Today is Monday, July 12, 2021. The sunblast kicked off at 5:45 AM in the valley. Heat swelling will continue until 97 to 100 degrees F is struck, depending upon where you’re at and if you’re in the shadow of a mountain — or not — until we rotate away at 8:47 PM.
Finished reading “The Kingdom”, a thriller by Jo Nesbo, yesterday. Terrific novel. Kept me guessing about what was going to happen and managed to monopolize my time and energy. Besides, it was hot and smoky outside, with the air moving into the unhealthy zone. Still smoky today. Two wildfires are feeding us smoke, Bootleg (0% contained, 150,000 acres, started July 6) and Jack (11,000 acres, 10% contained).
With heat and fire on my mind, is it any surprise that Pitball started playing “Fireball” (2014) in my head? Stay positive, test negative, wear a mask as needed, and get the cotton-picking vax, please. Here’s the music. Feel free to dance. Cheers
Welcome to a new, improved Saturday. Leaner, lighter, lower, stronger, faster, cleaner, more advanced, stays fresher longer, this Saturday is unlike any Saturday you’ve ever experienced. You must try it to believe it. It’s already changed tens of thousands of lives.
“Although I’ve only been awake for about three hours and I have a hangover badgering my brain like a berserk chipmunk, this Saturday has been unbelievable,” says Beverly Beaumont of Texas.
“I don’t think I’d make it to Sunday without this Saturday,” said William Pitt of Pennsylvania.
Duncan Heinz said, “Has to be one of my top seven days of the week.”
Continuing the warm spell again today. Forecasted high of 96 degrees F with a sunrise of 5:41 AM and a sunset coming on at 8:49 PM.
For the first time in recorded history, it is also July 10, 2021. Sip on your coffee and think of that.
Four songs are looping through my mental musical stream this day in history. On top of the list is “Brass in Pocket” by the Pretenders, 1979. Second is “Signs”. Then there’s “Resurrection Shuffle”.
Dreams called out Brass. “Signs” arrived because someone posted “Signs, signs, everywhere signs,” on Twitter yesterday. My pink gray matter summoned the Five Man Electrical Band rendition (1971), followed by the live Tesla version from 1990.
Last, though, came the “Resurrection Shuffle”. Although the lyrics and melody are fresh in the stream, looking up the performer and year was required, delivering the information, Ashton, Gardner & Dyke, 1971. As I never hear that anywhere, I decided this would be today’s tune. Hope you’re familiar with it.
Stay positive, test negative, wear a mask as warranted, and get that vax. Don’t find yourself being mourned because you put off getting the vax for whatever reason. Don’t find yourself mourning others because you got sick and passed it on, and they didn’t survive. Stories of both those flavors are circulating with greater frequency. Get the vax. Here’s the tune. Cheers
Think about nothing now
You're nice and high
You're advocating love
But you don't know why
Now you getting vibrations
All down to your feet
That's the brow beatin'
Heavy leather resurrection beat
h/t Lyrics.com
Happy Call of the Horizon Day! Call of the Horizon Day is held every year on July 9. In 2021, we find it on a Friday. Go find the horizon. For me, it’s going outside, onto the street, and looking north. There it is, defined by the beginning of the mountains that define our valley. Call of the Horizon Day is about renewal. It’s a refresher for resolutions and projects, plans and dreams. Look at that horizon and think, who am I? What do I want? Half the year is gone. When I look back on 2021, what do I want to see. Sort of a turn on beginning with the end in mind.
The end of daylight today comes at 8:49 PM. While it’s currently 66 degrees F, we expect a hot 99 high. If you’ve been out since sunrise at 5:43 and felt the sun’s heat thrust in our area, you know it’ll be a hot one. But the sky is free of wildfire smoke (knock on wood). As everything is crisping and vegetation is browning, locals (including this lad) are hoping our wildfire luck continues to hold.
Musically, I’m streaming “Mr Jones” by the Counting Crows, circa 1993. Yes, it’s dream related. Dreams were all about conversations being struck up. I dubbed it the conversation dream.
Stay positive, test negative, wear a mask as needed, and get the vax. Here’s the music. Cheers
Currently 75 degrees F. Said to be cooler today. 90 to 94. Today and tomorrow. Hope so. Officially hit 99 yesterday. My home system said it was 101.
Sunrise kicked off at 5:42 AM, a slow growth of light, rosy as pink rose petals at first, then clearing, sharpening, drawing shadows around everything’s backside. Sunset is anticipated at 8:49 PM, if all goes well.
Musically, I’m channeling the Beatles today. Tune is called “Get Back”. Was a 1969 hit for the lads. Billy Preston’s contribution on the keys always delights me. Fun to watch this video of that time, way back when. The hair! The clothes! The antics! The sound! Remember when you were young? Ah, yes, youth — wasted on the young.
Here’s the music. Stay positive, test negative, wear a mask if needed, get the vax. And get back to where you once belonged. Cheers
“Today is Tuesday! You know what that means? We’re gonna have a special guest.”
The opening was something that just streamed through me head. Haven’t had my coffee yet.
Today is Tuesday, I think, July 6, 2021. July — and summer — and just streamrolling through. Sol’s first long fingers of rosy light caressed our valley at 5:41 AM. Expecting another 100 degree day, we’ll expect heat to linger for hours after sundown’s official 8:50 time. And there, in those sun up/down numbers is the compressing of the daylight. Two minutes shorter. The countdown to the shortest day of light has begun.
I watched Summer of Soul on Hulu last night. Mind music has been stirred up by it. The documentary is about the 1969 Harlem Culture Festival and a feel for the times, racially, culturally. Great music was brought up. Performers, attendees, and the people behind the production were interviewed. The difficulties encountered. Maxwell House coffee as the sponsor. Mayor Lindsay’s presence.
But the performances. The Fifth Dimension coping with not being black enough, singing “Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In”. Billy Davis Jr and Marilyn McCoo’s reactions as they see themselves as they were. Nina Simone’s powerful presence. The amazing talent that is Stevie Wonder. Gospel Music. The Staple Singers. “Grazing in the Grass”. People in the audience dancing. Singing. Those are just off-the-head snippets. The whole thing must be seen. Heard. Those who experienced the times will remember. Those who don’t know them will wonder.
For me, though, Sly and the Family Stone was it. Sly and the Family Stone’s “Everyday People” and “Sing A Simple Song” flushed memories through. Always admired and listened to that group. It’s hardwired into my existence. Their music has been featured here as theme music before. But I’d overlooked “Sing A Simple Song”. Well, not today. It’s my theme music.
[Cynthia:] Sing a simple song [Rose:] Yeah, yeah, yeah, [etc.] [Freddie:] I’m talkin’ talkin’ talkin’ talkin’ talkin’ in my sleep [Larry:] I’m walkin’ walkin’ walkin’ walkin’ walkin’ in the street [Sly:] Time is passin’ I grow older Things are happening fast All I have to hold onto is a simple song at last Let me hear you say [All:] Yeah, yeah, yeah, [etc.]
[Cynthia:] Sing a simple song Try a little do re me fa so la ti do
[Rose:] Yeah, yeah, yeah, etc. [Freddie:] I’m livin’ livin’ livin’ life with all its ups and downs [Larry:] I’m givin’ givin’ givin’ love and smilin’ at the frowns
[Sly:] You’re in trouble when you find it’s hard for you to smile A simple song might make it better for a little while Let me hear you say [All:] Yeah, yeah. yeah, [etc.]
Alexa continues to attempt to gaslight me. “Today’s high will be 94 degrees.” A few hours later, “The current temperature is 97 degrees. The high will be 97 degrees.” Another hour passes. “The current temperature is 98 degrees.” My house saw 101 for the record, your honor.
Today is Monday, July 5, 2021. Sunrise came whilst I slept, stealing in with its light and heat at 5:40 AM. Sunset is planned for 8:51 PM, if all goes as planned. It usually does — as far as we know…
Today’s song, from 1966, came about from a conversation with a woman the other day. She claimed that she’d heard (an expression, as she didn’t know if she’d heard it on telly, from another live being in conversation, or read it) that painting your front door will increase your house’s value by $6,000. Didn’t know the Stones were giving house decor advice with “Paint it Black”. Reading about the song today on Wikipedia because I wanted to know more about its background, I’m amused to see that it stayed at #1 in the U.S. until replaced by Frank Sinatra with “Strangers in the Night”. What diametrically opposed songs, it feels to me – beat, tone, attitude.
Stay positive, test negative, wear the mask with asterisk, get the vax. Here’s the music. I like this video of the young rockers, before Mick completed his invention of himself and was still a works in progress. Hope you like it as well. Cheers
Golden striations lit the valley’s highest reaches at 5:39 AM today, Friday, July 2, 2021. Like advance scouts, these early rays quickly found the first places for the sun’s army of heat and light to strike. The onslaught has begun.
I’m feeling it today. We’re expected to be ‘only’ 98 degrees F. Damage from the heat wave is stark and heartbreaking. Leaves have crisped, curled and browned like overcooked potato chips. Like a tornado, the damage is not uniform. Positioning – location, location, location – is critical. If the plant was shaded from the afternoon’s hardest sun, they look fine while their neighbor has perished.
Damn, such a morose start to the day. Get me on some coffee, quickly.
Sunrise is gonna come at 8:51 PM. It’s a leisurely, subtle withdrawal as blue fades and darkens, overtaken by rose and gold, vanquished by indigo, silenced by black. Lows will descend to the mid seventies tonight, not much of a break. Last night’s sixty-six degree touch soothed my soul as well as my skin.
Going through lists of The Things That Must Be Done led to today’s music. Does everyone have a list of TTTMBD? Promises, vows, hopes, mistakes…it’s all embedded there. We must fix that. Change this. Do that. TTTMBD is as endless as a clear sky. So I’m thinking, I’ll do this Sunday, or maybe Monday. This is a holiday weekend in America, remember, oh yeah.
The mental churning delivered America with “Sister Golden Hair” (1975) from the memory vault’s muddy bottom. “Well, I tried to make it Sunday, but I got so damned depressed, that I set my sights on Monday and I got myself undressed.” Or something like that. That’s how the TTTMBD seems to be progressing. Just keep on sliding through the days.
Stay positive — yeah, it can be a solitary slog, can’t it? — test negative, get vaxxed, and wear a mask, when, as, if needed. Here’s the music. Cheers
Happy Canada Day to my Canadian friends and the nation north of the U.S. I send them wishes for a joyous celebration and greater success and prosperity.
Today is July 1, 2021. A Thursday. Pale gold burnished the upper reaches of hills, trees, and mountains at 5:38 AM. It’ll fade away into night at 8:51 PM. Sunshine will deliver us to some mild heat — the low nineties — today. Smoke comes and goes to the valley from the Lava Fire by Weed, California. If you want to see the fire, head to Mount Ashland, just outside town, which offers a panoramic view of the smoke. Flames are visible at night.
The deepening drought delivered another depressing blow. Water limitations and drought meant the blueberries didn’t come in at our favorite u-pick-em site. We’d been doing this for over a decade. It’s one of our Ashland traditions. The blueberry owners are trying to keep the place alive and hope to see us all next year.
Also canceled for the second year is the July 4th Parade. COVID concerns, yes. Planning needed to start months ago and where we’d be now was too uncertain to plan. The fireworks are canceled. I’ve become ambivalent about fireworks. Loved ’em as a child. Now I understand what they do to the land and animals. Sadly, this year, the drought is too intense to risk fireworks. Locals are still reeling from Ashland’s near miss last September. Yeah, near miss, not quite. Two thousand homes were destroyed on the north edge of town. Talent and Phoenix were reduced to smoky piles of rock and wood in many areas, gutting the towns physically and emotionally. With those emotional scars still vivid, many are relieved that the fireworks won’t take place.
Without too much surprise, I bet, I introduce a song about summer, called “Summer”. By War, it was released in 1976. Some may claim that 1976 was a simpler time. It may’ve been for many. For others, it was a time like the rest, working to feed yourself, working to beat the heat, playing to relieve the stress, doing what you can as you face an uncertain future. Who sang, “The future’s uncertain and the end is always near”? That’s right, Jim and the lads, back in another century. I used to sing, “The future’s uncertain and the end is always clear.” Made me sense to me
Anyway, here’s “Summer”, a mellow reflection on the hot season. Stay positive, test negative, wear a mask as needed, and get the vax. Cheers
Sol’s rosy forays into the valley began at 5:38 AM on this fine Wednesday, June 30, 2021. This is June’s last day for for this year, it should be noted, unless we’re groundhog dayying it. Maybe we have been involved in a groundhog day scheme for a while but we don’t know. Only one character in the movie knew that everyone was going through the same day again and again and again…
Our cooling trend continues. Yesterday reached 99 degrees F. Today will be 96 F, a twenty degrees drop from a few days ago, and very welcome. The plants wouldn’t mind cooler times. They’re going brown and dry. I walk around, bracing myself for the tasks of culling, pruning, and pulling. Sunfall on this parched area will come about 8:51 PM. Then the real cooling plays.
The Lava Fire smoke from down Weed way in California is gone from the AM sky. Seventeen thousand acres, nineteen percent contained was the latest report that I read. The winds have died here so I hope they’ve died there. Complicating the firefighting efforts around Weed is large swaths of illegal cannabis growths.
I’m thinking “Spiderwebs” by No Doubt (1995) for my theme music today. We’re not spider killers. Spiders are beneficial. We appreciate that. They get busy with their webs, though, hurrying around 24/7, installing new webs, leaving old ones behind. I was going about knocking some of the stuff down this morning when the song came on in my brain. The song, though, has little to do with my situation, except walking into the spiderwebs. It’s amazing when the cats do it. Especially Meep, aka Papi. Meep will soundlessly jerk back and walk around the webs. Boo makes a noise and bulls through at a faster tempo. Big Tucker gives them a swat, washes himself, and presses on. I think there’s another metaphor there, somewhere.
Stay positive, test negative, wear a mask as necessary (yeah, stories are circulating about the D variant), and get the vax. Here’s the music. Cheers
Tuesday’s sun beats in the dawn with a hot flash at 5:37. We rise, another day older, deeper in debt. Well, some. Your condition may vary.
So has begun 6/29/2021, much like other days have begun. Let’s talk about the weather. Discuss world affairs. Lament politics. Recall game delights and heartbreaks. Let’s huddle by Zooms and perch in cubes, hunker in offices, rush to flights, beat the traffic, and drink to that. Let’s pursue the dream like smoke in a valley. Train for the impossible. Gird ourselves for the effort. Drink the Kool-aid and move on.
Sunset should bring its mercy at 8:51 PM. Temperatures today are lower. Some claim we will break triple digits. Others say, no that barrier is safe. Yesterday’s scorcher saw 113 to 118 around here. Then, strange salvation from a wildfire down south, the Lava Fire by Weed in California. Smoke drove in along I-5, cutting the solar influence, giving us an early respite. Flipside, air quality went from good and clear to moderate, start watching out.
I’ve been awakening with the melodic strains of Kansas, “Dust in the Wind”, occupying my brain’s whorls. Wonder each day, are dreams calling it out, conscious thoughts inviting the song to the party, something wired in my brain, or just serendipity? Maybe when I die, I’ll go to this great exchange, the Afterlife Market, where all your life mysteries can be seen and explained. You can know just what happened when that girl ignored you, you didn’t get that promotion, a cousin disappeared one quiet night after a party, or why Mom went mad. The truth is in there. You can learn everything you want at the Afterlife Market.
As with other mornings, “Dust in the Wind” gives way to other tunes. An old favorite has hurried in. I played it once before as my theme music. Think I’ll do it again today. Remember, stay positive, test negative, wear a mask as needed, can the vax when you can. Thanks.
Here’s Molly Hatchet with their 1979 offering, “Flirtin’ with Disaster”.
We’re flirtin’ with disaster, ya’ll know what I mean And the way we run our lives it makes no sense to me I don’t know about yourself or what you want to be, yeah When we gamble with our time we choose our destiny
Michael Seidel, writer 