Category: coffee

Frieda’s Theme Music

Twenty-three days of 2025 are done.

Here we sit, on January 24, 2025. Looks much like yesterday in Ashlandia. Blue skies beckon you into cold — okay, coldish, 36 degrees F — air. We’re heading into 50 something degrees later, or so ‘they’ tell me.

Hear ’bout the new ‘constitutional amendment resolution’ proposed for Trump? Sure you have. Idea to sketch a work-around to let him and only him serve a third term. Because, in the GOP’s eyes, he’s been so brill. Man, they don’t let history or facts into their brains. And what arrogance and hubris, yeah? Days into his second term, and they’re declaring it a success.

You know, I read a David Brooks column in which he noted that Trump seems to long for the days between 1830 and 1899. Seems about right. Before vaccines were widespread and had mitigated so much death. Before the digital age, where lies are shown in techno sharpness, complete with date, time, and context. I’m sure Trump would much rather live in an era where his sloppy thinking and brazen bullshit doesn’t constantly reappear to bite him in the ass. As Brooks points out, sure, that’s a golden time back in that century, in those days, in certain ways, if you’re willing to whitewash history and gloss over some details like slavery, poverty, and women’s rights. Trump and the GOP are certainly willing to do that.

Today’s theme music was also the choice back in January, 2021. I‘m often surprised about how music seems to arrive in memory at the same time of the year. Anyway, today, Der Neurons have “Drive” by Incubus from 1999 circulating the morning mental music stream. The recurring chorus drives my beloved Neurons.

Whatever tomorrow brings, I’ll be there
With open arms and open eyes, yeah
Whatever tomorrow brings, I’ll be there
I’ll be there, yeah, ohh

h/t to Genuis.com

My eyes are open, and my arms will be open for positive change, and not the crap being levied on us now by the billionaire administration.

Coffee has approached me with an offer I couldn’t refuse. Here’s the music. Twenty-three days done. On into number twenty-four. Cheers

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Wezda’s Theme Music

Cold and bright, Ashlandia has reared up out of the darkness anew. It’s January 22, 2025, and now 36 F, ten degrees above the morning’s start. Fog, precipitation, and that sort of thing has abandoned the area, leaving sunshine a clear path. ‘They’ tell me our high will be 56 F today. And again, continuing a trend — three days! — this looks attainable.

I had a song loaded in the morning mental music stream. Then I read that John Sykes, guitarist associated with Whitesnake, died at 65. So The Neurons brought in “Still of the Night” in memory of Sykes. Ah, such music. Classic metal hair band. Rarely listened to it but was familiar with it due to being in clubs and radio rotation. Coverdale is the vocalist and I was a fan from his earlier efforts with other groups and songs.

Coffee has presented a peace offering. Be strong, and keep rocking. Here’s the music. Cheers

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Sunda’s Theme Music

Mood: coldasfrickinice

Winter left frosty white prints all over the valley this morning. Well, on the house’s western side. Out back, it’s green and almost springlike in appearance, until you step out and the 21 degrees F slaps your face.

This is Sunda, January 19, 2025. A freezing fog advisory is in effect but the crazy frog has vacated my area. Sunshine is instead smooching everything, causing stretches of vapor clouds to rise in the air as the frost hastens its escape with the sun’s urging. Gonna be 50 today, ‘they’ say. Well, yesterday didn’t see us get over 39 on my home’s system or my friend’s system. But today seems like it has more of a chance, if the scene outside of blue sky and sunshine doesn’t change when I look away.

News: TikTok is going dark today under the government’s orders. Three hostages were released in Gaza. Kansas City is advancing to the AFC championship game and a lot of fans seem displeased about it. The Washington Commanders shocked the NFC’s number one side, the Detroit Lions, with an almost flawless game. Another new wildfire was reported in southern California while the Palisades fire still burns, although the latter is 52 percent contained. WaPo is circulating rumors that the new administration wants to replace DeJoy as the nation’s Postmaster General. Just an aside to that, Democrats and many Republicans revile DeJoy for what he’s done to the USPS but he’s kissed the ring and threw lots of cash at Trump, so I’m surprised to hear it being discussed.

One news story that disgusted me is about Jefferson Griffin. The Republican ran for a North Carolina Supreme Court seat in 2024 and lost. Now he’s asking the state to throw out 5500 military absentee ballots. His reasoning is that they don’t provide a photo ID with their vote. Their vote in the mail. The same voting method that this character used in 2019 and 2020, BTW. Oh, and he’s only challenging these absentee ballots in heavily-leaning counties. This feels like it transcends hypocrisy. Feels like it’s absolutely venal in its naked desperation and hunger to win at any cost. If others’ rights get screwed in the process, well, that’s just too bad for them.

Musically, The Neurons have an Al Stewart song playing in the morning mental music stream. “On the Border” was released in 1977 and has a folk-rock flavor, which is flock in my vocabulary. (Folk rock, right? Flock.) There is some jazz flavoring to it as well. I have no specific reason for its inhabitance of the morning mental music stream. I was just tidying up in the kitchen some after feeding the beasts when I realized it was in my head. But these lines may have been the inspiration:

Late last night the rain was knocking on my window
I moved across the darkened room and in the lampglow
I thought I saw down in the street the spirit of the century
Telling us that we’re all standing on the border

h/t to Genius.com

And that is because many of us simply feel like the nation’s spirit underwent a significant change when PINO-elect Trump won in 2024. Particulars include a substantial number of Americans showing vast disinterest or apathy by not voting and enough supporting a convicted felon to give the U.S. a new low as a first: a convict POTUS. As billionaires and the less wealthy line up to get on his good side and laws are proposed or passed to erase decades to centuries of change, it feel likes we’re standing on the border of becoming somthing other than the founders’ original intentions. I’ve said all of this before. Now it feels like I’m just cryin’ in my coffee.

Coffee and I have brokered another treaty for the day and I have commenced sipping out of the mug. Here’s the tune. Hope you enjoy the melody and have a terrific Sunda. Cheers

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Thursday’s Wandering Thoughts

Yesterday was Wednesday. Per tradition, our local beer group met at a local brewery, Caldera Brewing in Ashland. The group’s name is Brains on Beer. It always makes me cringe, but we inherited that name.

Two new members joined us last night: Darrell James, engineer and novelist, and Dr. Pepper Trail, forensic ornithologist and poet, author of the collection, Cascades-Siskiyou: Poems. Mr. James learned of our group because, besides being a semi-retired engineer, he’s an energetic person who does home repairs for several members. Dr. Trail worked with and for several of our members, and they thought he would enjoy our company.

Whenever new people join us, the telling of the group’s origins is done. And I realized as I sat this morning and thought about last night, the whole story of the group’s beginnings is rarely told.

What is told is that four men came together to talk science and have coffee each morning. They shifted to meeting once a week, at night, to have a beer and talk science and technology. The four men cited are Lt Col Michael Quirk (Ret, US Army), Professor Frank Lang, Dr. Ed Shelly, and Michael Hersh. All are deceased. But while they were the first four BoBs, a woman was responsible for the group being formed.

See, Michael Quirk’s wife was a social worker. Through her work, she noticed that many men age into lonely, solitary lives. She knew that a strong social life helps people remain mentally, physically, and emotionally healthy. So Diane encouraged Michael to start the social group and shift from coffee in the morning to beer in the evening once a week.

Since that start around 2008, we now have 23 members. All are liberals, BTW. It’s not a rule, but that’s how it’s worked out. Ten to fourteen people usually show up each week. We had thirteen last night. We have one person named Bob in our BoBs. From engineers, we now include medical doctors, forensics scientists, microbiologists, botanists, teachers, an ornithologist, journalists, photographers, database administrators, graphic designers, architects, and firefighters in our numbers. We also have three female members. Since we began the habit of rounding up the bill and donating to STEAM programs in our valley, we’ve donated over $43,000 to buy computers, tubidity meters, and microscopes, among other things, while supporting local robotics teams and Ashland ScienceWorks.

And it all started with one woman’s idea.

If you’re ever in Ashlandia, come on by and meet us. We start at 4 PM every Wednesday. We usually collect $20 per person. Your first visit is on us.

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Thursday’s Theme Music

Mood: coffeetrippin’

Today’s theme music is “One Thing Leads to Another” by the Fixx out of 1983. This new wave offering occupants my morning mental music stream due to Jan Resseger’s excellent posts about Ohio and Catholic Republicans’ relentless efforts to undermine public education. They’ve been working on this for decades. Along the way, they’re also trying to First Amendment Establishment Clause’s prohibition of state sponsored religion. While they were about it, they also made money off it. Classic GOP trifecta: make money, undermine the Consitution, and promote their brand of existence to the detriment of others.

While that’s one reason for the Fixx’s residency in my head, there is also climate change. I was thinking about it in conjuntion with the California fires. Dryer conditions and high winds fostered by climate change promote conditions ripe for disaster. California is just the latest example. One thing leads to another. Of course, reading online comments about it, many right-wingers state the problem is that the state didn’t rake the forests and/or didn’t take measures in their forests to reduce the chance of wildfire. They are completely oblivious to the locales of these fires in cities. But then, the right-wing’s increasingly narrow sources for news, lower education, and flawed critical thinking is another example of one thing leads to another. It’s why the United States must suffer with a convicted felon, documented liar, and unrepentant conman as POTUS. One thing leads to another.

It’s Thursday, January 16, 2025. Winds are calm and the sky is blue in my scope of sight. The temperature has been climbing tick by tick from its overnight low of 30 to its present 35 F ever since the sun began singing its song of dawn. Today’s high should be measured in the mid-fifties. Reached 52 F yesterday, and it was a pleasant, satisfying experience.

Saw my ortho surgeon yesterday. He declared me healed from my surgery and the issues which triggered it. I agree. I’m still dealing with bilateral lower leg, ankle, and foot swelling brought on by lymphedema, but I’m dealing with that as well. Wear compression socks each day. Also apply Ugli Butter CBD Cream to my legs, ankles, and feet. That also does a wondrous job of reducing swelling and inflammation. I also exercise the areas multiple times throughout the day, indulge in serious hydrating, and elevate my feet at night. Impressive difference is being noted throught this combo. I still need to address and attack the root causes, though.

Coffee and I hacked out another kitchen treaty. This calls for me to brew the grinded coffee, treat it with heated water, and then imbibe it. As part of its side of the agreement, coffee will bless me with an enjoyable experience and increase my energy levels and focus.

Hope you have an awesome Thursday. Remember, courage. Here’s the music. Cheers

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Wezda’s Theme Music

Mood: hotimeinthehouse

Today’s theme music comes fresh out of The Neuron mill. Walking through the house this morning as dawn asserted its presence, the heat was running. The furnace temp was set on 68 F but the air out of the vents felt blazingly hot on my skin. My SO and I went through our usual comedy skit of me commenting on the hot air and my wife asserting, “Warm at last.”

The Neurons almost instantly fired up “Summer in the City” in the morning mental music stream (Trademark toasted). The 1966 Lovin’ Spoonful song is a paean to a city’s day heat and its impact, and then how life burst forth at night, after the heat has retreated. A perfect song for Wezda, January 15, 2025 in Ashlandia, where it’s 28 F at my place. The sun is shining and the frosty valley is tranquil under a deep blue sky. There’s a freezing fog warning out for us. They said it will expire in about seventy-five minutes. Today’s high will supposedly be 59 F. Supposedly couches the prediction for me because we didn’t get anywhere close to our supposed high yesterday.

There I go, grousing again. Grousing is just not a word that I hear much these days. It was Mom and Dad’s favorite. Both of them would use it regularly in conversations, as in, “Your Aunt Jean was grousing about her children again today.”

After thinking about it part of yesterday, I inserted it into several conversations. Turned out to be a conversation stopper. Fer instance, my wife had gone to a “girls’ night” at a friend’s house. These girls are all in their upper sixties and beyond. The original intention had been to do the do at night but they all protested, “No, I can’t drive in the dark.” So girls’ night was moved to the early afternoon.

When my wife got back, I asked, “Do anyone at girls’ night grouse about anything?”

She stopped and stared at me. “Grouse?”

“Yes.”

“I haven’t heard that in years.”

I nodded. “Me, neither. I thought I’d bring it back.”

Alright, coffee and I have signed another cooperative agreement. I have a doctor’s appointment to hit. Then it’s grocery shopping.

Be strong and fly your flag high. Hope your day is going well, wherever you are, whatever the weather. Hope that the wars end soon. That the right wing regains its senses and became less negative, reactionary, and hateful. Hope that the California wildfires are stopped with no more loss of life so they may begin rebuilding.

In other word, I hope. Remember, this year’s word is courage. Here’s the music video. It’s an interesting one to me, watching them perform this song sans any sort of cords, wires, amplifiers, or microphones. Cheers

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Twosda’s Theme Music

Mood: Moonflyin’

Today is Twosda, January 14, 2025. Another cold morning in Ashlandia — up to 28 F under the sun’s influence — but we’ve been granted a bright blue sky and unfettered sunshine. For the moment. That could change. Experts sa clouds will move in but the temperature will push the mid-50s.

Had a powerful Inauguration Moon carrying on through the night. Although Inauguration Day happens every four years in the U.S., the first full moon of Jan. is often referred to as the Inauguration Day Moon. Other countries sometimes call it the Revolution Moon. Some wags refer to the Inauguration Day Moon as the Grrr Moon, depending upon who won the election or the circumstances of the election. That’s how I’m referring to it myself this year, for my own reasons.

The California wildfires continue to burn across the news front. Death toll is rising, 24 now. The devastation so far put the Eaton and Palisades fires at the third and fourth worse fires in California history since 1991. What a calamity. The buildings can be rebuilt but what a chunk of life and history the fires have taken. Then there’s the impact on the environment and wildlife. The brightest part of the story, if one is wanted, is how other states and our neighbors from Canada and Mexico have stepped in to help fight the blazes. Yet, of course, the rightwing echoes with lies and misinformation about what’s going on. They’ll do anything to tear down, and nothing to help.

Today’s song is “The Long Run” from 1979 by the Eagles. The Neurons put it into the morning mental music stream (Trademark pending) based on a few song lines as we go into a Republican-led Federal governmen. “Who is gonna make it? We’ll find out in the long run. I know we can take it if our love is a strong one.” So here we go: what’ll happen in the next two years? Because 2026 — the midterm elections — will probably be a revelation of some kind, if all hasn’t already been revealed before then.

Coffee and I have come together. Time to launch into another day. Here’s the music. Cheers

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Munda’s Wandering Thoughts

I think it’s time for us to modernize how we refer to the moon. Like Harvest Moon, Wolf Moon, and the like. Like the Full Moon, when people are expected to act out, should be called the Coffee Moon. Because, as someone relatively sane who is forced to deal with others’ craziness, it takes a lot of coffee to get through it.

Likewise, the first full moon in November should be called the Black Friday Moon. Doesn’t matter if it falls on Friday; are you really so naive and out of touch to believe that Black Friday, that day in November when retailers and manufacturers slash prices, is limited to that one day? Hell no, sisters and brothers. Black Friday commences weeks before. The actual Friday named in Black Friday is just the height of the shopping frenzy. And if you think that I’m being too US-centric in this, Black Friday, that shopping day on the Friday after Thanksgiving in the US, is now a global affair.

Besides the Coffee Moon and Black Friday Moon, I believe a Superbowl Moon is in order. The event is televised around the world now, even though many are tuning in for the commercials or halftime entertainment. I’d suggest a moon to ‘honor’ turning our clocks back or forward, but that’s all over the place right now. There are a number of moons which could be called Beer Moon. Use your own noodling to get to the nub of what I’m suggesting there.

What used to be known as Harvest Moon should probably be dubbed ‘Earnings Moon’ to recognize that annual earnings reports are coming out. Sure, Earnings Moon doesn’t have the romance attached to it that Harvest Moon might carry, but romance is fading so we might as well face up to who we are. This one might be US centric.

Should there be a Cynic’s Moon? Because I, at least, am very cynical about the world’s state. Also, does anyone have any thoughts on which moon should be the Bullshit Moon? Because there’s enough BS going around in my view that such a moon is definitely warranted. Just watch a Republican gush about PINO-elect Trump and you’ll see what I mean.

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Sunda’s Theme Music

Mood: Morninlazin

Sunshine and blue owned the morning sky. The afternoon’s start delivered winds and smotherin’ gray clouds. That mornin’ sunshine feels like a mirage. It’s 43 F. High will be 44 F. Dropped into the cold zone overnight, 29 F at our house. Decidin’ that he preferred warmth over being a free animal, Papi nested in the house until 5:50 AM. That’s when he did his bangin’ to be freed.

BTW, today is Sunda, January 12, 2025.

I’ve been car watching from the coffee shop. We used to have an expression in the US Air Force for B52 bombers. We called them BUFs. Big Ugly F*ckers. I think the term should be revised for some of those vehicles roamin’ the streets. The Tesla Cybertruck certainly qualifies as a BUF. As does the Telluride SUV. My opinion, of course. Others might call them the epitomy of technologic beauty. Some segment probably sees no beauty in any vehicle, dubbin’ them all monstrosities of the modern landscape. And that’s also a reasonable response.

I’ve been watching The Last Days of Ptolemy Grey on Apple. Created by Walter Mosley and based on his novel, the main actor is Samuel L. Jackson. That’s a double win for me, as I’m fans of both. Also features Walton Goggins, another personal preference when I’m watching shows and movies, and has a strong cast. No misfires among any of them, with respect and appreciation for Dominique Fishback in her role increasing. I also admire the way the show ages and de-ages Jackson’s character, Ptolemy, aka Pity. However, when they de-aged him in some episodes, his mustache looked like a glued-on fake to me. Bit distracting for me cuz of that. I recommend the series, though. Came out a few years ago.

Today’s song was gifted to The Neurons by my wife. Al Jarreau is one of her favorite performers, and one of her favorite songs is “Mornin'” from 1983. It’s one of her go-to songs when she’s cleanin’, cookin’, and exercisin’. As she resolved to make some New Year changes, she’s been playin’ this tune several times this week. Not surprisin’, The Neurons locked onto it and have it going in the morning mental music stream (Trademark waitin’). Jarreau is a helluva performer and singer. He sings with such joy. We’ve seen in concert a few times and wouldn’t hesitate to plunk down bucks and do it again, except we can’t because he passed away. This is another of those times when technology works in our favor to help us remember wonderful people. Hope you enjoy it.

Meanwhile, watching the news continuing to come out about the devastating California fires is just soul-killing. To think that someone may have deliberately started any of them is just friggin’ horrifyin’. Yet that possibility seems to have legs. In this age of Trump, I’m stirred to worry that his hateful diatribes triggered someone to actually start fires in California just to own the libs. That’s unfortunately the sort of mentality that seems possible among that cult.

Coffee and I have again embraced one another, observing the Sunday tradition set upon by myself about half a century ago. Hope you have a solid day. Here’s the music for you. Cheers

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