Sohumborn ended as she began, with lots of gossip. Hers (I guess maybe I am assuming she was a woman) was the only blog I read. She was a great storyteller, riveting and controversial. She brought up issues within me that I had glossed over a long time ago.
My parents were pot growers in the early eighties. This was a truly frightening time to choose this profession. CAMP was just beginning and they were very gung-ho. Property confiscations were not uncommon. My parents lived in Mad River. My mother told me she decided to leave when the neighbors started carrying guns on a regular basis. She took her two children and moved to Weaverville to wait for my dad to come to his senses. He joined us within the year, and got what we thought was a good job at the local sawmill. He steadily rose in the company until he became a millwright. He almost always worked either swing or graveyard. I love my dad and I remember him as being fun and loving towards us. The family secret came out when I was fourteen. My dad was a meth addict. It had started in the hills with the harvest seasons. Back then coke was very popular and you could get a lot more done if you were highly alert. When he moved to town meth seemed a reasonable way to stay awake at night, besides everyone else was doing it.
I have mixed feelings about pot. Mostly I don’t mind it, I don’t think it causes the serious personality issues long term use of other drugs do. I think that most of the bad rap comes form it being illegal. If it was legal theft would not be such an issue. If it were legal children would not have to keep secrets, and the people who chose to grow would not have to worry about over zealous law enforcement. Pot money has given a lot of good things to Humboldt County. For example: KMUD, the Mateel, Beginnings, fully funded volunteer fire departments, donations to food shelters, donations to environmental groups, plus much much more. I can’t think of a single positive thing meth has done for our community, and yet it’s use and prevalence in our community doesn’t get nearly as much play.
Sohumborn’s blog was the catalyst to my own blog. I am hurt by the hole in my favorites. Looking at the comments to her absence on Kym’s blog, I feel as if the same thing is happening there that happened with comments to her stories, no one is critical or detracting. No one takes her to task, for her choice in stories or her abrupt absence with no explanation. I am not saying this is what she deserves, I just know people are saying it off the computer. So I will try not to be a hypocrite without sounding spiteful, because I am not.
Why!!! Why do you feel the need to leave so soon after struggling through the badmouthing? Was it a significant other? I don’t think your stories are enough for real legal action so I am crossing that one out. Why erase your whole blog? Oh I am soo disappointed.
I hope everyone realizes that the fact that I was drawn to write this is a testimony to the force of her writing. Best of luck to you Sohumborn, grudgingly.
I am back from a computer vacation. I was housesitting for some friends and they lived beyond telephone lines. Their house is beautiful and comfortable. I really enjoyed being out of touch. I didn’t go as many places because I didn’t now anything was happening. I wasn’t concerned about the economy or the war because I was not getting daily updates. I had fun being with my kids and not being so concerned with what needed to be done. Without the computer or the phone I had more time to catch up. I wonder how much of my day is spent waiting for pages to load or trying to fix little glitches. I must admit at the end of two weeks I was a little anxious. I had finished three books and knitted a ball of yarn (I am a beginner so this is exciting for me). I wasn’t home so I couldn’t really start new projects. The last two days I became irritable and lazy. 
I have been married for five years now. We have been together for ten years. I recently had a friend ask me how I knew things were going to work between us. I told her very bluntly that I didn’t… still don’t. As a matter of fact my husband and I had just been through a series of brutal arguments, and it had crossed my mind several times that we wouldn’t work things out. 
In Retaliation 