Category: memories

Friday’s Theme Music

Coffee has arrived. The first two sips of the gorgeously hot brew invigorate my senses and awakens my palette. Here we go, The Neurons sing.

Today is Friday, October 14 of the common era year 2022. I skim headlines and press on to other matters before the news blunts my energy and takes my soul. 57 and chilly under a pristine blue sky, sunshine began its daily visit at 7:22 ante meridiem. Sunshine will linger until 6:38 post meridiem. Temperatures are again foretold to have a high in the upper eighties. After a windshift yesterday, the smoke cleared and we struck 86 F around my house, a wonderfully warm, comfortable day, with a faint breeze and mild humidity. Our leaves haven’t done much turning in this area, nor are they dropping yet, a huge contrast to where I stayed in Penn Hills, PA. during the move from September to October. Guess the trees decided to wait for my return before launching their fall show. Gracious of them, innit?

For theme music, given that it’s Friday, The Neurons loaded that golden oldie, “Friday Friday”. I grew up on those lyrics. “Friday, Friday, how I love that day. Out of school and work at last, and free to play.” Nipping on that song’s heels comes a familiar favorite, “Black Friday” by Steely Dan.

Yes, Friday is on my mind. Instead of those songs, though, The Neurons re-introduce me to “Slide” by the Goo Goo Dolls. Released two or three lifetimes ago, which can be calculated as 1998, it’s another song in the catalogue created as I commuted to and from home to shop and work in the SF Bay Area and peninsula at the end of the last century. Why that song, I query The Neurons. It’s about a pregnant girl and her boyfriend debating choices about what to do. Jimmy Neuron answers, “It’s just those words, I’ll do anything ever dreamed to be complete, or something like that.” Oh, I answer. Oh. It’s about the dreams and the quests, huh? I see.

Test negative and stay positive, or as The Neurons call it, negapos. So be negapos. Sorry, that’s the coffee. It’s taken over The Neurons. Here’s the music. Hope you own Friday and it doesn’t end up owning you.

Cheers


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Wednesday’s Theme Music

Sunshine skirts the trees and licks the sky into fresh blue shades. Familiars remind me that I’m home. People say, oh, you made it, as though the standing in lines and sitting in seats that frame commercial air travel in this era was a slog. The slog is behind the scenes, where they’re building and maintaining the machines and coordinating the actions. I’m just a passenger on that plane, just as I’m a passenger on starship Earth.

Sunrise in Ashland today came over us at 7:20 AM. Cool mountain air, measured at 54 F, put a shiver in my body. Gonna be 88 F, the weather wizards say. Smoky haze covered the valley from the Cedar Creek fire further west in the state. Not heavy smoke but enough for you to see it’s there, a reminder of the fire’s existence. Sunset, they tell me, will be 6:34 PM.

Being home is a comfort. Having my wife chatting about all she’s done and is doing and is to do brought me into the groove. Tucker and Papi did their feline duties, purring welcomes, permitting me to show my affections through liberal scratches of their ears, heads, and backs.

Traveling was the mix of fun, weariness, anticipation, and frustration that I’ve come to expect. Being in flight, taking off before sunrise and then having the sun chase us down over the Rocky Mountains delivered plenty of thought fodder. As you know, many sings exist about traveling, aircraft, flight, and sunrise. Plenty for The Neurons to say, oh, there’s a theme song and stick it in my mental music stream. But I found myself watching people, splitting time between clothes, shoes, body language, and faces. Out of watching faces, The Neurons pulled up “Elderly Woman Behind the Counter in a Small Town” by Pearl Jam. A song released six million years ago or more, it tells of a woman struggling to remember another’s name, wishing to say hello, and failing. The Neurons were right to pick it up off of the organic reflections generated from my visit home, to places that were and now aren’t, and faces filling with aging’s shifts.

So here we are. Cats are fed, breakfast is eaten, coffee was brewed, its scent inhaled, its pleasant bitterness introduced to my tongue as another fresh experience. Stay pos and test neg, and do the vaccines needed to overcome and move on. I’m with you there.

Here’s the tune. Hope you can enjoy your Wednesday and build on it. Cheers

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Monday’s Theme Music

Monday sprang into action, moving with balletic grace, like River Tam going after reavers.

Yes, it’s Monday! October 10, 2022, for those checking schedules and appointments, the day of the week generally engraved with a moment to see what we have going on in the coming days. I take air travel for a thousand, Alex.

Pittsburgh’s fall finds another cool morning, 45 degrees F with broad and full sunshine. The morning has been building its structure since sunrise kissed the area at 7:26 AM. Temperatures will kick up into the 60s. No rain today. Planetary rotation will shut down daylight at 6:46 PM. Back at home, it’ll be 84 degrees and smokey.

Yesterday’s morning delivered a pleasant interlude. It’s my daily habit to take a cuppa hot joe onto the front porch in the early AM to breathe the air and admire the world. When I stepped out yesterday, a grazing doe across the street raised her head and greeted me. Two chipmunks and a squirrel dashed away, and a ground hog scurried for safety. I regretted interrupting their moments, but the deer returned to her business and the rest drifted back a short while later. Later, the squirrels and chipmunks had some kind of race going on in the backyard. Don’t know if they were the same characters that I saw in the morning, though.

Mom pulled The Neuron’s attention. She was talking about what music she’d like at her service after her demise. One of the songs is “I Call Your Name” by The Mamas and the Papas. She’s been having Alexa play it at least once a day, singing along with it. Naturally, The Neurons became enthralled with it. Mom and I talked about the song. We both remembered watching it on The Ed Sullivan Show. So The Neurons pushed it into my morning mental music stream, fitting, since it’s my last day here. That show episode is available on Youtube, so here it is.

Mom would have been in her early thirties back then, less than half of my current age.

Stay pos, test neg. Yes, I need coffee, how ’bout you? Mom’s home is a decaf zone. My BIL bought me this coffee when I was COVID isolating. I’m brewing the very last grounds today. Perfect timing, right?

Here’s the music. Have a fine one. Cheers

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Sunday’s Wandering Thought

He remembers teachers and things they taught him in school. It was eight grade when Mr. Dakin, a gym teacher, said, “A team is only as strong as its weakest parts, so you need to fix the weakest parts to become better. It’s the same with your body.”

That same year, a sociology teacher, Mrs. Rubenstein, said, “A nation is only as strong as its weakest people. That’s why we should take care of our weakest people. That will make us stronger as a nation.”

He hadn’t thought of those things in years but being back in the area and driving past the place where the school used to be, resurrected those memories, along with others.

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Sunday’s Theme Music

The wheels on the world go round and round…

Today is Sunday, October 9, 2022. Beautiful and chilly fall morning in the Pittsburgh suburb where I’m staying. It’s 45 F now but it was down by 38 earlier. Perhaps that restrained the animals from rising and taking care of business. Or, they’re like me and said, hey, a little coffee before I face the world.

Shift from night to day was languid, almost tentative, even though physics say, nope, that’s your imagination. Just seemed like it took a while after its initial 7:25 AM showing for the sun to fully exert its presence, like a star who shows up but stays by the wall before moving forward and letting herself be known. We’re looking for a heady high of 15 C. Meanwhile, back in Ashland where I’ll return this week, it’ll be in the 80s F today. Sunset will be at 6:50 this evening.

“Driver’s Seat” by Sniff ‘n’ the Tears is in the morning mental music stream. This came about because it was playing on the radio as I was driving to meet my sister and her hubby for dinner last night. The Neurons said, “We haven’t heard this song in a hair’s age.” I asked them what a hair’s age was. Titters were issued as answer.

“Driver’s Seat” came out in 1978, charted as a hit, but didn’t greatly impact the pop culture landscape. What I always thought about with this song was, that lead singer sometimes reminds me of Gerry Rafferty at places in this song. Also, is Sniff one of the bandmembers? How long have they had that name and what were the circumstances behind it? More likely, it was a novelty approach. Nobody was called sniff. The band liked the word play. Bet they often heard the question, which of you is sniff? Kind of like Pink Floyd being asked, which one is Pink?

The coffee is singing my name. Sounds a lot like David Bowie in his later years. Stay positive, test negative, and endure. Here is the flashback music. Cheers

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Saturday’s Theme Music

Here we go again, here we go. Saturday arrived, light as a feather, drifting through the dimensions before catching a solar wave to Earth. Some remember this Saturday, 10/8/22. Others will find it a new experience. More than a few will not know it this time around, as it’s still in their future past.

Daylight coiled through the valley as the Earth’s turn again delivered the sun to view at 7:23 AM. A timid affair, sunlight barely raised the temperature but we were grateful for the light. Diaphanous clouds treated in blues and grays, trimmed with silver, were sailing the sky. It’s 5 degrees C this morning but will breech the fifties, maybe hitting 54 F.

The Neurons pulled up another 1990s musical vehicle. I was thinking about some things being said and wondered, why do they need to be this way? The Neurons said, “What you want is some En Vogue.” What The Neurons meant was there are lines in the song, “Free Your Mind” that ask, “Why must you be this way?” Cranking it up, The Neurons jumped into another stanza where the group sings, “Free your mind and the rest will follow.” I’ve always enjoyed the song as an interesting, edgy hybrid of different genres. Hope you like it, too. This is the first time that I’ve seen the video. Nothing else comes to mind when I hear this song, although it sometimes feels like it has Prince and Lenny Kravitz flavors.

Stay pos, test neg, get vaxes as needed, yeah? I’m going to say yes to a cup of coffee now. You be good, right? Cheers

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Thursday’s Theme Music

We’re rocking October’s first week of ’22 in the Steel City. Yesterday delivered a gorgeous day of 70 and a mildly cloudy sky. Will today to the same?

A bright sunshine unveiled clear skies and a calendar-worthy autumn dawn at 7:22 this morning. Sunset will be at 6:53 PM. Meanwhile, it’s 47 degrees F with a high of 19 degrees C in the forecast. Among the trees’ greenery, leaves are shimmering with reds, blazing with yellows, stirring in gold and orange. Today is Thursday, October 6, 2022.

Animal activies have waned in the yard since autumn throttled summer and declare its intentions. One deer in the past three days. Chipmunks are busy, the red squirrel and gray squirrels aren’t seen as much, and the ground hog only made one appearance. More birds are active and present. I wonder if this is part of their staging to head south.

I’m suffering computer constipation problems. Things don’t want to load. Small messages in the corner announce things like “Waiting for google analytics” as the little thing at the top spins like a clothes dryer drum with a heavy, wet load. Tedious beginning to the day. Haven’t had my morning cuppa coffee so my brain cries out, “Alas, alas, why me, cruel world, why me?”

Musically, The Neurons loaded “Movin’ On” by Bad Company from 1974 onto the pathways. Sis and I were driving around on errands yesterday. Familiars from my past ferreted their way into the moment. Like, hey, I know this road. So-and-so lived up there. This street looks familiar. Oh, yeah, and there’s where that guy jumped John. Well, we were driving from town to town, and although The Neurons also loaded a few other songs in response to the memory cycle, “Movin’ On” won the morning mental music loop.

Now I must get coffee, ‘kay? Stay pos and so on, ‘kay? Here’s the tune. Close your eyes and relive the seventies for a mo’.

Cheers

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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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