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!
It’s 21-feels-like-14 and overcast in Fay., AR right now but it’s supposed to clear off and get up to 40 today. I was right about yesterday – we generated almost the same amount of just under one kilowatt hour as Sunday and the no-way-can-we-catch-up m-t-d is 86.4 – sigh. I need to find some room in my refrigerator for some of my friend’s food. It was fine on the porch yesterday but if it gets up to 40 outside it will get up to 50 on the porch. My cats will love it but the food won’t. Seriously Holding the Good Thought the closing and furniture part of the move happen today. On schedule and no more nasty surprises.
My car is running rough and not responding to the accelerator going up hills. Sigh. My Social Security comes in tomorrow so I’m taking it in then to be looked at. (Possibly won’t check in until late because of that.) I hope it’s something relatively inexpensive like plugs or air filter. That I can afford to fix. It’ll mean I can’t help folks I’ve been helping but at least I will be able to do it. With my friend no longer across the street I don’t have the “backup” I’ve had for the last 13 years. One more reason to miss her. sigh. But life is life and the new place looks much better for her and her situation.
The world situation sux. I have no idea when/if it will stop. The people who have been angling for power for decades and now have it do not care how much damage they do, how many peoples they kill. They have done much already and will do more to keep that power they so lust after. Maybe we can wrest it from them and get back on a healthier, life-affirming, track. Maybe we can’t. We shall see what we shall see. Do our best to survive. Do our duty as our parents did in WWII. Meanwhile I need coffee and since coffee is still to be had and the cat has just left my lap I will go get coffee. Healing/Helping Energy to all who need and accept it, to their shaping. Bright the day, Meeses. {{{HUGS}}}
{{{Hugs back at ya, bfitz!}}}
Good morning, 39 and raining in Bellingham. I’m hoping some daylight will break through the clouds soon because the twilight sky is making me want to go back to sleep. My Christmas countdown continues, but it’s getting easier because I keep crossing things off the list and saying “maybe next year.”
I’ve got a Dr appointment later today, a few packages left to wrap, and I hope to wander around the garden, clip what appeals to me, and make a “winter garden” arrangement for the kitchen. It’s time to do some winter pruning and my mental health will benefit as well!
Best wishes to all on this quiet dark winter day.
Gosh, that sounds nice, princesspat! I love it when you talk about your flower arrangements.
Thanks Diana….I clipped salal, ivy, camellia, andromeda, cedar, fir and holly branches yesterday. I hope I can find time to try to make my winter garden idea real today.
Good morning, meeses! Wednesday …
It is 9 degrees in Madison with an expected daytime high of 18. Sunny skies but clouding up later as a front moves through to “warm” us up later in the week.
Happy Impeachment Day!! I am not sure when the vote will take place but I will try to have CSPAN up so I can watch the votes tallied. Late yesterday afternoon, we had enough committed votes to pass the Articles of Impeachment and I am 99% certain that no one on our side was swayed to change their minds by the vulgar talking yam’s “letter” to Speaker Pelosi yesterday. If anything, it probably makes them regret that we didn’t include an Article 3 – “Donald J. Trump is batguano insane” to the list. Future historians will wonder how 63 million people could vote for him although, to be fair, at least half of those just wanted his tiny hands to sign tax cuts and nominate terrible people to the federal judiciary.
The House passed the budget bill which gave 2 years of Medicaid funding – rather than the 4 years originally in the bill – to Puerto Rico. I am not sure why tRump felt the need to peevishly pick on Puerto Rico again but he just made his racist hatred of the island a campaign issue. Please proceed! The budget bill has to be passed and signed by Friday. Fingers crossed that the drooling dotard doesn’t have a psychotic break before then. I hate that they separate the Defense Authorization bill from the rest of the budget – it destroys our leverage to fund the parts of the government we care about – the ones that improve the lives of ordinary Americans.
See all y’all later!
Wednesday Meese.
I’m so friggin mad I could spit.
Woke up to see the latest Trump perversion
The vile, vile beast! I want to see him reduced to miserable penury, humiliated because he can no longer delude the world into thinking he’s rich.
I saw that last night. I hope people with ties to Puerto Rico who live in Florida don’t give Republicans a free pass like they did in 2018. We win Florida, we win the election.
I got my plants covered — 2 nights of freezing weather then a warm up & rain. Glad to see that the impeachment rallies went well. I’m volunteering for my congressional candidate either tonight or Saturday. If Saturday isn’t talking to people but just putting out literature, I’ll do that. otherwise, I need to figure out how to participate in Bookflurries (Wednesday book diary at DK) while texting. I want to do stuff to support my candidate, but all the talking & people stuff I do at work is my limit, I just can’t do more after work. Anyway, hi. Merry Impeachmas Day.
I know it’s mean, but I actually laughed out loud at this
Good Woden’s Day morning, Moosekind, and happy Impeachment Day! We haven’t turned on the TV yet. I have a boatload of Christmas emails to send out, several of them headed by apologies to people that I’ve owed letters to for months.
It’s a chilly 28 F. this morning, but at least it’s a nice day: the golden glow is backlighting the bare winter woods against a clear, pale plue sky. The temp will reach 38 F. later, or so “They” say. I think I’ll listen to my favorite Christmas carol, which includes this lovely line:
Nothing evokes a winter morning as vividly as that, for me. It’s sung by the King’s College Choir.
Another night from hell—really, this is past a joke. Lights out at 11:30 and actual sleep at 3 a.m.? That’s it, I’m going to have to start taking sleeping pills. I’ll see if I can get some OTC pills today. Sleep just refuses to come, even though I feel tired by the time I turn off the light.
Guess what, I sat down and wrote my short-short story in the half hour before dinner last night. I worked on it so much in my head that when I sat down at the keyboard it just wrote itself! I’ve thought of a few refinements, which I’ll add, and I’ll post it here later. The rest of the day will be spent sending out Christmas emails. Then that will be over, thank Goddess,
I’m going to mostly avoid Orange, the diaries there are starting to depress the hell out of me with their predictions of Thing winning reelection. For the time being I want to concentrate on happy thoughts and New Year’s resolutions. Next year I intend to get organized in every sphere of my life.
Wishing a good day to all at the Pond.
It’s way too early to predict who will win but it is never too early to get your rear in gear and start getting people registered. 2020 will depend on turnout – we need a tsunami to overcome the ratfking that will be afoot.
True! I have a friend who likes registering voters. I’ll contact her and see whether we can team up. It’s the least I can do—after all, she was nice enough to come out canvassing with me. I really loathe canvassing, but not as much as phonebanking.
I don’t care who folks are supporting – this is a powerful ad from Joe Biden
It is a good one. I hope he holds up long enough to take out the Bernie wing and the Mayo Pete wing – I don’t think either wing can win and winning is now the only thing.
Yes, that bloody well IS a good ad! More of this, please.
Whether or not 23 is friggen cold depends on where you live. I wasn’t crazy getting out in it and taking my car to the shop. Bless them, they managed to spare a guy to give me a ride home. I just got the call. The immediate need is plugs and wires (& and the very overdue oil change), essentially a basic tuneup which runs about $400. (No wonder it’s been running rough. It’s been running on 3 cylinders.) They’re saying a couple of sensors are going out according to the Dx computer. Which may or may not be true – we’ve had a false read on the check engine light for over a decade – but if it is true the parts have to be ordered and we’re at another $500 on top of the $400 for the basic tuneup. So whether I do this or I get another beater that I don’t know the history of…well, I’m gonna discuss it with my son and decide later. Coming up with the $400 – well, I’m gonna put it on credit and hope I can manage without hitting my Cref again. At least for a little while. At least the sun is shining. We got 6.6 KWHs yesterday and are at 93 for the month.
My friend still hadn’t had closing as of last night (per an email that somehow I just got – twice) but is hoping to do it this morning. Then she can start moving into her new home and get this stressful nightmare behind her. And her food and her husband’s meds out of my fridge/off my porch. (The rest she can take her time about. I don’t need the space so can store whatever she needs me to store until she decides what to do with it.) But at least her nightmare is almost over. Just by virtue of not changing Amelia’s (& Aji’s & Fineena’s &…) situation is getting worse. Prayers & invocations for ‘highest good’ are needed/welcome from whoever wishes to send them.
I need more coffee. As soon as Murf gets off my lap. Healing/Helping Energy to all who need and accept it, to their shaping. Bright the day, Meeses. {{{HUGS}}}
Good morning, 41 and raining in Bellingham. I’ve had to mute the tv because tRump angst is too awful today. Impeaching him is imho impt regardless of the political fallout. But the thought of what may happen if the voters decide to support tRumpism in the next election is overwhelming my coping skills.
Fortunately I’ve got a busy day with Christmas prep, getting ready for a family party this weekend. Our grand girls are dancing in a holiday performance so we’ll all meet here between the matinee and evening shows for some food and time together. Some family will stay at a close by hotel and some here. The beds are changed and ready, but we’ve got lots of shopping and cooking to do.
Best wishes to all on his impeachment day. May truth prevail.
Good morning, meeses! Thursday …
It is 18 degrees in Madison with an expected daytime high of 34. Mostly sunny skies are in the forecast. Yesterday was our waning light nadir – we had exactly 9 hours if daylight from sunrise to sunset and that will stay the same for the next 8 days with the light shifting from morning to night every few days and the first wee minute of daylight being added on 12/28. So the darkness has been stayed, the light poised to return. Excellent timing for Trumpeachment Day.
I watched the impeachment vote coming in, holding my breath that there would be some last minute glitch that would let tRump go scot-free but thankfully it went off without a hitch. Rep. Ron Kind, the only Wisconsin Democrat in a Trump+ district voted with the rest of the Democrats – the only two defections were the guy who is switching parties and the representative from Minnesota from a Trump+40 district who told everyone he was voting as his constituents wanted – and won’t switch parties because he is chair of the House Agriculture Committee and would be a permanent backbencher as a Republican. The third vote against Article II was from Rep. Golden in Maine, another Trump+ district. And of course Russian Asset Tulsi Gabbard voted “Present” so as to not upset her Moscow handlers. I am glad it is over and glad also to hear that Speaker Nancy Pelosi is considering delaying sending the Articles of Impeachment to the Senate – I don’t blame her, why would you send your work product off to be disrespected and used to wipe the asses of Mitch McConnell and Lindsey Graham who have declared it dead on arrival like the hundreds of #ForThePeople bills sent there this past year? In any event, we bask in the moment and turn to trying to save the ACA which the 5th Circuit put on life support. The top issue in 2020 will be health care and the sooner the Democratic Party gets off the M4A wagon and gets pragmatic, the better.
Busy day – travel day tomorrow and hard deadlines means putting my nose to the grindstone today.
See all y’all later!
From Nancy’s post-impeachment presser (video is in a comment on the front page post):
It doesn’t sound right to us either.
Thursday Meese. 12 degrees (brrrr) here in the Catskills, going up to 25
Rep. Debbie Dingell’s response to Trump’s vile attack
He is a literal pile of garbage and the people who laughed at his comment should be ashamed of themselves. I was pleased to see @LOLGOP retweeting some of John Dingell’s tweets last night.
Puerto Rico
I had a comment all written, managed to erase it. Second morning of freezing weather, glad my plants are covered. Today’s music (this is where the trouble started last time): Oi To The World.
If God came down on Christmas Day
I know exactly what He’d say
He’d say “Oi to the punks and Oi to the skins
and Oi to the world and everybody wins!”
Good freezing Thor’s Day, Meese! Sunny today but very cold: it’s about 23 F. in Ashburn right now. Somehow I obliterated all the apps in my “dock” at the bottom of the screen, so I don’t know today’s forecasted high temperature.
Just discovered a typo in the email newsletter I sent out yesterday—how tiresome. Now the recipients will think I’m ignorant. Luckily I caught it before sending it out to others. For those interested, I’ve posted a short-short story in “Fiction” under “Just Grazin’.” I plan to read it tomorrow at the Writers’ Group meeting.
Looking forward to a morning of errands, then more emailing. Not planning to watch the debate tonight. Why should I? The excitement has entirely gone for me.
Wishing a good day to all at the Pond and I wish we had President Pelosi.
I hate when I read emails I have sent and notice typos, something that I find with increasing regularity despite the care I take in proof-rereading. Sometimes I think it is because I read and re-read – then change something without seeing how it all connected together. Last week I sent one out that left a sentence unfinished – I had meant to return to fill in a date, got distracted, then when I went back to look at the draft completely missed that omission. :(
Here, maybe this will cheer you up!
(Sighing with pleasure) Thank you, Jan! Of all the renditions I’ve ever seen or heard, this is my absolute favorite. I love the sound of men’s voices raised in song. And that little boy who sings, “The holly bears a prrrickle as sharp as any thorn…”
It’s so lovely!
I can’t call it warm – at least not by my standards – but it has just inched above freezing in the last hour or so and the frost has already melted off the solar panels. Lovely sunshine again. Yesterday we generated 6.68 KWHs and the m-t-d is sitting on 99.99 at the moment so 105 or a bit more is definitely possible/probably by day’s end.
I was a bit wound up in my own affairs yesterday so didn’t pay much attention to the Impeachment stuff. I knew we had the votes. Nancy wouldn’t have brought it to the floor until we did. We are “on the right side of history” – should any non-fascist entity ever get around to writing that history. We shall see – considering the Rs still have a propaganda machine that would turn Himmler green with envy – what we shall see about how this all shakes out.
The good news on my car is that replacing the plugs, wires, resetting the timing, and other “general engine tuneup” stuff seems to have worked just fine. The car is driving smoothly, not even hesitating at going up a hill – and there were a number of them between the shop and home on the route I took although not any really steep ones. (Funny thing – the mechanic who gave me the ride home and picked me up is now following me on twitter. ????????????) The not so good news is that the credit I’d planned to use was a Chase credit card check (with 0 interest for a year) and nobody – including my own bank – would accept it. That floored me. When the shop wouldn’t accept it I wrote regular check against my own account – Social Security hit yesterday so the $400 was in there – planning to deposit the credit card check in my account to make up for it. When the bank didn’t accept it…well, it floored me. I’m all right right now. All the bills have been paid for the month. I’ve plenty of food in the house and will only need to buy milk and fresh veggies before the end of the month. I can’t do the extra giving I try to do this time of year. sigh. Next month is when I’ll see if I’m in trouble. My automatic political and charitable donations have all been done for the month and will show up on the January credit card statement. That’s the point we’ll see if I need help, need to take more out of TIAA-Cref, or can squeak by.
My friend finally closed on her house yesterday morning. All of the stuff on the moving truck was unloaded and she came over last night to get the food, her husband’s meds, and some bedding since that hadn’t made it on the truck. The stuff from the shop her brother hauled to the farm last week is supposed to go into the new shop/garage today. And if he has time he will come get the stuff we shoved into the old shop Monday. She’ll be coming over here after work probably for the rest of the month to get stuff I’m storing for her. So not done yet, but done enough that last night she slept in her new house. That’s closure of a sort.
Rest of my friends seem to be in a holding pattern. Unfortunately, like a real plane in a real holding pattern that means using resources and going nowhere. Prayers and invocations needed more than ever for desirable outcomes. Meanwhile I need coffee and have a free lap so I’m gonna go get it. Healing/Helping Energy to all who need and accept it, to their shaping. Bright the day, Meeses. {{{HUGS}}}
Good morning, Meesefolk; 16 when I got up and heading to 32. I’m doubtful about that, because it relies upon the sun coming out which it has been loathe to do lately. I’m more than willing to be proved wrong though.
Yesterday totally got away from me, and by the time I tuned in to the happenings in the House, impeachment was done. Unfortunately, I did catch a bit of the Grand Rapids rally where 45* sounded more bitter than unhinged. I’m not sure if that’s an improvement or not, but the bit I heard was so stream-of-consciousness-random-word-salad that I don’t know how anyone sits through his claptrap. Sadly, I think we’re going to be seeing a lot more of him, since it’s pretty obvious he views winning MI as critical to staying in the WH.
I started yesterday thinking I would gather my tiny pile of items for the thrift store and get them dropped off, so I could get my a tax receipt before the end of the year. But then I decided that the pile of things I had set aside for a yard sale could be donated too, since realistically, I probably wasn’t going to want to do a yard sale in the spring…or ever. So that added another few hours of gathering, sorting, recording for tax purposes, and carrying out to the car. What was supposed to be 5 minutes of prep became several hours.
But wait, there’s more. Once I made it to the thrift store, dropped everything off, and got my tax receipt, I made the near-fatal decision of deciding to go into the store “for a few minutes.” Kiddo is hosting a New Year’s Eve party as well as two dinner parties in January, and she had mentioned wanting to find a few accessories, particularly for her table settings for the dinner parties. I had told her I had some serving pieces she could borrow for the NYE party, but I really didn’t have much to spruce up her dinner party tables. So I though I’d wander into the thrift store and see if there was anything she could use or upcycle for usability. Two+ hours later, I wandered out, carrying a new laundry basket for me. Said laundry basket was filled with stuff for Kiddo. When I called Kiddo to let her know what I had picked up, she was initially quite upset about how much I must have spent based on how much I got…which is when I was able to inform her that between markdowns, a senior discount, and just generally cheap prices, I had spent less than $10. Charger plates for 25 cents each? When they’re typically $12-$15 in retail stores? It was a little hard to ignore that particular siren call. I felt quite accomplished when I walked out, but my day had all but disappeared in my retail immersion.
Nothing particularly new on the job front. I was supposed to hear late last week about the job I interviewed for before Thanksgiving, but as of this morning, there was no news. So I called them this morning, because I didn’t want to keep hoping if there was no reason to hope. The bottom line is that they still haven’t made a decision, and while I’m still in the running, it will probably be the new year before I hear anything further. Their certification audit has them buried, apparently, and being shorthanded is making things worse. But they can’t take the time to solve the shorthanded problem (by hiring me!), because they wouldn’t have time to train a new employee. It’s a Catch-22 situation all around, and although I understand why it’s difficult to get to “yes” re a hiring decision, I’m not sure I understand why a “no” is so difficult. My best guess at this point is that the owner has just said “no decisions until after the audit”; it’s also possible the next step isn’t a hiring decision but another round of interviews with the owners…in which case the delay makes perfect sense. Worst case scenario is that they’re at risk of losing their ISO certification, which would leave them pretty much dead in the water (and hiring anyone in would be a huge mistake for everyone involved). It’s not a new company though, so I find it hard to believe they would screw up so thoroughly as to lose their ISO. Anyway, it’s pretty obvious I could make myself crazy trying to figure out what’s going on, so instead, I’m just going to keep applying for jobs and enjoy my holidays.
Good day to and for all!
Good morning meese, it’s 49 degrees with a high of 57 predicted. Cloudy, and yesterday had a nice drizzle of rain throughout the day. Hoping for more rain to come. I have to get to work and will be pretty busy the next few days, but hoping to take a few days off next week.
Hugs to all.
{{{basket}}} – sounds like you could use a few days off. moar {{{HUGS}}}
Hugs right back at ya, basket!
Glad about the rain.
Good morning, 44 and cloudy in Bellingham. I’m really tired this morning, but need to get my day underway regardless. When we planned the upcoming family event I didn’t know my legs would be so painful. I do have help though…..Ron has the shopping done, our son will carry everything into the dining room today, and Lisa and her family will be here early on Saturday to help me set up so I hope all will be well regardless.
I thought I would feel some post impeachment relief this morning, but I don’t. Yesterday’s proceedings were sad to see. Truth doesn’t matter to tRump’s supporters so the only hope is to vote him (and them) out of office.
Best wishes to all on this dreary morning.
Good morning, meeses! Friday …
It is 19 degrees in Madison with daytime high of 39 degrees. Partly cloudy skies are in the forecast.
I did not watch the debate because life is too short! I was encouraged by the headlines saying that Mayo Pete is finally getting vetted – and that people are pointing out that his electoral history is not very compelling. Elected mayor of a small Midwestern city by 60,000 people, lost every other race he has run in. Run for governor of Indiana – and win – and then we will talk. Amy Klobuchar was elected three times in a purple state that has significant urban and rural constituencies – she is the only one on that stage with real electoral chops. (Sorry, Joe, Delaware ain’t it!)
A $1.4 trillion budget was passed and is heading to the short fingered vulgarian for his signature. I was glad to see Senator Patty Murray pointing out that the Republican tax cut demonstrated that deficits don’t matter to them and – I hope – put Republicans on notice that we will not listen to their faux deficit hawking when we regain power. By the way, I want Patty Murray to be Senate Majority Leader – Chuck Schumer has outserved his usefulness.
I can’t stay – I have a project to get out the door and then I have to get out the door for work travel this morning.
See all y’all later!