PAIUTE COUNTRY

=| Spent weekend relaxing in Vegas

... if one can imagine such a thing. Las Vegas is not a relaxing city.

Vegas is in Paiute Country, high and dry. Mark Twain said something to effect that men fought over whiskey, but went to war over water. Vegas has no water beyond what it pipes in from Lake Meade, the Colorado River water backed up behind the Hoover Dam whose construction crews were the beginning of the growth of the desert city.

And it sure has grown = far too many people in this basin. Traffic really sucks. Not only is there too much of it, traffic engineers are obviously addled meth-heads ... not to mention the place is full of California drivers who never tire of demonstrating how the IQ / Horsepower Ratio diminishes as one moves westward. Worse, Vega is awash in cell phones and Really Bad Drugs ~ people still smoke tobacco, alcohol is an essential food group, and crack, fer crissake, still stalks us. Condos & Beamers are still disappearing up people's noses, as if the rebirth of the Robber Barons weren't doing well enough already.

Coming down from Utah on I-15, a vast bowl filled with lights suddenly opens below you. I rolled thru the slot-car roadways into the city and out Tropicana away from the Strip. UNLV and its residential neighborhoods appeared, and soon there are signs of 'normal' people here. I tend to pass among professional & university folk, many involved with film in some form, and the only reasons they go to Casinos are to meet, eat, or shake a few underwriting dollars down from the offices in the neon skies.

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* French Market Buffet at Orleans is a good place for serious Chow Down, and the Pho Kim Long on Spring Mountain is the best Vietnamese Pho joint in city, hands down.
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My host is an ex-stripper turned film-maker, an AfrAm Choctaw who is sure Race will rear its ugly head and bite the Obama campaign on the ass.

Another friend is a cannabis entrepreneur, and I visit him for some Recreational.

'Russell' generally enjoyed a steady flow of very high quality bud from NoCal growers, at least until he was stuck up twice on consecutive nights at opposite ends of his orbit. He's since moved, tightened his customer list, working with new grower, and is more circumspect in avoiding meth-heads with guns. Looking to move up, we had nice chat on socio-political aspects of the Industry. He's seriously considering it as a Career and I wish to encourage him to pursue his interests within the laws of whatever state abides ~ he has the whole West Coast from which to choose, after all. Russell has a qualifying condition and would have no trouble certifying his medical status in Nevada ~ I am urging him to do so that he might engage himself within the Producer communities and forget about this extra-legal retailing operation.

Came off with some undistinguished but perfectly serviceable sativa. A tad past prime and dry, price was nevertheless nice and this was more of a social call than anything else. I'll spare you the Bud details, other than to warn against the dangers of heat, light, and ambient airflow. THC degradation rate at 'room temperature' is about 7% per month, and greater as temperature and airflow rise. Keep your buds in glass (not plastic) in the refrigerator (not freezer). It doesn't much matter with the ditchweed we see so much of in the Great Lakes, the stuff that comes in bales from abroad ~ but it does matter if you're paying for or producing Quality Bud.

Treat it right. That's your Better Budkeeping hint of the day.

Interesting Times, indeed.


21:55 10/16/2008