Once upon a time, when cars had wings, you hopped in the driver’s seat, rolled down your window, spread your wings, and flew down the open road without your hair being whipped into a tangle. You could spit out your window and splat the windshield behind you instead of having it blown back in your face. Those days are gone — or are they?
Mostly blue skies all day.
“Put down that camera and top off the jug, Paparazzo!”
The great jug standoff.
I thought this was a cute little Tit, but my Bird ID said it’s a Canyon Towhee.
“I see you don’t know your Tits from a Towhee! Stupid Paparazzo!”
“It’s like, Duh!”
Plum blossoms.
Honeybee on plum blossoms
One of many tree roots of all evil lying in wait to trip people running in the bosque was calling Brian’s name. “¿Dónde está Brian? ¡Ven y tropieza conmigo!”
Lyrics and Music by Timothy Price
Springing Forward is my 2024 Daylight Savings Time (DST) protest song (lyrics are below). The song is hyper, so don’t be surprised if you find it annoying, like changing to DST and losing an hour of sleep.
I’m particularly leery of losing an hour of sleep tonight since I’ve been having a lot of trouble with pain over the last several months and don’t always sleep very well. Side note: Laurie has more trouble sleeping than I do. Since last summer, I’ve been trying to get a handle on the pain. I started riding a mountain bike, changed to an anti-inflammatory diet, and lost over 35 pounds. You would think that would help a lot. But not really. I am still having a lot of joint and muscle pain, especially at night. If you noticed, I don’t write as much, don’t comment as much, and mostly write short comments; it’s because of the pain. I have enough trouble typing with numb fingertips, but with all the pain, my typing has gone to hell.
I reached out to my new GP last month and asked her what specialist I needed to see to try and get the pain under control. She had me go in and see her. She put me on Gabapentin at night and gave me some more dietary suggestions. I have a follow-up with her next week. My pain has been down to manageable background pain most of the time during the day for the past few weeks, but I still have issues with pain increasing at night, waking me up and keeping me awake. But it’s much better than it was a few weeks ago.
While it’s a real challenge to play guitar with numb fingertips, it is more of a challenge to play when my fingers are swollen, painful, and don’t want to move. But I play every day, whatever the condition of my hands are and how much I’m hurting elsewhere. My hands have not been as swollen over the past couple of weeks, so I was able to do halfway decent sloppy shredding on my guitar solos I recorded this morning for Springing Forward, above.
Red sky in the morning is an ominous warning about changing to DST and losing an hour of sleep!
Springing Forward, It’s So backward
By Timothy Price
(4x)
Springing forward
It’s so backward
We lose an hour to save some time
Springing forward
It’s so backward
Body clocks are broken; we’re running behind
Springing forward
It’s so backward
Moving like zombies, we’re losing our minds
Springing forward
It’s so backward
We saved an hour by losing time
Springing forward
It’s so backward
It’s time for DST
Lockstep to New Destiny
If you thought you were free
Don’t change your clock! You will see!
You Fools don’t complain
But an hour is really insane
The clocks are sacred, can’t you see?
We’re not free to mess around
Springing forward. Leave time be
It’s so backward. Can’t we see
Springing forward. We’re not free
To play like gods. You see?
(4x)
Springing forward
It’s so backward
It’s time again for DST
Lockstep to New Destiny
If you thought you were free
Don’t change your clock! And you will see!
Dawn. The clouds persisted and we got rain this afternoon.
Can you find the odd cat in the clowder?
Loki, “Hahahaha! I got the cheez, Silver!” Siver, “Pig cat!”
Dawn
Noon
Afternoon
Bloomin’ Blooms
No cranes
A lone crane flew in
Can you find the lone crane in this photo?
It’s on the rocks!
No red on the Sandias tonight
A gang of scrawny-looking teenagers at Fourth of July Point. They probably fell behind and were left on their own to make their way north.
Five cranes flew over the teenage crane’s cuckoo’s nest
Sunset
pTerodactyl in the Twilight
On Charlotte’s Plum Tree.
Lyrics and Music by Timothy Price. Vocals and CGI by Teagan Riordain Geneviene.
The lyrics for the song are adapted from a poem I wrote in 2017 when we had nine cats:
We enter the age of Aquarius
Clawing at the cuffs of Heaven
Fluorine feline in the household
A clowder of kitties
Infested
Novem gatti
Fruits of the Spirit
Nine worthies, three of each
But who can say which
Pagans, Christians, Jews?
All piled together
Napping nonagon de gnari
Like the symphonies of Beethoven
Each plays their way
Into our hearts
A naping nonagon de gnari. CGI by Teagan Riordain Geneviene.
The poem is all about Nine:
Nine is said to be lucky in Aquarius, and nine is believed to symbolize divine completeness. Fluorine is the atomic number nine, a clowder is a group of cats, and there are nine fruits of the Spirit. Jacques de Longuyon wrote “Voeux du Paon”, a popular 14th-century romance, where he introduced the “Nine Worthies”— three Pagans, three Christians, and three Jews: Hector, Alexander the Great, and Julius Caesar; King Arthur, Charlemagne, and Godfrey of Bouillon; Joshua, David, and Judas Maccabeus — who were historical, legendary and scriptural figures that characterized the ideals of chivalry in the Middle Ages. A nonagon is a nine-sided polygon, and Beethoven wrote nine symphonies.
Ach Nein! Nine Gnari en la Casa.
By Timothy Price
[Chorus x2)
Ach Nein! Nine Gnari en la casa
Mama Mia! C’est la vi
[Verse 1]
As we enter
The Age of Aquarius
Clawing at
The cuffs of Heaven
A flock of feline
In the household
Or are they called
A clowder of cats?
[Chorus x2)
Ach Nein! Nine Gnari en las casa
Mama Mia! C’est la vi
[Verse 2]
Nove gatti
Fruits of the Spirit
Nine worthies
Three of each
But who can say
which they might be
Pagans, Christians
Or the Jews?
[Bridge]
All piled together
One atop the other
A naping nonagon de gnari
Or you can say
But say it with conviction
Nine cats napping
In a pile
[Chorus x2)
Ach Nein! Nine Gnari en las casa
Mama Mia! C’est la vi
[Outro]
Like nine
Symphonies
Roll over
Beethoven
Each plays
Their way
Into
Our hearts
Night
Dawn
Cranes
Dusk
Half moon in Susan’s Tree at dawn.
Fewer cranes tonight and more teenage-sized cranes.
“Okay, Kidz! Walk this way!”
Things were ducky at sunset.
Off Center & Not Even 