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!
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Good morning, 48 and cloudy in Bellingham. I was awake in the night so I’m slow and sleepy now. Fortunately I can just let the morning drift away, because that’s what is going to happen :)
Time for coffee, my best wishes to all.
It’s me again. It’s nearly nine at nite with a temperature of 58 degrees and the wind at 10 mph. I took a week off from politics- it was spring break at my community college. It’s really the first time since my car accident in Aug 2013 I’ve had to urge to sew. This is what I was sewing:
https://twitter.com/mvgal92691/status/1115500540908134400?s=21
If you go to Facebook and look for Patricia Kopp (Orange Coast College) you can see the pictures I took in the sewing room I made with the settlement money. Also the bedroom. You can do a lot with Ikea furniture.
FYI I heard from Libraryguy and his fundraiser met his goal and Jan4insight is $60 away from meeting her goal.
Enjoyed seeing the pictures, Mvgal! I do so admire people who can sew, since I’ve always been quite hopeless at it.
Thanks for the good news update on Libraryguy and Jan4insight. I wonder what will happen to them now that they’ve been banned and can no longer do fundraisers.
We had the same last night. And will tonight but tomorrow…I saw & “liked” your sewing projects on twitter. ???????????? I’m not on FB but I’m glad you were able to put the settlement money to good use.
Thanks for the update on libraryguy and jan4insight. I don’t know for sure but I think the latter is still short on the mortgage and hasn’t gotten anything at all on the utilities – and I hope to heaven I’m wrong. Both of them have online shops and I think he’s got a physical shop as well so…more prayers/Invocations. Thanks again & {{{HUGS}}}}
The $320 was covering half of the swamp cooler replacement. The rest is done. For this month. I don’t know what Jan or Libraryguy will do in the following months. Jan has joined politizoom.com and is commenting there. It’s Ursula Faw’s site and she’s the one who did the fundraiser for her. You can get her email by DMing Jan Burch’s account.
Oh, I’m so glad the rest is done. I worked a few extra hours last week and basically sent the overage to her. I’m one of her patrons, not for much, and doubled that as soon as I got the word they’d banned her. I don’t know enough about libraryguy’s situation to be sure but thought his wasn’t as regular – if he can just get his shop situation dealt with he’ll be OK. I know all too much about hers – rant on: & certain folks over at DK might as well come out and say “hi! I’m a libertarian & we’re getting rid of all those welfare queens asking for money” – the assumption that people come to the community for help first rather than last, that they haven’t already tried all those “helpful” suggestions is just so Reagan Democrat of them. Rant off.
Thanks for the update. The less I can do, the more I worry. Which is silly of me but there it is. {{{HUGS}}}
I’m the same way.
Wednesday Meese
49 and cloudy here in Saugerties NY going up to 53.
I don’t often post about sports – however this Utah Jazz player Kyle Korver – has made major waves with his piece on white privilege
Thanks, Dee! Read the Korver article and was pleased about it. He’s in a position to influence his peers, so that gives one hope.
Republicans make sure Puerto Ricans have unhappy holidays
Words cannot describe my loathing of Rethug pols, especially McTurtle. Wish he’d take some of his millions and go for a vacation in Krueger National Park. The elephants and lions have formed a pack and would soon deal with him.
Good morning, meeses! Wednesday …
It is 34 degrees in Madison with an expected daytime high of 39. Showers, mixed precipitation then heavy wet snow are in the forecast. I am hoping it lands and gets cleared up by Thursday mid-day when I have to travel.
I see that there are more stories about the mental state of the Republicans’ president. I am not sure why anyone bothers – he is unfit in so many ways it is difficult to know if his actions and demeanor are the result of his lack of intelligence, mental incapacity or just the sociopathy of a lifelong con man. In any event, the Republican Party is just fine with him and they control the only parts of government that can hold him accountable. I hope that the Democrats in the House can get copies of the Mueller report so that this period in our history can be well-documented and those responsible held up to the scorn they deserve. Maybe the American people coming of age now will have a better memory than their grandparents did after Richard Nixon and their parents after George W. Bush. That the Republicans were ever put in charge of ANYTHING after those two presidencies is a permanent embarrassment.
See all y’all later!
Good Woden’s Day morning, Moosekind! It’s a lovely clear day with only the faintest wisp of cloud in the sky. The sun is gilding the still-leafless trees in the woods. The current temperature in Ashburn is 50 F., going up to 68 F. Might go for a walk later.
Today is the luncheon for volunteers at 1 p.m. At first I could not understand why I was invited: did I do volunteer work while sleepwalking or something? Then someone told me it’s because I’m on the Communications Committee.
Also today I definitely have to organize my office and prepare for the upcoming travel. I like to post highly detailed travel itineraries complete with email addresses and telephone numbers in our suitcases. I put them in Ziploc bags and safety-pin them to the inner lining. We also take color copies of our passports and The Letter. The Letter attests to the fact that Miss Pink Cheeks is indeed our grandchild and we have the permission of her parents to take her out of the country. It’s even notarized.
Not sure whether I mentioned that I approved the page proofs of the cover design for Turnabout the other day. The designers adjusted the shadow on Nick’s chin so his face doesn’t look so fat. The characters don’t look quite as I envisioned them, but then, how could they? The cover designers can’t see inside my head. (They’d be shocked if they did: at Witch Camp one year I trance-journeyed to see what the inside of my mind looked like. It’s full of tattered, bursting cardboard boxes with a heavy stack of Judgments, like folding trestle tables, piled in a corner and several enormous, monolithic Doctrines, like standing stones, behind them.)
That’s enough from me this morning. Hope everyone at the Pond will have a good day. As for the Rethug members of Congress—hope they will have a miserable day. They deserve it for inflicting such pain on others.
Ha! Your description of what is in your head is great – and I am sure that your Judgments are all based on evidence! :)
I did not think about the need for The Letter until some friends were planning to take my daughter with them on a short trip to Canada one year. Particularly since my daughter is a naturalized citizen and is also not Caucasian, I wanted to make sure that there were no excuses for her to be detained in either direction. In the Age of Trump, all i’s must be dotted and all t’s crossed.
Absolutely right, Jan. Oddly enough, even with the letter we ran into some trouble at Customs and Immigration at IAD last December. The officer finally noticed that Miss PC and we, her grandparents, share a surname, so she admitted that yes, this must be our granddaughter. We also take a copy of her birth certificate with her parents’ names on it.
When my daughter and I were in the Phoenix airport a few weeks ago, we were joking about keeping a lookout for Cindy McCain! People of dramatically different ages and races traveling together is always a case of human trafficking, as well you know!
Got the “log in disabled” message again. Will try again later today.
Actually slept until my alarm this morning, woohoo! Eating my overnight oats & drinking tea. It’s supposed to get into the 90s this afternoon. But don’t worry about the climate, it’s totally fine. Heal Me seems appropriate this morning.
I tried again & it let me in. Must have just been a glitch.
It’s mid 60s heading for mid 80s in Fay., AR today. Wind is howling around the corner of the building like to drive us nuts by the end of the day. Only got 19.6 KWHs yesterday even though it was a very sunny day – the solar panels are yellow with pollen. I’ve got to see if there’s some way I can get that rinsed off (maybe the wind will blow it off? nah, that’s what blew it on) or I’ll keep losing generation. The trees are leafing out – soon there’ll be morning shade from the oak. sigh. Oh well, the m-t-d is 152.6 so we’re trucking along
Cats are being cats. Freddie’s gonna get his nose smacked if he doesn’t leave Murf alone. Also get fat as a pig if he doesn’t quit swiping everybody else’s food. But he’s also very active – he and Rennie were wrassling all over the living room and up-and-down the hall this morning while their elders were quietly having breakfast. The outer world is being deplorable. No news there. And everybody is still on hold for everything. Which by this time is also not news. sigh. Worse than trying to get an old Ford off a sandy beach – the wheels just keep spinning and digging deeper. Prayers/Invocations we hit ledge and get traction before we’re flat down to the axle. I need coffee and to get back to work. Bright the day, Meeses. {{{HUGS}}}
Good morning, 47 and cloudy in Bellingham. I’ve had my head down and my BCH leg up the last few days, so my life has been really quiet. Fortunately the swelling in my leg still responds to rest, compression, and elevation but doing so gets real old for me. I should be able to be more active today.
Best wishes to all.
Good afternoon, Meesefolk; struggled to get on here this morning, and then when I finally could, struggled to find the time to write anything…hence “afternoon.” It was 36 when I got up this morning and 37 now. Allegedly it’s going up to 45 today, but I think that’s optimistic. The winter storm that’s headed Jan’s way is more of an upper Midwest storm and should miss us here in lower MI. In fact, my widget says our temps are climbing steadily and should be in the 60s on Friday. Please, please, please let it be so.
I’m finding the news of late really hard to take, and my emotions are coming out sideways. I started watching the PBS show on Reconstruction last night and was only about 15 minutes in before I found myself sobbing. All that promise, all that hope, all that talent…crushed because of white supremacy. I ended up having to shut off the tv, because the distress was too overwhelming. And then my daughter asked me this morning if I was auditioning for the role of Curmudgeon in a show, because I’ve been quite waspish lately. I think this all points to the need for me to find some cozy mysteries and immerse myself in those for awhile so I can sleep at night without having an anxiety attack.
Good day to and for all!
DoReMI, the “Blanche” series is a good one! The Evan Evans series by Rhys Bowen is also good. I know what you mean, the news is getting me down too. I read that Thing wants to dismantle the Office of Personnel Management! WHAT? How will anything get done?
Dear Goddess, deliver us!
I’ve read all the Blanche books…so, so good! I ended up settling for a Nero Wolfe mystery. I decided I needed something safe and familiar, but since I read most of the stories when I was still in either middle or high school (IOW, too long ago to remember when exactly), I also don’t remember the details. There’s a Sherlock Holmes pastiche that’s caught my eye too, but my experience with pastiches is that they’re either very, very good or just plain awful, with little to be found in the middle. I decided to go with safe this time and play pastiche roulette next time I’m in a similar mood.
I am having trouble with the news, as well. I felt like the Wisconsin Supreme Court race was a return to the bad old days and the Marquette poll yesterday backed up the queasiness. Trump has the same approval rating here he had when he won the state in 2016 and the poll showed the state moving rightward. I saw a map the other day that showed Wisconsin as a state of trumpers and the hate pouring off those people aimed at those who just want fairness and decency is starting to choke me. I am not sure I will be able to bear it if Wisconsin – and its berning puristas – help re-elect tRump and I am not entirely sure our nation can survive 18 months of his misrule much less a second term.
I am trying to figure out a news reset that keeps me current but not necessarily plugged in.
Oh, Jan, I know. It’s too exhausting to keep up with it, one’s outrage organ is so worn out that it has to be sent to the repair shop, and I don’t know what the answer is. We have to be well informed, but we’re risking depression.
Remember the days when we didn’t necessarily worry about what the government was up to? We simply got on with our lives. I miss those days.
Thursday Meese. 35 here in Saugerties NY, going up to 53.
Good morning, meeses! Thursday …
It is 34 degrees in Madison with an expected daytime high of 41. The radar shows that the icy precipitation has stayed north of us except for a few pink blotches that traversed the area about an hour ago. By the time I need to get on the road, it should just be wet, not slippery. They also took the thunderstorms out of the forecast which should make for a more pleasant drive. The last time I had to travel, I got caught in a 20 minute white knuckle downpour.
I am not sure why all of our 2020s have chosen self-immolation in the form of grabbing onto Bernie Sanders’ version of Medicare for All. I think Single Payer should be aspirational at this point in time not a policy hill to die on – especially with health care likely to be a big issue in the next election. It is political malpractice to give your opponents such a gift – the votes are NOT there for Medicare for All so all you are doing is saying “look how ridiculously out of touch we are!” :::sigh:::
The guy who burned the black churches in Louisiana appears to be a butthurt young white male – I find this the most NON-SHOCKING thing ever.
See all y’all later!
LA Church fires domestic terrorist arrested
Good Thor’s Day morning, Moosekind! I’m not happy that I woke up too early and couldn’t go back to sleep, but (sigh) there it is. (First-world problem!) It’s partly cloudy in Ashburn this morning with a current temp. of 48 F. Our high will be around 64 F. today.
Like DoReMI and princesspat, I’m finding the national news very hard to take right now. Despair is being kept at bay, but for how long? The blatant disregard of democratic norms, processes, and even the rule of law is like the frog in the simmering pot. I just wonder what our equivalent of the Reichtag fire is going to be.
In other news, the Brits have Assange in custody. What a revolting specimen he is. He refused to take a shower or clean up after his cat? Ugh, not at all the sort of person you’d want to have around, even if you could overlook his other crimes.
Have an exercise class at 11 this morning. Yesterday after the luncheon at the main clubhouse I decided to take the shuttle back to my building instead of walking in my dress shoes. The driver was playing 1950s rock music, tunes we all loved and recognized, so pretty soon all four passengers were doing karaoke to the songs. It was quite funny, especially when a young man got on at the Maple Grove stop and gazed round, open-mouthed. He probably wasn’t used to the sight of oldsters rocking and rolling!
Going to gather strength for the day now. Anything I get done, I get done in the morning. Afternoons are for crashing.
Wishing a good day to all at the Pond.
Sharing this because we need some cool, uplifting stuff. You know how yesterday, they had the first ever picture of a black hole? Well, check this out – a woman did a lot of the data crunching, someone posted a side-by-side of her and Margaret Hamilton, and the replies with other amazing women scientists are just amazing!
https://twitter.com/bendhalpern/status/1116071099584974849
Welp, 67 was our high for the day and that was a couple of hours ago. We’re slowly but steadily inching down – so slowly I’ll probably have to open the carport door (which the cats will love) when I build the fire this afternoon but quickly enough I’ll definitely need that fire before bed time. The PV panels are so covered with yellow pollen that I only got. 17 KWHs yesterday. The m-t-d is 169.8 so we’re chugging along but not as quickly as we would be if the panels were clean. No rain to wash them off until Saturday. If the prediction is correct. I need to see what getting a hose-end attachment that can throw a stream of water 30′ costs. I’m too old and creaky to be climbing on roofs any longer (& have been for longer than I’ve had the PV system).
Cats, word or other puzzles, sewing (not that I do that) – all are good distractions from the evil going on right now. Fundraisers are distractions although I’m not always sure how good they are considering some of the needs – and the reasons for those needs – of fundraisers I’m still involved with. (Prayers/Invocations for them still very much welcome. And needed.) I stay away from the MSM & news organizations and mostly off my TL on twitter. I belong to/contribute to/am on the email alert list for a few candidates and multiple organizations (SPLC, PP, Color of Change, Moms Demand for example – also including environmental groups) so I get the news about what evil the Deplorables are up to that way. They usually tell me if there’s anything I can do about it (other than donate to them – they always say that) be it a petition, somebody to call, comments on a .gov site. That’s pretty much the way I’ve been handling getting my news since, oh, about 2001.
I need to get back to work. And get some more coffee. And hope this bloody wind will calm down before the howling/whistling outside my window drives me nuts (& yes, I know – short trip). I won’t be doing this much longer. They’ve made an offer that was accepted. Not sure what my last day will be – she’s international and has to go through international processing which is longer than just filling out the I-9 and W-4 and starting to work. So we shall see what we shall see. Bright the day, Meeses. {{{HUGS}}}
Well, that’s encouraging, bfitz! You’ll have your days to yourself again.
Hope you get some rain to wash the pollen off those solar panels and then lots of sunshhine!
Good morning, Meesefolk. Another morning with the pesky log-in disabled message, but I’m learning that it’s all about persistence. Life lesson? I’ll let you know when I’m not downing antacid tablets like they’re candy. ;D Anyway, 34 when I got up this morning, with an expected high of 48. We got a bit of snow last night, but nothing to fret about. I’d call it a dusting except that’s accurate in quantity but not in quality. A clumping would more accurately describe what it looks like on the ground. My new grumpy cat weather app (yes, it’s a thing and seemed appropriate these days) tells me that tomorrow is going to be in the mid-60s…but with 80% chance of rain. Because of course…
The M4A rollout doesn’t bother me that much, because it was a predictable Bernie move…introduce legislation when it has no chance of being considered. What does bother me is that in another predictable Bernie move, he took some of the proposals from MFA and tossed them into his revised proposal, so it looks like he has a good idea rather than acknowledging that “his” good idea is the result of Team Blue overall (especially the fine folks at CAP, who get derided by Berners quite regularly). Also predictably the paying mechanisms don’t appear to be fully detailed in the bill; there’s a separate white paper (or something) for that? So after years of trying to make this the BS signature initiative, it’s still far from fully-formed? So not surprised. I’m not surprised that our other candidates stayed signed on either, nor do I blame them for not being willing to take the flak at this point. IIRC, Sen. Harris is signaled “M4A yes, BUT…” so as long as that caveat exists, I can live with her co-sponsoring. I’m not sure where the others stand, but I’ll only be checking that out if I start feeling like Sen. Harris is not going to be my candidate.
Good day to and for all!
The berners despise CAP because they align with the Democratic Party wing of the Democratic Party. The way they went after Neera Tanden in 2016 tells you everything you need to know about berners+misogyny. It is one of the things that disqualifies him from national office in a country that is over 50% women.
Good morning, 47 and cloudy in Bellingham. Keeping my leg up has interfered with my more active tRump angst antidotes, so fantasy to the rescue…..
Winter is here. ‘Game of Thrones’ returns April 14 for its final season. Here’s what to expect.
Best wishes to all as we find our way to cope with the end of House tRump!
Friday Meese
44 going up to 55 here in Saugerties, NY
Excellent Town Hall last night
He should be on the debate stage
Update- “alleged” church burning domestic terrorist Holden Matthews was not turned in by his father
Puerto Rico
Good morning, meeses! Friday …
It is 41 degrees in Madison with an expected daytime high of 41. Mostly cloudy skies are in the forecast. Yesterday was a mess with snow, sleet and rain moving through the area most of the day. I managed to find a narrow window where it was just rain and white-knuckle wind and I was glad I was not traveling to points north.
It is too bad that the Assange news took attention off the mess at DHS where the deplorables are now in full control. The guy who said that detentions centers are like “summer camps” is now in charge of ICE. What could possibly go wrong?? That tRump wanted to have DHS dump migrants into sanctuary cities to punish his political enemies is frightening. In a normal working democracy, one where both parties believed in the rule of law, that would be shocking but not a cause for alarm. With a rubber-stamp Republican Senate whose only purpose is to confirm as many awful people as possible to the courts and all levels of government, and who refuse to block their president’s actions, it is terrifying.
I am watching closely how House Democrats respond to the refusal of the Trump administration to provide them with requested documents. I guess the first place they go is the DC Circuit which is still Democratic. I am nearly 100% certain that the Supreme Court, packed with Republicans who see that their only way to stay in power is to support the actions of the worst person in the world, will allow the administration to stonewall.
Speaking of SCOTUS, another “Susan Collins Death Panel Law” was put in place, this latest one in Ohio. Abortions illegal after 6 weeks – when most women probably do not know they are pregnant. Nice legacy you’ve got there, Susan! I see that Joe Manchin is supporting her – that’s nice. I am sure that Mainers will be drawn to her knowing that her best friends are people who deny climate change and are useful tools for the fossil fuel industry. Susan Rice declined to run which is probably good; her connection to Maine is tenuous at best. I hope that race gets a top-tier challenger.
Busy day here, trying to catch up after being gone.
See all y’all later!