Category: coffee

Sunday’s Theme Music

Mood: Sundaylax

It’s Sunday, July 21, 2024. Quiet rules the neighborhood. The cats and birds are all chilling. Haven’t seen any deer, cougars, foxes, or bears. I guess they’re off chilling somewhere, too.

Wildfire smoke crashed the scene yesterday. Gaining density, we were soon sitting in a yellow fog at 96 degrees F. The smoke carried out Air Quality clear up into the unhealthy zone, finishing just short of hazardous. The cats were forced in, the air purifying machine turned on, and the windows kept closed as sunlight fled and night swarmed in.

Dawn brought relief. Temperatures wre huddling in the low sixties. Smoke mildly grays the blue sky but visibility is much better. I’ve cautiously opened a few windows. Doesn’t smell overly bad. I experience some eye tearing and itchy now and and again, then a dripping nose, and a bout of sneezing, but overall, it can be endured. All the weather sources are agreeing that we’ll touch the high eighties as our temperature’s ceiling. That’s a welcome change.

I don’t know where the smoke is originating. California has several going. Southern Oregon where I live is relatively fire free. East of the Cascades delivers a different story, as major fires are going in Oregon on that side, especially by the Idaho border. Hope all stay safe and the fires are soon contained.

“Danger Zone”, a song by Kenny Loggins and associated with the movie Top Gun is storming the morning mental music stream (Trademark threatened). I don’t know why The Neurons pulled the 1986 song from the mental archives for this morning. It doesn’t seem overtly dream related. Could be smoke & fire thinking, I guess. I don’t believe that it’s a political manifestation as I swerved away from politics this morning.

It’s a kind of strange video. 80s music, 80s clothing, 80s dancing. But they’re my people. LOL.

Have a better one. Be strong, stay positive, and Vote Blue in 2024. Here’s the music and there’s the coffee. Help yourself. Here we go. Cheers

2

Saturday’s Theme Music

Mood: coffeetermined

Dry, hazy, hot. Not as hot as many U.S. places. Haven’t really checked the rest of the world. I’ve been mired in my American experience.

It’s 83 F in Ashlandia, where the sky is postcard blue and the sun beams down with frying bacon intensity. Gonna get hot today. How hot is questionable; one source said, 99 F. Another gave us a quote of 95 F. Somewhere in the upper nineties is my guess.

Tomorrow will be cooler, they’re saying. Fingers crossed, they’re right. Some are saying, 89 F will crown the temperature. Others declare, 91 F.

I’d love something in the high eighties for a change. I’m working on the side yard. We have a couple raised beds located there but chose not to use them this year, because we had other plans. While I was away in May, this yard grew thick with weeds. Now they’re all straw yellow and ripe fire fuel. I’m trying to remove it all but the heat gets in my way. Also, I grab this stuff and it just breaks away. Getting rid of it is going to be an involved process. I’m considering watering it to green it and then pull it up.

Papi and this jay have something going on. Papi is our ginger blade, a rescue floof abandoned when neighbors moved away. He and they apparently didn’t get along well. He’d started visiting us and socializing. Originally calling him Meep because of the soft sound he made, we started feeding him and giving him shelter when the weather went to shit. Eventually, he was ours and his original folks were gone.

I don’t know what precipitated it, but whenever Papi leaves the house and goes into the backyard, this jay flies over and screeches at him. I mean, it’s relentless. This started several days ago but this morning’s episode seemed more intense. I had the bedroom slider open to let the cool night air in, with the screen closed. Papi came in and ate just before six and went back out, and that jay started up like a frenzied MAGA fan. I could see the bird on our table yelling at Papi. Papi didn’t seem to be doing anything in response.

Anyway, out of that, The Neurons conjured the 1972 song which Billy Paul had a hit with. See, I’d said to myself, Papi and that jay have a thing going on. I guess The Neurons thought that segued well with the song’s lyrics, “We have a thing going on.” So now I have the song playing in the morning mental music stream (Trademark scratched). If you listen to the song as I did, I sang along but subbed the words, “Papi and the jay have a thing going on.” When I sang it to Papi, I swear that he rolled his eyes and walked away.

Stay positive, be strong, lean forward, and Vote Blue in 2024. Coffee is mingling with the tastebuds. Time to jam. Here’s the music. Cheers

2

Friday’s Theme Music

Mood: Heatweary

It’s currently seventy something in Ashlandia, sunny as hell, with blue sky from here to there, and Friday, July 19, 2024. The morning lacks that ‘Friday feel’ to it that used to be so special. That might be because the continuous high heat has evaporated it. Or melted it. I don’t know.

It will be cooler here today, reaching just 93 F, just above our standard for this time of year. ‘This time of year’ is used so much, we should create a new word out of it, like thistimeofyear.

It’s quiet time in my life but busy. Tracking others’ health, tracing my health, trying to get on top of a rotating list of tasks, but you get ’em done and they come around again. It’s part of life’s great cycle.

Of course, U.S. politics are weighing down my thoughts and mood. Trump speaks and out spews lies. And those who disparaged him before now stand by his side singing his praises. The lack of principles is sickening, more so for those who support these characters.

Anyway, my brain was talking to me about how ‘everybody knows’ that Trump lies. It’s like a given. Somehow, that gains him followers. What kind of voodoo is that?

A dark and pessimistic song was brought forward by The Neurons. “Everybody Knows” by Leonard Cohen came out in 1988. His bassy graveled words carry sensibilities of wry cynicism and worldly acceptance. Playing in the morning mental music stream (Trademark tarnished), the lyrics mock how all know and accept. Cohen lists them with a sneer — “Everybody knows.” That’s how it seems now. Everybody knows Trump lies and cheats, it’s been proven. He leaves glittering disaster in his wake and there’s a history to prove it. Everybody knows. But he has his supporters singing his praises, pretending that shit hasn’t happened. Everybody knows it’s because they share his ‘values’. When we dig deeper into those values, we discover that they’re just a veneer over their prejudices, fear, and hatred. Calling them ‘values’ makes them feel better about themselves, even though everybody knows that it’s bullshit.

Stay positive — seems cynical, maybe even hypocritical, for me to suggest that to you, given how insurmountable I find it each day to stay positive in the face of media reports, polls, and the GOP hypocrisy. But, swallow, deep breath, I try, and urge you to do the same. Stay positive. Lean forward. Be strong. Vote Blue in 2024. And believe.

Coffee and I are doing the morning dance. Here’s the music. Cheers

0

Thursday’s Theme Music

Mood: coffee-upd.

Welcome to Ashlandia, where it’s Thursday, July 18, 2024. Currently sitting at 70 degrees F under an unfettered blue sky, we expect to achieve a high only three degrees above our July average, 95 F. I’m looking forward to a summer day when we’re three degrees below average. Yes a day in the high nineties would be a treat. On the plus side, our dry conditions keep us from being flooded as is happening in other parts of the U.S.

A friend was relating some cat tales to a group last night. His cat is now mature and they’ve been leaving together for a few years, so he finally broke it to her that she was adopted. He thought she took it well.

Later, though, she was lying on the floor in dim night light. He went by, brushing his foot against her back leg. She instantly bolted out of there at the speed of light. In the process, she used his big toe to launch herself, and her claw left a nice souvenir. Next day, he had the front door open but the screen door on so she could look out. Well, she climbed the screen and got a claw stuck. He saved her and she rewarded him with a five-inch scratch. I wondered, was this all accidental, or was she acting out because she learned she was adopted?

Cats.

Today’s music comes from noodling thoughts. I’d been thinking about how Evangelicals have embraced Trump. He’s one of them is their claim, which means, they’re like him, yeah? In doing so, they’ve basically re-branded themselves with Trump’s values. It sickens me. Anyhow, eavesdropping on my thinking, The Neurons dropped Joan Osbourne’s 1995 hit song, “One of Us” into the morning mental music stream (Trademark hopeful). Eric Bazilian wrote the song. In it, singer and writer wonder, what if God was one of us? A stranger on a bus trying to make their way home. They create an image so far away from the Evangelical’s bizarre twist that Trump is a holy savior.

Right. Let me the picture the scene. Can you imagine Trump taking a bus to go home? Imagine him among the hoi polloi. Of course, he’d be trying to sell something and bragging about how great he is. “I’m the greatest savior ever,” he’d declared. “And it’s not just me thinking that. The Pope told me. He said, ‘Donald, you’re the greatest savior ever, cause you’re not a loser. You’ve never been nailed to a cross.'”

BTW, it’s Sour Candy Day. I’m not a fan of sour candy but if you are, please indulge.

Stay positive — yes, deep breaths, right? Be strong. Lean forward. Vote Blue in 2024. And drink coffee. That last is totally optional for you, but I’m having some, black, hot, and unadulterated. Dig me?

Here’s the music. And away we go. Cheers

0

Tuesday’s Theme Music

Mood: Coffeebunctious

Good morning, good day, good afternoon, and good evening. Today is Tuesday, July 16, 2024. It’s now 81 F in Ashland, cloudy, a bit humid, stiff and dull with heat. Our high will be 99 F. Clouds like pleasure craft in the sea have come to the harbor of our sky.

We were coming back from running errands yesterday when the sky darkened. A large, swollen cloud mass blocked the sun, bringing up a wind. Rain veils hovered over the southern mountains’ trees. Could we get rain? my wife and I wondered.

Back home, we questioned Alexa. She assured us that rain wasn’t happening.

Then thunder steamrolled our street. Huh. A few minutes later came a lightning streak. More thunder. The power flickered and danced. Then soft rain pelted the hot ground, summoning petrichor from its depths. The temperature flew from the mid 90s to 86 F. Doors and windows were opened as the thin, light rain drizzled over us like light frosting and left. Thunder continued for another thirty minutes but that was the only band member there as lightning and precipitation hustled on. The temperature recovered to hit 90 but the evening cooled fast. The night was pleasantly chill, and a deep slumber was enjoyed.

One of the things that come with lightning in the west is worry about it striking the ground and igniting fires. Yes, that happened, quite a bit. Many were immediately found and outed. A few are still out there, watched and prioritized to be addressed by the proper government agencies.

The Neurons are feeding One Republic with “Counting Stars” from 2013 into the morning mental music stream (Trademark steamed). It was the line, “Lately, I’ve been, I’ve been losing sleep, dreaming about the things we could be,” which hooked The Neurons. I don’t blame them; I like the line as well. Then I sort of hooked onto later line myself: “Everything that kills me makes me feel alive.” As a person living with hypertension and medicating for it and dealing with edema, I make strenuous efforts to avoid sodium. My bod and sodium don’t get along and the less little bit each day triggers swelling and exasperation. Ah, life gives us each a unique burden to carry, unless you’re some kind of strangely fortunate one like TFG. It’s a uplifting song for me, nice beat, with some stirring lyrics aptly delivered.

Be strong, remain positive, and Vote Blue in 2024. Coffee and I have been sharing a pleasant morning. Hope you’ve been doing the same. Here’s the music video. Off we go. Cheers

0

Sunday’s Theme Music

Mood: heatthargic

Didn’t get too cool last night. Was only supposed to reach 99 F yesterday but my place saw almost 103 and then the heat hung around long after the sun said adios. Today, Sunday, July 14, 2014, I see clouds in the western sky. 73 F now in my zone, the heat is expected to push the mercury (or digital mercury) to 96 F.

Just finished the breakfast ritual. For a long time, I ate oatmeal, serving it up with fruit and walnuts mixed in. The fruit was mostly blueberries but blackberries were sometimes subbed. Once in a while, strawberries, peaches, or nectarines were installed on the menu. A few years ago, I switched to bagels. I nuke them to warm them and then butter them up. Fresh fruit has been added. Today, I had a kumquat. Then three plump blackberries. A dozen fat blueberries followed, and then a prune, several almonds, and a small slice of watermelon. The fruit varies, depending on what’s in season and what’s bought.

Now, doesn’t it feel good know what I had for breakfast? No, I’m sure it wasn’t at all interesting to you except for you to mutter, why is he writing this? Just a whim.

Today’s music began as “Richard Cory” by Simon & Garfunkel. But even as I protested, I did that song earlier this year, and then asked The Neurons why that song was in the morning mental music stream (Trademark stretched), the song changed to “Find Your Way Back” by Jefferson Starship. I had an idea of why it was there; I’d read of a hope that a coalition of Democrats will find their way back and support President Biden in his re-election and carry us to victory in November. But then —

*dramatic pause*

Papi finished his brekkie and wandered in for some attention. As he sat beside me on the ground, permitting me to bestow needed skritches around his ears, chin, and neck, he stopped proceedings to move aside and scratch an itch. Naturally, I said, “Scratch that itch,” in the same style as it’s sung in Devo’s hit song, “Whip It” from 1980. The Neurons latched onto that like a newborn taking to a nipple, so it’s now the song occupying my mental regions.

Stay positive, be strong, and Vote Blue in 2024. Also, enjoy a healthy breakfast. Coffee is being finished. Here’s the music video. Cheers

0

Friday’s Theme Music

Mood: sizzlin’

Greetings from Ashlandia, where the heat stays on. It’s Friday, July 12, 2024. July has been a flaming month. Formalling started on July 4th, when the thermometers were showing it’s over 100 F and has barely eased. For today, we’ll tap one degree below 100. It’s a pleasant morning now, though, 68 at my house after falling to 62 F. Tomorrow, we go back to 100 F. Sunday is expected to drop into the low 90s, kicking off a stretch where our highs will crest in the 90s and the lows overnight will find the mid to upper sixties.

Air looks pretty good. Blue cloudless sky looks particulate free, except over in the horizon’s northwestern sector. Probably from the Salt Creek fire. They’re making good progress on it with a lot of mopping up going on. They warned that we’d probably see greater smoke last night, as we did, because they started a fire inside the containment line to fight to fire to keep it from jumping the fire line.

Boy howdy, that cool night air was invigorating, friends. As the sun slipped away and the temperatures slithered down below 80, I slid open the bedroom slider and the cats and I reveled in it. I’ve been sleeping atop the duvet, not bothering with even a coverlet, but I awoke cold enough that I pulled a light blanket over me. Tucker (pronounced Tuckah) stayed with me most of the night but as I got up to open the slider’s screen door to let Papi in and out (and in and out, repeat), Tucker said, “Hey, I want to go out there, too.” The boy has been feeling the heat, and his age.

Well, read news last night that the Beastie Boys were suing some restaurant over use of their song, “Sabotage”, from 1991. As soon as The Neurons were informed, they pulled the song from their mental file cabinet (my brain still uses paper but they’re talking about going digital) and now it’s blasting in the morning mental music stream (Trademark melting). As with many songs I enjoy, I’d never seen the video for it. Seeing it today is like a smack in the face from a wayback machine. Great fun.

Stay positive and be strong, and Vote Blue in 2024, and return President Biden to the Oval Office. Coffee and I have come to terms and are getting along swell. Here’s the music video, directed by Spike Jonze. Hey ho, let’s go. Cheers

0

Tuesday’s Theme Music

Mood: boisterous

Smoke has cleared out in a reprieve for Ashlandia. Temperatures, sadly, remain close to the ‘we’re living in a place that’s hotter than hell’ zone.

It’s Tuesday, July 9, 2024. Excessive heat warnings still dominate our local news and conversations. ‘Only’ reached over 104 F at my house yesterday. Yes, that was an improvement, but with the smoke and the nocturnal temp falling to ‘only’ 71, our house didn’t cool much overnight. Right now, it’s 74 at our place and it’s expected to reach 103 F and dip to 68 F tonight. Tomorrow, fingers crossed, temperatures will not enter the triple digit realm. We’ll stay cooler, in the upper 90s, until Saturday, when 100 F is predicted for a final burst before the temperatures fall into the low 90s for a period.

The high heat has moved authorities to declare an extreme heat danger emergency, curtailing outdoor activities such as cutting grass and using power tools which might ignite a fire.

It’s important to count my blessings, though. We’re not flooded out of our homes as midwesterners were in June. Nor are we without power as several millions are in Texas after Beryl’s visit. We’re not trapped by forest fires as in parts of California and Oregon, nor are we in the seriously hot levels of Las Vegas (new record of 119 F) or Palm Springs, California (new record of 124 F). Overall, too, my wife and I have food and shelter security, sanitary conditions, and a place to call home that affords us safety and privacy.

The cats are coping. We keep Tucker in. Long-haired, with thick stuff, he’s elderly and needs to be protected more. Young Papi is better at adjusting, it seems. I give both kibble water several times a day. They love it at night, when it finally cools, and the back door is left open. They just lie inside on the living room carpet, enjoying the cooler air as it comes in, admiring their backyard domain.

We’re still enduring being without AC. It is getting more difficult as the relentless heat plagues us. The AC part that was to have arrived yesterday will now arrive on July 12. Why? No reason given but with the weather around the nation, I can easily envision supply chain disruptions caused by flooding, heat, and fire.

EXCEPT — and here is the part where I get irked — their tracking updates showed the part to be not far from me, in fact, 300 miles away by car yesterday at 1 AM. Maybe the truck was involved in a traffic accident or robbery. Don’t know, but that swing from here today to four days away without amplifying information is difficult to swallow. Maybe I’ll just call a repair being.

EXCEPT — Just received an email saying that it’s in the next town and is out for delivery. Like, WTF, man, get your story straight. Hope it arrives soon, and that it fixes my issue. Fingers and toes all crossed and knock on wood.

Today’s music is by Lil Wayne. Called “Mrs. Officer”, it was released in 2008, but The Neurons heard it on the radio yesterday, and it’s just titallating the crap out of them. So it’s in my morning mental music stream (Trademark smokin’) at high volume today.

You familiar with this song? Quite crazy.

Yeah, doing a buck in the latest drop
I got stopped by a lady cop, haha
She got me thinking I can date a cop, haha
‘Cause her uniform fit her so tight
She read me my rights
She put me in her car, she cut off all the lights
She said I have the right to remain silent
Now I got her hollering, sounding like a siren
Talking ’bout (wee-ooh-wee-ooh-wee) yeah
(Wee-ooh-wee-ooh-wee) Yeah (wee-ooh-wee-ooh-wee) yeah
And I know she the law, and she know I’m the boss
And she know I get high above the law
And she know I’m raw, she know I’m from the streets
And all she want me to do is fuck the police
Talking ’bout (wee-ooh-wee-ooh-wee, wee-ooh-wee-ooh-wee)
Yeah (wee-ooh-wee-ooh-wee) yeah

h/t to AZlyrics.com

Stay positive, be strong, and Vote Blue in 2024. Coffee and I have done the tastebuds handshake and we’re off. Here’s the music. Cheers

0

Monday’s Theme Music

Mood: metcoffeetized

Another Monday begins its stay, we can’t have it any other way. Sold in code, set in stone, Monday, Monday is how the day is known.

It’s also July 8, 2024. Over half the year gone, and what have we learned?

Today’s high is expected to be 108, about a forty degree climb from where we’re at right now. Yesterday topped off at 105 F at my homestead. So on the one hand, it reached only 105 F yesterday and the temperature began dropping, um, ‘rapidly’ at about six. It’s a relative thing, saying ‘rapidly’. I took it as a welcomed change but then saw an orange sunset painting the blinds. Hmmm, said The Neurons, we had a clear sky so why is the sunset now that color?

Particulates, of course. Wildfire smoke, of course. So the smoke cooled the air by blocking the sun with its pollution. But there’s a fire to worry about. A mixed bag, as they say.

This wildifre is known as the Salt Creek fire. One of three locally experienced fires over the past several dsay, the other two were contained and extinguished. Here’s an explaination about the situation out of the morning’s update on Salt Creek:

Fire activity naturally decreased last night when the sun went down and temperatures dropped. With this advantage, resources overnight were able to put in a mix of bulldozer and hand line constructed with tools along the entire northern portion, as well as the southwest border of the fire. The eastern and southeastern portion remain largely unlined and will be the focus of Monday’s day shift. Today, 321 personnel are assigned to the fire, including 12 20-person crews, nine engines, 10 water tenders, seven bulldozers, and six tree fallers. Snags, or hazard trees, are present throughout the fire and may fall unexpectedly. This, along with steep terrain and hot conditions are hazards for firefighters on the line today. Aircraft will be heavily used again today as soon as possible, including one Type 3, two Type 2 and three Type 1 helicopters that are exclusively assigned to this incident. Air tankers will be ordered again as needed.

The Salt Creek Fire was first reported Sunday afternoon just after 4 p.m. Both ODF Southwest Oregon District and Lake Creek Fire District initially responded. When firefighters arrived on scene, it was estimated to be 2-5 acres and growing quickly in the hot, dry and windy conditions.

Thanks to the ODF and the well-established system for fighting these fires, and the brave individuals doing it on our behalf.

The Neurons have “Man In A Box” by Alice in Chains from 1991 in the morning mental music stream (Trademark ashy). The song received a lot of play time on the stations which I listened to back then. I was back in the USA and living in the Mountain View/Sunnyvale area on the Peninsula between San Jose and San Francisco, CA. I remained in the military then, my final tour, doing space ops in the blue cube at Onizuka Air Station.

The song came to me last night. The temperature was still warm and I awoke drenched in sweat. The words, sweat box, spun up. Hence, the song.

Stay positive, be strong, and Vote Blue in 2024. Coffee and I have negotiated a settlement and I’m now sipping away. Here’s the music. Cheers

0

Sunday’s Theme Music

Mood: Overbaked

“Heat Awareness Week” continues in Ashlandia today, where the temperature will reach 106 F. Yesterday, I saw 109 F at my house. My friend on the other end of town registered 110 F. Officially, I think the town ‘only’ registered 104 F. While we didn’t see 100 degrees on Friday until after 3:30 PM, 102 was stuck by 1:30, and it just kept on climbing.

It’s 80 F now, so already warming. Monday and Tuesday are also expected to surmount the triple digit level before plunging into the mid to high nineties next week. In a happy move, though, our lows tonight are dropping into the high sixties, giving us some nocturnal release.

I don’t understand why but The Neurons have Prince and The Revolution performing “When Doves Cry” from 1984 in the morning mental music stream (Trademark scorched). Perhaps it’s kismet; according to the wiki thingy, this song was #1 from July 7, 1984, holding that spot for five weeks. Today is Sunday, July 7, 2024, just a scant forty years ago to the day. Now a pause to recover from realizing that the song is that old.

I actually suspect that the song is in my head because of some passing thoughts from Friday. My wife and I had just left a bakery and were in the car, driving away. The blue sky reminded me of the Okinawa sky, as did the moment — leaving the bakery. I asked her if she remembered going to the American Bakery on Okinawa to buy dessert. She didn’t remember that. Part of the trigger for that memory, though, was that “Raspberry Beret” by Prince and The Revolution was playing on the radio, and that song came out in the mid 1980s, when I lived on Okinawa.

Stay positive, remain cool, be strong, and enjoy life. Coffee and I have exchanged greetings for the morning. Here’s the music video, and away we go. Cheers

0

Blog at WordPress.com.

Up ↑