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 57 degrees in Madison WI with an expected daytime high of 68. Sunny skies are in the forecast.
Have a great day, all y’alls!!
Good Morning Meese
Happy Easter for those who celebrate it.
Went back into my archives to find a post I wrote years ago about pagan history of Easter.
Will be talking about a very different Easter Sunday history this morning at Orange – the Easter Sunday Colfax massacre in Louisiana.
Morning, Meeses!
Weather: High of 65 and breezy.
I fixed our Easter dinner yesterday (ham, yams, and fix’ns) because I wanted it NOW and didn’t want to wait. It tasted just as good a day early.
Yum – ham and yams!
Good morning, Moosekind, on this breath-takingly beautiful Easter Sunday in Northern Virginia. Both the white and pink dogwoods are out, looking like lacy wedding veils among the other trees, half-dressed in green mist. There are purple redbuds, dark pink tulip trees, and yes, still yellow daffodils in some gardens. Our Washington, DC-area springs and autumns are why I could never live anywhere else: my native Texas is dry, brown, and dusty. At least, it is in the part I come from, and instead of dogwoods there are fields of bobbing pumpjacks.
But enough of this rhapsodic chitchat. Outside it’s 66 F. already, going up to 82 F. Our tenant, nice guy that he is, bought a whole bunch of pink astromeria and green fuzzy-looking thangs in a bouquet for us, so I’m going to put it on the screened porch.
Went over to see our son’s dog to let him out, feed him, and even take him for a little walkies. My husband will visit at 1 p.m. and the neighbor will take care of him in the evening. Younger Son and family will be on the road this morning, returning home around noon tomorrow—or so we’ve been told.
This is going to be a long day of cooking and serving and dishwashing, but I’d like to come back and read Jan’s Tax Day blog and Denise’s Easter blog if not today, then tomorrow.
Wishing a wonderful Easter to all!
Watching the news, eating breakfast. Korea. Shudder. Looking for some happier news. Got my pretty, flowery dress to wear to church. From some of my pastor’s FB postings, it seems there’ll be at least one non-traditional song at service today — a Nina Simone song. I’ll let y’all know how that goes. Today I have to thaw out some frozen oatmeal & pack it up for next week, and make a dish for dinner. I’m making one from the Engine 2 books, modified. It’s “Summer Soba Salad”, I’m making it with quinoa instead of noodles. Cucumber, bell pepper, celery, mango, avocado, sesame seeds & ginger. Mmmmm. Dreamy, drifty Rise Up playing in my head.
So, the story of the song. The sermon was from the story of Ezekiel preaching to the bones. He posted about using the song Dem Bones, talked about what Paul Robeson said about the song, and maybe using “Them”…. and one of the parishioners said what about Nina Simone’s Sinnerman or Feeling Good instead.
We didn’t end up using any of the above, because the discussion started too late to get permissions (public performance, even for church you’ve gotta check that it’s ok) But it is highly likely that during Eastertide, we will do a Nina Simone song. After all, we’ve got 40 more days.
Happy Easter for those who celebrate it. Think it was somewhere around 1992 the last time I did. :) 62 heading for maybe 80, raining and so dark the PV system went back into night mode when it started. Hope it passes through and I get at least a few KWHs today. Yesterday’s total was 17.5 which puts the mid-month to-date total at 232.5 KWHs.
Apparently we aren’t at war so I’m good. I’m even better with the fundraiser Ono wrote for Aji yesterday – we not only met the $500 match we’d cobbled together, we not only met the $1,500 needed for next week’s labor, but blessings on somebody’s very generous head we got a $1,500 donation that means (barring emergencies – and please Somebody bar emergencies, Aji’s had enough recently) labor’s covered through the end of April. A shining example of the “what’s right with America” Bill Clinton said was all it takes to fix “what’s wrong with America” – and a reminder that DK has some good points.
Washer just kicked off so need to hang the clothes. They’ll probably take until tomorrow to dry as it’s way too warm to have a fire in here (my baking’s almost done and the house temp is in the mid-70s), but I put some borax in this lot so they shouldn’t sour. I hope. I’ll be back as soon as I get them hung to visit the British Breakfast here and at DK (and may Squirrel as well). Bright the day and wind to thy wings, Meeses. {{{HUGS}}}
Good morning, 48 and sort of sunny in Bellingham. I did what I wanted to do yesterday and worked in the garden pruning the salal that was badly burned my the winter snow. I was happy to see so many buds, but cutting it back as low as I needed to was hard. So now I’m behind with our Easter plans, but oh well.
I love the words to this song. Happy Easter everyone!
Good morning fellow Meeses! It’s 67 degrees under sunny. Reading dKos and MM while drinking tea.
Oh hai, Mvgal!
{{{inkaudlay}}} – somehow I missed you above when I got here this a.m. Hope you’ve had a lovely day of whatever nature. :) moar {{{HUGS}}}
Thanks, bfitz!
I had a nice, quiet day :)
Good morning, Meese! It’s cloudy here at 6:34 a.m. in Northern Virginia. Current temp. is 64 F., going up to 72 F. later today. It never did get around to raining yesterday evening, so perhaps these clouds are rain-bearing.
Very tired but happy after a successful dinner party. Although younger son and his family were missed, we still had two seven-year-olds who had fun hunting for “eggs” filled with toys, tiny crackers, and chocolates, and Mr. Toddler, who barely knew what was going on.
Will need to leave soon for my day-long child-minding job. The boys are quite nice and well-behaved. Their mother is well-meaning but somewhat obnoxious (quite unintentionally, I’m sure). The tone of her texts and emails implies that I’m an old dodderer who can’t be trusted to come in out of the rain. The thing that drives me out of the comfort of my own home to go to someone else’s is that working mothers have a hard time of it. I was one, once, from necessity. I feel sorry for young mothers who have to work because public school hours are completely out of sync with the expectations of the business world.
Well, enough from me. So far we aren’t at war, so hope everyone will have a good day!
Good Monday Meese
Hope you all had a good weekend.
Prepping for school. This coming Friday and Saturday we are hosting a women’s conference.
Black feminist Barbara Smith will be the keynote on Saturday and from Senator Kirsten Gillibrand on Friday.
What do you think about Kirsten Gillibrand, Dee? She is certainly making all the right moves to position herself for a run in 2020. I am not ready to give up on having a woman run for president again in my lifetime and she would have a built-in fundraising advantage, being from New York. I am sure the Bernie wing of the Democratic Party will find something wrong with her because they think the future of the party is to nominate an 80 year old man who trashes the base every time he steps to a microphone.
Eating oatmeal, drinking tea. I have a tab open to the Boston Marathon twitter feed. As far as I know, I don’t know anyone running, but it’s still cool. Playing City of Blinding Lights in my head because it’s Monday & I need the energy. And also, because when I imagine running Boston, that’s the soundtrack.
Morning, Meeses.
It’s sunny and springy here in St Paul. The sun is just starting to rise when I arrive at work now; it’s nice to not be in the dark.
It was really weird last night when it was 8:00 and not completely dark yet. I still like dark in the early morning as that is when I get most of my work done – the darkness makes things seem quieter.
Yep, the staying light until late is weird. I tend to go to bed earlier and prefer to have it dark outside when I do.
{{{inkaudlay}}} – Yeah! me, too.
Good morning, meeses! Monday …
It is 45 degrees in Madison with an expected daytime high of 64. Mostly sunny skies are in the forecast.
Can’t stay – busy day here. Have a good day all y’alls!
57 at dawn and heading for mid 70s – overcast but not as bad as yesterday. Between yesterday morning and another rain around 2 am we’ve gotten an inch of rain. The sun sort of came out yesterday – long enough to get 8 KWHs and bring the month’s to-date total to 240. Only generating in the watts at the moment, but at least it’s generating. Still a bit “high” from Aji’s fundraiser results which is helping to counteract the skull-banger headache I’ve got. Hope coffee will fix it – if not, I’ll do coffee and ibuprofen.
It’s sad we’ve fallen so low that any day we wake up and aren’t at war is counted as a good one. That should be so totally foundation we don’t even have to think about it. A very American-privilege concept I know – many places have actual fighting by whatever name going on constantly. for them mostly any day they wake up is good – maybe – depending on who was killed and who was injured and how badly the day before. Golden Light of Healing cover the entire Earth. All kinds of Healing. All levels of Healing. All circumstances that need Healing.
Trying to work with this headache is slowing me down but I need to do it anyway. Hourly Payroll runs tomorrow so I need to get it entered and submitted today. Otherwise it won’t get through the approval chain. But I’m waiting on somebody’s hours. sigh. Gonna visit the Villages, then email the person I’m waiting on and see if I can get a response. Bright the day and wind to thy wings, Meeses. {{{HUGS}}}
Hope your headache is better this Tuesday morning, bfitz! The good news is that we’re half-through April, so you have only 8 and a half months before Freedom!
Wish the others in your office would do a bit more so you wouldn’t have to carry such a heavy load.
{{{Diana}}} – some better, not a lot. I’m probably more in “heading for retirement” mode than I should be this far out. heh – there’s only one “other” in my office – 27 faculty, 20 grad assistants, and 2 staff – and she’s not only doing her own work, she’s training on mine because we’re planning on moving her into my slot when I leave. (As in the law requires a search for any full-time employee, but if she’s already in the office and trained, it would be hard for even this administration to find a legal reason not to promote her.)
Good morning, 50 and cloudy in Bellingham today. It’s a pool morning for me, and after that I’ll see what happens with my long list of possibilities.
We enjoyed our birthday/Easter lunch yesterday and we will enjoy the leftovers today. Best Monday wishes to all!
Morning, Meese!
High of 64 with a dash of rain thrown in.
Trees are in full budding mode; it looks like soft, green clouds are hovering over them.
It is a beautiful time of the year!
Spring is so lovely – hard to breath in, but lovely :) The last of our trees, the oaks, are leafing out now. Once the irises finish blooming we’ll be in full summer mode here. Just not as hot – yet. moar {{{HUGS}}}
It is a sunny Tuesday here in the Catskills – 42 going up to 60. Was smiling looking at all the daffodils that have suddenly appeared all over our property.
Have a good day folks!
My daffodils opened up while I was gone but the last few days they have really made their presence known.
{{{Denise}}} – you’re getting what we had a month ago :) – enjoy it.
Only woke up twice last night, woohoo! That’s really great for me. All kinds of crazy, and crazy-making stuff in the news. The Cal Exit guy moving to Russia — with a weirdly worded statement. The Turkey news, and the Orange Shitgibbon called to congratulate him (or to ask how he did it).
Brain was playing Yahweh both times I woke up, but I’m playing Coldplay’s Adventure of a Lifetime in my head, happy poppy music. Because when stuff gets scary weird, happy poppy distraction is important.
{{{another}}} – glad you had a “good” night – recharge time between the “what now?” days. And yes, whatever you use to distract is good.
love these words:
full lyrics
Good morning, meeses! Tuesday …
It is 39 degrees in Madison with an expected daytime high of 68. Sunny this morning then giving way to showers this afternoon. This front is bringing cooler temperatures in with overnight lows in the 30s and daytime highs in the mid-50s.
I haven’t checked the news but I know that today is the Georgia race. I love that one of Jon Ossoff’s campaign themes is “Let’s Make Trump Furious!” Ha! Indeed. And may I say that I am SICK of people who do not know that the DNC has nothing to do with funding Congressional races – they provide resources to state parties to build a local party infrastructure. The DCCC and the DSCC are the organizations who send money and find candidates for the U.S. Congress. And may I also say that I am SICK of people who are sucking up to Bernie Freaking Sanders – a man who literally has no skin in this – he is a straight white male, nothing that tRump can do will affect him. Not voting rights (his constituents are white), not reproductive rights (he could care less that women have no access to birth control or safe abortions), not civil rights (he is not black or Latinx or gay). Yet the party elders are seeing fit to elevate him and his fans (Wall Street!!) as the “future” of the Democratic Party. No. And where the HELL are the black women, hell, ANY women!!??!
See all y’all later!
There’s no excuse any longer about the ignorance about the role of the DNC. I was willing to give it a pass for awhile, because really, it’s not common knowledge. But time has passed, opportunities for educating oneself abound, and folks on Twitter have been screaming this very thing (particularly after the KS-04 election), but clinging to preconceived notions seems to be a badge of honor with some of the “Revolutionaries.” The good news from my perspective is that while the Berniacs have an out-sized presence on social media, I see very little evidence of their damaging rhetoric making a dent in “real life.” The people doing the daily work in my district, as far as I have seen, are women…Hillary supporters all. Isn’t that always the way?
Good morning, Moosylvania, a drive-by post before we run out the door to yet another “event” at a retirement community in Ashburn, VA.
Thank Goddess it rained all day yesterday so I didn’t have to drive the two boys to the library or the park! They’re well-brought-up boys who require very little supervision. I watched over them while they did their homework, all in Japanese, gave them morning and afternoon snacks and served their lunch. They spent a lot of time downstairs building a new fort and then went next door to play with their neighbor, who is also Japanese and about their age. Meanwhile, I was very tired from all the festivities (and the preparation for them), so spent the day with Twitter, Kindle, and Facebark.
The good news is that Mr. New Toddler went to the White House Easter Egg Roll with his parents! It’s really difficult to score a ticket as most of them go to Congress critters’ kids. This year, owing to the haphazard planning of Thing’s Administration, m’daughter-in-law lucked out in the ticket lottery. The proud parents have posted pictures to their closed group on Facebook.
Must get ready to go—child-minding again from 3:30 until 6:30. The Dad came home at 5:30 p.m. yesterday, an hour earlier than I’d been told, for which I was deeply thankful. Hope he does it again today. I’m still very tired.
Wishing everyone a good day!