Currently 75 degrees F. Said to be cooler today. 90 to 94. Today and tomorrow. Hope so. Officially hit 99 yesterday. My home system said it was 101.
Sunrise kicked off at 5:42 AM, a slow growth of light, rosy as pink rose petals at first, then clearing, sharpening, drawing shadows around everything’s backside. Sunset is anticipated at 8:49 PM, if all goes well.
Musically, I’m channeling the Beatles today. Tune is called “Get Back”. Was a 1969 hit for the lads. Billy Preston’s contribution on the keys always delights me. Fun to watch this video of that time, way back when. The hair! The clothes! The antics! The sound! Remember when you were young? Ah, yes, youth — wasted on the young.
Here’s the music. Stay positive, test negative, wear a mask if needed, get the vax. And get back to where you once belonged. Cheers
“Today is Tuesday! You know what that means? We’re gonna have a special guest.”
The opening was something that just streamed through me head. Haven’t had my coffee yet.
Today is Tuesday, I think, July 6, 2021. July — and summer — and just streamrolling through. Sol’s first long fingers of rosy light caressed our valley at 5:41 AM. Expecting another 100 degree day, we’ll expect heat to linger for hours after sundown’s official 8:50 time. And there, in those sun up/down numbers is the compressing of the daylight. Two minutes shorter. The countdown to the shortest day of light has begun.
I watched Summer of Soul on Hulu last night. Mind music has been stirred up by it. The documentary is about the 1969 Harlem Culture Festival and a feel for the times, racially, culturally. Great music was brought up. Performers, attendees, and the people behind the production were interviewed. The difficulties encountered. Maxwell House coffee as the sponsor. Mayor Lindsay’s presence.
But the performances. The Fifth Dimension coping with not being black enough, singing “Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In”. Billy Davis Jr and Marilyn McCoo’s reactions as they see themselves as they were. Nina Simone’s powerful presence. The amazing talent that is Stevie Wonder. Gospel Music. The Staple Singers. “Grazing in the Grass”. People in the audience dancing. Singing. Those are just off-the-head snippets. The whole thing must be seen. Heard. Those who experienced the times will remember. Those who don’t know them will wonder.
For me, though, Sly and the Family Stone was it. Sly and the Family Stone’s “Everyday People” and “Sing A Simple Song” flushed memories through. Always admired and listened to that group. It’s hardwired into my existence. Their music has been featured here as theme music before. But I’d overlooked “Sing A Simple Song”. Well, not today. It’s my theme music.
[Cynthia:] Sing a simple song [Rose:] Yeah, yeah, yeah, [etc.] [Freddie:] I’m talkin’ talkin’ talkin’ talkin’ talkin’ in my sleep [Larry:] I’m walkin’ walkin’ walkin’ walkin’ walkin’ in the street [Sly:] Time is passin’ I grow older Things are happening fast All I have to hold onto is a simple song at last Let me hear you say [All:] Yeah, yeah, yeah, [etc.]
[Cynthia:] Sing a simple song Try a little do re me fa so la ti do
[Rose:] Yeah, yeah, yeah, etc. [Freddie:] I’m livin’ livin’ livin’ life with all its ups and downs [Larry:] I’m givin’ givin’ givin’ love and smilin’ at the frowns
[Sly:] You’re in trouble when you find it’s hard for you to smile A simple song might make it better for a little while Let me hear you say [All:] Yeah, yeah. yeah, [etc.]
Floofjet(floofinition) – An extremely fast animal.
In use: “Missy had heard that black labs were energetic, but when she let the two-year-old that she adopted loose in the fenced backyard, he demonstrated he was an untiring floofjet, racing around at amazing high speed. Naturally, she had to name him, “Jet”, just like in the Paul and Linda McCartney song.”
Alexa continues to attempt to gaslight me. “Today’s high will be 94 degrees.” A few hours later, “The current temperature is 97 degrees. The high will be 97 degrees.” Another hour passes. “The current temperature is 98 degrees.” My house saw 101 for the record, your honor.
Today is Monday, July 5, 2021. Sunrise came whilst I slept, stealing in with its light and heat at 5:40 AM. Sunset is planned for 8:51 PM, if all goes as planned. It usually does — as far as we know…
Today’s song, from 1966, came about from a conversation with a woman the other day. She claimed that she’d heard (an expression, as she didn’t know if she’d heard it on telly, from another live being in conversation, or read it) that painting your front door will increase your house’s value by $6,000. Didn’t know the Stones were giving house decor advice with “Paint it Black”. Reading about the song today on Wikipedia because I wanted to know more about its background, I’m amused to see that it stayed at #1 in the U.S. until replaced by Frank Sinatra with “Strangers in the Night”. What diametrically opposed songs, it feels to me – beat, tone, attitude.
Stay positive, test negative, wear the mask with asterisk, get the vax. Here’s the music. I like this video of the young rockers, before Mick completed his invention of himself and was still a works in progress. Hope you like it as well. Cheers
Same ol’, same ol’. A routine enjoyed as a child. Now, admiring the wilting, crackling brown leaves and bushes and dried out grasses, I’m less enamored of the beautiful rain-free broiler days.
Hello! Welcome to Independence Day in the U.S., the 4th of July, aka July 4, 2021. Many will celebrate the holiday with swimming and boating, grilling out, and music. Others will be working to help the rest of us celebrate independence.
We will be without fireworks this year. No parades, either. The flyover, symbolic of, um, something, would be taking place in five minutes. We’d be at Pam’s house. One of the few brick houses on Siskiyou. Built over seventy years ago, the house is a treasured mix of modern thinking, modern when it was built, modernized at different remodeling eras.
Carrying our food in — my wife usually made her Mexican quiche, which is very popular — we’ll put it on the big wooden dining table with the other food offerings and eye the assortment. Fruit salads often dominate. Someone, though, will bring a cobbler. Others will ferry in pies. Additional quiches will compete with my wife’s dish. Variations on potatoes always draws a crowd. Cookies will be in the mix, and cinnamon rolls. Baklava. Coffee, lemonade, water, and tea is available. Greetings will be given to people we rarely see, updates provided on health and life events since the last encounter. Then seats will be sought on the road so we can see the parade.
Not this year, as it wasn’t last year. But, like last year, our friends came through and carried on with some small measure of routine. Root beer floats and fireworks are part of our tradition, thanks to these friends who know how to socialize and somehow like us. Well, they like my wife and permit her to bring me along. She does, because I drive her. No fireworks, but the root beer floats were a joy to the palate, and the conversation in the small group was relaxed and entertaining. Made for a memorable fourth by what was there and what was missing.
All this holiday thinking brought out CCR and Bruce Springsteen. I went with Bruce for today and “Born in the USA” from thirty-seven years ago. Stay positive, test negative, wear masks if/when/where they help, and get the vax. Here’s the tune. Happy holiday. There go the jets. Not.
Saturday’s solar beatdown began at 5:39 AM on July 3, 2021. Seemed like the previous beatdown had only finished. My house saw 101 F again yesterday. The sun started early and stayed sharp. Temps remained high late into the evening — 83 F at 11:30 PM. Smoke from the Lava Fire (by Weed, California), had dissuaded me from opening windows and doors as is my wont to cool the house in the evenings. Not a fan of wildfire smoke, but in fairness, it’s not very nice to me. Sunset today, when we’ll theoretically gain some relief, is due at 8:51 PM, if the cosmic scheduler is correct.
Musically, I’m inclined to revisit an Eagles song. The cats inspired this. Two of the three house floofs were sitting a dozen feet apart in the great room’s dining section. I was walking through, speaking with them about generalities. You know, how was your night, you’re looking good, anything big planned for today, want some coffee? They were listening, with Boo, the bedroom panther occasionally saying something back to show he’s paying attention while the ginger youngblood, Papi (aka Meep) watched me while casting glances toward Boo. The two don’t get along.
They also don’t get along with Tucker. He’s a burly, long-hair, long-tail, black and white beast. The house alpha cat. He took at that moment to execute a mad dash. He does these with a guttural cry that reminds me of Mel Gibson shouting, “Freedom,” in Braveheart. The floors are wooden in this part of the house. So here comes Tucker from out of the hallway in the general direction of the home office with his cry of freedom, claws and paws madly scrambling as he builds speed and skews into different directions.
The entrance took us all — Boo, Papi, and me — by surprise. I reacted with a bark of laughter. Boo and Papi reacted with, “OMG, a berserker, flee, flee” panic. This meant cats whirling to get out of the way, feet scrambling and sliding on the hardwood floor.
That’s when I started sharing “Life in the Fast Lane” (1977) with the floofs. I was amused; they were not.
Stay positive, test negative, wear masks as slash if slash when necessary to protect yerself and others, and get vaxxed. I will note that Oregon reached the 70% vaccinated mark yesterday, July 2, 2021. In honor of V-O Day, stores and restaurants are fully open sans restrictions.
Golden striations lit the valley’s highest reaches at 5:39 AM today, Friday, July 2, 2021. Like advance scouts, these early rays quickly found the first places for the sun’s army of heat and light to strike. The onslaught has begun.
I’m feeling it today. We’re expected to be ‘only’ 98 degrees F. Damage from the heat wave is stark and heartbreaking. Leaves have crisped, curled and browned like overcooked potato chips. Like a tornado, the damage is not uniform. Positioning – location, location, location – is critical. If the plant was shaded from the afternoon’s hardest sun, they look fine while their neighbor has perished.
Damn, such a morose start to the day. Get me on some coffee, quickly.
Sunrise is gonna come at 8:51 PM. It’s a leisurely, subtle withdrawal as blue fades and darkens, overtaken by rose and gold, vanquished by indigo, silenced by black. Lows will descend to the mid seventies tonight, not much of a break. Last night’s sixty-six degree touch soothed my soul as well as my skin.
Going through lists of The Things That Must Be Done led to today’s music. Does everyone have a list of TTTMBD? Promises, vows, hopes, mistakes…it’s all embedded there. We must fix that. Change this. Do that. TTTMBD is as endless as a clear sky. So I’m thinking, I’ll do this Sunday, or maybe Monday. This is a holiday weekend in America, remember, oh yeah.
The mental churning delivered America with “Sister Golden Hair” (1975) from the memory vault’s muddy bottom. “Well, I tried to make it Sunday, but I got so damned depressed, that I set my sights on Monday and I got myself undressed.” Or something like that. That’s how the TTTMBD seems to be progressing. Just keep on sliding through the days.
Stay positive — yeah, it can be a solitary slog, can’t it? — test negative, get vaxxed, and wear a mask, when, as, if needed. Here’s the music. Cheers
Happy Canada Day to my Canadian friends and the nation north of the U.S. I send them wishes for a joyous celebration and greater success and prosperity.
Today is July 1, 2021. A Thursday. Pale gold burnished the upper reaches of hills, trees, and mountains at 5:38 AM. It’ll fade away into night at 8:51 PM. Sunshine will deliver us to some mild heat — the low nineties — today. Smoke comes and goes to the valley from the Lava Fire by Weed, California. If you want to see the fire, head to Mount Ashland, just outside town, which offers a panoramic view of the smoke. Flames are visible at night.
The deepening drought delivered another depressing blow. Water limitations and drought meant the blueberries didn’t come in at our favorite u-pick-em site. We’d been doing this for over a decade. It’s one of our Ashland traditions. The blueberry owners are trying to keep the place alive and hope to see us all next year.
Also canceled for the second year is the July 4th Parade. COVID concerns, yes. Planning needed to start months ago and where we’d be now was too uncertain to plan. The fireworks are canceled. I’ve become ambivalent about fireworks. Loved ’em as a child. Now I understand what they do to the land and animals. Sadly, this year, the drought is too intense to risk fireworks. Locals are still reeling from Ashland’s near miss last September. Yeah, near miss, not quite. Two thousand homes were destroyed on the north edge of town. Talent and Phoenix were reduced to smoky piles of rock and wood in many areas, gutting the towns physically and emotionally. With those emotional scars still vivid, many are relieved that the fireworks won’t take place.
Without too much surprise, I bet, I introduce a song about summer, called “Summer”. By War, it was released in 1976. Some may claim that 1976 was a simpler time. It may’ve been for many. For others, it was a time like the rest, working to feed yourself, working to beat the heat, playing to relieve the stress, doing what you can as you face an uncertain future. Who sang, “The future’s uncertain and the end is always near”? That’s right, Jim and the lads, back in another century. I used to sing, “The future’s uncertain and the end is always clear.” Made me sense to me
Anyway, here’s “Summer”, a mellow reflection on the hot season. Stay positive, test negative, wear a mask as needed, and get the vax. Cheers
Sol’s rosy forays into the valley began at 5:38 AM on this fine Wednesday, June 30, 2021. This is June’s last day for for this year, it should be noted, unless we’re groundhog dayying it. Maybe we have been involved in a groundhog day scheme for a while but we don’t know. Only one character in the movie knew that everyone was going through the same day again and again and again…
Our cooling trend continues. Yesterday reached 99 degrees F. Today will be 96 F, a twenty degrees drop from a few days ago, and very welcome. The plants wouldn’t mind cooler times. They’re going brown and dry. I walk around, bracing myself for the tasks of culling, pruning, and pulling. Sunfall on this parched area will come about 8:51 PM. Then the real cooling plays.
The Lava Fire smoke from down Weed way in California is gone from the AM sky. Seventeen thousand acres, nineteen percent contained was the latest report that I read. The winds have died here so I hope they’ve died there. Complicating the firefighting efforts around Weed is large swaths of illegal cannabis growths.
I’m thinking “Spiderwebs” by No Doubt (1995) for my theme music today. We’re not spider killers. Spiders are beneficial. We appreciate that. They get busy with their webs, though, hurrying around 24/7, installing new webs, leaving old ones behind. I was going about knocking some of the stuff down this morning when the song came on in my brain. The song, though, has little to do with my situation, except walking into the spiderwebs. It’s amazing when the cats do it. Especially Meep, aka Papi. Meep will soundlessly jerk back and walk around the webs. Boo makes a noise and bulls through at a faster tempo. Big Tucker gives them a swat, washes himself, and presses on. I think there’s another metaphor there, somewhere.
Stay positive, test negative, wear a mask as necessary (yeah, stories are circulating about the D variant), and get the vax. Here’s the music. Cheers
Michael Seidel, writer 