Monday’s Theme Music

Mood: believing

Goorning folks. I thought it was time we blended good and morning as a greeting and just use goorning. Economical. Cuts down on those extra syllables weighing us down. “Goorning. Hoyadoin?” Hoyadoin is another blend.

Today is July 22, 2024. It’s a Monday. 76 F with smoke painting the blue sky gray, today’s high will be in the mid to upper 80s again for us. Smoke is worsening through the day, as it usually does. We started with our air quality charting as ‘moderate’. We’re edging toward unhealthy. An alert has been issued. There’s also a fire warning issued because the land is so dry and hot winds are picking up.

I spent the morning outside while it was cool and the air was healthy friendly, so I’m writing late today. Picking up on the news, the big stuff for the U.S. at this point is President Biden dropping out and Veep Harris announcing that she’s chasing the nomination. At this point, we expect an uphill fight. Kamela is not the incumbent President and its positives. But she’s part of a good administration, a strong one. However, she has things against her as viewed from some circles: female, other than white, young, from California.

Those negatives are bullshit, of course, but this is the United States, home of the free and land of the bullshit. Vice President Kamala Harris is intelligent and passionate and has garnered several significant endorsements. The Nikki Haley Voters PAC endorsement really pleased me. Close behind is the six governors endorsing her. And for what it’s worth, a Times article claims that the change from Biden to Harris has fired up support for Dems in the tech industry.

After reflecting on all of this, I convinced myself that I’m a Kamala Harris believer. It’ll be a tough fight. I’d like to see her debate Trump. Naturally, we can expect every legal machination possible thrown at her and her ‘legitimacy’. Hope the SCOTUS doesn’t get involved, because my faith in them is in the dumpster.

Besides all of that, what Trump and the GOP represents is just unaccepted. Project 2025, while not a coherent document, displays dangerous counter-democratic and outright hateful, bigoted ideas. Agenda 47 is loaded with ideas meant to exclude people based on who they are. Sorry, but that’s fucking unacceptable. Most of us agree with that; the ones who don’t want to drag us back to the stone age. They must be stopped.

As my wife and I were both avoiding delving into the news last weekend, I spent a lot of time perusing book lists in the NYTimes. They had created a reviewer’s list, and then a reader’s list. My wife is a big reader and when I read the reader’s list, I thought that she had read almost all of them. So I went through the list with her. She’s read 88 of the 100. Most that she didn’t read were non-fiction. Several of the fiction books she hadn’t read are in the house awaiting her attention. Well done to her, you know?

BTW, she doesn’t agree that “Demon Copperhead” should be #1. She’s not a fan of the book.

We also went off to the library yesterday to pick up more books and another jigsaw puzzle. The week’s activities are becoming set.

We my thinking about Kamala Harris percolating, it’s not surprising that “I’m A Believer” is circulating in the morning mental music stream (Trademark qualified). Neil Diamond wrote it, and the Monkees had a hit with it back in 1966. But I have the Smash Mouth cover of it from 2001 in mind. They did it for the movie Shrek but it solidly charted in the U.S.

Stay positive, be strong, and Vote Blue in 2024. Be a believer. Here’s the video. Feel free to sing along with it. Coffee has made its way into my systems. Here we go. Havagooday. Cheers

Tuesday’s Theme Music

Mood: Coffeefied

Tuesday, June 4, 2024, has crept in. Sun and clouds play keep away. Air feels cool but humid. A sense of a storm is sneaking in. None is projected. Sunshine is expected to crack through and send the high to 84 F. We’re told it’s a heat wave starting but I don’t believe them. That’s science and facts, which is cover for made-up bullshit. Yeah, that’s some low-grade early morning snark.

Ashlandia is quiet and still this morning. Saw my first fawn of the year two hours ago. No bigger than Papi, my ginger flooft, the fawn was prancing up the street alongside momma. Love those little miniatures.

There’s all manner of news out there around the world. Most of it seems to fall in the ‘not-so-good’ bucket, like large and venomous invasive flying spiders and invasive snake-head fish which can stay on land for several days. The spiders aren’t flying like birds with wings. I would like to see spiders with wings, who also maybe sing. Then they’d start landing on our trees, singing us awake. Singing, flying spiders.

These flying spiders are actually ballooning. If they’re like ballooning humans, expect some festivals and an increase in wine sales.

I’m staying in Ashland for a comment about our newly paved Ashland Street. One of two main drags — the other is Siskiyou Boulevard — it’s actually half-paved at this point. No matter. It’s a vast improvement. I’m hoping the rest is paved before this re-paved piece begins crumbling. That’s the nature of our streets. We’re not the Romans, you know.

With the new pavement has come bold and vibrant street markings. But there’s new green lines, too. No locals I spoke with knew what they were, forcing me to investigate via the net. These green lines are apparently ‘bike boxes’.

“When the traffic signal is yellow or red, motorists must stop behind the white stop line behind the green bike box. Don’t stop on top of the bike box. Keep it clear for cyclists to use. No right turns on red at these intersections.” h/t to Marty Smith @ Williamette Week.

Well, wait then. These are now no-right turn on red intersections? That makes a huge impact on our driving habits.

My morning mental music stream (Trademark chillin’) features Smash Mouth performing “Then the Morning Comes” from 1999. “Why that song?” I coolly asked Les Neurons.

“That’s how it is with some people,” they replied. “Some just say and do shit out of the blue. They walk by and drop a bomb like it ain’t no thing. Just like the song implies.”

“Anyone in particular?” I inquired.

The Neurons snickered. “You probably have some ideas.”

I think these are the lyrics The Neurons are talking about:

[Pre-Chorus 1]
And the world’s a stage(And the world’s a faze)
And the end is near
So push rewind, just in time, thank anybody
You’re gonna do it again

[Chorus]
The way that you walk
It’s just the way that you talk, like it ain’t no thing
And every single day is just a fling
Then the morning comes

h/t to Genius.com

Stay positive, be strong, and Vote Blue in 2024. Time for some clickety-click. Here’s the music. Cheers

Saturday’s Theme Music

Saturday. February 6, 2021. 32 degrees F and foggy.

I was working the morning shift when the phone rang. A woman on the other end had called me with a warning. My car’s warranty had expired. I took down her details and told her I’d check it out.

Oh, sorry, began channeling Sergeant Joe Friday for some reason. Today’s sunset is at 5:32 PM. Sunrise was at 7:19 AM. In history, a month ago, Jan 6, 2021, insurrectionists stormed a session of Congress to ‘stop the steal’. Egged on the sitting POTUS, they were acting on fake information that he’d spread that his defeat was a result of massive fraud and that he had evidence. He’s never revealed his evidence. Nor has any of his mouthpieces.

Five people died that day, based on his lies. More have been arrested. Even more are being pursued be the FBI.

For some reason, “Karma Chameleon” by Culture Club (1983) gushed into my mental stream in an egregious ear worm incident, where it remains steady. I kept hearing, “You come and go, you come and go,” but the song doesn’t come and go. “Red, gold, and green, red gold, and green. Every day is like survival. You’re my lover, not my rival.”

Sorry. It took over. Little control over my writing thoughts seems in evidence today.

I thought then, that’s just the way you are, which invited the song, “Then the Morning Comes” by Smash Mouth (1999) into the stream. It successfully displayed Culture Club, so here we go.

Stay positive, test negative, wear a mask (unlike good ol’ Alfie Oakes).

Are you familiar with Alfie Oakes? Owns a grocery store in Florida where no one wears a mask. Says the pandemic is a hoax. Here’s an NBC News story snippet to introduce you to Alfie.

‘The store’s owner, Alfie Oakes, could not be reached for comment on Thursday. He told NBC’s “TODAY” show he knows masks do not work and doesn’t believe the coronavirus has killed hundreds of thousands of people in the United States.

“That’s total hogwash,” Oakes said, later adding, “Why don’t we shut the world down because of the heart attacks? Why don’t we lock down cities because of heart attacks?”‘

Yes sirrr, we have some veeerrry impressive thinking happening in that head.

Don’t be an Alfie. Wear a mask. Get the vaccine. Dance to some music. (Oh, no, I think I hear Sly and the Family Stone firing up.) “Then the Morning Comes”, stat!

Friday’s Theme Music

Let’s pop back to 1997.

The scene is San Jose, California. The group is Smash Mouth. They were the summer’s rising flavor. One song that caught on was a little ditty called “Walkin on the Sun”.

It ain’t no joke I’d like to buy the world a toke
And teach the world to sing in perfect harmony
And teach the world to snuff the fires and the liars
Hey I know it’s just a song but it’s spice for the recipe
This is a love attack I know it went out but it’s back.
It’s just like any fad it retracts before impact
And just like fashion it’s a passion for the with it and hip
If you got the goods they’ll come and buy it just to stay in the clique

h/t to azlyrics.com

It’s just a song, but it something to help you think. Cheers

Today’s Theme Music

The end of the last century went well for me. Retiring from the military, I was living in the Bay area and was able to catch fire a start-up. I worked with diligent, capable people. We had fun and the future was exciting. U.S. Surgical and then Tyco bought us, and everything changed. We made money but it was a lot less fun.

Into this came a group with an unusual sound called ‘Smash Mouth’. They eventually had a few more hits and became well known for providing the theme music to ‘The Big Bang Theory’ on CBS, and for songs in the ‘Shrek’ franchise. Back in 1997, though, we knew them for ‘Walking on the Sun,’ with its cynical reflections on the hippie revolution, pop culture, advertising, and our future state of affairs.

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