Strike One
2007-11-02, 3:32 p.m.

Day 1167

First, lets cover bowling last night. There were strikes there � lots of them. I got lined up early, beat the crap out of the pins for the first game (233), struggled a bit the second game but kept picking spares (186) then found enough of a line to throw the third game for a nice little recovery (209) Totaled 628 for the night, 91 pins over average. At this point in the season, that�ll raise my average 3 pins or so. Finally getting back into the range of respectability. Still haven�t remembered to take my camera along so I can get a video of a shot or three.

It was a position round last night. That�s where teams are paired off according to where they are in the standings, so first place bowls second, third bowls fourth, etc. We were in 5th place (still!!) and took 6 of 8 from the 6th place guys. Unfortunately, none of us was paying attention to how things were going on the next pair of lanes over, so we have no idea how the 3 v. 4 match turned out. S�pose it doesn�t matter much, we�ll find out next week. Plus, it�s not like we�re bowling for thousands of dollars. This is a fun league that happens to have a bunch of very high quality bowlers in it. I really don�t know what I�m doing there. My only claim to fame? If there were some formula combining ball velocity with average, I�d come out on top I think. At least in this league.

Now to the real strike one. Seems that my time away at bowling (I don�t get home till 7pm or so) was just too tempting. Cindy gets home around 4 � 4:30 and had a minimum of two hours to wreak a little havoc. After bowling, I called home to confirm that she�d called in our dinner order to Applebee�s (LOVE that car side to go service). I could tell from the phone conversation she�d been into her cups. She�d slipped back to �drunklish� (� Eric) and it was plainly audible over the phone.

I was disappointed. Picked up dinner, got it home, made lame small talk and sort of psychologically withdrew for the evening. Didn�t call her on it then & there because I didn�t want to offer the opportunity to deny anything. Instead, I waited till our normal morning email exchange where we hammer out dinner plans. I simply asked her if she was planning on attending her �meeting� tonight, considering how she was last night.

Her reply was quick, brief, apologetic and she even claimed to have not liked how she felt. Yeah. I�m not going to get all wrapped around the axle over one slip like this. Even a second or third (or fourth?) is tolerable. I just don�t want to see her slide back into the kind of condition she was in this past summer � totally plowed 5 nights a week and a miserable bitch the other 2 nights. If that person reappears, someone will be moving into the east wing. The qualifier �again� will not be necessary, because it won�t be me that�s relocating. I will not, however, use it as an excuse to rekindle things with Ms CL. Just don�t need that temptation again.

Design review this morning went smoothly. In & out in under 30 minutes. We were only checking to make sure we weren�t leaving any loose ends, so it was no big deal. But I like to fret about the little tiny details anyhow, so I still get all anxious & excited about these things.

Tonight Cindy and I will chat about her little deviation last night. It IS a big deal, but like I said earlier, I don�t want to blow it up out of proportion. I�m not threatening to leave over one little incident (or 2 or even 4). But there has to be some limit. I still don�t know what it is. I guess it comes down to my finally trusting her to not drink. Obviously, I�m not there yet. Do I think she must maintain complete abstinence? Eventually, yup.

To me, the addiction to alcohol is no different than the addiction to nicotine. (Only exception is that after sufficient exposure, nicotine is addictive to everyone, alcohol seems to pick & choose its victims). Every time you partake of your poison of choice, you reset the little counter in your head that counts down the extent of your addiction. The counter NEVER gets to zero, but the longer you go, the less your addiction is until at some point you no longer even notice the urges � or they are so feeble you have no trouble resisting. Every slip sets you back to square one. That�s one of the things keeping me from ever returning to smoking � the knowledge that even one single puff of a cigarette will undo the last 38 months of progress. To me, that is a very scary thought.

Pardon me while I climb down from my soapbox.

Also joined that NaBloPoMo thing again. This will make entry number 2. Only 28 more to go.

Supposed to be semi-decent weather here this weekend. Well, 55 & sunny. That�s nice for here in November. Anyhow � maybe a bike ride day. Could be the last outdoor one of the year, unless I score some cold weather riding gear. Hmmmm. Think it�s on clearance yet?

Better run. New project to work on. This one is a quickie, but could be fun.

Later folks.

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