Tag: weather

Monday’s Theme Music

We’ve done it! We’ve made it to another Monday. Give yourself a pat on the back. You deserve it. Most of us do. Doesn’t always seem like Monday wants us with it.

Today is August 9, 2021. Sol’s first pearly gold rays struck Ashland at 6:12 AM, immediately pushing the temperature up from the sixties degrees where it sat. With smoke sting nipping our nostrils, scratching our eyes and throats, and hazing the sky’s blue into an ancient gray, temperatures in the low nineties are forecast. Cynics believe it will be closer to the mid-nineties, pointing to a recent trend of under-forecasting the highs. The sun will grow into a red rubber ball and wink out behind the hills at 8:20 PM. At least we had a nocturnal break from the smoke. Windows were cracked. Fresh, cool air washed in. Ah, relief.

Multiple songs shared play time in my head yesterday, last night, this morning. Like, the Jefferson’s theme music. “Backfield in Motion”. “Wedding Bell Blues”. But also, “Surrender”. The Cheap Trick 1978 song is the loudest, strongest, most pervasive.

Whatever happened to all this season’s
Losers of the year?
Every time I got to thinking
Where’d they disappear?
But when I woke up, Mom and Dad
Are rolling on the couch
Rolling numbers, rock and rollin’
Got my KISS records out

[Chorus]
Mommy’s alright
Daddy’s alright
They just seem a little weird
Surrender
Surrender
But don’t give yourself away
Hey, hey

h/t to Genius.com

My Mum and Dad never got my Kiss records out and rolled around and such. Perish the thought! Here’s the music. Stay positive, test negative, wear a mask as needed, and get the vax. Cheers

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Sunday’s Theme Music

“Sunday, Sunday, Sunday.” That echoing baritone used to herald local events during television and radio commercials. Monster truck shows. Wrestling at the armory. That sort of thing.

Today is Sunday, August 8, 2021. Smoke continues plaguing us. It’s better than fire. So many fires continue burning out here in the western U.S. that only the most positive of people can stay upbeat. White clouds are skulking through the sky. Temperatures will be on the cool side, with a high around 82 F, they say. But Alexa told me yesterday that it would only get to 86. Then 90. Then 91. That’s where it peaked. Hope it stays cool

Sunrise’s gray, gold, and pink marbleized lights and shadows came into the valley at 6:09 AM. We’ll have another red ball sunset at 8:27 PM.

COVID-19, the Delta variant, vaccines, and masks continue to dominate my news cycle. Despite the Olympics and the new U.S. air strikes in Afghanistan. All ‘water is wet’ news anymore. The U.S. has been bombing someone throughout my lifetime. Probably will be after I’m gone.

Yesterday had me getting rid of some old exercise equipment. I disassembled things to make it easier to load, transport, and unload at the dump. (Yes, nobody wanted any of it, further depressing me.) The bike required an allen wrench. I have several sets. When I realized I needed one and headed to the workbench, Billy Joel began singing “Allentown” (1982).

Well, we’re living here in Allentown
And they’re closing all the factories down
Out in Bethlehem, they’re killing time
Filling out forms, standing in line

h/t to Genius.com

Well, the song won’t leave my head. It played even when I was lying in bed. Even while feeding the cat getting a drink by the kitchen sink. So, I must spread it out to others to remove it from my mind. Sorry, friends. That’s how these things work. It’s been so since the first recorded song.

Stay positive, test negative, wear a mask as needed — and they do seem needed again in the U.S. as the nation records record numbers of new cases — and get the vax, if you can. The vax may not fully and completely protect you from the virus but it will mitigate its symptoms and the probable results. In other words, you’re more likely to survive with the vaccine than without it.

Cheers

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Saturday’s Theme Music

A pause, you know, a pause from thinking, writing, and looking at bad news, you know? So tempting to enumerate it all in a mini-rant but that could easily turn into something longer and uglier and I just am not going in that direction today.

Today is Saturday, and Saturday night’s alright for fighting, get a little action in. It’s also August 7, 2021, my 46th wedding anniversary to my high school girlfriend, daughter of my father’s best friend. Sunrise came at 6:10 AM. Sunset will be at 8:23 PM. Sunny overall, with highs around 88 degrees F. (Oh, but the smoke — no, stop, damn it. Reel that thing in.)

I’m going with Pink today, “Raise Your Glass”, from 20…(hang on, looking it up)…10. Here’s the music. Here’s hoping you have a good day. Cheers

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Friday’s Theme Music

“What a difference a day makes. Twenty-four little hours.”

It made a difference here. Blue skies. Unfiltered sunshine. Just a taste of smoke southern Oregon’s air. A tincture of dirty cloud on the western horizon. AQI is back down to 40 — the lower, the better — and in the green. Green is good. Most of Jackson County and southern Oregon remains yellow, with warnings to take precautions in effect. Our windows are open for now. A cool breeze bathes my back. Hopes this is a reflection that the fires are now out, or lined, contained, you know, no longer growing.

Today is Friday, August 6, 2021. Ashland’s temperature is expected to top out in the mid to upper eighties. Sunrise fell upon us at 6:09 AM. The Earth will turn us away from the sun at 8:24 PM.

Going with A-Ha and “Take On Me” from 1984 for my theme music. My wife and I were in a military cafeteria in Japan when we first saw the video for this song. It seemed interesting, different, attention-arresting. It’s in my head this morning due to dreams. Cogitating on their details, I said, “Aha.” And there’s the connection. It’s a little deeper in reality; the dreams were all superficially military oriented, hammering the point about change and the past.

Stay positive, test negative, wear a mask as necessary, and get the vaccine. Pleased to report that local pharmacies are suddenly swamped with people seeking one of the COVID-19 vaccines. Stories of people losing their lives or several loved ones from the virus because they were unsure about the vaccine have been circulating. They seem to be affecting people. Terrible reading about, example, a woman losing her husband, grandmother, mother, and husband’s father to COVID-19 because they wanted the vaccine to be more thoroughly tested first. Now she regrets their decision but she’s the only one who can get the vaccine. Too late for the rest.

Here’s the music. Cheers

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Wednesday’s Theme Music

They called it smoky Monday but Tuesday was just as bad. Lord, and Wednesday’s worse. Don’t know what it will be like Thursday but I don’t like the trend.

Today is Smoky Wednesday, August 4, 2021. The smoke continues to thicken from fires south of us in California in the Klamath National Forest. It’s miles away. The city and county keep putting out messages and alerts that evacuation in our area isn’t needed, the fires aren’t threatening us, but BTW, avoid breathing the air if you can. Limit it at least.

A ghostly pale sunrise was at 6:07 AM. The sun is a muted, cloistered presence. Sunset will come at 8:27 PM. The smoke keeps us a little cooler for most of the day with temperatures striding into the low nineties, but it’s a flat, still air. No wind at all. Stifling. Cool nights with temperatures falling to the low sixties are being experienced. But the smoke keeps us inside. I’ve learned that we must keep the western windows and doors closed, or the smoke comes in. Then we start sniffing, coughing, and sneezing as our throats grow dry and scratchy.

With all that, songs with smoke in them came to mind (you can already hear “Smoke on the Water”, can’t you) but no. I saw this video yesterday while stalking the net (or it was stalking me — such a relationship, you know?). It put a smile on my face and stuck with me. Not surprising, really. Music often sticks like peanut butter in my brain.

Here is Dave Grohl performing “Band on the Run” in front of Sir Paul McCartney and President Barack Obama and many other dignitaries in the White House in 2010. Hope you smile as I did.

Be safe. Stay positive. Test negative. Wear a mask as needed. Get the vax. On a mask aside, we went shopping in Medford, twenty miles away yesterday. We were masked, along with about ninety-five of the rest of the people in the stores.

Cheers

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Tuesday’s Theme Music

Cheers.

Let’s turn this thing around. Get vaccinated. Wear a mask as needed. Test negative. Stay positive. Here’s the music.

That triggered the 1982 song, “Digging Your Scene”. Fateful words. When I answered, I knew who it was — recognized the number, yeah? — and said, “I just got your message.” Courtesy of a telephone call. Have the Blow Monkeys invading my mind this morning.

Temperatures are again expected in the upper nineties, maybe low 100s F. Air quality is moderate right now (76). (Remember that song?) Wildfire smoke is blowing in from the south, turning the sun into a red rubber ball. Sunset will be at 8:28 PM. Sunrise was at 6:06 AM. It’s already August 3, 2021. Today is Twisted Tuesday. Good morning.

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Monday’s Theme Music

“Monday, Monday.” Some of us from a certain era will go on auto, bringing up the Mamas & Papas song. Or maybe it’s just me.

Today is Monday, the first of its kind in August, dubbed August 2, 2021. Our heatwave continues as our daylight hours decline. Sunrise in Ashland was 6:05 AM. Sunset will come at 8:29 PM. We’re again expecting our high temperatures to nip into the upper nineties/low 100s. Red flag alerts for fire dangers continue.

In COVID-19 matters, many of us are quietly preparing for another lockdown. Have some safe quiet gatherings. Stock up the frig, freezer, and pantry. Numbers are climbing. Vaccinations have stalled. ICUs are filling.

Enjoying the early morning light and wind, a 2012 song by the Swedish House Mafia began looping through my thinking.

Upon a hill across a blue lake,
That’s where I had my first heartbreak.
I still remember how it all changed.

My father said,
“Don’t you worry, don’t you worry, child.
See heaven’s got a plan for you.
Don’t you worry, don’t you worry now.”

h/t to AZLyrics.com

Of course, I am a perpetual worrier. No plan is ever perfect. Execution brings out more flaws. Others don’t share agendas, visions, and dreams. Clashes arise. Accidents happen. Nature interferes via disasters and disease. Stupidity, ignorance, and obstinance — sometimes by me, frequently by others — in my view, but this is my post — creates greater difficulty.

But I’m also an optimist. A believer in the long game. The arc’s inevitable bend.

Stay positive. Test negative. Wear a mask as needed. Get the vax. Here be the music. Cheers

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Saturday’s Theme Music

Thunderstorms passed through yesterday. A spritz of rain, some threatening rumbling, a bite of wind, done. Checked on new fires caused by lightning strikes. Nothing new found yet.

Today is Saturday, July 31, 2021, the final day of July, 2021. The year is half gone. Up in the northern hemi, daylight grows less. Heat still remains, though. And drought, out here in the American west.

Sunrise cometh at 6:02 AM. Sunset is at 8:31 PM. With more thunderstorms expected, our high is projected to top out at 95 degrees F.

A Mötley Crüe song pesters me today, leftovers from a walk the other evening. Caught up in my stride, enjoying a cool breeze, absorbed in writing in my head, I went further than planned. Suddenly, oh, it’s twenty minutes until sunset and you’re three miles from home. Turn about and start walking, dude. I kicked up my pace and did so, time to get home. Which led to home sweet home. Which invited in “Home Sweet Home” from 1985. This rock ballad features plenty of guitars, a touch of wistful piano, and strong vocals that range from soft, reflective humming to belting out, “Home sweet home”. The video depicts the rock and roll circus that so many of us think of when pondering the expression, ‘hard rock concert’. These bois were mos def into the glam.

Stay positive, test negative, wear mask as necessary, and get the vax. Wearing a mask seems like it has become more necessary once again. Case levels have leaped to April’s levels. Might even overtake those levels. Not surprising for here. Jackson County is a Trump stronghold. They eschew masking and vaxxing. My little town holds to both but it’s a destination spot for others. Tourism, you know? Interesting enough, we had to run an errand yesterday, sevenish PM. The vacant streets and empty parking spaces belied it being a Friday night. Were people voluntarily home, sick, or in isolation?

Here’s the music. Cheers

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Thursday’s Theme Music

If this is Thursday, then this must be Ashland.

I chuckled at lines like that. During several times in life, I traveled a lot. First in a military life, then in a marketing life. When I traveled like that, my focus narrowed. What country-city-base-trade show am I at? What’s the agenda? Who am I meeting? Where do I go next? The actual dates little mattered, except for the travel portion. But I didn’t think of that in terms of days or dates. It was more, “I leave tomorrow” or the day after, etc, and “I go home next week.”

Anyway, this is Thursday, July 29, 2021. My wife had her teeth cleaned yesterday. She made her next cleaning appointment: 2/2/2022, at 2 PM. Yeah, it’s not a Fibonacci sequence, but it is interesting. To us, at least. Hey, it’s been slow.

Sun shine invaded at 6:01 AM. A retreat is in order commencing at 5:33 AM. Another heat dome has arrived. Although heat advisories are in effect, I thought we might be spared the heat. Clouds covered most of the AM sky. But they’ve slowly slip-slided away, leaving a hazy blue dome overhead. Like yesterday, temperatures close to 100 are anticipated. Yesterday, we clipped 98 F at our house.

“Ventura Highway” by America (1972) invaded my morning head space. Two parts of the song were speaking to me: “alligator lizards in the air” and “Come on, Joe, you can always change your name. Thanks a lot, son, just the same.”

The alligator lizards part was easy. I was looking at the morning clouds. We had scanty popcorn pieces. No alligator lizards. But it still triggered the music. The other aspect was about character names in the novel in progress. I thought that perhaps I should change two characters names. They’re not exactly the same names as friends, but close enough. They are parodies of these friends. But the name is an integral part to them. Changing their names changes my impression of them. The names stay as they are for now.

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

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Wednesday’s Theme Music

In a befuddled state of mind. Was traveling so the day of the week and my psyche are misaligned. Is this Tuesday, I asked myself. No, thinking verified, remembered, they picked up trash yesterday (oh, yeah), followed by Fitbit on the wrist validation. It’s Wednesday. Okay. We’re starting to synchronize. Wednesday, 7/28/2021. I guessed sunrise was about 6:00 AM and sunset would be about 8:34 PM. Nailed sunrise but sunset is at 8:36 PM.

We’ve resumed standard summer fare. Yesterday remained cloudy all day. Morning showers surprised us a few times. Nothing more came of it but temps were cool. We’ve been presented an azure slate today. Expect temperatures to range into the upper nineties.

No smoke from wildfires. Knock on wood. Know they’re out there. Bootleg fire is over 400,000 acres. Fifty-three percent contained. Lava fire is 78% contained. Jack fire is 60%. They’re an hour to two hours east, south, north. Nothing burning to the west. Yeah, knock wood.

I have “Roll Over Beethoven” hovering in my head today. It began with trying to roll over in bed and finding myself trapped by others, unable to roll over. After grunting through that otherwise silent struggle (followed by annoyed feline appraisals) and reflecting on dreams, the Beatle version of the song went through. Then, for whatever reasons, I compared it to the Chuck Berry original. Next came the ELO version. When I was thinking about the song this morning after I awoke, I found this live ELO version happening. Enjoyed it. So here it is.

Stay positive, test negative, wear a mask as needed, get the vax, and keep rockin’. Here’s the music. Cheers

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