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!
– Page Three of Comments is HERE!
Good Tiu’s Day morning, Meese. It barely is morning, I’m so late getting here. I had the Night from Hell again. Feeling very sleepy by 9:30 last night, I decided to skip the melatonin pill for once and try to sleep without it. BIG mistake! I finally tottered into the living room at midnight, read for a while, and drifted off at 3 or so. Woke up at 6:30 feeling tired and hoarse.
This morning I looked at the packaging on one of the muffins that was delivered with the rest of our food. It’s a chocolate muffin with chocolate chips, too awful to even contemplate, let alone consume. It’s 460 calories, people, with 39 grams of sugar! That’s one-fourth of a man’s total calories for the day and one-third of a woman’s daily intake. Needless to say, we are NOT going to eat anything like that. I know the poor dears are doing their best and conceivably they were caught a bit short, but jeez! (First-world problem, I realize.)
I know I’m going to crash after lunch. Oh, I forgot to mention the weather, which is rill ugly. Cloudy today and 46 F. at the moment. It’s supposed to un-cloud and go up to 59 F. later but I’ll believe it when I see it.
HE wants life to go back to normal so he can brag about the stock market. HE is utterly incapable of relating to the lives of ordinary people. If we turn on the news at 6 p.m. and see him, Scarf Lady, Barr-Barr, and the rest of that crew, we’re switching channels.
Wishing a decent day to all at the Pond.
{{{Diana}}} – I hope your day gets better. Since you’re in quarantine naps won’t be disrupting. If you can take them it’s probably a good plan. I think squirrels and birds can handle chocolate – I know cats and dogs can’t – so you might pulverize that muffin and spread it under the nearest tree when you take Monty out for his business meeting. They certainly can use the energy to deal with the rain and weather yuk. Commercial muffins – GF or regular – are why I make my own. moar {{{HUGS}}}
Good morning, 42 and cloudy in Bellingham. My inner clock is off! I can’t stay awake early in the evening, wake up around 1:00 am, finally go back to sleep about 4 hrs later, sleep another 4 or so hours, and then the day is underway with out me. Oh well, I’m not going anywhere so I guess it doesn’t matter what I do or when I do it.
Out son is still experiencing some symptoms so he’s staying quarantined and his friend is still in hospital and still waiting for test results. He is in isolation and being treated for the virus regardless. Looks like when/if our son is referred for a test it won’t matter because he will prolly be recovered enough to test negative. So we are assuming he has the same virus. A local nursing home has 32 new COVID cases so that will rightfully take precedent for the few tests available in our community. Wa State now has an official stay at home order but it won’t change our situation because that’s what we are doing anyway!
Best wishes to all on what every day this is in virus land.
{{{princesspat}}} – that sleep pattern is your “animal body” pushing you back into the natural “safe” routine other primates follow. The one you – and I and the rest of us – were trained into is totally a manipulation of the land & company owners both for their own benefit (more work in daylight hours) and to keep us off balance so we don’t gather together and tell them to take a long walk off a short pier. Healing Energy for you, your son, and all your family/friends. moar {{{HUGS}}}
Good morning, meeses! Wednesday …
It is 34 degrees in Madison with an expected daytime high of 57. Cloudy this morning then showers off and on throughout the day.
Wisconsin is officially on a stay-at-home order. The list of places that are deemed essential seems about right – banks can stay open but I have to find out if it will be all branches of my bank or just some. I have a few deposits to make and I really wish they had kept the free scan-your-check-deposits feature so I could stay home. It didn’t work with modern browsers so instead of upgrading it, they removed it. I can scan checks using my phone – thanks but no thanks. My phone is a malware vector and I don’t put any financial information on it and certainly not scanned checks. Off to the bank, it is! I think I can wait until the end of the week but probably not much longer.
It sounds like the Senate agreed on a stimulus package. I suspect that the only way Democrats got what they wanted was to increase the size of the package – giving Republicans their gifts to their donors while allowing us to add the help for workers, hospitals and states. It is disgusting that adding “workers, hospitals, and states” required fighting tooth and nail while Friends of Mitch are handed pots of cash without question. Our priorities are warped. It is also telling that a financial crisis with a Republican president gets unlimited recovery funds while the crisis that was handed to President Obama to fix got almost no Republican support and probably caused the Great Recession to drag on lots longer than it needed to.
Today I have some projects related to helping people stay at home as well as a few accounting projects. It is nearly the end of another month again and I have things from February end of month that still need to get done! I stayed up as long as I could to try to get my sleep cycle back in sync and I managed to sleep through most of the night – I got up only about a half hour earlier than my “normal” time. It probably helps that I got my traveling out of the way and got my daughter’s online classroom infrastructure set up and ready to go. My “must do” list is done and I am just working on my regular “to do” list.
See all y’all later!
That’s exactly the reason I transact NO financial business on my phone or my tablet! Those devices are small and portable. My laptop at home is set up as if it were a desktop, and I’m the only person who ever uses it. So far this has worked pretty well.
Good luck getting to the bank! Our campus bank is closed. I’m glad I got some cash out before all this happened, although frankly, there’s nothing to spend it on as we no longer go out.
I am not going to get cash – apparently people aren’t even taking it! In good times, our cash is a breeding ground for microbes – now it could have a deadly virus on it. :(
Well, as there’s nothing to spend it on anyway, it can just go on living in its little hiding place in my office. ;)
I have one of those, too, and it is all pre-virus cash. ;)
Can money be laundered? Seriously, what if I slipped it into my jeans pocket next time I wash colored clothes?
Yes, “paper” dollars survive being washed in jeans’ pockets no problem. Be sure you don’t put it in anything you’re bleaching though. Yeah, they survive that too but they look really weird. LOL
Good Wednesday Meese. 32 going up to 46 here in Saugerties NY
Puerto Rico
This. Ad.
Will find out today if & how work at home will be done. I don’t know if they have enough laptops or if mine is capable of having whatever installed. Got up to 92 here yesterday & will again today, probably tomorrow too. Didn’t get in a walk yesterday, will try again today. Yesterday’s song thread among my U2 friends was “best song with “love” in the title/lyrics”. Love Is Bigger Than Anything In Its Way was one of the most popular choices.
Good Woden’s Day morning, Moosekind! It’s rainy out there, which is OK. Currently the temperature is 44 F., going up to 47 F. If the rain lets up a bit this afternoon I’ll still go for my walk. I quite like walking in the rain if it’s not coming down heavily.
We had an 8-hour sleep last night, which was just like getting a birthday present. Could this be because Dearly Beloved opened the bedroom window a few inches? We’ve rarely opened the window in the past because this campus is right under the flight path to IAD, which makes having afternoon tea on the screened porch well-nigh impossible in the summer. However, there are hardly any flights nowadays.
Wonder if Thing will sign the huge stimulus bill. I could weep when I think of all the hourly employees who don’t have any money coming in. I could scream, wail, and gnash my teeth at the thought that New York City, which needs 30,000 ventilators, is getting a measly 4,000 because Thing doesn’t like anyone in New York. May Sekhmet the Blood Drinker haunt Thing’s horrid dreams at night, and may the fleas of 1,000 pariah dogs infest his innermost crevices so that he itches to the point of madness.
I would invoke the crusty curse of Oliver Cromwell to fall upon his poxy penis, but unfortunately that organ is too tiny to accommodate the crusty curse.
Well, having relieved myself of that little rant, I will shut up for a while. We’re going to run out of baby carrots for the dog’s reducing diet, but we’ll have to make do. My husband refused to let me return the loathsome chocolate and blueberry breakfast muffins, so now we’re stuck with them. We haven’t opened the granola bars either. We’re afraid our teeth will break off and fall out if we try to eat them.
Wishing everyone at the Pond as nice a day as possible. Goddess knows we need one.
{{{Diana}}} – For the granola bars, chop them up and add them to your oatmeal. If you cook the oatmeal actually on the stove as opposed to microwave or instant, add the chopped granola bars to it while it’s cooking. As in one bar between the two of you in the whole pot of oatmeal.
Other than feeding the muffins to the squirrels you can made dessert with them. There’s a 1920s magazine recipe for that. I can’t find it online but it’s in a cookbook called “Forgotten Recipes” (Jaine Rodack, 1981). If it’s online somewhere the recipe is called “1920 Cold Chocolate-Crumb Pudding” (page 157). It’s probably not so here’s the recipe. Turn the muffins into crumbs (you need 1 cup) and put them into the top of a double boiler with 1-1/2 c milk and let soak. Stir in 1-1/2 oz chocolate (melted & cooled) and 3/4 c sugar. Cook over boiling water until it makes a smooth paste. Meanwhile beat together 3 egg yolks, 1/2 c milk, 2 Tbsp melted butter, and 1/4 tsp salt until thickened. Gradually stir into the crumb mixture and heat, continually stirring, until the whole lot is thickened. Remove from heat and add 1/2 tsp vanilla extract. Pour into a greased pudding dish and bake at 325 for 25 minutes. Remove from oven to cool but have the oven preheating to 425. Make meringue with the 3 egg whites and 1/2 c powdered sugar while pudding is cooling, then spread over the top. Bake the meringue-topped pudding for 5 minutes or until the meringue is light brown. Chill before serving.
Considering how much sugar is already in those muffins I personally would blow off the added sugar entirely. I’d also use 2 Tbsp cocoa instead of the melted chocolate. (& skip it altogether for the blueberry one). I’d also do whole eggs in the pudding and spread softened cream cheese on top instead of doing meringue. But that’s just me. LOL.
Glad you got a good night’s sleep. {{{HUGS}}}
Wow, bfitz, thanks bigly for the suggestions! Quite impressive!
However, as all the food they give us is extremely high in sugar anyway, I don’t think I’ll make puddings. I emailed a neighbor on the fifth floor to ask if she, too, had received 10 tubs of coleslaw and she said yes. She also said she was investigating whether we could donate unopened, uneaten food to the food bank.
I don’t know whether this will happen, but it would be nice to think of children, who use up a lot of energy, getting those snacks.
It’s 44 going up to 73 and mostly sunny here in Fay., AR – which is so nice. Yesterday after the rain cleared off it got sunny and stayed sunny – we generated a hair over 16 KWHs and the m-t-d is 236.9 which means we’ll probably get over 300 for the month with our 7 production days left. Maybe. It would take a miracle – July-type max production – to get us over 350 and 400 isn’t possible. But over 300 and I’m still banking electricity for the future. And sunshine is good, even if it does make me want to get out and garden. LOL.
I hope our team held line on the funds for Indigenous – both rez and urban – as with women’s and other “minority” issues, Indigenous issues are so often used as bargaining chips. Considering the crowding and lack of good nutrition, not even counting piss-poor healthcare, that goes with poverty – and what percentage of Indigenous population lives in poverty – this is going to hit them harder than just about any other group anyway. Right up there with Puerto Ricans. We Dems need to put those dollars where our mouth is and get them all what they need to fight this pandemic. We can’t stand by and watch the Rs commit genocide and expect brownie points for not approving of it. We have to stop it.
“My” folks – are holding line but the line keeps moving. And every day of no progress is actually losing ground as the days to by and the next round of bills get closer with no revenue to match. Health issues not being attended to for lack of money or fear of contagion. And I can’t help with either – at least not any more than the piddly, insufficient bits I’m giving now to the most needful. So more prayer and invocations and Channeling Healing/Helping Energy to everybody. Coffee at least helps with pollen-induced headaches. And I do have coffee. So. Everybody stay as safe as you can. Bright the day, Meeses. {{{HUGS}}}
Good morning, 41 and I see some sunlight in the morning sky. I’m used to seeing clouds outside my window it seems unusually bright to my sleepy eyes.
Our son’s friend was released from hospital for home recovery yesterday which is good news for him. Our son is still feeling achy and fatigued but his chest congestion continues to improve and his sense of taste and smell are back so his appetite is returning. I read the reports of new COVID cases in the paper every morning, but I know they are not accurate because all of the people our son was traveling got sick and none of them were tested. And so far there has been no attempt to contact people they may have infected. Our son has tried to contact his doc for guidance re how long to stay in quarantine but he keeps hitting a roadblock in the form of a very grouchy and unhelpful nurse so we are trying to figure this out on our own. We’ll muddle through but it’s alarming to experience such a response.
I worked on my needlepoint pillow project for awhile yesterday and it felt good to focus on something more than tRump/virus angst. The canvas was used on a footstool so it had several places where the stitches were broken and worn, and my first attempt at replicating the original stitches failed. But yesterday I finally got it right. The color match isn’t perfect but the mending looks like I know what I’m doing. I hope to sew the trim and backing on today.
Best wishes to all on this sunny March morning.
Thursday Meese. 32 going up to 59 here in Saugerties NY
Our NY Gov continues to do a phenomenal job – as we battle here under horrid conditions for health care workers.
Trump still refusing to send us what we need. This is the
result:
Puerto Rico
Whatever is happening here, it’s 10 times worse in Puerto Rico. :(
Morning, meeses! Thursday …
It is 43 degrees in Madison with an expected daytime high of 46. Showers expected all day.
The Senate passed the $2.2 trillion dollar economic rescue package and it was sent to the House. Chuck Schumer is the worst negotiator and got his ass handed to him – as he always does. I wish we had a person with Nancy Pelosi’s chops in the Senate. The Republicans don’t have a majority right now with some of their members in quarantine, Schumer had plenty of leverage but he is just too blinded by his white male privilege to understand what actual people need. We will get some money for families and a generous unemployment package and a few pennies to the states but the cost is to give money with no strings attached to Republican donors and Boeing, for crying out loud! Mnunchin will run the slush fund and make sure Trump Org gets their cash and the worst thing is that you know damn well that in 2 years Republicans will start looking at killing the grannies who survived the pandemic by cutting their Social Security and Medicare/Medicaid. And any Democrat who buys into “fiscal responsibility” in the face of the 2017 Tax Cut and this gift to Republican donors should be drummed out of the party. Profligate spending – we can do it too and we sure as hell better. Our infrastructure sucks and rural kids will have no school because they have no Internet. We can’t afford for red counties to get stupider!!
I slept like hell and probably got a total of two hours of actual sleep. Today, I need to figure out a way to concentrate on accounting projects for long enough to get them done which is difficult even when I am fresh after a good night’s sleep.
Today would have been opening day for Major League Baseball. I thought I would be sadder but I have so much sadness for what our country has become, I have no more sads to give. People said the Orange Orshole’s televised liefest yesterday was worse than usual with him accusing “his enemies” of wanting to hurt his re-election by talking about the pandemic and missteps when they should be talking about his brilliant leadership. His going on TV and lying about the danger of this virus is going to get people killed. I have to see if there is a way shut out the news for a while, it is ripping the scabs off the wounds from Nov. 9, 2016 and I need a break.
See all y’all later!
Got in a 2 mile walk yesterday morning, going for more today. Watched the Harry Potter movies again — wondering how long the SyFy channel will keep that up, I glad they are, the movies are comforting & they’re about friendship, loyalty & standing up to wrongheaded authority, things we need right now. Today I’ll do some housework, since I can’t connect to our database from home. And, since they’re on again, watch Harry Potter.
Good Thursday morning, Moosekind. It’s clear and sunny here in Ashburn, with a current temp. of 43 F., going up to 62 F. Good weather for a walk.
Jan, I feel for you with the lack of sleep! Hope you can get a nap. I had a horrible night too but mine was my own fault. I stayed glued to my laptop screen until 10:30 at night and did not wear the protective yellow glasses. I’ll behave better today.
This lockdown is hard on the extroverts. I saw one sitting in the empty Pub yesterday, talking to two friends who were less than 6 feet apart in armchairs on each side of her. I keep wondering whether to go to the grocery store but I’m afraid to. I hear the stores don’t want people to use reusable bags during this crisis because a lot of reusable bags are contaminated. I was going to wash all mine but I suppose I’ll defer that little chore for a while.
I VERY MUCH dislike AOC, who threatened to vote “No” on the bill. I wish Nancy Pelosi were president. I also wish Biden’s daily conferences would be nationally televised.
Not much to say except that I need to scurry around and get some things done before collapsing. I can see my office floor now, isn’t that nice? Onward and upward!
Wishing as nice a day as possible to all at the Pond.
I don’t fault Speaker Pelosi for accepting this bad bill because of the good things that are in it (someone also pointed out that with this Supreme Court, the strings we needed attached would probably be unenforceable anyway). In a better world, we would shame and boycott those corporations who dipped their hands into the Mnunchin slush fund but in tRump’s America, the rapacious corporation are shameless. After the 2017 Tax Cut Bill, when CEOs rushed to cash in personally rather then re-invest the benefits, there is really no expectation that they will do anything different. When President Biden gets sworn in, he needs to assign his Treasury Secretary to find and expose those who put their personal profit over the health of We The People and make sure everyone knows of their assholery. Maybe he can change the federal procurement process to drop them from the approved vendors list?
Welp, it’s already warmer outside (71) than it is inside (64) and heading for mid 80s. The lawn guy is mowing my back yard so I can’t open the windows yet. I think I’m the only customer he has left and he needs the money. How I’m gonna pay him (at least the cash I’ve got in the house is pre-pandemic) without breaking quarantine…I’m thinking about it. I wanted him to wait until next week but the grass is pretty high, the ground has firmed up since the last rain, and we’re expecting more rain over the weekend. Anyway the sun is shining and that’s good. We got 17.77 KWHs yesterday – another “highest single day since early last September” day – and the m-t-d is 255. We’ve got 6 production days left including today. We shall see what we get but at least 300 would be nice. Not good but nice.
I’m worried about…well, a lot of people. Some are living a few feet from the edge, some are right on it, and at least one is mostly over and barely managing to hang on by her fingernails – and getting tired. I don’t blame Pelosi for what Schumer bargained away any more than I blame her for Lie-berman pulling the public option from the ACA – but it’s really maddening to see her send good bill after good bill over to the Senate and watch them kill some of the more significant long-term parts. But some of those significant parts Schumer allowed to be dealt away would have made a world of difference to some of my friends who are barely hanging on.
My older cats have been having problems with (TMI) and the vet, who’s just started doing TeleVet – not that I can do that as my computer doesn’t have a camera or a mic but at least it means I can email him – said to take the guys off even that little bit of canned food I’ve been giving them every morning. This is the first day and Cloud was the only cat really looking for it. He’s also the one who’s got the biggest issue. So we shall see what we shall see. If it works lovely – but I’ll have to find another way to get enough fluids in them. Boy cats and dry food are a recipe for crystals. Charlie is the one with a history of crystals. I gave him some diluted chicken broth (no salt or spices). Nobody else wanted any but Charlie lapped it up and looked for more. We shall see what we shall see.
I think I need coffee. Healing/Helping Energy to everybody. Bright the day, Meeses. {{{HUGS}}}
Good morning, 44 and partly cloudy in Bellingham. Our son’s friend finally got his test results yesterday afternoon and he’s positive for COVID. So now maybe the health dept. will contact our son and the other people Scott has been in contact with. Our son is still coughing so he’s staying quarantined, but now maybe the unhelpful nurse at his Dr. office will take his call :(
Our Edmunds daughter is now working from home which is a relief to me. She’s frustrated re working on a cheap Chromebook with a faulty connection to her office computer but she has less public contact and that’s safer.
Seems like all I managed to do yesterday was worry, so I’m going to try to keep my worried state of mind more calm today. Best wishes to all.
Princesspat, hope your son can be tested! Truly, your worrying is justified. This is such an awful time. Good wishes and healing vibes coming your son’s way!
{{{princesspat}}} Holding the Good Thought and sending Healing Energy to you and your family. I hope you can find something calming for today. I know you can’t help worrying & there’s no but to follow that. Take care of yourself as best you can. moar Healing Energy, moar {{{HUGS}}}
Something to smile about
pictures from this morning’s walk:
Oh. Great. Goddess.
You’re famous!!!!
Good morning, meeses! Friday …
It is 34 degrees in Madison with an expected daytime high of 54. This morning we are supposed to have mixed precipitation then cloudy skies and rain this evening.
It feels weird to talk about “days of the week” and “the weather” because nothing seems normal! I generally have Weather Nation on my TV as white noise and there are all the weather people who are reporting on rain, snow, storms and the like in the ordinary way as a global pandemic swirls around us. I am trying to understand what has to happen before it is not dangerous to go out of my house and mingle with people – I am hoping there is some clarity when the number of cases spikes – if it does! I tested out the “shop from home” options at my local grocery store. I set up a shopping basket with the things we need for the next week and then clicked the button to start the check-out process. The earliest date for using their shoppers and pickup would be next Tuesday! Obviously that is not going to work – I would be out of bread by then. So we will have to go to the store and do our own shopping. There are a lot of good articles and videos with advice on how to safely shop; the biggest one is to simply expect the virus to come back with the items you purchase and to wash your hands a lot after handling the packages.
I saw a tweet that suggested that the reason tRump is getting good grades on his handling of the pandemic response is because people are getting their news from the nightly news shows which are editing out the insanity, showing only a brief clip of the one or two seconds that he says something remotely presidential and then showing the health experts to explain what is going on. The latest plan, to open up the red counties and keep the blue counties closed, is a recipe for disaster. I expect the spread to get much worse before it gets better and I hope the cities have a way to test the people coming in from the Trump virus areas and bar them from returning to reinfect us. Goddess, I wish we had real scientists helping set policy in the government!
One more thing to worry about – the homeless children and those with no electronic devices and Internet who will miss out on a chance at an education. This was a problem before the pandemic and one that will have serious ramifications going into the future. We desperately need a caring and proactive federal government response to this crisis and the disparities in online education.
See all y’all later!
The lack of laptops or tablets for so many kids is horrid and those who were using the library can no longer do so.