Tag: 2023

Saturday’s Theme Music

Mood: sated

Good afternoon. Getting around a little late to this posting today. I dibble and dabbled the morning away, dashing up and down the Interstate and around town during late morning and early afternoon before returning home for naps and reading for a few hours.

It’s November 11, 2023, Saturday and Veteran’s Day. Awoke to a new battle between a feeble sun trying to crawl through chilly gray fog to reach us. Finally worked after a few hours, lifting us from about forty up to a skin scorching 55 F. Bazinga.

As we went zipped about town today, we had lunch and then began joking about our energy levels. “We used to be younger,” my wife and I teased one another. Yes, we used to be crazy, and we used to be fun. Now we’re prudent from mistakes made and lessons learned. Well, with happenstance, we turned off NPR games to pop on the car’s FM radio, and there was Miley Cyrus, repeating our words back at us.

[Chorus]
I know I used to be crazy
I know I used to be fun
You say I used to be wild
I say I used to be young
You tell me time has done changed me
That’s fine, I’ve had a good run
I know I used to be crazy
That’s ‘causе I used to be young

h/t Genius.com

We laughed and my spouse mentioned how much she enjoys the Miley Cyrus song, “Used To Be Crazy”, which came out earlier in 2023. And then I started wondering, when exactly did we start talking about when we were young? I think it was when I was in my forties, which is now about twenty years ago, depending on where the marker in my forties is thrown down, but I can’t verify it without a time machine. But how often do we mourn the passage of our youth and the new people which we end up being? We reflect on how our metabolism drops lower and lower, and with it often goes our energy levels, and maybe our attention levels. I also mourn hair loss and how many body shape has change, and oh, yeah, that hair has grayed and thinned. Were wrinkles mentioned? I forget.

I won’t say that I’ll never be the person I used to be. Techology may surprise us in new ways, like cloning a new version of Michael that I can inhabit with life memories and acquired knowledge intact, which could be pretty cool. Or perhaps an invention that comes along which washes out old cells and blows us out clean and fresh once again, even tailoring the result into which age we’ll like to be. I think I’d like to be 32 again.

Oh, well. This is the shit that is us, and such is life.

Stay positive, be strong and brave, and keep leaning forward. This concludes this portion of my posting day. Here’s the video. Cheers

whi
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Monday’s Theme Music

Mood: Excited

It’s Monday again, but it’s a fresh November 6, 2023.

Sounding much like a pot of hard boiling water, rain splattered us all night, leaving jeweled drops on the windows of Ashlandia, where the air is above average when there’s no wildfire smoke polluting it. Temperature now is 51 F and today’s high means the thermometer will need to climb ten more degrees. Tomorrow will deliver a colder set, 37 F and 52 F, low and high.

For music, I listened to some of the new Stones album last night, Hackneyed Diamonds. I played the song, “Sweet Sounds of Heaven” again this morning. The Neurons liked it enough to keep it pumping around the morning mental music stream (Trademark crumpled) through the rest of the morning. Don’t know if you’ve heard it but I find it pretty typical Stones material, layered with blues, gospel, and rock and roll. Lovely tinkling piano riffs carry some bridges while Stones guitarists dance notes around Mick’s singing. Then Lady Gaga joins the group and the energy soars to stratospheric levels. The song goes from a solemn, reflective mood to a defiant declaration.

Stay pos, be cool, remain strong, and lean forward. I’ll endeavor to the same. But first, coffee, I think, right? Here’s the video.

Cheers

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Wednesday’s Theme Music

Mood: roly poly

Congratulations; we are now into November, 2023’s eleventh month. Hope your November Eve went well. Ours was a quiet one, just a pot brownie and some streamV and reading.

Today is Wednesday, November 1, 2023. Ashlandia, where winters are mild but brisk, is chilly this morning. 37 F has climbed into the low forties under gray yarn clouds wearily highlighted by tepid sunshine. Amazing me, the weather masters declared that our high will be in the low 70s before the sunny period goes away — sunset, I think it’s called.

As it is now November, we’re preparing for turning back the clocks this Saturday, thinking about how we’ll spend that extra hour.

Politics occupy much of my gray mass again. Well, I call it politics but much of it has to do with the trials involving the former POTUS, DJ Trump. His children are testifying in one trial this week. As none of them seem able to keep the story straight and tell the same thing under questioning, it’ll be interesting to see if or how the stories explaining the property valuations will differ.

Meanwhile, I was thinking about how I’d like to see us move forward and move on toward solutions for the many problems besetting us, but the GOP has become so radicalized under MAGA leadership that I don’t believe this nation has forward gears any longer. We’re just stuck spinning our wheels, slowly slipping backwards toward a new era of white heterosexual male dominance.

You’d think that I, a WHM, would say, gee, that’s cool, my people will be in charge. First, many white males are not my people. Our values diverge too completely. Second, I’m one of those people who believe in equality and justice for all, and that it shouldn’t be predicated on sexual orientation, gender, pronouns, education, wealth, skin color, or religious beliefs. Someone should start a country based on those principles. From my point of view, intellectually, morally, spiritually, culturally, our nation is only as free as the least free of our peole, only strong as the weakest of our people, and we can’t advance as needed to solve our problems if we keep spending resources and energy trying to fight ourselves.

But that’s just me.

Catching wind of my thinking, The Neurons are offering Olivia Rodrigo and “Vampire” in the morning mental music stream (Trademark indeterminate). See, Olivia is singing about her relationship with another. That other is manipulative, using her and abusing her, sucking her dry, she sings, just as the GOP is doing to the United States. Take Sen. Tommy Tuberville. Please.

Tuberville, a MAGA Repubican Senator working alone, has deciced that the US military was too woke. It’s such a bullshit concept that I gag just thinking about his projection. But this upsets poor Tommy. So, to make the military, which has existed for 200 years plus and developed its policies continuously throughout that time with expert input, into his own image, Tommy has decided that he will decapitate the military by blocking senior promotions until the military gives in. This has been going on for months.

What’s bunching Tommy’s panties up now is that the US Senate has grown concerned about how this affects military planning and readiness, you know, because fucking war takes few breaks. I’m not for war, and the way I see it, cutting off the military leadership’s head emboldens other nations whose leaders think that waging war is a good way forward. So, back to the main point, the Senate, led by Democrats but supported by Republicans, are going to change the rules and terminate Tommy’s tantrum. More or less. There are exceptions.

This, to Tommy Tuberville, a man of the people, is very unfair. See, it’s all about Tommy, in Tommy’s mind, and now he’s whining, wah, look at they’re trying to do to me. Wah, they’re not including me in any talks. They are so unfair and uncompromising, not even willing to negotiate with me, just because I’m a senator terrorist holding our military hostage. They’re mean and un-American.

Yeah, suck it, Tommy, you vampire.

So here’s Olivia Rodrigo with the soft but emotional “Vampire”. Hope you enjoy it.

Stay positive, remaing brave, and keep leaning forward. I have coffee; here’s the video. Cheers

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Thursday’s Theme Music

Sunshine and thunderstorms are today’s specials. Toaster waffles are on the breakfast plate. Coffee on the side.

It was cool today, Thursday, May 18, 2023, but it’s warming. Started at 54 F. Now 67 F on its way to 84 F. Sun shooed night out before six AM. Night will push back tonight around 8:15 PM.

We’re still holding our breaths about election results. Measure 15-214, which I voted against, is failing at the moment, but it’s by less than 1%. Like many issues, we’re narrowly divided around here.

We’re also celebrating the case against Rudy Giuliani, worrying about fires in Canada and flooding in Italy, and despairing about too many things to write about.

For today’s theme music, I decided to ignore The Neurons’ input and go with the splashy Eurovision winner, “Tattoo” by Lorreen. It’s a dramatic, interesting song and video, catches attention and doesn’t let up. It’s a love song, but not sunny love, a reflection of the modern realization that emotions are tangled and hard to control.

Time to eat and drink up. Stay pos and champion yourself. Here’s the music. Cheers

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The Writing Moment

Eighteen percent of The Light of Memories remains to be edited and revised in the third revision session. Small percentage but over a hundred pages. Once it’s done, another round of reading it through will begin. Figure I’ll read and edit until I reach the point that I’m not confused by anything I’m reading, that it reads smoothly and fully, that I’m not pausing to make corrections.

Then I’ll offer it to others. So, maybe this century. If not, the next.

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Spring Day’s Theme Music

Happy Spring Day. Yeah, it’s that day in the U.S. where we spring ahead an hour.

This day felt feels like the spring ahead might have been a quantum leap, taking us out of winter’s claws and into spring’s embrace. Warmer, 42 F now — which was the overnight low — with sights on a mid-fifties high, with showers. The clouds have gathered for the chance to shower us but there’s still sunlight between the clouds.

Sunrise slipped back to 7:26 this morning as we ‘sprang’ ahead, and sunset will be an hour later than yesterday, 7:15 PM. The time change surprised the cats. Tucker immediately adjusted, telling me, “Alight then, let’s go eat.” Papi was asleep. Startled awake, his expression asked, “What are you doing up? What time is it, anyway?” He recovered as soon as a can of food was opened.

It’s Sunday, March 12, 2023.

A concert is on our schedule this afternoon, a volunteer symphony. Friends are in it and we’re supporting them. But the concerts are generally entertaining and a diversion from our usual routines. Old friends are coming into town tomorrow, so plans are afoot for socializing.

I have a song by Almost Monday trapped in the morning mental music stream. The Neurons heard it on Hulu several times. I tend, as part of my writing routine, to watch a series repeatedly at some point, leery of upsetting the writing balance. Superstitious, isn’t it? Was Bosch. Vera followed. Now it’s Justified (again). Justified is on Hulu, and for some reason, they play a few minutes of music video each night. This week it’s Almost Monday with “Only Wanna Dance”. Hulu is the only place I’ve heard it, but The Neurons said, “Say, that’s sort of interesting,” and refuse to let it go. So I must pass it on. That’s just the way it works.

Stay pos, and happy Sunday, or whatever day it is in your leg of the world. Coffee is finished, as is breakfast. Time to take on the world again. Here’s the tune. Cheers

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Saturday’s Wandering Thought

He was thinking about buying an electric vehicle, so he was reading reviews. One car manufacturer proclaimed that their cars can be recharged at any EVgo station. He researched EVgo. They have charging stations in 34 states in the U.S. Going to their website, he searched for their recharging stations in his area. None found.

Back to the drawing board.

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“The Bad Old Days”

‘The Bad Old Days’ is the title of Herb Rothschild’s latest book. Not a novel, no. Bloomsbury’s Books in Ashland, Oregon, has an excellent bullet on the book:

“Herbert Rothschild Jr.’s The Bad Old Days: A Decade of Struggling for Justice in Louisiana depicts in vivid detail the kind of local work that transformed the Old South. In this blend of grassroots history and memoir, Rothschild tells story after story of confronting injustice. Engagingly written, his accounts bring to life a world that, while still recognizable, no longer exists as it did when he confronted it.”

Herb will be reading from his book at Bloomsbury’s in Ashland at 7 PM today, Monday, January 16, 2023. Sorry for the short notice but I just found out about it. If you’re in town and interested, stop by. Herb has been an activist for decades and remains a prominent force for change in Oregon’s Rogue Valley. He makes a terrific mulled cider and generously boozes it up. His pumpkin cheesecake is also damn good. Neither will be served tonight; just saying.

Hope to see you there. Cheers

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First Puzzle of 2023 Finished

I finished the Christmas jigsaw puzzle. Though she picked it out and suggested we do the puzzle, my wife helped with the edges and then bowed out. I worked on it in evenings and found it a mentally stimulating diversion, which might be the best kind. It’s the first puzzle of 2023, though technically, it was begun in 2022. We found it at our local library of things and will return it after I admire it for a day or two.

Hardest part was the tree. Took a few days. Fireplace was easiest. Last done was the top wood paneling.

Feast your eyes on it. Cheers

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