Thursday’s Theme Music

Welcome to Thanksgiving Day in the United States, Thursday, November 25, 2021. My wife has turned on the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade being broadcast from New York. She loves watching that. It’s part of her tradition.

Out walking yesterday, my mind treated me to a series of songs. First up, “Getting to know you, getting to know all about you. Getting to like you, getting to hope you like me.” That was followed by, “Give my regards to Broadway. Remember me in Herold Square. Tell all the gang at Forty Second street, that I will soon be there.” Then, though, my brain suggested, “Isn’t it Trafalgar Square?” What? Another brain section wondered if it wasn’t “Lester Square.”

I think my brain is trying to drive me nuts.

Sunrise came upon us at 7:13 AM and sunset will cometh at 4:43 PM. Temperatures were at 32 F when I arose but it’s now 36. We expect 56 under a pale blue sky.

We’ll be going to a Friendsgiving celebration this year. It was skipped last year but we’ve been doing this for ten years or so. Folks who live out at a farm invite others each year. It’s limited to twelve people this year, all vaccinated and boosted. We’re taking a sweet potato casserole which my wife made yesterday and an appetizer tray.

Meanwhile, a Roxette song, “It Must Have Been Love” (1987) is occupying the morning mental music stream. Don’t know why this song is there. Maybe I heard a snippet from it sometime yesterday. Could be from dreams; had a long train of dreams last night. Some were sexy and a few were funny. Too many to go through, though.

Stay positive, test negative, wear a mask as needed, and get the vax and booster when you can. If you celebrate Thanksgiving, Happy Thanksgiving to you. Hope it’s memorable and fun, with minimal stress. Otherwise, seize the day, wherever you are. I’m gonna seize a cuppa coffee. That’s how I start. Here’s the music. Cheers

Wednesday’s Theme Music

Happy hump day, camels. Maybe it’s hump day for you. Wednesday is often so designated. Mid-week, people consider it the hardest to bestir themselves to endure. Hardest to get up, process, and function. Even coffee and energy drinks seem to do little…for a while. But then, as the morning hours pass and the afternoon arrives, they realize, they’re going to make it. And if they can make it through Wednesday, they can make it the rest of the week.

Course, hump day isn’t always Wednesday for some people. Some feel hump day on Monday. If they can get through Monday, then all else is gravy. Or hump day is Thursday and if Thursday is survived… You get it. I’ve beaten it sufficiently that little life remains.

Today is November 24, 2021. We’re racing toward the year’s end. Just consider: next Wednesday is December 1.

Sunrise split the valley into light and dark at 7:12 AM. The sun’s warming light will fade out of the valley starting at 4:43 PM. Current temperature is 29 F, according to my thermometer, and the cats agree, declaring, “Cold. Gimme heat.” Net says it’s 39, but then the sun hasn’t actually entered my yard yet. Still just clearing the mountains and forests. Give it time, right? High temp should be 55 today. The sky is deceptively summer blue. Looks warmer than it is.

I have “Little Talks” by Of Monsters and Men from 2011 echoing in the morning mental music stream. The song came about because I was reading about how people read data about the COVID-19 pandemic and vaccinations, and reached their own conclusions about vaccines not working. They called this their truth. They then lamented that they were blocked, locked out, or shut out of whatever forum they were using because they were spreading misinformation. From all of that, I thought of “Little Talks” and the line that goes, “Though the truth may vary, this ship will carry our bodies safe to the shore.”

Yes, the truth can be complicated. What was true a hundred years ago might not be true now. We learn, we grow, we develop new understanding and discover what we held as the truth was wrong. The truth now, though, is that data supports the vaccines, masking, and social distancing. The truth, though, is also that variants will emerge and break through. The truth is that we will know more in a year, and we’re not sure where COVID-19 and humanity will stand at that time.

Damn. Now I need coffee. Stat.

Stay positive, test negative, wear a mask as needed, and get the vax and booster when you can. The truth is, that will help most of us survive. Cheers

Tuesday’s Theme Music

Today is 327, by the Julian calendar. Pretty straightforward, innit, ‘stead of all that Tuesday, November 11, 2021 stuff, but not as poetic and evocative. You give a day, say, Tuesday, and you think of things. Birthdays, work, anniversaries, songs. 327, I pretty much think of a Chevy engine, Corvettes and Camaros. I also think, 3+2+7 = 12 = 1 + 2 = 3.

Sunrise split the gauzy cloud layers at 7:11 AM. The sun will conduct business in our realm until 4:43 PM. No appointment necessary. Temperatures will be warmer for the lows (39) and colder for the highs (45) than yesterday. Rain showers are possible with no great accumulation.

I have the Boomtown Rats playing from 1977 in the morning mental music stream. I ascribe its presence to the holiday shopping season bearing down on us. While it’s supposed to be a season of giving, watching people on the television going nuts buying things really causes me to doubt the purpose behind it all. The car commercials and their enormous sales, about people spending gobs of money to buy a car to make this ‘a season to remember’ doesn’t help at all. The song is all about selfishness, and that’s what I see as the final manifestation of much of the buying going on. It’s a gimme gimme gimme time of year.

Well, stay positive — yeah, sure you’re feeling pos after my minor screedette — test negative for COVID-19, get the vax and booster when you can, and wear a mask as needed. Speaking of needed, I have a need for coffee. Catch you on the flip side. Cheers

Monday’s Theme Music

Another Monday has come around, to lift you up or tear you down, depending on your point of view, and what it is that you’re trying to do.

November 22, 2021, has broken like many other days. Bright sunshine blasting light on everything under blue skies unencumbered by smoke or cloud arrived on the Ashland scene at 7:10 AM and will swivel away, leaving us in darkness alleviated by artificial lights at 4:44 PM. Nothing of this day portends murder, death, and chaos, but it’ll happen somewhere. Perhaps the weather there is giving warning signs.

We saw freezing temperatures last night. Got up to 33 F after the sun broke, which stayed as the temp for some time. It has risen to 36. We expect something in the fifties but this feels like aunter, that season between autumn and winter when leaves are still turning and falling but winter’s advance cold marches in and chills us.

I have Jethro Tull, “Bungle in the Jungle” out of 1974, in the morning mental music stream. This came about because of granola. I decided brekkie would feature oatmeal, a pretty standard breakfast for me. I like granola on my oatmeal. Adds crunch, heft, flavor. Several granola styles are in the pantry. I thought I’d save one of them for later in the week, prompting me to remember, “Eating their nuts, saving their raisins for Sunday.” This is, you know, a line from the song. Thereafter, Ian and the gang played live in my head from the record player that still exists in brain’s teen cellar, where all things teen are stored.

Stay positive, test negative, wear a mask as needed, and get the vax and booster when ye can. Also, coffee up. I’m going to. It’s cold morning and coffee warms me well. Also stimulates the muses to come so I can write. Muses are so fond of the coffee smell that all I need do is spritz a little ground coffee scent about and they flit right in.

Here’s the music. Cheers

Sunday’s Theme Music

Ah, Sunday, Sunday, Sunday — monster trucks, church, and dinner. That’s dominated my life’s Sundays, along with the NFL and NASCAR and other racing. Of course, I was a shift worker for twelve years in the Air Force. Sundays meant less to do at work because little flying was done on Sunday.

Today is November 21, 2021. The sun emerged from Terra’s curve as the planet turned at 7:08 AM, peering at us with watery light through light mist and low clouds. Some blue sky and sunshine are sneaking by patches but the temperature has remained a chill 39 F. We expect a high of 56 F today before the earth’s movement takes the sun away again at 4:45 PM.

I have a little Green Day rolling through the morning mental music stream this AM. The chorus from “J.A.R.” (1995) is going round and round.

And I think it’s all right
That I do what I like
‘Cause that’s the way I want to live

It’s how I give, and I’m still givin’…

h/t to Genius.com

Yes, summarizes my current philosophy. “I want to live, it’s how I give, and I’m still givin’.” Stay positive, test negative, get the vax and booster when you can, and wear a mask as needed. Don’t let complacency undo what you’ve done thus far. Time for coffee. Cheers

Saturday’s Theme Music

I’m just sitting here watching the weeks go round and round, I really love to watch them roll.

So we’ve rolled into another Saturday, designated by the powers and systems as November 20, 2021. Not quite as graceful as yesterday, when it was 19, 2021, but still, with a nice symmetry. Sunrise popped in on us in the valley at 7:07 AM, fog free, smoke free. Silky layered pewter clouds are lazily stretched over most sky. Just a little blue skin showing. While it’s 36 F now, the powers say that our high will be 55 before the world turns, the sun descends, and darkness throttles the land again at 4:45 PM.

Dreams were of an unusual variety with a distinct Chinese flavor, in which I was a boy in China watching a parade and observing other things. Can’t specify if I was Chinese, but I was about six to eight, I think, on a warm day, in shorts, in a city. I feel the book I just finished, When We Were Orphans, set largely in Shanghai, affected the dream, yeah?

Now, as I’ve started with John Lennon and “Watching the Wheels”, I think I’ll dub it today’s theme music. After all, it is going round and round through the morning mental music stream. Might as well put it to work. The song was released in 1981, after his murder, and I’ve always attached sentiments to it from that.

Stay positive, test negative, wear a mask as needed, and get the vax and boosters when you can. Don’t just sit there watching the wheels go round and round. Let them take you somewhere. Mine are taking me to a cup of steaming black coffee. Watch me go. Cheers

Friday’s Theme Music

Good Friday to you, Earth dwellers and guests. Today is November 19, 2021. Sunrise, when the sun brightened the marbled rain clouds for us, arrived at 7:06 AM, lifting temperatures to 46 degrees F enroute to a projected high of 50. Some solid rain fell an hour ago. Now everything is just soaking in it and relaxing. Sunset cometh at 4:46 PM in the sliver of time and space known as today, Ashand, Oregon.

We slipped out to see the lunar eclipse last night. The clouds parted enough to titillate us for about five seconds before sliding closed and dropping some drizzle on our upturned faces. Rain and moon thinking fertilized rain and moon songs in my morning mental music stream. Moon and rain feature heavily in the pop/rock era lyrics. Without trying, at least two songs of each arose for the occasion. No, really, it was about a dozen of each hardwired in my head. A youthful favorite took the top post and cemented its place as Friday’s theme music.

Here is Led Zeppelin with “Fool in the Rain” from 1979. Hope you enjoy it. Stay positive, test negative, wear a mask as needed, stay hydrated, and get the vax and booster when you can. I’m off for coffee. Later, gator. Cheers

Thursday’s Theme Music

Inhabitants of Earth, rock on! Rock on! And just like that, David Essex and his song of 1973, “Rock On”, plays in the morning mental music stream.

Hi there. Today is Thursday, November 18, 2021. Many folks are excited because Black Friday is upon us. Once a casual phenomena focused on one day of the year — the day after Thanksgiving as a day dedicated for gift shopping — Black Friday is acquiring mythic status among shoppers and retailers. I saw a banner from some large company that declares that Black Friday begins tomorrow, November 19. I know from the past that Black Friday sales are often extended to the following week, and that Black Friday sales often include the Saturday and Sunday after Friday. In other words, Black Friday is almost a new month in U.S. culture.

Despite growing BF hype, the sun came at 7:06 AM and will be out of my area at 4:48 PM. It’s windy again as weather fronts continue their quest to rule the weather. Temps are up to 56 F after dropping to 36 F during the night. It’s cloudy but rain probably isn’t part of Thursday’s plan.

Besides David Essex swimming through the music stream, I have Florence + the Machine playing “Shake it Out” from 2011. The latter came from thinking about dreams. As I did, the lyrics, “I like to keep my issues drawn, but it’s always darkest before the dawn,” came through. Then came the rest of the song. It’s Florence’s voice, though, that really holds me. It’s also a song about rebirth. Rebirth is a big facet of my life philosophy. *cliché alert* Every day is a new one, another chance to begin again, to be reborn in some way. Doesn’t always work but doesn’t thwart me from trying.

Stay positive, test negative, wear a mask as needed, and get the vax and booster when you can. Here’s the music. I’ve already got coffee, so I’m good to go. Cheers

Wednesday’s Theme Music

A stick, a stone, the end of a poem, the beginning of the day, the end of the night.

Hello. Welcome to the new, improved, Wednesday, now with better flavor and new packaging.

Today is November 17, 2021. Last night’s temp dipped to 32 F under clear skies. By sunrise at 7:04 AM, it was back up to 41. But with that rise came a stout series of winds jostling the trees, rattling the windows, and urging the cats, get back into the house. A high of 56 is in the cards if we play them right (yeah, like we can do anything, right, but hold onto the cards as the wind tries blowing them away) before sunset at 4:48 PM.

“They call me the working man, guess that’s what I am,” was bubbling through the morning mental music stream today. Don’t know why the Rush song from 1974 has been called up. I’m not a working man; if anything, I’d call myself a non-working man, a label I attached to myself way back in…well, 1974, when I graduated high school. It might be the guitar solo that sprang to mind. It’s a pretty nifty turn by Alex Lifeson, the Rush guitarist. I’ve always enjoyed the group, but again, sadly, we lost the drummer Neil Peart, last year, and the group says they’re done touring.

Stay positive, test negative, wear a mask as needed, and get the vax and booster when you can. Stay healthy in general, and keep pressing forward. Here’s my coffee — hot and black — and the music. It’s a ‘live’ version found on the net that entertained me. Enjoy. Cheers

Tuesday’s Theme Music

Sun, glorious sun! Warm and bright sunshine. Makes me feel so fine.

Yes, the fog is gone. The cats and I were out at sunrise (7:02 AM), exulting that Tuesday, November 16, 2021, was fog free. A caveat was injected, though: sunny, but not overly warm. The temperature was hovering at 37 F at that point. It’s since climbed to 45 F. They claim it’ll scale the thermometer all the way to the mid-fifties today. Looks like solid walking weather. I’m planning a late afternoon excursion but will carry a flashlight in case I’m out there after 4:48 PM, when the sun does its disappearing trip. Good to have a flashlight when you’re out in the dark. Besides the cars who won’t see you and will whack you, bears and cougars have been spotted in the area. I’ll hold the flashlight up to my face so that they can see who I am, should I encounter them, and reassure them that I mean no harm and don’t appear too tasty.

Today is jab day for wife and me. We received the J&J vax months ago. Today we go for the Moderna booster. We’re excited.

My spirit has been juiced to audaciously high levels today. The song running in my morning mental music stream is “Roll with the Changes” by a little band called REO Speedwagon from 1978. It’s a fast-moving rocker with encouraging lyrics, though it has been posted as the theme music a few years ago.

So if you’re tired of the same old story,
Oh, turn some pages
I will be here when you are ready
To roll with the changes, yeah, yeah

h/t to lyricsdepot.com

Stay positive, test negative, wear a mask as needed, and get the vax and booster when you can. Now coffee is singing in the other room, “Keep on brewin’, keep on brewin’.” I’m gonna go see what that’s about. Have a better one. Here’s the music. Cheers

Blog at WordPress.com.

Up ↑