Category: coffee

Cat Update

I have three cats. One, Boo, our bedroom pantera, has cancer. This affects his mouth, obstructing his throat, causing him to drool, and naturally affecting his ability to eat. Started two weeks ago. It gets better, it gets worse.

He’s always been a cat that freaks out. Loud sounds — say a sneeze — launches a charge for the door. The vacuum cleaner being moved sends him skittering to get out of the house. Turning the vacuum on causes huge meowing fits by the door until he’s freed from the terror. Someone knocking on the door or ringing the doorbell is an incentive for a mad dash to the back door. If he can’t get out, he hides in the closet.

He barely permits us to scratch and pet his head and the back of his neck. Getting medicines into him is a ridiculous battle. We don’t know his back story of how he came to be like this. He came to us six years ago, another refugee who no one would claim. We gave him shelter and love to the best of our abilities.

He loves going outside in the morning. I permit him out, weather permitting. Although it’s in the forties today and sunny, wind gusts turned Boo back from going out. He couldn’t eat and was in pain, so he’s crying and drooling. My wife is doing her Zoom exercise class, so a voice is stridently shouting, “Heel toe! Grapevine! Four more!” This is set to blaring music. Today it’s old country and western. Of course, my wife is exercising, thumping across the floor in her shoes, which, yes, is a new stress-fear-anxiety source for Boo.

So, I’m trying to feed and comfort Boo. Also trying to feed the other cats. But they’re distracted by what’s going on with Boo, so they follow me around, trying to supervise and give advice.

Hell of a morning. All before coffee.

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Saturday’s Theme Music

I’ve done it! I reached Saturday!

It’s good to set goals. You feel so good when you achieve them. Making it to Saturday was a modest but important one. It kept me going through the other days, which were sometimes sucky.

Today is December 18, 2021. The sun popped in, spreading sunshine like butter on hot pancakes, at 7:34 AM. A hazy shade of winter is overlaid on the blue. The snowmess of Wednesday and Thursday leaves no local trace except for tales. Current temp is 32 F and a high of 50 F is being dangled in front of our faces.

“Given to Fly” by Pearl Jam (1998) is flying through the morning mental music stream. It’s one of those songs that starts softly but when I used to hear it on the car FM, I’d end up, pressing the volume button to up as the song rushed through the middle.

These were the words that opened the window for PJ to sail through:

He floated back down cause he wanted to share
His key to the locks on the chains he saw everywhere
But first he was stripped and then he was stabbed by faceless men
Well, fuckers, he still stands

h/t to Genius.com

Stay positive, test negative, wear a mask as needed, and get the vax and boosters. I have a new goal: coffee, here I come. And here’s the music. Cheers

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Friday’s Theme Music

Got my Friday face on, don’t need much more, gonna go party, yeah, lookin’ to score. Gonna stay up till the sun breaks the sky, and when I tell you all about it, I’ll lie and lie.

Yes, it’s December’s first Friday, which comes on a third this year. Traditionally, the first Friday of December is celebrated by making lists and then checking them twice. Shopping, chores, whatever, the list can be about anything. The point is to make them so you can cross them off on December 21. Don’t know how that tradition began.

Daybreak came at 7:22 AM and nightfall is expected to begin at 4:39 PM. It’s foggy today. Present temperature is a foggy 39 degrees F. Forecasters anticipate the fog breaking enough for us to see some sunshine and a high temperature in the low fifties. It was managed yesterday, with a pleasant afternoon making the scene. All reminds me of living in Half Moon Bay, California. Fog was our norm for much of the year. But being there, we had the ocean’s inputs to our senses, offsetting the fog’s depressing tendencies.

Got Finger Eleven’s song, “One Thing” from 2003 residing in my morning mental music stream. Arrived due to writing thinking and dueling with the muse. At a pivotal scene, thinking, if I can sort out this one thing. That reminded my neurons that this song was loaded into the gray vault, and the mental Alexa released it to the stream. Here are the actual lyrics.

If I sorted it out
If I knew all about this one thing
Wouldn’t that be something

h/t AZLyric.com

How many times have people said to themselves or one another, if we can just sort this out…etc?

Stay positive, test negative, wear a mask as needed, and get the vax and boosters when you can. Also, pick up some coffee for me. Never mind, I need to relieve my rear end anyway. I’ll get it myself.

Here’s the music. Cheers

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Wednesday’s Theme Music

Change the page. December has arrived. Today is Wednesday, the first. Commence the countdown to the new year.

May be a new month but we began it the same way as the end of last month, with sunshine wearily attempting to poke sunlight through clouds and fog. Gray and silver drape the trees. All the deciduous have dumped their leaves. Naked branches are the new norm, except for the pines and firs.

Temperature is 40 degrees F with expectations that we’ll see 62. Sure. Sunset will come at 4:40 PM while sunrise’s feeble start was at 7:20 AM. A day without sunshine is a dreary spectacle.

Today’s music popped into the morning mental music stream after a political conversation with friends yesterday. Someone made the comment, “That’ll be the day,” which prompted the ol’ mental Alexa to say, “Playing That’ll Be the Day by Linda Ronstadt from 1976.” Why Alexa went with that cover instead of the Buddy Holly edition is outside of my gray matter’s ken. Anyway, it’s on a loop in my head so I’m putting it out there to loop into others’ heads.

Stay positive, test negative, wear a mask as needed, and get the vax and booster when you can. You know what I mean. Got my coffee, French Roast, untouched by sugar, cream, or milk, but with a splash of cinnamon. Here we go, December. Cheers

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Tuesday’s Theme Music

Sunshine glittered off the trees and cracked through the windows at 7:19 AM on this November 30, 2021 morning. Two hours later, fog stole the light and cast shadows across hopes for a bright, sunny day. The temperature was 51 F; now it’s 45. The expected high is 62 so we’re expecting change to come.

Hello, fellow Earthfarers. Today is Tuesday, the final day of the eleventh month of the year. 2021 is drawing down. Yet, it will all go on with a new set of numbers and labels. Same day, different year.

I have Bob Marley’s “Redemption Song” from 1980 occupying the morning mental music stream. This is directly dream related. As I noodled through recalling my dreams, one about change stood out. From that, I came to think of this song. I remember hearing it for the first while I was at home listening to an offbeat FM rock station in San Antonio, TX. That station played many tunes that didn’t find regular airplay on other stations. The song resonated with me, although I, a white male in America, have always had it pretty good. I looked up the lyrics later.

Stay positive, test negative, wear a mask as needed, and get some jabs. Here’s the song, a reflective tune for a fog-swathed morning. Wait…is that sunshine?

Not holding my breath. Just sipping my coffee. Cheers

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Saturday’s Theme Music

This is it. 2021 is about to enter the home stretch and gallop into history. It’s been a rush of hours. Despite being limited in where we can go, I’ve stayed busy with writing, housework, tending cats, reading, and some limited socializing. My wife, who is more social, laments that we’re just marking time. I don’t feel the same. I’m writing, after holding off on pursuing a writing career, or even much writing effort, while working in the military and business. Wasn’t supposed to be like this; when I retired from the military, I was going somewhere to write. But no; she was pursuing her career and pleaded with me to stay in the SF bay area for that purpose. Five years later, her career was done. One company bought another and she was let go. She never worked again. Meanwhile, I worked another twenty years after putting my twenty in the military. So, not sorry. This is now my time. It may be too late as I dance through my sixties — hell, I can pull my social security now, if I wish. But I’m going on, writing and trying until health or death stops me.

Okay, that screed is out of the way. Today is Saturday, November 27, 2021. Oh, a gray day is on us. One great smear of dull gray clouds blots out the blue sky, sunshine, and surrounding mountain tops. Stillness is holding, like the valley is holding its breath. Sunrise came upon us at 7:15 AM and sunset will take place at 4:45 PM. Temperatures are warmer, already 52 F and we expect 62 F. I’m a little disconcerted by the warm trend. By this time in many past years, we’ve already experienced a few inches of snow from at least one storm. Nothing of that sort has taking place this year. The fear is that the snow we need to have piled onto the pack won’t come, leaving us mired in drought and subject to more wildfires next year. Breath held, fingers crossed.

The COVID-19 Omicron variant is the big news. Just as we thought, hey, a light, maybe it’s the end of the tunnel, another variant hurdles toward us. The world races to react and contain it, headlines blare. We know that’s not true. Many people are shrugging it off as fake news or not really that bad, or so what? Let’s take our chances and die. We’re in the same boat but same don’t care. They’ll pull in the direction that they want, and damn the rest.

Sour mood, isn’t it? And I’m already drinking coffee.

Today’s morning mental music stream is occupied by Rick Astley singing “Never Gonna Give You Up” from 1987. Started because of a cat. He was singing it to me as he tucked in against me in bed this AM, kneading my shoulder with his claws and singing a deep baritone purr. I had to get up to attend other cats and my bladder but the fur beast was singing, “Never gonna give, never gonna give, never gonna give you up.” At least, so it seems to my demented mind.

Stay positive, test negative, wear a mask as needed, and get thyself vaxes and boosters when possible. Looking at the trend started in 2020 and continued in 2021, 2022 is gonna need more patience, more masks, and more endurance.

Here’s the music. Pretty lame video. Think I need more coffee. Cheers

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Thursday’s Theme Music

Welcome to Thanksgiving Day in the United States, Thursday, November 25, 2021. My wife has turned on the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade being broadcast from New York. She loves watching that. It’s part of her tradition.

Out walking yesterday, my mind treated me to a series of songs. First up, “Getting to know you, getting to know all about you. Getting to like you, getting to hope you like me.” That was followed by, “Give my regards to Broadway. Remember me in Herold Square. Tell all the gang at Forty Second street, that I will soon be there.” Then, though, my brain suggested, “Isn’t it Trafalgar Square?” What? Another brain section wondered if it wasn’t “Lester Square.”

I think my brain is trying to drive me nuts.

Sunrise came upon us at 7:13 AM and sunset will cometh at 4:43 PM. Temperatures were at 32 F when I arose but it’s now 36. We expect 56 under a pale blue sky.

We’ll be going to a Friendsgiving celebration this year. It was skipped last year but we’ve been doing this for ten years or so. Folks who live out at a farm invite others each year. It’s limited to twelve people this year, all vaccinated and boosted. We’re taking a sweet potato casserole which my wife made yesterday and an appetizer tray.

Meanwhile, a Roxette song, “It Must Have Been Love” (1987) is occupying the morning mental music stream. Don’t know why this song is there. Maybe I heard a snippet from it sometime yesterday. Could be from dreams; had a long train of dreams last night. Some were sexy and a few were funny. Too many to go through, though.

Stay positive, test negative, wear a mask as needed, and get the vax and booster when you can. If you celebrate Thanksgiving, Happy Thanksgiving to you. Hope it’s memorable and fun, with minimal stress. Otherwise, seize the day, wherever you are. I’m gonna seize a cuppa coffee. That’s how I start. Here’s the music. Cheers

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Wednesday’s Theme Music

Happy hump day, camels. Maybe it’s hump day for you. Wednesday is often so designated. Mid-week, people consider it the hardest to bestir themselves to endure. Hardest to get up, process, and function. Even coffee and energy drinks seem to do little…for a while. But then, as the morning hours pass and the afternoon arrives, they realize, they’re going to make it. And if they can make it through Wednesday, they can make it the rest of the week.

Course, hump day isn’t always Wednesday for some people. Some feel hump day on Monday. If they can get through Monday, then all else is gravy. Or hump day is Thursday and if Thursday is survived… You get it. I’ve beaten it sufficiently that little life remains.

Today is November 24, 2021. We’re racing toward the year’s end. Just consider: next Wednesday is December 1.

Sunrise split the valley into light and dark at 7:12 AM. The sun’s warming light will fade out of the valley starting at 4:43 PM. Current temperature is 29 F, according to my thermometer, and the cats agree, declaring, “Cold. Gimme heat.” Net says it’s 39, but then the sun hasn’t actually entered my yard yet. Still just clearing the mountains and forests. Give it time, right? High temp should be 55 today. The sky is deceptively summer blue. Looks warmer than it is.

I have “Little Talks” by Of Monsters and Men from 2011 echoing in the morning mental music stream. The song came about because I was reading about how people read data about the COVID-19 pandemic and vaccinations, and reached their own conclusions about vaccines not working. They called this their truth. They then lamented that they were blocked, locked out, or shut out of whatever forum they were using because they were spreading misinformation. From all of that, I thought of “Little Talks” and the line that goes, “Though the truth may vary, this ship will carry our bodies safe to the shore.”

Yes, the truth can be complicated. What was true a hundred years ago might not be true now. We learn, we grow, we develop new understanding and discover what we held as the truth was wrong. The truth now, though, is that data supports the vaccines, masking, and social distancing. The truth, though, is also that variants will emerge and break through. The truth is that we will know more in a year, and we’re not sure where COVID-19 and humanity will stand at that time.

Damn. Now I need coffee. Stat.

Stay positive, test negative, wear a mask as needed, and get the vax and booster when you can. The truth is, that will help most of us survive. Cheers

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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

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