Week-long Welcomings from Moosylvania: Mar. 5th through Mar. 11th

March 4, 2017 JanF Community 199

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.

~

  • First page of this week’s comments are here.

  • Second page of this week’s comments are here.

…

70 Comments

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

    Morning low of 34 degrees in Madison WI with an expected daytime high of 52. The forecast calls for variable cloudiness.

    Have a great day, all y’alls!!

    • You have our yesterday weather so if the pattern holds, you will have 50s soon.

      I am feeling a bit battered by the news lately and I find it difficul to laugh at anything these days; except a bitter laugh like when you find out that Mike Pence used personal email for government business – an aol.com account that was hacked! – and is now complaining to AP that they printed his wife’s still active email address. These guys lack of cyber-security awareness is only exceeded by their hypocrisy. A few alumni from the Hillary Clinton campaign made that point to Pence’s whining on Twitter about privacy and security.

        • He probably got AOL because they kept sending him free account CDs!! 100 hours free!!! 1000 hours free!!!! He strikes me as pretty cheap. I can’t imagine the level of cyber-stupid it would take to think that any email addresses in a hacked account would be private. Sheesh! I like the AP’s comment:

          AP removed the email address from subsequent stories after learning Mrs. Pence still used the account.

          In their thought bubble “you have to be KIDDING me!!!”

        • Hollow laugh—guess what! I abandoned AOL years ago and went to verizon.net. Now Verizon has informed us they’re transferring all our email accounts to AOL because they simply can’t be bothered with them.

          It sucketh galaxies through a straw.

        • If Roger Stone was not already considered a raving idiot, he might be the smoking gun. But I think that he has already been thrown under the bus by the Trump Team if my memory serves me. Someone last night summarized the Trump/Russia connection pretty cleanly:

  3. Morning, dear Meese!

    MPLS/St Paul weather: Forecast 34 with a high of 60…which will be pleasant and appreciated, but odd for this time of year.

  4. Good evening / morning, Meeses. It’s 29 degrees Celsius (84 degrees) and was raining off and on today. I had a good time hanging out with my sister and a friend and then checking out a few books from the library (as well as buying some from a bookshop for later reading).

    I have some photos although I haven’t uploaded them to Flickr yet. Sorry Diana!

    • {{{basket}}} – glad you are having a good time visiting your family. At 84 F, rain isn’t bad unless it’s coming down a gully-washer. We will enjoy the pictures whenever you get them to us. Moar {{{HUGS}}}

        • Umpty years back one of my younger sister’s husband (petroleum engineer) was stationed in Jakarta. When my sister did the spouse’s relocation prep class, at the end of it, she told the instructor, “You can’t scare me. I grew up in Houston.” I know humidity well. About the only good thing I can say about it is it seems to keep one’s skin healthy. {{{HUGS}}}

  5. Diana, rather than reply to your comment in yesterday’s welcoming, I am replying here on the status of my investigation of the Moose login issues.

    I did some more research and there are a couple of things that I might try in the Moose internals but the problem seems related to the way certain browsers handle keeping track of login information. Dee reported that her Chrome browser worked fine – you use Safari and I use FireFox and we have all sorts of problems. That also aligns with my experience using my Android phone – I have no problems there and it uses a sort-of Chrome browser. One thing: you and I are also both logged into our own personal WordPress web sites and I wonder if that is part of what is confusing the Moose. By they way, from my research, you should not have to clear ALL of your history when you have the problem but just certain cached (remembered) items. I am going to see if I can narrow it down so we can surgically repair the problem instead of nuking it.

    The problem got worse a few weeks ago when I updated a WordPress feature called JetPack. It is possible that one of the speedup features is not kind to our cookies.

    Maybe we could gather some information from other meese about how their login experience is working. So far we have this:
    – Windows 7, Chrome – seems to work
    – Windows 7, FireFox, other WordPress sites open – login issues at least several times a week, requires re-logging in (have never had to clear history)
    – Apple, Safari, other WordPress sites open – login issues at least once a week, requires clearing history
    – Android, built-in browser (Chromish) – seems to work

    • Adding a Moose Data Point:

      Windows 10, Edge, and logged in to another WordPress site – login issues at least once a week, need to log in (don’t have to clear history)
      -> similar behavior on both PC and phone, seems to be more frequent on phone

      • Thank you! That is useful information. It may turn out to be a WordPress “you have to live with it” issue but the more information I have, the better my chances are of finding an answer.

    • Thanks, Jan! However, I’ve had these issues since I joined several years ago, long before I acquired my WordPress site, which is a year old this month.

      Will appreciate whatever you can find out. :)

      • Thanks for that reminder, Diana! I am old and forgetful. I did find a lot of “Safari hates WordPress” reports when I was googling last year and had to set it aside. I hope to hear from some other Apple people to get more information. I do know that the having to clear everything is unique to your situation and if we could fix it so that when you have a problem, you just have to log back in (like I do), that would be an improvement.

        We’ve had the JetPack from day one – it was simply updated a few weeks ago and then my problems became more frequent.

    • Windows 7 at work and Windows 10 at home – usually have to re-login about once a week. Not sure if that’s because I stay logged in on both computers or just a security feature. The login page still remembers me (as in the information is there) but I have to check the “remember me” box – and the new thing is to answer a math problem to “prove I’m human” – I don’t have problems with cookies or anything thus far. Of course I’m also not on another WordPress site yet. (#sob is WordPress but I haven’t joined yet – haven’t had time on top of my DK community needs stuff and the Villages – but hope to do so should my online life every settle down.)

    • Jan……I use Chrome as my main browser, have W10 on all the computers, and I don’t have any log in problems….unless I cause them myself! I use Edge when I want to c/p (Chrome is fussy about that) and can log in easily with it as well.

      My iPhone log in is easy too……just have to remember my password, but that’s a personal challenge.

      • Ha! It is indeed a personal challenge. I have my password on a sticky note on my monitor. For a long time I never had to enter it, just clicked My Moose and the blanks were filled in for me and I simply click to log in. Now at least every other time, it makes me enter.

  6. Ha!! “One Republican decided enough was enough …”

    “Definitely NOT Paul Ryan”. Indeed.

  7. Slept in, with a busy day ahead. Beans are simmering, tea steeping, berries for oatmeal thawing. Going to do a lot of cooking after church — might get the dvr cleared out completely. I woke up with an REM song playing in my head, but it’s from the era when Stipe mumbled a lot — it’s on either Reckoning or Fables, somewhere in there, but after 20 minutes of searching youtube, I give up, here’s So. Central Rain instead. Since it’s raining here. But it’s a shame, because it’s a pretty song, drift-y, nice piano part.

  9. Good morning, Moosekind! It’s a gloriously sunny day here in NoVa but very cold. Currently we have 24 F., going up to 40 F. later. We took Miss Pink Cheeks out to breakfast. Last night after her bath we all watched “Whale Rider,” a really breath-taking film. It seemed slightly different from the last time we watched it, or perhaps it’s just my memory that’s at fault. I thought she stood up on the whale. My husband thinks he remembers that too.

    After lunch Miss PC and I are going to do our Cookie Booth obligation. Thank Goddess it’s only for an hour and the winds of yesterday have died down.

    Like Jan, I’m depressed by the news but it is certainly absorbing. I just want results NOW rather than having to wait until They All Fall Down.

    We ate breakfast at Virginia Kitchen, lunch will be leftovers, and dinner will be a no-brainer, as it’s shepherd’s pie and peas, both of which only need heating up. I’m in heaven!

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

  10. 55 at dawn and pretty much all day – cloudy, only generating in the very low 100s watts range instead of the 1 to 2 KWs range, but no actual rain. Hung my clothes indoors anyway – for which I needed a fire even though the living area is already rather warm from baking lemon muffins and oatmeal cookies.

    Molly Ivins used to say you gotta laugh, cry, or throw up and laughing’s easier on the system. But today is the 1-year anniversary of Tricia’s passing so it’s kind of hard to find anything. Community needs list is growing rather than shrinking (slksfca/Dixie had to come back on as she’s already gone through the $4K raised for vet bills and bigjacbigjacbigjac and family will go on as soon as he finds time to create a funding site – possibly a couple of others in wait-and-see mode) which is also depressing considering how little movement there is on the ones already there. We’re trying to do a push next week for Aji to wrap this fundraiser up – but the setbacks with the wiring and also vet and burial bills for Cree means she’s going to have to do another one. sigh.

    So. I’ve done most of my housework – clothes have to dry before I can finish – and have my first pot of soup on. I need to check on that then can go read Denise’s DK diary and Michael’s British Breakfast. Bright the day and wind to thy wings, Meeses. {{{HUGS}}}

  11. Good morning, 38 and snowing in Bellingham. Fortunately it won’t last long because the family is coming to dinner and I’ve got to shop. I meant to do so yesterday, but spent far to much time online. I’ve got a tRump hangover today!

    We’re going to share the shopping….RonK will go to the grocery store and I’ll go to the flower shop. Can’t have dinner without a new centerpiece :)

    Best wishes to all.

    • I have a tRump hangover also! I find myself mesmerized when news breaks via Twitter like it did with yesterday’s insanity. I did intersperse a few games of Word and Five Dice in between reading the news and watched some womens hockey. Our #1 ranked Wisconsin Badgers will be in the WCHA championship game today against the #2 Minnesota-Duluth Bulldogs. It will be on TV instead of livestreamed on the computer so it will be easier to watch. On my TV, I can pause live action and back up and look at great plays. On my computer, if I pause or back up, it often gets out of sorts.

      I spent some time this morning on my corporate taxes and satisfied myself that there will be no surprises so I can set those aside for a few days – so today was productive. Now I am going to go offline and veg out for a while.

    • You seem to have received all of Northern Virginia’s snow this winter, princesspat! We haven’t had much at all, just a couple of dustings.

  12. Morning! Going up to 50 in Chicago.

    What a day yesterday was on twitter. Somehow they’ve got to get rid of these people, before something really bad happens. Day after day, it’s gotta end.

  13. Howdy folks! It’s 59 degrees here in Mission Viejo, Ca and I’m on day 5 of my battle with the head cold.

    • {{{Mvgal92691}}} – lots and lots of Healing Energy. Divided doses of Vitamin C (like 500 mg every couple of hours) and garlic soup will help you with that battle. moar {{{HUGS}}}

  14. Monday morning and it’s 14 degrees here in Saugerties NY.

    Thought this was interesting -as a little girl I had paper dolls – had no idea they still existed

    “The book features 20 women in total, including scientist Marie Curie (the first woman to win the Nobel Prize), poet Maya Angelou, comedian Lucille Ball, and tennis player Billie Jean King. It even includes a cut-out of a pantsuit-wearing Hillary Clinton, because hey, #We’reStillWithHer.”

  15. Good evening/morning, Meeses. It didn’t rain today (yay/boo), and I had lunch with my Malay teacher from secondary school (roughly middle school), followed by watching Hidden Figures with my sister at the cinema. OMG THAT MOVIE. It made me emotional (almost cried) many times, and I love it so much. It also hurts to think of what could have been…

    Am uploading a batch (sorry, Batch) of photos to Flickr and will tag/update them later, but wanted to get it out for Diana who has been waiting patiently. :)

    Some photos from a previous trip to Singapore in 2011, when the Marina Bay Sands casino/integrated resort had just been opened

    Photos from my 2017 trip.

    • Have not seen Hidden Figures yet – looking forward to it

      Thanks for the Singapore pics!

    • I have been trying to get to reading the book which I hear is quite excellent. I have a link to the book in my Kindle library and I want to carve out enough time (and brain power) to read it without interruption before I start it. That has not happened since November!

      • The book is excellent! It is a lot more detailed than the movie, of course. I got a bit bogged down in the McCarty era…… I want the world to have been better than that. But it’s really good. I also enjoyed Rise of the Rocket Girls, about the women who worked at JPL.

      • Jan, I started reading the book and it’s utterly fascinating—this history that I never knew! For granddaughter’s birthday I went out and bought three books about the achievements of women. When the movie comes out on DVD or streaming I’ll invite Miss PC over to watch it with me. We can never seem to get organized enough to actually trek out to the movies.

        • there’s a kid’s version of Hidden Figures — it’s why I own a copy of the book, my friend got the kid version & sent me her copy of the original book

        • I hate going to movie theatres and hope that it is available via DVD soon. I am not sure if I should read the book first – so I can hate the movie! – or see the movie first, so that I have faces to attach to the characters.

          • I would say watch the movie first, some of the scenes will make you alternately cry or howl with laughter. :)

            From looking at Amazon, it looks like the DVD will come out on April 11th.

    • Hi, basket.

      Thanks for sharing the the photos. I am hungry now, after seeing that wonderful meal ;)

    • Thanks, basket, so much enjoyed looking at them! That photo of the shopping complex with the name “Basah”—we stayed in a hotel across the street from it. I think it was called the Grand Pacific or something like that. Unfortunately the Singapore diary I typed up has disappeared from my files.

      In the 2011 set of Marina Bay photos, was the lady in the picture with your mother your sister?

      Okay, now I’m officially homesick for the day. Thanks for awakening my memories, basket!

      • The lady in the picture with my mother is my aunt (my mother’s sister). I’m the only one in my immediate family who looks like my mom – my sister and brother look more like my father.

        Glad to hear that you liked the photos!

    • {{{Basket}}} – glad you are having such a good visit with your family. I’ll visit your album when i can – heading off for a meeting in a few minutes. Great you can track down/visit your teachers. moar {{{HUGS}}}

  16. Have been following this story, about the shooting of US citizen Deep Rai – and the response in India

    • That’s what ticks the trumpers off – this is the Sikh man’s country. They voted for tRump to make America White Again, something that can never happen; it will only get uglier when they realize that. That is why Congressional Republicans are tiptoeing around this – they know that if they reject their base’s racism and xenophobia they will not be spared their wrath.

      • but but but …I was informed this was just an issue of income inequality

        • If they would only rein in Wall Street billionaires, everything would be fine!!

        • I know that this will shock you but they found a linkage between racist attitudes in the South and Republican voters!!

          Southern counties that had more slaves on the eve of the Civil War are distinct from their neighbors: White residents in those areas are more hostile toward African Americans and they are more likely to vote Republican today, new research shows. Drawing on archival Census figures and recent polls, the study adds to an expanding body of evidence on the importance of racial anxiety to the predominantly white Republican coalition.

          “The underlying racial hostility goes on in the culture, passed on from generation to generation,” said David Sears, a psychologist at the University of California, Los Angeles. “Local culture doesn’t change very quickly.”

          • I’ve been reading Eric Foner’s Reconstruction: America’s Unfinished Revolution, 1863 – 1877. Except for some of the archaic language, you would be hard-pressed to distinguish between quotes from the 1860s and quotes from today. Whether it’s about race, the role of the government, taxes, or “states’ rights”, the viewpoints are remarkably similar. We really are still fighting the Civil War.

          • The failure to apply the appropriate sanctions so that the Old South could not rise again may well end up destroying our country. We probably won’t have a literal Civil War (although unrestricted access to guns makes it a possibility) but civil society is becoming increasingly difficult to find. When I look at the opinion polls and see the mirror image reactions of Republicans vs decent human beings, it is startling. On just about every issue, Republicans support hatred, bigotry, restricted freedoms – the rest of us support diversity, education, and caring for each other. I am not sure how it can be reconciled.

  17. Good morning, meese! Monday …

    It is 50 degrees in Madison with an expected daytime high of 57. The forecast calls for cloudy this morning and thunderstorms this afternoon and into the evening.

    It is expected that the new Muslim ban Executive Order will be announced today but given the weekend’s drama, that might be delayed. If it does roll out, the ACLU will be ready to file the first lawsuits. The old order has never been revoked and is on hold pending court action so it will require new lawsuits while keeping the old ones in place.

    Also on tap this week is the unveiling and first votes on the Affordable Care Act repeal. People who have been watching the bills take shape say that what we will see is the typical Republican strategy of divide and conquer. On Social Security and Medicare it is youngs versus olds – don’t worry granny, you can keep your earned benefits, the youngins will lose theirs. Grannies did not fall for this, by the way. The ACA repeal will be easier for Republicans to pull off – it pits the working class against the poors in order to create enough money to maintain part of the ACA, via tax credits, and save the rest for the tax cut on the wealthy. This plan will probably work – the only thing missing from the Republican narrative, the one that is stuck in people’s reptilian brains, is a black woman driving a Cadillac. In 2017, it is Those People Getting Health Care when Jebus said it’s okay to let them die!.

    I still hope that Republicans in Disarray will make a bill impossible to pass but with the wheels rapidly coming off the tRump wagon, Congressional Republicans will be fast-tracking their agenda making it difficult for us to mobilize. Twenty-one Republican House members or three Republican Senators need to say No.

    See all y’all later!

    • Since I have no faith in Republicans – I’m afraid they will dismantle quite a bit – and we will only be able to get stuff back when people wake up and vote these assholes out of office – and that isn’t gonna happen right away. Sadly a lot of people are going to suffer.

  18. Sick …

    Gary Legum‏ @GaryLegum
    I’ve read this paragraph about 15 times tonight and every time I have to stare into space for a few minutes afterwards.

  19. Yesterday’s great cooking afternoon was exhausting. I finally started the dishwasher at 7. And there are more in the sink that wouldn’t fit. But I have breakfast for 2 weeks, and lunch & dinner for probably 3 weeks or more. Totally exhausting. Definitely going to try to never need to cook all 3 meals the same weekend again. Anyway, at work, eating oatmeal & drinking tea. I wonder what the Orange Baby will come up with this week. Earworm: Blow Your House Down.

    It is ridiculously warm. The weather guy this morning said this is like a June morning. It rained most of the weekend – had to postpone the Kite Festival, and there’s a chance of rain every day this week. Which I will not complain about because I was here for the drought years & I’ll never complain about rain again.

    • Thanks for that link – I am planning to write about Octavia Butler for Black Kos this month

      • she went on to Madam CJ Walker, and Heddy Lamarr…. she’s covering all kinds of interesting people!

Comments are closed.