We live in a divisive area. Few agree on anything. Just today, my house told me it was 105 degrees F, the car said it was 102, and Alexa said it was 100.
Sunday’s Theme Music
Sunday is living up to its name. The sky is asking, “What’s a cloud?” None are on the roster. Sunshine rules. Our overnight low of 68 F was the day’s high a little more than a week ago. It’s now 75 F. After seeing a C note yesterday, expectations are that we’ll be at 102 F today.
It’s June 26, 2022. Get your June tasks done, for only five June days remain. Hump day, the middle of the year, is almost over.
The sun came over the horizon at 5:46 this morning and will go metaphorically underground at 8:51 PM.
The Neurons are singing “Hold the Line” by Toto from 1978. The Neurons were again foolin’ with me. I was writing in my head after the formal session finished, and like a line which emerged. So I told myself, “Hold onto that line while I get paper and pen and write it down.” Yeah, The Neurons answered, “Playing ‘Hold the Line’.” I was like, what, no, but it was too late. The strains were already live in the stream.
Stay positive, test negative, wear a mask as need be, etc. I hear a coffee maker singing the morning song. Hot coffee on a day like this? You betcha! Here’s the tune. Cheers
Thursday’s Theme Music
Doors ajar, windows open, cool morning air flows through the house. It’s 64 F out but will strike the upper nineties today. We’re bracing for the weekend when triple digit are expected for the first time this year for us.
Meanwhile, we’ll enjoy this day, because it’s here, and we are, too. It’s Thursday, June 23, 2022. Sunrise came as expected, just after dark thirty this AM. Sunshine will rule until sunset, just before 9 PM this evening.
I have “Barracuda” by Heart from 1977 in the morning mental music stream. I remember that one friend at the time of the song’s release hated this song, just hated it, always complaining because everyone thought Heart was Nancy and Ann, and that enraged him. I realized that he didn’t hate the song, but the group. Around then, I noticed him veering sharply toward racism and sexism and curtailed associating with him.
The neurons brought “Barracuda” forward because of a quote I’d one read from one of the Wilson sisters about “Barracuda” being based on another group’s song. She said, paraphrasing, you steal or borrow what you love and make it your own. I’ve observed it countless times in rock music and novels. I’m doing it my novel, because that’s how it works. I don’t call it stealing or borrowing: I call it inspiration.
Stay positive and test negative. Papi just came in and reminded me that it’s time for coffee. He’s right. Such a smart cat. Cheers
Tuesday’s Theme Music
Solstice! The Musical.
Today is the first day of summer and the longest day in the northern lats, while the opposite holds — winter, shortest, etc — in the south. Your experience could be different. Tracking sunrise and sunset shows some interesting info about the lengths of the ‘day’. By day, of course, we’re speaking of the hours between sunrise and sunset.
Watching the weather dude on the news last night, I learned that our average temperature for yesterday is 83 F, that the record, set in 1972, was 104 F, that last year, we’d been mired in a string of triple-digit days and the temperature for last year was 102 F, and this year, it was 78 F. Locally, I only briefly experienced 74, according to my system.
Today, Tuesday, June 21, 2022, is clear and sunny. Highs today will reach around 86 F, which is about our average for the date. Sunset will be at 8:51 PM and sunrise was at 5:35 AM.
I have a song by ELO called “Hold on Tight” stuck in the morning mental music stream. The neurons started playing it for me after I awoke, thought about a dream, and then forgot it later. Snorting and snickering, pointing at me, muttering, “What a doofus,” — they are quite juvenile and not very supportive — they began singing, “Hold on tight to your dreams.” The song came out in 1981, when I was transitioning from living in Texas to living in Japan, on the island of Okinawa, in service to my country. I enjoy the song’s throwback rock and roll vibe.
Stay positive, test negative, wear a mask as the situation warrants, and so on. Time for my first cup of summer coffee.
Sunday’s Theme Music
I awoke from dreams with the Goo Goo Dolls’ song, “Iris”, in my morning mental music stream. I’ve featured the song before. Looking it up, it’s been a few years, so the judges say it can be featured again.
The holiday carousel has turned. It’s Father’s Day in America. I sent Dad a card a few week ago and will call him today. We’re not as close as he now desires, but come on, he doesn’t make a great effort at it. Nor do I, honestly. I graduate high school in 1974, immediately joined the military and left home, living in different countries and other parts of the United States for the next twenty years. He, meanwhile, had remarried, had two children, divorced, lived with another woman and her children for a decade, moved away, and married a third time after a few years. I didn’t hear from him for years at a time. So he’s earned the returns that he made on his investment in our time.
It is Sunday, June 19, 2022. Fifty F right now, with bright sunshine and a naked blue sky. The sun show began at 5:34 AM and will end at 8:50 PM. Few clouds are expected to show up here today. With the sun’s presence, we expect to reach 70 F.
I checked local reservoirs to see where we’re at after this surprise streak of late spring rain. Emigrant Lake has reached 41%, Hyatt sits at 7% and Howard Prairie is at 14%. Long way to go before water security worries are alleviate. Still, better than last year. Don’t know what the snowpack is but it’s on my list to check today.
Stay positive and so on. Haven’t had coffee yet so I’m not feeling very positive right now. Hope to rectify that in a moment. Here’s “Iris”. Cheers
Saturday’s Theme Music
We have liftoff. Saturday, June 18, 2022, is climbing through time, leaving its contrails behind for us to study.
Cloudy is today’s word. Chilly is related, with us staring at 52 F at the moment, hoping for something in the sixties. Hoping is a strong sentiment; my wife, cats, and I are all comfortable with the low fifties and some dabble of sunshine. Rain potential hangs above us with the clouds asking, “Will I? Will I?” Such capricious characters. Sunrise drew the curtains open on the daylight hours at 5:34 AM and the obverse is at 8:50 PM. Our weather is better than places like Spain, where they’re baking in 40 degrees C, which, using the formula learned in school eons ago, translates to 104 F. Ouch, yeah?
Cats and neurons conspired behind my back to plunk a Bruno Mars song into the morning mental music stream. I’d stirred from dreams this morning. Ready and waiting, Tucker pounced on my hand, tapping it for some loving. I began scratching him as directed. He reciprocated with motor-boat purrs. I asked in sotto voce, “You like how that makes you feel?” Just like that, the neurons delivered a ten-year-old song, “Locked Out of Heaven”. It bothered me a little as I song it to myself after feeding the cats and preparing my breakfast, because Bruno sings, “‘Cause your sex takes me to paradise, yeah, you sex takes me to paradise.” I told the neurons, you guys are a little bizarre, you know?
Stay positive, test negative, mask up as needed, space out as required, and, you know. Here’s the music. I hear a cup of coffee singing the song of my people. Cheers
Friday’s Theme Music
A blizzard of dreams dominates my awakening consciousness. Friday’s sun is an amorphous presence hiding behind a pile of gray clouds. It’s June 17, 2022 but the air bares closer semblance to late April. Rain fell last night; more expected today. Our temp is 54 F and we look for a high in the mid-sixties. Sunrise came upon us at 5:33 AM and the sun’s turn will end at 8:50 PM.
We’re past June’s midpoint and bearing down on the year’s middle like a bull in Pamplona chasing a man darting in front of him.
The dreams left a song in my morning mental music stream. Or I’m blaming the dreams. Who knows what quantum entanglement and confused neurons really deposited the song? The song is “White Flag” by Dido out of (wait – let me look that up), yes, almost two decades ago 2003. Probably just word association between things witnessed in the dream and the song’s lyrics, things about giving up and surrendering.
Stay positive, etc. Coffee is in order, I think. Hope your Friday comes with a large order of positive energy and good experiences. Fingers crossed, you know? Here’s the tune. Cheers
Thursday’s Theme Music
Gothic clouds black and white hover perilously over the southern ranges of sloping trees. Sunshine offers a brave front but the clouds, abetted by a chilly northern wind, own today’s weather.
It’s Thursday, June 16, 2022. The temperature since sunrise at 5:34 AM has slowly crept into the mid-fifties. Won’t get much higher, they tell us, before the 8:49 PM sunset, maybe hitting the low sixties, say 63 F.
“Never Ending Song of Love” by Delaney & Bonnie & Friends from 1971 is in the morning mental music stream. I enjoy this song’s vocalizations and beat, and the song is a regular that I sing to myself while walking or doing chores. Surprise registered when I discovered that I’ve never shared it as a choice for theme music.
Stay positive and test negative. COVID-19 in wastewater in our area is the highest recorded levels to date. All agree, this is due to tourism returning, mask use receding, and complacency rising. In parallel, testing kits in the area are sudden in short supply because demand has spiked. The COVID-19 pandemic remains a treacherous situation.
Here’s the music. Sing along, please. I’m gonna go get my coffee. Be right back. Cheers
Michael Seidel, writer 