how to care to do so.

I follow a Buddhist/Zen philosophy which in essence states 'if I am the problem, then I am the solution'. I create my suffering and if I care to seek an awakening from my suffering, I can learn how to do that. Like as it is written in AA, alcohol is only a symptom. The real problem is me.

Oh well, what matters is that we can all heal from active addiction no matter what healthy direction we take.

Me, I'm just plugging along the road of 'happy happy joy joy'...LOL.

Charon

Maybe I should have just put it in the dryer with the rest of the wash. lol. I do have an extra battery so I might wait to get a new phone for a few days.

Zen,

I don't see any way to open the cell up to get at the simm card. I will bring it along when I go for a new phone just in case though. Anyway, after going through the full wash cycle, my guess is that it's totally fried. Better it than me.

karilynn27

I used to have a bucket of rice for when the phones would get wet. I'd dry them off as quick as possible and race to drown em in rice.
It seemed to work. My husband and son have military spec waterproof phones and my daughter and I's phones are too smart for their own good.

Zen... in the end it's all about staying sober and that is what I've found so cool about our little group here... different aproaches yet support for each other. I find many similarities in the way we are all staying sober even though we each have a different approach.
Hope everyone is having a good weekend
:ghug3
K

Dee74

Charon my sim card survived two washes lol so you might be lucky...
D

Zencat

True that :ghug3

Being in the deep end with active addiction, we all share a rather common experience as its a hellish way to live life. The only difference I see is the way one interprets the experience.
I think we all can agree its 'progress not perfection' that wins the day. So keep up the progression to greater health everyone.

Charon

Well, I took the cell apart and dried it with a blow drier. No Joy. I'm actually not sorry though. For $20 I got a Samsung Gusto, including activation and was able to keep my same (pre-pay) plan and number. The old phone didn't seem to have a removable sim so I had to re-enter my contacts. That wasn't much of a chore. This phone has a rudimentary camera, and pay-as-you-go web and email - things I will probably never use - but it's nice that they are there if I ever need to use them. And, I finally got the ringtone that I've wanted for years - Everlast, "Saving Grace".

Someone was celebrating at the meeting last night and the chocolate cake had way too much chocolate icing on it and I had 1½ cups of coffee, and they don't do decaf at this meeting. Only got a couple of hours sleep but did do a lot of reading. Bet I'll be taking a nap today.

Thinking of going to the gym. With all the outside work I haven't had time or energy. It's supposed to rain today so I can go. The only things I need to do is figure out how the backup software on my wife's laptop lets you look at the files in the backup and figure out how to print the 180 page camera manual for her. I also need to replace the slats in the blind that the heli whacked. Come to think of it I need to cash a check and stop at the grocery for a few things - a good reason to go to the gym. All that is right next to each other. Nice to be able to have money in my pocket without fear. Love that Antabuse.

I got an email from the SCUBA club a couple days ago. They are taking a trip to Ambergris Caye, Belieze for a week of diving in November. This is on my bucket list and the trip (including airfare) is $1600. Unfortunately, with the expense of the Nome trip and my Son's wedding in February I can't justify the additional expense. Oh well, maybe next year. At least there are a few semi-local diving weekends during the summer and fall. Plus I have the volunteer work on Milfoil.

Saliena

Hey guys... I am not sure why I didn't join this thread last Dec... god knows I could have used the support! I have been sober since Dec 2, 2011... and that was my 9 billionth attempt to get sober. But, perhaps the first time I asked for God's help! Cause well I thought I had this thing on my own... (that message brought to you by the letter E as in Ego).

Anyway, I am reading and catching up. Reach out if you all need anything!

karilynn27

Saliena
Congrats on your sobriety.
When are you leaving for Nome and when is your son getting married Charon?
My son got married a couple months ago.
Hey Zen, hope your doing well. I'm doing the whole baby step approach to getting things done. Hard to see progress I thought but I'm now beginning to see that this approach is working pretty good. Martha stewart I am not but I did cook dinner 3 times in a row without burning it
Hope everyone has a good and sober day
Hello Dee
K

Charon

Leaving for Nome the 19th of June and getting back home July 4th. My Son is gettig married February 16th. If I had known my Daughter was not going to go to Denali and Seward with us I would have just visited in Nome to help her pack and get ready to leave and saved a huge amount of money rather than blowing it on traveling alone with someone I don't really like much. Well, nothing to do about it now.

I'm trying to talk myself into heading over to my Dad's to get the weeds out of his garden. I hate weeding and it's overcast (lot's of biting bugs) and very humid. Miserable conditions. I'm not sure that the ground is dry enough after two straight days of rain. Still, if I let it go, the weeds are going to be totally out of control. Well, anyway - coffee first.

Going to go to the 1 pm at the Clubhouse and do some grocery shopping on the way there or back. Then I might take a nap. Especially if I go and weed. I need to do some diving. Wish we had some really clear lakes around here.

I really want to give Newton a bath sometime soon and her claws need trimmed. Maybe I'll do that and clean her cage instead of a nap.

Zencat

Saliena, I'm glad you joined our little group.

I'm doing well thank you. Something I say that I heard from a talk radio host Mr KFI: I'm doing better that most and not as good as a few .

Baby steps are good for me too, as with sticking with the '24hr plan' to keep me sane and sober.

karilynn27

Charon

My Antabuse plan is working wonderfully. It's amazing to me how little I think about alcohol when there is no possible way I could have a drink without immediately feeling like I was dying and possibly doing so. I guess it's the immediacy. Same thing happened if I took a drink when I wasn't taking the Antabuse, it just took till the next morning to feel miserable and when it would kill me was in the future so ...

Looking forward to getting started on the hedge row today. For way too many years I've been teetering at the top of a ladder, trying to reach to thte middle of the top. Enough! I figure if I use the monster loppers to cut the thickest stems out, I should be able to use the Stihl hedge trimmer to top it off at a reasonable height. I plan on testing my idea today.

I'm finding my wife to be increasingly difficult to tollerate. She's raised passive-agressive to an art form. Her snide comments are difficult not to respond to but I know that's not wise. I am so tired of her continuous carping and criticism about the way I do everything instead of the right (her) way - Note: the end result is the same. I'm really finding that I dislike being around her. We actually have almost nothing in common except the kids and they are both long out of the house. Well, I've plenty of time to decide. We're not supposed to make any big decisions in the first year of sobriety.

Though, I'm not sure that being alone with her in the wilds of Alaska is smart. I may not be able to return. As I understand it it's the place where people go to hide. It's probably the only place I coud be where I could hide the body they would never find it and where I could disappear and never be heard from again. Nah - way to cold, way too many bugs, and no diving. Better to just run off to Fiji or Bora-Bora or Belieze or Costa Rica or Tahiti or Dominica or Curacau or ... So much water so little time.

karilynn27

:rotfxko

unentschieden

Hey guys.

I'm having a rough time at the moment and thought I'd post here to see if these feelings hold true or are just a jealous non-drinker attitude.

First, I've mentioned before that the BF doesn't drink much. Maybe one beer 2-4 times a week. 90% of the time he is very discreet about drinking it downstairs after I've been to bed. I only smell it on him later.

He also smokes pot. I used to as well for several years but it makes me paranoid and stupid so I stopped. I personally have no moral issues with pot except it's criminalization supports drug cartels (I suppose issues of drug legalization is off topic). In my opinion my BF uses pot to self medicate ADHD, but who knows.

Tonight he went out with a friend because a local bar was tapping a special keg. He never goes to bars. He comes home a few hours later and I find out he's had 3 beers. Isn't it cute that he gets wasted on three beers? He was very lovey Dovey and needy. He also reeked of beer

I just found it obnoxious and annoying and I've been stewing the last several hours that I choose to live a sober life and he does not have to. I don't necessarily think he should though I won't deny I would love it if he did.

Really what the core issue is is jealousy. I've been trying not to engage my addictive voice but it's led to a lot of sighing tonight.

I'm trying to exhaust my thoughts here because I don't know that I want to bring this up to him until I can separate my feelings from my desire to get wasted until I pass out.

Fun times.

And Charon: that last paragraph was hilariously written.

Thanks for reading December crew!

Dee74

I had to do a lot of accepting Unt - accepting that I couldn't drink or smoke anymore because I'd proven conclusively that it was bad for me - and accepting that other people, even those I was closest to, would undoubtedly reach different conclusions.

Dunno if it helps but the more I stayed sober the more I loved being that way and the less I wanted to drink, and the less it became an issue for me.

D

karilynn27

I don't have this issue with my husband so I can't help you there. I have actually avoided any situation where drinking would be involved because I don't trust myself not to get pissed off. I had something with my grown daughter and her husband. When I babysat and they were going out this really obnoxious immature part of me was like
you get the picture. I kept my mouth shut . I'm going to a kids birthday party this weekend and it's slightly possible someone might be drinking but I'm ok with that.
I'm not a jealous person I thought but then we were never talking about alcohol before.
Not sure this helps as the situation is differant.
:ghug3
hang in there

Charon

Glad you guys enjoyed the last paragraph. I try hard to laugh about my situation - otherwise I would spend way too much time crying. On a scary note, her employer was just bought out and the new owner is discontinuing pension contributions. Because of that she is thinking of retireing or going onto per diem. Don't think I could stand being in her presence that much of the time - so running off to tropical lands, at least for winters, might not be so far fetched.

Unentschieden, I've always looked at things from a different perspective than most people. I've always been an outsider (a weirdo) and it's not something I do on purpose (though that's what my parents tried to get me to believe - "you're just trying to be different"). I remember a smoke break with my supervisor where he was complaining about how useless a couple people were and how much more than him they made. I asked hime if he felt he was paid well for what he did. He replied that he was very well compensated. I told him that that was all that mattered. Don't compare.

As alcoholics we can't drink normally. I would love to be able to have a glass of fine red wine with a steak or a beer with a burger or pizza - BUT I can't - I know where that would lead. When I'm at a family gathering some of the people will have a few beers or a glass or two of wine. It would be nice to be able to join in but it would be a disaster. I find it better to concentrate on how much better it feels these days, how much more I accomplish, how much less guilt I feel, how I don't have to hide what I'm doing, how much more freedome I have ... Things like that. I also treat myself better. I eat really tasty stuff. I don't deny myself special things. All of life is a trade off. I wish I could still play soccer but it's better not to have surgeries from injuries. I think Dee is absolutely right - acceptance is key. One queston about jealousy of your BF you might consider - if he were a raging alcoholic, out of control, would you still be jealous?

I'm getting a lot done these days. I got the hedge to a reasonable height yesterday, finished gluing the neighbors chair, and built a couple of squirel boxes - to catch them, not house them - we have a severe problem because of a neighbor way overfeeding them. I have full days planned for the rest of the weekend as well.

I've got to get the brush from the hedge job handled, trim the long bittersweet hedge, make German Potato Salad for the festivities on Monday, mow and trim the lawn, and plant my beans after I pull the weeds in the vegetable garden. There is more but that's more than enough for the weekend. I may not even get all that done. I will get to 3-4 meetings before Monday and rest, read, and watch some TV. I may even turn a bowl instead of some of the work. So there.

Zencat

The deal I have with light weight drinkers (2 -3 beers) is wile under the influence, their not being authentic. Chemical charm appears to be nice but is far better that the charm originate from an unencumbered heart.

Anyhoo, I'm being a good boy, no chemical joy, just the genuine variety what wells up from the heart and not from the stinky ole beer barrel.