I’m still drinking out of aluminum can, it just doesn’t have beer in it. Just club soda.

I worked at a bar back in Steamboat Springs, the owner was a high-functioning alcoholic. One day during my tenure at that bar the owner just stopped drinking. After a biopsy of his liver, kidneys, etc. his doctor told him that he would probably die very soon, he was in real bad shape. And one day he just stopped. He had a routine. He’d wake up at 9:30 a.m. and pour himself a Ketel One and Coke. He’d have about three or four of those before the lunch rush at the bar. At 3:00 he switched to Dewar’s and water, have about four or five of those, and drive home after the dinner rush was over at about 10:00 p.m.

His abstention from alcohol was nothing short of extraordinary. Everyone was astonished. He just stopped after that reading of the riot act from his doctor, after decades of doing what I wrote above.

I asked him how he did it. “I just switched what was in my glass.” He always had a glass in his hand when he was working. Now in the morning he poured iced tea and had three or four of those before the lunch rush, and after 3:00 he pours Diet Coke, has four or five of those…

So tonight, I switched what was in my can.