Dry January

I had known that quitting drinking was a relatively common thing to do as a New Year Resolution, but I always thought peole just fell off the wagon at different times. Having never heard of this limited liability engagement, or temporary quitting, it really created a mind storm when I heard. There may be a girlfriend or two that I should have given up for a month, to see how our relationship would age, but I was too young, just inexperienced enough, or maybe just ddin't care to, to know. I have never been a daily drinker, not even while at college. Since alcohol was never my favorite reason to get together, hang out or something to focus a lot of attention on, whether it was there or not never seemed to bother me. Since I did know that some of my friends did like it more than I, being sure to have drinks for parties was always part of planning, but certainly not the main objective. For instance, when we hosted our 1984 Party, which, of course, was in 1984, we recreated the opening scene from the book for each of our guests in turn and making sure we had enough Victory Gin and Victory Cigarettes for everyone was a top priority.That wasn't as much about the alcohol as the story. If a friend would take charge and bill it as a magerita party, or a daquiri party,of course, it made booze shopping easier, but beyond making sure the booze matched the theme, it was mostly just background. My friends and hand-chosen family as well as our relationships were far more important to me.

This brings me to my reqalization this year. First, I have always disliked the end of year push that most not-for-profit groups do just before New Years. Double matching and triple matching donations, trying to get people to commit before the end of the tax year. It always feels like that sort of pressure being exacted during the holidaze is a bit, how can I say it, car salesman-ish. this year, because I found out about this interesting thing, Dry January, what if it could be used as a force for good? Here's a simple thought experiment. What if, the thousand or more friends that I have met and loved, shared and cried with over the years were to take the Dry January events to heart. What if, they donated whatever money they would save over that month to the land purchase? How much would that be? Well, I'm not really in that close contact with my friends, because of covid-19 and all, so to think I have any idea how much they are drinking would just be silly. however, I have heard that alcohol sales generally increased greatly because of the pandemic. Let's just say, with me maybe having a few glasses of wine per week, or a few mixed drinks, I've probably got a budget of about ten dollars a week in drinks. At the end of a four-point two-five week month would have an extra $42.50 from my estimated booze budget to spend or share at my discretion. I used to drink a case a week of Huber Bock. Today that would cost $22 per week so when I was drinking the most, a month's worth of Huber Bock would have cost, in today's market, about ninety-three dollars and fifty cents. That would be a huge help toward building our outdoor school! If you are considering, or better yet, if you have pledged to do a dry January, please consider contributing what yo0u save on alcohol this month to our land purchase. It isn't often that our choices can directly change the world around us and it is even more likely that you will follow through on the pledge if you can see the results and actual benefits that come from your sacrifice. Please, let me know if you are interested, if yo uhave your own good Dry January stories or if yo uhave any idea how I could have not known about this apparently common thing for more than fifty years. also, please don't say because I grew up around too many alcoholics, who never even considered giving up drink fo rany length of time, much less an entire month! I already knew that! to prepare myself for writing this, I even said the little mnemonic device to figure out if January is one of the "long months" which it turns out, it is! If you have decided to stop drinking for the month, I appreciate that and wish you the very best in your absinance. If you do indeed save money by not drinking, let me re-post the link to our gofundme page, you could be part of saving 80 aces for our outdoor school! https://gofund.me/52fa3b77 If you are suspicious about links, check out the go fund me site and search my name, Tony C. Saladino My first update includes the Powerpoint slide show that I use to teach th eclassroom portion of my biochar classes and anyone who contributes at least fifty I offer to spend up to two hours explaining any of the materials or helping to translate the class into a useable form. May abundance find you during the New Year, wherever your path may lead!