Friday’s Theme Music

Mood: Freedayitis

Our weather is continuing its pattern in Ashlandia. High today of 92 to 95 F. This is our average temp for the month. Smoke is up, stinging nostrils, bit of a bloody nose, congestd nose and sinuses, turning my throat into aching parchment. It’s 69 F now on this Friday, August 9, 2024. The air quality is moderate, ’bout 83 in my zone. There is an unhealthy air advistory out for us. It was s’posed to expire this morning but it’s been extended until tonight. Still, better than having a raging fire actually in town. And the air is good enough in my area that some windows are open a few inches. I know from observations and experience, the bad air is out in front of us, to the west. East, and north (today), is delivering decent air. It’s about the vegetation and topography.

We continue to check on a friend who just disappeared. He has health issues; so does his wife. He does have children and grands in the area, so he might be with them. He was taken off by EMTs one afternoon, and that’s the last he was seen by friends and neighbors. They haven’t seen him where he volunteers. Haven’t heard from him. The car is gone, no one answers the phone or emails, or the door. It’s been a pensive month looking for a news update on him. He’s always been very private so we’re hopeful that he’s okay but just keeping to himself and fam.

Today’s theme music goes with a free variation. The Neurons have Queen with “I Want to Break Free” alternating with Neil Young with “Rockin’ in the Free World” playing in the morning mental music stream (Trademark taxing). I can’t choose so I’ll go with both.

Both songs are from the 1980s and established rockers. “I Want to Break Free” was released in ’84. The music video caused a social storm in the U.S. because, oh, no, cross dressing. *gasp*. There’s a small but vocal group of Puritanical Americans who always react with hand-wringing and gasps, and hisses, “Oh, the children, think of the children.” Yeay, I’m channeling some Southpark.

Although this is a love song of sorts, we have those apt opening lines for Trump and the MAGAts:

I want to break free
I want to break free
I want to break free from your lies
You’re so self-satisfied, I don’t need you
I’ve got to break free
God knows, God knows I want to break free

h/t to AZLyrics.com

“Rockin’ in the Free World” was released in 1989. I initially thought it was in response to George Bush becoming POTUS but later learned, no, it was because planned concerts to the U.S.S.R. were canceled, apparently because the Soviets said, “Nyet.” As for its lines, they are poignantly political (h/t to Genius.com):

We got a thousand points of light
For the homeless man
We got a kinder, gentler machine gun hand
We’ve got department stores and toilet paper
Got styrofoam boxes for the ozone layer
Got a man of the people says keep hope alive
Got fuel to burn, got roads to drive

That’s America and our overall priorities: guns and wars, consumer goods and driving.

Stay positive, be free, and remain strong. Vote Blue in 2024. Here is my coffee, here is my cup, part my lips and drink it down. Here are the videos. Let’s rock.

Thursday’s Theme Music

Mood: Freshfree

Thursday has trundled in, soft of foot and full of grace, delivering smoke in our space, and pleasing night air on our face.

It’s Thursday, 8/8/24, or 24/8/8.

Our smoke has risen into the unhealthy zone. Don’t know which fire is our source. We have many to select from. None too close but valleys channel it in. It looks like crap out there. Can’t see the mountains for the smoke, and the blue sky has been squirted into smoggy tones. 65 F outside my house today, we’re expecting a thirty degree rise to the high. No wind is blowing, so a sort of still deadness rules. I expect zombies to start emerging from the smoke at any moment.

We’ve been spoiled by the peaches acquired at the growers market in the last two visits. Both times we returned with the sweetest, tastiest, most perfectly ripe peaches. Sooo juicy. The blackberries were found wanting. Plump and juicy, yes, but only one out of four is sweet. We’re of the school that blacberries should be sweet and not sour, and the sour blackberries aren’t sitting well on my tongue. Besides those fruits, we picked up green onions — my wife is a fiend for ’em — and greens. Good stuff: local and organic. Non-GMO.

I posted something about Gov Walz the other day. A right wing friend commented, “He put tampons in the boys room.” I reacted, oh, no! How terrible! How tragic! Must cost billions of dollars. Such a waste, such a waste.

Well, no, I didn’t write all that. I thought it. I wasn’t going to write it because the issue doesn’t deserve any oxygen. As Joey from Friends said, “It’s something a cow would say. It’s a moo point.”

My wife has an ongoing thing with spiders in the bath. I use the shower stall, so this doesn’t involve me, but whenever she heads to the tub, she must clear out several spiders. We don’t kill spiders and these are all of the daddy longlegs variations. She plugs up the drain with a cloth to keep them from climbing up through there and removes them by means of a rolled, stiff piece of paper. She calls this her spider catcher. It’s actually an old invoice for blinds. We pulled it out a month ago to see when we purchased our blinds. It hasn’t been refiled because it’s now my wife’s spider catcher. She gives me a summary — “There were three spiders in there. I don’t know they’re coming from. They seem to get stuck. Stupid spiders. I move them and they go right back in there.”

With freedom still my theme this week, The Neurons are channeling Bread’s 1971 song, “Mother Freedom” into the morning mental music stream (Trademark discounted). My older sister had this album so I knew the song. I met my wife later that year. Her sister had the album on 8-track and regularly played it. It’s tres fam. God song for freedom week, though.

Freedom, keep walkin’
Keep on your toesand don’t stop talkin’ ’bout
Freedom, get goin’
Lots to be learned and lots to be known ’bout
People gotta reach ’em
Sit ’em right down and then you gotta teach ’em ’bout
Freedom, gotta win it
Gotta put yourself smack dab in it

Hey tomorrow
Now don’t you go away
‘Cause freedom
Just might come your way

Freedom, keep tryin’
People stay alive and people keep dyin’ for
Freedom, so don’t lose it
Ya gotta understand ya just can’t abuse it
Freedom, get movin’
Never gonna stop till everybody’s groovin’ on
Love for – one another
Callin’ some friend and callin’ some brother

h/t to AZLyrics.com

Just 89 days until the elections. Stay fresh, be strong, and remain postive. Vote Blue. Coffee has found its way into a cup and on into my systems, so all systems are go. Here’s the music video. Cheers

Wednesday’s Theme Music

Mood: Coffeefried

We’re in the middle of the week — Wednesday — and on August’s 7th day in 2024.

Ashlandia’s air is clear this morning — praise be! That makes the cats happy. They were already pleased to sign the flooftition endorsing Gov. Walz to be Vice President of the United States, and are purring over the idea of a Kamala Harris administration.

Yesterday, we saw the temperatures go from 93 F in the late afternoon to 58 this morning. We’re in the mid sixties now under spot free blue skies, and we’ll be churning up to 97 F.

I’m still on the freedom theme. The Neurons have popped Richie Havens playing “Freedom” at Woodstock in 1969 into the morning mental music stream (Trademark still free). I heard this when I was thirteen and the intensity made me pause and listen more closely. And afterward, there’s a release, just a *whew* and a half minute of thoughtful silence about what was heard. The song still strikes me that way today.

I’d like to let freedom roll over us like a good long blast of fresh cold mountain air.

Stay positive and be strong. Lean forward and Vote Blue in 2024. Coffee has been brewed up. Here’s the video. Cheers

Tuesday’s Theme Music

Mood: Sympcoffeeco

Tuesday, August 6, 2024, greets you. It’s a cool 70 F in Ashlandia, where the sidewalks are cracked and irregular. We expect a low 90s F high, something like 93. The air has grown mostly, partially clear; nostrils only sometimes smart, eyes only sporadically sting, the throat is but moderately dry and sore, and the sinuses are just mildly congested. So, we good.

Vice President Kamala Harris chose Tim Walz as her running mate. I’ll say now, not my choice, but I support her and him. Ultimately, like many of my friends and relatives, I would have loved Pete Buttigieg. But I know the American political psyche would have fractured with a Black woman of mixed descent and a gay guy, no matter his skin color, driving the ship known as the United States. My second choice was Andy Beshear out of Kentucky. But I get it: Vice President Harris met with the candidates and made the choice based on her needs. Governor Walz has many fine attributes and has done nothing that I’ve read or heard about that caused a gag reflex. Admittedly, I haven’t read a whole lot about him. He does have the cachet of being the first politician who dubbed Don Old Trump as weird. Many of us outside of politics have been calling Don Old Trump weird since at least his ‘reality’ show. But Walz did it aloud on television and has made it stick. I hope that Mr. Walz simple midwestern approach will draw more voters toward trusting in and voting for the 2024 Democratic ticket.

I’m continuing the freedom theme with my theme music. Today’s choice is a sop to The Neurons. As soon as I began thinking of freedom songs, they began plying the morning mental music stream (Trademark free) with it. The group is Cream, the year is 1966, and the song is “I Feel Free”. As a ten year old hearing that song my rock senses went off and I was all giddy with the song’s generally relaxed and positive approach. The song never ascended the charts in the U.S. Nor did the several covers by others which followed later, but it’s a me sort of melody. Yes, I know, technically this is ‘free’ and not ‘freedom’. Close enough.

ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, I feel free. [x8]

Feel when I dance with you,
We move like the sea.
You, you’re all I want to know.
I feel free, I feel free, I feel free.

h/t to AZLyrics.com

Stay positive, be strong, and Vote Blue for Harris-Walz in 2024. Coffee and I are sympatico once again. Here’s the video, and away we go. Cheers

Monday’s Theme Music

Mood: Mondayitis

Here we go, another week begins. It’s Monday, August 5, 2024. Cool in Ashlandia at 68 F, we expect a high of 96 F. Our air quality is moderate today, with the winds favoring us enough to keep major smoke from barreling into our existence. Knock wood, the fires we experienced this year locally have been small and contained fast, thanks to our diligent fire-fighting crews in multiple communities.

Yesterday, the weather treated us to a sunny rain shower. Big silver streaks of water bolted down. A little petrichor rose up. Sunshine lorded over it all. It was over within a minute. Reminded me of a book which should be written, The One-Minute Shower. It’s all about efficiency.

Just what I needed to wake up to, a stock market sell-off based on fears that the U.S. economy is cooling. Economic news traditionally has a butterfly effect in U.S. politics. That’ll be an interesting new sidebar to August.

I’m continuing the theme of freedom in music. I rejected “Philadelphia Freedom” by Elton John. It’s about a tennis team, and I know that, so I can’t use it. Kris Kristofferson’s song, “Me and Bobby McKee” came up but that line, “Freedom’s just another word for nothing left to lose,” is too cynical for me right now. I think I’m going something upbeat in the form of George Michael and the 1990 song, “Freedom! 90”.

And yes, I know the song is about fame and his relationship to fame and music as a superstar but the lyrics fit well enough for me to take it in a political direction. Please, I like that piano.

All we have to see
Is that I don’t belong to you
And you don’t belong to me (Yeah, Yeah!)
Freedom!
I won’t let you down (Freedom!)
I will not give you up (Freedom!)
Gotta have some faith in the sound
(You got to give what you take)
It’s the one good thing that I’ve got, (Freedom!)
I won’t let you down (Freedom!)
So please don’t give me up (Freedom!)
Cause I would really, really love to stick around (You got to give what you take)

h/t to Genius.com

The political aspect becomes really flimy if you listen to all the words and think about them too much, so just sing out the vibrant freedom parts, if you will.

Be strong, remain positive, and lean forward. Let’s Vote Blue in 2024. Coffee has made its entrance. Here’s the music video. Let’s go. Cheers

Sunday’s Theme Music

Mood: Sundaysated

Welcome, fellow voyagers, to Sunday, August 4, 2024. It’s August’s first Sunday this year, so let’s hope it goes well.

Here in Ashlandia, we’re at 73 F but we’re expecting a high of 98 F. Clouds are roaming the sky and there is a chance of showers. A duplicate of yesterday isn’t expected. Showers occupied us into the early afternoon. As the showers faded, the heat came on. The 86 F high seemed hugely muggy. We chilled in the evening but lost all breezes so the overall effect was, ‘meh’.

Musically, The Neurons liked Beyoncé’s “Freedom” yesterday, and developed a penchant for songs of the freedom variety. Today has The Isley Brothers singing “Freedom” from 1970 in the morning mental music stream (Trademark free).

I think the song projects an element of freedom that’s gone from our era. When people dress differently now, we ask each other, “Why are they dressed like that?” They announce their pronouns, and people mutter, “Why are they doing that?” Different food or drink is consumed and other inquire, “Why are they eating that? Who are they? Where are they from?

“Can I trust them?”

Freedom, this is what I call freedom

Well, I wanna say, I wanna tell you
I wanna say when you can do what you wanna do
And go where you wanna go
And live where you wanna live
And love who you wanna love

And be what you wanna be
Join what you wanna join
Well, well, well, that’s freedom
Yeah, yeah, freedom, yes sir

When you can learn what you wanna learn
And read what you wanna read
(Free, free, free)

And write what you wanna write
(Free, free, free)
Do what you feel is right
(Free, free, free)

Hey, hey, hey, hey, freedom, freedom
Oh yeah, freedom, freedom, freedom
Oh yeah, freedom, oh that’s freedom, freedom
Freedom, freedom, freedom, freedom, oh yeah

When you can eat what you wanna eat
And sleep where you wanna sleep
And say what you wanna say
I like the children play what they wanna play

And work when you wanna work
Flirt when you wanna flirt
Oh, that’s freedom, freedom, freedom, freedom
Freedom, freedom, freedom, freedom

When you can laugh when you wanna laugh
And cry when you wanna cry
(Free, free, free)

And don’t have to feel ashamed
(Free, free, free)
Sing the song you wanna sing
(Free, free, free)

When you can buy what you wanna buy
(Free, free, free)
When no one to ask you why
(Free, free, free)

I’m doing my coffee thing. Stay postive, be free, be strong, and Vote Blue n 2024. Here’s the video. Cheers

Saturday’s Theme Music

Mood: rainlifted

Start the coffee. Saturday has landed on us in Ashlandia, where the students are young and the population is old.

A light rain fell this morning. After the smoke cleared to moderate levels last night, I opened windows with dreams of cooling the house. As we slept, the smoke returned. I awoke congested at just before six. Heading to the bathroom to spray saline up my nose and blow it out, my ears captured the ping ping of rain on the exhaust fan hood. Checking it out, I discovered Tucker (pronounced Tuck-ah) out on the patio, watching a mild rain descending. Papi was not far away but showed less interest in the rain.

It’s August 3, 2024. 94 days until the 2024 elections. 71 F here at this point, today’s high should stop short of the upper eighties. With this rain has come mouldering gray clouds. Smoke still obscures the mountains. We’re skewing toward moderately unhealthy air from wildfire smoke at the moment.

Today’s music will be “Freedom” by Beyonce. Reading that Vice President Kamala Harris is rolling it out as her campaign’s theme music, The Neurons and I agreed that it would be good theme music for today. I admit that I’m not overly familiar with the song. Released in 2016, I saw her perform it duing the Superbowl halftime show one year. There is no doubt the powerful, energetic song and its lyrics fit the fighting spirit VP Harris needs to win. It’s also a fitting album for a year in which the GOP is cutting back women’s rights and shackling their freedom. Hell, JD Vance even suggested making it a requirement that women have papers for traveling between states.

Freedom! Freedom! I can’t move
Freedom, cut me loose! Yeah
Freedom! Freedom! Where are you?
‘Cause I need freedom, too!
I break chains all by myself
Won’t let my freedom rot in hell
Hey! I’ma keep running
‘Cause a winner don’t quit on themselves

h/t to AZLyrics.com

Stay positive and be strong. Vote Blue in 2024. Coffee has arrived. Here’s the music. Cheers

Friday’s Theme Music

Mood: Fridastic

The air has cleared for us again. Looking at the models of wind currents, the swirling brings us some smoke from the north, like the Diamond Lake complex. Then the wind shifts and the smoke travels up along the mountain valleys from California’s monstrous Parks fire by Chico. A new wind change, and we have a reprieve for a while, like today, well, like now. Because those shifts can come with the suddenless of a cat snapping its paw out.

It will get hot today. Although it’s just 73 F now, we expect the digits to stop climbing at 99 F. Yesterday was supposed to see 104 F but I’m not certain we got that high at my house. That’s because we did a shopping run down the highway in Medford.

Breakfast bore the fruits of that shopping. A bagel was consumed alongside a fresh juicy, sweet peach, wonderfully plump, ripe cherries, and fat, flavorful blueberries.

It’s First Friday in Ashlandia. The art galleries will be flinging their doors open. Like coffee shops, book stores, and bakeries, we don’t have as many art galleries as we used to. The number of places that fell into the categories of that quartet — coffee shops, book stores, bakeries, and art galleries — was a big pull to Ashlandia for us. As those places fell away, replaced by fancy restaurants and ‘vintage’ clothing stores, and odd things like lavendar shops, the town lost its shine in our eyes. This is life, right?

Manwhile, friends have a project up, 1000museums at one of the art galleries today, so we’ll be pointing our feet to it and then progressing left right left right (cue Homer Simpson and Randy Newman) until we’re there.

Oh and we’re going blackberry picking at a friend’s place tomorrow morning.

As it’s Friday, Friday music is in my head. That’s how The Neurons work. There’s a large collection of songs about Friday. Like “Friday On My Mind”, “Black Friday”, “I Gotta Feeling”, “Friday I’m in Love”, and several songs just called “Friday”. The Neurons planted Blink 182 and “What’s My Name Again” in the morning mental music stream (Trademark next week) though, so that’s the music for the day.

Hope your Friday goes well. Stay pos, be strong, leeean forward, and Vote Blue this year. Coffee and I have reached an agreement and it’s being sipped. Here’s the music. Quite elemental. Cheers

Weird Ol’ Facebook

As a boomer, I still surf and share to FB. Mostly to keep up with ex-military friends and co-workers, and track my family on the other side of the country. I share things I write, too.

But I mostly, I ‘like’ things on Facebooks, things being ‘posts’, shares, videos, and photos. I share some of these things which I ‘like’. You might be surprised that I support animal charities and causes, especially cats. Cats and I have been together since I was a young toddler.

One of the FB groups I follow is VOKRA, the Vancouver Orphan Kitten Rescue Association. They posted, with photos, the tale of Jinx. They’re trying to get Jinx (or maybe it was Binx) adopted. I ‘liked’ the post about the sweet tabby kitten. It only had eleven shares, so I clicked share, to help spread the story and get Jinx or Binx adopted. That’s what social media is about, isn’t it?

Boom. Facebook told me they’d removed it. It was offensive and contrary to community standards. They even accused me of (gasp!) posting something just to get ‘likes’.

Posting things to get ‘likes’. WTF is the world coming to?

My wife and discussed this with WTF amazement. What does FB think it is if not a vehicle for ‘likes’? More critically, how the actual fuck did this post about a kitten available for adoption violate FB community standards?

I hate to reveal this to Facebook, but if cats and kittens and adoptions are against FB community standards, there are huge swaths of violations going on right now. They’d probably be scandalized to learn how many posts are about cats and kittens. In fact, if FB goes after posts about kittens and cats, they will seriously deplete their membership, posts, and shares. They might as well pull the plug on telling each other ‘happy birthday’ while they’re at it.

Truthtfully, I suspect that some poor Facebook AI bot is just having a bad day and removed a post that shouldn’t have been removed. Maybe their companion AI bot left them or they caught their partner AI bot in a compromising configuration with another bot doing forbidden codes.

I don’t know. I’m just speculating. Hope someone takes that poor AI bot aside and communicates with them over a cup of coffee.

Coffee always helps.

And yes, I will post this to Facebook to get likes. Ironic, isn’t it?

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