Week-long Welcomings from Moosylvania: May 29th through June 4th

May 29, 2016 JanF Community 99

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?

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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.

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27 Comments

  1. Good Freya’s Day, Moose peeps! Overcast this morning, although last night’s thunderstorms and rain evidently decided to vacation in Texas instead of visiting us. However, rain is expected—they say—later today. Warm and muggy in NoVa, 72 F. now, going up to 80 F. later.

    It’s also a “Code Yellow” today for air quality. I notice that for the last few years most weather forecasters haven’t mentioned air quality. Is this because the corporate-owned TV stations are owned by fossil-fuel-use- supporting Rethugs?

    (MIni-rant: We’ve switched to “CBS This Morning” from the rowdy bunch on ABC. Why is that Charlie Rose is allowed to be 150 years old—and look it—while women anchors have to have their eyes “fixed” and faces Botoxed in order to stay on TV past age 30? Those eye lifts make them look like cats.)

    Wasn’t Secretary Clinton’s speech great yesterday? That’s telling ’em! So proud of her. And Trump writhed and gasped and sputtered like a gaffed fish.

    Darling Niece expected for coffee this morning, so must cook breakfast soon and try to look half-human afterwards. Denise, have a lovely time celebrating hubby’s birthday tonight, and everyone else have a good day!

  2. Ugh, long day already. My alarm went off late when I had set it early to get here & walk before work. And for the past 2 days, there has been a car in the spot I like to park in, grrrr. Re-setting Monday’s alarm for super early so I can 1) walk before work 2) beat that jerk to my parking spot.

    Really hoping things calm the heck down today. I will lose my mind if things stay at the high volume they have been. Meantime, I’m setting my internal iPod to playing my boys. At least that works the way I want it to.

  3. 63 at dawn supposedly going to 73 and yes, overcast. Did get another 12 KWHs yesterday, again not sure about today – all depends on whether or not it clears off for a couple of hours in the afternoon. Rain held off until after 7 last night so I got to walk home.

    If I get time I’m going to try and watch Hillary’s speech again. Somebody put up the CNN “link” at GOS yesterday, but every time I try to do CNN (on any Hillary speech, not just this one) it gets me about 20 minutes in then goes to non-stop buffering and apparently disconnects everything I have up from the internet. I did at least read the transcript. I know perfectly well the Hillary-Haters are going to see “warmonger” in the speech, but it was a great speech and a clear statement of policy and goals. Hillary was great in 2008, but she is so much better now!

    There are at least 3 piles of things on my desk I think I can process today so I’d best get to them. Bright the day, Meeses. {{{HUGS}}}

    • The embedded video from CSPAN that I posted should work (there is also a transcript to follow along with). I prefer to not use the cable videos because they have their stupid screen crawls. I watched it live on CSPAN yesterday afternoon.

      • Oh good. I’ll have to wait until I get home, but getting it “all of a piece” instead of in bits will just make it better. Thanks, bf

  4. Good morning, 55 and cloudy in Bellingham. Between watching HRC’s excellent speech yesterday, then reading about it, and then taking a long nap the day vanished. So my welcome home list is even longer this morning.

    I am surprised to note that the local newspapers I read every morning have no mention of HRC’s speech. Makes me wonder and worry about how informed voters will be later this fall.

    • The morning shows were covering it but only as a she-said he-said so I am afraid that the dire warning Hillary issued will only be heard by us – her echo chamber! :) Unless Donald Trump refuses to debate, which is a distinct possibility, we will likely hear her bullet points again. I have a few reaction pieces that I will post as comments in the speech post later today. There were at least two that seemed to be making the case that this speech gave fence-sitting Republicans permission to vote for Hillary Clinton – to block a Trump presidency. I hope they are right. I worry a little bit about the number of white people voting on race and the kids deciding to stay home because Sanders is not running. We will need every vote to not just defeat but repudiate the Republican Party’s vision of America.

  5. Morning all! In the comments for Jan’s main link/story on Hillary’s speech, I put a link to the CBS This Morning segment on it, someone from the Atlantic talking about it – a quite intelligent analysis, I recommend watching it. The point he makes in it is that this isn’t a traditional campaign, Hillary decided that Trump needs to be fought with, essentially, unconventional verbal warfare, and so was making the point, not for the last time this year, that the choice is between sane and stable versus an unstable megalomaniac.

    I’ve heard before the notion that “Hillary is a hawk” that this guy also talks about – I am not sure I agree with that, but if the spectrum is Obama/non-interventionist all the way over to Bush/warmonger, then I guess Hillary may be in the middle, and I’m ok with that. What shocked me over at GOS yesterday was a Bernie supporter – maybe more than one – actually arguing for isolationism! Srsly?

    Appparently Trump was seriously off balance in his speech last night (he entered to the music of “Ride of the Valkyries” omg) – the twitter accounts I was reading seemed to agree that Hillary got to him with that speech, as was her intention, I’m sure. But very telling that one of the only negative responses to her speech was from Bernie – I now think he’s convinced himself that a Trump presidency would be preferable, and that’s why he’ll probably still be campaigning against her during her inaugural speech in January. UGH, just GO AWAY NOW!

    OK, time to get some stuff done – have a great day everyone!

    • One of the Tweets I saw complimented Hillary on how she “threaded the needle of not taking Trump the person seriously, but taking the idea of President Trump deadly seriously.” That is EXACTLY the right tone.

  6. Good morning, meese! Saturday …

    It is 63 degrees in Madison on its way up to 77. Scattered thunderstorms are in the forecast.

    We live in interesting times. We can watch the news (and the “news”) live on Twitter and follow the decline and fall of a major political party in real time. Yesterday, Trump found an African American at his rally, claimed him for his own(!) and then proceeded to use him to inoculate himself against charges of racism in his attacks on a federal judge who has a Hispanic surname, a man born in America, the son of immigrants. Paul Ryan announced that such racism by Trump “came out of left field” – he had never seen such a thing from the man who he turned his party over to!!

    I am going to have to turn away from the GOP train wreck for a while because I am having Schadenfreude overload.

    Here’s some good news: the president commuted sentences for 42 more individuals, half of which were life sentences.

    President Obama’s Weekly Address is on the economy and I will post it shortly. First Lady Michelle Obama delivered the commencement address at City College of New York and I will post the video and transcript in the Weekly Address comments. Apparently she had a few things to say about the quality of the Republican presidential nominee! I will also include the action and reaction to the new payday lending rules that were announced this past week. They are a big huge deal for people who need short-term money and are finding themselves in long-term financial despair.

    See all y’all later!!

    • DO NOT miss Michelle Obama’s speech!! Link to comment with video and transcript. Part of it …

      … it’s the story that I witness every single day when I wake up in a house that was built by slaves, and I watch my daughters –- two beautiful, black young women -– head off to school — (applause) — waving goodbye to their father, the President of the United States, the son of a man from Kenya who came here to America for the same reasons as many of you: To get an education and improve his prospects in life. So, graduates, while I think it’s fair to say that our Founding Fathers never could have imagined this day, all of you are very much the fruits of their vision. Their legacy is very much your legacy and your inheritance. And don’t let anybody tell you differently. You are the living, breathing proof that the American Dream endures in our time. It’s you.

    • I saw where they had called his family to his bedside but I did not read the news yet this morning. There was a lot about him on Twitter last night. I knew he chose to go to jail rather than kill but I did not know much about the details. I saw a quote from him about why he didn’t want to go kill poor people and people of color for a country that treated his people so badly. I can’t find it now because it was a very busy day on Twitter and my Favorites list was too long.

      If you find a good article on his life and legacy, could you link to it, please?

  8. Good gray Saturn’s Day, Meese! It’s 71 F. marching toward 82 F. here in NoVa, with more rain expected some time or other. Wow, did we get a commuter shower at 5 p.m. yesterday! I was safely in the hairdresser’s salon, then in the grocery store, but I didn’t envy anyone who was out in that downpour.

    Feeling sad about the passing of Muhammad Ali. It’s like the passing of an era. I’m still trying to grasp that the Sixties happened more than 50 years ago! They were my coming-of-age years, although I married at age 23, which put paid to any pursuits other than employment and domesticity for a long while. Are older women radical because they suddenly have time to be that way?

    Ali was an interesting man, a complex person if there ever was one. Isn’t it time to rethink “sports” that cause such terrible injuries? Is there a sport athletes could do that wouldn’t result in concussions and eventual Parkinson’s? “‘Tis a consummation devoutly to be wished.”

    No big plans for today except gym and correspondence this morning, dinner at Elder Son’s house tonight. Wishing everyone a good Saturday!

  9. I slept through the night! Wow, that hasn’t happened in forever. Even with thunderstorms. After the weekend, it is supposed to dry out. I might walk this afternoon if the weather isn’t too bad. In my neighborhood, because Lady Bird Lake is flooded.

  11. Good morning, 61 and sunny in Bellingham. It’s time to find the window screens and open the upstairs windows. The new insulation has made the upstairs cooler and quieter, but the open windows allow a breeze and I really love the fresh air.

    Our next house project is installing a wood screen/storm door on the front door so we will have a good cross breeze with no worries about birds coming in and dogs getting out. I’ve wanted to do this for years so we finally ordered a door ( the size meant a custom order) and it arrived yesterday. Fortunately our son will trim it to size, stain the interior, paint the exterior, add the hardware and hinges, and then install it……lots of steps!

    As you all know I worry about the oil trains lumbering through Bellingham, and now one has derailed and is on fire in Qregon.

    Oil train derails, catches fire in Columbia River Gorge

    MOSIER, Ore. — The fiery derailment of oil-train cars in the Columbia River Gorge east of Portland Friday afternoon has rekindled debate about the drawbacks of the Pacific Northwest’s role in crude-oil transport.

      • This accident is a long ways away, but the same tanker cars travel on the train tracks through the park at the base of the hill we live on. I know the world we live in depends on oil and oil production, but transporting flammable crude oil via train is an accident waiting to happen.

  13. President Obama and Michelle Obama: Statement from President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama on the Passing of Muhammad Ali

    Muhammad Ali was The Greatest. Period. If you just asked him, he’d tell you. He’d tell you he was the double greatest; that he’d “handcuffed lightning, thrown thunder into jail.”

    But what made The Champ the greatest – what truly separated him from everyone else – is that everyone else would tell you pretty much the same thing.

    Like everyone else on the planet, Michelle and I mourn his passing. But we’re also grateful to God for how fortunate we are to have known him, if just for a while; for how fortunate we all are that The Greatest chose to grace our time.

    In my private study, just off the Oval Office, I keep a pair of his gloves on display, just under that iconic photograph of him – the young champ, just 22 years old, roaring like a lion over a fallen Sonny Liston. I was too young when it was taken to understand who he was – still Cassius Clay, already an Olympic Gold Medal winner, yet to set out on a spiritual journey that would lead him to his Muslim faith, exile him at the peak of his power, and set the stage for his return to greatness with a name as familiar to the downtrodden in the slums of Southeast Asia and the villages of Africa as it was to cheering crowds in Madison Square Garden.

    “I am America,” he once declared. “I am the part you won’t recognize. But get used to me – black, confident, cocky; my name, not yours; my religion, not yours; my goals, my own. Get used to me.”

    That’s the Ali I came to know as I came of age – not just as skilled a poet on the mic as he was a fighter in the ring, but a man who fought for what was right. A man who fought for us. He stood with King and Mandela; stood up when it was hard; spoke out when others wouldn’t. His fight outside the ring would cost him his title and his public standing. It would earn him enemies on the left and the right, make him reviled, and nearly send him to jail. But Ali stood his ground. And his victory helped us get used to the America we recognize today.

    He wasn’t perfect, of course. For all his magic in the ring, he could be careless with his words, and full of contradictions as his faith evolved. But his wonderful, infectious, even innocent spirit ultimately won him more fans than foes – maybe because in him, we hoped to see something of ourselves. Later, as his physical powers ebbed, he became an even more powerful force for peace and reconciliation around the world. We saw a man who said he was so mean he’d make medicine sick reveal a soft spot, visiting children with illness and disability around the world, telling them they, too, could become the greatest. We watched a hero light a torch, and fight his greatest fight of all on the world stage once again; a battle against the disease that ravaged his body, but couldn’t take the spark from his eyes.

    Muhammad Ali shook up the world. And the world is better for it. We are all better for it. Michelle and I send our deepest condolences to his family, and we pray that the greatest fighter of them all finally rests in peace.

  14. Another overcast day with some dribbling starting at 63 and may or may not get to 75. Sigh. Until things clear up enough so my yard dries out I not only can’t treat for fleas & ticks, I can’t even get it mowed! Tomorrow is laundry day and I’d really like to not wade through the flea incubator that my yard currently is – nor hang out my clothes where they can become infested. Double sigh.

    I didn’t pay a lot of attention to boxing when I was a kid, but even I knew about Mohammed Ali – remember the whoha when he changed his name although I didn’t understand it at the time. Also remember his war protesting although I didn’t understand that at the time either – not being anti-Vietnam War, I was that myself in my small and not very significant way, but just how bad things were for young men of color and how very significant his protest was in bringing that to light. He was a very good man. The Ancestors have welcomed him with a “Well Done!” Peace and comfort to his family.

    Need to get some other-than-food shopping done before the crowds show up. Bright the day, Meeses. {{{HUGS}}}

  15. Morning all. Such sad news about Ali – I was not a boxing enthusiast either (never have been, never will be), but Ali was such a titanic figure. I was a teenager when he protested the Vietnam War, joined the Nation of Islam, and then came back to win his titles again, so it was a bit distant for me, but I do remember him as a person of principle and courage. I do vividly remember the 96 Olympics when he lit the torch, and that may have been the first time I truly understood what a global phenomenon he was, loved by people around the world. May he rest in peace.

    I’m sure my friend Amy, who has Parkinson’s, is avoiding the coverage today, as it’s scary and depressing to think that this might be her future too – but Ali lived with the disease for 30 years, while she was just diagnosed 2 years ago and so far her doctor thinks she has the ‘tremor dominant’ form that may mean she won’t have the mental decline that many people have as it progresses.

    On the political front, Thursday and Friday were just amazing days in this election season – first you have Hillary lighting things up with her terrific speech showcasing all the reasons we can’t allow the Donald anywhere near the White House. Then we have Trump himself just reinforcing her message every time he opened his mouth, first with that interview with Jake Tapper attacking a Federal judge on racist grounds – as a lawyer, I am appalled particularly at this, and cannot imagine this man having access to the FBI and CIA to go after the targets of his petty vindictiveness and racism. Then, “my African-American” comment at his rally – good golly, it’s just hard to fathom this man has been nominated by a major political party. But it’s a natural progression, I guess, when you look back at the last 35 years, from Reagan to the Tea Party to Trump – the Republicans just seem to have lit a match to their party, determined to burn it and the country with it. Hillary can save us from this, and the response to her speech and campaigning yesterday seems to show a turning point in people’s confidence that she can do it.

    Now if Sanders would just shut up and take a seat….oh well, can’t have everything.

    Opera day today – no more Met broadcasts till next December now, radio season is done, but WETA has “World of Opera” program on Saturdays till then to fill the gap with recorded live performances from all over. Today, it’s Ballo in Maschera, a Verdi opera, from the Bavarian State Opera company – I’m not a huge Verdi fan, but this one has some memorable arias and hey, it’s Saturday so it’s opera time!

    Have a great day everyone! And I would appreciate it if 2016 would stop with the carrying off of cultural icons – Bowie, Alan Rickman, Prince, Ali. You can quit now, year.

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