I don't know what there is really to report as I am so early on this experience of not experiencing. Keen readers will recall that last Saturday I decided to add to my recent passing on most salt intake to take a break on alcohol for Lent... and so far I have. Sure, I went beer shopping yesterday to keep my spirits up but, frankly, so far this has been a bit of a doddle. Why shop? I still live in the land of one time or annual beer releases so it's not like I am not going to the store to get my fair share of Westmalle tripel. Anyway, here is what I have noticed to date:

♦ I don't really crave beer or any booze. It's not like coffee in the morning where I really can't make any sense until about 10:47 am unless I have about a half a litre before I get out the door. See what happens on Friday night but without a boozy excuse to run from X or run to Y, it's just sort of ancillary. I certainly don't think that a meal which was swell would really have been improved by a drink. Have we ever examined that argument as a reason to question why we beer fans are forced to "pair" at premium prices?;
♦ Some of the mildly cruddy physical twinges or momentary lapses in attention that I might have told myself related to the couple of beers from the night before are still there. I was making an excuse. I am just apparently an early middle aged lazy fart and, drunk or sober, will feel like one. Well, not drunk perhaps but you maybe see my point. We may be laying at the feet of a beery habit things that affect us independently;
♦ Time, however, appears to be slower. Not like dragging because it is not Easter yet so much as I have removed what I always considered an activity from the range of options. And one that is a mental idleness maker. A daydream feeder. That it's not occupying my attention there seems to be more hours in an evening. More for banjo. And that book on the 1837-38 rebellions from a US perspective; and
♦ I am also thinking that I might not accept the "refresh or relax" toggle switch of describing the benefits of beer. I am starting to think that it's more about just postponement. Like entering an isolation chamber or any other form of stepping away from yourself, you still have to come back to the you you are to yourself. Still, nothing wrong in taking a break. Just needs to be better described.

So far it's been interesting. A bit calming or maybe just another sort of boring. Far less dramatic than Jack London's experience. But, then again, I've outlived him by 20% already.