Misery Is Optional

I was about nine months sober and feeling that I really had a solid foundation of recovery under me. The construction company I occasionally worked for in Anchorage called and asked me if I'd go to a remote island off the coast of Juneau, Alaska, and do a job for them. It would mean that I could see firsthand the start of a new gold-mining operation. The job was to install anchor bolts around a 750,000-gallon storage tank that they'd previously erected. It was a one-man job. I readily agreed because of my newfound confidence in my ability to stay sober--plus I was a little short of cash, due to not having worked much while I was drying out.