Thoughts 2022-03-17

I got my first outside sunbeam today. The deck on top of my garage sits at about 10 degrees warmer than the outside air in the afternoon sun. I curled up like a pupa in a cocoon and soaked up every photon I could. I can’t find the words to say how great that felt. I can’t find the words to say how lucky I felt today.

There are no bombs falling outside my house, no threat of gunfire or missile strikes. My greatest inconvenience today was a couple hours without power. Not a big deal on a sunny Thursday afternoon. I had some messages from some good friends, sat in the sun with my wife and talked dreamily about hikes with my sister. What an afternoon.

Take some time to appreciate your surroundings today. Take some time to really listen to your favorite song as it plays on the radio. Listen to the birds if they are singing outside your window. Take a deep breath of the sawdust coming off the hardwood you are sanding in your garage. Take the time to let the sun soak into your black hoody in the sunny window seat in your house. Take the time to focus on how lucky we really are to be breathing this fresh spring air here in this normally cold and dark city. Enjoy spring people, that sun is hard to come by around here.

I took a sunbeam deep dive Somewhere in Time yesterday afternoon. I might want to break that down a bit, currently, in the mid afternoon, the sun shines straight in the double doors in our second floor sitting room. Yesterday was such a good day for sunbeams, and I got to bask for over an hour in the one playing through the glass. Great moments.

I put on Somewhere in Time by Iron Maiden. Not sure why I picked that album, it has never been a huge favorite, but why not? Caught Somewhere in Time is a solid opener,

Can I tempt you, come with me

Be devil may care, fulfill your dream

If I said I’d take you there

Would you go, would you be scared?

That is probably my favorite segment from this song. I find the chorus kind of boring on this song but the guitar work, as usual, is top notch, it is Iron Maiden after all. I guess there are better things than getting lost somewhere in time, also worse.

The second song is Wasted Years. An absolute classic of course. The intro is epic and the whole song is just timed right. The chorus has always been pretty meaningful to me, maybe a bit more since the cancer diagnosis:

So understand

Don’t waste your time always searching for those wasted years

Face up, make your stand

And realize you’re living in the golden years.

I really think I got it when my life was really rolling. All our trips, all the meaningful moments, I marked them and I relished them. Whether we were drinking Cava down by the docks in Barcelona, and eating Patatas Bravas along with fresh seafood tapas, or standing in front of a DaVinci in the Uffizi museum, in awe of the brush strokes, surrounded by renaissance master pieces that pale in comparison. I soaked it all up. I knew those were the golden years. So happy for that. It is lucky knowing when you are lucky.

Sea of Madness follows Wasted Years, a solid song, maybe even a bit underrated as far as Maiden songs go. This album is a little weird though, with the synth guitars throwing things off a little bit. Good tune though.

Heaven can Wait is next on deck. This song should probably resonate more with me now, but it doesn’t. Heaven can wait, but this song just doesn’t have the jam to be the soundtrack for me. Not sure what I dislike about this song, but it really feels mailed in. Maybe it is just my mood today. The sunbeam is not warming it for me at all.

Same feeling I get about the Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner. Maybe you have to be a long distance runner. I am not.

Stranger in a Strange Land is a stand out on this album. Underrated applies here I think. The melancholy in this song is powerful. It is the story of a man dying in the arctic surrounded by ice and snow, dying all alone. It is a grim song, recounting the discovery of the explorer 100 years after his death, still frozen and preserved, caught somewhere in time I guess. Frozen in time even. Good Song.

The album closes with Deja Vu and the attempted epic Alexander the Great. Deja Vu is an upbeat banger. A good song, not great but good. Alexander the Great is just a recounting of events. It seems forced. 8 minutes pass slowly in this song, not like many of their other epics. Just forced. Not sure, this song just never grabbed me.

I really enjoyed the sunbeam, it was nice, and I enjoyed the Maiden, always do. This album is no Powerslave, no Number of the Beast, but it is still Maiden and Maiden are amazing songwriters. Will it be the first album I put on next time I have a hankering for some Maiden, probably not, too many better albums to go up against, but maybe I’ll give it some love down the road.

Find yourself a sunbeam to lay in if you can. Spring is the best time for those. Helps you forget the winter. Just sit in it and let the sun warm your face. Face up, make your stand

And realize you’re living in the golden years.