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, Meese! Cloudy, windy, and cool here in Ashburn, with a current temp. of 65 F., going up to 76 F. Wish I knew whether it’s going to rain or not.
Woke up too early, so now feeling the need to lie down. This afternoon I want to go to the Writers’ Group and shock them awake with the first chapter of Turnabout.
Yesterday I received the go-ahead from the Communications Committee for an article on pioneer feminists who live here. Feeling pleased about that. Have two other articles to research and write, one about the origins of the Hearing Awareness Society here (at least half the residents are deaf as posts), and an article on the origins of the Genealogy Group. So I’ve a busy few weeks ahead.
Also received a call from Jennifer Boysko’s campaign HQ last night. They’re having a meet-and-greet Monday evening. I’ll have to drive straight from Grandma school bus pickup duty to the office in Sterling. I’ll have to miss dinner but that won’t do me any harm.
Wishing all at the Pond a good day!
The low was 66 & it’s currently 69 but it’s heading for low 90s again with heat index around 100. Not as bad as it could be (or is in Austin) and will be again. This is one of the benefits of being retired – or I suppose working at home – I can have the house open until the inside and outside temps meet which is always after I used to leave for work. Closing up then means the house stays cool without the A/C for a whole lot longer. And in fact even with yesterday’s outside temps in the 90s, inside we never reached the 78 I have my A/C set on. I am hoping that will work again today. Yesterday we generated 16 KWHs and the m-t-d is 76 so still on track for 400 this month.
Dorian was worse than Maria although both were caused by warming oceans and a flopping jet stream. That flopping jet stream is why Dorian sat on the Bahamas for 24 hours instead of moving through. At least the Bahamas will have some help, unlike Puerto Rico. I hope Shelterbox determines the situation will allow their help. (FEMA didn’t allow them in after Maria so they helped other islands hit by Irma & Maria but nothing “held” by the U.S.) Tents aren’t as good as houses but they are definitely better than leaky tarps and shelterboxes have a lot more than just the tent itself. Including tools, water purifiers, and water storage containers.
Not much I can do about anybody’s situation right now – the “regulars” or the ones at DK I used to help. Which is depressing and frustrating. Doesn’t help that DK admins cut me off from all my communities there especially now as there are new groups of my old community folks formed/forming for candidates I support. Twitter just isn’t the same. Not even close. So I do what I can and right now what I can do is take a walk before it gets too hot. Bright the day, Meeses. {{{HUGS}}}
Bfitz, the leaders of dk can be described by no other word than “bizarre.” And “vengeful” is a good follow-up descriptor.
Actually “zealots” is the best description – with all that comes with that word whether talking about their attitude towards their own cult or their attitude (and actions) towards all those who aren’t a part of it.
Good morning, 65 and sunny in Bellingham. The native plant store is open today so hope I can find the last few plants I need for the reclaimed garden bed I’ve been working on all summer. The salal I cut to the ground is starting to grow back so I won’t need to replace those plants. The soil is so full of roots it’s hard to dig a big planting hole so I hope to find a feature plant with a smaller root ball.
I also need to cut the spent hydrangeas. Some years they turn a nice bronze/blue color as they age, but this year they are colorless and weighing the branches down. I’ve still got a basket of dried blooms from last year so I won’t need more.
Best wishes to all in this end of summer day.
Princesspat, why do you think they didn’t change color?
I don’t know about hydrangeas but with trees they don’t turn color if the overnight lows aren’t low enough. (Also if there’s been a drought but I’m assuming princesspat isn’t having that problem with her hydrangeas.)
Good morning, meeses! Saturday …
It is 52 degrees in Madison with an expected daytime high of 72. Mostly sunny skies are in the forecast. This string of perfect fall days will come to an end soon as we will get some rain tomorrow then back into the mid-80s next week. But I am enjoying it while it lasts!
Dorian made landfall in North Carolina as a Category 1 and his next stop will be the Maritime Provinces of Canada! I wonder how often they get a hurricane (as opposed to the remnants as tropical storms)? It seems odd to think of Canada getting battered by a hurricane. The photos out of the Bahamas are horrifying. I hope their government is better than our government which is still denying funds to Puerto Rico for their rebuilding from a hurricane that wreaked havoc two years ago. :(
Add NOAA to another agency corrupted by tRump and turned into a fig leaf provider for his fragile ego and tiny tiny … hands. The Justice Department has already been completely subsumed as it is now going after automakers who cut a deal with California to raise fuel economy standards that Trump’s EPA canceled. The anti-trust division is being used to punish his political enemies and there is no one in the Republican Party who cares. They know that Democrats don’t govern that way so there is no fear of retaliation when we regain power. Sometimes I wonder if we should stop being decent and honorable and respectful of our institutions – then I realize that to do otherwise would make us no better than Republicans. We have to continue to believe that, at some point, America will stop rewarding the haters and destroyers and embrace decency.
Debbie Wasserman Schultz delivered the Democratic Party Weekly Address and is decrying the Trump administration’s diversion of federal funds meant for military families towards funding his racist border wall. I will post it shortly.
See all y’all later!
Good Saturn’s Day morning, Moosekind! It’s a glorious morning here in Ashburn, with a current temp. of 56 F., sunshine and blue skies, and zero humidity. An afternoon for porch-sitting! The high will be in the low 80s today. It is indeed odd to think of a hurricane hitting the Canadian Maritimes.
We’re waiting for the almond croissants to cool down. They just came out of the oven.
This morning I’m going to a meet-and-greet for our district delegate to the Virginia legislature. The first time I saw him he appeared with Jennifer Wexton, who was then our state senator. He kept interrupting her, even though she was senior to him in political office and length of time served in the legislature. I dislike pipsqueak males who interrupt women, but I’ll go to swell the crowd and because they said there would be covfefe.
Yesterday I went back to the Writers’ Group for the first time in months and read the first chapter of Turnabout. It kinda put paid to my idea of reading the whole thing on YouTube because even though the chapter was only 1,500 words, my voice gave out. There were people looking at me as if I were crazy. One woman commented afterwards that it must be difficult to write dialogue. Not at all: the characters take on lives of their own, their remarks come unbidden into the mind so that one need merely listen, say “WHAT?”, and then write it down.
The cappuccinos are nearly ready, so I must eat breakfast. Wishing a good day to all at the Pond!
It’s another 100+ degree day, no rain in sight. I think next week it’s supposed to cool off to the upper 90s. Sigh. Today: groceries & maybe the gym. I don’t have to make lunch for next week, so yay for that.
Overnight was only 68 – it’s 71 now – going to low 90s. Next week looks to be like that until a front moves in Thursday night. Still managing to not turn on the A/C but it’s been close. We shall see what the next few days bring. Yesterday we got 14.7 KWHs and the m-t-d is 91 so definitely on track for the moment anyway. Earlier this morning the sky looked full of celestial sheep but the clouds have cleared off and it’s sunny. Again, for the moment anyway.
I’ve been watching the slow-motion train not just wrecks but over the cliff that are our climate and our political situations. At this point I sometimes feel like a butterfly on a pin. Still periodically struggling to break free but longer and longer gaps between the tries. More “we shall see what we shall see”. Meanwhile it’s day by day and one foot in front of the other. I’m not one of those who say “if we’re gonna go, why bother to do the dishes?” I’m one of those who say “If we go tomorrow the dishes still need to be done tonight.” So. I give where I can, do what I can. Send driblets to various politicians, various helping & environmental NGOs. Send a bit more to friends in need. Feed the cats & wild birds, deal with household stuff. Feed myself as nutritiously as I can figure out how to do. Step by step.
I’ve done my shopping – apples at the Market (I love my Jonathans – tart and just the right size averaging 5 oz each) and then the grocery store. Chicken breast was on sale which makes up for the sausage and ground turkey that wasn’t. I’m going to try something different this week. My extra lean ground pork wasn’t in this week so I got the extra lean ground turkey to try mixing with the regular sausage to decrease the fat and increase the protein of my grilled breakfast patties. Not something I want to do as a regular thing even if it tastes good and the texture is OK as it costs $6/lb – the sausage and lean ground pork at $3.75/lb is bad enough. Once we get into baking weather I’ve got another experiment in mind – semi- sorta based on the old Bisquick sausage cheese balls. That recipe is 3 cups Bisquick, 1 lb sausage, 1 lb freshly grated cheese – which is enough fat to make my gall bladder flinch just reading it. First off of course I’ve got to do GF flour and there’s no particular reason for me to add fat to it (as is in Bisquick) for this. Second I’m gonna double the meat and half the cheese – one lb extra lean pork and one lb regular/hot sausage. I’m hoping that will give me a biscuit-like something or other for breakfast that’s got the calorie, fat, and protein loads of my current combination of muffin bread squares and sausage patties. One more we shall see what we shall see. Meanwhile it’s time to close up the house for the day and get some coffee. Bright the day, Meeses. {{{HUGS}}}
Good morning, 60 and partly sunny in Bellingham. RonK just left for a hike with the land trust group he works with so I have a quiet day ahead. I was awake in the night with tRump angst so I hope I can shake the worry and find something fun to do.
Diana, re the hydrangeas, I’ve given up trying to understand the color changes because it varies from year to year. The acidity of the soil is involved as well as water and temperatures. It gets very complicated so I just see what happens. My bushes have both pink and blue flowers, and both start as a creamy green. Sometimes they mature to a deep blue with burgundy on edges of some of the petals and that’s my favorite. The plants are still producing new blooms so my hope is that by pruning the older flowers now the new ones will age differently now that the temperature is cooler at night.
Time for coffee, and as always my best wishes to all.