Cold and bright, Ashlandia has reared up out of the darkness anew.It’s January 22, 2025, and now 36 F, ten degrees above the morning’s start. Fog, precipitation, and that sort of thing has abandoned the area, leaving sunshine a clear path. ‘They’ tell me our high will be 56 F today. And again, continuing a trend — three days! — this looks attainable.
I had a song loaded in the morning mental music stream. Then I read that John Sykes, guitarist associated with Whitesnake, died at 65. So The Neurons brought in “Still of the Night” in memory of Sykes. Ah, such music. Classic metal hair band. Rarely listened to it but was familiar with it due to being in clubs and radio rotation. Coverdale is the vocalist and I was a fan from his earlier efforts with other groups and songs.
Coffee has presented a peace offering. Be strong, and keep rocking. Here’s the music. Cheers
And just like that, summer struck back. A friend wrote in an email about meeting up for a beer, “Is it PC to refer to this pleasant time of year as ‘Indian Summer?’ I sure hope so.”
Yep, autumn and autmer and sumumn have all been displaced for summer, if we use the weather as a ruler. It’s September 24, 2024 on the calendar. Here in Ashlandia, that should translate to autumn, or ‘fall’ as many locals call it. But with the low only dipping into the middle sixties last night and an expected high of 95 F, this Tuesday has summer scrawled all over it. Add in a deep blue sky tinged with hazy edges, and it feels like June has fallen on us once again.
Oh, and Earth is closer to getting that ‘second moon’ we’ve always hoped for, though it’ll be just a temporary addition. Call it a trial run. We’ll need to be careful in how the new moon is introduced and ensure that it gets along with the old Moon. It’s used to being the only moon, so there’s some trepidation that the new and old moon will go after each other.
I was outside in the backyard at 3 AM (yes, it was a cat thing) when I was overtaken by the stunningly clear sky and brilliant, bold moonshine. I stood out there alone for a while, sucking in the fresh air and stargazing. That probably contributed to The Neurons posting a Thin Lizzy song, “Dancing in the Moonlight (It’s Caught Me in Its Spotlight)” in the morning mental music stream (Trademark two-step). The song came out in ’77 but it doesn’t get much radio play in the U.S. these days.
Stay positive, be strong, lean forward, and vote blue in 2024. I have reached the bottom of my coffee cup, so I am facing a personal sad time. Here’s the music! Cheers
With sunrise blinking in at 5:53 AM, today’s weather is a relaxed, mellow blend, clouds and sky, high against the upper eighties. Sunset is coming on at 8:41 PM in the valley, when darkness crawls in, dragging stars, moon, and cooler temps with it.
A cat inspired today’s music. I was still abed, struggling between alive and dead, lingering in that limbo state between being asleep and being awake. WHEN —
A sudden gallop on a hardwood floor, with a sliding sound that ended with a bang against the door, a cat did appear in the room, pausing for a moment to give himself a groom. THEN —
With a new battle cry (“Freedom!”) he was off again, racing around bed and then, galloping back down the hall, plowing again into a wall.
The time was 5:40 AM.
As I tried to sink back to sleep, I thought about the beast’s antics. And thought, maybe it was a jailbreak. Which, then, sometime later, kicked in Thin Lizzy with “Jailbreak” from 1976. Lovely song. Perfect for a big cat with an overactive imagination.
Stay positive, test negative, wear a mask as needed, and, you know, get the vax. Cheers
Floof Lizzy(floofinition) – Irish hard floof rock (flock) band, formed in 1969, and active with different lineups off and on since its formation until the present day.
In use: “Floof Lizzy’s use of twin lead guitars in “The Floofs Are Back in Town Again” made it popular among guitar flock fans.”
1976 was an enjoyable year for the most part. Twenty years old, I celebrated my first year of marriage, and my second year in the U.S. Air Force, and then was sent to Clark Air Base and the 3rd Tactical Fighter Wing in the Philippines on unaccompanied assignment. I ended up listening to a lot of music while reading in my room when I was studying for my promotion, walking around the base, exploring Angelis City, or working. I didn’t have a television, and besides, AFRTS’ offerings were well-meaning but not to my taste.
A friend introduced me to an Irish rock band name Thin Lizzy. She was a big fan of this group that I’d never heard before. One of the songs was “The Boys Are Back in Town,” partly because she incessantly played it, enthusing about the singer’s style. I just liked it because I thought it was a rocking tune.
Feel like something energetic today. Maybe it’s the sun. It’s actually visible when we get up, and there’s sunshine until almost seven thirty in the evening.
Hooray for sunshine.
It’s warmer, too. Got up to the low sixties yesterday. Winter is drawing out his departure but each day leaves us with less evidence that he was here.
All of this calls for something older, something with a little guitar action. From out of the streams of thinking came one from 1976, during my tour of duty in the Philippines.
Here is Thin Lizzy with ‘The Boys Are Back in Town’.
Michael Seidel, writer 