Monday’s Theme Music

We’ve reached the beginning again, following another calendar cycle, another week, as the world turns, giving us day and night, and we revolve around the sun, flashing through seasons, while the solar system revolves around the galaxy and the galaxy heads somewhere in the universe. And the universe itself might be going somewhere. It’s a lot to take in on a Monday in April, 2022. Thank cat I’ve had some coffee.

Today is the 18th. More than half of April has been lived, and almost a third of 2022. Sol crested the hills and mountains at 6:26 this morning, illuminating the area, showing us some idea of our weather. It’s hazy, cloudy, misty, wet, and sunny. It was 34 at dawn but now, just a few hours later, we’re arrived at 49, and have the low sixties in our sights before sunset at 7:55 PM.

I have 38 Special singing “Caught Up in You” from 1982 caught up in the morning mental music stream’s flow. It’s just the neurons playing with memories and word association and so on, saying, hey, remember 1982? Hey, remember this song? While so many memories are dependent on smells or deeply linked to them, I have similar linkages with music and television shows. I don’t think I’m anything special in that regard, more of part of the new shift in senses and memory associated with evolving technology. I think smell got a head start on memories because smell was ubiquitous and music wasn’t around much, and television wasn’t invented in humanity’s early years.

Ah, that gave me a laugh. Stay positive, test negative, wear a mask, etc. I have my coffee but I think a leftover cinnamon muffin is trying to get my attention in the kitchen. Here’s the music. Enjoy your day. Cheers

Wednesday’s Theme Music

Another rainy day with chilly temperatures, another night of dreams, another morning of feeding the cats and then sitting down at the ‘puter. Feels a bit boring today. Tedious. I’m ready to dive back into the novels in progress but I’m also reading an excellent book. It all balances.

Hello, and welcome to Wednesday. This is April 13, 2021, a day when the sun rose over the Cascades at 6:34 this morning, showing us a spring that looked and felt more like late February than mid-April. Sleet fell for a while this morning, becoming snow, and then rain. Not a sharp surprise to the mind as we’re sitting at 37 F with hopes for a high of 42 F before sunset at 7:50 PM. More of the same is forecast until Easter Sunday, as a slow-moving Low comes aboard the Pacific Northwest.

The neurons have Pat Benatar singing “Shadows of the Night” from 1982 in the morning mental music stream, an occurrence directly attributed to Papi cat. The ginger blade wanted out, of course, so I did my duty at 3:30 AM. I had the porch light on, turning it on first to ensure no other beasts were waiting to ambush him, and watch his reaction to his environment. When he turned and dashed for the shadows, a WTF passed did a neuron wave. I went out to see what the what with a torch at which point the orange boy galloped back to me and into the house. I asked him what he saw in the shadows, but he stayed smugly silent.

The neurons picked up on ‘shadows’, though, of course, and kicked Benatar’s song in right off. It’s a good representation of early 1980s style rock, though, and a pleasant way to entertain the ears and mind. It’s a pretty silly video, though.

Stay positive, test negative, wear a mask as or when needed, and get the jabs as it’s figured out. Coffee is serenading me in the other room, so off I go. Cheers

Sunday’s Theme Music

The sky looks like a gray warship going by. “Sun?” the valley asks. “What is this sun you speak of?”

Today is Sunday, April 10, 2022, but winter is on the stage for an encore, bringing snow to the upper levels — three thousand feet — and rain down in the valley, a perfect complement to the cold air. It’s 39 F now. We expect 50 but I don’t know… The cats are doubtful, curling up in warm spaces and already asleep, their day plan already being executed. We humans take snow and rain here in southern Oregon. Give us something to refill the water tables in all its phases and elements, and water the food chain.

The sun’s moment came at 6:39 AM but she balked over showing off her blaze. She leaves our stage at 7:47 this evening.

Another night of brisk dreams had my neurons singing several songs. Finally, while in the bathroom shaving and thinking about my reflection, they began singing bits of a song about being older, so much older. Took a minute or two to realize the neurons were having fun with me, playing the opening lines to John Mellencamp’s “Hurt So Good”. The neurons were sobered some when I pointed out that the song came out when I was living on Okinawa, which would put it forty years ago. They were like, “Wow, we were only twenty-six then. Where does the time go?” “Indeed, my little neurons,” I replied, “indeed.”

Gotta admit, this seems like a strange music video. Never saw it before. Was reluctant to post it after watching it. But I did, though I grimaced.

Stay positive, test negative…you know the routine by now. If you don’t, then I think you might be a lost cause. Coffee is coming up and I am out of here. Cheers

Saturday’s Theme Music

Gold filled the cloudless sky as the sunblast kicked off at 7:27 AM in our valley on this Saturday, January 29, 2022. With the sun rising, the gold dipped. Blue flooded in as the sun’s beams surmounted the mountains at last. The temperature was 32 F. Now at 36, we expect to see 63 before the sun takes its show over the western horizon at 5:21 PM. Look at that, almost ten hours of sunshine and February hasn’t started it session yet.

In bummer COVID-19, all the county libraries are completely shutting down for a week. All materials due during that period will be automatically extended as the drop boxes will be locked shut. Hold pick-up periods will be extended, too. All this is because of personnel shortages driven by employees or their families sick with COVID-19.

While that’s happening, some genius suggested in an editorial that the best way to deal with the skyrocketing COVID-19 numbers is to open all the businesses and not restrict any of them. Save the economy and give everyone’s morale a boost. But…as the numbers are skyrocketing, people sicken, and the hospitals fill, who is going to be there to work?

Sadly, many see this bizarro logic as an ideal solution. Yet, hospitals across the nation are pressing nursing students into working for free to help with the caseload as personnel fall sick. Other nurses are being ordered to work longer hours, sometimes while foregoing pay, because of shortages. These are the same people who think that bare shelves are a political issue which can be resolved by just making more people work. They completely miss the dynamics engaged.

Enough of that. Sorry for the rant. Haven’t had coffee yet.

Today’s song is a repeat. “Maneater” by Hall & Oates came out in 1982. I was stationed in Japan, on Okinawa, at Kadena AB in the military at the time. That has nothing to do with the song’s occupatoin of my morning mental music stream. The song is there because of the cats. Why, yes, of course.

Sometimes when I’m feeding the cats, maybe just five out of five times, Boo and Tucker will suddenly become oblivious to me. After begging me for their morning meal with patient meows as they follow me around, I’ll put the bowls down and say, “Here you go, Tucker. Here, Boo. Come and get it.”

Hearing that, they’ll sit. Look around. I can hear their minds saying, “Boo? Tucker? Never heard of ’em.”

Papi, the young ginger, will dart pass them to the bowls, give me a meow, and begin eating. I then say, “There you go, Papi, eat up.”

Hearing “Papi”, Boo and Tucker will rise and come. “Papi,” they say. “Why, that’s me.” They say this even though I tell them, “No. You’re not Papi. You’re Tucker and you’re Boo. You two are black and white. He’s a ginger.”

They act like they can’t understand a word of what I’m telling them.

Of course, when they finally came is when I said in my head, “Here they come.” Which started Hall & Oates and the bassline for “Maneater”. Thus is how my mind works. At least before coffee.

Here’s the tune. Stay positive, test negative, wear a mask as needed, as get the jabs when you can. I gotta get that coffee in me, you know? Cheers

Sunday’s Theme Music

“Here comes the rain again, falling on my head like a memory.”

If today is Sunday, this must be December 12, 2021. The temperature is standing by 41 degrees F, right between the day’s respective highs and lows of 37 and 45. Sunshine grayed by heavy clouds slithered in at 7:30 AM. Sunset will be at 4:39 PM. Yes, it’s raining again, which we welcome. Snow is hopefully falling in the Cascades and Sierra Nevadas. We need that snow for the snowpack to build up so we can endure the summer. It’s our water source. One hundred inches of snow are projected in some higher mountain elevations, so there’s a chance we’ll get a respectable start on the snowpack.

It seems like a good library day. I have two books on hold — Harlem Shuffle and Fortune Favors the Dead — and I’m returning three — Find You First, Crossroads, and War of the Wolf. I admit that I didn’t finish Crossroads. Its style is just too busy and involved for me at this time, too contrary to what I’m writing. I’ve learned that a balance between what I’m writing and reading is best for progress.

I’ve had several resident songs in the morning mental music stream. Most were about rain or dreams. But one dream portion featured an old friend. He and I were stationed together at Kadena Air Base on Okinawa for four years. We were almost best friends while there, certainly constant companions, arriving and departing at the same time, and yet, we have never seen or spoken to one another since. He went to Omaha, Nebraska, and I went to South Carolina.

Music was one of the things that brought us together. We shared musical tastes. One song that was out at the time was “Come on, Eileen” by Dexys Midnight Runners (1982). It was an unusual song in many ways, but the song’s lyrics reminded my buddy of trying to pick up girls when he was in a local rock band in high school. Their band wasn’t very good and then he was drafted, and off to the war in southeast Asia.

Stay positive, test negative, wear a mask as needed, and get the jabs when you can. Here’s the music but I can’t find my coffee. It seems it’s wandered away again. Cheers

Thursday’s Theme Music

The wheel has turned, and we’ve come, at last, to Thursday, October 21, 2021. A warmer day here. Dryer. Lively with wind teasing fabulous fall foliage. Red leaves dressed scarlet to merlot are in abundance, competing with warm pumpkin orange leaves, bright yellows, bronzes, and burnished golds. All against the enduring greens offered by firs, evergreens, and pines. While the current temperature is a pleasant 58 F out there, we expect it to get ten degrees warmer. Sunrise overtook us at 7:30 AM and sunset will transpire at 6:20 PM. The cats are generally enjoying it. Winds are not their thing, but they find places for a cozy nap outside.

They don’t know it, but the click is ticking. A cyclone bomb is heading our way. That entails stronger winds and much more rain. The cats will not be happy.

Today’s tune occupying the morning mental music stream is a Rush song called “Subdivisions” from 1982. It came through on the heels of yesterday’s music. After I played yesterday’s selection, I let the music keep rolling on Youtube as I typed with my headphones on. “Subdivisions” was one of the subsequent melodies heard. I haven’t heard it in quite some time. Sort of surprising, as classic rock stations that I tune into often play Rush music. I usually hear “New World Man”, “Tom Sawyer”, “Limelight”, or “Closer to the Heart”. I like “Subdivisions”. As it cut into my thinking, I flipped the puter over to the Youtube tab and enjoyed the live performance.

Stay positive, test negative, wear a mask as needed, and get the vax or booster when you can, as you can. And remember, drink plenty of fluids. Staying hydrated is very important. I have water and coffee beside me now. Ready to write and roll. Here’s the music. Enjoy.

Wednesday’s Theme Music

I’ve rolled the dice. They’ve come up sixes. Moving my piece — which, by the way, is a beer mug — half full, thanks — I land on Wednesday, October 20, 2021. Shadows are long and the sunrise is slow where I am. A weak, lethargic sun, debilitated by distance and angles, hindered by clouds. It began its journey through our sky, a function of the world turning, at 7:29 AM Pacific, and will retreat from our region at 6:21 PM.

Rain sang to us all night long, sometimes soft as a kitten’s swat. Othertimes it burst into a long Buddy Rich drum solo. The wind came in with demonic shrieking and wolfish howling. Now it’s calm. We hear it’s a momentary thing. We’re happy for the rain as it feeds root systems and replenishes our water sources. While it rains here, we keep our fingers crossed that it’s snowing in the mountains, building up the snowpack.

We’re at 46 degrees F. right now. High will be about 56. Air quality is good, at 7.

The morning’s mental music stream is entertaining me with “Eminence Front” by The Who from 1982. Not a favorite song nor album. I felt their mojo had waned by then. But — should be noted — I’m comparing this song with the music I knew from them ten years earlier. I believe front was the trigger for the song’s entrance into the MMMS. I was reading about weather fronts. I think the mental Alexa jumped on that and said, “Playing ‘Eminence Front’ by The Who.” She’s so cheeky.

Stay positive, test negative, wear a mask as needed, and get the vaxes and boosters as recommended. Then, chill. Have some coffee. I know I will. I hear it whispering to me from the other room. Here’s the music. Cheers

Friday’s Theme Music

It was two A.M. The bladder mumbled something. Didn’t need to hear exactly. Knowing what he wanted, I ambled through sleep and dark to the voiding station. A precipitation orchestra was tuning up. Plink plink. Plink.

Rain. By the time my bladder had finished his business, a solid downpour was underway. The cats and I — my flooftourage had followed me, of course (what’s he doing, where’s he going?) — slipped to a door to enjoy the rain and fresh air. But the smoke remained, thick as oatmeal, scratching at my eyes and nose. Still, it had rained.

Today is Friday, September 10, 2021, the second of four Fridays in September. We will have five Wednesday and Thursdays in September. A tepid imitation of sunrise took place at 6:45 AM. Last night gave us an an almost normal sunset as the smoke cleared enough for standardized views. Who will know tonight? The smoke comes from all directions. If you want to see the sunset in Ashland, look west — outside or through a window — at 7:29 PM.

The Dutch band, Golden Earring, had a 1982 hit called “Twilight Zone”. The song begins with a man talking. Then he says, “It’s two A.M.” The vocalist then begins singing with that line, “It’s two A.M.” He then goes on, “The fear has gone, I’m sitting here waiting, the gun’s still warm, maybe my connection is tired of taking chances.”

More lyrics (h/t AZLyrics.com):

Yeah there’s a storm on the loose, sirens in my head
Wrapped up in silence, all circuits are dead
Cannot decode, my whole life spins into a frenzy

Help I’m steppin’ into the twilight zone
Place is a madhouse, feels like being cloned
My beacon’s been moved under moon and star
Where am I to go, now that I’ve gone too far
Help I’m steppin’ into the twilight zone
Place is a madhouse, feels like being cloned
My beacon’s been moved under moon and star
Where am I to go, now that I’ve gone too far

Soon you will come to know
When the bullet hits the bone
Soon you will come to know
When the bullet hits the bone

I’m falling down the spiral, destination unknown
Double-crossed messenger, all alone
Can’t get no connection, can’t get through, where are you

Well the night weighs heavy on his guilty mind
This far from the borderline
When the hitman comes
He knows damn well he has been cheated

It’s all about wondering who you are, what’s going on. Whether you’re losing your connection with reality. What’s going to happen next.

Stay positive. Test negative. Wear a mask as needed. Get the vax. Enjoy your Friday. Fetch me a coffee, please. Never mind, I’ll get it myself. Here’s the music.

Cheers

Tuesday’s Theme Music

Cheers.

Let’s turn this thing around. Get vaccinated. Wear a mask as needed. Test negative. Stay positive. Here’s the music.

That triggered the 1982 song, “Digging Your Scene”. Fateful words. When I answered, I knew who it was — recognized the number, yeah? — and said, “I just got your message.” Courtesy of a telephone call. Have the Blow Monkeys invading my mind this morning.

Temperatures are again expected in the upper nineties, maybe low 100s F. Air quality is moderate right now (76). (Remember that song?) Wildfire smoke is blowing in from the south, turning the sun into a red rubber ball. Sunset will be at 8:28 PM. Sunrise was at 6:06 AM. It’s already August 3, 2021. Today is Twisted Tuesday. Good morning.

Sunday’s Theme Music

6:04, 8:30, 8/1/2021, 96. These are the numbers defining the day’s parameters. Sunrise in the AM, sunset in the PM, the first day of August, and another high forecast for the upper nineties. Little leery of that last. Said the same yesterday. Next thing I know, I glance at the thermometer and it’s claiming 108. Checked with Alexa. She assured me it was only 101.

Yes, it’s Sunday but things are little changed. Awoke with a cat eyeing me. Purring. Kneading. Drooling. Hungry, I suspected. Or possessed. I tried to pretend I wasn’t awake. He tapped my cheek with a claw. Rubbed against my nose. Hand. Smiled.

Well, I thought it was a smile. Looking into his eyes, I began singing “Space Age Love Song” to him. A Flock of Seagulls. 1982. “I saw your eyes. You made me smile. For a little while I was falling in love.”

The cat — this is Tucker, he of the long and thick black and white fur, large white paws, and helter-skelter curvaceous whiskers — dropped his smile. Frowned. Changed his gaze to, “I’m hungry and you’re singing? What’s wrong with you?” It all worked out. I turned away. He remained patient. Spoke up with a rusty, drawling meow laced with purring trills. Knew I’d crumble.

Here’s the music. Watch the video. Admire the hair. Note the style. Shake your head and tell yourself, “My, how things have changed.” Stay positive, test neg., wear a mask as needed and don’t be stupid or complacent about it, and get the vax if you’ve not done so, if you can. Cheers

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