Tag: rock

Monday’s Theme Music

105 F is today’s magic number. Ashland’s forecast high temperature, keep it in mind as you plan and pursue activities. Cooling shelters have been set up around town at churches, community centers, and the library.

The house system says it’s 66 F outside. Alexa claims it’s 21 C in Ashland, where I reside. The net says it’s 74. It all makes sense because they’re all correct. Depends on where you live, the mountains’ shadows, and the sun’s reach, yeah? Hope the weather is kind to you wherever you are. If it’s not, then I hope you’re in a safe place.

Another week has begun. This is Monday, July 25, 2022. July has entered the final stretch. 2022 is halfway through summer in the northern hemisphere.

Old Tucker was active last night. The big guy was feeling it. I opened the back door just after midnight to let in some cooling air and check upon them. When I flicked on the light, I saw Tucker dash out into the yard. He seemed to be after something. Well, the light was bad so I dropped back for a flashlight. When I illuminated the scene, I saw a young raccoon facing off with my cat. The raccoon was a little larger than my boy but Tucker goes aggro with animals. I called for him to come back. The raccoon tried to make an escape. Tucker gave chase, but the raccoon made it into a bush. Tucker sat there to ensure the critter didn’t leave. I went out an coaxed Tucker back, allowing the other to make their escape.

Meanwhile, the orange menace known as Papi, aka Meep, had watched all this from the patio’s safety. Once Tucker returned and the raccoon was gone, Papi went over there and laid down in front of the bush where rocky raccoon had taken refuge. He just grinned at my efforts to get him back in.

“Everyday Is a Winding Road” by Sheryl Crow (1996) has settled into the morning mental music stream. The Neurons riffed on my thought upon reading some news and thinking, “Well, anything goes these days.” The Neurons promptly launched the song, homing in on the lyrics, “Everybody gets high, everybody gets low, these are the days when anything goes.” Like almost every song residing in my mental juke box, the song has a story attached, although it’s just a regular tale of hearing the melody during my Silicon Valley commutes, passing the time as we motor slowly through the webs of interchanges clotted with cars.

Stay pos, etc. It’s still cool so I’ll refresh with a little hot java, yeah? Yeah. Have a better one.

Later, gator.

1

Saturday’s Theme Music

July 23 of 2022 turned out to be a Saturday. Sunrise took place while I still prowled dreamland at 5:55 AM. More likely to witness sunset at 8:39 PM. July is preparing to conduct a peaceful transfer of power to August.

Sunshine rules again, giving us some hot air. 90 F will be our high while it’s a pleasant and comfortable 19 C at the moment. Lovely to stand out in the sun with hot coffee, watching the feline masters grooming as cool hair bathes me.

World news scans gave a bleak assessment of life in 2022. Disasters, death, and killing fill the stories. Guess those are a significant part of life. I wanted something lighter in my mind. The damn Neurons didn’t comply. I just reading a novel called Fools and Mortals about William and Richard Shakespeare and the plays Romeo and Juliet and A Midsummer Night’s Dream. The primary story focused on Richard Shakespeare, a player in Shakespeare’s company, his love life and poverty, his relationship with his brother, stolen manuscripts, and politics. Perhaps the novel’s story still circulated around the neural pathways as The Neurons filled the morning mental music stream with “(Don’t Fear) The Reaper” from 1976 by Blue Oyster Cult. The song has lyrics which go, “Romeo and Juliet are together for eternity.” The way my neurons go about business, of course the song would need to be brought up after reading a book mentioning them, of course! It’s as natural an order as sunrise and sunset, a thought which cues The Neurons to begin “Sunrise, Sunset” from Fiddler on the Roof.

Let’s get out of here. Stay positive and test negative, masking as needed, etc. I’ve already procured and consumed some coffee, so here’s the music. Enjoy.

More cowbell. Peace out.

0

Friday’s Theme Music

We’ve cooled some more here in southern Oregon. Hope the rest of the world can cool off. Today’s temperature finds us at 17 C now with a high of 88 F being bandied around. No clouds on my horizons now. Faint clouds were in the midnight skies. But what a night sky it otherwise was, rich with diamonds – galaxies, planets, stars, and satellites, prodding my mind to beg for details about how this all works together.

It’s Friday, July 22, 2022. Sunset and sunrise are 8:40 PM and 5:54 AM.

The Neurons are playing “You’ve Got Another Thing Coming” by Judas Priest. Are you familiar with this 1982 song? It’s a heavy metal rocker. I’m more of a progressive rock fan with my intro to heavy metal coming via a co-worker, Bob. He made me a mixed tape of heavy songs that he thought I needed to know, and here we are. This would’ve been in 1986 at a little place called Shaw AFB in South Carolina, my stop in the U.S. between Japan and Germany. In reflection, I left the U.S. in 1981, came back in 1985, left in 1986, and returned in 1991.

Stay positive and test negative, etc. Coffee has touched down in the kitchen. One small sip for mankind. Cheers

2

Thursday’s Theme Music

Yesterday nicked 99 to a 100 F locally. The high temp experienced is a spectrum dictated by microvariables. Today is cooling, touching 95 to 97. An hour ago, it was 19 C. Now it’s up to 22 C.

Sunrise on this day, Thursday, 7/21/22, was 5:53 AM. Sunset has drawn down to 8:41. Was it a month ago where I noted that sunset was 8:51 day after day?

Our heat isn’t as bad as other regions. Wildfire stories are growing, of course, as Texas, Portugal, Spain, France, Italy, Greece, Alaska, Nevada, New Mexico, Arizona, Colorado, Montana, Idaho, and other places fight the flames. Extreme heat shut down data centers in several countries. Roads and runways were reported melted. Droughts are spreading, threatening food supplies. Yes, and numerous people around the world have succumbed to the high heat.

Deep breath. Hang on, I need coffee to continue.

The Neurons are singing a 1972 Rod Stewart song called, “You Wear It Well”. Why? You ask them. They won’t give the reasons to me. Not a bad choice by any means. I like the mellow and folksy rock sound delivered with down-to-earth lyrics about time, love, and the past.

Here’s the music. Need to see a man about a garage door. He’s just arrived to put in a strut to solve the bowing issue. Fingers crossed, etc. I would’ve done it but couldn’t find an appropriate sixteen feet strut and didn’t have a vehicle to transport said strut. Bummer; I like the DIY challenge.

Peace out.

0

Wednesday’s Theme Music

Happy National Moon Day. Yes, it’s the day in America so many children relish, the one where you are allowed and even encouraged to moon people. By that, I mean that you arrange your clothes to expose your rear and – hold on, someone is trying to tell me something.

Oh. I’m told that I’m wrong about Moon Day. It’s about something else entirely.

In honor of this day, The Neurons are singing the Beach Boys 1965 cover of “Barbara Ann”. I refuse to ask them why. They’re sitting there, smirking at me, sniggering and giggling like children, and I won’t give them the pleasure of asking what on Earth prompted this song on Moon Day. I do enjoy the song. Singing it entertains me. Good way to have fun by myself, although I have other ways, too.

It is July 20, 2022, the anniversary of the first man on the moon. I do remember watching it unfold on my color TV alone in the game room and thought it pretty cool. I’d already built models of the LEM and the rest, so you know I was into it.

Today is also Wednesday. It’s currently 22 C after an overnight low of 62 F. Today’s high will reach almost 38 C today after achieving 97 F yesterday. No clouds are out there. I was outside about twenty minutes before sunrise this morning, looking for Papi as I’d not seen nor heard him all night. He didn’t show up until after 5:52, when the sun was breaching the sky in a place that I couldn’t see. Sunset will be at 8:42 PM.

You know about COVID-19 and precautions, testing, etc? I hope so by now. So, you know, do them. Okay, coffee awaits. We have liftoff.

Peace out.

0

Tuesday’s Theme Music

Tucker vocalized a litany of breakfast requests a little before seven thirty. After addressing the house king’s requirements, I went into the back yard. The sun was just clearing the trees, forcing reflections that I don’t see the sunrise in this house. The back yard faces the east and the rising sun, per this reality’s dictation, but trees and mountains obscure the orb for the first ninety minutes of its summer rise.

Hi. It’s Tuesday, 7/19/22. It’s currently 75 F out. We’re expecting a high of 37 C today. The sun made its effort to illuminate the valley at 5:51 AM, mountains and trees be damned. Sunset will make the end of Tuesday’s daylight segment at 8:43 this evening.

Life in America – life in the world – has me and The Neurons singing “Mad World” by Tears for Fears. I think Jill Dennison is responsible for that. She’d shared a TfF song on her blog. I countered with “Shout”. The Neurons then took me through a Tears for Fears anthology. While I have a life of privilege, without food or shelter insecurity, a white guy with all the inherent benefits that conveys in the modern United States, news of food shortages, senseless shootings and death elsewhere, weather disasters, and the sickening state in which some exist, brought up “Mad World”. So much of our world seems to go in circles. In one sense, it’s natural and fundamental; in another, it’s deeply crazy.

So, here is the song. As part of the “Mad World”, wear masks and test negative and stay positive. More friends are down with COVID. I’ve not been struck – was I but just going about asymptomatic? One never knows. Coffee is at hand. Here’s the tune.

Peace out.

0

Monday’s Theme Music

Welcome to Monday, July 18, 2022. Current temp is 16 C. Projected high temp is 92 F. Sunshine cracked the vault above at 5:50 AM, with the sun projected to remain in this vicinity until 8:43 PM. The daylight hours are winding down toward the shortest day of the year for the valley in December.

Being home means the vacation has ended. That means we return to healthy eating. Not that we abandoned it during the vacation. But now we must make our meals. Well, not must. It’s how we’re conditioned as responsible adults. Suggesting doing otherwise is irresponsible. So says my wife. It’s also expensive. And boring; we’re not thrilled by our local eatery options of late. Listen to me whine. Talk about being entitled and privileged, yeah?

Billy Idol’s 1984 song, “Eyes Without A Face”, occupies the morning mental music stream. That came from The Neurons, who jumped all over the phrase, it’s hard to get relief. They converted that into Idol’s lyric, “But hard to get release.” Stupid neurons. Of course, I have strong memories of this song coming out when I was stationed on Okinawa in the USAF.

Stay chill, hope for the best, do your thing but take the tests. The tests are limited help with the current COVID variants circulating. Friend after friend mentions being negative, isolating, and testing again, and coming up positive. Fingers crossed for you all, yeah?

Okay, getting coffee. Also, need to have a garage door repaired. A panel has bowed. I want to reinforce it with a strut, but my vehicle isn’t large enough for the strut length required. So I’m going to a pro for this repair.

Have a better one. Cheers

0

Sunday’s Theme Music

The basics are, it’s Sunday, July 17, 2022, 19 C with a clear blue sky. Sunrise was established at 5:49 AM. The world’s turning gives us an 8:44 PM sunset. They say the local high will be 89 F. For the week, we’re looking at highs in the high 80 F to low 90s rage, eminently livable.

Beyond those basics, it’s not looking good for local produce. The weather was just too wacky and misaligned from the growing season. Nothing showed up on our neighbors’ peach and cherry trees beyond leaves. No blossoms and fruit ever arrived. We’ve heard similar tales from others. The blackberries, which are generally plentiful, disappeared after a week. Meanwhile, heat and flooding is afflicting crops elsewhere in the U.S. and Europe is enduring a killer heatwave. Triple digit temps are challenge Texas’ and their ability to cope with increased heat. China is facing extreme heat. What are the connections to these things? Health risks. I suspect climate change, but this is one year. More data is needed. I suggest the patterns and data of other years clears the situation and shows the trends. But I’m not a scientist.

The Neurons planted Tracy Chapman’s 1988 song, “Talkin’ ’bout a Revolution”, into the morning mental music stream. The song’s genesis on this morning can be traced back to a Friday conversation about electric cars and their growing prevalence. As Le Neruons awoke, they caught on to someone commenting about a revolution, which brought up Chapman’s lyrics:

Don’t you know?
They’re talkin’ about a revolution
It sounds like a whisper

h/t to Genius.com

Got my coffee. I urge you to stay positive and test negative. Hard during our trip, honestly. While social spacing was the norm, recognized and respected at almost every venue and moment, the unmasked to masked ratios at most locations was about ten to one. Our traveling companions weren’t masked. But we — my spouse and I — were masked. But then, our traveling companions were not. So, while eating and driving, we were exposed. But to what were we exposed? Nothing? Or the virus? Which variation? My writing has ground to a halt because I’m not going to coffee shops to write. Frustration has reached eleven (see This is Spinal Tap for greater understanding.) Writing at home becomes debilitating as interruptions pile up and continuity is fractured.

Well, I must persist. He’re the music. Cheers

On a WP side note, WP kept removing ‘Talking ’bout A Revolution’ after I added it to the tags. Don’t know why, but it happened SIX TIMES.

0

Saturday’s Theme Music

Yes, it is a late theme music post. See, it’s Saturday, July 16, which means it’s her b-day. The year is 2022, for the record. We spent the day feting her in the Beaverton area. Then the vacation was wrapped up by the drive south to our home valley, just five hours and 286 miles.

We awoke in Beaverton to find it had rained overnight and was still doing a little spittin’ and droolin’. Coming at 5:49 AM, sunrise was withdrawn and distant. Temp settled on 19 C for a while under a blanket of mildly threatening clouds. They faded and the temperature climbed, striking 91 F as we forged south. Sunset at home was 8:45 PM.

Our jog down I5 ended the six-day journey away from home. Nine hundred miles were added to the odometer’s tot. As much as I enjoyed seeing our friends, exploring the Oregon coast, dining out, and venturing into bookstores and coffee shops, I’m happy to be home with my floofdies. They insisted on deep obeisance and lotsa kisses and belly rubs to prove that we were who we claimed to be. They were all, “Who are you?” at first. “Are thouest the oneths who betrayest usth? The humanth who loveth usth wouldst never deign to sneak away and leave us to dependeth upon another for food.” But they came around.

Music? Why, “Birthday”, aka the birthday song by the Fab Four, the lads from Liverpool, the Beatles, according to The Neurons. Can I argue with them? Of course not.

Well, the day is done. Coffee has been consumed. So was a lovely long lunch at Oswego Grill where our dessert were donut holes baked at the restaurant, rolled in cinnamon, and served with fresh caramel. Tasty. Probably fattening. We didn’t ask.

Stay positive and so on. Here’s the tune. Please, sing along. Cheers

0

Friday’s Theme Music

The sun was shifting into position in the eastern sky. Gray sky emerged from the darkness as the stars shied away. We jumped into the car and headed north and then east. Our coast time was over. Shame, too. Thursday had been warm. Calm winds heralded dawn at 5:45 AM. This morning’s thermometer proclaimed 58 C was we left the hotel. They forecast 68 F as Yachat’s high. But come 9 AM, we were at PDX, dropping off friends and then heading west for our next destination.

Today is Friday, 7/15/22. Happy birthday, little sister. She’s two years younger than me, mother of two adult men, grandmother to two sweet and lovely girls.

We’re in Beaverton, outside of Portland. It’s 74 F now and will reach 83 F.

“She’s the One” by Bruce Springsteen, 1975, was found in my morning mental music stream. The Neurons put it there after someone made an innocent comment about another person being ‘the one’. Yeah. Okay, at least I get the connection, unlike some of the opaque selections they issue me. Hope you like it.

Well, stay positive, test negative, and so on. I’ve already had my coffee. Might do with another one in a little while, as that drive disrupted my normal daily flow. We’ll see.

Cheers

0

Blog at WordPress.com.

Up ↑