On Thu, 26 Mar 2009 22:52:14 +0100, andrel wrote:

> On 26-3-2009 22:38, Jim Henderson wrote:
>> On Thu, 26 Mar 2009 20:53:46 +0100, andrel wrote:
>> 
>>> while drinking no
>>> though was given on how to get home safe.
>> 
>> The argument can be made that thought was given.  In my case I knew I
>> wasn't in any condition to drive, so I didn't.  Hey, been there, done
>> that, swore never again.  So I waited (about an hour as I recall) until
>> I was in a condition that allowed me to drive safely.
> 
> I hope that would mean that you only drunk 2 glasses of beer or
> something like that? 

A couple of margaritas over the course of a large dinner.  For me that 
normally isn't "too much".  They mixed them stronger than I thought they 
would, and this became apparent when I got up to head back to the hotel.

> You know there is a difference between somebody
> thinking they can safely drive and the legal limit. For good reasons.

Uh, yeah, I do know that.  I don't drink excessively, but I do like a 
drink now and then.  And I tend to be *extremely* aware when I'm too 
inebriated to drive, because, as I said, I made the mistake of driving 
under the influence before and it scared the ever-living-shit out of me 
when I got up the next morning and wasn't sure how I'd gotten home.

Oh, and I've got a cousin who did time in prison for vehicular 
manslaughter as a result of DUI.  I'm *painfully* aware of the 
consequences of making a bad error in judgment about being too impaired  
to drive (for whatever reason, be it drink or sleep deprivation).

>> If I'd given no thought on how to get "home" (ie, to my hotel) safely,
>> then I would've just started driving instead of saying "no, I'm not
>> going to because it wouldn't be safe".
> 
> I was of course referring to the time before you started drinking, not
> after.

Yeah, well, before I started on my two drinks at the restaurant I knew my 
tolerances and knew that I normally could handle two of that particular 
drink with a large meal and be able to operate the car fine.  After 
having the drinks and realizing that they mixed them about 4x as strong 
as any normal establishment would have done, I opted to not drive until I 
was safely able to.

The fact that I opted to sit in the car with the AC blasting was to keep 
me from falling asleep while the effects of the alcohol wore off.  I 
certainly didn't want to wake up the next morning still in the parking 
lot.

> (BTW I don't know if you are aware that this is easy for me to say as I
> have never drunk alcohol at all.)

You're probably not in a very good position to comment, then. ;-)

Jim

Post a reply to this message