Roxane Said
Bird On A Wire
Bird on a wire
outside my office glass
peering at me sideways
sitting on my ass
wondering what I’m doing
making up little songs
telling little tales
about what I do at home
bird on a wire
you know he can’t be trusted
bird on a wire
I know who you are
and now you know you’re busted
Monday’s Theme Music
Good morning. Today is Monday, Feb. 8, 2021. Sunrise came at 7:16 AM. Sunset is expected at 5:34 PM. Outside, it’s 31 degrees F and foggy, but we’re expecting sunshine and a high of 50 degrees.
Today’s music came from a walk the other day. The song hung around me, intermittently spurting into the musical mental stream throughout the last few days. Released in 1967, “The Rain, the Park & Other Things” by the Cowsills reached number two on the charts in America. If you’re unfamiliar with the song, it begins with seeing a girl in a park.
I saw her sitting in the rain
Raindrops falling on her
She didn’t seem to care
She sat there and smiled at me
h/t to Genius.com
This is what happened to me that day: I saw a girl sitting in the park off Peachy Street in Ashland. Unlike the song’s subject, this girl had a leash with a dog, and she didn’t disappear. Nor did the sun come out. Maybe, if the sun had emerged, she would’ve disappeared. The rain was falling and I didn’t hang to learn. I have no idea if she could make me happy. Didn’t really think about it. I was preoccupied with a song going in my head and avoiding her to stay six feet away. There’s a virus out there, you know. Must be careful.
BTW, they called it psychedelic last century when a girl disappeared like that; now it would be called magical realism.
Stay positive. Test negative. Wear a mask. Get vaccinated. Enjoy the music. You have your orders. Now go.
Floofol Harum
Floofol Harum (floofinition) – Flooflish flock (floof rock) band formed in London in 1967, known for blending baroque classical musical influence with psychedelic flourishes and prog-rock.
In use: “One of their Floofol Harum’s best known songs is, “A Whiter Shade of Floof”. Released in 1967, it’s considered one of the five hundred greatest flock songs of all time.”
Floofsery Rhymes
Floofsery Rhymes (floofinition) – Floofditional poem or song for animals, often made up by people associated with the animals as a play on more well-known poems and songs.
In use: “One of the more common floofsery rhymes is based on ‘Here We Go Round the Mulberry Bush’ with lines modified to fit a household pet. For example, many sing,
“This is the way we feed our cat,
Feed our cat,
Feed our cat,
This is the way we feed our cat
Before we have our coffee.”
Sunday’s Theme Music
25 degrees F when I got up at a few minutes ‘afore seven. Up to 30 now, a positive movement. We expect a high of 52 and the blinding progressing through an unmarred blue background will probably make it happen.
Today is Sunday, February 7, 2021, called Super Sunday because it’s the first Sunday in February. I don’t know the history of that. Our charming sunrise was 7:18 AM. Sunset is expected at 5:33 PM.
Plans are afoot for today. We went shopping for fresh produce this morning. I’m thinking of going for a walk, need to write — yes, need — and I want to call Mom (yes, been too long). I’ll also watch the Superbowl championship between Patrick Mahomes and Tom Brady — oh, I mean the Kansas City Chiefs and Tampa Bay Buccaneers. I got no skin in the game so I should I enjoy it.
Besides that, I’m reading. Also following Qanon theories about what’s happening with Trump. I read that after the impeachment trial, he’s gaining super powers and will vanquish all the evil from America.
My wife, hearing that, wondered, “Do they ever look at him?” I explained to her that what she and I see is a disguise to fool us into thinking he’s an overweight, out of shape, rapidly aging man. True believers have special glasses that allow them to see the real him. These special glasses also allow them to see other truths that escape the rest of us. That’s why the fake news media doesn’t fool them…
Had a song in my head as I was shopping. I always remember the words wrong, but I know this, so I indulge myself. The song is “Kids in America” by Kim Wilde. That 1981 release is the only song of hers I know. I always think the words go, “Listen to the music go ’round”. That’s why it was in my head this AM; I was being a bobble head, listening to the music in my head go round.
BTW, did you see Phoebe Bridgers on SNL this week? Didn’t think much of the first song, but the second song, “I Know the End”, slowly drew me in. I had the captions on so I was reading what she was singing. As she sang, she gained a mysterious smile. Then, as the music went higher and faster, she started screaming. She ended by beating her guitar against the monitor. My wife was unimpressed (“I want music I can sing with or dance to”) but I was fascinated. Going to watch it again.
Stay positive, test negative, wear a mask, and get vaccinated. Then listen to the music go round.
On Some Days
- On some days, I want to get away by myself to scream at the world. Yesterday was such a day. Stepped into the shower and screamed in silence. Was somewhat cathartic.
- I was driving along unlined streets in a residential neighborhood yesterday. Cars were parked along the side but there’s more than enough room for two cars to pass. Yet, so many drivers could not manage that. Driver age, sex, vehicle size…none of it seemed to explain it. People just couldn’t manage it. I thought it was because of the lack of lines. What tended to happen was that folks in one direction would stop so that folks proceeding in the other direction could drive straight down the middle. Young, old, male, female, all exhibited problems with it. “Just move over,” I’d tell them through the windshield. “Just use your side of the street. Honestly, it’s not that hard.” I should be more considerate of others but…on some days…it’s harder.
- Contemplating a favorite shirt’s fate. Like everything else, there is a season, turn, turn, etc. Bought this shirt back in 1999. Have photographic evidence of that, for there I am, wearing it in a dated photo. Nothing special, button down collar, long-sleeved, cotton, faded blue stripes on egg shell white. It’s been with me in two states, four houses, five companies, and ten cats (sigh.) (The cats were three to five at a time…) Probably paid about twenty-five dollars for the shirt. Can’t recall that, although I do recall that I bought it on sale at Macy’s. Good jeans shirt. Have gotten some compliments while wearing it, but mostly I like its style and comfort. It’s been gently descending the hill for years, evidenced mostly through armpit stains. I’ve washed those out with a lemon juice and baking soda process a couple times. Now, though…the collar is frayed. It looks like it’s time for the shirt to finally move on. I guess, properly, I’m moving on from the shirt.
- I feel like a prisoner sometimes. (Such an exaggeration, right?) I hate throwing things away, but it’s inculcated into my nature and our society. Besides the shirt, there’s now an electric kettle. Probably purchased ten years ago, the spring which helps the lid release and open no longer functions. Can it be fixed? Maybe…if I can find the right spring.
- I contemplate the conundrum. Savings are acquired by mass production. Costs are kept down by underpaying people and going to the margin on design and materials. Paying more can gain you more…maybe. You really can’t be sure. But after a few years, when the device or clothing fails, what do you do with it? Where does it goes? The recycling gig seems to be filling up and failing. That’s always been the fallback: recycle or repurpose. I have containers full of used shirts now relegated to being rags out in the garage.
- Dad was going to get a new stent this past week. His wife called. He’s eighty-eight. A COPD sufferer, he’d gone into the hospital on Monday to have his meds adjusted for his COPD. Suffering from edema resulting in a swollen left leg and foot, he was kept for observations and a stress test, and given diuretics. The stress test never happened; he was wheezing too much on that day, Wed. He was released on Thursday with plans to have the stress test done in the future. Meanwhile, he and his wife got the COVID-19 vaccination on Friday, which was paramount for them.
- I spent an hour on the phone chatting with Dad. He was in a talkative mood and opened up about his youth, something unusual for him. Mom and Dad divorced when I was about ten. He was in the military and oft stationed overseas, so I lived with him for about seven years total, including my final three years of high school. It was just him and me for two of those years. He worked, and I went to school, cleaned, and cooked. We didn’t see much of one another.
- Dad revealed that he met Mom in Sioux City, Iowa, when he was stationed there. (She’s from Turin, Iowa, and he’s from Pittsburgh, PA.) This was back in 1952. He was a radioman and she was a seventeen-year-old telephone switchboard operator. Too young to for her to marry in Iowa, they went to Luverne, Minnesota. There he discovered that while she was older enough (fifteen was the age for females there), he wasn’t old enough at twenty; he had to be twenty-one. Naturally, Dad managed to procure a letter with his father’s signature verifying that he was twenty-one. But no, wait. They told him that he had to have his mother’s signature. “Well, Mom is dead,” Dad replied. Then he called his father and said, “Can you tell these people that Mom passed?” That was done but he got grief for it from his parents for years.
- Joe Biden has been POTUS for a month and has yet to go golfing. By this point in his term, one month, Con Don had golfed six times. Donald Trump’s aides don’t want to admit the President is golfing – CNN Politics
- Enough whining and complaining for now. Got my coffee. Caspa, Uno Dos, and Billy await. They’re just meeting Spag and the recos for the first time. Time to go write like crazy, at least one more time.
Floof No More
Floof No More (floofinition) – Floof Bay Area alternative metal band formed in 1979. Their sound range includes fletal (floof metal) and clash metal, along with funk, floof-hop, and progressive rock. The band underwent several line-up changes in its early years. After releasing six albums, they disbanded in 1998, but came together again in 2009. They’ve since toured several times while releasing one new album.
In use: “The song “Epic” from the album, The Floof Thing, was Floof No More’s most well-received and well-known song in the Floofnited States.”
