Alabama thread!

Sup Clay
Congrats

Sup Hayden

Sup Jonny

Sup JD
You can also look at the Kenda Klever RT's in 33x10.50. I have those. Picked them up on walmart.com for $167 a tire and $147 for the trailer a week later

 

Thanks!

Easier to walk in a straight line sober! haha

Thanks! It’s no problem at all. It doesn’t bother me if other people drink. If my sobriety was dependent on other people not drinking I’d be in bad shape I can’t stand drunk people, but am probably not alone in that regard haha

Sup Phil, thanks!

 

Nice man, Ive always been able to get drunk as a skunk on SAT night and then have no problem not having a sip for 2-3 weeks. Especially when im trying to get in really good shape like i am now. I know some people struggle so that's cool that you've been able to show self control for that long.

You just feel like you dont need it anymore or if you were to have a sip every now and then you would fall back into bad habits?

 

I know this isn’t Tacoma related but anyone here have experience in repairing fiberglass? Have a hole in top half of my jet ski and can’t find a repair shop that’ll work on jet skis unfortunately.

 

It’s a matter of self preservation for me. I’m an addict and consider it a disease. I think there’s a mental and physical difference of people with addition and self control doesn’t really play a part. Once I started drinking and using I couldn’t stop even if I wanted to. It became more important than eating, housing or safety which I why I went without all of that like some addicts do. The cure for me is constant contact with my creator. If I drink or drug in any capacity it’ll end up with me dead or in jail. The desire to drink or drug was removed when I got sober, so I don’t walk around in fear of drugs and alcohol or have any desire to alter my mind.

 

I’ve never had drug or alcohol addictions myself. I’ve always been able to drink one or two and not touch it for a few days or a few months. There’s never a desire for it unless a larger social gathering or a very long business trip at end of the day I’ll have one at my last meal before bed maybe.

As for drugs I consider myself blessed in a bittersweet way. My family is big into drugs and has been for many many years. Seeing them and watching them struggle in life in so many ways made it very clear it was nothing I’d ever even want to try even for recreational usage.

HOWEVER…. I don’t care what anyone says, Mountain Dew has a drug of some form in it. I was physically addicted to Mountain Dew and I know it. When I decided to give it up I went through stages of withdrawals for about 3-4 days where I felt many various physical changes and drawbacks with my body. Never again will I drink that crap!

 

At least you can admit it and take/took the steps you need to do what you gotta do. That's pretty huge and it definitely sucks so many people just can't ever find the motivation they need to fight it however they need to. I smoked since I was 17 and gave it up cold turkey the day after I met my wife. I just realized it's been 3 years now as of this past Saturday. There are definitely more important things in life than letting a substance control you.

 

Thanks for reminding me of those! How do you like them so far?

 

I've only got about 5K on them, but no complaints.

 

Good afternoon boys

 

If you decide to sell those black 16 let me know, I’ve got some spare sr5 4Runner 17.

 

Trying to decide if I want to keep them to have a set of road-trip/commuter tires and a play set, but if I decide to let ‘em go you’ll be the first to know. What 17s do you have?

 

sup nic

 

T4R wheels you say? Pics?

 

Got the front wheel finished. I think I'm gonna do the rear in all white spokes just to see if I like it.

 

Good ass deal right here for you 3rd gens

 

I'm glad you were able to get away from it before it took your life. I have seen alcohol and drugs destroy a lot of lives and take a few. I don't understand it; I try but I just don't. I grew up with my dad drinking every day of my life until I was in my 30s. He didn't just have a few, he drank to the point of falling out of his chair at the kitchen table into the floor. He quit after his body got so bad the doctors couldn't help him anymore. He was a truck drive that drove coast to coast so I didn't see him but just a few days out of the month. He had speed by the bottles and we use to get it when we were just kids 7 or 8 and do it in school. I was lucky enough to get away from it but my little brother went on to cocaine, meth... He finally quit about five years ago after 43 years of doing it. He was in and out of trouble for a long time. My brother in-law did like my brother but it killed him when he veered off the road and hit a big brick mailbox on his motorcycle. I was married to my first wife twenty years when she developed a drug and alcohol problem that I tried to get her help for but she insisted she didn't have a problem until we divorced. I have seen a lot of my friends go through the same thing either they were on drugs or had to live with someone using them.

The worse thing I have ever gone through is digging a hole to bury my son. Steven was such a smart fun loving boy. He never missed a day of school and enjoyed it. He wanted so much to go the college at M.I T. but we just could not afford it. His second chose was Georgia Tech, he knew he needed at less an ACT of 31 and over 1500 on his SAT. He got a 34 on his ACT and took it three more times trying to get a higher score and over 1500 on his SAT I don't remember how much over but I remember him saying I did it Dad. He won awards for his work at Georgia Tech and was a tutor his last two years. I remember dropping him off in the middle of Atlanta on his 18th birthday and watching him in my rear view as I drove off. I went every Friday from Cullman to get him his first three months and taking him back each Sunday, he was so nervous. He called me one day and said he didn't think he would make it there, he said Dad everyone here are all geniuses. After he got his first few grades he never said anything else about it.

I told that story to one of his friends that attended school with him at Georgia Tech at the grave yard and she laughed and said Steven was worried about the geniuses at Georgia Tech, she said now that’s funny because he was tutoring them.

After graduation him and a couple of his classmates made software for Time Warner, Comcast and a few others that handled all their accounting and customer predictions for the future. It keeps track of all the top programs in certain areas, if it is male or female watching, what they liked... and they use it all over the world. Steven’s roommate from Georgia Tech wrote the programs and Steven was over the project trouble shooting team. He talked with their customers and helped them fix issues when they had a new software rollout. He was always on call because it is always day time somewhere he said.

Steven got involved with a girl that did heroin and got addicted to it. I tried to help him and actually got him in a program to help him and he was off it for a while. But on October the 4th 2020 I received a call a little after 2:00 a.m. from a guy saying they found him nonresponsive on the morning of October 3rd. I hope none of y’all ever have to hear that, it felt like an electrical charge went through my body and I felt like something was physically wrong with me for a few days, I really thought I was going to die too. Steven and I use to go to concerts everywhere he loved music, played guitar and I only seen him mad once in his life, he truly loved life. He had a nice place to live in Atlanta, a job he loved that paid him very well and lost everything. I have his two Fender electric guitars and play them sometimes. I told his mom that was all I wanted of his. I remember taking him to his guitar lessons every Tuesday and Thursday when he 13 years old. Each night before I went to bed I would check to see if his guitar was laying on top of him because he went to sleep a lot playing it. What’s crazy is Steven's senior term paper he wrote was on drug abuse and the affects it has on family and the community around them.

What pisses me off so bad is people think this issue only happens to the poor and uneducated people. People let me tell you it can be a CEO of a company, school teacher, preacher, your spouse or even your child. If any of you are having to deal with it my prayers are with you.

I wasn't even going to reply to any of this because I knew I would be long winded, sorry for that.

 

I am so sorry for your loss. Having a child makes that hit harder, but I still couldn’t imagine the pain of losing one. He sounds like he was incredibly intelligent and talented. The people I know that went to GT are all brilliant. They don’t let just anyone in.

Addiction doesn’t discriminate, that’s for sure. I grew up in a very loving home, made good grades, and had a full ride to UAB. I drank and drugged a good bit throughout high school, but was able to still be functional. I lasted a year in college before losing my scholarship and flunking out. I started using more and more and it slowly chipped away at my life.

I never could have imagined when I took my first drink at 15 that one day I’d be mainlining heroin and smoking crack. It was so far beyond the scope of possibility to me. That was only for people living under the bridge! No one wakes up and chooses that life. But you lower your inhibitions and make more and more sacrifices to your character and morality and then it becomes reality. I lost everything I had, lost my apartment, lived in my truck while I had it, stayed at the Jimmie Hale mission, slept in alleyways. I drew water up from puddles and the back of toilets in gas station bathrooms to shoot dope. Stole food, stole property and pawned it. I watched a guy OD and die (ironically the person who taught me how to shoot up) I’ve been mugged and held at gun/knife point more times than I can count. A typical junkie life and I created a tornado in everyone’s life and everywhere I went.

Eventually the drugs stop working and an addict is at a crossroads. I hated the person I was. I had hated myself for years and thought about death everyday since I was a teenager. I wanted to stop, but couldn’t. The drugs no longer allowed me to escape myself and I didn’t think there was any way I could be fixed. I decided I’d rather die than live like I was any longer.

I was staying in a weekly hotel after getting kicked out of my third halfway house when I decided I’d kill myself. I climbed in the tub and grabbed a razor blade. As I was bleeding out I heard a voice that was not mine. It told me that this is not how it is supposed to end and there was something left I had to do. I sincerely asked for God’s help for the first time in my life and immediately I had a sense of peace I had been searching for my whole life. I built a foundation off of that experience and have been sober ever since.

I don’t know why we are the way we are, but my kind are not social drinkers or occasional users. Something happens mentally and physically with addicts that is different than normal people. No one could help me until I was willing to help myself. Getting to that point is different for everyone. It takes what it takes. Addiction is cunning, baffling and powerful. I am grateful to have found a solution and try to help others to do the same.

 

@cubie