Another Solo Mission - Drinking alone? Post here!

[Nausea]

Well, took no notes, but I did go by the old bar and...NOTHING, I DID NOTHING! Well, I can't say I did nothing, but when I asked the bartender -- a small, bubbly number who's marrying one of the owners -- if I did anything she answered with a smile, "Nothing I heard about."

Which of course means I actually did do something...

But gratefully, nothing too bad

Drunken amnesia is a tricky thing to deal with. Especially if you are near-or-are-blacking-out on a regular basis. The best you can do is go on the cues that others in your previous vicinity offer you, which you seem to be doing well. If it's inconclusive, so be it. But if something is awry, they will damn well tell you. A particular drunkard on the MDM Vegas trip fucked with me in this regard. I knew he was full of shit, but his persistence was off-setting. Thanks a lot, Angel.

[Hugh]

Some weirdness going on here - just got my new HP laptop. You guys all look brighter and faster now, but a weird black DOS-looking screen is popping up when I'm on MDF. It hasn't happened on any of the other sites, I hope it isn't a problem unique to this site.

Otherwise, it seems to be working well. Got my programs, or apps as they're now called, downloaded. I need this stuff on my hard drive, I don't like the idea of working in the cloud. My stock market data provider is nice enough to keep the old-style program available for us old timers who never wanted to learn their new internet program.

Now it's time to pour that first drink. This thing feels like it's working well enough that I won't start trying to mess around in settings after the wine goes to my head. Skype came already loaded on the laptop, I'll turn it on later.

When I downloaded Chrome I got a pop up message on my desktop asking me to give Edge another try. No thanks.

[oettinger]

My browser says MDM is "not safe" too. Probably because of all the links on the page. It alarms me for being very unsafe when I reply. That is stupid. Someone is reading my postings or what?"!

I`d avoid clouds like the plague, that shit is not safe at all

[Hugh]

OK - Looking good. This thing is so much faster than my six-year-old Toshiba.

First things first. When solo drinking, always try to learn something.

86 years ago this month, August of 1933, Virginia Woolf wrote about a dinner she and her husband had with the Keynes', as in John Maynard Keynes, the world famous economist. Keynes mentioned that Germany had failed to pay a bill of a half million pounds to a cotton spinning factory in England. He said that was odd, considering it was such a small amount. He also noted that Germany had been buying copper like crazy. He surmised that the copper was for armaments, and that Germany might be preparing for war.

This was in 1933, only six months after Hitler had been appointed chancellor. Keynes saw the war coming just by observing their trade practices.

If someone calls you a "Keynesian" it can be either a compliment or an epithet, depending on which end of the political spectrum you are on. But there's no denying that Keynes knew his shit.

And considering that this is found in an entry in Woolf's diary, I can't help but wonder if it's one of those "little known facts" like Cliff Claven always used to bring up as he sat next to his buddy Norm at Cheers.

And if you think it's inappropriate to be mentioning Virginia Woolf on a Drunkard forum, remember - she advocated the drinking of wine so that one can ponder deeply.

[oettinger]

Neocons always quote Adams Smith and hate Keynes. Keynes works, Smith doesn`t. But the neocons misunderstood both anyway

[Hugh]

I have Smith's book around here somewhere. I thought it was fascinating how he listed the wages common workers were making back then. I wrote a lot of it down, but lost it somewhere. I couldn't finish the book, it got too thick to slog through. I don't care about the politics of these guys, they are astute observers and they gave us the best of what they had.

[Hugh]

If this big 17 inch laptop has a fan, I haven't heard it. My old laptop fan was blowing all the time.

this new one won't play my DVD, so I tried to free apps from the app store. One didn't work and one wasn't free. I deleted both. If I monkey around with apps too much more after I'm drunk, I'm liable to put something bad on my laptop. Better stop now.

Let's see if that Skype shit works.

[Hugh]

So Skype is there, my profile is still there, but i have the same notifications lit up, but it won't let me click on it to see what the notices are. So if someone sent me messages on it, I'm not being a prick, I just don't see how to respond to it.

I have no idea how I got a former Craigslist hookup pic on my Skype profile. But there it is. Fuck it, who cares.

[Artful Drunktective]

So Skype is there, my profile is still there, but i have the same notifications lit up, but it won't let me click on it to see what the notices are. So if someone sent me messages on it, I'm not being a prick, I just don't see how to respond to it.

I have no idea how I got a former Craigslist hookup pic on my Skype profile. But there it is. Fuck it, who cares.

Oh my I had something similar happen. I think Skype must have synced with your contacts and you must have had this person's contact info somewhere and it automatically added them because they also have Skype. (What's App does the same thing FYI).
A bunch of clients I certainly never invited to my Skype ended up on my drunkard Skype when I synced it with my phone and I immediately had to delete them off. Rather annoying!

[Hugh]

After reading Jonathan Franzen essays, I've been pacing my floor imagining a conversation I might have with him if I meet him in my favorite bar. How infantile of me! Why do I engage in such childish narcissism? I guess that's just what us solo drinkers do.

There's some asshole out in the courtyard talking on his phone. I don't know if he lives here or not. He doesn't look like a crackhead, so I'll leave him alone.

I've got to be up in 11 hours to get ready for work, and I'm not fucked up enough. Should I pop a Benadryl to go with this wine?

Enjoying my exile as a solo drinker. Where the fook are you guys?

[Hugh]

Gotta be up in six hours now. That Benadryl didn't help. I'm still not fucked up.

This HP laptop rocks - literally. The sound of the music is better than on my Toshiba. The video is too.

Hey - y'all got to listen to Dr. Victor and the Rasta Rebels sing If You Want to be Happy. These guys nailed it!

Fuck all y'all out there being part of the crowd. Don't do it. Be an individualist.

oh fuck i gotta puke

[oettinger]

Don`t puke on your new laptop!
You work on sundays?
I was always hungover/still wasted during sunday work.

[Hugh]

So Skype is there, my profile is still there, but i have the same notifications lit up, but it won't let me click on it to see what the notices are. So if someone sent me messages on it, I'm not being a prick, I just don't see how to respond to it.

I have no idea how I got a former Craigslist hookup pic on my Skype profile. But there it is. Fuck it, who cares.

Oh my I had something similar happen. I think Skype must have synced with your contacts and you must have had this person's contact info somewhere and it automatically added them because they also have Skype. (What's App does the same thing FYI).
A bunch of clients I certainly never invited to my Skype ended up on my drunkard Skype when I synced it with my phone and I immediately had to delete them off. Rather annoying!

Yep - that must be it. The fucking thing synced with a contact that isn't even on my phone anymore - a former supervisor at work who doesn't work there anymore. So now I know my old contacts are out there in the cloud somewhere. And now my ex-supervisor has seen a pic of me in my underwear. Bah.

[Hugh]

Damb - it feels good to be home. As in NOT in a fucking bar. Yesterday an old "redneck" (his term, not mine) invited me to sit next to him at the bar as he drank beer, a shot of whiskey, and dipped Skoal. He spit the tobacco juice in a plastic cup. He wanted to unload on me about all the shit he reads on social media about gays, gay rights, the rainbow flag, etc. I sat and listened to him rant, and he was pleasantly surprised that I'm not some goddamb gay rights activist and actually share some things in common with people on the political right. It's not the first time this has happened, I often get approached in straight bars by people who want to talk about LGBT stuff and they always expect me to defend everything they read/hear about in the media. And they always buy me drinks as a gesture of good will. But it always leaves me exhausted and feeling dirty. (I always feel dirty after leaving a bar, though.)

I can't help but wonder if I made myself sick by laying behind that fucking garbage can on the sidewalk last night. I imagine there must have been at least a dozen strains of hepatitis back there. Why do I do such stupid shit? I've run into friends before when I'm out there staggering drunk, one time one of them got me out of the middle of the street. They've certainly lost some respect for me after seeing me like that. I can't blame them. I'm 54 years old and I'm out there acting like a teenager whose been slamming shots all night.

Got a new poem posted at As It Ought To Be Magazine: https://asitoughttobemagazine.com/2019/ ... --VrRJ4-Z4 They have over a thousand followers on their Facebook page, I think that's more than any of the other magazines that have posted my stuff. It only got 7 likes, though.

There are these two people that I run into most times when I go out drinking. They are always bar hopping in the neighborhood. They both buy me drinks every time I see them, even though I rarely reciprocate. It's not that I'm a cheap ingrate, it's just that I rarely get a chance to buy one in return because they are usually up and gone to the next bar before I can buy one. But they certainly notice that I rarely reciprocate, they must mention it to each other. Why do they keep doing it? It's at the point now that I silently groan when the bartender slides a marker or a token at me, telling me that one or the other of them has bought me a drink.

And now it's time to pour that first drink and get everything back to good. No people, no bartenders, no stupid conversation raging on all around me. Just me, the booze, a sofa to sit upon, a wall to stare at. I don't even think I have the energy to write a fucking thing tonight after all the hell I put myself through yesterday.

[oettinger]

Notebooks are fun to read. I don`t have any but it`s still fun to dissect my mind from years ago when I flick through old drawings.