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 One of Comments are HERE
– Page Two of Comments are HERE
64 heading for mid 80s and hope we get more sunshine than yesterday while we’re at it. Only 11 KWHs with a m-t-d of 274. Fuzzy this morning – sinusitis a bit worse than usual over night so I did most of my sleeping sitting up (which also hurts my low back but that’s easing up).
Need to find a minute to call my senators again – so damned many things I need to call them about but focusing at the moment on healthcare. As bad, as devastating, as these multiple Cat 5 hurricanes are – and they are a bad predicted but unprecedented in our history – Graham-Cassidy will kill more people. Which doesn’t mean I’m ignoring the hurricanes, I’ll be calling about help for the folks in the Caribbean, too. The Rs are evil. They like being evil. Money really has nothing to do with it as shown by will who lose (including whole states) if Graham-Cassidy passes. They just like killing people who aren’t in their clique.
Fundraiser news is good for Aji, great for Mufftootuff, in a holding pattern for jtg, the pollster, fineena, pale cold, BFSkinner, slksfca, funtony, and michelewln’s friends, and totally sux for MaureenMower (County Services rep eff’d up her services renewal so both Medicaid and Food Stamps stopped abruptly while she was in the middle of medical evaluations – stopping not only the tests and specialist visits her doctor ordered but her meds as well, including the pain meds she cannot function without) – but we shall persist. If there’s a giving up window i’ve never found it.
Gotta visit the Villages and get back to work. Very carefully double-checking every step so I don’t eff something up myself. Bright the day, Meeses. {{{HUGS}}} and Healing Energy to everybody everywhere.
Good morning, 50 and cloudy in Bellingham. The pro’s will be here soon to prune the laurel and arborvitae hedges and to thin and shape the camellia and photina I’ve let grow as trees. They screen our back yard from the uphill neighbors and the street but if I don’t keep them clipped they become top heavy and any winter snow will damage them. I have to wait on Marcus’ “fussy pruning” list, but he’s worth waiting for!
Once again I’m very grateful to be in the garden and distracted from the news of the day.
Take care everyone.
Wednesday Meese
Up looking for Maria information
Eye wall is hitting Vieques Puerto Rico. Vieques was the island bombed over and over again by the U.S. Navy – people fought for years to get them to stop and the island is still contaminated
The Mayor of San Juan – Carmen Yulín Cruz (San Juan had a women as mayor 1947–1968 Felisa Rincón de Gautier known as Dona Fela ) was interviewed by AlJ
It looks like Maria made landfall with 155 mph winds. I hope people found those shelters!
Good morning, meese. Wednesday …
It is 63 degrees in Madison with an expected daytime high of 84 – heat index of 100. Thunderstorms expected later today. The front will not bring in cool air but hotter air with daytime highs of 88 expected on Friday. Instead of Indian Summer we are getting Global Warming Blast Furnace Summer.
Zombie ACA repeal is reaching critical mass. The bipartisan healthcare talks have broken down on word that Paul Ryan will not bring any ACA patch bill to the floor of his House. The Graham-Cassidy-Heller-Johnson bill is being pushed as the last chance for Republicans to keep their promise to repeal the ACA. The Koch brothers are dangling $400 million in front of Congress members saying that they will not get any of it if they don’t take healthcare away from 35 million people. Bastids. A handful of Republican governors are telling their Senators that their states will have billion dollar shortfalls if Medicaid is block granted under the GCHJ bill. Will they care any more than they did last month? I doubt it. As Ron Johnson said, why do we need the CBO, we know what it will say. Indeed! Most of these guys already voted at least once to kill 37,000 people a year and bankrupt millions. This CBO score just tells you how much larger the permanent blemish on their soul will be. The Senate vote will be next Wednesday then the House will vote on the Senate bill if it passes. Goddess help us if it does.
See all y’all later!
Good morning, Meese. Daylight here at 7:25 a.m. but the sun hasn’t fully climbed up yet. Current temp. is 65 F., going up to 85 F. As Jan said, this isn’t Indian Summer, it’s full-blast global warming furnace weather. However, it’s a good incentive to eat up all the ice cream in the freezer, because I plan to defrost it on Monday, October 2.
Missed check-in yesterday because I had to drive to my son’s house in neighboring Arlington to look after Mr. Toddler all day. Was pleasantly surprised that the traffic wasn’t as bad as I’d expected in the morning, and unpleasantly surprised that the traffic on the drive home was. It was when I arrived back in Reston that the traffic became inch-inch-crawl. Ugh. Glad I don’t do it every day.
Mr. Toddler behaved well (apparently he reserves his tantrums for his parents), and took a two-and-a-half-hour nap, which was good—about the only good thing that happened yesterday.
The news is so horrible on all fronts. The hurricanes, the earthquake, and that speech at the U.N. yesterday! I am worrying about something that seems trivial but is important to those concerned: with the disruption in their schooling caused by earthquakes and hurricanes, how are the children of Mexico, Texas, Florida, and the Caribbean going to get any books or Christmas presents? Christmas is “the highlight of the kid year,” as the man who wrote “A Christmas Story” said.
When I saw the massive collection of toys and books owned by my two-year-old grandson, I realized that he has far more than he needs, and also that he’s outgrown quite a few of them. His parents are willing to box them up and send them off if they only knew where. I wish I knew a way to do this. Can anyone think of anything? I’ll ask the help of the local Metro columnist in the Washington Post, too.
Today will be a day of catching up on chores in the morning and looking after the Japanese boys after school. Wishing all as good a day as possible. Hoping that Maria will veer off and spare Puerto Rico.
Yesterday was another of those days when the news was coming at us like a firehose – and none of it was good. The bellicose bulbous butthead wants to destroy a country of 25 million people. Lovely. The United States will never again be considered a trustworthy or reliable ally or moral global actor. Of all the Obama legacies that the shitgibbon is determined to wreck, the reputation of America, painstakingly rebuilt after the Bush years, turns out to be the easiest to destroy, probably because it was in its infancy. Russia got its money’s worth for tilting the election to Trump – America has lost its influence and moral authority.
Blue Santa in Austin is collecting toys to give to kids now. Here’s a story about it:http://kxan.com/2017/09/08/how-to-help-collect-toys-for-harvey-and-irmas-displaced-children/
Work. Oatmeal. Tea. Reading about the devastation in Mexico, waiting to hear about St Croix & Puerto Rico. There was also an earthquake in New Zealand — no news about that. Or the cholera outbreak in — was it Yemen?; or the ethnic cleansing in Burma….. Mother Earth is trying to shake us off, and we’re doing our best to help her out. What is wrong with us? This is a song U2 wrote about a lifelong friend of theirs who was in the throes of heroin addiction at the time
Wasn’t going to do a diary but had to
Pray Goddess there is no loss of life.
The island to the east of the main island took a direct hit. My news feeds tell me that it is an island that was used for U.S. Navy bombing practice and has dangerous toxins present. I could not get a bead on whether people lived there. I hope not!
[edited out the NBC video which expired]
According to info in Dee’s diary, about 9,000 people live there. Why I don’t know except it’s their home – the whole island is a Superfund site and the rate of cancer and other “environmental” diseases is quite high.
Summer’s back here, too – 70 was the low heading for low 90s today then start inching its way back down. I hope I don’t have to turn on the A/C – if we were getting full sun my electricity generation would cover it but it’s been hazy with intermittent clouds so I’m at about 70% of what full production would be the week before the Equinox. Got right at 13 KWHs yesterday and m-t-d is 287 – so may or may not crest 300 by end of day.
The bad news is still coming as thick and fast as the Blitzkrieg. Our “wins” are good but only wins in the sense of blocking some advance the Evil Ones have mounted. The natural disasters would be bad enough individually, they would be “just” devastating taken together – but added to the horrendous blow of multiple and intense natural disasters is our current government policy of “poor people should die, they aren’t worth anything” which takes this evil to a level of historic proportions. Meanwhile closer in, the community needs list i do on DK is both growing in number and stagnating in donations. But I will post my Helping Humpday diary at 1 central anyway. And focus on opening the Channel of Good for everybody everywhere.
I need to check in at the Villages and get back to work. Bright the day, meeses. {{{HUGS}}}
Good morning, 47 and raining in Bellingham. I’ve got another home and garden day ahead, but I have help so I just have to do my part. The guys will be back to finish pruning the laurel hedge this afternoon and I’ll keep the laundry going this morning.
I saved the Camilla branches from the chipper yesterday but I didn’t get them in water so I need to do that this morning too. I’ll take some to the flower shop and keep the rest in a bucket by the garage. The branches stay fresh when kept outdoors and are easy to clip for the greens in arrangements.
Once again I’m very grateful to have a home and garden to shelter me from the reality of our troubled world and country. Take care everyone.
Good morning, all. We’re back to summer temps here in MI with a muggy high of 81 expected. I’m continuing my efforts to finish the sewing I have to do for my daughter’s wedding in October with mixed success. I am a Master Procrastinator, but in an effort to keep my stress level at tolerable levels, I have set benchmarks and deadlines for myself. We’ll see if that works.
I wanted to include this tweet; it’s a great resource, particularly if you have D senators and reliable, unlimited internet. I have the senators but not the unlimited internet, so I’m thinking of finding a place that is relatively quiet with free wifi:
Good morning, Meese. As I write at 6 a.m. it’s too dark to tell what sort of day it’ll be. The weather gadget on my Mac tells me it’s 60 F. in NoVa, going up to 83 F. later.
Another unfortunate early awakening at 3:45 a.m., unable to go back to sleep. Don’t know what I’d do without books! At least reading is quiet. I have a friend who watches cooking shows at 3 a.m., then goes back to sleep at 6 a.m. I can’t do that, though—too many other people in the house.
Finding that not having the early morning news-talk shows on is really improving my mood. The news is worrisome enough, just reading on line. Grieving for the people in Mexico, Puerto Rico, and the Caribbean.
Feeling overwhelmed by all I have to do, but have started making a list. Just making a list helps, especially if I can tick off one item after another.
Wishing all a good day!
Good morning, meese. Thursday …
It is 70 degrees in Madison with an expected daytime high of 84, heat index at 100. My weather widget forecasts “variable cloudiness” because it is from Canada and does not use “partly cloudy” or “mostly cloudy” or “scattered clouds”. I am never quite sure what it means.
I did a quick scan of the news and only found one story on Puerto Rico. They have no power and it could take 3 to 4 months to get it back. I worry that the U.S. Congress won’t give a rats ass about the island and the 3.5 million people who live there because it is Democratic and brown and because the U.S. Congress is filled with aholes. I hope I am wrong.
The ACA repeal is giving me a sense of dread. This is exactly the scenario that the AHCA went through – dead, then alive, then passed. That outright lies are not being challenged in headlines does not bode well. I will say this: if Graham-Cassidy-Heller-Johnson passes and Republican House members from California, New York, New Jersey, and Illinois vote for it, the 2018 election will be a bloodbath for them. Setting aside the immorality of voting to kill sick people in their state (their base will be happy about that!), they will be voting to blow $3 billion holes in their states’ budgets. All politics is local and GCHJ will bankrupt their states.
I am ignoring the foreign policy drama. tRump has found that he can heighten interest in his every word and tweet as it relates to foreign policy because it is the one area that he absolutely controls and his personal decisions become the law. The run-up to the Iran “decision” will be like his reality TV show on the Gorsucks announcement and I won’t tune in. If we back away from the Iran agreement for no reason other than “President Obama put it together”, we will literally become a rogue nation, untrustworthy members of the international community. When your country makes a deal and the other side abides by the deal, you can’t have the next guy in cancel it simply because he is suffering a narcissistic injury from being despised by his own country and the world. As long as I live, I will never understand the mindset that says “let’s shake things up and put a failed businessman and reality TV show host in the Oval Office.”
See all y’all later!
Chris, Rachel & Lawrence all spent large chunks of time last night on Puerto Rico — so at least there is some coverage.
I posted this in my second diary yesterday – my husband and I wept along with the mayor
I found this photo astonishing – an entire island swallowed up by a category 4 hurricane.
Autumn begins tomorrow, so naturally our heat index is… pretty much 100. Seriously, 6 o’clock in the morning, end of September & I’m wearing white capris, sandals & a light summer shirt. Earthquakes all over, and how many never-before-this-bad hurricanes……. Ok, I’ve got to do something positive.. 1st here’s some U2 — the SciFi Soul remix of You’re The Best Thing About Me. (if you actually click on this — the girl is Edge’s – the guitarist – daughter, a childhood leukemia survivor, so good to see her happy & healthy, and the boy is Bono’s youngest son) And I know that there’s so many appeals for money out there, but I’m writing an AIDS Walk diary, probably for this evening. Probably won’t get any eyes/money, but I need to do it. Must have something positive.
Good Thursday Meese
Popping in for only a min – exhausted by blogging PR all day yesterday – and have to finish Sunday writing.
Take care and pray for everyone in the Caribbean
73 heading for 89 which, while not comfortable, is a bit cooler than yesterday. We’re inching back into autumnal weather. Got 14 KWHs yesterday and the m-t-d is 301 so that’s OK if not great. I’m not seeing making the 459 we did in September 2015, but at this rate we can beat the 384 of September 2016. Holding the Good Thought.
Holding the Good Thought about a lot of things – between the Rs trying to kill us in so many ways and the natural disasters (which are actually doing more property and infrastructure damage than direct loss of life that the Rs’ “agenda” will cause) and the absolute dead stop on most of my community needs folks – well, I’m trying not to get overwhelmed myself. I keep going back to mental images of my childhood at Galveston – jumping the waves. Watch the wave rolling in and time the jump to keep your head above water as it goes by. Meanwhile still focusing on opening and clearing the Channel of Good so that the exhaustless riches of the Primal Will To Good can flow to meet all things needful both spiritual and material.
Gotta get back to work. Bright the day, Meeses – {{{HUGS}}} and Healing Energy to all of Moosesylvania.
Good morning, 53 and partly sunny in Bellingham. Another restless night, so another slow and sleepy morning. I’ll make some more begging for health care calls this morning then find something easy to do in the garden this afternoon.
Take care everyone.
posted at DK, I couldn’t get the tweet to imbed in the diary, I’m too tired to try to fix it
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2017/9/21/1700480/-To-my-AIDS-Walk-Austin-Donors-You-re-The-Best-Thing?_=2017-09-21T17:53:49.303-07:00
Good Friday morning Meese
Headed out today to the Data & Democracy Conference in North Carolina – which takes place tomorrow
New York steps up to the plate to help in PR
Gov of PR asked Cuomo to come
Thank goodness for blue states with big hearts! I worry about the U.S. territories getting any kind of help with an ignorant man and his racist rabble in the White House.
Thanks for keeping us posted on the status of recovery. The news cycle has already moved on. :(
Good morning, Meese. It’s still dark outside at 6:30. It’s currently 67 F. in NoVa, going up to 84 F. Had a pretty decent night’s sleep for once and that’s good, because I’m in for a long, tedious day of child minding.
Very glad to hear that help is on the way for Puerto Rico! Sometimes when I think about life without electricity, it just makes me shudder. So far my friend there is safe although she hasn’t been able to return to her house yet. It seems as if the Caribbean communities in the USA are rallying around.
The other news is that Hubby’s physical condition is improving! He just made the early morning tea. And Darling Niece, my beta reader, reported that my novella is a “ton of fun” to read. Today while the boys are playing soccer or whatever outside, I’ll be sitting there editing the mss. while keeping an eye on them.
Wishing a good day to all at the Pond and beyond.
Good news about your hubby – and glad your friend is okay!