I saw an online headline:
‘Grizzly bears to be reintroduced’
That’s nice, I thought, a grizzly romance, or maybe just a friendship. I wonder how they reconnected? Social media, like Bearbook?
Sunday’s Theme Music
Mood: reflective
Sun and clouds compete today. Their efforts culminate in a pleasant spring day, almost perfect for Sunday, April 28, 2024.
It’s 55 F at this point, just two degrees below our expected high. No rain or other precipitation is expected, despite the clouds. And guess what? No thwumper today. Don’t know if the job is done or they’ve taken the day off.
Three conversations dominate the household today. Nothing about Trump or his trials, the SCOTUS, or the election is being discussed.
No, today’s main topic began yesterday on Reddit. It was asked of women, “Which you rather meet a bear or a man in the woods?” It generates first, what kind of bear? Men are generally preferred over polar bears. People are ambivalent about the grizzly, but most said they’ll take a brown or black bear over meeting a man in the woods any day.
Salient points made were like, if a bear attacks you, people believe you, whereas, if it’s a man, it’s iffy. As one commenter summed it up for us, ‘”Har har, this woman would rather run into a bear than a man,” isn’t the comedic piece you may think it is. Instead, it’s a sad testament to the lives of many women and girls.’
And that is the point.
The question reverberated strongly in Australia. Attacks on women, especially domestic violence, is up in that nation in 2024. Women of that nation are protesting and discussing whether they’re prefer a bear over a man in an encounter in the woods.
One woman said in a tangent, “If I see a bear in my backyard, I’m not worried. But a man in my backyard is trouble.” She then explained her reasoning.
It’s a sad situation. So many women have been abused or killed by men that distrust among women has surged. And men are frequently responding with anger, resentment, and diatribes against women. That doesn’t move the needle in a positive way for men.
Next up in topics is whether I’ll go visit my aging mother. My wife is very supportive of me going to visit. (I actually think she’d experience it as a mini-vacation from the being who is me.) My goals would be to give Mom an emotional lift and help her with her daily needs, providing a break for the rest. They rightfully sound emotionally exhausted. I think I’ve decided that I will go. I just need to make the plans.
Finally, in what is seen as good news, our third subject is how great Tucker is doing. Energy levels and interaction are up, he’s gained more weight, and he’s eating with enthusiasm. I was telling him every day that he needs to eat and gain weight and strength, and he’s earnestly doing so.
Today’s song comes from looking for the thwumper yesterday. My wife was trying to see it but the sun was in her eyes. Hearing this, The Neurons responded with “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds”.
The 1967 song is a Beatles composition. Written mostly by John Lennon, it was inspired by his son’s artwork about a classmate. Young Julian Lennon specifically told his father the drawing was “Lucy – in the sky with diamonds.” (h/t to Wikipedia.org).
I know of the original song and covers by three other bands or individuals. I always enjoyed Elton John’s 1974 cover best, so I went with it.
Be positive, lean forward, remain strong, and Vote Blue in 2024. Coffee has found its way into me. Time to rock and write, at least one more time.
Here’s the music video. Have a good one. Cheers
Tacifloof
Tacifloof (floofinition) – An animal who is mostly silent. Origins, Floofish, circa 1734, Flooflund.
In Use: “Yolanda’s big Maine tacifloof let out an angry tiger’s growl in the backyard, bringing her out in time to watch Kosmo chase a big black bear out of the yard.”
A Threefer: The Alligators, Awards, and Colrng Dream
After an era of dreaming where episodic and movie dreams that didn’t feature me dominated, dreams about me have punched back. Last night delivered a dream in three parts.
Part One began with me visiting with my sister-in-law and her boyfriend in Florida. Nice evening, etc, as we strolled along a via after enjoying a meal.
Two small alligators ran toward me. Each was about three feet long. I dodged them while warning others about the alligators’ presence. My SIL said something like, “Oh, those are my pets.”
They could be her pets but that didn’t stop the two from attacking me. As I danced and dodged them, one somehow leaped up and latched onto my back. The one chomping on me had hold of my shirt and a little of my muscle and skin.
I didn’t feel any pain, but I was terrified and wanted it gone. Whirling in circles and shouting for help, I tried getting free. The dinosaur-like beast budging.
I saw its partner still on the cement walk. “Oh, that one is dead,” someone said.
Retrieving the stiff dead ‘gator, I used it as a weapon, swinging over my shoulders to bludgeon the one hanging on. The tenacious reptile hung on. I finally shoved myself backwards into a wall as hard as I can. Crushing the alligator between me and the wall with enough force, it released me but then lunged for my neck. Twisting and ducking, I thwacked it with the dead gator and evaded its teeth. Then I ran away.
Slowing up, I found myself inside a sort of strip mall. Someone who I recognized as a brother (but not my RL brother), a large guy with black hair, was in there sitting at a white folding table.
He said, “Hey, they came out with the awards. I won.”
I said, “Congratulations, well done.”
Picking up the paper, he replied, “Wow, it says that you won, and that’s your ninth time in a row. That’s a new record.”
“Let me see.” I peered over his shoulder and read the news as he gushed on about how proud he was of me. He had a carrying voice. Others were soon crowding around, congratulating me. Disliking all the attention, I thanked them all, said good-byes, and hurried away.
Trying to avoid further attention, I ducked inside a darkened auditorium. Letters lit up in amber light on the far end. COLRNG. With a flicker of thought, I said, “Coloring.”
A man in a tux and top hat, carrying a cane, said, “Very good. Would you like to try another?”
Confusion settled on me. Seeing that word wasn’t hard, which I told him. He replied that most people couldn’t and urged me to try another. Try another? There wasn’t any trying in it. It seemed liked the weirdest game I’d ever heard of, but I agreed because I wanted to see this out.
Letters came up in blue neon. COLRNG. “Coloring,” I said. The man gushed about how brilliant I was. It must be a scam, I decided.
We moved on through green, yellow, and orange. It was COLRNG every time. After the orange letters, he informed me that I’d won a first level prize. Would I like to try for more?
“Sure.”
We went into another room. Letters in blue came up. COLRING. “Coloring,” I said.
The master of ceremonies boomed out, “You won! Would you like to go for the grand prize?”
“Yes. Sure, why not?”
He led me to another room. There, in big red neon letters, was COLRNG. “Coloring,” I said.
“That’s right! Congratulations.” The man in the top hat went on about how I’d won.
“What exactly have I won?” I asked. I expected some small and cheap offering.
“Fame, fortune,” the man in the tux cried.
“Right,” I responded, and left.
Entering a narrow hallway, I moved on. People coming the other way gasped and pointed at me in excitement. Bewildered, I asked, “What is it? What’s going on?”
They bubbled on about being big fans of mind, asking for autographs and selfies. Remaining bewildered, I signed and posed, sure that it was mistaken identity. More people rushed up, forming a queue around me. Security arrived to install order.
Dream end.
Saturday’s Theme Music
Mood: Thwumpity
thwump thwump thwump
Thwump, thwump, and away, in my beautiful, my beautiful machine.
Today calendar markers are Saturday, April 27, 2024. Tack on rainchi in Ashlandia. Rain keeps getting released. Temperatures this week have seesawed between highs in the 50s using Fahrenheit as the standard, and low forties at night That’ll continued today.
Had some squalls yesterday. My wife and I treated ourselves to dinner at a local Mexican restaurant. While we were in there eating, winds like the furies arrived. Then came some driving rain, the kind we don’t often see around here. These conditions were gone within fifteen minutes. Puddles and street gutters filled with draining water were left behind. But when we drove home, we came across sections of the city which seemed completely dry. Weirdness.
Today’s music is “Even Better Than the Real Thing” by U2. The Neurons nestled the 1992 song into my morning mental music stream as I played with story concepts while addressing my floofmeisters’ demands to be fed brekkie. Little thinking for such their breakfast deeds (food selection, bowl cleaning, heating water to add to the pate and kibble, reassure them that food is on the way). That leaves plenty o’ brain material for other matters, like writing in my head. The science I arrived at within the thinking was even better than the real thing, and there we were. Presto, the music began.
Stay positive, be strong, lean forward, and Vote Blue 2024 for President Joe Biden and VP Kamela Harris. That’s my plan. Coffee has invigorated the thinking and ambulatory processes; here we go.
Here’s the music video. Cheers
Friday’s Wandering Thoughts
The weather has pressed pause on the rain. Shards of broken sunshine are coming through but as soon as they broach the dark clouds’ defenses, a new mass of clouds rush in to patch it up.
A refrigerating breeze circles the streets with a load of petrichor. Like a madeleine for Prost, the petrichor delivers stacks of memories. I flash to being a boy in Wilkinsburg and Penn Hills, PA, a young airman in Korea and Germany, a tourist walking outside a tavern on a darkening day to visit with Dad in West Virginia.
Such is the power of smells to foster memories.
Floofichor
Floofichor (floofinition) – Smells carried by or discharged by animals which triggers memories in others. Origins: ancient middle Floofish, first mentioned in Tales of a Traveling Floof, thirteenth century.
In Use: “Charlemagne pranced into the house’s mudroom from the rain, and with a shake of his thick wet fur, released floofichor which brought smiles to Pamela as memories of Huskies from her past trotted into her mind.”
Rainchi Friday’s Theme Music
Mood: Froptimistic (Friday, which inculcates buoyancy and optimism.)
Today, Friday, April 26, 2024, is bundled with chilly rain, a phenomena which meteorologists refer to as ‘rainchi’. Rainchi is the industry term for ‘rainy & chilly’. Meterologists rarely use the term on the radio or television because they’re paid by the word.
BTW, that was fake news. I used several AI search engines to look for the word. One told me, “It appears that you made that word up.” Good enough for me.
We began with thwump thwump thwump, etc. That disappeared about eightish. Looking out, I saw that the ceiling had swallowed the top of the mountain where the chopper had been busy. A light mist was making the land drippy. ‘Nogood’ (another word I made up, cleverly combining ‘no’ and ‘good’) conditions for the helicopter’s task.
While we’re currently enjoying a temperature of 42 F, we’re braced for a sharp thermal uptick to 52 F as our high. Woowee, will it be warm then.
The cats don’t care. This morning found them giving up on being outside early. Both were like, “Screw that, I’m gonna go sleep somewhere.” That was that.
Today’s song was created and released in 1999. “Someday” by Sugar was summoned by The Neurons into the morning mental music stream (Trademark nixed) as I was fulminating on a dream and preparing les floofies’ breakfast repast. I think The Neurons had it right this time. It works for the day and mood.
Stay positive and strong. Lean forward and Vote Blue in 2024. Don’t let the gremlins drag you down. I’ve had coffee, thanks. Here’s the video. Cheers
Michael Seidel, writer 