Bashley and Friends

[Bashley]

Hello Everyone!
Hope this finds you all in fine fettle.

I grew tired of Drunken Astronauts - rumour has it that an ice cube flew out of one of their pre-flight cocktails and punctured the Shuttle's skin on the last mission. :H

Anyway, Monday 13th August and have been to my doctor who has pronounced me fit to go back to work after being dry and convulsion free since June 3rd. As some of you know this was after 2 weeks in intensive care and a stay in rehab.

I came out looking for some kind of group to meet with, preferably English speaking and removed from A.A. which does not suit me. By complete accident whilst reading The New York Times webpage, found MWO and some great people to share time, troubles,victories,downfalls and the ever important humour that cheers us all up through thick and thin. Thanks to you all for your candid posts and some private communications which I know come from the heart.

Please keep them coming. I feel as if we are in a darkened room, where although nobody actually physically knows one another, there is never the less a common bond which spans our planet and links this large group of self confessed alcoholics together.

Promises made, are about to be kept ....
Stand by for " Mississipi Hogwash" in the next post.

BFN
Bashley
:beach:

[Guest]

Bashley and Friends

Bashley,
Pleased to hear you`re now well enough to return to work.
Your story inspires me........am only 16 days AF, and I do feel that my initial withdrawal was dreadful, but I have not gone through all that you have in order to get sober.........I raise my hat to you on that.

I can relate to your darkened room analogy, as I have felt the need to keep my involvement with this site private from my family..........only last week I had my mother say to me: "You`re not an alcoholic"..........ughhh!!..........I give up!!........obviously the idea of her daughter being an alcoholic embarrasses her.

Nomatter, as like you say, we can all come here and find people, very much like ourselves, who truly understand. Where the hell else could we find such non-judgemental support?

M.W.O. is my life-line, my saving grace.........the only place where I can talk honestly about my affliction without fear of recrimination.........society just doesn`t "get it", as it still holds (not so!!! )dear the image of the "dosser" as the typical alcoholic, whereas in truth, alcoholics come from all walks of life.

I wish you continued success, Bashley.

Much love,

Starlight Impress x

[diamond]

Bashley and Friends

Nice to hear from you again, I wondered if you were ok?

So good news for you now, I am pleased for you. Keep posting 'cos you are inspiring a lot of people here..
Regards
Diamond

[beatle]

Bashley and Friends

Bashley, I want to ask you some questions about your convulsions and your peanut & coke trick. Is it better I PM you, or do you think that is something that would be good to share openly? Also, are you willing to share at all-- with one or many?

Anyway, you must explain Mississippi Hogwash since you brought it up. I haven't a clue what it means. A teaser?

[magic]

Bashley and Friends

Well

we are waiting.........

m. xx oke:

[beatle]

Bashley and Friends

oh hi magic, there you are. thought you were on holiday.

Well, you have some experience with convulsions/seizures-- can you give us some enlightenment?

Precisely-- how does it happen and do you know ahead of time? Oh, and no need to say anything if you don't want to of course. (sorry this is just an obsession of mine).

And, by the way-- it does not have anything to do with tuna juice, I hope?

[magic]

Bashley and Friends

Hi Beatle

No, holidays next week.

Convulsions are not fun, can be lethal in fact. No you do not usually have any forewarning.

I broke my foot. Took months to heal. Kept right on drinking.

InteliHealth:

Click on tonic-clonic (grand-mal)seizures

Nothing at all to do with tuna juice, that I am sure of.

I will say that EMT was very cute but makes me weep that my 12 year old had to call him.

How are you beatle?

Star, perhaps she is more saddened than embarrased. Well, saddened might not be the right word but the "dopa" is catching up on me just now. I think she probably loves you anyway.

I like the dark room too...beatle and I don't have to comb our hair.

I'm still waiting.

m. xx :boxer:

[Bashley]

Bashley and Friends

Mississippi Hogwash ( A "Shaggy Dog" Story)

[COLOR=Navy]About 25 years ago, to escape the cold dampness of drilling the English North Sea and the Inland Revenue Service I took a job working the oilfields in the Gulf of Mexico.
Way before that, back in the early Sixties, my dear Father had been seconded by his oil company in Venezuela to study shell and board-road construction, swamp transportation and various other mysterious forms of transportation known only to the folks living in the states of Louisiana & Mississippi. Dad had friends in the small town of Forest, M.S. and so that's where the family moved to, on a temporary basis and my sister and I attended the only school in town.
Suffice to say that while my father was engineering around with the Cajuns and the Stump Jumpers, we had a terrific time trying to fit in to our new surroundings and learned a helluva lot about hunting, raising chickens, hogs and how to light fires easily with Lighter Stump (dead pine, which dies in a very secret fashion; highly prized by those that know).
Having lived & worked down the bayous, I decided to move to the Mississippi Gulf Coast where I could indulge in my love of the sea and still commute to jobs all over the South. Ocean Springs was a nice little town with a lot more going for it than the drive-in Daquiri Huts and honkey tonks which littered the countryside South of Interstate 10, Louisiana; the state where I really learned how to drink heavily. There was the added attraction of feeling at home after all those years away.
Spent a couple of years of living right on the beach and boating every chance I could, married for the 2nd time to a Coonass lady who was as wild as they come-drugs, booze you name it. Do I pick 'em or what? Mind you I was pretty wild myself at teh time!
One day in late Spring, having just bought the most beautiful, jet-black, convertible, 1965 289 Shelby Tiger Cobra from a lawyer friend of mine whose son was about to kill himself tooling around Jackson in this racing classic, we went for a high speed shakedown run up the back roads off Highway 57 to Mobile, Alabama for lunch.
After a delicious lunch and fine wines we set off again for Vancleave, M.S. again on the back roads. It felt so wonderful with the wind tearing at our hair, sun on the faces and the howl of the fully race tuned V-8 blasting down the highway between the lush green trees that we nearly missed the small, handpainted sign, " 22 ACRES: FOR SALE BY OWNER"
We turned around and drove down a short, unpaved road with nice country residences on either side and through some rickety gates and there it was. What I had been dreaming about my whole life. The land had 2 lakes, rolling, grassy meadows, oak woods and wonderful mature trees everywhere. I had to own it.
As soon as we got home I called the number to find that the land was part of an estate split up due to the death of the owner. The family snached at my counter offer and by 10:00 am the next day, yours truly was the proud owner of some prime Mississippi real estate.
The first thing I did was drive out there by myself in the Tiger and sat dreaming, listening to the sound of the breeze in the grass and the ticking of the hot exhausts cooling in the morning air. Marvelous I thought, but the first thing I need, is to talk to somebody about the long, un-cut grass. Not having any money left to buy cows or horses, I set off for Vancleave, 5 minutes away and pulled up in front of Ware's Feed Store.
You now have to imagine way South Mississipi and (a) this is a total stranger (b) he's English & (c) he ain't drivin' no Chevy pickup truck with a Confederate flag and a rifle rack in the back!
There were 2 wrinkled old worthies sitting on a swing seat with red peppers growing in pots on either side of them and the doorway to the store. They were both chewing tobacco and one was whittling a stick. (Passes time in those parts). The look on their faces was an absolute study when when I turned to answer the rather large gentleman in bib overalls and a full sized deaf-aid in each ear who said " Can I he'p yu son?"
" Yes," I said in a perfect English public school accent, " I've just bought the old place up the road and I've got a bit of a grass problem."
Both worthies stopped chewing and whittling at the same time and Brother Ware, obviously the owner, took a look at me and then the Tiger and replied in a full Southern drawl, " Is that a fact. What kaind'a graas you got? The righthand kaind o' de lefthan' kaind?"
Not knowing to what he was reffering I replied, "Truly Sir, it's just normal grass from last years growth, about 20 acres worth."
"Well", he said "what you need is a bushhawg" all mumbled together.
"Bushhog" I said to myself. Hadn't thought of pigs as being great herbivores. So in my total innocence I dropped the biggest clanger to hit Vancleave in years.
"Scuse me Sir, but how many bush hogs would I need to keep that much grass down?"
It started as a stifled snicker, followed by uncontrolled giggling between the three of them and then they just broke down laughing to my increasing embarassment.
When they had some sort of control of themselves, Brother Ware led me round the back of his store to where a tractor stood with this big round, red gadget on the back hooked up to the power takeoff. "BUSH HOG" it said in big letters. Bloody great big mower by another name!
After sometime, I built my horse ranch up there on the land and made regular visits to Ware's Store for feed. The 3 Worthies could never resist calling out "Hey Brother Bash! Howz them Bush Hawgs doin' up on your place?!" and dying with laughter at the thought of 200 or so grass eating pigs and an Englishman being so stupid to even think of entertaining the idea!

The End
BFN
Bashley/COLOR]

[magic]

Bashley and Friends

LOL

:H How red were ya Brother Bash? .......:eeks:

For a moment I thought there was going to be acres of swamp under all that grass.

I think you should write us a story every night, with a new thread, it could be either a bedtime story or a morning coffee tale.

Instead of Brothers Grimm it would be Brother Bash.

Loved it Bash, thanks.

m. xx

[diamond]

Bashley and Friends

Love it, real life, you can't beat it.

Thanks Bashley,

Diamond

[Bashley]

Bashley and Friends

Magic Diamond Beatle - A new Rock Band??

I'm glad you liked it!

Will write more when I can get this rick out of my neck from puterizing so long last night!
Next one ? " The African Armpit". That continent was the breeding ground for many of my amusing true short stories. The general population are so recently emerged(historically speaking) from age-old tribal existence, that their innocence at times is beguiling to the point of being farcical to the Western mind.

Thanks; once again to Magic, for relieving me of the need to answer a ponderous question. The website she mentioned is perfect and is now in "My Favourites" as a point of reference not only on siezures but as a computer contained mini-clinic from A-Z.
Go there Beatle and learn like I did. That's the thing about siezures, the sufferer doesn't have any recall of what happened.

All 3 times I have collapsed were exactley as they describe. I had chewed on my tongue which hurts like hell afterwards; gone absolutely rigid and woke up disorientated, sore and with no recall whatsoever except what I was doing before and where I was afterwards. Only people close by could relate what had happened to me. For this reason, it's easy to pooh-pooh the doctors when they diagnose that the siezures were caused by alcoholic abstinence.

The body and mind is craving our poison. One is already in a poor physical state after a bout of heavy drinking. The shakes are really bad and I have to admit I had hallucinations of Boogey Men and tiny leopards dancing around the living room in Trinidad before my last collapse. Even recieved a call from my 84 year old mother in England during the Boogeyman clip and she attests (after my re-hab) to me shouting at this vision to go away and leave me alone. That was after 14 days straight, starvation diet and at least 1 1/2 bottles of Punchin Rum 80 proof along with bottles of Smirnoff Ice every single day - starting with a Rum coffee on waking.

Yup this bloody monkey had me and prbably still does if I fall down just once. There's no such thing as controlled drinking for an alcoholic. The mind is controlled by the damned stuff and the body craves what the mind wants.

Nuff said on that subject - my 2 :cents .worth.

BFN
Bashley :byebye:

[Hannah]

Bashley and Friends

Bashley, would love to read your little story, but the printing is way too small for my horrible eyesight. Could you repost it in larger type?:thanks:

[beatle]

Bashley and Friends

re: seizures:

I had one once, but I felt it coming, I mean I knew something was very wrong for at least 30 secs to a minute before it happened. But I had no idea what it was. I read that many people have "auras" before they get a seizure, something weird with sound, sight or feeling, that will often repeat itself whenever (if ever) the person has another seizure. Did any of you have that?

Also read that seizures can happen up to a week after going abs. Mine was 3 days after.

Looking forward to the Africa stories, Bashley.

[Bashley]

Bashley and Friends

Hannah: not sure if I can edit it but will try.

Hell, for a smoker anything apart from a Marboro Light, smell funny!:H But yes I did feel wierd putting them down to hangovers and the shakes from withdrawal, beatle. Were you alone when yours happened?

Bash

[Bashley]

Bashley and Friends

Hannah
Try reading it now!
Regards
B