October 23, 2025

 My word today was sponsorship. I wrote a paragraph on that at the god box so I'll try not to repeat myself. It's an integral part of my recovery. About 28 years ago, a member of AA took some time out of his day to carry the message to me and I, in turn, carry the message to others. I do it in different ways. When I wake up I read a few readings, pick a word from my god box and then share that word with some folk on here. that's one way. then, I go to a mens group in Hawaii called The Braddahood and do a reading there. that's another way. And of course I physically meet with other members to go over the steps traditions and concepts. that's another way.

I've been asked to speak at a person's one year anniversary. that's another way to carry the message. Whenever I speak, I try to explain how I established a relationship with God. That is, in a nutshell, how I managed to put the plug in the jug.

October 22, 2025

 Starting to get into the habit of updating this blog in the morning. It is shaping into a good day. I only had one session for today and she canceled, so I can decide what to do today without worrying about it interfering with anything.

The word for today is DENIAL. 

October 21, 2025

 I was slow getting started today. I went to bed before midnight but I slept until ten. I was supposed to meet with someone at eleven so I only had an hour to get all my readings done, pick a word and then share that word with 55 people. So. I was a bit rushed and it was funny because the word was Easy Does It...But Do It. I managed to get through. By coincidence, my 11 oclock was late and my 2 oclock canceled so I actually had plenty of time.

I had to go out and get something for someone. that's done.

I have a group business meeting tonight so making cookies was needed. Those are done.

Working on supper now. Baked chicken thighs with something something for sides.

Got a few hours to kill now so I think I will take it easy.

October 20, 2025 - Monday Monday

 Monday monday. I used to shudder at the thought that Monday was here already and I had to start another work week. I'm retired now so every day is Friday. This morning, I'm meeting with someone at ten oclock. And then later in the day I have to re-record my podcast. Going to a meeting this evening but the rest of my day looks free and clear.

October 19, 2025

 I was awakened during the night and had trouble getting back to sleep. I did a bit of work on my podcast. I had recorded it yesterday but there were a few problems with it. I corrected those problems. I did not re-record it because it was late. I'll do that later today or tomorrow, maybe.

We go to church today. I also have a district GSR meeting. I meet with a couple of sponcees later and host an online meeting. That's the plan anyway. Somewhere in all of my plan, is a roast beef dinner. My word of the day is Selfishness, so I need to be careful that even though I have a lot of things I'm doing today, I should be careful that these things are not all about me.

October 18, 2025

 The day is starting off well. Did my morning readings, picked a good word from my god box. Gossip. Then, I did a post at the Braddahood. Shared my word with all the usual folk. I have a few things lined up today. Meeting with someone I sponsor, that's at eleven. Might do the al-anon meeting at one, although I'm also scheduled to meet someone at two and there is always the big book meeting in Hawaii at seven so maybe that's how I'll approach the day. No good trying to do too much. 

Tomorrow will be busy enough. Of course, that's tomorrow and it's probably best if I just try to get through today first.

October 17, 2025

 It's Friday. Some of the people on my social media accounts seem excited that it is, that the work week is over for a day or two. I remember feeling that way once. But, I'm retired now and every day is Friyay. I mentioned in a post at the Braddahood, a men's group in hawaii that I go to that I had slept in this morning. I woke up at 830 instead of 8:00. I'm retired. I can do that now because I don't have any work commitments anymore. I suppose I still have commitments, things that I have set for myself to do each morning. My daily readings, picking my god box word, sharing that word with everyone I share it with, and then doing my god box blog and then this blog. 

October 16, 2025

 I go to the Men's Lunch today. I baked cookies for that. White chocolate chip with cranberries. I don't use dried cranberries. I use whole fresh cranberries. Well, I store them in the freezer so they last longer, but I call them fresh because they are not like raisins.

I don't think I have any sponsorship sessions lined up for today. I will be going to an AA meeting tonight. My word from my god box today is anonymity. The way I practice that is that I won't tell anyone else if I see you in an AA meeting, but I wouldn't care at all if you told anyone that I'm in AA. I never gave much thought to who saw me staggering home drunk from a bar, so why should I care who knows that I'm sober now.

And maybe you might plant a seed in someone when they hear of all the wonderful things being sober has done for me. It might encourage them to go to a meeting. That is actually how I heard about AA, through a co-worker friend whom I thought had a serious drinking problem. I'm glad she told me that she was going to AA.

October 15, 2025

 I tried sticky notes, calendar reminders, and a bunch of other things but I keep forgetting that I'm supposed to update this blog every day. And yet, here I am. I recently rejoined a men's group based in Hawaii. It's called The Braddahood (Big Island Men In Recovery). It uses the marco polo phone app and consists of video chat posts. It's an interesting way to start my day. And then, I thought, hey let's update the blog right after we do all the morning stuff. So, here we are.

October 12, 2025 - More Gratitude

 I try to always begin my day with a little gratitude, even if that's not the word I pick from my god box. Today, it was a slogan Easy Does It....But Do It. I did notice yesterday I had some shortness of breath while engaging in physical activity, so perhaps I need to slow down a little and not take on too much. As much as I don't like to admit it, I'm not twenty years old anymore.

Today is Thanksgiving and honestly, every day is thanksgiving to us. We are grateful that we are still here and still together and still able to enjoy life. We'll be starting the daty with a church service. A lot of folks we talked to yesterday said they would be playing hookey from church today, I guess they'll be home cooking their meal. We are eating our turkey dinner tomorrow because we knew we'd be busy today.

And, of course, we go to the coffee hour they have after the church service. I made some cookies for that.

I am hosting a workshop this afternoon at club 24. It's on tradition five which is about carrying the message to the alcoholic who still suffers. it's thanksgiving so there probably won't be many people there, there never are, but at least I will be fufilling my responsibility. I can't do your responsibility for you. 

Some of the folk that i sponsor are taking the day off to spend it with their families because they forgot how they got reunited with their families. Oh well, I'm supposed to be taking it easy right. 

October 11, 2025 - Gratitude

 I have been forgetting to post here daily. The word I pulled from my god box today was gratitude which teaches me to look for gratitude in negative situations. Yesterday, there was a DCM meeting at an assembly being held in Newfoundland. I was not attending the Assembly. My alternate was going in my place. She wasn't able to attend the DCM meeting. Luckily, the assembly was hybrid meaning in person and on zoom. So, I registered for the online version (40 dollars) and planned to attend the DCM meeting. When I got logged in, I was not at the DCM meeting; I was at a service workshop instead. After a few emails, I learned that the DCM meeting wasn't included in the hybrid part of the assembly so I had wasted my time AND my money.

In order to attend this, I had to miss a zoom meeting that we have every Friday night. But, because of the mix up I was able to attend that meeting which coincidentally is called Serenity Corner and serenity was what I truly needed after that turn of events.

October 8, 2025 - Giving Thanks

 People are telling me this weekend is thanksgiving and they hope I have a good thanksgiving weekend. Friday, in the morning, I'll be spending time with one of the people that I sponsor, giving her a little guidance. Friday evening, I'll be attending the Area Officers meeting at the Fall assembly. the Assembly itself is in Cornerbrook, so I'll just be zooming in. 

Saturday morning, Nancy and I do the Blankets of Hope over at the little church up the street. Helping the seniors knit blankets for Margaret's House.

Sunday morning, we'll be at church and Sunday afternoon I host a workshop at Club 24 that probably no one will attend because it is thanksgiving day, but maybe they'll be like us and have their turkey dinner on Monday.

I think I got the giving thanks part of the weekend figured out.

October 7, 2025

 Working my way through the letter A in my music backups. The single entries are easy to do as are the ones that are dated later than 2010 because most of those are already done. I do have to check them so that I don't miss any. Folders with multiple entries, such as a discography of someone (Aerosmith, Anthrax, Atlantic Starr), they are a little harder to do. What I usually do is drag and drop the file into its respective folder. Then, I can use the copy and paste function for the artist name, makes it a bit easier.

And, I'm all for the easier softer way.

October 6, 2025

 The dvds for these last three years are actuallly Staples brand DVDs and not Maxell like I was using. Staples brand are not as good I'm finding out and the file transfers are slowing down. I get more error messages and some files just do not transfer.

When that happens, I go to the master files and transfer the ones that were giving me grief. So, I thought, I am going to have to start doing that anyway once I finish these last few years so why not just do it that way now.

It sounded good on paper but it's a lot of work and there are approximately 700 CDs left on the remaining discs so I think I'll take my chances with those.

October 5, 2025 - Daily Inventory

 Sunday is always a busy day for me. We start with church which is always good for me. After church, we do a coffee hour with the congregation. I bring cookies to that.

Once we got home, I had about an hour to myself before we left here to attend a committee meeting for the 2026 midwinter roundup. that went relatively well, not much stress at that.

We came home and I finished cooking supper which I had started in that hour I previously had at home.

I met with a guy I sponsor at 6 pm. Another one at 7 pm. Then, we host a zoom meeting at 8 pm. 

Checking my email, I see that my day isn't over just yet.

October 4, 2025 - The Backup

 I had a few false starts with those backups I was doing. At first I started with that thumb drive. That didn't work out. So, then I found some space on one of my external drives and combined with some other space on another external drive it seemed that would work. Then, I remembered I had a blank drive that had about a terrabyte of free space on it so I tried that. It is way too slow with file transfers. I did a bit more digging and I did locate a 2 terrabyte drive that is about half empty so that would provide me with one terrabyte of storage space. A terrabyte is a thousand gigabytes and trust me, that's a fair amount of storage space. I should be able to get the completed backups on that drive.

I noticed a few things while doing this. The music foles are currently stored so that there is no band name in the file title so when I move each file to its respective year folder, I'm having to rename each one so that I will know which band it is. That is time consuming, but there is also a plus to storing these backups on a hard drive. 

When I made the original dvd backup, most of the discs were writable but not re-writable, so its not possible to add data to them. But, with putting them on a hard drive, I can very easily add data to the folders. Since the probability exists that I will have acquired music for each year after I had made each backup, then I will have extra data to store in each year. So, I'm happy with that.

I'm just taking the files I recently started and storing them all on the terrabyte drive. Taking a bit of time but not too much.

October 3, 2025 - There is always one more.

 I started a new side project. I came up with the idea by setting out to do something else. Every new year, in January, I make dvd backups of all the new music I acquired in the previous year. The years end will soon be upon us so I thought I'd pick up a spindle of blank DVDs. On my way to Staples, the thought occurred that I could just use an external drive to back them up on. I found a cheap thumb drive, less than 20 bucks so I decided to try that out. I have found that you get what you pay for. It was on sale for a reason. Frustrated, I checked the hard drives I have here and i did find one with about 350 gigs of free space on it, so I decided to store all the music backups I have on that one drive. The ones that I do have date back to 2010 and I should be able to get all those on there. I'll pick up a newer drive later and transfer them all to that.

Then, I had a lightbulb moment. I found another drive where I could temporarily store a large amount of files. On that drive, I created a folder called Backups. Inside that folder I created sub folders for 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, and 2009. Then, I went to my master drive and started going through each folder looking for albums released in those years. The theory is that I will in this way create backups as far back as 2000. Once I get the new drive, which I presume will be a terrabyte or two, I'll transfer all the backups to that one and then create backups of the 1990s and then the 1980s and then the 1970s and so on. It should take me about a year. Or longer. 

October 2, 2025 - the Tenth Step Journal

 Someone remarked that doing a blog like this can be considered a tenth step journal. I write about my day and run off on little tangents and may quite possibly learn things about myself in the process. Today had its ups and downs. My word today was expectations. I wrote about that in my god box blog and afterward I tried not to have expectations about a couple things I had planned for the day. Both of those things involved meeting with people I sponsor. Long story short, both of them canceled. One canceled about an hour prior to us meeting and the other one canceled almost two hours after our planned meeting. Needless to say, I was not impressed.

I did have conversations on social media with other persons whom I do not sponsor and those talks seemed to be helpful to the persons involved, so that was a bonus. Because of the free time I had, I was able to record next week's podcast so that was another plus.

Nancy was out with the girls so I made us a nice meal for when she got home. then, we went to a meeting. One of the other guys that I sponsor drove us there. As it turned out the meeting was just what I needed. I often say that I don't need to go to a meeting every day. I probably only need one meeting a week, but I never know which one it is. So, I go to seven a week and by the end of the week I have it figured out.

October 1, 2025 - One Day At a Time.

 First of October already. It's been a good day so far. I uploaded my weekly podcast and spent some time working on next week's episode.

Nancy picked up a pre-cooked barbecue chicken from the superstore. I made a tossed salad from iceberg lettuce, grape tomatoes, sliced cucumber and sliced mushroom so thats supper. I also have some pumpernickel bread to go with it.

We're going to tallahassee tonight. I have cookies that I baked yesterday while I was doing the Sunrise stuff and I also have leftover chocolate cake from that, so that's all good.

My wednesday afternoon just canceled. Can't say I'm surprised, but it is what it is. I might be able to meet with someone else if she hasn't committed to anything else. Really, it's about priorities.