Lazy Daze
There is a large cocktail party underway in the House of Representatives Chamber in the U.S. Capital today. I say that because it is past 5:00pm in Washington D.C., so officially into Happy Hour, and the scene on the floor of the House is not so much chaotic as without any discernible direction. At a cocktail party, once you have a drink in hand, you wander around aimlessly, chit-chatting your way around the room. That’s what is happening right now. There have been three “black-smoke” votes in the opening session of the 118th Congress for the most critical office of Speaker of the House of Representatives. That office is critical for many reasons. To begin with, according the Constitutional succession protocol, let’s remember that the Speaker of the House rises to the top executive office in the land if the President and Vice President should become incapacitated. That succession has never taken place, but it stands as a prize that comes along with the office of whomever is most senior and properly positioned in the party that has the majority in the House. Nancy Pelosi was the ranking member of the Democratic Party for twenty years and spent eight of those in two separate terms as the Speaker. With the narrow victory of the Republicans in the 2022 elections, that has positioned the Republican Party to take over the Speaker seat by getting a simple majority (in this case 218 votes) of all members of the House. That has made Kevin McCarthy the ranking Republican member, so normally a shoe-in for the Speaker seat.
But Kevin McCarthy has had to rise to power at a time when the degree of controversy is at an all-time high. The wild card factor has been none other than our favorite political antagonist, Donald J. Trump. DJT still very much controls the reactionary right wing of the Republican Party and, as with everything about Trump, his mission is to get everyone to kiss his ring and bow to his power, including acknowledging and supporting the surreal view that he actually won the 2020 presidential election. Despite the abject absence of any evidence of that, there is still a part of that caucus that stands by their man and stands for little else other than the return to power of Trump and his acolytes. That list of rabid Republicans is now clearly delineated as nineteen members, who have shown themselves by virtue of their unwillingness to vote mcCarthy in as Speaker at any cost. They appear to stand for nothing other than to bring about the demise of McCarthy. As worthy a goal as that seems when you look closely at McCarthy’s lack of moral fiber, Congress is supposed to stand for more than political revenge. But alas, after three votes and no majority yet in hand, the Republican side is adjourning until tomorrow to have what the pundits are calling a family meeting to discuss how they can stop looking so ridiculous to the American people. You see, no party has failed to elect their majority House leadership on the first ballot in 100 years, so there is already serious egg on the Republicans’ face.
While this is all going on, the rest of Congress is looking on with their collective thumbs up their asses. There is nothing they can do until we have a functioning House of Representatives and that hinges on a majority vote to select a Speaker. At this point McCarthy insists that he will just keep calling the vote and will not back down. Tonight’s family intervention will inform that thought one way or the other. It does not help that McCarthy’s career ends if he steps back from the Speaker contest. This has become one of those political all-or-nothing moments and the rest of us are just forced to spend lazy days waiting for our national governance process to kick into gear.
Meanwhile back at the ranch (or on the hilltop, if you will), things have taken their own interesting turn. For some inexplicable reason, I have decided to address my difficulty sleeping. Over the holidays, I allowed everything to just drift along, but I have been averaging 5 hours of sleep per night and it is simply unsustainable. I have no particular physical injuries or psychological angst to use as an excuse for this insomnia. As I was thinking this through, my friend Gary mentioned to me that almost all of his friends take cannabis gummies of some sort to sleep. That got me thinking and researching. I called three people for advice. I spoke to my son, Tom, who seems to know a lot about the medicinal uses of cannabis. His view was that I should try it and do so very gradually. My friend Steven, was all over the issue and admitted to having his own problems sleeping. He knew all about gummies, but also about Melatonin, Turmeric Extract, Xanax and Ambien, the later two being by prescription only. I had read that 70%+ of the American population has trouble sleeping, so I shouldn’t have been surprised to see so much expertise. The last call was to Mike, who is guy who always seems to want to avoid putting any artificial substances in his body. He was very leery of any cannabis medicinal products, but went strongly in favor of my trying Magnesium, which he takes to good effect. I had once considered Magnesium as a cure for muscle cramping at night, but Mike swears by it as a general sleep aid.
So, I headed off to the local recreational cannabis dispensary in Vista. It goes by name of Off The Charts, which is an interesting brand name. Going to any retail store on a rainy January 2nd, one would expect a moment of slow commerce, but not so at Off The Charts. Once I found a parking spot I went into the ante-chamber which looked like the entrance to the one Federal prison I ever entered (as a visitor). There was an abundance of bulletproof glass, a uniformed officer with an IPad and a team of people behind the glass waiting to check in people who wanted entry. It required a scan of both sides of my license and other pieces of information to be allowed a phased and escorted entry. My escort very politely asked me what I was looking for and I explained my interest in sleep and muscle ache medicinals of the edible category. She took me immediately to a wall of alternative products, packaged with all the flair and marketing thrust of the best of retail packaging. It seems that the burgeoning cannabis business is gentrifying itself and fitting itself into the mainstream.
There was an entire array of alternative sleep-focused gummies on offer and each one had a different blend of ingredients with slightly different mix of content of THC (tetrahydrocannabinol) and CBD (cannabidiol). I’m more confused than not about the respective qualities of the two active ingredients. What is clear is that the industry feels that THC is most helpful for sleeping (it is, after all, the psychotropic element of the two) and that CBD is useful in lessening body aches. Being fairly unsure of what would be best, I bought an array of half dozen blends and tried to read up on their respective effects to only minimal improvement in my understanding. Being a man of limited patience, I just chose one of the gummies with 10 msg. of THC and a small amount of CBD and gave it a try last night.
I woke up one time in the night, but was able to get back to sleep and slept a total of 7.5 hours, which is exactly in the sweet spot I like for a good night’s sleep. I did notice a higher than normal amount of grogginess as I showered and prepared for my day. I needed to spend four hours actively engaged in deposition preparation for one of my expert witness cases, and did note that the grogginess did not carry over. So, my first cannabis adventure was a success. I have decided to not use another gummy tonight because I would rather avoid getting too dependent on any sleep aids, so we’ll see how that goes.
I have never wanted to spend my life in a haze, or for that matter in a daze. I have never used any form of drugs or alcohol to any extent. I don’t drink coffee, so that means my biggest drug-related vice is caffeinated soda like the one I’m drinking now. Tomorrow will be a new day on the hilltop and perhaps in America, and with any luck we can all dispense with the lazy daze.