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! Lots of white cloud moving across the sky, and it’s quite chilly here in Ashburn: 52 F., going up to 65 F. later. No rain is expected, however.
Still too jet-lagged to comment intelligently on anything or even to stay awake, but recovering gradually. Senator Kaine was just great yesterday, and I’m telling you, the 200-seat Great Oak auditorium was full! (It used to be that finding a Progressive here was as difficult as coming across a hedgewitch.) He received a standing ovation at the end. He said that if he and HRC had won, he would have been the first Virginian on the national ticket since 1845. He also made a very interesting remark about college, which I shall share with Elder and Younger Sons, to wit: it is possible to take community college courses while still in high school. Also, after a student completes two years of community college, even such prestigious institutions as the University of Virginia will accept transfer credits. Wow! Even though I’d like Miss Pink Cheeks to go out of state (for the experience of living somewhere different), it would be great if she were able to get into UVA.
Speaking of Miss Pink Cheeks, she informed her father that she did not want to go back to school yesterday; she wanted to go back to London and stay on vacation forever! :)
Meanwhile, back at the ranch, I’ve signed up for a letter-writing campaign with VoteForward and promised to attend at least one of two postcard-writing parties here at Ashby Ponds.
While we were away, Daughter-from-Austin who is up here looking after her mother-in-law, sold the huge house for $5,000 more than asking price and no closing costs! How about that? Today she’s tied up with termite inspections and various other things, so it’s doubtful that I’ll see her.
Wishing a good day to all at the Pond and I hope nothing awful happens.
Good morning meese. 51 with a projected high of 80. Today will involve going to the post office to mail things!! ❤️
Hope everyone has a good day.
‘morning Meese – 39 “feels like” 34 with 100% humidity and overcast which I’m getting really tired of, even without the issue of electricity generation. Got 3.4 KWHs yesterday, again not as much as I use in a day, and the m-t-d is 133. At this rate making it to 200 for the month will be iffy. Holding the Good Thought.
Gonna bake cookies this morning and if I have time make soup. Need to be out the door to work in about 2-1/2 hours. Still having trouble with logging into the enrollment program but we hope to have that fixed today. Can’t actually enroll anybody until next week but I want to be sure I can before priority registration starts. Need to answer some more emails and do a few things on twitter. Trying to ignore everything except this election – our early voting starts Monday – well, other than boosting signals for my usual folks. Healing Energy to everybody shaped to the need (which includes protection from floods). Bright the day, Meeses. {{{HUGS}}}
Good morning, 40 and clear when it is finally light in Bellingham. Seems like the winter sky has arrived early this year. I need to remember to water the pots with trees growing in them today. The light has changed but we have had less rain so the plants need a drink.
Best wishes to all.
Still busy at work. Today was warmer than yesterday. The temperature is currently sunny 81. The wind has dropped to 8 mph. Picking up more flyers for canvassing tonitie. I’m going to try and make up for lost time this weekend ( I only did 1 hour when I normally do 2 hours).
Good morning, meeses! Wednesday …
It is 39 degrees in Madison with an expected daytime high of 45. A few scattered clouds this morning will give way to sunny skies this afternoon.
I wish there were a way to bank my vote and then go into suspended animation for 21 days so that I don’t have to see the polls and the pundits waxing and waning over our chances of taking back the House. I was a little stunned that Mitch McConnell came right out and said the quiet parts loud – elect Republicans and they will gut Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid to pay for the tax cut that is sucking the Treasury dry. He must be feeling bulletproof after being able to ram through Senate confirmation of a drunken lout with anger management problems to the Supreme Court. I hope that people are paying attention! In Wisconsin the Republican Senator majority leader said that there was no way they would pass Scott Walker’s bill protecting pre-existing conditions. Well, of course not! It is a campaign lie told by a serial campaign liar to try to gloss over the Republican Achilles Heel – their out and out hatred of sick people and people who might get sick and, really, anyone who is not their donor. I hope people here are paying attention.
I am going to start tweeting 90% midterm elections, 10% other important news and 0% 2020 candidates – unless they are talking about the midterms.
Busy day here – see all y’all later!
It’s not raining, but will start again tomorrow. Several small towns northwest of Austin have severe flooding — seeing that bridge yesterday literally gone…… And now Lake Travis is rising as the water moves downstream — risen 29 feet in 29 hours. Still unseasonably cold. It’s one thing to wear gloves in February — you’re supposed to need gloves then. 40s in October is just wrong.
Not posting a song in my comment because it’s in my diary. Hoping I get at least $100, so I get the matching money. That will put me over $1,000. Which ain’t nowhere near my goal, but that was a crazy goal, especially for an election year.
Wednesday Meese.
39 degrees here – later it will rain and go up to 58. Sure glad my furnace was fixed.
Still using crutches – swelling around my knee has gone down but can’t walk unaided.
Puerto Rico
Wishing you a speedy recovery, Dee!
{{{Denise}}} – Healing Energy and warm compresses is all I can offer. & {{{HUGS}}} of course. Hope you’re walking unassisted soon.
Good Woden’s Day morning, Meese! The clouds of dawn have given way to partly cloudy skies, as in, gauzy veils of white moving across a pale blue sky. It’ll be sunny today, going up to 64 F. Right now it’s 50 F. in Ashburn.
Lots to do today: gym followed by a visit to Trader Joe’s, then lunch at home. Daughter is supposed to pick me up at 1 p.m. so we can go for a mani, but plans often “gang aft a-gley.”
Meanwhile, back at the ranch, I’ve got to type up my interview notes before the 3 p.m. meeting of the Communications Committee tomorrow. Did anyone watch the Beto O’Rourke-Slimeball debate? I keep conking out at 8 p.m. every night, so I missed it.
I don’t want to hear about polls. I don’t want to hear about how “damaged” the Dems are, or about how the young people won’t vote, or bla bla bla. I will say that before I left I got on Next Door Ashby Ponds and mentioned that “this is a very important election, so be sure to check your voter registration!” Several people apparently did and found to their surprise they’re in a new precinct. Glad they checked before the deadline, which is now past.
Wishing all a nice, quiet, even boring day.
I didn’t watch it, was writing my diary & listening to Rachel. But there’s a lot of stuff about it on Twitter, is you look at #TexasDebate
Good morning, 42 and partly cloudy in Bellingham. I enjoyed my gardening time yesterday but my back and knees are still complaining. I’ve been pruning a rhododendron growing in front of the library window trying to maintain a natural shape, be the “right” height from the patio, yet not block the light to the window. So I cut a bit and watch how the plant responds, look at it from several angles, plan my next cuts, etc. To my relief I haven’t ruined it yet!
Best wishes to all.
Good morning, Meesefolk; 41 when I got up this morning with a partly cloudy high of 46…or as they would [probably] say in Duluth, “It’s a heat wave!” Back to work today, and my desk is buried. That’s not unexpected, but it did bring a groan to my lips when I first walked in.
I’m so far behind in news, but a quick perusal of Twitter led me to believe that the pundit class is continuing its irresponsible game of horserace politics and breathless pot-stirring. Since my stomach untwisted its knots for the first time in ages while I was in MN, I’m going to join the rest of you and limit my twitter time to reading friends and focusing on work for the midterms. I re-learned a lot about myself and effective self-care while I was on vacation; although we did a lot of the normal tourist-y stuff and antiquing (lordy, the pottery haul was embarrassing…thank goodness my roomie owns a business with a shipping department, because there was no way I was getting on the plane otherwise), my best times were when we were out walking in the woods or along the lake. I need to find a place like that around here.
The Kiddo and SIL are 100% a go on the house. They asked the current owners if they wanted to close early, but no joy on that. (It seems probable that they’re moving into a new build and are waiting for its completion.) Closing costs were much lower than they had estimated, so yesterday SIL booked full-service movers, rather than just a crew to move the bulkiest of their furniture. I’m relieved, although when I go down the first weekend in November, I still have to fill my car with as much of The Kiddo’s furniture stored here as I can fit. I also offered them my antique wardrobes which I brought back from Scotland; they’re interested but want to wait until after the holidays and maybe even the spring. They’ve offered to have movers pick those pieces up too, so that’s another sigh of relief and win-win all around.
I guess I can’t procrastinate any longer…Good day to and for all!
Glad you’re home safe and sound (& Kiddo’s house situation is going so well). Yes, self-care is imperative and finding a good place to walk and let nature restore your soul is a very, very good idea. {{{HUGS}}}
LOL, DoReMI, the “wardrobe”! Our hotel room in London had one. It’s a perpetual mystery to me why the British don’t build clothes closets into their rooms, and why many Australian bathrooms contain a toilet and shower, but no hand basin. Who doesn’t wash hands after using the toilet? Doesn’t bear thinking of, IMO.
When I lived in Scotland, our first landlady said that closets were disgusting places where mold collected. I have no idea if that was just her opinion or a historically-accurate tidbit, but it made a certain amount of sense to me (hence why I remember it). Of course, this is the same woman who, when I mentioned that we had found slugs in our bedroom (coming up through the carpet somehow), exclaimed, “Och aye, they’re only wee snails…” Lady, when you roll out of bed in the morning and step on a slug, there’s nothing wee or snail-ish about the damn things…!
Oh, mah GAWD!
You can move a wardrobe if you want to rearrange the room. You can’t move a closet. {{{HUGS}}}
Um, the wardrobes I’ve seen are too heavy to move unless an entire Scottish association football club is on hand to help. {{{Hugs back at ya!}}}
I wouldn’t mind that. ;D
Checking in from work – my schedule is basically gonna be weird until they find the person to fill this slot – 48 in Fayetteville, AR heading for 68 and at least sunny at the moment. I can’t get on my PV homepage from here so I haven’t a clue where we are – except the last I checked last night generation was in single digits and m-t-d was 140+ – definitely not gonna make 300 for the month. Oh well. Gonna stay away from the “trending” anything, concentrate on boosting signals for my few folks/causes, and otherwise focus on the coming election. Early voting here starts Monday. Weather permitting I will be there by 8:15 at the latest. Healing Energy to everybody shaped to the need. Bright the day, Meeses. {{{HUGS}}}
Good morning, meeses! Thursday …
It is 28 degrees in Madison with an expected daytime high of 55. Sunny skies are in the forecast.
A bunch of polls and predictions hit yesterday suggesting that we won’t win back the Senate, should win back the House and will win a few governorships. DON’T LOOK AT POLLS! And do not look at predictions that say we have a 99% chance of winning something or a 99% chance of losing something. Until the votes are counted, nothing is certain. Vote, tell five people you know to vote and tell them to tell five more people. The only thing that the polls and predictions are doing is alarming the Republicans who will ratchet up the lies and attacks – and depressing our people. Buckle up because the ride will get bumpier.
See all y’all later!
Will do!
2 dams upstream from Austin have 4 floodgates open, they will open more — maybe an unprecedented 8 gates by later today. (“unprecedented” is literal — they’ve never had that many open on any of these 3, including the one leading to Town Lake — a couple of which were built in the ‘30s) Town Lake trail (still getting used to calling it “Lady Bird”) is already flooded, they’re telling businesses near the trail to pack up stuff that can be moved because we might have flooding downtown. Luckily, the Capitol is uphill, and about 10 blocks from the lake, so it shouldn’t do anything where I work. And home is near a creek, but again uphill, so I think I’m good.
Got the $100 yesterday, so I should get a match. Puts me over $1,000 raised — in a super competitive election year, I should probably be happy with that. I’m gonna post Head Full Of Dreams again, so I can listen to that speech again; and the song is so happy.
{{{ad}}} – stay safe and glad you got the match. Wish I could have done more to help with that. The $1K is a fine goal and great to have made – but I know when you talk about goals you aren’t really talking about money, you’re talking about the services those different amounts can provide so yes, $5K would be better. Healing Energy & holding you in my heart. {{{HUGS}}}
Thursday Meese,
38 here in NYS going up to – yikes – only 47
Woke up way early then fell back to sleep. Haven’t looked at the headlines yet.
PR
Today’s headlines – same as last night’s. In the olden days, one might expect “principled Republicans” to stand up to their party leader when he is helping to cover up the brutal murder of a journalist. In 2018, they will tut-tut, issue stern warnings and go back into lockstep (goosestep?) behind him. Shameful.
Make sure all your non-voters see this:
Good glorious Thor’s Day morning, Moosekind! It’s a truly beautiful day here in NoVa, with a current temp. of 45 F. climbing toward a high of 55 F. Roast chicken with gravy and veg. tonight, I think, and I may be driven to make an apple crumble for afters.
Did I mention that back on the ranch we’ve decided to do 20 meals a month on the meal plan here? I thought I’d swoon with delight at not having to cook dinner but, ah, no. First of all, trying to get a seat at a restaurant at a reasonable hour is impossible. One has to go at 5 p.m. if one hopes for a seat without making a reservation. I’ve given up making reservations because I don’t want to be told “6:45 p.m.” That means (given the agonizing slowness of the service) it would be 8 p.m. or worse when we stroll back to our flat. So we’ll eat at one of the nearer restaurants when we have to, and at home the rest of the time so we can eat what we like when we like.
But enough of that. Had a delightful afternoon yesterday with Daughter-from-Austin—dear Goddess, how I wish she and her husband lived up here! It’s wonderful to have a daughter with whom to do “girl things.” We went for a mani together, had a couple of coffees at Starbucks, and then went to visit her mother-in-law at the Memory Care facility. At a mere $9,450 a month, it seems okay (fortunately, her MIL can afford this). Memory Care is where she needs to be, given the kind of conversation we had with her yesterday. (Note to self: up the exercise to 150 minutes per week, continue to eat lots of berries, and do something intellectual every day to avoid a similar fate.)
Daughter has done a superlative job of staging and selling MIL’s enormous house, helping to settle her comfortably from the hospital to the Sunrise Assisted Living place, and dealing with lots of long-distance bellowing via cell phone from her beloved, who has been finding life boring and inconvenient without her. Luckily he’s flying up here tonight, and in a few days they will drive home with the chihuahua.
Re this country’s continuing-and-soon-total descent into fascism, I can say only that we must organize a resistance movement. If the French in northern France could do it against the fearful Nazi regime in WWII, we can do it too.
Wishing a good day to all at the Pond.
Good morning, 44 and partly cloudy in Bellingham. Our computer tech has moved his business to the Seattle area and is only in Bellingham one day a week now so I’ve had to learn how to do more on my own and to be efficient when he makes a house call. Laptops seem to have proliferated here, so I make sure all the Windows updates are done, set the machines up on the dining room table, and he goes to work. The main problem yesterday was with Intel drivers not updating properly. So much to learn!
I hope to just hem napkins today. My brain needs a rest.
Best wishes to all.
Dear Goddess, the Moose is skittish today! My “fierces” aren’t sticking. Please know that even if they’re invisible, I fierced everyone’s post.
Mine aren’t either. I’ve fierced and refierced multiple times this morning so hopefully they’ve taken this time. {{{HUGS}}}
My fierces usually don’t stick till the 4th or 5th time I click on them. No matter whether I’m on the work desk top or my laptop at home.
My fierces “take” but often when I return to the page, some comments that I know I fierced show that I can fierce them again. Very often I do! The software that controls the fiercing is free software and I have noticed it has a few glitches. For example, when I post a new Welcoming, often it starts with a bunch of fierces! I think the database that underlies the fiercing logic gets confused about which post or comment it is associated with. The good news is that no one knows WHO has fierced (unlike some blogs where not Liking has led to a lot of anger and resentment) so it does not have to be as precise! I purposefully chose not to show that.
49 feels like 47 and they say the humidity is only 83% but my joints say they lie. Heading for mid 60s and mostly overcast which sux. Got 10.5 KWHs yesterday and the m-t-d is 152 so we’re at least sneaking up on the 171 KWHs the 2.5K system generated in Oct. 2014. We won’t make it today, may not make it by Monday, but we should make at least that much fairly soon. Of course this being a 4K system, that’s not exactly great. But it’s still (a little) more than I use this time of year so we’re OK.
Ignoring polls and other crap of that nature. I’ll be staffing Dem HQ this weekend as usual and voting Monday. I don’t give 6 dead cockroaches for most of what’s trending these days. So I boost signals and help where I can. And focus on this election. Healing Energy to everybody shaped to the need. Bright the day, Meeses. {{{HUGS}}}