Tag: Double Trouble

Thirstdaz Theme Music

Looked out the window and what did I see? Weak, uneven sunshine, blue sky patches, thick towels of scattered white clouds. I also saw the far-ish mountains with their thick evergreen coats. Sunshine and shadows spangled them in different verdant hues. Sunshine sneaks through the windows and darts away. It’s been a few weeks since I’ve been able to look across and see the tops of the trees on the top of this low mountain because of the weather, and I missed that scene. This is Thirstda, December 18, 2025.

Two friends lost family members this week. Both lost members were sisters and both passed after prolonged cancer struggles. So, a moment of thought for each of them. The holidays are stressful enough for people without the added weight of a family member passing. Although in one case at least, the family was relieved because they hated how their sister/mother/aunt/grandmother was suffering.

Thinking of sisters inspired The Neurons. I’ve been doing many text exchanges with my second-oldest ‘little sister’. She’s the one who volunteered her home and family to take care of Mom. Taking care of anyone is a challenge but Mom at 90 can be a test for your nerves and patience. The two are again at peace, and I hope that lasts. Of course, Mom is going through a chunk of stuff with her health, age, and the loss of her longtime live-in boyfriend, Frank. Frank was a giving and caring steward for her, and though his feet were small, those are big shoes to fill. Add to that, the natural stresses brought on by winter storms and the holiday season, and it gets to be a very heavy load.

So, the Neurons filled the morning mental music stream with Stevie Ray Vaughn and Double Trouble playing their cover of Hank Ballard’s song, “Look at Little Sister”. I have three younger sisters. I regularly text with them. All are mothers, two are grandmothers, two are tremendously fit, and two are very successful. All are a treasure to me. My fourth sister is the single sibling older than moi. She and I get along well but don’t exchange many texts. Still working, she’s engrossed with her children and grandchildren.

Coffee is treating my cells to some wake up energy. Hope peace and grace come out of their hole and don’t see their shadow.

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Sundaz Theme Music

Greetings from Cape Perpetua. Two miles south of Yachats, Oregon, Cape Perpetua is part of the coast range, the Siuslaw. We visited this morning after breakfast. Breaky was again at a favored eatery, The Green Salmon. My choice was a “Only Murder” sausage (plant-based) and Just Egg omelet with red peppers and vegan Swiss and cheddar cheeses and rye toast. Awesome.

The view from Cape Perpetua overlooking the Pacific, where the weather stole the blue. August 24, 2025, about 12:30 PM. If you look closely, a road is spotted. That’s Highway 101. Runs all along the Oregon Coast and then goes into California to points south. Above/east of 101 is the Visitor Center. We hit it next.

It’s Sunda, August 24, 2025. Beat down by fog and wind, 64 was the day’s high. Still lovely. The casa’s regular routine has us punching back into our dwelling at 3ish. We then become the napping dead or silence is ordained by people reading books. After reading, I sucked in coffee and went on a brisk beach walk. The path was mostly mine as everyone shunned a chilly, damp wind. Now we’re settling in for dinner. Cooking rotates. Tonight’s chef is making salmon burgers with chips and guacamole. Dessert is chocolate ice cream, fruit, or fondue.

Today’s music is “Tightrope” by Stevie Ray Vaughn and Double Trouble. I don’t know why The Neurons called this up during my pre-breakfast stroll. Mine is not to question why, just sing along and go for the ride.

Coffee and wine have been imbibed. Hope peace and grace find and hold you today and every day. Cheers

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Satyrdaz Theme Music

Last night was beautifully clear and cool.The temperature dropped into the 50s. We were rewarded with a coolly comfortable house in the morning, third day in a row. I credit the skunks for some of that. We usually open our windows at night, and our doors for a few evening hours, to naturally cool the house. Skunks, though, were getting busy at eleven at night, releasing their odor and forcing us to shut the windows. The skunks have taken an August recess. Hope they’re not ending it soon.

Today is Satyrda, August 9, 2025. It’s 75 F now, feels 85 F, and is going to reach 91. Tomorrow, we stalk the century zone again. I think about how pleased I am that I used the cool stretch to get outside work accomplished. The flip of that is, while I was doing that work, I discovered — or sometimes, re-discovered — other work to be done at there. I’m bristling about it a little now because today and tomorrow are swamped with calls for other activities, like a memorial service for a friend. There’s too many of those things going on.

We’re going on vacay, too. Detailed planning plagues the days leading up to our planned departure. Food is the subject. We’re sharing a house with two other couples. Those four are a decade plus older than us. We all live under food restrictions. No this and that. I now have my own list. They all want to cook in the rented home. That’s apparently part of their vacation ethos: “Let’s go away and cook.”

Each couple is to provide dinner one night. We’re on our own for breakfast and lunch. My wife and I have a surprise dessert planned, a vegan fondue smorgasbord.

As I sat reading news and sipping my coffee, my wife said from her part of the office, “We don’t need to worry about him. He’s golfing today.”

“Not true,” I answered. “Thanks to modern technology, he can text something or call someone and launch a new round of craziness.”

Although we never said his name, we’re talking about the human wrecking ball named Trump, who is also known as TACO. My wife and I share some laughs over FAFO stories, like the Trump Burger guy who ICE picked up and plans to deport, Roland Mehrez Beainy. Beainy responds to the claims against him, “Ninety percent of the shit they’re saying is not true.” Well, that’s probaby so. This is the TACO regime. They’re addicted to lying, just their leader, TACO himself.

Shifting tones, my wife and I are angry about reports of how big tech is helping the TACO Regime. Apple’s investments, and Tim Cook’s gold offering to Trump sicken us. Amazon Web Services gave Trump a billion dollar discount. Gag, groan. Google slashed cloud services for the TACO Regime. OpenAI is giving Trump’s agencies access for $1 per year. Ordinarily, I’d think, look how great this is, with these companies helping the United States. But they’re not helping the U.S. Nothing Trump does helps the U.S. It’s all about him. And these companies are bribing him to stay on his good side.

Today’s music is “Pride and Joy”. This is a 1983 rock blues offering by Stevie Ray Vaughn and Double Trouble. My wife and I are both fans of SRV & DT, and we enjoy this song. But I don’t understand any segue that leads from what I dreamed, thought, or observed that led The Neurons to pull this one out and slot it into the morning mental music stream. It’s just one of those brain things, I guess.

Coffee has been sucked up. Its off to the races. Hope grace and peace finds and keeps you. Cheers

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Frida’s Theme Music

And then, it was over as fast as it started. We’ve been on vacation. Florence, on the Oregon coast. Sunshine baked us across blue skies and light winds. Baked is relative. Temps only crossed into the sixties once. But when you’re not expecting sunshine, a wealth of it can feel skin melting. In a good way.

This morning, Frida, May 2, 2025, was our final day. Gone was the blue sky. Withered sunshine made little effort to offset the cold air. A light drizzle was falling by 9:30 AM. It amused me; last time that we stayed on the coast, we had a similar experience. I joked at that time, the sky was crying because we were leaving.

We had an update on Papi. Joanne, our traditional flooftender had taken on duties. Much easier when it’s just one floof. We used to have five.

Papi has always been skittish and standoffish. Wary. So we wore concern on our thoughts for his welfare while we were away. Lovely to hear from Joanne before we left the coast this morning that Papi was an absolute sweetheart. Either there and waiting for her when she arrived each morning and night, or immediately turning up when she called him. The Orange Boi was very pleased to see us and looks good.

Terrible news came to me by way of my sister. You may have heard about the windstorms that cut through part of the U.S. a few days ago. Mom’s house in Penn Hills, a Pittsburgh, PA, suburb, took on some damages. 100 year old trees were uprooted or lost substantial branches. The side porch was torn away, along with the roof to the tool shed. Fallen trees and branches conspired to keep vehicles from traversing the road. She lost electricity. Their phones were almost dead with no way to recharge them. Food in the frig and freezer was lost. Super sister sent her awesome hubby to check on them and discovered their state. Super hubby is a plumber and has friends and relatives in associated professionals. He soon had people over there clearing trees and writing estimates, others bringing by power banks to recharge their phones, electricians to assess the problems. While many things were addressed, Mom still lacks electrical power. Fortune did keep them safe and uninjured but it must have been a few traumatic days for this elderly couple, 89 and 95 years old.

Into the morning men..tal music stream today came Stevie Ray Vaughan & Double Trouble performing “Crossfire”. It’s one of SRV’s later efforts. A solid rocker, less bluesy than most of SRV & DT, I enjoy it. My wife is more of a purist and dislikes the song.

Politics had a part slotting it into my MMMS. The Neurons thought after reading about the quid pro quo nature of the Trusk Regime that “Crossfire” was ideal theme music for this second day of May. The song rhetorically inquires, “Whatever happened to the golden rule?” I believe that PINO Trusk has monetized it, along with every other thing in the U.S. He wasn’t alone in his efforts. Too many of us were far to willing to go along.

Back home now, we picked up some dinner and ate it. Unpacked all luggage. Washed the vacation clothes. Folded them and put them back into drawers and closets. Now we’re just resting and recovering from being away from home.

Hope your day has been spirited with happiness or at least some modicum of joy. If not, tomorrow is another chance. Cheers

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Thursday’s Theme Music

Mood: Fallandfell

Today is Thursday, September 12, 2024. A chilly morning here in Ashlandia, the rain has stopped and the sun is crowning over obstacles, trying to toast us a little today. Right now, it’s 54 F, and the high won’t wander much more than the low seventies.

Yesterday was supposed to see us in the upper seventies. We never made that mark at my place. When I was out writing, rain was dumping on the intersection where the coffee shop sits. Like, wow, very cool to see the silver bullets splashing up on the soaked asphalt and cement. Heavy streams built up fast, gushing into sewers. But driving home, just a four minute event, I was quickly out of the rain; we didn’t see that rain event at our place. Weather can be fickle like that.

The cats took to the rain like cats who don’t like water. After some feeble efforts to assert himself as an outdoor animal, Papi stretched out in front of the fireplace. Although it wasn’t on, it has a pilot light when I lit a few days ago, so it emits some heat. He stayed there for hours, deeply asleep. Tucker (pronounced Tuck-ah) on the other hand headed for the bed and sacked out.

Last night at the beer gathering, a small group ended up discussing birds. One asked about robins and their migration habits. Like me, he’d been taught in grade school that robins fly away for the winter. Like many life aspects, it gets more complicated than that. Our retired biology professor recounted that a friend of his did several bird counts at a slough for several years and discoverved exactly where the local robin population went each winter, living off various winter berries.

Other than that, we talked about the election and the debate, and the vice president’s pearl earrings. You now, on the right, they believe those were audio devices, giving Vice President Harris an affair advantage over Trump. That’s why he did so poorly. Because how else could he have done so poorly when she did so well? Yes, that was morning snark, undiluted by coffee.

The Neurons fired up Stevie Ray Vaughn and Double Trouble from 1989 in the morning mental music stream (Trademark caught). The song is “Crossfire”. It seemed to come into mind as I gazed across the valley. The air feels like autumn but most of the trees didn’t get the text in this area. And then I just sort of mused about how we were caught between the two seasons. And ‘lo, “Crossfire” began playing. I always particularly enjoyed the lines, “Money tight, nothing for free. Won’t somebody come and rescue me.” Used to sort of identify with it.

Stay positive, be strong, lean forward, and vote blue in 2024. Breakfast has been consumed; so has some coffee. Time to get up and do things. Here’s the music. Cheers

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Monday’s Theme Music

Mood: Memsical: when musical memories preoccupy you

Monday’s been foisted on us and annointed as April 15, 2024.

This is Tax Day in America for some. Forges recall of past Tax Days for me, watching people get in line to mail it at the post office. There’d be lines. Sometimes, it was a line of cars as the PO set up to take them in and stamp the date. On and on the cars came as clocks approached midnight. Other times found people in line, snaking out of the PO’s customer service section, spilling out of the building and onto the sidewalk. Surreal scenes.

That’s less likely these days. I s’pose those folks are instead online somewhere, trying to get their forms posted and accepted.

Spring with wintry samples haunt Ashlandia today. It’s a dry, cloudy day. Our temp floats around 50 F. 60 F might be possible. It’s the air that brings up winter to my senses. Just smelled like winter this morning. I half-expected flurries to drizzle down around my head. Getting out where I could see the mountains, I scanned for white patches and tops. None were there. Guess it was all in my noggin.

Speaking of noggin, The Neurons cranked up Stevie Ray Vaughn and Double Trouble in the morning mental music stream (Trademark taketh away). The song was an instrumental called “Scuttle Buttin”. It amused me to little end that my wife suddenly became an SRV fan and a blues fan about 35 years ago. She was mostly a pop/dance person before that, although she gravitated toward female vocalists. She enjoyed Etta, Bonnie Raitt, Aretha. Suddenly, about a year before SRV’s death in a helicopter accident, he enthralled her.

I didn’t mind, mind you. I was always a rock and blues guy, oriented toward lead guitars and bent notes. Stevie delivered these and more. Once more, I find gratitude that we have technology that helps us relive our past.

Stay strong, be positive, and Vote Blue. I’m coffee’d up, and ready to rock. Here’s Stevie, burning up that guitar. Cheers

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Sa’day’s Theme Music

Mood: sunergetic

Sunshine began early on this Saturday, hunting out the cracks between the blind slats and dispatching the dark. I raised the blinds to enjoy the full performance, comforted by warmth and light as the sun worked is way over the mountains and trees and through my southern windows, eventally engulfing the eastern views, too.

55 F now, it’s 02242024 today. No clouds darken our blue skies. Views to the mountains are clear as day… Today’s high is s’posed to be 62 F. Yesterday we saw 65 F, so I think something over 62 might be possible. Hard to say, though. The weather is fickle as a young floof. And snow is on the way next week. We won’t hold our breath but we will keep a weather eye out.

Today’s music comes by way of Jill Dennison’s choice. She had Stevie Wonder performing “Superstition” on Tom Jones’ TV show. I thought of Stevie Ray Vaughn’s cover of “Superstition” with Double Trouble. Naturally Les Neurons cranked it up in the morning mental music stream (Trademark coming in two weeks), almost overcoming a song already in the MMMS. But then someone else commented on Jill’s site, mentioning Stevie Ray. That sold the song’s place as today’s theme music.

Hope you have fine weather for what you’re doing today. Be strong, stay positive, keep leaning forward, and vote when you can. Here’s the music. Coffee has already found its home in my body.

Cheers

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Thursday’s Theme Music

Clouds and suns are clashing on this Thursday, Feb 24, 2022 morning. Winds are relatively calm, most snow have slipped into being as small residual mounds hazed brown and black, and the temperature is up to 29 degrees F. Like yesterday, we expect a high of 44 in our valley. Sunset will be at 5:55 PM, eleven hours and one minute after sunrise. In news, Russia has attacked Ukraine, as expected. Because, yeah, the world always needs another war, and more refugees. Yes, that was snark. Russia’s intentions had been transparent for some time. Also as expected, Trump praised the aggressor and told some lies in relation to the event. sigh

Stevie Ray Vaughn and Double Trouble inhabit the morning mental music stream. I have three younger sisters. I regularly check on them on Facebook. All are mothers, two are grandmothers, two are tremendously fit, and two are very successful. All are a treasure to me. Anyway, my Facebook scanning prompted my neurons to fire up “Look at Little Sister” from 1985. The original was from the Soul to Soul album. I listened to it frequently; my wife listened to it more. Weirdly, she didn’t start doing that until after his passing from a helicopter crash in 1990. I enjoy this live version from Austin City Limits and the guitar swap toward the song’s end due to a broken string.

Stay positive, test negative, wear a mask as needed, and get the vax and boosters when ye can. Here’s the tune. I need to step into the kitchen to help a cup of coffee with finding its destiny. Cheers

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Thanksgiving’s Theme Music

Welcome to Thanksgiving in America. It’s not the shiny spectacle that we strive to create in the United States. In a lot of ways, today is like flipping back through history pages, and seeing an ugly time, and wondering, how did those people get through that?

Yes, Thanksgiving is a holiday, innit? My holiday vibe is a bit subdued today. I tried being upbeat, but, yes, I’m a little weary. A little pandemic’d out. A little elections exhausted, blended with hues of a little tarnished life syndrome. Gosh, this wasn’t how it was supposed to be, was it? No, not for this snowflake. As an average white American male, we’re not supposed to know shit like this. That’s for other people. Guess I have a tiny inkling about what those others endured.

Not really. No abusive parents. No food insecurities. No wondering if anyone, police or otherwise, are going to shoot me. No worrying about paying the rent or getting a job, or so much other shit that’s heaped on people through the sperm lottery. (Should the sperm lottery be called a spottery? It seems spotty, doesn’t it, hit and miss, about who has what.)

I don’t have COVID-19. I’m aging and male, so I cope with some enlarged prostate, some BHP. (I think that’s the proper letter combos.) I broke an arm in July, leaving me to rehab that arm, hand, wrist, and shoulder. (Yeah, it continues to improve…I think…) I have a lifelong pre-existing condition, hypertension, that I deal with. I’m a hopeful novelist, so I have all the angst, hope, and collective feelings associated with that.

Compiling the bottom line, I have a lot to be thankful for. Yet the blues have me today.

As it’s a holiday, I’m indulging myself with a blues favorite. Yes, it’s a repeat song, from a few years ago. Nothing like the blues to lift you, right?

Here’s Stevie Ray Vaughn and Double Trouble with “Cold Shot”. It’s a video of a live performing, as I wish he was, back when I was young.

Happy holidays. Yeah, and wear a mask, please. Time to go get some coffee cake and coffee. My wife made the coffee cake last night for today. Yeah, life’s not so bad here. Cheers

Stevie Ray Vaughan & Double Trouble – Cold Shot (Live From Austin, TX) – YouTube

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Monday’s Theme Music

Crank it up for this Monday gem.

I owe cats – natch – for this. The little beasts were unrelenting in requests for individual attention this morning. Pets and scratches were issued, food was given, words were whispered, and appeasement achieved. But at one point, as impatience was thinning — wanted to get on with writing, you know? — I told one floof, you’re running me ragged today.

That cracked open the song door. In sprang Stevie Ray Vaughn and Double Trouble’s 1992 rockified cover of Sonny James’ blues song, “Empty Arms”.

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