Click this link to hear the broadcast from 1/24/23 or read the transcript of it below!
Howie: Hey, RT 93 9, the lake. Good morning. Let’s see if he’s on the line. I’m not quite sure. Hello? Are you there? Hello?
Cody: Hello!
Howie: My gosh, he’s there. Folks live on the line. We missed him last Tuesday. Cody Bass, Fromm Tahoe Wellness Center. One of the best places just to mellow out. Even when my car pulls into the parking lot, the tires just kind of just start deflating going. I’m feeling pretty mellow right now. I’m just gonna lower the air pressure. I feel Stress free
Cody: <Laugh>. Yeah, man. Especially these days. Stress free is a nice place to be.
Howie: I know. You know what? It’s really weird. When I was up there last week in Reno and I couldn’t get home and I was going, oh man, I, I can’t miss, I can’t miss a Tuesday. My Tuesday’s my favorite day next to Freaky Fat Friday. You know? Cause I like, I love the guests I have on. And, and so, you know, when I drove home last Tuesday, man, it was it was gnarly going over to Spooner, that’s for sure. But so nice to be now in one location and just see nothing but blue skies outside. It’s so cool.
Cody: Yeah, it is really, man. It’s been awesome this last, this last week with just the blue skies and, you know, it was awesome to go through that. What was it, about 22 days of just great weather. I mean, that was really brings you back to what Tahoe’s all about,
Howie: Man. I feel sorry for Connie. This is her second winter here and then Yeah, it’s pretty drastic so far, you know. And then I, I was telling the listening audience, well, those that were listening that when she first moved up here, like six months later, we had to evacuate. And now I had to explain to her why there’s a few pots and pans in the living room, honey. It’s called an ice dam. So as soon as I get some of that snow off the roof, it won’t be jamming up underneath the shingles there and watching little drips in the living room. <Laugh>,
Cody: <Laugh>. He’s right. You gotta catch all the drips.
Howie: Have, have you been taking advantage of the fresh powder? Have you, have you gone skiing yet, or boarding or anything like that? ]
Cody: No, I have, man, I’ve had about nine days, which, you know, wow. I’ve had in a whole lot. But for me these days, that’s pretty good. So yeah, I’ve, I’ve gotten a couple days on firebreak and just, man, I’ve had some really good days. Nothing in the back country yet. That’s something I really wanna embark on this year. But, I’ve had some, some amazing days up there. It’s awesome to some of those days were so crowded and, you know, you could take the, the gondola up and just kind of do fire break laps. Yeah. and man, as magical as others, definitely. I know I have to, brings back what Tahoe is really all about, you know, it’s a good perspective to, to get up there anytime you can because it’s true, it really does remind you of what a, what a blessing it is to be here and live
Howie: I need to go skiing with you or, or Curtis Fong. I need like an emotional support human, you know? Because I haven’t been up in a while. In fact, the last couple times I was gonna go, it, it was pretty, I couldn’t find a place to park man, which is good news for the resorts. So where I live in Myers Gateway to Southlake it, the street is like, it’s got a, a, you know, a, it’s about 25 degrees shooting down from my place. So I just inflated my giant inner tube and so far I’ve done like nine runs down down my street and it’s been awesome.
Cody: Right. <laugh> Yes. Well, you know, I mean, it has been busy, but I hear that Sierra’s really not so bad. I mean, of course the weekends are kind of insane. And I’ve heard it’s just amazing up there. I know that’s always something to check out. I keep telling people you do and it’s a bummer for people that only have, you know, if you’re a teacher, you only have Saturday and Sunday off. Yeah, sure. So it’s understandable. But, you know, one of these things that I think that, you know, encouragement from locals in a nice way and some people disagree with this, but Heavenly does have the ability, and a lot of resorts around the country have started to do this at least on Saturday and Sundays, where they have a reservation system where you have to get a reservation to the mountain and, and they close it off at a certain point because in reality there’s a capacity to how many people can get up the lifts per hour and you don’t really want to go over that capacity.
I don’t even believe that Heavenly or that they want do that cuz it erodes everybody’s experience. Right? Yeah. But I think they have more concerns, especially like from the locals, that people will get really upset about that. So I almost think as locals, you know, as those of us that support that idea, it would be good to give positive encouragement. To Heavenly unveil, if that’s something that, because it would, it’d be better for our town people if they know they’re not gonna be able to go skiing at Heavenly, but they’re up here, they’ll go do other things and not, you know, brigade ski on Boulevard and make it a complete gridlock mess. Yeah. So, you know, there’s all these things, and the best thing they could all do is just come and take it easy and get some cannabis and go hang out by the Lake <laugh>. It gives you a much better perspective than sitting in a griddlock mess on the ski hill. I’m not for sure.
Howie: Okay. I’ve always wanted to just on some days not ski, but still go up the lift and just sit on the lift and maybe, you know, maybe burn one and just ride the lift back down and then just go back up again. You know?
Cody: <Laugh>
Howie: Without getting off moving it, I don’t wanna get off the chair. I just wanna go, oh man, this is so cool. I’m getting high while getting high. And then I’ll de-accelerate and then I’ll just wave it to people getting off the bottom and go, nah, this, this chair’s taken, man, I’ll be doing this for at least another hour.
Cody: <Laugh> nice. You do that on a sky chair would be the best because, you know, you actually cannabis does basically get you higher at higher elevations a lot to do with having, you know, breathing less oxygen. It’s very well known that, you know, at the higher elevations you’re gonna feel higher for sure just because of less oxygen. Same with alcohol. I mean, if you drink high in the Alps or the altitude, it definitely affects you in a different way. It’s just our how much oxygen, you know, that we’re breathing. But I, I mean, looping Sky chair, I don’t know if they’ll let you do that. I don’t think so, but that would be unreal. The view on the way down would be, you know, you get high on the way up. I mean, and then man that you on the way down, hey, Go, you know, not recommending it.
Howie: Hey, John Rice gave me permission. Leave me alone. Hey, you know what though? I gotta ask you this and I think I know the answer not just because of your lifestyle, but, and obviously because of the business that you have. Have you noticed that when things get really stressed out there, I’ve seen a lot of people obviously losing it, you know, because of the pandemic and then just all the stuff going on in the world and, and even stuff with just, it’s so easy to get into like that stressed, oh, I hate everybody mode. God, I feel like I’m writing my life story. But, but you, once you start in, you know, in the business that you’re in, do you find yourself, when stress starts to hit you, you go, Hey, you know what? I’m not really gonna let it affect me, not just because of what I’m, I might be smoking whatever, but just be, you just go, like, it’s eventually gonna kind of work itself out. So why, why get my panties all in a knot when I could just kind of just unwind and just let the world and the universe, you know, just guide me where I need to go. That kind of attitude.
Cody: I personally do try to, to live with that attitude and, I would say that yeah, because of my lifestyle and, and partly because of the business I’m in, but really because of just the choice of kind of the perspective. However, I mean, I struggle and challenge and have been more challenged over, I would say this last year probably than almost ever. I mean, it, it has been one thing after the next, after the next. I can get into my individual challenges of life, but I think we all are going through ’em. And I do think that perspective and like the way that you view other individuals, all sorts of situations, the job that you do day to day, right all of that really creates kind of your outlook and the way that you’re gonna see the day or see the year.
And, you know, that’s what I was saying, going up on Heavenly and getting that perspective and seeing just the beauty and where we live and how blessed we are. Yeah. It’s such a great way to change that perspective. And then, and then you take the challenges on, and I will say that cannabis definitely helps my perspective and slows my thinking down. Enough to where I take on a challenge much differently than, let’s say if I were not using cannabis or mm-hmm. <Affirmative>. a lot of alternative people are using, you know, alcohol in place of, of that to kind of have a head change or using pharmaceuticals. And when you look at those other things to cope, cannabis is just a far better alternative and leaves you in a much better mind state. And, you know, that kind of leads into something… there was a study that just came out it was out of the east, it was, it was the, the Eastern South Carolina University.
And they basically have found a linkage between more or less cannabis has an aphrodisiac, so, right. They’re saying that cannabis has closed the orgasm inequality gap between men and women. Whoa. and it’s a whole study that has been done over the last two years that is finding cannabis more or less as an aphrodisiac. So, you know, there’s so many benefits with using cannabis in place of things like alcohol. There’s a lot that I think that interesting living in a cannabis lifestyle, I guess you could say has helped my perspective. And I would say I’m just as challenged as, as anybody out there from whatever spectrum of the society we live in. Of course there’s people that have far bigger challenges, without a doubt is it’s life as we live it. And yeah, I, I’m a pretty mellow guy. I try to just, I definitely don’t put my panties in a bunch, that’s for sure. <Laugh>
Howie: <Laugh>. You know, it’s weird. I’ve been accused over the years of being too laissez faire. You know, it’s like, I’ll get to my designated place where I have to be to do shows or whatever, but in between, I mean, I just don’t let things pile up on me. You know, I like to think of myself as a, a duck in the water. All the water’s the problem and it just rolls off my feathers, you know? I don’t really drink that much. A lot of people probably think I drink a, a I almost said the S word. I drink a lot of Jack Daniels. I do on occasion, but Connie can drink me under the table, which is like one and a half drinks. But I, I think I’ve just learned the mellow and now that I’ve discovered the different types of cannabis I’ve been applying that to my cooking as well too. And sometimes I’ll, I’ll surprise Connie and go, yeah, you’re, she goes, I feel really good tonight. Yeah. Well, guess what? I put in your rice pilaf!
Cody: <Laugh>. Yeah. <laugh>. Honestly it is, it’s such a great thing to cook with at dinner or for desserts or, you know, a cup of tea. Yeah. The, the thing is that I think, you know, a lot of, you know, I, I drank a fair amount of Coors in my earlier days, and I’ve really slowed down really in the last year, like in a major way. And it’s amazing the difference of, of just how you feel and in your outlook and not having, you know, days where you’re hung over to a point that you really can’t even think straight. Right. Yeah. And using cannabis as an alternative to that is, is such a positive thing for health and overall wellness, but just daily mental mindset. And I’ve noticed a big change and, you know, it’s pretty amazing.
Just today actually the DEA has now released a study that they funded and has backed up that shows major reductions in opioid, in opioid demand, in places where legal cannabis is accessed and available to people. And so, you know, people are, are seeing that they can use cannabis in place of Oxycontin or some of these really intense opioids. And it’s really creating a reduction. And that’s a study by the DEA that, you know, I mean, technically still cannabis as a schedule one drug and, and federally illegal. But these are the studies that are gonna get us to change it at a, at a federal level and, and allow cannabis to be traded internationally and used as medicine and, and really get to the, get to where we need to. So the cannabis industry will, will mature to a place that allows for prosperity. Right now there’s a lot of challenges and a lot of it has to do with the conflict of state and federal law.
Howie: Right, right. That’s, Hey, was that being said? God, now, I, I always feel mellow when I chat with you. I always feel like, oh man, I feel like I’m already drifting into a parallel universe and I haven’t found the vortex to take me through a wormhole. So I, I feel really mellow. People probably think I’m high already. That’s what’s great about doing this show, cuz people can’t tell if I really am high or not. Oh, he just sounds like that all the time at the start of the nine o’clock hour, you know,
Cody: <Laugh>, yes. <Laugh> nice. Hey, well, they’ll never know you another way. So that’s perfect way
Howie: To get it. Hey, is there anything we should, is there anything we should know about that’s coming up in the next week or two before our next chat that’s happening down there? At TWC?
Cody: Yeah. So, you know, we have gotten our community center back up and off the ground. We’re still looking for people that wanna hold, you know, classes there or want to do any type of gathering of positive you know, support groups. But one of the coolest things, Drea Dre who’s just an awesome guy, has started a men’s mental health group. And they did the first one last Saturday, and they’re gonna be holding another one on the 28th which will not be this Saturday. Okay. so that’s gonna be happening in our community center. The community center is an awesome space at Tahoe Wellness. We started that back in 2009. When I rented the space for the dispensary there used to be a tanning salon and then like a, a Photoshop that moved in there for just a month and it, and it had become vacant.
I had just gotten to know the Olsen family and I said, you know what, what we do in Sacramento, at our dispensary is create a community center that allows for people to come and use a space to gather and provide any type of service that they can provide. And, and back in those days, we could, we could give cannabis out right. To the people that were providing the services for free. So we were really able to organize, you know, a whole calendar of services. And we did that all the way up until the beginning of Covid mm-hmm. <Affirmative> and of course, COVID made us stop holding things like yoga classes and, and different gatherings. And so just over the last month, a great group of volunteers, just a really great group of people have come together, got it cleaned up.
They held that first men’s mental health group and there will be another one on the 28th. But the space is open seven days a week for anybody that wants to you know, provide a service or get a group of people together for a meeting. As, as long as it’s not it’s community minded. It’s not a space that’s for businesses to use. It’s, it’s really about community advocacy or providing a service to the broader community. We’ve done everything from haircuts to art class to yoga, massage, acupuncture. And the thing is they’re provided free to the community and we do allow any of those people to take, you know, gratuities. Those kind of things, but we don’t allow the service to be charged for. But the space is provided completely free. Oh, <laugh>. So it’s something that is there and been there for 14 years and, and we’re proud to see it come back. So so yeah, anybody that has any kind of idea or that wants to use the space you can reach out to me directly or at our front desk. They will guide you to the, the folks you need to get in touch with.
Howie: Man. That’s good to know. Hey, I just wanna say on a personal note, I used to dread berms and when I was gone in Reno at the Laugh Factory all last week and I came home, there was like five days worth of berms. And, but now when I, when I, if I, if I smoke a little, I’ll just look at the berm and start talking to it and go, Hey, I’m just gonna shave a little off the top and, and just work slowly and soon you’ll be gone and we’ll both be in a different state of mind,
Cody: <Laugh>. That’s right. There you go. That’s that mindset, See? Yep. A little sativa and a new mindset. That’s amazing.
Howie: It is. And this, is cool. Hey man, Cody is always and we’ll chat obviously next week and we’ll talk about the chat with you and the mayor because you’re the pro temp. We’ll do that next week. But man, thanks for making my Tuesdays much more bearable.
Cody: Yeah, man. Absolutely. You too. Howie, it’s it’s the good start of the week. I get through Monday and then I get the Tuesday here!
Howie: Good. Yeah, it’s, I’m not kidding man. If I already feel like I’m in a better space and I haven’t moved at all, you know, so it’s kind of nice.
Cody: <Laugh> the powers of the herbs.
Howie: Alright, I’ll drop by and say hi to the gang down there and I’ll come by and give a visit and just, I like staring at your conference table and pitch your pizzas on it. It’s pretty cool.
Cody: <Laugh> Nice. We’ll see you tomorrow. We’re around all day. All right, buddy.
