Sobriety Even in The Hardest Times

Letly, I have been searching for that perfect job. I have a few money making platforms I am using right now. However, I need the Insurance and Benefits of a good company to work for.I have been unemployed, so to speak for about six months, and where I live in West Texas its is hard to find any job. The jobs that are left in the area , do not even pay you enough to pay bills or eat with. These are hard times for everyone. The cutbacks from the oil industry suprise me how many people in my town are still out driving around and making ends meet. There have been thousands of people who have left this town due to the non-drilling activity. There are apartments that a re cheap again, groceries are still high and Doctors are very high.

I guess what I am trying to say is even if I wanted to start drinking again , it would be foolish as most of my money would go to beer. I don't even know what a 6 pack cost but I am sure I could eat on this money for a few days. When you quit drinking you think of these normal things, on how you can stretch your money out. God knowa I am trying and he has not given up on me. He pushes me out of bed daily to go through the jobs and send out resumes  so I can further escalate my non- working condition. I pray everyday for something to come through. For every one resume I send out there are hundreds like me. Some with further education than I have and aftere talking to some of the managers hiring in the area, most people are wanting oil field type money for these jobs. This is not happening though and the hiring managers will not hire someone at 20..00 and hour when they know they can get someone to work for 9 or 10 and hour. How do you live on that kind of money without going bankrupt?

Welll , i hope i don't have to find this out. Right now I am staying sober and working the program on a daily basis, and trying to figure clues as to get around this town with the money I have.It is a game that is no fun. Moving may be the answer , but being at the age I am , may not provide an answer to my job situation. I wonder how many people are going through the job task I am. I am luckily , siingle and have a house that is paid for and , I have a sober life with money in the bank, just not that much. So I very well may be doing better than those out seeking employment than I think.

Oh well, this is a blog about how my life is progressing , and even with the low times as right now with employment, it could be worse. It makes a man feel less than a man when he is unemployed. Hopefully things are about to change. Chris

Social Sobriety - Get a Hobby!!

There is nothing worse than sitting on your ass passing the time away hoping for something to heppen. Belive me, I have been doing this for a while and getting fat and out of shape. I do things, but they all involve no exercise. I found out today just cleaning out my garage that i was winded and sore and tired out really quickly. I decided I was not going to quit , so I finished a project that was long over due.
It is easy to sit and get on a pity potty , cause like I said I have been there and hopefully this new experience has taught me to at least walk my dog every day

, and go a little more further each day. It is good to get sore and lose weight. A hobby of mine is painting and photography and flying drones. I noticed I was getting winded from just being in my living room flying these little drones in the main living room and this is not good.
Staying sober and healthy go hand in hand, I know this might sound stupid but activity does make you feel better after you have done it. I feel 100 % better now and I am tired enough to rest on the couch. I feel no guilt and I feel revived just from doing an activity one time.
I am going to practice this everyday to see how I lose weight and if my mood improves. I have a feeling this will help maybe one or two of you also.. Have a great weekend..Chris

When you Sponsor a Crazy Person

I have had the luck of sponsoring a few men in my AA group and one stands out as just plain insane. My job as a sponsor is to help those in need of staying away from drinking and to help them with the steps. That is all. I don't try to get involved with their personal lives nor do I want to get involved with them in their personal lives.Help is what a sponsor does, but there is a point where you have to shut people up that are not even trying to work the AA program and text you every 5 minutes and they  talk about their life and work, and really I don't give a shit about the bullshit.Maybe I am being a little harsh but there are those that use sponsors as a means of a counselor and that I am not.
SO when you sponsor a crazy person that phones you all the time or text you about stufff that has no bearing on AA. You have to let them go. I have held on to this one person, and finally said I can't help you. He was driving me crazy with texting 20-30 text a day.I stopped answering them,a dn felt guilty until I finally put my foot down and said ,"Hey if you want help with the steps and AA, Call me and do not text me".

It is needed to be stern on occasions and you and i are only human. We are not guidance counselors, we are just people with a little bit of knowledge of how to stay sober. Do not use a cponsor for things that are ordinary day to day talking. Sure if you have a problem then use a cponsor, but we don't have all the answers. Ask them to get another sponsor to help. You can only do so much to help someone that is not even interested in practicing the 12 steps of AA. In fact you should stop if the conversation is not directly related to AA. Just my opinion on sponsoring certain people. Chris

Uber gone in Midland, Texas- a Danger for Midlanders

As a Uber driver in Midland, Texas I can inform you that we kept quite a bit of drunks off the road in this county.On February 2, 2016 , Uber pulled out of Midland, Texas due to the way Midland City Council had tried to arrange an ordinance to fit Midland, Texas. This evidently did not work , and who is to blame? Seeing that Uber had established a agreement with most of the citizens of Midland County , I would have to say it was both the City of Midland City Council and Uber. Midland City Council wanted their way and Uber already had their way of running this service in many of the places of the world.It's a shame cause now their will be more DWI accidents and deaths due to not having Uber in town.

Why does the public drink themselves into oblivion? Well, partially there are a lot of drugs in this town and drinking is a pastime with a majority of locals.Yes , we have treatment centers in the area and they are packed.We have several AA groups and they are packed also with people that are court ordered and those whom want sobriety from their own experience of drinking too much.

Remember alcoholics have a disease and it is alcohol that is the drink that makes us want more. The more we drink the more satisfied we are.

Honestly Uber leaving , does not bother me. They kept cutting wages for drivers and I was getting sick and tired of the drunks I picked up nightly, and sometimes during the day. However it laid off about 100 drivers in a area where there is no work .People needed their Uber driving jobs and the goverment stepped in and made it impossible for Uber to operate under these conditions.What a shame, please be careful driving in this town, even more cautoius than before, because these people will still go out and get drunk but they have no alternative now for a sober driver to get them home.

Living Sober through The Rough Times

We all have times in our lives that are tough to get by. It could be a money situation that we may need, or added expenses that we did not plan on. There are a multitude of reasons to take another drink, we can think of these all the time if our head is not straight on. However , we know drinking will not solve our problems, as we have already learned this the hard way. Drinking just makes us feel sorry for ourselves, and makes others rude towards us. This is not acceptable nor is it a good idea to get out of place when your life is out of line.
What to do? Pray the third step prayer and go through the day and someone will realize that you are having a difficult time, if not , talk to an AA member about your situation and how its just eating at you and your sobriety. This always seems to help. Then think about the obsession and what it means to stay sober even through the rough of times. Prayer goes a long way but action has to take place also. So putting a plan of action and doing the unpleasant task that you may have to do, regardless of the outcome, it will usually be positive, when you think negative about the rough times you may be going through.

Believe me, I have had rough times and still going through them, day by day. I just try to not think about them and keep pushing onward , and forward thinking is good. Do not think about the past as it is gone, nor of the future, think of today what you can do to get thee negative feelings out of your system.Put a smile on your face this morning and go forward toward the day, you are alive an the only thing you crave is oxygen and there is plenty of this, thanks to God. So we have what we need , just maybe not what we want right now. But persistence will prevail if you work on this within yourself and with working with others. God Bless..

Social Sobriety and what AA is Not!

AA is a word for alcoholics anonymous, which is  a group of people from all walks of life. There are homeless, lawyers, executives, fast food workers,and everyday people. They come to AA to learn how to live life sober. Most are sober when they come, but there are times when one is not sober and they are welcome to come in as well. Our mission is not of a cult  or religious one. We strive to help the other alcoholic who still surfers from the disease of alcoholism. Yes, it is a disease that some people with a chemical makeup cannot control , even the first drink. They continue drinking until they pass out or black out. That is the extreme , there are also people that just cannot control thier drinking and need help , moral help in stopping. This is what AA is. A place to stop and get your senses straight just for one hour at a time. The goal is to treat the drinking alcoholic for 24 hours of sobriety if they come into a meeting and really want the help.
However , one must ask for help. Without asking, you will go un-noticed and possibly be passed by the crowd in AA. There is nothing like making a fool of your self in AA. Some of us have come to AA meetings just after having drank alcohol, and sat through meetings and then were directed as to what we could do to stay sober for 24 hours, and some are refered to treatment centers , and there is money in some groups that will help with your expenses to get this help.

So AA is a caring group of spiritual people that each speak and discuss thier week or life and try to find some type of relief. Come in and join us, even if you are curious. We will not ask anything from you , and you do not even have to talk. Just come to listen to former alcoholics to seee if maybe you are one..Have a great Day!!Chris

PS. La Hacienda will have Chris Raymer speaking this May in Hunt, County in Kerrville, Texas for their alumni meeting..Please come to listen to this man. He is pasionate about what he speaks and very good at what he says!!

How To Be a Sponsor in Social Sobeirty

In AA there are people with lengths of sobriety, it could be 6 months or longer , and if you work the steps you should of gotten to twelve on the list. Now I say you should of, meaning that you thoroughly worked each and every step and have a concept of the program and how sponsoring works . You should have a sponsor already also before sponsoring, but these are not rules, just suggestions.
What does a sponsor do? They are a person that you can call on during the day and night when you have problems or just feel uneasy with a living situation. They are not your last answe, they will give answers that are AA driven , and for your sobriety. Most sponsors turn into lifelong friends, but there are a few new comers out there, that abuse the policy. A good sponsor will sit down and go over the Big Book with you and help you understand what you son't understand in the books of AA. If they don't have the answer, they will find it. They are not saints or anyone that is higher up in a AA group. These sponsors are friends of the program wiling to help others to stay sober. Like the buddy system.
They are helpers in living life to its fullest for the person that might need help puling away from a liquor store and telling their them to throw the drink out. These are rare things that happen but they do happen.They do not lend money or provide shelter but they might have ideas as to where one can go if the alcoholic is homeless.
In sponsoring you can run across a group of real interesting good and bad people. I have met both in sponsoring and have let go of two of them because they were whiners and did not want help. They wanted answers to things I had no idea about. They wanted money, and when one comes into AA sometimes there is no money in your pocket and it is ok to help someone with cash, but you have to put a stop on this. Anyway , if your a sponsor you are working the program as it is written and it does help one to do this activity. I highly suggest you sponsor someone that needs this. Have a nice day!