Category: memories

Saturday’s Theme Music

Saturday falls on us like a time-released drug. So much to do! Or not to do. Depends on your point of view. I speak of Saturday but for some, Saturday comes on a Wednesday. That’s how their work or school week flows.

Today is October 2, 2021. October 4, 1974 is when I enlisted in the USAF, so back on October 2, 1974, I was readying myself to leave. First airplane flight; until then, it’d been buses or cars. Now here was the big jet, carrying me across the country to Texas. My girlfriend, who became my wife a year later, was more nervous than me. I was just going away. My childhood would officially end. Eighteen years old, a few months removed from high school graduation, I was ready.

Sunrise today was at 7:09 AM. Sunset will arrive at 6:51 PM. Temperatures again, cool this morning, 50 F, will rise into the seventies. The world keeps on turning.

With that, I go to the mental music stream, where Fleetwood Mac is performing “World Turning” from 1975. I heard it when I was on leave, readying myself to go on my first overseas tour, fifteen months without my wife. We’ve done a lot together since then. Have had many disagreements. Separated with plans to end it. But here we are, still together. World keeps turning. Shit happens but the world keeps turning. Probably sums up my general approach to existence.

I like this live recording (love that paradox of modern terminology) of the song. Had not heard this version before now. It works.

Stay positive, test negative, wear a mask, and get the vax and boosters. Also get coffee. That’s where I’m going. Peace out.

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Friday’s Theme Music

Someone used a palette knife to spread white from horizon to horizon over our heads. A few dabs and streaks of black and dark blue were blended in to prompt wonder, will it rain?

It’s Friday, October 1, 2021. Time to turn the page on your calendar. Hold on while I do mine.

It’s also World Smile Day. Let’s give them something to smile about. Sunrise shuffled in at 7:08 AM. It’ll shuffle out as the world turns at about 6:53 PM. While here, warmth that’ll rise all the way to 76 F will be experienced. For now, it’s 56. Air is clear, though, with an AQI of…1. Huzzah!

With all this talk of smiling on the net — did you know that today is World Smile Day? — the morning mental music stream is pulling in songs that feature smiles and smiling as part of its lyrics. After a bit, I thought “Cult of Personality” (1988) fits the need. After all, we’re still suffering in the shadow of a cult of personality here in ‘Murica, where an ex-POTUS’s lies and general BS continues to pollute the political realm and freeze meaningful movement in multiple areas. I posted this Living Colour song back in 2017 as the theme song. I highlighted these lyrics from the song back then:

I sell the things you need to be
I’m the smiling face on your TV
I’m the cult of personality
I exploit you, still you love me
I tell you one and one makes three

They still fit.

Stay positive. Test negative, wear a mask as needed, and get the vax and boosters. Here’s the music. Enjoy your day. Smile.

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Thursday’s Theme Music

It’s a soft Thursday morning, here in Ashland, Oregon. Blue skies hug the low mountains of changing colors. Cool air — 48 F — hugs our bodies. We expect it to reach the upper seventies today. Looking forward to it.

It’s September 30, 2021. I go through the old rhyme, “Thirty days has September,” confirming, this is the final September day, turning to look at the calendar in confirmation. Yes, September’s last day. It’s hectic in some places: the quarter’s last day. The last day of FY2021 in some realms. Spend the money, get the orders, book ’em, Dano, because the books are going to close. Such an artificial construct, but a critical element of book-keeping, accounting, sales, taxes, and profits and losses.

Sunrise was later yet, an effect felt in the house. Sunrise didn’t arrive until 7:07 AM. Lights were required for activities in different rooms, a dispiriting acknowledgement that the hours of daylight are drawing down. It’s my preference to get up to bright morning sun, like the sun we get in the summer mornings. But I like the fall’s ambiance and temperatures. Its occasional rain. It’s a friendlier season than summer, who can become quite brutal. Sunset will be at 6:54 PM. Too early for my taste, but wait: it’ll be earlier yet tomorrow, and so on, until we ‘fall back’ with our clocks. That takes place November 7 in the U.S. this year.

Today’s theme song arose from reading. I read a NY Times article yesterday evening ‘When the Times Book Review Panned the Classics’. What other doesn’t like reading how critics trashed great books and novelists? One of the books trashed was Tender is the Night by F. Scott Fitzgerald. That’s also the title of a 1983 Jackson Browne song from an album I enjoyed, Lawyers in Love. My ever waiting mental music stream jumped onto the connection and played it in my head. I thought I’d played it for you.

Stay positive, test negative, wear a mask as needed, and vax, if your body can handle it. Some people’s underlying conditions won’t react well to the COVID-19 vaccine. Do it if you can.

Here’s the music. Enjoy.

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Wednesday’s Theme Music

Hello, all you hep cats. Today is Wednesday, September 29, 2021. A sluggish sunrise sifted apricot hues over the valley at 7:06 AM. Sunset will be at 6:56 PM. Clear skies triumph. Temperatures sank to 42 F overnight but have climbed into the fifties at this point. We expect a high of seventy or higher today.

On a side note, wouldn’t it be amusing and chaotic if the cultural climate, politics, and technology reflected the temperature? Thinking of the US, of course. That’s what I know. With the temperature in the 50s, I look out to see 1950 Chevies, Cadillacs, and Fords go by. People are dressed for the year. The net has gone down because it doesn’t exist. Neither does this computer. In fact, it won’t reach a temperature for me to have a laptop at hand. We’d reach the seventies today. Bellbottoms would abound.

I have a friend who uses the expression Hell’s bells quite often. This amuses me. I’d heard the expression often as a child by older adults, like Grandpa Paul. So I associate the expression to them. The friend who employs it isn’t as old as Grandpa — he would have been 130 years old at this point — and is only fifteen years older than me. But fifteen years older makes him eighty! You have to laugh at it, right? Anyway, in the context of thinking of him, I began using Hell’s bells to curse at some point of the day when something happened. Naturally, my mental music stream picked up on it and replied, “Playing ‘Hell’s Bells’ by AC/DC.” So now I have the song stuck in the stream. To be sure, it’s actually only the opening that’s stuck: my mind keep replying the song until the first chorus of “Hell’s bells” is sung. Then it starts again. Yes, I’m in a broken mental music stream loop. I keep hitting myself, hoping to jar it into normalcy. Ain’t working.

Stay positive, test negative, wear a mask as needed, and get vaccines and boosters. Here’s the song. Check out the video and how young AC/DC members look. Reflect on your own life and youth. Enjoy. Cheers

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Monday’s Theme Music

Greetings from Mars. Ha, just kidding. Still on Earth, so far as I know. This might be a Matrix situation though. Or I could be part of a Sims existence. I will always think I know, even if I don’t.

Today is Monday, September 27, 2021. It lightly rained this morning. Made for a glorious burst of dawn apricots and gold between clouds at 7:03 AM. Sunset is less than twelve hours away: 1901. We’ve passed the tipping point. The night will gain time over the daylight until we reach that next stage, the longest night, in December.

Till then, party! Well, no. Just live. If that includes party, well, that’s often good. Today’s temperatures will flutter from their current level, about 60 F, to about 68, maybe 69. Maybe 70. Brooding clouds are suggesting, “Ain’t gonna happen.” And the sun is saying, “Fuck it, I’m chillin’ today.”

Cat moment inspired today’s music. (Why, that’s never happened before, hasit?) In bed this AM. Had just returned from feeding several beasties. Wasn’t ready to rise and shine. Wasn’t even ready to just rise. As I was sinking back into slumberland, Tucker wandered up with a purr offer. He then tucked his paw under my nose, brought his nose up close, and stared at me in the face. “Hello,” I said. His purr went hyper. From that, “Hello, I Love You” by the Doors (1968) crashed into the Monday morning mental music stream.

Stay positive, test negative, wear a mask as needed, get the vax and boosters as needed, and live a good life. Here’s the music. Ima getting coffee. Cheers

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Saturday’s Theme Music

Welcome to the land of Nod, where it’s Saturday, September 25, 2021, where sleep was precious last night. A friend is having her house’s floors redone so we put her up for a few nights. Well. Certain feline household members were wound up by this, you know. Insisted on talking about it, especially when a door was closed. “What’s going on behind that closed door?” they wondered. “I’ve never seen a closed door before. I must get in and learn what’s on the other side.” On and on through the night. Woof.

Can you believe that it’s the last Saturday of the month? Yes, already. And the first Saturday of autumn if you live to the equator’s north. First spring Saturday to the south. First Fall Saturday should be a holiday, I think. Let’s make it one.

Sunshine folded in on us at 7:01 AM. Sunset will be at 7:03 in our valley. Almost to the tipping point, hey? The night temperature bottomed out at 60 F. Yesterday we saw 87. It was a fascinating rise. Rose 18 degrees in less than an hour as a warm wind swept the region. A high of about the same is expected today.

Memory inspired today’s mental music stream. I was walking a few years back and witnessed a murmuration over a cemetery. Might have been one; I don’t know if they were starlings. But there was a large flock conducting organized, high-precision flights, turning one way and then another in a fascinating display. Much noise with it. I recalled the scene this morning while checking out the AM landscape. Birds were busy birding and socializing. Coldplay’s 2005 song, “Speed of Sound” came into mind play.

All that noise, and all that sound
All those places I got found
And birds go flying at the speed of sound
To show you how it all began
Birds came flying from the underground
If you could see it then you’d understand

h/t to Genius.com

Stay positive, test negy, wear a mask as needed, get the vax when possible, do all the right things so we can get through this and put our feet back onto a more normal setting. Meanwhile, I’ll get a cuppa coffee and pass it around. Here’s the music. Cheers

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Thursday’s Theme Music

Fanfare: today is Thursday, September 23, 2021. Why the fanfare? Why not? This day and date is rarely afforded fanfare. Might be birthdays for some, wedding anniversary, etc. But for most, it’s just another day sneaking by, bold as daylight, little counted. Not the end of a quarter. Nor the start of a season. Just a part of the year going on. I think it deserves a little fanfare, a little recognition for being another average, ordinary day in existence.

Sunrise on this ordinary day of ordinary grace came at 6:59 AM. Sunset will be at 7:07 PM. Almost to that moment of balance between night and day. Temperatures were unexpectedly cooler yesterday. High of just 80 F. Felt weirdly warm in the house. Today’s weather is delivered more of the same.

Went and had beers with friends last night. Outside at a local brewery. Well situated away from others. Six of us. We’ve done this off and on through the last three months, smoke allowing. All of us are vaccinated. One’s wife has already received a booster. Works with the homeless. The servers are all masked.

We were there to enjoy the fresh air and some local brews. Three days in a row without smoke, everyone told one another, friend to friend, server to patrons, patrons to server. Isn’t it great? God, how it must suck to live in a devastated area. To have lost your home. Maybe animals. Possessions. We count ourselves fortunate but already begin looking toward next year. For the record, I drank Caldera Brewing Amber Ale. I don’t hesitate to recommend that tasty beverage.

I mentioned to the others that it’s been a long time since I rock and rolled. Was joshing, you know? No one recognized the line. Or said anything about it, at least. Not even a blink. But of course, it’s out of Led Zeppelin’s 1972 song, “Rock and Roll”. A fast-paced ditty that I thoroughly enjoy. Natch, overhearing me think of it, the mental switches turned it on in the morning mental music stream. Good song to have there. I will share it with you and thank the Gods of Rock for delivering it to us.

Although I enjoy the original studio song, I went with this recording of a live performance. I wanted to pause, consider the group and stage setting. Such simplicity. So small. Intimate. No monster screen televisions giving close ups to people five hundred feet away. No smoke. Lasers. Just the performers, stage, and crowd. Simpler time, then, yet, so much more complicated and different than the ten years before it. So it goes in the mirrors of life.

Stay positive, test negative, wear a mask as needed, and get the vax. Here’s the tune. Rock on, brothers and sisters. Rock on.

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Wednesday’s Theme Music

Greetings from Terra.

Today is Wednesday, September 22, 2021. Fall is fully on us in my planetary niche. The sun poured liquid gold into the valley this morning at 6:58 AM. Sunset won’t come until 7:10 PM so we’re not really at equinox, yet. Not at that point when the daylight and night stand as equal. The pincers are closing, though. It’ll come soon.

Our air quality is still Good, but on the scale’s upper end of that part of the spectrum, ranging from the low twenties to the mid forties, with two places edging over fifty and into the yellow zone – Moderate. The region’s rains definitely helped the wildfire battles in Oregon and Nor Cal. It’s a relief that the rain came.

Temperature yesterday topped 90 F. Expect the same today. It’s easily endured with fresh air and temperatures cooling into the fifties at night. Yesterday also saw a windy morning. Drove the three house beasts inside. These cats are not fans of wind.

Which brought to mind a Gerry Rafferty song from the last century, circa 1978. As I surveyed the cats in their sleeping positions on living room chairs, I thought, look at them, sleeping right down the line. Naturally, my brain, acting like Alexa, said, “Playing Gerry Rafferty, ‘Right Down the Line'”. So it was the song entered the music stream and remains in the morning mental music stream. I don’t mind; the song refreshes memory from that year in my life — getting out of the military, going to college, owning a restaurant, working a second job, returning to the military — quite a year.

Stay positive, test negative, wear a mask as needed, get the vax, drink plenty of fluids and get some rest. Here’s the music. I’m off for coffee. Cheers

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Tuesday’s Theme Music

Wonderful fall day here today. Harvest moon last night. Clear sky to view it. Enjoying it all.

The weather systems have delivered gusting winds, clear skies, and a sweet balminess to Tuesday’s air. Today is September 21, 2021. We have reached autumn. Survived the year, mostly thanks to many others. Service people, yes, but I also owe some thanks to politicians, newspaper writers, novelists, librarians, farmers, police officers, firefighters, doctors, nurses, teachers, family, friends, beer brewers, bakers, chefs, truck drivers, pilots, transportation specialists, television engineers, producers, and personalities. It’s a long list of those keeping us safe and fed, managing our water, delivering things, and distracting, entertaining, and educating.

Today’s sunrise was at 6:57 AM in the valley. Sunset will come at 7:10 PM. Air quality is a delightful 4. Our high temperature today will be in the mid to upper eighties. Think 87 F. Current temperature is 73.

After another bevy of bodacious dreams, I find a 1978 Al Stewart song called “Time Passages” populating the morning mental music stream. These lyrics (with accompanying instruments) were on loop:

I felt the beat of my mind go
Drifting into time passages
Years go falling in the fading light
Time passages
Buy me a ticket on the last train home tonight

h/t to Songfacts.com

Can you go home again? I’ve gone ‘home’ to why Mom and Dad each separately live with their new partners, so I’m thinking, no. Not physically. In many ways, going home is a brief spiritual journey of nostalgia about what was when. In that sense, yes, going home is often a mind trip away. Going home to either of those places — where Dad/Mom live — highlights the changes between now and back then. Mom and Dad left each other and then I left them and roamed the world. Didn’t see enough, to be sure, but I came to grasp that home is a state of mind.

Stay positive, test negative, wear a mask as needed, and get the vax. Here’s the music, a mellow folk rock offering for a mellow day. Enjoy. Cheers

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Monday’s Theme Music

We’re sitting under a robin’s egg this morning. That’s how blue and clear the sky is today. The smoke has cleared for now. Warnings that it’s returning. But now, air quality is hovering around 11. Good air. You can see it. You can breathe it.

Today is September 20, 2021, a Monday. Ten more September days remain. Then we slide into the final quarter of 2021. Cool this morning. 42 F. The furnace kicked on as the sun crested the mountains at 6:56 AM. With this lovely air, we expect highs in the mid to upper seventies. A good day to get outside.

As it’s Monday morning, a Monday song called “Monday Morning” from 1975 has permeated the Monday morning mental music stream. At least it’s not a manic Monday. That would then be a manic Monday morning mental music stream. Anyway, the song came about just because it is Monday. Lindsey Buckingham wrote the short and straightforward Fleetwood Mac song. My awareness of it came about through a female friend. She was a big Lindsey Buckingham fan, always talking about how willing she was to bear his children. She and I served together at Clark Air Base in the Philippines. Wonder if she ever met him?

Stay positive, test negative, wear a mask as needed, and get the vax. Coffee is ready. Breakfast is served. Here’s the music. Cheers

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