Friday’s Theme Music
Mood: helter skelter
It’s a meh sky for Friday, Feb. 16, 2024, just like yesterday’s meh sky. Yesterday turned to rain by the early afternoon. It’s warmer today, though, 48 F, up from 38 F, with chances of breaking into the fifties later.
Took my elderly floof, Tucker, to the vet yesterday. He has severe inflamation on his mouth’s left side, especially the lower mandible. Besides his dental issues, bloodwork shows he has a hyperactive thyroid. Everything else looked good, but he’d lost seven pounds since he was last checked, years ago, and now weights ten pounds. Painkillers were prescribed, along with meds to address the thyroid, and an anabotic steroid shot given. Plans are to treat the thyroid treatment, do more blood work in six weeks, and then address his teeth. He ate well last night, was given his meds, and slept. Today, though, after receiving his meds and eating, he vomited and then basically went comatose. I worried that I’d need to take him to an emergency vet but my wife found more details about the drugs and side-effects. We concluded that Tucker was going through one possibility on the spectrum of reactions. We made him warm and comfortable and slipped in a few drops of water. The websites said this state would wear out after eight hours. We witnessed his responsiveness improve withint four hours. He then started shifted himself around, making himself more comfortale. It felt like whatever crises may have existed had passed. I am reducing his dosage, though.
The painters finished the house exterior painting. They did a sensational job. We’re highly pleased.
My wife was out of the house at her exercise class/coffee clatch when the painters were here and I was dealing with Tucker. Those four hours felt more like six and a quarter. Meanwhile, Papi had been in and out, and had at least three sequels of going in and out in the books, when he decided, with the wind blowing, inside was better. But now, each time the painters knocked or rang the bell alarmed Papi. He’d look to me for guidance, didn’t like what he read, lower his belly to the floor and pelt off to the back bedroom to save himself. Quite a morning. Coffee saved me.
After reading Jill Dennison’s post about “Day Tripper” by the Beatle’s last night, The Neurons cranked up “Revolution” (1968) in the morning mental music stream (Trademark coming in two weeks). There was controversy about the song’s lyrics: do you want revolution? Why are you singing it’s going to be alright? How come you’re saying, count me out? I always took it to mean this was a song about peaceful change, and felt that I understood what Lennon was saying: we will have change, and it will be alright, and we don’t need to destroy the world to make that happen. Full stop.
Stay pos, be strong, lean forward, and vote it’s time. Coffee has been guzzled and more is being ordered. Take the day and make it yours. Here’s the music. Cheers
Thursday’s Theme Music
Mood: coffeespective
Thursday, Feb. 15, 2024, greets us with a bleakly ‘meh’ sky in Ashlandia. Rain has retreated to a background position, haunting the mountains, where it sometimes drops as snow; Grizzly Peak is now capped in white. It’s 46 F, though, and snow is not in our future. Might rain, later, though. Not going to get substantially warmer. Sunshine does look in on us once in a while but not long enough to post a significant presence.
The homefloofs continue serving their roles in a restricted position, with no outside activities permitted from dusk to dawn. It’s the cougar thing. Meanwhile, Tucker has been scheduled for a dental assessment after drooling this week. Problem teeth and gum infections associated with gingivostomatitis plagued him before his arrival at our place. We’ve had teeth removed and treated the problem by keeping him on a grain-free diet. But it seems to be blowing up on him again, poor guy.
I continue reading Prequel: An American Fight Against Fascism by Rachel Maddow in parallel to my fiction reading. I don’t recommend Maddow’s book; its revelations of deep racism in the US, with laws and attitudes toward segregation and how Blacks and others were treated inspiring Nazi Germany in their approach to the same in the 1930s, is fucking sickening. I was so damn naive. Maddow points out what the laws said, and then how they were applied and interpreted so that mistreatment and segregation continued. Several presidents even encouraged segregation and set laws into place that limited Black’s freedom and equality. Were I Black, I’d be one pissed off individual.
The Neurons have fed Joni Mitchell’s song, “Help Me” from 1974, into the morning mental music stream (Trademark coming in two weeks). Depending on my mood — sometimes it was too soft and schmaltzy for my mood — I’ve generally enjoyed this soft, jazzy tune and its reflections on falling in love with a man who doesn’t seem like a great choice for her. Yeah, I dig it; we often must make a choice that isn’t the greatest. That recognition in another matter being addressed in my head this morning, coupled with Joni Mitchell’s performance on the Grammy’s last week, is what probably inspired The Neurons to play the song.
Stay positive, remain strong, lean forward, and vote as if the future might depend on it. Here’s Joni with her song. There goes me with my coffee. Cheers.
Wednesday’s Wandering Thoughts
Despite claiming to be an optimist, I often rail against my fellow humans, politicians, the government, news media, and corporations about the way things are going. So I want to share some small positive moments.
I live in the small town of Ashland, Oregon. I’ve always enjoyed walking, including taking the steps instead of using elevators or escalators. It doesn’t always make me popular with my wife, but she grits her teeth and goes along with it.
This has nothing to do with steps, though. This is about drivers. While I’ve experienced several near misses each year while using crosswalks (and the number of near misses seem to be increasing), there are people who are the opposite. Example are shopping center and business exits. Because of line sights, drivers are forced to roll forward, covering sidewalks and crosswalks to see if it’s safe for them to proceed. This sometimes blocks my way as a pedestrian. I usually plan to wait or pass behind their cars, but this week, drivers are backing up to let me go by, putting down their windows, waving and calling out apologies.
I hope that it’s picked up by more drivers and starts trending upward across the country.
Wednesday’s Theme Music
Mood: Cofoptimism (optimism fed by coffee)
Today is Wednesday, Feb. 14. 2024, my fellow travelers. Which means Valentine’s Day. You probably haven’t heard about this little-known holiday. Invented to sell more jewelry, candy, flowers, and cards while increasing liquor and restaurant business. According to a 2017 ABC News piece, Valentine’s Day spending in that year topped $136 per person on average.
Sadly for my partner, my romantic tendencies withered away long ago. She accepts that with acidic humor, but accepts. Although she doesn’t cop to remembering this, she told me in our first years of marriage not to buy her Valentine’s Day Gifts. I was hurt, and I remember. She bought a bag of Dove dark chocolate hearts and made little gift bags for her friends. They were passed out after exercise class this morning; she said she’s celebrating ‘Galentine’s Day’, because, “We gals don’t need men.” Her gay friends are included. She cracks me up. BTW, I did buy her a gift last year, some lovely little earrings which she likes. Or claims to. She does wear them. We did go out to dinner last night, too.
Rainy, cloudy, and chilly are today’s descriptors. Temperature is 44 F and it’s not going much higher. In the give and take between winter and spring, and their offspring, sprinter, winter has asserted its presence.
The rain is keeping the housepainters away. They are very close to having our house done. It’s a welcome break, because they’ve been by the house almost every day for almost two weeks. The cars also appreciate it, because they can relax and behave ‘normally’. Well, Papi can. Tucker has been reasonably unaffected by the painters. Just his nature. Meanwhile, we’ve been keeping them in at night because, cougar. Papi is generally displeased by this development but I assuage his mood by giving him a treat when he wants out. He eats that and goes off and sleeps. Knock on wood that this strategy continues working without him becoming a chunkofloof.
Lot of interesting and exciting political news today. Maybe it’s just my natural optimism rising or I’m being naive, but my confidence for a Biden re-election victory is rising. Fingers crossed, etc.
The Neurons didn’t have anything loaded into the morning mental music stream (Trademark coming in two weeks). I don’t know what’s wrong with them. On vacation? Sleeping in? Hungove? I don’t know. After some thinking as I fed the cats and myself, I thought I’d share Madonna’s 1990 song (written by Lenny Kravitz), “Justify My Love”. Returning from a four-year tour of Germany with the military, I saw the video for it when I was in a hotel at my new base the following February (1991) and thought, holy cow, or something like that.
But then I came across this thing on Facebook, so I’m instead sharing Taylor Swift and Phoebe Buffay (Lisa Kudrow) performing “Smelly Cat”. This song was featured on a television sitcom called “Friends”. “Smelly Cat” was introduced to the show in 1995, and was regularly performed several years after that. It’s a humours little piece.
Stay positive, remain strong, lean forward, and vote when the opportunity arises. I will do the same. Now, back to drinking coffee for me. Here’s the music. Cheers
Chunkofloof
Chunkofloof (floofinition) – 1. An overweight animal. (Origins: late 1990s, early world wide web.)
In Use: “Cunning at finding and getting her treats out of cupboards (often aided by the cat), Annie Barkley quickly grew into an adorable chunkofloof.”
2. A large collection of animal toys, tools, or memfloofabilia. (Origins: 2014, “The Official Guide to the Floofiverse,” McMeowing, Barks, and Wings.)
In Use: “Most homes with pets have a chunkofloof, and I’m no exception, with a cupboard full of food, dishes, brushes, and toys for my floofhearts.”
Recent Use: “Monica shared a video of her chunkofloof, China, building up a chunkofloof of things China was stealing form the neighbors.”
Floofuzzle
Floofuzzle (floofinition) – 1. To silence an animal through sound, motion, treats, food, or intimidation. Origins: Late floofish, the United States, early 1990s.
In Use: “The trouble with floofuzzling Flowerpuss was she was hellasmart and immediately understood that if she threw a noisy flooftrum, Beth would shower her with treats to floofuzzle her.”
2. Anything that attracts and intrigues an animal. Origins: Middle English, 1528.
In Use: “Hearing something downstairs, Titus leaped up and barked up a storm, and then stood at the top of the staircase, staring down into the darkness, tilting his head to one way and then the other, ears flopping, as he attempted to solve the floofuzzle of the noise he thought he’d heard.”
Recent Use: “Crows seem to love a good floofuzzle, and are experts at figuring things out, even using sticks as tools in their problem solving.”
3. Actions or noises which animals make that confuses others. First used in mid-1950s.
In Use: “Boldly the little patchy white tabby marched up to the giant German Shepherd and delivered a swat on his black nose, causing him to draw back, floofuzzled. The dog seemed to be thinking, ‘What is this bold little creature? How did it get into the house? And what is that smell?'”
Michael Seidel, writer 