Sunrise on this Monday lifted the curtain on a foggy November day at 7:18 this morning. Life outside the windows wear a damp, dull sheen.
It’s the twenty-ninth, November’s penultimate day. Forty-three degrees F is the air temperature, but that fog block minimizes the sun’s presence and lends a chilling effect to the skin. Fifty-nine is projected as a high for today but I’m skeptical; sixties were expected yesterday. Though the sun broke through the fog by three, temperatures never went over the mid-fifties in our valley. I suspect more of the same today before sunset at 4:40 PM.
I have “Blue Monday, Blue Day” by Foreigner (1978) feeding the morning mental music stream. My dreams featured blue and that’s shaded over into the thinking operations. But there’s also that Monday/fog combo invoking a mild patina of depression. Hence, “Blue Monday, Blue Day”.
Stay positive (yeah, I know), test negative, wear a mask as needed, and get the vax and booster when you can. Don’t go gently into that night but into the kitchen for a cuppa coffee. Here’s the music. Cheers
This is it. 2021 is about to enter the home stretch and gallop into history. It’s been a rush of hours. Despite being limited in where we can go, I’ve stayed busy with writing, housework, tending cats, reading, and some limited socializing. My wife, who is more social, laments that we’re just marking time. I don’t feel the same. I’m writing, after holding off on pursuing a writing career, or even much writing effort, while working in the military and business. Wasn’t supposed to be like this; when I retired from the military, I was going somewhere to write. But no; she was pursuing her career and pleaded with me to stay in the SF bay area for that purpose. Five years later, her career was done. One company bought another and she was let go. She never worked again. Meanwhile, I worked another twenty years after putting my twenty in the military. So, not sorry. This is now my time. It may be too late as I dance through my sixties — hell, I can pull my social security now, if I wish. But I’m going on, writing and trying until health or death stops me.
Okay, that screed is out of the way. Today is Saturday, November 27, 2021. Oh, a gray day is on us. One great smear of dull gray clouds blots out the blue sky, sunshine, and surrounding mountain tops. Stillness is holding, like the valley is holding its breath. Sunrise came upon us at 7:15 AM and sunset will take place at 4:45 PM. Temperatures are warmer, already 52 F and we expect 62 F. I’m a little disconcerted by the warm trend. By this time in many past years, we’ve already experienced a few inches of snow from at least one storm. Nothing of that sort has taking place this year. The fear is that the snow we need to have piled onto the pack won’t come, leaving us mired in drought and subject to more wildfires next year. Breath held, fingers crossed.
The COVID-19 Omicron variant is the big news. Just as we thought, hey, a light, maybe it’s the end of the tunnel, another variant hurdles toward us. The world races to react and contain it, headlines blare. We know that’s not true. Many people are shrugging it off as fake news or not really that bad, or so what? Let’s take our chances and die. We’re in the same boat but same don’t care. They’ll pull in the direction that they want, and damn the rest.
Sour mood, isn’t it? And I’m already drinking coffee.
Today’s morning mental music stream is occupied by Rick Astley singing “Never Gonna Give You Up” from 1987. Started because of a cat. He was singing it to me as he tucked in against me in bed this AM, kneading my shoulder with his claws and singing a deep baritone purr. I had to get up to attend other cats and my bladder but the fur beast was singing, “Never gonna give, never gonna give, never gonna give you up.” At least, so it seems to my demented mind.
Stay positive, test negative, wear a mask as needed, and get thyself vaxes and boosters when possible. Looking at the trend started in 2020 and continued in 2021, 2022 is gonna need more patience, more masks, and more endurance.
Here’s the music. Pretty lame video. Think I need more coffee. Cheers
Friday’s greetings, fellow voyagers. Today is November 26, 2021. The sun kicked in around our environs at 7:14 AM, guiding us out of the dark night into the bright day and lifting our temperatures from 35 degrees F to 37. We do expect to climb into the fifties with the temperatures as clouds and sunshine continue the battle of evermore. The sun will steel away with its light and warmth at 4:46 PM. We’ll do our best to enjoy the hours between.
Speaking of evermore, I have “The Battle of Evermore” by Led Zeppelin (1971) in my morning mental music stream. Came upon when I was out last night. We’d finished Friendsgiving on some friends’ farm. It was about 8:30 PM. I was preparing to leave. I stepped outside, out in the country a bit where their property sits, and admired the stars and breathed the air. Memories from doing this as a child, teenager, and adult throughout my life came up and stood beside me. Hence the song’s presence. We’re here for a short while, but those stars are evermore.
Stay positive, test negative, listen to the music (like how I slipped that in there?), wear a mask as needed, and get the vax and boosters when you can. Just read of another variant emerging in Africa which has kicked the stock market down the stairs. COVID-19 and its variants seem like they’ll be another facet of evermore. Don’t get complacent now.
Welcome to Thanksgiving Day in the United States, Thursday, November 25, 2021. My wife has turned on the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade being broadcast from New York. She loves watching that. It’s part of her tradition.
Out walking yesterday, my mind treated me to a series of songs. First up, “Getting to know you, getting to know all about you. Getting to like you, getting to hope you like me.” That was followed by, “Give my regards to Broadway. Remember me in Herold Square. Tell all the gang at Forty Second street, that I will soon be there.” Then, though, my brain suggested, “Isn’t it Trafalgar Square?” What? Another brain section wondered if it wasn’t “Lester Square.”
I think my brain is trying to drive me nuts.
Sunrise came upon us at 7:13 AM and sunset will cometh at 4:43 PM. Temperatures were at 32 F when I arose but it’s now 36. We expect 56 under a pale blue sky.
We’ll be going to a Friendsgiving celebration this year. It was skipped last year but we’ve been doing this for ten years or so. Folks who live out at a farm invite others each year. It’s limited to twelve people this year, all vaccinated and boosted. We’re taking a sweet potato casserole which my wife made yesterday and an appetizer tray.
Meanwhile, a Roxette song, “It Must Have Been Love” (1987) is occupying the morning mental music stream. Don’t know why this song is there. Maybe I heard a snippet from it sometime yesterday. Could be from dreams; had a long train of dreams last night. Some were sexy and a few were funny. Too many to go through, though.
Stay positive, test negative, wear a mask as needed, and get the vax and booster when you can. If you celebrate Thanksgiving, Happy Thanksgiving to you. Hope it’s memorable and fun, with minimal stress. Otherwise, seize the day, wherever you are. I’m gonna seize a cuppa coffee. That’s how I start. Here’s the music. Cheers
Another Monday has come around, to lift you up or tear you down, depending on your point of view, and what it is that you’re trying to do.
November 22, 2021, has broken like many other days. Bright sunshine blasting light on everything under blue skies unencumbered by smoke or cloud arrived on the Ashland scene at 7:10 AM and will swivel away, leaving us in darkness alleviated by artificial lights at 4:44 PM. Nothing of this day portends murder, death, and chaos, but it’ll happen somewhere. Perhaps the weather there is giving warning signs.
We saw freezing temperatures last night. Got up to 33 F after the sun broke, which stayed as the temp for some time. It has risen to 36. We expect something in the fifties but this feels like aunter, that season between autumn and winter when leaves are still turning and falling but winter’s advance cold marches in and chills us.
I have Jethro Tull, “Bungle in the Jungle” out of 1974, in the morning mental music stream. This came about because of granola. I decided brekkie would feature oatmeal, a pretty standard breakfast for me. I like granola on my oatmeal. Adds crunch, heft, flavor. Several granola styles are in the pantry. I thought I’d save one of them for later in the week, prompting me to remember, “Eating their nuts, saving their raisins for Sunday.” This is, you know, a line from the song. Thereafter, Ian and the gang played live in my head from the record player that still exists in brain’s teen cellar, where all things teen are stored.
Stay positive, test negative, wear a mask as needed, and get the vax and booster when ye can. Also, coffee up. I’m going to. It’s cold morning and coffee warms me well. Also stimulates the muses to come so I can write. Muses are so fond of the coffee smell that all I need do is spritz a little ground coffee scent about and they flit right in.
I’m just sitting here watching the weeks go round and round, I really love to watch them roll.
So we’ve rolled into another Saturday, designated by the powers and systems as November 20, 2021. Not quite as graceful as yesterday, when it was 19, 2021, but still, with a nice symmetry. Sunrise popped in on us in the valley at 7:07 AM, fog free, smoke free. Silky layered pewter clouds are lazily stretched over most sky. Just a little blue skin showing. While it’s 36 F now, the powers say that our high will be 55 before the world turns, the sun descends, and darkness throttles the land again at 4:45 PM.
Dreams were of an unusual variety with a distinct Chinese flavor, in which I was a boy in China watching a parade and observing other things. Can’t specify if I was Chinese, but I was about six to eight, I think, on a warm day, in shorts, in a city. I feel the book I just finished, When We Were Orphans, set largely in Shanghai, affected the dream, yeah?
Now, as I’ve started with John Lennon and “Watching the Wheels”, I think I’ll dub it today’s theme music. After all, it is going round and round through the morning mental music stream. Might as well put it to work. The song was released in 1981, after his murder, and I’ve always attached sentiments to it from that.
Stay positive, test negative, wear a mask as needed, and get the vax and boosters when you can. Don’t just sit there watching the wheels go round and round. Let them take you somewhere. Mine are taking me to a cup of steaming black coffee. Watch me go. Cheers
Good Friday to you, Earth dwellers and guests. Today is November 19, 2021. Sunrise, when the sun brightened the marbled rain clouds for us, arrived at 7:06 AM, lifting temperatures to 46 degrees F enroute to a projected high of 50. Some solid rain fell an hour ago. Now everything is just soaking in it and relaxing. Sunset cometh at 4:46 PM in the sliver of time and space known as today, Ashand, Oregon.
We slipped out to see the lunar eclipse last night. The clouds parted enough to titillate us for about five seconds before sliding closed and dropping some drizzle on our upturned faces. Rain and moon thinking fertilized rain and moon songs in my morning mental music stream. Moon and rain feature heavily in the pop/rock era lyrics. Without trying, at least two songs of each arose for the occasion. No, really, it was about a dozen of each hardwired in my head. A youthful favorite took the top post and cemented its place as Friday’s theme music.
Here is Led Zeppelin with “Fool in the Rain” from 1979. Hope you enjoy it. Stay positive, test negative, wear a mask as needed, stay hydrated, and get the vax and booster when you can. I’m off for coffee. Later, gator. Cheers
A stick, a stone, the end of a poem, the beginning of the day, the end of the night.
Hello. Welcome to the new, improved, Wednesday, now with better flavor and new packaging.
Today is November 17, 2021. Last night’s temp dipped to 32 F under clear skies. By sunrise at 7:04 AM, it was back up to 41. But with that rise came a stout series of winds jostling the trees, rattling the windows, and urging the cats, get back into the house. A high of 56 is in the cards if we play them right (yeah, like we can do anything, right, but hold onto the cards as the wind tries blowing them away) before sunset at 4:48 PM.
“They call me the working man, guess that’s what I am,” was bubbling through the morning mental music stream today. Don’t know why the Rush song from 1974 has been called up. I’m not a working man; if anything, I’d call myself a non-working man, a label I attached to myself way back in…well, 1974, when I graduated high school. It might be the guitar solo that sprang to mind. It’s a pretty nifty turn by Alex Lifeson, the Rush guitarist. I’ve always enjoyed the group, but again, sadly, we lost the drummer Neil Peart, last year, and the group says they’re done touring.
Stay positive, test negative, wear a mask as needed, and get the vax and booster when you can. Stay healthy in general, and keep pressing forward. Here’s my coffee — hot and black — and the music. It’s a ‘live’ version found on the net that entertained me. Enjoy. Cheers
Michael Seidel, writer 