Going-out day was coming up. Just twelve days until they would toddle out to re-discover the world.
He thought, what should I do about my beard? He played with it during the thirteen months, twice shaving it off to begin again. No matter. It wasn’t the beard that dissatisfied him but the foundation underneath it. The sagging on display. As for his hair…oh.
She brought out her clothes. Examination of style and fit was conducted. Her shoes followed. She thought about what to do with her hair. A lot could happen to hair in thirteen months.
They made tentative plans. Cautious. Visits to new old places were broached. Small dreams of where they could go and what to do were nurtured. They would still wear masks. Of course. Wash hands. Avoid contact. Socialize outside.
She marked her calendar. Hairdresser. Dentist, hard times in cautious ink on the calendar, the first mark on its fresh pages. He planned a day in his mind. Beer with friends. He’d not seen them in thirteen months, except one of them. Two who were there before would not be there.
A lot of life happened in thirteen months. It was a heavy weight.
I dreamed I was playing war games. Not the kind where troops are loaded into aircraft and dropped somewhere while aircraft fly sorties and ships maneuver, such as the ones I did as an adult in the military. No, this was the board games type where famous battles are played out to see how you fare compare to the real deal, on boards pre-home computers. I used to play these all the time. I’d started with Battleship, progressed to Risk, Axis & Allies, and then got into more complex games. I’d even gone so far as to invent my own.
In this dream, I was a teenager. Like a movie, I was watching me. Walking around outside, I found small hills shaped like mountains and forests that rose to my thighs. Pieces about two feet tall were all around. Each was shaped as a tank to represent armor units, infantry, jets, destroyers, aircraft carriers, submarines, etc.
I realized I was on a huge board game. I wasn’t sure if I was a player, so I walked around, regarding the different pieces. They were very cool to me. The first pieces encountered were of WW II in Europe and north Africa, I discovered pieces from the American Civil War in one section, then found the Napoleonic Wars.
Someone told me it was my turn. I asked questions about what was going on, like, which side am I on, and what I was supposed to be doing. As the other explained it, I realized it was my father as he was when I was young. I was just grappling with pieces to make my first move when the dream ended.
Awakening, I chuckled about the war the subconscious neurons like to play as they engage in their own games.
Hey, today is supercalifragilisticexpialidocious Sunday. It is also April 11, 2021. The sun came creeping into the windows in Ashland about 6:37 AM this morning and is expected to creep away at 7:48 PM.
With regards to the temperature, the sky cleared last night, which meant it grew cold. Temperatures clipped the lower thirties. Robust sunshine has already pushed us up to 45 F. We expect to bounce off the high sixties before the temperatures sink again. The cats are loving it. Each has gone out and found sunshine, sitting there like worshippers with their face to the sun. You can almost hear them purring, “Ahhhhh.”
Got my COVID-19 vaccination yesterday. Did the ‘one-shot’ J&J option, because that’s what was available. No ill-effects were felt yesterday. Feel fantastic today.
Song-wise, we’re looking at “Gonna Fly Now” by DeEtta West and Nelson Pigford from 1977. My wife drove this choice. “This site says that the number one song on your twenty-first birthday will tell you how your 2021 will go.” “Gonna Fly Now”, from the film, Rocky (1976). Here are the lyrics:
Trying hard now It’s so hard now Trying hard now
Getting strong now Won’t be long now Getting strong now
Gonna fly now Flying high now Gonna fly, fly, fly
h/t to Genius.com
I recall visiting Mom and my little sisters (just entering their teens) while on leave from the military in 1977. (I’d been in the Philippines on duty on an unaccompanied tour but returned home when my little brother was killed in a car crash.) The littlest sister (now a mother of two teenage boys herself) told me that this was her favorite song. Anyway, it’s become hooked in my head today. I must put it on the net to set it free from my mind (or free my mind from it…).
The wife’s song was “Shadow Dancing” by Andy Gibbs. She’s a year younger than me.
Stay positive, test negative, wear a mask, and get a vax. Hope you fly. Cheers
Today is Saturday, the tenth of April, 2021. Weatherwise, clouds have rolled in with ominous harbingers of rain. Their presence has kept us cool. Sunshine spilled into our southern Oregon valley at 6:39 AM, bringing a token of warmth. We’re up to 55 F now, and think, maybe ten degrees more will be achieved, before the sun retreats at 7:47 PM.
The post is a later than usual as we were out getting the COVID-19 vaccination. That’s done.
To the music! Today’s offering is cat-influenced, or as animals say, infloofuenced. (They — my cats — always insist that the word, ‘influence’, was originally, ‘infloofuence’. I point out that there’s no history supporting their claim. They smirk back. “We’re older than words, boy.”) Youngblood (aka Papi, Meep, and the Ginger Blade) loves going out throughout the dark hours. He loves coming back in during those times, as well, and then going back out again. He’s developed his knocking patter, coming to the bedroom slider for entrance and exit. Although socks are sometimes tossed his way to stop him, he’s a persistence boogerfloof. So I let him in and out, in and out.
Well, that in and out thinking dredged up a 1975 song by The Who out of the memory mines. “Squeeze Box” was an international hit for the group. The lyrics are all about an accordion, which is also known as a squeeze box.
Hey, it’s Righty Friday, April 9, 2021. Daybreak came at 6:40 AM as Ashland rotated around to Sol’s embrace once again. Night is expected after the rotation turns us away from Sol at 7:45 PM. Between those hours, we expect the sun to take our temperatures into the upper sixties under azure skies. We’ve made it to 43 F so far.
I’ve been living with Righty Friday for several years. A right hander, I’ve always enjoyed reverse days when I attempt to use my left hand as my dominate. Part of that is flipping the order of donning my pants. I put my pants on my left leg first by habit. The difficulty I had putting it on my right leg first amazed me. By then I was in my late fifties. My recurring practices had shaped my muscles, bones, and coordination. Thereafter, I designated each Friday as a Righty Friday, when I would put my underwear and pants on my right leg first. Although it’s called Righty Friday, I alternate left and right throughout the week. So, Saturday, Monday, and Wednesday, I put my pants on in the correct order, left leg first. It’s reversed on the remaining days.
Today’s music is by Chaka Khan. Prince wrote and recorded “I Feel for You”, but I’m intimate with the Melle Mel and Stevie Wonder infused version. Released in 1984, it reached number one on several U.S. charts, and made the top ten on music charts around the world. We were well familiar with the music video. I was stationed on Okinawa, Japan. We had limited music videos, and this one was played ALL THE TIME. Melle Mel’s rapping always amazed me and my friends. We’d try to keep up with him. Impossible. The effort reduced us to blithering, laughing idiots.
It’s a memory, prompted as I think about visiting with friends as we cautiously begin re-opening in southern Oregon. Stay positive, test negative, wear a mask, and get the vax. Cheers
Greetings from Ashland, ladies and gentlemen, floofs, and the rest. The day is Thursday and the date is April 8, 2021. Our sun broke sky at 6:42 AM. The sun will exit sky west at 7:44 PM. That’ll give us a pretty solid thirteen hours of sunshine, brothers and sisters! Current temp has us at 42. A high in the upper sixties to low seventies is looked for but not counted upon.
I awoke with “I Can Dream, Can’t I?” by the Andrews Sisters (1949) roaming the streets of my mind. Yes, dream magic invoked that song, for sure. Thinking of it (1949, when I was born in 1956?), I wondered how I’d come to know it. I suspect Mom’s influence with her stereo. That’s the easy response but I recall seeing them sing it in black and white, so I pivot to seeing them on a television show or a movie.
Can’t I adore you? Although we are oceans apart I can’t make you open your heart But I can dream, can’t I?
It was later covered by others, like The Carpenters, and Annie Lennox, but I enjoy the sisters’ powerful vocals and harmonizing.
Another song, “Hanky Panky” by Tommy James and the Shondells (1966) quickly overtook the Andrew Sisters offering. I can’t trace its lineage in my mind today. As far as learning the song, that would probably be my older sister’s influence. She was one of those forty-fivers, spinning little vinyl discs on her portable record player. Or I learned it via AM radio in the car, or on television from shows like “American Bandstand”. Do not know.
Anyway, that’s today’s music choice. Here’s an interesting video of it. Stay positive, test negative, wear a mask, and get the vax. Time for coffee. Cheers
Good morning. It’s Wednesday, April 7, 2021. Already into the fourth month. Just eight months to go in 2021, if you’re doing time.
Haven’t had my coffee yet. Thoughts remain low and slow. Something about sunrise at 6:44 and sunset at 7:43. Be over thirteen hours of sunshine today. Temp is 52 F. We expect to kick into the seventies.
“Thank U” by Alanis Morissette outta 1998. I find it an introspective song, fitting today’s introspective moodiness. Edged with a tinture of restlessness, there’s a sense that I’d like to break out of my daily mold. First, though, I must have my daily coffee…
Stay positive, test negative, wear a mask, and get the vax. Cheers
Welcome back to another edition of Tuesday. Today is April 6, 2021. It’s coolish today, 42 degrees F, with mild threats of rain showers. Spring is enveloping our valley with blossoms, buds, and blooms. Tulips, daffodils, and star asters are abundant, setting senses aflame with their sweet fragrance and bold beauty. Ms Sun appeared at 6:45 AM in Ashland. She expects to spend the day with us before jetting out of sight at 7:42 PM. During that period, it’s anticipated that we’ll get warmer.
We’re scheduled for the J&J one-dose COVID-19 vaccination this weekend. Oregon had shifted eligibility. The lowered bar now includes us, folks in our lower sixties without children and minor health issues. Other states are including everyone over eighteen, so PROGRESS!
Dad remains in the hospital, experiencing edema. He and his wife were vaccinated against COVID-19 months ago. They’re not certain what’s causing the edema. He’s now been in there two weeks as they address built up fluid in his legs. Eighty-nine this year, he’s been medicating for COPD for years (after being a Lucky Strikes smoker (LSMFT), pipe smoker, and cigar smoker), along with minor kidney matters. He’s usually a good hospital patient, he tells me (and his wife agrees), but this visit has him on a low sodium diet. The limited food choice is making him cranky.
I woke up singing “In A Big Country” by Big Country this morning. Not infrequently, sunshine and sprawling green vistas summon this 1983 song to emerge from the deep memory well into consciousness.
Been writing like crazy every day. I’m closing on the end of the first draft of the novel-in-progress. I’m one who modifies and edits as I progress, tidying pacing and story, clarifying details, and sharpening focus as I go. I’ve also been reading a great deal, two to three books a week. Last week was Transcriptions (Kate Atkinson), Echo Burning (Lee Child), and Under a Midnight Sun (Keigo Higashino). This week, it’s The Night Watchman (Louise Erdrich), Circe (Madeline Miller), and The Sentinel (Lee Child with Andrew Child).
Still keeping up with my walking, too (knock on wood), achieving at least twelve miles per day, averaging 12.3 miles per day for the last six months. It’s a lot easier with the long days of sunshine and comfortable weather.
Stay positive, test negative, wear a mask, and get the vax. Got my coffee. Gonna go write like crazy, at least one more time.
Salutations from the third rock from the sun. Today, we mark Monday, April 5, 2021 on the calendar. Here in Ashland, Sol presented at 6:47 AM and is expected to vacate the area at 7:41 PM. Temperatures are cooler today, just 47 degrees F right now, with supposed highs in the mid-sixties. Rain showers are likely.
Had half a cuppa coffee already. Taste buds are singing praises about the flavor and the caffeine is bubbling in my blood. Musically, me mind is mired in 1979 this AM, with Rainbow’s cover of “Since You’ve Been Gone” dominating the neurons. I think this has to do with a dream medley that I experienced that left me thinking about people I socialized with in different locations who I no longer see. Some have died, but with others, different paths were taken and gap emerged that keep us away from one another.
Stay positive, test negative, wear a mask, and get the vax. Cheers
Hello, good morning, good afternoon, good day, and good night.
Today is Easter Sunday, April 4, 2021, the ninety-fourth day of the year. Sol stepped up at 6:49 AM in Ashland. We expect her to do a fade at 7:40 PM. The hours in between those times are expected to be brimming with sunshine that warms us to the seventy degree F mark. We’re at 54 now, but it doesn’t feel that warm as a cold mountain breeze with a wintry grudge scraps the edge off the sun’s heat.
Today’s music choice is an old Spinners song with Dionne Warwick. “Then Came You” was released in 1974 (hey, my high school senior year) and reached number one. Infused with a little disco vibe into its R&B structure, it stayed popular in dance clubs for several years. As to clues about why it’s in my head this morning…there are none. The little neurons responsible for orchestrating recollection of this tune are staying incognito.
Stay positive, test negative, wear a mask, and get the vax. Cheers, all.
Michael Seidel, writer 