Category: memories

Monday’s Theme Music

Another lovely sunrise, full of bravado and promise. Then clouds announced, “That’s enough,” and blanketed the sunshine. “Save some for later.”

Today is Monda, May 16, 2022. The sun’s entrance was made five hours and forty-nine minutes after midnight. Sunset will begin at 8:29 PM. Our valley’s temperature is 52, with breezes running warm and cool playing around us. A high of 69 F is possible, they say.

One of my cats lost their fight with cancer two months ago. As always, it was a gritty fight. I wrote about his passing at the time and I’m dealing with the soft sorrow of reminders and gaps. Well, one of those happened. The late Boo had a specific nesting spot in the backyard. He’d face the back door and do a loaf in the sun. Whenever I came to the door, he’d been watching and say hello. My other two cats, Tucker and Papi, have taken to resting in Boo’s old space. They began this the past few days. First Tucker did it two days in a row, and then Papi.

My mind said, WTF? It of course channeled Boo back into immediate thoughts. This morning, seeing Papi out in Boo’s spot, watching him watching me, hearing him give me a soft hello, the neurons called out “The Needle and the Damage Done” by Neil Young (1972). No, Boo didn’t pass from heroin and a needle. Neil’s raw introspection and simple melody is what I felt when considering Boo’s absence, for that’s what the song is about — “Gone, gone, the damage done” — whether it’s by drugs, cancer, or other diseases. So, for Boo.

Stay positive, test negative, etc. I gotta see a cat about some coffee. They’re onto me. Cheers

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Sunday’s Theme Music

This is Sunday. We’ve awoken to that fact. Other information filters in. May 15, 2022. Almost half of May numbered as the past. Almost half of 2022 joining the historic ranks. Sunrise, 5:50 AM, was bright and strong. There to see it, because Papi stayed up and outside to see it, and called me to come see it. Temperature is 56 F. Anticipated high is around 77 F. Sunset: 8:25 PM.

The neurons floated multiple songs through the morning mental music stream, creating, for a while, a morning mental music stream medley. Yeah, I went there. Most of these songs were from the late 1970s. Putting it together, I think they go well with the age I was in a dream and put it all down to wishful thinking about when, where, and was.

The medley eventually thinned. Linda Ronstadt rose with “Blue Bayou” from 1977 and took over the MMMS. I once won a small wager with this song. About ten years after it’d been a hit for Linda, a young guy was talking about the song. I realized that he attributed it to her as the original artist and told him that Roy Orbison had it as a hit when I was a child. He was flabbergasted. We went through several other songs that night, including, “Knocking on Heaven’s Door”, which he ascribed to Guns ‘n Roses, and “A Hazy Shade of Winter” ‘by’ the Bangles.

I love that one line from the song, “If I could only see that familiar sunrise through sleepy eyes, how happy I’d be.”

Okay, coffee time. Stay positive and test negative. Be on guard, but chill. Here’s the music. Cheers

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Tuesday’s Theme Music

Rain and snow finds us today. The snow isn’t down at our levels, but we can look out and see it up around five thousand feet on the trees and mountains surrounding the valley on three sides. Freeze warnings are in effect but the temperature doesn’t stray below 37 F in our locale and elevation. 54 F is the expected high. Sunshine has been sparring with the clouds since sunrise at 5:55 AM. Sometimes sunshine punches through, pushing us toward the impression that the weather is clearing. But the clouds regroup and roll back in with a new dark menace, delivering swaths of rain. Sunset, at 8:20, should be interesting. Yesterday’s was a pink infused study of clouds in eggplant and gray.

The fur bois are not pleased with this weather change. The old man, Tucker, only goes out when it’s sunny and warm these days. However, comma, if the young blade wants to go out, Tucker must go see why he wants out and what he’s doing. The ginger prince, aka Papi (aka Meep), goes in and out multiple times, trying to find weather accommodating to his needs. But no, this side is too rainy, that side is too windy. Rapid drumming on the door follows as he orders, “Let me back in!”

I have a Sweet song from 1978, “Love is Like Oxygen”, in the morning mental music stream, put there by the rascally neurons. I was in the kitchen, mumbling to myself and the cats, asking the furred ones, “Are you hungry?” They were answering, “Duh, where’s the food? Give me food.” My mumblings to self were about the promise and lure of coffee. During some part of my interaction with myself, I thought, “Coffee is like oxygen.”

Well, yeah, the neurons jumped on that. First, they tortured the song’s lyrics to fit my sentiment, changing love to coffee in the lyrics. Abandoning that, they just started playing the song, you know?

In an aside, when I first heard this song, I thought, that’s an interesting tune. But it didn’t overly move me or anything. I was startled to discover it was by Sweet because it seemed strikingly different from their previous stuff, like one of my faves from them, the over-the-top, “Ballroom Blitz”.

Test negative, stay positive, wear a mask as needs dictate, get more jabs when it makes sense for you, etc. Coffee is at hand. Here’s the tune. Cheers

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Monday’s Theme Music

The records are in and it’s official: April was our rainiest on record. So, that’s good news.

But we’re still in a drought because so many previous years were dry.

Weather and climate change are as fascinating and challenging to contemplate as politics and quantum entanglement.

Today is Monday, May 9, 2022. An impressive sunrise, blasting around clouds, giving those dark boys silver linings, was struck at 5:56 this morning. The sundown show will start at 8:19 PM. Today’s high is expected to be 47 F, just five degrees from where we’re at. Storms are expected throughout the week, including today. Snow and rain showers are possible tomorrow.

All this weather had me singing “Stormy Monday” as recorded live by the Allman Brothers Band waaayyy back when. The neurons were taken by surprise; they were singing other things, filling the morning mental music stream with amazing melodies, but I called an audible. They’re still resisting it, so I’m about to blast it to impress upon them how serious I am.

Stay positive and test negative. Endure, succeed, thrive. Have some coffee. I know I will. Cheers

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Sunday’s Theme Music

It’s 36 degrees F, with rain and snow. Happy Mother’s Day.

Yes, it’s Sunday, May 8, 2022, the second Sunday of May, which makes it Mothers’ Day in the U.S. Moms across the country are receiving cards and gifts, and are being taken out to brunch, or being served breakfast in bed in the best traditions of the day. But, that’s not how it works for some. Many mothers endure hardship and still work on Mother’s Day. And some women are not mothers; they’re women who couldn’t or didn’t want to have children for millions of different personal and biological reasons. We do have the flipside rising, where men are being noted for being mothers, because that’s their family role. The world’s twists and curves grow complicated.

Anyway, I did my duty, wrote Mom a letter and sent her a card. No flowers or foods, as I used to send, as she started complaining about getting so many flowers, she was tired of them. And the foods became less appreciated or desired as she aged and her appetite and diet were reduced. I tried gift cards for a while and learned that she was re-gifted them to my sisters, who really don’t want or need them. So I’ve fallen back on the basics. I’ll call later today, because I know the MD returns, and that she’ll be busy and can’t talk now.

Today’s high temperature will be 46 F. A freeze warning is on for tonight. Sunrise today was a slow graying of the day that began at 5:58 this morning. Sunset is expected at 8:16 this evening.

“Kyrie” by Mr. Mister is circulating around the morning mental music stream. Once again, it came about as I was feeding the cats. For some reason, my neurons felt that the 1985 rock song was the ideal soundtrack for the moment. I believe it was because I was looking up and across at the mountains, wondering if that was snow decorating the pine tops. The wind was blowing and the neurons might have been reacting to the first line in “Kyrie”: “The wind blows hard against this mountainside.”

Stay positive, test negative, and so on and so forth as they say. Time for coffee and brekkie. Cheers

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Friday’s Theme Music

6:00 AM is when the sunlight began today, Friday, May 6, 2022. The rain has fallen away after a sequence of light showers throughout yesterday, but more is being projected for today. Our temperature is 61 F and the high will be about 67. Sunset will take place at 8:15 PM

Even with all this rain, our reservoir situation remains dire. Although Reed Reservoir, which directly serves Ashland, is 100% full, the remaining area reservoirs remain at about 20%. Not good. Water year precipitation is still lower than normal and lower than needed. 90 of the state remains in drought condition. The snowpack levels are erratic and uneven. Part of what will happen to the water levels depends on how hot it gets and how fast it gets hot. Fingers crossed.

I was cleaning out the cats’ food bowls in the sink. Tucker was impatiently telling me, “Hurry, I’m hungry,” by my feet. For some reason, the neurons thought that called for “The Fire Down Below” by Bob Seger and the Silver Bullet Band (1976) to be loaded into the morning mental music stream. They started with the lines, “Somewhere there’s somebody ain’t treating someone right.” The song is about prostitution. Don’t know what the neurons were trying to tell me here.

Stay positive and test negative, and so on. I’m off for my coffee. Cheers

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Tuesday’s Theme Music

Sunshine prevails today. Tuesday’s sky can be described as mostly sunny or mostly cloudy. Both seem correct. While sunshine washes over everything in the valley, large clouds brood like waiting bears, shadowing large swaths of land.

Yes, it’s May 3, 2022. Our high is gonna be 64 F, they say, about ten degrees higher than it is at the mo’. The sunrise cometh at 6:01AM. The other end of the daylight session ends at 8:13 PM. Tomorrow, the weather ‘they’ say, we’ll see 79 F.

After a series of dark, messy, and splashy dreams, the neurons summoned a Nine Inch Nails song. Released in 2006, “Every Day Is Exactly the Same”, some of the lyrics go, “Every day is exactly the same.” Which sometimes is how my life feels, outside of writing. Feeding cats and taking care of them, house and yard work, the eternally aggravating question of “What’s for dinner,” dressing and eating, reading news, doing errands, reading books. Yet, in many ways, that’s how it was when working and in the military, too. The world is built on bureaucracies and routines. Sometimes, though, that tedium gets me. It’s funny, but I know this song because one of the QA guys who worked for me when I managed a tech support group introduced it to me. He no longer worked for me by that time, but sent me an email after the song came out, telling me about it, and mentioning, “It reminded me of what you used to say.” I still laugh about that.

Stay positive — yeah, who am I to talk? Test negative, etc. Here we go, music and coffee. Cheers

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Saturday’s Theme Music

Raining again, as the song goes. It’s Saturday, April 30, 2022. The rain is light, the air is chill, the neighborhood is quiet, the children are still. It’s 51 F now but feels lower, thanks to the moisture hanging in the air and permeating everything. Low mists hid the top of the northern ridges’ pine-loaded top, imbuing the scene with a gothic air. All we need is a black castle. The valley’s high will be 59 F, they say, and I believe ’em. The sunshine so far seems as listless as me without my morning coffee. Arriving with a yawn at 6:08 this morning, it’ll depart our area at 8:09 PM, giving us almost fourteen hours of the sun’s presence today. Huzzah!

But wait! Sunshine has punched through! The temperature is now…51 F.

Oh, wait. The sunshine is blocked again.

Rain is falling again.

The neurons have Bonnie Raitt singing and playing in the morning mental music stream, “Nick of Time” from 1989. This song is from an album by the same name. The album was part of my wife’s album rotation back in the 1990s and became ingrained into the neurons. I believe they brought it up today because of the weather. On rainy days like this, she’d declare, “Let’s put on some music and clean, and then we’ll just sit around and read books.” It worked.

Here’s the music. Now the neurons are singing the praises of coffee and suggesting that I go indulge in a cup. Have a better one. Cheers

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Friday’s Theme Music

The time was checked.

4:14 AM.

About two hours before sunrise.

I listened for noises and heard nothing. One cat was asleep by my head. My wife was asleep. I don’t know the other cat’s whereabouts. He’s still young and likes the night life. I blamed him for whatever noise I’d heard and settled back toward sleep mode, thinking about the dreams I’d been experiencing. Up top was the cow puzzle dream. The neurons began playing “The Midnight Special” by CCR.

Hi. Today is Friday, April 29, 2022. Looks like the perpetual battle between clouds and sunshine is entering another rain. The sun made a bold move, striding in at 6:09 AM, but the clouds have lined up some towering heavies to the northwest. Our temperature is 42 F, but it’s a damp one with the remains of yesterday’s watery hours lending its effect. We expect 65 F as our high before the sun leaves our stage at 8:08 PM.

Thinking about using “The Midnight Special” as today’s theme music, I searched and confirmed that I used it last year on May 10. In the post, I noted that my kidney stone had passed.

I decided to do something other than “The Midnight Special” as today’s theme song. The neurons responded with Shawn Mullins and “California”, a song my spouse actively dislikes. The song was never released as a single that I know but I’ve heard it periodically and enjoy its details about the people and their lives – driving a Trans Am, listening to Bob Dylan, etc., and also enjoy the guitar and organ play, as well as Shawn’s voice. There’s a Tom Petty vibe to Mullins’ music, especially “California”. So here we are.

Stay positive, and so on, for another day, or perhaps another month or year, or more. Coffee is speaking up in the other room. I’m going to go see what it wants. Cheers

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Thursday’s Theme Music

Neurons awoke me this morning with their BJ Thomas imitation of “Raindrops are falling on the roof.”

Yes, it’s Thursday, and it’s raining. Nada wrong with that; rain is needed here. Fingers crossed that it’ll mitigate the drought’s impact and the wildfire season. Yes, it’s a weird thing that we’re in a drought and it’s raining. It’s all about the water levels and earth’s moisture letels, I’m told.

Today is 4/28/2022. Sun drop will come at 8:07 PM. Clouds have won the day, smothering the sunshine with plush gray sheets. With the temperature now at 45 F, our high of 57 F isn’t far off. The sunrise, a thin mélange of gray light through the windows, was at 6:11 AM.

I’m in a funk today. It’s a regular thing. About every twenty-nine days I cycle into a dark place. I don’t stay there long, but I always need to be cognizant of when it’s come so I don’t act stupid, let angry emotions rule me, or walk away from things. Patience must be exercised as I wait to rise back out of it.

To help me, the neurons have dug up The Brothers Johnson playing “Get the Funk Out Ma Face” from 1976. I’m sure I learned this song from hearing it in the barracks when I was on an unaccompanied assignment to Clark AB in the Philippines. It’s stayed with me, a strong and defiant song.

Stay positive, test negative, and so on and so forth, as most of us have been trying to do. Coffee is now serenading my neurons, trying to lure me into the kitchen. I think it’s working. Have a better one.

Cheers

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