My neighbor is a pilot - he flies for a big commercial airline and in between times pops over to Afghanistan on little lucrative missions he can't talk about much.
I have asked him and he says simply "I CAN"T say anything - if it gets out I lose my job - again..."
Last time he lost his job he was drinking into oblivion in a theme bar in Barcelona and was talking drunken trash talk about dying and death and how it was all a random occurrence that we were even lucky enough to be conceived
So the guy he was telling this to, who happened to be the deputy pilot or whatever, called the police and said my neighbor was suicidal.
The Spanish Police crashed through the door of his hotel suite and arrested my neighbor and took him off to the pysch unit in Barcelona.
He was there a few days before the Australian Consulate lifted him out - then the interminable scrutiny of an official investigation by the airline's Human Resources - it lasted months and he was drinking all the way through.
"They want me to prove I'm not an alcoholic," he'd say, holding my forearm as I walked out to get into my car for work of a morning, "And I'm in the middle of proving that no matter what happens it's not me, it was just drinking and ..."
I forget what bullshit he was telling me after that.
I was a couple of months sober and my tolerance for drunks was low.
Anyway - he lost his job with the airline, like $270k a year, gone, for being a loquacious drunk.
Now, he pops over to Afghanistan in six week stints and comes back humbler and I don't see him leaning over his balcony with a drink in his palm so much.
He says Afghanistan is like Mars - red, hot and out of this world.
He can't tell me anything else, he says, otherwise he'll lose his job.
I have asked him and he says simply "I CAN"T say anything - if it gets out I lose my job - again..."
So the guy he was telling this to, who happened to be the deputy pilot or whatever, called the police and said my neighbor was suicidal.
The Spanish Police crashed through the door of his hotel suite and arrested my neighbor and took him off to the pysch unit in Barcelona.
He was there a few days before the Australian Consulate lifted him out - then the interminable scrutiny of an official investigation by the airline's Human Resources - it lasted months and he was drinking all the way through.
"They want me to prove I'm not an alcoholic," he'd say, holding my forearm as I walked out to get into my car for work of a morning, "And I'm in the middle of proving that no matter what happens it's not me, it was just drinking and ..."
I forget what bullshit he was telling me after that.
I was a couple of months sober and my tolerance for drunks was low.
Anyway - he lost his job with the airline, like $270k a year, gone, for being a loquacious drunk.
Now, he pops over to Afghanistan in six week stints and comes back humbler and I don't see him leaning over his balcony with a drink in his palm so much.
He says Afghanistan is like Mars - red, hot and out of this world.
He can't tell me anything else, he says, otherwise he'll lose his job.
Another reminder that it is not only hard to watch our step when we're plastered, but that we also tend to have very extreme thoughts, not only when shitfaced but even when we are between benders. I found that to be my experience anyway.
ReplyDeleteI second what O Nine said. Our thought process is as distorted as our liver when we drink.
ReplyDeleteJust popping over to say hi, how you doing? Hope all is ok in your world. Loving the Thom Yorke. xxxxx
ReplyDeleteEverything is going back down - I am thinking about drinking all the time.
ReplyDeleteMy wife says if she catches me again she leaves for a week with my daughters.
Lets play it cool and try to get some sleep...
Alcoholism is an illness where alcoholic beverage consumption is at a level that interferes with physical or mental health, and negatively impacts social, family or occupational responsibilities. Alcohol abusers are drinkers that may drink excessively at various times with resulting immediate alcohol abuse effects at the time of excess alcohol consumption.
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