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, Moosekind! Another blissfully moist day. Outside little white Somethings are falling. Can’t be snow, so it must be blossoms or those helicopter-looking things off the neighbor’s tree. It’s 54 F. right now, going up to 60 F. later.
Someone named Kate O’Beirne just popped her clogs. The name seemed familiar so I read her obit. Her entire public life was spent decrying feminism, equal rights, and whatnot. It amazes me that privileged white mainstream females think anyone who isn’t a privileged mainstream white female chose to be born unprivileged. Nancy Mitford was the same way.
Not sure why I feel so grumpy this morning unless it’s the state of the country. Jan, I too am afraid of a war with North Korea. Someone please tell me they didn’t give Thing the real nuke codes! Surely even generals would prefer to go on living.
See you all later!
Good morning, 49 and cloudy in Bellingham today. The PNW has been record breaking wet this year….
Seattle just broke a 122-year-old record for rain — because of course it did
The ivy by the back steps and the patio fence is starting it’s bi annual growth spurt so I want to clip it back hard now so the new growth will be what I see. I love the soft green color of the new leaves. I’ll be wet and muddy but that’s the way it is in my garden this year.
60 at dawn and heading for 80 – starting the day sunny like the last two (got another 22 KWHs yesterday – month to date is 367 as of last night – something wrong with my data thingy though – the accumulated total isn’t keeping up, it’s about 25 KWHs behind what the other tracker is showing), but a front will be moving in later. I hope after-dark later so I can get as much generation as possible before we ‘rain’ the end of the month out. It’s supposed to be in the 50s Sunday which is just as well – laundry day and I’ll be able to have a fire to dry the clothes by.
Every morning we wake up not at war is good. The Rs and possibly even the generals won’t care about Koreans getting killed any more than they cared about Iraqis getting killed. Only white male Puritanical Americans count as human to them. So we will have to find some other way to stop them.
Gotta get back to work. Bright the day and wind to thy wings, Meeses. {{{HUGS}}}
Good morning, meeses! Wednesday …
It is 63 degrees in Madison with an expected daytime high of 70. The forecast calls for light rain all day with temperatures plummeting into the 40s overnight.
So the first black president should mark the start of “no more presidential libraries” (remember that discussion?) and now the start of “former presidents should not make money giving speeches.” I wonder if the purity left, and the idiotic mainstream media, has even the tiniest self-reflective gene. There is nothing wrong with President Barack Obama earning $400,000 for a speech. There is, however, something wrong with the current occupant of the White House advertising his for-profit golf club on State Department web sites and leveraging his presidency to enhance the bottom line of his properties around the world. THAT is not getting covered.
The House released their new ACA repeal and the Freedom Caca looked at it and said “yes, this is mean enough for us!” Title I protections will become optional and you get a little card with your pre-existing condition listed on it to see what kind of premium “enhancer” you will need to pay to get treatment sometimes as much as $20,000 a year. Not just “die, and die quickly” but “die, and die bankrupted”.
The tax cut plan will be unveiled today. It all rests on the fantasy that the cuts will lead to Glorious Revenue That Will Offset The Cuts. The same check that has been in the mail since 1980 and which ordinary Americans have yet to see. Kansas plowed down their highway rest areas and are still waiting for the trickle.
And, finally, the Senate will travel to the White House to get the word on how they need to pass an Authorization for the Use of Military Force in Korea. I suspect the Democratic 2020 hopefuls are looking at how Hillary Clinton’s vote for the AUMF was used as a bludgeon from 2002 through 2016 and that it will give them pause. I would not authorize this president to do anything that involves more than 2 brain cells. Yesterday, he admitted that he doesn’t read the Executive Orders he signs because they “have a lot of words”. JHC!!
See all y’all later!
Good morning, Moosylvania! It’s raining again here but it’s supposed to clear out. At this rate we’ll make up our deficit. I’d moan about day after day of rain if I didn’t know this summer will mean month after month of drought. It lasted from June through September last year. Current temp. is 56 F., going up to 73 F. Spaghetti for dinner tonight!
Jan, I am quaking in my size 8 shoes about the hundred senators being summoned to the White House. So that’s what they’re voting on? Hope the Democratic senators take a tip from you re the AUMF vote. The people of South Korea are throwing water bottles at the weapons parade through their capital, or so it indicated on the morning news.
Going out to visit my friend in Greenspring today. Our friend P.’s dementia shows no sign of abating, so S. is going to have meetings with the social worker re long-term care for her. I’m still aghast at how this seemed to happen overnight. I didn’t know it could take hold so quickly.
I’m determined to get back to exercising next week. Finally got back to writing last night, which pleases me greatly. Tonight Hulu is going to show episode 1 of “The Handmaid’s Tale.” I saw the 1990 movie and the thing that was so gut-wrenching about it was that the neighborhood Offred lived in looked so normal, like an everyday suburb you see in this country now. With a President Pence the Republic of Gilead would be instituted in short order.
Wishing a good and uneventful day for all at the Pond and Beyond!
I put a couple of stories about the movie up in some tabs to read later and while I was eating breakfast I saw an ad for it on my teevee. I did not read the book and only know the bare outlines of the story – a horror story for women and a tale that could come true because butthurt faux-progressives wouldn’t vote for Hillary Clinton. When Justice Kennedy retires in June and the Federalist Society, which has been incubating these hateful men for the past 40 years, picks the next Supreme Court justice, women will lose the right to control their bodies.
I saw some rumblings about Democrats packing the court when we finally regain power and I am all for that. We would call it the Merrick Garland What Goes Around Comes Around Aholes Act.
Hi. I threw together a post about the AIDS Ride. Last minute fundraising.
Super warm today, cold front tonight — low in the 50s (brrrr! to us Texans) maybe thunderstorms this weekend, maybe not.
Morning Meese!
Rain, rain, rain in MPLS St Paul. Trees are leafing and soon the lilacs will blossoming everywhere. I like that.
I love the smell of lilacs! They are one of those plantings that has a short span of delight – the blooms and the smells never seem to last long enough. We have a small grove of lilacs near us in an open area that had been part of an old homestead (they are not native) and we ride up there on our bikes and bring back branches for the table.
Our neighbor shares his lilacs with us. The bush is old and very tall so Ron cuts the blooms and I arrange them. I love the fresh smell.
Good Morning Meese. I’m late checking in – cause I’m pounding the keyboard – writing for Sunday.
Have a good day folks
Just a quick twitter WTF? Don’t have time to look into this – glad Armando did
Good lord, they are insane! Do NOT look at their pinned Tweet – it will make you lose your breakfast.
Good morning, 49 and partly sunny in Bellingham. I enjoyed working in my garden yesterday, but my knees aren’t very happy today. So I’ll be careful at the pool this morning and work at my desk this afternoon.
Hope everyone has a pleasant day.
Our high for the day was 70 – along about 1 am when the rain started – and will be steadily dropping throughout the day and night (supposed to bottom out at 39 about 6 in the morning). PV system hasn’t come online yet. sigh. Problem with the discrepancy between the overview total and system production total still not resolved and in fact is growing. Gonna give it a few more hours then try to contact the Solar Edge people. sigh. But even if I don’t know how much electricity I’ve been generating this month, I know I’m generating more than I’m using and that’s the important part.
Irish luck is survival luck – like your house burned down but the cow barn and root cellar weren’t touched kind of survival luck – and that’s what America is having at the moment. The Rs are so split about what and how much damage to do America, it looks like we may survive the R administration with severe damage but with some shelter and food left.
Late to work followed by a short meeting means I seriously need to get to work. Bright the day and wind to thy wings, Meeses. {{{HUGS}}}
Good morning, meeses! Thursday …
It is 41 degrees in Madison with an expected daytime high of 45. Rain most of the day then clearing this evening.
JHC! The ADHD in Chief is going to make us all crazy. I hope he is doing his on-again-off-again on purpose to try to distract us from Russia because if this is really what is going on in his head, it is frightening. NAFTA off, NAFTA back on. Korea attack, Korea who? ACA repeal, no ACA repeal, ACA repeal again. Wall, no wall. Tax cuts for the middle class, tax cuts only for the rich. Government shutdown looming, averted, looming again. I just hope that Nancy Pelosi is getting things into the budget bill that are being discussed and not relying on promises. There are no promises that won’t be broken by the shitgibbon. The big sticking point is getting the CSR payments to insurance companies permanently paid for so that they cannot be used as a bludgeon down the road. Paul Ryan, whose caucus sued to stop the CSR payments (saying that the executive branch does not control the payments – that it needs to be a appropriated) said last night that the CSR is controlled by the executive branch. Wut? I smell a rat.
I wonder how foolish the Senators who got on a bus to go to the White House for a nothingburger feel? I hope foolish enough to not fall for a tRump photo-op again “Senate summoned to the White House”. What a bunch of chumps!
See all y’all later!
Good Thursday morning Meese
59 here in Saugerties NY – going up to 72 – cloudy.
My morning outrage
The school to prison pipeline starting earlier and earlier. And now with Supreme KKK AG Sessions in charge, the door to leaving prison early has slammed shut.
Is Missouri the new Kansas? The state seems increasingly irrational. Is it a creeping infection that spreads from one state to another?
Since Missouri was a slave state – allowed into the union – with its slaves – I think it is holding true to its “ideals”
yep, pretty much right. It’s true MO didn’t secede, but they had fighting units on both sides of that War. Harry Truman’s grandmother wouldn’t let him into her house when he was wearing his WWI army uniform.
Good Thor’s Day morning, Moosylvania! Thor is not in evidence but the Fog Goddess has spread a gray veil over everything. Hope Dearly Beloved is okay driving through it. He’s on his way to the doctor for an outpatient operation. Meanwhile, back at the ranch, it’s 56 F., on its way up to 83 F.
Feeling somewhat down after my visit to Greenspring yesterday. S. and I had a nice lunch in her apartment, but when we visited P. she already seemed to have a foot in the Otherworld. She talked about having conversations with people who have been dead for years. Although she was considerably more fluent in language yesterday, she was not rational. S. says she’s wheelchair-bound because she’s too weak to walk and cannot follow instructions for physical therapy. She still has speech therapy, though.
S. is meeting with the Long-Term Care people about P. today. S. is in a highly emotional state and did not seem to want me to leave. The situation is very stressful for her, especially because she and P. have been friends for 60 years.
Well, enough about that. Having coffee with Darling Niece this morning, then off to the library and shopping. Watched episode 1 of “The Handmaid’s Tale” last night. The most depressing part was knowing it could easily happen here if Pence becomes POTUS.
Ring around the rosy, Thing and Putie cosy, wish they’d all fall down so we could get a rational government and get on with things.
Handmaid’s Tale creeped me out, too. And then I watched Rachel Maddow. So, creepy all around.
Morning, Meeses!
Interesting, we seem to be having an intermittent blizzard in St Paul this morning. Or maybe it’s a tiny blizzard that is moving around a lot.
I hope all at the Pond have a wonderful day!
Blizzard? As in snow?
Cool this morning — I wore a sweater & closed-toe shoes. But it’s supposed to get in the upper 80s this afternoon. They’re now saying the weekend storms are definitely Saturday night, so that’s good.
So, it looks like they’re trying to slip the Trumpcare thing through again. Will be texting my useless “representatives” with Resistbot. Yesterday, out of nowhere, my brain started playing Talking Heads’ This Must Be The Place
tweet of the day:
that gets a re-tweet from me!
39 at dawn, mid-40s now, and heading for mid-60s – the sun is shining which is wonderful even if I am wearing my wool scarf to keep the back of my neck warm. :) Definitely generating, heaven knows how much. The Solar Edge people say we’ve got two problems. One’s just an update which they’ve started. Apparently it takes a while for an update to “take” on an inverter (as in it both takes time to install the update and it takes another 24 hours once the update is installed before it’s working). The other’s a bug and once I got really insistent about mine being addressed the last guy I talked to – actually on the phone not just a “chat session” – finally started digging around and found multiple complaints of the same problem – hadn’t been tallied which is another problem on their end. However, the “bug-fix dept” is working on it and hope to have it resolved by the end of next week.
Thank goddess for “old pros” like Nancy Pelosi – she is not going to let anything slip by her and she will get stuff written into bills. She doesn’t trust them any further than she could throw their mascot. As far as blocking, resisting, pushing back, and even making some gains, I trust our “establishment” pros over the “but I want it to work this way” noobs more than I trust the sun to (apparently) rise in the east. I will do what I can from bloody-red AR to support them.
Gotta get back to work – between the rain/minor flooding and the “appreciation” of the administrative staff (of whom I am one) yesterday, I’m a bit behind. Only got the urgent-looming deadline stuff done, but if I don’t deal with what’s left, it will be urgent. Bright the day and wind to thy wings, Meeses. {{{HUGS}}}
Good morning, 45 and cloudy in Bellingham today. My mind seems to have taken a tRump vacation…..I opened the NYT and found myself reading a “how to shampoo your hair” story instead of the opinion page. And then the gardening page of the Seattle Times was next with some wonderful flower photos. I’m meeting an old friend for coffee this morning, then going to the dentist for a check up re implant progress, and then my son will help me clip some more ivy out of the fir tree. I should be good and tired by evening, so perhaps my news holiday will continue. Full awareness of the awfulness of tRump is demoralizing and exhausting.
http://www.seattletimes.com/life/travel/readers-lens-flower-power-contest-winner/
Good morning, meese! Friday …
It is 36 degrees in Madison with an expected daytime high of 54. Sunny this morning then showers this afternoon and into the evening. Rain is in the forecast for the next 3 days. Perhaps the goddess thinks we need more April showers so that our May flowers will be more magnificent!
So 62 million Americans voted to put a man in the White House who talks in Tweets and wants to start a war: “There is a chance that we could end up having a major, major conflict with North Korea. Absolutely.” The saddest part of that is that as horrified as we are by that, his supporters are as happy as pigs in shit about his presidency. We really need to find a way to get decent people to the polls because – assuming we can survive this – we really can’t let this happen again. My daughter and I were talking about the 2020 presidential election, when she will be able to vote for the first time, and when I mentioned that tRump could get re-elected she looked aghast and said “then we would really have to move to Canada.” I have a better idea! Let’s kick the Democratic Party’s purity patrol to the curb and build a coalition of the Stop This Shit Now who are willing to vote for Democrats no matter who they are.
House Republicans will vote today to pass Trumpcare 2.0 in order to please their insane king – hoping that the Senate can kill it and it really does not come into law. Democrats will run in 2018 on those votes and the Republican Party will virtually disappear in California, New Jersey, New York, and Illinois. Please proceed, Republicans. Oh, and the government will shut down at midnight. Chuck Schumer is not buying the “all we need is one more week to fix this” and wants the poison pills out now.
See all y’all later!
Friday – yay!
Am washing my hands of the faux left.
Obama Derangement Syndrome run wild has me crazy. Can’t tell you how many fuck you’s I want to spew this am.
You might enjoy this one, Dee.
:) :) :)
Just saw this
Perfect! Fierced!
I’m right there with you, Denise.
{{{Denise}}} – totally agree. of course these are the same “sux” folks who started attacking President Obama when he didn’t nationalize the banks in 2009 and haven’t stopped. Besides, they’d created the meme of “giving speeches for money is EBIL!” to use against Hillary and since she’d not the person in the White House, they gotta use it against somebody progressive. (Obviously it doesn’t apply to Rs – or jsfv and spouse).