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!
Good “morning”, Motley Meese! The week begins …
Morning low of 21 degrees in Madison WI with an expected daytime high of 39. Partly cloudy skies are in the forecast.
Have a great day, all y’alls!!
Sunday Meese
28 degrees here in Saugerties NY – going up to 42.
Continuing coverage of PR via Women’s History Month – today will be featuring the women of Vieques who are fighting the US Navy contamination of their island – am featuring this incredible woman, Myrna Pagan – cancer survivor and activist – here’s a preview
(She is now 82 (this video was made when she was 77)
I see the leftier-than thou folks are once again going hard and hell-bent against Kamala Harris …who announced her support for Sen. Feinstein.
Amazing to see how their tweets and diaries echo Fox News
Yes, it makes perfect sense for Kamala Harris to trash the other Democratic Senator from her home state. :::eyeroll::: And I am sure she is quaking in her boots as she ponders the purity pundits pounding their keyboards! It just shows how unhinged and out of the mainstream TheirRevolution is. I think they will bern out after a couple of election cycles and end up a niche party in places like Nebraska and Kansas. I just hope they don’t ruin enough races to hurt our midterm chances.
Some of the trashing has also been about her talking of her childhood – and the plant a tree for Israel campaign which lots of kids (and grownups) did. Hence – from left-assholes this make her anti-Palestinian
Heck – my whole family – including my communist dad did. I lived in a 99% Jewish community as a kid. My parents leftist friends all did it too.
I don’t see them trashing Bernie for living on a kibbutz – and he was not a kid at the time
Nothing is going to change the “leftier than thou” folks – even bernie can’t convince them he’s not a Dem – isolate (so they can’t hurt anybody) and ignore (so they don’t waste our time we need for fighting the Rs) is what I hope our team can get around to doing. I certainly hope my twitter timeline isn’t indicative of just how much time our team is wasting on responding to or at least reacting to whatever the blather out because if it is the Russian elephant is going to stomp us while we’re chasing a leftist mouse out of our gardens.
Sunday sermon posted
Got it, thanks!
Yesterday was epically bad. Just, bad. There was the all day dripping from the ceiling, frantically calling my upstairs neighbor (turns out I had old numbers), buying buckets, emptying buckets…. And not really getting to grieve for my friend, because I had to stay focused. Since it wasn’t water from my neighbor, the a/c guy is coming back out. I’m leaving a key & my one non-maxed credit card with my neighbor, because I really, really have to go to church today.
But – people have been so kind. I don’t have to cancel my May concert trip. And all the words of support have really helped.
Argh! What a nightmare!
Anotherdem, I’m so sorry your friend has passed. Three people we know had the same cancer and while their families have coped and are living their lives we still think of and miss the ones who died. It’s a dreadful disease.
My condolences for the plumbing issues as well. Dripping water always means a messy cleanup!
{{{anotherdemocrat}}} – always holding you in my heart. Healing Energy for the pain of not being able to communicate with your dear friend. Love is Love is Love and you will always have a bit of each other in your hearts – sort of like spiritual tracking devices so you can find each other later.
The water mess is, well, always messy – holding the good thought that gets fixed without too much more mess. Or expense. And I’m so glad you don’t have to cancel your May trip. A candle in the darkness to help you stay on the path. moar {{{HUGS}}} and Healing Energy.
{{{Anotherdem}}}, I was offline all weekend and just now read about the passing of Minerva. I’m holding you in the Light and hope that bit by bit, your pain and sadness are subsumed by the memories of the laughter and good times.
Good morning, Moosekind! It’s beautiful here at 10:46 a.m. (new time). We went out to breakfast at Virginia Kitchen minus the grandchildren, who are in Maryland this weekend. The current temperature here in NoVa is 32 F., going up to 38 F. later. On such a beautiful morning it’s hard to believe that soon there will be clouds bringing rain and snow.
Anotherdemocrat, sorry for the rotten day you had and for the sad news about your best friend. I hope you found comfort this morning in the church service.
Today I must focus on laundry and packing. Received a grimgram from Target the other day, informing me that if I didn’t use my RedCard within two months, they’re going to kill my account. Duh, and here I thought I was doing something good by paying off the last of my Target balance. Keeping us in constant debt is one of the ways “they” control us. Can’t tell you how many books I’ve read about people who dare to live without much money, keeping their annual income so low they don’t even have to pay taxes on it. I don’t approve of that, necessarily, but I do approve of no debt, growing one’s own food (if circumstances allow that), and so on. My grandmother kept chickens in her backyard into the 1980s. They ate kitchen scraps, and Grandma never ran out of eggs.
Still fighting a cold, so will take it easy today. I do want to upload a post and read other posts before I turn into a “loose Moose” on Thursday, meaning the Verizon people are coming on the Ides of March to yank our Internet. We’ll get it back on Saint Patrick’s Day at our new place, but I hate to be marooned even for a day. Sniff. (First-world problem, for sure.)
Wishing all a peaceful Sunday at the Pond!
Good morning, 39 and sunny in Bellingham. I was awake in night, and as I glanced at the clock I saw the time change from 1:59 am to 3:00 am…..poof, an hour gone!
I’m going to see A Wrinkle in Time this afternoon. The movie has mixed reviews, but seeing it with the grand girls and their mom and her mom will be fun. My kids loved reading the book and I read it to Ryan on one of his spring break visits. But the girls haven’t read it, and I can’t remember all the details so the movie will be our shared experience.
I finished planting the primroses yesterday so with the ivy clipped and a few flowers in the empty pots our back entrance looks tidy and more like spring. It’s really good to be outdoors again.
47 windchill 42 and heading for mid 50s with some but hopefully not much cloud cover. Heading back to low enough temps I can have my fire in the evenings (too warm until too late last night). Only got 9.5 KWHs yesterday – ah, the cycle of the seasons, that would have been a W00T! 2 months ago :) – but already have 2 today. The m-t-d is 139.6 at the moment with the most productive hours just starting. Body’s still on “sun time” so just finished up my Sunday morning house stuff. Back and hands are very unhappy with me but at least the peanut butter-cocoa muffins are good.
More focused on needs folks – both on the DK list (which is getting reduced quite nicely right now and blessings on the folks who are doing it) and not (like the needle on Franki’s gfm hasn’t moved in 24 hours, darn it, among others) – than I am on politics but I have still been RTing some rather pointed comments on twitter. Not much in the way of helping/resisting on either front but it’s what I can do right now. I need to contact the “MomsDemand…” person (Nicole Clowney) who’s running in the May primary for my state rep seat and see if she’s got yard signs and bumper stickers. Dem HQ won’t open until mid August if not Sept 1st but of course I’ll be working there when it does.
Need to tour the internets then do some outside work while it’s more or less sunny. How much I manage will depend on how strong/chilly the wind is. LOL. Bright the day, Meeses. {{{HUGS}}}
Monday Meese
25 degrees here in Saugerties and ACK – snow!
I keep trying
Good morning, meese! Monday …
It is 34 degrees in Madison with an expected daytime high of 39. Sunny this morning and then clouding up this afternoon.
I started having Internet connection problems yesterday and I am not sure if it is tied to DST, the rollout of a required change to security certificates happening today (3/12) or some changes I applied to my server. I am holding my breath and hoping that it is not related to the server changes because they rolled out to all my managed servers this weekend and I don’t want to deal with crises this morning when everyone will be grumpy from losing sleep!
I saw something about Florida voting to change to DST permanently which is interesting. Arizona keeps Standard Time (no one there wants MORE daylight during the summer!) Things will become more confusing if that happens. Most devices have the new DST built in and many have no way to override it. I have no preference either way on which time to use but I really REALLY wish they would settle on one time and leave the clocks alone.
This week Kris Kobach’s Kansas voter suppression trial continues, the Senate votes on the #BankLobbyistBill and there is a special election in PA-18 to replace one of the badly behaved Republicans who was forced to retire. The pundits are saying this race is EVERYTHING and that if the Democrat loses in a Trump+20 district, it means the wave is just a ripple in a kiddie pool. In reality, if the special election average holds, we will get 15-18% closer and will lose by about 2-3 points (in Alabama, the Roy Moore ped bounce got us the extra we needed to win). The district is interesting because it should be a referendum on Trump’s broken promises to white rural rustbelt voters but the tariff thing may have confused the issue. The headlines say “steel is saved!” while the reality of “everything else is doomed!” will not be readily apparent. Anyway, it will signify something to many someones – and we will go back to concentrating on November 6th. We have record numbers of Democrats running in statehouse elections and congressional elections – we need to push as many as possible over the line.
See all y’all later!
Here I am at work. Don’t know how long I’ll stay, I might fall apart when people start arriving & the phones start ringing. Pretending to be happy & chipper might take more energy than I have today, but it’s a job requirement working in a call center. My upstairs neighbor, Lisa, is going to call the property management company this morning (where the person assigned to our complex is also Lisa) and tell them we think the problem is in between the units. Common area — their responsibility. We’ll see what happens. Preet Bharara dragged Trump but good. This is just one example, he really went to town.
And of course, I’m listening to California (No End To Love)
and also this — all the stolen voices, will someday be returned, the most beautiful sound I ever heard
{{{anotherdemocrat}}} – Healing Energy to your shaping. moar {{{HUGS}}}
Good morning, Meese! Can’t help laughing when I look out at this bone-dry morning that even shows a hint of sunlight. We were supposed to be covered in snow or drenched with rain this morning, promising a “messy commute.” How do meteorologists in this area keep their jobs? Can I go on TV and get paid big bucks for telling lies?
Anyway, on this dim grey March morning it’s 32 F., going up to 41 F. It’s also my birthday, the last I’ll ever celebrate here at Barky Manor. This afternoon I’ll be looking after Mr. Toddler in the neighboring county of Arlington and staying for a dinner that Elder Son will cook. He has promised Chicken Marsala and carrot cake! The little family visited us yesterday afternoon, with the result that I got absolutely nothing done toward the packing. Ye gods.
Wishing a good day to all at the Pond and Beyond.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!!
Thank you, Sister! Stay warm and snug in your house!
is it your birthday?
Happy birthday!!
Happy Natal Day! {{{HUGS}}}
Happy Birthday! I hope you can do something other than pack and fret about your move today. You should promise yourself a Birthday Do-over after you are settled in. I have friends who celebrate Birth Months rather than Birth Days so you could try that new tradition. :)
That’s a good idea, Jan!
Thanks for the birthday wishes, all! It was lovely but exhausting.
Best Birthday Wishes Diana! Hope you have a cake and flowers moment today.
GAH!
Just looked at my weather alert
I doubt I will bother to attempt to drive in tomorrow – even if they don’t close the school or delay start of classes
Oh, Dee, what awful news! Glad you aren’t going to drive in. Nothing is worth an accident. One of the best things about being retired is not having to drive to work in awful weather. In fact, my friend the poet says that’s what made him decide to retire: he got to the point that he was unmoved by his boss’s threats that the world would end if he didn’t go to work on snowy mornings.
Ha! My clients think I am a wimp – if there is even a hint of snow, I cancel on-site visits. I have had plenty of times when I drove through terrible weather to get home from on-site visits that I did not postpone. The last straw was a 5 hour drive that normally takes an hour and 45 minutes. But I had to get home, I was not going to just pull over and park on the side of the road overnight. Thank goodness I don’t have many on-site requirements any longer. I gave away the hardware-active clients and the few I have left very rarely need on-site which means one or two trips a year. I try to schedule those for summer. :)
{{{Denise}}} – stay safe first, warm second. moar {{{HUGS}}}
32 windchill 26 heading for 50 and overcast. Clouds rolled back in yesterday afternoon so only got 9.2 KWHs – the m-t-d is 146.7 – need to get some clear and sunny afternoons again. Even though I got up “with the sun” rather than with the clock (and watched my friend I used to carpool with leave for work before I had breakfast), I’m still groggy. Of course that could be the chilly and cloudy. This is one of those mornings when just getting everything out of the fridge to fix breakfast makes my fingertips go numb – going outside to fill the bird feeding station and change out grungy bird water just exacerbated it. sigh
Well, there’s gonna be a diary for Franki today – Bubbanomics is doing it, blessings upon him. So I hopefully will have two fewer (Franki & Mikayla) folks to worry about. Not that worrying helps exactly but sometimes after squirrelcaging for a few hours in the middle of the night I come up with something to try. Doesn’t help me be alert in the mornings but what the hey.
Gonna go visit DK Village and tour the internets for a bit, then at least make a phone call or maybe two. Bright the day, Meeses. {{{HUGS}}}
Bubba’s diary is up – please go r,r,t if you can. Thanks and {{{HUGS}}}, bf
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2018/3/12/1748212/-Please-Halp-teh-Pootie-Queen-s-Daughter-and-Granddaughter
Bubba’s diary seemed to have good results! I’m very glad for Franki and her little girl.
{{{Diana}}} – it did indeed and we are all grateful. Franki is next-best thing to overwhelmed. Which she was already. She’s been depending on Home Health for childcare while she works. Funding cuts reduced the number of days she could work – she lost one job in Feb because of that. Losing the car cost her another job. So getting the car is the first step back to working and paying bills as well as getting Mikayla to the various physical and occupational therapies she needs. moar {{{HUGS}}}
Good morning, 42 and sunny in Bellingham. I’m going to the pool this morning, and this afternoon I think I’ll pack a few donation boxes in Diana’s honor. Looking at this house and thinking of what it will take to ever move us out makes me want to hide under the covers!
Time for coffee. Take care everyone.
Princesspat, start with one drawer, one closet a week. Makes it less painful in the end.
Good afternoon, Meese; bringing up the rear as usual! Started out the day at 19, but it’s made it up to 34 already (which is probably the high for the day). We’re supposed to get snow later today, but it looks like we’ll only get about an inch; I can live with that since it will probably melt before I have to shovel it.
I spent the weekend in OH with my daughter and son-in-law, helping them get their house ready for sale. It was supposed to be Staging Day, but it became more like Staging Day (Part One of Two). They’ve done a great job at packing things up, but I discovered that, whether due to being overwhelmed or tired or out of their comfort zone, they were ill-prepared to get from “where you are” to “where you need to be.” Because we were doing a lot of shifting of furniture from room to room, the situation was reminiscent of one of those sliding number puzzles, and they were paralyzed. I finally suggested that I just assign them tasks, and they gratefully agreed; I was barking orders like a drill instructor, but they assured me that they still like me after that…and we got a lot accomplished.
We didn’t get quite as much done as I had hoped, but some of their furniture needs to be set up in their basement and until the new carpet is laid down there, it’s just jammed into an upstairs office/bedroom. They asked me come down in three weeks for the final décor details; I’m not sure that’s really necessary, but I suspect they’ve made so many big decisions related to the sale of the house that they just want someone to help make the little, finicky decisions. They even asked me to come up with a Chore-A-Day list for them; I seem to recall trying to do that with my daughter when she was younger to no avail, but apparently, age has mellowed her!
Ha! “apparently, age has mellowed her!” There is a Mark Twain quote related to that:
You are a good mother, sharing the wisdom of your experience. Sometimes I think we forget how much knowledge we have accumulated over the years and how “prepping your house to put it on the market” is something we know how to do having done it or seen it enough times. When my daughter asks me a question about something she has seen, I am surprised about what she does not know until I realize how I learned it. p.s. I am also surprised when she asks me a question because that is something she rarely did as a young teen but is doing more often now. I must be getting smarter! :)
In this case, I’m glad I remembered to ask if they wanted me to guide the tasks. I can have all the subtlety of a bulldozer, but I try to be sensitive to the fact that this was my son-in-law’s home long before he met my daughter. Of course, he wanted to stay on my good side too, because they wanted to use my Home Depot discount when we picked up the materials for their bathroom remodel. Synergy at its finest!
DoReMI, how I sympathize! I know exactly what they’re going through.
Hope you all triumph over the situation. ;)
I thought you’d be able to empathize! I admit to an ulterior motive; the more packing, cleaning, and organizing we get done now, the less I’ll be asked to do when they actually move. My days of helping someone move for a case of beer and some pizza are long gone, and I (very blatantly) talked about the joys of using a full-service mover rather than depending on friends. They’re leaning that way but are waiting to see if all of their renovations come in on budget; if they do, they’ll have the money for movers. If not…they may get an early holiday gift from me!
Tuesday Meese
Have no idea how much snow we will get – probably not a lot – however driving is still hazardous – so I just emailed my students and cancelled classes – again.
Will stay home and get some writing done.
Hope Democrats in PA turn out for Conor Lamb. We will see.
Puerto Rico
The admission of racism by National Geographic is interesting – no news to me – however them copping to it was a surprise
Good morning, meese! Tuesday …
It is 28 degrees in Madison with an expected daytime high of 30. Mostly cloudy skies are in the forecast.
The House Republican “Intelligence” Committee is not just choosing party over country, they are choosing party over the intelligence community and our national security. In the wake of Prime Minister May’s calling out Russia for attempted murder on British soil, they are giving a free pass to Russian interference in the cornerstone of our democracy – fair and honest elections. The good news is that they have made themselves a laughingstock and when the adults sort through the mess they have left, we will come out okay. I am not sure how Trump can survive this latest “help” from his friends which only makes him look worse and more desperate. Or, perhaps, DESPERATE.
Today is the PA-18 election. We are still waiting to hear from the Supreme Court on the petition the Pennsylvania Republicans submitted to halt the new maps. The last time it took about 2 days and this one has been waiting about 7. I wonder if SCOTUS wants to avoid making news that might affect the race; the very existence of PA-18 is currently up in the air and a ruling might impact turnout one way or the other. I hope we win this one – the moral victories in these Trump+gazillion races are nice but a real victory would be nicer.
See all y’all later!
We are having what they call “chamber of commerce weather”. Cool mornings, sunny afternoons. I posted a bunch of pictures of Min on FB, she really was Wonder Woman. I’m at work. I left early yesterday, may do again today. Update on the leak situation: it’s probably on my neighbor — or her insurance. I’m going to give her the receipt from the a/c guy, see if they will reimburse her for reimbursing me. We’ve narrowed it down to the shower in the front bathroom. We’re going to get a plumber next week. Darn it, I’ll have to leave work early a few times.
Never heard of this one before (chuckle):
Good luck with the shower situation!
Our units have 2 bathrooms, so she’ll just be sure to use the back one till this is fixed. But we ruled out the toilet & sink so at least she can use that part of that bathroom.
and the weather, it’s like I said yesterday – these couple of weeks make people decide to move here
and then in June, our 6 month long summer hits….
another, we spent Christmas of 1989 with my aunt in Austin. It was 70 F. and people were whizzing around wearing bermudas and riding bicycles. Dearly Beloved and Elder Son wanted to drive back to Virginia, get the dog, and return to Austin forthwith. Younger Son and I, having ascertained that no pita bread was to be found in the supermarket, wanted to stay in Virginia. We prevailed. :)
{{{anotherdemocrat}}} – enjoy the weather while it lasts :) – hope the plumbing situation works out quickly and with little or no expense to you. Holding you in my heart. Healing Energy and moar {{{HUGS}}}
Good morning, Meese! It’s sunny and blue-skied here in NoVa after a complete failure of the forecast yesterday. We didn’t even get a steady rain! We had a few sprinkles at 8 o’clock, followed by three snowflakes. Current temp. here is 30 F., going up to 43 F. Have a child-tending job this afternoon (my last for the Japanese boys), so will put a beef stew in the crockpot for dinner.
Yesterday was wonderful but tiring. Had another swordfight with Mr. Toddler, this time before lunch. He likes to fight with his “light sabuh.” Miss Pink Cheeks arrived with Grandpa for dinner and the noise was not to be believed.
Today we’ll need to concentrate on things we can take to the dump. Have my last weight-lifting session with the handsome young trainer later this morning. This week will be full of “last times”—hope I don’t burst into tears. Have a regrettable tendency to do that.
Wishing a good day to all at the Pond and great election results beyond!
I have never fallen in love with a house but then I don’t have a lifetime of family memories in any one spot. My folks moved a lot for a variety of reasons and the current “ancestral home” was only my home for about 4 years. My own family is small and young – and because we have no family here in Wisconsin – there have been no family gatherings to speak of.
Maybe a “parting ritual” would be helpful – thanking the goddess for the memories and her blessings over the years?
You know, that’s such a beautiful idea that my eyes are welling right now! Thank you, Jan.
And—sniff—guess what, Rex Tillerson got the boot this morning, apparently.
Dear Goddess, talk about chaos theory coming to life!