Darcie Said
Friday’s Theme Music
Hi. Today is April 2, 2021, Friday. Sunrise is 6:52 AM in Ashland, and sunset will come at 7:38 PM. Weather-wise, spring is establishing its footprint with sunshine, light breezes, and a high of about 70 degrees F. Right now, it’s 50 degrees F outside, so we have a strong start toward that high. Light, intermittent showers are expected back next Monday.
The blues were on my mind this morning. So many great blues songs have passed through my ears over the years. Great artists were and are out there. Eventually, though, a Buddy Guy – Eric Clapton collaboration, “Every Time I Sing The Blues” (2008), found its way to my mind front. One line was sharpest: “I’m just trying to tell the truth every time I sing the blues.” Oddly, it’s a line I associate with fiction writing. No matter what story genre, writers are digging out the truth behind the story in their head, trying to convey this to the page, hunting for the details that delivers the essence in a satisfying manner, whether that page is ink on paper or bits on a screen. That struggle to capture that truth and tell the story in all its right facets is what it’s all about.
Here is the music. Stay positive, test negative, wear a mask, and get the vax. Cheers
The Nineteenth Game Dream
I was introduced to a game. I’m not strong on remembering details, but coins were involved. These coins were copper, brass, and gold. They had patterns cut into them. The game was about matching and stacking coins in precise patterns. As each pattern was completed, the player advanced to the next game, which offered more complexities. The nineteenth game was the hardest game level.
Playing the game soon absorbed me. I played alone under a light, on a table. Sitting, bent over the table, I examined the pieces, selected the stacks and positions, arranged them, re-arranging them as necessary. If you had a piece wrong, the game ended. You had to follow a predestined set of arrangements.
I finally screwed up. A buzzer announced that I’d lost the game. Lights came up. A man entered. He informed me that I was playing the nineteenth game. Surprising news for me. He went on to say I was very close to finishing it, which pleased me, and then informed me that I was the only one left playing at that level. With those circumstances, they’d been streaming my play globally for the last twenty-four hours. Everyone was watching, cheering me on, hoping that I would win.
The experience left me happy but eager to begin again to reach and finish the nineteenth game.
Floofsday’s Theme Music
Good Night. Today is Floofsday, March 32, 2021. Sunset is at 7:01 AM in Ashland and sunrise will be at 7:45 PM. This morning’s temperature is 75 degrees F but we expect to cool down some, reaching 51 by late tonight.
Yesterday’s walk was gloriously perfect. Sunshine burst through, heaving the heat into the high seventies while a mild breeze countered the worst effects. Trees and flowers are blooming, spreading colorful shapes, threading the air with sweet scents. Lot of walkers were out in the hilly streets where I was roaming. Most of us weren’t masked but shied away, keeping proper distance plus.
This situation kicked the 1985 Dire Straits song, “So Far Away”, into my conscious music stream. “So Far Away” was on Brothers in Arms, the album that included “Money for Nothing” and “Walk of Life”, two of my favorite Dire Straits tunes. Stationed at Shaw Air Force Base in South Carolina, I played that album a lot that year, driving my Mazda around the southeastern United States on temporary duty assignments in the Air Force or going north — a straight shot up I-77 — to visit family.
I thought the song works as a theme song for this day. Last April seems so far away. Although we’re marking progress toward the pandemic’s end, a return to normalcy also seems so far away.
Stay positive, test negative, wear a mask, and get the vax. Cheers
Michael Seidel, writer 