

Science fiction, fantasy, mystery and what-not
Marvelous Monday marched in. It’s a sparkling day. White clouds reflect sunshine, making it all bolder and bigger than first glances assume. Sunrise at 5:34 heralded Jun 20, 2022, with a brassy flourish of blazing sunshine. Temps at the time were in the lowly forties but immediately perked up into the fifties, where they languish, drifting by degrees toward a high of 72 to 76 F. Sunset will close the show at 8:50 PM.
After some collaborating, the neurons drew up “Lives in the Balance”, a 1986 song by Jackson Browne. It’s quite the political song, bemoaning war and the suspected collusion between war profiteers and the warring nations, along with shade being thrown on the POTUS back then, Ronald Reagan, and how political campaigns are conducted like offerings for new consumer goods and services. Some sample lyrics for you.
They sell us the President the same way
They sell us our clothes and our cars
They sell us every thing from youth to religion
The same time they sell us our wars
I want to know who the men in the shadows are
I want to hear somebody asking them why
They can be counted on to tell us who our enemies are
But they’re never the ones to fight or to die
And there are lives in the balance
There are people under fire
There are children at the cannons
And there is blood on the wire
h/t to AZLyrics.com
Guess the neurons who follow the news thought the song made sense as theme music. Who am I to argue with his neurons?
Stay positive, you know? Test negative and have some faith that we’ll survive and rise again. I know that this is sometimes hard to embrace. Some imagination might be required.
Coffee is here. Take care.
Twenty to thirty of us, all familiar to me in the dream, were in a very large cabin. I was in charge of this group. I’d been selected for promotion, but I didn’t know when it would happen. Frankly, I was disappointed that it was taking so long.
A bigwig came through and told me that he’d gone through my file, and I was promoted effective immediately, that the promotion should have been right away, and it would be backdated to support that, and I would receive back pay, too.
Well, that all sounded sweet. I told all my friends and co-workers, even opening a window to tell passers-by. Some were happy for me but a few disagreed. One said, “I don’t think you deserve promotion at all.” Others argued with him, defending me. I shrugged them off, thinking, it’s always that way, with disagreements emerging about who to deserves what.
Meanwhile, everyone brought wolves with them for protection. We left our cabin and met more people arriving. One man brought four wolves along and controlled them with voice commands. And elderly woman had a young wolf; I controlled the wolf for her. No wolves fought but the wolves were interested in one another, and everyone remained vigilant to keep the wolves apart.
I awoke from dreams with the Goo Goo Dolls’ song, “Iris”, in my morning mental music stream. I’ve featured the song before. Looking it up, it’s been a few years, so the judges say it can be featured again.
The holiday carousel has turned. It’s Father’s Day in America. I sent Dad a card a few week ago and will call him today. We’re not as close as he now desires, but come on, he doesn’t make a great effort at it. Nor do I, honestly. I graduate high school in 1974, immediately joined the military and left home, living in different countries and other parts of the United States for the next twenty years. He, meanwhile, had remarried, had two children, divorced, lived with another woman and her children for a decade, moved away, and married a third time after a few years. I didn’t hear from him for years at a time. So he’s earned the returns that he made on his investment in our time.
It is Sunday, June 19, 2022. Fifty F right now, with bright sunshine and a naked blue sky. The sun show began at 5:34 AM and will end at 8:50 PM. Few clouds are expected to show up here today. With the sun’s presence, we expect to reach 70 F.
I checked local reservoirs to see where we’re at after this surprise streak of late spring rain. Emigrant Lake has reached 41%, Hyatt sits at 7% and Howard Prairie is at 14%. Long way to go before water security worries are alleviate. Still, better than last year. Don’t know what the snowpack is but it’s on my list to check today.
Stay positive and so on. Haven’t had coffee yet so I’m not feeling very positive right now. Hope to rectify that in a moment. Here’s “Iris”. Cheers
First, I was introduced to a security database. It was locked up in a yellow train car that was permanently parked on railroad tracks beside another rail car, red, that was a cafe or restaurant. After being shown it, I was taken to where I lived. I’d be working out of my house. It was an apartment or condo on a plaza’s ground floor. The living room had a large window. From it, I could see the yellow car which held the security database. That pleased me.
My wife had gone out. I was feeling sick. The bed was right off the living room in the house’s front. I had a cold, and my vision was teary and blurry. I also had seven cats. “ALF”, the ‘alien life form’ from the U.S. sitcom shown for several years in the late 1980s, a show I was aware of but rarely if ever watched, was present to help take care of the cats. One cat was sick; I told ALF to give it a shot. He fired buckshot at the cats, and then told me, “I think we had some miscommunication.”
My wife arrived home. I told her I was sick and noticed she was, too, but with milder symptoms, and then told her what ALF had done. My illness seemed to be worsening. Two of my wife’s friends arrived. They sat down to have coffee and tea and chat while I climbed onto the bed to try to rest. I didn’t have any blankets or sheets and kept shifting positions, trying to be comfortable. One of her friends asked my wife, “What’s wrong with him?” My wife replied, “Oh, he’s just sick.”
Dream end.
We have liftoff. Saturday, June 18, 2022, is climbing through time, leaving its contrails behind for us to study.
Cloudy is today’s word. Chilly is related, with us staring at 52 F at the moment, hoping for something in the sixties. Hoping is a strong sentiment; my wife, cats, and I are all comfortable with the low fifties and some dabble of sunshine. Rain potential hangs above us with the clouds asking, “Will I? Will I?” Such capricious characters. Sunrise drew the curtains open on the daylight hours at 5:34 AM and the obverse is at 8:50 PM. Our weather is better than places like Spain, where they’re baking in 40 degrees C, which, using the formula learned in school eons ago, translates to 104 F. Ouch, yeah?
Cats and neurons conspired behind my back to plunk a Bruno Mars song into the morning mental music stream. I’d stirred from dreams this morning. Ready and waiting, Tucker pounced on my hand, tapping it for some loving. I began scratching him as directed. He reciprocated with motor-boat purrs. I asked in sotto voce, “You like how that makes you feel?” Just like that, the neurons delivered a ten-year-old song, “Locked Out of Heaven”. It bothered me a little as I song it to myself after feeding the cats and preparing my breakfast, because Bruno sings, “‘Cause your sex takes me to paradise, yeah, you sex takes me to paradise.” I told the neurons, you guys are a little bizarre, you know?
Stay positive, test negative, mask up as needed, space out as required, and, you know. Here’s the music. I hear a cup of coffee singing the song of my people. Cheers