Month: August 2007

So much has happened since I last blogged…This is the list.

1. I have officially changed homegroups. I loved my previous group, but the new group is made up of people that I see on a regular basis and with whom I interact socially at least three days a week. Plus, they asked me to become the GSR for the group, which is a good move in the service world for me.

2. I have let a sponsee go. He just wasn’t taking any of the suggestions giving. He was also dishonest and defensively secretive about his prescription drug use. Whether it was prescription pain killers, Coladapin, or other SSRI meds, he was unwilling to talk about them and also unwilling to investigate alternative, non-pharmaceutical methods to ease pain. In short he is afraid of losing his ba-ba.

3. Maintenance work on my house has been progressing smoothly. This is a long time in coming and the place needs it. Right now the roof is being repaired. Next up, some sill work, replacing some rotting wood. Next, a re-vamping of the curtain drains. After that, some sealing in the basement so the old fieldstone foundation ceases its weeping when it rains. Then some stonewall re-building. If I can have this all done by fall 2008, we will be in good shape.

4. School is beginning soon and although I have completed all the reading already, I am eager and nervous. My PowerPoint slide show on digital photography is progressing smoothly and I have set a completion date for mid-September.

5. Today is my former sponsors AA anniversary. I will be attending the event at my old (old-er) homegroup across the border in Massachusetts. I haven’t been to a noon meeting in many months and I haven’t spoken to him since we parted ways over a year ago. I am very nervous and humbled by the thought of this encounter. Prayer will pave the way and give me strength.

6. I am still the coffee maker at my other ‘homegroup’ and will scoot out around 5PM today and go to Connecticut and make the stuff, set up, etc…Then scoot back across the border to NY and attend yet another celebration at my ‘new’ homegroup.

It’s a busy day for Johnnyboy, and a busy and fulfilling sobriety that allows me to be in several places within this 24 hours.

Johnnyboy

Sorry for not blogging in a while. I have been distracted by computer games, school reading, non-threatening family issues and just being lazy.

I have, on the other hand, moved my feet and found myself a volunteer job in Bosnia next summer. By “volunteer” I mean just that: No pay, and I have to find my own lodging, but the spiritual rewards will more than compensate, as they always do. I will be working for a group called the St. Mathew’s Relief Project which is run by an AA friend in the pilgrimage town of Medugorje (Medge-oo-gore-yay), Bosnia-Herzegovina. I will be in charge of the two AA meetings that they have, thus giving my friend a break for a month and also accompany her on her relief work rounds. She is trying to facilitate connections between social workers and the families that need them to allow medical care to be distributed fairly. She is also involved with a project in Great Britain that donates prosthetic limbs to children in Bosnia. Bosnia is the most heavily mined country in the world, mostly anti-personnel mines. Although de-mining has been proceeding since the end of the war in the 1990s, most are discovered through the innocent wanderings and playing of children resulting in horrible and predictable results. I will be there from the end of May until the end of June 2008, god willing.

Mom is older, and the heat does her no good. I have been keeping her at home and running any errands that need running as well as outdoor household tasks. I feel like a parent sometimes, and truly understand the concept that being a parent is a full-time job. Like the above aid scenario, the payoff far exceeds the task.

That’s it for now. We’ll see what the next few days bring…

Johnnyboy