Bernal Heights

On one of our mornings sitting on “our” bench,, Jason asked whether I’d join him in smoking a joint one of these days.  Jason and I can discuss just about anything.  Nothing is off limits.  We talk about relationships and marriage, about family and work, about religion and the meaning of life.  We talk about food and drink, about sports and exercise, about travel and entertainment.  And Jason will get me laughing at his puns and riddles.  We end the morning with a cup of coffee at the Precita Cafe.

Following Sharon’s unexpected surgery for ovarian cancer, our conversation focused on Sharon’s health.  Sharon and I had come away from a sobering session with the nurse who prepared us for what to expect from chemotherapy, especially the side effects.  It varies from person to person on how severe the hair loss, nausea, weight loss or gain, weakness and tiredness, loss of appetite, infection and illness, neuropathy would be.  Sharon was given prescriptions to counter the above symptoms and side effects.  Her oncologist also suggested cannabis and offered to write a prescription.  Interestingly, Jason knew enough about the growing cannabis industry to offer us his source for weed, a source that is organic, free from pesticides, and cost effective.  Going to a dispensary does not guarantee a safe and clean product; furthermore, it will be much more expensive. So Jason introduced us to smoking joints, which we tried in our backyard.

The other topic of conversation around the same time, sitting on our Bernal Heights bench, was Jason’s trip to Death Valley in his refurbished RV with his former wife.  The fact that Jason and Yasi completed the trip, arriving home safely after a week on the road was reassuring.  I started our conversation telling Jason how proud and impressed I was with his accomplishment.  I then asked, “Surely, Jason, you encountered a few difficult moments on the trip.  What were some lessons you learned on the trip?”  “Well, dad, the first one was when the front windshield started to fall out as we were going over the Sierras in high wind.”  Jason stopped the vehicle and made a temporary fix with duct tape.  Arriving in Reno, they found a shop and because of time and cost, Jason chose just to have the shop do a better job of duct taping the windshield.  They continued on their journey.  Climbing a steep incline, the RV started losing power.  Fortunately, they managed to get to a gas station and discovered that they were almost out of gas and had no idea because the gas gauge was broken.  While filling the gas tank, the attendant checked the tires and added some air.  Then he checked the oil level and found the tank almost empty.  Fortunately, oil was added just in time.  “Jason, why did you lose so much oil?”  “Well, dad, apparently after I filled the oil tank at the beginning of the trip, I forgot to put the cap back on!”  “Anything else?”  “Well, yeah.  Because of poor visibility, I ran over some obstruction which ripped out part of the rear bumper.  But good things happened as as result of that accident.  I took off the flip flops I was wearing and put on snow boots; I managed then to kick the bumper back a bit so that it did not protrude too dangerously.  The best part was that I smoked a bowl before getting on the road again and it gave me the confidence to drive the RV like a champ from that point on.”   That was enough, we changed the subject back to his offer of cannabis.  When I write about Sharon and her experience with chemotherapy in future posts, I will finish the story on our experience with cannabis in our backyard.

All this is by way of introduction to where I spent last week.  As I said, Jason and I are able to talk about anything.  So it should come as no surprise that after years of putting off a long-standing invitation, I went to Burning Man with Jason.  Stay tune! As of this moment, I have no idea what I will be writing about…at least not until I return home from Black Rock City, Nevada.