Good Morning Monday, November 17, 2014

Hello Everyone,

Well yesterday was my “recovery” day from the Saturday night PARTY.  I got to church late (before the service) but after everything was set up.  I rode Red and it was a beautiful ride.  The candle had no fuel in it so it wouldn’t light.  Rosie complained about the wrinkled cloths on the little tables that hold the “giving” baskets, but she doesn’t come in to help any more but has to comment.  Mostly her suggestions are pretty good and this one is too, but it’s a little “irksome” when we do the work each week and she just criticizes.  But she’s right, really.  I’ll be happy if we finally get a “home of our own”, but doing that is going to be tough.  It’s kind of like the Brown Bag finding a new home.  In the REAL market, who would rent to us?  We really have no assets.  We’re really “secretive” (aka anonymous) so we’re going to have to be a “friend of a friend” kind of thing.  I was wondering if the 24 Hour Club had an extra room at Noon each day.  It’s gonna be tough.  I hope that Intergroup “rethinks” no meeting room attached to their office.  Wherever Intergroup goes, Brown Bag should go too.  But I’m not really an active participant any longer.  My name is still on the bank account so I sign checks and try to make it to the Saturday meeting most weeks, but I don’t feel like a true member.  Maybe the Brown Bag has come to the end of the road.  It happens.  Trust me, I try to keep up with meetings coming and going on the database.  It would be sad, but moving on is part of life and AA too.

I got home from church and took a little nap so I was looking for something to do about 3PM.  It was still a beautiful day so I took a little ride to the “GREENWAY”.  I’ve been driving by it everyday on my way home from work an was wondering about it so I decided go see what it was all about.  I have to say, Naples has some really interesting parks open FREE to the public.  It’s a pleasure to visit these places.  Freedom Park is right across the street and that park is pretty cool also.  Anyway, I took a couple of pictures and walked the Board Walk.  I was marveling at how beautiful the boardwalk was and how “new” it felt.  As I was just getting going an older couple commented on the “lack of birdlife” along it.  So I starting looking for that.  I put on “PANDORA” and walked the walk.  Yep, they were right – not one bird.  But I think it is so new, that the wildlife will come as time goes on.  I just took the route down to the entrance to the “Jungle Larry’s” parking lot and then back again.  Next time I’ll go the other way.  I think it would be fun to ride Red there and maybe roller blade – but roller blading on boardwalks can be difficult, now that I think of it.  I guess I’ll just walk.  Eventually, the Greenway is supposed to get you all the way down to Tin City.  I’ll have to see if it gets there yet.  Anyway, it’s still pretty amazing.  Here are my pictures:

Finally got to The Greenway

The Route

I think it will get better with time.  I starting thinking how difficult the job would have been to build that walkway through that mucky land.  Certainly something that I can appreciate and glad I don’t have that type of job.  I prefer an air conditioned building!

Guess what I figured out this morning.  There were 94 outstanding tickets from the Gratitude Dinner.  Meaning of the 400 tickets printed, 298 were sold, 8 were never handed out, leaving 94 tickets “out there”.  So I think it’s important to know where those tickets are.  Many of them got turned in at the November Intergroup Meeting.  They were repackaged, some of them, so that they could be sold at the Intergroup office.  So now I have 68 in my possession at home.  One I threw away because it was left on a table – thus adding to my theory that some people do not turn them in when they come through the door.  Some people come through saying they “lost” their tickets or “forgot” to bring them and we let them in anyway – it’s an honest program!  So back to the outstanding tickets.  I have 68 +1.  Subtract that from 94 and you get 25.  I know that Terri, Bette and Ronny P (still a mystery) had packets of 8 not sold so that means I only have 1 ticket unaccounted for.  HOW ABOUT THAT!  I can report that to the committee.  Good luck to the next guy accounting for 400 tickets!  It’s a bitch!  I have proof that drunks are crazy in the way they communicate ticket issues.  They make no sense so I trust in God that things will work out and they do.  I should teach a class on keeping track of 400 tickets.  It would take a whole semester – easy!!!!!

Gotta go now.  Have a beautiful day!