Category: weather

Friday’s Theme Music

At about 5:51 AM on May 14, 2021, the sun walked onto the Ashland stage and said, “Hello. Welcome to Friday.” Birds burst out in song. Cats and dogs yawned. Many people turned over and privately promised themselves, “Just one more minute of sleep.” The sun will continue walking across Ashland until 8:21 PM, sprinkling warm sunshine across people’s shoulders, animals’ fur, flowers, and others who ask for it. Vowing to keep it cooler than the past several days, the sun said, “Today’s high in Ashland will be about seventy-seven degrees.” Polite but scattered applause answered except for one woman who kept yelling, “Woooo!”

The mind channeled a 1975 Eagles song to the forefront. “One of these Nights” made it to number one that year. It came into my head last night because I was thinking about what I want slash need slash should do. I promised myself that I would, “One of these days.” That morphed a little sloppily into “One of these things is not like the other,” because of the things that I was addressing. But breathing in the cool dark air while admiring the stars and thinking about what’s out there, out came the Eagles song.

Stay positive, test negative, and get the vax. Wear a mask? Well, we’ll see. CDC and state guidance is changing in the U.S. Some are dubious. Others are exuberant. I slide the spectrum between the two.

Have an excellent day — or night — wherever you are. Cheers

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Saturday’s Theme Music

Saturday, in the house, I think it was the eighth of May. Yes, it is May 8, 2021. I sometimes misplace the day and date during this pandemic. It rattles around my head and then sinks out of sight.

The heavenly bright thing’s initial appearance came at 5:58 AM in Ashland, and it’ll twig out at 8:18 in the PM. Spring temperatures are rolling along under a mix of cirrus feathers on an azure field. The high will nudge the upper sixties before returning to the lower thirties when darkness comes.

It’s Saturday and it’s been a while since I’ve indulged myself in a Stevie Ray Vaughn Saturday. I’m breaking that streak today with a performance from “Sunday Night”. Stevie is playing with the house band —   Omar Hakin, Tom Barney, Philippe Saisse, Hiram Bullock, and Don Alias. It’s an energetic, rocking performance by all. Look at Tom Barney move that bass. Nothing like some screaming bent notes, fiery keyboards, thundering beat, and a hot cup of java to stimulate your Saturday morning neurons. Here’s SRV with “Crossfire”, which was his only number one hit, from 1989. He was killed in a helicopter crash in the next year. Meanwhile, that guitarist, Hiram Bullock, died from cancer in 2008, 52 years old.

Stay positive, test negative, wear a mask, and get the vax.

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Further Friday Frustrations

  1. Besides COVID-19, the drought and the threat of wildfires, we’re wondering about how the crazy worms will affect us.
  2. I’m also concerned that I’m not cheugy.
  3. Well, not that concerned.
  4. I’ve been accepted by Medicare. As a military retiree of a certain era, I’m covered by Tricare. Tricare requires me to get Medicare A and B when I turn 65. That happens in July. I applied when I became eligible. A few days later, I was accepted. Meanwhile, I receive phone calls, emails, and snail mail from individuals and companies offering to help me navigate making my Medicare choices. It’s another industry. Everything becomes an industry, and as you reach certain milestones, they make you aware of it. It used to be that my junk mail was all about buying a new car, shopping for clothes, or taking vacations. Now it’s about hearing aids, funeral services, Medicare, reverse mortgages, and Viagra.
  5. Of course, there’s a few new industries afflicting all of us who own a home or car. We receive regular phone calls about our car and home warranties. In our house, we don’t answer the phone unless we recognize the number. The other industry that’s aggressively chasing us is insurance against our water pipes bursting in our yard. A WaPo article says, in essence, yeah, it’s another scam.
  6. I think one of my cats has short-term memory issues. Whenever Boo encounters our other cats, Papi and Tucker, he reacts like, “OMG, who the hell are you?”
  7. To mitigate the fire threat in our town, a ‘firewise’ program has been established. Basically, don’t use any bark mulch on the ground. Don’t grow any flammable plants within five feet of the house. Store wood products that you might have at east thirty feet from the house. Trim back all branches so they’re not touching the house or close enough for flames to leap from the tree to the roof. Get rid of wooden decks, wooden fences, conifers and blackberries. Walking around Ashland, I can see that the program has made little progress. We were affected by a fire last year. There were actually three fires on the same very windy day. All three were started by individuals. The firewise program can’t address the wind or deliberate fires.
  8. They also tell us to keep your plants watered so they don’t dry out and become fuel, but we’re in an extreme drought, so hey, there’s little water to water plants. The only option appears to be to pull out all your plants except those of a desert variety and put small stones or pebbles in your yard to help reduce moisture. Of course, I’m also exploring polymers that are supposed to help the soil retain moisture.
  9. Delivering decorative bark (or mulch) had become a growing industry. Go to any hardware store’s garden area and there’s bags and bags of variations. Blower trucks will load up and come to your house and spread it for you with a giant reverse vacuum cleaner. Now, I suspect a new industry, to vacuum it all back up, will begin taking root.
  10. I thought that killer bees and murder hornets were bad. Now we can add crazy worms to the list of things nature has devised to make the world more interesting. The MSN story says, “Pick one up, and you’ll see why, as the creepy-crawly jerks, writhes and springs out of your hand. (It may even leave its tail behind, as a grim souvenir.) And now, scientists are finding the wrigglers have spread to at least 15 states across the U.S.” They resemble regular worms and are bad for the soil.
  11. I have a crazy cat. I really don’t want crazy worms.
  12. My wife is on her weekly coffee clatch call. Pre-COVID-19, they’d meet after exercise class every M-W-F. Their pandemic compromise is to meet every Friday after exercise class. They have a good time. Lots of laughing. I hear her now talking about her sagging breasts and my drooping scrotum. I’d told her that my sack hung in the water in the hotel toilet during our visit last week. Disgusting, right? Once you feel and know it, you can take action by not sitting all the way down. This is another reason why I prefer to stand and pee, even though I’m cursed with a forked stream. Aging. There’s always something.
  13. Haven’t smelled any skunk for over thirty days, yeah, knock on wood. I’m superstitious that way. Haven’t smelled the skunk, or sighted one, but my wife reports that she heard a thump last night for the first time in weeks. Time to block the entry (again) and see what happens. I would mount my camera but it has quit working. I’ve not been able to reset it and connect it nor receive any images from it. I don’t want to buy a new one because, waste. We’re such a throw-away consuming society. It’s frustrating.
  14. Being cheugy doesn’t offend me. And, from what I understand, I am cheugy. Apparently emerging from TikTok, cheugy is the new ‘square’, a way of saying something is passé, or out of it. Tres important, right? I’m bothered by too many other things, like crazy worms and skunks under the house, to think about being trendy.
  15. Got my coffee. Time to go write like crazy at least one more time. Before the crazy worms get here. We’re already full up on crazy. Even bought a warranty. It was offered on the phone.
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Saturday’s Theme Music

Mother, May I? Yes, you may.

Yes, it’s May 1, 2021, a Saturday, for official transcripts. 2021’s fifth month has leaped onto our backs, the preceding four months going by on express rails. Sunanigins began in Ashland at 0607 and will cease at 2010.

We were over on Oregon’s coast, admiring the Pacific Ocean, for the last several days. An enchanting host, the Pacific gurgled with bright sunshine and flirted with fog. I love hearing the waves booming over the rocks with great explosive thuds that send shivers through the earth. Amazing.

Back in Ashland, the weather service claims the the days have been sunny and in the eighties in Ashland. If so, the weather slipped us a change up. April showers are falling, though it’s May. I’m for it; give us more rain, please. We’ve already had reports of wildfires. Fire services scrambled and put them all out, but it does give the day an edge to read about this.

Musically, I’m humming the song, “Down Down” by Status Quo (1974). It’s a rockin’ song. Driven by that line, “You’ll be back to find your way, again, again, again, again” (don’t know how many times they say again there), I was thinking, okay, back to writing. You took three days off. Need to get back to it. That’s sort of a party trick for writers, to find your way back, again, again, again, again, etc. That’s why the song occupies my mind space this morning.

Stay positive, test negative, wear a mask, and get the vax. That is all.

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Friday’s Theme Music

Good afternoon. Today is Friday, 4/30/2021, the final day for April, 2021, in this reality. Your reality may vary. Today finds the sun clearing the horizon at 6:08 AM and hiding behind the other side at 8:09 PM, giving us a full fourteen hours of sunshine in southern Oregon.

Pacific Ocean sunrise, Gold Beach, Oregon, April 20, 2021

It’s a late entry. We’ve been ‘over’ on the Oregon coast. To reach it, we drive west across southwestern Oregon, dip south into some twisty motorways in northern California, and return north into Oregon, passing over mountains and through a Redwood forest.

We enjoyed a pleasant stay, in a hotel, our first overnight outing since the pandemic struck the U.S. hard in March, 2020. An entertaining interlude to the normal elasticity of our lives, it did find me thinking about changes as I walked the beach and discussed life with the crashing surf. Said thoughts prompted recall of a 1985 Foreigner song, “That Was Yesterday”.

That was yesterday
But today life goes on
No more hiding in yesterday
Because yesterday’s gone

h/t to Genius.com

Yes, life has gone on, but it still sometimes feels like it’s a surprise. It brings up thoughts of another song, “Where Have All the Good Times Gone”, by the Kinks. But I’ll stay with the more theatrical Foreigner tune, because it was the one that came up on the beach.

Stay positive, test negative, wear a mask, and get that vax. Cheers

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Wednesday’s Theme Music

We come now to the weekly pause, the groan, the hump, the mid-point, the end of the beginning, and the beginning of the end. Or is it? Depends on your working hours and routines. For those who worked a lifetime, Wednesday might forever be a mid-point as thoughts go by, my God, Wednesday. Then they laugh, because they no longer care about Wednesdays.

Today is April 28, 2021, another day in semi-lock down, depending upon your status, political views on science, country, county, nation, state, household, needs. The sun made its bold entry at 6:11 AM, and it was a sight, piercing the air after a fanfare of growing light. Sun decline — makes as much sense as down, when you think about what’s going on (how’s that work in the flatworld?) — comes at 8:07 PM. Four more minutes and we’ll make the fourteen hour mark for sunshine.

Temperature’s reflect it, with the sun pushing the highs back into the upper seventies today. Ah, I am enjoying it.

Yet — awakening atb5:56 AM (per Meep’s schedule), I listened and then thought, ah, the heat is on.

Boom. Hello Glenn Frey, with his 1984 single, “The Heat is On” from the fil-lum, Beverly Hills Cop, which was a fun flick.

Stay positive, test negative, wear a mask, and get the vax. Cheers

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Monday’s Theme Music

Welcome back to the show that we like to call Monday. It’s April 26, 2021, for those keeping score at home, and this is Online Mike. The sun’s peek-a-boo presence began at 6:14 AM and will continue throughout this drizshine day until about 8:04 in the P. Same as yesterday. With temperatures dropping, we ended up with snow on the low local mountains last night.

Not complaining. Rain and snow are needed to stop the drought’s relentless advance. Yesterday’s changeable sunrain caused us to go rainbow hunting. Like multitudes, we find solace and hope from a rainbow’s presence. Took a while but a faint arch was finally detected. As it gained presence, a second showed. Yes, a double. Both steadily grew in brightness and hue for several minutes, rewarding us for our patient search.

Rainbows moved me toward music. Chris Rhea’s 1989 song, “Looking for A Rainbow” fit the bill.

Me and my cousin
Me and my brother
My little sister too
Come looking for a rainbow
Yea we’re looking for a rainbow

Well we come down to the valley
We ain’t far away no more
You can’t leave us dying this time
‘Cos we’re all around your door

h/t to Genius.com

Stay positive, test negative, wear a mask, and get the vax.

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Sunday’s Theme Music

Today finds us at Sunday once again. I was just looking at the calendar, confirming that it’s April 25, and was surprised to realize there’s another Friday in the month. Just not paying attention.

The sun made it to Ashland at 6:15 AM and will make its departure at 8:03 PM. We’re getting close to almost fourteen hours of sunshine, which I do like. Like my cats, I am a sunshine fan. Don’t know how much sunshine we’ll see. The weather is continuing a drizzly, damp, chilly pattern. It’s 42 F right now, and we’re not expecting much higher. As I read on the net, the weather slowed down like a driver doing 75 in a 55 when he sees a cop behind him.

“Wedding Bell Blues” by the Fifth Dimension (1969) is looping through my mind. The great Laura Nyro wrote and originally recorded it. Her songs were hits by several others, like “Stoned Soul Picnic”, “And When I Die”, and “Eli’s Comin'”. She died way too young, 49, done in by ovarian cancer.

And while I like all those songs, I’m in the mood for something upbeat this morning. I challenged the mind for something. After a period of crickets singing and playing, the Foo Fighters crept in with “I’ll Stick Around” from 1995.

Upbeat? Up-tempo, I guess.

By the way, the three-day green-smoothie fast ended for me yesterday, day eight. Energy level just felt too low. Tired while walking, and didn’t achieve twelve miles for the day. Been a while for that. So I’m back on solids, and just finished a bowl of gluten-free oatmeal with peanut butter, cranberries, and pumpkin seed/flax granola.

Stay positive, test negative, wear a mask, and get the vax, including the second dose, if you’re going the Moderna/Pfizer route. Cheers

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Saturday’s Theme Music

Welcome to a chilly, drizzly, southern Oregon Saturday. The date is April 24, 2021. We’re almost to a wrap on the fourth month of 2021. Whizzing by for me. What about you?

Outside, it be 49 degrees under a sky rich with clouds and miserly with blue. Rain has dumped off and on through the night and morning. Nothing major; just enough to wet our lands and deter the cats from looking for sunshine. The sun’s morning appearance arrived at 6:16 AM. Sol will no longer be visible after 8:02 PM.

We’ve arrived at day 8 of our three-day green smoothie fast. Yesterday’s experiment was using cauliflower in the smoothie, with strawberries. My taste buds said, “I don’t like that. Don’t do it again.” I remain moderately hungry throughout the day with my stomach singing love songs to foods that I enjoy, but it’s all good. Last night was the first time I really thought hard about breaking the routine and eating something like a pizza, sandwich or burrito.

Good having rain. We experienced a relatively dry winter and spring. A friend sent numbers for the acre-feet of our local reservoirs, the Howard Prairie Dam. The measurements were taken on the same day, which they’ve been doing since 1968. In most years, it’s 40,000 plus acre-feet. 60,000 plus was not uncommon.

Then we have the last four years.

2018-04-17    38726.00

2019-04-17    27675.00

2020-04-17    16681.00

2021-04-17    05833.00

The reservoir was below 20,000 acre-feet only one other year in its history, 1992. It’s never been below 10,000 acre-feet, until this year.

That rain has my brain singing the 1982 song, “It’s Raining again”, by Supertramp. Think I’ll deploy it as today’s theme music, especially since rain has again begun pecking on the window.

Stay positive, test negative, wear a mask, and get the vax. Cheers

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Friday’s Theme Music

Welcome to the last Friday of April, which is April 23, 2021. Sol’s initial appearance in Ashland was delivered by the forces of science and nature at 6:18 AM. Those same forces will cause its setting at 8:01 PM. Temperature-wise — because how the outside air feels is important to me — we’re seeing 54 F right now and expect, like yesterday, to creep into the low seventies today.

We’re on the seventh day of the three-day green-smoothie fast in the Seidel household. We realized on Wednesday that we were in danger of letting our Romaine lettuce go back. We buy it regularly for salads but we haven’t been eating salads due to the green-smoothie fast. So we chucked it into the green-smoothies. We knew it had a strong flavor. Pineapple, kiwi fruit, and bananas were piled in to overcome it. Didn’t work. That Romaine flavor totally dominated.

We’d also read online suggestions to try cauliflower in our smoothies. We bought fresh cauli Wednesday and will try that today. We already eat cauliflower chips and cauliflower-crust pizza, so let’s see where this takes us.

My theme music today comes from the cats. Tucker (the black and white enigma) was impatient for attention today (he was hungry), and kept talking to me and tapping my feet whenever I moved. I kept telling him, “Hold your horses, old son, I’ll feed you in a minute.” Not like we weren’t six feet from a bowl of kibble (which he did realize and sauntered over to eat). Anyway, hold your horses translated into the song by Of Monsters and Men, “Mountain Sound”.

The song was released in 2013. As I thought about it, I don’t think I’d ever heard it outside of the Ashland coffee shop where I used to go to write. I heard it every day there. I then learned of it when the song haunted some of my post-writing walks. Knowing nothing about the song caused me to pursue more info about it. Despite that, I’d never seen the video until today.

Hope you enjoy it. Stay pos, test neg, wear a mask, and get the vax. I don’t know about you, but staying positive is getting tougher in our area. After months of decline, we’ve reversed direction. Our seven-day average is up to 47. This sends my wife into an angry tirade. “What the fuck is going on? What’s wrong with these stupid people? What are they doing? I want names.”

I understand, because so do I. Stats show that it’s the young responsible for these increasing numbers. Grrrr.

Anyway, yeah, enjoy the music.

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