That’s the trouble: alcohol and tobacco are both linked to cancer and other deaths. There are no safe drugs, and the two mentioned just happen to be - kinda - socially acceptable. I used to smoke and drink with the best of them, but seeing symptoms that I felt duplicated in my wife’s uncle, and how throat cancer did for him, I felt it prudent to quit the ciggies there and then. Why did I even start? Simple: along with other idiots of my tender years at that time, I imagined cigarettes and booze were both echoes of masculinity. When my better half was in the car, I used to ask her to light one for me. Thank God she hated the taste and the smell, and I never had that on my conscience when she died.
Wine was nice with meals, as was a G&T before that, but it never ceases to surprise me how one glass was never enough, and three just the right signal for opening another bottle. I was one of the lucky ones. When I lost my wife I lost my appetite for wine, too: it's just so pathetically miserable sitting alone nursing a glass. That said, though I would have given it up completely, I kept getting those cardiologists telling me that a glass of red per day was good because red is high on antioxidants… later, a doctor told me I’d be better off quitting entirely, so I did.
Now, rereading that information online, I see it suggested that antioxidants can lower problems associated with the eyes. I'm currently bothered by an infection that has outlasted and outwitted four visits to the family doc and two to the local hospital, over a period of about three months. The symptoms are tearsdrops and a constant redness of the edges of the lids, with roughness on the skin below the lids. Maybe I should go back to the Rioja. Sod it, that’s what I’ll do.
