Week-long Welcomings from Moosylvania: Aug. 2nd through Aug. 8th

Welcome to The Moose Pond! The Welcomings posts give the Moose, old and new, a place to visit and share words about the weather, life, the world at large and the small parts of Moosylvania that we each inhabit.

Welcomings will be posted at the start of each week (every Sunday morning). To find the posts, just bookmark this link and Voila! (which is Moose for “I found everyone!!”).

The format is simple: each day, the first moose to arrive on-line will post a comment welcoming the new day and complaining (or bragging!) about their weather. Or mentioning an interesting or thought provoking news item. Or simply checking in.

So … what’s going on in your part of Moosylvania?

NOTE: The comments page will now split off after 20 or so left margin comments with the most recent comments on the current page. To see the older comments, scroll to the bottom of the page and use the link.

54 Comments

  1. Good morning, meese! Wednesday …

    It is 59 degrees in Madison, on its way up to 82. Mostly sunny skies are in the forecast.

    The 10 clowns have been chosen for the Fox News debate Thursday evening. The mathematics is interesting because with margins of error and rounding, the bottom of the heap could have looked quite different. And keep in mind that “None of the Above/Undecided” clocked in at 16.2% which would have qualified as #2 in the polls:

    Also on Thursday, on the 50th anniversary of the signing of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, the president will host a teleconference that includes John Lewis, Loretta Lynch and others to press Congress to restore the VRA. THAT is what I will be focusing on … not what 10 clowns say to each other (PSA: do NOT have a drinking game that requires you to chug an alcoholic beverage when you hear “Planned Parenthood” or “selling baby parts”. The candidates will be heading to Pope Erick’s conclave after the debate to tell him they will shut down the government rather than allow another penny to go to women’s health.)

    See all y’all later!

  2. A wave to all. Will try to come back later to see how everyone is doing. Hope all is well in the Pond and Beyond.,

    • Looks like the Iran deal gaining some followers:

      [Tuesday], three Democratic Senators came out for the Iran deal: Tim Kaine of Virginia, Bill Nelson of Florida, and Barbara Boxer of California. The math now looks increasingly difficult for the deal’s opponents.

      Kaine and Nelson are both quite significant. They are both genuinely moderate; previously, the only ones who had come out for the deal were liberals or were always all but certain to do so: Dianne Feinstein; Martin Heinrich, Tom Udall, and Dick Durbin, who is rounding up support for the accord inside the Dem caucus. […]

      Take Nelson and Kaine out of that pool, and you’re left with around seven Senate Dems who seem like they could genuinely still vote No. Seven others who are thought to be undecided, or at least who can’t be ruled out as No votes: Harry Reid, Chris Coons, Benjamin Cardin, Joe Manchin, Cory Booker, Kirsten Gillibrand, and Tom Carper. If all of them vote No, that’s 14 Senate Dems opposing the deal. Opponents need 13 in order to get 67 Senators to override Obama’s veto of a measure blocking the accord.

      So opponents need to basically run the table, getting all but one of those 14 Senators. Carper is now leaning towards the deal. So is Joe Manchin. That is going to be very hard to pull off.

      The House, which has no say in the matter, intends to pass a “We hate you, Obama, and anything you come up with!!!” resolution today. They need something to fundraise off: letters about the oven-marching PLUS a vote shaking their tiny fists at the clouds.

  3. Neither Gillibrand nor Schumer has replied to me. NY has never had good Senators. :(

      • I was gonna say that. I think our senators (TX & AR) have to be either the most sociopathic or the most psychopathic of the entire 100. Ted Cruz and Tom Cotton are really hard to beat for nasty, violent, racist, misogynist, homophobic… nutjobs.

    • I wonder if it is impossible to win upstate New York if you are a progressive Democrat.

      Or maybe it is the Aaron Burr curse … he was your second Senator. Wait! I found one: Bobby Kennedy, 1965 to 1968.

      • We have had progressive Democrats like Maurice Hinchey, who retired.

        It is difficult – many of our Democrats could be considered Republicans – sigh – I’m not a Gillibrand fan.

  4. Back is better – pain down to 3. I took a muscle relaxer before bed, then a 2nd one one of the times I woke up – midnight-ish, I think. I have my gym bag for walking after work, warned my coach that I’ve had back issues, so we’ll see how he modifies. Also, it’s gonna be over 100, so there’s that.

    Hard to find room in my brain for thoughts about the world, between the pain & not sleeping. I really wish MSNBC would devote a tenth of the time to the Democratic race that it does to the Rs.

    Playing U2’s Yahweh in my head, because it is both energetic & makes me feel better.

    • Glad you’re feeling better and be careful in the heat. Wish you’d try the therapy pool, presupposing you can find one, to help your back.

  5. 80 at the moment in Fay., AR and overcast. “They” say only going up to 90 with possible rain this afternoon. We seem to be going through another “steambath” sequence – overcast so little electricity generation, no rain to ease the drought (yes, we’re in a drought even after all that rain/flooding this Spring), and muggy as hell. At least I assume hell is muggy – if the idea is for people to be in pain or at least uncomfortable all the time, it’s got to be muggy. Anyway, stuff to do. I’ll check back later. {{{HUGS}}}

    • Yesterday it stayed comfortable with the windows open until about 4pm and then we shut everything to cool the house enough to sleep. We opened the windows again after 9pm and they were open through the night (and are still open). I just have to make sure to stay on top of it because it is hard to cool down if it gets too hot indoors.

      I think hell must be muggy!! If it is intended to be unpleasant, that would certainly be part of the mix.

      • We’re enough warmer here – and I’m not home during the day – to be able to manage like that so I use the A/C more than I like. On weekends I open the house (if it’s cool enough in the first place – it isn’t always here) until 9 or 10, then close up. That way the A/C doesn’t kick on until mid to late afternoon. Whether or not I open up when I go to bed depends on whether it’s cooled down enough. Mostly it hasn’t and if I open up before I officially get up at 5:45 or so, it’s when I get up to go to the bathroom sometime between midnight and 2 :)

        Having grown up in Houston, I promise muggy has to be a part of anything intended to be uncomfortable! There used to be a joke that some U.S. Army general down in TX for the Mexican War is reported to have written that if he owned both hell and TX, he’d rent out TX and live in hell.

    • It really is quite early in the nominating process. At this point we can just grab popcorn and enjoy ourselves.

      Someone pointed out that in August 2007, Rudy Giuliani was leading the GOP field with 26% of the vote and John McCain was last with 9%. The part of me that wants Trump to stay in the race as long as possible and even be the GOP nominee knows that such a thing would reflect badly on America. But when I look at the rest of the field, I don’t see anyone acceptable so it does not pay to invest myself in any outcome.

    • I agree Diana. It does help to keep a reality based perspective because the day to day news is so damned depressing!

      Nancy LeTourneau……..

      The spectacle we’re now witnessing is that a candidate who is leading the field by polling at 20-25% with Republicans has insulted Mexican Americans, called for a government shutdown over funding for women’s health care, and – in the midst of the #BlackLivesMatter movement against police killings – suggested that the police don’t have enough power. And yet he is driving the Republican agenda on the campaign trail. According to their party’s own analysis, that is a recipe for disaster.

      http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/political-animal-a/2015_08/the_gops_recipe_for_disaster056931.php

  6. Good morning, it’s a breezy 58 in Bellingham this morning, and Maggie (the grand puppy) is laying by the open window, monitoring all the smells in the air. Her family is on their way to Disneyland so she’s staying with us. She’s good company.

    I’ll go to the pool this morning and try again with the desk this afternoon. I was easily lead astray yesterday :)

  7. Good morning, meese! Thursday …

    It is 58 degrees in Madison, on its way up to 82. Partly cloudy skies in the forecast.

    Big news day!

    Coming on the heels of President Obama’s speech on the Iranian nuclear deal, which links the Iraq war with the planned Republican Iran war, is the 70th anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima. We must insure that nuclear bombs are never again dropped on innocent civilians … or anyone for that matter. @POTUS was responding to Tweets last night, replying to naysayers. He is pumped up about this deal!

    Today is the 50th anniversary of the Voting Rights Act and the president will be trying to gin up support for restoring it via a teleconference that includes John Lewis and Loretta Lynch. I will see what the format will be and if it can be turned into a post. The 5th Circuit yesterday agreed with the district court that the Texas Voter Id law was discriminatory. More here.

    And tonight the clown car pulls up in Cleveland and disgorges the GOP presidential candidates. Other than the fact that one of those men will be the 2nd runner up in the general election next year (too close for comfort), it should be entertaining. One of my friends found this Debate Bingo card which I will steal and share:

    See all y’alls later!!

  8. That Bingo card is awesome. Am gonna steal it :)

    Pass the popcorn.

    It’s 59 here in the Catskills – going up to a lovely 80, with breezes.

  9. Good morning, Moosekind! It’s 67 F. in NoVa under cloudy skies, going up to 78 F. today with rain in the afternoon. Good, that’ll cool things down.

    I HATE WORDPRESS! Again, I’m being told I have to log in if I want to comment, I can’t fierce anything, I tried logging out and logging back in again,but that didn’t work. Now I have to do the name, email, and Web site thing to do a comment. Meanwhile, the top right of the page continues to say, “Howdy, Diana.” Grrrr!

    Jan, that’s a hilarious bingo card. Wish I knew how to steal it.

    Not much news except that we have to record the debate because we’re bringing dinner to Elder Son and DIL tonight and of course we’ll gaze at Mr. Baby, if he’s awake.

    Yesterday I found watermelon and strawberries in the garden for Miss Pink Cheeks’ camp lunches. This is the last week of all-day camp, thank goodness.

    Hope everyone will have a good day, free of WordPress troubles!

    • My work computer remembers my log in, so that’s great for me during the week. I still haven’t got the Mac at home to work, and the PC laptop, I seem to mis-remember my password, so I can’t log in on that (the drawback to having devices remember things for me — I don’t remember them myself). Sending some password/computer mojo, so things will go better for you!

      • Do the same thing that I asked Diana to do from your Mac and let’s see if we can get your password working.

        Also, let me know if you want me to port your AIDs diary here so you can see what the crosspost looks like. It is easier to work from an existing post to build the next one than it is to start from scratch. There are no limits on your use of videos in a post, by the way. It is way easier on the new moose than the old moose because you don’t need to use the old embed.

    • I logged you off via the admin panel so you should not get the Howdy message.

      First, make sure it does not say Howdy. If it does, hover over it and choose “Log Out” fro the list. Then close and reopen your browser, reopen the moose and see if the Howdy is gone. If so, click on My Moose from the menu bar and you should get the login screen. If not, let me know. I want to try to figure out a way to fix your login without clearing your cookies.

  10. Another sleepless night — shouldn’t muscle relaxers put me to sleep? Back still hurts.

    I’m not watching the stupid debate tonight. I don’t need the angst, I don’t want my head filled with their horrible ideas & my heart can’t stand their meanness. I think I’ll compose & post my 1st AIDS Walk diary instead. And fill it with love & compassion. If I can get my brain to work, that is.

    Weirdly, my earworm is a U2 song that I’ve maybe heard twice, Cedarwood Road. I chose a live video because y’all should see the fantastic stage they have for this tour. It looks like he’s walking on his childhood street. Look, even if you’re not a fan of their music.

  11. Good morning, all. Have had no problems logging in recently. Crossing fingers and toes that that will continue.

    Will not watch the debate. I don’t believe in TV so don’t have one. I guess I could watch on the computer (in which I do believe!) but somehow…..

    Thought President Obama was terrific on the Iran Plan and relating it to the Iraq War. What a disaster that was and is for the world.

    Hope it is a good day for all in our Pond and Beyond.

  12. 80 at the moment with some overcast – we did get about 1/2″ rain yesterday all together – with today predicted to be more or less the same temps (which means heat index over 100 this afternoon) without the rain. There are multiple reasons why I got rid of my TV but R politicians were high on the list. I’ll enjoy President Obama’s speech when Jan posts it tomorrow :)

    Just in case you missed it – over on GOS the Community Quilt people decided to do one for Denise. Here’s the link:

    http://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/08/05/1408843/-A-Surprise-for-Denise-Oliver-Velez

    Enjoy your first Thursday in August. {{{HUGS}}}

  13. Good morning, 58 and cloudy in Bellingham today. With the overcast sky and the sound of the seagulls I felt like I was waking up on the boat this morning. Some of the memories are nice!

    RonK is driving to Kennewick to visit his mom today so Maggie and I will be on our own. She is a small dog but has mastered hogging the bed.

  14. Good morning, meese! Friday …

    It is 66 degrees in Madison, on its way up to 76. Thunderstorms are both in the forecast and here right now!

    TFSMIF! I don’t like when I return from a trip on a Monday evening because there is no cushion between the trip and work. I have just been dragging myself through the week and now I am almost done.

    I did not watch either debate. I turned on my TV and flipped it to Fox and Byron Freaking York was there! And then the debate started and there was Rick Perry!! I knew that I would have nightmares for months if I watched Fox personalities talking to people who are trying to destroy everything I hold dear and, really, all humankind. So I “watched” via Twitter. Apparently, Fiorina won the first debate and Trump won the second debate. Although Rand Paul’s eyerolling at Chris Christie came in second (someone helpfully Tweeted a GIF). The biggest losers? The Republican Party. People now realize that quantity does not translate to quality … there is not one of those people suitable to be president. p.s. no questions on energy or the environment.

    In Iran nuclear deal news, boo Schumer, yay Gillibrand. Harry Reid needs to drop his endorsement of Chuck Schumer for Senate leader. You need a leader who supports the Democratic Party and its Democratic president. Period. Harry Reid is against abortion but you would never in a million years see him push for a bill to limit a woman’s right to choose. If Schumer is worried because he has a tough Senate fight and is going to quake in his boots every time someone threatens his money source, he is not suited for the job.

    See all y’alls later!!

    • I just watched the debate on you tube. What was more interesting than the actual debate, and questions asked – and the responses – were issues that weren’t explored at all – like climate change, the environment, energy policy, infrastructure, gun control, domestic racist terrorism, Confederate flags, minimum wage, unions…I will stop here – sure I’ve missed plenty.

      It boiled down to God (who gives them messages), get rid of Planned Parenthood, kill Obamacare, attack Hillary, build walls, kick out undocumented immigrants, and build our military.

      Oh yeah – and one question to Ben Carson about “race”

      Well I wasted my time.

      Conclusion:

      Clown cars are full of clowns. Scary clowns.

      • Yup, no energy, no climate change, no crumbling bridges. No voting rights. The questions are coming from the Fox echo chamber and, supposedly from Fox viewers. Why would they think that those were even issues? They only know what they have been fed.

        I just hope that Scott Walker sucked (I was told he looked like a small lost child on the stage) because you do not want him to do to America what he did to Wisconsin.

        It will be interesting to see who drops out.

      • Didn’t see the debate but what bothers me is that they have actual supporters. These supporters are our fellow Americans, people we see in the supermarket, on the subway, at PTA meetings, and so on. That’s what is scary. Off to get the paper and read more. Then, guess I’ll have to send Sanders a bit more money.

        • People in the audience were cheering when Trump went on a misogynistic tirade. It scares the heck out of me that those people, women included, hate women so much and that they are out there near me and my family.

    • Just sent Harry Reid an email – to voice opposition to Schumer – who is supporting a foreign head of state against our President and said I would join local NY Democratic Party efforts to primary him.

      • Probably no one has the money to challenge him but your state deserves a progressive Senator so I hope someone steps up. He is free to do what he wants but I do not want him leading our caucus.

      • I would support any challenger. Schumer has to go. I am so disgusted, so furious.

  15. Good morning, Moosekind! Very dark here in NoVa this Friday, looks for all the world as if it might rain. However, we didn’t get the rain we were promised yesterday, so probably it won’t. High today will be 79 F., or so they say.

    Jan, I did close my browser and then log in again as you suggested, but that did not solve the problem. Guess I’ll have to go clear all the cookies or something and try again. Can’t do it until later today, though.

    We went to see the new parents last night, bringing dinner. Unfortunately my son thought the cheese and crackers were the appetizer, not part of the dessert. It was all good, though. The tomatoes in the salad were from our garden. The baby was asleep for most of our visit: what tiny, precious miracles babies are!

    When we arrived back home we wanted to watch the debate, which we had recorded, but were too tired to stay up. After half an hour we went to bed. The part we watched pretty well foretold the part we didn’t. Fox moderators are creeps, Jeb! is useless, Rubio sounded somewhat sane, Trump is Trump, and Kasich, the lying bastard, seemed like an adult. The rest appeared to be stoopid. Ugh.

    Must make Miss Pink Cheeks’ lunch, so will close now. Wishing everyone a good day!

    • :(

      When you open your browser, does the Moose come up or do you have to click to get to it? I have often noticed on my iPad that when I open the browser, it still has the tabs up that I used the last time including old Google searches. I wonder if the browser is trying to be helpful and leaves you where you left off instead of freshening things up. I do know that WordPress (and the hosting firm) does overnight maintenance. If Safari is trying to link back up to an old session, I could see where there would be a problem.

      I will have the moose admin send you a new password. That seems to work without you having to mess with cookies.

  16. Another night of very little sleep. Again took a 2nd muscle relaxer when I was awake at midnight, thought about a 3rd at 3am but decided not to. Back still hurts some — better than a few days ago, but not gone.

    Have been unable to avoid reports about the damned debate. Apparently Carly Fiorina did well. Really — she drove how many companies into the ground?? Please proceed, Republicans. My diary didn’t get much attention last night, but it distracted me, so, ok.

    Played Big Girls Are Best on repeat on the way in. I love my boys.

    • Do you want me to port your diary here for you? It will give you an idea of how it will crosspost, if nothing else. I don’t need any login information, I just scrape it off the source code for the web page. Easy peasy!

      • I put 3 videos in it — will that cause any problems? I think folks might like it — I put happy stuff in. (well, stuff that makes me happy, anyway)

        • Nope, videos work just fine. I will bring it over and post it. Watch for it in about 20 minutes.

          • It will automatically post at 7:50 our time.

            Everything ported over perfectly! All I had to do was set a Category and add some tags.

            If you want to look at the HTML or get familiar with the WordPress editor, just click edit after it posts (it will be in the Featured Posts sidebar).

  17. 80 at 0600 this morning – actual air temps predicted for mid 90s but heat index for closer to 110. Just took advantage of the early-plus-volunteer discounts NN offers – I’m registered and the difference between what I pay now versus what I’d have to pay next June/full price will probably cover my hotel :) And really, I’m going to meet people so committing to staff the registration desk for 3-hours a day fits right in with my plans.

    Didn’t watch the not-debates last night. My tummy hurts enough without that. Not sure what I ate that I shouldn’t of but… GOS will give me as much (or more) information as I need about it. It is very sickening that these evil people whose contest is basically how much they can hurt ordinary Americans and bring the government down have so many followers. Deliberately trying to bring the country down is as close to treason as you can legally get. Deliberately hurting people is evil. Doing it for money is worse. I don’t know a word for that.

    At least it’s Friday. We’re about to chalk off the first week of August. I wish it were comfortable enough to enjoy as the hot weather is the only time my hands and feet don’t hurt. Oh well – little niggly things remind you you’re still in your body. It’s not pain, like I’m hoping anotherdemocrat will find a solution to soon (sending healing energy your way). Enjoy the Friday and the weekend, Meeses, and {{{HUGS}}}

  18. Peter Jennings is trending on Twitter. I can’t believe it’s been 10 years since he died.

  19. Good morning, 56 and sunny in Bellingham today. I have a headache from too much R exposure yesterday…..they are a toxic bunch! So I’m headed out to the garden soon to recover. It’s hard to understand the appeal of their mean message and vision for our country.

    I updated this computer to W 10 yesterday so my sleepy brain is being tested this morning. So far the updates have been smooth. The only snafu was with Kaspersky, but I was able to follow the screen prompts and fix it. I’ve had a steep learning curve with computers so it’s nice to feel slightly less baffled with this change.

    • One of my computers is a Dell 2 in 1 Tablet/Laptop that has Windows 8.1 on it. Mainly, my daughter uses it for school. She and I talked about Windows 10 yesterday and we are not sure we want to upgrade yet. I will let all the early adopters get the bugs out first. :)

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