Thursday’s Theme Music

Mood: humordacious

It’s the first Thursday in September, the fifth day of the month in the common era year of 2024.

We awoke to chilly night air but guess what? Today’s projected high will be another 30 degrees above this current 70 degrees F temp, leveling out at 102. The air quality is not bad at 52 according to airnow.gov.

The light on these days where the temperatures enter triple digits always seems stronger and brighter to me in the AM. I don’t know if that’s a psychological thing for me or if there’s an actual meteorological explanation.

A local fire polluted us and put us on high alert yesterday. Started at about 11 AM. Hot day but not a whole lot of wind. A fire broke out at Exit 11 on I-5. The southbound entrance to the Interstate, it’s a couple miles past the town’s southern boundary, about three miles from my house in Ashlandia.

The authorities responded fast. Some early evacuations were ordered because the wind was blowing northwest, which would push the fire toward one mountainous, isolated neighborhood. But the fire was contained within two hours and declared done after eleven acres went up.

My wife has been an energetic individual this week. She’s organized purchases of Harris – Walz bumper stickers and yard signs for her friends and fellow Harris – Walz supporters. They’ve also been buying Harris – Walz tee-shirts. My wife emphatically stated, “I want to publicize her support so people see how strong the blue wave is and feel more encouraged to add their support.”

I lost a bet. My healthcare system reached out to me and I have an appointment with an Ortho surgeon on September 26. I thought the appointment wouldn’t be for six weeks. I’m happy to have lost. I’d like something down about the foot/ankle, as it signals regular messages that all’s not well on my body’s southernmost regions. That’s how I look at it. My feet are my south, and my head is the north.

I read some posts and stories about Trump’s support among young men, especially when they’re white. Not real surprising to me. My wife has been fascinated by relationships between the sexes for years and updates me on what she reads and sees. One of the many facts she’s provided to me is that less men are pursuing higher education. More women are enrolling in college and universities these days. There’s fall out from that in several ways. One, men are increasingly less likely to land higher pay professional positions. Two, men are less educated, which makes them less attractive to women. That triggered the incel — involuntary celibat — movement among men, driving resentment and outright hatred toward women. Hence, young men are increasingly not dating women, not getting good jobs where women are succeeding, and feel resentful. Trump and Project 2025’s message speaks directly to them, that women need to be put back into place, at home, taking care of her family while the man brings home the bacon.

As women have said to that, we are not going back.

Today has The Neurons playing “Lola” by the Kinks in the morning mental music stream (Trademark muddled). The 1970 song infliltrated the stream after I read another’s blog. She wrote about “You Really Got Me” by the Kinks. The Neurons just started playing other Kinks songs. Then they settled into this terrific love song, “Lola”. The rest is history.

Stay real and be positive. Vote blue n 2024. Coffee has been sipped up. Here’s the music from over fifty years ago, about an encounter between a man and a man — at least, that’s what it might be.

Cheers

Friday’s Theme Music

Mood: sizzlin’

Greetings from Ashlandia, where the heat stays on. It’s Friday, July 12, 2024. July has been a flaming month. Formalling started on July 4th, when the thermometers were showing it’s over 100 F and has barely eased. For today, we’ll tap one degree below 100. It’s a pleasant morning now, though, 68 at my house after falling to 62 F. Tomorrow, we go back to 100 F. Sunday is expected to drop into the low 90s, kicking off a stretch where our highs will crest in the 90s and the lows overnight will find the mid to upper sixties.

Air looks pretty good. Blue cloudless sky looks particulate free, except over in the horizon’s northwestern sector. Probably from the Salt Creek fire. They’re making good progress on it with a lot of mopping up going on. They warned that we’d probably see greater smoke last night, as we did, because they started a fire inside the containment line to fight to fire to keep it from jumping the fire line.

Boy howdy, that cool night air was invigorating, friends. As the sun slipped away and the temperatures slithered down below 80, I slid open the bedroom slider and the cats and I reveled in it. I’ve been sleeping atop the duvet, not bothering with even a coverlet, but I awoke cold enough that I pulled a light blanket over me. Tucker (pronounced Tuckah) stayed with me most of the night but as I got up to open the slider’s screen door to let Papi in and out (and in and out, repeat), Tucker said, “Hey, I want to go out there, too.” The boy has been feeling the heat, and his age.

Well, read news last night that the Beastie Boys were suing some restaurant over use of their song, “Sabotage”, from 1991. As soon as The Neurons were informed, they pulled the song from their mental file cabinet (my brain still uses paper but they’re talking about going digital) and now it’s blasting in the morning mental music stream (Trademark melting). As with many songs I enjoy, I’d never seen the video for it. Seeing it today is like a smack in the face from a wayback machine. Great fun.

Stay positive and be strong, and Vote Blue in 2024, and return President Biden to the Oval Office. Coffee and I have come to terms and are getting along swell. Here’s the music video, directed by Spike Jonze. Hey ho, let’s go. Cheers

The Plan

They slumber in vinca

or under the grill,

but you’ll never see them

because they stay so still.

They only come out when

something is offered to eat,

and that comes after the sun is setting,

and there’s a lot less heat.

One More Complaint

I don’t mind sweating, but I’ll tell you, I intensely dislike it when the sweat makes my boxer shorts stick to my butt cheeks. Makes me want to swear off undies, but then I’d just end up with my shorts stuck to my butt. The only option seems to be to avoid sweating, unless someone makes undies that repel sweat…

Woof.

Saturday’s Theme Music

I walked two miles this morning prior to my writing session. As I did, I thought, man, it already feels hot. Sweat was soaking my shirt, hat, and shorts. I knew from checking the weather that it had already been in the seventies but that the heat index was about six degrees hotter.

It felt it. It fortunately didn’t feel like the one hundred nine degrees reported in Denver, thank the fates. As expected for me, I began streaming songs about heat, and ended up with this Billy Idol gem from 1982, “Hot in the City”.

 

So Hot

Eyes open, I dream

of cold

water

sprinklers

rivers

lakes

watermelon

ice cream

sorbet

beer

breezes

What cold dreams does the heat sow in you?

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