A Conversation with Mom
Mom called.
It was almost five PM. My wife and I were sitting there, my phone on the desk beside me. We never heard my phone ring. I picked it up to check something else only to see that Mom called four times in a span of ten minutes. Left a voice mail just two minutes before.
Complaining about my phone while I wondered WTH was wrong with it – or was it my service? – I called VM but couldn’t decipher what Mom was trying to say. As I was listening to it, she called again.
After answering, I listened as she complained about my sister, Gina, and begged me to call Gina and ask her to take Mom shopping tomorrow. I agreed to text Gina with the message.
Mom then said, “I told Gina that I would give her $4,000 a month if she let me live with her.”
I replied, “I know. Gina said she will if you apologize to Pat about the things you said about him.” Pat is Gina’s husband.
“I never said anything about Pat.”
“Then apologize.”
“I’m willing to pay for a lie detector test for both of us.”
“Who?”
“Pat and me.”
“Why would you need a lie detector test? You said you never said anything about him.”
“I didn’t. After I moved into Gina’s house, Pat would come in and spy on me. But I never said anything about Pat.”
“You used to tell me that Pat was coming in and stealing your remote control.”
“Well, yes, that. He used to come in and take my remote control and hide it.”
“You told me that he used to come in and hurt your head.”
“Yes, Pat used to come in and use an invisible machine on my head. He had a control that he could use to make the device squeeze my head and make it hurt so much.”
“Mom, you just told me that you never said anything about Pat. Then you told me several things that you think he did. He never did any of those things, Mom. There’s no evidence of it. If you apologize to Gina for saying that he did, you can live with her.”
“Well, then I can’t live with her. I’d rather die before I lie. And I can’t live here like this any more, so I’ll just die.”
“Okay, Mom. I’ll pass the message on. I love you.”
We said our goodbyes. I passed the message on.
Thursday’s Theme Music — Think
Ashland, southern Oregon — Thursday, October 29, 2026.
Another cold autumn night fell over us last night. I awoke this morning to 30 F and frost on the ground. A line of high and thing white clouds stretches over the blue sky. 36 F now, we expect a high of about 52 F today.
Happy birthday to Mom! I called and spoke with her for thirty minutes. She’d just had pizza for lunch as part of her birthday celebration, which the assisted living people did for her. They also presented her with a birthday cake for them to all to enjoy. Yellow cake with thick white frosting with yellow, purple, and pink flowers on it. Sheet cake. Mom was eating it while speaking with me. Our conversation was peppered with, “Oh, this cake is so good.”
My sister, Gina, complained that Mom is losing it because she paid for her rent with old checking account, and if Mom keeps doing that, that account will run out of money.
I resisted responding, yes, as you get older, change is harder to process. It doesn’t necessarily mean Mom is ‘losing it’. But changing habits and routines get more challenging as we age — especially since Mom didn’t participate in making the change. Gina made the change and forced it on Mom.
But I don’t think I would change Gina’s mind with those insights, so I’ll go on.
Mom had some coughing fits while I was talking to her and asked me if I could call her again later. So we agreed that I will call her again tomorrow morning.
Meanwhile, the flowers I ordered her were delivered after our conversation. She should have them by now but hasn’t mentioned it. Maybe she’s saving it for tomorrow. *smile* She does that.
Back to politics. It’s asking a lot for some people, I know, but I hope they go into the 2026 midterms, think, and vote. Hard to do when Republicans are juking and jiving, avoiding giving truthful answers about anything and everything. They try to dismiss inflation by mentioning that it’s not as bad as it was under President Biden, while ignoring the practical ramifications of how much more things cost now. And the Iran war? Why, that’s necessary to save us, using the same kind of trumped up *sorry, not sorry* excuses used to invade Iraq.
So I hope people think and vote blue. Hope they realize that Donald Trump lies and breaks promises. Hope they think and understand that Donald Trump can’t be trusted. Hope people think and see that Donald Trump’s policies are not making America great in any sense of what that means.
I know I’m 1) a broken record about this (ha, ha, hope you’re old enough to understand the reference) and 2) that there’s a solid wall of Republicans who say, “Never Democrat”. 3) There’s also a group of voters out there who remain ignorant, some deliberately so, and 4) some MAGAts love the way Trump is tearing down the nation because of their framework, emotions, self-pity, or whatever.
So here is Aretha Frankling with “Think!” A rousing song, it’s one of The Neurons’ favorite songs and often haunts the morning mental music stream.
Sample Lyrics
People walk around everyday
Playin’ games and takin’ scores
Tryin’ to make other people lose their mind
Well, be careful you don’t lose yours
Ooh think (think)
Think about what you’re tryin’ to do to me
Woo-hoo, think (think)
Let your mind go, let yourself be free
I love this scene in the movie. Makes me grin and laugh every time. Hope you enjoy it as well.
Cheers
Trump World Truths
I Found a new time suck.
Yes, that’s what my life was missing because I have all the time in the world and absolutely nothing to do.
This particular suck is all about the elections. The UF Election Lab maintained by Dr. MacDonald, offers interesting data on the 2026 midterm election cycles. Like any good time suck, it offers the kind of information that always has me questing across the net, looking for validation. Trust but verify.
But wait, there’s more!
The next site is called MAGA Report Cards. And holy cow, it’s a magnificent time suck for a good cause. It’s such a great collection of information about GOP candidates. What’s best about it, though, is how it connects the dots between who they were before and who they claim to be now.
For instance, on here, you can look up Republican’s positions on Medicaid cuts. You know that Republicans claim they’re against Medicare cuts, right? Or so they claim.
MAGA Report Cards responds with the receipts:
Republicans Cut Medicaid by Nearly $1 Trillion. They Scheduled the Pain for After You Vote.
This isn’t news for most of us who have been paying attention. But it’s helpful as a refresher, especially if you need to repudiate some MAGA fact denier.
MAGA fact deniers are amazing, terrifying critters. My wife was listening to a video of one yesterday. A reporter was asking a MAGAt woman what she thought of the Ukraine War and Trump’s failure to end it as he promised he would. This woman responded, well, that’s fake news.
There is no Ukraine war.
Like, whhhhaaaatttt?
No, according to this MAGAt, all that you see on the news about the Ukraine War is made up. Fake.
And that’s where technology fails us. At a time like this, I had a desperate urge to go through the computer screen and ask this woman, “If the Ukraine War is fake news, why is Donald Trump talking about it? Why did he make that promise in the first place, you fucking moron?”
Alas, technology hasn’t advanced that far yet.
Your Trump Quote of the Day, for the record:
I came across the MAGA Report Card when I looked up Christine Drazan’s record. Christine Drazan is a *cough* Republican running to be Oregon’s governor. Oregon is where I now reside and vote.
Voting by mail has been Oregon’s standard since 1998. Works great from my POV. I moved here in 2005 and have always voted by mail as an Oregon resident. I liked it because as a military member for twenty years, stationed around the world, voting by mail was often the only way to go.
Christine Drazen claimed that she fully supports voting by mail and blah blah blah.
That’s not what I remember of Christine Drazen’s previous position. She’s been in the Oregon legislature for a while. A search for her position on voting by mail took to MAGA Report Card.
MAGA Report Card handed me the receipts.
Christine Drazan Wrote the Bill to End Oregon’s Vote-by-Mail. She Describes It Very Differently.
Sites like MAGA Report Cards are so important in this digital age. The party of Trump follows their leader’s course. Donald Trump charts paths of lying, cheating, denying, and pretending.
MAGA Report Cards helps us stayed moored in facts, truth, and history.
Change is needed.
Vote blue in 2026.
Wednesday’s Theme Music – Wrap it up
Ashland, southern Oregon — Wednesday, October 28, 2026.
Awoke to 30 degrees at my house and very clear skies. Gorgeous moon last night lit up the valley. Peaceful, but cold. We’re creeping past 48 F, leaning toward something in the mid 50s as a high. The sun shines but our planet’s journey mitigates its effects. Angles, distance, all that.
Mom is scuffling with Gina again. Mom ends up texting and calling Gina’s daughter, complaining about Gina and begging the daughter to pick her up and take her shopping. Mom won’t ask the assisted living facility staff for help because Mom thinks they’re too dumb to help her. So it goes.
Got my diet requirements for the week of my colonoscopy and polypectomy. The diet is to be started three days before surgery. No caffeine. Like, gasp! The horrors!
White bread and no fiber. Nothing with seeds. No nuts. But I can eat all the meat I want. Geez. But don’t drink or eat anything red! That’s repeated multiple times. Then, only clear fluids the day before.
My wife seized on it. She loves a good eating challenge. She quickly started mapping out meals for me.
Meanwhile, though, we’ve joined a soup organization. SoupDivas make a soup every week, then send out an email announcing the choice. After that, it’s first come, first served, $17 a quart. Once you’re on the list, pick up is Wednesday. I duly picked up this week’s quart, Quixote Lemon Lentil. Looking forward to a nice hot soup on a chilly autumn day.
I was reading about the increasing odds of a ‘blue tsunami’ in the 2026 midterms. I remain anxious, hopeful, and leery, which sounds like some new variation on the seven dwarfs.
Part of me though, thinks, wrap it up, I’ll take it! Which triggered The Neurons. They put “Wrap it Up” in my morning mental music stream. I had the cover done by the Fabulous Thunderbirds in mind. But when I drifted through the net in search of a video offering, I came across Bonnie Raitt and friends performing it on “Austin City Limits”. The friends include Brittany Howard, Gary Clark Jr., and Jimmie Vaughan playing and singing, a good group of friends for this Sam and Dave classic.
Yes, I’ll take a blue tsunami. Wrap it up!
Simultaneously, if a blue tsunami takes over, I expect Trump’s rage to break the rage meter. He’ll dial up the chaos and hate, screaming and crying about fraud and stolen elections. I also expect him to turn on the Republicans who lose, blasting them for not being as good as him, which is how Trump sees it. Donald Trump works hard to pretend he’s great and all powerful, and not a miserable cheating creep. Taking a loss that repudiates him will spin him like tornado. Expect an F5.
I hope the best kind of day for you today. May it feel your needs and help with your wishes.
Cheers
Tuesday’s Theme Music — Here we go
Ashland, southern Oregon — Tuesday, October 27, 2026.
Here we go, another rainy autumn day, snow on higher elevations further north, shifting quickly from fall toward winter. Light blue splashes between white clouds smeared with gray. Rain rushes down and moves away. Another wave comes and goes.
It’s 42 F. Been 42 F since I got out of bed hours ago. High is supposed to be 48 F.
We’re all welcoming the rain. Lovely witnessing brown fields become green again.
Today’s music is “The Walker” by Fitz and the Tantrums. Came out in 2003. It entered my morning mental music stream today after I made my colonoscopy appointment. November 3 and 10 were offered first. But those are the Tuesdays after my next two BCG washes, so no thanks. The colonoscopy calls for a limited diet for the four days before the surgery, and the BCG can afford mood, energy, so on.
“The Walker” also fit my mood (and The Neurons’ thinking) because we’re closing on the national 2026 midterm elections. It’s like, here we go, just next Tuesday. Trump is already stumping that anytime someone he endorses loses, it’s a fake or stolen election — or ‘something smells’. Never offers any evidence, because there isn’t any. Now Donald Trump is offering money for reporting voter fraud.
Trump offers $1M rewards for reporting voter fraud in midterms
It’s another Trump stunt, another facet of Operation Epic LOOK — SQUIRREL!
In effect, Trump is begging voters, “Please don’t judge me on my record. Don’t judge me on the desultory Iran war I began. Don’t judge me for not releasing the Epstein files. Please, please, don’t judge me on the affordability crisis and rising prices. And don’t judge me on the many lies I’ve made or the money my family and I made while in office. Don’t judge me for the pardons and the pay to play that’s going on.”
Trump was especially upset by how much better former President Barack Obama is polling compared to Donald Trump. Former President Obama is so much more popular than Trump! Showing how hurt and angry he is, Trump threw a fit on social media, ranting about Bill Maher. “Distraction, distraction, look at me, listen to me, love me!”
Trump’s justice department is trying to bring cases they failed to win before, and judges are slapping them around.
And Donald Trump is out there, trying to tell people that there is no inflation while grinning surrogates explain there is no inflation if you adjust for inflation.
Brace yourself, brothers and sisters. Here we go.
Sample Lyrics
Ooh, crazy’s what they think about me
Ain’t gonna stop ’cause they tell me so
‘Cause 99 miles per hour baby
Is how fast that I like to go
Can’t keep up with my rhythm
Though they keep trying
Too quick for the lines they throw
I walk to the sound of my own drum
We go, they go, we go, hey yeah, yeah, yeah
Oh, here we go
Feel it in my soul
Really mean it, mean it, so go
Gotta feel it, honey takes control
Really mean it, mean it
May this October day find you healthy and well, no matter what your season is.
Cheers
Monday’s Theme Music — Another day
Ashland, southern Oregon — Monday, October 26, 2026.
It was a chilly wet day in our valley. Layers of clouds thwarted the sun. Sunshine sporadically broke through but had little staying power. The asphalt roads were black and shiny wet, reflecting golden leaves. It was impressively spectacular on the large oak tree that resides across the street.
Today’s high was in the mid 50s. Now it’s in the low 40s F. That’s where it’s supposed to stop for the night.
Rolling out of bed and into another day’s light, I basically thought, “Here we go. Go check the phone calls and text messages and see what’s happening with Mom. Read the news, see what Trump and the GOP are up to. See if another war has been started. Get ready for another appointment, dress for another day, and so on.”
Yeah, still feeling a little weary, I’m afraid. I blame it on the rain.
The Neurons collected all this and set up “Day by Day” from “Godspell” in my morning mental music stream. I’m not religious but I understand the song’s sentiment. But for me, the song’s bottom line is the refrain, “Day by day.”
Hope your day was satisfying and rich with peace, joy, good news, and good health.
Cheers
Monday’s Wandering Thought
It wasn’t a simple hookup.
Despite the lidocaine injected up my urethra, the Foley catheter’s progress up into my bladder felt torturous. Didn’t help that the little exam room felt very, very…chilly, or that I was naked from the waist down, covered by a paper ‘blanket’.
Yes, this was my fourth BCG wash. Just two more to go. Fortunately, Nurse C, who does the instillation for me, is almost my age and shares an appreciation for a lot of the same rock music.
We compare who we’ve seen and what albums and songs we particularly enjoy. Nurse C has one concert over me that has me really envious: her first concert was Carlos Santana.
I’ve never seen Santana in concert.
Laughing, she told me, “It was 1975. I was a teenager and big into disco. So, I worked all summer to pick strawberries, saving my money to buy a ticket to see KC and the Sunshine Band. Dad drove me and my girlfriend to the concert and then waited at a nearby coffee shop.
“KC and the Sunshine Band finished. We got up and headed for the exit. Then the next guy came on. I said, ‘Who is that,’ and turned to pay attention. It was Carlos Santana. I’d never heard him before. That changed everything for me.”
My bladder was about finished voiding the urine through the Foley by then. Glancing at the beaker collecting it, Nurse C said, “You have some good-looking urine, though. That looks great.”
I shook my head. “Man, that’s the worst pick up line I’ve ever heard.”
We laughed as she loaded up the TB solution and began feeding into my bladder.
Music. It can really help you get through life.
