Monday’s Theme Music

76 degrees F at 8 AM. Will probably be a warm Monday.

June 21, 2021. This is it: our longest day. That’s the accepted norm. I like the long periods of daylight, so, sigh. Not looking forward to the shorter days of daylight. Sunshine initiated ‘the longest day’ with its faint streams at 5:35 AM. It’ll cease at 8:51 PM. Between those hours, high temperatures in the upper nineties will be enjoyed. It’s interesting that today’s sunrise is a minute later than the last two days, but sunset is later. Result of all these rotations, revolutions, and tilt in play, yeah? Fun to imagine us streaking through the solar system around Sol, along with our planet siblings, while the whole arrangements itself is whizzing through the galaxy and the galaxy is racing through the Universe.

“Summertime Blues” by Eddie Cochran occupies the AM mental music stream. The song was released when I was two but received a lot of airplay throughout my youth. Although the song is about the misery of a teenager with a summer job, I’ve always been enamored of that line, “There ain’t no cure for the summertime blues.” A gaggle of acts have covered the song, including The Who and Brian Seltzer, but I’m loyal to that original. It popped out of memory and into active thought as I finished painting yesterday and contemplated my next summer task. Wonder why. Heh.

Stay positive, test negative, wear a mask as needed, and get the vax. Cheers

June 21, 2021 0

June 20, 2021 3

Sunday’s Theme Music

The time was 5:34 AM. Sunshine trickled over the hills and through whatever gaps the world offered, heralding the commencement of another day in Ashland, Oregon. Heat began its trickle a few hours later. Temperatures trickled into the seventies by the mid-morning and whispered about going into the mid-nineties.

It is Father’s Day in the U.S., June 20, 2021, a holiday officially recognized in 1972, a news moment that passed by my teenage head with little notice. I have no FD plans other than the standard Sunday through Saturday routines. Coffee, writing, some work around the house, maybe a short drive somewhere, perhaps more house painting before sunset is called at 8:50 PM. Dad is alive in Texas. I see him every few years. He calls me on my birthday and whenever he goes back into the hospital. He’s gone numerous times this year. Despite a young enthusiasm for Lucky Strikes and Camels, he didn’t see much of a hospital until he struck into his eighties. Now he’s a regular. I’ll call him later today. Did send a card. We’ll talk about cars and military service. It’s our common ground. He’s on his third marriage. This one has stuck, as they’ve gone past twenty years.

Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers are in my mind with their 1981 song, “The Waiting”. “The waiting is the hardest part.” Yes, waiting to write is the hardest part for me, getting torn away from it by other requirements. No how life was planned. Didn’t have a plan, TBH. I was just winging that mutha.

Stay positive, test negative, wear a mask as needed, and get a vax. We’re almost at sixty-nine percent in Oregon, edging toward seventy jab by jab. The waiting until then…well, you get it. Here’s the music. Cheers

June 20, 2021 6

Flooftown

Flooftown (floofinition) – Flang (floof slang) for a place dedicated to animals.

In use: “The dog was not happy, explaining to the cats, “I heard her sayin’ that she’s taking me to flooftown,” which was the floofhold expression for the vet, gathering by his tone that he didn’t mean the other flooftown, the floofpark (to which the cats were never invited to go).”

June 19, 2021 3

June 19, 2021 0

June 19, 2021 0

Saturday’s Theme Music

Sunshine’s golden dew slide down the heavens and dripped over the treetops and roofs at 5:34 AM. The cats began singing, “Morning has Broken”. Or they may have been threatening one another about violating their neutral zones. Hard to say with cats.

We mark today as Saturday, June 19, 2021. It’s the first officially declared Juneteenth as a holiday in the U.S., a day to remember when slaves were finally given the news that they were freed. Blacks have been celebrating this day far more often, but many remained ignorant about it, or downplayed the significance. I hope its recognition grows and it doesn’t become diluted with sales, as it happens to so many U.S. holidays and observances.

The sun’s electric slide is expected to end at 8:50 PM in our valley. Temperatures will hunt the lower nineties before the Earth turns away from the sun.

I was thinking of “Baker Street” by Gerry Rafferty last night (1978). I’d done a few miles of walking and was now massaging my toes. That brought on the song’s lyrics. “Light in your head and dead on your feet. Well, another crazy day. You’ll drink the night away, and forget about everything.” I won’t drink the night away. Probably will forget a few things. Mind like a sieve, this one.

Stay positive, test negative, wear a mask as needed, and get the vax. Here’s the music. Cheers

June 19, 2021 3

The New Clothing Dream

A friend and I were staying with a gay couple. I seemed to be in my early twenties. The couple lived in a city apartment a few floors up. A big city, the place was busy and noisy. I was there to get rid of my old clothing, and then I was taking a trip to get new clothing. We were flying out for that purpose the next day. Meanwhile, my buddy wanted us to go out on the town before leaving. Parallel to this, our hosts were throwing a party (unrelated to our visit). They’d also received a new table and were putting it together.

As I’d chosen to get rid of my old clothes except what I was wearing and what I was traveling in the next day, I decided to find something to wear from the clothes I was getting rid of to wear out on the town. It should be something festive. I found an old pale yellow shirt with a red parrot embroidered on the left chest, a shirt I haven’t owned in over thirty years.

I paused while dressing to watch them trying to put the new table together. It wasn’t going well. They thought parts were missing and were calling the manufacturer for help. I thought that I would be doing it differently, as they seemed disorganized, but I believed part of the issue was that they already had too many people involved, so I remained uninvolved.

My friend was urging me to hurry up. It was night, and the night was calling him. He was wearing jeans and a maroon puffy jacket. I was only in a shirt. “Is it cold out? Do I need a jacket?” Without awaiting an answer, I went into my old clothes for a jacket. I pulled it on, but then decided it was too heavy and replaced with a lighter jacket, an old black “Members Only” jacket I used to have. I then worried, maybe I should change shirts because the parrot was no longer seen. But I left it at that. He and I scampered down the steps and into the brightly-lit night to have fun.