The door is thrown open, and there it is. Everyone walks in, looking and whispering in awed tones. Friday, revamped and new, was open to the public. Speculation about what to expect from this new Friday had been traveling mouth to ear for months. Now that it was here…well, first, they were excited. Then they were deflated.
Officially, Friday was July 29, 2022. “It’s just like yesterday,” one woman was heard to complain. “Hot and miserable. I waited all week for this?”
The heat is the thing in our area. Currently, 8:30 AM, it’s 26 C. Yesterday, Thursday, reached 106 F at my house, according to my ancient home weather system, with the forecast calling for a high of 108 F. The car claimed it was 111 F at one point. Today’s forecast says the high will be 110 F. Tomorrow, it’s expected to cool off to 107 F, and then drop back below 100 by Monday. We keep our eyes on the skies as thunderboomer clouds build, checking apps for reports of lightning strikes and fire. Knock on wood, we’ve been spared, and the fires have been found and put out fast.
Sunrise came after six this morning, 6:01, and sunset will be at 8:34 PM.
I have “Cold As Ice” by Foreigner in the morning mental music stream. This 1977 song is a deliberate choice as I pursue a ‘mind over environment’ angle for handling the day.
Hope your weather is good, and your day’s experience is great. I know with so much going on that those hopes aren’t always achievable, but let’s make the effort to believe and try to improve our lives. Stay positive, test negative, wear a mask as needed, and vax as needed. Coffee? What, it’s 80 F outside right now. What are you waiting for? Pour.
It’s your choice. Will you stay with what you have or will you trade it for what’s behind one of these three doors?
They’re going for door number three. Let’s see what’s behind door number one and two first.
Door number one is…Monday, May 1, 2028. So that would have been a small trip into the future for you. And door number two is…a slip to the past, Friday, August 16, 1996. Have you experienced that year yet?
Okay, let’s see what they won. Let’s open door number three. Good luck.
Today is Thursday, July 28, 2022. Today’s high temperature for Ashland in southern Oregon is 108 F or 42 C. 108 is pretty high and I’m dubious we’ll hit it. Only touched 103 F at my house yesterday. Right now it’s 74 F (23 C). Sunrise was at 6 AM exactly. Expect the daylight selection of our day to finish at fourteen hours and thirty-four minutes later.
The felines have been loving the heat. Go into a torpor in shade for the day. They don’t eat or move much during the high heat portion. Come night, they turn into homicidal psycho jungle cats (a phrase borrowed from Bill Watterson), prowling and pouncing, muttering and munching.
In news —
No, let’s skip the news portion. Speaking of 1996, The Neurons plucked a song out of that portion of the memory puzzle, I mean palace, and slotted it into the morning mental music stream. See, I was writing in my head as I went about feeding beasts and prepping my breakfast, following up on what was written yesterday, dipping into where I want to go today, addressing a character and what they’d believed and what they now believed, which meant they needed to do this — well, you know the chains. Out of that, The Neurons plucked “Stupid Girl” by Garbage. Took a long several minutes to get more than, “all you had you wasted,” but I could clearly hear the voice and supporting music for that slender segment. More would not come. Just as I drifted away with the attendant thought, it’ll come later, pop, The Neurons released more and the song and band were fully recalled. Yea, go neurons, go!
Stay positive and test negative, and so on. Three friends have announced they’re COVID free while another announced he just tested positive. So it goes. I’m going for coffee before it gets too warm. Here’s the tune. As a bonus, you get it performed on “The Late Show with David Letterman”. Cheers
105 F is today’s magic number. Ashland’s forecast high temperature, keep it in mind as you plan and pursue activities. Cooling shelters have been set up around town at churches, community centers, and the library.
The house system says it’s 66 F outside. Alexa claims it’s 21 C in Ashland, where I reside. The net says it’s 74. It all makes sense because they’re all correct. Depends on where you live, the mountains’ shadows, and the sun’s reach, yeah? Hope the weather is kind to you wherever you are. If it’s not, then I hope you’re in a safe place.
Another week has begun. This is Monday, July 25, 2022. July has entered the final stretch. 2022 is halfway through summer in the northern hemisphere.
Old Tucker was active last night. The big guy was feeling it. I opened the back door just after midnight to let in some cooling air and check upon them. When I flicked on the light, I saw Tucker dash out into the yard. He seemed to be after something. Well, the light was bad so I dropped back for a flashlight. When I illuminated the scene, I saw a young raccoon facing off with my cat. The raccoon was a little larger than my boy but Tucker goes aggro with animals. I called for him to come back. The raccoon tried to make an escape. Tucker gave chase, but the raccoon made it into a bush. Tucker sat there to ensure the critter didn’t leave. I went out an coaxed Tucker back, allowing the other to make their escape.
Meanwhile, the orange menace known as Papi, aka Meep, had watched all this from the patio’s safety. Once Tucker returned and the raccoon was gone, Papi went over there and laid down in front of the bush where rocky raccoon had taken refuge. He just grinned at my efforts to get him back in.
“Everyday Is a Winding Road” by Sheryl Crow (1996) has settled into the morning mental music stream. The Neurons riffed on my thought upon reading some news and thinking, “Well, anything goes these days.” The Neurons promptly launched the song, homing in on the lyrics, “Everybody gets high, everybody gets low, these are the days when anything goes.” Like almost every song residing in my mental juke box, the song has a story attached, although it’s just a regular tale of hearing the melody during my Silicon Valley commutes, passing the time as we motor slowly through the webs of interchanges clotted with cars.
Stay pos, etc. It’s still cool so I’ll refresh with a little hot java, yeah? Yeah. Have a better one.
The basics are, it’s Sunday, July 17, 2022, 19 C with a clear blue sky. Sunrise was established at 5:49 AM. The world’s turning gives us an 8:44 PM sunset. They say the local high will be 89 F. For the week, we’re looking at highs in the high 80 F to low 90s rage, eminently livable.
Beyond those basics, it’s not looking good for local produce. The weather was just too wacky and misaligned from the growing season. Nothing showed up on our neighbors’ peach and cherry trees beyond leaves. No blossoms and fruit ever arrived. We’ve heard similar tales from others. The blackberries, which are generally plentiful, disappeared after a week. Meanwhile, heat and flooding is afflicting crops elsewhere in the U.S. and Europe is enduring a killer heatwave. Triple digit temps are challenge Texas’ and their ability to cope with increased heat. China is facing extreme heat. What are the connections to these things? Health risks. I suspect climate change, but this is one year. More data is needed. I suggest the patterns and data of other years clears the situation and shows the trends. But I’m not a scientist.
The Neurons planted Tracy Chapman’s 1988 song, “Talkin’ ’bout a Revolution”, into the morning mental music stream. The song’s genesis on this morning can be traced back to a Friday conversation about electric cars and their growing prevalence. As Le Neruons awoke, they caught on to someone commenting about a revolution, which brought up Chapman’s lyrics:
Got my coffee. I urge you to stay positive and test negative. Hard during our trip, honestly. While social spacing was the norm, recognized and respected at almost every venue and moment, the unmasked to masked ratios at most locations was about ten to one. Our traveling companions weren’t masked. But we — my spouse and I — were masked. But then, our traveling companions were not. So, while eating and driving, we were exposed. But to what were we exposed? Nothing? Or the virus? Which variation? My writing has ground to a halt because I’m not going to coffee shops to write. Frustration has reached eleven (see This is Spinal Tap for greater understanding.) Writing at home becomes debilitating as interruptions pile up and continuity is fractured.
Well, I must persist. He’re the music. Cheers
On a WP side note, WP kept removing ‘Talking ’bout A Revolution’ after I added it to the tags. Don’t know why, but it happened SIX TIMES.
Golden striations lit the valley’s highest reaches at 5:39 AM today, Friday, July 2, 2021. Like advance scouts, these early rays quickly found the first places for the sun’s army of heat and light to strike. The onslaught has begun.
I’m feeling it today. We’re expected to be ‘only’ 98 degrees F. Damage from the heat wave is stark and heartbreaking. Leaves have crisped, curled and browned like overcooked potato chips. Like a tornado, the damage is not uniform. Positioning – location, location, location – is critical. If the plant was shaded from the afternoon’s hardest sun, they look fine while their neighbor has perished.
Damn, such a morose start to the day. Get me on some coffee, quickly.
Sunrise is gonna come at 8:51 PM. It’s a leisurely, subtle withdrawal as blue fades and darkens, overtaken by rose and gold, vanquished by indigo, silenced by black. Lows will descend to the mid seventies tonight, not much of a break. Last night’s sixty-six degree touch soothed my soul as well as my skin.
Going through lists of The Things That Must Be Done led to today’s music. Does everyone have a list of TTTMBD? Promises, vows, hopes, mistakes…it’s all embedded there. We must fix that. Change this. Do that. TTTMBD is as endless as a clear sky. So I’m thinking, I’ll do this Sunday, or maybe Monday. This is a holiday weekend in America, remember, oh yeah.
The mental churning delivered America with “Sister Golden Hair” (1975) from the memory vault’s muddy bottom. “Well, I tried to make it Sunday, but I got so damned depressed, that I set my sights on Monday and I got myself undressed.” Or something like that. That’s how the TTTMBD seems to be progressing. Just keep on sliding through the days.
Stay positive — yeah, it can be a solitary slog, can’t it? — test negative, get vaxxed, and wear a mask, when, as, if needed. Here’s the music. Cheers
Sol’s rosy forays into the valley began at 5:38 AM on this fine Wednesday, June 30, 2021. This is June’s last day for for this year, it should be noted, unless we’re groundhog dayying it. Maybe we have been involved in a groundhog day scheme for a while but we don’t know. Only one character in the movie knew that everyone was going through the same day again and again and again…
Our cooling trend continues. Yesterday reached 99 degrees F. Today will be 96 F, a twenty degrees drop from a few days ago, and very welcome. The plants wouldn’t mind cooler times. They’re going brown and dry. I walk around, bracing myself for the tasks of culling, pruning, and pulling. Sunfall on this parched area will come about 8:51 PM. Then the real cooling plays.
The Lava Fire smoke from down Weed way in California is gone from the AM sky. Seventeen thousand acres, nineteen percent contained was the latest report that I read. The winds have died here so I hope they’ve died there. Complicating the firefighting efforts around Weed is large swaths of illegal cannabis growths.
I’m thinking “Spiderwebs” by No Doubt (1995) for my theme music today. We’re not spider killers. Spiders are beneficial. We appreciate that. They get busy with their webs, though, hurrying around 24/7, installing new webs, leaving old ones behind. I was going about knocking some of the stuff down this morning when the song came on in my brain. The song, though, has little to do with my situation, except walking into the spiderwebs. It’s amazing when the cats do it. Especially Meep, aka Papi. Meep will soundlessly jerk back and walk around the webs. Boo makes a noise and bulls through at a faster tempo. Big Tucker gives them a swat, washes himself, and presses on. I think there’s another metaphor there, somewhere.
Stay positive, test negative, wear a mask as necessary (yeah, stories are circulating about the D variant), and get the vax. Here’s the music. Cheers
The annual rewind has begun. Not what’s happening, of course. More about revolutions and rotations. The essence, though, is that our daylight hours are beginning their seasonal wane.
Today is Monday, June 28, 2021. Sol’s golden beating began at 5:36 AM, a minute later than yesterday. By 7:45, the thermometer was climbing past 86 degrees F. We expected 110 in our southern Oregon valley today. We’ll get some relief tonight, after the sun moves on at 8:51 PM. The temperatures are expected to drop to 66 then.
I was in a work groove yesterday. Finished wall number three. On to number four this week, completing the great room saga, I mean, painting. Then it’ll be…other rooms.
While painting, I was writing in my head, going through plot lines and character arcs, imagining new scenes, re-thinking old ones, working my way toward a better ending. With this going on — writing in my head and painting the great room (and dealing with the heat) (yeah, okay, I turned on the A/C) — a song from 1970 entered the mental musical rotation stream. By King George, the song is called “Groove Me”. It’s a nice taste of R&B. I enjoyed the backstory of how this song came to be. King George worked in a factory a few feet from a young woman. They saw each other every day, but he was too shy to say anything. He finally wrote this song as a poem to give her. But he never saw her again.
Stay positive, test neggy, wear a mask when needed, and get the vax. Thanks. Here’s the music.
Heat is today’s word. Heat. Hot. Burning. The valley reached 102 degrees F yesterday. 110 is forecast for today. We’re not expected to drop below 100 for our highs until Friday, when we’ll only reach 99. During the night, the lows will be in the low to mid-seventies. Last night, it was 83 at 10 PM.
We went dancing last night, place Lake of the Woods. Meeting up with friends, we ate sandwiches and barbeque, drank beer, wine, and water, and danced to a band on the lake shore under the pines. Up in the mountains, comfortable temperatures in the high 80s cradled us.
While a friend and I checked out the water, we discovered a bottle in the water. Retrieved it to dispose of right. Sting and the rest of The Police serenaded me with “Message in A Bottle” from 1979 for a bit thereafter. I share it with you.
Test negative, stay positive, wear masks as needed, and get the vax. Cheers
At 5:38 AM, a bluebird dove onto the patio and shouted, “Sunup! Sunup! Time to get your butt up!”
A nearby cat gave his whiskers a wash. “Think I’ll sleep the day away, getting up at 2040 to start my play.”
With temperatures expected to pierce 100 degrees F, the cat has the right idea on this Tuesday, June 1, 2021. I’ll continue with my room painting inside the house (yeah, can’t do that outside the house, now can I?) and avoid the outdoors until it’s cooler, say, six PM. Then I’ll head for the hills for a walk.
My wife and I were complaining about how much laundry we generate as we folded yet another load. “We could go nude,” she suggested.
“Last time I did that, I caused a general uproar,” I replied, garnering an eye roll.
I continued painting the great room yesterday, cutting in along the ceiling (didn’t do a good job, I must say), windows, fireplace, outlets…the list goes on. Music in my head played. I was stuck on one song. You’d think, end of May, beginning of June, unofficial start of summer, etc, would influence my brain’s choice. And you would be incorrect.
No, my brain began singing a 1975 Grand Funk song, “Bad Time”.
I'm in love with the girl that I'm talking about
I'm in love with the girl I can't live without
I'm in love but I sure picked a bad time
To be in love
To be in love
Well, let her be somebody else's queen
I don't want to know about it
There's too many others that know what I mean
And that's why I got to live without it
I'm in love with the girl I'm talking about
I'm in love with the girl I can't live without
I'm in love but I feel like I'm wearin' it out
I'm in love but I must have picked a bad time to be in love
A bad time to be in love
A bad time to be in love
A bad time to be in love
Michael Seidel, writer 