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!
– Page Three of Comments is HERE!
–
Good morning, meeses! Wednesday …
It is 36 degrees in Madison with an expected daytime high of 63. Skies will be clearing later today as a cold front moves in and sends the overnight temperatures below freezing. The 14 day outlook shows us below normal temperatures for a while.
So the actual number of completely ignorant, unable to process simple ideas in America is 33%. That is what the Monmouth poll pegs the number who think the country is “on the right track” and also the same number who believe that we need to open up the economy rather than save lives. It appears that we will not be able to keep our Safer At Home order here in Wisconsin – our embarrassing Supreme Court appears on track to lift it with one justice, Rebecca Bradley, calling it “tyranny” and “just like Japanese internment camps” and Chief Justice Roggensack saying that there is no reason to stay locked down because the only people getting infected are in the meatpacking plants, not “regular folks.” The racist and classism – no filters needed in Trump’s America by Trump’s Party! Rebecca Bradley is the justice elected when the berners could not be bothered to vote down ballot in spring 2016 because their leader is a narcissistic old man who only cares about his own little revolution. Bernie Sanders is complicit in the current mess we are in and his followers should never be forgiven. Chief Justice Roggensack, by the way, is the oldest justice and we will have a chance to retire her in 2023 – if she doesn’t die from an infected grandchild, who I am sure is a “regular folk”, before then.
The White House coronavirus task force – which was nothing but a fig leaf and a daily fluffing for tRump’s fragile ego anyway, will be winding down. Dr. Birx can go back to her office and sit and contemplate her role in dooming hundreds of thousands of Americans to death because she thought that being in the room was more important than what she said when she was there. She is the poster child for “access” over the need to speak the truth, the same “access” that drives journalists to hold back on their reporting of the truth so that they don’t lose access to the people destroying our country. We should never forgive those who led us into a war in Iraq and covered up for Bush, thus helping him get “re”-elected in 2004 and who are not reporting the facts of Trump’s response to the global pandemic and paving the way for his “re”-election in 2020. Goddess help us if we can’t get our people motivated and safely to the polls this fall.
See all y’all later!
Well said, Jan. Handsome David Muir, whom I usually enjoy watching and listening to,
certainly covered himself with shame in that “interview” with Godzilla yesterday. Muir didn’t challenge Thing on a single lie!
I read about that! How embarrassing for him and ABC! I though I remembered that he had done a decent job during the 2016 debates and had not jumped on the “what about her emails” bandwagon. Now, they all want to be CNN whose ratings increased 160% because of their wall-to-wall coverage of the tRump shitshow.
Wednesday Meese
37 degrees here in Kingston NY going up to a rainy 56.
Following the lynching news.
#AhmaudArbery
Deplorable. That is Trump’s America.
They committed MURDER in broad daylight! Will they be arrested, tried, and convicted?
Effing white supremacists!
Puerto Rico
Another 2.25 mile morning. I was going to take a rest day, but there are so few cool mornings left I wanted to get out & appreciate this one. Anyway, it’s time to log in to the work laptop, snag some e-mails & voice mails & start working.
{{{anotherdemocrat}}} Always wise to take advantage of the cool mornings in Texas. Enjoy working at home as long as you’re able. Healing Energy and moar {{{HUGS}}}
Good for you, anotherdemocrat! I’ll try to get a walk between rain showers today.
It’s 55 heading for 70 and can’t make up its mind whether to be sunny or not. Is at the moment. Wasn’t when I logged on. The widget says mostly sunny – which is helpful as the next sunny day showing is Saturday. We got 19.8 KWHs yesterday and the m-t-d is 75. Not on track but not insurmountably short either. At the moment. We shall see what we shall see.
The Rs/Birchers/fascists/KKK – evil by whatever name – truly do not have any problem with full-blown pandemic killing millions of Americans. They are elitist and have no particular concern about their own “base” being sacrificed to take out BIPOC. By disease or violence. Lynchers or pseudo-militia. COVID-19 or cholera. Their fundie/religious arm has been pushing the “quiverful” movements to replace those white fools who fall in the process. Cannon fodder of a different kind. And their propaganda machine keeps telling them they’re invincible – won’t get sick, won’t get hurt, certainly won’t get dead. I’d feel sorry for them if they weren’t so joyously carrying out their genocidal orders. They will be stopped sooner or later. If sooner then by ballots. If later…well, history shows just how bad that will be. So we work as best we can to do it sooner. Do not become them but also do not ever forget they are evil. They kill for fun and profit at the top. Torture and kill for the joy of it at the Deplorable/Despicable base. It’s why we’re only strong together. We always need someone to guard our backs.
So gardening and recruiting our strength from the Spring/Summer and Nature. Taking care of ourselves and each other as best we can. Channeling Healing/Helping Energy to everybody to your shaping. Bright the day, Meeses. {{{HUGS}}}
Good rainy Wednesday morning, Moosekind! It’s 50 F. at 10:30 a.m. The high will be 56 F., or so they say. The rain they predicted for all day yesterday held off until bedtime, at which time the heavens burst forth with fury. It was raining when we woke up.
For once I was fully dressed and whining already b y 8:15 a.m. Dearly Beloved was scheduled to have a telemedicine conference at 8:20 a.m. in his office, which happens to be one end of our bedroom.
Tiny first-world problem: a while back everyone wanted to order a huge number of stamps from the post office to help keep it from going under. Well, the USPS received my money, all right, but I have yet to receive any stamps and it’s been WEEKS.
My allergies are kicking in big time this morning so I’ll be sniffling all day. Need to get something BIG done today, by Goddess! Lawks, it’s already May 6 and guess who hasn’t written an article for the quarterly. The deadline is June 1.
Not much to say today except that I continue to be heartsick because of white supremacy, outraged by Rethug behavior, and just generally furious with most things. Perhaps I can read my way to a better mood. Dearly and Monty are snoozing on the sofa in the living room, next to the bouquet of May flowers that our shopper brought yesterday.
Wishing a good day to all at the Pond and hoping for some GOOD news. Just good news for the country! Peace to all.
{{{Diana}}} – just {{{HUGS}}}
Thank you, m’dear! :)
I received my stamps about a week ago. They were sent in priority mail packets from someplace in Texas so it sounds like they might be a little disorganized. I hope you get yours soon! I used my first one, a Gwen Ifill, returning election papers for one of my representatives.
Good morning, 48 and raining in Bellingham. I’ve got the covid blues today, and nothing new to say so I’ll just wish everyone well. I need to have a chat with my inner therapist!
{{{princesspat}}} Hope your inner therapist – or your garden or both – help lift those blues a bit. Healing Energy and moar {{{HUGS}}}
Good morning, meeses! Thursday …
It is 46 in Madison with an expected daytime high of 59. Sunny this morning and clouding up this afternoon. I thought the cold front was moving in overnight last night but it is tonight with 32 degrees tonight and then 27 degrees overnight Friday into Saturday. Yikes! I was able to get some sun yesterday – the back deck gave me about 10 minutes but the clouds made it cool and drove me back inside.
I am going to go news-lite today to try to get caught up. I am finding that when I read too much news in the morning, it makes me grumpy and out of sorts and throws me off. Yesterday I had very good intentions and ended up doing nothing productive after reading about the pain and suffering that is the result of Republican “governance.” This morning’s headline on my NY Times newsletter was about people are starving and the Republicans refusing to increase food stamps. They had just finished cutting it back – because nothing is more motivation to go get jobs that don’t exist like starvation! Their cruelty is their defining characteristic. I hope the universe finds a way to “reward” them for their actions; this morning I was wondering if the stock market crash and trillions of dollars in lost wealth is a reward for the 2017 tax cut that funneled billions to the have-mores who put these guys in power. Unfortunately, the way our economy is set up, the have-nothings will end up taking the brunt of any economic downturn. The best we can hope for is that it makes them sweat a little.
The new White House goal is to keep the number of American deaths under 2.2 million – according to the latest spokesliar, anything less than that is “success”. :(
See all y’all later!!
Thursday Meese. 43 here in Kingston NY going up to 65.
RIP Sean Reid
Puerto Rico
Took a shorter walk today: 1.8 miles. Wanted to still enjoy the cool morning but not push as hard. Looked at the lovely full moon, it was a great walk. I’ve got a window open to let in the fresh, cool air. And now it’s time to snag some voice & e-mails and get to work.
You are lucky, to see the full moon, another! Here in dastardly DC, the foggy minds cause such a miasma that it wafts straight up into the sky, obscuring the full moon every month. One more thing to add to my list of gripes.
We have been seeing the fullish and full moon for several days. My bedroom is situated so that very often I get the moonlight right on me. This morning when I woke up at 3am, she was there, bathing me in light. I asked for protection for me and my family. I would be sad to have no moons!
Jan, you are so lucky to see it. I went out to the courtyard looking for it last night but never saw it. After a perfectly clear day we were swamped by clouds at moonrise.
Good thing I no longer have an active Circle that likes to do esbat rituals, because we’d never have one.
{{{anotherdemocrat}}} Anything close to 2 miles is good. And seeing the full moon is wonderful. As is fresh, cool air. Healing Energy & moar {{{HUGS}}}
Good Thursday morning, Meese! I’m in a really bad mood today. It’s sunny but extremely windy again. Current temp. in Ashburn is 47 F., going up to 67 F. I’ll believe it when I see it.
The dog is bugging me to DEATH, the news is so bad I’m ready to dive into a novel and not come up for air until dinner time (that’s my one form of escape, as I can’t do weed or alcohol), and the news keeps getting WORSE. Black people are being murdered for being alive while black, The Fiend is trying to demolish the ACA in the middle of a pandemic, locusts are destroying crops in Kenya, PR is being ignored, and in the year 2020 great big ol’ hairy men are trying to take away women’s right to contraception. May the crusty curse of Oliver Cromwell fall upon their poxy penises.
Oh, and to add to that jolly recital, my weight was 2 pounds over the max this morning, and it’s entirely my own fault, and my sleep was disturbed last night because Dearly was being chased by club-wielding demons in his nightmare. He shouted in some unintelligible language and started kicking against the covers. Dear Goddess, no wonder I’m as cross as two sticks this morning!
Have some unpleasant tasks to do today when I finish my morning cruise of the Net, so will get on with things. Hope everyone at the Pond will have a GOOD day. Ansi-soit-il.
{{{Diana}}} I wish it were even possible for a human to tire a beagle out. If so, I’d suggest a brisk walk long enough to quiet the dog because it would also be long enough to burn off some calories. Unfortunately, beagles being beagles, he’d be happy to keep going even after you were so tired you could barely hang onto his leash. Holding the Good Thought for a tolerable solution for you. In all the areas of concern. Healing Energy & more {{{HUGS}}}
LOL, bfitz! Monty is not a normal beagle. One reason I leave the daily dog-walking to Dearly is that the Mont-ster has to be BRIBED to walk more than five yards. He just sits down stubbornly and refuses to move until he receives a treat.
Luckily for us he seems to regard baby carrots interspersed with occasional chunks of Granny Smith apple as treats. Before, we bribed him with dog biscuits. We’re desperately trying to keep his weight down because he suffers when he’s overweight.
Thanks for the good wishes, though, I appreciate them! :)
Are you sure he’s pure beagle? He sounds more like a basset hound. LOL. moar {{{HUGS}}}
Bfitz, we’ve often wondered that ourselves. He has beagle ears but short, stubby legs.
If you can track her down, you might ask Sherry how she convinces her basset hounds to get any exercise. LOL. moar {{{HUGS}}}
It’s 52 heading for 70 and sunny at the moment. Forecast says that’s not gonna last long – clouds and maybe rain moving in by noon. sigh. I’ll probably need to haul the grow boxes back in under the carport. I keep moving them out into the yard (actually on the gravel ruts designated as my driveway) because they’re not getting enough sun even on the edge of the carport. They’re boxes so they can be moved – but they’re heavy. Yesterday was a bit coolish – more the breeze than anything else – but otherwise lovely. We generated 22.5 KWHs. That’s the best single day since early last August. The m-t-d is 97.5 – not on track but would be closing in if we’d just quit getting all these cloudy days setting us back. Oh well.
There has got to be a balance between being aware of what’s going on and being so overwhelmed as to not be able to function. Finding that balance is the problem. It’s so easy to be sucked into the horror of it when it’s coming at you non-stop. And so hard to understand and really hard to deal with those for whom if it didn’t happen to them, it’s not real – no more to them than the latest movie/TV/fantasy game they’ve seen. We do what we can – to protect ourselves and others, to find the balance for ourselves and others, to find the way out/do the work of getting out of this dreadful situation for ourselves and others. At least for white people the situation hasn’t reached Vichy France levels (for BIPOC it’s pretty much always been there & is reaching for occupied France levels). There is more required of us to get out of this than was required of my mother & grandmothers in WWII, if of a different kind, since the “Axis of Evil” is a disease and the party in charge of our own government. So we do our duty as best we can. Which really does take a balance.
And in a world that doesn’t care about politics or diseases – the natural world – Summer and Spring are doing their dance they do every year at this time. Step forward, step back, repeat – with sun, wind, & rain providing the music. The irises are still blooming although starting to get passed their prime. My peonies were cut down before they could bloom by the lawn people but my friend’s across the street were going gangbusters a few days ago (not her house any longer but she planted them when it was). The green beans in my box are doing well. The lettuces are still about the size of my fingernail, but they’re growing too. It’s hard to tell but I think the tomato is also growing. There’s fungus on most of the southeast side cherries but the ones on the north and west sides seem to be OK. My garden sage is blooming. So I will try to stay in tune with this world. Channeling Healing/Helping Energy to everybody to your shaping. Bright the day, Meeses. {{{HUGS}}}
Yes. That is what is stressing me today.
Good morning, 49 and sunny in Bellingham this morning. I’m slightly less grumpy this morning so I’m hoping for a better day. Yesterday I finally turned the music on and focused on sew masks so today I should finish that project. The evenings are nice now, and RonK likes to visit with neighbors from the front porch so if he will just please stop volunteering my sewing I’ll be done sooner!
I’m going to treat myself to a new book, Cultivated: The Elements of Floral Style The arrangements are inspiring and may even motivate me to start filling my empty vases again.
Best wishes to all on this sunny morning in May.
{{{princesspat}}} Hoping for a quiet, productive, inspiring day for you. Healing Energy and moar {{{HUGS}}}
I’ve decided that tomorrow is my rest day from the early morning walks. APD helicopter has been circling my neighborhood since around 4. Like, right overhead. Pretty intensely. APD twitter account used the hashtag #whatthehelicopter.Yes, I’m sure they will have caught the person by 6 tomorrow morning. 90% sure. It’s that 10% that has me saying maybe tomorrow I won’t go walking in the pre-dawn hour, and definitely not down that stretch of Grover that doesn’t have the big wide well-lit sidewalk. (if I committed a crime & knew the neighborhood, that’s where I’d hide, it’s 2+ blocks of tree-shaded, sidewalk-less, buildings that are empty right now) Rest days are good.
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!
I would be willing to bet that Scott Walker intentionally ignored the need to upgrade because he wanted the unemployment compensation system to suck. Bastids.
Jeez!
Friday Meese
It’s (brrrrrr) 37 degrees here in Kingston NY going up to a rainy 56.
Almost everything is moved from old house to new – will be headed back for last trips of schlepping today after taking hubby to doc this morning to find out if MRI results can identify why he is in such pain from his shoulder and still unusable left arm and hand.
Situation in Puerto Rico still sucks.
Goddess help poor old PR, because no one else is.
Good morning, meeses! Friday …
It is 34 degrees in Madison with an expected daytime high of 46. Sunny skies are in the forecast but there will be no basking in the sun today, I suspect!!
Still no word from the racist classist Wisconsin Supreme Court about whether they will end Governor Evers Safer-at-Home order. The coronovirus public health emergency declaration runs for 60 days and will expire on Monday unless the legislature extends it. Considering that they think the SAH order is “tyranny” and “like Japanese internment camps” it is unlikely they will do that. If the court ends the SAH order (which is a separate order, extending SAH to 5/26), the legislature will have to come up with their own reopening plan – Evers already has one which they rejected. It is possible that the court will end the order with no plan and unleash chaos. I would hope that the business community will respond by adhering to the SAH orders rather than opening up willy nilly. I suspect that the ones in the cities will (they have attorneys who should be warning them about lawsuits) but the Mom and Pop “Fishin’ and Huntin’ Bellies Up to the Bar” in northern Wisconsin will likely throw their doors open. Goddess help them – our health department has said that rural healthcare facilities are not equipped to take care of them if there is a serious outbreak when tourists from all over the state and the region show up there. I hope they blame the Republican legislative leaders and their party’s president when they get sick and die but if history is any indication, they won’t – they will probably blame it on those “not regular folks” who were forced to go to work in food processing plants even when they were sick.
The father and son lynching “team” in Georgia was arrested – finally. We are still not sure that justice will be done. That it took almost 3 months to even investigate the obvious crime is not a hopeful sign.
The CDC’s plan for a careful reopening has been tossed in the trashcan. For people bemoaning that the work they did is important, don’t cry for them. They chose to be political rather than scientific and destroyed all their credibility in the process – no one there NO ONE spoke out about it and put their job on the line. A rehabilitation of the integrity of the CDC will require a new administration dedicated to science and maybe a director with a term of office like the SEC chairman rather than a political appointee who is there only to cover up for the party in power. We are now confronting a pandemic without any scientific guidance at the federal level. :(
See all y’all later!
Good morning, Moosekind. Friday, like most of the other days in NoVa this past week, is El Ugly, with cloudy skies prevailing now and later. Right now it’s 52 F., with rain coming this afternoon or evening. Tomorrow there will be snow, or so they say. I’ll believe it when I see it.
Had a completely unproductive, useless day yesterday. I also ate too much, Goddess help me. Tuned out so much I didn’t even go for a walk. Last night as I tried to go to sleep my entire life passed through my mind. I’ve danced on the bridge at Avignon, ridden up the stairs to Oia on muleback, ridden camels around Petra, the “rose-red city half as old as Time,” and seen the walls of the Waitomo caves glowing blue with the light given off by the worms that nest there. So if I pop my clogs, I’ve had a pretty interesting life in some respects.
So far we have had four deaths here, and they were all in the Maple Grove building, which is the hospital-assisted living-memory care part. There is one recovered case in Independent Living and one actively ill with the virus. Some staff are still being treated but some have already recovered.
As I did absolutely nothing yesterday, I can only hope today will be better. Best wishes to all at the Pond.
This seems to be what is happening with my attempts at sleep: “as I tried to go to sleep my entire life passed through my mind.” Even when the trying-to-fall-asleep starting-to-wake-up thoughts are NOT past life events, they quickly morph to that – think about a pet pic I saw on the Internet, remember a pet pet I had and how they died. :( I am hoping it is just temporary pandemic dreams, I really need to go back to “normal”, whatever that is.
Sleeping in was great. I have done enough extra hours that I can knock off early this afternoon and walk, and there’s a cold front coming through so it shouldn’t be too hot to do that. I’m going to set reminders so I don’t miss the afternoon music breaks any more.