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?
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
Spring has set up here in the Rogue Valley, home to Ashlandia, where professionals from California come to rest. Mountain snow remains on the mountains in places but blossoms, blue skies, and sunshine seem to have settled in. 69 F and sunny now, we’re climbing fast toward today’s 76-degree F high.
Now this warm weather does bring worry, worry that winter didn’t gift us enough, worry that March is too warm too fast, worry that summer will be stratospheric hot. Fingers crossed, knock on wood, it’ll be a moderate summer and give us a respite for recovery from the last several years.
The cats are happy as cats in sunshine, although Papi has become ridiculously restless. Out to in, in to out he goes, what he’s searching for, nobody knows. Methinks he’s hunting for some fun.
I realized from a photo that he’s been with us at least eight years now. Scheckter, one of my original Orange Boyz, passed away in 2013 (cancer) at too young an age after being with us only twelve years. Papi remarkably resembles Scheckter. Seeing Papi on the fence before he joined our household always surprised me because he was such a mini-me Scheckter.
That’s only in markings. Papi is about eight pounds less than Scheckter. Scheckter and his mate, Pogo, were large, muscular cats. Scheckter came in at 19-21 pounds while Pogo bested him with two more pounds.
News reports in the US are cycling around DJ Trump and his latest inflammatory rhetoric. Does he mean it when he declares ‘some people aren’t human. What does he mean people ask when he talks about bloodbaths if he loses.
Smith writes, ‘Detention camps, mass deportations, capital punishment for drug smugglers, tariffs on imported goods, a purge of the justice department and potential withdrawal from Nato – the Trump policy agenda is radical by any standard including his own, pushing the boundaries set during his first presidential run eight years ago.’
For some reason, this is what former POTUS Trump thinks is what will fix the United States. He believes this is what Americans want and what the world needs. I believe he’s wrong. The majority of economists believe his various tariffs had negative effects on the US economy or did nothing. Few believe the tariffs did any good.
As for detention camps, mass deportations, and capital punishment for drug smugglers, such draconian measures belong to a less civilized era, one in which violence and brute force were employed to achieve national objectives. Although we’re waaayyy too armed as a nation, mostly because of the Military-Industrial complex President Dwight D. Eisenhower — a Republican — warned us about in 1961.
It’s depressing that some will follow Trump and pursue these warn out ancient ideas as modern solutions. I don’t believe the majority do. I just hope the majority votes and ensures these ideas don’t become our new national policies.
Shifting from politics to music, The Neurons have “In Bloom” by Nirvana in the morning mental music stream (Trademark coming in two weeks). “In Bloom” came out in 1992. It’s come to mind for me today because of that chorus, “He’s the one who likes all the pretty songs, and he likes to sing along, but he knows not what it means.”
I think it applies today because of DJ Trump. He says many things. But he really doesn’t understand what they mean or how incongruous they seem. He tries to spin other meanings, making shit up. And that becomes the new truth for the followers in his cult. They, and Trump’s compliant Republican supporters and right-wing press, spin and insist, “That’s not what he means.”
Outside of the cult, outside of the right-wing media bubble, and outside of the empty GOP, the rest of us understand what he means. We understand the implicit violence of his promises and declarations. We see through his garbage and recognize that he doesn’t give a shit about the United States or the U.S. Constitution and its ideals. This is all about him and his vengeance quest.
Okay, back off my box. Stay positive, be strong, lean forward, and vote, please. I’m indulging in another serving of coffee. Here’s the music. Cheers
TL/DR: It’s spring. Today’s song is “Why Worry” by Dire Straits. President Biden’s predecessor and current GOP candidate is enamored with dictators, promises a bloodbath if he doesn’t win, and thinks some humans “aren’t human”.
Hello, my traveling peers. It’s Sunday again, March 17 again, but adding the year, 2024, makes it a whole new date.
The average daily high for Ashland in March is 58 F degrees. We expect to hit 71 F. I think I’ll be higher.
I checked a local weather station’s temperature, along with the SOU (Southern Oregon University) weather station, and a web weather source. Here are our temp variations:
My house: (Clay Street, southern end, in early morning mountain shadows, 1836 feet elevation): 45.5 F
Wimer Street: (2 miles west of Clay Street, above downtown, 2050 feet elevation, in mountains): 46.2
SOU: (1.1 miles southwest of Clay Street, 1890 feet elevation, in sunshine by East Main Street): 42.1
MSN.com: 50 F.
Honestly, SOU’s elevation — 1890 feet — seems suspect to me. We descend to that location via a series of hills. For the record, Ashland’s official elevation is 1949 feet. We consider ourselves ‘the valley’, but the valley floor is a little bit lower than us. It’s a pinched and rolling place on this end of the Rogue Valley.
Whatever the temp, it’s a spring day out there, with colors along the spectrum breaking out all over the region.
Then there’s the story circulating about Trump’s other comments during a campaign speech. This is from an article on TheHill.com, but it’s in WaPo and others, too.
“I don’t know if you call them people,” he said at the rally. “In some cases they’re not people, in my opinion. But I’m not allowed to say that because the radical left says that’s a terrible thing to say.”
See, I am ‘the radical left’ because I think others are people. I base this on biology. Genetics. Not politics, religion, or circumstance. It doesn’t matter where they come from. Or how they reached our land. But in Donald J. Trump’s opinion, some people are not people. That’s just laying the foundation to treat other humans as less than human as justification for inhumane treatment.
Okay, class, can anyone name a fomer world leader and dictator who said things like that about other humans?
Well, no. I agree. However, a surprising chunk of Americans seem to disagree. People — and I was one — overlooked how many Americans backed Hitler before WWII and even during WWII. There are Americans among us who still back Hitler because they’re antisemites. They want someone to blame, and remain willing to claim Jews are causing them problems.
That’s one reason they like and support Trump. Trump isn’t bothered by Hitler’s record. His former chief of staff related that “Trump said Hitler did some good things.” That’s worrying for someone threatening bloodbaths if he doesn’t win, and chatting and joking about being a dictator on day one if he does win.
But what about the greater Republican party? I share Ms Pequeño concern, “Will Republicans ever care?” I’m concerned that many don’t know and don’t care because they’ve convinced themselves that Trump is something else, someone special to them. They write off the rest of us and our dire threats about Trump as the lies of outsiders who don’t see Trump as they do.
I agree, too, with Ms Pequeño’s final assertion: “So, everybody who is bothered by this, Republicans and Democrats alike, should keep pointing to his comments for the rest of this election. Then voters can ultimately decide if they support this or not.”
Today, The Neurons posted “Why Worry” by Dire Straits to the morning mental music stream (Trademark coming in two weeks). I know exactly what’s going on with me this soft 1985 song by Mark Knopfler.
I’m a worrier and regularly talk myself down. I recognize that the view I get of the world is skewed and imperfect, no matter how many sources I use. Many of those sources are political or commercial. Each uses buzzwords and headlines to gather attention. Some of them are just trying to rile me up or say things to help their revenue streams. So, while I will continue to worry and voice my thoughts about my worries, I’ll also try to talk myself down.
The cats are outside in the fenced backyard, loving the warm air and sunshine. I’m about to do the same. Stay positive, be strong, lean forward, and vote. Hope your weather is to your approval at your place. Here’s the music. There’s the coffee. Let’s bring it all together. Cheers
Friday, March 15, 2024, has been blessed by abundant sunshine, praise floof. The cats love it except, today was also blessed by gusting winds. Probably something to do with March in the northern hemisphere, right? Although the temperature was already 50 F, the cats eschewed the outside sunshine for the comfort of the sunshine streaming in through the windows in the wind-free living room. The omniscient weather they think today’s high will crest at 66 F. Yesterday’s high was supposed to be 61 F but my corner saw 66 F, so I’m slithering out on that limb and prophesizing a higher high around our place, and I’m not talking THC, either.
I’m eagerly awaiting the results of the Trump family running the RNC. The new co-chairs, Lara Trump (she with the dead eyes) and Michael Whatley, were personally selected by DJ Trump. The Whatley/Trump RNC declared that they’re dedicated to ‘election integrity’.
I wish they’d be more devoted to ‘reality integrity’. If they paid more attention to reality, they’d know that the fraud that DJ Trump pushes about the stolen election has been shown to be bullshit. Over sixty court cases validate the bullshit verdict. Judges of both parties at several levels found there was no evidence to support Trump’s bullshit. State election officials all found no evidence presented to support the stolen election claim. In fact, if the RNC put more reality underfoot, they would discover that former POTUS Trump is indicted for trying to undermine the official, legal, results that resulted in him being shown the WH door.
But the RNC is leading the TBP now, TBP meaning the Trump Bullshit Party. Little of the ‘Republican’ party is visible under the avalanche of Trump-centric garbage being spewed and supported. Sure, the RNC put out a memo to “Grow the Vote”. They expressed interest in getting more voters who don’t show a propensity to vote Republican.
Then they fired sixty people, including the ones running the Black and Hispanic outreach programs.
Frankly, I’m predicting a wobbly, angst driven 2024 TBP which will end with DJ Trump rejected by voters again. A shower of petulant anger, finger pointing, and angst will rise in the aftermath. Lots of lies will be brought up by DJT. He’ll probably claim he won despite all the evidence that he lost, and that he ran the most beautiful campaign ever.
And the TBP will goose step along with his claims, fueling the confusion and polarization on which the TBP thrives. Time will tell us if I’m right. Maybe I’m hopped up on caffeine and have it totally wrong. Hope not.
Today’s music comes from being out back (with Papi, the ginger wonder cat) on the patio this morning. I was considering the sky, which harbored some clouds in the blue sea over my head. Catching on that I was thinking about the sky, The Neurons began playing “Fall on Me” in the morning mental music stream (Trademark coming in two weeks). The 1986 R.E.M. song is about things falling from the sky, so I can see why The Neurons chose it.
Stay positive, be strong, lean forward, and vote. I’ll do the same after I suck down more coffee. Here’s the music. Cheers
It’s March 14, 2024, and we’re swimming in blue skies and sunshine. It doesn’t make this a warm day — yet. The furnace is still running, dragging up the house’s internal temperature as the day recovers from its 33 F start in our area. 44 F is what the digital thermometer now reads. We expect its readings to climb over 61 today.
That’s why I like spring. I enjoy the shift from bareness and cold, or the white of snow and ice, to the brisk green sprouting, sunshine, and warmth. Summer is lovely but becomes cruel, overdoing it with heat intensity. Thunderstorms add a troublesome facet in the summer, lancing the hot dry land with lightning and sending fires across the fields and mountains and smoke through the sky. Spring is full of possibilities and growth. It feels like a season to relax.
I skimmed the news and marked things to go back and read in depth. Hopeful signs, suitable for spring, emerges along several trajectories. Nothing to get excited about — yet. They must play out. That’s the most difficult aspect of modern life for me. I’m given so much information to digest. It accumulates and shifts with the slow effort of tectonic plates until some resolutions emerge. Often takes years, though.
I occupy a mellow place this morning. Sensing that — they can be very observant — The Neurons lined the morning mental music stream (Trademark coming in two weeks) with Eric Clapton’s acoustic version of “Layla”. The initial rock version came out in 1970. Eric Clapton and his buddy, Duane Allman, playing behind the curtain called Derek and the Dominos. The accoustic version came about 22 years later, 1992. MTV was involved.
There’s a lot of personal behind this song for Clapton. George Harrison was his running buddy. They played for Delaney and Bonnie and Friends on the road. George was married to Pattie Boyd. Clapton fell in love with her. This song helped him express his suppressed feelings. A model, Boyd inspired George to write four songs about her while Clapton wrote three. She divorced Harrison in 1977 and married Clapton in 1979, divorcing him ten years later.
Stay strong, be positive, and lean forward. I’m leaning forward for my coffee cup at the moment, strategically placed right of my computer, but an arm’s length away. That leaves room for my black and white wonder floof, Tucker to get up here and supervise my ‘puter efforts without knocking my coffee over or getting fur into it. I’m very fond of not having fur in my coffee.
Spring is carefully unfolding. Blossoms and blooms gallantly expose themselves even as the hurly gurly weather patterns foster confusion about what we’ll get today. Sunshine is blazing in through my eastern windows. A blue sky is the centerpiece but we have several sides of clouds in the offerings. Some clouds are marshallowy in texture and shape but thin strands like lost clumps of fur up there, too.
It’s Wednesday, midweek, when you’re into it but it’s harder going, and you’re starting to look for the week’s end — unless you’re happy and satisfied with your job, or you’re a shifty working hours that doesn’t make this the midweek for you. Today’s date is March 13, 2024. 39 F now, up a few degrees from dawn’s frozen number, but short of the high the area expects, 50 F. No precipitation is on the radar for the rest of the week. Highs into the upper sixties by the week’s end is expected, followed by bursts into the low seventies when Sunday arrives.
I read about refuggees of many sorts this morning. People are fleeing wars in multiple locations. Droughts, food insecurity, natural disasters and oppressive governments are causing some to upend themselves to find a better place. Then we have US political refugees like Ken Buck and other Republicans leaving their elected positions in Congress and the GOP chaos, and people now registering as Independents as they bug out of the GOP. Finally, there are the refugees from reality, those locked into bubbles of existence that counter fact-based logic and decision making. You know the ones, the flat-Earthers, the deep-state believers, the stolen election carriers, the COVID-19 deniers, and climate change doubters, along with the christians supporting a person who is so un-christian as their leader that our nation’s founders are spinning in their resting places.
With so many refugees in my mind, I wasn’t too surprised when The Neurons brought Rise Against and their 2006 release, “Prayer of the Refugee”, into the morning mental music stream (Trademark coming in two weeks). They sing,
We are the angry and the desperate The hungry, and the cold We’re the ones who kept quiet And always did what we were told
But we’ve been sweating while you slept so calm In the safety of your home We’ve been pulling out the nails that hold up Everything you’ve known
h/t to Sonichits.com
Rise Up’s presentation had the strongest presence but there was also Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers’s song, “Refugee”, which is straightforward rock, and Led Zeppelin’s hard rock tune, “Immigrant Song”, which experienced a resurgence of popularity thanks to a Marvel movie. So you get a threefer today.
Stay positive, be strong, lean forward and vote. Here’s the coffee, here’s the steeple, open up and see the people. Enjoy the music. Hope one of them catches your fancy. Cheers
3/12/24. Tuesday. Clouds have swept in with their shadowy crays. Stealth rain falls, altering the day’s complexion. When Papi and I went outside eightish-AM, sun was shining on us and the air smelled fresh. We noted, oh, this is nice weather with a strong early spring flavor. Now, though the temperature has pushed itself to 45 F, just five degrees short of the projected high, we’ve gone from spring to sprinter again. The rain and snow help the earth recover locally but it doesn’t sufficiently offset years of drought. We’re still considered abnormally dry. Looking at my yard is depressing. So many of the plants were fiercely damaged during the hot drought years. We investigated zeroscaping during that period but with the heat and wildfire smoke, it didn’t work out, mainly because I wanted to DIM but didn’t wish to endure those conditions to do it.
I watched a video from Jimmy Kimmel’s show. They called the skit “Debate and Switch”. Essentially, agents from the show went into South Carolina and asked Trump supporters questions. What the voters didn’t seem to know is that they would ask about things Trump did but mis-attribute them to President Biden. After the person answered, the interviewer would correct the question and note that it was something that Trump, and not President Biden, said or did.
First, it was hugely remarkable that they didn’t know who said what. Did they really not know, or were they just going along with it? Trump supporters are often accused of living in a right wing bubble and being oblivious to what’s going on. I don’t know how accurate this video is, but it seems damning. Likewise, their unblinking pivots about the two candidates shows how little thought they seem to put into matter. Give it a watch.
I have My Chemical Romance performing “Helena” in the morning mental music stream (Trademark coming in two weeks, swear to cat). The Neurons explained because I was thinking about politics. Somewhere in the thought process, “What’s the worse that could be said,” part of a larger scheme of thinking around, “What’s the worse which can happen?” This song has several references to the worst: the worst I could take, the worst I could say, the worst you could take.” That’s why Les Neurons slotted it in there, even though MCR’s song is about a grandmother’s passing and has nothing to do with politics.
Stay positive, be strong, and register and vote. Coffee is being guzzled, thanks. Here’s the music. Hey, the sun is out. Cheers
A blue and white binkie has been tossed over the valley. Sunshine lords over the scene but small rain shadows are sometimes glimpsed. This aligns with forecasts calling for highs in the fifties but sunny with showers. It’s 49 F now and Saturday, March 9, 2024.
Yesterday was spectacularly lovely. Sunny all day, warm breezes came to town, flirting and teasing with us. We topped out around 62 F at our place. When our house was painted, we stored all the outdoor furnishings under a huge tarp in the backyard. Yesterday was warm and comfortable enough for unpacked it all and restore the furnishings to their proper locations.
I was in a jolly mood after visting with my dreams. I’d been riding a bike in the last one as a thirty something flirting with a twenty-ish woman with shorthair but trying to set her up with my friend, who was smitten. Although results were inconclusive, it’d been a fun and silly dream. I don’t often have those.
After the dream review, I was thinking more about President Biden’s State of the Union speech the other night, and the aftermath. Between President Biden’s predecessor’s clumsy response, the GOP’s frequently undignified and coarse behavior during his speech, and the Alabama Senator’s bizarre and banal SOTU response afterward, the Democratic Party appears strong and organized, with focus. The opposition seems weak, lame, and confused. Polls showed President Biden surging ahead.
Somewhere/time while floof-feeding and doing things, I thought, President Biden rocked it. Others agreed. Snap, The Neurons brought “Rock the Boat” into the morning mental music stream (Trademark coming in two weeks). The 1973 song by The Hues Corporation always struck me as trite (as do many pop/rock songs) but the beat and tempo made it popular in disco. My girlfriend and her friends enjoyed dancing to it, so I did, too.
Of course, The Neurons having the tendencies that they do, I was soon recalling “Rock the Vote”. Once an MTV campaign, it’s now an organization with focus on supporting progressive ideas and candidates while encouraging young voters to register and vote. The 2024 push is underway. You can support it and give to help them register young voters here.
Stay positive. Lean forward and stay strong. Register and vote. Here’s the music. Where’d I leave my coffee?
Hello to all the genders and orientations on the blue marble and welcome to March 8, 2023, March’s second Friday. Although cold air still has a grip in Ashlandia, it’s climbing. We’re already up to 47 F. Give a big hand to the sun-filled blue sky for that. We hit 61 at my place yesterday. 60 is forecasted for today so fingers crossed, we’ll peak above that threshold.
Crying, “Sunshine,” the cats rushed out to warm themselves. Sharp, gusting winds chased them right back in. The floofs comforted themselves with thorough grooming before setting into therapeutic naps in sunny indoor locations.
Musically, I heard Cat Stevens with “Peace Train” on Jill Dennison’s post this morning, a powerful and memorable song. My Neurons pivoted and put “Free Ride” by the Edgar Winter group into the morning mental music stream (Trademark coming in two weeks). It’s a catchy tune, upbeat, rock and roll emblematic of 1972.
The mountain is high the valley is low And you're confused on which way to go So I've come here to give you a hand And lead you into the promised land So, come on and take a free ride (Free ride) Come on and sit by my side Come on and take a free ride
All over the country I've seen it the same Nobody's winning at this kind of game We've gotta do better, it's time to begin You know all the answers must come from within So come on and take a free ride
Confusion, help, an implied call for unity…kind of sounds like someone running for office, doesn’t it?
Speaking of politics, did you see or hear President Biden’s State of the Union? I did, and it wasn’t what I expected. He said many things I felt he needed to say and found it reassuring that he directly confronted GOP obstructionism while never giving ‘his predecessor’ a name. As someone mentioned the other day, don’t give the opposition oxygen by saying their name. I’m paraphrasing.
The GOP response was predictably weak and pathetic. President Biden’s predecessor used Truth Social as the media to respond during the speech. Like many Trump endeavors, it failed to deliver what it promised, failing to load, dropping, etc. And they addressed President Biden’s physical state, ignoring anything of substance, highlighting that the GOP’s only policies are oppression, obstruction, and regression. Sad. Not much to say about the official GOP SOTU counter speech as far as I’m concerned.
I laughed at Rep. Blake Moore’s comments after President Biden’s delivery. The Utah Republican said, “I was expecting President Biden to use tonight’s State of the Union address to find common ground and inspire a shared vision for America. Instead, the president delivered a divisive campaign speech.” (h/t The Hill). This from a party who obstructed President Biden efforts to move forward as much as they can, a party embracing a serial liar as their leader, a leader who declared he’d be a dictator on day one if he’d elected, a party which doesn’t offer a political platform, a party which repeatedly turns on itself. They expected a vision for unity? Please.
Democratic Senator Jeffries handled their criticism well, pointing out that a Republican house member wore a campaign hat during President Biden’s speech and that the expelled Republica from NY, George Santos, who faces over a dozen criminal indictments, was in attendance. And of course, this party wishing for a message of unity never stood and never applauded.
Stay positive and upbeat. Remain strong and lean forward. Register and vote blue. Coffee and lemon bread has been consumed. Here’s the music, and here we go. Cheersluc
Michael Seidel, writer 