Science fiction, fantasy, mystery and what-not
Soft as the air, sunrise’s slow grace came upon our valley at 5:51 AM. Today is Monday, July 19, 2021. Heat is expected, but not too terrible. Seventy now, at nine AM, looking for 95 F before the sunset’s mellow withdrawal at 8:43 PM. More fires are burning in the Pacific Northwest. None too close to us, knock on wood. Bootleg continues burning, 300,000 acres, over a quarter contained. Tamarack down south has exploded. Favorable winds are keeping our air clean. Several small fires started locally but quick responses by people and fire departments contained them.
Walking yesterday, I channeled Flo Rida, “Good Feeling” (2011). I got those good feelings yesterday when I was walking. Often afraid to speak of them or write about them, lest I scare them away. I was high on a hill in the town’s southern end. Great view of some of the valley. Wineries. Brown hills. Mountain peaks. Air dirty yellow on the horizon, wildfire smoke.
Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, sometimes I get a good feeling, yeah
I get a feeling that I never never never never had before, no no
I get a good feeling, yeah
Oh oh, sometimes I get a good feeling, yeah
I get a feeling that I never never never never had before, no no
I get a good feeling, yeah
h/t AZLyrics.com
And I got that feeling. Wonder, how now? Why? What drives these feelings, a sense of optimism, almost invicibility? A sense that change is coming. Where does it originate? Is it an amygdala gone mad?
Maybe, yeah. Stay positive, test negative, wear a mask as needed, and get the vax. Here’s the music. Cheers
It’s like I’m all over the place – everything and nothing.
I’d been out shopping when Peter Frampton’s song, “Do You Feel Like We Do” came into my head.
The song was released back in 1976, one of several hits from the album Frampton Comes Alive! That title always calls images and legends of monsters into my head. It sounds like Frampton may have been dead, but look! He’s come alive! Good for Frampton.
Frampton mania ruled for a while in 1976. As often happens with pop culture in that era, when someone achieves great success, talk-show hosts and comedians include references in their acts. The song titles are incorporated into word play. The performers show up on television shows, magazine covers, and radio interviews. The song themselves on heard simultaneously on multiple stations. There’s just no escaping it.
Why I was thinking of it now can’t be clearly traced. Had it been playing somewhere in a store or passing car, missed by my conscious thinking but picked up by my subconscious?
Don’t know.
Didn’t know how I felt, either. Sorting feelings, I concluded, I feel pretty good. Scale of ten, probably seven.
Pretty good is defined more clinically as, I’m not worried or stressed, nothing is bothering me, and I feel no pain or health issues, right? Why don’t I feel great? Don’t know; maybe a COVID-19 malaise coupled with election fretting dampens my spirits from great to pretty good. After sixty-four point two five years of living, I’m still sorting the feeling mystery. So many variables blaze in to change the balance.
Anyway, I feel pretty good. Peter seems to feel good in the song. How ’bout you? Do you feel like we do?
Trump often declares how others should feel. He loves extolling the greatness of himself, and how wonderful he is. “I’m the greatest,” he’ll often declare. “People should be thanking me.”
Not me; I’ve not seen anything come from his miserable administration that cues up thanks.
Somehow, from coalescing thoughts and manifesting feelings, up rose New Order’s “Blue Monday” (1983):
And still, I find it so hard
To say what I need to say
But, I’m quite sure that you’ll tell me
Just how I should feel today
h/t to Genius.com
I don’t believe the song ever mentions Monday. That amuses me. The vocalist’s robotic, deadpan delivery offers a delicious counterbalance to the lyrics, no doubt by design.
Enjoy your day. Let me know how you feel.
So…
Contrary to world expectations, I’ve been, um, feeling good? How else can it be put, but I’ve been experiencing a rising sense of hope and optimism. It permeates everything I’m doing and thinking.
Rationally, I can’t account for it. I can say that I’m less stressed because I’m not out there socializing and fighting traffic. I can attribute it to kind weather gods; May, June, and July have been pleasantly mild for the most part, keeping anxieties about wildfires and smoke tamped.
But then there’s COVID-19 and what it’s doing to the world. And there was the death of a sweet, shy cousin, too young, just fifty-one, dead from cancer, leaving two sons behind, succumbing to the disease after a four year struggle. In my mind, she remains bright-eyed and smiling with an impish impulse.
And there was Dad, being rushed to the hospital mid-week, Dad who is rarely sick but has a full metal jacket of stents (installed a few years ago) and moderate CPOD. He is almost eighty-eight, though, so there’s always expectations and worries. We are talking about the life train. It always pulls in at the same final stop.
Writing, though, has been a wonderful escape, of course, taking me on an unexpected ride as the characters evolve and the story goes in directions that I didn’t expect. That’s always a pleasure, innit? A good writing day can propel you over many obstacles.
So…
Feeling good. Optimistic, hopeful, even joyous.
Against this backdrop, I’m hearing “Bell Bottom Blues” by Eric Clapton (1971). Two aspects of the song stay on a loop in my head: “I don’t want to fade away,” and “I don’t want to lose this feeling.”
No, I don’t want to lose this feeling. It’s too good. I wish I could package it and share for free with everyone in the world. Others should know these sensations. They’re powerful stimulants.
Enough of my babbling. Here’s the music, a later live acoustic version that I think does more justice to the song.
Eufloofic (floofinition) – Feelings marked by a feeling of peace, joy, and happiness when you’re with an animal.
In use: “Settling on the sofa with her big dog, who she called the Puppy despite his advanced age, she was eufloofic as he put his large head on her lap and they watched the telly. It mattered only a little what was on the telly, as long as he was with her, for he displaced so much of the world’s ugliness with his warm and mellow disposition.”
Looked out the window and saw a sun-drenched landscape showing evidence of spring under a powerful blue sky. “I Gotta Feeling” (Black Eyed Peas, 2009) roared into the stream.
Yeah, I gotta feeling that today’s gonna be a good day. Sure, more folks are worrying about the coronavirus and the U.S. response to it. Of course the DOW doesn’t like what the virus is doing to supply chains and profits. That’s sinking stocks and pension plans.
Naturally, many are worrying about the upcoming elections in the U.S. Or they’re fuming about Trump attacking a juror or his attacks on Supreme Court justices.
Others are worried about climate change, rising sea waters, stripped environmental protections, and safe drinking water. Ongoing hostilities in other countries will sober you up with a sigh, too, as you peruse the news of death, destruction, and displacement.
More locally, racism and sexism flare up in numbers as disturbing as the coronavirus spread.
Yes, I worry about these things. But strip it all down to the bare metal of my existence, and the tiny piece of me that I can do much about, and my life, and I gotta feeling, today’s gonna be a good day, despite news to the contrary.
Michael Seidel, writer 