Yeah, I guess they call that hitting bottom, don't they?  My bottom was
slamming into three parked cars doing 50 MPH in a karmann ghia.  I was drunk,
drunk, drunk.

One of the firefighters I worked with would periodically miss our shift
muster in the morning because he had been drunk the night before and would
lose his truck.  He had to find it before he could get to the firehouse.  I
really felt good about someone hung over backing me up on a hoseline too, let
me tell you.  To my way of thinking, if a person is hung over, then they're
still affected by the alcohol.  Isn't that a symptom of withdrawal?  I also
hated it because one of our captains would always let the hungover guy sleep
in the morning while the rest of us had to do station duties.  If I had been
the captain, I would have sent him to the dispensary with a driver to be
checked to make sure he was able to drive back home (CYA), and then he would
have been in the Chief's office the next shift explaining why he presented
himself at muster in an unfit state for firefighting duty.

But that's me.  If I ran the world everything would be perfect, don't you
know?

I hope you know that was sarcasm.

Betty

In a message dated 11/08/2001 10:12:25 AM Eastern Standard Time,
[log in to unmask] writes:

> Betty, Thank you for a very powwerful peice. The sad
>  thing is that those who would stand most to heed your
>  warning won't think it applies to them as that is also
>  the beast of alcholism.
>  Joanne
>  -