My wife carries a small Casio calculator in her purse.
Solar-powered, made of black and gold plastic and black vinyl, the calculator folds. When it’s folded, it’s about the size of a credit card and is as thick as two stacked cards. We bought it for a few hundred yen when we lived in Japan on Okinawa between 1981 and 1985.
Actual size.
We used it last night to balance the checkbook. As we finished, we talked to each other about how amazing it was that the little inexpensive still worked. Back then, the yen to dollar ratio was about 234 to 1.
Over forty years later, it’s a little worn but works perfectly. As I reflected on that, I wondered how many other things I’d ever owned that I could say the same about.
This is my sixth recorded white house dream as far as I can tell. Again I’m not talking about the president’s abode.
Middle-aged, I was at my ‘dream home’, a large luxury apartment in very large building. The walls, floors, furniture were all white. It was a very serene, relaxed place. Many windows and sliding doors, several levels, great views of a busy metropolis.
Friends were waiting for me to go out. I was rushing around to get ready. But I was also concerned about calling the plumber; I had to find my phone and call the plumber.
Hurrying around my place, I also seemed to be familiarizing myself with it, even though, in a contrary way, I already knew it. I had my own suite, separate from my wife’s suite, and they were on different levels. My suite featured a large bathroom and sliders to a balcony. Steps from it led to down the building’s common plaza with tables and benches.
While I was dashing, around, one of my friends, H.E., kept texting and calling me, telling me, “Come on.” I kept telling him to just hang on.
Going through one door, I discovered a small room that I hadn’t known about before. It had a sprawling white sofa and several chairs. A few relaxing space, I was astounded to find it. I thought, I never knew this was here, and then thought, I came here to rest.
I then found two other things: a door to a room that was a nursery, and steps going down, which had been blocked off.
I knew I was the ‘original’ owner and figured they’d made those changes and wondered about them.
Back in the main living area, still looking for the phone to call the plumber, I encountered H.E.
H.E. was a large, sort of goofy young guy. I knew him in my dream but he wasn’t anyone from my real life.
I asked him, “How’d you get in here?”
Sheepishly, he replied, “I picked the lock.” Then he urged me to, “Come on.”
I told him, “You shouldn’t have done that. Go on out and wait.”
But he was looking out the window. We had a huge, deep blue community blue. An infinity pool, it took up an entire view of one wall of windows.
The pool really impressed him. I explained what it was, and he kept saying, “That’s so huge and beautiful.”
I agreed. It was very striking against the building’s white surfaces.
H.E. then stepped out to see more of the pool, going to our private patio. Other families were going down to the community plaza space and sitting down to enjoy the sunshine.
Spring continues in Ashland where hefty cumulonimbus clouds are invading the blue sky. 43 F, we’re rich in sunshine at the moment. Rain is expected in the afternoon with a high of 65 F.
It’s a busy morning of waiting. Water showed up on one bathroom floor last week. I did some amateur diagnostics and concluded, 1) blocked sewer line; 2) blew out the toilet wax seal. After researching the DIY, my wife and I reached out to friends for a plumber recommendation.
In parallel, the toilet shutoff valve in the other bathroom began leaking. I turned it off but it kept leaking. I modified an extra kitty litter box to catch the water and empty it. Then water showed up on that floor.
It’s a single story place with stacked drains, etc. So called the plumber last week. He can’t get to us until today, 11:30. That’s my day.
My texts blew up at 2:50 AM. Mom pulled a 180 on us. Had been campaigning to leave assisted living. My sister approached her about staying there, selling the house, etc. Wrote to us, “Mom seems agreeable to selling her house and staying there.”
On the other hand, the staff wanted to take Mom to the hospital because Mom was leaning to the left and her eyes looked bad. Mom said no.
Sis said she would go over and check out the situation today. She is also finally focused on getting a power of attorney and taking Mom to the post office to change her address.
Waiting for updates to see how this all went. I’m not sure why my sister felt a need to send it so early in the AM. It was 5:30 in Pittsburgh…
Trump had three more people killed in the eastern Pacific and Carribbean. Some news articles give Trump cover by saying the deceased were accused of being drug runners or narco-terrorists.
Sorry, but they accused. They weren’t seen in court. There was no jury, just the U.S. military again killing civilians.
That brings the number killed to at least 186 for the Bible-thumping regime.
We’re still waiting on the full Epstein files, and we’re waiting to see what will happen next in Operation Epic LOOK — SQUIRREL! We’re also waiting to see what will happen next in Trump’s Iran War, now beginning its ninth week.
Today’s song is “Waiting” by Green Day. The tune is all about the frustration of waiting for changes and differences — “Wake up!” Billy Joe sings. No wonder The Neurons pulled it into my morning mental music stream.
Hope your day has less waiting than mine and that you end up looking back on it and say, “That was a pretty good day.”
Hope your April is going well. We’re saying good-bye to it this week.
It’s a cloudy spring day here. 46 F, our afternoon forecast includes rain and a high of 62. It’s a pretty tableau outside, with shafts of sunlight highlighting green leaves and far off trees rising on the southern mountains.
Operation Epic LOOK — SQUIRREL! opened another line of distraction last night. Shots were reported at the White House Correspondents Dinner. Trump and his staff were hustled away. No one was hurt. Headlines were captured, though.
It seems so obviously planned or a deliberate lapse in security. First, Trump never goes to the dinner but decides to go this year. Second, the reactions afterward by Vance, Trump, etc., seemed false.
Bottom line: Trump really thinks we’re idiots.
The allegedly staged attempt is understandable, though. Trump is desperate. His approval ratings are falling, his war is going bad, prices are rising and everyone is reminding everyone else he said he’d lower prices day one. He said he’d end the Ukraine War before he took office but didn’t. He said, no new wars, and here we are, in another war.
We won’t rehash the Epstein files. He wants them buried. Forgotten. That’s not happening.
I wonder how long it will be after this speech before he calls a political opponent, journalist, Democrat, or woman, a dog or scum?
All this focused The Neurons on Trump’s warped memories and views. “Time Warp” from “The Rocky Horror Picture Show” entered the morning mental music stream. I found a Tenacious D cover of it that I enjoyed. Hope you do, too.
Let’s all have a Sunday of peace and unity, along with a little grace, and treat each other like humans.
April is marching on. Spring is going with it in this area.
Today is sunny with a blue sky. One small cloud visible from my window when I look west. Looks like a small white bird with spread wings. A peace dove.
46 F now, our high today is predicted to be in the upper sixties. We saw 72 F at our house for several seconds yesterday. Then the sun moved on, the clouds gathered over, and the shadows cut the temp. Still, that was the formula for a pleasant day to be outside, and is a marked improvement over blizzards, monsoons, wildfires, etc.
Trump’s DOJ continues to try to pull the nation backward. They’re bringing back the firing squad. Business as usual for the ‘pro-life’ camp.
Despite it’s presence in popular culture, The Conversation notes, “Of all of America’s methods of execution, it has been least often used. From 1900 to 2010, only 35 of America’s 8,776 executions were carried out using this method, and since 1976 just three people have faced a firing squad, with the last one carried out in Utah in 2010.”
The move works for Operation Epic LOOK — SQUIRREL! Headlines are full of the announcement. People like me will respond and condemn it. Many others will applaud. More importantly for Trump, there will be less news about his failures.
Trump’s long list of failures and setbacks is growing. Headlining: rising disapproval ratings. High gas prices on the cusp of May and the annual travel vacation months. A miserable war that’s dragging on into its eighth week after he said it was practically already over.
Talking out of the other side of his mouth, Trump also that the war would probably be over in five to six weeks. That time is passed. Since then, he’s whined that he needs more time and not to rush him. Then, in a really stupid move, he invoked how long the United States military was in Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan, wars which Americans would rather move on from.
Yet, the Epstein file is still out there, shadowing every move Trump makes, echoing through every word, flowing through every decision.
That clock is still ticking, and he hears it.
Your Donald Trump quote of the day:
From Factually: “Former President Donald Trump cherry-picked these statistics. Although some stations are charging $5 to $7 a gallon, about 99.2% of U.S. gas stations are selling gasoline for less than $5 a gallon, GasBuddy.com data shows.”
It was almost as if Donald Trump was predicting the future if he won.
Today’s music comes from thinking about highs and lows. The Neurons brought out “Low” by Cracker. In a lot of ways, the drippy, loopy 1993 song doesn’t make sense.
Lyrics
A million poppies gonna make me sleep Or just one rose, it knows your name My fruit is rusting on the vine My fruit is calling from the trees
Or hey, oh, don’t you wanna go down Like some junkie cosmonaut? A million miles below their feet A million miles, a million miles
I’ll be with you, girl, like bein’ low Hey-hey-hey, like bein’ stoned I’ll be with you, girl, like bein’ low Hey-hey-hey, like bein’ stoned
A blue, blue is the sun A brown, brown’s the sky A green, green are her eyes A million miles, a million miles
Rained earlier but a clear blue sky is above us now. Sunshine is warming us. We’re at 47 F but expect to hit the low to mid 70s today, spring weather at its finest.
Operation Epic LOOK — SQUIRREL! continues. Trump announced he’s ‘renovating’ the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool with a pool cover. Classy as ever. He says some suggested covering it with granite; I’m surprised Trump didn’t leap at that, which was basically what he did to the historic White House Rose Gardens.
Trump had to do something. His approval ratings are tanking, and the DOJ announced they ended the criminal probe of the Fed head, Jerome Powell, without any indictments. That’s another failure in Trump’s efforts to persecute political enemies. Some indictments were also tossed because Lindsey Halligan was illegally appointed, which further tarnishes Trump’s reputation.
Your Trump quote of the day:
Trump fired Bondi nine months later as part of Operation Epic LOOK — SQUIRREL!
Trump is right, the Trump administration is THE TALK OF THE WORLD.
They’re talking about how Trump has disrupted world trade and global markets. Many are talking about how Trump caused a 40% increase in gas prices in the US. They are talking about Trump’s disastrous war in Iran, now going into its 8th week. They’re talking about his spat with the Pope and how many people he’s ordered killed in his multiple military operations.
And they’re still talking about Trump and Epstein, and why Trump is so desperate to bury the Epstein files. In that regard, Operation Epic LOOK — SQUIRREL! is backfiring.
The morning mental music stream was filled with “Lawyers, Guns and Money”. The song is by Warren Zevon, and it’s an angry tale about law, order, and things going wrong. This cover is by The Killers.
My hopes and wishes for you is that this is a happy, satisfying, and healthy Friday. Stack days like that, and you can have a good life.
Strong sunshine spreads across the valley from the east this morning. There are few clouds. The temperature is 41, the forecast calls for sunny weather, and the high end will see 67 F.
The latest move in Operation Epic LOOK — SQUIRREL! came out today.
How badly Trump’s war in Iran is going, which he declared over as soon as it began (among other things)
The 1973 War Powers Act and the 60-day limit
Upcoming 2026 midterm elections and a potential blue wave
The Strait of Hormuz and whether it’s blockaded, who is doing it, and whether ships are paying tolls, and who’s collecting it
Trump’s feud with Pope Leo XIV
Rising disapproval numbers and bad polls
The backlash to depicting himself as Jesus via AI
Labor market weakness
Exploding national debt
Low consumer confidence
Trump’s health, stumbling, and slurring
The Epstein files, and Trump’s role in Epstein’s life and crimes.
If it’s not one thing, it’s the same damn thing, over and over.
Trump did his Bible verse reading. The right-wingers predictably gushed over Trump’s bold leadership. Many of the rest of us said, “Wow, that was terrible.”
Jokes arose about whether Trump would read from the Quentin Tarentino version. While others’ Bible reading was live-streamed, Trump’s was recorded and heavily edited.
Your Trump quote for the day:
Ah, Trump math. “Nobody’s ever seen anything like it.”
Sure, we have. Many con artists make outlandish claims like this, such as George C. Parker, famous for selling people ownership in the Brooklyn Bridge.
Today’s music comes from my dream side. During the dream, I kept hearing the song, “Shame on the Moon” by Bob Seger.
But the dream was about this big birthday celebration for somebody. At its end, Shirley Bassey was introduced to sing.
As I remembered the dream, The Neurons introduced a different Shirley Bassey song, “History Repeating”. The one with her and the Propellerheads from 1997 took over the morning mental music stream.
Lyrics
The word is about, there’s something evolving Whatever may come, the world keeps revolving They say the next big thing is here That the revolution’s near But to me it seems quite clear That it’s all just a little bit of history repeating
The newspapers shout – a new style is growing But it don’t know if it’s coming or going There is fashion – there is fad Some is good – some is bad And the joke is rather sad That it’s all just a little bit of history repeating
We heard from Mom. The social worker contacted her. Mom sent a chaotic text summarizing it. Basically, the social worker said that they would not be helping Mom move from the assisted living facility. Mom ended the text by asking my sister if she’ll help her move out at the end of the month.
After a day in which the thermometer didn’t press past the low fifties and the sky cried most of the day, we are seeing more of the same. Less sunshine, so it’s chillier, just 44 F now. The high will be 56.
I skimmed through the news but most of it had me saying, meh. More deaths, more politics, more crime and punishment.
Your Trump quotes for today:
Read those Trump quotes and the contradictions they expose, the outright hypocrisy, and the ignorance. Trump can’t be trusted.
BTW, the Epstein files have still not been all released.
I’m out of sorts today so I don’t have much to say. Dave Mason passed away, 78. He’s a musician. Just a few years older than moi, he was part of my musical landscape. He played with many others, wrote some songs with staying power, and had his own act.
When I read the news, his song, “We Just Disagree”, entered the morning mental music stream and stayed. The song came out in 1977. Married, I was alone on assignment in the Philippines with the US Air Force. 21 years old, I was wrestling with adulting basics. Mason’s music was one of my evening companions as I sat in my room, read, drew, and painted between shifts. Hearing of his death brought that music and time sharply back into focus.
Now I look back and think, wow, look at how many years ago. I sweep a mental eye over all of the changes the world has seen since then.
My hope for you is that peace and grace find you and give you the strength to make this day a success for you.
Michael Seidel, writer 