Tuesday’s Theme Music

Sunny and windy, and a little chilly are my first descriptors for today. Add in a weak sun — all things being relative — and a thin layer of fading white clouds, and our current axis and place on the Earth, and you arrive at a winter day that’s 46 degrees F and will get fifteen degrees warmer. Sunrise came for us on this Tuesday, January 25, 2022, at 7:31 AM and the setting will come at 5:16 PM.

I have an old song by the American Breed rolling around in the morning mental music stream. The American Breed had a hit with “Bend Me, Shape Me” in 1968. I was twelve, living in a suburb of Pittsburgh, PA known as Penn Hills. Going to Washington Elementary School. We took buses to and from it every day. My best friends were my cousin, Rick, who lived up the street, along with Bruce, Curt, and John. The five of us hung around a lot in those early years. I had crushes on Vicky, Joy, and Marla, very smart and pretty girls. I was learning the guitar then with dreams of being a rock store, but I didn’t have the focus and discipline to keep playing. I’d rather daydream, read, draw, or play sports.

Ah, good times. Groovy times. Don’t know what prompted all that to spirt up out of my head today. But there it is. Stay positive, test negative, wear a mask as needed, and get the vaccine and boosts. Oh, and watch out for Opposite Day. Yes, today I Opposite Day in the U.S., but don’t take it too seriously, you know? Here’s the music. Guess I’ll get the coffee. Cheers

January 25, 2022 0

Monday’s Theme Music

Monday found me. It wasn’t a hard search, apparently; Monday found me in bed, still in dreams up to my head. Told me she’d come back in a while, but I just closed my eyes and slumbered.

It’s January 17, 2022, which means there’s only about nine months until the holiday seasons begin for 2022. It is also Martin Luther King Day in most parts of the U.S. Labeling it a holiday seems misguided, given his spirit of service and change, and his assassination. Many reference it as a day of service, an opportunity to meditate on equal rights and justice, and how to help one another. Meanwhile, the sun rose as expected, striking my sliver of existence with sunshine at about 7:36 AM. Temperatures were hovering around 30 F then. They’ve jumped up as the sun scaled the sky. The temperature is now 47. We expect to feel 57 before sunset closes the sunshine down at 5:06 PM.

I awoke with a Santana medley swimming through the morning mental music stream. Carlos has been around a few years as a talent and has given us some impressive tunes. After sorting through them and singing one to a cat, I’m going with “Evil Ways” from 1969. I was singing it to Tucker in a joking manner — “You’ve got to change your goofy ways, kitty, before I stop petting you.” Just a little give and take between two loving animals, me and the feline.

Stay positive, test negative, wear a mask as needed, and get the jabs when you can. Meanwhile, I’ll get some coffee when I can; I feel a bit sad that I’m dependent on this brew that’s dependent on such energy waste and ill treatment. Sigh. Here’s the music. Take care.

January 17, 2022 1

January 12, 2022 0

Wednesday’s Theme Music

If you think this Wednesday is for the birds, it may be because it’s National Bird Day in the U.S. It’s also January 5, 2022. We have about three hundred sixty days until the new year, so hang in there.

The temperature has settled on 39 degrees F. We’re on the way to a high of 46 but clouds again have reduced the sunshine to graylight. Looks like rain out there, so bundle up. Sunrise came on like a slow spread at 7:40 AM and the sun will steal away at 4:53 PM.

My local friends are all buttoned down against COVID-19. All are vaxxed and boosted but all said, “Why risk it?” My wife and I had already decided the same. Gonna be a long winter.

As this is National Bird Day, songs with birds mentioned are in the morning mental stream. We have your robins, blackbirds, snow bird, freebird, night bird, nightingale, dove, and eagle. We also have a Flock of Seagulls. But then the neurons came up with Elton John and “High Flying Bird” from 1973. The album was Don’t Shoot Me, I’m Only the Piano Player. Released in my high school junior year, I found that it dragged too much or the album felt sort of thin. But then, there were certain days, when events and words dumped my mood into the shitter, that this album was good to listen to as a salve for my teenage soul, a good counterweight to Dark Side of the Moon and Quadrophenia. Now the song is part of a pleasant trip back through my head to that place and those people, and the accoutrement wondering of what happened to different folks. Some stories have been told; others were swallowed by life.

Stay positive, test negative, wear a mask as needed and distance, and get the vax and boosters when you can. Who’s up for coffee besides me? Here’s the music. Cheers

January 5, 2022 0

Tuesday’s Theme Music

Welcome to Tuesday, December 28, 2021. It’s 28 degrees F out there, so wear your warmest sandals.

Sunrise came at 7:39 AM, showing that the snow is still out there. Had fifteen inches on the ground yesterday. We shoveled off the walk and driveway and removed the snow wall the plow had kindly built for us. This morning, all was covered by a fresh two inches. Everything was closed, canceled, or shut yesterday in our little town — well, everything except grocery stores, hospitals, and emergency services. They all functioned. It’ll get up to 36 F today, so we might get some relief if the weather system can move on the clouds and let the sun in. After sunset at 4:46 PM, the temperature is expected to drop locally to 19 degrees F. Yes, that’s chilly for us.

These snow levels are not consistent across the area. We’re in a valley. Houses are on the valley floor and up the mountain slopes. My house sits at about 1800 feet. Some friends higher than me reported that they had two feet of snow. Others who are lower in the valley received two to three inches. Up the Interstate twenty minutes where the valley is broad and wide, a buddy reported he had two inches. Three thousand feet higher than me, down the road ten minutes, they received sixty inches.

Weirdly, I have a song by the Beatles in the morning mental music stream. “I Feel Fine” came out in 1964. I remember neighbor girls playing a 45 RPM record of the song on a little pink and white portable phonograph on their back patio but that was a few years later, probably in 1966. I guess that because, while I was young, we’d moved to a new neighborhood then, our fourth one in five years. A lot of moves, houses, and schools, but it helps organize and structure my memories, if you know what I mean. I suspect the song is housed in the stream because my wife and I were talking about The Beatles with friends last week. My wife confesses that she didn’t like the Beatles. Never thought them that great. Which, shrug, is fine, because tastes are different, as are choices and circumstances. That’s life, which is another song now playing in my head (covered by Frank Sinatra), but we’ll go into that another day. I think “I Feel Fine” is in my head because I like that opening bit of feedback they incorporated. I’ve gone with a live version of the song so that feedback note is missing (ironic, right), but I enjoy flashing back to these live performances of groups and the changes between now and then so sharpy etched. Guess it feeds my nostalgia.

Stay positive, test negative, wear a mask as needed, and get the jabs and boosters as needed. Speaking of getting, I’m getting some coffee. Make it hot and black.

Here’s the tune. Cheers

December 28, 2021 0

December 24, 2021 0

December 14, 2021 1

Friday’s Theme Music

Friday’s greetings, fellow voyagers. Today is November 26, 2021. The sun kicked in around our environs at 7:14 AM, guiding us out of the dark night into the bright day and lifting our temperatures from 35 degrees F to 37. We do expect to climb into the fifties with the temperatures as clouds and sunshine continue the battle of evermore. The sun will steel away with its light and warmth at 4:46 PM. We’ll do our best to enjoy the hours between.

Speaking of evermore, I have “The Battle of Evermore” by Led Zeppelin (1971) in my morning mental music stream. Came upon when I was out last night. We’d finished Friendsgiving on some friends’ farm. It was about 8:30 PM. I was preparing to leave. I stepped outside, out in the country a bit where their property sits, and admired the stars and breathed the air. Memories from doing this as a child, teenager, and adult throughout my life came up and stood beside me. Hence the song’s presence. We’re here for a short while, but those stars are evermore.

Stay positive, test negative, listen to the music (like how I slipped that in there?), wear a mask as needed, and get the vax and boosters when you can. Just read of another variant emerging in Africa which has kicked the stock market down the stairs. COVID-19 and its variants seem like they’ll be another facet of evermore. Don’t get complacent now.

And now, coffee time. Here’s the music. Cheers

November 26, 2021 0

Monday’s Theme Music

Another Monday has come around, to lift you up or tear you down, depending on your point of view, and what it is that you’re trying to do.

November 22, 2021, has broken like many other days. Bright sunshine blasting light on everything under blue skies unencumbered by smoke or cloud arrived on the Ashland scene at 7:10 AM and will swivel away, leaving us in darkness alleviated by artificial lights at 4:44 PM. Nothing of this day portends murder, death, and chaos, but it’ll happen somewhere. Perhaps the weather there is giving warning signs.

We saw freezing temperatures last night. Got up to 33 F after the sun broke, which stayed as the temp for some time. It has risen to 36. We expect something in the fifties but this feels like aunter, that season between autumn and winter when leaves are still turning and falling but winter’s advance cold marches in and chills us.

I have Jethro Tull, “Bungle in the Jungle” out of 1974, in the morning mental music stream. This came about because of granola. I decided brekkie would feature oatmeal, a pretty standard breakfast for me. I like granola on my oatmeal. Adds crunch, heft, flavor. Several granola styles are in the pantry. I thought I’d save one of them for later in the week, prompting me to remember, “Eating their nuts, saving their raisins for Sunday.” This is, you know, a line from the song. Thereafter, Ian and the gang played live in my head from the record player that still exists in brain’s teen cellar, where all things teen are stored.

Stay positive, test negative, wear a mask as needed, and get the vax and booster when ye can. Also, coffee up. I’m going to. It’s cold morning and coffee warms me well. Also stimulates the muses to come so I can write. Muses are so fond of the coffee smell that all I need do is spritz a little ground coffee scent about and they flit right in.

Here’s the music. Cheers