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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Good morning, Motley Meese! The week begins …
Morning low of 63 in Madison WI, on its way up to 81. Mostly sunny skies are in the forecast.
Have a great day, all y’alls!!
Morning, Jan! I’m starting to wish I lived in Madison.
But, oh rats, Scotty would be my governor…no, I’ll stay in Virginia with Foot-in-Mouth McAuliffe.
Something I’m thinking about is that if, as seems likely, HRC wins the election, we’ll have a vacant seat in the Senate. I’m hoping our Democratic guv will appoint Bobby Scott, a long-time Congressperson from down state, to Kaine’s place. Scott would be Virginia’s first African-American U.S. senator! Something that people often forget is that Virginia, for all its racist past, was the first state in the country to elect an African-American governor, Doug Wilder. Pro-choice women helped propel him to victory.
The weather here is as variable as our politics! For many years, we were the center of progressivism, in fact Robert LaFollette, the father of the progressive movement, is from here. We have been, and I hope continue to be, a reliable Blue State for presidential elections.
But there is an ugliness here that comes from being too-white in a country that is giving voice to those who think that non-whites, The Other, are taking white people’s things and destroying their way of life. That element elected Scott Walker and put his party in power during a census year and via gerrymandering solidified their lock on our state legislature for a generation. I won’t be staying here because the ugliness that spawned Walker and keeps him in power has enabled him to destroy K-12 education and dismantle our once-envied university system; we are left with those who are proud to be Know Nothings. I cannot retire in a state where my ability to survive on a fixed income is in the hands of the easily deluded so I will seek bluer pastures in the next few years.
I hope that whoever McAuliffe appoints is someone who has a chance to win the seat on his own. Virginia is getting to be reliably blue but it may take another election cycle.
Fifty-three years ago today:
Transcript: Martin Luther King, Jr. “I Have a Dream” delivered 28 August 1963, at the Lincoln Memorial, Washington D.C.
Excerpt, statement from Hillary Clinton:
Good morning Meese.
A somber Sunday for me – remembering the brutal murder/lynching of 14 year old Emmett Till in Mississippi in 1955.
Rev Barber said at Netroots Nation 14:
Emmett Till’s name has been kept alive in front of mostly white audiences by folk singers from Dylan, to Ochs – and in recent years by Emmy Lou Harris
I have never forgotten his mother – and the open casket image from the funeral.
Sombering indeed, Denise. I will think of Emmett and MLK as I go about my little part of Moosylvania today.
Here is Dee’s post this morning: ‘ … we are the hard-boiled sons of Emmett Till’
Good morning, Moosylvanians! The weather is the same as yesterday. Rinse, repeat. It would be great for solar collection, but alas, we have no panels. (Wonder how much they cost.) What I wouldn’t give for three or four days of gentle, hours-long rain.
No thoughts in my head this morning beyond the usual twin loathings of Rethugs and the mainstream media. Wish the Dems would get in and give Social Security a raise. We’re starting to realize that we will never be able to afford to move to a retirement community, so we may as well resign ourselves to that.
For those interested, the YouGive people returned the money yesterday. They didn’t notify me that they’d done this, but the branch manager showed me on the computer that they had. Gradually things are getting straightened out. I’ve been approved for a credit card, so I’ll follow the example of bfitz and Jan and charge all my charitable giving to that. Shoulda done that in the first place, but (shrug) live and learn.
That’s enough from me. Hope everyone will have a peaceful, relaxing Sunday!
Health & Wellness diary is up at Daily Kos. I did my mile yesterday, took a (too long) nap & bought groceries. Currently have beans cooking. Waiting for Joy Reid’s show to come on. Her show is really great, glad it is getting attention.
I wish she would refuse to be on NBC panels with right-wing radio show hosts like Hugh Hewitt. Those panels give credibility to people like him – that bigotry on the right is simply partisanship instead of a stain on the soul of those who are Republicans and support either Trump or the party leaders who refuse to denounce him.
People will tell me that having her there is a pushback against the Trump forces but that makes no sense to me. You push back by saying “I refuse to be part of normalizing people like this”.
I will follow her on Twitter but I can’t watch MSNBC.
I love how she will absolutely insist that a guest actually answer her question. They’ll go off on their talking point, and she’ll say “but what I asked was…” and back & forth, but she sticks to her original question. And Goddess help someone who tries spouting made-up stuff. She will not have any of that.
Loved your diary, anotherdemocrat!
One question that popped into my head: where do you get cherry juice for your baked oatmeal? I’ve never seen cherry juice. Of course, I haven’t been looking for it, either, so perhaps I just haven’t noticed it.
It’s just in the juice aisle, with the others. You have to read the labels to be sure it’s really cherry juice & not “and other juices”. It’s expensive, but I use it sparingly so a jar lasts a while.
Morning all! It’s dreadfully hot here, Miami like heat where it doesn’t cool off at all at night – it was still almost 80 degrees last night at midnight. ugh.
I’m watching AM Joy right now, and she is terrific – yes, she has Hewitt on right now, but she seems to manage to pull out the more sensible stuff from these right wingers, and she does not let any guest get away with spouting lies and nonsense, unlike almost every other TV host. She shut down someone yesterday trying to call Planned Parenthood a “eugenics” organization in very short order.
Trump’s ugliness as a human being is frequently on unfiltered display on Twitter, as it was yesterday, essentially trying to exploit the death of pro basketball player Dywayne Wade’s cousin, a young mother, shot to death on a Chicago street in a random killing. What was even more troubling to me, as I expect this stuff from Trump, was the reaction of the Associated Press, which characterized Trump’s tweet “I was right! African-Americans will vote Trump!” in neutral terms – all hell broke loosed on them on Twitter after that, with several people raising questions about AP’s relationship with Trump. It’s very disheartening – I don’t want to turn into Sarah Palin talking about the “lamestream media” all the time, but it’s hard not to, given the incredible bias against Hillary, so open with people like Andrea Mitchell. The press needs to have a long hard look at how it’s covering this election and its responsibility for promoting and normalizing a sociopathic monster like Trump, mostly for ratings reasons. It’s not a good look.
Enough of that – a correction on my opera report yesterday, it was Debussy’s Pelleas and Melisande, not Massenet. It was lovely – I have always loved Debussy, ever since I heard, as a young girl, L’Apres Midi du Faun, and this is his only opera. It like listening to flowing water turned into melodies – just lovely.
I was so happy to hear Dee’s voice again yesterday in our guild voice chat program for WOW – our friend Thanael (that’s his character name in game, he’s really Fabrice in real life), a wonderful French-Canadian software engineer, helped her get the program working again, and it was so great to chat! And speaking of Dee, off for an increasingly rare for me visit to GOS to read her Sunday diary – have a great day everyone!
Having voice chat to hang out together is the best – I often wish that Moose had a voice chat room for us to all hang out in – but welcomings will have to do ;)
Is it real voices or just words? No one wants to hear my gravelly voice!!
Somewhere around 70 at dawn and sunny, well hazy, so far today. That’s been the pattern the last several days – sun shines in the morning but by mid-afternoon it’s overcast with chance of rain. Got just under 13 KWHs yesterday. With the overcast afternoons, the temps don’t really drop that much and only just before dawn – so low 70s instead of the low 60s I’d be getting with these mid-80s highs if it were clear.
Today is my brother’s birthday. He’ll be 61. Being that I was a couple of months shy of my 4th birthday at the time, the evils of Emmett Till’s murder didn’t register. In fact, I didn’t connect that the murder happened on my brother’s birthday until just now. Apparently I compartmentalize more than I realize. My mother was a little busy to notice at the time – but she noticed later. Even back in 1955 Emmett’s name was “one more” on an ever-growing list she paid attention to. She would have seen that picture of Emmett’s mother at the casket – and would have seen her as another mother who’s baby was dead. I guess that’s why she taught me to hate injustice. The loss of a child was the worst thing my mother could think of to happen to any mother, and by murder the worst of the worst.
Diana, I’m so glad things are straightening out. If you really want to live in a retirement community I’m sorry you cannot. My PV system cost $14K lock, stock, and barrel and would have been $13K if I’d done it all at the same time instead of 2 stages – but I got federal tax credits (which I do pay enough taxes to use) for 1/3 of that. AR doesn’t have any state incentives – check and see if VA does. States like CA and CO not only have state incentives, they also have special low- or no-interest loan programs to deal with the upfront costs.
I’ve got everything on my list except the floors done and am taking a coffee break (gingerbread muffins this week) to check in then go over to GOS to 1) check Aji’s current total on the widget, 2) read the international HNV refered to as the Great British Breakfast, and 3) read Dee’s diary on Emmett Till. Bright the day, Meeses. {{{HUGS}}}
Thanks, bfitz! Well, you know, I just might start investigating solar panels. If we’re going to stay here, I might as well think of ways to reduce costs and that would certainly be a good one.
At least check out the possible credits, rebates, and low- or no-interest loans as well as what it would cost in your area. (For my area the inverter was the most expensive part with labor second, the panels themselves are not that expensive. In your area labor may be the most expensive part.) I got mine because I wanted a low or no electricity bill to worry about once I’m on Social Security. Essentially you pay for years of electricity up front and get the benefit of lower monthly outgo later on. Have fun.
Good morning, 67 and mostly cloudy in Bellingham. Yesterday was a busy family day, ending with a lovely garden party celebrating Jim and Sandee’s 50th anniversary. The party was to busy for photos so here’s a bouquet pic from the garage, as I was making them. Everything survived transport and a breezy afternoon…..big relief!
That’s a lovely arrangement. Glad the party went well.
Thanks bfitz……it was a multi generational affair and by the end everyone our age were sitting down watching the younger ones continue on. A nice feeling of family and community.
Watching the youngsters carry on is always fun – and a perquisite of getting older. :)
Oh, my Goddess, princesspat, your photo is so beautiful I thought at first it was a painting! Wouldn’t that make a great still life painting?
Wish you could do the flowers for Dearly’s and my anniversary in 2017—that’s when it’ll be 50 years for us!
Thanks Diana…..our 50th is in 2017 as well. Let’s share a virtual bouquet!
Sounds great, princesspat!
Good morning, meese! Monday …
It is 68 degrees in Madison on its way up to 82. Mostly sunny skies are in the forecast.
A quick scan of the news tells me that we are still in the middle of a presidential race! I am looking forward to September 6th when bored Americans officially wrap up summer and begin to pay attention to politics and help stop the up-and-down of the polls, the do-nothing Congress comes back into session and reminds people that Republicans cannot govern, and the clock starts ticking to the first votes being banked in the presidential election: September 26th in Minnesota.
There are now 3 days left in August and I need to get some projects done.
See all y’all later!
Jan, does the electoral board start counting the early votes right away and “banking” them, so to speak, or do they wait and do it all at once at the end? Doing the latter would make the final vote tally drag out endlessly and could tip the final vote either way.
Each state is different. In Wisconsin, our banked votes are sealed in an envelope and kept in the city clerk’s office until election day. They are then transferred to the actual polling place and each ballot is entered into the scanner along with absentee ballots. Some states tally the votes immediately and share the results, others tally and share the number of ballots but not the results.
These differences are another reason that we need federal election laws to make voting, early voting, absentee voting, and voter identification uniform across the states.
Absolutely agree about the need for uniform laws, Jan.
Good morning Meese.
Tomorrow is my first day of classes – thankfully I won’t have to teach – I just find out a little about the students and go over the syllabus.
Tonight – or early tomorrow (3AM EST) our new expansion of World of Warcraft drops – so I will be up (with coffee) to see it happen – hopefully with Geordie.
Go stuff to do so seeya tomorrow!
I woke up at 4:30. Ugh. Should have just gotten up & walked before work. You’d think that cooking all afternoon till nearly 7pm would have worn me out enough to sleep. I made 3 dishes — I hate the weekend when I need to cook all the things, but sometimes it works out that way. Most of the time, there’s enough overlap that I only need to cook 1 or 2 things.
Anyway, got a workout after work. Brain is playing Regret by New Order. Yep, it’s in my walking mix, but I haven’t done a long enough walk to get to it yet. Brain must have just picked it out. Sweet ‘90s pop — happy, nostalgic.
Someone in my FB feed posted Boston’s “More Than a Feelin'” last night, so naturally I had to go to YouTube and listen to the whole thing. Then I listened to Chicago’s “If You Leave Me Now.” Sometimes a person just gets in that kind of mood!
Good morning, Moosekind! Same weather, won’t bore you with a description. Why can’t we get a little of the rain that’s tormenting the Gulf Coast states? Don’t tell me, I know—climate change!
Haven’t looked at the news yet, not looking forward to it anyway.
Last night I made Banana Soft Serve in the food processor for the first time and was amazed at how easy it was! Also, it didn’t take five minutes, it took two. Next time I’ll make it at serving time instead of beforehand.
Today is my last full day with Miss Pink Cheeks before she goes to the beach with her family and then to school. We’re going to make cinnamon rolls from scratch, although crazy old grandma is secretly wondering whether she can buy ready-made pizza dough and gussy it up. Has anyone ever tried that?
Off to do morning chores—wishing all a good day!
Oh—before I forget, a quick question for Geordie. Do you use one cup of water to half a cup of steel-cut oats when you do your Overnight Oatmeal in the crockpot? And do you put the pot on “low” or “warm”? I was wondering what 8 hours would do to the oatmeal if it’s left on “low.”
I use 4 cups of water to one cup of oats, and I cook it on low overnight – my cooker switches to warm after the timer goes off for the cooking time, and it’s always fine whenever I get up and am ready for breakfast.
Thanks!
68 just before dawn and the sun is shining at the moment. Current monthly generation is 410 KWHs – if today goes like yesterday I’ll add between 10 and 15 over the course of the day. This month is going to come in way under August 2015’s 533 KWHs. At least the 1/2″ rain we got yesterday afternoon added to the 1″ last Friday afternoon means no watering this week.
So many unpleasant things going on around me that the old “I’m all right right now” just makes me feel guilty. Without even stopping to think about it, I could name 10 people/families who need $25K right now to deal with some situation or other that isn’t their fault. Home, job, health – stuff. I’m OK. I’m even OK enough to be kicking in $20 or so to each of a wide variety of folks or causes every month. Having been there, I know just how depressing, if it were possible to destroy souls I’d say soul-destroying, to know you’ve done everything right – or at least as right as you knew how – and still you’re in a deep hole you have no way to get out of. And that doesn’t even count the ever-growing list of names of the dead by gun (or other) violence. I guess what it comes down to is I’m not OK, if you’re not OK. If there’s anything I can do to help you get OK, that’s good and I will. If not, well, I try to stay cheerful and supportive while interacting with you, but inside I’m down there with you.
I’ve got some emergency enrollments to deal with – deadline was last Friday at midnight but the office closes at 4:30, so while they shouldn’t have waited until Friday if they sent me an email because they couldn’t enroll themselves (full or permission class) I’m putting them in. At least until somebody upstairs realizes I know the emergency override process and forbids me doing it. Bright the day, Meeses. {{{HUGS}}}
Good morning, 57 and cloudy in Bellingham. I was in the garden for a few hours yesterday and am looking forward to going to the pool this morning. If my knees will just please allow me to be more active I’ll be a much happier person!
I’ve scanned the election news and Sam Wang’s numbers remain steady, but I wish the Dem’s Meta-Margin numbers were bigger.
Good morning, meese! Tuesday …
It is 73 degrees in Madison on its way up to 81. Chance of thunderstorms most of the day and high heat indices.
On the heels of the DOJ phasing out the use of private prisons, the federal government appears poised to phase out private for-profit migrant detention centers:
Good. Inhumane treatment should not be condoned … whether against our own citizens or against those who end up here. And, really, privatization has led to a lot of awful outcomes; there are some things that need to be managed by government agencies, agencies that adhere to certain standards and are subject to oversight. For-profit means looking at the bottom line first and making common decency optional.
Hillary Clinton released a comprehensive mental health policy proposal and it was not covered. One of her surrogates, Meg Whitman, will be meeting today with Colorado business leaders to go over Hillary’s new small business plan that was also not covered. But we all got to find out about the very public humiliation of one of the Clinton campaign’s advisors. Our. Media. Sucks. Period.
Primaries today in Arizona and Florida.
See all y’all later!
I didn’t walk before work, but I have my gym bag with me & I’ll walk after. Loved doing deadlifts last night, I get a real charge out of it.
We’re having more rainy days, do our highs are only around 90 — unbelievably cool for Texas in August.
Anyone else follow the Hubble Live twitter feed? They tell you what Hubble is doing, right now, it is sooooo cool.
Brain is back to playing U2 for me. I’m good with that.
Morni’ Meese
Heading off to school for first day of classes
Saw that TBM had posted this at orange – great Hillary ad – must be tweeted/shared
Have a good one!
{{{Denise}}} – happy first day back. The ad is good and she needs to keep those going out to the “rust belt” states at the very least. But she’ll also be getting her issue ads out simply because the MSM will never report her issues. She knows this – Bill and Barack Obama had to do the same thing – and she depends on folks on social media to make them go viral. Our team getting The Word out after she’s released The Word is the only thing that reduces her funding requirements. The Other Guy gets free media, we don’t so… Good thing we have twitter warriors on our team. :)
Morning all! Looks like a tropical system will track right over me later this week – not sure it’s going to strengthen to a tropical storm or hurricane, but I need to get to the grocery store today or tomorrow to stock up on supplies.
I’m so disgusted by the media yesterday I can’t even talk about it – led by the NYTimes, they just descended into tabloid journalism, it’s awful. I feel like Hillary’s running a campaign that they simply can’t bring themselves to pay attention to because that would involve actual work in looking at her plans and analyzing them. So done with these reporters – and cable news is of course the worst, with the except of Rachel Maddow last night who didn’t talk about Hillary’s staffer’s marriage issues at all. Refreshing.
Our new expansion dropped today in WOW – Legion – new content, new quests, etc. I’m having a hard time getting excited about it, I’m afraid – for the first time in 7 years, I’m not all that interested in even logging in. But I will, and I’m sure it will be fun and engaging once I get going on it.
Everyone have a great day!
68 just before sunrise again, sunny at the moment and hoping it will last. Got 17.5 KWHs yesterday and our current total for the month is 427.5. Tuesday has the benefit of not being Monday (fewer brushfires when I walk in the door as it was only 18.5 hours since I walked out the door yesterday).
The HNVs over at GOS are my basic source of campaign news – I’m ignoring everybody else since facts are immaterial to them. I’d say it’s scary to see how hateful 30% of our country is and how ignorant and/or manipulable another 40% to sometimes 60% of our country is – except I already knew and I find it more depressing than scary (although it’s that too, when I can get up enough energy to stop being depressed long enough to be scared).
Got brushfires to put out so I’d best get to it. Bright the day, Meeses. {{{HUGS}}}