Category: memories

Friday’s Theme Music

TGIF! Thank God It’s Friday! Am I right?

Not really. I was a shift worker for many years. Friday had no significance except for which office chores were required. The weekends were a better work period because fewer were around. It was a good time to read as we sat, standing by — hah! — waiting for something to happen. Well, that depended on the command, theater, mission, and crises du jour. Such was the life of an Air Force Command Post controller.

In later years, working for civilian companies in the SF Bay Area/Silicon Valley, Friday was like the starting gun for a race through the weekend, running errands, doing chores, shopping, and eating out. In those days, yeah, TGIF definitely had its place for a while.

Anyway…

Today is Friday, March 12, 2021. Sunup was at 6:28 AM and sundown is 6:14 PM in southern Oregon. Temperatures dropped into the upper twenties last night. The sun has staked a bold claim under the day. Encouraged by it, unencumbered by clouds, we’re at 42 degrees F now. We’re expecting a high in the upper sixties. That’s some lovely yard work and walking weather.

Seeing that sunshine after I tumbled out of bed called out a 1995 song. See, I felt good, so I started singing “Good” by Better Than Ezra. Although its foundation is a break up song — he comes home to learn she’s gone — it ends on thoughts of change and looking forward to what might be. So, I thought, yeah, let’s look forward to what might be, once this pandemic runs its course. Maybe we’ll meet on the fourth of July.

Stay positive, test negative, wear a mask when you’re asked, and get the vax. Cheers

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Thursday’s Theme Music

Happy Thursday! Time to celebrate. Coffee is on me.

Welcome to March 11, 2021. Temperatures didn’t slump much last night in my realm of Ashland, just 38 degrees F. We’ve rebounded to 47. The sun broke over the horizon at 6:30 AM and will drop below the horizon at 6:13 PM.

Today’s music is “Under My Thumb” by a little musical band known as the Rolling Stones. The song was released in 1966, which is to say, a few decades again. The memory well brought it up due to Jill’s comments that she has five obnoxious cats that she wouldn’t trade for a million pieces of gold. Reading it, I chuckled, “Sounds like they have you under their paws.” Lot of people who share floofxistence with animals have that feeling, that the animals with which they board are really the ones in charge. The animals can’t buy food or open cans, and have limited success opening doors and cupboards, but they give us looks, make noises, sing, bark, meow, and purr to us, and generally connive, con, seduce, and coerce until we’re doing everything to appease them.

Stay positive. Test negative. Wear a mask. Get the vax. Look how much progress we’ve made. Don’t screw up by getting complacent now.

Cheers

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Wednesday’s Theme Music

Hello! Welcome to another edition of ‘Wednesday’s Theme Music’. Today is March 10, 2021. Skyorb rise was at 6:32 AM. Skyorb set will be at 6:12 PM. After dipping to 32 degrees F during the night, the outside temperature has bounced up to 39 under a flat gray sky. Wet surfaces glisten and shine outside as pine and oak trees peer out of fog banks a few hundred yards up the mountain. Rain looks imminent.

Music today comes by way of writing efforts yesterday. After writing, I was out on a walk, thinking through where the story was and the paths it was following, formulating the tactics for picking up the paths and taking them forward. After a time of this, satisfied with my decisions and directions, ready to turn home because sunrise was a few minutes away and I was a mile from home, Van Halen’s “Finish What Ya Started” (1988) arrived in my mental music stream. I enjoy the riff that begins this song, and how the song builds off it.

Stay positive — you know the rest. After a year of the coronavirus pandemic, you should, lessen y’all been hiding under a rock or sumpten. I’ll say it all anyway: stay positive, test negative, wear a mask, and get the vax. Of course, once you get the vax, some of the guidance changes for you, so stay up to date, ‘kay? Be smart. Stay safe.

Cheers

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Tuesday’s Theme Music

I began by appropriating a Def Lepard melody, twisting lyrics to suit my purpose. “Pour some coffee for meee.” That sent the Wayback Machine rummaging through my head for today’s music.

Good morning. Today’s label is Tuesday, March 9, 2021. The thermometer says it 37 degrees F. The forecasters say, “Today will be cloudy with rain showers.” The high is expected to be 48 or thereabouts. Solclimb in Ashland was 6:33 AM. Soldrop is expectd at 6:10 PM.

Today’s theme music turned out to be Great White’s 1989 cover of “Once Bitten, Twice Shy”. It’s natural to be leery of something after it got you once. That’s true whether it’s an animal biting a human, a human hitting an animal, or a politician breaking their word (well, unless you’re a Trump supporter). It has less of a metal sound and more of a rock and roll/boogie-woogie sound. An entertaining song.

Stay positive, test negative, wear that mask and git that vac. We’re counting the days until we’re eligible. Here in Oregon, it’s expected somewhere around the end of April, beginning of May for our age group. My wife likes to joke with her older friends, “We’re still too young for the vaccination.” Says it’s probably the last time she’ll be able to claim she’s too young for anything, but then, she still doesn’t qualify for Medicare. Well, nor do I, but it’s coming.

Have a good one. Cheers

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Sunday’s Theme Music

This is it. The countdown has commenced. Next Sunday, March 14, 2021, the giant lever will be pulled, sending the US into Daylight Savings Time. If you’re paying attention, that means today is Sunday, March 7, 2021. Yes, today is the last Sunday that we’ll be able to enjoy normal daylight for several months, as we go into daylight pinching mode.

Other aspects of the day includes 6:37 AM Solclimb and a 6:08 PM Soldrop in Ashland, a forty degree F temperature which feels warmer than it sounds when you’re standing in it, and a wintry blend of thundering gray, spring blue, and feathered white sky.

Returning to the DST thinking for a moment, DST drives a lot of political discourse and political polarization in the U.S., IMO. I think that one time when they pulled the lever back to change time, they pulled it too hard and fast. Suddenly, we’d leaped decades into the past. Although they caught the issue before dawn, damage had been inflicted. People felt like it was back in the 1950s in the U.S. because it temporarily was. Confusion was stirred when the current time was resumed. I think this episode happened about five years ago. I don’t have any evidence, but now it’s on the net, so it must be true.

Today’s music is by Chicago. “Old Days” was released in 1975, and it’s about remembering the good old days. Of course, it’s a gentle reverie for them: 

Old days
Good times I remember
Fun days
Filled with ship of pleasure

Drive-in movies
Comic books and blue jeans
Howdy Doody
Baseball cards and birthdays

Take me back
To the world gone away
Memories
Seem like yesterday

Oh, old days
Good times I remember
Gold days
Days I'll always treasure

Funny faces
Full of love and laughter
Funny places
Summer nights and streetcars

Take me back
To the world gone away
Our good memories
Seem like yesterday
Old days

h/t to Lyrics.com

The song always strikes me as smooth jazz, pop-rock, brass-infused blend, but the lyrics are easy to recall. Stay positive, test negative, wear a mask, and get a vax. Have a good one. Cheers

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Saturday’s Theme Music

The cats, my wife, and I agree, it’s pretty outside today. Take spring greenery and sunshine. Splash some gray and white clouds against the sky. Load up a brush with snowy white and slather across the land. Result: a snowy and sunny late winter day. That’s despite a temperature floating around 37 degrees F.

It happened abruptly. I let Boo the Bedroom Panther out at 10 PM. I let him back in at 10:15. There wasn’t any snow in evidence at that time, your honor. Thirty minutes later, my wife announces she’s going to bed to read, and why is it so bright outside? Ah, snow.

Today is March 6, 2021, a Saturday. Solrise was at 6:38 AM. Soldrop will be at 6:07 PM in southern Oregon. For those of you who collect days, you know that this is a unique one. There will never be a day like this again. For some reason, that prompted the Wayback Machine to spooled up some Talking Heads.

Same as it ever was…
Same as it ever was…
Same as it ever was…
Look where my hand was
Time isn’t holding up
Time is an asterisk
Same as it ever was…

h/t to DavidByrne.com

Well, Jill D. contributed to this thinking with her post, The Rich Get Richer While The Poor … | Filosofa’s Word (jilldennison.com). “Once In A Lifetime”, circa 1981, will stick to yer ribs.

Remember, stay positive, test negative, wear a mask, and get the vax. Cheers

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Friday’s Theme Music

Bonjour! Well, we’ve done it again, survived another rotation as Sol rises above our horizon and dips again. To mark this progress, we refer to the new rotation as Friday, March 5, 2021. Today’s Sol rise was at 6:40 AM in southern Oregon. Sol dip is coming at 6:06 PM. Our outside temperature is 54 degrees F as Sol holds forth with influence. But, the winds of change, caused by two competing systems, have delivered a string of clouds to the horizon and whispers about impending rain.

The Wayback Machine remains fully functional and active, delivering a 1969 song by Simon & Garfunkel, “The Boxer”. Per usual processing for me, a particular lyric set hooked me like a trout, playing me until the song landed me.

Now the years are rolling by me
They are rockin’ evenly
I am older than I once was
And younger than I’ll be;

h/t to Genius.com

The even rock of the week, starting with Sunday, sliding back toward the next Saturday, capturing all the days in between, is what had me. Already Friday again. It’s rocking pretty quickly these days, but evenly.

Enjoy your day, stay positive, test negative, wear a mask, and get the vax. Cheers

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Thursday’s Theme Music

Good morning, and welcome to the third rock from the sun. It’s Thursday, March 4, 2021. (I think — or so says my computer, calendar, and Fitbit, but can they be trusted? They could be part of the fake news conspiracy.) Sunrise was 6:42 AM in southern Oregon, and the solar orb will ‘set’ at 6:04 PM. (But it doesn’t really go anywhere, does it?) The temperature is already 53 degrees F (or so science claims, if you can believe it) on its way to a prediction of 64. (But then, what do they know?)

The Wayback Machine was fully engaged this morning. I’m embarrassed to admit the song I was singing was being sung to a cat. I was barely awake. The cat, Tucker, was on the pillow beside me, peering at me as his Mack truck purr rumbled through my bones. He was doing a little kneading. So I sang *ahem* “Boogie on reggae kitty. What is wrong with you? Boogie on reggae kitty. What you tryin’ to do?”

The cat liked it.

The song, of course, is “Boogie On Reggae Woman” by Stevie Wonder (1973), a fusion of funk and jazz that was part of the music happening of the popular music/classic rock era. I love the sound that Stevie brings. It’s sad that we don’t hear boogie mentioned often these days. Used to be, “You want to go boogie?” Or someone would say something and you’d reply, “Boogie on.” Feel me?

Stay positive, test negative, wear a mask and get the vax.

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Wednesday’s Theme Music

Welcome back my friends, to the show that never ends. Today is Wednesday, March the third, 2021. The great ball of fire rose into our sky at 6:43 AM and will do its exit at 6:03 PM here in southern Oregon. Blue dominates the sky. Although the mercury is at 37 degrees F at this moment, yesterday it went to 63. We expect more of the same as we move through Fool’s Spring and creep back toward Late Winter, projected to hustle in next week.

An old David Bowie song needled its way out of the Wayback Machine into my mental stream this morning. “Fame” was a 1975 hit for Bowie. Bowie, Carlos Alomar, and John Lennon wrote it together. It was Bowie’s first number one hit in the U.S. I think “Fame” is an apt song for the current GOP in the U.S. as Trump sucks the life out of it. He doesn’t have a platform, just a crush of hate. If he weren’t wealthy and famous, he’d probably be locked up for his protection.

Fame (fame) makes a man take things over
Fame (fame) lets him lose hard to swallow
Fame (fame) puts you there where things are hollow
Fame (fame)
Fame not your brain it’s just the flame
That puts your change to keep you sane (sane)
Fame (fame)
Fame (fame) what you like is in the limo
Fame (fame) what you get is no tomorrow
Fame (fame) what you need you have to borrow
Fame (fame)
Fame nein it’s mine is just his line
To bind our time it drives you to crime (crime)
Fame (fame)

h/t to Metrolyrics.com

Yeah, with Trump, what you get is no tomorrow. The gods know he’s had to borrow…

Okay, beat that to death. Stay positive, test negative, wear a mask and get the vax.

Cheers

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Tuesday’s Theme Music

Greetings, earthlings. Take me to your coffee.

Today is Tuesday, March 2, 2021. Sunrise/sunset (which comes with its own song, if you think of it the right way) was/is at 6:45 AM and 6:02 PM here in southern Oregon. The current temperature is 35 degrees F. It’s already gone up five degrees in the hour and a half that I’ve been up. Surprised that it was that cold, TBH. Was forty-seven when I went to bed one-ish AM. But the big blinding eye in the sky is expected to take us to 65 today. Won’t knock that.

Weather and walking brings today’s song. While out yesterday, I contemplated the clouds and wondered if they were colluding to become something more than sun blockers. After that, my mind drifted to other things. I realized that I was humming a song. Dragging the melody out of the memory well put words to it.

But now they only block the sun
They rain and snow on everyone
So many things I would have done
But clouds got in my way

I’ve looked at clouds from both sides now
From up and down, and still somehow
It’s cloud illusions I recall
I really don’t know clouds at all *

Yeah, “Both Sides Now” by Joni Mitchell. I wasn’t channeling the Joni Mitchell version, though, but the Judy Collins cover from 1968. Some mellow, folksy music, which goes well with my morning caffeine brew.

Stay pos., test neg., wear a mask, and get the vax. See you on the other side, whatever that is.

*h/t to JoniMitchell.com

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