A blog about life after work
I’m happy to announce the winner of my first giveaway is Sheila! The prize is a decorative slate tile I made using an image transfer process and featuring my favorite tagline of health, happiness and cannabis. Sheila, please email me at donnapekar@retirementconfidential.com with mailing instructions.
I’m bummed so far less than a handful of people are taking a chance on my free art. Alas, perhaps this is the life of a struggling artist. I suspect it’s more of the case: cannabis – they’re just not into you. Please be patient. Next on the docket: Art Chokes.
Maybe because I live in the West Coast bubble, I forget cannabis isn’t widely accepted. Not gonna decorate your house with it. Using cannabis wisely is part of our lifestyle. Not everyone’s, for sure. If I want to give away cannabis art, I suspect I’ll have to cast a wider net.
What’s the alternative to giving it away? I’m a beginning crafter, so I have no illusions about making any money. But I’ve discovered making art (or something like it) relaxes me. My sweet Dale set up a CD player and speakers for me out in the garage, where I’ve been working. I hung a pretty wind chime that’s too loud for the yard.
Writing is as good a hobby as any, but I can’t write and listen to music. Working on craft projects and amping up the tunes is bliss. Long-term plan is to keep pursuing all creative endeavors. Add that to cooking, walking and golf – and my retirement dance card is filling up quickly.
I have a few tiles completed. I’m getting better at the image transfer process and have been scoping out thrift shops for other potential substrates. So far, I bought an old wooden cutting board and a metal tray. Prices vary considerably among the stores – I thought Goodwill was the most expensive of the bunch.
Looks like I’m not going to stop, so what do I do with all this stuff? I know there are artists and crafters out there who create all the time. Any ideas?
As to the value of all this, I’ve always been a wound-up person. Dale said yesterday he has seen a huge change in me since I retired. I’m way more relaxed about everything. It’s true, and I sometimes wonder if my former colleagues would read about my life and feel sorry for me. Oh, Donna, not the power player. Writing that bloggy thing! Doing crafts! Smoking pot!
Yes, happily. I’m proud to have worked hard for a living, and I am exceedingly grateful to have made enough and saved enough money to quit. Once you have enough to get by without a job, time becomes more important than money or stuff.
I still have a long way to go. My temper flares over stupid things. Dale said, well, yeah, but consider how long you worked in that pressure cooker. You’ve only been retired a year and a half, and look how far you’ve come. Give it time.
Is he the Yin to my Yang, or is it the other way around?
Well, I said I was experimenting with art, and I meant it! My first independent project is making rustic 4×4 slate tiles using my blog tagline.
Health Happiness Cannabis
The theme is important to me. As a two-time cancer survivor and refugee from a workaholic corporate culture, I wanted to spend the rest of my life focusing on health and happiness. For me, and I know for many others, using cannabis therapeutically is nothing short of miraculous. I microdose daily for post-mastectomy pain, anxiety and overall well-being.
I love how the tile turned out. I’m continuing to experiment, but in the meantime, I thought it would be fun to give it away! I know not all readers are cannabis users, but maybe you have a friend who might enjoy this small gift.
Here’s how it works (I think). Please leave a comment on this post. You don’t have to say anything other than hello, if you don’t want to. I’ll number the comments in the order they arrive. First one posted is number 1, second is number 2, etc. Next Monday, March 4 at 9 a.m. Pacific, I will tally them up and use a random number generator on the Internet to select the winner.
Once the winner has been selected, I’ll do a post, and you can contact me with mailing instructions. Oh, the mini-easel is not included. You can buy them all over the place, including Amazon, Target or Michaels.
It’s a windy, rainy day and a good one for hanging out in the kitchen. The weather report said occasional rain, but so far it has been occasionally raining steadily since last night. Oh, yeah, I forgot. It’s the Super Bowel. I hate football, so nothing there for me.
I was thinking this morning how much I love being retired and having the opportunity to cook from scratch and eat great food that doesn’t come out of a box. In the ongoing adventures of my cooking life:
Let me say a few words about tincture. As I’ve written before, I was not using cannabis while I was working. I had a mastectomy shortly before I retired and experienced neuropathic pain throughout the scarred area. The first thing I tried was Kikoko tea, which is a low-dose cannabis product. I love it. I wouldn’t say the tea cured the pain, but I felt really good and didn’t notice the pain. I started reading up on other cannabis products to see if I could get the same results cheaper.
Enter tincture. Tincture is either made with alcohol or glycerin. You can put a few drops under the tongue for quick results, although the alcohol-based tincture burns. That’s why I mix it in juice. Or you can even add it to a spoon of honey. It takes longer to feel the effects, and it does go through your liver, but the alcohol content is quite minimal, so I don’t worry about it.
I started with a few drops and added a drop a day until I got the right dosage. I was not seeking a high. I just wanted that pleasant feeling that starts when I feel myself starting to smile. One does build up a tolerance over time. After a year of one dropperful in the morning with my juice, I gradually increased to two dropperfuls. I think that’s about ½ teaspoon.
Tincture, to me, is nothing short of a miracle. I feel happier than I have maybe in my whole life. Granted, some of that is being retired, but I can feel the difference if I miss my dose. I tend to be very anxious about everything, and a small dose of tincture daily keeps those demons at bay. My neuropathic pain is almost non-existent. Some of that can be attributed to the cannabis cream I use as well.
For people who are curious about cannabis but don’t want to smoke it, I highly recommend tincture. Dispensaries sell it – if you live in a state where they have dispensaries. It’s worth getting a medical recommendation if that’s what it takes to purchase cannabis legally where you live.
I made another batch of cannabis balm, and it occurred to me I never shared the complete recipe. Be sure to try commercial cannabis balm before investing in tools. Buy some at your local dispensary and make sure:
A) It works for you
B) You can’t live without it
C) You’d like to save money
D) You are willing to go to the trouble of making it at home
It’s easy to make more than just cannabis balm at home – tincture, edible butter, magical oils and bath salts to name a few – and for me they all start with a Magical Butter Machine. Cost is $175, but I’m close to the break-even point by now.
The other tool I use is the NOVA Decarboxylator by Ardent. It’s $210. I like the ease and effectiveness of the machine, which heats and fully activates the THC in your flower. However, I have also used a covered glass casserole.
To decarb without a machine: Break up flowers and small pieces with your hands – add to the casserole and cover – cook at 250°F for 30 minutes. This technique is less precise than the NOVA, but it worked fine for me.
Here’s more info on decarboxylation.
The balm is made in two phases. Phase I is making the infused coconut oil. Phase II is the balm itself. Ratios of cannabis-to-oil vary by recipe, but this is how I make it.
Cannabis-Infused Coconut Oil
1 ounce of decarboxylated cannabis flowers and/or trim (look for strains on sale, preferably high in CBD).
2 cups liquified organic coconut oil
2 tablespoons lecithin
Place the ingredients into your Magical Butter Machine, and secure the head.
Press the Temperature button, and select 160°F; then press the 2 Hours/Butter button.
After the cycle is complete, unplug the unit at the outlet, and remove the head of the appliance. Put on the special glove that comes with the machine and pour the pitcher contents slowly through the filter that also comes with the machine into an airtight container. I use a mason jar.
Cannabis Balm
Jars (I use these)
1 cup cannabis-infused coconut oil
1/4 cup olive oil
1/3 cup beeswax
Essential oils (I use 9 drops of Tea Tree and 9 drops of Peppermint)
Put all ingredients in the Magical Butter Machine at 160°F for one hour.
I like to hang close to the MBM while it makes the balm, because wax firms up quickly, and you want to get it out while very liquid. Once it’s ready, some people whip it, but I don’t see the point. I pour it directly into the jars and let it sit for awhile before refrigerating. The balm will keep nicely in the fridge. I pull one jar out at a time and leave it on the bathroom counter. It stays fairly firm but liquefies in your hands.
For clean-up, I use a combination of wet/dry paper towels. Beeswax will trash your kitchen sponge.
As for usage, in my opinion, you’re not getting the maximum benefits unless you apply it every day, preferably twice a day. An occasional missed application is fine. I have neurological pain across my mastectomy scars, so I use it all over my chest. I also focus on my knees and spine. If you don’t include expenses for the MBM and NOVA, cost is about $4 per ounce versus $20 per ounce for commercial balm.
If I’m extra-sweet, Dale will massage it in thoroughly, which seems to make it work better. At least that’s my story, and I’m sticking to it.
Red sky at night, sailors’ delight. Red sky at morning, sailors take warning. Does anyone know what pink sky at morning means? It has been cold by my puny standards, and rain is on the way. Wusses take warning?
I was all jammied up when I went out to the backyard to take this picture of sunrise over the Sierra foothills. Something about a pink sky makes me happy … particularly happy to be retired with nothing on the agenda and a full pot of coffee on the counter.
Dale and I jokingly call it “California Cold.” That means anything below 50. I had to force myself to go out for my long walks this week, so I over-bundled, which is my signature winter style. When we go out, Dale and I look like we’re dressed for different hemispheres.
Yesterday I played my first round of golf in 2019. It was in the high 30s when we were scheduled to start. Yikes! I was wearing so many layers it was amazing I could even hit the ball. But it warmed up nicely, and we had a great time out there.
I don’t make resolutions, but I had given thought to focusing more on my social game. There was a frost delay, so I chatted up some of the other players while we stayed warm in the clubhouse and mentioned my New Year’s resolution was to party more. That got some laughs and cheers.
Just saying, but it seems like the popular girls wanted to hang out with me after that. I learned one of my playing partners has a husband who grows pot! She’s going to bring me a little jar of bud, and I’m going to bring her a little jar of my homemade cannabis balm. A gift exchange! Dale thought that was hilarious. I mean, we’re still shocked you can go out in the backyard to smoke a joint, and no one can call the police.
My more relaxed attitude certainly helped my golf game. I had two birdies and a chip-in par for a grand total of 88. My best score ever is 84, and that was several years ago. I’m essentially a bogey golfer, which is fine, but I would like to improve, and who knows? With a little more partying, I might just do that. I have a golf buddy in Georgia who enjoys her rounds with a Bloody Mary in tow.
I’m not sure if it’s the weather or what, but my sciatica has been acting up, along with my right wrist, which I broke several years ago. I’ve been making sure to brave the cold and keep walking, using the cannabis balm twice daily and sleeping with a brace on my wrist. Seems to be working!
Oh. A word about the cannabis bath salts. I got the water super hot for my first bath and soaked 30 minutes or so. I felt remarkably pain-free that evening. But the next bath wasn’t as hot, and I’m also wondering if my cannabis-infused oil wasn’t evenly distributed, because I didn’t feel much. Two baths use 1/4 cup of infused oil. That’s kind of a lot, which sort of hints that it has great potential, but for now I prefer to use the topical balm I make with infused oil and beeswax.
I will say my aches and pain improved dramatically after I retired. That 2.5-hour commute on the bus to what was basically a desk job did nothing for my body. I don’t even complain too much about housework, because I figure it’s good for me.
For the record, I have attempted to lure Dale into the Housework-is-Healthy-and-Fun club, but he continues to resist. Although full credit due – he loads a mean dishwasher.
The Happy Holidays backlash mystifies me. Not everybody celebrates Christmas. I’m not scared.
Complaints about being politically correct don’t hold with me. I believe most PC terms reflect how people want to be addressed or acknowledged. I don’t think of it as being PC to say Happy Hanukkah or Happy Solstice or Happy Kwanzaa or the all-encompassing … Happy Holidays.
If holiday greetings are about spreading love, why can’t we share our kindness and good cheer with people in a way that respects and welcomes their unique experiences? If I know you celebrate Christmas, then by all means, it’s Merry Christmas! But if I don’t know you or I’m aware you have different cultural traditions, I’m either going to acknowledge your celebration or go with Happy Holidays.
We celebrate Christmas at our house but more as a folk festival than anything else. We do not subscribe to religion but sometimes adopt features of the parts we like! And then we make new traditions.
Our Christmas Eve tradition for many years is Dale’s homemade pizza and a movie, preferably a comedy. I’m struggling to find a good one for this evening, so if anybody has ideas that can be streamed from Netflix or Amazon, please share!
Christmas morning we have coffee and open a few presents. We abandoned big loot years ago. Now it’s just one or two things for each other and what the sisters send. And something for the cat! My sister-in-law sent a wrapped gift for Riley, and he knows it’s his. He has been pawing and clawing and sniffing around since it arrived. Catnip, perhaps?
Then we eat leftover pizza and enjoy a cold beer. While the pizza/beer buzz wears off, we putz around and start Christmas dinner, which we typically eat around 5:30 or 6 p.m. We keep it simple. Roast beef, broccoli and mashed potatoes. Dessert varies. This year we are eating homemade plum pudding from last year’s Christmas dinner. It has been wrapped well in the fridge. I tasted it, and it’s still delicious. I’ll make new hard sauce to go with.
As a treat to myself, later this afternoon I will try out my new homemade cannabis bath salts. All my achy breaky parts are screaming this time of year, so I’m hoping for some soothing relief. It was so easy to make using Epsom salt, Himalayan pink salt, baking soda and cannabis-infused coconut oil. I can’t wait to give you a full report on the outcome.
Until then, Happy Holidays! And Merry Christmas!
Most of us need more sleep for optimum health. Since I retired, no more getting up at 4 a.m. No more 2 a.m. panic attacks about a project deadline. Even with a more relaxed lifestyle, however, sometimes we need a little help getting to sleep and staying asleep. I use cannabis.
If you haven’t used cannabis before or haven’t used it in a long time, I’ll share some basics I’ve learned from personal experience and from my studies at Oaksterdam University, where I completed the classic seminar in cannabis education. I’ve previously written about my experiences with Kiva edibles, Kikoko tea and Granddaddy Purple concentrate.
For newbies, there are two basic types of cannabis. Look for Indica-dominant strains if you want to help your body relax to treat pain or insomnia. Sativa-dominant products are more cerebral and induce an uplifting high. For long walks and feeling happy, I enjoy a 50/50 hybrid called Sour Diesel Lemon Kush, which I buy as buds and vape with my little dry herb PAX 2 vaporizer.
Another way to evaluate the potential effects of cannabis is by checking the THC-to-CBD ratio. THC and CBD are both cannabinoids in the cannabis plant, but CBD doesn’t get you high. CBD-only products are all the rage, although I have yet to try any. I’d love to hear about your experiences using CBD!
Products with both THC and CBD have what is called an entourage effect – which takes advantage of the whole plant and usually means better results. Strains high in CBD are great for pain and anxiety. I used CBD Shark (1:1 ratio of THC-to-CBD) for my homemade tincture and Harlequin (5:2 ratio of THC-to-CBD) for my homemade topical balm.
Finally, you need to give some thought as to how you consume the cannabis. It takes longer for the effects to kick in if you eat or drink it, but the effects last longer, which is great for sleep. If you’re in pain, you probably want something with immediate effects. Nothing like a plain old-fashioned joint to do the job. That’s what I used when I had cancer and was suffering side effects of chemotherapy.
As for sleep, my all-time favorite medication is Kikoko Tranquili-Tea … no surprises and wonderful, long-lasting sleep. It’s simply a fabulous product, ideal for people new to cannabis. However, it’s expensive and not easy to find.
Granddaddy Purple has been my go-to choice for sleep. GDP, as it’s known, is Indica-dominant at 70 percent, and the THC level is about 80 percent. The THC level is high because it’s a concentrated oil. The oil is packaged in a glass cartridge, which you then screw onto a vape pen. It’s easy and you can keep it by the bed. Start low and go slow … no more than two short inhalations the first time. Wait until the next night to add another inhalation. I know when I’ve overdone it, because I have crazy-ass dreams.
I just tried a different concentrate called Platinum Bubba Kush. It’s Indica-dominant at about 80 percent, and the THC level is a bit higher than GDP at about 87 percent. I went to bed, read for a while and then took two short inhalations from the vape pen. I soon fell asleep, and sometime during the night I got up to pee, as per usual, but I went right back to sleep. Next thing I knew it was 7 a.m.
A .5ml cartridge was about $30 at my local cannabis dispensary and for me, it lasts weeks, even more than a month. But I’m a lightweight and only use a bit – results vary from person-to-person. I just read about sublingual tinctures specially formulated for sleep. That sounds promising to me and am in pursuit of said item so I can share a full report.
Happy sleeping!
I’m not big on cannabis edibles because most of them are snacks, and I rarely eat snacks. That doesn’t make me noble, I just like my calories in the form of breakfast, lunch and dinner. Still, some edibles are less snacky than others and can be an excellent addition to your cannabis stash.
A few months ago, I purchased the Kiva Confections Terra Bites chocolate-covered blueberries because I read they were a good sleep aid. Each blueberry has 5 MG of THC. That’s considered low dose, and would be perfect for many people, but I’m somewhat of a lightweight, so I cut one in half and eat it at bedtime. They are delicious – eating half of one is sort of sad – but I approach THC with caution.
As for sleep, edibles are great, because it takes longer for your body to feel the effects, and then it lasts longer. I occasionally vape a cartridge with Granddaddy Purple, which is known for its sleep inducing properties, and it puts me to sleep, but sometimes I wake up a few hours later.
I went to buy more blueberries at my local dispensary, and it was buy one, get one half off! I was wondering about the mints, and the budtender said all Kiva products have the same THC profile – meaning the mints would do exactly the same thing the blueberries do. I’m not sure if that’s true, but I do get roughly the same effect. The mints are 2.5 MG of THC, which is perfect for microdosing. You can always wait an hour or so and eat another one if the low dose isn’t strong enough.
According to their website, Kiva Confections are available in California, Arizona, Nevada, Illinois and Hawaii.
The mints are packaged in nice little tins – and they travel well if you are driving. I’ve written about this before, but I’ll repeat. If you’re flying, cannabis is a risk. The airport in Los Angeles just announced passengers can carry on permitted amounts of cannabis – but here’s the rub. TSA and the airways fall under federal jurisdiction. They probably don’t care about cannabis as much as they care about bombs, but you could run into trouble.
Some places, I’ve read, have an amnesty box, and you just throw it away if they find it. I’ve also read it depends on your destination. If cannabis isn’t legal at the other end, carrying it is just another risk. My retirement plans do not include dealing with the police.
I have a trip to Atlanta coming up and thought about buying some Tic-Tac mints, dumping them out and replacing them with my Kiva mints, but I concluded I’m too risk averse for even such a seemingly low-risk endeavor. Anybody normal would just do it.
Bummer. No cannabis in my travel plans. I can live without the mints for a few days, but what I’ll really miss is my cannabis balm. I use it twice a day on my knees, lower back and mastectomy scars, and it’s life-changing.
Yesterday we went to one of our local wineries, of which there are many. Normally known for being somewhat anti-social, Dale and I are members of two winery-based wine clubs. Membership is free, you get free tastings and are obligated to buy a few bottles now and then at a great discount. Dale and I joke we joined because well, we’re joiners.
The schedule said they were doing harvest tours, but the grapes aren’t ready yet, so we were forced at gunpoint to participate in our free tasting. It was just us and two 30-something winetenders (or whatever they are called). We got to talking about politics, and it was great to find resistance to the current regime among the young.
They said their friends are in agreement, so I just hope they all vote. The winetenders were a bit cautious at first and then perhaps surprised to find themselves talking to us oldsters about politics, but the conversation came to an abrupt end when another couple arrived. I get it – this is their livelihood.
The wine was delicious, and I felt grateful to live where we live. Napa and Sonoma are fabulous, but wines produced near us in California’s El Dorado and Amador Counties are an exceptional value. Lots of medium-bodied reds such as Zinfandel, Barbera and Syrah. Cabernet was the last of the tasting, and as always, we loved it the best, but we don’t buy it often because it seems to pair well with meat and not much else. Delicious on an empty stomach, though.
We do eat meat, but the lighter reds are more versatile. We’re going camping next week near Napa, and our favorite dinner on the first night is steak, so we will drag a Cab out for that. It’s funny – California doesn’t have any silly rules about alcohol in state parks. In the Carolinas and Texas, we had to hide it. I even had fake soda can covers for beer.
Dale and I converted a downstairs bedroom into a walk-in pantry for all our cooking stuff and use the closet for wine storage. The closet isn’t temperature-controlled. Too spendy. We buy moderately priced wine with a plan to drink it before it goes bad.
I have this itch to organize the wine closet by type, so all the Cabs are together, all the Zins together, etc. I might do that today. I’m mad at golf and am not playing for a few days, so I may as well make good use of my time.
Tomorrow I head out for a little overnight road trip. I’m stopping in San Jose to visit a friend and her wife, who has cancer, so I’m bringing a gift of cannabis-infused coconut oil. As we were making plans, we were discussing the merits of coconut oil over balm, and it occurred to me the oil is both edible and topical, which makes for interesting applications, if you get my drift.
I will also be delivering homemade marshmallows, which are yummy, although I hardly make them anymore because I avoid sugary treats. However, let it be said marshmallow is my favorite food group, and marshmallow lovers are special people.
From San Jose, I head to Santa Cruz, where I’m meeting my younger soul sister, who just turned 40. She lives in Texas but is visiting her cousin in California, so we’re getting together on her last night, and then I will take her to the airport the next day. The airport is on the way home, anyway.
Oh, and my young friend also gets marshmallows! We are both marshmallow fanatics. #bornthisway
My retirement dreams do not include lots of travel, but I’m really looking forward to this short trip to see dear friends. Sometimes I wish we could create a retirement commune, where we could all grow old together. I’ll bring wine and marshmallows.