Week-long Welcomings from Moosylvania: May 15th through May 21st

May 15, 2016 JanF Community 133

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.

…

35 Comments

  1. I actually slept through the night! Like — the usual 11-ish, 3-ish & 4:15 wake ups didn’t happen. I was asleep when the alarm went off. I just….. wow.

    Ok, I know there are things going on in the world. Oklahoma. Ugh. Wondering how many Texas legislators have that same bill drafted for January.

    Sad anniversaries this week. The Dublin car bombings that inspired this song. Raised by Wolves, indeed. And what did the Ulstermen accomplish besides universal revulsion? Yet people keep doing the same thing, Rachel talked last night about multiple bombs set off on, whaddya know, marketplaces in Iraq. Stupid bastards. And on a smaller note, the anniversary of Ian Curtis’ death. Suicide at 23. A baby. So much talent, wish he knew how much people loved him. The band he was in – Joy Division – inspired so many others, if you listen to them you can hear most of the ’80s bands. Definitely my boys U2.

    • Hi, another! Listen, you’re an expert on contemporary music, so can you help me out here?

      The protagonist of the short story I’m writing is 25, has just earned her Master’s in Botany (sub-specialty in paleobotany and medicinal plant science), and has chosen a visit to Crete as a graduation gift from her parents (archaeologists). What kind of music would such a young woman listen to, these days? She prefers going out in small groups rather than large crowds and is inclined to be bookish, like her parents. Her sports are hiking and cycling.

      If you can suggest the kind of music she likes, I’d be most grateful. I’m clueless about anything past the 1960s!

    • Glad you got a good night’s sleep. May it portend well for the future. :)

  3. Happy Freya’s Day, Moosekind! And just like the Goddess Freya herself, this is a beautiful Friday morning. The sky now is a clear blue, the sunlight everywhere, the shadows deep. The grass is emerald and the pansies are feeling better, poking their bright yellow, black, and purple selves up in front of the house and around the mailbox.

    Current temp. is 51 F., going up to 72 F. today. Of course, after lunch clouds will move in and tomorrow we’re expecting heavy rain. The summer is expected to be even hotter than usual, so I’m planning to buy ollas to bury in the flower gardens and herb bed. This morning I have to get out to weed and plant.

    DIL is out of town, so we picked up Miss Pink Cheeks from school yesterday and kept her overnight. I forgot the kid has homework, so we hastily had her do it at 8 p.m. last night before her bath. Then we didn’t realize we were supposed to sign it until Daddy reminded us by text this morning. We thought Daddy, so recently ill, would have quite enough on his hands coping with Babylicious. Both sons are coming over tonight with their families and we plan to grill, baby, grill!

    Wishing a good day to all at the Pond and Beyond, and peace in the world!

  4. 53 at another overcast dawn supposedly heading for 70 but “they” said that yesterday and we didn’t make it. With the overcast, and some drizzle – all the real rain “they” said we were going to get went around us – I doubt we’re going to hit 70 today either. And the sunshine we were promised for the weekend has become “partly cloudy”. Sigh. Anyway, my eldest grandson’s high school graduation is tomorrow at 1. Hopefully we’ll get a little sunshine for that. (And Sunday is laundry day, of course.)

    Trying to get my ducks in a row and through the approval chain for the next round of Summer Payroll – it runs Monday night. End of fiscal year coming soon and I’m hoping to have Spring 2017 classes entered before I leave for NN. We shall see. Bright the day, Meeses. {{{HUGS}}

    • this weather is so weird – I’m wearing sleeves & real shoes (the kind that need socks) in May…… I’m definitely not complaining, but it’s weird

      • Yeah, I’m beginning to wonder if Diana was right about thinking we might have had a major volcano eruption or something over winter that’s keeping our summer away. I’m afraid I am complaining :) – it’s too chilly to be comfortable but too warm for a fire in the evening and I’m not generating anything like the electricity I would be if the clouds would just go away and let the sunshine through. At least less A/C use (so far) and fire season may actually be the “old normal” this year. Maybe. Enjoy the coolth while it lasts.

  5. Morning all! Sunny and warm here…well, no point in repeating that every day for the next 6 months, so I will refrain! lol

    Enjoyed my first day of freedom from school yesterday by just sitting around doing not much of anything – today, though, I’ve got things to do, especially getting in to the vet to pick up the prescription flea and tick preventive for my two dogs. It’s getting bad as it always does about now.

    I can’t believe we have a little over 5 months of the Donnie Trump Bigotry, Mysogyny and Xenophobia Tour to put up with – ugh. Ok, I’m off, have a great day everyone!

  6. Good morning, 51 and cloudy in Bellingham. It’s so good to be home! The rain started as we were driving over Snoqualmie Pass yesterday so the air is moist and our garden is green. I’ll go to the pool this morning, and rest this afternoon. This trip was particularly difficult…..lots physical work and a different feeling of finality and closure. The drive home was long too. Ron chose to avoid the crowded freeway so we drove home through Snoqualmie Valley. We were surprised to see the amount of urban development and increased traffic in what used to be mostly farmland.

  7. Good morning, meese! Saturday …

    It is 48 degrees in Madison on its way up to 78. The forecast calls for mostly sunny skies.

    Oklahoma blinked. The governor vetoed the anti-abortion bill saying that is was unlikely to pass constitutional muster. I wonder if she spoke to god and he declined to cover the costs of litigation as one legislator suggested he would. So Mary Fallin will probably not be Trump’s VP for two reasons: not insane and lacking faith in god and Trump. :)

    The president will be speaking about expanding overtime pay in his weekly address. Also this week, he signed a law removing “oriental” from federal statutes. I did not realize that “oriental” was considered a slur until I read the story. It is certainly an old-fashioned term; my daughter had never heard it used to refer to Asian people and I admit that I have not heard it in a while. I am sure it will be decried by Republicans as “political correctness run amok” – Democrats call it “respecting people”:

    The bill, which was sponsored by Congresswoman Grace Meng (D-NY), was passed by the House of Representatives unanimously on Feb. 29 and again by the Senate on May 9. It was co-sponsored by 76 members of Congress, including all 51 members of the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus. Sen. Mazie K. Hirono (D-HI), who sponsored the bill in the Senate, said in a statement that she was “proud to have seen this effort through.”

    “After months of advocacy in both chambers of Congress, derogatory terms in federal law will finally be updated to reflect our country’s diversity,” she said. “Mahalo to President Obama for his quick action.”

    “Oriental” had still existed in Title 42 of the U.S. Code, which was written in the 1970s. It will be replaced with “Asian Americans.”

    In a statement, Congresswoman Meng expressed relief that “at long last this insulting and outdated term will be gone for good.”

    I googled around to find out why and who felt insulted by the term and found that besides being Euro-centric, most people felt that “Oriental” was for things, not people, and that Asian could be used for both.

    See all y’all later!

  9. Good morning, Moosekind! Raining heavily here and showers will persist through the afternoon. It’s 56 F. in NoVa now, inching up to 62 F. later.

    However, Miss Pink Cheeks and I managed to plant two Seascape strawberry plants yesterday, and Dearly planted the tomatoes. We will have to wait until Sunday afternoon to plant the eggplant, zucchini, yellow squash, herbs, and flowers. That dreadful little dog stole one of the seed potatoes and ate it before we could stop him. I was so furious I refused to give him any dinner but Dearly relented later and fed him. I’m off dogs at the moment.

    The Trumpet is still inveighing against Hillary. I hope her PAC is busy making some ads against HIM. He said she wanted to “abolish the Second Amendment.” Hey, Trump! Only Congress can do that and the abolition has to be ratified by two-thirds of the states. At least, if I remember what I learned in civics class correctly.

    Will read Jan’s overtime pay post now. This could make a difference to millions. Glad Fallin vetoed the abortion criminalization bill. Thank Goddess I left Oklahoma as soon as I was legally allowed to and never went back! Haven’t set foot in that Goddess-forsaken place to this day.

    Hope it’s a good Saturday for all Meese!

    • Hillary has pivoted to the general election. She told me so!!

      Jan, because of you, I am going to be the Democratic nominee for President of the United States.

      And that means it’s time to steel ourselves for the general election and a race against Donald Trump.

      In moments like this, I think about some advice from my mom: Everybody gets knocked down in life. The real test is whether you get back up and keep going.

      He’s going to come after us with everything he’s got.

      [request for more money]

      Thank you so much, Jan. We’re going to make history together.

      Hillary

      The right-wingers never lets facts, like how the constitution works, get in the way of their demagoguery. The good news is that most of the people Trump is appealing to are those who will vote for Republicans anyway and they cannot win national elections with just their base. Their ceiling is Romney’s 47%. Trump is likely to shed a few more Latinos, some Wall Streeters, quite a few college-educated whites, and a large chunk of the women that Romney won. If he got more than 41% of the popular vote, I would be shocked.

  10. Good morning Meese
    Dogs got me up to go out at 1:30 AM – grrrrrrrrrrrrr
    Am tired this morning. No rain but cloudy here.
    Glad to read about the abortion bill veto -I never thought we’d still be fighting this battle in 2016.

    • Nor I, Sis! I’m already growing rue in my garden. Might have to add pennyroyal and black cohosh. Not for me, but for someone who might need it one day.

    • We need a firewall on the Supreme Court to protect Roe v Wade for another generation – making more red state governors realize that their efforts are a waste of time and money.

      President Hillary Clinton will have the opportunity to immediately nominate a young pro-choice justice to counter the youth of the Bush picks, Samuel Freaking Alito in particular, and will probably name at least two more. I am hoping it so demoralizes Clarence Thomas that he decides to retire. :)

  11. I had a miserable night — very restless & trouble breathing. I might have a sore throat (or it just might be because I couldn’t breathe most of the night). I’m waiting for my tea to get good & really cold, I figure an hour in the freezer should do. Hope that soothes. I have the news on but I keep muting it because Trump.

    I have to cook this weekend. Will go shopping after I feel somewhat better. Maybe the super cold tea will make be feel better.

  12. Yikes, just went and read RonK’s marvelous post about the whales and found the comments already closed!. My mornings are so rushed with driving the Youngs to school and getting ready to go to the gym that I rarely have time to read interesting posts until Saturday.

    Anyway, I thoroughly enjoyed RonK’s post, both the photos and the writing. Especially liked the story of the too-adventurous teenaged orca! I’m going to share this on Facebook and with Political Granddaughter who’s working on a campaign in Seattle. She went to Whidbey Island a couple of weeks ago.

    Have been clicking around to find Denise’s post about the young black man but can’t see it anywhere. I wish comments stayed open or that I had time to read these great posts when they first appear. :(

    • I think I can set the comments to stay open longer; it is probably set for some default. You may have missed the whale story originally because I just expanded Featured Posts (the right sidebar) to include a couple more in order to give them more visibility. It popped out when I did that!

      Dee’s post about the West Point graduate is on the Front Page as an “Editors’ Choice“. You just have to scroll down past today’s Weekly Address.

    • Thanks Diana. I’ll share your comment with Ron when we wakes up. Prior to retirement his writing was all in academic journals so learning to write and take photos in a blogging format is an interesting creative challenge for him. I keep hearing talk of exploring the headwaters of The Columbia River so I know he’s planning another photo adventure for later this summer.

        • I don’t know! I used to be called the “Webmistress” on another blog I managed a few years ago but it does have a faintly naughty sound to it. In theory it is the feminine version of “Webmaster”.

          Perhaps BlogGoddess? :)

          • Now that I like!

            BlogGoddess it is.

            And The Trumpet is called “the Human Cheeto” and “the Billionaire Buffoon” over at GOS.

  13. Good morning, 52 and cloudy in Bellingham. I looked at the garden between naps yesterday, but today I hope to be more hands on. The annual Native Plant Sale happens today so I’ll be finding room for the plants I find irresistible.

    Along with everything else Ron’s parents collected interesting rocks for their garden. Needless to say a few of them came home with us so I’ll be finding homes for those as well.

  15. 70 and we got sunshine! It was foggy this morning but the fog has burned off and it’s already (11 CDT) warmer than it’s been the last several days. Be heading out in a few hours for eldest grandson’s high school graduation. I think there’s to be a family party afterwards but not sure where or how long. Good thing I’ve gotten my Saturday time-sensitive stuff done. Everything else is flexible. (Hope the weather holds for tomorrow when I do my laundry.)

    If B.S. doesn’t “straighten up and fly right” I think shunning is the answer for him. Not sure what exactly to do about the Bros as their response to being shunned is to become physically violent. Chunking them in jail for that would be appropriate but unfortunately that means somebody gets hurt first. Oh well. Most of them aren’t actually supporting B.S. as much as they are anti-Dems in general and anti-Hillary in particular. They never were going to vote Dem so it’s not like we’ve lost anything there.

    Bright the day Meeses (and healing energy to anotherdemocrat). Also {{{HUGS}}}

  16. According to Web MD, I have a cold. I haven’t had a fever in….. I don’t know how many years. Guess I’m not going to church tomorrow. Has to be 24 hours without a fever, right? Guess I’ll find out what happened at General Conference another time. I should have bought cold medicine while I was at Target. Sleep, liquids Tylenol & expired Sudafed will have to do.

Comments are closed.