Category: memories

Saturday’s Theme Music

Sunshine’s golden dew slide down the heavens and dripped over the treetops and roofs at 5:34 AM. The cats began singing, “Morning has Broken”. Or they may have been threatening one another about violating their neutral zones. Hard to say with cats.

We mark today as Saturday, June 19, 2021. It’s the first officially declared Juneteenth as a holiday in the U.S., a day to remember when slaves were finally given the news that they were freed. Blacks have been celebrating this day far more often, but many remained ignorant about it, or downplayed the significance. I hope its recognition grows and it doesn’t become diluted with sales, as it happens to so many U.S. holidays and observances.

The sun’s electric slide is expected to end at 8:50 PM in our valley. Temperatures will hunt the lower nineties before the Earth turns away from the sun.

I was thinking of “Baker Street” by Gerry Rafferty last night (1978). I’d done a few miles of walking and was now massaging my toes. That brought on the song’s lyrics. “Light in your head and dead on your feet. Well, another crazy day. You’ll drink the night away, and forget about everything.” I won’t drink the night away. Probably will forget a few things. Mind like a sieve, this one.

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

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Friday’s Theme Music

Sunshine crept through the valley at 5:34 AM, illuminating crags and ravines, dips and hills, shadows growing in its wake. Summer, the area whispered. Not yet, the area replied.

Today is Friday, June 18, 2021. Our area temperatures will flirt with the nineties until the world’s rotation pulls sunset to us at 8:50 PM. The cooling will commence, bottoming in the mid-fifties. The planet will continue its rotation and we’ll do it all okay.

Well, the planet and sun will do its routines, as will the moon and clouds, winds and tides, waters, lands, and animals. Humans will go, “Oh, wait, what day is this? Have I paid this bill? It’s so-and-so’s birthday. Did you see the news? How ’bout that funny new video. Did you hear what Allen Carson Letterman Leno Arsenio Stewart Conan said about Kennedy Johnson Nixon Ford Carter Reagan Bush Clinton Dubya Obama Trump Biden last night?” Outrage, mocking, and laughing will ensue. First kisses will take place. First steps. More deaths. More births. Billionaires and millionaires will line their pockets and others will starve and die, homeless.

And we’ll click. Smile for the phone. Stream some entertainment. Edge along memories and dance with hope.

Think I’ll listen to “Against the Wind” by Bob Seger & the Silver Bullet Band from 1980. “Seems like yesterday, but it was long ago.” Stay positive, test negative, wear a mask when needed. Get the vax. Here’s the music.

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Wednesday’s Theme Music

Sunrise greeted the valley at 5:34 AM on this Wednesday. Jays shouted about being the first to see it. A jay argument commenced about which jay shouted first. Weather will be more closely aligned to summer today. While it’s a cool 61 F now, forecasts and the sky’s demeanor point to temperatures in the mid 80s.

Today is Jun 16, 2021. Just a few days of spring remain. Also, you case you haven’t seen any ads on television or on the net, and haven’t gotten any emails about the subject, Father’s Day is coming up. Prepare accordingly. By the way, the sun will flee the valley as the world turns at 8:49 PM.

Our county of Jackson has met the threshold to be declared a moderate threat in COVID-19 terms. Cases and deaths are steadily declining. Still a max of six per table for inside dining at restaurants, but eight per table are allowed outside. Retail stores can go to 75% of capacity. Statewide, we’re at 68% of the pop being fully vaccinated. 70% is on the horizon.

“Land of Confusion” by Genesis (1986) boomed into my mental radio this AM. Not a surprising song for the day. Despite being dismissed in court, trump supporters continue to insist that trump won the election and that DJ will take office in August. No, there’s nothing in the Constitution that will cover this. Some 30% of Republicans believe this. DJT’s campaign is selling tickets to his inauguration event. The unreality is deep.

So, “Land of Confusion” works. Stay positive, test negative, get the vax, wear a mask as required, depending upon your vaccination status, city, state, and what you’re doing, and how many others in your party are vaccinated, whether anyone has recently tested positive for COVID-19, and what’s going on with breakthroughs. Here’s the tune. Cheers

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Monday’s Theme Music

Clouds smothered the sunrise. Though we knew it was there and indeed, daylight emerged, clouds blemished the sun’s initial entrance at 5:34 AM. Indications are, we should get used to it. Charcoal etched clouds promised rain all Sunday. It didn’t come until night dropped. Saturday temperatures reached 80 F, Sunday, 76. Today the guess is mid sixties before sunset at 8:48 PM.

Today is Monday, June 14, 2021. With this unseasonable rain and cool temperatures, doubt that summer is almost on us is acceptable. We know summer is coming but this weather surprises us. We’ll take it, though. After winter’s mild snows, we’re starved for moisture to help allay the spreading drought’s impact.

Today’s song is pandemic and relationship driven. After being isolated together since March 2020 and married since August 1975, my wife and I sometimes have issues with one another. We often have issues. We get tired of our own routines; we tire of the other’s preferences and stances. In the midst of one of those, while discussing something inane – might have been a television show, might have been shopping – what shall we get, when shall we get it – lines from the 1983 Genesis song, “That’s All”, came into my head.

But why does it always seem to be
Me looking at you, you looking at me
It’s always the same, it’s just a shame, that’s all.

Stay positive, test negative, get the vax. Cheers

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Sunday’s Theme Music

Sunday, June 13, 2021. The sun shouldered in at 5:34 AM with small shafts of light and a few shards of warmth. Bird talk sputtered and fizzled. Cats stalked their kibble and complained.

Showers are expected today. I took one early. Shaved. Washed hair. Temperature is currently 75 F. We expect 81 today. Sunset will come as the world turns at 8:48 PM. Shopping, eating, reading, writing, cutting grass, and very important, drinking coffee will take place between now and then.

My mind is playing Dire Straits and “Sultans of Swing” from 1978 for me this morning. No clear reason is recognized why that song is playing. I was out of the service when this song was released. After moving back to where I’d graduated high school, I bought a restaurant and was going to college. A few months later, crippled by the local economy and dwindling personal finances, I was back in the service and heading west to San Antonio, Texas, on a new assignment. The break in service was a year to the day. I learned a lot in that time. Once back in the military, I ended up staying for sixteen years, completing a twenty-year career. Traveled a lot, mostly the United States, Asia, and Europe, a little northern Africa and the Middle East. Meet some terrific people.

Stay positive, test negative. Come on, get the vax. Let’s get on with it. Here’s the music. Cheers

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Saturday’s Theme Music

Sunshine kicked out the clouds at 5:34 AM on this blue spring day in Ashland, Saturday, June 12, 2021. Temps immediately jumped up ten degrees and cheered. The back door was thrown open to warm air. Tails up, the cats jaunted out and sniffed, whiskers moving with appreciation for what the day had brought. The temps tell me they’ll be testing the upper edges of sixty (maybe seventy, a few whisper), before the sun gives a final glance over the valley and walks away at 8:47 PM.

Dreams of gold kept awakening me. It rained gold in one dream segment. Surprised by the golden shower, I put my hand out and looked up into the forbidding dark sky. I didn’t feel threatened, just non-plus by this change. Why was it raining gold. Then I laughed. It’s raining gold. And awoke.

Out of that and another gold-themed dream came echoes of “Gold Dust Woman” by Fleetwood Mac, 1977. Stay positive, test negative, wear a mask as needed, and get the vax. Cheers

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Wednesday’s Theme Music

The hump day cometh and the hump day goeth. Daybreak began at 5:34 AM in Ashland, Oregon. Most of the flowers have lived their life of color in my neighborhood, fading to leafy remains. Thanks to cooler temps — highs have dropped from the standard 90 – 100 degrees F days to low 60s — and a splatter of rain, lush greens dominate. Nightbreak (hey, we have daybreak) will come at 8:46 PM. We’re fast approaching that longest day, meaning the longest period of sunshine, in the north. In the southern hemisphere, they’re hurrying toward their shortest day of the year. Then, the northern hemisphere minutes of daylight will start declining while they start adding up to longer days south of the equator. It’s the great circle of seasons, the revolution around the sun.

Out walking yesterday, I encountered a handsome silver tabby. Meowing with urgency, they ran to me. A collared adult, a heart-shaped metal tag informed me the friendly feline was named Rajah. Rajah was very healthy and enjoyed my fingerwork. But a truck backing up sent Rajah racing back up the lawn he came down. I wrote Rajah’s phone number on my hand (always carry a pen — it’s my talisman), then wondered, what’s the name of this street, with an eye toward looking up lost cat reports on our local neighborhood posts. As I went through that process, U2 fired up “Where the Streets Have No Name”, a U2 fave of mine from 1987.

I wasn’t planning on using it for today’s theme music, but the theme of being in a nameless place in a dream where I was searching for a street sign came up in a dream. As I thought about that dream, “Where the Streets Have No Name” was revived in the mental stream.

So here we are. This is the official video of the song, with U2 playing on top of a building. Think the Beatles did that once. Stay positive, test negative, wear a mask as needed, and get the vax. Cheers

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Tuesday’s Theme Music

The door to the sky opens at 5:35 AM. The sun’s first impact shades the night gray. Rosy yellows spread as the door grows further ajar. Tuesday, June 8, 2021, has begun its day in Ashland, Oregon. As always, jays acknowledge the event first. Crows add to the dawn conversation after a few minutes.

Air that seems related to fall is outside. Rain fell last night, dropping temperatures into the lower forty F. Thick, broken clouds mottle the blue sky. Temperatures are a far descent from normal, with highs just barely edging over sixty. So it’ll be, a spring fall day, until the door closes on the valley sun at 8:45 PM.

Today’s music of the walking kind. Hopefully dressed for summer, shorts and a tee, with a light fleece, an edgy wind knifes my bare legs, sending chills over my body as I do my thing yesterday. After just three quarters of a mile, smelling rain in the air, I call it and make the turn to home. Thinking of home brings a Delaney & Bonnie song out of mental retirement and into active thinking. Called “Coming Home” The song, made ‘with friends’, was released in the late sixties. It was one of my recurring songs as I traveled during twenty years in the military and then later in marketing for several years. Hope you enjoy it.

Stay positive, test negative, wear a mask as needed, and get that vax. Cheers

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Monday’s Theme Music

The sun popped up into the valley’s protective gaps at about 5:34 AM on this Monday morning. It’s June 7, 2021. When I typed Monday, Monday songs popped into my head as regularly as the sun rises. No songs came up when I thought of June or seven. Some came to mind after a little thought. Unlike 2021, which immediately brought a song to mind.*

The sun is due to set at 8:45 PM. Thinking about sunset unleashed an avalanche of songs. Likewise, painting another wall yesterday prompted painting songs to hit the mindstream. An exception was the song the wall sang to me, “Cover Me” (Springsteen), which hasn’t to do with painting at all.

Anyway, here is My Chemical Romance with “Famous Last Words”. Memory of that 2007 song hit the brainwaves while I finished painting. Cause I was thinking about how well things are going (only seven new cases of COVID-19 in our county! We’re tending down!). Which certainly seems like they could be famous last words.

Stay positive, test negative, wear the mask as needed, and get the vax. Cheers

*”In the Year 2525″. Nothing to do with this year, just the word, year.

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Wednesday’s Theme Music

Sun broke in the day at 5:37 AM, kicking the heat up to 71 degrees F. We hit 101 at my house yesterday, and it only dropped to 64 during the night. We expect the high to be a more merciful 96 before the Earth’s rotation moves us away from the sun again at 8:41 PM.

Today is Wednesday, June 2, 2021. We’re almost to the year’s midpoint. As for COVID-19 vaccinations, we’ve passed 54 percent in Oregon for at least one shot. Our neighbors to the north and south, Washington and California, are about the same. Idaho to the east, though, is leveling off at below forty percent. It’s like they’re not even trying.

Today’s music is dream inspired. I joined the blues society in my dream. I thought one of my favorite performances of a song called “Why I Sing the Blues” would be a satisfying theme song. Thanks to technology, we can enjoy this moment. Here’s B.B King, Albert King, Gladys Knight, Etta James, Eric Clapton, Phil Collins, Stevie Ray Vaughn, Billy Ocean, Doctor John, Chaka Khan…and more. What a line-up.

Get the vax, wear a mask as needed, test negative, and stay positive. Enjoy the blues. Cheers

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