In reply to wbt5845

wbt5845 said:

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Pretty incredible waking up New Year's morning clear headed and sober. Getting ready to go workout before plopping down to watch football all day.

I'll probably plow through a whole 12 pack of Coke Zero though. Man's gotta make accommodations.

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Absolutely right!

Try some sparkling water/la Croix/topo Chico when you're ready to ween off the coke. That's been my go to and I generally don't have more than about 1 coke a week.

In reply to 14Clubs Congratulations to you and keep up the good work!

In reply to 14Clubs Congrats on 7 years and one day.

How's everybody doing? Just checking in before my AA birthday.

In reply to aggiejim70 On the right side of the grass and today makes 1065 days on the right side of the bottle. Got some really good stuff going on right now that I am fully confident would not be the case if I were on the wrong side of either of those. One day at a time, but this crazy little life thing is good.

God willing, today makes 1,621. Got a lot of 9 year old baseball to coach today and gonna give the team my best self!

In reply to aggiejim70

aggiejim70 said:

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My name is Jim and I'm an alcoholic. Today is my 29th AA birthday,

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I had this pop up on Google Calendar for me to come over and congratulate you. What a great testament to the power of self determination and perseverance. Well done, my man.

In reply to aggiejim70 Very well done, congrats! I'll not drink with you today to celebrate.

In reply to aggiejim70

aggiejim70 said:

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My name is Jim and I'm an alcoholic. Today is my 29th AA birthday,

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Happy birthday Jim!

It's starting to happen in the greater San Antonio area. Anybody else seeing meetings being shut down due to the current situation?

I elected to not attend our meetings on Sunday night. I did this because my son traveled out of state and I had to pick him up at the airport. We have quite a few older folks in our group, and I thought it was the right thing to do. Some of them chose to stay home and have indicated they will until the situation improves.

I heard the meeting was only about 1/2 it's usual attendance.

Most of our local meetings are held at churches, and churches are opting to cancel all gatherings and close their doors. My church has canceled everything but mass (including non-religious activities, like Boy Scouts).

In reply to ptothemo Congrats man......Maybe we can have a cyber pass around of your three year chip.

With the current situation a lot of decisions are being made for me. Muster, my 50th class reunion, reduced time at work ( I guess I'm part time part time), the shelves at HEB etc. Some, I have to make for myself. Yesterday I pulled the plug on the Friday night poker game, and called sponsees (sp?) to let them know you won't see me at meetings for the near future. No, I'm not worried I'll be at Don's & Ben's if I miss a few meetings, but I will be checking in with the cyber meetings and I hope this thread picks back up again.

Gig 'em

In reply to aggiejim70 Jim - I always appreciate your perspective, thank you for that.

The governor took care of all the bars for a few weeks, so that's one less thing to worry about!

All seriousness, I was thinking yesterday morning about the change in structure, isolation, job change or loss, economy overall, and many other factors that this situation could be contributing to. All of those things might make it easier to think "ah the hell with it, I'll have one". I really just hope that anyone - myself included - who might be in that spot finds a way to not take that first drink.

Lots of stuff going on right now - some good, some bad, a lot crazy - but one more day in recovery is always a good day.

My ACA group held a Zoom meeting on Sunday night. I called in, and it was actually pretty good. We followed the same script, people got the chance to share, and at the end everyone who participated expressed their gratitude at being able to continue the meetings.

Attendance was way down. We probably didn't have a third of our normal participants, but it's better than nothing.

If anyone needs a list of online meetings, shoot me an email at (TexAgs username) at gmail dot com. I'll send over the PDF that was shared with me.

I got a call from my LSU AA buddy that I mentioned a few pages back. It seems that virtually all the greater SA meetings have shut down for the immediate future. Probably that way to a large extent all over the country. This has to be tough for newcomers that haven't progressed past "don't drink and go to meetings".. Hang in there, call your sponsor or anyone you know in the program. Read your Big Book and check out on-line meetings. Post questions and concerns on here. Trust in God and we'll get through this.

Lots of discussion on here the last 3 years about various high minded principles. Let's go the other direction and talk about old nasty money..If your home group pays rent and you're not holding meetings due to the current situation, how are you handling this?

In reply to aggiejim70 Jim, my group is currently meeting by Zoom and we have a 7th Tradition "Pass the Basket" during the meeting and you can contribute by Venmo or Paypal. We had to jump through a few hurdles to get those set up. I haven't heard how we are actually doing using that method. We are a pretty large club in Dallas and I do think we had 3 months of prudent reserves, but I have a feeling we may be dipping into that.

In reply to 14Clubs I'm hoping some of our group's members will have a Zoom meeting. I've gone kicking and screaming into the 21st century and become proficient at it. My BQ class is going to have a Zoom Muster. We can go another 60 days with "prudent reserves". After that it's pass the cyber hat or file paperwork for Uncle Sam to pay our rent. In the meantime, we've got a couple of hard cases, with keys to the meeting room, that are still opening up in spite of the group conscious decision not to do so. As I progress on my spiritual journey, maybe some day it won't cross my mind that this is a selfish, look at me , act on their part. I'm not there yet.

I foresee more people needing some kind of help after this COVID business is over, alcohol sales up 55% since the start of it

In reply to P.U.T.U You're right about that. Please let me know of anyone who solved any problems attributed to the current situation by drinking.

Just got the word, my home group is opening up Friday. Looking forward to the 12:15 meeting. How's everybody else doing. Stay safe.

That's great Jim! I am doing well. The quarantine has been good to me. Lots of family time and time to run.

-Rick

My home group has re-opened, but a few months ago we moved to the 2nd floor of an office building and a number of our senior members have had trouble with the steps. not the 12 steps but the 28 steps and moved to other groups, Bummer. So now I'm getting calls for my thoughts. Got one this morning from a man with about 7 years who I've known since he picked up the silver coin. He was asking me about a couple of our newer members that have been through 6 sponsors in 6 months. Part of my story is I couldn't get past the bottom of page 63 with my 1st sponsor. I know it's important to get the right sponsor, but I'm afraid when you go through them that fast, you're looking for someone to tell you what you want to hear, not what you need to know. Thoughts? Please advise, thanks in advance.

Not sure how AA works for people but my wife wasted countless hours on al Anon over 35 years time. Twice weekly meetings, books, etc etc. Her brother was an alcoholic his entire life until he died a few years ago. My wife until literally weeks before his death just kept hoping he'd stop drinking when his liver was already dead. Wtf? At that point, I told her, he'd be better off just drinking. Why bother. Not sure what al Anon teaches but it's bs.