Category: memories

Friday’s Theme Music

It was two A.M. The bladder mumbled something. Didn’t need to hear exactly. Knowing what he wanted, I ambled through sleep and dark to the voiding station. A precipitation orchestra was tuning up. Plink plink. Plink.

Rain. By the time my bladder had finished his business, a solid downpour was underway. The cats and I — my flooftourage had followed me, of course (what’s he doing, where’s he going?) — slipped to a door to enjoy the rain and fresh air. But the smoke remained, thick as oatmeal, scratching at my eyes and nose. Still, it had rained.

Today is Friday, September 10, 2021, the second of four Fridays in September. We will have five Wednesday and Thursdays in September. A tepid imitation of sunrise took place at 6:45 AM. Last night gave us an an almost normal sunset as the smoke cleared enough for standardized views. Who will know tonight? The smoke comes from all directions. If you want to see the sunset in Ashland, look west — outside or through a window — at 7:29 PM.

The Dutch band, Golden Earring, had a 1982 hit called “Twilight Zone”. The song begins with a man talking. Then he says, “It’s two A.M.” The vocalist then begins singing with that line, “It’s two A.M.” He then goes on, “The fear has gone, I’m sitting here waiting, the gun’s still warm, maybe my connection is tired of taking chances.”

More lyrics (h/t AZLyrics.com):

Yeah there’s a storm on the loose, sirens in my head
Wrapped up in silence, all circuits are dead
Cannot decode, my whole life spins into a frenzy

Help I’m steppin’ into the twilight zone
Place is a madhouse, feels like being cloned
My beacon’s been moved under moon and star
Where am I to go, now that I’ve gone too far
Help I’m steppin’ into the twilight zone
Place is a madhouse, feels like being cloned
My beacon’s been moved under moon and star
Where am I to go, now that I’ve gone too far

Soon you will come to know
When the bullet hits the bone
Soon you will come to know
When the bullet hits the bone

I’m falling down the spiral, destination unknown
Double-crossed messenger, all alone
Can’t get no connection, can’t get through, where are you

Well the night weighs heavy on his guilty mind
This far from the borderline
When the hitman comes
He knows damn well he has been cheated

It’s all about wondering who you are, what’s going on. Whether you’re losing your connection with reality. What’s going to happen next.

Stay positive. Test negative. Wear a mask as needed. Get the vax. Enjoy your Friday. Fetch me a coffee, please. Never mind, I’ll get it myself. Here’s the music.

Cheers

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Thursday’s Theme Music

First, standard warnings. The outside air is unhealthy. Recommend you avoid going outside. Don’t exert yourself outside. People with respiratory issues should take additional precautions.

COVID-19 positives cases remain high as vaccination rates continue to wane. ICUs are full. Wear a mask when outside your home, especially when in stores and restaurants. Social distance. The library is closed to browsing but there is front door service.

Welcome to Thursday, September 9, 2021.

It’s similar to Wednesday and Tuesday. Many of us wonder, when will this stop? The smoke. COVID-19. Drought. Water shortages.

Sunrise was at 6:44 AM. Sunset will be at 7:33 PM. Saw a big red-orange ball in the sky late yesterday afternoon. Purported to be the sun. And darkness did gather when it disappeared. So, cause and effect, must’ve been the sun.

Temperatures today will remain warm but not hot with a forecast high in the mid to open eighties.

A Wham song is rooted in the morning musical mental stream. This is a dream’s influence. I’m still sorting the dream. The song is “Everything She Wants” from 1984. I respect Wham and George Michael but their music wasn’t the sort I generally paid mind. But my female friends and wife looked their music so I heard it often. I’m still piecing together why it was in my dreamscape’s musical score.

Stay positive, test negative, wear a mask as needed, and get the vax. Here’s the music and there’s my coffee. Cheers

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Wednesday’s Theme Music

Good morning, fellow travelers. Our vehicles — body, planet — still appearing to be functioning or we probably wouldn’t be here, me typing this, you, reading it later. Or should we propose some Twilight Zone inspired theories about who we are, where we’re at, and what’s really going on?

Today, ‘they’ claim that it’s Wednesday, September 8, 2021. Smoky, again, in my area. Sunshine came red and dull through the haze at about 6:43 AM. It was a dark and gloomy sunset last night. Dark by 7:30 PM. Sunset today will come at 7:33 PM. Hope we can see the sunset for the smoke.

AQI is currently at 112, so it’s improved but still unhealthy. Present temperature is 64. Autumn is coming, bringing a high of 87 F to us here in the valley. Leaves are turning yellow on a few trees. The shimmering maples are beginning to do their thing, too.

I’m with Queen this morning. Another blogger sang “Some bunny to love,” on an Instragram post. Oh, terrible. But the song stuck to me like peanut butter on a spoon. I finally countered with “Crazy Little Thing Called Love” by Queen (1979). I so vividly recall when this came out and I heard it for the first time. Was at work. Then in the Air Force. Stationed at Randolph AFB, Universal City, just outside of San Antonio, Texas. Worked in the command post. It was by far the most unusual command post in my career. For one thing, we had windows. No other command post I worked in ever had windows. Windows are vulnerabilities that reduce security, you know. Also, this command post was on the first floor of the Taj Mahal, just left of the front entrance. Here’s a photo of that building.

Stay positive, test negative, wear a mask as needed, and get the vax. Let’s be careful out there. Here’s the music. Cheers
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Monday’s Theme Music

Greetings! Happy Labor Day in America! This is a holiday in the U.S. It’s one of the three-day weekend holidays. This was Congress’ gift to the country — particularly the travel industry — in 1968 as part of the Uniform Monday Holiday Act.

It’s September 6, 2021. Monday, of course. We’re not doing anything special for the holiday. Wildfire smoke and COVID-19 (and the current Delta variation that’s so virulent here in southern Oregon right now) have muted it for us. Might be different if we had family close to us.

Sunrise arrived at 6:41 AM. Sunset, when the Earth turns away from the sun, will come at 7:36 PM. And I think I need to go back and fix an assertion I made on a previous post that we’ve gone below twelve hours of daylight per day. Blame it on a lack of coffee. Or a lack of cogent thinking. Or poor math skills. Temperatures continue to rise but we’re not hitting crazy levels, topping out in the low nineties. AQI for this morning is 163, Unhealthy. We haven’t had a day rated as Moderate since August 25. They’ve all been unhealthy or extremely unhealthy since then, a fact known in many areas out here in the U.S. western states.

Rickie Lee Reynolds died. 72 years old. Heart attack. He was the Black Oak Arkansas guitarist. Black Oak Arkansas was a southern rock band with some glam influences in their stage performances. They came out with a cover of “Jim Dandy” in 1973, while I was a high school junior. Weirdly, I’d encounter this song often on diner and NCO Club jukeboxes for many years. And I’d play it. Which exasperated my wife. She doesn’t like the song. But it’s a throwback, innit?

Stay positive, test negative, wear a mask, avoid crazy cures like ivermectin, and get vaccinated. Have a enjoyable Labor Day, if that applies to you. Gotta get my coffee. Here’s the music. Cheers

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Sunday’s Theme Music

Welcome to Sunday, September 5, 2021. It’s September’s first Sunday, which means tomorrow is September’s first Monday, and that rhymes with Labor Day weekend in America. Yes, it’s the day when summer is considered done. The season is yet to change for a few weeks. That doesn’t matter. Summer is done. Vacations are wound down. Children return to class. Grills are fired up for one last hurrah.

Back east, my family has the grand cookout planned. Sister #3 is coordinating the effort. She is the hostess. Sixteen are attending. Mom is taking dessert: an apple pie, chocolate peanut butter bars, and tuxedo cake. She made the bars, purchased the rest. Yes, it’s overkill. Food overkill is the family tradition on these holidays. My brother-in-law will be at the grill. He’s a master. Wish I cold be there but it’s several thousand miles east of here. Takes a day of flying or several days of driving. Where’s a bullet train when you need it?

They’re two degrees south of us at home in Penn Hills, PA. About 1500 feet lower in elevation. Makes a difference with sunrise and sunrise. Temperatures. Sunrise locally was 6:41 AM. Sunset will be 7:38. Yep, less than twelve hours of sunshine today mitigating the smoke today. Our high will be in the mid-eighties. Mom says it’ll probably be in the seventies at their place. So, cooler there, with a lower AQI. Ours is 237 now. Purple. Very unhealthy to breathe. Penn Hills has an AQI of 16.

My dreams have summoned The Police and their frenetic ballad from 1983, Synchronicity I, to the morning mental music stream (McubedS, patent pending). My dreams didn’t come out wholly baked today. Only mutterings and glimpses in the fog remain. The strongest sensation was of dancing. I was going to a dance or dancing somewhere. Yes, something about a dance but what? No other elements would return.

The thinking sequence stirred me to recall “Synchronicity I” lines: A sleep trance, a dream dance, a shared romance, synhronicity. That became the day’s theme music for me.

Stay positive. Test negative. Wear a mask as needed. Get the vax if you haven’t already. Try to remain somewhat sane. I think it’s a spectrum myself. Fluctuating by the hour. Sanity, that is. Here’s the music. Cheers

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Friday’s Theme Music

TGIF. Though working on my own schedule for years, the thought that it’s Friday still gives me a mental boost. Energy jumps. So does happiness. Anticipation. Friday!

Today is September 3, 2021. We have a smoky one here in Ashland. Yep. The sun furtively stole in past the mountains and trees at 6:38 this morning. Temperatures continue the cool trend. Highs around here will be in upper seventies or low eighties. Then here comes sunset about 7:42 in the evening.

For something different on this different Friday (yes, but aren’t they all?), I went with “Icky Thump” by The White Stripes (2007). (I keep wanting to call it the Icky Shuffle cuz of football. You either understand or you don’t.) Another of those songs where I listened because my ears were asking, “Wait, what is he singing?” Plus, I liked the beat and Jack’s gi-tar. Part of the song marks American immigration policies and white’s attitudes. “We’re here, this is our land,” denying others entrance when, after all, we’re not the originals who were here. We came in, killed and destroyed, driving out the people who were here. That’s the past, people say, trying to turn their heads away. Uh-huh.

Stay positive, test negative, wear a mask as needed, and get the vax. Here’s the music. Good day. La la la la la la la

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Thursday’s Theme Music

September flourishes. Not. Yet, maybe. I feel like a pet chasing the little red dot as I pursue time and life. Damn if it isn’t quite elusive.

Today is Thursday, September 2, 2021. Sunshine began its warming, illuminating trend, red, gold, and orange through thin gray smoke, at 6:37 AM. The sun’s flight away, if like yesterday, will be a dirty peach at around 7:43 PM. The cooling trend given us by the seasons changing continues. High yesterday was only seventy-nine in my niche of existence. Today should be just 80 F. The cooler weather brings the cats in. That pleases me. I don’t like them being in the smoke. They have their own minds about where they go and what they do, though. They know how to floofnipulate me.

I’m reading of a number of disasters this morning. Flooding. Ida. New abortion law in Texas. SCOTUS ruling on it. Caldor Fire. Other wildfires. Smoke pollution. Tornados. COVID-19 deaths. Just the U.S. news so far. Well, it includes accusations about Afghanistan. Yes, we’re leaving a screwed up country after twenty years of war, many lives, and a huge chunk of money. Somehow, though, that becomes Biden’s fault. I mean, he has been in office for almost eight months. Eight months out of two hundred and forty, give or take. Yes, I see the reasoning.

Anyway, I end up with “Wasteland” by 10 Years (2005) in my morning mental music streaming. It’s a song about intentions. Inspired by someone dealing with drug addiction. We could easily make the case that the U.S. — even the world — is dealing with addiction. Addictions to greed. Money. Power. War. Addictions twist and malign intentions. Inculcate bad habits, policies, and practices. Bad results follow.

Stay positive. Test negative. Wear a mask. Get the vax. Unless your addictions to death, suffering, and hatred stop you. Here’s the music. Gonna go get some coffee. Don’t call it an addiction, though. Just a friendly relationship. Cheers

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Wednesday’s Theme Music

Adieu to August. Hello, September! So many September songs dive straight into the mental music stream. Amazing.

Yes, this is September 1, 2021. 9/1/21. Wednesday. Hump Day. Some interesting holidays are observed on this date.

  • Building and Code Staff Appreciation Day 
  • Chicken Boy Day 
  • Emma M. Nutt Day 
  • Ginger Cat Appreciation Day 
  • Global Talent Acquisition Day – September 1, 2021 (First Wednesday in September)
  • National Cherry Popover Day 
  • National No Rhyme Nor Reason Day 
  • National Tofu Day (UK) 
  • Pink Cadillac Day 
  • Save Japan’s Dolphins Day 
  • Toy Tips Executive Toy Test Day 
  • World Letter Writing Day 

Each one has a story. Like Chicken Boy Day. How did that get started? Ginger Cat Appreciation Day. I do have a ginger cat. Papi, aka Meep, aka Youngblood and the Ginger Blade. I will show him my appreciation. It’s not a choice. He demands it. I willingly surrender.

Sunrise overtook us at 6:36 AM. Sun fade will be at 7:43 PM. Our smoke is back and blah, blah, blah, it sucks. High temperatures will be in the low 80s so a cooler day again, if only we had the air to go out and safely breathe.

The musical mental stream kicked things off this morning with Doris Day singing “Sentimental Journey”. Listened to Bob Dylan’s cover of it. It’s just too mellow for me this September AM, ya know? I wanted something head thrashing. My mind responded with, stop wasting my time. Words which naturally flowed into the song by Default, “Wasting My Time” (2001). No, not head thrashing, but it’ll do. (Did anyone else channel a little of Babe there, and say, “That’ll do, pig. That’ll do.”? No? Hmmm.)

Stay positive. Test negative. Wear a mask as needed, like when it’s smoky as hell or you’re in contact with others outside of your house, like in a store. Get the vax. And be safe. Here’s the music. I’m gonna go get more coffee. Cheers

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Monday’s Theme Music

The changing season was seen in today’s sunrise at 6:34 AM. The light angled in a different angle. Struck another part of the wall. Was strong and fresh — we’re relatively smoke-free this morning, again, knock on wood — and warm but not hot. A low moved in overnight, dropping temperatures. Today’s high will be in the seventies before the sun bows out at 7:48 PM. Last night’s low was in the upper fifties. The cooler, fresher air is as welcomed as returning heroes.

Today is Monday, August 30, 2021. A dream about a musician friend is on my mind. He played with Janis so a Janis song is in order. He didn’t play on this song, though. Today’s choice is “Mercedes Benz” from 1970, the last song she recorded.

Stay positive. Test negative. Wear a mask as needed. Get the vax. Here’s the music. Cheers

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