Monday’s Theme Music

Mood: bubbly

A chill holiday Monday morning in Ashlandia, where the lawns can be green and lush, or dry and brown, depending on your ability to afford water. Clouds have sway over the scene. No rain is expected but one wonders with fifty shades of gray drifting overhead. Yardwork has commenced out there somewhere — you can hear the power tools cutting, blowing, trimming. It never ends for some, and they don’t take breaks until snow seizes the space. Fall seems truly on the way, with 60 F again our morning temp and an afternoon high of 72 F anticipated. This is September 4, 2023. Happy birthday if it’s your day, likewise happy anniversary, and congratulations.

Slow news day, of course, as is the American holiday tradition. Steve Harwell’s death at 56 from liver issues has us talking. In light of Buffett’s death, we remember the many years when ‘always in threes’ seemed to rule. This was a general observation that celebrities and famous people die in clumps of three at a time. It’s been studied and disproven, but here we are, two gone.

If it’s not on your news feed, Harwell was a Smash Mouth founder and member up until a few years ago. (Smash Mouth is an American rock band.) Naturally Los Neurons have plucked Harwell songs from the gray vault of memory and slide them into the morning mental music stream (Trademark offered). I’m going with “Walking on the Sun” in 1997. When the song was unleashed on the world, it was one that gave pause to listen and think, “Wait, what’s he singing?” Written in the aftermath of the 1992 Rodney King riots, some band members dubbed it a social justice battle cry. I’ve always interpreted it as a song bitter with recognition that we keep doing insipid things while much greater problems taking place are shoved into the background. Big reason for this happening is how often the media treats news like entertainment, advocating for a local escaped convict in one city or town with the same time and passion as hurricanes, earthquakes, and wildfires. Need the white girl syndrome need be mentioned? Anyway, with the world on fire again or still, thought it was proper tribute to Harwell and the Earth’s situation to have this song on Labor Day in America.

Stay pos, be brave, be strong. Time to press on one more time, one more day. Here’s my coffee, and the music. Cheers

Sunday’s Wandering Thoughts

He and his wife made some plans for cleaning, organizing, and purging. “Can we do this after you come back from your writing?” she asked.

“Yes,” he answered with confidence. He had other plans as well. He could do it all, couldn’t he? Of course he could, right?

“That’s been taken under review,” his neurons replied. “We’ll see.”

Multiflooferal

Multiflooferal (floofinition) – Having or involving many animals.

In use: “In an era when homes had two or three pets, the Simon’s multiflooferal home featured a rescue duck, raccoon, seven cats, four dogs, aquariums full of fish, several pet birds, an iguana, hamster, pet rabbit, and turtle.

Saturday’s Theme Music

Mood: sparkling

Wow. Saturday, we have blue sky, and I can see across to forever. Rained most of the first day of September. September 2, 2023 gives us almost smoke free sky and the best air quality numbers in over a month in Ashlandia, where the roads are under construction and the people are weary. 60 F now, we expect sunshine and thunderstorms, along with a high in the mid to upper seventies. Feels like summer is throwing a final hurrah.

We have had a great deal of road work going on in town. Repaving, along with fixing sidewalks and building ADA bump-out corners. Slowed us down a little, but given that our vehicular traffic is miniscule, our slow downs are nothing like the frustrating encounters of San Jose & San Francisco, CA, or Frankfurt,
Germany, Seattle, Atlanta, Pittsburgh, Boston, San Antonio, Chicago, etc. There are advantages to small town living, and that what’s we are.

I had Wham singing “Wake Me Up Before You Go Go” ringing through the morning mental music stream (Trademark tested). I don’t know how The Neurons came up with that. Nothing about their reasoning peered through the morning fog. They wouldn’t answer any queries about it, either. Crickets to however I phrased things. No reply at all, as Phil Collins sang.

Then I saw something about the Beastie Boys on social media and “You gotta fight for your right to paartay” blared through the morning mental music stream. However, that only lasted until I saw news of Jimmy Buffet’s death. Then a medley of his songs swam into the morning mental music stream. Which to go with?

Well, the choice wasn’t mine. The Neurons resumed with Beastie Boys and won’t let it out of the morning mental music stream. So, here we go with today’s choice about rights; “You Gotta) Fight for Your Right (To Party!) from 1986 is today’s theme music. But I will comment on Buffett. His mellow music, with a touch of whimsy introspection, was a regular car companion on long drives across the states and Europe for a number of years. That easy-going style was a good remedy for stress in many days. He’s gone, but technology will keep him alive for us.

Stay pos and strong. The coffee cup cometh. Here’s the boys with their Saturday theme music. Time to bop heads. You gotta admit, it’s a quaint video. Cheers

Friday’s Wandering Thoughts

He told his friends, “With all the recent smoke, I’ve added some things to my morning routine. Now I spray each nostril with saline spray, and then put eye drops in. I can’t help myself from thinking when I do, is this the smoke, or getting old, or functions and tissue breaking down?”

His friends replied in unison, “Yes.”

Friday’s Theme Music

Mood: trending up

September 1, 2023. Friday. Are you ready to turn another page? They’re different sizes, aren’t they? Varying purposes. But they can help us move on and go forward.

Rainy here in Ashlandia, where the cats are masters and the rest are servants. 59 F with our bodies set for a high of 72 F. Thunderstorms are possible. The smoke gives the damp morning an interesting petrichor.

I read about ‘the bottleneck’ last night, a time when humans were almost extinct due to massive climate change. “Our ancestors remained at low numbers — fewer than 1,280 breeding individuals — during a period known as a bottleneck. It lasted for over 100,000 years before the population rebounded.” The study estimates that 98.2% of the world’s humans were wiped out in that era. All due to climate change. Well, probably also due to some poor survival skills, bad lucks, and willful ignorance which led to an unwillingness to change. It’s a study, a paper, an idea that remains to be fully investigated, including how we rebounded. Fascinating stuff, though.

I was thinking about how many tales there are to tell, or new spins on old tales. Out of that, The Neurons brought up a Love and Rockets song, “No New Tale to Tell” and pitted it in the morning mental music stream (Trademark overrated). Bit perverse of The Neurons. They point to the closing lines, “It’s all the same thing, no new tale to tell.” What do you think? Are there new tales to tell?

Let’s continue practicing the Four Bs — be safe, be smart, be pos, be strong. Forward into September with confidence. The coffee is here at last — like I’m not the local provider. Here’s the music. Cheers

Floofvinist

Floofvinist (floofinition) – Showing or having excessive favoritism to a particular animal or group of animals.

In use: “A staunch floofvinist, Belle defended her trio of felines against any suggestions that they were anything but the best cats in the world, especially when some neighbor stormed over with tales about Belle’s kitties violating the neighbor’s flower beds to do their business.”

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