Category: memories

Thursday’s Theme Music

As promised, we have Thursday, October 27, 2022, upon us. Your reality might vary.

Thin fog was the acting doorman when sunrise made their 7:38 AM entrance. The fog stole the show. It’s burned off since then, with the temperature rebounding from 38 F to its present 6 degrees C, on the way to a high mark of 62 F. Clouds have vacated the sky. Sunshine glints off yellow leaves like they’re pure gold.

The Neurons have brought up a song from 1978 called “Whenever I Call You Friend”. The song was written by Kenny Loggins and Melissa Manchester, two big names from the 1970s pop scene. Kenny recorded and released the song but the female on it was Stevie Nicks, who was uncredited, all stuff learned from American Top 40 back in the day.

All this came about because my beer group met last night. Prior to that, I’d sent the group a Youtube link of Mark Knopfler and Dire Straits performing a fantastic live rendition of “The Sultans of Swing”. Everyone enjoyed it. Discussion started with one member, who was a DJ at the time, about the music which came out then. He recalled playing songs on both 45 vinyl and CDs. That was a surprising mix to me; I remembered Sultans coming out in 1978, but I remember having the album on CD. I didn’t buy my first CD player until 1984, and knew they were being sold at least two years before, but not in the late 1970s. I realized, though, that I’d not initially purchased Dire Straits’ debut album. I was just back from the Philippines then, living in Texas, and then left the USAF and bought a restaurant and was running it. I had a juke box and listened to the music on it. I was also going to college then. Money was tight, so I didn’t buy the album until later, after I’d re-enlisted in the Air Force, having failed as a restaurant owner.

All that soon had The Neurons circling 1978 like a train set around a Christmas tree. I was thinking about my beer buddies and how I enjoyed their friendship. Hello, The Neurons replied, and began playing, “Whenever I Call You Friend”. It still resides in my morning mental music stream which brings us to now.

Stay positive, be cool, and test negative. The coffee is brewed and ready to flow into action. Here’s the music. Also, since I mentioned it, here’s the Dire Straits video, too. Have a better one, friends.

Cheers

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Tuesday’s Theme Music

Drizzle filled our skies all day yesterday, posturing it as an ideal day to stay in and read. We naturally hit the road for some shopping, as supplies had dwindled. Sure, we had coffee and many of the other essentials, but we lacked a few of our regularly required items conducive to be healthy, happy, and full.

Today, Tuesday, October 25, 2022, is cloudy but without precipitation. Sunrise brought in velvet fingers of light at about 7:35 in the morning. The sun will pull its influence at 6:14 in the evening. It’s currently 41 F but will jump to 13 C before we cross midnight. Rain is expected to start falling at ten PM and continue until 1 PM tomorrow. Dress right, you know? (Had to stop myself from putting in “Dress right, dress,” right? Ingrained stuff, right?)

I had “Cracklin’ Rose” by the Taylor lad playing in the morning mental music stream. The Neurons then replaced it with “Big Bad John” by Jimmy Dean, followed by “Bad, Bad Leroy Brown” by Jim Croce. “On a story-telling song kick,” I queried The Neurons. They pivoted to “We didn’t Start the Fire” by Billy Joel, riffing of my thoughts of turning on the fire because it’s a damp morning. Oh, those neurons crack me up.

They weren’t done yet. I was outside, sipping hot coffee on the cool porch, enjoying the sun’s silvery presence behind bruised clouds and the smell left behind by the rain, when The Neurons pulled up Duane and Gregg Allman with “In the Morning When I’m Real”. The song was part of their first band’s efforts, a group called The 31st of February. Now I knew the song ITMWIR but didn’t know the Allman boys were behind it. Didn’t sound like them as it lacked their guitar-sharp rock blues sound I place against their names. Wasn’t till the mid-seventies, when I was back at Mom’s house when she presented me with a box of stuff I’d left behind that I re-discovered the album and this song and realized it was the Allmann Brothers. I don’t know how I acquired the album. I suspect someone left it behind at my house but it’s one of those things which remains unknown, kind of like, have extraterrestrials visited Earth?

Keep on being positive and testing negative. Wear masks as needed to protect you and yours. You deserve it, don’t you? I have coffee, started drinking it when I ate a warm buttered blueberry scone. Why don’t you go get yourself something? I’ll wait here. I’m gonna go ahead and play the song, though, ‘kay? Here it is.

Cheers

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Monday’s Theme Music

The calendars bring us around to another Monday again. Has little to do with the earth’s movement and the sun and the stars. These were our decisions what to call what day, done to standardize taxes and activities.

In another move, the results of long-ago decisions and mechanisms, this is October, 24, 2022. Trees still wear their new fall outfits, although some are showing some daring naked trunk and branches. Sunshine, according to the chronometers, was at 7:34 AM, but rain dampened the experience. As it was a chilly 41 F, too, attendance to witness it was low. Also, it seems like people who work and rush around are less enamored with sunrise these days. Feels like most just want to see sunrises and sunsets when they’re on vacation. Although, I feel compelled to do an aside that two sisters and one sister-in-law often photograph sunsets using their phones and post them on social media. Our sunset, by the way, will be at 6:15 PM, in case you want to get out there and get some snaps in. Our high temperature, so you can dress right, will be 55 F. Rain might be falling. I know it won’t be climbing.

BTW, I just imagining telling my grandfather that people take photos of sunsets with their phones. Grandpa Paul died back in 1975, but he was the guy with a Polaroid camera in the sixties, taking photos of everything. I appreciate his efforts because I know exactly what I wore on different holidays for several years. I think he would have gone with the flow and used a phone himself. He liked adopting new technology.

Musically, the song today has roots in my novel in progress. Well, not really roots, because the song was out long ago. Now I’m going off topic. Just let me go on.

I’d come to a chapter that was leaving me flummoxed. I’d written it several ways, found one I liked, and edited it a bit, but still remained dissatisfied. A “Eureka!” moment struck last night. That might put an end to the issue, but maybe not. I find that as a writer, sometimes I’m satisfied at the moment but later demand to know who wrote that crap and put it in my file.

But the internal debate encouraged The Neurons to pull out a Lovin’ Spoonful song from 1966 called “Did You Ever Have to Make Up Your Mind?” Written by John Sebastian, it’s a playful melody about choosing which girlfriend you want. You probably see the connections which Les Neurons made.

Keep engaging your mind’s positive vibes, man, and pour oil on that negative energy. I hear oil will calm negative energy and keep it from growing. No word on what kind of oil. Feel free to experiment and report your results. I’m getting coffee to pour down my throat where, I believe, it’ll drown my negative energy and lift the positive vibes. At least, that’s the hope, right?

Here’s the song. Cheers

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Sunday’s Theme Music

We turned on the fire yesterday. Yeah, we have a gas fireplace. I turned on the gas and ignited the pilot light. All done because it was a cold, wet day. A friend went hiking this morning — yes, she and her husband are both crazy like that, hiking at dawn around 7:33 this morning — and sent back photos of light snow covering the pines and ground up on a ridge a few thousand feet up. None of my local upper ridges show any snow.

Today is Sunday, October 23, 2022. Sunshine and rain/snow clouds are waltz across the sky. Bright sunshine rules one minute before clouds close the gaps and threaten precipitation in the next. It’s 6 degrees C outside, keeping the felines inside slumbering in their usual winter spaces. Guess that’s the key. Leaves are changing and we’re racing toward winter. High temperature today will 51 F.

I was thinking about waiting this morning, as I was waiting — again — which made me go into a lap of ‘poor me’ self-pity because I’m so put upon, often treated as something stepped in that assaults the nose with a nasty reek after an animal does their business somewhere. Once the lap was done and I was over myself, The Neurons came in with The Black Keys and their song, “Lonely Boy”, from 2011, because, you know, the song has ‘waiting’ in it. What I remember more about this song was the video. I love this guy dancing and lip-syncing the song. He did a sensational song IMO. I read about him on Wikipedia today. His name is Derrick T. Tuggle. Wikipedia called him, “actor, musician and part-time security guard”. Hope you watch it and enjoy it as I have, as much as he seems to be doing.

Hope you have your positive energy shield up and your negative test armor on. I’m adding some coffee protection. Don’t know if you’ve heard of this magical brew and its amazing properties…

Here’s Tuggle and the music. Cheers

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Friday’s Theme Music

If this is Friday, it must be October 21, 2022. Maybe it’s the other way around.

Sunshine broke the night’s hold a little before the official 7:30 AM time, kicking some heat into the 45 degrees F morning. Mists rose, giving a slow reveal of leaves reveling in their new brilliant finery.

We’re to see 72 F today, they say, before sunset ends the show at 6:20 PM.

I spent the morning helping my wife and her friends setting up a 75th birthday celebration for their exercise instruction, who coincidentally is celebrating forty-five years as an instruction with the same organization. My music comes from standing in a line today, waiting to do some things. Without prompting, I began humming the start to “By The Way” by The Red Hot Chili Peppers. The Neurons quickly joined in, and the next thing I knew, the song was settled into the morning mental music stream. I was in Atlanta shortly after the song came out, visiting the corporate headquarters. I’d heard the song on FM and then caught the video while working in my hotel room. After seeing the video, the song’s tempo change made more sense to me.

Coffee has arrived. Exercise a positive attitude. Try to remain negative with your test results for COVID and the flu. I wish you well this Friday. Here is the video. Cheers

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Tuesday’s Theme Music

Looks like autumn is making progress in the area. More trees are choosing to change their leaves, as is their right. Their trunk, their leaves, their colors.

A mellow Tuesday morning has settled in the valley. The week is shaping up to be cooler. Rain is in the weekend forecast with high temperatures in the upper fifties. The air’s shimmer itself seems to have shifted at last, shaking off its summery flavors for autumnal accoutrements. Today, though, will be 80 F and it’s already 56. With that rich blue sky crowning trees becoming wealthy with golds, yellows, orange, and scarlets, it’ll be a fine day to take in the outside world.

Sunrise kicked off the daylight portion of October 18, 2022, aka as ‘today’, at 7:27 AM and will close out at 6:24 this evening.

My morning mental music stream is empty. Yeah, The Neutrons have let me down. Well, “Born to Be Wild” by Steppenwolf was in there. I’d decided to make coffee before sitting down to the ‘puter and started singing, “Got your coffee brewing, and then make your breakfast,” all to the tune of BTBW. So you need to know the song for it to make sense. But I’ve featured the rebellion anthem a few times already and didn’t want to repeat it. So what to do instead, Neurons?

Crickets.

“The Crickets,” The Neurons instantly shouted. “We know The Crickets.”

“Yes, I know,” I answered. “That wasn’t an invitation, guys.”

But they were off. Before I’d even begun my reply, they’d kicked “Peggy Sue” into the morning mental music stream.

While I know the song, I needed to look up the year it was released. Yep, 1957, when I was one. It was an AM pop familiar for a looonnng time. Don’t hear it much any longer unless you’re on a ‘golden oldie’ station, it seems.

Well, I have my coffee and ate my breakfast, so all that’s left is to enjoy the song. Be like a proton and stay positive. Test negative like an electron. Sorry, that’s all I got. I would blame a lack of coffee but I’ve had some. Must just be Bad Neurons.

Here’s The Crickets. Oh, yeah, and Buddy Holly. He got all the credit for the song, but if, as Paul Harvey used to say, you know the rest of the story…

Good day.

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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

5

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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