8

 8 days working days left and naturally insomnia strikes again. Been awake since 3:30. Normally I'd do homework when this happens but I'm finished with the course. Two of my last three courses don't start until January 3rd. 

So here I am, my furkids are all over because they think it's feeding time and Oscar the elderly chihuahua has been out twice already and also expecting food. If I feed them now then it'll screw up their schedule and it'll take forever to get them back on it. 

This is a problem I hope to cure in a few days when I can use MMJ. Sleeping all night would be awesome and I feel so much better after a full night's sleep. But who doesn't? Right now I'm awake, again, and watching Teen Titans Go! and updating my blog. 

(Future Grandkids Note: You're Granddad has always loved animation, want to hold my attention during boring classes, incorporate animation into it.)

I've got an hour left before I even have to start getting ready for work. I'm drinking hot green tea with a bit of honey. I've never really made coffee or tea at home in the mornings on a consistent basis but soon I'm going to have to form a new routine and I'm going to make hot tea part of it. Maybe a morning round of disc golf. and whatever else I feel like doing.

9

 Day 9 has ended, I'm one day closer to not driving to work anymore. Typical day, fixed a bunch of night shift screwups. When I started there we actually had to have experience in our fields. Now they hire any dumbass with a pulse. 

Now we have three twenty-something, overly sensitive, emotionally immature, and inexperienced kids that can't get along. We also have one thirty-something that's about to move to days because he's done with them. 

I'm done with all of it. 

I'm sick of it. 

I'm finished.

I have to drive there 8 more times. Then I'll be able to take my epic break and plan my new plan! Start utilizing my education I've worked really hard for. I'm excited, anxious, and all of the emotions I've described over the past several posts. 

The world is relatively open to me. I'll have money to live on, money coming in each month, and time to burn!

 

10

 I've got my exit physical this morning. I've fasted since 6 last night and my physical is at 8, I'm getting hungry. They want to make sure you're good physically before you leave to limit liability on their part. It's all good, I'm feeling pretty good all in all! I don't have much if any cancer in my family history so that's good!

Ten working days left! 

Ok, it's time to reveal things about 2019. I got a part time job at a local dispensary called Kush Gardens. I worked from December of 2019 to December of 2020 and I worked nights and weekends. I started off working Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday from 6 until close at midnight. 

I finally got to work opening to 5 on weekends which is what really helped me. Working those many hours while maintaining my current job and still doing my grad school homework was tough but it set me up financially to make sure my retirement is easier on me. 

I learned everything about MMJ I could. I got over my old prejudices that most of the country grapples with. My first hand experience with customers and their stories on how it helps them was eye opening. 

Federal legalization is a real possibility but the problem will come when it comes to protections for local growers and dispensaries. I'd prefer it to be decriminalized federally and leave it up to the states to make their own laws.

If it were federally legal, it could literally be sold in every place you sell cigarettes. The quality Oklahoma is known for would drop dramatically as the massive tobacco companies would take over and buy out every growing field they can find. Strains would degrade and ultimately federal regulations would be put in place which would kill the industry. 

Let the states figure it out and protect local growers, processors, and dispensaries. When the feds get involved things go bad. 

That's my story on how I got prepared for retirement financially and how my mind was changed on the subject of marijuana. I worked with customers and helped them with their needs. I educated myself on what is known and not on the myths. I talked to my family doctor and asked questions and I advocate it to remain a state's rights issue rather than a federal issue. 

11 Working Days

That's it. That's all there is left. Two weeks from tomorrow and I'm done with the job I've had for so long. It's surreal. It's also very easy to be excited about something when it's a year away and to make grand plans but when it comes down to the wire, it's a big black hole of anxiety. 

I know in a year from now I'll be good, I'll be better than good! This will be a long forgotten memory! I'll be onto my next career, have two degrees, and earning way more than I am now. But I can't fast forward time like that. I'm here and I'm living now and right now I'm riddled with doubts, fears, and the unknown. 

Tonight I have to fast. Tomorrow morning is my exit physical and drug test. Tomorrow evening I can use MMJ if I so choose to do so and have no fear of being fired. Well...how can they fire someone that's already resigned? Ha! 

This past weekend was great. I spent Saturday with Thing 1 and we went dispensary hopping around OKC. I got some good weed.

I got 1/8ths of:

White Widow

Inda Couch

Ewok

Drops of Jupiter

Sage OG

Mango Sherbet

and Garlicane 

Plus I got enough edibles to stop a charging bull elephant for a week. Again this isn't something that I want to use on a recreational basis right now but that might change. If I'm able to stop drinking beer and use this instead, then I'm awesome with the choice. There aren't many people I know that drink and use MMJ. If they use MMJ, they don't drink at all or very rarely. 

It's about to be a brand new era for me in many ways. 

15 Days

 Yes! 15 working days left! 

2 more Mondays

3 Tuesdays

3 Wednesdays

3 Thursdays

and 3 magical Fridays!

I'm feeling great at work right now and excited to leave. I had a lot of anxiety over the weekend but now I'm really excited. I talked to several people on Reddit and a couple of places and they said the same thing, "Once you leave, you'll forget about the anxiety, the former job, and a world will open up for you that is full of freedom!" 

One man told me the story of where he was offered an early retirement package and he was the only one that took it. His coworkers stayed and the company folded a couple of years later. They got heavily discounted packages and he made out really well in the end! My situation isn't like that but his sentiment was about being happy with the opportunities you have been given. They might be diamonds in the making!

Last night I turned in my final paper in this course. I'm done this week and have one wrap up assignment next week and I'm done writing papers until I start school again on January 3rd. I'll have three courses left and I'll be finished in the spring of 2022!

Medical Marijuana Part 2

 When I got my card two years ago I never thought I'd use it other than to possibly learning to grow MMJ and give it to Thing 1. Thing 1 struggled with anxiety, depression, and had debilitating panic attacks. After getting her card, the only thing she was on was antihistamines for asthma and allergies. I talked to our family doctor about her desire to get her card. I was concerned that maybe it was just her wanting to get high but he really set my mind at ease about the genuine uses of MMJ. 

He was familiar with the meds she was on and said that it would help her but he didn't know exactly how much. So I paid for her to get her card and it changed her life. The doctor was amazed that she was able to get off all of her high power meds and only took allergy medicine. She felt better, her conditions went away. She was able to eat, she was able to keep control over her emotions, her panic attacks went away. 

My favorite story from working at the dispensary was from an 82 year old woman. She had had a botched foot surgery and was in constant pain. They gave her high power opioids to treat the pain. She was thin and frail. When she took a pill for pain she often would sleep until the next afternoon, her granddaughter told me she often slept until 3 p.m. she had no appetite, and she was miserable. They started to search for alternatives and came across MMJ and decided to try it.

I got this story as I was putting her in the system with her brand new card. They wanted to try several things as they didn't know exactly what would help her. We had some great hybrids and indicas at the time so I suggested one of each along with some edibles that I recommended they cut in half until they found what would help. 

They came back the next weekend while I was working and told me the amazing results. She was happy, her pain was easily treatable now, she slept normal hours again and got about 8 hours. Her appetite returned and she had experienced a life changing event when she was able to get off opioids for a more natural remedy. This was in mid 2020 and I only saw her one more time before the COVID lockdown hit. 

That is one of many people I helped at the dispensary. Yes, absolutely we had the people that wanted to use it recreationally. The people of Oklahoma voted overwhelmingly to approve it, so the people have spoken and Oklahoma has been reaping the benefits of higher tax revenue. 

I'm 100% all for it, my mind has been changed 180 degrees about marijuana. You're next question is, "Have I?" and the answer is no. I work in a federal enclave in which state laws don't apply. I mentioned before I would be instafired for having a hot test. In less than a month I will be able to get off trazodone and get some peaceful and uninterrupted sleep. 

I prepared for this. You long time readers know me well enough to know I prepare for things all the time! I decided I didn't want to smoke it. I had smoked cigars for about a decade. The next step was edibles and while that's fine, I wanted something better. The next step is vaping. I'm not talking about about vaping concentrates but flower. 

I did my research and decided to go big and I bought the best vaporizer I could find plus a couple of accessories. The Storz and Bickle Volcano Hybrid. It's an amazing device and I've had a couple of friends try it for me so far since I'm not able to. Both of them are veterans of using marijuana for at least ten years. I brought them over one at a time and ground some flower I bought for them to try. I added the Magma Obsidian which adds humidity to the vapor and I added the Grav Glycerine Chiller on top of that. 

Both of them said it was the best experience they had in years. One friend has really bad asthma and hates smoking it but the vapor didn't irritate her throat or lungs. She was able to do one and a half bags of vapor. The second friend only did one bag of vapor before she said she'd was where she wanted to be and felt great. Two high tolerance smokers and one bag was all they needed and raved about it after. Both want to try it again with me when I'm able to. 

As of today I have to go to work 18 more working days. 

Title Change Leading to More Changes

Today I changed the title of my blog to An Average Man's Story from A Filmmaker's Story. Filmmaker doesn't apply anymore and hasn't for many years. That endeavor, although creatively satisfying, was an expensive hobby. I'm glad I spent the time to learn the art and I'm glad I came to know and love so many friends from that experience as well. That part of my life is over though, well except for my friends, still love them!

That is a minor change though. There are a couple of bigger changes on the horizon and they both start on the same day, retirement day. I'll have three months to adjust to my new life, no school, just me learning to adjust to my new life. 

I need to create new daily habits, a new routine. I'm a creature of habit and need to find healthy things to do with my free time. Yes, polishing up my business plan is on the forefront and making my own marketing plan to brand it properly. 

Second is a huge change for me. My insomnia has gotten so bad that I am going to take my family doctor's advice and not stepping up to more powerful sleeping pills. I take trazodone right now, two pills a night which is up from half a pill a few years ago when I started. There are many more options to take but again my family doctor suggested a very effective alternative that is cheaper and now readily available since 2018 in Oklahoma. 

Yes, I am referring to medical marijuana. Since I'm a context guy when I tell a story, here is my context. 

When I grew up it was always in small towns, usually between maybe fifty thousand people down to a few hundred. I've never lived in a metropolis in my life and have no desire to. Why this is important is because I always knew everyone, and so did everyone else. In high school there were twenty people in my graduating class. There were the people that smoked weed and dropped out before our junior year and went on to....nothing. There were one or two that smoked weed and went on to great careers as well!

For me, I've always relied on my work ethic. I always felt that using marijuana would destroy my work ethic and wind up causing more problems than it solved. Plus for the past thirty years I'd be instafired if I got tested and failed a drug test. In which case I would not be able to retire in a few weeks. 

I have had my MMJ card, which is required in Oklahoma in order to walk into a dispensary. I also worked in a dispensary from December 2019 to December 2020. I know a lot about it now, it was a year long education on how it helps people. Everyone from executives to those that collected cans to get a half gram preroll walked through the doors. 

So many people over the course of a year, I talked and got to know them. I learned the strains and what they did and what they treated. I learned the customer's wants and needs and I paired them with a strain they could use. It was a fun job, a really fun job and I learned my misconceptions on weed were real. It was like anything else, it's not inherently addictive but to some people it is just like food, tobacco, alcohol, gambling, it can be. 

This concludes part 1, I'll be back tomorrow morning for part 2. 

20 Working Days

Yep, I have to wake up and go to work 20 more days. The past few nights I've been awake since around 3:30, yesterday I got up and did most of my homework for the week. This is peer review week where we turn in our final paper for our classmates to review. So there's a lot of polishing and rewriting and stuff. I'll have it finished tonight and submitted.

My insomnia feels like it is really getting out of hand again, like when it was in 2013-2015 when it was so bad I went back to school so I'd have something to do. In hindsight that was an amazing thing to do because we didn't know then that we would lose how the pension pays and who can collect it. IF it hadn't been for insomnia and being in such bad shape then, I wouldn't be able to retire like I am now. I probably would have had to stay at the base and work until I turned 65. 

Life is funny sometimes.

Now I'm three courses away from graduating, again, with an advanced degree, having a pension, and having so many options for my next chapter in life that it's insane. 

I know I'm rehashing a lot from previous posts but I don't go back and reread them before I write again and right now I'm writing them a week apart. Besides I have a lot on my mind. 

So, for the insomnia...what do I do? Well my family doctor has strongly suggested that there is a great natural remedy for that condition. Right now I'm taking two Trazodone each night. Have been for a few years now and they aren't working anymore. When I don't take any I'm awake in about three hours, when I take them I'm awake in about five hours. My Dr. doesn't want to change to something more high caliber, the kinds that have a lot of side effects and I told him about my reluctance to do so.

Well the alternative is something I'll discuss in a later post. 

25 Working Days

 I'm posting this at the end of my work day. Today marked 25 working days left in my marathon that has lasted nigh on 30 years. It's hot out, almost 104. The weekend felt good though, the three day weekend. The mornings were in the 60's and almost fall like. 

I'm killing this current course! I started module 7 of 10 yesterday and I did half my homework on the holiday. I haven't missed a grade point and carry an A in this course. This course is a 675, meaning the this is the penultimate course with the capstone being a 700. The three remaining courses are concentration courses in the digital marketing realm. That's my concentration, I had a choice of 3 concentrations and this one seemed to be the best one available for me and my goals for the future. 

Today was a good day at work, I was by myself. Easy day anyway. I can handle my shop by myself with no problems while my large coworker says it can't happen with one person. I told him I handled this shop by myself for around 8 years, doing all of the work myself. He doesn't hear me when I tell him that though.

It's alright, a few short weeks and my life starts a new chapter. I'm not happy where I am. I'm not challenged anymore and haven't been for years. I'm not going to waste this opportunity to take retirement and start a new chapter. It would waste my education I've worked hard for since 2015. Look, I'm going to miss a LOT of people where I work. People I feel genuine affection for. People I've seen day in and day out for almost three decades. But it's time to move on and I've been given the opportunity to do so. I've been planning this. I'm making the right decision. 

I'm going to be good. I can open doors where I'm doing the stuff I want to do, new challenges, new adventures. I'm going to be helping people with their businesses. I won't be stagnate anymore and stay stuck which is how I feel now. 

It's going to be good, scary but good.