Sunday’s Wandering Thought
Governor Abbott of Texas said after the Robb Elementary School shooting that guns weren’t the problem, mental health was the problem. But he’d just cut two hundred eleven million dollars to the state’s mental health budget to build a wall to keep them safe.
There was something wrong in the governor’s logic, but he’d not had enough coffee to figure it out. He didn’t know if he’d ever have enough coffee to deal with that logic.
Saturday’s Theme Music
Full sunshine, full leaves. Leafy trees square up shadows across the back lawn, ripe with weeds. Bees visit the slumping dandelions. Sunshine jumps into the open spaces.
It’s a lazy morning for me and the cats. Done eating, they wash up and chat up birds, twisting heads to regard a squirrel’s noisy trespassing, resuming their grooming after the squirrel takes his business away. I tend a cup of coffee, sneaking hot sips past my lips, waiting for the caffeine’s magic to jump into the blood and brain.
It’s Saturday, May 21, 2022. Had blood tests done yesterday, routine matters to see what’s what, mentioned because I was asked to sign my name and date a document. The neurons were instantly amused; how long has it been since I was asked to do these things that were once daily routines?
Sunrise was sprung on us at 5:44 AM, I’m told. I didn’t witness it, staying in bed at that point to wrestle dreams. Sunset will come around at 8:31 PM. We had a cool morning, 50 F when the cats and I went out back, but sunshine was rapidly warming it. The weather masters say that the high will be 73 F. I will do yardwork, I decide, regarding the bushes and trees.
Later, inside, awaiting the caffeine’s arrival, I surfed the net and hummed a song. For some reason, the neurons had dumped “New York State of Mind” (1976) by Billy Joel into the morning mental music stream. “Surprise,” they shouted, when I recognize the song. “But why?” I asked them. “Why that song?”
One volunteered, “It’s a slow, bluesy, sleepy song about routine moments and found-again places.”
“So?”
The neurons shrugged. “It just feels like the morning.”
Impeccable logic.
Stay positive, test negative. The caffeine is pulling into the station. Brain cells are climbing aboard. Here we go. Cheers
Tuesday’s Theme Music
Rain and snow finds us today. The snow isn’t down at our levels, but we can look out and see it up around five thousand feet on the trees and mountains surrounding the valley on three sides. Freeze warnings are in effect but the temperature doesn’t stray below 37 F in our locale and elevation. 54 F is the expected high. Sunshine has been sparring with the clouds since sunrise at 5:55 AM. Sometimes sunshine punches through, pushing us toward the impression that the weather is clearing. But the clouds regroup and roll back in with a new dark menace, delivering swaths of rain. Sunset, at 8:20, should be interesting. Yesterday’s was a pink infused study of clouds in eggplant and gray.
The fur bois are not pleased with this weather change. The old man, Tucker, only goes out when it’s sunny and warm these days. However, comma, if the young blade wants to go out, Tucker must go see why he wants out and what he’s doing. The ginger prince, aka Papi (aka Meep), goes in and out multiple times, trying to find weather accommodating to his needs. But no, this side is too rainy, that side is too windy. Rapid drumming on the door follows as he orders, “Let me back in!”
I have a Sweet song from 1978, “Love is Like Oxygen”, in the morning mental music stream, put there by the rascally neurons. I was in the kitchen, mumbling to myself and the cats, asking the furred ones, “Are you hungry?” They were answering, “Duh, where’s the food? Give me food.” My mumblings to self were about the promise and lure of coffee. During some part of my interaction with myself, I thought, “Coffee is like oxygen.”
Well, yeah, the neurons jumped on that. First, they tortured the song’s lyrics to fit my sentiment, changing love to coffee in the lyrics. Abandoning that, they just started playing the song, you know?
In an aside, when I first heard this song, I thought, that’s an interesting tune. But it didn’t overly move me or anything. I was startled to discover it was by Sweet because it seemed strikingly different from their previous stuff, like one of my faves from them, the over-the-top, “Ballroom Blitz”.
Test negative, stay positive, wear a mask as needs dictate, get more jabs when it makes sense for you, etc. Coffee is at hand. Here’s the tune. Cheers
Michael Seidel, writer 