Tag: spring

Monday’s Theme Music

Mood: springergetic

Thou has come a distance, traveler. You’ve reached the holy land of Monday, January 29, 2024. Please sit and rest. Something to drink? Wine, coffee? Something stronger?

We have dense fog and high wind warnings out. Fog isn’t in my view; that’s blue with lazy lacy white ribbons of unrolling clouds. But wind is beating down those trees, shaking the bushes, and causing the cats to hunker and blast back in when they have a chance. Now 62 F outside my home, today’s high will be 70 F.

Wait, what?

Yeah, I read that right on my goto weather site. It’s wonderfully comfortable. Makes you feel like a new lover is touching you. But alas, it ain’t good for our general situation. Our snowbank is only 36% of the standard. We do have more wintering to do and there is generally a change in February and a final winter push in March, but to be at this snowpack level at this time of year is wince-inducing for what the summer will be like. Fingers and toes and legs and arms are crossed that summer won’t be life in a burning charcoal briquet again.

The Neurons have “I’m Just A Singer (In A Rock & Roll Band)” by the Moody Blues playing in the morning mental music stream (Trademark coming in two weeks). I was thinking about what I wanted and needed to do this day when Der Neurons began playing it and I sang along. I know the song well, even though the majority of my high school friends and people since weren’t Moody Blues fans, forcing me to enjoy them alone. Except for “Nights In White Satin”. Lot of my friends knew and enjoyed that song.

What interests me about this 1973 song, and it probably only interests me, is that I played this song last year, that is, January of 2023. What is it about January or this song that they meet in my mind in January?

Looking at last year’s Moody Blues post, I wrote:

Today will reach 55 F or so before the sun vanishes from the Ashlandia sky around the 5:20 PM time period — it’ll be earlier in the mountains’ shadows by an hour or seem like the sun has set — but the forecasters are warning us. Winter is going to get serious. Lower temperatures will be coming by, clouds are collecting, and rain and snow are possible. Then, fanfare, Monday will see an Arctic blast. Lows will freefall into the teens. Daytime highs will scrap into the thirties. Break out extra binkies and some space heaters, hope power doesn’t fail, and take measures to ensure your pipes don’t freeze. The hardest part, though, will be convincing Papi to stay in. He’s gonna test the temps, I know.

Lots to do today. Food and Friends deliveries in about thirty minutes. That’ll eat 90 minutes. Writing and editing. Call Dad. Text Mom. Catch up with Sis. Store for a few items, nothing critical. Finish and submit my taxes. I usually have them in by now. Can’t believe I’ve waited this long.

Stay pos, remain strong, and lean forward. Here we go. Coffee up and dance. Here’s the music. Cheers

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Sunday’s Theme Music

Mood: spirited

Boom goes the sunshine.

Hello, fellow third-rockers. Sunday, January 28, 2024, has risen. That sun we’re orbiting has taken over the day. Last night at midnight, it was 57 degrees F; now it’s 65 F. No clouds are playing with the sunshine. Precipitation trickled off yesterday afternoon, giving us a glorious day which is way more spring than winter. It feels like 73 F, they tell us, and I agree. The cats and I were wholly astonished by this twist of warmth, though the cats didn’t stay outside because, wind, they whined. They no like wind. Today’s high will be 68 F.

Three US military troops were killed in a drone strike in the middle East, and so tit-for-tat will begin as President Biden promises retaliation sometime and somewhere. I understand the position but don’t like it: each nation, when attacked for whatever reason, promises to get back at the attackers because otherwise there’s a perception of weakness. All that spills into politics; if President B orders retaliation, he’s reviled by many, but if he doesn’t, he’s reviled by many. Striking the balance between the two is difficult. Then there’s the long game about broader theater escalation, and the impact of retaliation on trade, goods and services, and the political machinations outside of that region. It’s a messy, messy world.

In other news, Trump has decried the border deal (yawn) being circulated to protect the US southern border. I say yawn about this because everyone expected this move by Trump. The Wall Street Journal editorial board even warned him not to do that a few days ago, reminding him of the potential damage to the GOP brand in some many words in this election year when the Republicans are trying to offer proof that Democrats are weak on border security. But come on, man. Trump is the man who lost a case against Jean Carroll, but couldn’t stop slandering and defaming her, was tried again and lost in court, and now needs to pay her 83 million dollars. Yet, he continues the very activity which brought him to that point. Will there be another case for Carroll v. Trump? I’m willing to bet there will be, and that Trump will lose again, but continue his ways, because he has no self-control and doesn’t listen to any advice except his own.

“Rock On” by David Essex from 1973 occupies the morning mental music stream (Trademark coming in two weeks). I enjoyed the song as a youngster because of its interesting, unusual sound. It’s so minimalist, with echoes and unusual beats, and a truncated stream of thought riff on rock and roll and youth. It arrived today because, as a boomer, “Rock on,” is one of my go-to phrases, just as Trump’s screaming “FAKE NEWS” is one of his go-to phrases. I say “Rock on” in response to my wife when she says she’ll be over by the home decor section of a store. Naturally, Les Neuons, being the characters they arecranked up the song. It’s their nature and they rarely swerve from it.

Side note, another heavy barrage of dreams were experienced overnight. I’m still recovering from the previous night’s barrage. It did inspire the start of another novel with Quantum Voodoo as the working title, although I’m still editing one and just began writing another with the working title of Level 7, the corollary to the novel in progress being edited, Why.

Be strong, stay positive, and lean forward. Coffee is being consumed in the phantom drawing room. Sorry, virtual drawing room; it’s a new era. Here’s the music. Cheers

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Friday’s Theme Music

Mood: bubbly

Hello, friends. It’s Friday, January 19, 2024, which means we have eleven months left in this year to get things done. 52 F here right now, we’re again trapped in a spring-like day in Ashlandia, where the valley is narrow and the days are pleasant. Striated clouds in shades of blues and grays are offering a promise of more rain and a high two degrees further up the thermometer.

Read news about a killing done with a hammer, new titanium dentures for a celebrity (just 850K if you want to get some), a messed up speech by Trump where he displayed confusion and forgetfulness, and an Oregon teen who witnessed a winter accident and saved a child. In the last, the individual said she saw a car slide on ice into a power pole. It killed three of the people in the car but she saved the fourth, a nine-month-old. Meanwhile, the US is in conflict with Houthi rebels in Yemen. The Houthi have been launching missiles at ships in international waters, and the US has begun conducting air strikes against these missile strikes. Will it escalate? Escalation seems to be the pattern in vogue when it comes to violence in this century but I hope not.

Out of nowhere this morning, The Neurons have offered “I Am A Man of Constant Sorrow” by the Soggy Bottom Boys to the morning mental music stream (Trademark all wet). The song has been around over one hundred years. I’d known it by others like Bob Dylan, Judy Collins, and Ginger Baker before this fictional singing group was featured in the movie, O Brother Where Art Thou? in 2000, but truly enjoyed the fake performance of a delightful song. Anyway, it came up today so it’s my theme music. These at the musicians and singers who put it together for the movie, although there are some substitutions here.

Of course, I sang a modified version to my cats, which could be called, “I Am A Floof of Constant Hunger”. As usual, they were not impressed. They seemed quizzical about why I was singing to them when they really wanted me to feed them.

Be strong, stay positive, and lean forward. Here’s the music. I got coffee and a cat sleeping by the ‘puter, but I need to put some pants on. Cheers

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Wednesday’s Theme Music

Mood: prissy

December 20, 2023 is a Wednesday and carries the weight of spring. Confused by the signals the weather is giving, some flowers are blooming. We surfed a night of smooth rain, overnight lows in the mid 40s F. Our high today will bubble into the mid 50s. Casual clouds, thin and stretched, barely mask the blue sky. The cats are struggling to adjust, shedding fur after gaining their winter coats and now finding they don’t need them. Great clumps are left wherever they pause to sleep or wash.

Please, though, give us snow on the mountains. Please. It’s needed.

I surfed the news but left it after a short visit. Not depressing so much as it’s meh. We’re in a waiting stage for some many outcomes and perpetually checking and reviewing developments, breaking news, new revelations of old news and prognostications about what will happen has become tedious. I’m ravenous for some sense of an ending.

Musically, first I had “Too Marvelous for Words” whirling around the morning mental music stream (Trademark pummeled). It’s been performed by a long list of crooners but Mom often played Frank Sinatra’s cover while cleaning around the house. Released in 1956, the year of my birth, it’s drummed into my musical psyche. I have no idea why The Neurons voted it into my mind this morning.

But before it became too comfortable, a song inspired by the floofs was brought into the mmms. Released in 1972, “Children of the Revolution” by T. Rex had Elton John and Ringo Starr playing as part of the lineup. Although I enjoyed it, it went out of head until I heard the Violent Femmes version of it. A friend was colossal Femfan, and was playing the song in her car one day when we went to lunch together in Palo Alto. I asked if she knew the song’s origins, and then gleefully told the tale. I’d only heard it after my cousin, just returned from the UK where his father had been stationed with the USAF, played it.

How did the floofs play into this memory? I’d been teasing them, trying to trick them by pretending they weren’t being fed. They weren’t fooled, which triggered me singing, “You won’t fool the kitties of the revolution.”

Stay pos, be cool, remain strong, and leeeaaannn forward. Coffee has already touched my lips. Here’s the music. Cheers

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Thursday’s Theme Music

Mood: energetic

Today is Thursday, December 14, 2023, but when I walked outside with the cats this morning, it felt like we’d leaped forward into spring outside. Nothing was in bloom but the air carried spring’s sass with sunshine, a blue-ish sky featuring a bevy of small white and gray clouds that looked like turtles reflecting dawn’s light, and 46 F. Then I sneezed several times like allergies had kicked in.

Celebrated a friend’s seventieth last night with her and other friends. Now retired, she’s a world-renown forensics expert in hair and fur. Egged on by two former work colleagues present, themselves forensics experts, she shared interesting tales with us. Entertaining time was had by all.

I have an unusual song circulating the morning mental music stream (Trademark buried). For reasons which they won’t reveal, “Walk Right In” is playing in my head. This is the 1963 cover by The Rooftop Singers. I had to wiki that. The song was written by Gus Cannon in and recorded by Gus Cannon’s Jug Stompers, a man and group I didn’t know of until I read it today. Mom used to play the song on her record player and sing along. The words are simple:

Walk right in, sit right down
Daddy, let your mind roll on
Walk right in, sit right down
Daddy, let your mind roll on
Everybody’s talkin’ ’bout a new way of walkin’
Do you want to lose your mind?
Walk right in, sit right down
Daddy, let your mind roll on

Walk right in, sit right down
Baby, let your hair hang down
Walk right in, sit right down
Baby, let your hair hang down
Everybody’s talkin’ ’bout a new way of walkin’
Do you want to lose your mind?
Walk right in, sit right down
Baby, let your hair hang down

h/t to Songfacts.com

All my life, though, I wondered, what is the new way of walkin’? I remembered asking Mom and hearing laughter in response, which just vexed the hell out of me. I guess some things will always be a mystery.

I know that Dr Hook covered it later but it’s The Rooftop Singers delivering to the mmms, so I stayed with them.

Stay strong, be positive, lean forward, and enjoy the video. Coffee is in me and driving me to get up and go. Once I’m done in the bathroom, I’m out the door to the writing day. Here’s the music. You have a good one. Cheers

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Tuesday’s Theme Music

“It’s only Tuesday?” I asked the world. “Why does it feel like anything but Tuesday?”

The world mutely pointed me to the calendars. One on my wearable, one on my phone, one on my wall, one on desk, one on my laptop, one on my refrigerator.

“Why do we have so many calendars?”

Two were sent to us in the mail. Bank and animal shelter. I ordered one (which also came by mail) because it memorializes an era of auto racing prevalent during my childhood. The others are digital and come with the package.

Strange, though. The days of the week and date have little meaning for me. Streaming and routines define me, not the calendar, though I bow to the holidays’ existence and do as I must to observe them, succumbing to peer pressure.

But it’s Tuesday, June 20, 2023. Last day of spring in Ashlandia, with a feel lifted right out of spring’s first day, rainy and cold. Rained throughout the morning and early afternoon yesterday in Ashlandia, where the coffee is hot and the cannabis is legal. Only made it to 52 F as a high. Cats were like, screw this noise, wake me when sunshine returns. I replied with all the reasons why we should be grateful for this rain. They responded, got anything to eat?

Today’s high should top the mid-sixties. Clouds are shouldering out the blue sky. Sunshine, which came up strong earlier, is as faded as my hairline.

Got some Fall Out Boy in my morning mental music stream. The Neurons planted “Sugar, We’re Goin Down” (2005) in there when I responded to someone that even if I fail, I’m going to go down swinging. Pop, The Neurons had it loaded like it was ready and waiting. It was last heard as theme music back in August, 2020.

Okay, let’s stay pos out there, sweethearts. I’m drinking coffee and turning in to where I was when I last stopped writing, ginning up the scene, ready to go in there with keyboard blazing. It’s your move.

Here’s the music. Cheers

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Thursday’s Theme Music

Hello! Is anybody out there? Just nod if you can hear me. Is there anyone at all?

Today is the 25th and the last Thursday of May, 2023. Next Thursday will be the first day of June, 2023. Schools are preparing to wrap up the year and shut down for the summer in the northern latitudes. Solstice is creeping up.

But spring continues to rule in Ashlandia. It’s 54 F now and sunny under a cloudless blue sky. The day is heating up in a lazy, spring-like way. High will be about 77 F, weatherists claim. I believe ’em. Sunrise was at 5:39 AM and sunset is predicted to be 8:36 PM, providing us with a lot of daylight hours.

I have a Dire Straits song in mind today. See, it’s because Tina Turner died on Wednesday, which was yesterday. My generation, or at least my tribe, were fond of her. Her energy, skills, and talents impressed us. We enjoyed her singing, performing, and acting. After breaking up with her hubby, who was her musical partner, she struck out as a solo act. It took some years but she made it. One of her big comeback hits was “Private Dancer”.

Mark Knopfler of Dire Straits wrote “Private Dancer”. He even sang and produced it for the band’s next album but then he pulled it. He though a woman should be singing it. Eventually, through Tina and Mark’s managers, she recorded the song.

That’s a recap of an often told tale. After reading it again and remembering Tina and her career, The Neurons guided me back to Dire Straits. I find myself with “So Far Away” from 1985 stuck in the morning mental stream. It’s one of those songs I heard in my head after it came out and I was traveling around on my own, first in the military, then in marketing as a civilian. More than physical distance, the song is about emotional distant, and the situation, how the two people seem so different that the gap between them never closes.

Stay pos. Have some fresh coffee, if that’s your bent. It is mine. Here we go. Cheers

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Sunday’s Theme Music

The season dial switched back to spring from sprummer today. No blue sky. Only gray clouds lining the top of our existence box. Ashlandia is quiet, pensive, waiting for sumpin’ to break.

It’s May 21, Sunday, 2023. 64F out there. Feels like we’re sprinting for June. Like May all the sudden needs to get to a bathroom for some urgent business.

Today’s high will be a mere 75F. It’s a mere month until summer solstice lands in Earth’s northern hemi.

My stomach isn’t pleased this morning. It’s been elected to speak for the rest of the body, who are trying to organize and push forward an initiative to laze around today. Coffee has been ordered for all of them but the results from the first sips aren’t reassuring. Brain is still waking up and has no clue what’s going on. Eyes keep muttering, “Just another minute” and work on closing.

Witnessed a fierce mouse attack this AM. The mouse was being attacked. Toy critter. Papi, bored, was leading me through the house. I found one of his favorite mice toys in the designated cat toy drawer. Fifteen toy mice in there in different stages of destruction. His favorite is gray, filled with catnip, with a blue tail. I tossed it with perfect timing, bouncing it off a sofa cushion into his path. Well, it was on. Poor toy mouse kept trying to escape Papi’s murder mittens, diving under the coffee table (which rarely sees any coffee and is never given any) only to be dragged back out and thrown into the air. This lasted almost an entire minute before the exhausted floof stilled, paw on mouse, declaring, “Truce.”

Going to a by-invitation-only pre-concert this afternoon to meet the orchestra and get informed about how the magic of a concert is accomplished. We’re mystified about why we were selected but the wife was thrilled. I reminded her to be sure to take some heavy cash and the checkbook.

Today’s theme music is a pop/rock/soul ditty called “Ball of Confusion (That’s What the World Is Today)”. Put out by the Temptations in 1970, the lyrics against a firm, driving beat, still merits hearing.

People movin’ out, people movin’ in
Why? Because of the color of their skin
Run, run, run, but you sure can’t hide
An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth
Vote for me and I’ll set you free
Rap on, brother, rap on
Well, the only person talkin’ ’bout “Love thy brother”
Is the preacher
And it seems nobody’s interested in learnin’
But the teacher

[Pre-Chorus: Dennis]
Segregation, determination, demonstration, integration Aggravation, humiliation, obligation to our nation

[Chorus]
Ball of confusion
Oh, yeah
That’s what the world is today

The sale of pills are at an all-time high
Young folks walkin’ ’round with their heads in the sky
Cities aflame in the summertime
And oh, the beat goes on
Evolution, revolution, gun control, the sound of soul
Shooting rockets to the moon, kids growin’ up too soon
Politicians say more taxes will solve everything
And the band played on

h/t to Genius.com

Well, that’s it for me. Stay pos, enjoy the day as best you can, carpe something. Here’s the music. More coffee, quick.

Cheers

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Satitday’s Theme Music

The pull out of a late winter and snowy sub-seasons of winting and sprinter continues in Ashlandia, where the coffee houses rule. It’s Satitda, a reflection of how I sometimes hear Saturday spoken, April 15, 2023. Would’ve been payday for me in another era, a chance to spend some rubles on a treat, tank up the car, buy grocs, pay more bills. We always paid the bills, watched our expenses, and saved.

Pretty fine day out there, as it was yesterday. Tucker is out nesting in sunshine between bushes, as he did yesterday. Papi selected to come in, deciding grooming on the bed is preferable to the noisy outside where trees are being trimmed or removed at a neighbor’s place. Sunshine has won the morning. It’s a blue-sky 42 F but the weather managers say it’ll be 66 before the daylight segment of our day is drawn down. Sunrise was 6:30 AM and the sun ‘set’ will be at 7:52 PM. No rain for us today. No snow, either.

I have an old blues song circulating my morning mental music stream. It’s all about options and how to get out of a situation. “One Way Out” was recorded by some classic bluesmen but I didn’t hear of their versions until later. Nope, I know the Allman Brothers’ live offering from the early seventies. Part of this way out convo was about talking over some Am I The Asshole entries on Reddit and what people should do. Another take on one way out was while catering to the cats: “This is it. I’m not going to go open another door. There’s one way out right now, and this is it.” The little critters accepted and The Neurons tugged “One Way Out” from memory and here we are.

Stay pos. Enjoy your day as best as you can. I’m going to try to get some things done. More editing, of course, but also some cleaning duties and yard work. I shall begin my list by inhaling a fragrant cuppa coffee. Here’s the tune.

Cheers

2

Thursday’s Theme Music

Thursday’s raised itself out of the Earth and declared, “I am April 13, 2023.” A sun sprinting over the horizon concurred and cast a wide net of shine and warmth over the land.

That was at 6:34 AM. It was 30 degrees F at the time. Faint, indifferent white clouds said, “Yo.” Rain and snow didn’t fail. The spring and winter yo-yo continues.

Sunset in Ashlandia, where the beer is excellent and the children are above average, will be at 7:50 PM. The weather messengers spread word, high will be at 55 F, nice, but a little disappointing. Sunday’s high of 73, with spring buoyancy, spoiled us. There is sunshine, though, so the cats are out there sopping it up.

We toasted friends with beer last night and chatted about the weather. Snow fell outside. It cleared. Then it rained but the sun shined still, converting each raindrop into a falling diamond. What is with the weather this year echoed from person to person.

Politic watching again this morning. Eyeing the Trump trials and tribulations, wondering, what will come? Reading of the GOP’s legislative efforts to protect Trump and the Manhatten DA’s lawsuit against Rep. Jim Jordan. Following the spillage over Justice Thomas and his relationship with a wealthy sponsor, and the emails between his wife and others. Thinking about Connor Sturgeon’s murders and his mother’s frantic 911 call that morning.

Wonder and thought, speculations and reflections.

Then there is the Pythia’s Oasis, fifty miles off the coast of Newport, Oregon.

Oddly quiet on the dream front last night. The Neurons ply me with Cheap Trick and “Dream Police”. That’s been used, I scoff. And it’s so obvious. What else you got?

The Neurons responded with “One of these Days” by Pink Floyd from 1971. Basically an instrumental. Just one line of words: “One of these days I’m going to cut you into little pieces.” Nick Mason delivers it.

Stay positive, endure, and overcome. Here’s the music. I’m going to go overcome a cuppa joe. Cheers

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