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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Today, we’re having our holiday luncheon at work. I brought vegetarian “turkey” slices — I think there’s only 2 of us. It’ll be nice.
The shooting on Thousand Oaks — local morning news anchor is from there, went to that bar as a teen because they have “all ages” nights, was telling us about the area. To say this is too much & has to stop…..
Repeating music, but a different video: Love Is Bigger Than Anything In Its Way, with a bunch of fabulous kids.
Good morning, Meesefolk; 37 now with a high of 41. The forecaster on tv last night was positively gleeful with the prospect of sun today. I think her joy was premature as we currently have a typical November leaden grey sky…and snow forecast for tonight.
I just want to go back to bed. It was bad enough we couldn’t have even 12 hours of celebration before Dear Leader decided to shit on our success; waking up this morning to the news that the WH press office was now distributing a doctored video of the Acosta “assault” didn’t improve my mood. Then hearing about the mass shooting AND RBGs hospitalization made me want to curl up into a fetal position. I had hoped we all might have at least a week to breath, but as usual, I underestimated the Right’s relentless march to fascism. Time to take a deep breath, and face the day (and days to come) with strength and courage. I dearly hope those are qualities that you can fake until they’re real.
Better day to and for all!
Of course strength and courage are qualities you fake until they are real. If they weren’t the species would have died out under adversity long ago, never mind that civilization and progress of any kind would not exist. But mostly they exist from the moment you start faking them. Because Will is what makes them in the first place. {{{HUGS}}}
I have come to expect daily chaos from the people in the White House and so the latest (while definitely worse than usual) bounced off me – there was enough good coming out of Wisconsin to keep me buoyed for at least a week. We won every statewide race even with greens trying to ratfk our governors election. That means we are NOT a red state, the 46% of the state who voted for tRump in 2016 are outnumbered and, most importantly, THE KIDS VOTED! The kids voted and THE KIDS’ CANDIDATES WON! That is huge going into 2020 as they see the power of their vote to effect change.
That really is huge. Turning occasional voters into reliable voters is key, and starting out with a win is one way to get there.
44 feels like 39 with 82% humidity and overcast. Yesterday’s hair under 9 KWHs was the best for the month and brought us to almost on track for 180 for the month. We’ll lose ground again today. Winter’s here whether the folks who mark up the calendars call it that or not. The next week will alternate between sun and shadow – but will also alternate between hard freezes and light frosts. My feeling on the national news is some rejoicing, some depression, and a whole lot of WTF. This election is akin to landing on Omaha Beach. We made it. They didn’t manage to cast us back into the sea. People are surprised the war isn’t over? Surprised they’re bringing up the Panzers? Our folks hold the House. We’ve taken some state offices that will help, too. Some of the battles aren’t even over yet FFS. We on the home front need to keep doing what we’ve been doing. Working our butts off to supply the actual fighters – every elected Dem at every level. We will survive – and ultimately we will win. They are evil, they are corrupt, and they are sick. As long as we keep the pressure up they will collapse. So that’s our job. Healing Energy to everybody everywhere shaped to the need. Bright the day, Meeses. {{{HUGS}}}
Still morning in Bellingham, 35 and foggy. My 2 x’s a month housekeeper was here yesterday and with her help the guest room is finally clean……windows washed, new curtains, rugs cleaned, beds completely changed,etc. I crashed after she left and am just surfacing.
I’ve got an easier day ahead with a lab visit to see how much havoc mixing coumadin and Aleve has done with my BCH levels, the first of 2 of the pneumonia vaccine, an errand and then the desk. Not a fun day, but oh well.
My TMJ jaw is slowly hurting less and slowly going back into joint so if I can keeping stress managed I may be a healthier and happier me :)
Best Wishes to all.
Princesspat, glad to hear you’re on the mend with the TMJ. That is so very painful as well as inconvenient! Cheers, dear.
Friday Meese
29 degrees here in Saugerties NY going up to 46.
When will Bernie Sanders learn to just shut up?
PR
I am anxious to see who will be in charge of the various committees that will be doing oversight. I think some are locked in but which committee will be doing FEMA oversight? We need to fill their mailboxes and voicemail with reminders that the Puerto Rico failure deserves investigation, and more importantly, appropriations.
I saw that Sanders quote and really, unless he thinks that there is a pathway to the Democratic Party nomination with only butthurt white males, he should pull up his stakes and simply finish out his career as a fingerjabbing backbencher in the Senate. There are a lot of clueless white people but most of them don’t have the outsized microphone that the media has given Sanders. Go away, Bernie, serious people have a country to rebuild.
It’s not just Bernie either; it’s the folks who learned his style of “populism”, even when it’s not focused on race. I watched a minor Twitter fight break out this morning between a former MI candidate for governor (and Bernie acolyte), a highly-respected MI journalist, and Chris from Eclectablog. The whole conversation went from 0-60 in record time; after I looked over the tweets to see what on earth was going on, I realized something that bothers me in general about so many of the Berniecrats…they don’t know how to laugh (in public at least). There seems to be a faction that operates as if intensity means they’re the only serious voices worth listening to. As someone who is equal parts intensity and belly-laugher, I find this both absurd and unhealthy. One of the things I so appreciated about Gretchen Whitmer’s campaign is that she was very serious, with very serious proposals, but she also had no problem having fun and being funny. “Fix the damn roads” was a meme-worthy and fun way to focus on a big problem, and she has the plan to back it up. I just want to tell some of the BS acolytes, “Lighten up,” but I’m pretty sure that would just confirm for them that I’m not a progressive.
She didn’t get much respect.
Good morning, meeses! Friday …
It is 28 degrees in Madison with an expected daytime high of 30. It is lightly snowing but not accumulating much – the forecast had called for 1-2 inches. This will be the first measurable snowfall of the season and unfortunately I have errands to run so I will be out in it. I hope folks are all at their destinations before I have to leave.
Ballots are still being counted in California, Arizona, and, apparently, Florida. Several House races in California are still possible pickups – “they” are now saying our total number of pickups might be as high as 40. That is good news because we will not have an ideological homogeneous caucus. When you are in the minority, it is easy to stick together, when you are in the majority, your vote could pass or reject a bill and you will have to defend that vote in 2020. I expect that some of our members in more conservative districts to diverge from the majority. Plus some have vowed to not vote for Nancy Pelosi as Speaker and we can’t count on their votes for that.
Ballots are still being counted in Arizona because they have a hybrid mail-in, drop-off, show-up system – there were still 345,000 left to count in Maricopa County which includes Phoenix. During yesterday’s counting, our candidate, Kyrsten Sinema has taken the lead. Woot!
And Florida. :::sigh::: The Senate race will go into automatic recount – once all the ballots are found! The governors race will probably go into automatic recount. So Gillum and Nelson, the stories that bummed us out when the early returns started coming in on Tuesday, may yet prevail. That is the good news. The bad news is Florida Recount and the PTSD triggered by those two words.
I have not caught up with Georgia yet but I think they are still tallying provisional ballots there and hope to get Kemp’s lead down below 50% to require a runoff on December 4th. That race, if it were in another country, would have had UN election monitors assigned to it. It is a complete embarrassment to one of the world’s oldest and largest democracies.
I am going to ignore the Acting Attorney General tempest and the latest sand in our eyes about migrant asylum seekers – those issues will be decided in the courts. I do not have any confidence that the still-very-Republican Congress will pass any Mueller protection bills when they return next week – it is all sound and fury. We have to believe that a guy like Mueller has some plan to preserve his evidence and indictments. If he already has sealed indictments, I am not sure that the Justice Department can stop them unless they blow up the entire criminal justice system. I suppose they could do that, but then we would have bigger problems than just protecting Mueller.
See all y’all later!
At the beginning of the week, it was summer. Yesterday, I needed a sweater, this morning, it’s in the 50s & raining. (I wore a big warm sweatshirt under my raincoat.) I am so looking forward to the weekend. I may have to schooch my plants together, because it might freeze next week, they said even in town it could freeze. Since most of mine are succulents (my aloe veras won’t stop having babies even when the pot they’re in is stuffed), they probably won’t like even 35 degrees so best be safe, right?
Head Full of Dreams, because I need to hear that Great Dictator speech, and the happy positive music.
Good grey Friday morning, Moosekind! It’s 45 F. now in Ashburn, Virginia, going up to a whopping 49 F. Rain is expected this afternoon. Being a grandmother, I can’t help worrying about Miss Pink Cheeks’ class field trip to Williamsburg today. I just hope the driver of the school bus is very careful on the drive home.
I bought a birthday card a month ago and put it away carefully (or so I thought) to have it ready to send to a friend today. Naturally, I can’t find it now! Can this be due to the onset of senescence? I found a pretty (but blank) card among the mess of my desk so I’ll write on that and send it.
Am one week behind on the novel writing, owing to having other things to do. I don’t much care about “winning”—I care about “resuming.” Now that most of my stuff is out of the way I can get going again.
Today is the anniversary of Kristallnacht. Yesterday’s post from DoReMI mentioned creeping fascism. What we’re seeing now is exactly that. The fact that Sarah the Sanders doctored a video and is disseminating a lie should give even the MSM pause.
If I can ever wrest (wrestle?) the front section of the newspaper away from Dearly Beloved, I’ll read the WaPo editorial about how gun control is no longer the third rail of politics. The kids made a difference! Let’s hope they’ll continue to make it!
Another busy day looms. Wishing a good day to all at the Pond!
Folks, do any of you have contacts in the Los Angeles area who can help earicicle (on Twitter she’s @AmeliaEarhart1) find Section 8 housing? She got a text from her landlord last night saying he wasn’t renewing the section 8 and earicicle is in panic mode (really panic, like panic attack) because it took her a year and a half to find that one. Although she survived the cancer of several years ago she’s got full-blown CFS and PTSD – it’s a good day when she can manage to leave the house to make a doctor’s appointment – but she was showing some progress when this happened. This isn’t even a fundraiser at this point – she’s got to find a Section 8 place she can move to by the end of the year. Then we can worry about how to get her moved.
My personal news and local situation is boring and not particularly important beside that. Tummy’s giving me trouble and we’ll have a hard freeze overnight. Healing Energy to everybody shaped to the need. Bright the day, Meeses. {{{HUGS}}}
an encouraging message from my fantastic state rep:
This is very encouraging! When you look around the country where the blue wave did not disappear down the crevices of the gerrymanders, Democrats won big. In California, which holds 55 Congressional seats, Republicans now hold 7 (with one still being counted). That is an extinction event. In New Jersey, Republicans are down to one seat, in Iowa, one, in New Mexico, zero. In states like Wisconsin where nothing changed – state or federal – because of the gerrymanders, we won the governors race and veto power over the 2021 maps. This is what Barack Obama’s and Eric Holder’s group was working for and there is one more election – and several lawsuits – to get #FairMaps.
Good morning, 41 and raining in Bellingham. A reflective morning for me as it is my youngest children’s birthday and 47 yrs ago I became the mother of twins! Two new babies and the two waiting at home filled my life, and continues to do so today. We’ll have a birthday dinner with our local family on Sunday and I’ll send our daughter a birthday bouquet.
We had an interesting surprise yesterday. Relatives of the carpenter who built this old house, who now live in Michigan, rang the doorbell and asked if they could just be in the garden and sit on the porch and recall family stories. We invited them in of course and they shared stories with RonK. I had to leave for a Dr’s appointment so I hope they will send some of the info they shared with Ron. It’s interesting to me that this house still captures memories. It’s nice to share our experience here and to learn more about the original family.
Best wishes to all.
What a powerful and moving testimony to the value of “Home.” When we moved from OH when I was 15, a friend of the family did a watercolor of our OH house as a gift. I’ve kept it all of these years, and it hangs in my kitchen. I told The Kiddo that when I’m gone, she should take the painting to whoever lives in the house now and see if they want it. I’d love for it to eventually become something that gets passed from homeowner to homeowner.
Wonderful, DoReMI! In my son’s new house there’s a watercolor of the front view of the house hanging over the fireplace. It’s nice to capture these moments in time.
Wow, princesspat, you’ve had a busy life—twins! I would have fainted.
That’s interesting about the house. I do think old houses take on a personality of their own.
Hello fellow Meeses. I watched the election races on Tuesday with a sense of it’s another rerun of 2016. Most of the candidates the Canyon Democrats Club (I belong to the club) didn’t win (and didn’t come close). Katie Porter (D) was 5% behind Tuesday nite and last night they had counted enough of the mail in ballots that Katie is now only 2% behind Mimi Walters. It’s nerve wracking. I watch because a) I can’t help myself and b) during the primary while the mail in ballots were being counted Katie picked 5% at that time. She might actually pull this off. I hope so. Meanwhile the Santa Ana winds have kicked and sinuses are not happy. At least I’m indoors at work in Costa Mesa under a clear sky with a temperature of 72.
Good almost-afternoon, Meesefolk; 34 this morning, 34 now, and maybe a high of 37 later. More to the point, we have snow; probably only an inch or two, but it’s Heart Attack snow so it’s hard to tell. If it were less wet, it would probably only be a dusting. I’m having a hard time wrapping my head around MVgal’s 72 and clear skies!
The situation in FL really disturbs me with Scott, Rubio, and Trump doing their best to thoroughly delegitimize the entire election process. They could have easily made the case for incompetence (even if that’s not true…I really don’t know), but instead they’re spouting conspiracy theories that their minions will consider Revealed Truth, no matter what happens. And the restrictions on the counting period in FL are ridiculous; if the results are not turned in on time, they’re just ignored! That creates a lose-lose situation for everyone. Jocelyn Benson, our new SoS, wrote a book in 2010 entitled, State Secretaries of State: Guardians of the Democratic Process. I hope FLs current SoS understands that.
Good day to and for all!
When I saw this thread by Alec MacGillis, I thought of you and our discussion about Ohio. @AlecMacGillis: “It’s time to talk about Ohio.”
Alec writes for ProPublica and really knows his stuff; he wrote the definitive analysis of Wisconsin’s race problem entitled “The Unelectable Whiteness of Scott Walker” (when he was an author at New Republic). Anyway, he talks about Ohio and whether Democrats have any chance to win there again. I was left with a hopeful comment at the end by Greg Dworkin:
I hope we can build on that. An Electoral College path that includes Ohio is much easier than one that doesn’t.
Saturday Meese. 42 here in Saugerties NY and the temp will drop later.
No sooner than we moved past election day – most of the interest in Puerto Ricans disappeared.
Sigh.
BS is at it again:
Grrr! The good news is that he is showing his ass early in the 2020 cycle and losing the people who have not seen his bs yet – or did not realize the depths of his ignorance and willingness to pander to the butthurt white male vote. You cannot fix racial and religious discrimination by raising the minimum wage to $15 and throwing banksters in jail. It goes deeper than the economy, it goes to who you believe we are as Americans. We are not the idyllic 91% white christians that Sanders represents in his state of Vermont – we are the mixture of race, ethnicity, and religion that Bernie Sanders could not deal with when he lived in New York City.
Yes – it’s interesting that quite a few former Burn-fans are not buying this (finally)
I have a real problem with his “white male left-paternalism”
The assumption that low income people have no interest in investigations is false. Every single movement of black folks has been full of working class, and low income people. Do we have middle class people too – sure.
Bernie still thinks of “working class” as “white working class”
I never thought about it that way: “Stop with the assumption that poorer folks don’t care about politics. It’s classist (and racist)”! Of course, it is! It suggests that poor people only care about their own situation, not the situation of other people being discriminated against – and persecuted for – their race, religion, sexuality, gender or immigration status. He is projecting his puny vision onto everyone else.
Good morning, meeses! Saturday …
It is 19 degrees in Madison with an expected daytime high of 30. Sunny this morning then clouding up this afternoon.
We are still counting votes in Arizona and that is increasingly looking like a Senate pickup. The governor and the losing candidate are both saying “count the votes”, ignoring – and being castigated by – their party’s leadership. Good for them, don’t become Florida! As far as Florida goes, the counties that still have uncounted ballots have to provide preliminary numbers by noon today. Lawsuits are flying, protests are happening and the federal government, rather than support voting rights, is promoting conspiracy theories and using the chaos of running a big election in a big state that is, er, less than competent about many things, to try to shut down the voting. It would be beyond sad for this to get to the Supreme Court and have one of the members of the Brooks Brothers Revolt of 2000 that helped install George W. Bush, rule to shut down voting in another Florida election.
It turns out the putting a complete political hack – whose only vetting was done by Fox News hosts – in charge of one of the most important departments in the federal government, draws criticism from everyone, even Republicans. We shall see if the actions follow the words but when the Senate comes back next week, there will be a chance for them to demonstrate whether they really want to protect the Mueller investigation. Chris Murphy in the Democratic Weekly Address speaks about it. I will have a post up later this morning.
Busy day here as I try to catch up from being a bit lazy this past week.
See all y’all later!
Watching the continued counting – some of which is falsely being called “recounting”
Looks good for some of the Democrats (fingers crossed)
I am sad about Georgia because the problem there is probably not the votes to be counted but the votes that people were never allowed to cast. In America, there is no recourse for elections that are damaged by Jim Crow laws and the uneven application of election rules. Before Shelby County v Holder voting rules had to conform to the VRA and that might have helped. And before the tRump administration gutted the Justice Department’s civil rights and voting rights oversight, the runup to voting day may have forced some changes that would have made capturing the will of the voters more likely. But there is no “redo provision” even when it is determined that one party cheated. :(
Good morning, Moosekind! The sky is clearing now, but it’s still chilly and windy. The current temperature is 42 F., going up to 44 F. later. Now that most of the leaves are gone from the trees we can see the waters of the creek shining in the woods. I rather like autumn: for me it’s a reflective time of year.
Must hastily scarf down some breakfast and catch the shuttle to the main clubhouse. I made two lots of brownies, one with walnuts and one without. The “without” was frosted with chocolate icing. These will be sold at the Holiday Bazaar today.
Other than that, Younger Son’s household, which has been without the Internet since they moved on October 27, will get it today. They had to dump Verizon and get Cox Communications because Verizon kept delaying the Internet installation. Verizon did this to punish the household for dropping the cable channels. I wish pay TV weren’t a monopoly! Remind me to run for Congress so I can do something about this.
First-world problem, I know. Feeling horrified by the raging wildfires (and the raging shooter) in California. Now there’s been a terrorist incident in Melbourne, Australia, of all places! Australia is one of the safest places I have ever visited. I’ll never forget what Elder Son said to me years ago when I accompanied him outside a service club in Melbourne so he could smoke a cigarette. It was dark, as this was late evening. “Don’t you think we should go back inside, darling?” I kept asking nervously. Elder Son stubbed out his cigarette and said, “Mom, this is Australia. No one’s going to rob you of your money, your SUV, or your new jacket.”
Over there they have health care and the people who bring your food in restaurants make $18 an hour. They neither want nor expect you to tip them. There’s even a restaurant that asks you to pay only what you think your dinner was worth!
Well, enough of that. Will spare myself the embarrassment of watching Thing make a fool of himself and us overseas. Wishing a good day to all at the Pond!
Saturday is my favorite day. Slept in, slept in some more….watching the news, happy that the local news is all routine stuff. It is cold! 48 degrees this morning, when I was wearing sandals on Wednesday. I’m going to have to wear tights to church tomorrow. Today: groceries, getting my plants off their shelves, holders, etc and all schooched together so they can be covered if need be.
The E&I tour is winding down, they played Dublin last night: Who’s Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses
18 feels like 11 with 100% humidity (not hard to do at 18) and the sun is shining. Our projected high of 47 will almost feel balmy. At least if the wind dies down. I’m not going outside for anything but feeding birds and getting more firewood unless/until it does. We did get 7.5 KWHs yesterday which actually surprised me. The m-t-d is 51.8 so has some catching up to do if we’re to get 180 for the month. I’m hoping this hard freeze will convince Oak to drop her leaves. If she drops them this early in the month, more than 180 is a very good possibility. Nobody seems to have any connections in Los Angeles who might be able to help earicicle. sigh. And of course with the fires a whole lot more folks are going to be looking for what lodging remains. She needs to stay in Los Angeles though – she’s finally found a good doctor and considering all her health issues that’s a really big deal. She’s been disabled for over 30 years and finding a doctor who’ll both listen to her and consider the feedback situation of all her conditions is a flat out miracle. But she’s still here. As is Aji who had that first heart-attack-like episode one year ago today. So I give many thanks, lots of prayers, & what funds I can afford. As I do for others – those two just have the most urgent of issues at the moment so they are much on my mind. Healing Energy to everybody shaped to the need. I think I’m gonna go bake oatmeal cookies. Bright the day, Meeses. {{{HUGS}}}
Good morning, 42 and foggy in Bellingham. The leaves are gone from my old maple tree so the trunk and branches are in stark relief against the grey sky. It’s a seasonal view, comfortingly familiar.
My Christmas/birthday sewing is off schedule thanks to election preoccupation and tending to my TMJ misery, which is thankfully easing. I have a better coumadin/Aleve regime and I should be able to get a night guard next week so there’s hope. Now I need to get into production mode without setting my jaw!
Best wishes to all.