My "Drinking" Diary

[billd1]

In the title to this thread, I'm putting "drinking" in quotations, because I think it's funny that the English words, "drink," and "drinking" are often assumed to mean drinking alcohol.

Of course, it shouldndn't be that way, because all of us, unless we want to die of dehydration, are going to have to drink liquids.

I think I'm seeing, or hearing, a slight change of "drink" not automatically being assumed to mean drink alcohol, in questions from health care providers, now asking "do you drink alcohol?"

And, I hope this trend will continue, because I don't think that "drinking" should automatically be considered alcohol.

I'm not going to waste time and effort telling too much background, and will fill in details as this post develops.

I want to do successful posts on this message board, and it seems like use of alcohol and other drugs is a subject that might get responses, with repliers wanting to share their experiences.

I started using alcohol in my late teens, maybe late in life from some peoples' stories I've heard and read, but early enough for me.

I'm showing my advanced age, but when I was growing up, 18 was the legal age for buying beer and wine in many parts of the USA, not 21 like the now nationwide law.

So, I got a three year start on the "soft stuff," all legal, and by the time my twenty-first birthday had arrived, I had settled into a rigid rule for my life, to stop after drinking only two drinks of alcohol.

It was a rule that I adhered to until early 2003, although during the past 11 years, I have not "gotten drunk" during this time.

I learned very early after my eighteenth birthday, that being "drunk" was not a pleasant experience at all, and have only been "drunk" a handful of times.



I tried it, and I didn't like it.



My use of alcohol during those first three years of experimentation was trying to see if I could use alcohol in a way to get into a pleasant state of consciousness and maintain it for hours.

I finally concluded that I couldn't attain this goal, and that the only use of alcohol I could have in my life, without developing a "drinking" problem, would be in small amounts, thus limiting myself to two drinks of alochol a day, and occasionally skipping days, weeks, months, and even years during which I did not drink any alcohol at all.

[billd1]

Now, I'm gonna get down to business.

My first logbook on my drinking alcohol was started on Saturday June 4 of 1977.

It was the beginning of much journaling, diary keeping or whatever you want to call it, including logbooks of my excercise habits, drug taking, blood pressure, and many other aspects of my life.

I had stopped drinking my usual 2 drinks a day in May of 1976, and thirteen months later, decided it was time to start back, on that day in June of 1977 buying a bottle of Alamadan Rose wine, and continuing with 2 drinks of wine a night, for a number of months, with maybe an occasional beer for variety.

I finally burned, or shredded & recycled most of my logbooks, so all I have left is the count of the number of days I drank alcohol during a year, and the number of days that I abstained.

These records are filed in "Wines & Spirts, Book 11, August 16, 1997-May 28, 1998.

Also included in this summary book, of which the daily entries have been deleted, were, "Purchases," August 10, 1997-June 11, 1998.

Wine & Spirits Vol. 17 was from August 1, 2006-November 28, 2011 and the contents of it are apparently gone, leaving only my counting summaries.

The first complete book I have remaining is Wine & Spirits Vol. 18, November 29, 2011 - January 19, 2013.

The current volume, # 19, started on Saturday, January 19, of 2013, at 10:05 PM, my usual 2 drinks: 1 mini bottle each of Naked Turtle White rum & water (12 oz. total liquid, with the water added), followed by another at 10:40 PM.

[billd1]

During 1977, I drank my usual two drinks a day for 180 days, and took only one drink one day, total of 181 drinking days, and abstained the rest of the 184 days of that year.