Buddies

Says you and your two hard drinking buddies went to the doctor for annual checkup. Doctor told all three of you to stop drinking or one or more of you may not make it to the next checkup. You all are getting up there, especially Cain and Abel.

Cain, the eldest among the three, who always knows the right things to say and often says he is the adult in the group, told you and Abel that he's going to stop drinking altogether and that you two should stop also. In fact, he said if you don't, don't bother to come over to his house anymore. Now, you three had put in plenty of time and even money to help each other maintain and improve each other's property over the years. You know, fixing the garage, building a new barn, digging a pond, etc. So you kind of want to be able to continue to come over. But Cain is the kind of guy that if you break the law and get locked up, he's going to throw away the key.

But Abel said he's been drinking all his life and he's not about to stop now.

You can't decide.

Half the time you want to hang with Cain. He's the ultimate proper gentleman. But then when you three are at the bar, sometimes Cain just buy everyone at the bar a round even though he knows at the end of the night, the tab will be split equally one-third each.

Half the time you want to hang with Abel. He always speaks his mind. There's never any not-knowing-where-Abel-stands. Sometimes he brags and sometimes he says things that are embarrassing. But he's the most well off in the group and is very generous, quietly so. If you are down on your luck, you can always count on him to help you out. If you get locked up, he's the kind of guy that will bail you out.

Somewhere along the way, Cain's kids were able to shame Abel into stop drinking in public altogether.

And then yesterday there was a picture of Cain drinking in the paper.