Having a beer

About three years ago I decided to stop drinking alcohol. I never had a problem with alcohol and I drank once or twice a week, perhaps two to three beers each time. Even in my younger days I never had an unhealthy relationship with alcohol. So, after three years of sobriety, my wife and I had a single drink last night and it will probably be my last for a long, long time. I just… Don’t like it.

The reason I decided to stop drinking was what I have experienced with others and their relationship alcohol and I decided to cut it completely out of my life.

Right before I stopped drinking I realized that every male person in my life has had at least one DUI. This includes my three closest friends, all of my uncles, both my grandfathers, my brother, and my (step) father. In this group, I have one friend with three DUI’s and my (step) father has at least five that I know about, although we haven’t spoken in at least two years so who knows at this point.

In addition to the DUI’s, my brother (who is now sober and my business partner) worked for me at a different company years ago. One day he arrived drunk and I had to fire him after some sharp discussions with my boss.

Before starting my own company, I worked at a larger corporation and every event and personal relationship I had while there revolved around alcohol. All events came with drink tickets and I watched several people ruin their careers at these events. I watched multiple (male) coworkers also ruin their marriages due to their alcohol addiction, that was started because of the encouragement to drink at work events. I watched them go from someone who would almost never drink to drinking every day with enablers at the office.

None of this includes having a (step) father who has been a raging alcoholic my entire life. I have no good memories of him or of us together. I don’t know my real father (have never even met once), but based on what I know about him and my experience with other men, he is probably also an alcoholic.

Having a beer

A month ago or so I had a craving for a beer. Not to get drunk, just to have a beer or two one evening. On our last grocery shopping trip (which we do once a month grocery shopping) I asked my wife to grab us a couple “tall boys” so we can have what is equivalent to two beers on New Year’s Eve.

On NYE we didn’t drink them, just didn’t feel like it. Last night we finally had them and neither of us enjoyed it. It tasted disgusting, I felt awkward drinking it, and I didn’t enjoy it. I guess you can say I’m done drinking.

Having that beer also opened up a lot of memories about my experience with alcohol and how many lives I’v seen it destroy. Not including just how awful the alcohol industry is, destroying lives of alcoholics and the people close to them.

All this being said, this is also why I won’t attend events at alcohol venues. There is a local Linux group in my area, but they meet at a bar. There’s a Raspberry Pi group, too. Same meetup spot. Jupiter Broadcasting meetups, at a bar. Sportsball, which is unfortunately the only way I can spend time with other men in my life, almost completely revolves around alcohol.

Hell, in order for me to get from our small town into a larger metro area we have to drive a two lane highway through a Native American reservation with a large casino. The amount of drunk drivers we encounter is obscene and has made it so we never go that direction at night.

So, I’m done with alcohol and I try to tell everyone I know that it is not worth it. Please, consider your own relationship with alcohol and the impression you give on others. Trust me , you are better off without it.

- - - - -

Did you like this post? Give it an upvote by clicking on the arrows below! Sending me an upvote is like you and I giving each other a high five.

🙏 😎

If you enjoy the random stuff I write here, post to Mastodon, or watch on YouTube, and are feeling generous, I am open to tips of Ko-fi.