Tag: mood

Tuesday’s Theme Music – One More Time

Ashland, southern Oregon — Tuesday, June 2, 2026.

It’s clear skies and sunshine for us today. 66 degrees now, the high will be found in the 80s F. Some say 81, another contingent claims 88. We’ll see.

Oh, the Mom front. She ran out of her pain patches. They’re by prescription so she must see her doc for them. She didn’t have an appointment, and they don’t have an opening until early August. It’s concerning that with all the doctors she’d recently seen, no one ever thought to say, how are your pain patches?

Then she fell over backward in her wheelchair the other day. Hit her head. She’s been complaining of headaches since. Yet, that morning when it happened, she refused to get taken to the hospital. Today, it became a must. Now sis is at the ER with her and we’re in wait and see mode.

Poor sister, too. She’s already busy, working, meeting with the realtor to sell Mom’s house, selling and giving away Mom’s furnishings and possessions, taking care of her grandchildren, and here she is, summoned back to pick up Mom, take her to the hospital, wait with her, await next steps…

Locally, I’m perplexed and pleased with a credit union project. Bring a bag of papers to be shredded and three cans of food, and they’ll shred it for you. Sounds great! I went through our papers, filled a bag, and bought three cans of food to donate.

I’m irritated because the credit union has two locations in our town. One is a half mile away; the other is almost two. Yet, to participate in this offer, I need to drive almost twenty miles to Medford to participate.

Makes little sense. Why not do it in an Ashland location as well as a Medford location? Why make so many people waste energy and pollute the air to drive that distance?

Then there’s the Trump front. Paul Krugman had commentary about Trump’s apparent mental and physical decline, and the enablers in DC and in business who support, cover, and front for him. For all, it seems to be, “What’s in it for me?” I don’t know if that’s true or reductivism. I think the truth is on a spectrum somewhere in between. Whatever their reasoning, I remain disappointed that so many seem eager to limit voting and embrace norms that seem to favor creating a Christian white nation.

Trump’s Iran war remains on, although a ‘ceasefire’ is in effect. I watched Jordan Klepper conduct interviews with MAGAs who smugly tried to tell us that Iran is a conflict, not a war.

They’re taking clues from right-wing media, the GOP, and Trump himself. Trump reminded the nation we’re at war but also said that we’re not at war and that saying we are would get him in trouble. He’s winking at the system of checks and balances, but we as a nation have been doing this for a long time as well.

At the bottom of my disgust at this mess remains the huge challenge: how do we fix our flaws? Can we fix them? Can we at least mitigate them enough to feel comfortable with calling ourselves a land of freedom and equality and a democratic republic. Because right now, those claims are very, very thin to me.

It didn’t begin when the Roberts Court decided that Trump as POTUS could be above the law. It began long before that, with small drips. We let the drips go. Now the foundation is showing rot and we’re wringing our hands about what to do.

To make myself feel a little better without drugs and alcohol, I turned to Nate Silver’s latest findings on Trump’s popularity.

“Today, Donald Trump’s net approval rating is sitting at -19.1 in the Silver Bulletin average. That’s less popular than Joe Biden was at this point in his term (-13.6) and less popular than Trump himself was during his first term (-10.6).

“About 48 percent of Americans strongly disapprove of Trump’s job performance. Just 21.7 percent strongly approve of the job he’s doing, while another 17.2 percent only somewhat approve.

As we wrote about over the weekend, Trump’s approval rating is even underwater in Texas.” 

“Trump is less popular than President Biden.”

Just wanted to highlight that for Trump.

Your Trump Quote of the Day:

It’s worth posting this quote again because it completely captures Trump’s attitude AND his base. He called it right, and we see it playing out over and over.

I have “One More Time” by Daft Punk in the morning mental music stream. A dance song, it’s actually a celebration of things, but it hit my stream because I muttered ‘one more time’ to myself as I checked texts from home and read the news.

I hope your mood is up and your day goes well. I hope the best for us all. I guess the challenge for that is agreeing what that is.

Cheers

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Saturday’s Theme Music — Going Down

Ashland, southern Oregon — Saturday, May 30, 2026.

It’s a gray and chilly May day, 52 F with no blue sky available for the eyes. Bleak sunshine slants in, casting faint shadows. No rain is expected today but our high will crest in the mid 60s again.

Not the happiest of weather but not the worst, either. Makes it perfect for morning reflections on the news and life on this next to last day in May.

Mom’s possessions are going fast. Sis found people who wanted things and invited them over. Now she’s not accepting any money. It has to go, so. We the siblings are fine with that, and agree with that sentiment. We like to know these things will be useful to others.

Gina sends photos of Mom’s rooms and the transformation as items disappear. Click, click, click. It’s forlorn progress.

Likewise, we have forlorn progress against Trump’s moves. Judges have ruled that the Kennedy Center couldn’t have the board just up and change its name and that they needed to stop the renovations because it wasn’t properly addressed. Other judges ruled that Trump’s slush fund might be illegal and no payments can be made from it yet. Diane Ravitch offers good summaries of it all.

Also, an ICE agent who shot a man through a door in Minnesota and lied about it was arrested in Texas.

In other ‘yea’ Trump news, the Comey seashell Federal prosecutor stepped aside. It’s a ridiculous case, likely unwinnable, and that’s probably what he concluded and decided, screw this. Just guessing. But as so many have pointed out on social media, if Trump goes after Comey for ’86 47′, then what about that time that Trump endorsed his supporters showing graphics with President Biden tied up?

Meanwhile, economist Paul Krugman helps us understand more about the Trump economy and We the People’s view of it. Trump and his minions like to crow about how MAGA supports him 100%. And polls show that as true.

But when it comes to the economy, Krugman points out that only MAGA approves of the economy at this point, and they represent 19% of all Americans. Even non-MAGA Republicans are going, no, this is not good.

What’s most disturbing when I look at that MAGA trend line is that it’s slowly increasing. This is despite Trump’s clear lies, corruption, and ineptitude. Truly makes me shake my head. This is why it’s become the Golden Age of Corruption.

Trump’s war in Iran is now over 90 days old.

Classic con man sleight of hand. If he was as interested in the law as he proclaims, he would not ignored it to wreck the White House and begin building the Epstein ballroom. He would have released the Epstein files, as he promised, instead of twisting and turning, trying to claim that it was a hoax.

Today’s music is “I’m Goin’ Down”. This Bruce Springsteen song came out in the mid 1980s. It’s about relationships and songs. I really don’t know why The Neurons parked it in the morning mental music stream today. Sometimes they work in ways that I don’t understand.

Here’s to you and a great day for you and yours.

Cheers

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Monday’s Theme Music – Giddy

Ashland, Oregon — Monday, April 6, 2026.

Feeling giddy and upbeat today. Had a good Easter Sunday overall, marred only by some Internet Interruptus. Today is bright and sunny. 54, a few gangs of small clouds flutter through a blue sky. We expect a high in the upper 70s.

First, bad news: Jackson County declared a drought emergency. Not a surprise. We suffered a snow-drought during the winter. The snowpack we depend upon for our summer water supply didn’t reach 50% in many places. A hot, dry summer is anticipated.

Then I read USA Today online. They invited readers to grade Trump and his cabinet.

While there were some glowing A’s and middling C’s, there was also a deluge of brutally low marks that would cow the cockiest 12th grader. Of the more than 700 of you who sent in grades through March 31, just 28 of you gave Trump an A or a B. About 40 of you gave the president a C or a D, while more than 500 of you gave him an F. (The remaining assessments were nearly all lower than F.)

USA Today noted in another story that Trump blew off another of his campaign promises.

While running for reelection in 2024, he had said that his administration would help alleviate the costs of childcare and fund Medicaid and Medicare. Instead, Republicans have done the opposite by slashing Medicaid funding in the congressional budget. They have no plan to make childcare more affordable for their constituents.

Way to go, Trump voters. Prices are higher, the national debt is higher and growing, and we’re in a war that nobody except Trump and his staff want.

Today’s music is Papi-inspired. He was being frisky, zooming around the living room and down halls, galloping around the bedrooms. Then he came up to me and was suddenly all sweet and friendly.

That brought a song to The Neurons by Jet, “Are You Gonna Be My Girl?”

The version I was singing was, “Are you gonna be my cat?” from 2003. Papi seemed to agree with the sentiment, if his purrs are an indication. Now, though, the song is mired in my morning mental music stream.

Hope you have a strong Monday, one that gives the hope and energy to build a strong week and stack strong months.

Cheers

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Sunday’s Theme Music

Ashland, Oregon — Sunday, February 22, 2026. Sunshine washes mountain conifers and hardwoods as ominous clouds float away, revealing a hazy blue sky. 51 degrees now, a 56 F high is projected.

Papi is enjoying the wind-free sunshine, soaking it up like his body was starving for it, then rolling around on the patio.

It’s quieter back east this morning as Mom tries again to reset everyone’s relationship with her back to what it was a month ago. She’s trying to engage allies to move her back home; all of her offspring agree, sorry, Mom, but where you’re at is the best situation for you. It’ll take a long time for Mom to accept that.

On top of that, though, sis reports that she’s sick today. While the stress didn’t help, neither did her daughter’s illness. It’s going around, and sis’s daughter didn’t take precautions to avoid contaminating others. Sigh.

News headlines were about an armed man being shot and killed at Mar-a-Lago and Trump raising tariffs, among others. The basic scan reveals a chaotic but quiet Sunday morning.

This is our new norm as Trump challenges norms and ignores lawful processes and limits, such as firing James W Hundley. The Trump administration failed to follow the process to have an AG appointed for Eastern Virginia. A law covers that contingency, and the Virginia judiciary followed that law, appointing Hundley. The Trump Administration promptly fired him without cause, despite him being legally appointed. And so, another legal battle ensues.

Just think, it was only a year ago that DOGE was spreading a swath of destruction across the federal government. We’re still learning the ramifications. Trump may consider himself the peace president and a uniter, but I see him as the President of Chaos, sowing and encouraging it, to no one’s benefit but his own.

It’s interesting to remember, too, that Trump first promised to ‘declassify’ the Epstein files while campaigning in June of 2024. Then he dismissed it as a hoax. Since then, We the People notice a continuous pattern that he delays and distracts. Meanwhile, in Europe, real justice is being pursued. They are setting the standard that the United States needs to follow. Although I do note that right now, they’re going after the former prince for divulging information and not other crimes, but other crimes are being investigated.

Sensing my mood, The Neurons have plucked Rush out of memory and put “Working Man” in the morning mental music stream. This is a song that says to me, you gotta keep doing what you need to do. That’s about how I feel for today. Press on regardless.

Lyrics h/t Genius.com

It seems to me I could live my life
A lot better than I think I am
I guess that’s why they call me
They call me the workin’ man

Let’s give a shout out to peace and grace, see if we can get them back into our lives and move forward into a better existence.

Cheers

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Wednesday’s Theme Music

Ashland, Oregon — Wednesday, February 18, 2026.

Our big snowstorm is over! We’re melting out of it. Sunshine rules although washed gray clouds coil and twine on windbound courses of the snowy mountains. More snow is expected tomorrow morning, and rain is forecast for tomorrow afternoon.

How many inches we got yesterday depends on what part of town you’re in. One section saw twelve. We saw seven at our house, sunshine reduced it to three fast.

It’s 35 F now. Three hours ago, it was 26. The high is expected to be 41.

Ah, time. Enormous time was spent texting sisters about Mom’s situation. We’re frustrated and sad and often feel helpless. I think the people at the hospital and the social workers understand this and are doing their best. I think Mom is, too. As someone commented, there’s a lot of relationship history built into this moment. Mom and Frank were firm on their choices; they were not moving into assisted living.

‘Water under the bridge’ is the easy way to dismiss it all, but that water runs deeper than it first appears.

Things will be resolved with Mom but it won’t be a resolution that any of us want to own. It won’t satisfy anyone involved. At least for now, the short term. Perhaps, in a year, it’ll be different. What am I saying? It will be different. The greater question is, how will it be different?

I spent a lot of time this morning reading about the EPA’s Endangerment Finding EPA decision. While it’s an agency decision, deeper implications arise about short-term and long-term effects and the government’s role and responsibility to mitigate them. Beyond that, we have established history of how the Clean Air Act helped us become healthier. When we’re healthier, we’re happier and more productive. Yet — here we are, mired in controversy.

My views about what’s going on politically are also tainted with his use of the military. I don’t approve of that.

And my views are tarnished because history says what tariffs will and won’t do, and the majority of economic experts agree. Yet, Trump and his administration is doing the opposite.

It’s the same pattern with COVID-19, and now the same with vaccinations and the measles outbreaks. I ask myself, what will it take, and end up, nodding, yes, FAFO. That’s just how some minds work.

I’m disappointed, too, that MAGA supporters lambast President Biden for what they perceived as his mental and physical limitations, and yet treat Trump as though he’s a gift from God. And yes, I understand the role of social media and information bubbles, and news spin. But understanding those doesn’t alleviate my disappointment, conversely enhancing my frustration and disappointment.

I feel like I’m on the sidelines in many ways, watching, commenting, but removed, and maybe too insulated and isolated. It’s no surprise that The Neurons brought John Lennon with “Watching the Wheels” into my morning mental music stream.

May peace and grace get through to you and carry you on through the fray to better times.

Cheers

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Tuesday’s Theme Music

Tuesday slid into Ashland under a cloud. 46 F out, rain and sunshine are expected today, January 27, 2026. Our high will be in the mid-fifties.

Buoyed by a powerful dream, I’m in an upbeat and optimistic mood today. I know a lot of crap is going on in the world and many people have it bad. That weighs on me and yet, I feel empowered today.

A friend sent me an interesting video. It’s all AI. My Neurons urged me to use it as today’s theme music. I’ll do so. It’s a catchy punky-influenced tune, made with AI’s help. The chorus has found a home in my morning mental music stream. From Sean Hayes at Scaredketchup, here is, “ICE, F**k You”.

I hope you’re in an upbeat, optimistic place despite the world load, and that it leads to a happier place for all of us. Cheers

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Mundaz Theme Music

Monday, January 19, 2026 has rolled into Ashland. 32 F at the house, Alexa and the net insist it’s 43. Stagnant air warnings remain, but the blue sky and sunshine offer hope for something better. Highs are expected to kiss 60 F, maybe inch over that.

Why then, am I down?

Something unidentified broke my sleep last night. Papi swears it wasn’t him. Nor do dreams seem like the cause. The three remembered dreams offer the typical blend of wonder, hope, and anxiety. Writing is going well. Maybe my hormones are causing something. Hormones can be sneaky, underhanded energy challenges.

I felt like Dad’s spirit visited me yesterday afternoon. Busy exercising, my mind was free. A sad thought that I couldn’t pick up the phone and call Dad passed through me. Then it was like Dad was suddenly there, grinning and laughing like he was fifty years younger, a startling few moments, to which I smiled.

Dad and I were both in the military for 20 years and enjoyed cars. We also enjoyed robust political discussions.

During my last conversation with him, he told me he disapproved of Trump’s policies and behavior. He also commented that his wife and her family were staunch Trump supporters. Living in Texas, he was surrounded by MAGA, and related that there was ‘no talking to them’. Those folks consistently maintained that Trump could do no wrong.

Frank, Mom’s significant other and Army veteran, scowled when talking about Trump. The man rarely cursed but when he did, it was often in conjunction with Trump.

I’m pleased both of them passed away and won’t need to endure watching Trump’s policies unfold.

The Neurons turned to Albert King and Stevie Ray Vaughn to help me climb out of this funk. “Born Under A Bad Sign” plays in the morning mental music stream. I wasn’t born under a bad sign but I feel like I woke up under one today. I’ll indulge in some blues music, sipping coffee, partake of some news and blog posts, and sort myself.

Hope your day starts under a good sign that things will go well for you, perhaps one with hints of peace and grace.

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Fridaz Theme Music

Frida finds our Ashland home peaceful. Alexa says it’s 55 F outside, but my systems put it at 38. Other locations report it’s 48. The invisible fog has lifted, leaving sunbeams a clear path to spread warmth and light through the blue sky.

Today is January 16, 2026. 60 is our projected high, kicking off a week of days in the low to mid 60s. We’ll see if that holds, given weather’s changing ways.

Whatever the temperature, Papi is in good spirits. Patio sunshine glows off his white and orange as he grooms after breakfast.

After a night of a long series of dreams, I’m in a very good mood. One had me with Jerry Seinfeld and George Constanza going to a small, intimate open-air comedy festival. I was with Jerry, who was driving, while George followed in his own car. Although an interesting time, I lost my sunglasses. I kept thinking I’d lost them in the water but consoled myself, it’s only a dream.

I also feel very good with where my health is — today. I’ve kept my lost weight off and still run and exercise. My feet, legs, and ankles stay almost pain-free, with twinges sometimes remarking on what I’m doing. Aided by supplements, my abdominal discomfort and bloating have diminished. I remain careful about what I eat and always give myself time to digest before thinking about eating something else.

While I continue to percolate with dream details, feeling healthy and peaceful, I’ve avoided looking at the news. Trump has a habit of making a good day bad, and a bad day — worse. I’ll eventually scan headlines, hoping that ICE violence isn’t climbing, the U.S. hasn’t attacked another nation, or measles aren’t spreading.

Looking at Trump statements over the last several years, remarks made by him counter history or demonstrate a weak grasp the government. I calculated that Trump has been alive for about 32% of the United States’ age as a nation. You’d think he would’ve picked up that information by now. He is college educated.

Now, for no particular reason at all, The Neurons are playing “The Passenger” in the morning mental music stream. Iggy Pop wrote, performed, and released it in 1977. As it plays, I think, here we go, off on another daily journey.

Hope your journey today is happy and carefree, graced with peace and hope. Cheers

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