Tuesday, August 6, 2024, greets you. It’s a cool 70 F in Ashlandia, where the sidewalks are cracked and irregular. We expect a low 90s F high, something like 93. The air has grown mostly, partially clear; nostrils only sometimes smart, eyes only sporadically sting, the throat is but moderately dry and sore, and the sinuses are just mildly congested. So, we good.
Vice President Kamala Harris chose Tim Walz as her running mate. I’ll say now, not my choice, but I support her and him. Ultimately, like many of my friends and relatives, I would have loved Pete Buttigieg. But I know the American political psyche would have fractured with a Black woman of mixed descent and a gay guy, no matter his skin color, driving the ship known as the United States. My second choice was Andy Beshear out of Kentucky. But I get it: Vice President Harris met with the candidates and made the choice based on her needs. Governor Walz has many fine attributes and has done nothing that I’ve read or heard about that caused a gag reflex. Admittedly, I haven’t read a whole lot about him. He does have the cachet of being the first politician who dubbed Don Old Trump as weird. Many of us outside of politics have been calling Don Old Trump weird since at least his ‘reality’ show. But Walz did it aloud on television and has made it stick. I hope that Mr. Walz simple midwestern approach will draw more voters toward trusting in and voting for the 2024 Democratic ticket.
I’m continuing the freedom theme with my theme music. Today’s choice is a sop to The Neurons. As soon as I began thinking of freedom songs, they began plying the morning mental music stream (Trademark free) with it. The group is Cream, the year is 1966, and the song is “I Feel Free”. As a ten year old hearing that song my rock senses went off and I was all giddy with the song’s generally relaxed and positive approach. The song never ascended the charts in the U.S. Nor did the several covers by others which followed later, but it’s a me sort of melody. Yes, I know, technically this is ‘free’ and not ‘freedom’. Close enough.
ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, I feel free. [x8]
Feel when I dance with you, We move like the sea. You, you’re all I want to know. I feel free, I feel free, I feel free.
h/t to AZLyrics.com
Stay positive, be strong, and Vote Blue for Harris-Walz in 2024. Coffee and I are sympatico once again. Here’s the video, and away we go. Cheers
Robofloof(floofinition) – 1. One of a number of inventions to help tend animals, especially orphaned kittens, puppies, kits, etc., by providing a realistic machine-based environment to keep them warm and safe while nursing and grooming them. Origins: 2022, Internet article, “The Coming of the Robofloofs”.
In Use: “Feeling its electronic heartbeat and nestled in against its warmth as they nursed, the puppies were quickly accepting the robofloof as a replacement mother.”
2. An animal which acts in a mechanical manner.
In Use: “Stunted at birth, the tabby kitten walked stiffly, like she was a little robofloof, earning her the name R. Daneel Oliclaw, a spin on the name of the robot detective in the Isaac Asimov novel, Caves of Steel.”
My wife related that she and her coffee group were talking about their required high school reading.
There’s a background to this. They go to StoneRidge Coffee in downtown Ashand after exercising at the Y three mornings a week. Their favorite barista, Shawn (sp?), had been on a big reading kick, reading many novels that we consider classics, like Catch 22 and Catcher in the Rye. Today he announced that he won’t be working there any longer because he’ll be teaching high school in Grants Pass. My wife’s group wondered if that’s why he’d been on a reading tear.
They couldn’t remember what they’d read in high school, though. They did recall that they had to read The Pearl by Steinbeck and several of Shakespeare’s plays. The only one they remembered reading was Romeo & Juliet.
After being told this, I recalled reading MacBeth and Hamlet. I also recalled reading The Red Badge of Courage,Beowulf, Call of the Wild, excerpts out of Dante’s Infernal (as we knew it in school) and The Red Pony. I mentioned that what I most remembered reading, though, were short stories. I vividly remember reading A Jury of Her Peers, The Girls at the A&P, The Visitor, Greenleaf, and The Lottery. They each made quite an impression on me. Besides that, there was some Emily Dickinson, Edgar Allan Poe, and then poems by Frost and Whitman, and essays out of Walden: Life in the Woods.
It’s all a bit sketch, though. Because I enjoyed reading fiction on my own and read Catch 22 and Catcher in the Rye.Papillion was big as a novel then — this was before the movie — as was the Lord of the Rings trilogy and The Hobbit, and Stranger in a Strange Land. Besides that stuff, I was reading a lot of science fiction and fantasy, along with spy thrillers (think Fleming and Le Carre). Then there was Jaws by Peter Benchley, and other popular fiction like that, such as Fear of Flying, Portnoy’s Complaint,In Cold Blood, The Onion Field, To Kill A Mockingbird, The Bell Jar, The Drifters, Centennial, The Thorn Birds, Hotel, Airport, The World According to Garp, Cancer Ward, and Herzog.
I was also involved with the Junior Great Books program for several years, and was required to read their books, stories, and essays, muddying up memory a little more. Further complicating it are courses in French, Russian, Jewish, and American literature in college.
All those books and titles start running together after a while, you know? At least for me. I admire those who can keep it all straight.
Here we go, another week begins. It’s Monday, August 5, 2024. Cool in Ashlandia at 68 F, we expect a high of 96 F. Our air quality is moderate today, with the winds favoring us enough to keep major smoke from barreling into our existence. Knock wood, the fires we experienced this year locally have been small and contained fast, thanks to our diligent fire-fighting crews in multiple communities.
Yesterday, the weather treated us to a sunny rain shower. Big silver streaks of water bolted down. A little petrichor rose up. Sunshine lorded over it all. It was over within a minute. Reminded me of a book which should be written, The One-Minute Shower. It’s all about efficiency.
Just what I needed to wake up to, a stock market sell-off based on fears that the U.S. economy is cooling. Economic news traditionally has a butterfly effect in U.S. politics. That’ll be an interesting new sidebar to August.
I’m continuing the theme of freedom in music. I rejected “Philadelphia Freedom” by Elton John. It’s about a tennis team, and I know that, so I can’t use it. Kris Kristofferson’s song, “Me and Bobby McKee” came up but that line, “Freedom’s just another word for nothing left to lose,” is too cynical for me right now. I think I’m going something upbeat in the form of George Michael and the 1990 song, “Freedom! 90”.
And yes, I know the song is about fame and his relationship to fame and music as a superstar but the lyrics fit well enough for me to take it in a political direction. Please, I like that piano.
All we have to see Is that I don’t belong to you And you don’t belong to me (Yeah, Yeah!) Freedom! I won’t let you down (Freedom!) I will not give you up (Freedom!) Gotta have some faith in the sound (You got to give what you take) It’s the one good thing that I’ve got, (Freedom!) I won’t let you down (Freedom!) So please don’t give me up (Freedom!) Cause I would really, really love to stick around (You got to give what you take)
The political aspect becomes really flimy if you listen to all the words and think about them too much, so just sing out the vibrant freedom parts, if you will.
Be strong, remain positive, and lean forward. Let’s Vote Blue in 2024. Coffee has made its entrance. Here’s the music video. Let’s go. Cheers
My wife and I met with friends for coffee at 10:30 this morning. I ordered espresso with ice cream: an affogato.
My companions were appalled. “Ice cream, at this time of day?” they asked.
“Why not,” I retorted. “It’s time to do away with the provincial idea that ice cream can’t be consumed in the morning. I’m retired. WTF not eat ice cream in the morning with my espresso?”
That’s a basic summary. Further reading of the Wikipedia entry expands on the document and its purpose. However, the video which Scottie shared, that I’m now sharing, includes a two minute chapter by chapter summary of what each chapter outlines as the project’s intention. Easier than reading the entire 940 page document.
This is just one of several reasons why I’m against the election of the lying convicted felon known as Don Old Trump. Kamala Harris for President. Vote Blue in 2024.
Welcome, fellow voyagers, to Sunday, August 4, 2024. It’s August’s first Sunday this year, so let’s hope it goes well.
Here in Ashlandia, we’re at 73 F but we’re expecting a high of 98 F. Clouds are roaming the sky and there is a chance of showers. A duplicate of yesterday isn’t expected. Showers occupied us into the early afternoon. As the showers faded, the heat came on. The 86 F high seemed hugely muggy. We chilled in the evening but lost all breezes so the overall effect was, ‘meh’.
Musically, The Neurons liked Beyoncé’s “Freedom” yesterday, and developed a penchant for songs of the freedom variety. Today has The Isley Brothers singing “Freedom” from 1970 in the morning mental music stream (Trademark free).
I think the song projects an element of freedom that’s gone from our era. When people dress differently now, we ask each other, “Why are they dressed like that?” They announce their pronouns, and people mutter, “Why are they doing that?” Different food or drink is consumed and other inquire, “Why are they eating that? Who are they? Where are they from?
Michael Seidel, writer 