My Song of the Month for May 2025

It's nearing the end of May, and so it's time for me to discuss which songs meant the most personally to me during this past month. I continue to enjoy listening to other tunes I've selected for January through April as my "songs of the month", and they generally are current releases.  For May, though, I finally succeeded in identifying one song whose melody and singing style stuck with me but frustrated me as to its title and artist...but no longer. It's an established group, the Australian duo Empire of the Sun, and the song is actually from 2008, titled Walking on a Dream.  I love the wailing kind of singing in its chorus, and it's actually an act that my daughter Rebecca likes and earlier had discussed with me.  What I don't understand is how, back when it was first released and popular, I didn't notice it. Anyway, Walking on a Dream is my choice as "song of the month" for May, 2025. A few days ago I took the time to listen to Arcade Fire's latest album, released just under three weeks ago, titled Pink Elephant.  As I tend to do with other artists I enjoy listening to, I tried my hardest to enjoy it.  But track after track escaped me...until the very last one, titled Stuck in My Head.  And that song was pretty brilliant.  I have a feeling that it may go down as June's best song for me, and I am sure to give the other tracks on the album multiple listens...sometimes a tune just has to grow on me. So, here's the list for my 2025 songs of the month so far:

January    Everyone Out by Diiv

February  Starburster by Fontaines DC

March      Under the Rug by Arcy Drive 

April        Nothing I Need by Lord Huron 

May         Walking on a Dream by Empire of the Sun

Trump's Truth Social Memorial Day Post

HAPPY MEMORIAL DAY TO ALL, INCLUDING THE SCUM THAT SPENT THE LAST FOUR YEARS TRYING TO DESTROY OUR COUNTRY THROUGH WARPED RADICAL LEFT MINDS, WHO ALLOWED 21,000,000 MILLION PEOPLE TO ILLEGALLY ENTER OUR COUNTRY, MANY OF THEM BEING CRIMINALS AND THE MENTALLY INSANE,THROUGH AN OPEN BORDER THAT ONLY AN INCOMPETENT PRESIDENT WOULD APPROVE, AND THROUGH JUDGES WHO ARE ON A MISSION TO KEEP MURDERERS, DRUG DEALERS, RAPISTS, GANG MEMBERS, AND RELEASED PRISONERS FROM ALL OVER THE WORLD, IN OUR COUNTRY SO THEY CAN ROB, MURDER, AND RAPE AGAIN — ALL PROTECTED BY THESE USA HATING JUDGES WHO SUFFER FROM AN IDEOLOGY THAT IS SICK, AND VERY DANGEROUS FOR OUR COUNTRY. HOPEFULLY THE UNITED STATES SUPREME COURT, AND OTHER GOOD AND COMPASSIONATE JUDGES THROUGHOUT THE LAND, WILL SAVE US FROM THE DECISIONS OF THE MONSTERS WHO WANT OUR COUNTRY TO GO TO HELL. BUT FEAR NOT, WE HAVE MADE GREAT PROGRESS OVER THE LAST 4 MONTHS, AND AMERICA WILL SOON BE SAFE AND GREAT AGAIN! AGAIN, HAPPY MEMORIAL DAY, AND GOD BLESS AMERICA!

The above was our duly elected president’s social media post for yesterday’s Memorial Day observance, which is held annually to remember and honor those who have fallen in service to our country over the course of its history.  Had someone like Joe Biden or Barack Obama published anything resembling the filth that appears above, I have no doubt that FoxNews “journalists” like Laura Ingraham, Mark Levin and Jesse Watters would instantly sweep down in collective, fervent condemnation of the president, pronouncing judgment on his mental state and demanding that he step down from office.  But Donald J.Trump is their boy and, to them, he can do no wrong.  At my postal service mail processing job over the years I’ve seen the type of rant similar to that above from time to time on the outside of envelopes…written and sent by obviously mentally unstable paranoids suffering from extreme delusions. So, my fellow Americans, this is the individual you saw fit to lead this nation….

On This Memorial Day 2025

On this Memorial Day 2025 I respect and appreciate all of the brave American soldiers who served our country both in times of peace and war and honor those who made the ultimate sacrifice of their own lives for our sake during times of conflict.  God bless all of them, and may He protect us from anyone's attempts to overthrow the freedoms and rule of law that they made such sacrifices to protect...a danger that I fear may be ongoing at the highest levels in my own beloved country...

New Habit of "Stuff" Disposal

A coworker of mine several years ago once told me that he has a rule regarding his possessions, which is that if he hasn't used something he has for a year then he gets rid of it...making him immune to hoarding.  I, on the other hand, while myself not in the habit of accumulating stuff for accumulation's sake, have a tendency to pile it all up over time.  Well, a significant new habit is growing within me, which involves me taking a short, set period of time each day to go through my stuff and separate what stays from what goes.  I don't actually take what I'm disposing of out on each day, but keep it all confined to a staging area before I go out make a drop-off.  I'm tired of all this stuff and would like to see most of it gone, really...

Ran the US Road Running 10K Today in Gainesville

US Road Running is an organization that regularly stages running (or walking, if you prefer) races spread out over the country, usually within parks and involving multiple laps and "there-and-backs" to cover the race distance.  For a few years I had seen the available races at Ocala's Baseline Trailhead Park but since they're all on Saturday mornings and I wouldn't get off from work until 10 on Friday nights, it just didn't seem feasible for me.  Then, last year US Road Running added a Gainesville race, this one taking place the fourth Saturday each month in Westside...officially "Albert Ray Massey" Park...just a little ways down the road from my home: very convenient.  I managed to run their August 2024 race but circumstances in my life somehow kept me from entering another one until just now, when I did their 10K (6.2 miles) race this morning.  I expected it to be uncomfortably warm and muggy as is usually the case this time of year and I wasn't disappointed: mid-seventies both in temperature and humidity...ugh.  The folks running the event were all very friendly and encouraging, and I felt that sweet spirit around me that makes me want to come back next time to try it all again.  I had a choice of distances when I signed up: 1 mile, 5K, 10K or 15K...I chose 10K again.  The race started off at 8 and we wound our way past the fenced-in kiddie playground and onto a very rocky and uneven trail, onward to the first baseball field and then on to their fine, big swimming pool. Passing it on its left, we then ran on to the other baseball field and around the far end of the park to the tennis courts...and then turned around and retraced our path.  For the 10K we did this 4 times.  I was suffering from the heat/humidity combo and, although I had initially intended to run the whole event, after the first lap I decided to do the rest as a walk/run hybrid...although I still ran most of the rest of the way.  I finished with a time of 1 hour 5 minutes 36 seconds...click HERE to view the posted results.  I was by some 20 years the oldest runner in the race, but was inspired by all participants, most of whom were clearly out there doing their best as part of their own self-betterment and fitness projects.   I'd like to continue with these Westside Park races on the fourth Saturday of each month...maybe I'll increase my distance up to 15K and make all future races here...at least through the summer...mixes of running with fast walking.  

Nobody's Perfect...But What Was Bill Maher Trying to Accomplish?

One of the problems with writing a blog over an extended period of time is that I may extol the virtues of a public figure, be he or she in government, academia, news media or entertainment.  Then a little while later the same individual becomes enveloped in scandal, or they may say or do something that is completely abhorrent to me, causing me to regret my earlier praise.  But I realize that this is a fallen world, with its people prone to display that fallen nature within themselves...and I'm not superior in this regard.  That having been noted, it still grinds me when someone like Bill Maher, whom I've praised for his outspokenness and general common sense, deeply disappoints me by doing something like what he recently did when he essentially went over to the White House to suck up to Donald Trump, following this event by praising the Narcissist-in-Chief to high heaven.  Last year, in the midst of the presidential election, Maher seemed dead-set on running down Biden and the Democrats while propping up and promoting Trump...I don't get it.  But I just tuned in to his latest show for his monologue and old Bill was making fun of Trump again...but with absolutely no credibility to his words.  I'm sorry that the American people were collectively so foolish last November as to return to office a convicted felon who, from what I can gather, is working on behalf of Vladimir Putin and Russian intelligence to implement their agenda.  But that's my opinion...you're entitled to yours. Maher's recent love-fest with the Republicans...even to the point of making a smiling appearance on the Gutfeld show...makes me wonder whether someone somewhere had discovered something on him that they could expose if he didn't "play ball" with them.  Just wondering...

Enjoyed Our Brief Stay at Daytona Beach

Yesterday Melissa and I took an overnight trip to Daytona Beach at our favorite hotel and got back into town (Gainesville) earlier this afternoon.  Nothing planned out of the ordinary: sitting on the oceanfront balcony, walking up and down the beach, swimming in their fine little pool, eating both our dinner and breakfast on site...and of course our room was very comfortable as always.  Sometimes I wish I had a little closet I could enter and step back out of, into a completely different location...this beach would be high on my priority list of such places.  Being there was great and being here at home is great...it's the tedious driving back and forth among the often distracted or overaggressive fellow motorists that I could do without...

Weekly Short Stories: 1999 Science Fiction, Part 15

It's Wednesday again, time again for me to discuss a story from 1999 I slogged through reading editor Gardner Dozois' The Year's Best Science Fiction, Seventeen Annual Collection.  With the following tale I realized one of my problems sticking with this fictional genre...

THE SKY-GREEN BLUES by Tanith Lee

A journalist whose assignment is covering another planet's humanoid, jungle-bound society that resembles a Buddhist take on life finds frustrating opposition when she tries to convince Lohno, its leader, to flee an brutally sadistic advancing alien army.  But Lohno is unperturbed at the coming calamity and suggests Frances avail herself of the escape opportunity with his assistant Laitel.  It's how this story progresses that sharply reminded me of an old original Star Trek TV episode titled Errand of Mercy, from 1966.  In it the savage advancing enemy is the Klingon Empire and the "good guys" trying to save the native Organians on their threatened world are Kirk, Spock and company on the Enterprise, of course.  Only the Organians...like Lohno in the story published 33 years later...aren't at all concerned about their own well-being and strongly urge "their" humans to leave.  Ultimately, at the end of Tanith Lee's brief tale, the reader is left confused about who really holds the reins of power in this universe of ours...as is also the case with that Star Trek episode.  Which brings me to the point where I'm beginning to admit to myself that the genre of science fiction has become overly derivative over the years...it can only get more so.  I should have been surprised by the plot-twist in Lee's short story, but instead just groaned to myself, "Not another one like this".  Maybe I should just take a break for a while from these weekly reviews...or switch to another genre.  It just doesn't seem as fun to read this stuff anymore, especially when the stories too often seem like ripoffs of material from earlier times...

So we'll see where I stand on all this next week...

Bad Elements Ruin My Outlook on Reunions

I've noticed something interesting, with a heavy dose of annoyance, about these reunions that come along my way, whether it be regarding high school or work.  And that is that some of the worst characters I've had the utter displeasure to be thrown in with...the most monumentally arrogant bully and snob types...also seem to be the ones that are the most enthusiastic about attending these get-togethers.  It was bad enough for me to be stuck attending my high school with Mike and Greg, who for all practical purposes were the Scut Farkus and Grover Dill  (see A Christmas Story) of my bus stop, without seeing their ugly bullying names always listed as being ready for the next reunion, my reunion...and neither one was in my graduating class! Stay in your own years, asswipes! As for retirement reunions, I may have to take a rain check on them as well for who I see going there.  I've known too many wonderful, good people in my lifespan who are no longer alive for me to feel the slightest urge to put up with any bullshit from my past enemies when so many of the folks I would want to touch base with are gone...to me past enemies are still present enemies.  Now if someone wants to make amends for their past behavior, then fine.  But that's not going to happen, and I'm not attending any reunions, either...

Biden's Cancer, and Surviving While Aging

It's been announced that former president Joe Biden has just been diagnosed with stage four prostate cancer, metastatic and into his bones, after an examination revealed a growth in his prostate.  This is bad news, of course, but it seems that his cancer may be effectively treated with hormone therapy.  Apparently, Biden did not have the advantage of a PSA blood test to forewarn anyone of the possibility of malignancy...I've even read that beyond a certain age, medical authorities often didn't even encourage patients to get one.  I'm a cancer survivor as is Melissa, and her sister is undergoing some serious struggles with her own.  Growing older has some really good aspects to it, but keeping your health is a big, top priority and that can become an adventure, to say the least.  And as you age you're bound to see yourself as a survivor, not only of the different physical afflictions you've had to overcome to get to where you are, but also over those close to you who have already passed from this world into death.  I look at the calendar and sometimes it's hard to fathom that we're in the year 2025.  Yet time marches on, and why not.  Right now my record has my birth year, followed by a hyphen...followed by a blank.  On some mysterious, unknown day that blank will change to a numbered year, but I won't be around to notice...

Enjoy Watching PGA Championship and Preakness This Weekend

This weekend I enjoyed following two annual major American sporting events: the PGA Championship tournament and the Preakness Stakes.  The former is one of professional golf's four annual grand slam events...this year it was held at Charlotte, North Carolina.  And the latter is three-year-old thoroughbred horse racing's Second Jewel in their elite Triple Crown series, held at Pimlico race track in Baltimore, Maryland.  Not a regular follower of horse racing, I am one of those temporary fans who get interested only during special events.  A couple of weeks ago I successfully picked Sovereignty to win the Kentucky Derby (the First Jewel) and was looking forward to support him again for yesterday's Preakness.  But alas, as is often the case in recent years, the horse's trainer decided against entering him for the race.  That left heavy favorite Journalism, which I supported while also rooting for trainer Bob Baffert's entry, Goal Oriented.  Goal Oriented did well enough, finishing fourth, but the race's closing stretch run was very exciting, featuring Journalism breaking out of being tightly boxed in to chase down and just barely pass longshot Gosger at the finish.  With the PGA Championship, it was nice to see the world's "number one" golfer, Scottie Scheffler, return to last year's form and win it by six strokes.  I've tried to get myself interested in the basketball and hockey playoffs, but to no avail...the only other sport that attracts my viewing interest nowadays is tennis...  

Volunteered at Today's Depot Parkrun 5K Here in Gainesville

Today, instead of running or walking Gainesville's free weekly Depot Parkrun 5K as I am accustomed, I served as an event volunteer, sorting out the little plastic barcoded tokens handed to finishers for results posting.  It's something I've done before, although I would have preferred a walking assignment.  Still, I think that, in general, it's a good idea for me to step up as a volunteer...after all, the entire Parkrun system is volunteer-driven. I can still get my exercise later today...just not down there in Depot Park.  I'm thinking of doing this for the minority of months that contain five Saturdays, one morning being reserved for volunteering.  In any event, the weather was a hospitable upper-sixties with an irrelevant humidity of 94%, irrelevant for me because I was just standing there, quiet and still. For next week I'm signed up to run in the US Road Running 10K held at Albert Massey (Westside Park) on the fourth Saturday of each month.  It's the second time I've run it...the first was back in August last year.  

Medical Test Result Encouraging

 Yesterday I drove down to one of my healthcare provider's offices to get blood drawn to ascertain my PSA (protein-specific antigen) level some two months following my prostatectomy. It's set up this way in order to give the body the chance to eliminate any substantial remaining PSA-producing cells from the operation, the score used as an indicator of whether the surgery effectively removed the cancer from my body or whether it still remains in some form.  I don't actually consult with my specialist for two more weeks, but the PSA score was very encouraging, below the stated threshold for concern.  Still, I think that at least for the short term, they will be repeating PSA testing every three months or so.  Regardless of what those future tests reveal, I'm confident in any potential treatment plans should they be deemed medically necessary.  But for now, so far so good... 

Just Finished Reading Perehelion Summer by Greg Egan

It had been quite a while since I last visited my local public library branch on NW 43rd Street here in Gainesville.  But I wanted to make sure my library card still scanned, so once I had that taken care of at the counter, I browsed around the book aisles until I came up with a couple interesting enough to check out, both fiction: a mystery novel with a cat and dog as sleuths (press HERE for my earlier review) and a short science fiction novel by Greg Egan titled Perehelion Summer, published in 2019.  I just read it, so here are my reactions.  Not big on character development, this story concerns a scenario that could happen in our own time: the invasion into our solar system of a black hole sizable enough to wreak havoc with planetary orbits and threaten our own lives.  "Mandjet" is the name given to an innovative sea ship designed to handle climate change by creating a self-sustaining floating ecosystem within which people could survive...and possibly even thrive...through natural calamities such as global warning.  But when a black hole is detected entering our solar system, heading in the general direction of Earth, the alarms...and subsequent panic...go off planet-wide as the crew of Mandjet, including the novel's protagonist Matt, prepare to use their ship to save whatever lives they can.  The Earth gets slightly knocked off its orbit, just enough to plunge the northern and southern hemispheres into extreme summers and winters. This causes the human population to undergo drastic migration twice each year to the more habitable polar areas of the planet.  What ends up happening with Mandjet, the main characters, and how they respond and adapt to the many challenges coming their way comprise the bulk of the book.  I found it all a bit dry and heavily loaded...as "hard" sci-fi often is, with highly technical passages that challenged my capacity for visualization.  So I didn't enjoy reading this story as much as I had planned...those are the breaks when you pick out a book almost at random from the library shelves and take a chance on it.  Not a bad story, Perehelion Summer...but a little difficult to digest, nonetheless.  Maybe this says more about me as a reader than about anyone as writer, but I preferred the more fanciful mystery novel with the smart pets taking center stage...

Weekly Short Stories: 1999 Science Fiction, Part 14

It's Wednesday again, time for another look at what I've read in the realm of short fiction this past week.  I'm continuing the Gardner Dozois anthology The Year's Best Science Fiction, Seventeenth Annual Collection, showcasing short sci-fi from the year 1999.  I managed to get through the next story in the book, which I discuss below...

A MARTIAN ROMANCE by Kim Stanley Robinson

In this "hard" science fiction tale, it is in the not-too-distant future, but well enough ahead in that people can have their lives extended some threefold.  Also, terraforming has been accomplished on the planet Mars to make it Earth-like, with sustainable temperatures, flowing water and breathable air.  Sadly, though, for this story the planet has undergone a sudden, severe ice age, and a party who had worked on the terraforming are visiting it to assess how badly their project has gone.  As it turns out, very badly!  So in the end, it all comes down to whether making our neighbor planet livable again or abandoning the notion.  The author, as do some of the characters, conclude that dealing with setbacks like this is just a part of the expected process and that people need to broaden their perception on how long things take...chances are that the goals people set...especially on a cosmic scale like this...cannot be fulfill within one lifespan, even if that lifespan has been enhanced...

Next week: more stories from 1999...

Making Better Use of YMCA Pool

Melissa and I are beginning to make better use of our nearby YMCA pool, as both of us stand to benefit from resistance exercises in the water while I am working to improve my swimming form and endurance.  Its hours vary from day to day in the week, closed on Sunday.  We've gone various times, and accordingly the pool was either crowded with seniors, relatively empty, or crowded with little children having swimming lessons.  Although I enjoy water walking...forward, backward, and sideways...with Melissa, my main activity there is swimming laps.  I have a snorkel I've yet to use, which should facilitate my breathing while I improve my form for better endurance as I work on increasing my workout distance.  As we are now rushing in northern Florida through the spring season into our typically very hot and humid summer, going to the pool meshes well with the weather. In swimming, you just don't get the kind of racing events that benefit the general public in running/walking, so my progress will always be a more personal kind of thing: no links in my blog articles to websites posting swimming results!  Ultimately, we should be able to settle on a consistent time, two or three times per week, when the pool is relatively empty and we can make good use of this great resource, just one mile down the road from our home...

We've Had Our Dog Daisy for Three Years Today

 

 

Daisy is a mix-breed rescue dog that Melissa and I picked up at a pet adoption fair held at a PetSmart store in southwest Gainesville on May 12, 2022...exactly three years ago.  Daisy was a tiny puppy back then at 7 lbs...but she had a loud, menacing bark even back then.  She's grown to full adult size for some time now, leveling off at 50 lbs.  She's a sweetie, for sure, and is sitting right now on my favorite recliner in the living room.  Even though Daisy is an adult dog, to me she is a big baby, especially whenever her "mommy" steps out of the room for a few minutes and Daisy starts her pathetic whimpering, just as she did on adoption day three years earlier when I was holding her and she wanted me to lay her back down next to her litter mates...

Happy Mother's Day, Melissa!

I'd like to wish my dear, sweet wife Melissa a most deserved happy Mother's Day.  She has always been a great mother to our wonderful children Will and Rebecca.  Will, taken by the Lord last year, is no longer with us on Earth and we miss him terribly.  Rebecca is here with us and we look forward to celebrating this wonderful holiday together.  I also appreciate my own mother and Melissa's...they both passed away in 2002 and 2007 respectively.  Our mortal bodies are indeed fragile on this broken world, and I think that sometimes we forget how transitory life can be...let's enjoy that all-too-brief time that we have been privileged to be here and show our loved ones how important they are for us.  Happy Mother's Day, Sweetheart!

Ran the Depot Parkrun 5K This Warm and Muggy Morning

The weather forecasts this past week looked ahead to a wet and stormy weekend here in north-central Florida, so I knew there was a chance of rain for this morning's Depot Parkrun 5K.  It's a free weekly event held Saturdays at 7:30 at Depot Park a few blocks south of downtown Gainesville...you can sign up online where they issue you a barcode you take with you to be scanned following the race in order to get your results posted online.  I got up around 5:45 and went outside...no rain yet, but I did hear some ominous, rolling thunder from high in the overcast skies.  Almost going back to bed knowing that they'd cancel the Parkrun if there was any lightning, I decided in the end to make a go at it and drove down there.  As it turned out, there wasn't any rain or thunder during the race, but the combination of temperature (69 degrees) and humidity (94%) presented its own challenge to participants...and me.  I wasn't sure at first whether I'd run or speed-walk it today, but just before it started I decided to once again work on establishing a regular "groove" of a running pace and braved the crappy weather.  I wasn't comfortable at all throughout the race, but since I was passing a number of runners in the second half with no one passing me, I guess I must have been at least a little better conditioned to it all, finishing with a time of 28:04, 15 seconds faster than last week's.  You can see today's results by clicking HERE. Some time this month I intend to do another speed-walk, hoping to get my finishing time back to under forty minutes like it was before my surgery a couple of months ago... 

New Pope Enjoying Widespread Popularity Now

I'm glad to see that people in general, and especially the practicing Catholic population, seem to be okay with the new Bishop of Rome, that is, the Roman Catholic Church's pontiff or Pope.  Cardinal Robert Prevost, originally from Chicago in the good old USA but with dual citizenship in both America and Peru after serving there for more than a decade, was elevated to Cardinal status by Pope Francis two years ago.  He was then elected in the secret Vatican Conclave to replace Francis, who died recently.  The Pope, in centuries gone by, at one time actually did have a lot of direct political/military power...that's how the Crusades got started.  Now, though, his power is that of persuasion, bringing to light in the world its spiritual, social and physical needs through the bully pulpit that his high office accords him.  I wish Pope Leo XIV, as he has renamed himself, the best and hope that he isn't surprised when he inevitably gets around to ruffling the feathers of our Narcissist-in-Chief. Leo is also the first Pope to be around my age level, born the year before me...he looks pretty fit, wonder what kind of exercise routine he has, if any...