It's Better Today

But Oy! yesterday was a miserable day. It began with the darkest of gray overcasts imaginable, coupled with bone chilling cold, wind, and humidity. When I say “dark overcast,” think “lights on all day.” It was that dark. And it was all downhill from there. By 1330 we had freezing drizzle, which turned to sleet, then to snow in the late afternoon. Our high temp was something like 38 or 39. Brrr. As far as the snow goes, we didn’t get much of an accumulation, perhaps a half-inch or so, just enough to turn the brown grass white and make the streets slick and icy. It’s all gone now, but was still on the ground when I woke up this morning. It’s gonna be warmer today (51), still warmer Friday (mid-60s), and warmer still by the weekend. The sun will be reappearing today, too. I don’t think I could cut it any longer in The Great White North, if my reaction to yesterday’s weather is any indication. Or perhaps my mood was just a normal response to winter’s last blast; that last-gasp seems to happen every year, don’t it?

Yesterday’s Song of the Day

Song: Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere
Artist: Neil Young
Album: Everybody Knows This is Nowhere
Year: 1969
Source: Radio Paradise.

Makes Me Think of & etc.: A very small coffee shop in Mushashi-Koganei (Tokyo), Japan, 1975. Most Japanese coffee shops have very good music systems and a large collection of music (at the time, probably still true). The coffee shops tend to specialize in their music; there are jazz shops, country, folk, rock, etc., etc. A few are what we’d call eclectic, playing a wide mix of music. The staff takes requests from the patrons, and the normal practice was to play one side of a requested album and then move on to the next request. TSMP and I requested side one of EKTIN every time we went into that shop. It got to the point the help would routinely drag the album out and put it in the queue, if the place was busy, without being asked. If the shop wasn’t busy, they’d put the album on immediately, with smiles all around. I can never listen to this album, or this song, without thinking of that place and time…

Lyrics:

I think I'd like to go back home, and take it easy
There's a woman that I'd like to get to know livin' there
Everybody seems to wonder, what it's like down here
I gotta get away from this day to day runnin' around
Everybody knows this is nowhere
Everybody, everybody knows, everybody knows

Every time I think about back home, it's cool and breezy
I wish that I could be there right now, just passin' time
Everybody seems to wonder, what it's like down here
I gotta get away from this day to day runnin' around
Everybody knows this is nowhere
Everybody, everybody knows, everybody knows