Week-long Welcomings from Moosylvania: Aug. 21st through Aug. 27th

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.

30 Comments

  1. Good morning, Motley Meese! The week begins …

    Morning low of 55 in Madison WI, on its way up to 70. Mostly sunny skies are in the forecast.

    Have a great day, all y’alls!!

  2. Brilliant Tweet in response to #LochteMess:

    Katie Rich @katiemaryrich

    Now I’m going to have a hard time believing men when they say they’ve been robbed.

    Some of the responses are funny, too:

    “I’m not saying they deserved to be robbed, but what did they expect going out dressed like that?”

    “If it’s legitimate Robbery the white male has ways to try to shut the whole thing down.”

    “I mean, if they aren’t even injured from trying to fight off their attacker, how could we really know?”

  3. Good morning Meese

    Checking in from mini-vacation land. Took us 2 extra hours (normally a 4 hour drive) to get way out here on Long Island yesterday – due to flash flood created traffic snarls.

    Will probably be rained out of beach today – was simply happy to get a chance to sleep through the night without dogs demanding I get up at 2 or 3 AM to let them out.

    Off to find coffee!

  4. Good Sunday morning, Moosekind! It’s 74 F. on a cloudy morning here in NoVa, going up to 82 F. today. Going to cook today’s dinner, pot roast with vegetables, in the crockpot for ages because I’m afraid the forecasted thunderstorms will blow out the electricity. The generator will restore power to our kitchen outlets, but not to the oven.

    Miss Pink Cheeks is still fast asleep but I’ll have to wake her up soon as we’re going out for Sunday breakfast. She goes to her new home today. Her parents are still cleaning it up, and Baby Brother is afflicted by night terrors in the new house, so they’re not getting much sleep.

    Feeling weary of Trump and proud of Hillary. Think I might skip politics today, go back to the gym, and back to writing, which I haven’t done all month.

    Wishing a good day to all at the Pond and Beyond!

  5. Good morning, 61 and sunny in Bellingham today. We’re celebrating Ava’s 9th birthday today so I have a birthday bouquet to make and presents to wrap. I hope to do some careful gardening as well. Ron has kept everything watered and the munching deer are very grateful…… so they keep coming back! A few plants are beyond recovery and just need to be replaced with some fall flowers.

    I’m going to try to keep my focus on flowers and family and ignore the yam news today…..he’s a soul sucking mess :(

  6. Quick check in before the washer finishes and I need to go hang out the clothes. Blessed 57 at dawn and very sunny heading to maybe 80 today which will make up for the only 5 KWHs I got with yesterday’s overcast and rain (1″ – which we needed). It’s so cool still (65 outside and 75 in the kitchen even with the oven on for the last 3 hours) I not only got the muffins baked (cocoa-peanut butter), but I also baked a batch of oatmeal cookies and have put the pork roast in the oven instead of the crock pot :)

    I’ll check over at GOS later for Dee’s diary, the British Breakfast HNV, and to keep an eye on kishik’s fundraising diary for Wings and Aji’s new home (only times like these I wish I actually had a social media following – we need lots of eyes on that or rather on the links to both the donations and to Wings gallery). The only political information I will be getting – and maybe even paying attention to – will be what’s on/in the Hillary diaries at GOS. Not gonna look anywhere else.

    Happy vacation, Dee. Happy breakfast out, Diana. Happy Birthday to the grandkid, princesspat. Happy nice weather, Jan (and great tweets LOL). And just happy whatever you’re doing to everybody. Bright the day, Meeses. {{{HUGS}}}

  7. I posted in last week’s diary, wondered where everyone was. Duh!

    Had lots of rain yesterday, and it’s downright cool this morning. I may wear a long sleeved shirt to church. Watching the men’s marathon, though I don’t care as much as I did last week’s woman’s race. Don’t have to cook today, but I do need to take out trash & recycling this afternoon. So, a nice lazy day for me. I should get started writing my DK Wellness diary for next week.

  8. Morning all – glad to hear you’re relaxing on your vacay Dee! Everyone is so busy! Me, if I get some bills paid today, I will consider it a productive day!

    I will not introduce the hated subject of the Yam here this morning – and it’s probably a good idea to take a break from the political stuff every week. So, I offer a couple of movie/TV suggestions instead! First, I just caught up with Brooklyn, showing on HBO now and I highly recommend it, for anyone who didn’t catch it in the theatres last year. It’s about a young Irish woman emigrating to New York in the early 1950’s – this movie does not have a mean bone in its body, no violence or ugliness, just wonderfully heartfelt performances, especially from Saroise Ronan who was rightfully nominated for an Oscar for her performance (I think the movie was too, as well as the screenplay by Nick Hornby). It really evokes the era as well, both in Ireland and in Brooklyn. It’s probably what would have been called a “woman’s picture” back in the 50’s – and, like another movie in that genre I love, Enchanted April, I am sure will be a favorite I will watch over again for years to come.

    My second suggestion probably won’t appeal to many of you, and it took me a while to really get into it, but “Stranger Things”, a miniseries of 8 episodes on Netflix (original programming), is very well done, albeit creepy. One of the main attractions are the young actors in it playing kids of 11 or 12, in the early 1980’s in small town Indiana, playing in a Dungeons and Dragons game and then encountering mysterious happenings associated with a nearby scientific research facility. It’s not to everyone’s taste, but if you like science fiction at all, you might give it a try.

    Ok, everyone have a great day!

  9. Good morning, meese!

    It is 52 degrees in Madison on its way up to 75. Sunny skies are in the forecast. Perfect weather for the likes of me!

    The president is back in Washington preparing for the last leg of his presidency. He will be visiting Baton Rouge tomorrow to see first hand how the federal response to the flooding is being handled and comfort those whose lives have been disrupted. Right-wingers were comparing Bush’s vacation (and flyover) during Katrina and President Obama staying on vacation last week. Nice try! Because Republicans don’t care about Good Government and any hack (hello, Alito!) will do, Bush had put FEMA in the hands of a former Arabian Horse Association director whose incompetence was only exceeded by his cluelessness. President Obama hired professionals to run FEMA and DHS Secretary Jeh Johnson was in Louisiana assessing the federal response. I am 100% certain that he was not handing out Play-Doh.

    A white supremacist group protested at the NAACP in Houston and KKK leader David Duke was chortling on alt-right media about “taking over the Republican Party” for European-Americans. For anyone who asks black voters “what do you have to lose by voting for Republicans?” you don’t have to look past the day’s headlines.

    See all y’all later!

  10. Awful night’s sleep last night. Brought the gym bag — going to do a session on the elliptical machine after work, see if that helps. I hope he says something awful — the more awful things he says, the harder it will be for him to win non-crazy voters back to the R column.

    Brain is playing Salome though that isn’t what I was listening to in the car. I started the workout mix at the beginning so it was People Have the Power.

  11. Good morning, Meese, sure, and it’s a grand immortal day here in NoVa! Current temp. is 66 F., going up to 83 F., and it’s cloudless with deep shadows at this hour. I love days like this—if only this weather would stay until November!

    Not much on what remains of my mind this morning. Made great progress last night on my September short story, “In the Shadow of Loki,” so I’m feeling good about that.

    Miss Pink Cheeks and I are supposed to make bread from scratch today, but I just realized we don’t have enough flour! I’ll have to go to the store and get some. Duh.

    Wishing a good day to all at the Pond and Beyond.

    • The sheep looking at the billboard smiling really says it all. His followers are pleased by the un-PC nature of Trump and don’t care about what he intends to do to them.

      Hillary’s campaign ads are very effective – they make the case against Trump by using clips from Trump. First, every time his image shows up it is jarring (he really is an ugly shouty thing) and, second, his own words describing his own demeanor cannot really be refuted.

      This ad just made its way to YouTube:

  12. Morning all. Not much to report on today – now the Olympics are over, I’m back to keeping the TV off most of the time. Another blazingly hot day here too, but I need to get out and run some errands this afternoon anyway. Glad you’re enjoying some beach time, Dee! Everyone have a good one today!

  13. 56 just before dawn, downright chilly this a.m., heading for mid 80s and clear again today. This weekend just passed gave both my low (5 KWHs on Saturday) and high (21 KWHs on Sunday) electricity generation for the month so far. Sort of hoping today tops yesterday’s as we’ve got clouds moving in again starting late this afternoon. The rest of the week’s lows are predicted to be in the upper 60s and that takes cloud cover.

    Haven’t looked at the news and won’t for at least a couple of hours but I try to pay as little attention to the orange fascisti as possible, ditto the so-what-else-is-new attacks on the Clintons especially Hillary, and concentrate on what Hillary and her team are actually up to. Much easier on the tummy. :)

    First day of classes but open registration runs through the week. A lot more stuff today on finishing off getting all our new hires in their appropriate positions, offices, and equipment they need to do their jobs than student stuff. The latter will hit when students who need classes but for some reason haven’t gotten into them – for whatever reason – all show up in panic mode about 3:30 Friday afternoon. So – need to clear the stuff on my desk so I can be ready for them. heh. Bright the Day, Meeses. {{{HUGS}}}

  14. Good morning, 58 and cloudy in Bellingham. The weather turned to fall yesterday, and blustery wind blew over a tree ( in a very vice pot) so that had to be rescued and staked. Then another gust knocked down a planting in an oval pot, which shattered. The planting is so root bound it held together but I’ll have to find a new container today. and the damn deer ate the new geranium blossoms. So much for a peaceful day in the garden!

    We enjoyed celebrating Ava’s birthday last evening, with a mixed berry crisp in lieu of cake, and presents and a cozy time by the outdoor fire. The girls will be here today so we will do errands and sew, then go to her school for a Popsicle social at 4:00. I’ve enjoyed my time with the girls this summer, but we’re all ready to settle into the fall schedule.

    Time for the pool…..best Monday wishes to all!

  15. Good morning, meese! Tuesday …

    It is 64 degrees in Madison on its way up to 79. Sunny skies most of the day but clouding over late this afternoon with a possibility of rain overnight.

    The yam is having a difficult time pivoting because, really, he can’t – there is no “kinder gentler Trump”. I admit to being a bit concerned about him finding some hook to increase his support (I still think it is stuck at 45%) but an article (“We can’t figure out Trump’s strategy, because he doesn’t have one. And he never will.”) by Paul Waldman comforted me a bit:

    … it’s time we stopped assuming that Trump has something we could call a coherent strategy — or ever will. It’s increasingly apparent that both the man himself and his campaign have a competing pair of impulses, one of which is much stronger than the other, but both of which will continue to be expressed from here to election day.[…]

    Trump’s new campaign manager, Kellyanne Conway, went on TV and said in defense of her candidate, “He doesn’t hurl personal insults.” … I could have sworn I saw a small trail of smoke rising from the back of Conway’s head, as the last remnants of her soul ignited before crumbling to ash.

    The “outreach” to people of color is, of course, complete bulldung. It is intended to give his skittish Republican party-over-country supporters something to point to when they rationalize their support for a white supremacist. But even with those Republicans, there are not enough Trump voters if Hillary voters show up at the polls.

    In the real world (outside the 24×7 media circus), real people continue to be hurt by Republican policies. When I opened up my newspaper today, I was sad to see that one of the 4 abortion clinics in Wisconsin had to close its doors. Not closed by Republican governors and legislators directly but closed by Republican inspired domestic terrorism: the facility in Appleton cannot afford to upgrade security to the level needed following the attack on the Colorado Springs facility. Women in the Fox Valley area will now have to travel to Madison or Milwaukee for abortions. :(

    See all y’all later!

  16. Good morning on another beautiful day here in NoVa, with cirrus clouds creating a “mackerel sky” effect against the pale blue. It’s 62 F. now, going up to 82 F. later. It’s going to get humid again, too.

    Not much to say except that Cheeto-head’s trying to make out that Hill is ill and the Rethugs are scratching around in Hill’s alleged 30,000 emails in the State Department. Yawn. Wish we lived in a country inhabited by the rational.

    This morning I have to trot to the doctor’s office simply to get blood pressure taken. He wants to see what a week of being on blood pressure meds. has had. Of course, suffering as I do from “white coat syndrome” it’ll shoot up to the stratosphere. Duh.

    Wishing a good day to all at the Pond and Beyond!

    • Can you do your blood pressure at home or at least somewhere else? False readings means taking an unnecessary amount of drugs that muck up your kidneys and/or liver (and all of them do). You may never be able to get off the BP drugs altogether, but you may be able to reduce the dosage.

  17. Leaving work early because I have an appointment at 5. With all the Trump & protest & hey the students are back traffic, I’m thinking of leaving at 3:30. Anyway, that’s my day: work, traffic, workout. Brain is playing Disappear. No idea why.

  18. Hiya Meese.
    Am home and enjoying the refreshing 62 degree temp here – only going up to 82 today in the Catskills.

    Catching up on stuff I missed while away.

    Had to grin when I watched Charles Blow take down one of Trump’s “black outreach” creeps.

    off to write BKos

    Jan if you are wondering why I haven’t been cross-posting my Tuesday’s Chile it’s because of the fact it is no longer possible to just cut and paste – requires a lot of extra graphics work.
    I’ll see if I can figger out how to make it easier.

    • Here is a CNN reporter talking to black people in Ohio asking them how they feel about Trump’s “what the hell do you have to lose?” comment:


      Holy Mackeral, Kenny Wells! Yes, some Democrats might feel like they should have your vote – because they can’t fathom what the hell you are thinking saying that Trump speaks to you!!! p.s. Spend some time looking at video from the two nominating conventions and tell me which party not only welcomes black people but celebrates them and – shocking! – includes them at every level of leadership. The Democratic Party is not “them”, it is “us” – the Obama Coalition.

    • There is a way to scrape the diary code off the page after it is published. If you want to try it, let me know when BKos posts and where your segment starts and ends and I will scrape it into a post that you can review and publish for later in the week in Moosylvania. If it works, I don’t mind doing that every other week. I miss the Tuesday’s Chile!

  19. 70 when I got up and overcast today but only going up to 80, so left the east and porch windows open for the kittehs. With all the ups and downs, I’m averaging barely 15 KWHs at day this month. If I can manage to continue that (today won’t help) I’ll end up with a monthly total of 465 KWHs, way under the 533 I got in August 2015 — and that’s an iffy IF. 2016 has just been a cloudy year.

    Not sure I even want to know what’s in the news. The Hillary Hate is strong and the owners of the media are licking their chops at the idea of finally being able to bring the Clintons down after all these years of trying. They aren’t going to succeed this time either, but they are already setting up disadvantaged people dying overseas by forcing the Clintons to shut down the Clinton Global Initiative – because transparency isn’t enough for anything to do with the Clintons. They have to react to what some nasty shit might do if they had an international operation and weren’t transparent.

    Here’s a link to a GOS diary (latest of a series to fundraise for Aji’s and Wings’ new home) – the links within the diary are mostly different ways of fundraising but there’s one to Wings’ gallery – and they are asking more that people share those links throughout their social media contacts than specifically donate personally.
    http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2016/8/22/1562711/-Wings-amp-Aji-Still-Need-Sharing

    Got work to deal with, a couple of deadlines tomorrow I thought I’d dealt with last week but blew up – have to figure out why and fix it. Bright the Day, Meeses. {{{HUGS}}}

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