Today is Sunday, January 14, 2024. Spacious sunshine is floating bright and happy through our valley, though grim gray clouds hover here and there as if they’re waiting to strike. We wuz out on an early food shoptz (shopping blitz) and I rejoiced in all the sunshine. It’s 51 F, just a hair off today’s expected high of 52 F.
The cats are digging the sunshow, striking calendar-worthy poses in the bright light. Papi, being the high energy being he is, all light and fur, keeps going in and out, seeking escape from boredom. I play with him every time he comes back in but he bores of that, too. There’s just no pleasing some floofs.
Well, we’re fortunate here. North of us an hour as the car rolls, some houses are without power and experiencing temperatures in the twenties. Friends living in the suburbs of Portland are enduring no power with a temperature of 26 (which feels like 3). Ouch.
While on our shoptz, I heard “Need A Favor” by Jellyroll from 2022 on the radio. The Neurons just took it up and tucked it into the morning mental music stream (Trademark damned) where it remains this afternoon. TBH, its country sound has a definite rock sauce on it. But The Neurons were really taken by that line, “I only pray when I ain’t got a prayer.”
Stay strong, be pos, test negative and keep leaning forward. Hope you and yours are safe and comfortable wherever you are, whatever your weather. Cheers
Floofpetition(floofinition) Competing among animals to win favor, treats, or rewards. Origins: Unknown, first noted use in 21st century.
In Use: “The cat and dog got along but always indulged in floofpetition for their people’s attention. The cat always won because, although about five times larger than the cat, the dog had a much sweeter disposition.”
Recent Use: “Tough to say where the greatest floofpetition between the house floofs came — during Battle for the Lap, You Got Treats, or Game of Floofs.”
Trump — who didn’t build the great wall he claimed he would, who didn’t have a new healthcare plan even though he kept promising to reveal it in two weeks, who has a lengthy string of failed businesses behind him — well, you know who he is by now and his character — roiled the world with another pompous claim, this time that he could have negotiated a compromise — a deal — that would have avoided the American Civil War. Mind you, multiple deals had already been negotiated, but face it, keeping people as goods, and torturing and raping them was not sustainable in the emerging ethos of the period.
But this cartoon captures Trump’s mind at work on the issue better than anything I could write here.
I overheard two strangers chat a little in the coffee shop. One asked the other about the book he was reading. The other replied, “It’s Dostoevsky. It’s written as a series of letters.”
Poor Folk, I guess, sneaking a glance over. I’d read it, I remembered, wondering if that was the book he was reading. I took a minute to hunt down when I’d read it, remembering it was the summer of 1989, when I was living in Germany. I took summer college courses which addressed different Russian, Jewish, French, and American authors. Dosteovsky was one of three Russian writers.
Over thirty years ago, I suddenly realized with a mental thud. The race of time surprised me once again. I’ll be 68 years old this year. That just amazes me. It shouldn’t, I know, yet it does. It feels like just yesterday that I was thinking, wow, Dad is 68 this year. Gonna be seventy in a few.
I probably mentioned it before, but my first sip of coffee is actually two or three deep inhalations of the aroma. I’ve done this more or less since I began drinking coffee as a young adult, but the idea was solidified as a ritual when I read that coffee’s smell enhances focus, memory, and attention span. Figuring I needed whatever advantage I could dredge up, I embraced my ritual.
I imagine that some day, I’ll be older, and sharing that with strangers in coffee shops. But not today.
Saturday, January 13, 2024, has arrived with higher temperatures and heavy, wind-driven rain whipping Ashlandia (where the coffee is excellent and the parks are above average). It’s 42 F now, not far from the expected peak of 49 F. Rain has been falling all night, and the misty low, fat clouds look like they have a lot more to give.
The cats both wanted out this morning after their breakfast. Tucker settled in a dry but cold location on the front porch while Papi sought whatever drives him to wander. I managed to coax both back in after thirty minutes. When they came in, both dashed for me and I discovered Papi was soaked. I toweled him off (despite his protests and efforts to flee) and then Papi headed for the kibble station while Tucker went to the litter box.
Left home early, didn’t take the dog (don’t have one) or the cats (I have two). Coffee shop numero uno was at full cap so I went to numero dos. A prime writing location was available so I sat and began. Unfortunately, I discovered that a leak was exploring the ceiling above and splashing down. I alerted the staff and shifted sites. No good writing location was available but I found a table and set up camp. A young guy at my most preferred site. Understanding that I was on a laptop and could use an outlet, he approached and offered it to me. Such kindness. I offered to buy him something as reward but he declined.
One amusing thing was observed. I saw one barista drift through, washing off the unused tables and tidying. About four minutes after she went through, a second one went through, doing the same thing to the same tables.
Very satisfying and uplifting dreams were experienced last night. Hope everyone has such dreams in their life. Thinking about it had The Neurons plug “What Is Life” by George Harrison (1971) intorock the morning mental music stream (Trademark drifting). I get what The Neurons are doing there, because I’d been musing about life since a conversation with a friend about death the other day. Her husband worries about death and fears it. I related back that I didn’t worry about it because we don’t know if there is an ‘other side’ or the full nature of ourselves and our existence. I mean, between religion, science, and philosophy, we’ve developed some great ideas and insights about what it is. But knowledge is ever-evolving, and as we explore the quantum side of being more, we might surprise ourselves with what we learn. “I think, therefore I am,” might even apply to us after we die along paths that we can’t yet divine.
Stay pos, lean forward, remain strong, and test negative. Coffee and its bennies are already perking through my systems. Here is thy theme music. Cheers
Just think back of when telephones first came to the United States. Few probably foresaw a time when telephone lines spread pole to pole across the nation. Not many probably had visions of homes with several phones. They probably didn’t see the invention and rise of phone booths.
If you’re old enough, you can probably recall conversations about the cost and need when ‘calling long-distance’.
Folks of the telephone booth probably didn’t see a time when all those phone booths would be gone. Few probably guessed that phone lines would start disappearing underground. People with all those phones in their home likely never suspected those phones would be unnecessary with the rise of wireless and cell phones.
Pew Research from 2021 states that 97% of Americans own a cell phone. So, given the progression we’ve seen since the telephone first arrived, what will be next? How many of us will still be holding onto a cell phone when it becomes archaic, and what will replace it?
Just sipping coffee on a cold and rainy afternoon, watching people using their phones in the coffee shop, and wondering.
Michael Seidel, writer 