Category: walking

Wednesday’s Theme Music

Come aboard my friends to the show that never ends, the water’s rough but the music is fine. Tis Wednesday, November 10, 2021, a gray bannered day in this realm. Sun and blue are trying to break through but the mean ol’ clouds keep denying them time. The world’s spin brought the sun’s presence up at 6:55 AM and it’ll be spun away from us at 4:55 PM. Meanwhile, chill is the word for the air. 42 F now, 53 and rain in the near future hours. Grab some rain gear or be wet if you’re going walking.

Had a banging walk yesterday. Pushed myself further, harder, faster against a soft, gloomy wind and a tranquil gray and blue sky. Wound up sweat drenched. Always feels good to sweat like that, hear the muscles say, “Hello, what’s going on.”

A raft of dreams carried me through the night. Documented a few from that nocturnal journey. Left me on the bedside this AM, thinking, life is a riddle. My brain added, “I’m really stumped.” I then said, hmmm, and remembered those are lyrics from something. Wasn’t until ten, fifteen minutes, while in the can, that the lyrics were fit to a melody and group, emerging, self-assembled, as “Gotta Get Away” by The Offspring, 1995. That was the year of my military retirement, and the sentiment, gotta get away, was strong by the time I put my papers in. This was after turning down some assignments. One was plum, the other sucked, and the third was bizarre. Ergo, gotta get away.

Some lyrics reminder from the song:

I tell you, something just ain’t right
My head is on loose but my shoes are tight
Avoiding my friends ’cause they all bug
Life is like a riddle and I’m really stumped
If you reason, don’t you know
Your own preoccupation is where you’ll go
Being followed, I look around
It’s only my shadow creeping on the ground

h/t to AZLyrics.com

Stay positron, test negatron, wear a mask as needed to protect yourself and others, and get the vax and booster when you can for the same reasons. Here’s my coffee and the music. Cheers

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Wednesday’s Theme Music

Salutations to the inhabitants of Gaia. We’re continuing a new theme of calling days this month ‘November’ and numbering them. Today is Wednesday, November 3, 2021. Sunrise kicked in like a toddler at 7:46 AM and will waddle out at 6:02. While it’s battleship gray this AM, with sunlight relegated to the level of a dim bar at happy hour, we expect the temperature to go from its current realm in the low fifties to the upper sixties. I’m meeting with friends at a brewery. We’re all vaxxed and we’ll be sitting outside at a picnic table. There, we were enjoy a local brew. Maybe two.

With rain and it being November, you’d think I’d be thinking of “November Rain”, but I didn’t. Instead, trudging up a steep, steep hill during yesterday’s constitutional, I told myself, gasp, “Breathe in, breathe out.” Quickly, my mental Alexa picked up on the words and introduced “Machinehead” by Bush from 1994. It’s one of the songs I frequently listened to on my short morning commute from NAS Moffett base housing where I lived over to Onizuka AS, where I worked in California during those years. The commute was just long enough to listen to one song, then done. I enjoyed remembering it, and introduce as today’s theme music.

Stay positive, test negative, wear a mask as needed, distance when necessary, and get the vax and boosters when ye can. Here’s the music. There I go. Into the kitchen. That’s where the coffee is. Cheers

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Wednesday’s Theme Music

Hello, my fellow homo sapiens. Today is Wednesday, October 27, 2021. A dreary day in the valley of my home. Clouds blustering about rain. Winds whispering about storms. And the sun, quietly hanging back after its 7:38 AM, is a wallflower on this dance. A mild 52 F degrees now, we expect some of these clouds to skate away and leave us in the upper sixties before sunset takes over at 6:43 PM.

I was feeling philosophical last night. A power outage of five hours changed the day’s dynamics. It was a bit of a release, a staycation, as my other and I sat and chatted for most of those hours. I walked later, admiring the gowns the trees brought out for their fall collection. Russets have sprung into many, but there are mild browns, deep scarlet, brilliant red, and most impressively, lemon yellows that still your sight. Some of these leaves, especially on maples going red, seem like they’re lit with an inner light. Before that, I was enduring the monthly dark funk that likes to shroud me once a month for a day or two, spooning bitterness and weariness into me while maligning my energy channels. The walk helped reversed most of that, refortifying shaky defenses and infusing new determination back into my spine.

Out of that came a 1989 Indigo Girls song, “Closer to Fine”. Closer to fine is a good place to be. Not perfect but better than before.

Stay positive, test negative, don a mask as needed for the situation, and get the vax and boosters when you can. Here’s the tunes. Listen while I head off to the kitchen for my coffee. Cheers

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Tuesday’s Theme Music – Fixed

We’re striding through the week, marching through Tuesday, October 19, 2021. The winds here think it’s March. They’re roaring like a lion. Sunrise arrived sans fanfare at 7:28 AM, with sunset due at 6:23 PM. Temps will reach into the mid sixties from their present point of 56 F before dropping down into the low forties tonight. It’ll be a dry day, with a bit o’ wind. If the wind ceases later, as expected, I’ll head out for a walk.

Was a beautiful walk yesterday afternoon. Two miles burnished by bright sunshine and cool, mild breezes. Colorful trees provided companionship, along with deer, squirrels, jays, and cats. With an AQI of ten, the view across the valley was unhindered and inspiring.

With the cooler temperatures, we have the house heat turned on for the season. We keep the house at 68 F during the day. While that’s the agreed temperature and I find it comfortable, my wife likes it hotter. Not so much a personal request on her part; more a matter of coping with her health conditions. As compromise to the situation, we have a small electric heater employed in the snug. It’s like a little sun in there. She cranked it up to Medium yesterday, or, as I call it, broil. Had the room a toasty 81 degrees F. That inspired the morning mental music stream, of course. I ended up singing lyrics to myself from “Some Like It Hot” by The Power Station, way back in 1985.

Feel the heat pushing you to decide
Feel the heat burning you up, ready or not

Some like it hot, and some sweat when the heat is on
Some feel the heat and decide that they can’t go on
Some like it hot, but you can’t tell how hot till you try
Some like it hot, so let’s turn up the heat till we fry

h/t to AZLyrics.com

The last time I used this song as theme music was June, 2019, when a heat wave was crashing o’er us. Whenever I think of the song’s title, I can’t stop the movie, “Some Like It Hot”, from crashing in. A silly farce from Billy Wilder that won six Academy Awards, it had a helluva cast, with Jack Lemmon, Tony Curtis, and Marilyn Monroe headlining. Not PC for these times. A remake would require substantial re-scripting. But it came out in 1959. I saw it on television, of course, a looong time later.

Stay positive, test negative, wear a mask as needed, and get the vax. Here’s the music. Time for me to rassle up some coffee. Cheers

Well. Left the link to the video out. Sorry. That’s what I get, trying to post without hot-starting my brain with spot of coffee first.

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Monday’s Theme Music

A riddle to begin: what is always new, different, and the same? Here we are now — Monday again. New day, different day, same day.

Yes, it’s Monday, October 4, 2021 — ten four. Do you understand? A soft-spoken, lethargic sunrise came into my life this AM at 7:10. Sun flight, where we spin away again, will come at 6:58 PM. AQI is one again — fresh air. Temperature is now 56 F but monsieur is expecting something in the upper seventies range, perhaps. Once again, it’s a pale, mottled sky, white with faint gray dimples and dips. What’s it portend? The weather gods might know.

An excellent walk was had yesterday. 77 F when I set out. Full sunshine that hills and trees blocked out quickly as I went upslope, temperatures dipping four, five degrees. Sometimes a light wind visited as I passed digesting deer, pondering cats, busy squirrels and birds, and dog-walkers with their animals. Four miles was done. Finished as the sun stood up and declared with a yawn and a stretch, “Well, I’m calling it a day.”

“Suite: Judy Blue Eyes” (1969) by Crosby, Stills, and Nash, inhabits the morning’s mental music stream. The song has always captivated me. Guitar variations; the lyrics, pitches, harmony, tempo changes, its personal nature as an attempt by the songwriter, Stephen Stills, to capture and explain what he’s feeling. Here’s a live version; a little rougher than the studio-produced gem, but honest. Plus, I always like seeing performers as they looked when they made their music.

Stay positive, test negative, wear a mask, and get the vax & booster. Enjoy your Monday and October. Coffee time. Cheers

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Sunday’s Theme Music

Sunday, Sunday. Another day older and deeper in debt. Perhaps, for some. My friend was giving me grief the other day. I told him that we don’t know what happens when we die. He replied, “When you’re dead, you’re dead. That’s it. Over and done.” He’s older. An older space industry engineer. I answered with reminders. What we didn’t know about existence fifty years ago. Hundred years ago, a thousand. How our knowledge improves — or we think it does — as our species matures. Develops new tools. New manners of perception. Wasn’t out to convince him. Just amused by his certainty. His response resonates with my beliefs about reality: we don’t know much about it and eat it in very small bites.

Today is Sunday, October 3, 2021. A fall month in the north. Spring month in the south. Someone posted a quote from Kierkegaard and his preference for fall. Here, paraphrasing: “In the spring, you look down at the ground. In the fall, you look up at the sky.” I look up in either but I grok what he’s saying.

Sunset will come at 6:49 PM. Sunshine splashed through our autumn blue sky at 7:10 AM. The trees are changing, and I do love the explosion of yellow, gold, and reds among the greens. For temperatures, we’re expecting a high of around 80 F. No rain. Light breeze. AQI of 1, again. Glorious walking day. I shall indulge.

The morning mental music stream has Dave Grohl and the Foo Fighters playing “Walk” (2011) today. Came about while walking yesterday. Perfect in so many dimensions of air, sights, sounds, and temperature, the cap on a day that went well for me. So I pushed to walk hard, fast, far, and back. While out there, I was chuckling. Between smoke, heat, and COVID-19 concerns, walking like this was limited in 2021. Nice to be able to do it again.

Stay positive, test negative, wear a mask as needed, get the vax and booster. Sing a song, laugh, read…whatever. Have a good day. Cheers

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