Endings and Beginnings

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So many things....

So many things to do. Tying up loose ends, paying bills and cleaning my apartment for when I leave. Not enough hours in the day!

Meowza

The best I can

I passed the CTU course about growing medical cannabis. Yeah!

Very happy it's over. I guess it pales in comparison with an MBA from GW, but fuck it. This one will get me a better salary. And it's a dream. Better to give it a try than always wonder. 

Like the solitary pine
On a bare wind blasted shore
We can only grow the way the wind blows
-Rush

Shots

I spoke with my friend, Kathy, for the first time in a year or two. She's been a dear friend ever since freshman year of Fairfield.

We spoke today and she is well. I filled her in about me moving to Colorado to grow. I also told her how I plan to self-publish the novel in early 2016. 

She said she was happy for me, for knowing what I wanted and give it a shot. 

It's good to have great friends, even when you don't always keep in touch.

You miss 100% of the shots you don't take.
-Wayne Gretsky

A Growth Industry

I just learned that a pound of marijuana, on average, would cost $3,000 for a dispensary to buy. It can then be resold for about $6,000.

Now that's what I call a growth industry! 

The Seahawks played a crap game last night. Wilson through a terrible pick that sealed the game. They can still be a playoff team but it's not going to be easy.

Bullshit

I watched Exodus: Gods and Kings tonight. Later I did a lot of research. Did you know that there is not a single historical reference to the Hebrews ever being slaves in Egypt? It was all a crock of shit. Like all of the bible. 

We can only believe in ourselves. And medical cannabis. And Mum. And solar power. And the fact that I can kick your ass.

The Grand Parade

The sun set at 6:55 today. In Madrid it was light at night from spring to fall. Jim and I went to go see Maggie and Emma at halftime of the Newtown football game. Emma plays clarinet and Maggie is in the color guard. It was fun. They were great.

And then we went back to Jim's and we jammed with Maggie on bass. My, how they've grown. She's a frosh. 

The Mets beat the Yankees but then they lost today. Tomorrow is the rubber game.

Winding Down

My time here is winding down. A week from today I head to Jersey with the good doctor. Time is flying. What once seemed a distant trip to Denver is almost at my doorstep. I always hated the Broncos. That will be annoying.

But I'm ready. I'm excited. I'm ready to see what life has in store for me. For the first time since teaching, I am looking to do something I know I love.

Another Time, Another Place

photo by Kristal Kraft

Wow. I had no idea how much there was to learn about growing marijuana. The course has PDF files and videos to watch. The videos are very good and have, I shit you not, reggae music in the background. Informative and hysterical!

The only time I was ever in Colorado was 9/11/01. It was tragic, watching the Towers fall. And then it was a backbreaking 2,000 mile drive across the country. It took 4 days. Not the happiest of times. But before the Towers fell, I thought it was great. Beautiful landscapes and lots of kayaking! I wasn't into kayaking back then, but I did go fishing, which was why I had a car rented.

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Got an 80% on how to be a Budtender and work in a dispensary. I am 67% of the way there.

Now it's on to marijuana law. Is that really a thing? It's a long freaking module too.

---
I got on an 84% on marijuana law! One more module; Opening a Dispensary.

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On average, Denver gets 4.5 feet of snow a year. Ansonia gets 2.5 feet, on average, but in 2013 we got over 3 feet of snow in one storm. Either way, I can live with the extra two feet.

Sounds of the Day

Rocky Mountains

Peyton Manning is done. I believe the Broncos will get killed by the Chiefs tonight. Denver did not have an offensive TD on Sunday. Manning is mired in the worst ten game stretch of his career. Time to start looking for an offensive coordinator job.

Great weather. September is a great month.

Mets magic number holds at 10. They are off tonight and start a 3 game series with the Yankees tomorrow.

Today is a day I hope to get a lot of studying in. I just passed the halfway mark yesterday.

Two Weeks

TUESDAY

Two weeks from today I head to Colorado. Woo hoo! Never thought I'd be moving there. This is an exploratory visit, but I have five weeks to get my mojo working and gain employment.

If you haven't watched Peaky Blinders on Netflix, what are you waiting for? It's about an Irish Gang in Birmingham in 1919. Many of them saw horrors in the French trenches and are still haunted. The first two seasons are now on Netflix and it's only six episodes a season. But it is brilliant. The lead is Cillian Murphy, who is brilliant.

While I'm on the subject of mob films, Things to Do in Denver When You are Dead (1995) is absolutely brilliant. One of my favorite movies, ever. It has Andy Garcia, Christopher Llyod, Gabrielle Anwar and Christopher Walken as a paraplegic mob boss. Need I say more?

Doc is asleep next to me. He's a great cat. As far as I am concerned, we rescued each other. 

It was so cool the past fews days that I wore pants. Foregoing work dress codes, I never wear pants! The days have been beautiful and the nights great for sleeping.

I'll try to post more often, as Mum admonished me, via text, to update my blog. Luckily, she is not my editor. He lives, off the grid, in a secure location.

I'm also taking notes for the next novel, which I've had for a while now. Yesterday was a breakthrough as how to tie it to history. Once I have it, all will be revealed.

This just in from NYTimes.com; the number of people in the USA without health insurance dropped by 8.8 million. Repeal that, GOP.

My last weekend in CT is looking to be one spent with the Sheridans and Tietjens. Last week was with the Smiths.

I can't wait. CT was good to me years ago in college. It has been a complete and utter whore to me the past three years. Mum was great to me, and my friends as well. But there is no future for me in a one-horse state like CT. So away I go....

Message to Russell

The Seahawks suffered a loss to the division - rival Rams that they really should have had. Marshawn Lynch's mother says that offensive coordinator, Darrell Bevell, should be fired, and I agree. For those of you who are in the "know,"Russell Wilson has said that God spoke to him after the Super Bowl pass of great infamy, when the 'Hawks lost the game. He said God said that he was "testing him."

Well, now meanddoctorwu.blogspot.com is the first to report that God texted our offices today with the following statement.



Dear Russell, 

It's me. Lord of Lord, King of King's, Yaweh, also known as Jah, The Alpha and the Omega, and sometimes as Bad Ass of the Universe.

This is an order to cease and desist in the following;

1. Shut up and try winning a ballgame once every seven months. You looked rustier than a 1970's Neil Young album.
2.Convince Kam Chancellor to come back. The defense looked like the Toledo Mud Hens on the game tying pass. The Seahawks can't cave in to him because of this new thing called The Salary Cap, which has been around for 20 years.
3. Sleep with your hot girlfriend, the pop star, Cialis. What the hell is wrong with you?
4. Stop telling people I spoke to you during the Super Bowl! It makes you look like a whack-a-doo. And it makes me look like a wanker. With all the things wrong on your planet, putting you on a level with Moses, over a football game! It just makes me look shallow.

Smitingly Yours,

Yaweh

PS. Just a note. In the spirit of full disclosure, I apologize for tobacco, ostriches, avocados (the pits are too big) and incorrectly pronouncing Ciara.

Flood

It's raining, for the first time in weeks, I guess. Flood warnings abound across the Constitution State.

They're breakin' beams and crosses with a spastic's reelin' perfection
Nuns run bald through Vatican halls, pregnant, pleadin' immaculate conception
And everybody's wrecked on Main Street from drinking unholy blood
Sticker smiles sweet as Gunner breathes deep, his ankles caked in mud
And I said, "Hey, gunner man, that's quicksand, that's quicksand, that ain't mud
Have you thrown your senses to the war, or did you lose them in the flood?"
-Bruce Springsteen

I took the quiz for the section on the medical uses of cannabis and got an 89%. 

That'll do pig. That'll do.
-Babe (1995)

The Mets swept the Nats and have 7 game lead in the NL East. Say hello to Mets playoff baseball for the 1st time in 9 years.

The Yanks trail Toronto and they play 7 more games against each other. Delicious!

I got a 95% on the quiz for how to cook and make extractions with Cannabis. Woo hoo! Maybe I've finally found my calling.

Mets Take a 6 Game Lead over Washington

Mel told me the other day that now Mum says cannabis. I can only infer that she finds it unsettling. That's my sister!

The Mets came back from a 7 - 1 deficit in Washington to win 8 - 7. Their magic number is now 19. The last two games have been epic. Finally, it looks like they will return to the post season, where they'll face The Dodgers.

Hot. So freaking hot. Is it not September?

Within the valley of shadowless death
They pray for thunderclouds and rain,
But to the multitude who stand in the rain
Heaven is where the sun shines.
The grass will be greener till the stems turn to brown
And thoughts will fly higher till the earth brings them down.
Forever caught in desert lands one has to learn
To disbelieve the sea.

-GENESIS

Behind the Curtain

Legalize it - don't criticize it
Legalize it and i will advertise it

Singer smoke it
And players of instruments too
Legalize it, yeah, yeah
That's the best thing you can do
Doctors smoke it
Nurses smoke it
Judges smoke it
Even the lawyers too

-Peter Tosh

Cannabis has more medical applications than any other medicine known to man. However, many insurance companies, like Kaiser, will not put you on a list to get a necessary organ transplant if you use medical marijuana.

Why does the federal government still classify cannabis as a schedule one drug?

From www.dea.gov;

Schedule I

Schedule I drugs, substances, or chemicals are defined as drugs with no currently accepted medical use and a high potential for abuse. Schedule I drugs are the most dangerous drugs of all the drug schedules with potentially severe psychological or physical dependence. Some examples of Schedule I drugs are:

heroin, lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD), marijuana (cannabis), 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (ecstasy), methaqualone, and peyote.

Schedule II drugs are considered to have a high possibility of addiction but seen as less addictive than schedule I drugs.  less than 15 milligrams of hydrocodone per dosage unit (Vicodin), cocaine, methamphetamine, methadone, hydromorphone (Dilaudid), meperidine (Demerol), oxycodone (OxyContin.)

Okay, so our government is saying that OxcyContin, methamphetamine, Demerol, Vicodin and cocaine are less addictive than marijuana? That is the dumbest thing I have ever heard. And it's just not true!

From this day forward, I vow to grow medicinal cannabis for those with illnesses that can benefit from it. I also promise to set the record straight and expose the US government's lies and hypocrisy on this subject. I shall refer to it as my Hippopotamus Oath.

Hopes of Labor Day

Three weeks from now, I'll be heading for Colorado, in hopes of a livable wage and a future in the Medical Cannabis business. And it will be legal.

How beauteous mankind is! 
O brave new world! 
That has such people in't!" 

-Shakespeare

 Helen Mirren as Prospera in The Tempest. Photograph: Allstar/TOUCHSTONE PICTURES/Sportsphoto Ltd./Allstar

I'm sure it will be an interesting trip. James was the best friend I ever made while I was living in NoVa, so it'll be great to see him. Also, to see how he's doing with the M.S. It's such a debilitating disease. An awful illness.

Mets leading Washington, 8 - 5, in a huge game. Mets lead WAS by 4 games. 

Doctor Wu is well. He's asleep under my comforter, even though it is 88 degrees. Never too hot for a cat.

The Point of Departure

From a point on the compass
To magnetic north
The point of the needle moving back and forth

From the point of entry
Until the candle is burned
The point of departure 
is not to return
Anything can happen...
-Rush

Okay, I've got my flight to Denver. I leave at the end of Sept. and I'll be back the first week of November. I am so excited. I also just shat myself.

Excitement. Fear. They've both been such a part of my life every half to full decade, I may not even know the difference.

I am Daniel in the lion's den. I am the Jews murdering themselves at Masada. I am Miley Cyrus at the Video Music Awards.

Yes. I'm that much of a puddle of goo. But I am a puddle of goo with a vision of what the future will bring.

Back to School

The kids are back in school and so am I. So much to learn! How to kill spider mites, how to prevent powder mold, how to clone females (sounds like Weird Science,) and how to set up a hydroponic system. I am a sponge. Lay it on me. 

Football is almost back, so let's talk Redskins. 

1. Their name and logo are a relic of a an era of rampant racism.
2. They gave up 3 first round draft picks to St. Louis for RGIII (assholes for helping a team in Seattle's division.)
3. RGIII is no longer their QB, Kirk Cousins is.
4. RGIII should have told Mike Shanahan to go fuck himself and come out of the 4th quarter of 2013 Wild Card playoff game vs. Seattle. He was limping. That injury will likely mean that he'll never be the same player again.

So great job, Daniel Snyder. Since 1999, the team has played 6 playoff games, and the Skins have won 2. Attendance is crumbling as you jacked up ticket prices. And you refuse to listen to reason and rebrand the team (which wound generate billions of dollars in new merchandise sales.) You took a once great franchise and ran it over with a car, pissed on it, and then stole it's insurance money. Well done!

Mets Watch

The Mets are 15 games above .500 They have 29 games left and their magic number is 24. Any combination of Mets wins or Washington loses chips away at that number.

Colorado Crime

The following is from america.aljazera.com, and was written by Wilson Dizard on Jan 6, 2015;

A year of legalized recreational marijuana in Colorado has brought the Rocky Mountain state significant savings, reduced crime rates and tax revenue gains from the sale of the plant and its byproducts, according to a study published Tuesday by a drug policy reform group.

The Drug Policy Alliance (DPA) examined state statistics and found Colorado saved millions of dollars because it was no longer locking up as many people for marijuana violations. Police arrested only 1,464 people for marijuana-related offenses, compared to 9,011 in 2010 before legalization, according to the study.

"Given that arrests such as these cost roughly $300 to adjudicate, it is reasonable to infer that the state is saving millions in adjudicatory costs" for marijuana-related arrests and prosecutions, the study said. 

Additionally, tax revenue from recreational marijuana sales brought in at least $40.9 million into the state’s coffers.

Medical Marijuana

I learned today that the (CBD) in marijuana fights cancer cells and also arrests Alzheimer's Disease. It's also very helpful to reduce symptoms of chemotherapy and symptoms of MS. My friend, James, has MS and is actually taking some medical marijuana meds now.

Down the Rabbit Hole

One pill makes you larger, and one pill makes you small
And the ones that mother gives you, don't do anything at all

Go ask Alice, when she's ten feet tall

And if you go chasing rabbits, and you know you're going to fall
Tell 'em a hookah-smoking caterpillar has given you the call

And call Alice, when she was just small

-Jefferson Airplane

Well, I learned how to make cannabis butter in a crockpot from my classes. It really is like going through the looking glass in many ways. I will probably have many tales to tell as I fulfill my dream of growing medical marijuana. 

But fuck it. I tried to be a normal, contributing member of society. It's just not something I'm very good at. Everyone has an angle. I guess this is mine.

So thank you dear reader, and the good Doctor Wu, for coming with me on this amazing journey. We might just learn something, but I'm sure we'll have a hell of a lot of fun.

I guess I'm blown away that I'm am moving away from most everyone I know. Again.  Maybe it's just my destiny. Either way, I am very excited about this opportunity in front of me. 

Getting Schwifty

Rick and Morty

Oh, yeah,
It's time to get schwifty
Getting schwifty in here
-Rick and Morty

Just got back from Lake George. We camped on Fourth Lake (breathtaking, it's so unimaginative). It was gorgeous. Great weather, great time. Upstate New York is awesome.