Once again, the world looks just the same

I have gone five days without drinking. I do not miss it.

I was tired on Wednesday when I drove to Iowa because I had been drinking Tuesday night. I have read that it takes the mind two days to recover from the fatigue brought on by a hang over. That sounds about right.

My strategy for lessoning the effect of alcohol is to start drinking water along with the first beer and shot, and keep on drinking water until the end. I wash down two Advil with a glass of water when I get home. I open a can of ginger ale and set it on the counter. The next morning I drink the warm ginger ale sans carbonation before I drink anything else. It replaces the sugars the alcohol leaches from my body, and it is the easiest drink on my stomach.

I can no longer drink at home alone. I drink two sips of a beer and set it aside. I would rather drink water.

I only drink at the bar. The people I have come to know are what lead me to it. The chefs, small business owners, skilled trade workers, corporate citizens, students, bartenders, servers, clerks, folks on holiday, conventioneers, etc. break up the monotony of the days. With my long hair and other eccentricities, they no longer know what to make of me, but they accept me as an amiable person with whom to rip down shots and beers. The scene is a subculture of which I am a part.

The absence of alcohol is like the absence of God. Not much changes except I divorce myself from a culture to which I once belonged. Other than that, the world looks just the same.

I think of the big questions of philosophy. The world looks just the same no matter how I answer the questions. Take freewill, immortality, or god for instance.

People seem to change the experience and quality of life as nothing else can.