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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– Page 1 of Comments is HERE
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Good Tiu’s Day morning, Moosekind! Sure, and it’s a grand immortal day here in NoVa—blue skies, low humidity, the lot. It’s 67 F. now, going up to 79 F. Even in Dublin, where Darling Niece and family are recovering from jet lag at this very moment, it’s on its way up to 70 F. They’ll need lemonade and ice cream.
Coming down with yet another cold, so went to bed early last night and missed everything: the Jamboree speech travesty, the possible replacement of Grand Wizard Sessions with the Cruz Missile, and the complaints about HRC’s criminal collusion with the Russians!
Bloody hell, if anyone ever doubted the depth of hatred for women in this country, they should be convinced of it now. Hillary Clinton is a patriot in the old-fashioned sense of the word, the election was nine months ago, and she most likely will never run for public office again. Meanwhile, back at the so-called Swamp, a dying man is flying in to vote for repeal after a nice lunch. Don’t ask me to admire McCain because I don’t and I won’t.
Off to have breakfast before Miss Pink Cheeks arrives. I have to drive her to camp less than an hour from now. Hope everyone will have a good day and that the world doesn’t come to an end!
Back to work. Ugh. Walked just 1.1 mi this morning, figured I’ll ease into the week. Also, it was 80 freaking degrees at 5:45 in the morning. Today’s the day they vote on the No Healthcare For You bill. Great. And they’re risking John McCain’s life to have him fly in….. Mitch McConnell is truly evil. Oh — and T’s friend Vlad is arming the Taliban. Wonder what excuse he’ll have for still being best buddies? I’m gonna open a tab for youtube & listen to some U2. Adam Clayton & his wife had a baby girl. Yay!
this thread from Sarah Kenzidor, y’all:
<blockquoteclass=”twitter-tweet” data-lang=”en”>
This is absolutely right. https://t.co/3iNcCXwPKB
— Sarah Kendzior(@sarahkendzior) July 25, 2017
69 at dawn and dry enough to almost feel chilly. Heading who knows where as the prognosticators haven’t been right for months – but hot. PV system is back online after 2 days down. To really fix it, a bunch of stuff needs replacing (none of it under warranty) but the technician thinks he knows what the problem is. There’s a leak somewhere as there are water stains inside the inverter casing. Original technician used “solar-rated” plastic for the junction box and wiring conduit. Current technician says that’s not “code” it should be metal and that the plastic has failed somewhere. He thinks he can replace all the plastic with up-to-code metal for under $400 (that I’d planned to send to folks on my community needs list, sigh) but it won’t be for a few days as the junction box has to be ordered and he’s on another job anyway. Meanwhile, the system is up again and we will hope nothing happens to bring it down until Jordan can get it really fixed. If the arc fault problem has also caused problems with the inverter itself, that’s under warranty and we can replace it if we have to. meanwhile I’ve already got a KWH today and the m-t-d is 418.
Called my senators, both local and DC offices. DC offices lines are busy and voicemail boxes are full so couldn’t even leave a message – but good! local offices left a voicemail for Cotton and talked to a staffer for Boozman. Again, doubt it will help – but they know we’re watching and we’re not happy. No comment on J. McCain flying pretty much from his gummint-covered hospital bed to vote to take away coverage from the rest of America. On my community needs list folks, not much moving but Mufftootuff did get enough to keep her phone/internet on and there’s a $200 match being offered towards MaureenMower’s August rent. Hold the Good Thought, please. (And those who are “that minded” I’d appreciate a little Energy boost to help with some “sympathetic magic” I’m trying to channel.)
Gotta get to work after I’ve checked in on Villages. Bright the day, Meeses. {{{HUGS}}}
Good morning, meese! Wednesday …
It is 70 degrees in Madison with an expected daytime high of 84. The heat index will be 102 and afternoon thunderstorms are in the forecast.
The Senate voted to proceed to the ACA repeal vote with cancer victim John McCain voting to deny medical care to other cancer victims. Mavericky! Whatever John McCain did in the past, he will now forever be known as the guy who flew across the country to deny health care to his fellow citizens. Deplorable.
Over the next few days the Senate will have 20 hours of debate, offer amendments to the BCRAp, and then vote on the various bills. Tonight or tomorrow morning they will vote on SOMETHING – very likely a bill with a lot of pieces missing that will have to go to a House-Senate conference to work out. That will happen over the August break and Congress will vote on it when they return. There are plenty of steps available where we can kill this bastard child of AHCA and BCRA. We “only” need one more vote. Goddess help us if we as a country choose to take healthcare away from millions and destroy the Medicaid safety net that has kept poor people and the elderly alive.
See all y’all later!
Yes – Goddess help us.
Fuck you John McCain and Republicans is all I have to say this morning.
Dee, I’m trying to think of an appropriate rhyme:
Oh, crud, the BBC just notified my phone that Thing said no transgender person may serve in the military in any capacity whatever.
Got a new slogan for the Dems in 2018:
“Peace, Prosperity, and Pee-qual Rights.”
Good morning, Meese, another fair day in Northern VA. It’s 63 F. right now, going up to 82 F. today. We’ve had the air conditioning off because it’s been so lovely. We’ll have to turn it on again tomorrow, however.
With a completely child-free day I should do all sorts of things. Unfortunately, I still have a cold, so I’m not sure how much I’ll get done, if anything. Well, at least I can try.
Not going to comment on the news. Feel too depressed for that.
1.65 miles this morning, 40 minutes. Yay me! 52 days.
I knew McCain was going to vote that way, there was no reason for him to fly in to vote no. How mavericky of him to vote to take my friend’s health care away — she has the same kind of brain cancer he does. Here’s my boys doing Ultraviolet, the song they dedicate to the women who stood up, resisted & persisted.
75 or so – depending on which weather widget you look at – sunny at least. Got just over 19 KWHs yesterday, so at least covered the A/C for the day, and the m-t-d is 436. Watered the nursery stock and herbs this morning – again – ground is rock hard and the grass crackles when you walk on it. How far we’ve come from the floods of April. That’s life.
McCain’s just another privileged “entitled” white male R. Always has been from the day he got into a military program others were more qualified for because his daddy was a WWII hero-type admiral. (Which of course does mean his time as a POW was probably more of a jolt mentally and emotionally than it was –
as bad as it was for everybody – for somebody less privileged and more street damaged.) The “maverick” thing was always media propaganda. He’s only bucked the R line when it didn’t matter and he’d be outvoted. But have a nugget of good news. We won the NH senate special election yesterday.
I’ve got so much stuff on my desk right now – and I keep being interrupted by people wanting to know if I’ve done it yet or if they can change things or both – so I’d best get to it. will check in at the Villages first though. Bright the day, Meeses. {{{HUGS}}}
Good morning, 67 and sunny in Bellingham. The arborist and his crew will be here soon to do some more ivy removal from the tall fir tree behind our house. Some of the ivy needs to stay because removing it will harm the tree, some needs to be carefully trimmed because the tree will look ugly if it is gone, and some needs to be removed so the tree will remain healthy. He’s asked me to help make some of the judgement calls so I’ll trim the ivy fences while he’s working.
This evening we’re going to our son’s house for Emma’s 15th birthday dinner so I’ll make her a birthday bouquet as well. She is baking her own birthday cake this year…..how can she possibly be 15 yrs old!
All’s well in my small world and I’m trying to control my nervous anxiety re what tRump and the evil R’s in congress are doing to our health care today :::sigh:::
Good morning, meese! Thursday …
It is 70 degrees in Madison with an expected daytime high of 79. The heat index will be 91 and the forecast calls for variable cloudiness with clearing towards evening.
Another day, another 7 bajillion things coming at us from the White House reality TV show. I refuse to believe that the crap coming out of the tRump administration is a planned distraction from the health care vote because I refuse to believe that he is capable of any sort of action that comes from thought or a plan. It is pure reaction to something that he saw or someone pointed out to him or that he woke up with.
The “ACA Repeal Only” bill was voted down and now they are working on something called “skinny repeal”. It only uninsures 16 million initially because it leaves Medicaid intact “to be worked out in conference”. It will, however, destroy the individual marketplace and those of us who have been getting subsidies for heath insurance will lose them. Add in average premiums rising 20% – and no mandate to buy insurance – and they are essentially turning individual insurance into high risk pools where only people who desperately need health care can justify paying the premiums. For a party whose foremost concern was supposedly “unaffordable premiums”, it seems like a reach to call premiums doubling in some states a “fix”. Today they will vote on something that they will send to conference with the House and then go on vacation. The conference will have to craft a compromise between the House and Senate and that bill will be voted on by both houses of Congress when they return in September. People with Republican Senators need to keep calling.
Republicans are in disarray over transgender military and Sessions. Turns out that tweet-messing with the military is a bit of a third rail. And on Sessions, the same protections that he had during his Senate confirmation (don’t say mean things about Jeffy!!) apparently extends to his tenure as Attorney General. Republican Senators are saying that the shitgibbon needs to lay off their former colleague – who gave up a safe Senate seat and who is perfectly aligned with their injustice agenda. Conservative media is also up in arms. Democrats are working on a plan to block any recess appointment that would bypass the Senate confirmation process. I am not sure what to wish for. I don’t want Mueller fired and the odds of someone taking over the DOJ (who is willing to fire him) being a decent honorable person are slim to none.
See all y’all later.
1.79 mi this morning. And yup, it’s 80 degrees again. Headed toward record highs for the day of 103, and even hotter this weekend. I was going to do an AIDS Walk video this morning, but somehow the ½ hour I was going to use vanished. Maybe at the gym this afternoon. I have an idea but I need someone else to do the camera work.
Felt like a steam bath this morning but it really wasn’t that hot – low 70s but very humid. Rain apparently moving our direction and I hope it actually hits us and doesn’t just go around us – we seriously need the water. Ground is hard as a rock and the grass crackles when you walk on it. Supposed to bring a cool front with it – which actually doesn’t surprise me although it’s a few days early. “Old normal” in NW AR used to get 100+ temps the last week of July, then get a front moving through and dropping the temps into the upper 80s the first week of August. This has been pretty much an “old normal” year. Am a bit worried about the PV system if it rains though. The technician found water stains in the inverter box so the current hypothesis is that the (not code) plastic box and tubing all the wiring runs through has sprung a leak and the plan is to replace all the plastic with (code) metal. But he’s tied up with another job – i got a call last night asking if my system was up (yes, thankfully) and saying they’d be out Friday – the call was from the office of the other installation company that technician works for. LOL. I told him when I saw him that I’d been doing net searches for installation companies because i was so tired of being ignored (when not patronized) by my original installer. I guess he took that to heart – knowing the original installer wouldn’t contact me to check on the system and make sure a delay would be OK, he told his other boss who took it from there. Such a simple thing, contact with updates, but it feels so good.
Evil is being evil. I will keep calling. Then i’ll do what I can for my community needs folks, support as best I can anybody who’s on the verge of freaking out, and take care of my paid-for work and daily life. Occupied territory war conditions. We as a nation will survive. And we will win as long as we don’t give up.
Gotta get to work after a quick check in with the DK Village – I posted it and added all the “community lynx links” before i left home – WYgalinCali monitors it once she’s online (she also adds the tweets that make it a real diary and not just another list of Resistance helps and events) but she is west coast. Bright the day, Meeses. {{{HUGS}}}
Good Thor’s Day morning, Meese, and Thor will definnitely be around later today—or so they say. At dawn the sky was completely gray but now the blue is covered by a thin film of white cloud, so the sunlight looks “watery.” Currently in NoVa it’s 76 F., going up to 86 F. later, with thunderstorms and rain beginning at 3 or 4 p.m.
Still battling a cold and now Hubby has it as well. Feeling very thankful the end of the week is nigh. Today I must clean out the fridge. However, I have to leave for weight training at the gym in 15 minutes, so I’m not sure how much I’ll get done in throwing stuff away.
Wishing all the best to everyone at the Pond and Beyond! And may we live through this day and the end of the week.
Sorry to be late Had problems finishing my Sunday Kos piece and had to pound the keyboard to get it in before the deadline of noon today.
Waving hi!
off to get coffee
Good morning. 60, sunny and breezy in Bellingham. I had to accept the words I didn’t want to hear yesterday. “Don’t worry, it’ll grow back” always means I don’t like what needs to happen. The tree looks terrible, but about 5,000 lbs of ivy was removed and the fir branches were trimmed to encourage new growth. The remaining ivy branches are deeply embedded in the tree so they will produce new growth too, and given some time the tree won’t look like it got a very bad haircut. It was more than I wanted to do but the tree is very tall so removing the weight of the ivy makes it safer, and now we can control what’s left with a good pruning every few years.
Time to find some coffee and visit with my sister for a while.
Good Friday Meese
This was amazing
I have that up in a tab! I wanted to scan Twitter a little more before I sat back and enjoyed it.
Mazie Hirono:
Good morning, meeses! Friday …
It is 61 degrees in Madison with an expected daytime high of 77. Mostly sunny skies are in the forecast.
I will say this. I don’t know if it was planned or not but McCain set Senate Republicans up perfectly for him having cover for his vote. They coated him in Teflon with their standing ovation and undeserved tongue baths.
In the end, the Senate institution was what swayed him. Not the millions who would lose insurance, not the thousands who would die, not the hypocrisy of having insurance poised to pay out hundreds of thousands of dollars on his own cancer treatment. What made his NO vote was that Paul Ryan would not give ironclad assurances that the fig-leaf “I voted for repeal” bill would not become law without any further input from the Senate.
I think – but I am not sure, I just read the breaking news – that the process is over because Mitch McConnell did not vote no and therefore cannot bring the bill back.
Thank you, Senate Democrats, for not giving in. And thank you, House and Senate Republicans, for giving us perfect campaign ads for 2018 and 2020.
See all y’all later!
This:
I walked, 1.8 miles. It’s hot, tomorrow will be a record 108. But I don’t care about any of that right now, please for my friend & his wife, it isn’t looking good:
update on FB, it sounds bad — her mom is there & they have a prayer shawl from their church, I don’t know what to say to him
Well, this is something to wake up to! This is the little bit of good news we’ve been waiting for.
Good Friday morning, Meese. I’ve just realized I have to go to the dentist this morning, but what is the hygienist going to think about my sore throat? Think I’d better call.
Here in NoVa the sky is overcast, getting ready for the huge rain we’re expecting later today. Current temp. is 71 F., going up to 77 F. later. I’m thinking of comfort food to go with the sound of rain for dinner tonight: roast chicken, mashed potatoes, gravy, and peas.
Miss Pink Cheeks is going to New York tomorrow with her mother, and I’m already wondering how I’m going to live without her for a week. The good news is that I’ll have her brother Monday and Friday. Hope I’m over this cold by then.
When I learned that HRC has written a book called “What Happened,” I pre-ordered the Kindle copy and the hard copy. I want it to be a best seller! I’ll give the hard copy away to someone who wants to read the book but can’t afford to buy it. It’s coming out on 12 September.
Wishing a good day to all at the Pond and Beyond!
I saw the “What Happened” announcement. I am not ready to read the post-mortems, yet. Maybe in January 2021 when President Kamala Harris is sworn in. :)
Understood! I may also find it too painful to read until 2021. My chief concern is that I want the book to be a best seller, to support her and show the Trumpists that she is still an icon—in the world of women, anyway.
W00t! We did it! Resist, block, push back – and take a breather to get the energy for the next round. But we can be proud and celebrate that we blocked this evil. {{{HUGS}}} to everybody who made calls, sent faxes or cards, visited offices or town halls – we are only strong together but we are VERY strong together.
Another steambath morning but there’s a front moving through later today. Temp highs should top about 10 degrees lower than they have been and the overnights are going to drop into the low 60s or even upper 50s. Nice sleeping with the windows open weather. :) Cloudy yesterday and only got 10 KWHs for the day, m-t-d is 463 – even halfway decent sunshine will take us over 500 for the month which will be better than July 16 but not as good as july 15. Need to do some making up for the system being down 8 days in June. Hopefully the technician will be out today to do what we hope will be the permanent fix on my PV system.
Need to get to work after I’ve checked in with the Villages. Bright the day, Meeses. {{{HUGS}}}