![\"Cookies](\"http:\/\/daviddilworth.com\/fun\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/Cookies.webp\")
<\/a>Cookies – Too Good to Pass Up<\/strong><\/p><\/div>\n Never a marijuana enthusiast, here’s an event that ended my already rare encounters with it.<\/p>\n One lovely summer evening, my camping friend Steve and I visited Pat, a High School friend at his Carmel Valley Village home. Pat was busy when we arrived. He called down from upstairs “I’m doing a massage. Make yourself at home and eat something.<\/em>”<\/p>\n Ok. Our attention was immediately commanded by a plate covered with marvelous looking large chocolate chip cookies. Cookies so big and tasteful it took minutes to delightfully consume. Mmmm that was good.<\/p>\n Steve and I looked at each other and grinned. Pat was still busy upstairs. So – sure let’s have another.<\/strong><\/p>\n Before long we’d eaten the whole plate of cookies. Neither of us was counting, but roughly Steve ate 4 cookies and I definitely had more than Steve. I might have eaten as many as 8. We relaxed in plush chairs and shared fun stories.<\/p>\n Eventually Pat finished, joined us and suggested we retire outside to enjoy the night air and stars. We soon found ourselves laughing. Well, that sent us further into Gales of laughter, punctuated with me falling out of the hammock. With no lull in our laughter, we somehow let Pat bundle us into his car and drove us all out of town.<\/p>\n He’d thrown some sleeping bags in the car – and we were off – still laughing. Loudly.<\/p>\n I’m in the back seat, and everything the guys said made me laugh even harder.<\/p>\n Then . . .<\/strong><\/p>\n there arose a moment when I got scared; for my life. I couldn’t breathe. For several long minutes I genuinely grew a large fear that I might die of asphyxiation.<\/p>\n Right Then.<\/p>\n Laughing all the way we continued driving out to Los Padres Dam. I grabbed a sleeping bag and walked over to the tall chainlink fence gate while the other guys were still getting ready and locking up the car.<\/p>\n I tried pushing the gate, but it would only swing open wide enough for one of those playing card men in Alice’s Through the Looking Glass. I kept pushing it and it kept banging against some stop. Eventually, Steve had an idea. He’s somewhat taller than I so he reached over my head and pulled the gate towards us – and it opened wide. In due course, we wandered down hill towards the river in starlight, into the grassy meadow and found places to put our sleeping bags down. And recalling all this the next day, it was easy to make a solid resolution to never have anything to do with marijuana again. Even though neither of us had understood that drugs were involved in our cookie decision.<\/p>\n Here I am decades later, and I’ve fully and easily kept that pledge. And I have to think hard to figure out (after affects?) if any of my many wonderful friends still “take a toke.”<\/p>\n # # #<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" (c) Copyright 2025, David Dilworth Never a marijuana enthusiast, here’s an event that ended my already rare encounters with it. One lovely summer evening, my camping friend Steve and I visited Pat, a High School friend at his Carmel Valley … Continue reading
\nFor two perpetually starving hikers (Not really; neither of us has ever missed a meal.) we were delighted with that prompt. And well Steve – he’s the closest thing to a gourmet cook on the trail. On an early overnight hike I pulled out my standard crackers and cheese. But Steve unstowed a camp stove and proceeded to make steak with mashed potatoes and Gravy<\/strong> !<\/p>\n
\nWe found a nice place with wooden chairs and I chose to repose in a hammock.<\/p>\n
\nFairly quickly – everything was funny.<\/strong>
\nAnd getting funnier. Then Pat explained the cookies were thick with marijuana.\u00a0 That turned out to be hilarious. Soon we were laughing loud enough that a neighbor lady, opened her window to yell at us “ShuuuUT up”
\nand slammed her window at us.<\/p>\n
\nOf course that was even funnier !
\nOr laughter grew into a storm; a cloudburst of laughing.<\/strong><\/p>\n
\nBut, I couldn’t stop laughing.
\nIn between laughs I tried to emit – “I Can’t Breathe !”
\nBut the other guys thought I was joking. And they kept laughing.<\/p>\n
\nWell, good news – I didn’t die and we eventually arrived at the parking area for the Dam where thankfully my laughing subsided.<\/p>\n
\nAfter a lot of banging the gate Steve and Pat showed up.
\nThey watched in rapt interest while I kept banging the gate against some mysterious block.<\/p>\n
\nOf course you can guess by now – that sent us back into gales of laughter.<\/p>\n
\nSnug in my bag, I tried to remember the names of my friends – whom I’d grown up and shared adventures with for decades. But try as I might, I could not remember their names !<\/p>\n