420 on MI

As promised I am back to discuss more highlights of my weekend getaway with my sister to the great north. I must preface this post by saying that my sister has made some amazing friends in Michigan over the past few years. Her wife works for a local retail chain that she transferred to from St. Louis when they moved there. SIL (sister-in-law) has met many people from her job as has my sister from school. They are really great people, all that I met anyway. On their last visit back to MI a few weeks back it was decided that they would take the house off of the market and rent it to the neighbor’s elderly mother. All of the neighbors are a tight knit group. The couple whose mother will be moving in currently lives across the street from my sister. The woman from the couple used to live 2 houses down from my sister (same side of the street) and when her future husband moved in across the way she moved with him leaving her house vacant. The vacant house, 2 doors down from my sister, was purchased by 420 a few years back. The couple, 420, the guy on the corner and my sis and her wife all gets along well. They are true neighbors each looking out for one another.
420 is an old hippy stoner. There is no question about this when you see her although she did feel the need to let me in on this fact within moments of being introduced. See 420 was an integral part of the arrangement for the neighbors mom to move in. She actually had come over to pick up the keys and the lease to pass along. She knows everyone in the neighborhood and it worked out nicely for everyone that the house will be occupied and the neighbors will be close to their mom. So while my sister is working out the lease agreement and key situation for 420 to pass along to the neighbor’s mom, 420 and I have a chance to chat. She did not know me from Adam. I could have been a fellow stoner or DEA at this point, she didn't know.
I won't go into too much detail about her personal life but she was a very interesting lady. She is probably between 50 and 60 years old. She has grown children and lives alone. She has a "man friend" that she uses strictly for sex. He's cute but older and set in his ways so it works out well for them both (her words, not mine). She has a great job with benefits and a wonderful pension. She also has a side job. She is in the process of setting up a grow space for "personal use only" smoke. She went through the entire rundown of her operation with me. I did not ask many questions as I was frankly very shocked that we had just met and she was spilling all of this on me. She threw her poor son-in-law under the bus too. He is coaching her and showing her the ropes. I am not sure she has any idea what she is in for. She talked about the process, the cost, the lighting and a little about the fruits of her efforts. It sounded to me like way more than one person could possibly have for "personal use" but who am I to judge?
I have always been one to live on the edge. I think we all know that I do enjoy partaking in the herbal xanax. I have friends that have openly discussed taking this insanely huge risk to grow their own and I have always discouraged them. I think that marijuana laws will change soon. With my crohn's disease I will be one of the first in line for a script and I will take all pride in my insurance covering my "medication". That being said, until that day comes the risk is just not worth it to me.
However, should I change my mind I know that I have a mentor of sorts to turn to. I will admit that I was a little peeved that we had to have this long rather strange conversation while I should have been doing something way more productive to help my sister. I did get quite a few laughs out of it and the expression on my sister's face was priceless throughout. 420 is an extremely nice lady who was doing a great thing for my sister. I did eventually tell 420 that I was indeed a partaker of the goods which lead to a strange conversation about Amsterdam somehow. In the end though what really got me is that for all of the talk of crystals and red hairs...she never once brought me a sample. I saw her twice after this encounter and each time I hoped that she would pull out a little taster but she never did. I guess that is why you only hear of Southern hospitality! Boo hoo…