Saturday’s Theme Music

Mood: Sunsational

It’s the next to last day of March. Day before Easter. Saturday, March 30, 2024.

We’ve got sunshine snaking around gray masses of condensed water vapor drifting across the blue-wave sky. Temperature is 50 F and some rain is anticipated, with a high of 56 F in the forecast. March winds are blowing.

There is so much news to digest and think about. Writing about multiple events is possible but I won’t, today, sparing you all. As writer Amanda Marcotte wrote in a Salon article, many ideas and stories surrounding Trump and the MAGA GOP can be labeled, “Shocking, not surprising.”

I’d rather stay away from that and focus on my fiction writing. Part of that is because I’m in an enjoyable phase, rev 6 of one of the works in progress. A second part is that I’m weary of the often-exasperating news, like the MAGA GOP kneejerk response to the demolished Maryland bridge. Then there’s a third factor, that due to Sunday brunch with friends tomorrow, I’ll probably not be writing tomorrow. So I’m trying to get ahead.

I will say — because I have little impulse control, I suppose — that the video of the Dari cargo ship striking the Francis Scott Key bridge and the bridge’s collapse is stunning.

Music for today comes from 1975. I can’t parse why The Neurons plugged it into the morning mental music stream (Trademark sinking). That’s the way of The Neurons. (Is that a novel title? The Way of the Neurons.)

My Neurons like hijacking my brain (which might be called brainjacking, I guess), and the body follows. Like, I’ll go into the kitchen to get a glass of water and suddenly I’m eating cookies, no explanations given. It’s like my Neurons have me hypnotized.

Anyway, today’s theme music is brought to us by the Ozark Mountain Daredevils. “Jackie Blue” was soft country rock song released in 1975, a year after I graduated high school. I was in the U.S. Air Force then and heard it regularly on my car’s AM radio. 1975 was the year of my first duty assignment, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio, and the year I was married. That was my first wedding, and remains my only wedding, and the marriage still endures. “Jackie Blue” and being at WPAFB and getting married seems fused in my head. So when I heard the song today in the MMMS, I remembered young me as I took on adulting.

Stay positive, be stalwart, and Vote Blue in 2024. Coffee has already been swallowed in significant quantities, so let’s listen to the music. Cheers

March 30, 2024 0

March 29, 2024 1

Friday’s Wandering Thoughts

I was born in the U.S. in 1956. I’ve seen many changes. I never thought I’d live in a time when people would be ordering fast food from a place like McDonald’s on their phone, and it would be delivered.

Course, I didn’t expect to be typing about it on a computer in a coffee shop and sharing it with strangers, wirelessly, at that.

Didn’t think phones would be called cells, either.

March 29, 2024 1

Cryptofloofency

Cryptofloofency (floofinition) – Mostly related to pets, animal activities, behaviors, and sounds which seem unique, mysterious, or unusual to other, most especially people who live with the animals. Origins: 1983, United States.

In Use: “One huge learning curve for people extending hospitality to floofs is cryptofloofency, strange things the fur critters like to do, such as galloping through rooms, sleeping in sinks, singing at midnight, opening doors, and going nuts over squirrels and other critters seen in their domain.”

March 28, 2024 1

The Cats

We returned from the vet office yesterday. Tucker was released from his carrier. He trotted free and then turned back. At the carrier again, he insistently sniffed its door. A few steps away were taken and then he sat down and commenced a serious washing session.

Papi approached. Tucker paused his washing. The two cats tentatively touched noses, Papi’s pink on Tucker’s black.

Floof note: these two felines never touch noses.

Papi seemed to be verifying, you went to that place? And Tucker seemed to be replying, too right.

My sympathy, Papi answered, moving backward. He wandered toward the kibble bowls.

Tucker resumed cleaning.

March 26, 2024 4

Ventfloofloquism

Ventfloofloquism (floofinition) An animal’s production of sounds in such a way that locating the true source seems impossible. A creature practicing ventfloofloquism is a ventfloofoquist. Origins: 1775, Flooftin; vent (to speak) + floof (animal) + loquism (location elsewhere).

In Use: “Kelley heard Prism meowing but either the little furball was a ventfloofoquist or he was meowing and then darting off to another place to confuse her. And it was working; she was confused — confused, exasfloofrated, and annoyed.”

March 26, 2024 0

Confloofdiction

Confloofdiction (floofinition) An expectation and counter-expectation about what an animal will do, which are simultaneously correct and wrong. Origins: Anglo-Floof and Latin, first noted use in 14th century.

In Use: “Feline confloofdictions such as biting the hand which feeds them and then cuddling with the person they bit is one large reasons cats seem like floofnigmas.”

March 25, 2024 0

Paedofloofism

Paedofloofism (floofinition) An adult animal who exhibits immature, juvenile, or youthful behavior. Origins: First observed in Europe circa 1891.

In Use: “Paedofloofism was strong in the newly adopted five-year-old dog, Bergstrom, who exibited an unrelenting joy in playing games such as fetch, chase, and hide and seek.”

In Use: “Karin wasn’t surprised by Ginger’s kittens’ playfulness, because Ginger’s paedofloofism kept her playing until the moment she gave birth.”

March 21, 2024 0

Thursday’s Theme Music

Mood: sunsational

The weekly wheel continues its stops. Today it lands on Thursday, March 21, 2024. What’s that about spring? Why yes, it does seem to have arrived in southern Oregon. We have sunshine to sell today. At least for now. Sulky clouds are peeking in over the box valley mountain barriers. It’s 56 F with 66 F allegedly coming our way.

Caveats are required. We witnessed 66 F yesterday. Subsequent clouds dropped us to a surprisingly chilly 62 F. On the surface today is like yesterday, presenting fair warning about what we might get.

I’m in shorts, though. Once we convincingly put the 70 period reliably behind us, I pulled out my shorts, gave them a sniff (yes, they smelled and looked clean), and slid them up my pale legs. Chilly on the knees and thighs yesterday evening, though.

Thoughts about these troubled times led The Neurons to call “(What’s So Funny ‘Bout) Peace, Love, and Understanding” into the morning mental music stream (Trademark paperwork lost). Elvis Costello and The Attraction’s cover of the Nick Lowe song was the one playing in me head. Costello and his group released it in 1978.

When Lowe was originally writing it, he considered it a joke. This was a send up of others’ reactions to hippies and their visions of peace, love, and understanding. It eventually evolved into a serious question about why others considered peace, love, and understanding a joke.

Costello and the Attractions cover made it more of an upbeat rocker, adding sincerity and intensity. It’s since be covered by a clowder of others. (See, I consider clowder correct here. Used to designate a group of cats, I’m using it for a group of musical cats. Heh.)

But I roll with the lyrics, whoever is belting them out.

As I walk through
This wicked world
Searchin’ for light in the darkness of insanity

I ask myself
Is all hope lost?
Is there only pain and hatred, and misery?

And each time I feel like this inside
There’s one thing I wanna know
What’s so funny ’bout peace love and understanding? Oh
What’s so funny ’bout peace love and understanding?

h/t to AZLyrics.com

Want to pause to mention, a comic strip by Iizcat.com referred to cats as ‘vessels of chaos’. I just love that description.

Stay positive, remain strong, keep leaning forward, and vote. Coffee drinking has commenced for the day. Hope it’s an excellent day for you wherever you’re at. Here’s the music. Cheers