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splitter
Trad climber
SoCal Hodad, surfing the galactic plane
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Jul 14, 2013 - 12:10am PT
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i drank about a quart of vodka a day, for months on end, and never puked. just made damn sure i had enough left in the bottle (couple fingers worth) each morning to guzzle before i got out of bed. then i was good to go. that's an alcoholic, for ya. luckily i came to my senses. but i was a shitty poet. maybe it was a gud thing that i was, eh? otherwise, mighta' ended up fearing and loathing something, somewhere, or wudevah.
edit: Butch Van Artsdalen died at 37. he drank around a quart of vodka a day. he was one of my surf heroes when i was growing up. he was from La Jolla, first guy to surf the banzai pipeline. i use to think about him a lot when i was on the same road when i was around 32. yer liver only can take so much abuse.
edit: sorry about the thread drift Norweegian!
treez - JM was 39. happy that yer still around, treez. i did enjoy that lifestyle while it lasted, though. i was fully functioning, also. worked 8-5 and drank coffee vodka all day long. my carpool buddies told me they didn't want me driving, the one day a week that i was after one point. let me still ride wth them, though. i thought i had everyone fooled, until they popped that on me. lol!
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jgill
Boulder climber
Colorado
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Jul 14, 2013 - 12:33am PT
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Whillans died in his early 50s. Joe Brown is alive today in his 80s.
But it's your call.
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monolith
climber
SF bay area
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Jul 14, 2013 - 01:00am PT
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Molina(the musician) was 39 when he died.
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Stewart Johnson
climber
lake forest
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Jul 14, 2013 - 10:21am PT
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When you're partners not drinking alchohol why are you?
Trying to bring the team down?
You've got to earn the right to party,after the climb!
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Deekaid
climber
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Jul 14, 2013 - 10:44am PT
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when i stopped drinking i found out i couldn't stand being around drunks...probably embarrassed that i used to act like that. just observation not judgment
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Ed Hartouni
Trad climber
Livermore, CA
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Jul 15, 2013 - 10:57am PT
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Partners get to choose too whether or not to climb with someone.
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Studly
Trad climber
WA
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Jul 15, 2013 - 11:00am PT
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Damn Weege, I found that being cramped up in a bottle really limited what I could do and what I could see. Man up and break that f*#king bottle and live life like it was intended!
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Deekaid
climber
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Jul 15, 2013 - 11:12am PT
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I have found that the "man up" thing rarely works as a motivator
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TWP
Trad climber
Mancos, CO
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Jul 15, 2013 - 11:26am PT
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Norwegian:
Let me tell you a story about a man named Peter Grajarena. The name means nothing but I use his real name because this story is true, that's his real name and his story could be that of countless other alcoholics ad nauseum, generation after generation. Someday the same story will be retold and the man's ST name will have been "The Norwegian."
Peter was a casual friend of mine. I really like him. I dropped by to visit him at his house many times and we talked, laughed, shot the sh#t. I helped him with his computer and a few simple legal problems.
Peter was an artist. His painting were abstract and magnificent. They had dreamy abstract names. He could write about his painting in the same style as those high fallutin, coffee table, giant-sized art books that cost tons of money.
I am an art slob. I looked at his many painting an finally decided they all looked similar and depicted the same scene. My crystallization was that his painting were "Sunset through dirty window looking over the Hudson." Each could re-use the same title with appendix of a Roman number, I, II, III, IV, etc.
Like I said, they were real, serious art and he sold them for lots of money in fancy galleries.
This story is taking too long for an forum post, so I'll cut to the ugly ending.
Did I mention Peter was a drinker who never attended an AA meeting in his life?
In his last two years, Peter went into physical decline and had knee replacement surgery. To medicate the pain, he supplemented with lots of alcohol. Drunk, he fell, tore up the knee joint attachments and needed a redo. More convalescence, more pain, more alcohol.
Eventually, Peter had completely stopped painting, he paid expenses by refinancing his home several time (during the days of easy credit), let other heavy drinkers move in with him, and undertook marathon drinking as his sole avocation with his live-in drinking buddies. He cut off all his former friends and all efforts at intervention.
When he was found dead in his home, his former best friend through whom I had meet Peter, told me what he found. A receipt for purchase of a .38 caliber handgun, a box of bullets, and said items, purchased just two weeks prior. Peter had decided to end it one way or the other. He never needed the gun.
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Norwegian
Trad climber
dancin on the tip of god's middle finger
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Topic Author's Reply - Jul 15, 2013 - 11:28am PT
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i just occassionally enjoy a slight
tilt of otherwise placidly flat horizons.
i offset my periodic absence with nearly constant presence.
i get drunk and buy 400 dollars worth of citrus cleaning agent,
but then earn 5k the following week.
my girls might see me tip some cants, or cans into my head once in a while,
but they also see me volunteering at their school,
giving up climbing days to generate revenue,
loving and caring for their mother,
and countless other acts of solid poise and philanthropy.
paul tells me:
80 percent good, 20 percent other.
that's what i aim for.
and by all indications, i am exceeding and excelling at the good,
and pretty much neglecting myself (which happens to be, "other" in
my family's dynamic)
all you dads can attest.
paul told me i got old school in me.
that compliment sits in living room of my heart,
and does it's daily yoga as the sun shines through the north window.
and i'll just go on living out
my understanding, in all of its beautiful chaos.
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Norwegian
Trad climber
dancin on the tip of god's middle finger
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Topic Author's Reply - Jul 15, 2013 - 11:35am PT
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twp our simul posts shared
the window theme.
i'll have to consider that for a while,
chewing on the sinewy synergy.
im sorry to hear about your friend,
but maybe that was the life he felt
he was assigned.
for some folks,
time-lines are not linear.
relativity states that time is not constant,
though it only fluctuates a slight as measured via a nuclear clock.
our biology is electric
and clock-like.
but our psychology is made of butterfly tears,
which defy scientific summary.
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bixquite
Social climber
humboldt nation
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Jul 15, 2013 - 11:44am PT
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well spoken Brother,
tell me all that you know I'll show you snow and rain
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Stewart Johnson
climber
lake forest
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Jul 15, 2013 - 11:47am PT
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How about a simple rule for yer self :
No booze until 5 pm ,and no booze after dark
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Hawkeye
climber
State of Mine
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Jul 15, 2013 - 11:56am PT
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and i'll never stop drinking.
you are gifted norge, a hard worker and a great father.
but you are also a complete fool.
when you have lost everything, then, you will have learned what a fool you are.
i dont mean this as insulting. i dont know you except from what you post for the world to see and judge.
and yes, you are a fool. not true to yourself, and there is no way you can be true to your family.
fool.
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happiegrrrl
Trad climber
www.climbaddictdesigns.com
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Jul 15, 2013 - 12:07pm PT
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Norwegian - you tell us a fictionalized tale, but apparently leaves out that detail intentionally.
Why did you do that?
You most likely did expect people would respond to what you actually posted, since there would be no way to know it is half or more made up.
At any rate - whatever....
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Norwegian
Trad climber
dancin on the tip of god's middle finger
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Topic Author's Reply - Jul 15, 2013 - 12:12pm PT
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happi,
never let the truth get in the way of a good story.
wow hawkeye, harsh assessment of me.
i'll consider your brutal honesty.
im part time hero and part time fool.
not full-time anything.
its fine, balance is challenging
and thus ever attractive to me.
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Hawkeye
climber
State of Mine
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Jul 15, 2013 - 12:18pm PT
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norge, not a harsh judgement. did you see the gifted part? hard working part?
its ok, alcoholics are fools. the alcohol fools them into thinking they are not. it is not an insulting term. it sems like mroe than half your stories on here are drinking and the damage it is causing you and your family. even a fool like me can see it coming.
how is the marriage counseling coming along? how about you try stop drinking for 90 days just to see what happens.
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Norwegian
Trad climber
dancin on the tip of god's middle finger
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Topic Author's Reply - Jul 15, 2013 - 12:50pm PT
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hawkeye the councelling is going well,
thanks for asking.
i've schooled the councellor with my story;
even my truths are absurd.
i see her struggling with me,
because she is trained to put me in a diagnostic box,
but i don't right fit in there.
my wife and i have cut it back to (1) session
every other week, and we kinda laugh now and then,
which seems good.
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happiegrrrl
Trad climber
www.climbaddictdesigns.com
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Jul 15, 2013 - 01:14pm PT
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Norwegian - I understand the spin on Mark Twain's "never let the facts" quote, but generally people tend to inform their readers if the work is fiction, embellished slightly or an accurate accounting.
Not that it would probably be a big deal if people came up to this Paul Crawford dude and went on about how they read he had been puked on, but... why should he have to wonder what the hell they are talking about, or have to explain that it didn't happen and that apparently you were just story-telling?
I can see how you often use similes, metaphors and other mechanisms in your writing, but I think it can be problematic to present a piece as being a factual account when it isn't.
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TWP
Trad climber
Mancos, CO
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Jul 15, 2013 - 08:12pm PT
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Norwegian:
I will include this when I will post to your obituary on Supertopo.
"twp our simul posts shared
the window theme.
i'll have to consider that for a while,
chewing on the sinewy synergy."
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