My toilet ran. The last time I tried to change the guts on the toilet I stripped a nut and had to call a plumber. My solution this time was to turn the water off…until this week. I bought a kit, drained the tank water, swapped the flappers, and fixed it. It took 4 minutes and most of that time was the water refilling. I put this off for months.

Can I attribute that fix to sobriety? Perhaps the brain is clearer and solves problems better without the influence of alcohol. I also noticed I tend to have shorter term interest in more activities. I’ll read for 10 minutes. Do Babbel for a few lessons. Watch 15 minutes of the movie Breaking. Watch Eric Hansen play Titled Tuesday. Watch Photoshop text effects in a burst. Nothing for long periods of time but trying to soak in bits and pieces in the short allotted time I have on this Earth. I can say with confidence that this is the longest sober streak I’ve had in 4 years since I’ve been tracking.

You still do stupid stuff. 2 days ago I went to my car and walked left when the car was right. My chess rating is down 50 points so that wasn’t a miracle cure. I typed in a street address as Crossword instead of Cross St on a sales order. I couldn’t think of a homonym for queue having the letters C_E during the mini crossword. I left my keys in my car while exiting the vehicle. These are only a few that I was hoping sobriety fixed.

Fixing the toilet was one odd act and I did write a blog post at 6:30am yesterday which I can count on one hand that amount of times that’s happened. This one is also being written at 6:42. It’s quite pleasing to wake up in the morning feeling sharp with no grogginess. Another plus is not waking up at 4am to take a piss. My daily ability is also consistent which helps out as there is little anxiety behind decision making. I booked a 3 country Eurotrip in 2 weeks which was relatively spontaneous. Can I take the sobriety into the trip? I doubt it but maybe there will be some lasting effects from this little run.

I noticed I tend to ask the bigger questions in life like why does it have a check box with “do not ask to be signed in again,” I tick it off, and then it asks me again. Also, why did I trust Dave with his MMA pick? The best part about it was I was going to bet on it again because I thought I could watch it at 10 pm and fortunately the fighter had already lost. I exercised 6 out of the 9 days, taking the last 2 off for no reason other than hitting some golf balls and I was tired, which isn’t unusual except there’s no guilt behind resting because it’s not like I was poisoning my body with alcohol that I had to sweat out.

I don’t know what the future is going to be without alcohol because the fact of the matter is that I am relatively successful drinking alcohol. This type of life has its advantages but it has an excitement line the noise a dead person makes. That’s not to say that alcohol brings the excitement, but it can lead to places that you wouldn’t otherwise be which is the novel aspect. All in all, it’s nice to detox the body and I think good events will continue to happen. The 100-1 Nick Bachem hit was a reward last week for starting it and this week the 110-1 Yin Ruoning will take it down to stamp that I’ll never drink again.