During a break in our Maze series, while drinking camomile tea and meditating on my navel–or at least that part still visible–I came across a little sidebar news blurb in our local paper that caught my eye.

To wit:

A Wollochet Bay-area man who shot an intruder sent to his home to beat him up for refusing to pay for $22,000 worth of sex acts pleaded guilty to a drug charge in connection with the incident.

Terry Riggs, 58, pleaded guilty to unlawful manufacturing of marijuana and second-degree unlawful possession of a firearm…

Pierce County sheriff’s deputies discovered about 20 marijuana plants in Riggs’ home while inverstigating a shooting. Prosecutors allege a woman sent two friends to Riggs’ home Jan 2nd because he owed her for sex acts and refused to pay.

The two men donned masks and tried to break into Riggs’ house. They beat up Riggs, who then shot one of the intruders…

He was not charged in the shooting. Police said he acted in self-defense.

Now, those who are regular readers here will quickly surmise that I am no proponent of visiting ladies of the evening–it’s a bad idea, no matter how you slice it. Wisdom dictates that all you stallions hang with the filly you brought to the dance, if you catch my drift. And fellows getting entangled with the law over prostitutes is hardly newsworthy nowadays, but…

$22,000 in sex acts??!! Yes, that’s two 2’s before the comma. 22k. 220 Franklins.

Whoa, nelly.

That’s a lot of buck for the bang.

Now, I’m not quite 58, not dead yet, and certainly have no plans to visit the working ladies, but I can tell you that $200 in sex acts would probably kill me–assuming my wife didn’t first. But $22,000 worth? The mind boggles..

No wonder he was growing medicinal marijuana.