Put that Tongue in da Cheek

I wanted to make sure I ended 2016 with a sincere and in-depth reflection about where I am in my life when it comes to drinking booze. My main issue with drinking booze was that I liked every thing about it except the impact it had on my life. In the moments of "having a good time," I was awesome. I really was. I was one of those "all-in" type of party dudes, having a good time until I went beyond my limit. So many DUMB and idiotic things while under the influence were said and done by me.

Frankly, those days all seem such a long time ago when I reflect about them today, 12/31/2016.

It is 6 years (2192 days) since I "officially" quit drinking booze.

I admit I have had some situations come up in 2016 when I seriously questioned why I quit drinking, but those situations are best left to my private journal as the environment to unwrap those thoughts and feelings.

I will say that I persevered and I did not cave to those situations of weakness.

Now that I'm over half-way there, my short-term goal is to reach a decade of sobriety (2020), but my long-term goal is to never drink booze again.

I'm confident I will be successful.

• To read one alcoholic's humorous essay about being sober, refer to 5 Things I Miss About Alcoholism. 
• To learn more details about the relationship between booze & I, refer to this post I wrote 4 years ago.

How I Reached 4000 Posts

Once upon a time, I had a crazy idea to reach 4000 blog posts by 12/31/2016. I knew that I was at a challenging tally of posts - 3500 - on 9/21/2016 and that it would take a lot of writing to reach 4000 posts. I developed the spreadsheet below as a way to track my progress. While I gave myself the freedom to either "make" the goal or, if life got too busy, to "not make" the goal, I also didn't want to have no idea as to how I was doing.

I needed to track my progress. I set up the "easy" goal of writing 5 posts a day, from Thursday, September 22, through Saturday, December 31. That would allow me to have a set number of posts to account for each day. I feel I did pretty well as my actual average was 4.902 posts a day. Not too shabby.

I will admit that I have several posts that are simply links or embedded videos with no commentary. Those posts probably speak for themselves. The other thing I did that actually caused me to write more was that I started posting links to political articles on a separate page, not interspersed with posts about Metallica, writing, and drums.

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Date	Scheduled	Actual	Sum	Total	Dif	Count Up	Countdown
Sum of posts between 11/2007 & 9/21/2016	0	0	0	3500
9/22/2016	3500	5	5	3505	-5	1	99	Thur
9/23/2016	3505	1	6	3506	-1	2	98	Friday
9/24/2016	3510	0	6	3506	4	3	97	Sat
9/25/2016	3515	0	6	3506	9	4	96	Sun
9/26/2016	3520	6	12	3512	8	5	95	Mon
9/27/2016	3525	3	15	3515	10	6	94	Tue
9/28/2016	3530	3	18	3518	12	7	93	Wed
9/29/2016	3535	2	20	3520	15	8	92	Thur
9/30/2016	3540	5	25	3525	15	9	91	Friday
10/1/2016	3545	0	25	3525	20	10	90	Sat
10/2/2016	3550	0	25	3525	25	11	89	Sun
10/3/2016	3555	2	27	3527	28	12	88	Mon
10/4/2016	3560	6	33	3533	27	13	87	Tue
10/5/2016	3565	5	38	3538	27	14	86	Wed
10/6/2016	3570	2	40	3540	30	15	85	Thur
10/7/2016	3575	4	44	3544	31	16	84	Friday
10/8/2016	3580	10	54	3554	26	17	83	Sat
10/9/2016	3585	1	55	3555	30	18	82	Sun
10/10/2016	3590	6	61	3561	29	19	81	Mon
10/11/2016	3595	5	66	3566	29	20	80	Tue
10/12/2016	3600	8	74	3574	26	21	79	Wed
10/13/2016	3605	5	79	3579	26	22	78	Thur
10/14/2016	3610	6	85	3585	25	23	77	Friday
10/15/2016	3615	1	86	3586	29	24	76	Sat
10/16/2016	3620	5	91	3591	29	25	75	Sun
10/17/2016	3625	9	100	3600	25	26	74	Mon
10/18/2016	3630	9	109	3609	21	27	73	Tue
10/19/2016	3635	9	118	3618	17	28	72	Wed
10/20/2016	3640	8	126	3626	14	29	71	Thur
10/21/2016	3645	9	135	3635	10	30	70	Friday
10/22/2016	3650	11	146	3646	4	31	69	Sat
10/23/2016	3655	7	153	3653	2	32	68	Sun
10/24/2016	3660	10	163	3663	-3	33	67	Mon
10/25/2016	3665	5	168	3668	-3	34	66	Tue
10/26/2016	3670	5	173	3673	-3	35	65	Wed
10/27/2016	3675	5	178	3678	-3	36	64	Thur
10/28/2016	3680	2	180	3680	0	37	63	Friday
10/29/2016	3685	2	182	3682	3	38	62	Sat
10/30/2016	3690	6	188	3688	2	39	61	Sun
10/31/2016	3695	23	211	3711	-16	40	60	Mon
11/1/2016	3700	5	216	3716	-16	41	59	Tue
11/2/2016	3705	7	223	3723	-18	42	58	Wed
11/3/2016	3710	0	223	3723	-13	43	57	Thur
11/4/2016	3715	7	230	3730	-15	44	56	Friday
11/5/2016	3720	5	235	3735	-15	45	55	Sat
11/6/2016	3725	5	240	3740	-15	46	54	Sun
11/7/2016	3730	7	247	3747	-17	47	53	Mon
11/8/2016	3735	6	253	3753	-18	48	52	Tue
11/9/2016	3740	1	254	3754	-14	49	51	Wed
11/10/2016	3745	3	257	3757	-12	50	50	Thur
11/11/2016	3750	4	261	3761	-11	51	49	Friday
11/12/2016	3755	17	278	3778	-23	52	48	Sat
11/13/2016	3760	4	282	3782	-22	53	47	Sun
11/14/2016	3765	4	286	3786	-21	54	46	Mon
11/15/2016	3770	6	292	3792	-22	55	45	Tue
11/16/2016	3775	7	299	3799	-24	56	44	Wed
11/17/2016	3780	2	301	3801	-21	57	43	Thur
11/18/2016	3785	3	304	3804	-19	58	42	Friday
11/19/2016	3790	0	304	3804	-14	59	41	Sat
11/20/2016	3795	1	305	3805	-10	60	40	Sun
11/21/2016	3800	3	308	3808	-8	61	39	Mon
11/22/2016	3805	1	309	3809	-4	62	38	Tue
11/23/2016	3810	6	315	3815	-5	63	37	Wed
11/24/2016	3815	2	317	3817	-2	64	36	Thur
11/25/2016	3820	8	325	3825	-5	65	35	Friday
11/26/2016	3825	4	329	3829	-4	66	34	Sat
11/27/2016	3830	0	329	3829	1	67	33	Sun
11/28/2016	3835	8	337	3837	-2	68	32	Mon
11/29/2016	3840	5	342	3842	-2	69	31	Tue
11/30/2016	3845	8	350	3850	-5	70	30	Wed
12/1/2016	3850	5	355	3855	-5	71	29	Thur
12/2/2016	3855	6	361	3861	-6	72	28	Friday
12/3/2016	3860	1	362	3862	-2	73	27	Sat
12/4/2016	3865	1	363	3863	2	74	26	Sun
12/5/2016	3870	6	369	3869	1	75	25	Mon
12/6/2016	3875	3	372	3872	3	76	24	Tue
12/7/2016	3880	3	375	3875	5	77	23	Wed
12/8/2016	3885	2	377	3877	8	78	22	Thur
12/9/2016	3890	6	383	3883	7	79	21	Friday
12/10/2016	3895	0	383	3883	12	80	20	Sat
12/11/2016	3900	2	385	3885	15	81	19	Sun
12/12/2016	3905	2	387	3887	18	82	18	Mon
12/13/2016	3910	3	390	3890	20	83	17	Tue
12/14/2016	3915	3	393	3893	22	84	16	Wed
12/15/2016	3920	4	397	3897	23	85	15	Thur
12/16/2016	3925	3	400	3900	25	86	14	Friday
12/17/2016	3930	1	401	3901	29	87	13	Sat
12/18/2016	3935	3	404	3904	31	88	12	Sun
12/19/2016	3940	5	409	3909	31	89	11	Mon
12/20/2016	3945	2	411	3911	34	90	10	Tue
12/21/2016	3950	8	419	3919	31	91	9	Wed
12/22/2016	3955	6	425	3925	30	92	8	Thur
12/23/2016	3960	6	431	3931	29	93	7	Friday
12/24/2016	3965	0	431	3931	34	94	6	Sat
12/25/2016	3970	2	433	3933	37	95	5	Sun
12/26/2016	3975	9	442	3942	33	96	4	Mon
12/27/2016	3980	0	442	3942	38	97	3	Tue
12/28/2016	3985	3	445	3945	40	98	2	Wed
12/29/2016	3990	8	453	3953	37	99	1	Thur
12/30/2016	3995	30	483	3983	12	100	0	Friday
12/31/2016	4000	17	500	4000	0			Sat

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