Category: memories

Wednesday’s Theme Music

A sunny flourish and a burst of heat and the calendar was made redundant, useless. We knew summer was here. The weather announced it via blazing sun, clear skies, and a sharply scaling thermometer.

Tis Wednesday, June 22, 2015. Tis summer. Nonetheless, the sunrise was at 5:35 AM and sunset will be at 8:51 PM, about the same as the day before summer began. It’s 67 F right now, with a wonderfully friendly and sweet cool breeze tempering the sun’s attitude. The cats love it. I went with the two into the backyard. After some washing (I didn’t participate), they rolled around on the patio. A scrub jay arrived. They abandoned their domestic posturing and proclaimed they’re mighty hunters, so beware.

Somewhere in all of this, the neurons introduced CCR, aka Creedence Clearwater Revival, and their song from 1970, “Up Around the Bend”. It’s pretty straightforward rock and roll. I first heard it when I was fourteen, and the song still entertains me. Hope it entertains you as well.

Stay positive, and hopeful, even optimistic. Test negative. Wear a mask as needed, and take other precautions. Act like you care about your friends and family and be responsible. I try to, with mixed results, then I try again. Now the neurons are singing the coffee song. Here’s CCR. Oh, it’s lifted from Youtube and a show called American Bandstand. They’re having a dance contest. I love this look at 1970s era pop culture – TV, music, fashion, hair, dancing, all rolled into one scene. The music doesn’t start until about 3:42, but you might want to see what it was like, at least for some, for a moment, back in the day. In reflection, I guess today’s theme is nostalgia. Cheers

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Tuesday’s Theme Music

Solstice! The Musical.

Today is the first day of summer and the longest day in the northern lats, while the opposite holds — winter, shortest, etc — in the south. Your experience could be different. Tracking sunrise and sunset shows some interesting info about the lengths of the ‘day’. By day, of course, we’re speaking of the hours between sunrise and sunset.

Watching the weather dude on the news last night, I learned that our average temperature for yesterday is 83 F, that the record, set in 1972, was 104 F, that last year, we’d been mired in a string of triple-digit days and the temperature for last year was 102 F, and this year, it was 78 F. Locally, I only briefly experienced 74, according to my system.

Today, Tuesday, June 21, 2022, is clear and sunny. Highs today will reach around 86 F, which is about our average for the date. Sunset will be at 8:51 PM and sunrise was at 5:35 AM.

I have a song by ELO called “Hold on Tight” stuck in the morning mental music stream. The neurons started playing it for me after I awoke, thought about a dream, and then forgot it later. Snorting and snickering, pointing at me, muttering, “What a doofus,” — they are quite juvenile and not very supportive — they began singing, “Hold on tight to your dreams.” The song came out in 1981, when I was transitioning from living in Texas to living in Japan, on the island of Okinawa, in service to my country. I enjoy the song’s throwback rock and roll vibe.

Stay positive, test negative, wear a mask as the situation warrants, and so on. Time for my first cup of summer coffee.

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Monday’s Theme Music

Marvelous Monday marched in. It’s a sparkling day. White clouds reflect sunshine, making it all bolder and bigger than first glances assume. Sunrise at 5:34 heralded Jun 20, 2022, with a brassy flourish of blazing sunshine. Temps at the time were in the lowly forties but immediately perked up into the fifties, where they languish, drifting by degrees toward a high of 72 to 76 F. Sunset will close the show at 8:50 PM.

After some collaborating, the neurons drew up “Lives in the Balance”, a 1986 song by Jackson Browne. It’s quite the political song, bemoaning war and the suspected collusion between war profiteers and the warring nations, along with shade being thrown on the POTUS back then, Ronald Reagan, and how political campaigns are conducted like offerings for new consumer goods and services. Some sample lyrics for you.

They sell us the President the same way
They sell us our clothes and our cars
They sell us every thing from youth to religion
The same time they sell us our wars
I want to know who the men in the shadows are
I want to hear somebody asking them why
They can be counted on to tell us who our enemies are
But they’re never the ones to fight or to die
And there are lives in the balance
There are people under fire
There are children at the cannons
And there is blood on the wire

h/t to AZLyrics.com

Guess the neurons who follow the news thought the song made sense as theme music. Who am I to argue with his neurons?

Stay positive, you know? Test negative and have some faith that we’ll survive and rise again. I know that this is sometimes hard to embrace. Some imagination might be required.

Coffee is here. Take care.

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Sunday’s Theme Music

I awoke from dreams with the Goo Goo Dolls’ song, “Iris”, in my morning mental music stream. I’ve featured the song before. Looking it up, it’s been a few years, so the judges say it can be featured again.

The holiday carousel has turned. It’s Father’s Day in America. I sent Dad a card a few week ago and will call him today. We’re not as close as he now desires, but come on, he doesn’t make a great effort at it. Nor do I, honestly. I graduate high school in 1974, immediately joined the military and left home, living in different countries and other parts of the United States for the next twenty years. He, meanwhile, had remarried, had two children, divorced, lived with another woman and her children for a decade, moved away, and married a third time after a few years. I didn’t hear from him for years at a time. So he’s earned the returns that he made on his investment in our time.

It is Sunday, June 19, 2022. Fifty F right now, with bright sunshine and a naked blue sky. The sun show began at 5:34 AM and will end at 8:50 PM. Few clouds are expected to show up here today. With the sun’s presence, we expect to reach 70 F.

I checked local reservoirs to see where we’re at after this surprise streak of late spring rain. Emigrant Lake has reached 41%, Hyatt sits at 7% and Howard Prairie is at 14%. Long way to go before water security worries are alleviate. Still, better than last year. Don’t know what the snowpack is but it’s on my list to check today.

Stay positive and so on. Haven’t had coffee yet so I’m not feeling very positive right now. Hope to rectify that in a moment. Here’s “Iris”. Cheers

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Saturday’s Theme Music

We have liftoff. Saturday, June 18, 2022, is climbing through time, leaving its contrails behind for us to study.

Cloudy is today’s word. Chilly is related, with us staring at 52 F at the moment, hoping for something in the sixties. Hoping is a strong sentiment; my wife, cats, and I are all comfortable with the low fifties and some dabble of sunshine. Rain potential hangs above us with the clouds asking, “Will I? Will I?” Such capricious characters. Sunrise drew the curtains open on the daylight hours at 5:34 AM and the obverse is at 8:50 PM. Our weather is better than places like Spain, where they’re baking in 40 degrees C, which, using the formula learned in school eons ago, translates to 104 F. Ouch, yeah?

Cats and neurons conspired behind my back to plunk a Bruno Mars song into the morning mental music stream. I’d stirred from dreams this morning. Ready and waiting, Tucker pounced on my hand, tapping it for some loving. I began scratching him as directed. He reciprocated with motor-boat purrs. I asked in sotto voce, “You like how that makes you feel?” Just like that, the neurons delivered a ten-year-old song, “Locked Out of Heaven”. It bothered me a little as I song it to myself after feeding the cats and preparing my breakfast, because Bruno sings, “‘Cause your sex takes me to paradise, yeah, you sex takes me to paradise.” I told the neurons, you guys are a little bizarre, you know?

Stay positive, test negative, mask up as needed, space out as required, and, you know. Here’s the music. I hear a cup of coffee singing the song of my people. Cheers

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Friday’s Theme Music

A blizzard of dreams dominates my awakening consciousness. Friday’s sun is an amorphous presence hiding behind a pile of gray clouds. It’s June 17, 2022 but the air bares closer semblance to late April. Rain fell last night; more expected today. Our temp is 54 F and we look for a high in the mid-sixties. Sunrise came upon us at 5:33 AM and the sun’s turn will end at 8:50 PM.

We’re past June’s midpoint and bearing down on the year’s middle like a bull in Pamplona chasing a man darting in front of him.

The dreams left a song in my morning mental music stream. Or I’m blaming the dreams. Who knows what quantum entanglement and confused neurons really deposited the song? The song is “White Flag” by Dido out of (wait – let me look that up), yes, almost two decades ago 2003. Probably just word association between things witnessed in the dream and the song’s lyrics, things about giving up and surrendering.

Stay positive, etc. Coffee is in order, I think. Hope your Friday comes with a large order of positive energy and good experiences. Fingers crossed, you know? Here’s the tune. Cheers

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Thursday’s Theme Music

Gothic clouds black and white hover perilously over the southern ranges of sloping trees. Sunshine offers a brave front but the clouds, abetted by a chilly northern wind, own today’s weather.

It’s Thursday, June 16, 2022. The temperature since sunrise at 5:34 AM has slowly crept into the mid-fifties. Won’t get much higher, they tell us, before the 8:49 PM sunset, maybe hitting the low sixties, say 63 F.

“Never Ending Song of Love” by Delaney & Bonnie & Friends from 1971 is in the morning mental music stream. I enjoy this song’s vocalizations and beat, and the song is a regular that I sing to myself while walking or doing chores. Surprise registered when I discovered that I’ve never shared it as a choice for theme music.

Stay positive and test negative. COVID-19 in wastewater in our area is the highest recorded levels to date. All agree, this is due to tourism returning, mask use receding, and complacency rising. In parallel, testing kits in the area are sudden in short supply because demand has spiked. The COVID-19 pandemic remains a treacherous situation.

Here’s the music. Sing along, please. I’m gonna go get my coffee. Be right back. Cheers

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Wednesday’s Theme Music

Wednesday touched down in the valley. 6.15.2022, aka 15.6.2022, 2022.6.15, and 2022.15.6

It’ll be 82 F today in the valley. The sun has been warming up and stretching, saying, “I’m gonna shine today.” 52 F now but it’s a fiery 52 in the sun’s grasp, but cool, almost cold in the shadow. We have no discernible but a few strung out cirrus boys and girls lazing across the high blue bowl. The tops of the all the mountains are visible. Sunshine illuminates and limns pines and oaks, maples and firs. The sun’s segment began at 5:32 AM and will proceed to 8:48 PM.

My wife inspired today’s music. She was in the recliner and said, “Okay, get up, move your feet,” and then rattled off the things she must do before going to bed. Well, the neurons tuned her out a soon as they heard her first words, filing my mental music stream with KISS and “Detroit Rock City”. A good friend was from Detroit — still is, I suppose. We met when we were assigned together in California. Now I’m in Oregon and he’s in Virginia. We keep in touch. He’s a solid person, friendly, trustworthy, honest, intelligent, and loyal. When this song came on, his mind would excuse him from the conversation and situation. His head would bob, lips moving. He was on a stage somewhere, guitar in hand, a rock god before thousands of people. Don’t we all of certain generations have a song which takes us to that dream?

Of course not! Some never dream of that, they say. And they give their reasons. But the rest of us have our fantasies and dreams.

The song remains in the morning mental music stream, but it’s a good one for this hot day, this day of promise that shouts, well, “Get up! Everybody’s gonna move their feet.” Stay positive, test negative, brew coffee, drink coffee, etc. I know I will. See you on the downlow, if I find it.

Let’s rock.

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Tuesday’s Theme Music

Twilleekin on Tuesday trimantled toi toward testigenical twellings. But other than that, all is calm in the valley on Jun 14, 2022, at least in this household. Don’t know what’s going behind other walls and winders.

Fifty-one F is the claimed temperature and it feels right by degrees. Sunshine bathes cat furs and plants. We turned toward the sun at 5:33 this morning and will turn away at 8:48 this evening. Temperatures remain cool for spring’s final days, with 70 F being mentioned as the likely high. No rain today, alteough they rain has been welcomed in our area. Even with this added rainy season, our local lakes, rivers, and dams are only measuring at less than a quarter of capacity. Our local cistern is 100%, of course, but that’ll provide the city with about 31 days of water. The irrigation district, which provides water to a lot of farms and orchards, still says it can only provide about thirty days of water, not enough for a proper growing season, especially if we’re seeing regular breakouts above the century mark.

Did yardwork for the past several days — it’s an ongoing project — and discovered black bear scat just off the front porch. Wasn’t big so the bear probably wasn’t either. Sightings are regularly reported all around this area so it’s not a shock, just worth noting.

Jim Seals of Seals & Crofts died recently. They had several pop hits and the neurons have introduced their song, “Summer Breeze” into the morning mental music stream. The song was released in 1972. I entered tenth grade that year and met the girl who would become my spouse three years later. It’s a mellow song for a mellow day.

Stay positive, and so on. I am trying, myself. Speaking of which, here’s my coffee. Enjoy the music and thanks for reading. Cheers

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Sunday’s Theme Music

My wife declared, “I love this weather.” It’s a cool Sunday. June 12, 2022. Clinging mists obscure the downslopes of pine and hardwood trees. The temperature dropped fast last night. It’s back up to 63 F but with clouds and rain dominating, that’s the day’s high. And it’s peculiar, as I was out last night with the cat, admiring the bright moon. “Pretty nice, isn’t it?” I said to him. “Not quite a full moon. I like the air’s smell. It’s so fresh.”

“That’s a waxing gibbous.” The cat yawned and stretched. “About ninety to ninety-five percent, I’d say. Rain’s coming.”

I checked, and he was right about the moon. Clouds stormed in, delivering a snare-drum rain performance before sunrise at 5:34 AM. Sunset: 8:47 PM.

Songs about flying fill the morning mental music stream. Don’t know what the neurons are thinking with that; did I have a flying dream that I don’t remember? Or are they gaslighting me?

But looking out the window reminded me of Germany. We lived there in the eighties while stationed at Rhein Main AB. Clouds and rain were frequently experienced in that region. The neurons eventually began singing “Jammin’ Me” by Tom Petty (1987). They didn’t give a reason although it might be that friends and I were discussing this song because we’d gone to see The Grateful Dead. Conversation had turned to Bob Dylan, and one person mentioned that Bob Dylan wrote this song with Tom Petty and Mike Campbell. Could be. The reflective trip down the memory highway ended with the usual refrain, wonder where those guys are now?

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