Every day is a new day and with that, a new opportunity.
EVERYONE is welcome and please join us each morning at 7:30 AM PACIFIC
to tell us what you're working on, share your show & tell, vent, whatever you want...
...this is an open thread. Nothing is off topic.
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Do you have mind-altering experiences you'd be willing to share?
When I say mind altering I don't mean having a couple of beers or spinning around in a circle until you're dizzy. I'm talking about experiences with mind expansion-type stuff.
I'm writing this diary because of the fact pot became legal in Colorado yesterday. I'm proud of that! And that got me to thinking about my years growing up there. Here comes an interesting experience I had.
Because I grew up in Denver, I was fortunate to be in the right place at the right time when I was 16 years old. A very interesting thing occurred there in 1967 and for some reason, I found myself right in the middle of it. (This kind of stuff happens to me all the time. Why? I'm not sure, but I have always been keenly aware it's just the way it goes.)
LSD became illegal in California on October 6, 1966. Owsley Stanley and Tim Scully who were the LSD makers extraordinaire therefore decided to set up a new lab in Denver. The new lab was set up in the basement of a house across the street from the Denver zoo in early 1967. I was 10 years old then. But Denver had become the place where all this pure, amazing LSD was being produced by the bucket load.
When I was 16 I hung out at Washington Park in the south part of Denver which was where all the hippies hung out. Hippies in 1967 were the real deal, and that hadn't changed at all by 1973 when I was 16. I purchased a hit of LSD. It cost $1.50. I liked it ----> a lot! After my initial experience I bought 50 more doses of LSD. "Orange barrels" is what they were called. They were very tiny orange cylinders containing one dose each.
I then did all 50 hits during the three month's summer vacation between 11th and 12th grades. I'm not kidding. I was doing it basically every other day for that entire summer. I was never the least bit interested in "getting off." I was totally into the mind expansion experience of altered states of consciousness. For some reason it was natural for me. I never had a bad trip and gained more and more understanding with each experience.
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OK, here's my true, funny story. After I graduated from 12th grade I went to the University of Colorado. The year was 1975 when I started college and LSD was still very prevalent. At that time there were still three communes in Boulder, just to give you an idea of the times.
After completing the first year of college, we were allowed to live off campus (the first year you had to live in the dorms). I rented an apartment with a couple other guys in the summer right after my freshman year. One of these guys I'll call Warren...because his name was Warren. We'd go to all the parties all around Boulder during the summer. They were everywhere. One night we decide to take some LSD I bought.
It was window pane and was supposed to be "singles." That means each little square of the stuff was one dose. We took it and started walking around Boulder to go to various parties. After we came on, it became apparent to me this wasn't single-hit window pane. It was "4-way," which means each little square was actually 4 doses. Oh boy, here we go. There is no getting off this ride and it was going to be a long ride. I knew that because I was really quite experienced with LSD. Warren not so much. He started behaving a bit strangely. So I decided we needed to walk back to our apartment to be by ourselves. We made it back.
Of course everything I looked at melted and breathed. Then that "reality" simply vanished altogether and became simply indescribable. Warren wasn't doing so well. He was starting to fall apart. Of course that's the whole point of taking LSD, but if you aren't really experienced...and you can't simply let your ego "die" and let go, you'll have a bad trip.
More of this experience after the orange New Day cloud
We were sitting on the couch. I got up to take a leak. When I came back Warren was on the telephone (wtf?). Our third roommate was visiting his mom back in Denver. Warren was having so much trouble coping with his experience he'd gotten the bright idea to call our roommate at his mom's home because he thought that talking to him would somehow help him become more centered. Oy vey!
I come back into the living room area to hear Warren saying, "Lugnum sowry gwambum singyrvprp," or something like that. He wasn't speaking English. I walked over to him just as he fell straight down. I broke his fall and took the phone. Then I started talking to our roommates' mom (I could still speak English). She was quite concerned because Warren wasn't making any sense...or speaking in any known language.
I talked with her some and told her, "Everything is just fine." Then I hung up. Whew! Close call. I got Warren up off the floor and got him to the couch. I turned on the TV and told him to watch it. He wasn't really able to. I talked to him trying to anchor him to me, since it was obvious that was the only thing to do because he wasn't able to actually see the TV anymore let alone what was showing on it. That worked. Everything seemed cool. I knew it would be 12 hours+ until this trip was over.
After a short while I heard sirens...lots of sirens. I listened closely. They were getting closer and closer. I thought some horrible accident must have happened for so many sirens to be screaming. They came closer and closer still. I thought the accident must have happened right near where we lived.
KNOCK, KNOCK, KNOCK!!! Oh shit.
I opened the door to our apartment. What I saw was two cops, two paramedics and a number of fire fighters all right there at my door. I looked up and down the street and all I could see in both directions were cop cars, and firetrucks with their lights flashing. I said, "Good God!!!". Then I looked right into one cop's eyes and said, "all we need is a cop and paramedics." The cop said, "OK." And with that he told all the others they could leave. He alone came into our apartment along with two paramedics.
Inside the apartment now, I said to the cop (who just happened to be black), "I guess I'm really screwed now." He responded, "All I need is your name and date of birth." I gave it to him. Warren was sitting on the couch looking at...I suppose he was on Jupiter, I have no idea what he was seeing. He really wasn't there at all.
The paramedics (both had long hair) started laughing. It was beyond obvious Warren and I were tripping our minds out on LSD. And it was obvious as hell I was able to actually handle it while Warren was...well he was two galaxies away by now. On our coffee table we had a bong and dope and rolling papers. The paramedics then began fucking with me...laughing their asses off.
One rolled two joints and stuck one in my mouth and another in Warren's mouth. Then he lit them up and told us to inhale. He said, "Can you feel that in your lungs?" I was mortified because I knew he was fucking with me. Warren was in a Star Trek episode by now in a galaxy far, far away. He took a hit but didn't say a word. I told the guy, "Yes I can feel that." He took our vital signs then assured us, "Your bodies are still here, man, waiting for you to come back." Then he looked at me and said, "In India they call this Maya." Then he just cracked the fuck up. I was embarrassed as hell tripping my brains out with this long-haired paramedic making me smoke a joint he'd rolled up with our dope and laughing his ass off.
I looked over at the cop and said, "I guess I'll be going away for a while." He said, "Don't worry. Just stay inside here tonight." Then the cop and two paramedics all laughed their asses off and left. Ten minutes later I wondered to myself "did that really happen." I honestly didn't know. It could easily have been just part of the festivities going on in my experience that night. Believe me, when you're on 4-way you honestly have no idea if anything is of this earth or not.
A week later I walk past the Fire Station where the paramedics hang out. I looked into the bay of the place. Sure enough the two paramedics were there. They saw me and both started cracking up. We all just laughed our asses off and I felt embarrassed all over again. That's when I knew what I'd experienced really happened.
I never heard anything about it...nothing. It was the summer of 1976 and just a typical Boulder, Colorado thing. I didn't receive anything in the mail or have any legal ramifications. It is as though it never even happened. DID IT? :)
Do you have any interesting stories about taking mind-altering substances?
:: COMMUNITY BUILDING UPDATES ::
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Let's build communities!
Every region needs a meatspace community like SFKossacks.
We take care of each other in real life.
I urge YOU to take the lead and organize one in your region.
Please tell us about it if you do and we're here for advice.
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THINK GLOBALLY, ACT LOCALLY
>>>Instructions on HOW TO FORM A NEW DAILY KOS GROUP
NEW GROUPS IN THE PROCESS OF ORGANIZING:
Send a Kosmail to the organizers and ask for an invitation to the group.
• Northern Indiana Area: Kosmail Tim Delaney
• Long Island: Kosmail grannycarol
• Northern Michigan: Kosmail JillS
• Nebraska: Kosmail Nebraska68847Dem
• Westburbia Chicago Kossacks: Kosmail Majordomo
• Caprock Kossacks (Panhandle/Caprock/Lubbock/Amarillo area) : Kosmail shesaid
• West Texas Kossacks (including Big Bend Region and El Paso) : Kosmail Yo Bubba
• Las Vegas Kossacks: Kosmail miracle11
• Vermont Kossacks: Kosmail 4Freedom
Note to the above new leaders: Feel free to leave a comment any day reminding readers about your new group. Also, tell us about your progress in gathering members. Kosmail me when you've chosen a good name for your group and have created a the group. Then I'll move you to the NEW GROUPS LIST. When you've planned a date for your first event I'll make a banner for you to highlight your event in our diaries and your diaries.
These are the groups that have started since * NEW DAY * began. Please Kosmail navajo if you have started a group before that.
NEW GROUPS LIST:
• California Central Valley Kossacks - Formed: Jul 29, 2012, Organizer: tgypsy
• New England Kossacks - Formed: Aug 6, 2012, Organizers:
Clytemnestra for Lower New England (Conneticut, Massachusetts, Rhode Island)
nhox42 for Upper New England (Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont)
• Houston Area Kossacks - Formed: Aug 7, 2012, Organizer: Chrislove
• Kossacks in India - Formed: Aug 14, 2012, Organizer: chandu
• CenTex Kossacks - Formed: Sep 9, 2012, Organizer: papa monzano
• Central Ohio Kossacks - Formed: Sep 26, 2012, Organizer: VetGrl
• Kansas City Kossacks - Formed Oct 15, 2012, Organizer: [Founder stepped down]
• Phoenix Kossacks - Formed Oct 16, 2012, Organizer: arizonablue
• Chicago Kossacks - Formed: Oct 31, 2012, Organizer: figbash
• Koscadia the Pacific Northwest coast from Northern California to Alaska
- Formed Oct 17, 2012, Oganizer: Horace Boothroyd III based in Portland, OR
• Boston Kossacks - Formed: Nov 7, 2012, Organizer: GreyHawk
• Motor City Kossacks South East Michigan (Detroit) Area - Formed: Nov 10, 2012, Organizer: peregrine kate
• Pittsburgh Area Kossacks - Formed: Nov 12, 2012, Organizer: dweb8231
• Salt Lake City Kossacks - Formed: Nov 17, 2012, Organizer: War on Error
• Twin Cities Kossacks - Formed: Nov 17, 2012, Organizer: imonlylurking
• Dallas Kossacks North Texas - Formed: Nov 21, 2012, Admins: Catte Nappe and dalfireplug. Please contact them to join the group. An Event Organizer needed.
• The Southern California Inland Empire Kossacks - Formed: Dec 3, 2012, Organizer: SoCaliana
• Los Angeles Kossacks - Formed: Dec 17, 2012, Organizer: Dave in Northridge
• Northeast Ohio Kossacks - Formed: Jan 16, 2013, Organizer: GenXangster
• Kansas & Missouri Kossacks - Formed: Jan 17, 2013, Organizer: tmservo433
• I-77 Carolina Kossacks who live from Columbia, SC to north of Winston-Salem, NC. - Formed: Jan 30, 2013, Organizers: gulfgal98 and eeff
• Indianapolis Kossacks - Formed: Feb 6, 2013, Organizer: CityLightsLover
• Southwest Ohio Kossacks - Formed: May 10, 2013, Organizer: Dr Erich Bloodaxe RN
• Northern Arizona Kossacks - Formed: Jul 5, 2013, Organizer: Sam Sara
• Mexican Kossacks - Formed: Apr 14, 2013, Organizer: roberb7
• New York Hudson Valley Kossacks - Formed: Oct 27, 2012, Organizer: boran2
• North Carolina Triangle Kosmopolitans - Formed: Aug 2, 2013, Organizer: highacidity
• Silicon Valley Kossacks - Formed: Oct 31, 2013, Organizer: Glen The Plumber
• Seattle and Puget Sound Kossacks - Formed: Dec 17, 2013, Organizer: EagleOfFreedom
ESTABLISHED GROUPS LIST: (List will grow as we discover them)
• SFKossacks Founded by navajo, Formed: May 2, 2005
• Maryland Kos Founded by timmyc, Formed: Feb 23, 2011. Contact: JamieG from Md for a group invite.
• New York City Founded by Eddie C - Contact the group organizer for meet-up events: sidnora
• Baja Arizona Kossacks, Event Organizer: Azazello
• Three Star Kossacks Tennessee, Founded by maryKK, Formed: Apr 8, 2011
• Nashville KosKats, Founded by ZenTrainer Formed: Jan 30, 2012
• Virginia Kos Founded by JamieG from Md, Formed: May 3, 2011
• Kos Georgia Founded by pat208, Formed: Feb 13, 2011
• Colorado COmmunity Founded by Leftcandid, Formed: Feb 13, 2011
• New Mexico Kossaks Founded by claude
• Philly Kos Founded by mconvente Formed: Aug 29, 2011
• DKos Florida Founded by ThirstyGator, Formed: Feb 14, 2011, Currently organizing: Kosmail Vetwife to be included in next event.
• Oklahoma Roundup Founded by BigOkie, Formed: Feb 13, 2011, Currently organizing: Kosmail peacearena to be included.
• DKos Asheville Founded by davehouck, Formed: Feb 13, 2011 - Organizing Assist by: randallt
• San Diego Kossacks Founded by La Gitane, Formed: Nov 18, 2011
• Massachusetts Kosmopolitans Founded by mem from somerville, Formed: Feb 13, 2011
:: Events Currently on the Books for Kossacks ::
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Saturday, January 4th
Motor City Kossacks Meet-up
TIME: Noon
LOCATION: Sweetwater Tavern
400 East Congress Street • Detroit
ORGANIZER: Send peregrine kate a kosmail to attend.
RSVPs:
1. peregrine kate
2. Brainwrap
3. BFSkinner
4. sydneyluv
5.
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Maybees:
mideedah
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Latest diary: Motor City Kossacks! TWO Meetups Planned: Sa 1/4, lunch, Detroit; Th 1/9, dinner, Ann Arbor
Thursday, January 9th
Motor City Kossacks Meet with NN14 Staff: Raven Brooks, Mary Rickles and Nolan Treadway
TIME: 6:30 PM
LOCATION: TBD
[Address] • Detroit
ORGANIZER: Send peregrine kate a kosmail to attend.
RSVPs:
1. peregrine kate
2.
3.
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Maybees: |
Latest diary: Motor City Kossacks! TWO Meetups Planned: Sa 1/4, lunch, Detroit; Th 1/9, dinner, Ann Arbor
Saturday, January 11th
Houston Kossacks Meet-up
TIME: 1:00 PM
LOCATION: Barry's Pizza
6003 Richmond Avenue • Houston
ORGANIZER: Send Chrislove a kosmail to attend.
RSVPs:
1. Chrislove
2. nomandates
3. Bree Davis
4. cosette
5. mister mustardhead
6. TDDVandy
7. Mary
8. Alan
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Maybees:
Mr. cosette
Libby Shaw
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Latest diary: [Waiting for linked diary]
Sunday, January 12th
NYC Kossacks Meet-up
TIME: Noon
LOCATION: Spitzer's Corner
101 Rivington Street (Ludlow) • NYC
Meet in the back room. This venue is wheelchair accessible.
ORGANIZER: Send sidnora a kosmail to attend.
RSVPs:
1. sidnora
2. blue jersey mom
3. rubyr
4. kathny
5. joanbrooker
6. oxfdblue
7. mattc129
8. Bethesda1921
9. No Exit
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Maybees:
mconvente
Ian Reifowitz
gchaucer2
Laura Clawson
Rosalie907
andgarden
wader
isabelle hayes
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Latest diary: Coming In From The Cold: January 12, A NYC Meetup!
Saturday, January 25th
Asheville Kossacks Meet-up with City Councilman Gordon Smith Speaking
TIME: 1:00 PM
LOCATION: The Cantina
10 Biltmore Plaza • Asheville
ORGANIZER: Send randallt a kosmail to attend.
RSVPs:
1. randallt
2. davehouck
3. Gordon20024
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Maybees:
Munchkn
SteelerGrrl
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Latest diary: DKos Asheville - Weekly Open Thread & January Meetup Planned
Sunday, January 26th
SFKossacks Welcome matching mole to San Francisco!
TIME: TBD, daytime car trip to the Delta for birding with lineatus
LOCATION: Grizzly Island Wildlife Area
2548 Grizzly Island Road • Suisun City
lineatus will have a spotting scope and a few spare pairs of binoculars, so novices can have something to use.
ORGANIZER: Send lineatus a kosmail to attend.
RSVPs:
1. lineatus
2. matching mole
3. navajo
4. tgypsy
5. kimoconnor
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Maybees: |
TIME: TBD, evening event for city folk and to celebrate dharmasyd's and kimoconnor's birthdays!
LOCATION: TBD
[Address] • [City]
ORGANIZER: Send lineatus a kosmail to attend.
RSVPs:
1. lineatus
2. matching mole
3. navajo
4. dharmasyd
5. side pocket
6. norm
7. kimoconnor
8. Glen The Plumber
9. remembrance
10. TLO
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Maybees: |
Latest diary: Dawn Chorus: Preview of Coming Attractions
Date Moving to January 2014
Connecticut Kossacks Meet-up!
TIME: TBD
LOCATION: The Shamrock Pub & Grill
210 Meadow St. • Waterbury
The Shamrock is a short walk from the MTA Metro North Station. If anyone wants to take Amtrak, thankgodforairamerica can pick you up in Meriden and drive you to the event.
ORGANIZER: Send thankgodforairamerica a kosmail to attend.
RSVPs:
1. thankgodforairamerica
2. gchaucer2
3.
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Maybees:
annieli
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Latest diary: [Waiting for linked diary]
Send navajo a kosmail if you post a diary about an event so we can update our round-up.
Okay. Floor's open.
Tell us what you are doing on this NEW DAY?