Bill! It's good to see you posting. How are you and Cheryl doing? (At least think that is your wife's name). I can't even imagine going through what you have gone through.

Have you been watching the Stanley Cup? The Blackhawks are in the thick of things again. Last night's game was really ugly. They led 2-0 at home with a chance to go up two games. Thanks in no small part to two spectacularly stupid penalties. (I don't think Brandon Bollig will be playing any time again soon in this series). Joel Quennville accepts mistakes as human nature but he doesn't easily accept dumb mistakes. Taking a penalty 80 feet away from the goal away from the play pretty well qualifies.

Of course I will keep watching. The Hawks are nothing if not resilient. The Kings did what they had to do here, winning one out of two. Now the Hawks need to do the same in LA. I think they will. It's good to have one serious team in Chicago.

As an aside, I have two pieces of sports attire. One is a Pat Tillman jersey and the other is a Jonathan Toews jersey. Captain Serious, they call him. That's a good trait in a captain. And he was captain at the outrageously young age of 23.

>That's the way you have to look at it. You make it through 1 day. It doesn't kill you. So, you can make it through another day!
>
>That's the way I quit smoking and some 'recreational substances' after my college years. I know alcohol really becomes a systemic issue (had that in several family members) so it really is a major issue, but it is doable.
>
>No Fear.
>
>BTW I watched the first 2 periods of the Hawks game last night. I thought they had the game under control. Boy was I wrong!
>
>>>>I relapsed. I had been doing great. Today would have been 3 months sober for me, which is considered a sobriety milestone. I didn't quite make it. There must be something self destructive in me.
>>>>
>>>>Some of you may have noticed that I was happier and more content. I liked feeling that way.
>>>>
>>>>I told my daughters. I told my sponsor. (You're supposed to call before, not after, he said). I told a woman in the group who has been sober for 5 years and who I like a lot and who I thought might be my second wife. She is super smart, funny, and artistic; exactly the kind of woman I am drawn to. She was not pleased.
>>>>
>>>>Now I get back on the horse. It will be August instead of May.
>>>
>>>I like that conclusion. You CAN do this.
>>>
>>
>>That's what is go aggravating about relapsing. I know I can. Anyone who can stay sober for three months can stay sober permanently. I took my eye off the ball. They say it's when you get complacent that you are must vulnerable. There is a phrase in one of the readings at the beginning of every meeting.-- cunning, baffling, powerful. So true.
>>
>>I want to thank you publicly for giving me so much encouragement over the years. You are a teetotaler but you have compassion for people in need. You said recently that your parents raised you that way. They did well. They even gave you correct politics ;-) (I am smiling enjoying John Baird's consternation and pity at that remark).
>>
>>It's interesting how many of my friends are conservative. Clearly I do not pick my friends based on politics. There wouldn't be much percentage in that; supposedly 90% of white males vote Republican.
>>
>>I am sober today and fired up for the Blackhawks game. I know the game started a few minutes ago but I have a fixed habit of watching sports events on the DVR 45 minutes or so after they start so I can skip through intermissions and commercials. In hockey games I fast forward through icing calls. My dad had an even weirder custom with TV sports. He didn't watch them at all until he knew the outcome. He could check the score online and if his team won he would watch it. If they didn't he wouldn't watch it. I tried to talk him into watching his last Super Bowl live. It should be a good one, I said. No, he said. Needless to say, he was a conservative ;-) To his credit he was an Olympia Snowe fan (as was I) and contributed to her campaigns. He hosted fundraising events at his house. We were both outraged when the loony wing of the Republican Party drove her out of the party.