Month: September 2020

Friday’s Theme Music

It’s 1979. Disco, technopop and technorock, progressive stuff which veers away from heavy guitars, proliferates. As a young man out in the world, I just went with the flow, primarily because, wife. On my own, my preferences veered toward Pink Floyd and The Wall, but it doesn’t have one good dance tune on it, does i?

One of the songs of that era bounced to mind this morning after a bleak review of the news. “Good Times” by Chic was all about the little things that constitute good times – making a rent payment, having a friend. It also savagely mocks the same theme, mentioning keeping your head above water and surviving, yeah, that’s good times.

Sounds perfect for 2020, doesn’t it? Survived the pandemic, good times. Made it through the wildfires and hurricanes, good times. Survived unemployment and hunger, good times.

Or, as the song lyrics originally said:

Temporary lay offs.
Good Times.
Easy credit rip offs.
Good Times.
Scratchin’ and survivin’.
Good Times.
Hangin’ in and jivin’*
Good Times.
Ain’t we lucky we got ’em
Good Times.

source: http://www.lyricsondemand.com/tvthemes/goodtimeslyrics.html

Yeah, 2020; it’ll be memorable for its good times.

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The Camp Shower Dream

I was at a camp. Everyone at the camp were sitting in a large building with orange wooden walls. The building had three rooms. One was a small shower. The largest room was filled with rectangular orange wooden tables and chairs. The third room was small and bare.

All the campers were in the room with the tables. Most were seated at tables, but a few were standing. I was standing, back behind the leader to one side. The leader looked just like Enrico Colantoni, the actor. He made an announcement that everyone was going first be allowed to take a shower. People began getting up and moving toward the shower, located on the end of the table room.

I told the leader, “You can’t do that like that. It’ll be chaos. People in the shower will come out and have nowhere to go because everyone will be waiting to go into the shower. It needs to be organized. Have everyone leave the room and go wait outside. Call them in one table at a time.”

He dismissed the idea, but I kept preaching it to him until he capitulated. As he explained the plan to the assembly, I walked around the third room. Empty except for broken extra furniture, I listened, kicking furniture pieces as I did.

I realized that it was cold outside, so sending people out to wait wasn’t a good idea. Returning to the main room, I saw it was already empty. Six people were emerging from the shower, the first group.

I told the leader my concerns about people waiting in the cold. He said, “They’re okay, they’re waiting in their cars and running the heat as they need to.”

I reacted, “They have cars?” That surprised me.

The dream ended.

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Nocfloofnal

Nocfloofnal (floofinition) – Animals, especially housepets, who roam, play, eat, and fight at night.

In use: “Among housepets, cats are recognized as being nocfloofnal, with videos of them raising hell while their people trying to proliferating across the net.”

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The Trump Dream Segment

In the middle of my dreams was a segment featuring Donald J. Trump.

We were evacuating somewhere. The reasons for that were unclear. It was a watery place, more like a large lake or ocean than river or flood.

I was somehow involved with organizing it because, it’s my dream, right? We’re following OPLAN 1067. I don’t know if such an operations plan exists, but that’s the dream’s claim. For that, we need aircraft.

They’re being acquired. This is like the planning phase of the evacuation.

Donald J. shows up. We all get respectful, waiting to let him speak. He says, “You know what your problem is. You got too many planes.”

We’re all puzzling this out. We’re following the OPLAN. OPLANs follow painstaking processes and are based on past learning experiences. The OPLAN dictates how many planes we should have.

Although I’m not the head honcho, I’m about to point this out to Trump when the head honcho does. “We’re following OPLAN 1067. It calls for us to have sixty-seven aircraft.”

Trump then replies, “What’s an OPLAN?”

That leaves us all gaping and speechless. I answer, “OPLAN is an acronym for operational plan, a formal plan to address a problem or situation.”

Getting testy, Trump replies, “I know what an OPLAN is.” Then he turns to leave and says again, “You have too many planes.”

Then he’s gone.

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Thursday’s Theme Music

I have another Seger offering. As I was checking out the sunset last night — not too red, not too many particulates in the sky — I remembered other sunsets in other places, not so much exact moments but the sense of time. Foremost was being in California, watching sunsets in Half Moon Bay. Too much thule fog kept most of our sunsets from being spectacular.

Even so, infrequently one would slip through. Occasionally, we’d encountered the perfect triad of temperature, sunset, and ocean experience to elevate it to something wonderful that I could draw on for the rest of my life.

That’s where I was last night. Out of that sense of remembrance came Bob Seger and the Silver Bullet Band with “Hollywood Nights” (1978). That song captures a sense of fundamental change. After such an experience, nothing is seen as the same again.

4

The Puking Game

We do not know the rules.

We suspect it goes something like this.

One of the housefloofs goes and pukes quietly. Their object appears to puke somewhere where it’ll take some time to notice, and not leave any clues to the puker’s identity.

We’ve found three such pukes over the last three days. “Someone puked in the living room,” my wife announces.

I check it out, like I’m doubting her report, right? No, I want to conduct forensics, clues like hairballs. But there’s nothing distinguishing about this puddle of upchucked kibble.

“I didn’t hear anything,” I say. Everyone who has an animal knows that each pet has signature sounds associated with their puking. They usually have a preferred place, too. This doesn’t fit any of our animals.

Did our animals bring in a guest floof to puke, to mess with our heads?

“I didn’t hear anything, either,” my wife said.

Of overriding concern when you have a puker is the source’s health. Is this the first sign of serious trouble or a one-time gack attack?

The second day was more concerning. One day is an incident; two days are a worrying coincidence. “Someone puked again,” my wife called out. “On my rug again. Why do they have to puke on my rug?”

“Maybe they’re sending you a message.” I checked out the vomitus. It was as undistinguishing as the first. Again, I’d heard nothing.

I looked around. The three cats were sitting there, watching, like spectators, you know?

Two of them appeared to be smirking.

Now there’s a third puke, except…

Hearing the noise, I rolled out of bed and stumble through the gray drizzle of six AM autumn light. I already guessed (because I saw Boo back in the bedroom and Papi sitting outside on the patio as I oriented myself and ordered, “Left foot, right foot, go forward,”) that it was Tucker, caught it in act.

Yes, indeed. This was a standard hairball.

Was it part of the game, or genuine illness?

Seeing me, he hurried over. “Meow?”

“I’m not feeding anyone,” I answered, guessing that’s what he asked. It was still just after six. I’d stayed up late writing, and I was going back to bed. As I climbed back between the sheets, I saw Boo, Papi, and Tucker watching me. Round one was over.

I wonder who won.

0

Floof City Rollers

Floof City Rollers (floofinition) – Floof pop (floop) musical band formed in Edinburgh, Scotfloof, in 1964 and were originally active through 1987, scoring multiple hits and becoming international stars.

In use: “The Floof City Rollers’ most successful song in the United Floofs was “Floofurday Night” in 1975, which went all the way to number one on the Floofboard Hot 100.”

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