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?
…
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.
…
– Page One of Comments is HERE!
– Page Two of Comments is HERE!
…
Good “morning”, Motley Meese! The week begins …
Morning low of 37 degrees in Madison WI with an expected daytime high of 59. Mostly sunny skies are in the forecast.
Have a great day, all y’alls!!
~~~
Don’t Forget to “Spring Ahead” today!
Daylight Saving Time started at 2:00am on Sunday, March 8th. And please, take care – this time change can kill!
Happy International Women’s Day Meese!
All hail Amelia Roberts, an inspiration to her seven children (and very likely others)!
Should have squeezed in a workout yesterday, I slept really poorly. Watching Ali Velshi on MSNBC, I like his show, he is passionate about economic inequality, universal healthcare & women’s rights. Anyway, today: make tea, finish making another batch of stir fry, got a meeting at my congressional candidate’s office; and I really need to squeeze in a workout. Motivation to move, here’s U2 doing Pride.
Sunday Sermon
Going to read this later, Dee, after Sunday chores have been done.
This is another fabulous essay from you, Sis! As I read it I was struck once more by the way misogyny triumphed over the shared goal of ending, or at least lessening, racism. The men didn’t want women to be in their little club? Typical!
Dee, have you thought of publishing a book of your biographic essays of notable black women?
{{{Dee}}} – as usual, the diary is great. You are a wonderful link between our Herstory (aside from being part of it yourself) and the youngsters – “all the little girls” especially – who need to know this. This society gaslightingly designates women as the “weaker sex”. Momma taught me women not only weren’t allowed to do the things that showed their strength, that men took credit for everything they did that showed strength, but also everything they did anyway was being done while holding men up. That’s pretty much what your diaries are showing. Men accomplishing because women hold them up.
Good morning, 36 and partly cloudy in Bellingham. It’s nice to see some sunshine behind the clouds. Plants in the garden are starting to bud and Joe’s Gardens is open for business so I may plant some primroses and/or winter pansies today. The soil is too cold for anything else to grow and the deer have been making regular visits to eat the ivy so my early spring gardening hasn’t happened yet this year.
Heidi has been sound asleep on her bed beside me so I’ve been waiting for coffee, but she just woke up so now I can do the same. Best wishes to all on this quiet Sunday morning.
Good Sun Day morning, Moosekind! (I feel like going back to bed.) It’s sunny and 45 F. here in Ashburn today, with flawless blue skies. Buds are appearing everywhere on the trees and the grass in Monty’s courtyard is greening. I really should go for a walk.
Finally accomplished one task, which was uploading this month’s story to the website. It’s “One More and We’ll Be a Coven” at http://www.goddessfiction.com.
Didn’t watch the first ep of “Hillary” yesterday because by the time I had a couple of free hours, I was too exhausted. I forget whether this is day 4 or day 5 of my cold—I suspect the latter.
Kamala endorsed Joe! Good. It’s 11:25 a.m. new time and I’m as cross as two sticks. It’s nearly time for lunch by the new time, yet we only finished a leisurely Sunday morning breakfast an hour ago. I hate this! When I’m prez of the USA, there are two matters I will deal with after the big stuff has been sorted: (1) I’ll change the time back to standard and stick with it; (2) I’ll issue an Executive Order that everyone should be able to pick and choose which cable stations they want on their TV, without subscribing to one or the other monopoly’s “tiers.” Of course the cable companies will shed “tiers” of rage, but that’s too bad.
Happy International Women’s Day to all at the Pond and Beyond! See you the day before Michigan—I mean, Tuesday.
{{{Diana}}} – very much enjoyed the story. I once described “Moon days” as practicing making baby nests. moar {{{HUGS}}}
Thanks, bfitz!
“I’ll change the time back to standard and stick with it.”
Yes! We must elect you president because it looks like the people pushing for not wanting to change clocks want to standardize on DST. No, no, 1000 times, no. For one thing, Arizona will not go along with it – they refuse to Spring ahead so we would still have odd time zones. And what about “standard” don’t they understand? I hate the clock changes.
As do I, BlogGoddess, as do I.
I hate them with a purple passion. And what people don’t understand about “standard” is what the M stands for. And I guess they have cause as depending on where they are in a given time zone the sun probably isn’t directly overhead at “meridian” – so they don’t understand that a.m. is the abbreviation meaning before the meridian and p.m. for after the meridian. Time zones themselves, as useful as they are in national and international dealings, are distortions that opened the gate for this. sigh. I read in one of Dorothy Sayers books, so we’re talking 1930s and before, folks referred to the time’s as “government time” and “god’s time”. Maybe we could sell making standard time permanent to the gud Xtians as going by god’s time and to the libertarians as getting off government’s time. LOL
In China, despite the huge size of the country, there is only one official time (UTC+8). It actually traverses 5 normal time zones but they have chosen to just have one official time. That is probably more confusing because if work must start at 8am, that would feel like the middle of the night in the far west regions of their land mass.
That’s weird!
I suppose if you’re used to it and it doesn’t change on you twice a year, well, you’re used to it. I wonder where their “meridian point” is? Logically it should go in the middle of the country but it probably centers in the capital. China’s not the only government who doesn’t care how things impact folks out in the hinterlands.
It’s a sunny morning in Fay., AR – they say “partly cloudy” but it hasn’t happened yet. I did change my clocks. But I also told myself one of the blessings of retirement is I don’t have to pay attention to the clocks. I’ve been getting up with the sun and I’m gonna keep doing just that. ???????????? The cat’s actually don’t have a problem with that as they only pay attention to tummy time anyway. We generated 15.2 KWHs yesterday and we already have 1.6 this morning – the m-t-d is 82 and depending on when the clouds move in has the potential to get up to 95. Which would be really nice. Especially since we’re supposed to have rain all day tomorrow. Which we can also use.
I’ve just finished my Sunday cleaning chores. Ya know, it’s very frustrating to be sweeping the floor and have the furnace come on and blow everything right back where it was before you started sweeping. Of course cats walking through it doesn’t help either. sigh. The floors need mopping but I can’t do that. So it will wait until either my friend has the time and energy or I find somebody I can afford to hire and would trust in my house. Wards only work if you don’t invite evil in through them. I wiped down the flat surfaces instead of just dusting them. My hands hurt. The skin is also as rough as sandpaper which is another issue when trying to clean. Dust bunnies and cat fluff sticks to them. Anyway, I’m calling this my exercise for the day. I may take a walk later if the wind dies down and the sun stays out – or get on the treadmill if I feel like it – but the “required” daily exercise is done. heh.
I just got online and haven’t checked either email or twitter. I haven’t a clue what’s going on and am not really sure I want to considering how little I can do about it. But I will. As soon as I post this. Then I’ll read Diana’s story and Dee’s Sunday Sermon. Well, after I get coffee. ????☕???? Bright the day, Meeses. {{{HUGS}}}
Good morning, meeses! Monday …
It is 52 degrees in Madison with an expected daytime high of 50. The forecast calls for rainy and gloomy all day. It is good that it was clear last night so that I could see the glorious nearly-full super moon before this rain moved in.
I tapped into the news yesterday because I want to stay on top of the COVID-19 situation. I am trying not to laugh out loud at the Republican CPAC attendees getting infected and having to admit that the virus is NOT a hoax. Reality is messin’ with tRump’s talking points! The news out of Italy is awful. I was trying to find out where the outbreak originated from for them – it had to be a traveler from China, but I could not find an answer – and why it is killing so many. One epidemiologist from a Milan hospital said “Italy is a country of old people.” :( I think it is also a country of smokers which is the other condition which makes death from a respiratory virus more likely. The State Department was finally allowed to issue a warning that old people should not go on cruises but they are still banned from saying that maybe they shouldn’t travel at all. Whatever they say won’t matter now – the Dow will open down 1,000 points this morning and tRump’s “beautiful Stock Market” will get hammered again as investors realize that the people in charge of the virus response are incompetent fools who are making things worse by lying and then having to admit that they are clueless.
Kamala endorsed Joe Biden and I am here for Biden/Harris 2020. I saw the tweets saying that the VP has to be Mayo Pete, who they are calling a younger version of Biden. JHC!! We don’t need a “younger version of Biden”, we need a person who symbolizes the future rather than the past and who reflects the diversity of our party. Bidenism is not a thing, Joe Biden is the Obama-era placeholder, there to smooth out the transition to the next generation of leaders.
Yesterday the time change did not seem too bad but this morning I am feeling it. I tried to stay up last night by the clock instead of by my body and getting up by the clock rather than by my body and I was not ready to get up and I am not ready to carpe diem. I will muddle through – the first order of business will be emailing people who were expecting progress on their projects and putting them off for another week. I am still not caught up after traveling and I desperately need to merge the multiple to-do-lists I have going into one. Once I do that – and I can be certain that I am not missing any hard deadlines – I can put my nose to the grindstone and get project work done.
See all y’all later!
Good luck!
Monday Meese. Really strange weather for us here in the NY Catskills. It’s 42 going up to 70!
Puerto Rico
Smart people have been warning for years that not making things in America was going to someday come back and bite us in the butt. We shuttered our factories because consumers needed a 39 cent gewgaw that was made in China instead of paying $2 for the same gewgaw built here. Now we can’t make anything and we are dependent on a country whose factories have been shut down for just about everything we need. We are a stupid nation.
Reminded me of a song. Because everything reminds me of a song. This one’s James McMurtry:
We Can’t Make It Here Anymore
There’s a Vietnam Vet with a cardboard sign
Sitting there by the left turn line
The flag on his wheelchair flapping in the breeze
One leg missing and both hands free
No one’s paying much mind to him
The V.A. budget’s just stretched so thin
And now there’s more coming back from the Mideast war
We can’t make it here anymore
And that big ol’ building was the textile mill
That fed our kids and it paid our bills
But they turned us out and they closed the doors
‘Cause we can’t make it here anymore
You see those pallets piled up on the loading dock
They’re just gonna sit there til they rot
‘Cause there’s nothing to ship, nothing to pack
Just busted concrete and rusted tracks
Oh, Goddess, have pity on us all.
Happy Monday. I didn’t make it to the gym yesterday but I have my gym stuff today. And now that it will be light after work, I could walk outside. Though it is supposed to be rainy all week. Which is fine, we’ve been in drought conditions all winter so I will not complain about rain. Good meeting at candidate’s office yesterday. They want to do even more calling & door knocking for the runoff — I suggested postcards instead of knocking on doors & they did write it down. I think pretty soon, people will not open their doors to a stranger or even take a piece of literature. Thing is, in Austin there is never not something in the air that I am not allergic to; same goes for just about everyone here. So, yep I’m sneezing & occasionally coughing. Even on zyrtec. I’ll take a benadryl later.
Have had California on repeat for a while, early March has sad anniversaries for me.
I’ve seen for myself
There’s no end to grief
That’s how I know
That’s how I know
And why I need to know that there is no end to love
All I know and all I need to know is there is no end to love
Good Moon Day morning, Moosekind, and a Super Moon Day it was, too! Early this morning we were treated to the sight of a large, beautiful, pale gold Supermoon gradually sinking below the horizon of a clear, grey-blue sky. Dearly Beloved was just able to get a photo of it before it disappeared.
Currently it’s 39 F. in Ashburn, going up to 73 F. today. Birds were singing encouragingly a little while ago: “Yes, it is actually beginning to be spring!” and we’re about to have a beautiful day.
This is good, because this morning I plan to repot the peculiar-looking plant our DIL gave us for Christmas. I can’t remember the name she told me: all I know is that it looks as if it wants to be the Eiffel Tower. Its pot is too small so I really must put it in something larger this morning. This afternoon I have a 1:30 meeting of the Garden Club, next door. Imagine moi, the laziest person I’ve ever met, actually asking for and receiving a garden plot! However, if I don’t get a taste of sun-ripened, homegrown tomatoes this summer I shall go mad.
Speaking of mad, I was already furious all day yesterday as it kept on being an hour later than I wanted it to be. I still have Rosalie, the ugly cold sore at the corner of my mouth that is forcing me to skulk at home rather than mix in society. During the meeting this afternoon I’ll sit at the back of the room.
Today I might actually do something. Who knows? With the astounding lack of success I’ve had lately, it’s better not to predict anything. If I actually accomplish something, I’ll just let it be a happy surprise.
Wishing a good day to all at the Pond.
I hate cold sores Diana. I have found, in the past that Boroleum has helped
Thanks, ladies. I’ll bear Mercury Retrograde in mind and will investigate where to buy Boroleum.
Diana, we are still in a Mercury Retrograde (2/17 to 3/10) and will be through tomorrow. My own belief is that while the end of the retrograde will return some normalcy, things are not the way they should be until Mercury hits the point where it would have been before it started going retrograde (another few days, I believe).
It’s in the mid 50s, heading for mid 60s, raining – no, I didn’t get to see the moon (darn it) – and while the temps are going to go up and then back down over the next 10 days the sun isn’t expected to be seen. sigh. Yesterday we got 11.99 KWHs before the clouds moved in. The m-t-d is 92.7 and unless it clears off at least a bit I don’t see us getting to 100 until Wednesday or even Thursday. So much for that 400-KWH goal.
I am very, very lucky. I don’t have any prescription medications at all and only use a few OTC ones. I’m retired and don’t have to go out much anyway, no regular daily contact as when I was working. And while I wouldn’t like it, I’m good for food for up to a month although I’ll be out of “fresh” produce in 5 days, milk in 10, and all veggies in 15. That’s if I’m careful and ration the veggies. (Hey, I can augment with wild onion tops – my backyard is full of them right now.) And my income, at least unless the R really are suicidal as far as our country is concerned, is Social Security – the one stable source of revenue during downturns that can keep the economy from going under the tank rather than just in it. We shall see what we shall see.
I need to check in a few places and get some coffee. It’s dark enough I need the lights on. I’m surprised my PV system is on at all. Which it is even though it’s only generating in 2-digit watts. If it gets any darker it’ll go back into night mode. It’s true we need the rain – and long soakers are much better than short, flooding, bursts – but I need my sunshine. Healing/Helping Energy to everybody. Bright the day, Meeses. {{{HUGS}}}
Good morning, 31 and partly cloudy in Bellingham. Heidi was restless in the night and therefore so was I. She knows how to stare one awake, even in the dark. Our son will be back today and she will be glad to be back home.
I don’t know how it happened , but yesterday turned into a lost day. I’m going to blame it on the time change and try to cope better today. Best wishes to all.
Good morning, meeses! Tuesday …
It is 34 degrees in Madison with an expected daytime high of 46. Sunny skies are in the forecast but towards evening we are expected to see snow starting and continuing into the overnight hours with about an inch or two accumulation. We still have piles of snow here (we’ve had a LOT of snow this year) but there are little green shoots trying to come up in the beds where spring bulbs have been planted.
Holy moley! I am glad that my retirement does not depend on an investment portfolio – I have to live off Social Security and what I can earn. It would be disheartening to have to rebuild from scratch every time a Republican destroys the economy – been there, done that, spent all that money, now living month to month. People who were worried about Democrats taxing their wealth away should have been worried about Republicans pissing their wealth away by their terrible management of just about everything. I am trying hard to not overdose on Schadenfreude as the CPAC Virus dismantles Republican talking points about the “Democrat Hoax”; JHC, one of the attendees toured the CDC with tRump, I hope they didn’t infect our scientists because of their negligence!! By the way, if one more Republican Senator self-quarantines, they can’t confirm any more terrible judges for a while so there is a silver lining.
Go Michigan! Biden is projected to win by 21% to 41%. Will Bernie Sanders drop out? I suspect he will not be allowed to ratfk 2020 like he did 2016 – Hillary was too kind to him, not realizing that many of his supporters have a cult-like devotion to him and that #BernieOrBust was real and a threat to our democracy. We know now and we need to crush his movement now – no convention kumbaya.
I need to go to a client’s site today and I am a little nervous. I am not in one of the at-risk groups for dying from coronovirus but I also don’t want to get it and have to be quarantined. The University of Wisconsin-Madison just issued a warning to students and staff suggesting strongly that they do not travel during Spring Break – and reminding them that their health care coverage does not cover medical evacuations. So if they get sick, they are on their own to get back to Madison. People with HMOs are in the same boat – the out-of-network costs could be devastating if you are in quarantine for two weeks somewhere other than where you live. I am still working on my daughter to convince her to cancel her trip. Unfortunately, Delta Airlines is not giving refunds for cancellations of reservations made before March 1st – they sent an email saying that they are confident that they can keep their planes safe for passengers. That may change and would certainly affect her decision.
See all y’all later!
Ugly crap in Detroit
I made it to the gym yesterday, yay me! Just did a little workout since it had been so long — yes, I did a lot of long walks but that’s not like the intense thing of the elliptical machine. Anyway, here I am, enjoying my overnight oats & tea. And definitely not thinking about the beginning of The Stand or any other post apocalypse books. Here, have a happy, dance-y U2 song: Big Girls Are Best. I think it was shot in Brazil, just them being goofy, driving around and greeting fans.
Puerto Rico
Good Tiu’s Day morning, Meese! Let’s hope that it actually is a good Tuesday for us all. Currently it’s raining in Ashburn and 56 F. Later it’s going up to 71 F. and the rain showers will become intermittent—or so they say. The Metro section of our local paper informed us that winter is officially over for our area. All right. Goddess knows, the trees started budding and forsythia started popping out a good four weeks ago.
Looking forward to the results tonight, of course. Cards and prezzies have begun arriving for my birthday, so will spend some time emailing thanks today. I’m trying to do without cold meds today because I’m so sick of taking them.
There are plenty of chores to do around our flat, of course. I also have to think of funny stories for the April Fools’ issue. So far I’ve written three, all of which pertain in some way to food and diet. What does that say about the way my mind works? Quite a lot, none of it good.
There were a hundred people at the Garden Club meeting yesterday. I sat as far back and as far away from people as I could, with the result that I could hardly hear anything that was said. Thank Goddess there were handouts! At any rate, I suppose I have to limit myself to two tomato plants, which cuts out the cherry tomatoes. I’ll have to plant one regular tomato plant and one Sungold. I love Sungolds!
In the meantime, we hardly need to go out today as we seem to have everything, and it’s raining.
Let us hope that Saint Bernard of No Accomplishments is vanquished tonight! One hardly sees how he could run four years from now, given his age and state of health. One final aside: I gather from my Twitter feed that the crowd was ROARING for Kamala last night at the Biden rally! Dear Goddess, I love that woman.
Wishing a good day to all at the Pond, and yes, Beyond, so they won’t get coronavirus.
Happy Birthday Diana! Have you tried growing tomatoes in pots? We do sometimes and a pot of cherry tomatoes, warm from the sunshine, is a tasty treat. I had hoped to plant a vegi pot on the patio this year but the deer would be even better fed so tomatoes will grow behind the deer fence.
Hi, princesspat! I’ll consult some of the other gardeners as to whether that might be an option. I can’t grow them on our screened porch, which is always dark and always cold. It faces north. However, a pot might be a good idea and would still let me have the two other tomato plants.
{{{Diana}}} – Happy Birthday! ????????????????????????☕ – good luck with your garden. I keep trying to think of a way I could grow a pot of tomatoes on my porch so that the cats couldn’t get to it. Healing Energy for your cold & cold sore. moar {{{HUGS}}}
It’s 40 and overcast heading for 65 and maybe some afternoon sun. Which would be nice. The sooner the better in fact as that’s the only sunshine in the 10-day forecast. Yesterday it didn’t exactly clear off but around 4 pm the clouds lifted enough that we got just under 6 KWHs for the day. The m-t-d is 98.7 so depending on how much sunshine we get today we should at least get over 100 and potentially get up to 110. Meanwhile I have to have a lamp on to be able to see the keyboard clearly.
Aji went on a rant yesterday – well, 2 actually. A shorter one about people buying and hoarding masks to the potentially deadly detriment of those with medical conditions who need them. (This was after finding that even welding masks like Wings needs to do his work are being bought up and hoarded.) And then a longer angry-to-keep-from-being-depressed one on the fascist dystopia we’re in the early stages of. I only have 2 points of disagreement with her, which I most certainly am not going to bring up with her. The more minor one is Pelosi. I don’t know what Aji thinks Nancy could have done that she hasn’t done. Nancy’s done everything she has authority and the votes to do. (I’m afraid it comes back to something I’m definitely not bringing up – that I trust Aji but I don’t trust all her sources.) The other is Aji thinks martial law will be declared and elections will be cancelled in November. I totally disagree. Elections are not federally run. They’re done by the states to prevent that very thing. And there are a whole lot more things on the ballot than the president. Things that must be decided at the local level for the local government and community to function. And there’s no way to shut down the presidential election without shutting down everything. I think this is our last chance at relatively free and relatively fair elections. If we don’t stop the fascists this time they will have taken total control of the election apparatus – from registration to counting the ballots themselves – and while we would then still have elections…well, Stalin is reputed to have said it doesn’t matter who votes, it matters who counts the votes. One more thing we shall see what we shall see.
The Rs of course want the Social Security trust to be funneled into rich (white, fascist) people’s pockets. If they get away with it, that’s where I’m in trouble. Hopefully there are some serious mathematicians amongst the fascists who crunch the numbers and decide, maybe not. And some longer-sighted greedheads who know while a Crash is an excellent opportunity to scoop the pot, it only means anything if we come back up. Destroying it so thoroughly that we can’t recover makes money worthless. By not stealing our retirement funds they end up with them anyway as wealth trickles up and we spend it to live. Holding the Good Thought on that and so much more.
Headache and disturbed sleep along with the cloud cover isn’t helping my mood be hopeful at all. So. Healing/Helping Energy to everybody. Coffee and maybe some Ibuprofen. Bright the day, Meeses. {{{HUGS}}}
Good morning, 38 and cloudy in Bellingham. Our son is back so Heidi is home now and we sorta miss her! She has a big presence in our lives and given her age we know to appreciate every day.
I’ve got two more needlepoint canvas washed and stretched, but one has some broken and missing threads so I’m going to venture forth to a yarn shop today so I can mend it. It may be hard to find an exact color match, but I’ll get close and I don’t mind seeing repairs. Just adds to the patina of old things.
Covid virus impacts are starting to be more evident in our community so I’m continuing to be careful re where I go. According to today’s newspaper 17 people are being tested and one school district is closed for cleaning. I’m still sneezing from allergies so I have to be mindful re alarming other people as well as making sure I’m safe.
Best wishes to all as we wait for primary returns.
Wednesday morning mood.