Category: weather

Trump – As Expected

Trump is more predictable than the weather.

That’s especially true in this era, when extreme weather strikes more frequently, and el Nino is bringing in new changes to the patterns.

Donald Trump’s pattern under pressure and criticism is to become more belligerent and aggressive. He rails more; whines more; and attacks more. The midterms are coming up, and prices are not coming down. Trump, who once promised no new wars, instead finds the war he started with Iran dragging on. Trump has claimed it’s over, it’s almost over, or ‘we won’ numerous times before. Now, Trump is saying the war will “probably end after the mid-terms”.

Doubts about Trump are growing and persisting. Regardless of what polls say about the elections and a midterm blue wave or Donald Trump’s declining popularity, the tells of his decline among his base are visible. Rallies where Trump is appearing are weakly attended. Trump’s calls to support AI and data centers construction are met with silence.

After all that’s gone wrong and getting worse for Donald Trump, I was unsurprised that Trump’s DOJ raided Rep. Ilhan Omar’s home in Minnesota. Rep Omar has three things going against her in Trump’s eyes: she’s an intelligent woman, a refugee from Somalia, and an outspoken Trump critic.

I guess Trump sees Rep. Omar is a good test case for Trump’s increasing tactics of lawfare and weaponizing the government against his opponents. Trump’s previous efforts to prosecute political opponents, James Comey, Letitia James, and David Hearn, flopped in big, audacious ways.

But Trump has nothing else to offer. Trump already went after the press, trying to ban press organizations who tell the truth about his sparsely attended rallies, terrible and worsening economy, and the growing disaster that is now the Iran war. Trump also dislikes being reminded that he’s breaking promises and laws, and that he is not the all-powerful, all-knowing, always-right person he likes to pretend he is.

The press fought back, and the courts have sided with the press, so far. Precedence would point to a win for the press in all the courts. Freedom of the press is one of those things we used to pride ourselves on in the United States. Donald Trump arrived on the scene, though, and weaponized people’s distrust of the press to gain popularity.

Now, with his popularity waning, even Donald Trump’s MAGA base are walking away from him. Not because of the attacks on the press, or attacks on the sitting members of Congress, or using the government as a weapon to persecute and prosecute opponents. No.

MAGAzens are turning on Trump because he failed to release the Epstein files and he failed to lower prices. Now, thanks to Trump’s own failed policies, it’s too late for him to fix either.

Trump has tried badgering and bullying his way back to strength. He’s lied from the beginning and fed people’s hate and fear. Those aspects of his portfolio have grown old and thin.

Trump tried bribing We the People, attempting to buy popularity with various ‘dividends’. But Trump’s brand is so toxic, even that failed to gain Trump any props.

Trump tried to lower prices, drilling, making deals for oil and gas, temporarily suspending sanctions and tariffs. They, too, failed to win anyone back, as his efforts instead highlighted his hypocrisy.

Now Trump has returned to his most proven, effective tool, attacking immigrants and women. Doesn’t matter if the woman he’s attacking is a sitting member of Congress, legally elected to the office by We the People, and legally sworn in.

Trump has never cared for law or justice and won’t begin now. Donald Trump will just attack more, hoping to bully his way into popularity once again.

So, brace yourself. I don’t doubt that this is just a test case. Trump and his minions and advisors floated this raid on Rep. Omar to see how it floats with his base.

Trump doesn’t see that a growing number of people are weary of him and ready to turn the page.

Vote blue in November, so we can keep turning the page on Donald Trump.

8

Monday’s Theme Music – Fool & Me

Ashland, southern Oregon — Monday, October 12, 2026.

Autumn continues its golden, chilly reign. 53 F now, we’ve risen from the overnight low of 32 and we’re getting close to the 62 F expected high. It’s a boldly blue sky and marvelously sharp sunshine. A small herd of clouds — momma and four or five kits — hard to say because they keep moving — feed on the blue to one side.

No more on Mom and her situation today. Patience is needed as I await news and developments. That’s a life stage many of us know very well.

Time is extremely tight today. Food & Friends deliveries began the morning, writing in the late morning to early afternoon, BCG wash in the mid-afternoon, and then back to help a friend move some items. I made the plans, so I accept them. Tomorrow will be as busy but in other areas of needs.

Today’s music is a throwback tune, “The Fool and Me”. The Neurons placed the Robin Trower offering in my morning mental music stream early today after I went through a cursory review of news stories followed by a fast reflection on dreams, time, and appointments. Make sense, I guess.

Sample Lyrics:

Traveling that wind and laugh at the crowd, mmm the fool and me
Howl at the moon baby yell out loud, the fool and me
And ohh oh, where ever we go
We keep the spirit free
Ohh nobody knows
No one but the fool and me

Stretching on out and feeling fine, the fool and me
Two fools dancing on the hands of time, yeah
The fool and me
And ohh oh, where ever we go
We keep the spirit free
Ohh nobody knows
No one but the fool and me

Yes, and there is a connection to Donald Trump in this: his impact on my life, and his impact on my nation, my friends, and family. Trump is politically divisive. That’s just the starting point. Consumed with thoughts about only himself, he’s consuming our world and tearing it apart. Some MAGAzens applaud this: “Tear it all down and start over.” Yet, when Trump’s destruction hits their lives, many call, “Wait a minute. What’s going? This isn’t what I want.”

Well, I can tell you for sure, what Trump has done and is doing is sure as hell not what I want.

I hope we can vote Democrats into office and take over Congress and offset the madness that is Trump.

May your day end with you feeling fine and looking back on what you did with smiles.

Cheers

0

Sunday’s Theme Music — Bad Moon Rising

Sunday, October 11, 2026 — Ashland, southern Oregon.

The weather and foliage matched perfectly yesterday and feel right today. Many of us enthused about the crisp and cool autumn air. This was what we’d been looking for! Temperatures topped in the mid 70s yesterday and dropped to the low 30s last night. Right now finds us at 42 F. Though it’s quite sunny and the sky is clear and blue, today’s high is expected to close out in the mid 50s.

Mom reports a new decline. She’d in pretty good spirits this week. Today, she reported, “My pain upon urinating is worse than ever like it was when I first had the bladder infection and it is brown up upon the pads. And it smells rotten. And I feel physically ill.”

This blow came as my sisters and I have been working out what to get Mom for her upcoming 92 birthday at the end of this month.

Trump and Hegseth are excited for their upcoming military execution by firing squad. Outside of them, Americans are checking their priority lists and problems and realizing that Donald Trump is completely out of touch with them.

People are concerned about Trump’s broken promises, the war in Iran, rising prices, AI, and high food, energy, and healthcare costs. Trump responded with more Operation Epic LOOK — SQUIRREL! antics.

Your Donald Trump Quote of the Day:

Call me an enemy, then, Trump, because I’ll continue to adhere to history and industry standards and refer to artificial intelligence, or AI.

At this point, reading the political news has me growling and shaking my head. I never expected much out of Trump, but he and his administration is an absolute trainwreck. More of Trump’s supporters are pulling away. I doubt it helped Trump’s cause when Trump told supporters at one recent rally, “It’s amazing. When you stand up here, it’s just like…the love. I could say the stupidest things and you’d clap. ‘Oh, I love you so—’ It’s true.”

We’ll see how those Donald Trump supporters feel when the midterm elections results come in next month. Trump said to make the upcoming elections about himself. He doesn’t know how much disapproval of him has grown, how many are turning away from him, and tuning out from him.

Between Mom and Trump, The Neurons put “Bad Moon Rising” in the morning mental music stream. This song by Clearance Clearwater Revival, aka CCR, was released in 1969. It’s about premonitions about bad things on the verge of happening.

Sample Lyrics:

I see the bad moon rising
I see trouble on the way
I see earthquakes and lightning
I see bad times today

Don’t go around tonight
Well, it’s bound to take your life
There’s a bad moon on the rise

I hear hurricanes a-blowing
I know the end is coming soon
I fear rivers overflowing
I hear the voice of rage and ruin

May this day bless you and yours with fresh air, good health, and good fortune.

Cheers

4

Friday’s Theme Music – Big Time

Frida, October 9, 2026 — Ashland, southern Oregon.

Our hot, summerish streak is holding, with blue skies and sunshine. Clouds are sprinkled across the blue to keep it from being pristine, making the reds, golds, and oranges splash in bright, picturesque ways. Today’s high is 78 but the sun has a strong, sustained warmth.

I haven’t been doing the theme music for a few days. One, busy. Two, I had “Dirty White Boy” by Foreigner stuck in my head, yet, sans clear and apparent reason. The Neurons finally cleared the music out this morning, leaving me with an empty morning mental music stream.

Didn’t take long for reading the political news to fill it.

Don Jr. scrambles to calm furious MAGA voters

Then there was a Digby article which brought home our sense of things with me, my wife, and Donald Trump.

Are Americans Tired Of Being Suckers?

My wife and I received our $90 Trump bribes. Inspired by a friend’s response, we donated our bribes to blue candidates in tight races.

I also received a letter from the IRS. Something about they’ll match my IRA contribution this year. And, if I don’t have an IRA account, I can go to TrumpIRA to set up a high quality, low cost IRA.

My wife and I laughed. “I don’t trust anything with Trump’s name on it,” she said.

I agreed. “The promise of a high-quality, low-cost IRA with Trump’s name attached to it is as meaningful as Trump’s other promises and efforts. Like ‘no new wars’, ‘lower prices on day one’, the ‘Ukraine-Russia war ending immediately, Donald J Trump’s healthcare plans, which went from a plan coming in two weeks to a concept to…nothing.

Expect nothing but greed and broken promises from Trump — even though he claims otherwise.

As Trump likes to claim things, many say that Trump is spiraling. My wife and I think the same, with me adding, “Big time,” as we talked about it.

That invited The Neurons to bring in Peter Gabriel with his song, “Big Time”, from 1986.

Sample Lyrics

The big, big city
I’ll be a big noise
With all the big boys
(So much stuff I will own)

And I will pray to a big god
As I kneel in the big church

(Big time)
I’m on my way, I’m making it
(Big time)
Oh, yes!
(Big time)
I’ve got to make it show, yeah
(Big time)

(Big time)
It’s so much larger than life
(Big time)
I’m gonna watch it growing
(Big time)

My parties have all the big names
And I greet them with the widest smile
Tell them how my life
Is one big adventure
And always they’re amazed

~snip~

And my heaven will be a big heaven
And I will walk through the front door

(Big time)
I’m on my way, I’m making it
(Big time)
(Big time)
I’ve got to make it show, yeah
(Big time)

(Big time)
It’s so much larger than life
(Big time)
I’m gonna watch it growing
(Big time)

(Big time)
My car is gettin’ bigger
(Big time)
My house gettin’ bigger
(Big time)
My eyes gettin’ bigger
(Big time)
And my mouth
(Big time)
My belly’s gettin’ bigger

(Big time)
And my bank account
(Big time)
Look at my circumstance
(Big time)

And the bulge in my
Big, big, big, big, big, big, big
Big, big, big, big, big, big, big
Big!

This song has a quality that I can easily ascribe to Trump’s thinking.

Hope your day is not spiraling and that you ascend to places where you feel healthy, happy, and comfortable.

Cheers

0

Survival Mode Dream

I was part of a military unit. A light colonel – a commander from my real life – led us. Something disastrous had happened, and we’d shifted into holding on, bracing for attacks and problems. Food, water, and fuel were all issues.

Second in command, we had a dozen people. All were much younger than the commander and me. The weather seemed consistently dark and cloudy. Rain was often falling.

I started out required to make suggestions to the commander. He then agreed or not, and gave orders. My suggestions were about needing shifts,  requiring everyone to collect and bring food, man the place and keep watch.

We arrived back in the morning as scheduled. Still a dark, rainy day. Part of our structure was gone. I suggested to the commander, maybe we should move our people inside the rest of the structure, to get us out of the rain.

“No,” he said. “Put them on the covered porch.”

I ordered that, but saw at that point that my commander had recognized that I was thinking about things. Touching my shoulder, he told me, “Supervise them. Get them set up and ready.”

I agreed. We had an engine. It ran a generator which gave us electricity. I’d seen the commander add oil to it the previous day. I went to the engine to do the same. The way he’d done it before didn’t make sense with what I saw. This was a Chevy V8, and it was running. I knew it was important to keep the engine running. The engine steamed as rain drops hit.

I checked fluid levels. Gas, oil, etc., were all topped off. I worried that I was overlooking something and decided, I didn’t know enough about how the engine worked. I needed to learn more.

People reported in to work, bringing food and water with them, including doughnuts. Thanking the people for them, I ordered the doughnuts to be shared, encouraging everyone to eat.

Reports came in – I’m not sure of the mechanism – that enemy forces weren’t far off. I directed people to take positions as lookouts. Someone asked if we should launch a drone.

I knew we had a drone but we also had a plane. I directed that both be launched.

They were launched but we weren’t getting images from other. I went outside to see where they were in the sky, which had turned apricot but was marbled with gray and black. Craning my head back, holding my hat on, I couldn’t see the plane or drone.

My commander asked me what I was doing. I told him, and he replied, “Good idea.” Others came out to also look. None of us could see either aircraft.

“I think the enemy destroyed them,” I said with worry.

The situation is getting grim, I thought.

Dream end.

0

Monday’s Theme Music — Words

Ashland, southern Oregon. Monday, October 5, 2026.

Another summery autumn day was upon us, high 80s, thin clouds, blue sky, sun.

Last night’s dream was a short, weird one. My wife has been blowing her nose a lot yesterday, complaining, “I have one nostril which seems like a leaky faucet.” I ended up dreaming that she was blowing her nose. Her snot was coming out like yellow mustard. I then blew my nose in the dream; my tissue ended up looking like a slice of white bread thickly slathered with yellow mustard. I went into the other room and showed her, saying, “I have what you have.”

Had my first BCG wash today. Wasn’t ‘quite’ like I expected in some ways but was otherwise exactly as I expected.

The BCG wash is why I’m late posting today. Had to be there at 1:40. Doing the math, I needed to leave at 1:10. Before leaving, I wanted a three-hour writing session so that needed to begin at 10:10 AM. Ergo, leave the house by ten, which means getting dressed, getting up, getting routines done, etc.

Other things happening threw off that timing. But I was finally there, preparing for the BCG. One thing I immediately noticed was how different it is in medical offices and dentist offices. At the dentist, they provide a picture for you to look at while things are being done to you. Music is playing.

Not so at the medical offices. It’s all medical function, like you, the patient, are barely considered.

I had a good tech and a good nurse, Nurse Chrissy C, who did my procedure. I was told to strip off my pants and underwear, then sat in a chair. A large paper, like a giant paper towel, was spread across me for modesty. A foot rest was raised and the back was leaned back, kind of like a barber’s chair. Then they pulled the paper back and began doing things to my wee willie winkle.

Hibiclense was employed to wash my genitals. Lidocaine was injected to numb my pecker. Brrrr, cold. The tech left and the nurse entered. She explained that they only get two vials of the almost dead tuberculosis bacilli a week and it must be immediately used once it’s mixed. Each vial can be used for three treatments, so three of us are done in parallel at the same time.

I surmised something like that was going on because two other people were called simultaneously at my appointment time. One of these people was a teenager, and the other was a heavy woman in a wheelchair with one foot in a walking boot.

My narrow urethra cropped up, of course. The foley catheter wasn’t going in. “Breath deep and cough for me,” the nurse ordered, which I did multiple times. I explained about my previous experiences with catheters, my narrow urethra, and the kink that vexes everything partway through it.

She got it in, though, pumped out my urine, and then filled it with the treatment. Then I was free to clean up, dress and leave. “Don’t urinate for one to three hours,” she said. Only problem was I was already ready to go — with a bowel movement. Yikes.

Here we go again with Donald Trump. After trying to change voting by mail and raging that it’s ‘inherently corrupt’, Trump has spun 180 degrees.

Trump urges supporters to vote by mail despite fraud claims

Donald J Trump added a bitter word salad to explain his new position:

“They can vote by mail if they want, because we seem to have no choice because a lot of people want to vote by mail, but a lot of very good people also want to vote in-person. You can do either.”

I had “Word Up” playing in my morning mental music stream after seeing some video about Donald Trump making a speech. After that speech, he did that smug, mind-smothering dance of his. That triggered The Neurons into making a connection with “Word Up”.

Sample Lyrics

Wave your hands in the air
Like you don’t care
Glide by the People as they start to look and stare
Do your dance, do your dance, do your dance quick

And that was the connection between what I saw Trump doing — dancing like he doesn’t care, making his MAGAts laugh because he’s one of them — and the 1986 song by Cameo.

4

Sunday’s Theme Song — Promises

Ashland, southern Oregon. Sunday, October 4, 2026.

Supposed to be bright, sunny, and hot today, but clouds swamped three fourths of the sky, and sunshine struggled to be seen and felt. Never reached close to the 90 which was forecast, but it’s now 83 F.

Dreamed last night that I was in basic training. When I awoke and saw the date, I realized it was the anniversary of my first enlistment. October 4, 1974, I took my first oath. Twenty years later, I declared done.

I remember that first day. Rainy and overcast. Went in oh dark thirty. Was given a meal voucher for breakfast at a nearby local diner. Then had lunch at the same place with another voucher. We didn’t take off until late that afternoon.

That was my first time in an airplane, too. Flew from West Virginia, where I then lived, to San Antonio, Texas, via some other city.

It was a Friday, too. When we arrived at Lackland AFB, Texas, to begin basic training, we were informed there weren’t enough to make a full flight. We wouldn’t begin training until the following Tuesday, and spent the extended weekend in silence in our civies, waiting to begin.

Yes, welcome to the military. That’s how it was during my entire career: hurry up, then wait, then GO!

I spoke with Mom today. She called so I ended up chatting with her for an hour, just talking about life in the assisted living facility, Heritage Grove, Penn Hills. While I was speaking with her, my wife took a call on the home line and we learned that our friend, Larry, passed away at 3 AM this morning.

Larry was 96, and a military veteran. Obtaining a degree from Purdue via the GI Bill, he ended up as an engineer and an executive in the aerospace industry. After college, he lived and worked most of his life in the Los Angeles, California, area, moving up here to Ashland after retiring. He was married and adopted and raised two children and had two grandchildren. Although staunchly conservative and Republican, he was intelligent, trustworthy, and fun. I’ll miss him.

I read the NYT’s coverage of a 2026 Trump rally. They’re heavy with promise and rituals: attack the Democrats, maybe throw in a commie scare. Lie about multiple things. Donald Trump will use profanity — his fans love it when he uses profanity, because he’s telling it like it is, isn’t he? Trump sometimes claims prices are way down, which probably surprises anyone who regularly shops.

At many stops this year, Trump is begging people to support AI and data center construction. It’s the primary commercial construction now underway. He might claim the US already won against Iran, or he might threaten Iran with more bombing.

What is so sad is that after the many lies Donald Trump has made, and after all the promises that Donald Trump has broken, his brand of chaos, hatred, and bigotry still serve a portion of the Republican party.

Today’s music is by Incubus. The 2011 song, “Promises, Promises” did not come from reading the news. It came instead while listening to my mother talk about the inherent promises made — work hard, save your money, buy a house, raise a familiar — all that American dream debris, will bring you happy closure when you pass away. Mom relates that she and her gang of assisted living friends refer to their new home as jail — three hots and a cot.

I hope you live up to the promises you make, and that others fulfill the promises they make to you.

I also hope that promise and swear to Vote Blue in November, 2026.

Cheers

0

The Donald Trump GOP Paradox

Donald Trump made headlines with a new steel manufacturing complex in Iowa.

In it is a tale about the Republican party.

In 2008, Essar Steel Minnesota planned to build a taconite mine, a direct-reduction-grade iron ore pellet plant, and a steel mill in Minnesota. The project suffered from repeated delays and over $1 billion in debt. In 2015, Essar withdrew its financial pledge, and the project collapsed into bankruptcy. From the bankruptcy emerged Mesabi Metallics.

Mesabi Metallics is Iowa’s new partner in the $15B steel mill complex.

Trump didn’t mention that Iowa could build this new steel plant because of windmills. Iowa is the top state in the nation for wind dependency, generating roughly 63% of its total electricity from wind power. Wind leads coal by far. A Republican governor began Iowa’s wind turbine electricity project waaayyyy back in 1983.

The project succeeded in part because Senator Chuck Grassley sponsored Wind Energy Incentives Act of 1992, which created the Production Tax Credit (PTC).

It’s hilarious in a not-funny way. Trump disparages wind energy. Donald Trump blames them for cancer, talks about how ugly they are, and bellows about how dangerous they are to birds. Yet, thanks to windmills, Donald Trump is in Iowa, trumpeting about a new manufacturing plant. Trump fights against the sort of incentives which Senator Grassley championed, the incentives which make Iowa’s new projects possible.

Trump’s hypocrisy and ignorance remain appalling.

On the other hand…

Because of all that flat farmland in Iowa, Iowa is currently at a critical energy crossroads. It ranks among the top five states per capita for data center density—with 4 massive centers under active construction and 17 more in planning in counties like Linn—meaning the Mesabi plant is landing right in the middle of a pre-existing technology boom.

Sounds good, doesn’t it? The problem is the climate, and the chance of flooding.

Your Trump Quote of the Day:

Donald Trump dismisses climate change as a con job. The new Iowa Mesabi Metallics plant sits close to the Mississippi River, which is needed as part of the plant’s supply chain. The iron pellets needed for the new steel production facility comes from Minnesota via barges on the Mississippi and railroad routes along river basins. The mining and iron pellets in Minnesota are part of that original, failed Essar Steel project that began in 2008.

Analysts cite a 15% chance that the area where the steel plant is being built will experience a major flood. That percentage might become worse, thanks to climate change and the extreme weather changes it causes, such as the super El Nino forecast for this winter.

The new steel plant is being built to survive a flood. The problem with a flood is that the plant would need to be shut down and restarted, a long and complicated process. Also, flooding will affect workers’ ability to reach the plant.

Flooding will also affect the power sources. Not the windmills, but the infrastructure needed to deliver the power.

Yet, Trump — and the GOP — are focused only on the construction and manufacturing aspects. Not the climate, weather, or other threats.

It’s funny, again, in a sad, I’m not laughing way. Back in 1983, Republicans had the vision to see these problems and forge productive viable paths forward.

Now, under Trump, they close their eyes, trying to pretend like they don’t exist.

Unfortunately, Iowans are pushing back against windmills. It again takes us to another crossoad of challenges and history. Blades have broken off and fallen in cornfields. There was also the Greenfield disaster, where a tornado hit and destroyed windmills.

Climate scientists are expecting more tornados in Iowa due to climate change. Fewer ‘tornado days’ are projected, but more tornado clusters are expected. Windmills falling apart rightly scare people. Their reaction is to build fewer windmills and even remove those which already exist. But to do that, they must shift energy production back to fossil fuels, which will accelerate climate change.

The Iowa steel and energy story is a microcosm of the global climate challenge we face. The hardest part of transitioning to clean energy isn’t the engineering or the math; it’s the political and human friction.

When Donald Trump attacks wind projects, he is speaking directly to the anxieties of older, core conservative voters who view rapid green mandates as costly and unreliable. Yet, those are now the Republicans pushing back against wind power.

It’s an interesting dichotomy. Part of that can be traced to how windmills changed from those early years into what they are now.

Part of the battle now can also be viewed as the difference between how the issue used to be framed — as a business initiative to improve costs — vice a political football to address climate change.

The good news is that young Republicans view the problem much differently than old Republicans. So, there might be hope in the future.

Once Donald Trump is gone.

0

Saturday’s Theme Music — Don’t Look Back

Ashland, southern Oregon — Saturday, October 3, 2026.

A scorcher of a day is set up. Long stretches of thin white crossing the atmosphere’s bowl, but it’s mostly blue. Dropped to 80 now — a hot 80 — but it was over 90. More of the same is expected tomorrow.

Mom reports she’s feeling better. Played bingo at the assisted living facility and won five games. She seemed relaxed and — risking the chance of jinxing it — happier today.

Meanwhile, my WordPress still isn’t right, just a fly in my pinot noir. On the good news side, my next step in my cancer treatment, the BCG was moved up to this coming Monday. An impatient person, that pleases me. I’m a ‘let’s get this done’ sort of personality.

Reading political and other news, I told myself, don’t look back. Looking back causes me to grit my teeth with pain and anger over what’s happening with our nation, especially so as Donald Trump breaks promise after promises, rages about different things, and lies about almost everything. There’s a lot riding on the upcoming midterms.

Those thoughts encouraged The Neurons to introduce “Don’t Look Back in Anger” into the morning mental music stream. As I hummed the Oasis tune to myself this morning, I was surprised to see an article claiming that it was released 31 years ago. Why it seems like just yesterday!

Then again, it seems like just yesterday that I took my first driving test and got my license. It feels like just yesterday that I as going to the prom, and just yesterday that I was getting ready to play a football game.

Just yesterday seems so close and so far. Maybe I’m going on a long elliptical orbit around my existence. My memories will begin fading and the next thing I know — without knowing — is that I’m living my life all over again, following the orbit already established through agencies outside of my control.

Here’s the Oasis music. May your orbit take you into brighter, happier days and you smile often.

Cheers

3

Friday’s Theme Music — Gigantic

Ashland, southern Oregon — October 2, 2026.

It’s a summery fall day with a spring feel in our area. A thin, waning moon hides behind a screen of nebulous clouds in a bright blue sky. Sunshine splashes off the autumn foliage with eye-watering vividness. We’re at 68 F, on our way to 85.

October always means birthdays in my family. Too many of the people we’d fete have gone through the secret door. But I set up reminders to buy cards during the digital dawn. The reminders come up, reminding me that I need to take them down.

It amuses me that the reminders have survived a succession of computers, laptops, and software updates, yet my regular processes are often maligned or broken. As Laura put it in a comment on my current WordPress issues, “In order to serve us better… (worst phrase in the English language!) …”

Yes, when they tell us, they’re often putting icing on a turd.

No, my WordPress tags do not work today. Hearing that Laura was also a comfort in the ‘it’s-not-just-me’ sense.

As I went through the news headline progressions today, I thought, what a gigantic friggin’ mess the world is becoming. I modified my appraisal a few times. The world has always been a gigantic mess. Usually, though, if we found out we were making the world worse, we would try to fix things. With Donald Trump on the scene, our government actively works to make the gigantic mess an even larger mess.

Which led to my conclusion, Donald Trump is a gigantic jackass.

This headline helped cement that conclusion:

Third aircraft carrier and thousands of troops head to Mideast as Trump weighs new Iran strikes

Most striking here are, well, so many thoughts. Like, it’s Trump weighing new strikes. Said he was a peacemaker. Unifier. Said the war was over. Said it wouldn’t last more than a few weeks. Yes, that Trump.

SMFH

Verifying Trump remains a gigantic liar and ignorant buffoon, I read the story following this headline:

When Trump boasts about donating his presidential salary, be sure to read the fine print

  1. Trump inflates is salary from $400K to $550K.
  2. Trump is not the first or only to donate is salary.
  3. All of this is easily found and verified via the Internet so, WTF is he making these claims?
  4. Donald Trump is a gigantic jackass.

Which brings us to Your Trump Quote of the Day:

It’s another Trump broken promise, as Trump reported making over $1B while being in office in 2025. That doesn’t include his golf and travel scams.

That brings me to a song by The Pixies, “Gigantic”. The Neurons plugged the song into my morning mental music stream but the song doesn’t really fit. It only connects with my thinking via that one word, gigantic.

Sample Lyrics

“Hey Paul, hey Paul, hey Paul, let’s have a ball
Hey Paul, hey Paul, hey Paul, let’s have a ball
Hey Paul, hey Paul, hey Paul, let’s have a ball”

[Chorus: Kim Deal & Frank Black]
Gigantic, gigantic, gigantic
A big, big love
Gigantic, gigantic, gigantic
A big, big love

[Verse 2: Kim Deal]
Lovely legs, they’re a…
What a big black mess, what a hunk of love
He’d walk her every day into a shady place
He’s like the dark, but I’d want him

Nevertheless, I like the song — especially Kim’s voice.

May your day be full of gigantic good news and good times

Cheers

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