Category: weather

Friday’s Theme Music

“Should I try to do some more? Twenty-five or six to four.”

That’s how it briefly felt (befuddled and dazed), trying to scope the time when a dream’s sharp end poked me suddenly awake. Turned out to be 2:33 AM. A trip to release some fluids was in order, followed by a need to add more fluids. Cats, curious about what I’m doing up, seeing an opportunity for a meal, cosied up with purrs and mips. I opened the back door and let cool mountain air and clear starlight seduce me for a few minutes before regular programming was resumed.

Sunrise on June fourth Friday of 2021 came a few hours later, 5:46 AM. We ended up over ninety F yesterday. The weather masters all insist that today will top out in the high eighties, same claim as yesterday, so I believe we’ll peek into the low nineties before the Earth’s movement takes the sun out of our sky at 8:43 PM.

While ambulating about the hills yesterday, “I Ain’t the One” by Lynyrd Skynyrd (1973) started playing in my mind. I’d been thinking about conspiracy theories, partly because, news, reading of the fiction and non-fiction type, and partly, you know, fiction writing. In fiction land, I’d just finished reading “The Searcher” by Tana French a few days ago, and am now into “The Long Way Home” by Louise Penny along with “A House in the Neighborhood” by Bob Mustin, enjoying them all. Before that lot, I’d read several Lee Child books from the Jack Reacher series, and a few by each by Jonathan Kellerman, Craig Johnson, and Keigo Higashino. Parallel to them, I read “The Grammarians” and just finished reading “The Fifth Risk” by Michael Lewis. Almost all these feature some conspiracy theory thinking. Happens naturally when things happen in fiction and explanations are tasted for what and why. Over in the non-fiction side, “The Fifth Risk” is about DOE concerns about the U.S. electric grid and the Trump administration’s approach to things. Their approach included conspiracy theories about what bureaucrats and political appointees are up to. An interesting albeit painful read.

I queried my head about what conspiracies have to do with “I Ain’t the One”. It took a while of noodling to realize that buried at the song’s end was the clue. Here’s the song’s final lyrics.

Got bells in your mind, mama
And it’s easy to see
I think it’s time for me to move along
I do believe
I must be in the middle of some kind of conspiracy

Lynyrd Skynyrd – I Ain’t the One Lyrics | Genius Lyrics

I muttered a bit at my mind about that feeble connection. I mean, come on, man.

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

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Thursday’s Theme Music

Sunshine kicked the day open at 5:36 AM. Birds immediately entered talking and singing mode, testing new sounds. Cats continued as cats do. People variously leaped up to embrace the day, sighed and forced themselves out of bed, or whispered, “Just a little more sleep, please. Just a little more.” Those are a few of the ways the day’s beginning was addressed. It depended.

Planning was already underway to finish the day. Sunset would be at 8:42 PM. Many people find it easier to finish the day than to start it. For those struggling to get it going, caffeine often helps. Many imbibe it in tea or coffee. Some drink sodas. Adding sugar to the start up process enhances it for more than a few. It also can cause problems. People find that they’d consumed caffeine and sugar to get started. Now, at day’s end, they can’t stop.

Between those minutes when sunrise and sunset were declared, the day lurked. Many northern hemisphere areas have discovered that summer has arrived. Ways to beat the heat are conjured, just as ways to beat the cold were manifested back in the cold, dark months.

Today’s music choice is “Let It Rain” by Eric Clapton and Bonnie Bramlett, a song that came out on Clapton’s debut album to begin his solo career in 1972. Motivated by my preferences and needs, I’m thinking, let it rain, to the universe because my area would swallow fresh rain like a thirsty Steelers fan takes down a beer. After a couple days of high heat, we’d sinking into low heat. Highs are dropping from above 100 F or the upper nineties to the upper eighties. Leaves are turning brown and drying out. Hence my call, “Let it rain.”

Stay positive, test negative, wear a mask as required, and get the vax. Masks are less and less required here. It’s a slow transformation. We’re like critters poking out heads out. Looking around, we tentatively remove masks. Eye others. Are they still wearing their mask? They vaccinated? The air is sniffed. Seems okay. We’ll see. We’ll see.

Here’s the music. Please enjoy. Cheers.

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Tuesday’s Theme Music

At 5:38 AM, a bluebird dove onto the patio and shouted, “Sunup! Sunup! Time to get your butt up!”

A nearby cat gave his whiskers a wash. “Think I’ll sleep the day away, getting up at 2040 to start my play.”

With temperatures expected to pierce 100 degrees F, the cat has the right idea on this Tuesday, June 1, 2021. I’ll continue with my room painting inside the house (yeah, can’t do that outside the house, now can I?) and avoid the outdoors until it’s cooler, say, six PM. Then I’ll head for the hills for a walk.

My wife and I were complaining about how much laundry we generate as we folded yet another load. “We could go nude,” she suggested.

“Last time I did that, I caused a general uproar,” I replied, garnering an eye roll.

I continued painting the great room yesterday, cutting in along the ceiling (didn’t do a good job, I must say), windows, fireplace, outlets…the list goes on. Music in my head played. I was stuck on one song. You’d think, end of May, beginning of June, unofficial start of summer, etc, would influence my brain’s choice. And you would be incorrect.

No, my brain began singing a 1975 Grand Funk song, “Bad Time”. 

I'm in love with the girl that I'm talking about
I'm in love with the girl I can't live without
I'm in love but I sure picked a bad time
To be in love
To be in love

Well, let her be somebody else's queen
I don't want to know about it
There's too many others that know what I mean
And that's why I got to live without it

I'm in love with the girl I'm talking about
I'm in love with the girl I can't live without
I'm in love but I feel like I'm wearin' it out
I'm in love but I must have picked a bad time to be in love
A bad time to be in love
A bad time to be in love
A bad time to be in love

h/t to Lyrics.com

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

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Sunday’s Theme Music

After peeking in through windows at 5:38 AM in Ashland with shy pale goldens, the sun boldly shouldered in, shouting, “We got your sunshine. We got your daylight.” Such a bold sun plans to put out browning, sweat-inducing heat, don’t you know. Temperatures will hunt the lower nineties before the sun, still in its place, disappears from the valley at 20:39.

Got the darkness trying to throttle me. It’s a debilitating but brief trough experienced when I ponder what’s the use of all this nonsense? I was walking as it struck, like a bolt into my soul, just before sunset last night. Because a wildfire is being fought and people evacuated, I was thinking about wildfires and water shortages. Many new homes are being built in Ashland. Development is the daily cry as the trucks lumber in with supplies and workers busy with foundations and walls. We were already being told to conserve water. Now there is less water to be divided among more households.

Dev is good but with that shrinking water base, we also have an expanding wildfire season. Before COVID-19 shut down activities, wildfire smoke did the same, cratering the local economy becoming an annual thing. The first time it happened, businesses dismissed it as a one off. Second time, some pulled the plug. Third time, dark mutterings about what are we going to do were heard.

City council lacks the leadership to move out of this mess. Frankly, the mess is bigger than them. Is it climate change? By the time sufficient data is collected, we probably won’t be around to know. Meanwhile, the new houses being built are closer together as land becomes a precious commodity. Streets are narrower. Traffic density rises. Did I mention that a two-lane state highway longitudinally bisects the town? Only one way in and out, not a reassuring realization for planning evacuations. Every street feeds into it.

With the darkness and these bleak realizations colliding, on came an old song by the Smiths. Here are the lines.

This town has dragged you down
And everybody’s got to live their life
And God knows I’ve got to live mine
God knows I’ve got to live mine

h/t to Genius.com

The 1984 song is called, “William, It Was Really Nothing”. Yes, it’s really nothing; just a little darkness nibbling the psyche. Stay positive (you know, like me!), test negative, wear a mask as needed, and get the vax. Cheers

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Saturday’s Theme Music

As expected, Sol arrived at the expected time, 5:39 AM on this Saturday, May 29, 2021. Good ol’ Sol. So dependable. Like clockwork. Which means, given his predictability, he’ll depart the Ashland area about 8:38 PM, as the world turns.

Meanwhile, the clouds have done a runner, leaving Sol to throw down some heat. Highs almost touching ninety are expected, prelude to next week, when we’ll start playing with 100 degrees F.

Drinking water this morning, I happened to be looking at a wine bottle. This juxtaposition fed the 1968 Canned Heat mellow song, “Going Up the Country”, into my thinking spectrum. That’s due to the lines, “I’m goin’, I’m goin’ where the water tastes like wine. I’m goin’ where the water tastes like wine. We can jump in the water, stay drunk all the time.” Calling to Alexa to play it, she did, like a good little machine, feeding my net history with another piece of information.

Stay positive, test negative, wear a mask as needed, and get the vax when you can. Have some coffee. Doesn’t taste like wine but it sure do taste fine.

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Wednesday’s Theme Music

At 5:41 AM, Sol glided over the hills toward Ashland nestled in the valley below. Darkness fled ahead of her. Such a coward, always fleeing light. Breathing out, she spread warmth across the valley. Birds tested notes. People clambered out of beds, out of houses, into cars, buses, trucks. Cats and dogs looked up at Sol, yawning and stretching, back legs, front legs, done.

Sol was pleased. She checked the time. She was due to stay until 8:36 PM, almost fifteen hours. Spring and summer were always so generous in their allowances to her. On a whim, she began singing “Light My Fire”, a song made popular by The Doors in 1966. Always up for a song, Tom Petty, Roy Orbison, and John Lennon joined her. Michael Jackson and Prince came by, putting in their twists to the song, followed by David Bowie, George Harrison, and finally Jim Morrison, Stevie Ray Vaughn, and Jimi Hendrix. Soon came other musicians and singers, adding to the sound and light.

A warm, pleasant day was in store for the area.

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

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Sunday’s Theme Music

5:43 AM. 8:33 PM. That defines the daylight hours for this Sunday, May 23, 2021 in the valley. Nine hundred and fifty minutes. Ten minutes from a full one thousand minutes of daylight hours, excluding the residuals that are noted before sunrise and after sunset.

We’re warming up again. Nothing too hot today, probably the low seventies, but rain is projected to visit again during the week’s early days. Again, no complaints; rain welcome here. It’s needed.

We’ve been talking about moving. Western Pennsylvania, eastern Ohio, where we have family. Droughts and wildfires have wearied us. We like small towns, though. Coffee shops, bakeries, and book stores are big drawing points. But which? That’s the challenge. We’ll probably need to move into the general area, rent a place, and explore. We’ve moved enough times after twenty years in the military. Another four moves were seen in the twenty après military years. That all leads me to John Mellencamp’s 1985 song, “Small Town”. It’s good enough for me for Sunday’s theme music.

Stay positive, test negative, stay up with the masks, and get the vax. Cheers

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A Day Like Others

They went to the library

because three new books were on hold,

ready for pick up

and they’d finished six books

so they needed to be returned.

Then they walked around town,

enjoying the mild spring day,

before deciding to go to the Co-op.

Because it’d been so long.

While they were there,

they picked up sandwiches,

chips,

and locally baked pastries.

Then walked back up to the car

and got a library book each,

and walked through the breeze in the park’s sun and shade

until they found a picnic table.

Whereupon they sat,

eating and reading in silence

until two hours later,

when she said,

“I’m cold. Let’s go home.”

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Friday’s Theme Music

Just another fuzzy Friday. My I-don’t-have-to-work-day. My drink a cup-of-coffee day. Which makes it like every day, except the fuzzy part. It’s fuzzy with clouds and rain out there (yes — we like rain!) although a few degrees warmer (gonna be a struggle to reach sixty F today) would be appreciated.

This is May 21, 2021. May, and 2021, are storming past. The sun put some light in the sky at 5:45 AM and will take its gift of light and heat away at 8:31 PM here in the valley. The cats are quite ambivalent about it all, going out, coming in, searching for sunshine, hurrying from rain, sheltering from the winds that kick up, meowing at me to fix it before finding an inside place to retire for a few hours.

Thinking of what stage we’re at with the coronavirus, and what stage I’m at with different projects, dredged the ZZ Top song, “Stages”, up from 1986 memories into the active memory stream. “Stages keep on changing,” they sing, and they’re right. We’re at a stage with the COVID-19 crises where the mask guidance is changing, a stage where we’re waiting to see what’ll happen with variants and the vaccine, a stage where we wait to see if herd immunity can be achieved, a stage where we wait to see what the new normal will be.

Stay positive, test negative, listen to the music, wear a mask as needed, and get the vax. Cheers

5

Thursday’s Theme Music

If you heard a sharp screeching sound earlier this week, it may have come from our area. The seasons hit the brakes on the weather. We had been warmly progressing toward summer. Nice weather, if you can get it. But then, some power shouted, “Hit the brakes! Reverse.” Temperatures scaled down the thermometer overnight, taking us into the mid thirties. Rain stormed in. Clouds unfurled, mocking the sun’s 5:45 AM arrival. While the sun is expected to hang until 8:30 PM, the temperatures won’t go much over fifty, they say. Enjoying the rain, though, and the snow in the mountains. We haven’t had enough of either. Give us more, please.

This is Thursday, May 20, 2021, in the valley where Ashland is homed, where I am homed. Our vaccination rate keeps climbing (knock on wood). We’ve climbed over fifty percent of peeps with at least one shot. Our local Family Y has set up a J&J one shot clinic, no appointment needed, all day when they’re open. As with most of these things, it’s not advertised well. All of my local friends and acquaintances are fully vaxxed, but I tell them so they can tell others. Pitter-patter, let’s get ‘er at ‘er, and get this thing done.

Reading about why people aren’t getting vaccinated brought Tracy Chapman’s 1995 song, “Give Me One Reason”, to mind. Vax hesitancy usually falls in four groups. Dominating it are those individuals who don’t believe that COVID-19 exists or have convinced themselves that it’s not that bad. A lot of them defiantly demand, “Give me one reason.” But, what’s the use? You don’t believe the news stories about survivors and deaths. What one reason can I give that’ll change your mind? I fear that if you’re one of those people, your mind won’t be changed until you’ve personally experienced COVID-19 hell.

For the music, I’ve selected a collaboration between Chapman and Eric Clapton recorded in 1999. It’s a different take, a little fatter on Chapman’s gem of a song. Stay positive, test negative, mask as necessary, and get the vax. Please. Here’s the music.

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