Many of my long time readers know that I’m in Alcoholics Anonymous. If you didn’t, you do now. I don’t care if you know it. Anonomymity is for me to protect you. And it’s for you to protect me. It’s not for me to protect me.

Last night I woke up disturbed. I got up and wrote it out, which I’m pasting below. I think it’s poorly written, I have to re-read bits to get the meaning. I hope you don’t agree.

2:19 AM 04 Jun 2019
Just woke up from dream, wondering if I could stay sober with these new rules.

From now on, we gotta do what “AA Tapelessons” says. And “The Guru”. Those are the new rules from my dream.

I don’t even know the difference between “AA Tapelessons” and just the Big Book. I remember I started listening to the audio, but can’t remember what I didn’t like about them. (Can’t they read? Why does there seem to be no printed version of the “AA Tapelessons”?)

“The Gurus”, while most usually like them, are somewhat annoying at times, they go through periods where they seems to want to change every facet of every AA thing. They want to change what we read at the meetings, how we read it, how much of it we read. They want to be elected as a groups representaive, even though they don’t visit the group much or don’t even live here. (They want to do this for their benefit, not the groups, but they seldom realize it. They think they are ‘needed’)

It’s one thing to do things how you want, it’s another to try to change the way everyone else does them.

So, what am I disturbed about? Do I feel I have to defend the way I “run” AA in my own brain? No. Do I have to change my AA program for you? No. I might get upset when you try to change the format of a meeting, or change my interface with the AA program.

I would dislike it if you win the vote to change something in AA to a way I don’t like. I might worry and wake up about it. I guess it’s fear in me that causes this. If I don’t get my way in an vote, oh well, I have to live with it, but let’s have a fair election.

I don’t always want to do the work that I feel is necessary to protect my sponsee’s from what I see as going “off the beaten path” influences. I don’t want to listen to the “AA Tapelessons” so I can explain or prove why they suck. I don’t care if they suck or not. I don’t want to have to argue to defend the meeting format of how we read what we read.

It’s not my postion to say “this is better than that”, but only to say “this is the path I took, I’ve seen others fail going the way you propose.”

If you’re a desperate alcoholic who wants to get sober, and wants me to be your sponsor, I recommend you do what I did, how I did it. Because I did it like the founders of AA did it as best I could, and it seems to be working.

I don’t want to waste time in discussion with “The Gurus” who say things like “It would be better if we read one sentence at a time and pause for discussion after each sentence.” Especially when the smug look on their face seems to imply that their unspoken motive for the change is allowing them to talk more, ‘insert their influence’. Because obviously, they’ve got it all figured out, and obviously, no-one else does.

I’ve been to ‘Read-A-Sentence-And-Discuss-It’ meetings before, and they’re fine. They’re good. If you want a group with different format, start one. Just don’t come trying to change my home group. You might succeed. I don’t think one should be arrogant enough to try to change something that has worked perfetly for years since before they even came around.

If you’re my sponsee, and I see you going off the path, I’m going to tell you. The danger to me, and my sobriety, is that I feel an obligation to run ahead of you down that wrong turn to see what, (if any) dangers there are. It might be fine, but there might be a monster that kills me.

This feeling of obligation that I have is false. I have no such obligation. My job is to tell you how I have stayed sober these past 28 years. To take my advice is your choice. If you stay sober, I don’t take any credit, if you get drunk, I don’t take any blame.

I felt better and slept after writing this last night. This morning I edited it a little. I took out the name of the tape set and peoples names.

Have a great day!

Another beautiful Monday. Perfect looking weather.

It was a nice weekend. I can’t even remember it. I took a nap yesterday, a two and-a-half hour nap.

I got us a pitcher of coconut water from our coconut tree.

It was a perfectly uneventful weekend.

I was wondering, if I found the same kind of paint for my roof somewhere else, and they mixed the color, if it would be the same? I was kind of thinking that since the original store had the color in their paint mixing computer, that they had to mix it, but maybe not.

My coffee is weird this morning. I started with too much water, just a smidge, but ended up with less than a full cuppa coffee. Defying the laws of physice. And the coffee is strong and bitter.

I guess that it’s about time to head to work, and find out what amazing bullshit they have in store for me

Have a great week!

The other day, I was having a back-and-forth chat conversation on Facebook. All of a sudden, I got a message that the person I was chatting with sent me an invitation to install the spyware app, Facebook Messenger. I asked him if he sent the invite, and he said no.

So I sent him a screengrab of the invite, showing him that FB Messenger was sending messages in his name without his permission or knowledge.

Several times, I’ve opened Facebook on my browser and had invites to install Facebooks malicious spyware on my device. But this is the first time one has come up in the middle of an active conversation.

Think about it, if you’re sending messages on Faebook, you can’t even tell if the other party using messenger or if they’re their browser. But that FB spyware app can!

Facebook Messenger is malware. Read the permissions. I recommend everyone uninstall it and use Facebook on your browser.

Several months ago, (I think I mentioned it here) Facebook attempted to force it’s users to install their spyware malware app by turning off messages in the mobile browsers, blocking them with a message that your messages are only available if you installed FB Messenger.

I never installed it, and I didn’t see or reply to FB messages the whole time FB was blocking it. Eventually, they quit blocking it, probably after thousands more people installed the malware spyware app.

I’ve also heard stories, for example, say you DON’T own cats. Sit near your FB Messenger device and talk about cat food several times. Soon you will start getting adverts for cat food.

The app has permission to operate your device’s camera and microphone at aany time wiithout your permission. Apparently, FB keeps that mic open, a lot. Maybe your camera too..

Do your own reserch, come to your own conclusion. But just receiving messages in the middle of my conversations that the other party didn’t send is proof enough for me. Even though I already thought Facebook Messenger App spyware/malware.

Happy Friday!

Happy Thursday! I’m offically tired of this rain. It’s good for the plants though. Maybe we’ll get some bananas from our banana plants out of the deal.

Yesterday after I got home from work I cut shelves for a new outdoor storage cabinet out of 3/4 inch plywood. A 4X8 piece of 3/4 inch plywood is quite heavy. I had a hard timee moving it in position to cut.

I feel pretty crabby this morning. Don’t feel like posting.

My first thought when I got up this morning was, “What if I turn on the radio and hear that a nucelar war started? This could be my last normal wakeup ever.” Instead the news talked about a tourist boat sinking in Hungary. Rear-ended by a cruise ship. Still bad news.

There was also news about letting journalists inside the Fukushima wrecked nuclear power plant.

I should feel gratitude for the wonderful life I have here in the tropics with my beautiful wife, but today, for some reason, it’s hard to muster up happiness from my uncooperative brain.

I’m ready for the weekend.

Have a good day!

Totally cloudy today. totally wet ground. It’s not raining this second, but it is inevitable. Lots of thunder too. Thunder, the sound of inevitable rain

We watched Captain Marvel last night. The wife liked it and I did too but overall, I thought it was quite cheesy. But it explains how Nick Fury lost his eye.

It’s also the beginning beginning beginning of the Avengers.

Have Ye a good day!

I went to the store to buy more of the paint I was using on the roof and guess what? They’re out.

This kind of thing only happens to me.

I had a somewhat lengthy discussion with the paint dude about matching the color if I needed more paint, but I never imagined they’d run out.

The paint guy said about three weeks till the next shipment comes in.

The weatherman says 80% chance of rain today. It’s clear here now, but cloudy on all the horizions. Maybe it will rain till my paint comes in, so that I coulsn’t have painted anyway!

Have a great day!

It was a busy weekend. Saturday I painted the roof, mostly. I did the sides and about a 5th of the floor, when I ran out of paint. I started at almost exactly 10:05 AM and ran out of my five gallons paint an almost exactly 4:44 PM.

Below are two videos, almost before and after I ran out of paint

Today, I’ll get more paint and hope it quits raining.

Sunday, in-between rainstorms, the wife had me trimming trees and bush. Funny thing is, she only wants them trimmed a little, If it was up to me, I’d prune the hell out of them. I get out the chainsaw, get the ladder, climb up there and cut one limb. “Ohh that’s perfect!” she says. “What about this one?” I ask, pointing to another limb. “Nooo,” she says, going all girly. “I just wanted that one cut.”

Can’t argue when women get that girly tone of voice. If you do, they switch to all pouty.

Sooo I put away the chainsaw and ladder, get the hedge trimmers and, following instructions, trim the hedges. Either cutting them “too square” or taking too much off.

But in the end, she was happy, I was happy and it was a good weekend.

Practically perfect weekend, I only left the property once, for about an hour Saturday morning, before I started painting.

Have a great week!

Perhaps the title should be “Interested In Going Moderately Garbage Free” or “Moderately Interested in Moderately Going Moderately Garbage Free.”

What I mean is, I don’t plan on going all fanatical about it.

There was a program on the BBC radio about living garbage free, generatimg minimal garbage. I’ve heard about it before, and I’m interested.

I believe plastic pollution is a major problem here on this planet.

I like to find beaches with nobody else there, and when I do, they’re covered in plastic that has washed ashore. All plastic. Not much glass or tin cans, only plastic. In the Costa Rica Caribbean, there wasn’t so much garbage on the empty beaches. Basically none, in fact. There was some on the Pacific side, but very little. Cayman must be getting jetsam from islands upstream.

My wife has reusable paper towels, reusable ziplock bags. She has these lightweight fabric bags that are for produce in the grocery store. We could also use them at the deli part of the store for cheese and lunch meat. They could put the scaanner sticker on the fabric.

We buy this sliced cheese that comes in super heavy duty bags. I always feel guilty throwing them away when the cheese is gone. we also buy cheese sometimes that comes in fragile filmy cellophane. I’ll put the filmy cheese in the heavy duty cheesebag. The filmy cellpohane must be biodegradeable I think, because I never find it on the beach.

I think I could get into it, creating minimal garbage. Every Sunday, putting an almost-empty trash can out got the Monday morning garbage pickup.. Like a hobby.

Happy Friday! And itsa PAYDAY! Have a great weekend!

Had a good walk with Lenny this morning, then soon after we got back, it rained, and we got a nice rainbow out of it, which I captured on film above.

It’s Thursday, and I’m ready for the weekend!

I actually remember my father listening to radio programs when I was a kid. I thought I remembered “The Lone Ranger”, but I’m not sure. It could have been “Dragnet”, but I remember that from TV.

I found a website that let’s you download old radio programs for free. http://www.oldradioworld.com/ I downloaded several, haven’t listened to them yet but I will.

It might be nice in the car, stuck in traffic. Kinda like an audio book from the past.

Have a great day!