Wildwood 

Personal pic provided on page 2.
If you can't remember 'me' in a picture, how would I remember being in a bar with a stranger 20 years ago?

I've been called worse than Henry.

Did you hear about the American Methodist minister, the Irish Catholic priest and the Israeli Jewish rabbi who went into a bar.......?
Or the time I climbed aboard my large US Navy vessel in Napoli via the mooring lines and over the 3' rat guards?
or the mother of all 'stories' = The beer that made Milt Famy walk us?

Those kinds of stories?

Biker395 

We all have our weaknesses.

bargeon

Saw the pic, it's what prompted the question. That Henry was in the Navy as well. But if you don't remember 9 bottles of wine among 4 people in one evening ending by sliding around the Philly burbs to test out the 4wd in an Audi Quatro, well, maybe it was you

Yep, me and Old Mil go back a ways too.

Loose Chain

I do not drink. Never have. No need for it. Never understood the point.

McBTC

Cheers...

raceboy

Started out as a light drinker with rare party binges in my 20s and then settled down. Most always wine or beer. Life changes in my 40s started me on the road to drinking more plus I discovered vodka. Oh, yeah!!! Then I was off to the races. Crossed over into alcoholism in my late 40s. Drank to get drunk almost every night for 5 or 6 years. Now I've been sober for almost 5 years with the help of that certain program. My sober journey has helped me lose over 50 pounds for what I hope will be the last time. While losing the weight I became passionate about cycling. Now I ride about 6000 miles a year. My gf says it is my new addiction. She is probably right!

Barrettscv 

Nice, congrats on some serious weight loss and life changes.

Retro Grouch 

Wildwood 

Sorry, not me - but maybe my twin that shows up every decade or so.
Sounds like i should have been there.
Bring the next party far north left.

Rick@OCRR

Very occasional beer in my 20's but was way into marijuana back in the day. Quit weed in my mid-30's but now have an occasional beer or glass of wine . . . maybe one of each per month and never anything stronger.


Rick / OCRR

Wildwood 

Leg shaving season is nearly upon us.
For SoCal people = what are you waiting for?
Try it, you'll like it.

edit: if that's a right leg, see your doc, it may be more severe than road rash.

OldTryGuy

Just finished a 104 miles today and had a COLD COORS NA with soup.

rumrunn6

"Thirsty Thursday"

CrankyOne

Fascinating, enjoyable and occasionally sobering reading through this. Good bunch of folks this.

I nearly always have wine with meals. Usually whites with brunch or lunch, whites or reds with dinner depending on the course. Nothing goes with desert like a good Port.

Some meals call for beer instead of wine and I can't say that I mind a good IPA, Porter, or Stout.

I love Scotch but only drink it occasionally. I buy one or two bottles per year and consume about one. The angels seem to always be getting their share (I've measured this and they're pretty much getting 50% and I've tried all kinds of ways of sealing opened bottles).

I never drink so much that I get drunk. Yep, mostly a religious thing: Prov 20:1 Wine is a mocker and beer a brawler; whoever is led astray by them is not wise. I'm not always very wise but I try not to be too stupid. I've seen too many people ruin their lives, careers, and families by drinking too much.

Now well past the half century mark I'm beginning to consider cutting back though. Partially for calories and partially thinking that some of my increasing sleep problems may be related. We'll see. My wife got me a Coravin for my birthday so we'll see if it allows me to stretch a good cheap Cab over 3 or 4 nights instead of 2.

fietsbob

Owner of the LBS gave me a Job , while hanging out in the place a GF worked

we still hang out in the bar , after work a block from the Shop

keep thinking about a Raleigh Rainier bike, decorated like the gold top cans

white, red lettering, gold painted fenders, half rack front rack..





....

Biker395 

Lol. I'm keeping leg-shaving in reserve. I threaten the kids with it every time they say I ride too much.

That was from an incident on a dormant volcano covered in pumice. OMG is that stuff abrasive. That wound scabbed, cracked and rescabbed countless times before I discovered the wonders of Tegaderm.

jppe

I'm NOT an alcoholic but I do love the tastes of many alcoholic beverages. I swear by good Margaritas. I've learned that there aren't any bad Chiantis. I find that Brown Ales are really smooth and my beer of choice. I could drink Jamesons and Sprite very regularly. I enjoy sipping a Baileys naked. I'm guessing the common ingredient in all the drinks is the sugar......

All of this is done in moderation. I don't think it's good for me but I enjoy it. I tend to notice the sleeping issues as well. I'm drinking more now that I'm retired and I don't have to worry so much about being as mentally sharp for challenging tasks the next day. I suspect it doesn't help reflux issues either.

My kids are very careful about what they drink and how much. At least since they are now out of college......... For that I'm grateful.

Interestingly I found on my cross country cycling trip there was little effect from what I drank the night before. Dehydration maybe??? Heck, I couldn't drink that much anyway.....

I have lost some friends to alcohol........tough to witness.

1989Pre 

I don't drink. It's just not how I want to feel. I feel fine the way I am.
I grew up in the 70's, so had more than my share of alcohol. Now, I avoid it like the plague.
Stepping back and looking at my previous alcohol consumption objectively, I see that it (like cigarette smoking, marijuana use, etc.) was an effort to dispel nervous tension.
Now, I avoid that kind of tension because I am much more tuned in to how I feel. I can tell when I am tense, where-as, in the past, I was unable to detect this, because I was almost always in a state of tension, and was only truly relaxed when I was in the woods or the beach. Somewhere in nature.
The way I avoid the tension is to avoid the kinds of people and activities that I associate with it. I choose my company very wisely. I am not saying that I made some heroic effort to stop drinking. I believe that it was by divine intervention that it took place at age 29.
If your sleep cycles are being disturbed, then that is a serious signal. I don't need to tell anyone how important deep, restful sleep in adequate amounts is.
If you think you have a problem, you probably do. You might want to put yourself in a place (internal and external) where you don't need it.

McBTC

Similar experiences except that for me, peat smoke pretty much ruins perfectly good alcohol. In my experience, a good red wine tastes is even better when enjoyed on an occasional basis. And, I learned a trick: the cork from a wine bottle works perfectly to stopper a 22 oz craft IPA, making it possible to inexpensively enjoy a good craft beer in smaller portions over a couple of days.

People are smart to be concerned by an over-indulgence in alcohol. Based on my research, even according to the latest advice coming out of Britain where many have apparently become sensitized to a drinking problem that has been generations in the making, enjoying about a 1/3 of a 22-24 ounce bottle of ~6-7% India Pale Ale is not harmful to most folks.

The country's forefathers drank a very mild apple cider on a daily basis because it was safer than drinking the water. George Washington was a whisky distiller and lived to age 67. Thomas Jefferson (he made it to 83) may perhaps be a more fitting model for 21st century living--e.g.,

WolfRyder

If I look back at my "body of work" of drinking if you will, and think about all those, under the influence of alcohol days and nights. That turned into weeks, months and ultimately now years. I say meh-uh, it really wasn't that great and I probably could of done with out the bulk of it. Had I chosen to not drink, and party so much, I think I would have made different choices in my life that would have put me on a more positive track in certain areas. That being said I have had good stretches of clean time, and if you think your problems are all going away because you stopped drinking...forget it stuff still comes up. Thing is you might be in a better state to deal with it and handle your business, personal stuff etc. when your not drinking.

John E

I am solidly in your camp, reinforced by a wife who is also a lifelong alcohol abstainer. Both of our fathers had moderate problems -- including obesity -- with alcohol, and one of her grandfathers had serious issues with it. (Please, no Scots and Irish generalizations. )

My maternal grandfather's kidneys were greatly impaired, as the result of Bright's disease from a WWI shrapnel wound. He would not have lived to age 88 without virtually abstaining from alcohol.

McBTC

Probably helpful too to consider that alcohol does not go well with also taking acetaminophen (Tylenol), especially as we age and some may find themselves taking more acetaminophen for pain than when they were younger...

It is probably better (safer for your liver) to just abstain from drinking alcohol altogether rather than taking the two together, even if under the recommended max daily dose... and, in those situations, not more than a beer or single mixed drink and only before, not after taking Tylenol.

Shimagnolo

After taking EMT training, I will never touch Tylenol, aka acetaminophen, aka paracetamol, aka APAP, again.
(APAP is abbreviation used to blur the fact it is added to some prescription drugs).
Liver damage can begin at doses just 25% above the max recommended dose!

Paracetamol toxicity is the foremost cause of acute liver failure in the Western world and accounts for most drug overdoses in the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, and New Zealand.[53][54][55][56] According to the FDA, in the United States there were "56,000 emergency room visits, 26,000 hospitalizations, and 458 deaths per year related to acetaminophen-associated overdoses during the 1990s. Within these estimates, unintentional acetaminophen overdose accounted for nearly 25 percent of the emergency department visits, 10 percent of the hospitalizations, and 25 percent of the deaths."

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paracetamol#Liver_damage

Biker395 

Holy crap!

canklecat

Yup, the nephrologists I worked for back in the 1970s-'80s already knew about the risks of acetaminophen. There's a risk of liver and kidney damage from the cumulative effect of longterm use at levels considered "normal" or therapeutic. The only time I've taken the stuff was when it was combined with codeine #3 for pain after dental work.

Normally I use ibuprofen. Nothing is without risks but it works better than any OTC oral analgesic I've tried.