Elenore

We have kittens today. For a number of you, that's all you really want to know. There are dogs too, btw. 

I do so love that these two remain bonded. 

Though I don't think they'll both fit in that space together much longer. 

Poor Shep. He doesn't even get the upper bunk. 

But on these scorcher of days, he does like the cold floors. 

Olive. My would-be girlfriend. 

I'm still unclear which kitten is which. This "seems" like a guy thing. 

On my way home from my evening run, I happened up on 710 walking Shep in a park. 

Someone was VERY excited to see me.  .....and it wasn't 710. 

The stop confused the poor boy because they continued their walk and not with me. 

Again - no idea who this is. Or which one, I guess. 

Bailey got a new toy. No update on how long it lasted. 

OMG. Clearly they feel comfortable with my nephew. 

Ellie.  She would not move on her walk until Shep came over to say 'hi'. 

Song by: the Turtles

Mississippi

I almost did a I'm not posting today post. I just didn't think I had it in me - as it is very close to my bedtime. 

But what the hey. Hay? 

I started out the first part of the year strong on reading. A book a week for the first three months and then it kind of squealed to a halt for a while. Maybe I burned out. Or my mental health just had me lose focus. Both things can be true. 

Like movies, I don't really read book reviews until after I finish the tome. And like movies, that is for good reason. I like to make up my own mind. 

So I started the year with Huckleberry Finn. 

As I mentioned it to others, it is a book you read because you have to. I don't think that many would willingly select it. My opinion: it's not a great book. The story is ok. The writing is fair (sorry Twain). The dialect, while I get it, is difficult at best. ....and that doesn't even touch on THE word - which is used like 14,501 times. 

I read it because I didn't have to in high school, but I wanted to read the 2024 pseudo companion piece James, which is supposed to be the similar story told by Jim, the slave. I thought that could be extremely interesting. 

To do that though, I had to slog through Finn. 

BTW, this is not a book review of James, and technically not Finn either. 

I made the grave grave grave mistake of going to amazon and reading the reviews of Finn after completing it and James. 

Ohhhhhhhh Boy. 

I could flood this blog with some questionable reviews - at best.  But I do think I found the "best" one. 

Yes, the Arthur should have known better. 

THIS folks. This one review is what this country is dealing with in overall education, tolerance, bigotry and racism. I'm sure I'm leaving out some others too. 

Wisely, years ago, amazon took out comments on reviews. Of course, I so wanted to post something, but it wasn't enough for me to actually post a review of Finn. 

So, thanks C. klauber for showing us the real 'murica. 

Song by: Paula Cole

Shout

If I can get my hands on a megaphone, I might have a new hobby. 

How fucking satisfying would this be?

This would be my dream hobby. Or dream job if it came with medical and dental. 

Song by: Tears for Fears

False Alarm

Every now and then, I am blatantly reminded how unprepared we are for an emergency. 

For years I sat on a hospital emergency / disaster preparedness committee. 

We simulated helicopter or plane crashes. Tornadoes. Anthrax release. Something similar to the Great White concert stampede. Mass shootings.  You get the idea. 

The only times I remember going from drills to actuality was that August where one-quarter of the country lost power (2002?). And we kind of kicked it in for 9/11 - though all those hospital transfers we thought we'd be getting never materialized. 

Home preparedness is different. I mean, it's not, but it is treated a lot more casually. Well, it is here. 

Two nights ago (well, early morning), our 'fire' alarm went off. 

I say 'fire' because the new ones can detect C02. Maybe radon, but I don't think so. Anyhoo - I wasn't sure it was a fire. 

710 must have changed them because they used to talk - which I loathed. In theory it would say what the emergency was and where. BUT - it was so loud and it was tied into a series of alarms throughout the house, the verbal warnings were all staggered and talked all over each other, so you couldn't understand a word being said. 

Now, the new one(s) just blare. 

If you've ever been in a hotel when one has gone off, it is deafening - and for good reason. Hundreds of bodies in those buildings in various states of sleep or sleeping aids. Our home ones are no less loud. It scares the shit out of me. 

Especially at 04:00. 

Granted I was semi-awake, but not out of bed. Not even truly out of sleep. I jump up and out of bed - nekkid - and immediately head to leave the bedroom. 

WTF? 

I'm going into the 'fire'? Naked. Without glasses. In the dark. 

710 is clamouring to get out of bed too and I think Shep was downstairs, probably freaking out. I know I was. 

Then all of the sudden it all stops. We didn't find the detector - we never even left right outside the bedroom. It felt like it rang for 20 minutes when it was probably 20 seconds. 

What did we do?  Went back to bed. 

Again - WTF? 

We didn't check a thing to see if we were truly ok. We did nothing. 

In retrospect I was kicking myself. Later 710 said, we should make sure to grab our wallets.  WHAT?

How about Shep, shorts and eyewear. 

If truly a fire, do I have a preference if the fire brigade finds me naked or burnt to a crisp? I'll take the former. I mean, unless it is February. Shrinkage in the cold and all. 

I used to keep my glasses on my bedside table, but anymore I just throw them in the bathroom when I brush my teeth before bed. Now they're back on my bedside table. Along with my phone. As long as I can grab those on the way to find Shep, I'll be ok. 

Still, we need a plan. It seems silly to have and even practice it, but when it is even a false alarm, we need to know what we are doing. Because clearly we did not. 

Song by: the Head and the Heart

Weather with You

I would really rather not comment on the Texas girl's camp that got wiped out by a flood and killed all or most of the campers and the staff. 

I mean, it is fucking horrifying, no? 

Surely some of them were going to end up in STEM classes, while some would have grown up to oppress women's rights. I mean, it was Texas. 

STEM would have helped them better. But you know......science. What's it ever been good for? 

In an even semi-perfect world, we, the U.S., would learn from this. These were somewhat preventable deaths. 

DOGE laid off 880-1000 (or more) folks at National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) in March of this year. More than 10% of their staff 

Some say it was for Musk to get his Starlink the contract for satellite control. Doubtful we'd get a confirmation on that possibility. In reality, it's probably due to BLOTUS being ridiculed for inaccurately drawing on a hurricane weather map and the NWS correcting him. 

You and I both know that butthurt him. And he is very very very prone to retaliation. 

Those layoffs include meteorologists and the National Weather Service, which includes early warning systems. 

Ohhhhh......so sad.  

Wouldn't it be weird if the girls who were killed were the daughters of the Tesla employees who had to relocated to Texas because of their boss?  The same boss who was the one who cut those NOAA jobs?  It's creepy to say, but it would be some kind of delayed karma. 

I mean it is all sad. And I'm 100% certain that no one in this administration will take any blame or responsibility for this. Why start now?

.....and just look at the fucking blog image. Julie (official!) 

I mean, you cannot argue with her logic.  

Really. I mean, you can't. It is impossible to reason with someone like this - and there are millions of someones like this. That it took someone a few days to blame Pappy Joe is more the amazing part. I'd have thought that'd be in an instant. 

So far, I have not heard Marjorie Taylor Cunt weigh in on the Secret Jewish Space Lasers that cuntrol (not a typo) weather. 

Oh yes, she did once say “Yes they can control the weather. It’s ridiculous for anyone to lie and say it can’t be done.”.  While she did not say who "they" were, I'm guessing it's a few guys at the JCC who meet on Thursday mornings for their shvitz.......and hurricane planning. 

Speaking of............Dave Richardson, the BLOTUS appointed head of FEMA, said - just last month - that he was not aware there was a hurricane season. 

Holy Fuck Balls. 

Maybe I shouldn't be so worried about SS / ICE. Maybe Mother Nature will end it sooner - and more humanely. 

Song by: Crowded House

My Music Monday

There is a "group" named Role Model. 

Doing absolutely zero research, going by this video that group might only be one guy. Seriously, I didn't even both wiki'ing him / them. 

"They" might have the song of summer with "Sally, When the Wine Runs Out". 

The tune is part rock, part pop, all fun. Mostly for the chorus, but the versus are good too. I cannot quite place it, but there is a familiarity in style. My gut says it is in a Fountains of Wayne vein, but I'm not sure that is correct. 

And I really think they pull it off with just how they sing the name "Sally. 

The video is fun too. I'm sure very staged, but it doesn't quite come off that way, and the singer looks like he's having fun - which is rare. 

Ice

To be honest, I have been exhausted even thinking about writing this post. The impetus for it has literally kept me awake for the last 2-3 nights. I even had an anxiety attack contemplating the reason behind why I had to write about it. 

Yeah - you all know the bill / budget that passed both sides of Congress last week - by the skins of their teeth - cuts a lot of services and adds almost $4,000,000,000,000 (that's trillion) to the deficit. All of it problematic, of course. 

But an original plan in an earlier version of that bill was something like $4 billion for ICE, yet the amount expanded to $175 Billion. 

Let that sink in. 

That's right - almost 44x more. 

We are a country of ~330 million folks. That equates to ~$530,300 per resident. 

Yes, I'm stating it that way. If it were truly about just undocumented people in the country, the cost per person would skyrocket. 

This is not what this is about. 

This about keeping citizens in line. This is about controlling the population. This is about Germany 1936-1945. For what else would they need that kind of funding?  No seriously, I'll wait for responses in the comments. 

Yes, it's Blobby the Alarmist again. Welcome back to my world. 

ICE. A government "law enforcement" agency. 

Unnamed. Masked. No warrants. No charges. No due process. No accountability. Little to no information given on 'prisoners' or locations / destinations. Answering to seemingly no one. Expanding at incredible speed.  

If that isn't the SS, I don't know what the fuck is. 

They have clearly detained and taken legitimate citizens already. No recourse. None. How is this acceptable to anyone other than BLOTUS, Stephen Miller, and Kristi Noam? 

To be even clearer - out of BLOTUS' mouth:  says his administration is actively exploring a proposal to detain U.S. citizens and send them to prisons in El Salvador. 

"The homegrowns are next, the homegrowns. You've got to build about five more places,"  BLOTUS said to El Salvadoran president Nayib Bukele, an apparent reference to prison space that would be needed in El Salvador to house U.S. citizens. 

I honestly don't know how one could be much clearer on plans and intent. And now with the additional funding? 

You are a homegrown. So is your family. I'd say prove me wrong, but they're not looking for proof or facts. Good luck with that. 

You have to believe he's learned not to make the same mistake as Germany and keep detailed records of people who are imprisoned and / or eventually executed. They have literally taken away all the barriers to all of this. 

This literally keeps me up at night. All night. For nights in a row. 

There is and will be no one to help us. There will be no one to liberate any camps. No one is big enough who will care. China? Russia?  Please.  We. Are. Fucked. 

.....and btw.....the Medicaid cuts are scheduled to hit after mid-terms. This way, GOPers up for reelection won't be on the hook for this disaster, and if they are replaced with dems, those dems will take the fall for something they had nothing to do with. 

GOP might be evil, but they're smart about it. 

Song by: Sarah McLachlan

Big Dog

I'm playing fast and loose with this pet post shit lately. 

My sister in law and nephew have not been cooperating with cat and kitten pics. The nerve!

While I clearly love Shep, there does have to be a mix of animals, no?  So, people in my run groups are helping out - whether they know it or not (and they don't). 

I won't lie. I love when Shep makes the IG feed at daycare. 

I didn't catch this guy's name. And he was way more interested in squirrels than me. 

He loves a cool play to rest. He loves outside, but it's been so hot out, even he wants in. 

Running friend Kimberly's dog, Chloe. 

Cavalier King Charles breed always seems to on edge with those eyes. Not in a good way. 

Poor Chole was rescued from a mill, where she was forced to just have litter after litter. She's learning to adjust. 

Bailey rules daycare. 

She is a big dog in a little dog body. They finally moved her from the littles room to the big dogs. And I am SO glad our daycare doesn't have a webcam. I'd do nothing but watch all day long. 

Water dog time. 

HANK!

My running friend Diane's dog. I got to meet him yesterday after a run. I love him. 

Ahhh hounds. Food driven hounds. 

Song by: Lyle Lovett

Don't Tread on Me

Anymore, whenever I see a U.S. flag, the image is all I see. 

And I'm being nice. 

I'm really just thinking a full on swastika. That seems to be the theme. 

Those who currently fly the flag, especially on a vehicle, I'm convinced are all MAGAts. But anyone who displays one, I just automatically don't trust them. 

On one of the training routes we do, there had been one sign and one flag hanging out at the edge of their property. 

The sign: WAY TO GO BRANDON. It came down sometime after the 2024 election, or maybe the inauguration, I wasn't paying attention. 

The flag: DON'T TREAD ON ME. 

Dude (and you know it is), you live in an affluent almost all white, almost all christian neighborhood. You have at least 5 acres that are on the edge of a beautiful metropark. No one - and I mean NO ONE - is treading on you. 

Quite the opposite, I'd say. 

Yet, this is where we are. Where we have been. It's just a bit more blatant now. 

So today, ironically, is "our" day of "independence", which again - is quite the opposite of what we are experiencing. I'd take King George III at this point over our turd. 

To them I say: Fuck your fireworks. Fuck your picnics. Fuck your parades. Fuck your faux patriotism. 

Honestly, I'd almost have more respect for them if they actually admitted they were fascists. At least for once they'd be truthful. But I'm pretty convinced they don't know the meaning of the word. 

So enjoy your day off should you have it. I'll go to a race, but it's not 4th themed and that's as much 'celebrating' that I'll be doing. 

But you do you. 

Song by: Metallica

Cooking with Blobby

This isn't cooking. No heat was involved. None. 

Yet it was messier and more time consuming than I expected. Not to say it is over the top, but I wanted neater and quicker.  .....like my sex. 

710 forwarded me a recipe on the Best Gazpacho.  

Eyes were rolled. 

I've attempted Gazpacho before - almost a decade ago. I don't remember it going well. I do remember me not making it ever again. Until now. 

I like the cold soup. 710 really likes it. There is little I won't do for the man. And it is still hovering around 90°F. It seemed like the right time. 

This recipe was similar to the last. A few differences that seemingly made it easier. Blender instead of food processor - which is pretty much equal. And a few less ingredients. No bread. No green pepper - though there is a different kind of pepper used this time. Maybe it was all just a wash. 

Let's get into it - shall we? 

Ingredients 

Yield: 8 to 12 servings, about 1 quart 

About 2 pounds ripe red tomatoes, cored and roughly cut into chunks 

1 Italian frying (cubanelle) pepper or another long, light green pepper, such as Anaheim, cored, seeded and roughly cut into chunks 

1 cucumber, about 8 inches long, peeled and roughly cut into chunks 

1 small mild onion (white or red), peeled and roughly cut into chunks 

1 clove garlic 

2 teaspoons sherry vinegar, more to taste 

Salt  

½ cup extra-virgin olive oil, more to taste, plus more for drizzling 

Procedure

Step 1 Combine tomatoes, pepper, cucumber, onion and garlic in a blender or, if using a hand blender, in a deep bowl. (If necessary, work in batches.) Blend at high speed until very smooth, at least 2 minutes, pausing occasionally to scrape down the sides with a rubber spatula. I

I would have liked to use the immersion blender, but it was on the fritz big time, so I had to transfer (in batches). More mess. More dirty appliances. 

Step 2 With the motor running, add the vinegar and 2 teaspoons salt. Slowly drizzle in the olive oil. The mixture will turn bright orange or dark pink and become smooth and emulsified, like a salad dressing. If it still seems watery, drizzle in more olive oil until texture is creamy. 

I also added a tablespoon of tomato paste. The hot house tomatoes just don't have the bigger flavour. I think adding it helped. That ingredient is not on the above list. 

There is difficulty slowly pouring olive oil in a blender and taking a picture at the same time - which is why you don't have one. 

Step 3 Strain the mixture through a strainer or a food mill, pushing all the liquid through with a spatula or the back of a ladle. Discard the solids. Transfer to a large pitcher (preferably glass) and chill until very cold, at least 6 hours or overnight. 

I did and didn't do this part. The blender, doing much of the work already made things mostly smooth. I tried to get it through a strainer I had, but all that was coming through was watered down liquid. Even if I could have gotten the rest through it would have been more like watered down tomato juice - and I didn't want that. 

I gave up and threw it all in a glass bowl (I don't have a large glass pitcher!) and put in in the fridge for a few hours. 

Step 4 Before serving, adjust the seasonings with salt and vinegar. If soup is very thick, stir in a few tablespoons ice water. Serve in glasses, over ice if desired, or in a bowl. A few drops of olive oil on top are a nice touch.

I garnished with some cucumber, tomato, onion and pepper. There was a drizzle of olive oil and red wine vinegar too. It did not need additional salt. 

This was a side to our salmon dinner last evening. It was light. It was flavourful. It was cool. Literally. The garnishes added a nice texture. 

I would do this one again. It came out much better than last. 

26

Against my better judgement - and assuming I had any in the first place - Fall marathon training started yesterday evening. 

Yes, I said marathon. Not half. 

I have the right to change my mind, of course, but I'm feeling the urge to try the full marathon again. 

Right now it's been 14 months since my last full. 

The stress fracture of the hip really threw me out of sorts. Actually, the Cleveland Marathon did a mental number on me too. 

I think I'm past all that. 

I think. 

As I think I said during my two half marathons so far this year, I was very happy when I saw the full folks split off knowing I wasn't going with them. Something has changed in me in the last week or so. 

Oh, and I also swore I would never run another Spring marathon again. Right now I'm sticking to that. But training in the summer if no picnic (see pic above). 

My Fall options are somewhat limited: Detroit / Canada; Marine Corp and Philadelphia. 

I mean, I know there are others, but Indy, Columbus and Cape Cod just aren't on my list now. 

Detroit has been sold out for weeks. The full. Both halves. The 10k AND the 5k. Only the disability portion is open - and while my running my qualify me as 'disabled', I'm guessing I won't gain entry that way. 

However, Detroit has a very active bib transfer system going on now - this far ahead. If I want in, I'm sure I can snag someone's bib who has already paid and changed their mind. 

DC is good too, though the Marine Corp might sell out soon. And it's their 50th, so that would be something. And while I love DC, ugh, the inhabitants at both ends of Constitution Ave just make me not want to do it. 

Philly is good too - it's just LATE. Like same week at Thanksgiving late. 

I might just let 710 decide where he wants to go. 

Yesterday's run was horrible. 85F to start. And I went out WAY too hard. An 8:14 first mile. INSANE. It kicked off my asthma which fucked up the rest of the run. Yet afterwards, everyone kept commenting on how strong I looked. I think they need their eyes checked. 

Yesterday was a two shower day. But it was also a two run day, as I still did my morning run as well.

At this moment, I think I'm doing a full marathon this autumn. As soon as I plunk down $$$, I'll let you know. 

Song by: Caamp

Citizen

As for the tweet / twat to the left here, I don't know if the first sentence of the bottom message is actually accurate. 

I think someone could make that argument for sure. I mean, how far back are we talking?  At some point many of us come of people off the boat who were not documented citizens. 

If the children of those folks are not considered citizens, what does that do downstream to you and me? 

What I really do not get is this was a BLOTUS executive order - intended to end birthright citizenship, a foundational principle that grants U.S. citizenship to all children born on U.S. soil. 

I've seen the social media posts saying that Ivana and Melnoma were not U.S. citizens when they had their children with BLOTUS, so they should be deported.  .....and if this order stands, I'd like to see them gone - though I think Baron and Melanoma will fist-bump and go "YES! We're FREE!"

SCOTUS has backed this up - to a degree - last week and I am just fucking flummoxed. 

If the U.S. Constitution can be amended (read: abolished) with an executive order then yes, we are all fucked. 

The Fourteenth amendment defines citizenship, stating that all persons born or naturalized in the United States and subject to its jurisdiction are citizens of the U.S. and of the state where they reside.

Amending the Constitution is not a SCOTUS function. It is Congress led - though with this fucking Congress who the hell knows what would happen.  

So, why is ANY of this a thing? 

The last part of the tweet is the one that is hair raising. 

Yes, I get people are shrugging at it - and me - but this is it. Strip away enough and leave things ambiguous and the previous slippery slope becomes a waterfall. 

This is an administration that has been systematically stripping away rights. And now with SCOTUS' help, you know..........why not go all the way. 

Project 2025 is pretty clear about this. 

U.S. policy should be informed by Christian nationalist teachings and morality. It states that it seeks for families to have the freedom to above all pursue “religious devotion and spirituality.” One of its core goals is to “Secure our God-given individual rights to live freely.” It is clear that the initiative defaults to a conservative Christian understanding of God – elsewhere it states that “God ordained the Sabbath as a day of rest”, referring exclusively to Sunday, as opposed to the days of rest held by other religions.

I get some - even here - might see me as an alarmist or paranoid. And I'd rather be that and wrong than laissez-faire and shrug saying "we never thought it would really happen". 

I think it's really happening. No one is stopping this guy or this administration. 

No One. 

Song by: Simple Minds

My Music Monday

Congrats. You've made it to the last of my current running playlist deeper cuts. You're to be commended, should you have listened at all. 

This one is a throwback to about 20+ years ago with an electronic artist / DJ who goes (went?) by BT. 

That's it. BT. 

Electronic(a) and dance music have their place and time in my listening, but less so since I stopped going to gay bars and doing drugs at said bars, like 25 years ago. 710 is, and always has been, a lover of dance music. He still will play the Studio 54 channel on XM. He is the one who introduced me to BT. 

Until looking up the video for today's song - "Simply Being Loved (Somnambulist)" - I had no idea JC Chasez  - from *NSync "fame" sang on the song. Which part, I am not sure I could tell you. 

Oddly, this isn't even BT's best song. Somewhere in the YouTube comments said there are 6,178 vocal edits in this song alone, and at one point (still?) put BT in the Guinness World Book of Records. Apparently there is a documented record that someone is keeping tabs of such things.  I thought it was just the two overweight twins on their minicycles. 

Still, the beat is good for keeping pace, and that's what I'm going for with my playlists. 

8 (circle)

In lieu of anything substantial to post (arguments can be made that I have yet to do so), I will go the route of the frivolous post. 

Self serving and self aggrandizing/

At some point yesterday, I hit (and surpassed) 8,000,000 hits to this blog thingy. 

Just to remind folks: it took me 14.5 years to hit one million. And another 5+ to hit two million. 

Since then, it's been up and down. 2024 saw another (!) four million come in. Since then it's slowed down a bit and I am seemingly getting one million hits every 6-8 months. 

I'm not complaining. 

I've said before, it is most likely bots or AI. 

I get a fair number of comments from "Mari" that never make it to my posts. They are all the exact same language and I just go through and delete them and mark them as spam. 

I know threatened to monetize this blog thingy if the numbers kept increasing, but I have not pulled that trigger. I have not even researched that trigger. 

When it comes down to it, I'm a lazy fuck. 

It looks like I'll end this month with about 180,000 hits, which is great. There were months when I was in the low hundreds. Not of thousands, but triple digits. I don't take these numbers as validation, though some stupid AI program is searching me out for a reason. 

I do not use you-know-whose-name, so they can't be searching for that. Oh, I guess it could be the administration putting me on yet another one of their lists. That seems to more reasonable. My FBI file must be about 7" thick at this point. .....because you just know they print them off, hole punch them, bind them and put them in a drawer. 

There was a time I said if I didn't blog for three days in a row, assume I'm dead. Now, just assume I got no due process. 

That seems more likely. 

Song by: Bon Iver

Watching TV

It's mostly about kittens today - and why not???

Yes, there are dogs present, but a lot about my nephew's kitties. 

It's been so hot and even with air conditioning Shep is smart enough to lay on the marble hearth just to stay cool. 

Bailey got a new toy for her bday. She can be long when she wants. 

OMG they're adorable. 

Shep helping 710 with the power washing of our patio. 

Man does it get disgusting over the winter. 

Apparently Dr. Henry Kissnpurr (yes, you read that correctly) likes watching Andor. 

From other people's accounts, he might be one of the few. 

The prerequisite shot of Shep in a creek. 

We've had to go to heavily wooded trails to hike. He can't be on asphalt when it's this hot, so we head to the woods, and there is usually water in which to frolic. 

I do love the bonding. 

I'm not 100% sure which kitten this is. 

Song by: Roger Waters

Record of the Month

I figured I'd do a monthly 'what I'm listening to' kind of thing. This could be viewed as a lame placeholder kind of post. And probably it is. But it's my blog! So there!    

I had high high hopes for the new Counting Crows disk, Butter Miracle, the Complete Sweets. It's their first full length disk in a decade, which just seems unreal to me. 

About three years ago, the Crows released Butter Miracle - Suite One. The disk contained four songs. The idea was to release the rest at a later date on Suite Two - which never quite materialized. 

The band reworked (or scrapped) the Suite Two and started over, or tweaked (or both). Suite Two was scrapped for the Complete Sweets - which was the new material along with what would or could have been Two.  And yes, they made it a homophone. 

I was totally wow'd by the first single from the full disk, "Spaceman in Tulsa", which still resides as my #1 song from 2025. 

Perhaps there was no way for them to top this song, because, they really don't on this disk. 

I like the Crows. I think I own everything they have, most of it good. Some of it great. Some fair. 

That sentence alone kind of reviews the latest disk. 

I gotta say, it starts off badly. "With Love, From A-Z" is not the way to kick off a disk. Maybe it would have been fine further down in the tracklist, but as the start? Nah. It seems a lot longer than it's 4:42 track time.  Don't get me wrong, breaking it down by pieces it is all good, but not the tenor for the album. 

Or maybe it is. 

The Counting Crows have always been able to make the slower material work, and it kind of does here, but not effectively. "Under the Aurora" made my mind other places. It just goes on for a long time and while not completely free verse, it doesn't really stick to any pattern either, so it's kind of all over the place. I'm hoping it changes for me over time.

"Boxcars" is a breezy rocker that benefits from an addictive chorus. There are stabs of pedal steel guitar the toe-tapping beat that drives the second half of the song, and the stinging riffs that appear from nowhere to set the blood pumping. 

The final four songs made up Suite One back in 2021 and are what I would call traditional Counting Crows songs. They're good, but nothing off the charts great. And that is absolutely fine. They are well written and performed. Some of the songs border on sentimentality and uncertainty - which is kind of lead singer and main songwriter, Adam Duritz' thing. 

It is tough to be fair sometimes with this band. They created an almost perfect debut disk 30 years ago, and have been trying to live up to that since. That's a tall order. They've had some near perfect songs since, and some stellar disks. 

This is in the upper part of those. Say what you will about album sequencing, but it make all the difference in the world, even with good material. 

Heat Waves

Like many places in the U.S. this week, it has been a tad warm in the 216.

.....and I'm underselling it. Some of our lows have been the lower 80s. Our highs are the high 90s with a "feels like" heat index of over 100. Fun. 

Like the frigid temps, dog walks have been very shortened. The heat is too much on the dog's paws and we have to carry water everywhere. I've been doing the one long walk before the sun rises. 

Runs have been slightly miserable. Some are taking place inside on treadmills, but I'm still doing about half outdoors mostly for the social aspect....like last evening's pub run. Last one of these I fell down and go boom. Not so much this time. 

If you go back in this blog - and I don't really suggest it - I'd bitch about winters. Not as much anymore. I find as I age it is the heat that more difficult with which to deal. At one point we considered retirement someplace warm like the shores of North Carolina, but that is off the table. A week a year in that heat is fine - more than that, not so much. 

I've said this before too:  running in winter, I can warm up in 0.25 of a mile. There is no cooling down in this kind of heat. 

I have never been the guy who lays out at the beach or pool. I'm too antsy for that, and I don't know I was ever into getting a tan. 710 was when I met him. The idea of just sitting there seems crazy to me - even with people watching. 

The above image I took when it was almost 100 - at noon. A young woman on a towel, on a black rubber track at the school. Not a beach. No water. No one around.....except the creepy guy taking her pic through the fence. 

It's unfathomable to me to do such a thing - even if I was promised to be melanoma free. Good thing no one was running an 800 relay. 

She probably had her squeeze bottle of baby oil. 

Looks like we have a few more days of this at least. I mean, whatta gonna do? 

Song by: Glass Animals

App of the Month

I'm guessing - or deducing, more likely - that my insurance carrier was noticing my amount of claims for my visits to Ortho, PT and Chiro services last year and the beginning of this one. 

I got a little mailer for a "suggestion" to join Hinge Health.  

What got me to join was they're supposed to provide you some kind of device for pain. At the time, I was still experiencing a bit of knee pain, so I thought - fuck it, why not? 

It's an app. It has you run through some history - where your pain is, the severity, your mobility, etc. Then it builds a rotating number of exercises for you to do each day. No session is longer than 12 minutes, so how bad can it be? 

You DO have to read the fine print. Should you complete 3 classes, they'll send you a full set of resistance bands, that do come in a very nice holder. Should you do 6 classes, they send you a stand / prop for your phone so you can use it upright to do your exercises. And you must do 14 classes to get this so-called pain helping device. 

I'm nothing if not compulsive, so of course I do it all. 

It doesn't take long to figure out you're three steps away from having you do chair yoga - like an old fogey. I was kind of like. "fuck!".   And by "kind of",  I mean, I said it out lout at the gym. 

Let's run through a day.  Mind you, I don't get the same 6-7 exercises each day. The shuffle through many. 

It starts of with a daily reminder to start your session, based on a time you ask it to such a task. And it tells you how long the session will be when you log on.  10 minutes here. 

At this page it starts to list each exercise. You can opt to 'skip some of them. And each come with a modification if you cannot do it the preferred way. It also tells you what equipment you'll needing for this session. This time, no resistance bands. 

Each exercise has a verbal guided plan. Below the 'start', there are also instructional videos to watch should you need more guidance. The modifications are also there. 

Most of these have left and right sided exercises. 

This is where I feel they do these in senior living centers. 

There is an incorporation of full yoga on some of these. And it was nice to kind of touch on them, as I haven't done a ton of yoga for a while. 

In yoga I LOVED balancing poses. But it's been a while and they are proving difficult for me. Mind you, I'm at the gym and I keep my shoes on. I've always had better form in bare feet. 

Yay.  I'm done.   .....except for some administrative work. 

They show you the areas they targeted in the previous sessions - and then you rate each one. 

This is where I take issue. Should you do this for a while - and I'm on like week 15 - there should be gradations between "too easy" and "too hard". 

I get it when you're just starting out, but there should be something in between to let them know there IS progress. Also, there is a difference for how one does on the left side vs the right. Everything is not symmetrical.  

Once per week, they do ask you to rate your pain in the areas you've identified.  And then they ask if work or play has been affected by your pain. And they recalibrate your workout based on all of the above

For the record, I did NOT get any device for my pain. I should check that out. Either my pain is not great enough for it to be effective, or it is in the wrong place or there is a clerical error. 

None of these are horribly taxing, but the pain in my knee is reduced, though that could be from the PT exercises I'm still doing too. I don't know I need to keep this up, but you know.........OCD.

If interested, go to the website hyperlinked near the top. Check your insurance or employer. I should say, this is (was) of no cost to me, as it did come from my insurance company - who I'm sure if thinking if I were in better condition, they wouldn't be paying so many claims.  It's hard to argue with that.