Booze and Driving

An Ohio Supeme Court justice faces drunk driving charges and, based on all accounts, she should.
She may wiggle around the real serious punishments that can result in some drunk driving cases, but she will forever be remembered for having been caught breaking one of the most anti-social laws on the books today.
I sympathize with her because, I must admit, I got caught just over a year ago and faced the same charges. My blood test was under the legal limit by several points, and the ultimate result was I was not convicted of drunk driving. I still had to pay $2,200 in legal and court fees, however, which is a lot of money out of my pocket book.
While I objected to the fine, I took the message seriously: don't drink and drive. In fact, after the $2,200 bill, I decided to stop drinking altogether. I did it although for years and years I was a moderate to heavy social drinker because I always found people I liked at bars.
But, guess what? Since I quite drinking, I don't miss it at all. When I do go to a bar, I buy a diet soda--which costs about 25 percent of the price of a tiny glass of booze or beer! So, I save money, plus I find that ignoring the booze in no way detracts from my having a good time at a bar.
So my message to all is this: don't drink, period! Heck, I don't even drink altar wine any more! I say this because if I can quit, anyone can.
I'm pleased I quit and can never imagine a circumstance when I will have another drink. I did the same thing with cigarettes, by the way!
One of the jokes used to be that to get a college degree in journalism you had to take three hours of cigarette smoking and drinking. I took many, many more hours than that, and it had nothing to do with getting a degree!
So, life changes. Talk about coming clean? An newspaper reporter who doesn't drink or smoke! Yes, here is one!