Science fiction, fantasy, mystery and what-not
He sipped his beer, a locally brewed IPA, and then set the mug down. “I came to Ashland for love in 1972. I’d met this woman in Ohio. She lived here. So I followed her here.”
“Did you marry her?”
“No. We were together for ten years. Then she moved out and we moved on. She lives in Tacoma now. Married, with children.” He smiled toward the wall. “We remain on good terms. We talk to one another on the phone. Once in a while.”
Welcome to Tuesday, December 28, 2021. It’s 28 degrees F out there, so wear your warmest sandals.
Sunrise came at 7:39 AM, showing that the snow is still out there. Had fifteen inches on the ground yesterday. We shoveled off the walk and driveway and removed the snow wall the plow had kindly built for us. This morning, all was covered by a fresh two inches. Everything was closed, canceled, or shut yesterday in our little town — well, everything except grocery stores, hospitals, and emergency services. They all functioned. It’ll get up to 36 F today, so we might get some relief if the weather system can move on the clouds and let the sun in. After sunset at 4:46 PM, the temperature is expected to drop locally to 19 degrees F. Yes, that’s chilly for us.
These snow levels are not consistent across the area. We’re in a valley. Houses are on the valley floor and up the mountain slopes. My house sits at about 1800 feet. Some friends higher than me reported that they had two feet of snow. Others who are lower in the valley received two to three inches. Up the Interstate twenty minutes where the valley is broad and wide, a buddy reported he had two inches. Three thousand feet higher than me, down the road ten minutes, they received sixty inches.
Weirdly, I have a song by the Beatles in the morning mental music stream. “I Feel Fine” came out in 1964. I remember neighbor girls playing a 45 RPM record of the song on a little pink and white portable phonograph on their back patio but that was a few years later, probably in 1966. I guess that because, while I was young, we’d moved to a new neighborhood then, our fourth one in five years. A lot of moves, houses, and schools, but it helps organize and structure my memories, if you know what I mean. I suspect the song is housed in the stream because my wife and I were talking about The Beatles with friends last week. My wife confesses that she didn’t like the Beatles. Never thought them that great. Which, shrug, is fine, because tastes are different, as are choices and circumstances. That’s life, which is another song now playing in my head (covered by Frank Sinatra), but we’ll go into that another day. I think “I Feel Fine” is in my head because I like that opening bit of feedback they incorporated. I’ve gone with a live version of the song so that feedback note is missing (ironic, right), but I enjoy flashing back to these live performances of groups and the changes between now and then so sharpy etched. Guess it feeds my nostalgia.
Stay positive, test negative, wear a mask as needed, and get the jabs and boosters as needed. Speaking of getting, I’m getting some coffee. Make it hot and black.
Here’s the tune. Cheers
Happy Saturday and Merry Christmas. If this is Christmas, then it is also December 25, 2021. If you had white Christmas on your wish list and live in my region, congratulations: you have won! Yes, we have 30 degrees F outside and about three inches of snow. Beautiful to take in, and shoots childhood memories through the neurons. Out last night, breathing in the snowy cold air as snowflakes flirted, I stood as a child and young man again, as I’d stood on many such nights in a string of diverse locations. I’m fortunate to have such memories and to still enjoy them.
Sunrise popped in with Christmas light at (drumroll) 7:38 AM and the sunshine will head at 4:44 PM. Our high temperature today is 34 F. During the and into the night, we’ll be celebrating on a low key this year, just the wife and I, although phone calls have been made, and Christmas baked goods are here to help put caloric joy into our bodies.
Thinking of Christmas memories, I was in the Philippines in the military in 1976. I’d been married less than two years and my wife was living with her parents in the United States while I lived in a dorm room. She and her family sent me a huge Christmas care package and I celebrated the holiday with other unaccompanied and single peers. We had a good time despite being away from family.
One song from that year is “You’re My Best Friend” by Queen. I would say that my wife is my best friend — certainly my longest friendship. We met and hit it off in June of 1971. Married four years later. Still together decades later. I’d never tell her she’s my best friend because she bristles at such sentimentality. But, here we are. I’m using it as my theme music on Christmas, 2021, half a century after meeting her.
Stay positive, test negative, enjoy some holiday cheer, wear a mask as needed, and get the jabs when you can. Make yourself some memories so you can pause on a dark night, look up at the sky, feel the weather, and recall who you were. Excuse me, a coffee has my name on it. Here’s the music. Cheers
Hello, life forms. Today is Wednesday, December 22, 2021. Sunset came on us in our valley at 7:37 AM and sunset will be at 4:42 PM. The current temperature is 44 F under mostly cloudy skies. The present clouds don’t promise much of anything now, but rain is in the forecast with a high temperature of 50. Winter storm advisories are out. Predictions call for seven to sixteen inches, but the snow level will be 3,000 feet or more, and we’re below 2,000.
I heard today’s theme song on Ted Lasso the other night. I hadn’t heard this song in a long time it seemed, and it stayed with me, showing up on my walk last night as I took in the valley and the mountain’s shadow spreading across it, and then popping back up in the morning mental music stream today. “Somewhere Only We Know” by Keane came out in the first few years of this century. It’s a moody song about changes. Seems to fit.
Stay positive, test negative, wear a mask as needed, don’t be complacent, and get the vaccine and boosters when you can. Now, I need to go see a cup about a coffee. Here’s the music. Cheers
Tuesday has come upon us, sunshine, clouds, and wind in my region. Looks like an artist took spray cans of gray, blue and white and began spraying, but ran out before anything was finished. The temperature is a comfortable 50 F although the wind has a bite that’s worse than its bark in the way that some wintry winds can manage. The weather prognosticators claim that the high is going to be 50. We’ll see.
But, happy solstice! Yes, it’s December 21st. Some years it’s on the 21st, others, it’s on the 22nd. Don’t know what it is this year, but this is supposed to be our shortest period of daylight. Previous years of observations show that, no, it probably won’t be. But we celebrate solstice as a holiday in our household, picking it up from the pagans. It’s all about meeting with friends, eating earthy foods, drinking wine, making wishes for the future, and stoking a fire against the cold darkness.
For the record, today’s sunrise was 7:36 AM and sunset is scheduled for 4:42 PM.
Today’s song comes from reading various accounts of people who dismissed COVID-19, dissed wearing masks, scoffed at the vaccines, and smirked at social distancing. Then, some — can’t say how many — contracted the virus, and went through some horrible shit, becoming hospitalized and intubated. Then — can’t say how many — some died, leaving relatives to write the follow up posts. Moms, fathers, sons, and daughters.
Out of that stew of reading and thinking about learning and not learning, arose Alanis Morissette with “You Learn” from Jagged Little Pill (1996). What’s ironic about this release (sorry about that) is that the other side of this single (what a quaint idea that is now, the flip side of a single record) was a song called “You Oughta Know”, an angry, sexually explicit rage-on about a terminated relationship that swept across the country. It’s ironic because it was the B side. The A side is supposed to be the major hit.
The lyrics that inspired the song for today:
h/t Genius.com
Here’s the music. Stay positive, test negative, wear a mask as need be, and get the vaccine and boosters when you can. Don’t force another to finish writing your story. Now, I need to rescue a lonely cuppa coffee from the kitchen. It’s my good deed for the day. Cheers
Another Monday has dragged itself to our doorstep, whimpering, here I am. We have no choice but to take the poor critter in and make the best of the day. “We’ll call it December 20, 2021,” we declare.
This Monday is little different from others this season. Windy, with temperatures slogging through the forties. A bleak sun huddles among clouds, displaying a marbled blue-gray sky. Daybreak came at 7:36 AM and sunset is due at 7:41 in the afternoon. Of course, we’re in a valley and the sun sets behind the mountains. Mountain shadows overtake us about 3:30 in the afternoon, cutting off the sun’s scant heat almost instantly.
Was out last night checking out the moon. Strong one, it burst through the clouds, which anointed it with a colorful corona. The clouds restlessly paced and squirmed. Stars and planets showed their faces but were gone in seconds. All that kicked in a David Bowie song, “Starman”, 1972, into the mental music stream. It still resided there this AM. Because the song sings about a starman being out there.
h/t to Genius.com
Well, let’s hope we don’t blow it. We often seem on the verge.
Stay positive, test negative, wear a mask as needed, and get the vax and boosters when you can. Stay informed and alert. I have my coffee. Now I’m gonna listen to the music. Cheers
I’ve done it! I reached Saturday!
It’s good to set goals. You feel so good when you achieve them. Making it to Saturday was a modest but important one. It kept me going through the other days, which were sometimes sucky.
Today is December 18, 2021. The sun popped in, spreading sunshine like butter on hot pancakes, at 7:34 AM. A hazy shade of winter is overlaid on the blue. The snowmess of Wednesday and Thursday leaves no local trace except for tales. Current temp is 32 F and a high of 50 F is being dangled in front of our faces.
“Given to Fly” by Pearl Jam (1998) is flying through the morning mental music stream. It’s one of those songs that starts softly but when I used to hear it on the car FM, I’d end up, pressing the volume button to up as the song rushed through the middle.
These were the words that opened the window for PJ to sail through:
He floated back down cause he wanted to share
His key to the locks on the chains he saw everywhere
But first he was stripped and then he was stabbed by faceless men
Well, fuckers, he still stands
h/t to Genius.com
Stay positive, test negative, wear a mask as needed, and get the vax and boosters. I have a new goal: coffee, here I come. And here’s the music. Cheers
Zounds. It’s already Friday again — Friday, December 17, 2021, to use its fully nomenclature. I’m staggered that it’s already Friday. What happened to the week? And, just two weeks remain in the month. Just two weeks remain in 2021. We are bolting toward 2022.
Okay, many respond. That’s how calendars work. How we hooman beasts track time for physical needs, work, and play. Why are you surprised that all this has transpired, Michael? Have you not been paying attention?
Nah, I think I pay too much attention. Maybe I need to let go about.
Ah, it’s sunshine streaming through blue skies obscured with filmy white ribbons. Fog is struggling to establish control, attaining some success among the trees in the mountain’s folds. Snow still reigns over the peaks and ridges, presenting them with a friendlier white majesty. Sunrise kicked in at 7:34 AM and is due to kick out at 4:40 PM. The temperature has climbed to 31 F. Should reach 44 F, which is about where we went yesterday, and is all in accordance with average expectations.
I was watching a small bird threading on and off a tree’s naked branches, a little sparrow beast. Neurons said, “I appreciate what that expression, ‘free as a bird’, means.” Because he was just going wherever, flitting about. Of course, he — or she — couldn’t see the sex from where I was — was in the elements, looking for food, a-flying and a-flittin’ to remain alive.
All that neural activity prompted a song to jump into the morning mental music stream. “Play ‘Free Bird’,” is a shout parodied in movies, but my neurons started jumping up and down, shouting, “Play ‘Free Bird’.” “Free Bird” is a song by Lynyrd Skynyrd that came out in 1974. 1974 is my high school graduation year, so this rocking song was my theme music for that year.
Keep rockin’, stay positive, test negative, wear a mask as needed, and get the vaxes and boosters when ye can. I have my coffee, so if you’ll excuse me, destiny awaits. Cheers
Michael Seidel, writer 