Category: memories

Friday’s Theme Music

Welcome to Friday, March 19, 2021. The shiny sky thingy popped over the horizon at 7:16 AM this morning and will do the setting thing at 7:22 PM. The shining sky master has been drenching us in sunshine since its arrival this AM, but a few high clouds have drifted in like they’re going to put a stop to that. We’ll see. The numbers on the wall claim it’s 37 degrees F but it feels warmer. Maybe it’s the sun effect prompting me to think it’s warmer than truth.

Today’s music is a disco throwback. Released in 1977 by Yvonne Elliman, “If I Can’t Have You” was strong on the charts in the U.S., France, Belgium, Canada, and Australia. I admit, I had to look up the artist’s name. I knew the song thoroughly, but not the artist, which may be an indictment to how the music is often presented without the artist’s name being mentioned. The song was written by Barry Gibbs of Bee Gees fame. If you saw Saturday Night Fever, you heard the song.

Why this song today? Don’t know. It emerged as part of the dreamscape. Maybe I was in some romantic encounter in a dream forgotten except for the feeling and song. It’s stuck in my head, though, and I need to get it out.

Stay positive, test negative, wear a mask, and get the vax. Also, carpe diem, yeah?

Cheers

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Wednesday’s Theme Music

Happy Saint Patrick’s Day! Welcome to Wednesday, March 17, 2021, where we’re donning green clothing, eating green food, and drinking green beer somewhere. I am wearing a green shirt, a conscious decision to celebrate. ‘Bout all I’ll do in honor of the holiday.

The sun showed itself at 7:20 AM this morning and is expected to disappear for the night at 7:20 PM. Brighter, sunnier, and calmer today, we’ve already crept into the low forties, and we’re expected to hit the mid sixties. This kid will be going for an afternoon walk.

Thinking of Saint Patrick’s Day, I thought I’d go with an Irish rock band. Many of them have plumbed commercial and critical success and achieved international fame and fortune. But when I started thinking of this, I recalled Horslips singing “Trouble With A Capital T”. I know this song and band because when I was stationed in Japan in the early eighties, a co-worker was heavy into them and would sing this song to himself. Hearing him sing it, I asked what it was. I ended up in his dorm room having a beer listening to the Horslips, who he knew through an Irish cousin. He’d gone to stay with them in Ireland one year before joining the military and had seen the band live. After some struggle with memory about the band’s name and the song and some net searching, I found this video.

Stay positive, test negative, wear a mask, and get the vax. Here is Horslips with “Trouble With A Capital T”.

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Tuesday’s Theme Music

Buongiorno. We have arrived at Tuesday, March 16, 2016. The skyball came over the horizon at 7:21 AM and will hide beyond the horizon at 7:18 PM in Ashland, giving us a solid twelve of daylight. Times may vary where you live.

Winter continues its comeback campaign, with temperatures freezing us at 29 degrees F last night. While it’s 32 right now, we expect it to get up to 52 later on. Hope that’s a warmer 52 than than the 54 yesterday. Fronted by a stiff wind, fortified by a dour gray sky, that 54 would’ve put some frostbite on a brass monkey. Hope holds today because blue sky, sunshine, and optimism.

Van Halen’s 1983 song, “Jump”, commandeered the mental music stream this AM. Why for, don’t know; might be dream related, where anything goes. The song was released when I was still living and serving in Okinawa, Japan, with the U.S. Air Force. It entered our party rotation but suffered in comparison with the offerings from ZZ Top, Toto, Boston, Yes, etc., that our group preferred, music befitting three aging white men hanging on to their final pieces of youth.

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

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Sunday’s Theme Music

Hello. Well, we’ve done it, most of us in the U.S.A., at least, we’ve ‘sprung ahead’. Our clocks are set forward in accordance with whatever.

Today is March 13, 2021, a Sunday. Per Sunday requirements to relax if you can and eat if ya got it, cinnamon rolls with coffee were consumed. It’s 54 degrees F outside under a sky mocking the idea of ‘sunshine’ with large gray swaths. Rain veils are drawing closer but might yet swing away, tempted by some other valley spot. Sol popped up at 7:23 AM and the orb will drop beyond the horizon at 7:13 PM here in Ashland, Oregon.

A favorite walking song has infiltrated me today. The Who released “Baba O’Riley” in 1971. I was fifteen then. Having no wheels and an independent spirit, I walked or ran wherever I needed to go. I had biked but the bike was stolen. Finances didn’t stand up for a replacement. Walking was agreeable, and remains a favorite pastime. My wife doesn’t enjoy walking with me; she wants to stroll. I’m walking, damn it. Yes, there are times for strolling, such as when we’re shopping, but when you have a place to go, I’m all in.

The defiant beat and raucous sounds found in “Baba O’Riley” lends itself to my walking attitude. So, yesterday, up there on the street, looking across the valley at the fields, the song arrived in the mental music stream as a welcome companion. Thinking about it today, I discovered this interesting rendition of it. Hope you enjoy it as much as me. I enjoyed seeing my music heroes young and alive, into their music, one more time.

Test negative, stay positive, wear a mask when required, and get the vax. See you on the streets. Cheers

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Saturday’s Theme Music

Good morning. Welcome to the day after the previous day. Today is Saturday, March 13, 2013, which means it’s SATURDAY THE THIRTEENTH. That aside, Solup was at 6:26 AM in Ashland, and Soldown is expected at 6:15 PM. Then we’ll spring ahead in most parts of ‘Merica, losing an hour of sleep but putting soldown an hour later. I’ll welcome that, as I can take early evening walks.

Clear skies, cold nights and bright sunshine currently rules these parts. A cold 32 degrees was the low last night but it’s already mid-fifties now. Got to use this good turn of weather now because it will change next week. Of course, it’ll then change again the day after that.

Stone Temple Pilots, aka STP, provides the music in the stream today. “Trippin’ On A Hole In A Paper Heart” came out in July, 1996. I contemplated that a bit: that song is a few months short of being a quarter-century old. Now I’m trippin’ on how much time has slid since that song first broke the calm.

The song was in my stream for the lyrics, natch.

One more trip and I’ll be gone
So keep your head up, keep it on
Just a whisper, I’ll be gone
Take a breath and make it big

h/t to Genius.com

The lyrics came as I finished re-arranging the hairs on my head and gave myself a final look in the bathroom mirror before sliding out to brew the day’s first cup of coffee. So, why? Why that song today? It’s the frequent question, is it not? There’s no answer on this day.

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

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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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