Category: memories

Wednesday’s Theme Music

Last night’s sunset was like gold dust was thrown across the sun’s final rays for the day. Pretty and fascinating, shared as photos by a few, it caused me wonder: what’s in the air reflecting the light like that and giving that color?

Today is Wednesday, mid-week of October’s first week. I’ve been here in Pittsburgh a few, visiting, helping Mom and the fam. Also learning the dynamics of who is cool to who, or angry with another family member, and what words and questions to avoid like it’s a UXB.

It’s October 5, 2022. In my mind, we’re racing toward completion of the first quarter of this century. So much potential floats in the air like the stuff turning our sunset gold last night. Sunrise today is silvery clean, coming on at 7:21, about twenty minutes after I opened the back door, stepped into the 42 F air, and breathed deep. The weather the announced it’ll be 70 F and sunny today. I’ll pop the shorts back on. Sunset will sneak in at six minutes before seven in the evening.

Mom is doing a lot better by day. All her appointments and visits went well. Strength, balance, and co-ordination is returning. Her old personality and ways are emerging out of the sickness morass. But as noted, some things require walking on eggshells, broken glass, smoking coals. Gently, gently, lest you alienate another or get hurt yourself. Caution will see you through. Taking it in, The Neurons said, “This sounds like an opening for Annie Lennox.” They commenced playing “Walking on Broken Glass” from 1992. The album was part of my wife’s music rotation when we cleaned house every Saturday in the mid 1990s, so I heard it a chunk o’ times.

Stay positive and test negative. Coffee has already answered my call. Needed it to assist Mom with some matters and present her breakfast. Ready to jump into the day, starting with a shower. Here’s the tune. Y’all have a good ‘un.

Cheers

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A Celebration

Another friend has passed away. He beat cancer four years ago. Earlier this year, he said it had returned. Last time I saw him, he looked wan, gaunt, tired. He had beautiful brown eyes which glint with humor, mischief, and intelligence. All were absent that last time that I saw him. He didn’t speak much. He told us he was going to a family reunion in Europe. On his return two months ago, he told us that he was withdrawing from our weekly beer group meetup. I had a bad feeling.

But I’m not here to grieve. Grieving has worn me down. Death, sickness, and illness are all regular segments in the great cycle of life. Better instead to celebrate the friendships and love of these people who complete the circle and go on. We don’t know what they go on to. I just know what he’s left behind. I’m pleased that he took time to be a friend and join me to tip back a beer once a week and talk politics, philosophy, science, art, pop culture, music, and literature. He’d tell me about his life and his travels, how much he loved his father and sisters, what he and his daughter do as traditions, how proud he was of her.

I cherish those days and will as long as I can. And I will celebrate that such a person lived. My face still hurts with feelings of loss and tears sully my vision, but that’s me wallowing in self-pity that I lost such a friend. No more, no more. I will celebrate the human I knew and how he made me laugh, think, and wonder. And sometimes I’ll raise a beer and have a drink, and smile, as if he’s still there.

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Tuesday’s Wandering Thought

Seeing the date, he remembers forty-eight years ago. A Friday, he reported early to the enlistment place, signed papers and took an oath. His girlfriend came down to say good-bye at lunch time. An hour later, he got on his first airplane ride and flew across the country to San Antonio, Texas, to go to Lackland AFB and begin basic training. He was eighteen years old.

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Tuesday’s Theme Music

Sunlight highlighted a ridge of blue clouds in the eastern sky at 7:20 AM in Pittsburgh. Looks like another day of sun and clouds and temperatures in the mid 40s F to low sixties F. Autumn is taking a firmer hold as leaves acquiesce their green and yield to becoming other things. They’re good with going with the flow. Sunset arrives at 6:56 PM. Yes, we’ve broken the 7 PM barrier.

The shrinking daylight portion seems accelerated during my Pittsburgh time. Less than three weeks ago, I’d rise, go to windows, open blinds, and see the day beginning as the sun crested the east. Now, I wait for a few minutes before enough light announces that sunrise is coming.

I was out with Mom and a sister yesterday, escorting Mom to PCP and MRI appointments, and picking up ointment at a store. As she drove, my sister kept talking about road signs, particularly a large ROAD CLOSED sign sitting in some grass, surrounded by trees, on a road that no longer exists, which we used to take as a shortcut. Next thing I know, The Neurons have snuck “The Sign” by Ace of Base (1993) into the mental music stream. It’s a frothy song, a little techno, simple lyrics and an easy beat, which hooks minds with its simplicity. When I first heard the song, I thought I already knew it. Like many songs I feature here as theme music, I’d never seen the video before.

Short post today. Stay positive, test negative, get your boosters. Coffee and breakfast are calling. Have a better one. Cheers

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Monday’s Wandering Thought

She would have been called a troubled teenager. Drinking too much, dropping out of school, becoming pregnant, marrying before she was seventeen, her life had taken turns that we didn’t expect from such an intelligent and charming person.

Two divorces, two children, and forty-five years later, she acquired her GED, graduated college with a B.S., runs a family business, is a grandmother of three, and is also a professional. She’s the one we turn to for help. She’s strong, stable, and reliable, the person we thought she would be before she became a troubled teen.

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Sunday’s Theme Music

Graylight heralded dawn and a tombstone-like sky at 7:17 this morning. The red squirrel was busy early, a crimson slash racing across the emerald lawn and through the trees. He was probably making up for yesterday, when steady rain gifted to us by Hurricane Ian kept the wildlife passive and sheltered. The deer did show yesterday and popped into the side yard outside the kitchen window as I prepared Mom’s breakfast just after sunrise.

Today is October of 2022’s first Sunday, and the second day of the month. Birthdays galore this month for our tribe. July and October are our busiest birthday months. This day will see lows of 50 F and highs of 64 with light rain. Sunset cometh this evening, 7:01 PM.

Mom continues improving. Next week will be a big challenge, with three doctor appointments and seven home visits – physical and occupational therapists, nurse, and nurse aide. I’ll probably be flying west to home the week after, I think. I miss my partners, aka my wife and floofs. I’ve only been here 22 days but it seems longer. My days are more idle as Mom gets healthier and does more for herself. I’m deliberately drawing back, mindful as I do, to test her skills, along with her partner. He’s 92 and well-meaning, in decent health, but he gets tired and forgetful, totally understandable.

BTW, did you see that after Ian’s strike on Florida and the southeastern US, and his travels up the Atlantic coast, another storm is intensifying and heading towards Mexico. Busy storm season. The death and destruction already seen is enervating and demoralizing.

I have Veruca Salt orbiting the morning mental music stream with their song, “Seether”, from 1994. The song is a throwback, solid grunge, simple chords, a steady beat. The band’s name is familiar from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Originally hearing it caused a double take followed by a short burst of laughter. Anyway, the song came into my head when I was dealing with Mom yesterday. She’d become worked up about an issue and I started chatting with her to distract her and calm her down. Lo’, The Neurons awoke and said, “Hey, that reminds me of that Veruca Salt song,” and here we are.

Side note: today’s post was delayed by house guests.

Stay positive, and test negative, and so on, and do what you need to take care of yourself and your people and tribe. I’d have coffee, thanks. Here’s the music. Hope you enjoy it.

Cheers

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Saturday’s Theme Music

Slow and ponderous, daybreak took over the sky’s voluminous gray matter at 7:16 AM. This, I learn from the baffle net, is ten minutes earlier than they’ll see in Ashland, Oregon later today. 52 and 56, respectively, degrees in F, are the current and high temperatures. 7:03 sees the world turn that brings us another night.

Welcome to October 1, 2022.

It’s Saturday. Leaves are just turning in our neighborhood, with one mighty perennial going dark red. While the trees are heralding fall, animals and the weather are muttering, “Winter is coming.” Ned would be concerned, although meteorologists tell us they’re we’re seeing Ian’s stuff in our weather pattern. Overcast, they call this sky.

The Neurons dropped “Barely Breathing” into the morning mental music stream. Had to look it up to learn it’s by Duncan Sheik from 1996. I think the song employs many clever phrases. One set in mind this dawn was, “And everyone keeps asking, what’s it all about? I used to be so certain, and I can’t figure out.
What is this attraction, I can only feel the pain. There’s nothing left to reason and only you to blame.
Will it ever change?”

Why those words today, I queried The Neurons. Is it part of a memory set? Could well be, something of the air, imbued in the house, makes me think of other times and years, of course. Photos on the walls and shelves document the family’s expansion, and there we are as the young, when now we’re the old. It could be the chilly wet weather, and the dance of leaves falling off trees as they flirt with new colors. Maybe it’s just a natural echo of the mind set delivered when you realize, oh, I have aged. I used to be so certain. Now I wonder about more, and entertain reflections on paths taken and results found.

Think I need coffee.

Stay positive, test negative, and so on. Stay safe as you travel the roads and skies, stealing glances at weather, people, news. Where the heck is that coffee?

Here’s some music. Cheers

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Thursday’s Theme Music

Time to rock another day. The day in question, September 29, 2022, is a Thursday. Sunlight rocked us at dawn about 7:14 this morning, slicing apart the clouds with golden blades. The clouds recovered and came together in a solid front. They say it won’t rain, and I generally trust that set of they, the weather people. It’s 44 F now, with hopes that 60 F will be touched before the sun steals away at 7:06 PM and leaves us to the night.

Mom has a few home appointments. Nurse aide coming to bath her, and a nurse coming to check her out. She’s doing well, in good spirits, with a healthy appetite. I’m beginning to plot my return home.

Thinking about sleeping and dreaming, not just nocturnal dreams, but dreams of aspirations and accomplishments provoked Les Neurons into dropping Fiona Apple into the morning mental music stream with a song outta 1997, “Sleep to Dream”. Used to hear it a bit during my daily commutes and on my radio at work in my office. I enjoy the song’s thudding, rhythmic beat and how the vocals almost fluctuate between singing and rapping, something that we’ve seen more frequently in this century.

Stay positive, test negative, give a care for Florida and their situation. I have coffee, thanks. Here’s the tune. Cheers

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Wednesday’s Wandering Thought

Mom has lived in many cities, states, houses, and apartments. He’s now in his mid-sixties. She’s almost ninety. There’s been many changes, but she still has the same salt and pepper shakers that they used when he was a little boy.

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Wednesday’s Theme Music

The Neurons asked, “What day is this?” I replied, “You guys are supposed to be telling me these things.”

We decided it was Wednesday and then checked a wall calendar and the computer’s time and date. Yep, Wednesday, September 28th, 2022. If you close your eyes and listen, you can hear Christmas marketing in America coming. The computer tells me it’s “Grilled Cheese Sandwich Day”. I answered, “What?” I’m working on the day of the week and you’re telling me about some specious holiday? Is a “Grilled Cheese Sandwich Day” really necessary? It’s not like they’re donuts.

A sad sunrise of whitewashed gray clouds took place at 7:13 AM. I guess the time of sunrise each day and then look it up. Six out of ten times finds me with the right answer. I’m much better at guessing the temperature. It’s 46 F now. A heavy rain crashed down on us yesterday morning. Wouldn’t be startled to see another one today. Yesterday’s rain was fun because it poured in front but was relatively dry in the back, with just a little splashover. How about a high of 60 F today? Sounds about right. Feels about right. I either need to go back to Oregon or buy some warmer clothes. It’ll be in the mid-seventies back in Oregon. I looked it up.

Sunset? Yes, at 7:08 PM.

As I assumed morning duties for Mom, bringing pills, making breakfast and coffee, cleaning, etc, I was thinking along the cracks of, “Here I go again.” Somehow, The Neurons slipped in “Would?” by Alice In Chains from 1992 into the morning mental music stream. Why “Would?”? I wrote that just for that double question mark. Don’t have an answer. Guess it’s those lines, “Into the flood again, same old trip it was back then.” Maybe.

Mom is doing okay. Made her stay in bed yesterday. Ordered the same for this morning. I’ll let her come down for lunch. Let me tell you, having her obey isn’t as easy as it’s written, but she’s in good spirits and accepted my directive. No visits from nurse, PT or OT today, a good thing, as people drain her. Except me, she says.

Alright, coffee has arrived. Rather, it’s finished brewing and is teasing, “Heeerrre’s coffee!” Okay, I’ll be right over, I answer. Stay positive and test negative. Stay dry, safe. I know it’s bad in Cuba today, Puerto Rico is still recovering, and Alaska, and the thinking is that Florida might not have a good day. Do the best you can to help yourself and others.

Here’s the music. Cheers

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