Tag: 1995

Thursday’s Theme Music

Mood: entrapped

Started the morning like it felt like spring had spring. Although just 40 F, that spring balminess – spriminess — enveloped my area of Ashlandia, where a river runs through it. This is today, by the way, Thursday, Jan. 18, 2024. It’s now 54 F, though rain has been falling from a swollen gray cloud that hovers over us like it’s hiding a giant alien spaceship.

My day was compromised by the need to be socially responsible and help some friends out. They of the removed gall bladder and limited mobility and freedom previously written of needed grocery shopping done, so we did so. That hoovered up the morning and early afternoon. Delivering the purchases, we then visited with them and emptied the dishwasher, putting those items away as weren’t able to do that for themselves.

I feel for them, though, really and truly. Besides her surgery, she has macular degeneration in her eyes and can barely squint through the day. She recounted being in the hospital unable to work the television remote because she didn’t know what was what. I don’t know why she couldn’t figure that out by trial and error, hit and miss. I suspect she didn’t think of it. BTW, she showed us some of the marbles that were the gallstones removed from her. She informed us that the six we saw were just a small sampling of what’d been removed.

Meanwhile, Mom had another bad fall at her house. Nothing broken but some bruises, contusions, and bleeding. Happened while she was trying to make it to the comode. All this evidence of aging and mortality is deflating. The thing is, I take notes about what happens to them so I’m more prepared, in case they happen to me. But the other thing about aging is that it’s such a personal matter and your experience — what you do and don’t suffer and wha I go through — will be generally the same and unique different.

Today’s song in the morning mental music stream (Trademark delusional) was “Gangsta’s Paradise” by Coolio from 1995. Reading and thinking about Trump and his family and the people who support him inspired The Neurons to play this song. The Neurons began with the lines, “Power and the money, money and the power, minute after minute, hour after hour. Everybody’s runnin’, but half of them ain’t lookin’.” That’s basically what I see in many ways when I see TFG leading the GOP.

Stay as positive as you can while testing negative, staying strong, and leaning forward. Coffee is done for the day. Here’s the music. Cheers

2

Monday’s Theme Music

Mood: sufficient

T’was the Monday before Thanksgiving, and all through the town, people were hurrying, rushing around, making their plans to have a good meal, or shopping online to get a good deal.

Yes, it’s Monday, the 20th of November of 2023. This is the last time that we’ll experience this day and date combo until three different things happen. One, time travel is finally achieved, enabling us to return to this date to see what really happened; two, the Recreation Society decides that this will be the day/date that is recreated as a do-over. But I know for a fact that time travel is still a few decades off and the Recreation Society won’t be here for over fifty years. In fact, its inventors aren’t even born yet.

Windy is the word for the weather in Ashlandia, where the wind is charged and sharp, and the cats are unhappy. After dipping to 30 F last night, we’re now up to 45 F under a flash blue sky and sterling sunshine.

Looking out and seeing no rain, The Neurons cranked up “I’m Only Happy When It Rains”, 1995, by Garbage, in the morning mental music stream (Trademark drenched). While it was a bit’o mischief by Les Neurons, who love pranking me before I’ve had coffee and I’m defenseless, I’ve always found IOHWIR to be a terrific sing along rocker. Shirley Manson delivers on vocals with audio sneers dripping with contempt. Terrific fun, and hard to resist as she teases, “Pour your misery down on me.”

Stay positive, be strong, and lean forward into that dark wind until we break through the other side. Pour some coffee down for me. Never mind, I’ll do it myself. Here’s the video. Cheers

PS: The third way we can experience Monday, November 20, 2023, again, is if we come unstuck in time. It’s been known to happen, although they didn’t know it at the time.

0

Sunday’s Theme Music

Mood:

December’s coming o’er the horizon. Just one more November Sunday to manage — after Thanksgiving this month, of course.

Yes, it’s Sunday, November 19, 2023. It’s 40 F in Ashlandia, where we officially remain in drought condition, but at the lowest level. Rain fell off and on through the night after some prolonged and heavy rain yesterday afternoon but October was labeled the state’s 64th driest since 1895. Which, doesn’t sound that bad to me; 128 years have passed since 1895, so 64th driest puts it dead in the middle.

Today’s high temperature will be 48 F. We’re expecting plentiful sunshine, lots of clouds, and some rain, which adds up to a pretty average Ashlandia autumn day.

For some reason, The Neurons planted some lyrics to “Glycerine” by Bush from 1995 into the morning mental music stream (Trademark slippery). “I’m never alone, I’m alone all the time.” I’ve always admired the simplicity and dichotomy as well as the inherent enigma of that line. I think many of us feel like that: I’m surrounded by others — noise, crowds, family, pets, co-workers, traffic, shoppers, etc. — but I’m alone with my thoughts, emotions, and struggles. I don’t know by number how much we usually share with others. They — health professionals — tell us that we shouldn’t keep things bottled in, that it’s better to share with others. But we so often have private fears and worries which we’d rather not show, often without even knowing why. Just coffee reflections.

Stay positive, be strong, and lean forward. I’m learning toward more coffee, myself. Here’s the music. I went with a recording of a live show featuring Gwen Stefani. Hope you enjoy it. Cheers

0

Wednesday’s Theme Music

Today is Wednesday, March 22, 2023. That means it’s World Water Day! Children around the world celebrate as water fairies come to them at night and throw water on them. Parents don’t know about the water fairies and accuse the children of wetting themselves. “It was the water fairies,” the children protest. “Don’t lie to me,” parents reply. “There are no water fairies.”

The parents, sadly, are right. No water fairies exist. That’s why we have this international observance. From Wikipedia.org, “World Water Day is an annual United Nations (UN) observance day held on 22 March that highlights the importance of fresh water.” Many around the world don’t have regular access to fresh water, a number that the UN puts at 1 out of every 4. True in the United States, too, which many proudly claim as the world greatest nation. Drought, overuse, and pollution has damaged or destroyed water supplies in the U.S. We’re trying to build them back up and be smarter in our use, but it takes a nation, and we’re pretty divided on matters, even matters like water.

The sun climbed over the hills and mountains east of Ashlandia at 7:08 this morning and will disappear over the Earth’s curvature at 7:26 this evening. Puffy, flat, fragmented white clouds obscure the sun and blue sky. It’ll rain today, the weather fornicators inform us. Current temp is 42 — F, you know — and it’ll climb into the upper fifties, despite the clouds and rain. Not much rain will fall, less than a twentieth of an inch. Upon hearing this, the house floofs, Tucker and Papi, demanded to be let out to enjoy the day before the rain arrived. Smart cats. Yeah.

With talk about rain and water, The Neurons have poured a long list of songs about the subjects into the morning mental music stream. Think about it and you’ll probably find some favorites of your own about rain or water. Elvis P., Deep Purple, Simon and Garfunkel, CCR, BJ Thomas, Joey Bishop, Billy Joel, the Eurythmics, Tina Turner, Eric Clapton, the Beatles, are among the many who had rain or water songs. Those are performers from the first half of my life. Add to them the many, many performers who added more, such as Avril Lavigne, Billie Eilish, and Adele. Rain, water, etc., is a popular theme for music.

In the end, I went with Radiohead, “High and Dry”, 1995. Just like its vibe. Good reflective song, and a solid addition to a cup of coffee.

Stay pos. Begin with the end in mind and make Wednesday worth remembering. I have my coffee, thanks, but I might get a warmer. Stay strong. Here’s the beats.

SPECIAL NOTE: The clouds overtook the sun and the cats have returned to inside the house. Cheers

0

Wednesday’s Theme Music

Time for electric Elevens. Yes, we’re on the 11th of Jan, 2023. Coming up on the month’s halfway point of the new year’s first month.

Little has changed for me and it feels depressing. I’m sipping coffee in hopes of elevating my mood. Don’t know why I’m down but I can speculate on reasons. Could be the fog, rain, and wind swirling around outside. Wind sounds like it’s planted someone right outside the window to make ghostly woooooo noises. Writing the first draft and working on it to improve the story could be depressing me because it feels like there’s so much more still to do. Maybe it’s just the news and its unchanging flavors of death and politics, and the ugly, jaundiced textures that infuse it. Or, it could be that I’m in a rut and it wearies me, looking up the rut’s same walls. Probably just my time of month, when hormonal changes bring out my dark side. I could also chalk up to SAD, one supposes. Reminder to self to not make any impulsively stupid decisions today, because this will pass, brother.

Wednesday has landed on us. The fog has moved back and up, so I can see more world. Chainsaws and chippers drone and sing, informing me of another tree’s demise. Outside, it’s 42 degrees F again though it feels like 33. Flat white clouds with a tincture of gray have overwhelmed the sun. Sunrise was same as yesterday, 7:39 AM, but sunset has inched a few minutes back and will now be at 5 PM sharp.

Two songs compete in the morning mental music scream stream. The Neurons have me hearing “Just My Style” by Gary Lewis & the Playboys from 1965. Okay. The other is “Self Esteem” by the Offspring from the middle of the 1990s. I can guess why The Neurons are doing this to me. The same lines keep repeating, from one and then the other. First we have the bass delivery, “Don’t you know that she’s,” followed by the rest of the band singing “Just my style,” from the first song. Then the Offspring sing, “The more you suffer, the more it shows you really care, right? Yeah.” Both have been featured in this space before. I’ll flip a mental coin for which one is today’s theme music.

Time to drink up this coffee and pretend it’s a day. Stay positive! Test negative. Rise above yourself, I tell myself. I’ll suggest the same to you. Let me end this whiney scree. Hey, look sunshine! Too slow — it’s gone. Keep an eye out; it’ll be back.

Cheers

0

Friday’s Theme Music

Veteran’s Day in ‘Merica. Today is a holiday, Veteran’s Day, in the U.S., so happy Veteran’s Day to my fellow vets. As they say, thank you for your service. My service wasn’t very hard duty, which I did for over twenty years before retiring. Many others followed darker and more tortuous paths. Lives were lost. Bodies and minds maimed. Not a pretty tale, and sometimes, their losses were based on false narratives. The history of war and what it does to combatants. My sincere appreciation and respect to you.

It’s Friday, 111122. That could be an elegant piece of arithmetic: 11+11+22. It’s climbed to 38 F. With the sun’s help, we’ll hit 50 F. It was fairly cloudless at daybreak, so dawn was a slow, spacious event, with sun’s official arrival pegged at 6:56 AM. As the world turns, the other end, aka sunset, will be at 4:53 PM. It’ll be mostly sunny today. The November snow has fled all but the highest of the high peaks.

Now, a little weirdness. I awoke with the Easybeats and their 1966 song, “Friday On My Mind”, in the morning mental music stream. I thought, I used that as theme music not too long ago, didn’t I, Mr. Neurons? Looking it up, I confirmed that I used it last year.

On Veteran’s Day of 2021.

I asked Les Neurons, why would I think of that song two years in a row on Veteran’s Day? They giggled like children playing a prank.

Well, just to show them, I decided that the song would not be today’s theme music. The Neurons soon helped me out with a new song. As I made my coffee and fed me cats, I was thinking about Veteran’s Day and my last days of military service in 1995. Click, The Neurons turned on a song I was listening to in those days, Foo Fighters and “This Is A Call”. Thinking of that beat and the song lyrics, I decided, yeah, that will work. “Good job,” I told The Neurons. “Coffee,” they replied. I snickered. “What was that? I didn’t catch that.”

The Neurons weren’t amused.

Stay positive, test negative, etc. I’m going to give The Neurons their coffee now, before they attack me. Have a good Friday, 111122.

Cheers

0

Mewsday’s Theme Music

The Tucker floof awoke me with song at an early time. “Get up, get up, it’s time to eat. Get up, get up, no time to sleep. Get up, get up, feed me some food. Get up, get up, or I’ll keep up this tune.”

Which he did. So I did. That makes this Mewsday.

The sky crashed down on his last night. Well, starting just after two in the afternoon, winds shifted, bringing the Rum Creek fire‘s smoke right down the I-5 corridor, changing the color of our air quality indicators from green to red like a traffic signal at work. Although it looks and smells better today, we’re at 152, red, and not good. Actually, the peculiarities of the narrowing valley and slope that I live on brings the air quality down to a more endurable 105. A wind shift can take that away, making us like the rest of the city.

Sunrise was a mellow and uneventful period at 6:33 AM. Sunset cometh at 7:50 PM. Cool 54 F now but a high of 34 C is on deck.

Got a Tom Petty song in mind. Heard it on the radio the other day. The Neurons said, “We like this,” and kept it on as background music in the mental music stream since. The song is “Leave Virginia Alone”. I remember hearing the Rod Stewart version back in 1995. Didn’t move me deeply. I was unaware that Tom Petty wrote it, learning that later, when he covered it himself. It sounds more like a Tom Petty style song than a Rod vehicle to me.

Okay, where is the coffee, please? The cats have abandoned me. Tucker is silent and coffee is needed. Stay positive, test neggy, etc. Have a good Monday, whatever that means on your spectrum. Here’s the song. A little mellow for a coffee-less Monday to my ears but it makes The Neurons happy. Cheers

0

Thursday’s Theme Music

Summer is rolling into the valley. Today’s high will take us to 86 F, probably more around our house. Sunrise cruised in at 5:34 AM this morning and the valley sun tour will end with sunset at 8:46 PM. It’s presently 62 F on this Thursday, Jun 9, 2022.

I was having beers with friends, a weekly meeting outside. A local brewery, Caldera, was our host and provided us with the various ales and IPAs consumed. Eight of us, all vaccinated and boosted, fingers crossed, gathered. A ninth person joined us to tell us what’s happening with the local high school robotics club. It competes and we sponsor it, providing five hundred dollars each year through donations made when we have beers together. As the group broke up, my neurons started serenading me with the Red Hot Chili Peppers and their song “My Friends”, from 1995. Even a night of dreams didn’t shake it from its lodging in the mental music stream, where it remained this morning. It’s a reflective, introspective song, and I don’t mind it being there. I’m just singing along with the neurons. Maybe you will too.

Stay pos, test neg, and be real. Here’s the music for your morning listening pleasure while I boldly seek out new coffee. Cheers

0

Friday’s Theme Music

Friday has arrived. Around the nation, in work stations and meetings, cars and on Zoom, I hear people smiling and telling one another, “Thank God it’s Friday.” TGIF. For shift workers, it might not be Friday. And wait staff, hospitals, and others associated with jobs whose tasks and activities don’t recognize a standard work week, they’re probably muttering, “Is it Friday?” Then they think how the weekend might spin. It’s a four-day weekend in the U.S. For, this is Good Friday and the First Day of Passover. Sunday is Easter. Many schools are closed for today and Monday. The change will do some folks some good. Your life might vary. Let’s hope some shooter somewhere doesn’t decided to make this a more memorable weekend.

Today is April 15, 2022. Hey, your taxes done? Sunrise was another glorious show, a sharp dawning of light piercing the sky as the mountains were cleared at 6:30 AM. Temperatures are at 37 F outside of my house on the valley wall. Sundown will take over at 7:52 PM. Our high should be in the fifties again. Another winter weather advisory is in effect, for snow over 2500, 2-6 inches. A lot of snow for April, but appreciated, given our dry winter and drought conditions.

My dreams featured waterfalls. Naturally, the neurons are playing “Waterfalls” by TLC (1995) in the morning mental music stream. (In fairness to the neurons, they first started with the theme song to the Mouseketeers.) 1995 was the year I retired from the USAF, and I remember the song playing during my commute in my final months, wondering if I was chasing waterfalls. It worked out well, though, for me. The AIDS epidemic of the era was behind the song’s lyrics, something I later learned. While I took it as a song about doubt, it’s more of a song of worry, pain, and desperation, and a parent trying to protect their child. It’s much different from my dreams, where I remember realizing I was standing in a waterfall, looking over its edge and thinking, “Neat. What power and beauty.” In the manner of dreams, the waterfall infused me with a sense of strength, and I walked away feeling invigorated.

Stay positive, etc. Hope your weekend goes well, whether it begins today or another day. I’m off for coffee. Here’s the song. Cheers

0

Saturday’s Theme Music

Welcome to Satsunmon, the day that feels like three days rolled into one. It does not really feel like Saturday to me. Has more of a Sunday vibe but with low Monday energy.

Today is March 26, 2022. Just five days left to use those coupons that expire on March 31, 2022. Use ’em if you got ’em.

Sunrise was another flat affair, as though the sun didn’t really want to show up. It came at 7:04 AM. The sun’s tail-end experience will be at 7:30 PM. It’s chilly for now, with that sun struggling to come up with watts to warm, 47 F now, but we expect a high of 75 today.

It seemed like both my cats walked around yesterday looking for the one who passed. They considered chairs and corners, favorite resting spots, etc. It really seemed like they were asking themselves, “Where is he? I don’t see him anywhere.” Or maybe they saw him everywhere. I went back and read a post that talked about the cats’ relationships at the time, “The Tale of Two Cats” posted in Juy, 2016. Boo had joined us the previous November, so he wasn’t really with us that long. Nice to see how much better Boo, Tucker, and Papi (aka Meep) were getting along by the end. They remained wary but the growling, hissing, and fighting was pretty much gone.

Had a good laugh over some tweets this AM. My spouse is a big fan of AITA on Reddit. Well, Elle Em did a twist on Twitter, AITA from a feline perspective.

Multiple songs vie for the neurons’ attention from the morning mental music stream. Among these are Rice A Roni jingle, “Brand New Key”, “All These Things That I’ve Done”, “Happy”, and the theme music from “Shaft”. But eventually “Roll With It” by Oasis from 1995 herded the neurons onto one tune.

Stay positive, test negative, wear a mask as needed, and get the shots, you know? Speaking of shots, I think I’ll have a few shots of hot water poured through ground roasted beans. Can you say coffee?

Cheers

1

Blog at WordPress.com.

Up ↑