September 13, 2025 - Distorted Perceptions

 I made a post on social media that tavern food is good, just so long as I don't have to go to the tavern to get it. We're having chicken fingers on a bun so chicken burgers right and I thought french fries would be a good side. I know people claim that french fries cooked in an air fryer are healthier, but really folks, they are gross. The reason they call them french fries is because you fry them, in deep fat. The best method, according to most chefs, is to blanch them first, then deep fy them a second time.

Some people just have distorted perceptions of reality. It's like Harm Reduction. What's up with that anyway. I'm a recovered alcoholic. I no longer drink. I did not recover from alcoholism by reducing the harm it did to me and the people in my life; I recovered by completely eliminating the harm it does to me and the people in my life. And I do not believe in the marijuana maintenance program. Substituting one addiction for another is like switching seats on the Titanic. The ship is still sinking and you're still on it.

September 12, 2025 - Love Is Also A Verb

 I recently made a commitment to spend more time updating my blogs. I update The God Box every morning, and I had made a decision to update this one each night before bedtime. Last night it slipped my mind and about 11:45 pm I was scrambling to get it done. So, I have revised my original plan to Update The God Box in the morning and update Mulgrave Lane later in the day or evening. So, currently it is 430 pm and I have a bit of time on my hands so here we are.

Today has been a good day here. I was awake at 8 am, did the morning ritual which consists of asking God as I understand Him for a little help to get through the day, then I do a couple of readings, one from an AA book and one from an Al-Anon book, then I pull a word from my god box. I share that word with 50 or so people that I'm connected to on a daily basis and then I write a little blurb at my other blog, The God Box. It's a carryover from the days when I used to journal. Now, I blog.

The word today was Love. Thinking back, this morning's blog entry was good but as the day progresses I amost always find other things to say about my word, as I relate it to the day's goings on. Love is one of the words that is just as powerful as a verb as it is as a noun. I baked cookies today. We're going to a meeting tonight and we're also going to a program at the church tomorrow morning called Blankets of Hope. Me and Nancy and about a dozen other ladies knit blankets to give to those less fortunate than us. It's a way to spread around love. The cookies I bake are also a way to do that.

After my morning coffee, I spent about an hour with a person that I sponsor, just talking and giving her some hope and guidance. That's another way that I express love. Someone once asked me what was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen. I replied that it is the look in an alcoholic or addict's eyes  once they realized they did not have to live the way they had been living.

As I said, we're going to the speaker meeting tonight. I'm not the person speaking, but someone mentioned to me that she'd like to go if she had a drive. We're getting a drive there and there's an extra seat in the car. That didn't take much thinking. Doing a favor for someone with no thought of getting anything for it is another way for me to express love. having said that, by doing for others, I do get something in return. I get to keep the gift that God has given me, the gift of Sobriety. But, that is something I am always aware of and it doesn't really come up during that moment when I agree to be unselfish. If that makes sense.

September 11, 2025

 My word this morning was Trust. I figured I'd bring it up as a topic this evening, but I turned the one word into a slogan we are familiar with - Trust God Clean House Help Others. Helping others is a good way to do service work and it feels good to carry a bit of hope to others especially new people. But, it's hard to carry a message to others until my own affairs are in order, so I should get my shit together first. I should, as they say, clean my house first. And, before I start working on myself, which can be a tough thing to do, the first thing I should do is place my trust in God or a higher power if the word God is difficult for you.

I carry the message a lot, through sponsorship. Not all the people I sponsor actually get sober. I have to frequently remind myself that because I ought not to take the credit for getting them sober, I also ought not blame myself if they don't get sober. I simply encourage them to find a higher power and help them to establish a relationship with that higher power and then whether or not they continue the steps is really between them and their God. It has very little to do with me.

Primary Doesn't Mean Important

 As I have mentioned, this is my primary blog. I don't think that means it is my most important blog, because it does not get updated as frequently as some of my other blogs. I think subconsciously it means my First Blog and even that is not completely accurate, because I had blogs prior to this one. To say it is my first blog at Blogger would be more to the pont. I could check to be sure but I'd say it's about 15 years old. I did actually save what I had written so far and then checked the date of the earliest saved post. that one dates back to 2015, so that's ten years. If memory serves me correctly, that post is not the first post. I'd say 2010 would be a better starting point, but if that's the case, where are all the posts from 2010 to 2015?

So Many Blogs, So Little Time

 A friend of mine was having difficulty with something and i made a reference to something I had written in one of my blogs and he said Oh I didn't know you had a blog and of course I said Yeah I have a few of those. I actually have quite a few. I'm an addict. My whole philosophy of life is based on the premise that if one works this good, just think what ten would do. 

Mulgrave Lane is supposed to be my primary blog. I remember how it got started. They renamed all the streets in the trailer park. They are all named after ships that were lost in the Battle of the Atlantic. My part of the street is on the corner of Trentonian Lane and Mulgrave Lane. My access door is on Mulgrave lane and I like that better than Trentonian. It's easier to say and easier to spell. So, I contacted the city and asked if my civic address could be changed to Mulgrave Lane. After a few weeks they responded to me and said that a 911 driver would need to drive all the way to the end of Mulgrave Lane to get to my trailer, so they denied my request. A 911 driver would have to travel all the way to the end of Trentonian Lane to get to my trailer anyway but that idea didn't seem to have anything to do with anything, so my address is 38 Trentonian.

My solution? I created a blog called Mulgrave Lane. And it's not my only blog. I have a recipe blog and a dessert blog that I do not update on a regular basis. Those would be So Good To Come To and Stressed Spelled Backward. Go ahead, spell it backward.

One day, when I was working as a security guard, the guy who worked the night shift, who was supposed to relieve me the evening, was snowed in and we had to shovel him out so he could go home sleep and then come back to work. A backhoe plow was driving by and the good samaritan in him decided to help plow my buddy out. So I blogged about that at a blog I created called Sometimes God Drives A Snow Plow. that blog doesn't get updated very often.

I have one called The God Box which is little blurbs about the words I pick from my God Box every day. I've been updating that one regularly every day for at least a month or so.

And this little rant has served to update Mulgrave Lane.