Monday’s Theme Music

Mood: balanced

The date ride continues straightforward. As far as we know, right? This could be like Dark City. We’re being put to sleep each night and then history, situations, and relationships are changed to see how we respond. Adhering to the belief that I do know what’s going on, today is Friday, March 11, 2024. Oh, strike that: it’s Monday.

The weather rollercoaster is another matter. We’ve popped into a ‘cloudy’ day. As far as my eyes discern, it’s one unbroken monolithic light grey cloud from mountains to mountains. Rain isn’t forecast, sort of suspicious, given this mass and the underlying fact that sprinter has reasserted control over winter here in Ashlandia, where the winds are blustery but average today. 49 F now, we holding out for one more degree for the high. Yes, 50 F is our range’s upper end. Dropping back into the thirties, come night.

“Sympathy for the Devil” by the Rolling Stones began playing in the morning mental music stream (Trademark coming in two weeks) shortly after I left my bed. “Devil Inside” from INXS followed. Then “Runnin’ with the Devil” (Van Halen), Grateful Dead with “Friend of the Devil”, and Breaking Benjamin, “Dance with the Devil”.

WTH (ha, ha), I asked Les Neurons. Why all the Devil music? They snickered back, which isn’t a useful response. I didn’t recall any Devil related dreams or reading. Closest to that is the audio version of “Demon Copperhead” my wife is listening to.

The Devil music culminated with “Devil with A Blue Dress On” by Mitch Ryder and the Detroit Wheels from 1966, when I was ten. Although others have covered the song, including Bruce Springsteen, this is the version I enjoy, with part of “Good Golly, Miss Molly” embedded in the middle. So, that’s my theme music today.

Be strong and stay positive. Register and vote, preferably you’ll vote blue. Here we go, another day, another cuppa coffee (or two). Let’s listen to the music. Cheers

Sunday’s Theme Music

Mood:

Hello, fellow organic beings. The calendar has birthed a new day, Sunday, March 10, 2024. It’s also the day most of the US ‘springs ahead’, changing our time as part of our bi-annual process to keep people tired and confused. Since I’m giving Tucker (my cat) medication every twelve hours, I stumbled through that simple math of what the new time is if he was receiving it at 0930 and 2130. The answer came too easily so I kept questioning if I had it right. That was without coffee, of course, and while I was still half-dozing, arguing with myself about getting out of bed.

Oregon’s weather mobius strip has returned us to sprinter rain. (I suppose I can shorter than to sprintrain by combining spring, winter, and rain). 47 degrees F, we’re closing on the day’s high of 48 F as showers keep window wipers busy. That sky, light gray at its zenith, dark gray crowding the horizons, doesn’t look ready to succumb to sunshine today.

This displeases my house floofs, Tucker and Papi. Both tried the outside. Finding it wanting, Tucker immediately returned. Papi had to try, try again before declaring his willingness to accept the warmth and protection from rain offered inside the house. Both are doing well. Tucker has gained weight and energy back. Fingers crossed for him to continue improving. He executed a few mad dashes in the last few days and unleashed a few loud, attention-grabbing meows.

Dreams were sparse last night and left me with “Torn” in the morning mental music stream (Trademark coming in two weeks). “Torn” was performed by three other artists, charting high in Norway and Denmark before Australian Natalie Imbruglia recorded it and had a global hit in 1997. Some co-workers didn’t like the song because of a few lines.

“I’m all out of faith. This is how I feel, cold and shamed, lying naked on the floor.”

Several remarked, “That’s disgusting. I would never lie naked on the floor.” I always told them, that’s how she feels, and not what she was doing. Then I’d have them try to imagine how they would feel lying naked on the floor and explain that the song was suggesting she felt exposed and vulnerable. They weren’t having it. C’est la vie.

Be positive and stay strong. I’m enjoying hot coffee on this wet day, taking in the outside world as I dip in and out of revising. Go ahead, seize the day. I’m thinking about seizing a scone, myself.

Here’s the music. Cheers

Floofitime

Floofitime (floofinition) 1. Time set aside or dedicated to an animal’s needs or activities. Originally used in US households in the 1980s.

In Use: “The dogs know that 6 PM meant the floofitime for their walk, and they weren’t concerned about no stinkin’ snowstorm.”

2. Of or relating to things associated with animals. First observed in Europe in the 1640s.

In Use: “The typical floofitime identifiers — cat and dog toys, beds, and feeding stations — immediately marked the home as a floof-friendly, or floendly, as Mom used to say, home.”

Thursday’s Theme Music

Mood: Cheervernal

Salutations to all the other people traveling this space rock. Welcome to Thursday, March 7 2024.

Kicky weather today in Ashlandia, where the springs are above average. Sprinter is back as spring and winter mixes it up. We begin with cold temperatures and clear skies. Was 30 F when I pried myself out of bed and shuffled toward the coffee-making process. Flooftours took me to the petting, greeting, and feeding areas for our housecats. While the furnace rumbled up in the attic, sunshine refreshed us as a blue sky rose from the darkness.

But then…dun dun dun. Patchy fog began biting into the blue sky, casting dark shadows on the sunny green mountains in the south and the wintry snow-kissed realms to the north and east. Sluggish as a coffee-deprived human, the temperature is squeaking through the thirties toward the forties. The high, they say, will be around 48 F in these environs before night sweeps in, dragging winter back in with it.

I played “Fresh Air” by Quicksilver Messenger Service yesterday. I always thought it had a lot of Santana shadings. Those thoughts lowered The Neurons into my memory mines, where they went through Santana’s offerings and returned with several favorites. One ended up dominating the morning mental music stream, a 1971 song called “Everybody’s Everything”. Where a young Neal Schon, Journey’s eventual guitarist, shared guitar duties on the original song, Stevie Ray Vaughn, Jimmy Vaughn, and Los Lobos joined Santana on this video. Not the greatest video but still mesmerizing to see and hear the late SRV. Stay around for the lively percussions.

Be strong, lean forward, stay strong, and vote Blue. Coffee is already percolating around my system. Have a fab one. Here’s the music. Cheers

The Writing Moment

Dealing with a bad muse today. Experienced with my buttons, she’s pushing them to get her way.

See, I should be editing and revising. It’s round number five on this novel in progress. It’s coming along well but it has a big appetite for my time. I hope, with another round or two, that I’ll have a finished tale that satisifes me. But that comes with a big sigh cuz I’m a little weighed down with the novel. Sixty pages of editing remain of a section which was expanded and shifted in the last two go-arounds. Complicated, they were sloppy and overwritten so I’m addressing what I see. It’s satisfying but tedious.

Bad Muse knows this. She knows that I’m addicted to the creativity experienced while writing a new novel. So Bad Muse is pushing buttons to continue with a new novel in progress. “It’s going well,” she croons, “and it’s fun. Time away from that other one will give you distance and you’ll find the editing is more easily done.”

I don’t know if her logic is right but I don’t like her tone when she says ‘that other one’. So disdainful. Not calling it a novel. Not even referencing it as a book or manuscript. Like she’s talking about another woman, a past girlfriend or wife or such. Oddly, that tone cements a decision that I’m going to edit ‘that other one’.

Take that, Bad Muse.

Floofatize

Floofatize(floofinition) – To change something from being for a human or human activity to one suiting animals. Origins: early 1960s, American homes.

In Use: “As soon as the rescue dog acclimated to his new home, he began floofatizing certain sleeping locations to claim it as his own.”

In Use: “Within a short time of adopting two cats, the patio was floofatized into a catio.”

Tuesday’s Wandering Thoughts

The woman beside me at the coffee shop seemed so familiar that I had to speak. We talked about where I might know her from but nothing was uncovered.

I shrugged it off. It’s a small town and we’re similiar ages. Maybe similiar politics; I’m progressive and there are many progressives in town. I’ve probably seen her at a rally, protest, shopping, or concert. It’s one of those small-town perks.

Polyfloofmourus

Polyfloofmourus(floofinition)1. An animal who visits several different places to exchange love with the inhabitants. Origins: early floofish, specific origins unknown.

In Use: “The big tom was known by several names, like Sketchy, Scratchy, Mike, and Nomad, and made a circuit of the neighborhood homes, stopping by to drop off purrs, accept pets and treats, play with others, and nap.”

In Use: “While Bonnie was Billy’s owner, Billy was naturally polyfloofmourus and visited neighbors to nap and eat, returning home to Bonnie after she came home from work.”

2. A person or animal who loves more than one animal.

In Use: “With cat, dog, goat, hamster, bird, deer, horse, cow, and sheep friends before she was five years old, Kamron established early on that she was polyfloofmourus, and stayed so as she matured and became an adult.

Monday’s Theme Music

Mood: Mondacious

Hey Terrans, it’s Monday, March 4, 2024. Snow has relented and sunshine has won the hour. Temps are back up into the 30s and climbing the scale. A 43 degrees F high is on the ropes. Snow remains on the ground, 3-4 inches in my realm with a fine crust but streets and walks are clear. A winter storm warning is still on until 10 PM tonight so who knows what’ll happen. Whatever does happen, snow made the point, winter is not yet over.

I was checking out Foxreviewsrock last night and found an entertaining post about Ronnie James Dio and a tribute album, Ronnie James Dio -This Is Your Life. (BTW, the Dio tribute album post is one of many enticing posts, and I hope you do check them out.) Dio, as the post notes, was a rock and heavy metal legend. His songs often projected the quintessential metal sound. As I read the post and listened to the videos, and remembered and thought, I ended up on a completely different path this morning. I figured one of Dio’s many fantastic numbers was going to be in the morning mental music stream (Trademark coming in two weeks). Lead singer on several bands along, his voice and style is memorable.

But no. This morning found The Neuron had inserted Saga with “On the Loose) into the morning mental music stream. That was wholly unexpected for me. Could be dream related as a passel of dreams from last night are in the memory circle. I think, though, it was more a matter of time and place. See, Dio fascinated my buddy Rick. If we were out somewhere and something with Dio came on the radio, TV, or juke box, he’d launched into a admiring spiel about Dio. That was fine. But Rick tripped out over Saga and how they emphasized “Loose” in the song, so hearing this song, Rick would go on about that, singing and grinning, “Tonight we’re on the loose.” Coming out in the early eighties, it definitely has an 1980s sound to it. Give it a listen and let me know what you think.

Be strong, stay positive, lean forward, vote, and drink coffee. The last is optional. All of it is optional; it’s your life. But I hope you’ll abide and at least vote Blue in the US when the chance comes in 2024.

Be good, travelers. Here’s the music. Cheers

Floiche

Floiche (floofinition) – A small place, often recessed and frequently hidden, that an animal finds suitable to stay, especially a hiding, sleeping, or spying space. Origins: early Internet, from English, combining floof and niche.

In Use: “A small cat, Quinn demonstrated an impressive jumping and climbing prowess and enjoyed floiches such as behind a stash of snacks atop the refrigerator, on top of books on the shelves, or in the closet on hangers, making finding him a daunting task.”

In Use: “Being a large dog, Bruno Mars’ natural floiches were in the open, typically on his big cloud of a bed, which is why he was so dismayed when the tiny rescue kittens came in and took his bed over.”

In Use: “A clever bird, Roscoe went high or low his floiches and always used cover, forcing people to mount long search parties through the house to discover where he was.”

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