Category: miscellaneous

Sunday’s Theme Music

Mood: good

It’s Sunday, July 23, 2023. July is eyeing the calendar, getting ready to clock out for another year. Many say that being a month is a good gig. You only work 28 to 31 days, depending on which month you draw. But July tells me it was hard being July this year, hot and disastrous almost 24/7. “Never a let up.” She pursed her lips. “I will not miss it.”

It’s ten till a cup of coffee and 71 degrees F with smoke in Ashlandia, where beauty is everywhere and the beer flows by the pint. The high today is 94 F, and the smoke still comes from the Flat fire to our west. The Lake of the Woods outing yesterday was fab entertaining. Good friends, tasty food, lots of dancing to a wonderful band called Saucy, and pleasant fresh air that cooled as the horizon slipped over the sun. Saucy advertised themselves as a party dance band that covers songs from the eighties and nineties, but they put some sixties in there and music from the seventies and aughts.

After a couple hours of dancing, shouldn’t be surprising that The Neurons posted “And We Danced” by The Hooters from 1985 in the morning mental music stream (trademark complicated). See, it’s about dancing, yeah? Yeah. That explains it all. Song stayed there despite a barrage of dreams,

Time to get on hoping, coping, striving, trying, crying, thriving, pushing, pulling, eating, sleeping, loving, living, and all the accoutrements of going through another day. Stay strong, be pos. Here’s the music. Let’s go. Cheers

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Saturday’s Wandering Thought

We were talking about classes we wished we’d had when we were young. Like, explanations about how much your body might change as you age. We knew that would happen, of course. Saw it in mother and father, aunts and uncles, etc. But how do you impress how much of it’s within and outside of your control, and how there is an accumulative impact? Despite exercise and health, some of these things take you by surprise and take you down, mentally, physically, emotionally.

Maybe such information is now being taught. Of course, with the net and technology, more of it is available.

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Friday’s Wandering Thoughts

He watched a series called “Quarterbacks” on Netflix. It focused on three NFL quarterbacks. One of them is Patrick Mahomes of Kansas City. After a big play that clinched a game for his team, Mahomes ran around the field, jumping and shouting, “That’s what I fucking do. That’s what I fucking do. That’s what I fucking do.”

He admired the man’s enthusiasm, energy, and celebration. Maybe after finishing a chapter in the novel in progress, he should celebrate in the same way, leaping up and running around the coffee shop shouting, “That’s what I fucking do. That’s what I fucking do. That’s what I fucking do.”

Probably wouldn’t go over too well, he decided. Disrupt the ambiance too much. Best to just continue celebrating successes with private exultation.

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Tuesday’s Wandering Thoughts

He encountered someone driving out of the in exit. Third day in a row this had happened. Not the same people or car, but…

They had to be given some latitude and space to let them finish driving out, annoying him, because it was his nature to get annoyed by others. He wondered how they’d managed to miss seeing the one way signs and arrows, along with the DO-NOT-ENTER sign. Surely, they hadn’t ‘missed’ them, but had decided to ignore them. Three drivers, three days in a row.

Such a small matter but it was the kind of thing that fed his growing disenchantment with society.

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Follow Up to Banned

This is all in reference to a post from last week where my preferred coffee shop banned a fellow customer because he told several baristas some things about his website, apparently among other things which happened.

I spoke with the manager about it briefly this morning. While she was reluctant to discuss it — I totally get that — she shared that there had been multiple incidents with the banned man. She said, “While we always try to work it out with our customers and try to accommodate everyone, unfortunately reached a head where we felt that we had to other choice. We know how serious banning someone is, and discussed it at length before we made the decision. It was a team decision. That’s how we always do it, so that we can talk out the pros and cons, and the impact. It wasn’t unanimous, and some were upset about banning someone. But the overwhelming majority felt it was needed.” She left that open-ended about why it was needed. Still, gaining a little more insight into it is useful.

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Sunday’s Theme Music

Welcome, everyone, welcome. Come on it to Sunday, July 16, 2023. Don’t be shy, it’s a big day. Plenty of room for everyone.

Gonna be a little warm in Ashlandia, where Sundays are mellow and the parks get full. 70 F now, we’re looking for something in the nineties, it seems. Not too bad when you compare it to hell, or other very hot spots.

It’s my wife’s birthday. Merry birthday to her! I started celebrating it last Sunday. I’m not one who celebrates birthdays and holidays very well. Just something wrong with me, is the general consensus. I gave her a tiara last Sunday to kick it off. Monday, she was presented with vegan dark chocolate peanut butter cups. A pair of Hawaiian beach glass earrings were given Tuesday. Flowers on Wednesday. Premium for her Fitbit on Thursday, birthday balloons on Friday, several exercise tops on Saturday. All were well received. I also chauffeured her and friends for several places. The earrings were worn to book club Wednesday evening, where high praise was heaped, and I apparently nailed the color, style, and material for the exercise tops, but not the size. Sizes are always tricky.

She put her tiara on as soon as she climbed out of bed. I genuflected and wished her happy birthday. We’re off to brunch later. In honor of her birthday, I overruled The Neurons and whatever they were sliding into the morning mental music stream (trademark lost) and offer the Beatles with “You Say It’s Your Birthday”.

Be safe, strong, and positive. Coffee is served. Always helps me. Many another beverage for you? Here’s the music. Cheers

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Sat-earth-day’s Theme Music

Mood: thoughtful

Hello, world. Saturday, July 15, 2023. It’s my little sister’s birthday. She was my only little sister for several years before the other two came along. Two years younger than me, we frequently played softball together in pickup games on the street. Whole neighborhood was invited, and we had fun. Now sis is a grandmother and executive VP for a bank. Guess she’s grown up. Happy birthday, little sister.

74 F now in Ashlandia, where burritos are tasty and fishsticks are frozen, without much breeze. The heat dome has brought us into its embrace. 103 F today, probably 100 plus tomorrow but then we get a reprieve and the highs drop into the nineties next week. Fingers crossed that they’ve called that right. Not nearly as bad as west Texas, Arizona, many parts of California, Nevada, and New Mexico.

Only dropped down to the lower sixties last night. That’s always a problem because it’s harder to cool the house if the air doesn’t cool. Stayed into the eighties until after 11 PM before the heat was finally cranked back. But then it rose fast. That’s how it is in a heat dome.

Thinking about weather took me around to thinking about Earth. Unintentional consequences of that was The Neurons put a song about Earth in my morning mental music stream. Yes, “I Feel the Earth Move” by Carole King (1971) is playing in the morning mental music stream (trademark confused). Odd choice for The Neurons, since the thoughts swirling around were all about the misery today’s headlines encapsulated. Everything from disastrous weather around the world to murders and killings. Death dominated. I suppose The Neurons elected to counteract all that chaos and mayhem with a simple song about being in love.

Stay pos, be cool, be safe, be strong. The coffee is kicking in. Let’s do this. Here’s the music. Cheers

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Thursday’s Wandering Thoughts

The coffee shop banned a man. He’s middle-aged. White. He’s been coming here as long as I have. I know from conversations with him that he accepts and promulgates several sharply right conspiracy theories and also promotes some unusual Christian ideas about how aliens founded or influenced Christianity. It’s a web which I couldn’t fully untangle.

He’s always struck me as a little lonely, eager for friendship, hungry for validation. One morning this week, he came in, set up somewhere, and placed an order. I didn’t hear any of that. He returned to his seat, picked up is gear, and headed for the door. Pausing by me, he said, “I showed some of them my website the other day, and they’ve banned me. They said they’d call the police if I came in here again.”

Turning, he shouted at the counter, “What happened to freedom of speech?” He stormed for the door. Pausing there, he yelled, “Fascists,” and was gone.

It’s a reflection about boundaries to me. I don’t know what was said the other day or how his website was presented. I know of two other people who were banned earlier this year because they ‘annoyed’ other customers. I witnessed some of that, and yeah, they were annoying. I have mixed thoughts about this, about businesses banning people. I don’t know what was said between the parties but I feel for the folks who struggle, and that’s what I’ve always thought I’ve seen with the banned three.

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Wednesday’s Wandering Thought

A Tiger Swallowtail butterfly landed on a butterfly bush’s long purplish panicle as he approached the plant on his walk. Such a Zen moment, he felt forced to pause for consideration of the scene. Then the butterfly and he moved on, as though neither were ever there, leaving the bush standing alone and patient once again.

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