Tag: 2022

Monday’s Theme Music

Mood: lifted.

I begin, it’s Satur — no, wait, it’s Su — oh, damn, we know this is Monday.

It’s Monday, Septembe 25, 2023. As always, I’m surprised that another month is almost ending. Another is close to beginning. We ride the day merry-go-round.

For weather, light gray clouds frost our sky. The sun sometimes escape the cloud cover to present us with a bright glow for a few minutes. Soft rain drifts through Ashlandia.

Smoke has left our area. My sinuses and eyes feel so much better for that. Gone is in the burning and itching, and the congestion and sneezing. Thank you, fates.

We’ve been receiving light rain off and on. Sometimes, it comes so quick, and leaves so fast, hurrying by on cat’s paws, that we have little knowledge it’s been there. We see the drying street and the damp sidewalk. Hindsight can be helpful.

It’s 65 F now, so it’s warmed up but we’ll only kiss 70 F today. That’s good enough for a windy fall day. By the way, I was negligent in not welcoming south of the equator folks to spring. Hope you have one friend of floods, fires, and other disasters.

I’ve always hunted balance, I reckon, balance in work/life, living and loving, doing and dreaming. Oh, yes, and I’ve sought balance between moods, between the dark sides and the sunny, less threatening times. I’m more familiar with my cycles as I’ve gotten older; I know when they arrive. When the darkness comes, I’m ready to curse and give up, walk away from things. I want freedom then, and I feel weary. But I know how to press myself and shut it down and not do anything stupidly impulsive.

Dark days come over me less frequently in my senior years. I’m 67.25 years old, you know. I suspect some of the evening can be attributed to less worry, but also fewer hormones. I’ve also managed to cultivate that calmness that, hey, things aren’t so bad for me. That many things which worry and trouble me are temporary, and that I give these matters a surfeit of attention. Beyond those basics, I find great solace in my writing processes.

Like many Americans, I’m following long stories about Trump’s trials, the potential US government shutdown, various disasters around the world, and Sen. Bob Menendez and the charges against him. Rep. Jeffries had a terrific response to the GOP threats to shut down the goverment. He cited all the times the GOP has done this, referencing their flaccid reasoning for their demands, and pointing out the damage to people and the economy incurred each time. His theme, though: we will not pay the ransom. I embrace his reaction completely.

Meanwhile, on the Menendez front, the evidence is heavy — especially the gold. Hah! But he is innocent until proven guilty. Let justice plow the field and see the results, just as we’re doing with Trump. But if either is guilty, I expect heavy punishments for the crimes against we, the people, that they did while being paid as servants of our nation.

On to music. The morning mental music stream (Trademark insane) is filled with Lucy Spraggan and “Balance”. Surprised?

Not me. The Neurons and I are in tune today. I’m not overly familiar with Lucy Spraggan’s work. I first heard “Balance” online last year. The first several times I listened to it, I was striving to understand the words and message. Eventually, I found enjoyment in the song’s cadence.

Stay pos, if you will, if you can, find your balance and be strong. Here’s the music. Coffee is at hand. Time to write like crazy, at least one more time. Cheers

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Tuesday’s Theme Music

Tuesday’s here. Take advantage while you can because soon Tuesday will be gone. These fleet days add up.

It’s June 13, 2023. No clouds out there. 69 F in Ashlandia, so a warm morning with cooling tones licking in from the mountains and trees. Looking to a high in the mid 80s F before the sun’s exit just before 9 PM. Yesterday saw over 91 on the digital thermometer outside.

The floof boys so love this. In to visit, eat, drink, and zip back out. Back door is open so they’re going in out through the morning’s early hours before finding a napnest. Papi likes the vinka or the yard in the grass in shadows while Tucker prefers the front porch bushes. Both do the sun and shadow dance throughout the day.

I have “Calm Down” by Rema (2022) in the morning mental music stream. It’s a relaxed song, nice beat, interesting lyrics and inflections but what really had me going when I first heard it was, is he singing ‘condom’? So I had to look the song up. Didn’t know it’s name then or it was — they don’t like telling you who is singing what song on many radio stations. It’s apparently a game they’re playing with you. As the song gains popularity, they start telling you who and what. Well, when they said the song was “Calm Down”, the big light blinked on. Laughter followed because calm down made more sense than condom. Although thinking the song was being sung about condoms had Les Neurons imagining all manner of interesting lyrics.

Hope the tune rocks your Tuesday. Stay pos and don’t trip. If you do trip, don’t fall. If you fall, get up. Yes, simplistic; who knows what will happen between the beginning and end, things beyond your control? Oh, well. Calm down. Carry on and have some coffee.

Cheers

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Tuesday’s Theme Music

It’s election day in the U.S., one more time. The culmination of hopes, dreams, ideas, complaints, arguments, debates, and discussions about spending, revenue, who is charge, and what’s going to happen next but on a smaller scale than then ‘national’ elections.

They, the omniscient bureaucrats, put it into motion years ago and now we are here, on Tuesday, May 16, 2023. Ashlandia is enjoying lovely sprummer weather. Top temps struck 88 in my slice of the realm yesterday. Late afternoon showers put a damper on that. Timer and settings were for set for four minutes and light to moderate, so that rain was gone almost before you could smell the petrichor. Then thunder boomers commenced. Tucker was unbothered but Papi did a concerned low to the ground jog into the house, sitting down by me to keep him safe. Poor fellow.

It’s 62 F now, 8:30 in the AM. The usual routines have been fulfilled. Coffee is brewed and awaiting entrance into my alimentary canal, which I shall do as soon as the cooling is enough. Sunrise was well before six meows. Not true, really. Papi was in and out, meowing each time for assistance. It’ll be 84 F today, sunny and cloudy.

My biggest news was my cougar sighting. Happened at 10:45 PM. I like going out in the late evening to breathe the air and admire the celestial existence above me. Don’t turn on lights because that would ruin the moment — enough lights already on along the street, thanks — but do carry a small flashlight. This time, when I walked out, I saw an animal in the street start and do a lazy trot up the hill, a cat-like trot but waaayyy bigger than any cat I’ve known. About twenty feet away. Totally silent. Did I mention big? What was really striking was it’s looonnnggg tail.

I flashed the light at them but was too slow. They’d gone up around the corner. My concerns were for my cats. The front door was open behind me. Tucker was saunter-washing — two steps forward, pause to wash a paw, continue two steps — so I closed the door before he was out. Papi was already out, so I called for him sotto voce because I didn’t want the cougar to respond to my whistles, kissing sounds, and name-calling.

As I did that, I thought, did it look like the cougar had something in its mouth? Papi is just a little fourteen pounder. Amuse bouche for a cougar.

Then I went back in, related all to my wife, who was in bed, reading, and got my sword. I figured that if I’m to save Papi from a cougar, a sword would be useful.

I’d bought the sword a few years ago for Halloween. It’s made of wood about half an inch thick, thirty inches long. Stupid me gave away my ball gear, including bats, because I was no longer playing and some youths would make better use of it. Now what was there to ward off a cougar? A broom? Well, yeah…but, you know…image. The sword was better.

Papi didn’t return for hours, but he finally did. Found him on the back patio. He looked like he had a story to tell, seemed ready to spill on an adventure, like, “Damn, you wouldn’t believe the size of the cat I saw. They must be giving him a lot of treats. Cat that size probably just takes his own treats. I wish I was that big. Then I’d show that little dog next door.”

Cougar sightings aren’t unusual for Ashlandia. They’ve been spotting all over town, along with their kills, and kills being made. All is well, for now, though.

Today’s music arises from errand running yesterday, dropping off ballots — Oregon is all ‘mail-in’ but with drop boxes — pick up library books, mail a bill, and buy romaine. Meghan Trainor’s 2022 song, “Made You Look”, came on the car radio. Spouse turned it up with the comment, “I like this song. It’s fun.” I agree. Nice throwback doo wop vibe to it. Short, though, but fun. The Neurons liked it enough to loop it through the mental music stream. Thought it a good song for a cougar sighting — “I made you look.”

Stay pos and carry forward. The coffee has just been tested and The Neurons are pleased. Here’s the music. Cheers

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Friday’s Theme Music

Our sprawling Christmas Cactus is resplendent with large red flowers on its window perch. Wind dances with trees outside the glass. Grass and bushes shiver under the wind’s tickle. 36 degrees F outside, sunshine washes over valley as the clouds have surrendered the sky to blue. It’s Friday, December 16, 2022, just five sleeps from winter solstice and two weeks and a day to 2022’s end.

Our weather has been pingponging between rain, high winds, and then days of freezing fog and stagnant air. Hope this day brings on a change. I don’t think I’m really a winter person. Today’s high will be 46 but the wind’s northern mountain ice edge will make you think it’s less. The clock saw 7:33 AM when the valley was gifted the sunlight’s first direct light. Daylight will go until 4:40 this afternoon.

I was given an earworm yesterday. Running errands, music playing, The Neurons heard a song which made me laugh. Then they kept playing it, and here it is, sixteen hours later, hogging the morning mental music stream. I’d never heard “Victoria’s Secret (2022) by Jax before yesterday, but after arriving home and settling in, I looked up the lyrics to confirm what I heard. This is a song pushing back against body types and body shaming, focusing on the stereotypical Victora’s Secret model, all boob on a skinny body. I applaud the song. Fake bodies aren’t needed. Nor is starving yourself or “going without carbs” as the song mentions. Our adherence to fake images and the efforts to achieve those is a sickness that undermines our national mental health, as is the whole heavy slant toward the need to be young and pretty, as portrayed too many times in movies, television shows, and advertisements. Hope you’ll give the song a listen. Hope you don’t get stuck on the same line that hooked The Neurons, “Victoria is made up by a dude (dude)!”

Other than weather, writing, exercising, and socializing with people and cats, life is moving at a slower pace. I need to carve out more reading time. That’s my significant complaint, other than the nastiness of life for so many and the general mess called politics. Stay positive, test negative, and so on. Time for my morning coffee rations. Have a super one. Here’s Jax. Cheers

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Tuesday’s Theme Music

I thought we’d play a game today. I’m not going to tell you what day of the week it is. Instead, I’ll give you a clue: it’s between Monday and Tuesday. As a second clue, I’ll tell you that it’s November 15, 2022, but don’t cheat and look at a calendar or computer to see which day of the week it is, alright? Cool. This should be fun.

It’s a bigly windy and sunny day out there. Winds roaring about like a big, drunk, hairy guy, shaking leaves on trees and shouting incoherently about what’s going on. People try to avoid him but he’s every dang place. Temperature has settled at 48 degrees F under these conditions but the weather they say it’ll get up to 52 F. I’m optimistic because yesterday saw us peak at 59 F. It was lovely except a wind would rake you once in a while, like reminding you, winter is looking over your shoulder. The sun came on stage at 7:01 AM while they’ll take their final bows in the valley at 4:49 this evening. Should be sunny all day, though.

On the personal front, Mom has gone in and out of the hospital again. Concerns about her appendix took her in last Thursday. They saw fluid in her appendix on imaging, put her on meds, drew blood and urine for the lab, and sent her home. Yesterday, they called her back in because they’d found Yokenella regensburgei in the lab results. Mom, a retired nurse, had never heard of it, and no wonder, because from what my net reading tells me, it’s pretty rare. The family tree is shook by this news. After bringing Mom in yesterday for more tests, they gave her meds and sent her home. We don’t know what they’re planning, but I read some case studies so we have some idea of what to expect. Fingers crossed for the tough old broad once again. She says she feels fine although the news wearied her.

For music, I’m going with “I Ain’t Worried” by OneRepublic. The song was featured in the Top Gun fillum this year but I haven’t seen the movie. People seemed to like it but we weren’t enticed enough to go sit in a theater with a mask on for a few hours.

The Neurons pulled the song up after my wife said something to me, a trivial matter to which I responded, “I’m not worried about it right now.” If you’re familiar with the song, it features this whistling part. Soon as I uttered my words, The Neurons started that whistling part. Now it’s traveling the morning mental music stream like the moon going around the Earth.

Okay, on to other things. Stay positive, etc. The coffee has already been tested and deemed useful for delivering a refreshing taste and giving me enough energy to breathe and think, though maybe not at the same time. More coffee will be needed for that. Here’s the song. Enjoy the whistling.

Cheers

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Saturday’s Wandering Thought

He read about the droughts in England, Italy, and France. Fires in France rage. Italy’s Po River is drying up. Meanwhile, toxic chemical waste in the Oder River in Poland and France is causing a huge fish die off. Drought has caused the River Thames source to move East.

Parts of Australia are suffering drought and low precipitation. A record heatwave in July baked the US. Wildfires burn in the US, including Hawaii, as fifty percent of the country experiences drought. America’s west is suffering from a record megadrought. Record floods caused massive damage in Yellowstone and Yosemite National Parks. The Colorado River is drying up. Lake Mead is at its lowest level since 1937. Lake Powell is dropping to deadpool status, where the water level will be too low for water to flow from the dam. Flooding in Kentucky and West Virginia caused death and substantial damage. Investors are scrambling to exploit the exposed earth as glaciers melt and recede.

World food prices are going up as crops dry up and wither, weather disasters strike, and harvests shrink.

Reading all this news, he thought of Billy Joel’s 1989 song, “We Didn’t Start the Fire”. In Billy Joel’s song, they were at least trying to fight it. Too many now seem to be fighting against fighting it.

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Monday’s Theme Music

We’ve been plopped into a Monday, in a very merry month of May, on a day — 23 — in a year — 2022. For most of us, it feels about the same as the day before, except, you know, the ones who lost something or someone the day before, or the ones whose crimes were revealed, whose cheating was exposed. Also different for those who awoke to gunfire and explosions.

Here in Ashland, the sunrise came at 5:43 and sunset will take place in our valley at 8:33 PM. It’s 57 F and a high of 77 is anticipated. Clouds? Yes, we have no clouds. The cats are happy. This is floof weather.

The morning neurons didn’t drop a song into my morning mental music stream. I went looking for one. I’d met to do this before, but one thing led to another, and the next thing that I knew, a few weeks had shot by underfoot. Remembering today, I sought out “Hey, Hey, Rise Up” by Pink Floyd. Released in 2022, it’s base on the Ukrainian anthem, “Oh, the Red Viburnum in the Meadow“, and features the Ukrainian singer Andriy Khlyvnyuk. David Gilmour wrote the song to support Ukraine and its people as they fight against the Russian invasion.

Stay positive, test negative, and so on. Rise up, vote, make a difference. Help set us on a better path, one where equality, freedom, and rights are respected. And yes, I’m pro-choice: her body, her choice. Not my business.

Forward, he cried from the rear. Forward. Now, I’m off for coffee. Can’t move forward without my coffee. Here’s the music. Cheers

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Friday’s Theme Music

Time is suddenly slowed for me. Like I was on Chronos Highway, speeding along, making, um, good time, when suddenly everything slowed down. Wonder how many others are feeling it?

Today is Friday, May 20, 2022. Sunrise spidered in through leafy boughs at 5:45 this morning. Sol will skedaddle from these environs at 8:30 PM.

It’s a clear sky, empty of clouds, but haziness hovers on the western horizon. Reflecting that clear sky, temperatures dropped to 35 F last night and sit at 42 now. We expect a high of 68 F. The cats are out digging the sunshine. I told them, “Don’t you put holes in the sunshine.” They were like WTF you talkin’ ’bout?

The neurons put nothing into the morning mental music stream. First no dreams are remembered, and then the neurons abandon their musical motif. Interesting Friday. Well, I lie a bit. The neurons did have “Time Is On My Side” sliding around the music stream for about seventeen seconds. I sat and wondered, what song should I put out there today? As I did, I came across a video of Tears for Fear playing “Everybody Wants to Rule the World” in 2022. With the primary elections in full swing in the U.S., Ukraine trying to fend off Russia, Putin threatening Finland and Sweden, Turkey saying “Nyet” to NATO, the GOP trying to undo established precedent and foster election corruption, and billionaires attempting to become trillionaires, I thought, “Why that’s a perfect song for this age and time, innit?”

Sure, the neurons said, yawning. Go for it. Which I did.

Regardless of the little neurons’ mood, I’m going for coffee. Care to come? Here’s the music while you decide. Cheers

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