Category: memories

Monday’s Theme Music

The sun kicked the door in on Monday, July 4, 2022, and announced it was going back to bed.

It’s a cool day in the valley. Showers are anticipated, the third day in a row in July, a treat for us. It’s but 18C outside now but we’re expecting a high of 76 F, no lie; on the nation’s celebration of 1776 and the signing of the Declaration of Independence, it’ll be 76. Must be an omen of some kind in there. I’ll look for it after I’ve had my coffee.

Sunrise was at 5:39 AM. The traveling sun show will cease it Monday ops today at (drumroll), yes, 8:50 PM. Again.

Today’s music was brought to us by the wonderful Minnie Riperton. She had a stunning voice but died of cancer when she was 31. Maya Rudolph is her daughter, an actor and comedian who I richly enjoy, so Minnie gave us her singing and her daughter. Her best-known song by the masses is probably “Lovin’ You” from 1975, a song created to distract her daughter when the girl was little and being cranky. I heard it on the radio yesterday and had to pause to listen, one more time. Thank you, technology. Thank you, Minnie.

Stay positive, test negative, and whatever needs done to survive, endure, and thrive. Coffee is one of those things that help me survive, endure, and thrive. At least that caffeine kick and seductive flavor urges me to believe and try, try again.

There go the jets on their flyover. The parade downtown has commenced. Obviously, I’m not there this year. Obviously.

Now where’s that coffee? Here’s the music. Cheers

Wait — another flyover. Right over our house. They must have smelled my coffee.

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Sunday’s Theme Music

Yesterday, Saturday, July 2, offered us heavy rain, thunder, and lightning. We don’t experience a lot of this in Ashland. As my partner commented, we usually receive a rain like this at the end of July. We do get ‘dry’ thunderstorms, where the clouds pile up over the mountains and then roll across the valley, darkening the sky and dropping the temperature before singing their bass throat music. Far lightning came sometimes be seen. It was all different yesterday, the once-a-year storm that we typically experience.

Today is Sunday, July 3, 2022. It’s cool, just 10 C now, with predictions and forecasts that we’ll reach the upper to mid 70s F. Clouds have blanked the sunshine and blue sky. Mists cuddle up to the tree line on the mountains. The air smells of wet grass, dirt, and bark.

Sunrise was at 5:39 AM. The sun will do its disappearing act about 8:51 PM. Again. That sunset time hasn’t changed since before the solstice.

I went out and listened to the rain, alone, enjoying the smell and sound. Drops hurled down, dashing off the pavement, an unsynchronized drumline in a private public performance. Thunder erratically punctuated moments. As it faded, I enjoyed the silence. No cars, birds, cats, or people. Nothing but me and the storm as it carried its show north and away. The silence was a balm for the day, and I thought, I hope nothing breaks this silence. Just let me have this for a little longer.

Well, The Neurons said, “We know that song.” I replied, “What song?”

They responded with “Don’t Answer Me” by the Alan Parsons Project from 1984. I don’t recall when I’d last heard it. Lines in the song go, “Don’t answer me, don’t break the silence, don’t let me win. Don’t answer me, stay on your island, don’t let me in.” Oh, how The Neurons love playing these word association music games. I think they might be a little compulsive-obsessive about it.

Stay positive, test negative, wear a mask as and when needed and get the boosters as, when, and if you’re able. Time for a morning jolt, you know what I’m saying? Here’s the music. Cheers

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Saturday’s Theme Music

Saturday has sauntered in like he owns the day. It’s July 2, 2022, part of the four day holiday weekend to celebrate Independence Day, aka July 4th or the 4th of July. All those phrases are employed to recognize the nation’s birthday. Of course, many are disappointed by the years SCOTUS rulings and attempts by GOP legislators and supporters to undermine our principles and drag us backwards. Scoffing at the holiday has grown stronger, especially after Hutchinson’s testimony at the Jan. 6 hearings in the past week. “How long can this nation remain united?” many ask. Others point to the long arc of history and change and remind people that it takes time and perseverance. History will judge it all.

It’s only 18 C right now, but it’s very pleasant. With thunderstorms and showers creeping through the area, projections for today’s high are mild, 78 F. Sunrise cameth (is too a word) at 5:39 AM while sunset cometh at 8:51 PM. Again. That sunset time has been unchanged for a week.

There won’t be fireworks in our town, BTW. Though we had more rain this year, overall, the land and vegetation was deemed too dry and too great a danger.

“Black Velvet” by Alannah Myles from 1989 was deposited in the morning mental music stream. My wife and I were watching television and saw a cute child give a sweet smile. After we talked about it, The Neurons were hooked on the words, “and that little boy’s smile.” I argued with The Neurons, pointing out that it was a little girl I saw. The Neurons don’t care ’bout no stinkin’ logic. They just turned up the volume and kept the song going.

So, anyway, it’s stuck in the mental music stream and must be shared to be dislodged. Them’s the rules. Not a problem, though. I enjoy Myles’ dusky style – it’s a vocalizing that I find attractive in many singers – and the song’s moodiness.

Here’s the song. Tell you what, you listen to it, cogitate on it, let me know what you think, and I’ll go get a cup of coffee. You stay positive and test negative, right? Right.

Cheers

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Friday’s Theme Music

“Today is Friday, July 1, we’re gonna have a special guest.” You need to imagine singing that to the melody of the old Mickey Mouse Club song. Some of you may not know what I’m talking about. YOu might use the net to see if you can figure it out. It’s like a puzzle, yeah?

There’s no special guest with me today, unless you count the floofs. It’s 20 C again. It’ll reach 86 F again. Sun belted out its light at 5:38 AM. It’ll set again at 8:51 PM. Again.

The Neurons have “Romancing the Stone” in my morning mental music stream. This was an Eddy Grant song written for the movie by the same name that was released in 1984. The movie starred Michael Douglas, Kathleen Turner, and Danny DiVito. It’s about a writer and her sister and a jewel in South America. Somehow The Neurons tied it up with a dream I had. I remember many dreams from last night. I’m not certain how this song fits them. But, you know, The Neurons often think they know more than you.

That’s the story behind today’s music choice. To go into another old Jon Lovitz schtick, “Yeah, that’s what happened. A dream. That’s the ticket!”

Stay positive and test negative. Wear a mask as needed. Y’all have a good one. I’m getting coffee now. Here’s the tune. Cheers

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Wednesday’s Theme Music

Take your cover off and salute Wednesday, June 29, 2022. It’s been selected as the day and date in the great quantum arcade where such things are decided. Okay, that’s it, let’s move on.

Sunrise for this august June day was 5:37 AM. The sun’s turning away will be at … drum roll … 8:51 PM – again. Sunset times are in stasis for us. Probably the wrong term but, coffee hasn’t come yet.

Temperatures remain around our average today. It’s again 20 C right now but we expect 86 F this afternoon. This is all so yesterday, except the day and date.

I wandered around the house singing Frank Sinatra’s cover of “Winchester Cathedral” this morning as I pursued the morning rituals. Mom was a fan of ol’ blue eyes. His album, That’s Life (1968), was heavily featured in her stereo rotation. She’d put that vinyl on, cranked it up, and clean the house. I got to know a lot of those songs and do a pretty good Frank imitation. It surprises people, which is always fun. Singing Winchester today surprised the cats. Might have surprised the neighbors, too.

I was singing the song after some dreams prompted The Neurons to insert the song “That’s Life” into the morning mental music stream. It was just a dreamvella, also known as a dreamette in some cultures, that is, a briefer dream than a full-length production, about being a child, but it made a sufficient impression on The Neurons that they felt it deserved music. I previously knew the The New Vaudeville Band’s version of the song but The Neurons perched on Frank.

Anyway, that probably all makes little sense (cuz, coffee, you know), but here we are. Stay positive and test negative, and so on and so forth. Hit it, Frank, while I seek coffee. Cheers

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Tuesday’s Theme Music

Wednesday, June 28, 2022, come on down!

It’s 68 F outside right now, quite pleasant. Mild cool breeze scrubs off yesterday’s heat residuals. We only touched 95 yesterday, as the heat dome did move on. Weather human compared it to last year, when the dome lingered, and 111 to 120 F regularly scorched the area cities, including us. We’re popping up to 86 today. The sun cropped in at 5:37 AM and will take its heat and light away around 8:51 PM. Yeah, fascinating how the sunset time has remained stagnant at 8:51 PM while the sunrise slowly shifts to later times.

The Neurons fed “Spiderwebs” by No Doubt into the morning music feed. This was a blatant take on my activity as I walked around knocking webs down. I was gonna go with it for the music but thought, didn’t I do it before?

Yep, one year ago.

Astonishment. It firms a trend I’ve noticed. The Neurons bring up the same songs with disconcerting regularity. I’ve noticed it numerous times. It’s often also the same pattern behind recalling the song.

Anyway, I no doubt decided (ha, ha, see what I did there?) to go with something else. Fortunately, The Neurons used their word association magic to come up with “Linger” by The Cranberries. I’m surprised that it’s not been a song used as theme music before. A great possibility is out there that it was but it wasn’t properly indexed by moi.

Moving on, here is the 1993 song. Hope you enjoy it. Remind me to stay positive and test negative, okay? Yeah, I think this is the part where I go get coffee. Cheers

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Monday’s Theme Music

Dropping down to 97 F today, a cooling trend for the week. By Sunday, it’ll be down to 73 F, they say, as they expect the heat dome to slide on across North America.

Today is June 27, 2022, the month’s final Monday for this year. We’ll be pushing on into July next week. Time is racing by in my life. Don’t know about yers. Sunrise kicked off at 5:36. It’s slowly sliding back toward six AM. Sunset is holding steady at 8:51 PM.

Today’s theme song was a sudden apparition from the memory mines. Don’t know what The Neurons were thinking. I suspect they played a game of randomly pushing buttons, giggling and telling themselves, “Let’s see what happens when we push these buttons.” Well, those buttons took me to an entertaining time of life on an island called Okinawa on the edge of the Pacific Ocean. between the East China Sea and the Philippine Sea. Yes, there’s a lot of water around it. This song, “Be Good Johnny” was part of that scene. Maybe, more rational neurons suggest, it was thinking about heat and mugginess. Okinawa was a muggy place. No A/C in the apartment we lived in for the first coupla years. Dripping with sweat was the day’s norm. If you weren’t sweating, people were liable to ask, “Are you okay? You’re not sweating.”

Here is “Be Good Johnny” by Men At Work from 1982. I enjoy Colin Hay’s vocal work in the song. Hope you to do. Coffee? Let’s go. Stay positive and test negative.

Cheers

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The Haircut

I received a haircut today, the first in two months. It was a few weeks overdue. My hair is losing its presence on top and my forehead keeps pushing my hair line back. Hair grows thick and heavy on my sides and back, and still falls in waves of curls. The whole thing can become an unmanageable beast, fighting me about what I want it to do. It won a few times this week. I finally acquiesced to a growing need to deal with it.

Part of my reluctance is the pandemic protocols. We’re in a small town. Not many barber shops, salons, and stylists are among the businesses. Our town is oriented toward college students and tourists, translating business needs into drinking and eating establishments – pizza, restaurants, and beer, wine, coffee, and pastries. Scattered among them are gas stations, grocery stores, clothing boutiques, and bookstores.

Places catering to hair are less frequent. Almost all closed on Sunday and Monday. Most close early on Saturdays. The windows to get a haircut get perilously small. Pandemic closures meant less people working in these places. Appointments are the norm, and they’re precious. I was turned away because nothing was available at three locations in the course of five attempts spent over three days.

An appointment for a haircut. That blows away my youthful memories of walking into quiet establishments, taking a number, and waiting ten to fifteen minutes. In my military days, aka my youth, I had more hair to cut and more frequent needs to cut it to meet regulations. But the prices were better. In the beginning, we’re talking $1.10 for a haircut. Slowly it went to two dollars…five…ten…

Today, I spent $30 with a tip to trim my silvery locks and tame my curls. But I put the $30 haircut into context with coffee. I used to spend fifty cents to a dollar for a cup of coffee. I spent $4 on a cuppa today. Filling my car with gas cost six dollars for a time back then, compared to the fifty I just put out. Yeah, bread was two dollars a loaf, and it now runs $7. It was white bread back then, and now it’s multigrain, and I buy it cheaper at Costco, which wasn’t around back in those days. Cat food was a quarter a tin. Now it hits a dollar each. Hell, I remember spending $7,000 to buy a new Firebird, an expense that took a deep breath to decide after hours of calculations and days of mental wrestling. Good luck finding a new car, loaded, for seven grand these days.

I’ll just put in a mention about real estate. We bought our first place for half a million dollars. Family, still used to lower prices, were stunned. It wasn’t a large place, a sixteen hundred square foot condo, three bedrooms, three baths, two car garage, three stories. My family was more astonished when we sold that place after a few years for three hundred grand more than we paid. I was astonished, too. That was almost twenty years ago.

Context. It all costs more now — houses, cars, air fare, food, clothing, and yeah, haircuts. I look good, though. Young Megan, probably in her twenties, did a good job.

I think.

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Saturday’s Theme Music

It’s 70 F at the moment. A high of 100 is expected. Little warm, yeah, with the usual declarations about furnaces, staying protected, and cooking things on cement.

Today is Saturday, Jun 25, 2022. Sunrise was at 5:36 AM and sunset is at 8:51 PM.

The cats called me away while I was posting this. I return 30 minutes later. It’s eight degrees warmer outside. The temperature leap has an entourage of strong, gusty winds. The cats aren’t pleased and are pestering me to turn the damn winds off. They give me credit for way more power than I possess.

I was washing the car yesterday when The Neurons began playing Cat Stevens, “If You Want to Sing Out Sing Out” which was in the movie, Harold and Maude, 1971. I found that movie so entertaining as a youth, and of course the song stayed with me. I had to think about what movie it was from and the year, and finally looked it all up for confirmation. BTW, I think there’s a specific group of neurons responsible for calling up the music and placing it in the mental music stream. I’ve decided they will be known as The Neurons to differentiate them from the normal, regular neurons.

Stay positive, test negative, wear a mask if or as needed, etc. Enjoy your Saturday. The cats are telling me that it’s coffee time. Cheers

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Thursday’s Theme Music

Doors ajar, windows open, cool morning air flows through the house. It’s 64 F out but will strike the upper nineties today. We’re bracing for the weekend when triple digit are expected for the first time this year for us.

Meanwhile, we’ll enjoy this day, because it’s here, and we are, too. It’s Thursday, June 23, 2022. Sunrise came as expected, just after dark thirty this AM. Sunshine will rule until sunset, just before 9 PM this evening.

I have “Barracuda” by Heart from 1977 in the morning mental music stream. I remember that one friend at the time of the song’s release hated this song, just hated it, always complaining because everyone thought Heart was Nancy and Ann, and that enraged him. I realized that he didn’t hate the song, but the group. Around then, I noticed him veering sharply toward racism and sexism and curtailed associating with him.

The neurons brought “Barracuda” forward because of a quote I’d one read from one of the Wilson sisters about “Barracuda” being based on another group’s song. She said, paraphrasing, you steal or borrow what you love and make it your own. I’ve observed it countless times in rock music and novels. I’m doing it my novel, because that’s how it works. I don’t call it stealing or borrowing: I call it inspiration.

Stay positive and test negative. Papi just came in and reminded me that it’s time for coffee. He’s right. Such a smart cat. Cheers

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