It’s Sunday, January 16, 2022, somewhere right now. But if you read this in less than twenty-four hours, it’s probably no longer true, unless you’re in another dimension or you’re a time-traveling feline or something. I’m referencing, of course, that classic book, “A Cat in Time Saves Nine”. Part of everyone’s childhood reading, innit?
Our sun’s first blushes came in at 7:37 AM, and will blow us a farewell kiss at 5:05 PM. We’re still experiencing the same system — a High sandwiched by two Lows — and have clear skies. That makes it cold at night — 31 F last night (so not seriously cold) — with a high around 57 F. Fantastic walking weather.
I have “Pinch Me” by Barenakedladies from the year 2000 circling the morning mental music stream. It has to do with the dreams I had last night feeling startling real, causing me to play with where dreams and life had their boundaries.
Stay positive, test negative, wear a mask as needed, and get the jabs when you can and need. Meanwhile, I think I’ll saunter to the kitchen, see if I can press some buttons and get some coffee. Have a better one. Cheers
‘ello, Saturnauts. We have reached the weekend, Saturday, Jan 15, 2022. In true Heisenberg style, the week’s end is also the week’s beginning. Talk about your uncertainty principle.
The Earth’s spinning brought the sun back into our valley at 7:37 AM, where it will give us warmth and light until the Earth’s spin takes it out of our sky at 5:04 PM. Out on the coast, tsunami warnings have folks scrambling back. Winter storms are sowing chaos in the eastern U.S. Southern states are bracing for snow as they haven’t in years. Then the storm will end north again, I’m told, where the people will grit their teeth, plow their streets, and put on a heavier coat.
Out here, we’re enjoying 41 F degrees right now with nuthin’ but blue skies greeting my eyes. Expected high will be 53 F. Not gloating, just enjoying it. Went walking yesterday afternoon and hope to do so again today.
Oasis has “Morning Glory” going in the morning mental music stream. The royal clowders call for food called out the 1995 song. I said to them, I said, “I need a little time to wake up.” And there it was, from “Morning Glory”:
Need a little time to wake up Need a little time to wake up wake up Need a little time to wake up Need a little time to rest your mind
Test negative, stay positive, get the jabs when you can, and wear a mask as needed. Speaking of needs, I feel a need for coffeeeeeeeee. Here’s the music. There I go. Cheers
Come on, let’s get this Friday started. Today is Jan 14, 2022. Forty-two degrees F in this splinter of the valley after the sun kickstarted the shine at 7:38 AM. Stagnant fog thwarted the sun’s effort to be brilliant. Weatherman says we’re in a High pressure area sandwiched by a Low to the northwest and a Low on our southern side. The two Lows are colliding and keeping the High in place, generating the stagnant fog and warm temps. Expect this for the next week. The high today will climb again into the fifties before we turn away from the sun, starting at 5:03 PM.
Got a song by the Decemberists, “Severed”, stewing in the morning mental music stream. Song just fascinates me from its initial synthpop tech simplicity, like a throwback to songs from the late eighties, to its enigmatic words. Several good videos of the song were available. I like watching groups perform their music, so I went with a version from a late-night show, even though it’s slightly shorter.
Stay positive, test negative, wear a mask as need be, and get the vax and boosters when able. A coffee is waiting for me to kick this Friday into another gear. Y’all have a good one. Cheers
We’ve slipped the surly bonds of one day and into the grasp of another. I shall call this one, Thursday the thirteenth of January, 2022. Having said it, the reality spreads like a virus, infecting everyone.
Sunrise, if you believe your mind and eyes, entered our sliver of being in Ashland at 7:38 AM. The sun will slip away and give us over to night at 5:02 PM. Mild winter weather still coddles us, 54 F now, at almost noon, with room for a few more degrees of warmth today. Syrupy white clouds mingle with gray, waiting to be stirred and spead over long blue legs.
“Photograph” by Def Leppard (1983) cropped into the morning mental music stream. My wife’s mother passed away Feb 18, 2018. A picture of the woman is in my office on top of a book club. Taken toward the end of her eighty-five years, intelligence and humor still rumbled in her blue eyes then, not so much in the last year of her life. Seeing the photograph brought out the song. So, why? Don’t know what the neurons are up to. I’m just the vessel.
Stay positive. Test negative, wear a mask as needed, and get the vax and boosts when you can. Have coffee if you sway that way. I do, and I will. Cheers
Welcome to Wednesday in the middle. Today is January 12, 2022. Not quite the middle of the month, still the beginning of a new year, but pushing toward the season’s middle, winter in this region. Sunrise took place at 7:38 AM. Sunset will commence at 5:01 PM. We’re already getting more daylight time, and my body, mind, and spirit are all loving it.
Temperatures continue to be moderate to warm. We hit 61 F yesterday in my neighborhood. It’s 44 now and we anticipate a high of 62 F. Fortunately, snow falls in the higher elevations periodically. The snow pack looks decent now. Fingers crossed that more snow is on the way. I understand that more snow is not what’s requested in other parts of the U.S.
The net informs me that it’s also Take the Stairs Day. No problem with me; I love taking the stairs (others accuse me of being obsessive about it), generally doing two at a time (yeah, show-off). I’m also one that doesn’t treat escalators as a leisure ride. Yes, I’m preening a bit here. What’s new?
Drinking my coffee this morning, I toasted the cat sitting at my feet. He’d been relentlessly shadowing me despite being fed. “Here’s to you,” I said. That opened the door for The Call to bring “Let the Day Begin” (1989) into the morning mental music stream.
So, here’s to the day, Wednesday in the middle. Stay positive, test negative, wear a mask, and get vaxes and boosters when ye can. I’m off for more coffee. Cheers
Dawn broke the darkness at 7:39 AM. Its light had been stealing in like a child sneaking up to take a cookie that they weren’t supposed to take. But it officially came at 7:39. The backside comes at straight up 5 PM.
Today is January 11, 2022. This will be the only day this year with that date. Make it a special day in honor of its uniqueness. Our temperatures remain warm, 40 F at dawn, 52 now, on our way to 58 to 60. A faded winter sky overlooks a fusion landscape of fall and spring, bare trees and new growth.
I have Steve Winwood’s 1988 song, “Don’t You Know What the Night Can Do?”, parading through the morning’s mental music stream, a reflection of a night of vivid dreams and contemplations about spectrums — the spectrum of time, life, and biology. How the night can change a mood is impressive. One can fall into sleep, awaken a zillion hours later and feel fantastic. Not what the night can do, per se: don’t you know what a good night of sleep can do?
In other news, scientists are using the idea of warm balls as a possible male contraceptive. There are some limits: “In the hotter tests of the experiment, however, the balls atrophied, and in some—depending on how much iron oxide was injected, and how hot the nuts got—showed “distinct black discolorations” and the testes were “severely damaged at 7 days.” If they were cooked above 113 degrees, the balls didn’t recover.” Imagine contraceptive underwear being offered for sale at Target as a holiday stocking stuffer.
Stay positive, test negative, wear a mask, and get the vax and boosters. Excuse me, I’m gonna refresh my coffee. Here’s the music, with a little Letterman and Schaffer. Cheers
Pitter, patter, the cats are at it, running halls like they own them. Greetings to people on the third rock from the sun. Today is Monday, January 10, 2021. The wind abates off and on but the cats remain displeased. Although the sun duly chugged into the sky at 7:39 AM, it did so without great warmth or enthusiasm. The cats don’t like that. “Give me some sunshine,” they meow at me. “Talk to the sun and clouds,” I answer. “I have no hand.”
The sun will hang around until 4:58 PM. The weather isn’t bad despite the cats’ sunshine complaint. Temperature is at 43 F and we expect it to climb to 54 F.
Later, that same day…
The morning was interrupted by phone calls and then it was off to deliver food for Food & Friends. Since the initial words were typed, the weather has improved. Blue has bled through the clouds. Sunshine’s yawn engulfs the valley. We’ve warmed to 54 and the wind has passed to gentle breezes. The cats, however, are indifferent to the changes; they are asleep.
Today’s morning mental music stream resident is Jack Johnson with “Sitting, Waiting, Wishing” from 2005. It’s another cat-inspired choice. While I was doing morning business, the first floof and the floofs-in-waiting sounded off their impatience for morning wet food. Not enough that they have kibble. No, these furry gods also require wet food twice a day, along with royal treats.
Stay positive, test negative, wear a mask as needed, and get thee the jabs when you can. Time for fresh coffee. Anyone with me? Cheers
Sunny and windy, with a warming trend, is how I describe this Sunday, January 9, 2022. The sun kissed the sky, rousing it with rising light at 7:39 AM, and will flee the scene at 4:57 PM. We’re warming quicky, going from 31 at daybreak to 42 now, on our way to 54 degrees F as our high.
Today is the final day of our three-day-apple diet — I’ll write about it later. A request was just received and accepted to swap Food & Friends delivery days, so we’ll be out doing that tomorrow at ten.
Today’s theme song is “Radio Radio” by Elvis Costello from 1978. The song arrived in the morning mental music stream via Facebook comments. A younger cousin was joking about kids getting texts or emails about school cancellations because of snow. He said that he used to have to watch television, scanning the bottom scroll. I replied that we needed to crowd around the radio and listen in our day. As expected, Mom chimed in that back when she went to school in rural Iowa, there weren’t cancellations for the weather. Mom wins.
Stay positive, test negative, wear a mask as needed, and get the vax and boosters when you can. Have a nice day while I have a nice hot cuppa coffee. Cheers
“It’s gonna be a bright, bright, sunshiny day.” Already is. H/t to Johnny Nash for those words and the song they’re from, “I Can See Clearly Now”, from 1972. That’s my theme music today.
Today is Saturday, January 8, 2022. Man, the year is flying by. As this is the late Elvis Presley’s birthday, let’s pause for a moment to imagine an 86-year-old Elvis.
39 degrees F right now but we expect a high of 49 degrees and a low of 32. Not bad for a winter day in our valley.
On happy news, our zip code, 97520, has reached the 80% vaccination rate for our eligible people. Yea, us. On a less happy note, the zip codes around us are mostly mired around fifty to sixty percent, including the large city nearby, Medford. Of course, the Omicron variant has cases zooming to record levels.
Stay positive, test negative, wear a mask as needed, and get the vax and booster when ye’ can. Hope you have a bright sunshiny day. I’m gonna go get a hot, hot, black cuppa coffee. Cheers
Dark day in the house despite the sun’s arrival at its appointed time of 7:40 AM. He’d been a little slow warming up for his shift. Most people didn’t know that inside the sun were maintainers on shifts ensuring the light and heat was properly maintained. The sun preferred that no one ever found out. They might start looking if the heat and shine start sputtering. Of course, there was one being called, “Sun”. Parry had never met him; his predecessor, a woman hired him. Maybe ‘the sun’ was another myth. Who knows the truth? The truth was, he was still a little hammered. Had gone out with a few from other shifts yesterday. Made a night of it, ha, ha. That was their favorite joke.
He’d had reason for going out and drinking. This was his anniversary. January 7, 2022. (Right? Wasn’t it? They’d argued the date for some time the previous night.) Been on the job for four hundred years. Enough for a pay bump. Six hundred more until retirement. He’d already begun planning that. Had picked out a star and was saving for a place. Was tired of living in the solar system. He’d spent his whole life there. Born on Pluto, then moved to Mercury. Followed Mum into solar management. Got a job locally. But, he would travel, go to other stars, after he retired. Maybe marry. If he met the right one. Only place he’d really been besides Pluto, Mercury, and the Sun, was the dark side of the moon. Was everything they’d said it would be. Yes, he had been on a few comets. But come on, who had not?
The sun was on course. Would set over Ashland at 4:55 PM. His shift ended a little later. He poured a cup of coffee and peeked into the little region of his responsibility. Chilly day down there. 43. Cloudy. Rainy. Would only reach 45. Not really bad for a winter day, as he understood all that, which was, not much. Weather was another’s purview. He was all about the shine.
With everything settled down, he turned on some music, shifting through dials until a tune he liked was struck, and began playing computer solitaire and wishing for new games. Like the sun couldn’t afford it.
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That just popped up, so I went with it. That out of the way, today’s theme music is by Jet, a 2003 song called “Are You Gonna Be My Girl”. Of course, I was singing it to a cat last night. A ginger boy. So, it was, are you gonna be my cat? He stared at me, like, what? The song stayed in the morning mental music stream. So, here we are.
Stay positive. Test negative. Wear a mask as needed. Get the jabs when you can. Coffee time for me. Cheers
Michael Seidel, writer 