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!
We’re supposed to go back to normal weather — sunny & about 70 — starting today. This week or so of Seattle weather (cold & fog/light rain) can go away now. I’ve got to start collecting clips of Kamala Harris from the debates for my diary on Monday. Do y’all have any favorite moments? Meanwhile here’s Come & Get Your Love.
Inching up out of the arctic spell. It’s 29 windchill 26 in Fay., AR and the haze is burning off. Supposed to be sunny again today which is good. We got 8 KWHs yesterday and the m-t-d is 81.7 – not on track but a minor gain on it. Frost all over everything – including the solar panels – at the moment but we’re heading for low 50s so that should be gone in a few hours. The moon was still out when I got up. Waning but beautiful.
Aji & Wings got a good enough sale to take care of this weeks bills and hopefully carry them the rest of the month. This is a really bad year for small businesses including online vendors. Holiday sales normally carry them through the next year. Wings is usually up to his armpits in commissions and Aji is usually spending half her day packaging and shipping their sales. This year? No commissions at all and the sales are rare. Just enough to keep them afloat with her Patreon and not enough to get them either the maintenance/repairs on the house or their doctor appointments. But afloat is better than not. Amelia is doing better. As in she’s recovering from the latest her abusive family hit her with. But she needs help with staying in the motel. She needs help finding a safe apartment that’s willing to do section 8. She needs help getting the section 8 paperwork done once that safe apartment is found. And of course she’ll need help coming up with a first-and-deposit plus the deposits for the utilities etc. (Which is why I wish section 8 would help her stay right where she is. It would actually be better for her. And about the same cost when you include those utilities at their monthly rate.) I haven’t talked to Fineena lately and need to but I’m gonna work under the assumption that somebody would let me know if she didn’t herself if things weren’t as OK as usual. More people I’m worried about, of course, but these not just the most worried about but are folks Meeses know. And of course Meeses give their own updates.
Murf just hopped off my lap so I’m for coffee. Then back to read stuff. Healing/Helping Energy to everybody who needs and accepts it, to their shaping. Bright the day, Meeses. {{{HUGS}}}
Good morning, meeses! Friday …
It is 27 degrees in Madison with an expected daytime high of 36. Mostly sunny skies are in the forecast. It was 25 degrees when I started this comment about 2 hours ago! I had a bunch of early morning projects that needed my attention.
Andy Beshear will become governor of Kentucky! He said that one of his first acts will be to undo Bevin’s executive order that disenfranchised 140,000 Kentuckians. Republicans couldn’t even win a ratfked election – giving us hope that someday we can undo this mess we are in.
I am not sure if I will watch the second day of impeachment hearings – I am certain that the former ambassador will be treated like crap by the Republicans on the panel and I am really not up for that. I will read about it later.
Busy day here – back to the trenches. My horoscope:
Sound advice!
See all y’all later!
Good morning, 53 and cloudy in Bellingham. I’m watching Ambassador Yovanovitch’s testimony and seeing tRump do witness intimidation in real time via tweet is shocking. Her calm professional demeanor is a strong visual accompaniment to her words and a deep contrast to the mobster potus squatting in the oval office.
Dee, so sorry your husband will have to leave his rehab before he is medically ready to do so. Arranging for his care and needing to make a housing change is a heavy lift. Wish I could do more than send supporting thoughts.
Best wishes to all as we make it through another day.
Saturday Meese
27 going up to 35 here in the NY Catskills.
Watched the hearings and was disgusted by NY’s right wing Republican congresswoman – Elise Stefanik.
Need to vote her out.
I followed Tedra Cobb yesterday when I saw that tweet. Most Republican congresswomen have decided to retire rather than run with the face of the Republican Party being a serial sex abuser and crime boss. Elise Stefanik and Liz Cheney are left carrying the torch for self-loathing Republican women. Cheney has a seat for life but I think we can beat Stefanik. The support she is getting is not from within her district but from Fox News and, at least for now, Fox News does not have a vote.
Puerto Rico
Witness intimidation – Trumps tweets
Speaker Pelosi going right at him:
I am not sure I want to see the backlash from tRump this morning (I have not been on Twitter yet except to retweet your tweets). His biggest fear is to have his insecurities exposed – he is consumed by that fear and it will eventually drive him right over the edge. I hope the guy with the nuclear football is in the restroom and not available when that happens.
Good morning, meeses! Saturday …
It is 25 degrees in Madison with an expected daytime high of 36. The weather widget says “variable cloudiness” which I think means “clouds sometimes, sun sometimes.” No snow, which is good; I have some errands to run today.
I watched Ambassador Yovanovitch’s opening statement on tape delay since I was busy when it was aired live and watched live bits of our side’s questioning (muting the Republicans). I especially like CT Congressman Jim Himes questioning – I appreciate it when the questioning has a purpose other than people hearing their own voices. “I will yield back the balance of my time” is just fine.
I have three articles up in tabs related to an interview or speech that Barack Obama gave Friday to nervous Democratic Party donors. I read snippets and agree with him that Americans do not want to blow up everything and start over. We want to reclaim decency and then get back on track to make the kind of incremental changes that generally prove to be more long-lasting. After 9 years of the successes – and challenges – of the Affordable Care Act, the vast majority of people now consider health care a right, that a pre-existing condition should not cause you to have to go uninsured and that affordable health care is not impossible to achieve. That is a BHD and we need to build on that, not tear everything down and start over. Once again, Elizabeth Warren has borrowed pragmatic plans from others – after she gets shredded for being a bomb-thrower – now saying what Kamala Harris has been saying for some time – don’t cancel everyone’s health insurance and replace it with Medicare for All, allow Medicare buy in and treat universal coverage as aspirational and work towards it. This change is causing a Sanders v Warren dustup which is good news. Those two camps need to sort out which one is running as the socialist – they can’t both – and let the rest of the field establish itself from there. It’s time for some gloves off.
The Democratic Party Weekly Address is by Congresswoman Veronica Escobar of Texas talking about DREAMers and DACA. Congresswoman Escobar was recently named to one of the freshman leadership groups and this is the first time she has given the speech. I will put the Fighting Back post up later this morning after I get caught up on a few projects.
See all y’all later!
Kamala 2020 from Cecelia S
Good morning, Moosekind! I have to get dressed quickly, and get out of here to visit the hairdresser and do a bit of shopping before the Progressives’ Luncheon at noon.
Regret that I was unable to watch the hearings, although I’ve been catching up online with the “Hearings’ Greatest Hits.” Just as one thinks one’s opinion of Thing cannot sink any lower—it sinks further. Glad Yovanovich received a standing ovation when she left the building. Rethug pols are worms.
Yesterday it was fair in the morning, blue skies with streaks of white veiling here and there. We dropped off Monty at his “hotel” and drove to Elder Son’s house in Arlington. From there it was the same price to take a Lyft to the Newseum as it would have been to struggle with the Metro, so that’s what we did. A very comfortable ride, which was great for my 89-year-old husband, who uses a cane and really cannot walk very far at all.
The Newseum itself was wonderful! We went up to the sixth floor to see the Pennsylvania Avenue terrace, from which I snapped photos of the Capitol (where Yovanovitch was testifying at that very moment), the National Art Gallery, and in the distance, the turrets of the Smithsonian Castle. We spent a blissful few hours there: the whole time I was thinking of my late father, who worked as a journalist for his entire career. He would have loved the Newseum, which is slated to go out of existence at the end of the year. Some Creepy Corp has bought the land and building. Down with capitalists!
Dee, so sorry to hear about your husband’s having to come home before he’s completely healed. The American health care system fails again. Hope you’re able to find solutions for the house and his care. Sending you vibes of love and vibes of healing energy to your hubby.
It’s a fair morning, 32 F. in Ashburn on its way up to 45 F. Now that the woods are nearly bare we can see more—this morning I saw a deer moving slowly through the leaf-strewn ground into the trees.
Wishing a good day to all at the Pond.
It’s just getting above freezing now (well, the air temp, not the wind chill) but the sun is shining and we’re heading for mid 50s today. Yesterday we generated 6.9 KWHs and the m-t-d is 88.6 but I’ll keep hoping. The oak is dropping her leaves and once they are gone we’ll get more generation. Not a lot more this time of year but more.
I’m tired. What’s going on in the world and nation are always tiring. Trying to discuss something with people who hear what they expect to hear and not what I’m saying is exhausting and disheartening. & Amelia’s situation is deteriorating – her friends aren’t getting back to her, she’s running out of money (of course she is – her SSI is barely enough to pay for 2 weeks at the weekly rate and that’s if she didn’t need food or gasoline or have things like her car insurance come out earlier than expected – she can only live on it when section 8 is covering most of her rent and of course it’s not paying anything on a motel room), I’m running out of money, and she’s fighting anxiety and panic attacks on a regular basis. Her family abuses her for needing help, tortures her periodically by telling her they’ll help if she’ll do this or that or signs up for some program – then doesn’t help after she’s jumped through those hoops for them. And I truly don’t know what can be done. Prayers and invocations is what I’m down to for her and everybody. That is just depressing. And tiring.
I need to go do my grocery shopping before the roads get blocked off (home football game). I’ll read & boost everybody’s stuff when I get back. Healing/Helping Energy to everyone who needs and accepts it, to their shaping. Bright the day, Meeses. {{{HUGS}}}
Cold morning, but the weather guy swears it’s going to warm up. Eating breakfast & watching the MSNBC morning show. Got another 4 day weekend & plans for each one. Today is groceries, the gym & finding clips for Monday’s diary. Don’t know why this song is stuck in my head, it’s from Gary Lightbody’s side project (with several other major music people), Tired Pony — kind of Americana, country, folk music: All Things Al At Once
Good morning, 53 and mostly cloudy in Bellingham. I retreated to the sofa yesterday afternoon, woke up briefly for dinner, then went back to bed and am just waking again. RonK says I’ve been in a sleep coma! Apparently I needed the deep rest because even my knees feel better.
This article reads like a spy novel….. How a CIA analyst, alarmed by Trump’s shadow foreign policy, triggered an impeachment inquiry
I hope the article is widely read and will increase public awareness. We’re not out of the tRump woods yet, but I think his power is ebbing and that we will be soon!
Best wishes to all on this glass half full Saturday.