Week-long Welcomings from Moosylvania: Dec. 31st through Jan. 6th

December 30, 2017 JanF Community 122

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 is HERE!
 
– Page Two of Comments is HERE!

 

56 Comments

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

    Morning low of -2 degrees in Madison WI with an expected daytime high of 7. Sunny skies are in the forecast.

    Have a great day, all y’alls!!

  2. New Years Eve Meese!
    My water goddess did her year end cleansing – via one of my cats. Woke up to find a glass of water spilled all over my keyboard – which now won’t work – lol, Luckily I have the laptop, Will send hubby out to buy me a new keyboard as soon as the sun comes up.

    9 degrees here in Saugerties.

    • Ha! That is one way to “cleanse”.

      New Years Eve, indeed! I have rarely been as glad to see a calendar swap. I changed out my primary calendar (the one over my desktop monitor) last night. It has today and then all of January. This is the one I got for next year: Moons by Willow Creek Press. Some years I get the Browntrout Moons.

        • {{{Denise}}} – saw your tweet and RT’d it from my home page. I’ll read the diary shortly. Holding the Good Thought for my fellow Americans in the Caribbean.

      • am back to normal. I’m worrying about a stray cat who has been hanging out on my porch with my cat – who is now indoors. Can’t bring him in – I guess I should call animal rescue.

  3. Hola, meeses! I am going to ring out the old with a WordPress upgrade to version 4.9.1.

    It should take about 5 minutes. See you on the other side!

    • Done. I am going to resist updating the plug-ins at the same time in case we have to go back.

      • Thanks, Jan. Had to “quick log-in” this morning, but at least I didn’t have to “clear history.”

        Had a really excellent night’s sleep for once, never even opening my bleary eyes from 11 to 7. Yesterday’s snow melted when the sun came out, so only traces linger on the sidewalks, roofs, and cars. Current temp. in NoVa on a blue-and-white winter morning is 16 F., going up to 23 F.

        Trotting out to the nail salon and grocery store today, and still hope to catch up on computer chores at some point.

        Happy New Year to all, and goodbye to crappy old 2017!

        • I wasn’t sure what would happen to people not logged in during the maintenance. I am glad you did not have to clear cache! That is really a pain (I have had to do it 3 times in the last several months). Maybe the new version will be kinder to us.

          I did not set an alarm this morning but I woke up at my regular time anyway. I think this happens when I know I have a lot to do. My brain wakes up and says “let’s get to it!”

          Have a great day – see you next year!

      • Thank you. Totally appreciate your work keeping the Moose Pond going. Holding the Good Thought for 2018 for all us Meeses. {{{HUGS}}}

  4. The local news is all on the expected winter weather. But I really think it’s just going to be cold, there’s not enough moisture for rain/snow/ice. Well, there’s drizzle, so maybe I’m wrong. Today: church, put together next week’s food, and make kale soup with blackeyed peas. It’s the only way I like them, but gotta have them tomorrow. And since it’s going to be cold, maybe a fire with all the old bills & stuff that I haven’t shredded. Here’s a song that may be a Christmas one, but I think of it as for New Years, because it’s Better Days
    https://youtu.be/i-kHleNYIDc
    The first few times I heard this song in my car, I had to pull over because I was crying so hard I couldn’t see/breathe. The chorus just….

    So take these words and sing out loud
    ‘Cause everyone is forgiven now
    ‘Cause tonight’s the night the world begins again

    • {{{anotherdemocrat}}} – every night the world begins again – forgiveness is up to us. So “forgive as you wish to be forgiven” – starting with forgiving yourself if you haven’t already for all the “i wish…” things of commission but mostly omission that good people always beat up on themselves for. moar {{{HUGS}}}

  5. 13 at dawn, 10 with windchill of -6 right now, and it may get up to 19 and a positive windchill. Maybe. No precipitation. Overcast so far but a little “lighter” than yesterday which only got 1.24 KWHs and brought us barely under the 160 that’s the current m-t-d. If it clears off we could get over 165 today. If it doesn’t, we won’t. We’ve already bested 2016’s December although not nearly as good as 2015’s. Macrocosm/microcosm or something. Dec 2015 we had a whole lot of hope and energy with Hillary’s campaign. Dec 2016 we were devastated and depressed at the stolen election which put pure Evil in power. Dec 2017 we’ve gotten some energy back, we didn’t stay throwed, we persisted-resisted-blocked-pushed back, and we’re determined to do even more in 2018. Especially the pushing back.

    By doing my baking Friday I’ve totally thrown my Sunday routine off. LOL. So I’m online putting off the cleaning I hate to do because it hurts my hands – but I’ll get back to it soon. I’ll be ankle-deep in cat fur, dust bunnies, and tracked-out litter-box detritus if I don’t. And for the last 6 months I’ve always had some better place to put the $50 the cleaning lady charges. Which is why the floors haven’t been mopped in months. heh.

    Heading over to DK to read and try not to get too depressed at not being able to rec. Will do a bit more tweeting then get back to the house. Bright the day, Meeses. {{{HUGS}}}

  6. Good morning, 30 and sunny in Bellingham. Looks like I’ll welcome the new year with another glass of ice water and a big box of tissues. This cold is miserable!

    I’m going to try to ignore twitter and read The Nature of the Beast, by Louise Penny today. As one review says, “Louise Penny wrote the book on escapist mysteries.” I’ve got three to read, so spending time in a small village in Quebec with characters I have come to enjoy should take me away from reality for awhile.

    Thanks to all for another year of Moose friendship. May we continue on for many years to come!

    • I’ve never been a mystery reader, but something someone said in a thread about Sue Grafton made me want to read the Kinsey Milhone books. He said that he used to think that running “just three miles” wasn’t worth it, but that reading those books changed the way he thought about things….. now I’m intrigued. In line for A at the library.

      • Sue Grafton was an excellent writer who developed engaging characters and clever plot twists. I read the alphabet series through S and bought T but never finished it. Right around that time my reading time became limited to right before bedtime and more often than not I would read for 2 minutes and fall asleep, drooling on my book. I have a stack of unread mystery books that, because the genre is timeless, I should be able to read someday.

        Sue Grafton wrote the series through Y is for Yesterday and had Z is for Zero planned for her next title. She never wrote it and her daughter said that “the alphabet now stops at Y”.

  7. Good morning, meeses! Monday, January 1, 2018 …

    It is -13 in Madison with an expected daytime high of 3. Sunny skies are in the forecast.

    Yikes! “Slowly we turn, step by step … Niagara Falls!”

    See all y’all later!

  9. Happy New Year from Northern Virginia, where the sky is blue, the sun is coming up, and the current temperature is 10 degrees F. We’ll have a high today of 23 F.

    Did not see the new year in.Went to bed at 11.

    Will be sure to look at the Super Moon tonight.

    • I was in bed by 8pm and had a good night’s sleep knowing that 2017 was over with. We will smudge today and start the new calendar year with only positive thoughts.

      The Super Moon should be spectacular! It will be visible here at 8:30pm and I will try to stay up for it. :)

    • {{{Diana}}} I saw the moon just before I went to bed at 10:30 central and again at 4 this morning (bedroom curtains not quite closed) for a few minutes before I went back to sleep. I’ll definitely check the Super/Spirit Moon tonight. By moonlight is the best way to send Love and Healing Energy to all my friends and family, blood-kin or internet both. moar {{{HUGS}}}

  10. Slept in & hit snooze a few times. Oh, my it is cold. Before I got up & adjusted the thermostat & it was still on my normal “away” setting of 65, the heat was still coming on every few minutes. I’m helping it out with a space heater. We might barely get above freezing this afternoon, and there are hard freezes every night this week. That is crazy, crazy cold for us. Today: eat my kale/blackeyed pea soup & work up the fortitude to take a walk this afternoon. My theme for 2018: Love Is Bigger Than Anything In Its Way. “Write a world where we can belong to each other, and sing it like no other”

    • {{{anotherdemocrat}}}} – that weather was fairly standard for January and normal for February in Austin back when I lived there in the 1970s. With global warming your new normal is the weather I grew up with in Houston in the ’50s & ’60s. Your theme for 2018 is perfect. Life is a Song for singing. moar {{{HUGS}}}

      • hugs back atcha! yeah, February should be cold, but this is…. a whole week with hard freezes every night… that’s a lot

        • Yeah – south & central TX cold even 35 years ago when I left her was usually no more than 3 days in a row before warming back up. February was always the coldest – usually at least one ice storm in February. When I lived there my younger son’s February 22 birthday was always an inside party, my older son’s March 26 birthday was always an outside party. Take warm as best you can. moar {{{HUGS}}}

          • My lungs are rather unhappy about the 30 minute walk I took. Even though I was bundled up. But I’m having yummy nutritious dinner, so yay.

          • I understand – it’s so cold here my lungs aren’t happy with me walking across the street to the mailbox and back. Glad you had a yummy nutritious dinner. moar {{{HUGS}}}

  11. Happy New Year! It’s 2 here in Fay., AR with a windchill of -10 but mostly clear at the moment. We are supposed to get up to 18. Might even happen with the sun shining. :) 2017 went out with sunshine – yesterday topped 8 KWHs for the 1st/only time in December and the Dec 2017 total generated was 168.49. Sun’s not high enough to be generating much (81 watts at the moment) but it would be nice to start 2018 with the same we ended 2017. The year’s generating total is 4.04 MWHs – which is good, not stellar, but as long as I generate more than I use in a year I’m happy.

    As much as I really don’t want to I’m going to have to contact the guy I get firewood through. Gonna seriously make it clear that either they stack it or they reduce the price.
    I’ve paid for 2 cords of wood to be delivered and stacked, then ended up stacking it myself because x, y, or z had “just happened” and they’d be back – except they weren’t. He does deliver and the wood is good so at this point I’m not going to call my emergency back up guys (who may or may not still be in the business anyway) – but I can no longer afford to pay people for work they don’t do. But it will wait until tomorrow. Don’t want to mess up a perfectly good new year’s day with a negative interaction.

    Mostly gonna go check a few things on DK and twitter, then go sit by the fire. The furnace is keeping the house at 60 – the woodstove and rocking chair are where it’s, warm. If I can think of something to bake, that will help – but one of the problems of living alone is there’s only so much you can eat. :) Bright the day, Meeses. {{{HUGS}}}

  13. Good morning, 30 and partly cloudy in Bellingham. The full moon has been shining in my window, silhouetting the branches on my old maple trees and reflecting on the water. It’s dark and cloudy now so seeing the moonlight was a gift for the beginning of a new year.

    I was really sick yesterday so RonK joined our friends for our New Years dinner and I stayed home and was asleep early. Now 2017 is in the rear view mirror and that’s fine with me!

    Best wishes everyone. May 2018 be a better year for all of us.

    • I am sorry to hear you were not well and hope that the rest helped you recover! Post-holiday illnesses are quite common – people push too hard to get ready for the holidays and don’t take as good care of themselves as they should. PLUS holidays bring lots of people together who may have picked up bugs from work and school and are “sharing” them with relatives and other holiday guests.

  14. Good morning, meeses! Tuesday …

    It is -6 degrees in Madison with an expected daytime high of 10. Sunny skies. It looks like we will stay in the deep freeze at least until Saturday. This is a bit early for this kind of cold – the worst is usually mid-January to mid-February – but it is not unusual for Wisconsin to be cold in the winter. :)

    I saw the full moon last night and thought about how despite everything swirling around us, some things are constant. This is probably why earth-based spirituality is so enduring – there is nothing invented about it and it is not run by groups of men who choose who is worthy and who is not – it simply is.

    Republican strategist Rick Wilson, who was a #NeverTrump’er and writes scathing posts about the shitgibbon and how we can recover from the damage he is doing, penned an op-ed suggesting that the reality-TV show that Trump is hosting might get old and that we should just change channels for our sanity. I am going to do that and will focus on the real problem we need to defeat – Republicanism. The deplorable dotard is simply the latest in a long line of empty vessels that the Republican Party uses to promote its agenda. The enemy is Paul Ryan and his ideology, not Donald Trump.

    I was up at 2am unable to get back to sleep. I think it was caused by some unresolved issues on a client’s server from Saturday (that has to wait until today to try to fix) and some pending projects that were set aside because of the holidays and are now screaming for attention. PLUS I am having some issues with my very old but normally reliable vehicle that has me losing sleep.

    See all y’all later!

  15. Good morning, Moosekind! When I got up at a few minutes past six the big, bright Supermoon was still hanging in the clear night sky—so beautiful! Now it’s sinking behind the trees at the back of the house across the street.

    Another busy day lies ahead, involving cleaning and putting things away, as well as going to the gym. We now have to prepare for the arrival of my niece and her husband on Sunday. They’re coming down from New York on the “cheap bus,” and staying for a few days. Then they’ll bus back to New York and fly back to Australia. It’ll be good to see her again—last time we met was in 2012.

    Still majorly cold here, but at least we don’t have to worry about snow. We rarely do.

    P. S. The Moose kicked me out just now, so I had to “clear history” to get back in. Sniff.

    • I was trying to figure out what the strange light coming through my office window was this morning – early. It was the moon.
      Beautiful.

    • {{{Denise}}} – I always smile when I see that picture of the beautiful, elegant, and a bit stern black woman – all of which you are – but my mind always overlays the image of the interesting, interested, educational, entertaining, very caring “elf with a fro” I breakfasted with at NN16. (“elf” referencing your physical size and the Power that shines out of you.) What a great tweet to show up in your feed first thing in the morning. moar {{{HUGS}}}

  17. I don’t think it got above freezing yesterday, may not today. It’s not normally this cold till February, if even then. Surreal feeling getting up early after so many days off. Then next week, I’m taking off for my birthday….. Actually between that & MLK Day I won’t work a full week till nearly the end of January. I walked for 30 minutes yesterday, yay me. It was 30 degrees & I bundled up good. My lungs hated it. A whole lot. But I did it. Maybe today after work, though at 6pm, it’ll be really cold.

    Playing The Blackout in my head, to give me energy. Also: “when the lights go out, don’t you ever doubt the light that we can really be”

      • I was going to walk after work. But now there is freezing drizzle. And yes, “drizzle” but also freezing — and it hasn’t gotten above freezing for 2 days. There are probably icy patches on the sidewalk, and it is too dark to see them. Also my lungs hated yesterday’s walk. So, will try again tomorrow.

  18. 9 at dawn – clouds moved in last night so we didn’t get down to the predicted 3 but the windchill is 1. We’re still positive which is a good thing to be. Started the new year and month off well with 8 KWHs – very good for this time of year – though I doubt I’ll get half that today if it doesn’t clear off. Went out to see the Spirit Moon 3x last night, just half a minute each time because it was so cold, and sent my Love and Healing Energy to everybody via Moonlight. Even though it is quite cloudy this morning when I went outside to put out birdseed, I saw Her light as a glow in the clouds to the west and a bit north of me – sort of felt like somebody that way was sending Love and Energy back.

    I’m finding it hard to get off the computer and actually go do stuff. I will need to create a routine that gets me moving – but for now it has to be indoors. In this weather if I’m outside more than a minute or two my fingertips start going numb (even putting out the birdseed was long enough) and if I’m outside for more than 10 my feet start going numb and my balance is shot. I’ll think of something. Today is only my first day of real retirement – everything up until yesterday was holiday and I wouldn’t have been working anyway. Meanwhile I am on the computer checking in and will go do some stuff at twitter. Since Jan explained to me the benefit of RT’ing stuff even to my own very limited group of followers I now consider that to be part of my Resistance work. Along with the phone calls I’m about to make. Bright the day, Meeses. {{{HUGS}}}

  19. Good morning, 29 and cloudy in Bellingham. I hope to see the moon shining outside my window again this morning but the clouds got in the way. So I dozed off again and am slowly waking up and taking a tentative deep breath didn’t result in coughing so I may have a better day. The virus I have has triggered asthma so I’m very relieved to feel less bronchial constriction.

    I’m going to see if my grand girls will help me put away the Christmas decor later this week. The task seems daunting to me now but doing it with them will be fun.

    • {{{princesspat}}} – Healing Energy soaks in better when you are sleeping. Sending you some more. Don’t forget the 500 mg vitamin C every couple of hours and the garlic soup support your immune system response.

      Definitely see if the grand girls will come over and help. That’ll be fun and bring closure to the season – sort of like tear-down after a community theater show finishes its run. Community is always stronger, more productive, and fun. moar {{{HUGS}}}

  20. Hope I can get back in here tomorrow – Moose seems to be fine at the moment but I haven’t been able to get into 2 other WordPress sites at all today – Squirrel and Aji’s new site – and half my google searches have timed out, too. If I’m not here tomorrow…

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