Tag: music

Wednesday’s Theme Music — Fools

Ashland, southern Oregon. Wednesday, August 12, 2026.

Cooler day today. 86 F is projected as the high while it’s 71 F outside my house right now. Wind is pretty calm and the sky is pretty blue. Pretty sunny today, too. And clear, although Oregon has many fires still burning east, north, and west of us, and California to our south, has some major fires.

Papi and I went outside a short while ago. Vee — my name for Papi’s frequent visitor — was out there. I petted her, gave her treats, and ensured she had water. Papi tolerates her. Vee is a young shorthaired gray tabby with white legs, chest, belly, and paws. Very sweet, friendly, and social, with a silent meow. I think she lives locally, and her people put her out when they go to work, as she arrives at specific times again and again.

A breeze kicked up while we were out there. Honestly felt and sounded like autumn.

The Year of Trump Follies continue. Trump apologists are digging in hard to avoid facing the truth.

Republicans will blame everybody but Trump for his actions | Opinion

“Everybody but Trump” is the GOP chorus when things go downhill, as so much of it is. “It’s all me,” Trump declares when it’s going well, especially when he had absolutely nothing to do with it.

It’s like, they’re resist facts and learning. Trump’s latest Executive Order about vaccines is another facet of their foolishness and ignorance. They’re changing something which has worked for decades to bow to misinformation about autism and vaccines. But hey, that misinformation is popular with the MAGA crowd.

This is double weird given what happened with military recruits and mandatory vaccines in June, just two months ago. The mandatory flu vaccine was dropped; it was now voluntary. Lo, a flu outbreak immediately rose, affecting training and readiness. The mandatory flu vaccine was reinstated forthwith.

Triply weird, when MMR vaccinations are down and measles outbreaks are increasing. Not Trump’s fault, the fools shout. No, it’s not Trump, it’s open Borders! It’s Fauci!

Shows in approval ratings. Trump’s disapproval has moved into historic levels. But Trump remains ‘approved’ by Republicans.

With all the things Trump — and his GOP — have done, he’s now out there trying to scare up more fools to support him. That’s why I have “Find Another Fool” in my morning mental music stream. This was a top twenty hit for Quarterflash in 1981.

Sample Lyrics

You pulled this once… you pulled it twice
It’s time you listened to my advice… oh, baby

I’d never take advantage of our love
I can’t imagine what you’re thinkin’ of
You’re over due… you think this storm is through.
Well, baby, I’ve got news for you

When the season of Trump finally ends, it’ll be like recovering from a major storm. So much will need to be fixed, rebuilt, and changed. I’m looking toward the MAGAts to be part of it. They seem beyond being reached at this point. Maybe, someday, that will change.

Not holding my breath.

I hope this day finds you in good health, good times, and good company.

Cheers

0

Tuesday’s Theme Music – Money

Ashland, southern Oregon. Tuesday, August 11, 2026.

We continue slowly cooling in our area. 78 F, 92 F is the expected high. But we never saw the forecast high yesterday, coming up a few degrees short. I was alright with that. Smoke has been absent from the sky, too, knock on wood, despite so many fires plaguing Oregon and the United States in general — indeed, the world. The world’s oceans had their highest recorded temperature in July.

My sisters and I entered an extended text session a few days ago. Continued into today. All about the family. Turns out we aren’t “Parks” except in name. Mom’s maiden name is Parks. Her father was Parks. But his father was Slacks. So we’re Slacks. After Alfred Parks died, Mom’s grandmother married Slack and had our great-grandfather. She then divorced Slack and resumed life as Parks, re-naming her two children from Slack as Parks. Family legend from another part of the family claim that Alfred Slack’s side was shady, which might explain things.

It’s probably just me, but Trump’s Patriot Games seem to be going on with little notice. I think he imagined something grand but as usual with Trump efforts, the execution was shoddy. Besides having to move it from D.C. to Ohio, because of competing events — which Trump ordered — participants weren’t selected for their athletic prowess from great competitions. Most of them turned out to be white, which isn’t a surprise to me. Some represented states they weren’t from — which, yes, also aligns with classic Trump sloppiness.

Athletes attending Patriot Games reveal how it devolved into MAGA madness

The games themselves are a very strange choice, it seems like:

Qualifying rounds, along with kickball and dodgeball, took place on Sunday. On Monday, male and female competitors participated in a “varsity circuit” that strung together many sports: athletes had to throw footballs at targets, catch tennis balls out of the air, kick a soccer ball at a target, spike volleyballs over a net, hit wiffle balls with a bat, and sprint around a baseball diamond. Also on Monday, athletes competed in “operation endurance,” in which they had to maneuver through an obstacle course that involved army crawling, climbing nets, lifting heavy tires, monkey bars, and balance beams.

Let’s just call it what it is, more distraction from what a crappy job Trump is doing, more Operation Epic LOOK — SQUIREEL!, just like the Epstein ballroom, the war on Iran, the threats about Greenland, the attack on Venezuela, the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, the pathetic arch, calling Democrats ‘dumocrats, renaming buildings and airports after him, TrumpRx, Freedom Fuel, Trump’s denunciation of President Biden’s economy — which is way better than the Trump economy, America’s state fair, the blustering about commies stealing the election — hell, all the election fraud crap Trump spouts all the damn time — and other things, like Haitians eating pets. Lies, corruption, and distractions: that’s Trump.

While we have real problems in the US and around the world, Trump attacks imaginary problems, trying to magnifiy their impact, trying to scare people. Meanwhile, our real problems worsen.

I checked this morning and the measles outbreaks are still breaking out. We’re already into new modern records. Texas and South Carolina are the nation’s hot spots, with significant outbreaks taking place in Texas, Virginia, and Pennsylvania.

I have “For the Love Of Money” by the O’Jays playing in the morning mental music stream. Song came out in 1973 and was a top 10 hit for in the US. I’m thinking about it today because of how it’s screwing up existence. Capitalism, right? And dark money, which has assumed such a dominant role in modern US politics. Then there are the wealthy oligarchs and billionaires, hunting more for themselves to the detriment of everyone and everything else.

Then there’s the top of the greed pyramid, Donald Trump. Greed and money drives Trump — along with his fantasies about how wonderful and brilliant he thinks he is, ignoring all evidence and facts that consistently confirm, is actually pretty damn inept. He’s an excellent liar and con, and that’s about it.

Sample Lyrics

(For the love of money) people will steal from their mother
(For the love of money) people will rob their own brother
(For the love of money) people can’t even walk the streets
Because they never know who in the world they’re gonna beat
For that mean, oh mean, mean green

Almighty dollar, that money

(For the love of money) people will lie, Lord, they will cheat
(For the love of money) people don’t care who they hurt or beat
(For the love of money) a woman will sell her precious body
For a small piece of paper, it carries a lot of weight
For that mean, mean, mean, mean, mean green
Almighty dollar, talkin’ about, talkin’ about

I know that money is the root of all evil
Do funny things to some people
Give me a nickel, brother, can you spare a dime?
Money can drive some people out of their mind
(For the love of money) no good, no good, no good
(For the love of money) don’t sell your soul for the money, no, no
(For the love of money) lay down, lay down, women will

Money is the root of all evil
Do funny things to some people
Give me a nickel, brother, can you spare a dime?
Money can drive some people out of their minds

Hope your day brings you safety, peace, and security, along with good things to eat and drink. May you live long and prosper, as others used to say.

Cheers

0

Monday’s Theme Music – Cracking Up

Ashland, southern Oregon. Monday, August 10, 2026.

Our August cooling trend continues. Today we’ll see low 90s with blue skies and sunshine in our valley. Last night saw the temperature fall to 58 F in our area. I had to go around closing windows to keep the house from getting too cold. Poor us, right?

Mom and Gina, my sister and Mom’s Power of Attorney, continue their cold war. I don’t think peace will come again, a change from how I was viewing it. Something about the conflict has triggered both, hardening their attitudes. Each instantly react angrily. Invectives and accusations fly.

Got Food & Friends deliveries today, along with a medical appointment this afternoon, so it’s another brief post. Somehow, most of my reading ended up being about Trump and the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool. The story reminds us that Trump first claimed how resilient the fix he installed was.

“In May, for example, Trump said the lining was “so strong, so powerful” that it couldn’t be cut with a knife. He even drove his motorcade across it while it was being installed to inspect the work.”

Then, somehow, a vandal or group with knives managed to cut and tear that ‘so strong, so powerful’ lining.

Next, Trump was making claims about the evidence of this vandalism:

“We have photographs, or tapes,” he said, making a circular gesture with his hands. After a pause, he pointed to the cameras recording him and added: “Like moving cameras, right?”

Except, oh no, after Jeanine Pirro announced that they were dropping prosecution of the one vandal they’d arrested, Trump now claims there is no evidence:

“There was substantial other damage to the Reflecting Pool, also but, unfortunately, there is no video or proof, other than the damage, itself,” Trump wrote on Truth Social on Sunday. 

Anyone following the story knows the truth and has seen the evidence: the one who screwed up the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool is Trump. And the one lying about it is also Trump.

The thing is, too, as it’s been often noted, the cover up is frequently worse than the crime. If Trump had just let it go, admitted he made a mistake, or anything like that, it would have already disappeared as a story. Instead, Trump dug in, refuse the facts and the truth, and made it worse.

But that’s Trump: lying, then lying about his lies, digging deeper and deeper holes. Did it with the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool; tariffs and the economy; the Epstein files; and the war he began with Iran.

A little over a year ago, I used the song “Basket Case” by Green Day as the day’s theme music. Trump has just attacked Iran for the first time. At that time, I wondered if June 21, 2025 and the attacks on that day would go down as the day that World War III quietly began?

Trump declared that mission enormously successful.

Trump says US ‘completely and totally obliterated’ nuclear facilities in Iran

Three days later, he walked back those claims. February of this year, he attacked Iran again. And the war has been going ever since, off and on, widening and creating death and destruction. Time and again, Trump gives different reasons for that war, not calling it a war to avoid being held in check, and has claimed different levels of results and success.

And that is why “Basket Case” is playing in the morning mental music stream today — again.

Sample Lyrics:

Do you have the time to listen to me whine?
About nothing and everything, all at once
I am one of those melodramatic fools
Neurotic to the bone, no doubt about it

Sometimes I give myself the creeps
Sometimes my mind plays tricks on me
It all keeps adding up
I think I’m cracking up
Am I just paranoid or am I just stoned?

Papi has settled in for the day. He’s ready for a day of relaxation. Hope you are, too.

Cheers

0

Sunday’s Theme Music — Catch

Ashland, southern Oregon. Sunday, August 9, 2026.

Got chilly last night — low 60s — which felt awesome. Even now, it’s in the upper 60s and a cool breeze is swimming past. Sky is postcard blue; no smoke or clouds. Expected to be in the mid 90s as our highs.

Mom and sis, Gina, remain at war. I’m surprised it lasted this long. Gina usually tries for another pact. Perhaps, after all attempts have failed, she’s really given up on Mom. Mom, on her side, blames Gina; sees no fault on her end. Mom did ask when her house was closing, which won’t be until after August 14.

It was a night of deep sleep and wild dreams. We have some socializing happening today, so I’m not going to dwell on the news.

Today’s music is “Catch Us If You Can”. This is a Dave Clark 5 song that came out when I was 9, in 1965. I know it because my sister, two years older, was getting into music. She had a DC5 album, along with albums by Freddie and the Dreamers, and Herman’s Hermits. She played them a lot.

Why is the song in my morning mental music stream? I don’t know. The Neurons probably conjured some secret connections with my dreams, thinking, writing, memories, but they’re as revealing as the Sphinx on a hot day.

I hope that you have a satisfying and enjoyable day, and that maybe it has some socializing in it.

Off we go. Cheers

0

Saturday’s Theme Music — Games

Ashland, southern Oregon. Saturday, August 8, 2026.

Cooler today. Although now 74 F, it will get only to 96 today. Officially, I think we hit 99 yesterday. My house saw 102 again.

There’s another fire burning. This one is to our northeast. Already at 19,000 acres with no containment, we’ve added it to our fire watch.

Trump urged his Attorney General to open prosecutions of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool again. Given the plethora of bad news for Trump this week, I’m not surprised.

That’s part of Operation Epic LOOK — SQUIRREL! When things get bad, Trump tries to change the topic. Bad economic news came out. Trump would normally bluster about bombing Iran again. Can’t: low munitions, so they’re supposed to be ‘negotiating’.

Fallback number two would be to talk about how great everything is. But with prices still up and affordability still in crisis mode, he’s probably been advised to not talk about that.

Trump’s other topics would be calling climate change a hoax but with so many fires burning in the United States, he’s been silent about them — after stupidly threatening to impose tariffs on Canada because their wildfire smoke was bothering the US. While the US has ‘only’ burned over 6 million acres compared to 9 million in Canada, the United States’s fires outnumber Canadian fires 45,000 to 3,900.

Trump sure as hell can’t talk about Epstein…especially after a Federal court ruled that tearing down part of the White House to build a new ballroom was outside of Trump’s authority. That sent Trump off on an angry frenzy; since Trump lives there, he thinks he can do what he wants to it and fails completely to understand that the White House belongs to We the People. He’s just an occupant, and many of us are ready to kick him out.

With celebration of the nation’s 250 Anniversary going poorly so far, Trump is staying pretty mum about the Patriot Games which are starting this week. They had to move them from D.C. to Ohio. This is a classic Trump thing: the Freedom 250 Indycar race is coming up in a few weeks. Guess what? You can’t set up for an Indycar race at the same time that you’re running Patriot Games. The operations clashed, setting up a logistics nightmare.

So the Hunger Games — sorry, Patriot Games — were quietly moved.

I’m not overly impressed with those games, either:

The DC Indycar race — arrives later this month. The event has free admission, but many are angry about it. 1) Trump ignored getting approval from anyone for the event — surprise! 2) Although ‘free’, people attending aren’t permitted to bring in anything: chairs, foods, suntan lotion, drink, etc. 3) Locals are upset about how the race and its logistics are going to affect their lives during hot, humid August, especially when the race was forced on them without their approval.

So, back to the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool for Trump. It’s a mess that he created, a blot on his recorded, etched into his legacy, along with the Iran war, Epstein files, poor economy, and his corruption and ineptitude. He created this mess, and he’s going to go down swinging, pretending it’s not his own fault.

Your Trump Quote of the Day:

Yes, he’s had some great polls, if you ignore over half the nation.

Trump is weak, ineffective, losing power and losing face. He’s struggling to save it, but too delusional to do anything meaningful. So he’ll continue with the same ol’ same ol’ fantasies, ranting, raving, threatening, and bullying.

With all these thoughts of games — Trump’s games, pretending that he’s doing great, the ‘Patriot’ games, etc — Les Neurons supplied the morning mental music stream with an Alan Parson Project fave, “Games People Play.”

May your day bring a winning hand your way today and every day.

Cheers

0

Friday’s Theme Music —

Ashland, southern Oregon — Friday, August 7, 2026.

Sunshine rules but smoke threatens. We’re still safe, knock on wood. Our hearts go out to the many, many, many others — animals, people, land — enduring fires and its impacts.

Hit 102.7 at our house yesterday. Project to hit the same today. It’s 80 F right now.

It’s my anniversary with my wife today. 51 years. Some were rocky but we’re still here, growing old together.

Meanwhile, Trump’s economy, now in its second year, continues flailing. The Jobs Report comes on the heels of the report that showed that the economy’s growth is anemic. What happened to all those manufacturing jobs Trump promised?

Paul Krugman again helped me understand what the July Jobs Report means.

News of the Weak (Labor Market)

“The surprise fall in employment — 23,000 jobs lost, when the consensus forecast was for around 80,000 gained — made headlines. As always, it’s important to realize that monthly jobs numbers are noisy, so you shouldn’t overreact to one report. However, this report also revised data for several earlier months down, so the broader picture of job growth in Trump’s “golden age” is significantly worse than it seemed.“

Krugman also shares this graph from Haver Analytics.

Krugman has often talked about a recession vibe. That comes about when everyone talks about how bad the economy ‘feels’ versus what the data shows. The intersection of gas prices what won’t come down, a terrible job market — as show in the Jobs Report and in jobseekers’ perceptions of what the job market is like — and slow growth is what gives us this vibe.

Trump will probably respond with claims of fake news, or attempt to blame Presidents Obama or Biden, or the Democrats. It’s always someone else’s fault when things go wrong, although he’s always hungry to try to claim glory and success.

Your Trump Quote of the Day:

We need to keep repeating this: Trump doesn’t think about anybody except himself. He doesn’t care about anybody but himself. This economy, Trump’s growing wealth, and Trump’s war with Iran is what you get when you vote for Trump and the GOP that enables him.

“Beds Are Burning” are in my morning mental music stream again. This is a 1987 Midnight Oil song. The Australian group’s song is in there because there’s been so — much — fire — this year, around the world. Record disasters. With Trump’s reactive policies, this will get worse. A super El Nino is already forecast for this coming winter in the northern hemisphere. With fires burning so much of the woods and vegetation and a wet super El Nino in the works, the potential for devastating flooding is enormous.

The other reason that “Beds Are Burning” is today’s song is because of the Trump economy. It’s also burning; more money is being poured into the Defense budget and weapons. But Trump and Hegseth are burning through them. Meanwhile, Trump is trying to fund battleships and Arctic ships. It’s surreal as hell. The economy and world is burning, and he’s wasting money not on helping the people, but on building armies to attack others.

I hope you have a safe and healthy day, and it precedes a long string of such days for you.

Cheers

2

Thursday’s Theme Music — Fantasy

Thursday, August 6, 2026. Ashland, southern Oregon.

Another hot one in store for us. Funny in an odd way but many sources show yesterday’s high for our town as 91 F. But my car registered 104. My home registered 101.5. Other friends had the same experience with their cars, phones, and homes.

Whatever yesterday’s true high was, today expects to clip 100. Smoke is streaking the blue sky, coloring it with gray.

The news from Trumpland continues along fantasy lines. Trump thinks everything is going great. He wants battleships built! And ice-breakers! The latter seems like a sweetheart deal for some other corrupt cohort. Wonder how much Trump will get as a kickback?

With Democrats winning, Trump is wringing his hands and worrying again about stolen elections. Never offers evidence, just claims.

“MY REAL POLL NUMBERS ARE THE HIGHEST THEY HAVE EVER BEEN” Trump claims.

Yet, all the evidence says, no it’s not, dude.

But that is the Trumpster. Is he fantasizing or does he live in a fantasy world? Perhaps he’s just trying to appease his tired, broken ego. Maybe — maybe — others are feeding him this to buoy his spirits. Based on Trump’s track record of making stupid statements and acting like an idiot, he may actually be dumb enough to believe that he’s very popular.

It’s also possible that Trump is making these claims as part of Operation Epic LOOK — SQUIRREL!

His Iran war is not going well. The US — largest military in the world — needs to resupply itself because Trump and Hegseth have wasted so much. The Trump economy isn’t doing well, either, with growth down and prices up.

As election results rolled in from Michigan, there came a distinct response from Trump that shouted, oh no! Because he immediately began spinning tales from the election theft crypt.

Then there are also more FAFO stories like this one, with MAGAts who proudly voted for Trump now whining about what he’s doing.

The Neurons think that “Hey You” by Pink Floyd is right for this day. I assume that’s why they put it into the morning mental music stream. They specifically channeled these lines:

But it was only fantasy
The wall was too high, as you can see
No matter how he tried, he could not break free
And the worms ate into his brain

That’s pretty Trump, getting trapped in his own fantasies while something eats his brain. Our challenge it to keep his fantasy from doing more damage and then rebuilding to recover from it.

May your day progress on solid truth, moving you and yours toward a better place, where we will no longer deal with the madness of Trump.

Cheers

4

Wednesday’s Theme Music — Shadows

Ashland, southern Oregon. Wednesday — August 5, 2026.

We hit 101.5 at my house yesterday. That was outside. Inside, we stayed below 80. We’ve yet to run the A/C yet this year — knock wood — as the temperatures drop enough at night to cool the house and land down.

We’ll see if that holds today. Right now, it’s 83 F, on its way to 101 again.

The thing about yesterday’s weather is that it climbed slowly. At one mid-afternoon point, I thought, well, this isn’t bad. 91 then, I thought, maybe we won’t hit one hundred. Then I entered a store, came back out said to myself, holy shit, it’s hot as hell. What happened?

Today, though — hot early, hot fast.

Although there are more fires burning across the United States, we’re still fire-free — knock wood. The smoke isn’t bad, either. We’re fortunate in our neck of the woods; Oregon has topped 2,000,000 acres burned this year. Washington has several large fires going. Portland (OR) now has the worst air in the world, due to the wildfires.

Mom and my sister, Gina, continue their quiet war. Mom turned to her granddaughter, Gina’s daughter — Amy — as the go-between. Amy is rejecting the role. Although Mom helped raise Amy, Amy doesn’t deal well with the tension of being the go-between. Plus, Amy is in college, working on a Masters, and she works. So I help fill the gap.

As 2026 wears on, we’re seeing the shadows of Trump’s thinking, lying, fantasizing, playing out in real time now. It’s all catching up.

US has used ‘virtually all’ of its long-range precision missiles during Iran war, sources say

  • Some of these are new weapon systems
  • There’s a bottleneck on refilling them
  • They’re expensive
  • Experts estimate that it will take 1 to 4 years to replenish the supplies
  • While Trump and his staff deny it, this is likely why Trump backed off on the Iran bombing campaigns

And what has the war achieved? Death and high prices. A more unstable Middle-East. And now, a more vulnerable US.

‘Delusional’: Donald Trump flunks reality with his ‘A+’ grade claim

Trump’s golden age reality check

Trump and his administration predicted 6% growth; it’s 1.5%

Trump’s solution to abuse in ICE facilities is pricey—and evil

Jeanine Pirro faces the choice many Trump officials confront at one point or another

Which reality do you choose?

“When Trump hits a brick wall now, as president, he just fashions an alternative reality. He can talk up tough financial data or a foreign policy hiccup as though he’s bigging up a tatty property in a real estate prospectus.“

Your Trump Quote(s) of the Day:

This is the same tired claim Trump made in January of this year:

Trump has made this claim dozens of times already. But reality does not back him up. As with many matters, Trump has a basic misunderstanding of how things work. If inflation cools, prices don’t ‘come down’; inflation is a measure of how much they’ll increase.

Trump’s claims about affordability and prices coming down, and being in a ‘golden age’ is just like his Iran War rhetoric. Trump has claimed victory again (April), again (June), and again (July). Yet the war goes on, in August. He keeps trying to distract us from the truth. Not happening, because we’re paying through the nose, and we’re feeling it.

Today’s music is “Shadowplay” by Joy Division. Seems right for today. I didn’t know the song when it came out, and discovered it when The Killers covered it for a movie. I like the original’s sonic approach to the gittar playin’. Good morning mental music stream occupant for these times as Trump’s shadow grows.

Sample Lyrics:

In the shadowplay, acting out your own death
Knowing no more
As the assassins all grouped in four lines
Dancing on the floor
And with cold steel, odour on their bodies
Made a move to connect
But I could only stare in disbelief
As the crowds all left

h/t to Genius.com

2

Tuesday’s Theme Music — Runnin’ with the Devil

Ashland, southern Oregon. Tuesday, August 4, 2026.

Supposed to get hellishly hot here today. 89 F now, the temperature is expected to go over 100 F. Heat index supposed to magnify the intensity.

Smoke from the fires has floated into our area. Air quality is slowly declining.

Back east, my sister reports that the closing on Mom’s house has slid back to August 14.

Reading the news, checking the weather, I again have “Running with the Devil” by Van Halen playing in the morning mental music stream. Trump is burning down the world. GOP is going along with it. MAGAts cheer him on.

Deteriorating quality of life, weather, rising inequality, increasing costs — who cares as long as Trump is getting his, right? That’s the Republican vision for the United States: protect Trump. Laugh at his ridiculous antics. Pretend that he’s not stealing them blind. Pretend that he’s making life better.

All they need to do is not think too hard about it. Stay in their Trump shells. Blame everyone else, everything else. And when he’s gone?

Well, first, will they accept that he’s dead? Will he become a second Jesus, where they spend their days waiting for him to come back? Will they pretend that he’s alive but being hidden by the deep state.

It’s all possible. GOP and MAGAts are good at pretending. Better at pretending than they are at thinking.

Hope you stay safe and comfortable, wherever you are, whatever you’re doing.

Cheers

2

Sunday’s Theme Music — Get You

Ashland, southern Oregon. Sunday, August 2, 2026.

Our weather is cool, 62 F right now. It’ll rise to the mid 80s, basically as it did yesterday. The air is clear with an AQI that says ‘it’s good’. Clouds muddle around the sky as if they’re waiting for a door to open somewhere.

I’m suspicious of it all.

Things are going well — here. Relatively. Everything is relative. We live on spectrums of changing needs, abilities, awareness, knowledge. It all seems more acute for me as I grow older.

I don’t feel particularly old now but then I look in the mirror. Like, who stole my hair? Will they be returning it?

My face just looks different. Not like my parents or grandparents. Now I’m wondering if someone stole into the house and replaced my face.

Then, why would they have taken my average white, upper middle age (ahem) face?

Answer is, of course: they’re going to use my face to commit a crime somewhere.

So now I wait to see what crime my face shows up as part of.

Watching Mom, friends, and Trump, I don’t look forward to getting much older. Mom, 91, is cranky on most days. Filled with pain, she tells me. I see a video of her in a chair, trying to exercise. She’s listing to her right as she jerks her right arm up. She doesn’t look happy or healthy, but she’s trying.

Trump worries me even more. His language, never a strong suit, has become much worse. There are reports of him crapping his pants or delivering some nasty farts. Where there’s this much smoke, I got to wonder about the truth behind it. If he’s crapping himself or emitting enough noxious foulness that others are gagging and turning away, those aren’t signs of good heatlh.

In photos, Trump’s face has that old person, mean, angry look going. He’s glaring at the world like he’s trying to hear what they’re saying and can’t.

Worse, though, are those late night texts — from Mom and Trump.

Mom reached out at 2 AM to ask me if we’re safe from the fires. She pinged me again a few minutes later to ask, “Why don’t you answer?”

I don’t see these texts until I get up a few hours later. Then reply, sorry, missed your texts, was asleep, we’re fine. And I thank her for her concerns.

My sister later reports that Mom texted her in the middle of the night, asking what did Gina do with all the clothes Mom left behind in her house.

I worry, why is Mom up in the middle of the night texting?

Trump worries me in the same way. He spends a lot of nocturnal hours texting. Then he’s shown ready to fall asleep in his chair at meetings during the day.

Trump’s texts are worse than Mom’s texts. Mom shows a belated handle on what’s going on and often shows concern for others.

Trump texted an AI generated vision of himself as Elvis Presley. What an absolutely strange thing to do, I think as I see this. Who in their right mind pretends to be someone else like that?

Let’s pause to think about it: Trump is posting an image of himself as a popular pop culture star. One who died in 1977, almost fifty years ago. What is going on in that troubled head that he entertains these thoughts?

I then think of Trump’s MAGAts. They say that he speaks for them.

Are they out there generating AI images of themselves as others? Are some of them projecting themselves as young Johnny Cash or dead young athletes and actors?

As an aside to that, I admit that I admire the new Iran War Participation Award someone created for Trump. It has the right mix of bitter humor and deadly insights.

I received other texts and messages from people worrying about us and the fires. As the fires grow in the Pacific Northwest and more are evacuated, the news shifts toward the top of the news cycles.

We’re fine, I reply to all, knock on wood. No, it’s been a remarkably ‘cooler’ summer, with us rarely challenging 100 F. Wildfire threats have been far away. The smoke has only been mild and hasn’t lasted too long — knock on wood. Hope to hell I’m not jinxing us by mentioning it.

No, our thing remains the drought. Winter supplies are down to the low 40s. We’re conserving. Vegetation is browning, which would be nice if these were pie crusts baking in the oven instead of grassy fields and mountain meadows.

Between nature’s growing extreme trends and aging, there’s a sense that something is going to get you. Trump, acting crazy, arming ICE and mobilizing them in cities, fostering more war, using violence as a mallet to try to fix things, only makes that feel worse. Especially as his main concerns are promoting himself as a young Elvis Presley, affixing his name to buildings, and destroying our heritage and cultural norms.

No surprise then, with The Neurons’ music choice for the morning mental music stream. “One Way or Another” is a 1979 Blondie song. Deborah Harry was being stalked but wrote the song with some humor injected into it.

Sample Lyrics:

One way or another, I’m gonna find ya
I’m gonna get ya, get ya, get ya, get ya
One way or another, I’m gonna win ya
I’m gonna get ya, get ya, get ya, get ya

One way or another, I’m gonna see ya
I’m gonna meet ya, meet ya, meet ya, meet ya
One day, maybe next week, I’m gonna meet ya
I’m gonna meet ya, I’ll meet ya

Catchy. Easy to sing along with, good hard beat with a fast tempo made it a popular and memorable song. Makes perfect sense for today, with the threats being raised by nature and Trump.

Hope your day is threatfree, and that you enjoy carefree moments of pleasure and happiness with people you’re fond of, in places which you enjoy.

Cheers

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