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!
–
Wednesday Meese. Cloudy and 71 going up to 86 with thunderstorms later here in Kingston NY.
Breonna Taylor
I’m glad her name is being remembered! All the names of the slain should be remembered.
Puerto Rico
Oh, my Goddess, the poor souls!
They’ve actually issued a heat advisory. Do you know how hot it it has to be for them to do that here? Ugh. Anyway, today: mostly answering voice mails, I’ve got all but one of my new people set up. And listen to U2 radio.
Good morning, Moosekind! Bright and sunny today. Our current temp. in Ashburn is 78 F., on its way up to 91 F. It’s a good day to stay IN, but it is necessary for me to waddle down to the garden patch to water the vegetables. One thing I’ll do today is follow princesspat’s suggestion to check the roots of my plants. For a Witch, I have a really black thumb.
Apparently—although this is unconfirmed—Ghislaine Maxwell has been placed on suicide watch. Nothing would surprise me at this stage. Too many powerful people are involved in that nasty mess to allow her to talk.
Wishing all at the Pond a good day!
It was 69 at dawn, already 73, and heading for 90 (heat index 95 – I hope). I’ll need to close up by 8:30. We’ve been getting mostly cloudy afternoons – no rain, just clouds – so yesterday we generated 16 KWHs and the m-t-d is a losing ground 123.8 – sigh.
I think Aji’s losing ground too. The woman’s in so very much pain, chronic and acute. And the bills. The ordinary ones would be a stretch but doable if it weren’t for all the things they shouldn’t have to be paying. Like repairs that wouldn’t be necessary if the original very expensive job had been done right. And that’s been from the get-go on their house – electrical rewiring, septic system installed 3x, “mudding” the walls inside and out, this is the 3rd round on the plumbing (at least they now know and are fixing the root problem that was behind previous repair needs) – that’s at least $20K worth repairing/replacing ripoffs. Not counting the work they did themselves (like sealing the doors, wooden frames, and deck). As for the over $50K in hospital/medical…so much for treaties that promise to cover medical/healthcare. I double-dog dare anybody in the 90% to get hit with $70K debt – even if it wasn’t a situation of they wouldn’t owe it if others did what they were supposed to – and not have it impact their ability to cover regular expenses. It ain’t right. Most folks in my “know by name” group are dealing/have dealt with “it ain’t right” situations (including somebody who taught for many years at less than half what AR pays its adjuncts, ahem) but they’re making it. Aji’s been doubled down on so many times, she’s just not.
World’s out of balance. In so very many ways. Evil is running rampant through the streets. Only together can we block it then stop it. Only as community do we survive much less thrive. So. Channeling Healing/Helping Energy to everybody everywhere, to your shaping. Bright the day, Meeses. {{{HUGS}}}
Good morning, 61 and partly sunny in Bellingham. The little dogs are busy keeping me in their sights and claiming every inch of the bed. I feel like a dog pillow this morning :)
I finally made it to the garden shop yesterday and had a nice visit with Mary and Wally. As I suspected the plants I usually buy are scarce now, but there are still options. I just need to be creative and stick to my “keep it simple” plan.
Best wishes to all.
Thursday Meese. We have heat advisory here in Kingston NY – right now it’s 69 and foggy – temp going up to 93-94
Puerto Rico
Not a record-setting warm morning today, but it is still really hot. Going in to the office this morning because I got all my new people set up. Keeping the trip as short as possible not just because of the heat, but because of the scary news — we are setting records of new cases, and it is airborne. So woohoo. Anyway, loving listening to music while I work, the app mutes itself when I make a call so I don’t have to do anything at all.
It’s 77 already heading for 90s and heat index close to 100. The only reason we don’t have a heat advisory is we’ll be getting a few hours of lower 80s just after noon when a narrow line of thunderstorms blow through. But it’ll go right back up with increased humidity as soon as they do. The afternoon clouds have been decreasing the electricity generation. Yesterday’s was 17.6 (m-t-d 141.6 – not on track and losing ground) on a day that if sunny would have generated 24 or even 25. But as long as I’m not running the A/C I’m still generating more than I’m using. Not sure how much longer I can do that though. As we always said in TX, it’s not the heat, it’s the humidity.
My son will be here in about 45 minutes. Hold the Good Thought. I’m going out today. Yes, I’ll be masked (well, bandana’d) and the city has a mask ordinance. We’ll see if it’s being followed. Anyway I’m going to Aldis – I seem to run out of what I get there faster than what I get at the Co-op or Harps – but that’s incidental. If I weren’t going out anyway I’d wait on that. What I’m going out for is Credit Union to set up that separate account to hook to PayPal and get a debit card (which I don’t want) so I can send folks money or ecards without being hit with cash advance fees. And then to PetSmart as I just opened the last bag of kibble. That’s the real driver. The others have waited and could wait longer – but I always want an unopened bag of food for the cats in the house. I may get pizza for dinner tonight when I take the car back to him.
Meanwhile, the nation and the world are in overlapping emergencies that impact all of us, whether or not we know it. And at this point folks really have to be willfully blind not to see at least some of it. My friends/family/folks online and off certainly are being clobbered to one degree or another and know it. Channeling Healing/Helping Energy to everybody everywhere, to your shaping. Need to go do some online stuff before my son gets here. Since my dyslexia is kicking up (not to mention what the changing pressure is doing to my joints) that will take some time. Bright the day, Meeses. {{{HUGS}}}
Good morning, meeses! Thursday …
It is 79 degrees in Madison with an expected daytime high of 81. Chance of thunderstorms throughout the day.
Today SCOTUS will finish up their 2019-2020 term. I expect that they will protect their party’s leader and not allow his tax returns to be used by any government entity wanting to investigate his crimes. It will be interesting to see which cases they intervene in on an emergency basis before their 2020-2021 term starts sometime in September. I hope that a stay can be put on tRump’s racist visa plan for college students but I am sure that will be one appealed to the Supreme Court before school starts.
Too busy today – I have to get back to it.
See all y’all later!
Good Thursday morning, Moosekind! It is still morning. When I woke up, the sky was a beautiful crystalline blue. Went for a walk at 7:30 so I could get it over with before it became too hot. By the time Dearly took the dog out at 9:30-ish, puffy white clouds had started piling up. Don’t know why I get such a kick out of that, but I do. Currently in Ashburn the temperature is 83 F. on its way up to a humid 92 F. No rain today, but possibly tomorrow.
Was trying to remember why today’s date seemed significant in my life and then remembered. It was 55 years ago today that I landed at Washington Dulles Airport from London. My mother, who did not have a car, asked one of her colleagues at the office to drive out to the airport and then take us back to her office.
Some say that you can’t run away from your past, that you always carry it with you. Rubbish! I left Oklahoma three days before my twenty-first birthday and have never been back since, thank Goddess. Even in those long-ago days Tulsa was no place for a liberal, nonconformist atheist, and leaving there was the second-best day’s work I ever did in my life (the best day’s work, of course, was the day I married Dearly).
Also, watching the protests in Lafayette Square across from the White House reminds me of August 26, 1970. I took my eight-week-old baby boy in my arms, boarded a bus (didn’t have a car in those days), and got off at Lafayette Square, where a Women’s Liberation rally was being held. I joined the women sitting on the grass, looked at the girls roosting in the trees like birds, and settled back to enjoy the speeches. The rally was a revelation. When I rose from the grass with Elder Son to catch the bus back to where we lived in Arlington, I thought, “My God—all these years, it wasn’t me, it was them!”
Ungrammatical, but true. All those years of feeling out of step, of feeling there was something wrong with me because I aspired to be more than a female cabbage, and it turned out it was patriarchy, not me. Of course, I wasn’t familiar with the concept of patriarchy in those days so I didn’t have a word for it yet. I thought of it as “the system.”
Yikes! Here I’ve inflicted all this on you, Meese, when what I really should have imparted was the breaking news that seven of the nine Supremes have ruled that Thing’s accountants must turn over his tax returns to a Manhattan grand jury.
And with that thought, I’ll wish all at the Pond a good day.
Good morning, 57 and raining in Bellingham. The dogs were not so pushy last night so we all slept better. They need to go out now but Milo puts the brakes on when he smells rain. He’s a small, but very stubborn shitzu so he can be scooped up but that doesn’t change his attitude. Maggie has burrowed under the pillows, pretending to be asleep.
I planted 3 pots yesterday and have the rest of the plants spread around in a way that pleases my eye so there is some welcome color on the back patios now. I had hoped to use mostly white flowers this year, but thanks to my slow start I’ve got plants in the colors of orange, burgundy and lime green to work with. It’s more intense than I wanted, but by keeping the mix simple it’s not overwhelming. I had hope to finish planting today but I’ll wait until the rain stops.
Just noted the SCOTUS opinions re tRumps financial info is released. I’ll need some more coffee before I can read and hopefully understand the decisions. For some reason legal documents have always been hard for me to read. MEGO (my eyes glaze over) happens and then comprehension is gone!
Best wishes to all on this quiet rainy morning.
The rain hit just as I was finishing at the bank. (Banks are drive-through only right now.) A gullywasher at first but it’s tapered off to light rain now. That’s a couple of hours ahead of schedule. It’s duly dropped the temps which will stay down as long as it’s still raining. It’s also so dark the street lights are on and the PV system isn’t. But I’m good to quarantine – other than taking the car back to my son – for the rest of the month.
Good morning, meeses! Friday …
It is 66 degrees in Madison with an expected daytime high of 82. Rainy this morning giving way to sunshine and clear skies.
The Supreme Court did a few strange things – they gave jurisdiction of the eastern half of Oklahoma to the tribal authorities, for one; I have no idea what that will mean. The Mazur case, where Trump’s accounting firm has to turn over tax returns to the Manhattan DA, was a win for New York and is the best chance we have for Donald Trump to have to pay for his crimes – there can be no pardon from a President Pence in a state case. The House subpoena case was sent back to the lower courts for the House to offer more of a reason for getting the tax returns than “it says right there in the statutes that we can ask for them.” So nothing will happen on that before the election and even if they had gotten the returns, they would not be time to craft new articles of impeachment based on their contents this year. So we can hope that it leads to a better statute – one that requires presidential candidates to disclose all sources of income, for example, and any loans from foreign entities.
People are getting sick and dying in states that reopened too early because the anti-science governors there care more about not embarrassing their party’s leader than they do about their constituents. May they be “rewarded” for that choice. Goddess help the innocent lives lost.
I have several broken things I need to fix on clients servers this morning. The broken things kept me from having a good night’s sleep and woke me up at insane-o’clock – I obliged by getting up to start working on them. I have not fixed them but I have a better idea how to work around them after getting some rest.
See all y’all later!
Good morning Meese. 69 going up to 83 with rain.
Put up a quick post
https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js
Super hot again today, and the weekend is supposed to be hotter. Sunday looks like the worst at 104. Today: work till 3:15, that’s my 40 hours for the week. Listen to music, as there’s literally not even one good thing on TV today.
It’s 68 – the overnight low was a totally unpredicted 65 – heading for 90 and a heat index of just one side or the other of 100. But we’re starting from cool enough I won’t have to close up the house until 9 today. (And should manage to get my treadmill walking in. I hope. I ate a whole pizza – lunch & dinner – yesterday. LOL) The rain came early, hit hard, and then although it tapered off to light rain alternating with drizzle it didn’t stop until almost sundown. The temps never got back out of the 70s. Of course we only got 5 KWHs yesterday. The m-t-d is 147 and that will take several days of over 20 to get back on track. The “meet or beat” target of 563 seems to be slipping away. A 3rd place would be 545 but anything over 500 is fine. At least as long as the A/C is off.
Good people really do have a problem with accepting that there are evil people in the world. They truly prefer – in fact insist – that the issue is “just” ignorance and incompetency but not evil. And that if they just give the evil ones facts about how their policies are harming people, show the evil ones what they should be doing instead to help people rather than harming them, then everything will be fine. They just have to sign enough petitions, march, send emails, make phone calls…and the evil ones will change those policies. Nope. Not hardly. The evil ones are neither ignorant nor incompetent. They are quite knowingly and competently harming/killing people. All the “didn’t they think of…” tweets and emails. sigh. Yes, they did. And all the well-meaning efforts at teaching them just makes them laugh. Petitions, marches, escort duty – those are all good things – for us. They tell our team to keep doing the work at the legislative and judicial levels to stop (or at least mitigate) the harm. They tell our team we’ve got their backs and they aren’t going to be pushed out of positions where they can do something by the doing of it. They tell the good people of America that there are a lot of us and together we can overwhelm and overcome the evil ones. & they make networking and other connection between folks who want to help but don’t know how. So absolutely we should keep doing them. Use our voices. March if we can. Protest, blockade, boycott, and always, Always, ALWAYS vote. But we must also face the facts that evil does exist. Evil people do exist. And the evil being done is deliberate genocide. Whether we’re talking about the lack/denial/theft of aid to Puerto Rico or the (mostly South and Latin American Indigenous) kids in cages or the federal response to COVID19 – all deliberate genocide. We can’t “reach” these people. We can only – I hope – vote them out of office. And once in power hang onto it long enough to change policy and especially laws.
So. Off to Dee’s diary then twitter. Get my “morning boosts” done and get on the treadmill while it’s still cool enough. (No, I’m not any less concerned about folks I frequently name. Just…nothing’s changed.) Channeling Healing/Helping Energy to everybody everywhere, to your shaping. Bright the day, Meeses. {{{HUGS}}}
I am one of those, my default is to want to educate people who do these awful things. I know there are evil people – Goddess knows, the Bush years, and the Trump years have proved this even more so. But, I just… I want it to be ignorance, because that is (mostly) curable.
{{{anotherdemocrat}}} I was myself. That’s why/how I recognize the issue so clearly. It’s why I went into teaching and still “teach” as best I can. I thought education/knowledge was the answer to every problem. And with good people, ignorance is the problem. Once they/we know better they/we do better. But – 3-strikes rule and all that – when you’ve given it several good tries without changing their attitude it’s time to accept that evil does indeed exist, you’ve been dealing with it, and get out of range. Healing Energy and moar {{{HUGS}}}
Good Friday evening, Moosekind. At 5:30 p.m. it’s 90 F., still bright, hot, and blue, and we’ve had no rain. Ordinarily I wouldn’t mind this, but this morning the watering hose would not work so I couldn’t water my plants in the garden. I am not happy about this.
Yesterday evening Dearly was sitting on the sofa when Monty jumped up on him. In so doing, Monty ripped the skin of Dearly’s forearm with his claws. Because of his age, and the fact that he’s taking that evil Coumadin, Hubby began bleeding copiously. We hastily cleaned the wound, put antibiotic ointment on a bandage, covered it, and taped it.
Unfortunately, it wouldn’t stop bleeding. Hubby woke up at 1 a.m., covered in blood. He called Kaiser at 5, and they said come in at 6. The facility is 16 miles away. Anyway, we were seen by a nice doctor and nurse. Why they asked me to be in the room, I’ll never know since social distancing was not possible in it. We were all wearing masks, though. Anyway, Dearly was treated, bound up, supplied with many more bandages, and instructed not to shower or wash dishes for a couple of days. We then staggered home, both worse for the wear, since Dearly woke me up at 5.
I have spent the day trying to get bloodstains out of the mattress, the allergy cover, the sheets, and the clothes. Was largely successful with the clothes (cold water soaks, of course, then a double wash in cold water) and the allergy cover. Was less successful with the sheet. Faint stains are still visible, blast it. The mattress, which is only five years old and otherwise in perfect condition, grieved me because that awful stain looked so bad. I Googled home remedies since I didn’t have any OxyClean and didn’t want to rush out to buy any. I made an unlikely mixture of hydrogen peroxide, salt, and cornstarch, and applied it. I’d say it was about 95 percent successful. If you didn’t know the stain had been there you might not even notice it. Oh, well, this is not a perfect world.
So now it’s evening and I need to cook dinner. I don’t fancy the cold pasta they supplied for tonight’s dinner, ugh. Starting Sunday they’re going to let us order our meals and pick them up to take home. Good!
The world is still in its usual parlous state. I paid no attention today as I was too busy. Hope everyone at the Pond has had a good day.
All the hugs to you and Dearly!
Thank you, another!
Oh, my! What a terrible thing to happen to Dearly! I am glad you had medical care close by – and open – and that they were able to take care of him. My family tree has a genetic blood clotting disorder and those who have it are challenged with managing blood thinners. I think they have some pretty good bleeding management protocols in place now but it is terrifying none the less.
I hope today is a better day for you – it would have to work hard to be worse that yesterday!
Thank you! He woke up two hours later than I did and seems to be quite perky. His job is to make the coffee and he’s doing that now. We are expecting a visit from Younger Son and family at tea time, so my whole day will be oriented toward getting ready for that.
{{{Diana}}} – sending Healing Energy and more {{{HUGS}}} to you and Dearly.
Good morning, meeses! Saturday …
It is 64 degrees in Madison with an expected daytime high of 82. Sunny this morning with a chance of storms in the afternoon and evening. That seems to be the pattern – but at least the pattern does not include 90s any longer!
So now we know how Watergate would have ended up if the Senate in 1975 had been Republican. Richard Nixon would have been impeached and then acquitted in the Senate and would have pardoned the men who lied to protect him as he was punishing his enemies with purges. There is no bottom to the corruption and self-dealing that the Republican enablers in Mitch McConnell’s Senate have agreed is “just fine.” There is no fix for this other than completely burning down their party, burying the ashes and salting the earth where it once stood. And Hispanic Republicans, like Clarence Thomas/Ben Carson/Tim Scott Republicans, are awful people – willing to fluff up an actual monster because they feel that they are not personally harmed by the terrible Republican policies that negatively impact their races disproportionately. May karma visit some day with a reminder that in the eyes of the Republican’s president and party leadership, they are all just “Mexican rapists” regardless of what they’ve achieved in life. In the case of the Goya CEO, what he inherited. SHOCK no shock.
I may not have time today to do the weekly Fighting Back post – for the second week in a row. I am on my third major-scale project in two weeks and one that will require full work days this weekend. I see a light at the end of the tunnel – and the end of the Mercury Retrograde next Tuesday that has made some of the work more challenging as I had to check and double check that all the i’s were dotted and the t’s crossed. If for some reason I get an hour window of time, I will put it up. The Weekly Democratic Party address was by Congressman Donald McEachin of Virginia who discussed “the urgent need to pass House Democrats’ George Floyd Justice in Policing Act to fight systemic racism.”
See all y’all later!
Good Saturday morning, Moosekind! It’s already 74 F. here in Ashburn, going up to 91 F., with lots of humidity but no rain. This will be the pattern of our days for some time.
Busy morning ahead, involving watering, cleaning floors, and shopping for groceries. Mr. Rising First Grader is coming to tea with his family this afternoon and will stay the night. Possibly I can fob off one of the giant zucchinis on Younger Son. I’ll take the other to Elder Son’s house tomorrow.
Dearly is feeling much better after a night’s rest and plans to spend the weekend watching Formula I. He’s making coffee to go with the applesauce-oatmeal muffins I just took out of the oven. I wanted to make bran muffins but Amazon is charging $16 for a 1-1b box and it’s not available at the supermarket. I refuse to pay that much for something that should cost $2.39.
You remember Michael Holmans, who used to be at the Pond? Recently, in another venue, he said “In terms of how far and how fast a society can change, what we are living through now is effectively a revolution without the violence.”
I believe a lot of people have come to recognize that government helps its citizens, if allowed to. I think teleworking will become permanent for a lot of people. This will enable people to move farther out to avoid crowded cities.
Woke up much too early but hope to get a nap later. Wishing all at the Pond a good day!
{{{Diana}}} So glad he’s feeling better. (I hear ya on the Amazon price gouging. Nope.) Giant zucchinis sliced lengthways make good replacements for lasagna noodles should you be in the mood for that. Michael is mostly right. There is violence – which folks are protesting – but we haven’t reached, and please Goddess won’t reach – the “tanks at Tiananmen Square” level of violence. Have fun with your grandmothering. Healing Energy to your household and moar {{{HUGS}}}