To clarify, we’re actually staying at Heceta Beach, 3 miles north of Florence. Heard from the catsitter. Papi has adjusted to her presence and her feeding him, and is basically acting just as if we’re there.
It’s 60 F now, on its way to 63 F. Here’s this morning beach photo.
We’ve had wonderful, fresh, tasty food everywhere we’ve eaten, and have only met nice folks. Hope to hell I’m not jinxing this by mentioning it.
Yesterday was a bad day for Mom and my sister Gina, Mom’s defacto caregiver. Mom had another UTI, was complaining of dizziness and headaches. Gina took her to urgent care. They said Mom’s UTI isn’t responding to antibiotics and needs something stronger and had Gina take her to a hospital, UPMC East. Well, that was an eight hour ordeal for them, with miscommunication between the two care facilities.
Mom was back into her room around midnight. Gina was shocked at its state; disorganized and messy. Very un-Mom. Mom denies her dizziness is a problem but Gina said she complained about it multiple times. XRays and CT Scans showed nothing.
Gina is also frustrating because the other sisters are ‘too busy’ to help with Mom. She ended up transferring Mom from car to wheelchair to bed, and back, etc, eighteen times yesterday.
Poor Mom. Poor Gina.
This is life.
Haven’t looked at the news this morning. Don’t want to disrupt the vacay vibe by doing that before I’ve had my daily wine and beer. I mean, coffee. Yeah, that’s what I meant.
I did see that Trump’s Iran War is not over. The price of gas is shocking here. Diesel prices are almost at $7 a gallon.
Trump mocked that as ‘peanuts’. He insists he’s a man on a mission to stop Iran from having nuclear weapons, no matter how much pain it cause US citizens and the world. Sure; we believe that. It’s all just part of Operation Epic LOOK — SQUIRREL!
Today’s song is “Boys of Summer”. Written by Mike Campbell, a guitarist who played and wrote with Tom Petty, Petty turned the song down. Don Henley took it and had a hit in 1984.
The Neurons put it in the morning mental music stream because several times, I looked out at the beach and saw, “Nobody on the beach.” Recognizing the line from the song, I suppose Les Neurons thought I was trying to remember it.
I hope your day progresses in a satisfying way. I find that coffee helps, along with staying well hydrated with other fluids.
How very un-American. So contrary to the ideals of freedom and equal, a democracy where we all answer to the law of the land.
I vaguely wondered and researched if there had ever been a precedence for this. I also wondered what Constitution originalists would have to say about it. They’re always touting what they think the founders were thinking when the government was established, talking about intentions. How will they reconcile this ‘deal’ with the founders’ intentions?
Trump is acting like a king, giving himself royal prerogatives about how the government will treat him and his crimes.
The reactions are about what we’d expect. MAGA supporters are pleased that Trump is beating the ‘deep state’. Sorry, but I’m not linking to any of those subjects.
These things are happening while Trump pretends to celebrate the 250-year anniversary of the nation he’s undermining and the policies and norms he’s betraying. It’s such a slap in the face to We the People. More troubling is that most of the Republican version of We the People are so willing to be complicit in this travesty.
A ‘modified’ Trump Quote of the Day for you:
Fascinating how the truth is encoded Trump when he projects as he does, isn’t it? It’s one of the few times he tells the truth.
Catsitter called to say all is well with Papi. He was sort of quizzical about his morning routine, looking around for us, not really ready to eat at first but then gave in and chowed down.
Yes, we’re still at the coast. Another day, another photo.
Temperature is 58 F for the record, not far off of the expected high of 63 F. Tide is out. It was waayyy low earlier this morning.
Other than thinking about Trump and growling about what he’s done so far, I’m not paying much attention to the news. Saw there was another shooting, along with the usual responses from the usual suspects.
It was striking to see how many police cars mobilized to the shooting site in San Diego. We could save so many lives and need far less resources like this if we’d take a sensible approach to gun ownership. Someday, someday, someday…
For music, The Neurons went with “Margaritaville.” This is a Jimmy Buffett song. The Neurons fed it to the morning mental music stream as I cruised the sand. The surf’s sound pounded my ears and the wave play was fantastic. Soooo refreshing. I had a cuppa coffee in my hand as I walked… Well, truth: I had a four shot Americano as I walked. Good stuff. *smile*
Hope you day goes as well as mine, and that our days together will grow brighter, better, and healthier.
Our weather here is chilly but the sky is clear. It’s 44 F but expected to jump to 70 F.
Meanwhile, we’re on the road, heading to the coast. Our friend has just arrived to take up residence with Papi. Her house has work going on so this worked out well for us.
Off we go. Meanwhile, the music in my morning mental music stream is “25 or 6 to 4” by Chicago. It’s in the stream because of the line, “Should I try to do some more?” I was doing something earlier and asked that aloud to Papi. While he was indifferent to the question, The Neurons plucked Chicago out of memory and began playing the 1970 classic rock staple.
I enjoyed watching the video because I dressed just like Terry Kahn on lead guitar back in those days. *smile*. Hair was long like that, too, but bushier. *another smile*
Hope your travels take you to happy places, whether it’s down the road, in your writing or thinking, or just through your house.
Wet, chilly 44 degrees F. Clouds are throttling the sunshine. Rain fell overnight, a good short-term addition to keep the land wet, the plants green, and the reservoirs and cisterns full. Today’s high will be 64 F.
My news feed includes stories on an airline passenger biting a crew member, Trump threatening Boebert, and a car crashing into a crowd in California, killing people. The sad thing about these news pieces are how frequently things like this now fill my feed.
The complete Epstein files have not been released, despite Trump’s promise.
Trump’s disapproval ratings continue to climb. The NYTimes compiled a list of 826 poll results. I reviewed the first pages. Only one poll of 120 showed Trump to have a positive approval rating — +2, by a Republican pollster. All the preceding polls showed polling about Trump red with disapproval.
Project Epic LOOK — SQUIRREL! remains in a quiet phase. Get ready for a breakout.
Crooks & Liars shared coverage about Trump and Vance and their financial paperwork.Setting the tone for Americans of all ages and backgrounds, Trump and Vance always diligently fill their paperwork accurately and on time.
No; that’s how it’s supposed to be. But in Trump’s Golden Age of Corruption, Trump and Vance keep failing to fill paperwork on time. Other presidents haven’t had this issue, but then, other presidents weren’t buying and selling stock as Trump does. The Trump White House countered, blind trust, but a rep said, “No, we have the paperwork with Trump’s signature.”
Lies, grift, and chaos are the hallmarks of a Trump operation.
Conover Kennard wrote the C&L post, “Rules Are for Little People”. I love her final paragraph because it summarizes the law-and-order hypocrisy of the Trump operations.
“I’m going to go out on a limb here to suggest that Trump isn’t being forthcoming. Shocking, I know. Last year, Trump publicly attacked Republican Senator Josh Hawley of Missouri for collaborating with Democrats on legislation that would have prohibited the president and vice president from trading stocks. Imagine that.“
Yeah. Imagine that.
Your Trump Quote of the Day:
I’d be impressed if Trump began by making the White House crime free.
That’s not going to happen. Bolstered by the Roberts Court ruling that things Trump does as president is above the law, Trump has a different set of rules for himself. He has another set for wealthy friends and powerful people, a third set for his supporters, another set for everyone else except immigrants. Trump has a special set of rules for them, and it doesn’t include law or order, due process, or any of that other fancy US Constitution stuff.
Try to overturn the peaceful, fair, and legal elections
Threaten elected officials
Threaten and beat up law enforcement and destroy government property
Reward them for those crimes and behavior
That’s how upside-down Trump, the GOP, and the Roberts Court has turned the world.
Today feels like a bluesy Sunday. Sensing that, The Neurons hooked Gary Moore’s song, “Still Got the Blues (for You)” from the memory bank and began playing it in the morning mental music stream.
My hope for you is that the day works out for you with some semblance of peace, grace, and happiness. Stay strong.
From the beginning of Trump’s run for nomination, he’s made promises, and then broke them. Ignoring laws, experts, and history, he’s followed his own path. Experts warned about the consequences. History informed us about what had happened the last time the things he’s trying were tried. Laws were made to check power and ensure We the People were heard.
Trump ignored it all. The consequences are accelerating.
Trump began his term as 47 suggesting the United States should add a 51st state.
Puerto Rico? Washington, D.C.? Guam? All are natural choices, since their citizens are US citizens.
No. Trump scorned them. An advocate of states’ rights when it suits his agenda, Trump wants the Federal government to take over D.C. Says, “I think that we should run it strong, run it with law and order, make it absolutely flawlessly beautiful.” You know, like the USPS is doing under him. Or any of his bankrupted businesses.
Canada balked against the idea. Then they got pissed. Basically flipping the bird at Trump and the United States, Canada reacted to Trump and his threats and tariffs by withdrawing business from the US. Canada’s purchase of US alcohol has dropped 63%.
Using cell phone data, economic analysts are reporting that Canadian tourists boycotted coming to the United States for business and vacations more than is generally reported. When they did come, they stayed for less time and spent less money.
Then, deciding that law and order meant whatever he decided it meant, Trump used the US military to kidnap Venezuela’s President and his wife. Trump later suggested, maybe Venezuela should be our new 51st state, bringing WTF frowns to many people’s faces. Many frowns deepened when he’s shifted to talking about Panama as a 51st state.
The bottom line from Trump’s rash behavior is the US lost a valuable trading ally in Canada. Canadian tourists are staying away. That’s contributing to declines in tourism to the US. Most of the money being spent on travel in the US now is by US citizens.
Meanwhile, Trump’s military has been spending so much money that they now must save money. How will they do that? Why, by cutting training. Yes, sir, nothing works better to keep the nation’s military strong and ready then cutting training! How very Trumpy logic it is.
Part of the reason why the US military is cash strapped is Trump’s war with Iran. Trump had Iran attacked in June 2025 to stop their nuclear program. Trump declared that military operation was successful.
Yet, in February of 2026, Trump had Iran attacked again. To stop their nuclear program. In April, he declared that Iran’s military was ‘decimated’.
But here we are, more than two and a half months later, with Trump threatening to attack Iran again as Operation Sledgehammer because Iran is still fighting back.
As part of Trump’s war on fraud, waste, and abuse, he created DOGE. Headed by billionaire Elon Musk, DOGE trampled constitutional norms and arbitrarily decided what was waste, never mind what Congress had decided. That campaign led to over $100,000,000 in funding for 1,400 grants to the National Endowments for the Humanities (NEH) being cancelled or terminated.
A year later, a judge has ruled what many of us said a year ago: Trump lacks the authority to cancel these grants. The people he authorized to do so employed specious reasoning when they cancelled them. That Trump and Musk worked through two twenty-year-olds without experience in grants or the humanities, people who did not bother to review the applications or grants, was just another demonstration of the Trump administration arrogance, recklessness, and due process.
NEH is expected to restore the funding. We’re waiting to see if Trump’s DOJ will appeal.
Eric Trump, son of Donald Trump, was caught blatantly lying by Jen Psaki. Jen Psaki noted that Eric, a citizen entrusted with running the Trump business while his father is in the White House, went to China with Dad. Eric said it was because he was an adoring son. Psaki said it was because he was doing business with China and was on the board of Alt5. Eric denied having anything to do with Alt5 and threatened to sue Psaki and the network. Psaki pulled up the information about Eric Trump being introduced as a board member of Alt5 last year.
BTW, Eric Trump is cozying up to the Chinese to build Data Centers in the US with a Chinese chip manufacturer.
Eric, like Dozy Donnie, thought he could lie with impunity. He and Donnie both forget we’re in the information age. Fact checking is easily available if you have the time and interest.
Trump’s backward thinking is catching up with Trump and his family and supporters. It’s a slow-motion crash, but sooner or later, the tipping point will be reached and it’ll all fall over.
Many events are on the horizon which could cause the tipping point:
Climate change and forecasted super El Nino, with hot, dry weather extending the drought
The Trump Iran War, and its disruptions to the global supply change and rising prices
The accelerating national debt
More legal rulings against Trump, DOGE, Trump’s tariffs
A cratering economy
Rural healthcare hospital crises and rising insurance premiums and costs
Low tourism to the US with falling World Cup ticket prices and attendance
Trump’s worsening health and cognitive decline
Trump’s increasingly open corruption and grift
My question is, how bad will the fall be for the nation and its people?
Ashland, southern Oregon — Saturday, May 16, 2026.
Clouds block the sunshine and dirty the blue sky. Our weather temperatures continue their slow backward slide. Today’s high will be 58 F. Fed by wind gusts, it’s currently a chilly 46 F.
Papi the ginger wonder isn’t happy. He’d like to be outside but, wind. Wind is his enemy. He sat for a bit, feet all together, tail wrapped around him, motionless except for ear flicks. That lasted three or four minutes before he was back inside, washing himself and recovering.
Our weather is better than other places in the US, where a May spring snowstorm is complicating plans.
What did Trump’s visit to China do for the nation. We won’t know for a while. Trump has made some claims about what China agreed to do. We’ll see how much of them are true, and which are just hot air. Remember, Trump has made vows and claims before that carried nothing but his air:
Make no mistake, Trump and his MAGA base are trying to take the United States backwards. In the latest move during the Trump Golden Age of Ignorance, Knox County, Kentucky, schools are removing the historic novel “Roots” by Alex Haley. It’s truly a WTF period for many of us.
Your Trump Quote for the Day:
With Trump’s reactionary thinking dragging us backwards and the weather losing its summer luster, The Neurons plugged “Back In Time” into the morning mental music stream. The 1985 song was performed by Huey Lewis and the News and featured in the movie, “Back to the Future”. Seems right for the day, except the time I want to go back to is before Trump ever ran for office in 2015.
I hope your weekend is progressing well and you keep moving forward in good ways.
It was cloudy but the clouds have fade, retreated, moved on. Sunshine is winning the morning, carrying us through the mid 50s now. Today high will be around 70 F.
Trump is returning from China. They apparently didn’t want him, either. We should have sweetened the offer, let them keep Air Force 1 if they kept Trump. Throw in Melania and Colossus Don, Dozy Donnie’s golden Floridistan statue.
Note: “Colossus Don” sure sounds like a mob name, doesn’t it? I can imagine a scene of dialogue about him. “What’s Colossus Don doing?”
“Feeding his fat face, of course. That fat fuck doesn’t give a fuck about nobody but himself.”
Trump is pleased because China agreed to buy more US oil. Krugman pointed out that it doesn’t really help us much as consumers. It raised oil prices in the US. Oil and energy companies are making more money and profits. They’re corporations, so we see the fallout from that in the stock market and the stockholders. Krugman points out that the stock market is owned by a small percentage of people in the US and that foreigners own a chunk of it. Yet we’ll keep hearing about how great the stock market is!
Operation Epic LOOK — SQUIRREL! is contemplating a new Iran military operation. Just don’t call it war. Sure, we’re using military equipment and weapons to shoot at others and destroy things while they shoot at our military and destroy things, but that’s not war in Trumpyworld.
In the next move of the non-war, Trump will launch Operation Sledgehammer to see if they can open the Strait of Hormuz, as they were in February, before Trump ordered the attacks.
Trump’s administration also announced they were increasing global humanitarian aid to $1.8 billion after slashing it before. This seems like another Operation Epic LOOK — SQUIRREL! move to me. The announcement is one thing; will other nations see the funds? Not under the standard OE — LS! processes. Just grab headlines, distract from bad news, poor economy, Epstein files, etc.
Your Trump Quote of the Day:
“According to a CNN/SSRS poll, 77% of people surveyed said Trump’s policies increased their cost of living. Roughlt two-thirds of Americans said Trump’s policies made the country’s economic conditions worse, according to the poll conducted between April 30 and May 4.” USA Today, May 15, 2026.
My music today is from Led Zeppelin. I watched the Netflix documentary, “Becoming Led Zeppelin” this week. I’ve been a Zeppelin fan for most of my life so it was entertaining to learn more details about them as individuals and how they came together. Jimmy Page was really the force, but all four were intense, talented musicians.
The making and playing of “Whole Lotta Love” consumed the documentary’s final minutes. As a youth, the song fascinated me. I remember listening to that middle ‘avant garde’ section, identifying sounds as it moved around the room, thinking that’s really cool. LOL. The Neurons enjoyed remembering the song, so it’s hanging around the morning mental music stream, so here you are.
I remember listening to it, too, and having Mom and my sisters look at me strangely when I talked about the song. Mom didn’t get it at all. My sisters seemed really jaundiced about what they were hearing as well.
I hope your Operation Epic Friday begins well and improves as the hours progress.
My coffee is here. Time for Operation Epic Drink Coffee.
Ashland, southern Oregon — Thursday, May 14, 2026.
It’s blue out there, full of sunshine. Clouds are absent. 50 F with a high in the mid 70s today.
Thunderstorms looked possible yesterday but it didn’t happen. Just as in the previous days of forecasted activity. After the winter snow drought, May is at 3% of its average rainfall.
Our snowpack is at about 7%. While the reservoirs are above 80%, without snowmelt to replenish them, it’ll be a hot, dry summer. Stack the El Nino predictions, many of us are bracing ourselves for a rough year ahead.
Mom’s state is not good. She wasn’t responding to my sister’s texts. Sis called the assisted living facility, Heritage Grove, to ask about Mom. They said Mom went to bed before dinner and had not felt well all day.
On the optimistic side of the board, two neighbors are reportedly interested in buying Mom’s house.
My wife and I had new tires installed. For the record, we replaced a set that we’d bought in 2019. Got 35,000 miles out of them. Not great, not bad.
We bought them at Costco and had them installed there, shopping while we waited. As we were in the Medford area, we decided to eat out and chose the Texas Roadhouse Restaurant. My wife likes the salmon they serve there.
We couldn’t eat there. The way was blocked by ambulances and firetrucks. Wondering what’s going on, we took to our phones to learn. Nothing at the fire department, alert system, social media, or local television stations could give us that info.
This duplicated a Tuesday incident, in my mind. Driving home from writing at the coffee shop, one lane of traffic was blocked off in front of an SOU building on Siskiyou Avenue. What happened? I searched for information after I got home and couldn’t find anything. 24 hours later, the answer came: a woman had driven across the median strip, up a walkway, and into a building, breaking a gas meter along the way.
Miserable headlines fill my feed. When will there be good news? I’m not sure what I mean by good news at this point. An end to wars would be nice, along with a return to normalcy. Normalcy to me is let’s take action against polluting our air and water. Action against climate change. But the cynic in me says that PINO Trump would take credit for whatever and enough brain-dead people would slurp that down and bray about how great Dozy Donnie is that I’d regurgitate everything taken in during the last three days.
But here’s the state of things in the United States nation in one sharp observation someone else made:
Your Trump Quote of the Day:
Paraphrasing, Trump lies, says this isn’t so bad, Biden! Because that worked well previously under Operation Epic LOOK — SQUIRREL!
Enough people with brains are responding, screw you.
You started a war, Donald J “No new wars” Trump.
The economy is a mess, gas prices are rising, all the prices are rising, Donald J “We’ll cut prices on day 1” Trump, and the country is going in the wrong direction.
And you, DONALD J TRUMP, YOU ARE THE REASON WE’RE IN SIX MILLION MESSES WITH NO WAY OUT EXCEPT TO FIRST GET RID OF YOU AND YOUR CRONIES.
Now stop building the damn ballroom and release the damn Epstein files so we can feast on your political corpse.
The Neurons inserted “Mind Games” by John Lennon into my morning mental music stream. This actually came about from Papi’s state of mind this morning. I played with him and his favorite nemesis, the red dot. The play began abruptly. As soon as he engaged, I stopped for about a minute. He kept peeking left and right, waiting for it to reappear. Just as he started walking off, I blinked it back on. Off Papi went, chasing it across the room, then stalking it.
I hope your Thursday brings you some good news and fair winds, assuming you need winds to get somewhere. Like you drive a sail car and need to have wind to blow you along the Interstate.
I was younger, traveling with my wife and a small group. We were in separate vehicles. I knew I was traveling with a group but none of them stand out in memory.
There was a snowy mountain involved. My wife and I were leading the way, driving in an SUV, heading to a site of four cabins partway along our journey. The cabins weren’t our destination but just a stop.
I was driving and we were well ahead of the rest. My wife and I arrived as dusk began. It was on a slope, heavy snow, with large bare and fallen trees. I felt that some paths and parking for the others were needed and set to work doing that. While I made progress, time was limited, and I needed the proper equipment, so I went on.
Reaching a large conference center, I gathered my people. They were a small group – six to seven, I think. A larger conference was going on. I called my people together to talk about what I’d already done and also to note that we needed equipment to clear out the snow around the cabins, but we also needed to move some stuff.
That last seemed important to me. While I don’t specifically know what I was moving, I knew it was big, heavy stuff. Challenging for a small group, I was hoping the other conference’s attendees would overhear us and offer some help.
That didn’t seem to happen. I went back to the cabins with my wife. Arriving there, I now had a red piece of equipment to move the snow away. While I started doing that, I thought I saw some trees smoking.
I examined the trees. They turned out to be short, gray wooden statues carved from tree stumps. I confirmed they were smoking to me and went back to get my wife’s opinion but also to call it in.
She confirmed what I saw. While we were talking about it, a large group of teenagers arrived. They began climbing on the statues. I went over to warn them that I thought the statues were smoking and might be on fire. As I told them this, I pointed out the smoke to them, and then spotted open yellow flames on one of the statues. I then made everyone move away. I also spotted a statue that had turned into smoking black char, telling me that had been happening for a while.
My wife wanted me to go get help. She said she’d stay there but I felt that was unsafe for her and said, “No.” I explained my thinking and she accepted that.
I then went back in and got on a red telephone to call someone for help with the snow removal, getting the students to safety, and putting out the fire. It was both a friend and an authority in charge of such equipment. He began talking, assuming he knew why I was calling. It was noisy and hard to hear. My wife was with me and I told her, “He’s assuming things.” Then I told him, “No, listen to me. That’s not what’s happening. There are three things going on here. Pay attention.”
He promised to pay attention and then said he’d send help.
Michael Seidel, writer 