10/21/18, Sunday

Greetings Dear Ones

Well the orbiting half pound is back. I am convinced it is my sedentary lifestyle. No dog walk yesterday due to gallery duty and football. Today will be better. I am taking Tesla to her breeder for grooming and I have to wear her out for awhile first. But I wear out before she does. Also have to go buy fancy wine for breeder as a bribe.

DianeO I sure hope you can take SS to someplace warm. Yeah, lets all remember the name"CRAP TABLE" which appears at all social gatherings. I smugly try to bring non crap to such events even if its a purchased veggie tray. But I still eat too much of the crap. Yesterday I brought grapes to the gallery to eat with cheese sticks. Turns out the grapes were squishy so I didn't eat them. By 5 I was very hungry and found a box of crackers in the back room and ate them. There were only about 6 left. Hmm, there is my half pound. Anyway, seek some sun.

Peps what great ideas Shel has. A nutritionist for Ron. A post stroke diet plan would be good for us all.

And Shel, so funny your DH thinks you cannot be gluten free. What does he think you eat? A loaf of bread on every hike?

Good on you Cecily for making up your mind to skip the crap food. It really is all one big mind game isn't it? We all have to find ways to get our minds into the groove of ignoring that little eating id that is inside all our heads.

Well our team finally won a game and did so in style. Big relief for Nebraska. BB, hope your Sooners did well.

Bonnie 150, nice that you and DH are able to do some home projects to improve your surroundings. Yep, the wilds are always encroaching and it takes a lot to maintain a little patch of civilization. The little twig of a maple tree that was here when we moved in 15 years ago is now tall as the house and dropping leaves like mad. I think it bugs our neighbor lady and I am going to have to find a leaf raker.

Liz, glad your trip is good. Love the Chinese garden.

Last night's dinner was won ton soup. Wontons frozen from costco in broth plus celery. Quite good. Not too bad on the carbs and good on a cold fall night. Maybe an encore tonight.

Well gotta get moving. Lots to do. Diane S

Feeling very melancholy today. Sometimes it happens. It should pass this evening when I get together with my smart friends for our "Controversy Club" meeting. Instead of a book club we pick a controversial topic, and create a shared Google doc. The person who selected the topic does research, and provides the links, and others can also add links. Then we read, get together and we discuss. We do have differing political views, which makes for good discussion, but we manage to always avoid divisiveness. We've discussed immigration, housing, minimum wage, racial bias in policing, the role of DNA in over turning convictions... tonight we will discuss what states that have already legalized cannabis can teach us. One thing I've already learned in doing the reading is that we're not just debating about the libertarian idea that people should be able to smoke if they want. Cannabis is a huge economic thing, with even mainstream manufacturers like Coke getting products ready for the new markets in Canada. There are big time lobbyists and corporate groups ready to run huge farms. It's not about growing a few plants in your backyard for your own use anymore. Kind of shifts the paradigm of what nation wide legalization might look like in the future.

Interesting Diamond. Since I live in the emerald triangle - dope capital of california going way back - there are a load of issues. A "bud and breakfast" recently opened where guests are encouraged to smoke dope. The permitting process for legal grow is extensive and smaller growers are ignoring the rules - and getting busted. Many think the tax structure is too heavy and the legal dispensaries too expensive - hence people still grow their own. The black market will not be wiped out. But hopefully some of the bad actors removed who don't just grow stuff but pollute the environment with chemicals and rat poison and fuel they use to run their camp sites. There are groups of people known as "trimigrants" who come to the area seeking work trimming the buds in the fall. Some end up exploited as they usually have to work in isolated places. A raft of social problems. Anyway, enjoy the club. Diane S

There was an article this morning in my Sunday paper by Washington Post about the emerald triangle : I hadn't heard about these very problems until I read that article. It was an interesting discussion with my group. A very complicated issue. I think we all agreed that the question of whether we should legalize is moot, because that ship has sailed, or that train has left the station, or all other kinds of cliches about inevitably. The controversy remains, what are the best policies when this eventual day arrives.

DiamondD, you're right. That ship has sailed. Here in Missouri, there are not one but three medical marijuana initiatives on the November state ballot. (Cannabinoids are already legal here, and possession of very small amounts of marijuana has been decriminalized.) Those three initiatives (all presented as state constitutional amendments ... because marijuana obviously has to be a constitutional issue?!) vary primarily in how much the products will be taxed in the form of retail sales tax, wholesale tax, and other ridiculous made-up taxes.

It's clear that the only people who will benefit from this smorgasbord of constitutional marijuana referenda are lawyers who will have to untangle the legal mess if all three referenda are passed, i.e., Which one will have precedence? In fact, I'm tempted to vote for all three, just to watch the show.

BTW, from a big-business perspective, I predicted six years ago that the marijuana supply chain and market would be operated by Big Tobacco, or however that industry hopes to rebrand itself. In fact, all the current regulatory, legal, and other issues that we see developing now are making it more and more evident that the marijuana industry will become corporatized by Big Tobacco which has been dancing on that regulatory minefield for many decades.

BTW, that's what I used to do for a living -- predict the future. ;) Thang ya. Thang ya verra mudge.

P.S. In other news, my therapist just cancelled today's session for the weak reason that he has come down with flu.

I'm pretty sure that your therapist could use some home delivered chicken soup. And a chat, of course.

Drug delivery invites many to the table. Big tobacco and pharma, clearly. But even Coke's roots include a wee bit of cocaine.

Gummy bear type products are on their way to being outlawed in WA state so candy producers will have a harder path.

And, somewhere, there is a Howard Schulz type person who will package and market it to.....well, I suppose, to people like me.

Now THERE's a corporatization model I could really get behind: Coffee and Cannabis. :)

I'm sharing the melancholia ! The discussion group sounds fabulous ! What a great idea !