Tag: weather

Monday’s Theme Music

“Pour some coffee for me.” You need to imagine this being sung by Def Leppard to the tune of “Pour Some Sugar On Me”.

Bright sunshine has filled this Monday morning, April 12, 2021. Outside temperature is stirring past 42 degrees F. Promise for greater sunshine and warmth are in the air. Sunshine stole o’er this southern Oregon valley at 6:35 AM Pacific time. We wave good-bye to it at 7:49 PM, same time zone.

I’m thinking “Thorn In My Pride” by The Black Crowes (1992) for today’s music. At daybreak, while feeding the cats (thus curtailing their growing demands), the song’s opening lyrics came over me. I like the song’s bluesy sense, with its flashes of acoustics, organ, piano, and electric lead guitar. Add some Gospel elements. It’s a throwback sound to the late sixties/early seventies for me, like a lot of the group’s music.

Wake me when the day breaks
Show me how the sun shines

h/t to AZLyrics.com

I think the floofs were waking me at daybreak so I could see the sun shine. (Or so they claim. I really think it was just about food.) “No need,” I told them. “I’ll catch up with it later, while you’re napping.” They were eating, though, and my retort travelled wholly over their little bowed heads. Then I returned to bed for just a little longer.

Stay positive, test negative, wear a mask, get the vax, and have some coffee. Or tea. I hear tea works well, too. “Pour some tea for me.” Sounds like it works. Cheers

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Sunday’s Theme Music

Hey, today is supercalifragilisticexpialidocious Sunday. It is also April 11, 2021. The sun came creeping into the windows in Ashland about 6:37 AM this morning and is expected to creep away at 7:48 PM.

With regards to the temperature, the sky cleared last night, which meant it grew cold. Temperatures clipped the lower thirties. Robust sunshine has already pushed us up to 45 F. We expect to bounce off the high sixties before the temperatures sink again. The cats are loving it. Each has gone out and found sunshine, sitting there like worshippers with their face to the sun. You can almost hear them purring, “Ahhhhh.”

Got my COVID-19 vaccination yesterday. Did the ‘one-shot’ J&J option, because that’s what was available. No ill-effects were felt yesterday. Feel fantastic today.

Song-wise, we’re looking at “Gonna Fly Now” by DeEtta West and Nelson Pigford from 1977. My wife drove this choice. “This site says that the number one song on your twenty-first birthday will tell you how your 2021 will go.” “Gonna Fly Now”, from the film, Rocky (1976). Here are the lyrics:

Trying hard now
It’s so hard now
Trying hard now

Getting strong now
Won’t be long now
Getting strong now

Gonna fly now
Flying high now
Gonna fly, fly, fly

h/t to Genius.com

I recall visiting Mom and my little sisters (just entering their teens) while on leave from the military in 1977. (I’d been in the Philippines on duty on an unaccompanied tour but returned home when my little brother was killed in a car crash.) The littlest sister (now a mother of two teenage boys herself) told me that this was her favorite song. Anyway, it’s become hooked in my head today. I must put it on the net to set it free from my mind (or free my mind from it…).

The wife’s song was “Shadow Dancing” by Andy Gibbs. She’s a year younger than me.

Stay positive, test negative, wear a mask, and get a vax. Hope you fly. Cheers

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Tuesday’s Theme Music

Welcome back to another edition of Tuesday. Today is April 6, 2021. It’s coolish today, 42 degrees F, with mild threats of rain showers. Spring is enveloping our valley with blossoms, buds, and blooms. Tulips, daffodils, and star asters are abundant, setting senses aflame with their sweet fragrance and bold beauty. Ms Sun appeared at 6:45 AM in Ashland. She expects to spend the day with us before jetting out of sight at 7:42 PM. During that period, it’s anticipated that we’ll get warmer.

We’re scheduled for the J&J one-dose COVID-19 vaccination this weekend. Oregon had shifted eligibility. The lowered bar now includes us, folks in our lower sixties without children and minor health issues. Other states are including everyone over eighteen, so PROGRESS!

Dad remains in the hospital, experiencing edema. He and his wife were vaccinated against COVID-19 months ago. They’re not certain what’s causing the edema. He’s now been in there two weeks as they address built up fluid in his legs. Eighty-nine this year, he’s been medicating for COPD for years (after being a Lucky Strikes smoker (LSMFT), pipe smoker, and cigar smoker), along with minor kidney matters. He’s usually a good hospital patient, he tells me (and his wife agrees), but this visit has him on a low sodium diet. The limited food choice is making him cranky.

I woke up singing “In A Big Country” by Big Country this morning. Not infrequently, sunshine and sprawling green vistas summon this 1983 song to emerge from the deep memory well into consciousness.

Been writing like crazy every day. I’m closing on the end of the first draft of the novel-in-progress. I’m one who modifies and edits as I progress, tidying pacing and story, clarifying details, and sharpening focus as I go. I’ve also been reading a great deal, two to three books a week. Last week was Transcriptions (Kate Atkinson), Echo Burning (Lee Child), and Under a Midnight Sun (Keigo Higashino). This week, it’s The Night Watchman (Louise Erdrich), Circe (Madeline Miller), and The Sentinel (Lee Child with Andrew Child).

Still keeping up with my walking, too (knock on wood), achieving at least twelve miles per day, averaging 12.3 miles per day for the last six months. It’s a lot easier with the long days of sunshine and comfortable weather.

Stay positive, test negative, wear a mask, and get the vax. Got my coffee. Gonna go write like crazy, at least one more time.

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Floofsday’s Theme Music

Good Night. Today is Floofsday, March 32, 2021. Sunset is at 7:01 AM in Ashland and sunrise will be at 7:45 PM. This morning’s temperature is 75 degrees F but we expect to cool down some, reaching 51 by late tonight.

Yesterday’s walk was gloriously perfect. Sunshine burst through, heaving the heat into the high seventies while a mild breeze countered the worst effects. Trees and flowers are blooming, spreading colorful shapes, threading the air with sweet scents. Lot of walkers were out in the hilly streets where I was roaming. Most of us weren’t masked but shied away, keeping proper distance plus.

This situation kicked the 1985 Dire Straits song, “So Far Away”, into my conscious music stream. “So Far Away” was on Brothers in Arms, the album that included “Money for Nothing” and “Walk of Life”, two of my favorite Dire Straits tunes. Stationed at Shaw Air Force Base in South Carolina, I played that album a lot that year, driving my Mazda around the southeastern United States on temporary duty assignments in the Air Force or going north — a straight shot up I-77 — to visit family.

I thought the song works as a theme song for this day. Last April seems so far away. Although we’re marking progress toward the pandemic’s end, a return to normalcy also seems so far away.

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

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Tuesday’s Theme Music

Ahoy. Today is Tuesday, March 30, 2021. It’s also national I Am in Control Day in the United States, a holiday to honor Alexander Haig’s famous declaration after President Ronald Reagan was shot in 1981. The sun broke over the horizon at 6:57 AM in Ashland, and is the world’s rotation is expected to turn us away from it at 7:34 PM. Weather-wise, I’m peering at blue sky as far west as my eyes can see. Sunshine paints everything in view. Although it’s 36 degrees F now, we expect to chip into the seventies today.

Speaking of the seventies, a line from “Mexican Radio” by Wall of Voodoo (1983) was mentioned on another blog that I read yesterday. My brain snapped onto it like a hungry cat stealing a piece of chicken. It (my brain, not the cat, chicken, or blog) has been singing the song to me all yesterday afternoon, continuing the serenade this AM. Let me put an end to this by offering it to others to hear and sing. Not a bad song, although it’s a little repetitious. Most pop/rock songs feature a bit of repetition, though. Give it a listen, see what you think. I’d never seen the video before — was outside of America in 1983 and 1984, and we didn’t receive music channels on our television services — so this is a first for me.

Stay positive, test negative, wear a mask, and get the vax (if you can figure out if you’re eligible, not so easy to sometimes do as information changes; after forty-five minutes of discussion and study this morning, we concluded we’re still not eligible).

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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

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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

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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.

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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.

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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

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