Memories of Grandma's House

Like most people, I always have fond memories of going to grandma's house. I was lucky enough to have grandma's house no more than about a 5-minute drive from our own, so much time was spent over there. Of course, grandma and grandpa had a big house, with a big backyard, and there was always something fun to do over there. (Oh yeah, and they had cable TV, which growing up we never had at home, which made it bonus fun.) Sure, the house had a distinctly straight-out-of-decades-past look, but that's what you expect when you go to grandma's.

But I'm not just waxing nostalgic for no good reason right now. First a bit of history... a few years back before my grandma died, she moved into an "old-people apartment" and we sold her house. I would have kept the house and lived in it, but alas I was just starting at the UW, and really wasn't in the place to live in a house in Federal Way. So what can you do? The house was sold to a nice couple who did some renovation work on the unfinished basement and (though I have never seen it) apparently did some nice things to the house. But last year or so they sold it. And that's about the last we heard of it... until my parents were talking to some friends who still live in my the neighborhood where the house is and we come to find out that the new owners were, how do you say... on the wrong side of the law? Apparently they bypassed the electrical meter and added some new lighting downstairs in the basement. Yes, that's right folks, grandma's house was turned into a illegal marijuana growing and distribution shop.

I recently stumbled onto a press release from the US DEA, ["Marijuana Manufacturing And Distribution Conspiracy Shut Down"]. The address is clearly listed on the press release, where apparently they found 394 plants and $35,000 in cash. Now there's something you don't see everyday.

Grandma's house, it is no more.