Oregon will no doubt legalize cannabis this November, so I took a look at their law and how it compares to Washington and Colorado. It is very different, chief of which is the taxation. I've calculated the taxes paid, and to be due in Oregon. The consumer pays in taxes: In Washington, $4.62 a gram In Colorado, $3.79 a gram In Oregon, $1.22 a gram Oregon's tax is fixed at $1.22 a gram, while the taxes in CO and WA are percentages of price. So...
The cannabis store at Discovery Bay opened up today, and as I needed to go to Sequim I was apprehensive about the traffic situation. This is the first store to open on the Peninsula. There was a line outside, and a lot of vehicles, but no traffic hassles. Meanwhile, Seattle is suing the first large-scale growing operation for building code violations. More specifically, the City Attorney is suing the operation for minor, routine building permit...
Besides Ron and Linda, and Steve and Sandy in town for an RV rally at the local fairgrounds, my family came over for a party at a neighbor's second place on Dabob Bay, and then the girls (Rachel, Kate, Maizie, Ada) stayed over in Port Townsend. It's been a fun and busy time lately. I've stayed alongside Dabob Bay before at a Forest Service campground, but the friend's place was on the other side, one of the very few remaining privately-owned...
Ron and Linda took off this morning, eventually to end up in Teton. It was a constant discussion all week as Linda watched the wildfires and road closures, and I tried to anticipate the traffic bottlenecks due to major construction. Any choice involved ferry fares and/or fuel, nothing to ignore. This morning I realized that once they got over the Cascades into Eastern Washington, fires and road closures in the Rockies were going to be a constant...
Ron and Linda showed up the other day and we've been doing a tourist thing so I could orient them and suggest places to go. I'm not sure yet how long they'll stay, possibly another week. Then, Steve and Sandy arrived yesterday with their motorhome because they'll be going to a gathering at the fairgrounds tomorrow. They were somewhat delayed getting off Whidbey Island because of the extra-low tides and completely dense fog. Life with ferries....
For years my granddaughter's birthday has been celebrated in the local park with a little picnic, friends and neighbors, and school friends. Nothing fancy, just a get-together in the park for an afternoon. The kids are getting older now, 6-10 say, and they have younger sibs. So the group has grown. One comment I heard from the young parents more than just a few times was along the lines of "You know, this sure beats those kids sitting in front...
The media seems to have turned to other matters, relegating the opening of the first retail stores for pot to the file reserved for a new Michael's or Walmart. Quite in contrast to Denver. Seattle will get more coverage a month from now at Hempfest, the largest smoke-in ever for over 20 years. But that's next month. Now Washington can get going to do what was intended. Washington is a "border state". Driving down to Bellingham from Vancouver, BC...
A few pot stores opened today, selling a bit of product, to several buyers, for rather ridiculous prices, in front of largely disappointed media. It was not a replay of the silliness of Denver in January. . I listened to the "live-from" reports on the radio while working on my boat, remodeling the head. A good boat requires a good head, then a good cook. This week, it's the head. My boat has a propane stove. The tank is located on the flying...
After 20 months since passage of the law, the first retail store licenses were issued today and sales begin tomorrow. This delay might be seen as a wise and cautious approach to de-prohibition, or as an example of bureaucratic and unnecessary overreach by the state government. The Liquor Control Board sees it yet differently: since the first stores are forecasting a shortage of product, that's proof they moved as fast as the market place could...
The problem with buying tires is that you frequently don't have a choice in the matter, some disaster has occurred and just like that you're paying out $500. Or you've been happily tooling around the continent and just wear them out. Fine, come up with $500 or die alongside a remote desert road. I bought tires for my boat trailer today. Two of them were so bad they were illegal everywhere. I had two choices: replace the pair of bias-ply tires...