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 (usually Saturday night with a Sunday date). 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!
Good “morning”, Motley Meese! The week begins …
Morning low of 5 degrees in Madison WI with an expected daytime high of 12. Mostly sunny skies are in the forecast.
Have a great day, all y’alls!!
Sunday Meese. 30 degrees here in NYS and we have snow today.
HUD money finally – after 17 months
Cold again. it’s March, what up with this? I’m wearing the t-shirt that we wear to the Pride Parade, with a turtleneck under it to church. Yesterday I cooked, this morning I have tea steeping. Watching the news — the show before Joy Reid’s, Up, is really good; and there’s a fun group who watch it & comment on twitter.
Today’s song is Nina Cried Power.
It’s not the wakin’, it’s the risin’
It is the groundin’ of a foot uncompromisin’
It’s not forgoin’ of the lie
It’s not the openin’ of eyes
It’s not the wakin’, it’s the risin’
I don’t share your taste in music but I love the lyrics you find. {{{HUGS}}} – & Healing Energy.
Young Mr. Byrne is quite the poet. Just to give you a taste of his voice in something you might like better, he the soloist in this, from his college years
ANÚNA : “La Chanson de Mardi Gras”
That’s a gorgeous voice for sure.
It’s a cold – 24 and dropping – and snowy morning in Fayetteville, AR. Yesterday we got 3.2 KWHs bringing the m-t-d to 7. Not a good start. Especially since we got just under 2 watts this morning before the snow started, covering the panels and shutting the system down. sigh. Oh well. Although the temps are supposed to range from single digits to upper 20s tomorrow we are supposed to get some sunshine. We shall see what we shall see.
Aji’s dog Raven got hurt yesterday – 40 stitches – so add him to your prayers & invocations of whatever nature. It’s not gonna help Aji 4 hours from home and having surgery herself to be worrying about him. It being the weekend no confirmation on the surgery, just an indication that it will be next week. NM is usually #50 out of 50 for services – so even if Aji would qualify for help in, oh say CA, there isn’t anything to qualify for. Which sux big time. And is why folks who aren’t as knowledgeable or as skillful at navigating these sorts of things as Aji is “die quick” (as the Rs want them to – one more side of genocide).
The most skittish black cat is outside in the box I stabilized and rewrapped in sheet plastic yesterday. The littermate black kittehs are in the house. They really want to play “in and out the kitty cat” but I stopped letting them out after the 3rd time. One of them was seriously complaining that I haven’t made the weather better no matter which door or window he checks. Charlie’s just been complaining I won’t open the window as the ledge is too narrow to rest on when it’s closed. Cloudy Sunday. Cloud’s sleeping and the other three have finally chosen the back “French” window to watch the birds out of and quieted down. I’ve gotten all of my Sunday chores done except the vacuuming. And pulling the muffins out of the oven which I’m about to do. Cocoa Peanut Butter muffins and coffee are in my near future. LOL. Bright the day, Meeses. {{{HUGS}}}
Sunday post up
Good morning, 31, cloudy and a cold wind is blowing off Bellingham Bay so I’ll be indoors today. My sewing room has 5 windows and a glass paned door so I feel connected to the garden while I’m staying warm inside.
Emma was here yesterday and while I sewed the ribbons and elastic on her new pointe shoes she found some children’s books and art supplies to use for her babysitting jobs. I’m feeling the passing of time!
Best Sunday wishes to all.
Good morning, 51 with light rain and a high of 59. Not much planned for this quiet Sunday, just doing several errands and tackling some of the boxes at home.
Good afternoon, Moosekind! It’s ten past one here in Ashburn, and Something is falling: is it sleet or freezing rain? There are occasional big white flakes mixed in with it, so we’ll see if the forecast for snow turns out to be accurate. The current temp. is 38 F. Earlier, it was 43 F.
We got up this morning, got dressed forthwith, and picked up The Littles to take them to breakfast. They behaved very well at the restaurant, actually finishing their meals for once.The atmosphere began to deteriorate when we were at Trader Joe’s and became downright unpleasant once we were back in the car to take them home. It’s easy to see we’ll have to continue our current policy of having only one of them at a time stay overnight. Today is the day before a school day, so neither will stay tonight.
At this moment I have a Pineapple Upside Down cake in the oven. Making it was the least I could do for Dearly Beloved as he was kind enough to clean the oven for me, a task I hate. Interestingly, my next-door neighbor here has turned on her oven only once in the nine months she has been resident here.
Yesterday I slept so much I achieved less than zero. Today I feel quite energetic after all that sleep so, as bfitz says, we’ll see what happens.
Anotherdemocrat, I meant to tell you that the WaPo had an item about how Nancy Pelosi loves U2 and counts Bono as a friend of hers. She cares not for any other group, but is totally dedicated to U2. I thought that quite endearing! :)
Wishing everyone a good day and a breath, please Goddess, of Spring.
I love it! I think one of my twitter friends shared it, I have it saved on a tb to read later.
Good morning, meeses! Monday …
It is -9 degrees in Madison (feels like -20) with an expected daytime high of 5. Mostly sunny skies, clouding up later in the day with a chance for flurries overnight (just to remind us that it is still winter!).
I was following the news and photos out of Selma yesterday and in particular the speech of Cory Booker. He is not my first (or even second) choice for president but he can be put in charge of doing all the speeches!
Amen.
At least four Senate Republicans have indicated that they will vote for the resolution cancelling their president’s Emergency Declaration. It will be vetoed, there will not be enough votes to override the veto, and then it will be, as it has been for the past two years, up to the courts to protect our Constitution. I hope it stays bottled up there for another 688 days when President Harris can revoke it via Executive Order.
See all y’all later!
Good Monday morning Meese – looking out the window at about 6 inches of snow and messy road. 34 degrees here in Saugerties NY going up to 37.
Sigh. I want spring.
Spent yesterday laughing at the creative push-back against Bernie Sanderstans hailing him as a civil rights hero. The #BernieSoBlack response was swift, deadly and loaded with shade.
He should run on his ‘millionaires billionaires oligarchy income inequality’ platform and not try to do black outreach with fabrications.
Sorry – I’m just annoyed.
Puerto Rico
#BernieSoBlack should be followed up by #BernieIsFreakingClueless. He does not get that he is being mocked and, I am sure, chalks it up to bitter dead enders. There is very little space between him and Donald J. Trump – old white male narcissists who reject any and all criticism. I suppose it is too much to hope that his funding dries up, forcing him to quit; it looks like there are still a lot of people with their parents credit cards who are invested in his campaign.
I was just reading that the Governor of Montana is planning to run for president rather than take on the beatable freshman Republican Senator. :::Sigh:::. The Senate is a firewall against the worst of the worst when it comes to the federal courts and we desperately need it in order to protect against the possibility of another ratfked presidential election in 2020. I was glad to see that Joaquin Castro is considering challenging John Cornyn. He was probably waiting for Beto O’Rourke to decide that running for Democratic Party nominee was a better use of his time than running for Senate. I hope Joaquin decides to run.
Best I can figure out, the whole effen world had bought the Koch Bros-started MSM propaganda that the president and only the president is important. America, including way too many politically “astute” ignore the power of the other branches, the jobs/responsibilities of the other branches, and are working on making us a dictatorship in fact if not on paper. I’m not happy about any sitting senator or person who could flip a senate seat to Dem running for president. As I’ve said before. And a lot. (But since Kamala Harris is running for president, she’s got my backing. I felt the same way about Hillary. I didn’t want her to run but since she did…) If we ever manage to bust up the media monopoly/RW propaganda machine hopefully we can recover our Constitutional democratic republic.
It’s really pretty simple:
The only Senators running who have safe Democratic seats and no concerns at all about a Republican winning a special election after their terms expire are Kamala Harris and Kirsten Gillibrand. No one else should be considered for president or vice president. The Senate is too important and – really – we have other options. We have to worry about cabinet positions, also. When President Obama appointed the Democratic governors of Arizona, Iowa, and Kansas to his cabinet, we lost those states. Kansas elected a Democrat in a Brownbacklash year but Arizona and Iowa just reelected their Republican governors. The power of incumbency is huge and we should not damage the states and the Senate by “promoting” incumbents and hoping for the best.
I don’t like taking effective Senators out of the Senate even if they are in safe Dem seats – but yes, you’re absolutely right about the metrics. Mining the Senate for his cabinet is one of the few serious policy mistakes BHO made. He just didn’t do the math as you’ve just done. I can understand him wanting people he’d worked with and could trust in his cabinet – but he really should have considered how much of anything he needed to get done required he have the Senate.
Good morning, Moosekind! We woke up to grey overcast but now the blue is pushing through the clouds, which have turned white. I think it’s going to be a sunny day after all. The current temp. in Ashburn is 32 F., going up to 36 F. We never received any snow yesterday, and it’s just as well.
Finished chapter 20 yesterday, so must start chapter 21! There may even be a chapter 22. I need to get it out to the beta readers El Fasto so I can get it to the publisher by the end of the month.
Wishing all at the Pond a good day.
It’s freezing! Literally freezing. In Texas, in March. This is just crazy. Church yesterday was wonderful. Perfect combination of anger/dissent/defiance/apology & welcome. First Sundays are communion, and the thing that drew me to this church was the statement at communion that “this isn’t our table, it’s God’s table and everyone is invited” . They gave extra emphasis to that yesterday. And super toughing — 2 neighboring congregations sent flowers, with sweet cards. Went to lunch afterwards with some smart lawyer types who are looking at church rules & figuring out next steps.
So I was looking around youtube for a song…. and it hit me: With Or Without You. It’s perfect.
this thread from Diana Butler Bass did my heart a lot of good – about how Methodism started as an inclusive, scary radical movement. I especially love this, from the middle of the thread:
Wasn’t that awesome? I may have been sitting at my kitchen table fist-pumping and shouting a in dog-and-cat-scaring voice when I read it. It’s one of the reasons I have often said to my various pastors over the years that I wish our membership classes were more about the history of Methodism. People aren’t going to join the church unless they already self-identify as [some sort of] Christian, so I don’t understand why our church wastes time with classes that aren’t specific to Methodism. Let folks know our history and decide based on that, rather than on whether our Sunday hours are best for getting them in and out, leaving enough time for a Sunday round of golf.
I was rushing around getting ready for work and tending cats when I got the phone call saying we’re doing delayed opening today. Something about 4 with a windchill of -9 and the overnight dusting of snow actually sticking to the streets. So I relaxed, had a leisurely breakfast and am doing my checking in everywhere before work rather than after I get there. Although I’ll have my tabs up and check in regularly over the day once I do get there. The sun is shining – at least at the moment – and I hope it continues. We didn’t get a whole KWH yesterday and the m-t-d is 7.9 so there’s a whole lot of catching up to do. Of course this time of year two full days’ sun would at least get me back to banking hours. Which would be nice.
The twins spent a good hour trying to convince me I should let them play “in and out the kitty cat” – they managed to slip out when I was getting birdseed but wanted right back in. That was it – I managed to keep them from slipping out again when I put out food for the one who won’t come in. Poured boiling water over the water dish – which is where he went first. One of them is sleeping now on a kitchen chair. The other is watching birds out the French window cuddled up to a sleeping Cloud on another kitchen chair but seems to be dozing off. Charlie’s on the floor next to that chair watching birds as well. When the weather warms up I’m going to see if I can find out who did the TNR on the twins – at least I think that’s what the clipped left ears mean – and see if they’ll take care of the shots and things if I basically do the rest. I can’t afford vet bills for 4 (or maybe 5) cats. Heck, I’m not sure I can afford flea goo for that many cats – at least not the Revolution I’ve been using on Charlie and Cloud. We shall see what we shall see.
Aji will hopefully find out today about surgery – like when – and unfortunately whether since it’s going to depend on them doing the treatment first and letting her pay out over time. It is wrong and evil that a person fighting something like this has to jack around with money details. That is very true and nobody will ever hear me deny it. BUT it is as wrong and evil if not more so that the medical industry is so uncaring that Aji’s cancer wasn’t diagnosed in December 2017 and treated/in treatment by January 2018. They’ve certainly been constant on dunning her for tests that didn’t show anything, adding to the stress of the condition itself. Meanwhile, what is is and we have to start from where we are. Invocations to deity/ies of your choice and in your Tradition to “make things better” are very much appreciated.
So. I’ve got some emails I need to respond to and I think I need some coffee – on work days I usually don’t make any at home (since I drink most of a pot while at work) but I need the caffeine. If I weren’t in my work clothes and leaving relatively shortly I’d get a fire going but I am and the wood stove takes about 2 hours to really start putting out heat. My fingers and toes are cold. sigh. Well, coffee can help with that too. LOL. Bright the day, Meeses. {{{HUGS}}}
Good morning meese. It’s 48 with a high of 60 degrees and a break from the rain today before it returns tomorrow. Good time to put out all the flattened cardboard boxes and other recycling stuff! Lots of great discussion yesterday about the local ragtime society’s website and importance of preserving and archiving history. Even things from the 1980s count!
{{{basket}}} – enjoy the sunshine & yes, a very good time to put out the cardboard boxes & other recycling. Glad you had fun with your local ragtime society discussion. (Presupposing nothing comes up to prevent it, I am very much looking forward to attending the Sedalia festival with you!) moar {{{HUGS}}} & also Healing Energy.
Good morning, 21 and partly cloudy in Bellingham. Early spring bulbs are in flower outside my pantry window so I know spring is coming despite the cold air and piles of gritty snow in the parking lots and shady spots. The snow has melted in our garden but the plants were showing new growth when the snow and cold arrived so we’ll have some pruning to do when it warms up and we can see what is frozen vs just dormant again.
Best wishes to all.
Good afternoon, Meesefolk; started the day at 3 and have made it all the way to 16, which is likely our high for the day. It was a sunglasses morning, but the clouds have moved in. If my widget is correct, we won’t see much sunshine again until Thursday.
I had a pleasant, relaxing weekend with the Kiddo. We got the alterations out of the way early, and then just hung out together. SILs mother is still in rehab, so he was visiting with her quite a bit of the time. She’s supposed to be released on Wednesday, and SIL will be going home with her until Friday, when his brother will take over for the weekend. That should be enough time to adjust; she’s doing quite well except for periodic, but very brief, moments of confusion.
Since I wasn’t home to go to church (and am not 100% sure I would have if I could have), I’ve been in conversation with other Methodists through Twitter and FB. My youth pastor (who helped me learn that being liberal and Christian didn’t have to be an oxymoron) from when I was in high school has been immensely helpful, despite his own pain. He comes at the issue with some valuable perspectives: before he was fully ordained, he taught science for several years at a UM mission school in what was then the Republic of the Congo; he’s a Methodists’ Methodist, with 8 UMC ministers in his family over two generations; and he has a trans son. He’s officially retired, but he does do “sub” preaching when asked. He’s reeling and told me he held it together to receive communion, but as he left church, he broke down. And yet, he has hope. I’m not so sure I share the extent of his hope, but I think a movement is being birthed…and there will be reason for hope.
Good day to and for all!
I’m so proud of my church
On-campus University Methodist Church dissents to larger denomination’s restriction on LGBTQ clergy, same-sex marriage
You have a good group to be proud of. Holding the Good Thought on this.
Good evening fellow Meeses. Flying in to say hi. It’s nearly time for me to go (I work 9:30-6:30 pm). It’s 56 dark and cloudy. It rained over the weekend and it’s supposed to rain again tomorrow. I’m hard at work on getting stuff ready for the dry run for migration. They’re doing the database extraction on Friday. The cataloging group is having another unscheduled meeting on Wednesday. We met with the company doing the migration last Wednesday and got different information from the company than what we were told previously. I love migrations (snark). Fortunately we still have some time to fix stuff so there’s no need to panic yet.
We just migrated to a new catalog last summer. It was…. less awful than we feared. We lost a lot of data & some functions we really miss; but our old platform/software no longer exists. We literally couldn’t find anyone to maintain it, so we had to change. This one does some good things, but many days we ask “how do the libraries that use this NOT need _____?”
And then, about 2 weeks ago, we got a new phone system. That’s tied into a web browser. Sure, nothing could go wrong with that.
Our college district went through the new phone system biz last year. What fun (wasn’t actually all that bad).
The number of “upgrades” and changes to “newer/better” systems ordained by people who don’t work with them and actually think the work is done by magic are legion. Holding the The Good Thought on your migration. {{{{HUGS}}}
Tuesday Meese. Trying to post from my phone since my puter has been in the hands of tech support since 3am. Will come back when out of tech jail and post Puerto Rico tweets