IAmA 81 year old grandfather and author, I've been blind for 67 years and smoking pot for 50 years. I've written two books based on my life in the 30s and 60s. AMA!

Is the whole "Other senses develop" thing bullshit?

The way it is, is that we use what we have, and reducing the senses to hearing and touch and smell - if you're sensitive, you will pick up on the reality that is around you.

I smoke pot as well! Have you had any adverse health risks from smoking so long?

Outside of a cough, nothing. It has been a lifesaver - being blind and having the good old herb

How difficult is it to grow a strong bond between you and your multiple guided dogs considering how many you've had? Also, have you ever tried psychedelics such as LSD to experience sight again?

Last question, how did you become blind?

1) At the beginning, there was no problem because a dog was a dog was a dog, and having to get from one place to another - for me, the motion was huge and going from one dog to another was easy. Then, as I got older, the dog had become a buddy, someone who knows everything and will not tell.

2) Yes, I tried psychedelics - and I stumbled onto an inner world that had its own lights. It made the simplest act huge out of proportion. I felt an experience that took me to the very edge. It was late at night, my family was sound asleep, and so when the house was sleeping I dropped my tab. I was in the kitchen, lying on a quilt when I remembered that there was some leftover roast. And as I stood, reached for the refrigerator door, I began to change over to a furry creature. It was as close as I wanted to go. I saw that - and nothing else.

3) I was 12 years old. School had just terminated, and for a young boy at 12 the summer was before me. A few of the boys ran over a bridge and down below there were lots of traffic - trains and streetcars. Before arriving onto the bridge we stopped and gathered all kinds of bottles and rocks. nothing was too heavy for us for we were warriors, running to discharge their load. And so it happened that a bottle or two struck the smoke-hatch of the train. The train stopped with a shriek of the wheels and someone with blue overalls waved their hand at us - and summer just before us. My friends ducked and ran down behind the sidewalk, and I - thinking I was Frank Merriwell from Harvard - ran out into the street - and the bottles that I was carrying was what did the damage.

How has weed in relation to potency and quality changed over your lifespan?

Over my lifetime there has been Mexican, Columbian, and assorted Thai, Panama Red - then California, which trumped everything else. It was a time

That sounds interesting, thank you for answering by the way. You seem like an outstanding man, I've never heard of your books but I will be giving them a try next time to the book store. Stay easy and keep on smoking :)

Hey thanks for the good words. Larry's books are independently published so you won't be finding it in your book store yet - they're both on Amazon.com though just look for Lawrence Aguirre!

Do you find that your sense of hearing is a lot more refined when you smoke?

If my hearing isn't sharpened, something seems to envelope me, and through some weird hollow tunnel it all funnels. If I'm lucky, and its the first hit of the day, and if the sun is just right and the light bends just so, it makes a difference.

how do you smoke? do you roll, do you use a piece?

I have a big glass pipe, with a large hole, and I break the buds and light a match, then I do what comes naturally.

What do you remember most from WWII?

What I remember most from WWII is that something was happening far away. In 1943 I was ten years old, and the bad guys were Japs and Germans. For a ten year old boy living in the ghetto, the war was far, far away, only to be experienced on news reels. For at 10 years old, I had sight and saw Japanese Zeros and German Messerschmitts flying in american war movies. Audie Murphey was not my hero

What's your biggest regret?

My biggest regret was that I never told my wife that I loved her. It wasn't that I wasn't loving and caring, but when you came down to it, when I looked at our relationship I get the feeling that I did not convince her. If I have any regret, that's the only one

Do you like to dance?

Dancing in the 60s, with acid in my head and the Grateful Dead jamming Johnny B Goode was a highlight for me - but before dancing came wrestling. I was wrestling champion in 1948 and '49, and that wrestling gave me the balance that I needed for dancing with 10,000 Dead heads.

Favorite strain of pot? Can you identify your pot strains via smell easily now? ( I can do this somewhat accurately but more based on sight & smell not smell alone).

More serious how hard was bringing in cash and supporting your family? What struggles did you face as a blind person we sighted people would never even think of?

EDIT* Spelling thanks guys...

1) I have learned the shape of the sativa. The true shape of indica was a heavy dark cola. I have had my shot at pot - beginning with Mexican and thereafter - so, smoking it is the ultimate test, touching it, seeing how much spring it is, how dry it is, how young it is; smoking it and touching it. The smell, often, can be deceiving.

2) For one, sound being my tell-all, was huge, but as the world turned and things evolved I had to believe that everything was jake, and I guess you live with your hands on the keys in case you have to split. But it was all in the flow, no big rush, for every day would come regardless of what I did.

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As a matter of fact, Big Band and Broadway musicals are what I cut my tooth on regarding music.

Do you think the feel and the mood of the country changes a lot (in terms of assumptions, enthusiasm, priorities) from decade to decade? Or is that something that stands out more strongly in looking back, and at the time you're less aware of it and just focused on living your life?

Every generation, as the generation of the 60s that I write about in my book Blind Chance, came like a rush. And the young generation that was 18 or 19 got a pass to heaven. Ma and Pa would pay the bill, and they would go to the university. The generation of the 60s had rock'n'roll, which gave permission to young and old, to get down, to forget that mercy isn't what we're going to settle for. Every moment has its own truth, every truth has its own moment. Seconds can make the difference.

What do your dreams depict? And do you constantly dream?

I've noticed I don't dream much while smoking heavy.

Ever since my yellow female Lab, Anna Lee, was put down - its hard to imagine but so much time has gone by. Almost from the very beginning I wanted my Anna Lee to enter my dreams. Most of my smoking is early in the morning before I work out. I have a whole program that I do physically, it's a good hour to an hour and a quarter. Another time, when I smoke, is before every writing session, before the person comes that's going to take down the dictation I smoke a little bit, twist my mind, allow something to creep up, then slowly put arms and legs, a torso, a head. I also smoke when the getting is good and life is doing its best to meet me halfway. Right about then, I blow a little weed.