Love the new tune Amp! Enjoy your long weekend in Portugal.

Good luck with the sugar OMD. Sugar and caffeine are the next to go for me, at some point down the road.

Glad you are at 20 days Canguy. I will have to check that book out. Fascinating learning about the brain and how it works.

Hi Cauli! I'm so happy things are going well in your life now.

Should probably try to get some sleep. I have to be at work by 5:00 tomorrow.

Yup... Love the song. I especially like the guitar riff. Catchy. Modern. Good stuff!

Im so happy for you Amp!

Hello!
Just a quick check in from me. This life is waaaaay better than the one I left behind. Just don't mention sugar!

Best wishes

OMD

Had minor thoughts of drinking today. Day off and very tired from work and a little depressed. Thinking along the lines of "Wouldn't it be great to change my attitude with a drink?" I intellectually ran through all the amazing things that my life has become since quitting. I decided to work out for a good hour and all was better with life again.

It surprises me sometimes how my first thought in dealing with life is still to drink. I guess no matter how much better life is, I will always have to be aware that there is danger at my door. I also need to remember HALT, as a combo of these factors can still unleash the AV.

Hope your Portugal vacation was relaxing Amp!

Great to see you OMD!

You find one day soon it's not the default thought...and you'll only realise that later and walk around with a big smile on your face, SG...trust me :)

D

I haven't felt like having a drink for weeks which is great, but actually going on holiday and not missing drinking was pretty awesome! I'm sure the time will come when I need to rationalise my way out of trouble again but it is so much better. Almost effortless. Almost.

Important not to become complacent though...

Thanks Dee! Actually, I am well down that path most of the time, but occasionally a drinking thought will enter my head unexpectedly. They definitely are fewer and longer in between these days.

I think also because we are approaching our second soberversaries, thoughts about drinking and my alcoholism are front and center in my mind. My AV used to rear up right before every early anniversary, going back to one week, one month, three months, etc. I don't really focus on days or even months that much now, but a year is still huge to me.

It's great that you can go on holiday Amp and not miss drinking. I have never been to Europe, but I always picture folks drinking wine all the time in Spain and Portugal. Nice to be above the fray, so to speak.

I am very excited to see an amazing guitarist tonight. Adrian Belew, who had a long run with King Crimson, as well as playing with Zappa, Bowie, Talking Heads and Nine Inch Nails, among others, is starting on tour. This will take place in an old converted movie theater with about 300 seats. Very excited to see some live music once again.

We have still been running extremely warm in these parts for the past several weeks. Supposed to hit low 70's F (22 C) today, then possibly snow Friday. I have a yard full of blooming daffodils and crocus currently.

Have a great day all!

Yeah SG... Snow is on your way! We were 74 one day, then 25 the next. Crazy stuff.

Nervous this morning. My company is rumored to be prepping for bankruptcy with a bunch of stores closing.

We have an emergency conf call this morning with about 70 general managers with higher ups. We were all required to be in the store this morning. It's my off day :/

I have good reason to believe I'll get the axe, and I have good reason to believe I won't. So all I can do is wait.

Sounds pretty crappy, Inc. Still, no use dwelling on stuff you can't change. Time will tell...

That's right. I'm doing that surprisingly well.

In the meantime...
I got a connection with somebody who taught resumes and online job searching. He's going to ramp up my LinkedIn page and resume for me.

Super pumped for that.

Cool. So important to stay positive. I'm in financial difficulty over cash flow with my business right now and haven't been paid for four months, but I'm staying positive. It's my own choice as I don't want to take out a loan and we can just about scrape by on some savings and my wife's salary.

I'm reinvesting in my business is how I look at it. Better times are hopefully just 7 or 8 months down the road when I downsize and make the whole set up more dynamic. In the meantime all I can do is my best possible job, remain positive and approachable and trust that the decisions I've made together with my coach are going to be for the best. Like I say. No use crying about what you can't change. Just get positive within your existing spheres of influence... And time will tell...

Sorry Inc and Amp that your business's are rather tenuous at the moment. They obviously like you Inc or you wouldn't have gotten your recent promotion. Sounds like you have a proactive plan Amp to get your business back to profitability. Fingers crossed for the both of you!

Well... I'm still employed! They are closing several stores, but only two stores in my market. Neither of which is me!

Good for you Inc! Glad to hear you are not affected!

.....and ya can breathe out now Incontrol. Glad the axe didn't fall your way.

I've had a break from working, still searching for that business idea though. Its hard....

I heard that your company was closing 40% of their stores. Glad that you were not involved. Hopefully, closing the weaker stores will help the bottom line.

Thank you guys. Yeah... The closings were inevitable. I honestly have concerns they didn't cut enough.

Especially when you consider the impact of the news to the business.

It'll take some time to earn trust again.

Hope you all have a great weekend.

I'm setting up for a quiet one. It's supposed to rain and be generally horrible all weekend so I'm going to catch up with a few things that need doing around the house. Also we're going back to the studio to do another track in a couple of weeks so I'll try to dust off the guitar riffs for that.

Speaking of music, my keyboard player fancies himself as a bit of a video production geek and turned up with this "making of" of our last trip into the studio. It's quite fun. I'll leave it here if you fancy a look ;)

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=-eNMwpDh6Hg

What fun!

Thank you for sharing.

Love the video Amp!