Day [(three years) - (12 days)] = A Thursday

The diuretic is finally pulling all the fluid off Spouse so he is becoming mobile again and he’s doing even better than before he went into the hospital. This gives me such gratitude and hope.

But that’s not why I’m posting. I’m posting today to share two great things about long term sobriety: never having to worry about driving and being able to tolerate sleep changes. Exemplars:

Last night around 8:15 we realized “oh hell we are completely OUT of dog treats.”  In a house with three beagles this is a situation which simply can’t last. Spouse still isn’t well enough to drive and it was the last day of finals so Middle and Youngest has shared a six-pack...but hey, no problem for ME to say “as soon as my show is over I’ll go out” then do exactly that. At 9 pm. Felt really good walking to the car, too.

This morning in the wee small hour of just past four, one of the dogs wanted to go out. In retrospect this isn’t surprising because I fell asleep hard around 10:30 so didn’t walk them at 11 like I usually do. So I walked them and went back to bed, no big deal. Back in my drinking days that would have been a HUGE calamity. I can just imagine the mental chatter “I was up puking at two and trying to drink water at three and now I gotta deal with dogs at four how COULD they?!?” and on and on and of course it would “ruin” the whole day and be part of that night’s reason for fresh alcohol....sigh.

This way is SO much better. Easier. SO much _easier_. And happier. The joy didn’t really start being super-apparent and feeding on itself till around the 8 or 9 month mark which was a lot longer than I expected but it -does- happen so keep coming back.