Thursday’s Theme Music

Thursday salutations. This is March 25, 2021. Welcome to Hard Coffee.

Sorry, have coffee on my mind. Haven’t had it yet today, and the beans are whispering my name in the other room. What is Hard Coffee? I imagine it as a movie in which people must survive without coffee for several hours. Initially hostile or indifferent to one another, they learn that they can get to coffee in a building on the next block, if they work together. A tough ex-Marine who fought at Fallujah, a female with an artificial leg, becomes the de facto leader.

Sol’s first appearance on this cloudy, still, rainy day was at 7:06 AM. The thermometer claims it’s 40 degrees F. outside. Sol will fade out over the horizon at 7:29 PM.

Music choice is driven by a dream in which I was driving a car. “Get Outta My Dreams, Get into My Car” is a 1988 song by Billy Ocean. No one was in my car in my dream but me; the later lyrics, “I’ll do the driving, I’ll take the wheel,” is what spirited the song into the thinking stream. Yeah, it was a silly chuckle morning. I hadn’t had any coffee yet. Still haven’t actually. Must soon rectify that. You wouldn’t believe how hard typing is. I keep back spacing to correct words. Woof.

Stay positive, test negative, wear a mask, and get the vax. Cheers

Thursday’s Theme Music

The rain is calling, the coffee is shining, and the sun is falling.

Wait; redo.

Rain falling – sun shining – coffee calling. Okay.

We’ve landed on Thursday, March 18, 2021, for those who are scoring at home. Sol’s appearance was at 7:18 AM while his exit is expected at 7:21 PM here in southern Oregon. Showers are falling, the sun is shining, and the temperature is 43 degrees F according to the thingy hanging on my house.

Having to do with dreams, a 1970 song by Van Morrison called “Domino”. The song’s opening lyrics came at me after I muddled through dream thoughts.

Don’t wannna discuss it
Think it’s time for a change
You may get disgusted
Start thinkin’ that I’m strange

In that case I’ll go underground
Get some heavy rest
Never have to worry
About what is worst or what is best

h/t to AZLyrics.com

In the short space required to write this, clouds and rain have overcome the sunshine, tempering hopes for a warm, pleasant spring day. Good writing, reading, drinking coffee day, though, if you have the protection and the means.

Stay positive, test negative, wear a mask, and get the vax.

Cheers

Wind Beats Tree

Tree beats car. Had some heavy winds Sunday night/Monday morning. Neighbors a hundred feet down the road experienced the results. No one hurt.

The wind’s snarling awoke me during the night. Then it seemed to quiet before developing into a weird, undulating whine just before daybreak. Listening to this, I thought, that sounds like someone using a power saw. Turned out, it was.

This was down at the bed and breakfast occupying the corner of Siskiyou and Clay Street. Both of the damaged cars park on Clay, across the street from each other. I live up Clay, for perspective.

Photos were taken in the late afternoon when I went walking. We first saw the damages that morning when we left to deliver for Food & Friends.

Tuesday’s Theme Music

Buongiorno. We have arrived at Tuesday, March 16, 2016. The skyball came over the horizon at 7:21 AM and will hide beyond the horizon at 7:18 PM in Ashland, giving us a solid twelve of daylight. Times may vary where you live.

Winter continues its comeback campaign, with temperatures freezing us at 29 degrees F last night. While it’s 32 right now, we expect it to get up to 52 later on. Hope that’s a warmer 52 than than the 54 yesterday. Fronted by a stiff wind, fortified by a dour gray sky, that 54 would’ve put some frostbite on a brass monkey. Hope holds today because blue sky, sunshine, and optimism.

Van Halen’s 1983 song, “Jump”, commandeered the mental music stream this AM. Why for, don’t know; might be dream related, where anything goes. The song was released when I was still living and serving in Okinawa, Japan, with the U.S. Air Force. It entered our party rotation but suffered in comparison with the offerings from ZZ Top, Toto, Boston, Yes, etc., that our group preferred, music befitting three aging white men hanging on to their final pieces of youth.

Stay positive, test negative, wear a mask, and get the vax.

Monday’s Theme Music

Long gray and blue clouds glower over the mountain and far away conifers. A sliver of blue is sliced above them. Thicker clouds, the color of an old white tee shirt caught by the sun, pile in around the valley. It’s a pretty scene in southern Oregon.

Good morning. Welcome to Monday, March 15, 2021. Our local star slipped over the horizon at 7:23 AM and is expected to hide behind the western lands around 7:17 PM. Winter’s tattered edges took my wedge of the valley by storm last night. With winds burbling and gossiping all through the darkness, guesses about what awaited us exceeded what we received. That angry wind has wandered off. Lawns who’d been welcoming spring with green blades are now dressed in scanty white. The black tar streets are shiny wet as the thermometer hunts the middle thirties. A 2019 Post Malone song, “Circles”, is brought to mind by this wintry scene. In this instance, winter and spring are the lovers sparring in his song.

Seasons change and our love went cold
Feed the flame ’cause we can’t let go
Run away, but we’re running in circles
Run away, run away

h/t to AZLyrics.com

Silly, aren’t I? Sorry, it’s PC: Pre-Coffee. I’m dependent upon my fingers’ muscle memories to put anything on this screen. Test negative, stay positive, wear a mask, and get the vax. Cheers

Saturday’s Theme Music

Good morning. Welcome to the day after the previous day. Today is Saturday, March 13, 2013, which means it’s SATURDAY THE THIRTEENTH. That aside, Solup was at 6:26 AM in Ashland, and Soldown is expected at 6:15 PM. Then we’ll spring ahead in most parts of ‘Merica, losing an hour of sleep but putting soldown an hour later. I’ll welcome that, as I can take early evening walks.

Clear skies, cold nights and bright sunshine currently rules these parts. A cold 32 degrees was the low last night but it’s already mid-fifties now. Got to use this good turn of weather now because it will change next week. Of course, it’ll then change again the day after that.

Stone Temple Pilots, aka STP, provides the music in the stream today. “Trippin’ On A Hole In A Paper Heart” came out in July, 1996. I contemplated that a bit: that song is a few months short of being a quarter-century old. Now I’m trippin’ on how much time has slid since that song first broke the calm.

The song was in my stream for the lyrics, natch.

One more trip and I’ll be gone
So keep your head up, keep it on
Just a whisper, I’ll be gone
Take a breath and make it big

h/t to Genius.com

The lyrics came as I finished re-arranging the hairs on my head and gave myself a final look in the bathroom mirror before sliding out to brew the day’s first cup of coffee. So, why? Why that song today? It’s the frequent question, is it not? There’s no answer on this day.

Get the vax, wear a mask, test negative, and stay positive. Cheers

Friday’s Theme Music

TGIF! Thank God It’s Friday! Am I right?

Not really. I was a shift worker for many years. Friday had no significance except for which office chores were required. The weekends were a better work period because fewer were around. It was a good time to read as we sat, standing by — hah! — waiting for something to happen. Well, that depended on the command, theater, mission, and crises du jour. Such was the life of an Air Force Command Post controller.

In later years, working for civilian companies in the SF Bay Area/Silicon Valley, Friday was like the starting gun for a race through the weekend, running errands, doing chores, shopping, and eating out. In those days, yeah, TGIF definitely had its place for a while.

Anyway…

Today is Friday, March 12, 2021. Sunup was at 6:28 AM and sundown is 6:14 PM in southern Oregon. Temperatures dropped into the upper twenties last night. The sun has staked a bold claim under the day. Encouraged by it, unencumbered by clouds, we’re at 42 degrees F now. We’re expecting a high in the upper sixties. That’s some lovely yard work and walking weather.

Seeing that sunshine after I tumbled out of bed called out a 1995 song. See, I felt good, so I started singing “Good” by Better Than Ezra. Although its foundation is a break up song — he comes home to learn she’s gone — it ends on thoughts of change and looking forward to what might be. So, I thought, yeah, let’s look forward to what might be, once this pandemic runs its course. Maybe we’ll meet on the fourth of July.

Stay positive, test negative, wear a mask when you’re asked, and get the vax. Cheers

Sunday’s Theme Music

This is it. The countdown has commenced. Next Sunday, March 14, 2021, the giant lever will be pulled, sending the US into Daylight Savings Time. If you’re paying attention, that means today is Sunday, March 7, 2021. Yes, today is the last Sunday that we’ll be able to enjoy normal daylight for several months, as we go into daylight pinching mode.

Other aspects of the day includes 6:37 AM Solclimb and a 6:08 PM Soldrop in Ashland, a forty degree F temperature which feels warmer than it sounds when you’re standing in it, and a wintry blend of thundering gray, spring blue, and feathered white sky.

Returning to the DST thinking for a moment, DST drives a lot of political discourse and political polarization in the U.S., IMO. I think that one time when they pulled the lever back to change time, they pulled it too hard and fast. Suddenly, we’d leaped decades into the past. Although they caught the issue before dawn, damage had been inflicted. People felt like it was back in the 1950s in the U.S. because it temporarily was. Confusion was stirred when the current time was resumed. I think this episode happened about five years ago. I don’t have any evidence, but now it’s on the net, so it must be true.

Today’s music is by Chicago. “Old Days” was released in 1975, and it’s about remembering the good old days. Of course, it’s a gentle reverie for them:

Old days
Good times I remember
Fun days
Filled with ship of pleasure

Drive-in movies
Comic books and blue jeans
Howdy Doody
Baseball cards and birthdays

Take me back
To the world gone away
Memories
Seem like yesterday

Oh, old days
Good times I remember
Gold days
Days I'll always treasure

Funny faces
Full of love and laughter
Funny places
Summer nights and streetcars

Take me back
To the world gone away
Our good memories
Seem like yesterday
Old days

h/t to Lyrics.com

The song always strikes me as smooth jazz, pop-rock, brass-infused blend, but the lyrics are easy to recall. Stay positive, test negative, wear a mask, and get a vax. Have a good one. Cheers

Sunday’s Theme Music

This is it! Sunday, February 28, 2021, the last day of February, the last day of the second month of 2021. From my perspective, it raced by like a Formula 1 machine. Lots of noise, here, and now it’s almost past.

What a way to go out. Here in Ashland, sunshine has roared in. Gone is the ice, snow, fog, rain, and mist. It’s only sun, sun, sun. The cats are all, “Mee-hoo!” (Actually, I made that last up. The cats are like, “Sunshine. Whatever. Let me out.”) Sunrise came at 6:48 AM and sunset will be at (fanfare) 6:00 PM, for eleven hours and twelve minutes of glorious sun. Temperature now is 42 degrees F, but we’re looking for highs in the upper fifties. It may be for just one day but I’ll accept this gift and enjoy it.

Today’s music is “This Is It” by Kenny Loggins and Michael McDonald (1979). The two share song-writing credits. Loggins is the primary performer and it hit the charts under his name, but McDonald adds vocal support and has played the song many times in concert.

It’s a good song for deciding you or we are making changes or ready for changes.

There’ve been times in my life,
I’ve been wonderin’ why.
still, somehow i believed we’d always survive.
now, i’m not so sure
you’re waiting here, one good reason to try
but, what more can i say? what’s left to provide?
(you think that maybe it’s over,)
(only if you want it to be.)
are you gonna wait for a sign, your miracle?
stand up and fight.
(this is it.)
make no mistake where you are.
(this is it.)
you back’s to the corner.
(this is it.)
don’t be a fool anymore.
(this is it.)
The waiting is over, no, don’t you run.

h/t to Metrolyrics.com

So, there it is, the theme music for the last day of the second month of the new year labeled 2021. Stay postive, test negative, wear a mask, and get vaccinated. That is all.

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