Category: weather

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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Thursday’s Theme Music

Day six of the three-day green smoothie fast. Hello, it’s Earth Day. Happy Earth Day! It’s also Thursday, April 22, 2021. Huzzah.

We achieved sunrise in Ashland, Oregon, at 6:19 AM. Sunset won’t come until almost fourteen hours later, at 8 PM. Huzzah. We reached 72 degrees F yesterday and expect more of the same, what with a clear blue sky, loads of sun beams, and a current temp of 52. Huzzah.

I am quite hungry this morning. That prompted me to sing a bit of “Cheeseburger in Paradise” by Jimmy Buffett in my head. We eat Beyond Burgers in our household, which are plant-based burgers. My wife is a vegetarian. We also put vegan cheese on them. The side is usually a garden salad, but oven-baked tater tots often make the plate. Although, myself wouldn’t say no to a nice steak nor some roasted chicken. Yeah, for breakfast.

The 1971 Three Dog Night song, “Out in the Country”, came to me last night, though, as I gazed at the declining sunshine being flashed off the clouds in shades of pink and gold above the darkening, forested mountains. We’re out in the country, in a small town kind of way, a nice combination in a multitude of ways. I thought it would be a good song for Earth Day, so I post it here. It’s pleasantly green now. But…sigh, the rain has faded, the land is drying, and the heat is climbing. Much of it will soon turn brown. More will blacken with fire.

Or maybe not! Maybe not this year. Fingers crossed. Stay positive (boy, I’m trying – hope you’re better at it than me), test negative, wear a mask, and get the vax. Cheers

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Wednesday’s Theme Music

Here we are, as helpless as a kitten on a Wednesday. Yes, it’s April 21, 2021. Our friendly sun came around 6:21 AM, and will wave so long at about 7:59 PM, all times Pacific. Cool again today, despite a sunny, clear day. 54 F right now. Rain showers struck yesterday. They hit lightly as a kitten swatting for about six minutes. We’re behind on our rain. Simultaneous countdowns are in progress. When will water constraints be imposed? And wildfire season is coming. As there’s spreading, major drought throughout the U.S. west, a bad one is expected. Fingers crossed, hold your breath, children. Here we go again.

It’s just like shooting deaths in the U.S., isn’t it? Every day brings more news of such events. Then, here we go again. A cop shot a black. Here we go again. Someone armed with an automatic weapon went on a rampage somewhere. Texas. California. Wisconsin. Here we go ago.

No surprise that I’m stuck on “Holding Out for A Hero”. I featured the 1984 Bonnie Tyler song before, back in 2017. Well, what was true then is true now. We need a hero. None is on the horizon. We’re going to muddle through without change and plenty of outrage and hand-wringing, supporting the world’s largest and most powerful military while ensuring citizens have the right to fight back in case said military and government turns on the people. Yeah, like that hasn’t happen before here in the U.S. Check your history, please.

A friend shared a FB post that made me laugh and summed up the general sit. The post was essentially about why the Japanese didn’t continue on to attempt the invade the U.S. after bombing Pearl Harbor. The post was all about how the Japanese commanders were aware of American hunters. How many people have hunting licenses and are armed in the U.S. So think about that when you think about gun control. Sure, the Japanese were willing to take on the Chinese and Korean military, but not the American hunter. Okay. Even if we agree that might have some merit back in 1941, does it have any merit now? Look at how the police are armored up. If anything, the argument and discussion is more about the growing absurdity of war. Yet, we roll on, bombing and shooting, firing rockets and missiles, building bigger and more sophisticated weapon systems aimed at more effectively killing the enemy while killing the human race and the planet in parallel. Always wonder how they ever managed to reach that period of peace in Star Trek that allowed us to begin working together, harness technology, and move forward.

Here’s the music. Wear a mask, get the vax, stay positive, and test negative. Cheers

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Tuesday’s Theme Music

It’s a chilly Tuesday morning, April 20, 2021. I wanted to put the year as 2015. I don’t know what’s causing that faux temporal shift.

We had our first sun peek at 6:22 AM and expect to bade farewell for the day at 7:58 PM. It’s chilly because clouds are shading the edge from the sun’s influence. Still, 55 degrees F is better than, say, ten, twenty, or thirty degrees colder. The cats are eating it up, diving outside as the sun breaks, staying out in the yard, floofzing away, awakening when yard work or birds disturb them. 76 degrees was seen yesterday, which was great for walking, sitting outside in a chair reading, etc. I expect today to be about six degrees cooler.

For music, I’ve trapped an old Ramones song in my brain. “Blitzkrieg Bop” is a short but rousing ditty that came out in 1976. I’d always interrupted the lyrics ‘tight wind’ as ‘time wind’. I thought the idea of a time wind was really cool. “Hey, it feels like the 1960s blowing through here.” A little disappointed when I learned the true lyrics.

They’re forming in a straight line
They’re going through a tight wind
The kids are losing their minds
The Blitzkrieg Bop

They’re piling in the back seat
They’re generating steam heat
Pulsating to the back beat
The Blitzkrieg Bop

Hey ho, let’s go
Shoot ’em in the back now
What they want, I don’t know
They’re all revved up and ready to go

They’re forming in a straight line
They’re going through a tight wind
The kids are losing their minds
The Blitzkrieg Bop

h/t to AZLyrics.com

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

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Sunday’s Theme Music

“Good morning, star shine. The Earth says, ‘Hello!'” Yes, just thinking of that 1967 hit song from Hair. Not the day’s theme song, though. I have another song in mind for that.

It is another Sunday in southern Oregon, and we dutifully note and mark, April 18, 2021. The rise of Sol came about 6:26 AM, and the western sky fade away is expected at 7:55 PM. Between those hours, the sun’s going to have her scientifically-grounded impact on our temperatures, taking us from where we reside now, 60 F, to something in the seventies, or maybe the eighties. The weather prognosticators told us yesterday would be at 80 but my thermometer noted 77 as the high. Nothing to complain, just noting.

It’s day two of the three day green-smoothie fast. It’s not quite a fast. I augmented my green smoothies with a handful of almonds, another handful of walnuts, four prunes, and two stalks of celery. Never did have my coffee. I prepared to make it but didn’t follow through.

The day’s first smoothie (wife-prepared) accentuated raspberry highlights, which I found too tart. My next two smoothies (prepared by moi) were blueberry oriented, more agreeable to me. She noted it tasted very banana-y to her. I noted that no bananas were used in preparation of those smoothies. Yeah, I forgot the banana.

I felt fine yesterday. Mild hunger pangs in the early evening. More at midnight, right before retiring to bed. Breakfast time this morning found my body snarling in its best hungry-lion imitation, “Food! Now!” I went with a mango dominated smoothie. All is good now. Kind of. I wouldn’t say no to a breakfast burrito. Nor a stack of pancakes (flapjacks, waffles…whatever). Or scrambled eggs with toast. Maybe an omelet.

Music choice is writing-driven. Finished working copy number five of the novel in prog., final draft number one. I hate it. I had the this-writing-sucks blues. Writings is fine; major story issues. They must be addressed. Took the day thinking about that and knew what must be done. Now I must do it. Like many things, making that decision to do it is the hardest part of doing it. Then it’s deep breaths. Go. Start cutting. Revising. Editing. Changing. Doing it over.

The song inspired by this is “Funkytown” by Lipps Inc, 1980. The lines, “Gotta move on,” is what has me hooked. You see the writing connection? First draft is done; not what I wanted or expected. Work is needed. Gotta move on from cursing my meager skills to getting things done.

Here’s the music. Stay posi, test negy, wear a mask, and get the vax. Gotta go see some machines about smoothies and coffee.

Never saw this video before. Talk about funky. Cheers

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Monday’s Theme Music

“Pour some coffee for me.” You need to imagine this being sung by Def Leppard to the tune of “Pour Some Sugar On Me”.

Bright sunshine has filled this Monday morning, April 12, 2021. Outside temperature is stirring past 42 degrees F. Promise for greater sunshine and warmth are in the air. Sunshine stole o’er this southern Oregon valley at 6:35 AM Pacific time. We wave good-bye to it at 7:49 PM, same time zone.

I’m thinking “Thorn In My Pride” by The Black Crowes (1992) for today’s music. At daybreak, while feeding the cats (thus curtailing their growing demands), the song’s opening lyrics came over me. I like the song’s bluesy sense, with its flashes of acoustics, organ, piano, and electric lead guitar. Add some Gospel elements. It’s a throwback sound to the late sixties/early seventies for me, like a lot of the group’s music.

Wake me when the day breaks
Show me how the sun shines

h/t to AZLyrics.com

I think the floofs were waking me at daybreak so I could see the sun shine. (Or so they claim. I really think it was just about food.) “No need,” I told them. “I’ll catch up with it later, while you’re napping.” They were eating, though, and my retort travelled wholly over their little bowed heads. Then I returned to bed for just a little longer.

Stay positive, test negative, wear a mask, get the vax, and have some coffee. Or tea. I hear tea works well, too. “Pour some tea for me.” Sounds like it works. Cheers

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Sunday’s Theme Music

Hey, today is supercalifragilisticexpialidocious Sunday. It is also April 11, 2021. The sun came creeping into the windows in Ashland about 6:37 AM this morning and is expected to creep away at 7:48 PM.

With regards to the temperature, the sky cleared last night, which meant it grew cold. Temperatures clipped the lower thirties. Robust sunshine has already pushed us up to 45 F. We expect to bounce off the high sixties before the temperatures sink again. The cats are loving it. Each has gone out and found sunshine, sitting there like worshippers with their face to the sun. You can almost hear them purring, “Ahhhhh.”

Got my COVID-19 vaccination yesterday. Did the ‘one-shot’ J&J option, because that’s what was available. No ill-effects were felt yesterday. Feel fantastic today.

Song-wise, we’re looking at “Gonna Fly Now” by DeEtta West and Nelson Pigford from 1977. My wife drove this choice. “This site says that the number one song on your twenty-first birthday will tell you how your 2021 will go.” “Gonna Fly Now”, from the film, Rocky (1976). Here are the lyrics:

Trying hard now
It’s so hard now
Trying hard now

Getting strong now
Won’t be long now
Getting strong now

Gonna fly now
Flying high now
Gonna fly, fly, fly

h/t to Genius.com

I recall visiting Mom and my little sisters (just entering their teens) while on leave from the military in 1977. (I’d been in the Philippines on duty on an unaccompanied tour but returned home when my little brother was killed in a car crash.) The littlest sister (now a mother of two teenage boys herself) told me that this was her favorite song. Anyway, it’s become hooked in my head today. I must put it on the net to set it free from my mind (or free my mind from it…).

The wife’s song was “Shadow Dancing” by Andy Gibbs. She’s a year younger than me.

Stay positive, test negative, wear a mask, and get a vax. Hope you fly. Cheers

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Friday’s Theme Music

Hey, it’s Righty Friday, April 9, 2021. Daybreak came at 6:40 AM as Ashland rotated around to Sol’s embrace once again. Night is expected after the rotation turns us away from Sol at 7:45 PM. Between those hours, we expect the sun to take our temperatures into the upper sixties under azure skies. We’ve made it to 43 F so far.

I’ve been living with Righty Friday for several years. A right hander, I’ve always enjoyed reverse days when I attempt to use my left hand as my dominate. Part of that is flipping the order of donning my pants. I put my pants on my left leg first by habit. The difficulty I had putting it on my right leg first amazed me. By then I was in my late fifties. My recurring practices had shaped my muscles, bones, and coordination. Thereafter, I designated each Friday as a Righty Friday, when I would put my underwear and pants on my right leg first. Although it’s called Righty Friday, I alternate left and right throughout the week. So, Saturday, Monday, and Wednesday, I put my pants on in the correct order, left leg first. It’s reversed on the remaining days.

Today’s music is by Chaka Khan. Prince wrote and recorded “I Feel for You”, but I’m intimate with the Melle Mel and Stevie Wonder infused version. Released in 1984, it reached number one on several U.S. charts, and made the top ten on music charts around the world. We were well familiar with the music video. I was stationed on Okinawa, Japan. We had limited music videos, and this one was played ALL THE TIME. Melle Mel’s rapping always amazed me and my friends. We’d try to keep up with him. Impossible. The effort reduced us to blithering, laughing idiots.

It’s a memory, prompted as I think about visiting with friends as we cautiously begin re-opening in southern Oregon. Stay positive, test negative, wear a mask, and get the vax. Cheers

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