Building this cone filling machine has been a collaborative effort.  I have had the privilege of working with a couple of top notch local producers and local vendors.  A lot of people have had a hand in its development.  The biggest hand,  however has to be the Commander.  He’s a good friend whom I have known for over 20 years when our mutually insane ex-wives introduced us to each other shortly before we both divorced our mutually insane ex-wives for generally the same reasons.

Some of you may know that I am a retired aircraft mechanic with a background in air freight operations.  I’ve got plenty of time on the shop floor and I spent the last an almost equal amount of time in the nuts & bolts of operations.  Through that career,  I developed a real Love/hate relationship towards engineers.  I mean,  they are good guys and all of that and we wouldn’t have all the cool things we had if we didn’t have them.  All that aside,  you won’t believe how stupid they can be sometimes.  There are many times I have stood beside an airplane and cursed them because they don’t seem to think of the guy coming behind them.  I always wanted the job of being the guy standing behind the design engineer w/ a wrench in my hand ready to whop ‘m upside d’head when he does something stupid.

Well now,  I’ve got it.

The Commander is the real secret weapon.  He is a retired USN Attack Submarine Commander who also happens to be a professional engineer.  We’ve been having a lot of fun building this together.  He thought it would be a simple exercise of his design skills.  The plant proved him wrong.  We have gone through several iterations of ideas w/ lots of squabbling and me picking up wrenches.  He gives as good as he gets.  Sometimes he is right,  sometimes I am right and pretty much at all times we agree which one is right.

I mention all of this because I think it is good thing we have a  veteran of undersea warfare bringing his considerable engineering talent to this difficult task.

So Commander?  On behalf of all of us in this burgeoning legal cannabis market and for all the hard work you have done to help us find the perfect joint,  I just want to say,  thank you for your service to your country.  You are saving America.