Life in 'The Bar' Lane

As some of you know, I frequent a Bar & Grill I call 'SV'. Yesterday I stopped in after a couple of hours at work and most of the regulars were already in attendance.

One of the regulars, 'Joe', is a different sort. Works at the Chrysler Assembly Plant nearby and makes it to the bar every day. Get's 30 minutes for 'lunch', calls in so his 'order' is ready (Budweiser and a couple of shots of 'Jager'), hurries in, slams his 'lunch' and then back to work. Of course, after his shift is over, its back to the bar for a few hours of drinking.

You have probably gathered that Joe has a possible problem with alcohol. But, he is one of the nicest guys you would ever meet, very outgoing, and absolutely fucking hilarious.

We had the following conversation yesterday;

Me: Hey Joe, man, you look beat.

Joe: Yeah, haven't been to bed. Spent the night in 'lock-up'.

Me: Oh fuck......DUI?

Joe: Yeah.....fuckers had a 'sobriety checkpoint' set-up in my own fuckin subdivision. What really sucks is that I could see my house from where they stopped me.

Me: Uh...haven't you had a DUI before (knowing full well he had a 'couple' )?

Joe: Yep...this makes 10.

Me: (almost fucking speechless) 10? Did you say its your fucking 10th one????

Joe: Yeah.....sucks don't it? I'm 'going away' on this one. Probably for a year to 18 months.

Keep in mind, while Joe was telling all of this, he had been there for probably 4 hours or so and was drinking one after another.

I don't know about y'all, but even though I do like the guy, I feel ANYONE that has had 10 fuckin DUI's has had maybe 8 too fuckin many! I'm not gonna get all preachy and shit and holier-than-thou, because I know I have driven when I should not have and am aware of the stupidity involved with those decisions. Count it luck that I didn't get stopped and hauled away.

But 10??? My first thought is 'how in the fuck do you not learn from 1, 2, 3, etc??' But...I guess if you're an obvious alcoholic then the number really doesn't matter....instead of 10 I'm sure it could just of easily been 20.

I have also noticed (being the keen observer that I am) that alcoholics (or drug abusers) tend to run with other alcoholics. Joe had told me a couple of weeks ago that his girlfriend had gotten drunk, during the day, lost control of her car and drove through a fuckin construction site. Workers diving the fuck out of the way as she came barreling through until she stopped.....after smashing into a stopped bulldozer. Unfreakinbelievable that no one was hurt. She's now under 'home arrest' and wears one of those ankle bracelet things.....sheesh.

I do drink, but only at night and I may go weeks in-between a few beers.

As I have said, even though I do go to 'the bar' practically every freakin day, I always drink iced-tea....fuckin gallons of it and the only ill-effect from that is that I have to pee every 20 minutes ;)

Hmmmm......I used to be alot more fun because I noticed that the more I drank the funnier I got (along with getting a lot more fuckin attractive ;)