Author: Michael Seidel

Science fiction, fantasy, and mystery writer. Singer (sorry, no shows) & nudist (in my home). Beer, cat, cheese, coffee, pie and wine friend. Left IBM and Silicon Valley for the southern Oregon life but I miss the ocean. We're too far inland. Gotta move.

Monday’s Theme Music

Mood: Gergarious

Monday, October 30, 2023, arrived as fresh as cherries picked off the tree and as cold as an icebox. Hovering at 42 F, sunshine eventually warmed air and soil until it’s now 67 F in Ashlandia, where arts are prevalent and the Oregon Shakespeare Festival is above average.

Clear and cloudless nights have given us terrific moonlight, like an enormous spotlight was casting blue-white light across the land. Papi likes the moonlight but dislikes the cold and wind, and usually returns post haste after a quick trot around the yard. Tucker felt the air and was willing to sleep out there but I forced him in, enduring his grumblings and protests until he finally surrendered to his fate and went to sleep on my desk.

I like how Tucker’s language has evolved over the years. When he first joined us as a lost, unclaimed stray, he rarely made a noise unless he was fighting with another cat. Then he developed a plaintive meow he’d infrequently employ to request food, attention, or door assistance. When Boo, his number one enemy, passed away, Tucker became very loud and vocal for a few months. Since then, he’s developed a low murmuring conversation style, like he’s speaking sentences but which are not meows. It’s hilarious to me to ask, “Are you hungry,” and listen to him respond with burbling, “Brrpty mrrpka yrpp kerp mmmm,” or the like.

Tucker’s behavior inspired The Neurons when it came to today’s theme music. The big black and white fur booger likes for me to pick him up, give him some sugar, and walk around with him a bit before feeding him. He’ll sit down and look up at me all big-eyed and earnestly say, “Errp nerrp?” I usually repeat it back to him, and he’ll reply, “Mrrpy.” I’ve decided ‘errp nerrp’ means, ‘carry me’ or ‘pick me up’, and ‘mrrpy’ means ‘yes’.

Spying on me as The Neurons so often do, they punked me by playing the Doobie Brothers and their 1975 cover of a Motown song, “Take Me in Your Arms”, in the morning mental music stream (Trademark fading).

Remain pos, stay strong, and keep marching forward, even if you must use tiny steps. With a little coffee, I’ll try doing the same.

Here’s the video. Cheers

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Gerfloofious

Gerfloofious (floofinition) – Humans or animals fond of the company of animals. Origins: 1660s (Latin), from ‘gerx’ – flock or gathering. Initial use of the word was to reference people who ‘gathered in herds to celebrate or learn’ but the meaning gradually shifted to its modern definition and was widely used as such by the early nineteen hundreds.

In use: “Mouse was usually taciturn or withdrawn around people but encountering animals, he became a gerfloofious socialite.”

In use: “Learning that their youngest child, Davy, was austistic, Lori and her family often struggled with his angry outbursts and lashing out, but when animals came into the household, his demeanor shifted and he became a gerfloofious individual, displaying characteristics and personality that they’d never witnessed heretofore in him, boosting their hope for the manner of life he could lead.”

Recent use: “When Meerkat Manor began airing in 2005, the gerfloofious meerkats quickly charmed many people, turning viewers into peri-addicts to see what happened next to Flower, Tosca, Shakespeare, and the rest.”

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Sunday’s Wandering Thoughts

Someone said, “I’ve been watching Hallmark Christmas movies. I watched three yesterday.”

Surprise went through me. Had I missed Halloween and Thanksgiving? I replied, “What month is this?”

Another said, “We put up and decorated our first Christmas tree. We usually put up two, one in the living room window, and a larger one in the family room. That’s the one we put up.”

I was staring out at the sunshine and leaves. Many were still on trees, their chlorophyll declining, losing their green colors, letting other colors emerge. Autumn, in other words.

As others continued talking about their Christmas-themed activities, I thought, I’m really out of touch.

I’m still celebrating autumn.

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Sunday’s Theme Music

Mood: ambivalent

Just the facts, folks: 47 F and sunny. This is Sunday, October 29, 2023 in Ashlandia, where the marijuana is local and above average. We’ll be in low sixties as our high point today but all that sunshine and blue sky makes it bracing and invigorating. Across the street, the huge, very old maple remains festooned with golden brown leaves. Soaked in sunlight, standing tall against blue sky, the tree seems majestic and steadying.

Stepping out with the cats, though, a determined northern wind delivers the taste and smell of winter. Papi, the ginger blade, still launches himself into the outdoors, foraging for summer for a bit before returning to the house’s protection and surrendering to the change. Tucker, the older black and white fellow, has probably felt the change in his bones and tucks for more sleep on the bed.

Once again, so many, many dreams. They leave me thinking and sometimes typing to understand what I’m thinking. Altogether, they were convulsive, erratic pastiche of experiences with a huge cast of people. What a trip they were.

After the latest US mass shooting — Lewiston, Maine, a forty-year-old shooter, 18 dead, dozens injured — I’d been thinking about the world’s state. Wars, greed, selfishness, and the rise of white supremacy, antisemitism, racism, sexism complicates our fragile existence on this rock. A small but growing number of people seem to think that the answers to our complex problems are in the past. Some claim that it’s all about God and religious and cites things like Christianity and religion as the answer, even as their behavior toward their fellow humans often stands starkly opposite of Christianity’s tenets against greed and for helping your fellow human.

Between the dreams and the the world’s state, The Neurons ended up plating up “Helter Skelter” in the morning mental music stream (Trademark comical). The Beatles wrote and released the song in 1968. One of their hardest rockers, the song became associated with Charles Manson and the murders committed in his name in 1969 in Los Angeles, CA. With that, the song has become embedded with ideas of chaos and destruction.

That’s true with me. I originally thought of it as a druggy come on about sex, based on the words about going up and coming down, then doing it again. The drug part arrives on the song’s feelig of changing moods and disorder.

And there we are: disorder. That’s how I see us now. Polarized and disordered, confused as a civilization about where we’re going and even where we want to go.

Ah, sorry for the pessimistic vibes. Maybe coffee will save me. Be strong and positive, and keep leaning forward. Here’s the music, a recording of a live version of Paul, without the rest of the Beatles. Cheers

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Saturday’s Theme Music

Mood: impetuous

We’re here until we’re not.

Slipperday, October 28, 2023, skated into Ashlandia, where people walk carefully in the shadows, wary that their feet will find ice and take them down. Spiky clumps of green grass stand tall, sprayed white, and stiff with cold. A wind keen with an icy edge lashes the house. It’s 31 F outside but no fear; sunshine is lifting over the trees and mountains. Soon the sun will gain enough elevation to pump some heat into the moment. We’ll be sizzling in the mid-50s F by the mid afternoon.

Warmer weather is on the way. November’s early days next week will take us into the mid to upper sixties as autumn entertains a last hurrah before December flexes in. All we can do is watch and adjust, and brace for holidays.

I have “Burning Down the House” by Talking Heads ringing out in the morning mental music stream (Trademark burning). The Neurons put it in there after a convo with friends and general remarks made about GOP intentions. Some thought they were burning down the house, others posited they were burning down the government, burning down the country, burning down the world, through their calculated disinterest, continuing efforts to manufacture and stoke divisions and fears.

The song title and repeating phrase, “Burning down the house,” is a metaphor as I understand it, about the house not burning down but being torn apart. In an interview heard years ago, David Byrne, who wrote the song, said it was also about schizophrenia.

Ah
Watch out, you might get what you’re after
Cool, babies – strange but not a stranger
I’m an ordinary guy
Burning down the house

[Verse 2]
Hold tight, wait till the party’s over
Hold tight, we’re in for nasty weather
There has got to be a way
Burning down the house

[Chorus 1]
Here’s your ticket, pack your bag, it’s time for jumping overboard
The transportation is here
Close enough but not too far, maybe you know where you are
Fighting fire with fire, ah!

[Verse 3]
All wet, here, you might need a raincoat
Shake-down, dreams walking in broad daylight
Three hundred sixty-five degrees
Burning down the house

[Chorus 2]
It was once upon a place, sometimes I listen to myself
Gonna come in first place
People on their way to work say, “Baby, what did you expect?”
Gonna burst into flame, ah

Burning down the house

[Verse 4]
My house is out of the ordinary
That’s right, don’t wanna hurt nobody
Some things sure can sweep me off my feet
Burning down the house

[Chorus 3]
No visible means of support and you have not seen nothing, yet
Everything’s stuck together
I don’t know what you expect staring into the TV set
Fighting fire with fire, ah

So it seems apt as a theme song. We have elected officials in the form of Republicans (Marjorie Taylor Greene, Mike Ross, Lauren Boebert) who don’t understand the Constitution or are willing to dismiss it (and people’s rights) for the expediency of their own religion, rights, and privilege. There’s the schizophrenic part – elected to serve but instead tearing the government down – as well as the tearing down the house aspect.

I think The Neurons made a superb choice, and this live video is sharp with sound and energy.

Stay pos, be strong, and keep moving forward. Freshly delivered coffee will fuel my flight today. Here’s the music. Cheers

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