Category: memories

Tuesday’s Theme Music — Walk On

Ashland, southern Oregon. Tuesday, August 25, 2026. We’re into August’s final week. September begins next week.

Cooler day today. Cloudy this morning, there remains plentiful sunshine. 73 F, we’ll climb to 94.

Mom fell from her bed yesterday at the assisted living facility. We don’t know details, whether she rolled off or slipped off while sitting or missed the bed when she tried sitting on it. My niece, May, visited there yesterday and reported that the bed is very high. Mom texted me, the fix-it man was supposed to fix it but couldn’t because he was the cook. ?

Gina visited there today and reports, yes, it’s a tall bed. It’s stripped and she saw that it’s two thick mattresses. I asked, “Has it always been this tall?” Yes; this is the same bed Mom has used since arriving in February.

Mom has now been there a half year. It’s been a tumultuous time.

My wife and I are pissed about the Roberts Court decision regarding mail-in ballots. Basically, the POTUS, who has nothing to do with voting. That’s the states and Congress. But the Roberts Court walked a very fine line. Oh, the states filed too soon because they’re not yet being harmed by Trump’s efforts.

WTAF.

Not that Trump’s action are legal or illegal, or if has the authority to do this, etc. No, let’s wait and see, the Roberts Court declared. Kick it down the road. Wait till the election gets fucked up because the USPS isn’t delivering ballots. Then they’ll talk about it.

I was a conspiracist, I’d say the Roberts Court is trying to walk us into the state of midterm election chaos Trump wants so Trump can step in and declare an emergency.

Election fraud is another Trump boogey man. Just like his racism and his commie screams, he uses these words to instill fear and manipulate others.

Evidence of the voting fraud Trump screeches about is as scant as the cancer caused by windmills. Trump’s claims make as much sense as he did when he declared he’d lower prescription drug prices by more than 100%.

Trump is a weak person who thinks himself strong. I suspect the midterms will be as messy as Trump’s Iran War — reaching six months now, after he claimed it would be over in weeks — the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool fiasco, or the White House ballroom. It’s another case built on lies and false claims. It’s as reliable and substantial as AI-generated pictures of Trump as Jesus or Superman, or Trump with George Washington.

That is Trump: a fake. A con. A charlatan.

Thank you for your attention to this matter.

Trump has always called himself a great negotiator. But progress with Iran and Canada both verify, no, Trump is not a great negotiator. Despite Trump claims about what was done to Iran, the war continues. Prices continue rising and the affordability crisis grows.

Now, Trump’s negotiations with Canada has resulted in yet more pain for US consumers.

WSJ is dumbfounded by Trump’s dumb beef with Canada: it just ‘got dumber’

That’s Trump, too: dumb, and dumber.

Thinking about the court’s narrow approach, The Neurons gave me “Walk On” by U2 in the morning mental music stream. The song came out in 2000.

Sample Lyrics

And if the darkness is to keep us apart
And if the daylight feels like it’s a long way on
And if your glass heart should crack
And for a second you turn back
Oh no, be strong

Walk on, walk on
What you got they can’t steal it
No, they can’t even feel it
Walk on, walk on
Stay safe tonight

Yes, Trump is the darkness, trying to tear our nation apart.

Walk on. Stay safe. Be strong.

Cheers

2

Monday’s Theme Music – Wrapped Up

Ashland, southern Oregon. Monday, August 24, 2026.

Damn hot today: 100 F, but it feels warmer. A red flag warning is in effect. We are expected to cool down again on Wednesday.

I’m off to a late start, courtesy of some animal fight at 2 AM. Woke us up. Went out, gathered our critter, who came in all puffy tailed, although he didn’t seem to be involved.

We decided to keep the cat in. That ignited his determination to go back out. Everything was done to convey that determination: beating on the door, meowing, beating on me. I finally succumbed after an hour and granted freedom. Then, though, I worried: was the cat safe? AAARGH!

I didn’t get up until after nine and had some calls scheduled which proved to be time sucks. Then, off to shower, dress, coffee and writing. Now I’m back home. Just finished lunch, finally posting the theme music.

Really, it’s my own fault for 1) having a cat and 2) for letting the cat worry and control me.

That led to “Wrapped Around Your Finger” in my morning mental music stream. This is a 1983 song by The Police. Charted around the world, so you may have heard it before.

Hope your day goes well. Be safe, be healthy.

Cheers

0

The Trump Logic

I laughed today, reading a few articles about Trump. For example, this one:

Haberman reveals why Trump ignores his own team’s plea to stop voter revolt

“During a Monday morning appearance on MS NOW, author and journalist Maggie Haberman revealed that President Donald Trump’s own team pleaded with him to address voter anxieties, but he has so far seemed content to ignore them as the midterms approach.“

I laughed because Trump has demonstrated that he’s so out of touch, it’s gone beyond surreal. As further news emerges about Trump’s relationship with Natalie Harp, I think she’s influencing him, bolstering ideas that Trump is doing great. So, ipso facto, if Trump is doing great, as he believes, he has no reason to change.

Secondly, I would not be surprised if Trump is already planning to declare an emergency, and in fact to create an emergency to intervene in the 2026 elections or even suspend them. Everyone except Republicans would be in an immediate uproar. What’s really scary in this scenario is that the courts would probably tell Trump that he lacks the authority, but the Roberts Court would probably let Trump do so while they schedule arguments.

Trump and his Project Heritage puppet masters, are expecting that. They’ve been probing the judicial system to see how it reacts to different situations and arguments. They know which courts and judges favor Trump. And they also see how much legal leeway Roberts is giving Trump.

It would be so weirdly Trump: he would simultaneously claim — as he has — that crime and violence is down and everything is great — but also declare an emergency because of how bad everything is.

At the same time, Trump has repeatedly argued that the economy is strong and that his economic record will help Republicans in the 2026 midterms.

When talking about the economy, Trump likes to say that we’ve entered a golden age. He then recites a laundry list of ‘good things’. The thing is, those measurements are typically the metrics for the wealthy.

Outside of the wealthy, the economy sucks. The national debt is at a record high. Dominos fall from that. Bond rates increase; interest rates rise; the housing market suffers.

Gas and diesel fuel prices are up. That drives up the cost of everything, including just going to the store to buy things. With prices up, people have to spend more to buy less.

Back to school sales will be a tell about the economy; so will the upcoming holiday months. But retail sales are trending down YTY for the same period, not a good sign. Although places like Walmart say they’re going to counter by slashing prices by using refunds of tariffs they paid, how much can they significantly offset. More importantly, in parallel to that, Trump is adding more tariffs, and energy prices are ticking upward.

The bottom line of that: the government gives retailers money back for tariffs because the Roberts Court ruled against them. Then retailers use some of it to reduce prices. But Trump imposes new tariffs that push costs back upward.

And Trump knows that his tariffs are costing consumes, even though he previously said that they don’t. That takes us to quotes about what Trump has said about affordability, prices, and tariffs.

Your Trump Quote(s) of the Day:

So, I get it!

According to Trump, he’s going to address affordability, and bring prices down on day one, except affordability is really a Democratic hoax and doesn’t matter, and he doesn’t care anyway. And affordability — that Democratic hoax — is better under Republicans, even though prices are higher and trending to go higher yet. Also, consumers don’t pay tariffs but he’s suspending beef prices to lower prices for you.

If you believe that, Trump has a bible to sell you, religiously used for him to pray every night.

Listening to Trump has all the exasperation and weariness of dealing with a toddler, except toddlers are make a lot more sense.

Joey Politano put it best:

“[E]very 6 months the Trump administration realizes lowering tariffs will lower prices, applies this insight to one specific good, and then proceeds to never introspect beyond that,” he wrote in a post on X. “It’s honestly beautiful in its stupidity.”

Even more beautiful in an ugly way is how so many MAGAts still trust and believe in Trump. Because the direction Trump has taken us in the United States is what they want.

That’s the Trump logic at work.

6

Sunday’s Theme Music — Beginning

Sunday, August 23, 2026. Ashland, southern Oregon.

We’re again fortunate to have ‘good’ weather. Sunshine, blue skies, 74 F now, 90 F later. Some rain would be nice. Through today, we’re at 7% of normal precipitation for the year. Seven.

My wife and I greet each other many mornings with, “What’s the news? He dead yet?”

Then we laugh and say, “I know he’s not or you would have shouting the news.”

You know, this is the only person in our lifetime together — over fifty years — that we have ever said such things about. And we never specify who we’re talking about. That’s. Not. Needed.

Mom is complaining about her relationships with her daughters. “Three of them live nearby and none of them will take me to my appointments. Which will only HASTEN my death anyway.”

My sister’s daughter, May, is going to visit Mom tomorrow. We’re interested in the after-visit report. Mom helped raise May, and she and Mom had a great relationship until about four years ago. Then Mom became so angry and bitter, complaining about so many things, May declared, “I can’t do that any longer. It’s just too much.” Which is the case with my sisters and the rest of their children. Mom just became too much. I’d seen that trend developing and told Mom over and over through the last several years that all she does is complain and scold, that she’s always angry and bitter. Once she said that her partner, Frank, had just told her the same thing.

Trump has big action happening in DC with the Freedom 250 Indycar Grand Prix. It’s all part of Operation Epic LOOK — SQUIRREL! He’s just trying to distract all he can from how crappy things are going. Lots of corporations are going along with him. Retail sales are down, reflecting people’s challenges with the increasing affordability of living in the US. But corporations overall are doing well, with energy and technology companies doing particularly well.

So, yes, many corporations are all in for Trump’s Operation Epic LOOK — SQUIRREL! distractions. Hey, they’re getting theirs! Make hay while the sun shines! So what if the wealth gap continues to widen, if personal bankruptices are increasing, rural hospitals are closing, measles outbreaks are increasing, and the extreme weather gets worse? Corporation execs and shareholders are making money. Later, when the situation changes, they’ll contritely reduce prices, announcing ‘we’re all in this together’.

No. We’re not. They make that clear. They’re only in it together with us if it’s going to affect their profits, and then, they’ll only act under duress.

Today’s music emerges from my dream. I didn’t hear it in the dream but as I went through the night’s third dream, I suddenly heard Karen Carpenter singing “We’ve Only Just Begun”.

That could be an apt song for now, as far as the title’s sentiment. We’re about to go through some heavy duty loads with Donald Trump. He tried staying in power when he lost his bid for re-election, encouraging his supporters to resist the bona bide election results, encouraging them to ignore the law, resulting in death and destruction while widening the trust gap and polarizing the electorate. This year, he’s been working on trying to undermine the system.

Here’s the irony: Trump is cheerleading the nation’s 250th anniversary while simultaneously undermining the system that we’ve developed and improved for 250 years, the system which actually delivered him victory — twice.

Yet, Trump keeps whining and complaining about stolen elections without evidence. Is cutting much of the federal government in order to shift loads to states because of states’ rights. Meanwhile, he’s working hard to hollow out the states’ role in the national elections, basically usurping it so he can mold it as head of the executive branch of the federal government. It’s such a naked, wanton, power grab.

Trump is doing it because he’s a failure. His policies are failures, and people are awakening to this. His only way to get ahead, as always, is to lie, cheat, and steal.

So get ready: we’ve only just begun.

May your day begin with love and happiness and end on a high note.

Cheers

7

Three Dreams Last Night

I can recall having three dreams last night.

One of them is barely recalled. It’s one of those episodic dreams I sometimes have, where there’s no one who I recognize as me. It’s just a story being told, like a television show.

I remember just part of a second one. Three other men and I were traveling together in an early 1960s something Cadillac convertible. We drove through sunshine with the top down. I was very impressed for some reason that there were four of us, two blacks and two whites. I believe we took turns driving.

We wore a uniform, and I knew we were on the same team but have no idea what team. From what I remember of the uniforms, they were white with dazzling embroidery, like something Elvis Presley would wear in concert.

Hungry, we stopped at a place where we decided we would pretend to be lawyers. We thought that ruse would gain us some food because we didn’t have any money. That didn’t seem to work so we drove cheerfully on through a winding orange canyon to another town.

We decided this time to claim that we were reporters. Women were running this place. One large, barrel-chested blonde woman was in charge. She mocked our claim that we were reporters, but they fed us anyway.

Dream end

Third dream involved family and food. I was with my sisters at some gathering at someone’s home. We were outside for most of the dream, where, weirdly, my sisters were baking. Besides them, there were many children. I barely knew most of them and didn’t recognize them from real life.

I needed an engine for some reason and ended up with a V8 engine with headers, a high rise manifold with a single four-barrel carb. The engine block was painted bright blue, and the air filter cover was chrome plated. After I got the engine, I realized, “I don’t need this.” But I wanted to save it. So I picked it up and put it in one of the rooms. I thought, I’ll leave that here for now but I’ll need to move it later.

My sisters and I talked a little politics. Then one announced, it’s time to eat. We got trays and loaded them up.

As I did, I went to cross the patio. Four tiny, perfect silver and black tabby kittens were playing. They’d found something and pounced on it, batting whatever it was with furious energy. I swear, these kittens were no more than three inches long.

My older sister asked me what I was doing and I showed her the kittens. She watched with me a bit, then I moved the kittens so they’d be safe.

The children and I decided to watch television. I wanted to watch football. I knew it was Sunday and games should be on, because of the time. No games were on, confusing me. I did the math: back home, the games start at 10 AM and it was almost 1 here, so there should have been a game on.

I went back to eat more cookies. My youngest sister was still baking. I walked along long tables mounded with food and wondered, laughing, why is she baking more? I ate a few cookies, which was delicious.

One brother-in-law, the Trump-loving one, was present, stretched out on a dark-brown sofa, talking. I wanted to hear what he said, but a plastic cocoon formed over him, sealing him in. I could hear him still talking but it was only a rumble of sound, and couldn’t see him at all.

Getting another cookie and eating it, my little sister demanded in her ominous ‘mom-voice’, “What are you doing?”

Laughing, I replied, “Eating a cookie? Why are you making more? Do you know you how many cookies there are?”

I saw her move the V8 engine which I’d move. I went over and picked it up to take it away, but then didn’t know where to take it.

Dream end.

0

Friday’s Theme Music — Ignored

Ashland, southern Oregon. Friday, August 21, 2026.

It’s a cool 75 F under cloudy skies right now. Looks like it could rain but rain is not in our forecast. Today’s high is expected to be 90, ten degrees lower than what we saw yesterday.

Mom is really down right now. She feels trapped and ignored, and that’s very understandable.

Mom texted me that her PCP told her she looks tired and old. Mom’s claim; don’t know if that’s what the doctor said. Mom also texted me, “I don’t want to see another birthday,” “Why won’t God let me die,” and “I don’t want a memorial service when I die. I don’t want anything.”

Mom, to me, always depended upon the structure of routines and schedules. Now her aging, medical issues, and medications has fractured her norms. She used to use cleaning as an outlet to stay on track, along with writing copious notes on her calendar about what was going on: children’s schedules and visits, appointments, bills due and paid, house and car maintenance. Those mechanisms are gone, too. She’s being told one to sleep, eat, and socialize, and she doesn’t like it. Additionally, she and her daughters who live closest to her have a huge emotional schism relating to their lives together and Mom’s choices.

Mom reacts to the gap with anger; the sisters react to Mom’s anger with more distance.

It’s like a self-fulfilling doom loop.

The closing for the sale of Mom’s house is next Tuesday at 5 PM. I texted Mom to ensure she was aware.

She didn’t respond.

Without real surprise, I see that Trump is encouraging the construction of AI and data centers. Backlash against AI/data centers is growing across the United States, creating an ideological trap for Donald Trump.

Part of this is that these types of sites take up land, water, and electricity, but nothing tangible that can be held in your hand emerges from it.

The other part of the trap is that the corporations often demand huge tax breaks and subsidies for the privilege of building there, and the locals are not usually consulted. That pisses them off, because nobody is listening to them. That was exactly the angry and emotional fodder Trump used as fuel to win their votes; he was speaking for them, ‘telling them like it is’.

Now, as others have done, Trump is ignoring them.

And it’s happening on the cusp of the midterm elections.

Those of us who understand who Trump is aren’t surprised. He used MAGA to achieve political power. Then he used that political power to enrich himself. Now he’s using it to further enrich the ultra-wealthy. There are no surprises there, if you’ve been paying attention.

Trump is breeding discontented supporters. They won’t vote for Democrats — “Never Democrats” is probably one of their most repeated mantras — but they won’t come out and vote for Trump, either.

All this thinking has The Neurons playing “Everybody Hurts” by R.E.M in my morning mental music stream. When people feel ignored, they hurt. Released in 1993, the song was written about and for teenagers and what they endure. I think it’s sensibilities are more universal than that.

Sample Lyrics

When your day is long
And the night, the night is yours alone
When you’re sure you’ve had enough
Of this life, well hang on

Don’t let yourself go
‘Cause everybody cries
Everybody hurts sometimes

Sometimes everything is wrong
Now it’s time to sing along

When your day is night alone (hold on, hold on)
If you feel like letting go (hold on)
If you think you’ve had too much
Of this life, well hang on

‘Cause everybody hurts
Take comfort in your friends
Everybody hurts

May you prosper today, enjoying peace, joy, and happiness. Hopefully, you won’t feel ignored or alone.

Cheers

0

Thursday’s Theme Music — Little Things

Ashland, southern Oregon. Thursday, August 20, 2026.

Buckle up: supposed to be hot today, 100F. High small puffy clouds dot the blue sky. The sun feels like someone turned it up to eleven. Although it’s only 71, the ‘feels like’ is 85 F.

Spent time this morning on Watch Duty reviewing the state of wildfires in Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Nevada, and California. A depressing exercise.

Still waiting for Mom’s house to close. Gina, my sister who now oversee Mom’s finances, was complaining about how much Mom spent on Amazon on lipstick, diapers, clothes, shoe polish, and other things. Gina wanted me to tell Mom about how much money Gina thought Mom is wasting.

I said no. Not doing it. Bought Mom an Amazon gift card instead, to help her with these expenses. Mom doesn’t have much of a life these days, and now you’re pressing to nickel and dime her?

We’re into some deep WTF territory with Trump this week as he went on about flagpoles.

To be fair, his flagpole riff seemed a lot like his grass riff. He does love to declare himself an expert, knowing more than anyone, about many things.

Your Trump Quote of the Day:

Trump did pay $100K for these flagpoles last year. But then the servant of We the People could afford it, as he raked in $3B for his first year in office. 100K/3,000,000K = .003%

Trump is so generous, right? Especially since We the People paid about $100M for Trump’s golfing in 2025.

Trump’s gift of ‘most magnificent’ flagpoles and flags celebrated at the White House

I label the flagpoles another cheap installment of Operation Epic LOOK — SQUIRREL! Trump bloviates about flagpoles as gas prices climb again. Diesel prices have jumped 15 cents to $5.47 per gallon, which adds to the cost of transporting just about everything.

But do please tell us more about the shape of your flagpole, Donald Trump.

People should know Trump is saying these things and quit treating him like he’s stable or a genius. He’s a criminal, head of a criminal enterprise. They need to wake up to that but probably won’t until Trump steals them blind.

All these things — big and little — Trump does stack up into one large mess.

I ended up with “Little Things” by Bush in my morning mental music stream. Released in 1995, it was all about how little things add up to dwarf your sense of self and what is possible.

Sample Lyrics

The river is loaded, I’ve been there today
Took it some questions, she does me again
I’d die in your arms if you were dead too
Here comes a lie, we will always be true

Going up when coming down
Scratch away-way-way-way-way

It’s the little things that kill
Tearin’ at my brain again
Oh, the little things that kill
The little things that kill

Bigger you give, bigger you get
We’re boss at denial but best at forget
The cupboard is empty, we really need food
Summer is winter and you always knew

Going up when coming down
Scratch away-way-way-way-way

It’s the little things that kill
Tearin’ at my brains again
Oh, the little things that kill
Tearin’ at my brains again

Yeah, it’s the little things that kill. Trump — and more importantly, the masterminds behind him, Heritage Foundation and Project 2025 — knows this.

May you surmount the little things with peace and grace today and every day.

Cheers

0

PORVEL

I was doing the NYT Spelling Bee today.

My wife and I share it; she begins, getting bingo if available, and finding all the pangrams she can. Today there was only one.

Meanwhile, I like to keep adding words until we reach a ‘genius’ rating. Like, yeah, recalling or recognizing all those words from the seven letters available doesn’t make us a genius. Just a fun activity.

Today’s seven letters were R V O N E L P. V was in the center, which means it must be used. As I was going through the words, I put in PORVEL.

That wasn’t in the word list.

That surprised me; I’m sure PORVEL is a word. It means ‘poor novel’. Seriously.

I checked the net to verify the word, but the searches only came up with Porvel cheese.

We really need better search engines, don’t we?

1

Wednesday’s Theme Music — Frank Beard

Ashland, southern Oregon. Wednesday, August 19, 2026.

August is moving on slow as molasses for me. I’m okay with that.

The claim is that it’ll be 96 F today. Forecasts yesterday said we’d hit 95 but we were four short of that. It’s 68 outside with high clouds clotting across the blue sky.

Our fingers are crossed that Mom’s house will finally close today. The buyers are using a grant to buy. The involved realtors say that the grant review and approval process has significantly slowed this year. It’s a federal program. A large part of me wonders if the Trump administration with its personnel cutbacks is responsible.

I’m not going to go into news and politics much on this post today. Writing a separate post on them.

I’m dedicating this instead to ZZ Top and Frank Beard. ZZ Top is an American rock band which had a heavy blues influence in its early years. They were a trio: Billy Gibbons, Dusty Hill, and Frank Beard. I started listening to them in high school. Saw them in concert a few times. Now only Billy Gibbons, lead vocalist, guitar, and song writer remains as Frank Beard, 77, joined Dusty Hill in that big gig in the otherworld.

I basically divide ZZ Top’s sound into two eras. In their early years was that blues sound. Multiple favorite songs hang with me from that period. For today, I’ll go with “La Grange” and “Jesus Left Chicago”.

The second period moved ZZ Top more into commercial mainstream pop. They became phenomenally successful. My preferred sound from that era was “Sharp Dressed Man”, which my wife and I liked to sing as ‘short, fat man’.

So here we go, into the morning mental music stream. May your day be blessed with happy memories of good music and good times, and optimism for our future.

Cheers

0

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