Acton Up Brownies

I have no excuse.  I should have known better.  it isn't like I just started baking Pot brownies.  This last double batch must make it 20 or so batches made in the post illegal world I now exist in here in Maine.  And actually, this last double batch went so smoothly, I didn't end up with much of a mess. A year or so ago I wore as much batter as I baked.

So what is it that I should have known or more to point, remembered that is notable enough to waste these precious bytes on?  I remembered only after I had licked the bowl, the spatulas, and the beater paddles that licking the bowl, the spatulas and the beater paddles of a brownie mix that contains kick ass doob in it will likely create missing time in one's life. 

It was just after I pulled the brownies out of the oven that I felt that familiar twinge.  It was four hours later when I woke up.  Whew.  That is the reason I prefer smoking pot.  I can gauge where my high is better than eating it.  Eating it, especially when the brownie mix is delicious, well, uh , you can see the problem, right?

Since my wife was diagnosed with Breast Cancer back in the Fall of 2017,  I have been baking Pot brownies regularly.  I used a recipe I got online and cut the called for pot dosage in half and went with it. 

BA is not a toker anymore and hasn't been since she was pregnant with our daughter 30 some years ago.  I am glad I did cut the called for amount in half.  A half count in the batch was more than adequate. 

At first, a small 10 gram piece had her sleeping through the night.  Then as the discomfort of Chemotherapy dug in, she began eating 2 pieces to sleep and one during the day to help with the pain from her mastectomy.  Not once did she take the prescribed Oxy Codone.  It sits in the back of the vitamin drawer gathering dust, saved for the day when nothing else will work.

Now that BA is cancer free, she has continued to consume some brownies every night so she can sleep and to help with her chronically old Rotator Cuff injury.  She is also using some THC tinctures on the shoulder.  It all seems to be helping.

So anyway, I have become the occasional baker of medicine.  Medicine that is finally getting the scrutiny it deserves.  Medicine that I know has worked for me and for more than a few people within my hemisphere.  I feel that the miracles of Cannabis have only been hinted at.  More to come I am sure.

Keep it 'tween the ditches ..................................................

In Defense of the Moth

Robin over to Dharma Bums got me started on this. You can blame her.

As a rule most creepie crawlie things do not find many fans among us humans. Insects, spiders, grubs and worms are usually just targets for our shoes or the cause of frantic pawing at our hair, head or body when one has the unfortunate luck to land on us. There seems to be a natural handed down human aversion to anything with more than four legs.

There are some "acceptable" bugs out there. Pretty boy species that get all the positive press and glowing reviews. Butterflies and Dragonflies come to mind. They flit around during sunlit days gracing us with their presence. I will admit, both have turned my head with their spiffy colors and awesome flying tricks. But I am not here to talk about the "beautiful insects".

I don't ever remember paying moths much attention before I became a Maine resident. Drab and usually puny, they were just another bug I would brush off when they hit me instead of the light they were aiming at. But live in the sticks in Maine long enough and moths become more than just another insect. I have become convinced Maine is home to more species of moths than anywhere else I have ever lived. Even after finding out from research, that the experts do not agree has not changed my mind. Hundreds of moths will gather on our front porch on almost warm summer nights. Most will be the smaller dull garden variety kind. Often though, moths of amazing size, shapes and colors will find their way to our screen door to greet us in the morning. The Lunar Moth up top is but one of them. I have measured close to a five inch wingspan on some I have found. One of those hits you in the head in the dark of night, and you feel it.

There are moths up here big enough to be mistaken for small birds. This odd looking Hawkmoth(I still have not found out it's exact name, but I think is is a Hawkmoth of some type) here can measure 4 inches across when in resting mode. The variety of moths that live in the woods around me is impressive.

I did some checking on moths. I found some interesting facts about them.

~Moths were first on the scene before butterflies. By about 100 million years

~Most moths it seems do not feed as adults. There are some nectar sucking varieties, but for the most part, it looks like Moths spend all their adult time looking for a date.

~Moths are generally nocturnal. They rest during the day. This is probably the reason for their drab coloring as they do not want to be disturbed while asleep by critters looking to turn them into food.

~Why they beat themselves silly against any light close - well I did not find out why. They are insects ferchrisakes. I don't think they even know why.

~I also found out there is a whole other category in addition to Butterflies and Moths. They are called Skippers. They are most similar to Butterflies, so I will count them in with them.

The differences between moths and butterflies are profound once you are made aware of them.
~Butterflies have long hairless thoraxes and long antennae
~Moths are hairy barrel chested critters with fuzzy cool antennae
~Butterflies can position their wings in vertical mode, moths cannot.
~Butterflies are designed to be seen to attract mates during the day
~Moths are designed to be camouflaged during the day so they can rest

I found this great site that lists all the different species of butterflies, skippers and moths in North America and Mexico. It has a search engine that will pin down the types that are found to a county wide area. I found that supposedly 73 varieties of Butterflies and/or Skippers and 33 varieties of Moths exist or visit my county on a regular basis. Personally, I think they missed a few. One anyway. The unnamed leafy looking one above is a regular visitor to my porch, but not listed in their data banks as having been here.


I come by my fascination with the bug world honestly I guess. I used to watch ants for hours. I even kept an Ant Lion colony going in a shoe box under my bed for a time. Then my mom found it and made me toss it out. Ant lions are very, very cool. But that is another post altogether.

Later..............

(762)

My Barbie Collection - A Labor of Love

My Barbie Collection - Side Show #2

My recent immersion into the world of internet retail has driven home the fact that this World is not just beginning to shrink. It has already shrunk. The Internet has accomplished that which countless conquering hordes over thousands of years have failed to do. Turned the Globe into one huge 'Hood. With access to a computer plugged into the WWW, everyone starts out equal.

As I cruise through the millions of items for sale from all over the World on Ebay, I realize that Capitalism has won. Humans just love it. Comes natural I guess, given our predisposition to be selfish. The fine art of Yankee Trading has taken on a decided international twist. Billions hit the internet ether daily to sell their wares, buy their wares, or just check out the latest in Barbie & Ken evening wear.

Trolls being bought by folks in Dubai. Old school Skateboards shipped to some odd address in th old USSR. First Edition Game boys wait by the thousands for some horny collector to move them to their digs to gather dust in a new locale. 300,000 Baseball Card Collectors all trying to buy or sell a mint condition Boog Powell Rookie Card. Infinite numbers of items infinite numbers of people are buying and selling. Every damn day. 24/7. If it was made once, it will be sold on Ebay.

And don't even look at the Barbie section. People are crazy about Flippin Barbies. Finding that complete Malibu Barbie set has become so popular Barbie has her very own special dedicated category in Ebay. This idealized and immortalized vision of the perfect white bread bimbo is traded, swapped, and bought with such regularity, Barbies have become a commodity. The doll every girl I knew back in the day just had to have 15 or 20 of.

I used to help Snake set his sister's Barbies up for certain catstrophe by fire or various methods of demolishment. And to think we were probably destroying Cher's potential retirement cushion. We must have set at least 5 or 6 on fire. Used a few for target practice with that new bow and arrow set up Snake got one Christmas. Once we decided to see just what type of bullet would actually take Barbie out. A Standard Daisy BB gun or did it take a 22 long. Barbie laughed at the Daisy and it's puny attempt to compromise her smooth whatever white girl exterior. She did not fare so well with the 22 though.

I have now successfully navigated the various channels, networks and jumped through all the proper hoops in order to become that next big Ebay Entreprenuer. So of course my darling signifigant other has tasked me with the joyous labor of finding a home for all that flotsam and jetsam 27 years of marriage has forced into our lives. She created a small pile of useless to us now stuff too valuable to toss,Goodwill, or put out on a table in the yard on a nice hoy July Day. An experimental pile of stuff. Test the waters pile of stuff.

Lis' old Troll collection, 7 Original Version Game Boy games without instructions but still sitting cozy in their trunsluscent plastic snap cases. A pair of white figure skates she wore once. They are all organized photographed, and the listings completed and waiting to be uploaded. Must be $20 worth of stuff there. Only took me 5 hours to work out the details.

It is bound to get easier as I wade through the mountains of gold tucked away gathering dust in closets, the attic, and the basement. Surely the time spent will deliver me and those I love to economic stability. Lift us out of that financial uncertainty and into a new Hummer.

Regardless, my time spent trying to shake some change from some pockets and at the same time open up new corners to clutter in the future is time better spent than arguing with some flounder about just how much Bush sucks or doesn't suck.

My First Slide Show

First Slide Show

If I did this right, the picture of the KING lock is the link that should take you to my very first slide show with original pictures taken, collated, and organized by another World Wide Web Bozo.

I have been on an accelerated learning curve of late. Assaulting the Web on mutiple fronts, I am engaged in 3 front war.

Ebay - Yeah, I finally stopped stopped whining about the unfair advantage all those web losers had over me and my small store front operation. Wearing that hairshirt was getting old. Squeezing sympathy from my friends and older customers had turned into automatic reflex answers that rung weak and less than empathetic.

So I hooked up with the Internet sales behemoth and am now selling my wares there. I have no real clue yet. But I have stumbled my way through enough of the hoops and now my very first sale is assured with my reserve on those cranks having been met.

I have also been intensely floundering in 3 different picture hosting sites. My efforts at this point are to develope the slidshow gig. To be a hipper and more with it Ebay mogul, I need to have this as part of my marketing strategy. Photobucket, Picasa, and Flickr have had to suffer my hamfisted attempts to figure out my way around their intricate insides.

In an attempt to accelerate this learning curve, I am going to post this as is to find out how well it works here. If it works here then my next step will be to use it on Ebay.