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 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 (right before “Leave A Reply”) and use the Pages Tool, shown here with 3 pages of comments available.
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COUNTING DOWN THE TIME UNTIL DECENCY RETURNS …
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Puerto Rico
It’s 32 heading for 40 and we’re supposed to get sunshine today. It’s not here yet. The damp’s in my joints. sigh. We generated 1.9 KWHs yesterday (m-t-d 29.38) which was better than the day before but that’s about all you can say for it.
I truly understand the passion to remove twitler from office but I truly wish people would quit letting that passion disengage their brains. Twitler has always been as dangerous as a rabid squirrel. Now he’s as dangerous as a cornered rabid squirrel. But the legal remedies require the Rs to help – either the veep & a majority of “principal officers of the executive departments” for Amendment 25 or McConnell & at least 17 R Senators voting to convict & remove in impeachment. DEMS DON’T HAVE ANY LEGAL REMEDY THEY/WE CAN DO BY OURSELVES. Making nasty comments about “Pelois, do your job” does not change that. & if you are advocating not-legal remedies, you just lost me. I will not support a gang of thugs taking out the leader of a rival gang.
So. My friend’s COVID test came back negative. (W00T!!!! & thank goddess) JoanMar’s fundraiser seems to be stuck now we’ve made the match even though there’s $4884 left to meet the goal. michelewln is supposed to be putting up a GFM, which Aji cannot, so maybe folks are waiting for that. I’ll see what else I can pry loose but it’s got to wait until the 20th when my Social Security comes in. The much-scorned $600 was enough, added to her own Disability and what she stashed back the last time the manager comped her some days, for earicicle/Amelia to pay her own “rent” this month.
Pandemic and everything else is going to get worse before it gets better. That should have been a known and why folks are having conniption fits because 1/1/21 didn’t magically make everything better I do not know. But we’ve got the change in gov’t in process and when that process is done we can change policy and allocation of resources. And make things better. Bright the day, Meeses. {{{HUGS}}}
Chilly morning, ran into the office & back home now. Working till 3:30 then off till Wednesday. Weather people are excited that there could be snow or ice near here. Unlikely in town, more like 50 or so miles north and/or west.
{{{anotherdemocrat}}} – Glad you’re safely home. moar {{{HUGS}}}
Good Friday morning, Moosekind. It is still morning, and 33 F. in gray old Ashburn. It’s supposed to get up to a whopping 39 F. today.
I was in a pissy mood when I rolled out of bed and it got worse when I went to the “medical center” for my 8:45 a.m. lab test. I was the only patient (or more accurately, impatient) in the room. I sat there for 15 minutes, getting more and more furious, then got up, approached the window, and said clearly, through my “I’m speaking” mask, “I was on time for my 8:45 appointment. It is now nine o’clock. I’m going home to breakfast.”
And I left forthwith. Before anyone showed up at the counter this morning, I took pains to photograph both my own and Dearly’s filled out permission slips for the vaccine. Incompetent as those medical center jerks are, I’m sure they’ll manage to lose them. Well, I’ve got documentary proof they were handed in because the wall and counter of the “medical facility” show up clearly in the photograph.
I LOATHE having to fast, and I loathe having an appointment to have blood drawn at 8:45 in the morning. One thing about Kaiser Permanente—they started work a great deal earlier, so I only had to starve and be dehydrated until 7:30. Came home and immediately started catching up on my drinking. First a huge mug of coffee, then a bottle of water, and now I’m about to make an enormous mug of tea.
And that’s the truth.
Have lots of desk work to do today, including catching up with correspondence (e-cards for birthdays must be dispatched today), reading through some background material provided for my next Around The Ponds article, and doing something—anything—about my website.
Have the Bad News Network on all the time. I’m as drawn to breaking news as an addict to his drug. Hoping our bfitz will feel better, that Sister Dee will get some good news about PR for a change, and that everyone’s feet and ankles will behave instead of swelling up. Blessed be.
I watch MSNBC because I need the breaking news. I had been boycotting them when they employed misogynist Chris Matthews but he is gone and they now have enough hosts to dilute the Chuck Todd Andrea Mitchell vortex of Republican ignorance. I won’t ever watch CNN as long as they employ Chris Cuomo who gave voice to the Kamala Harris birther story. That is unforgiveable.
Good point, Jan. I have such a visceral loathing of Chuck Toad I can’t bear to look at him or listen to him. You pays your money and you chooses your poison, I guess.
I despise Dana Bash but she got called out by her ex-husband on CNN the other day, so that’s something.
Good morning, 43 and raining in Bellingham. I’m going to try to find something to do and or think about today that will counter the tRump/covid angst that’s overwhelmed me again but so far I’m just gloomy. I need to try harder!
Best wishes to all.
Good morning, meeses! Saturday …
It is 25 degrees in Madison with an expected daytime high of 30. Mostly cloudy skies are in the forecast.
In a couple of days our countdown to decency will be in the single digits. January 20th won’t fix everything magically but it will remove one huge stresser – what the unhinged man in the Oval Office will do on his way out. I was glad to see that Twitter suspended his account and also blocked him from using @POTUS to incite his mobs and that he is left with fringe social media platforms which will slow things down. I hope it gives the government time to review security and determine if it is safe to have a public inauguration. tRump’s not-so-cryptic call to his fans to wreak mayhem on January 20th “I won’t be at the inauguration” should be taken seriously. I personally think that the inauguration should be held in an undisclosed location via video; they have my permission. If it is outside at the Capitol I will probably not watch it live – I would never recover from the trauma of seeing our incoming administration and the Obamas harmed in any way.
Meanwhile, a deadly virus is killing over 4,000 Americans a day and the vaccine rollout is so slow that it might be June before non-essential people get the vaccination and things even approach a semblance of normalcy. I had hoped to have my cataract surgery in April but I am not going to spend hours in the health care system until I am vaccinated so that is on hold.
Everyone needs to pause and realize that without the deadly pandemic that was mismanaged by the malignant narcissist and his incompetent malAdministration, tRump would have probably won the election. THAT is how close we came to the end of the American experiment. It is going to be difficult to achieve any level of comfort with the spectre of the Trump Party making a comeback in 2024 and I need to figure out how to stop worrying. It will help a lot when the new Senate is filled in and Mitch McChinless has no control over committees and the legislative agenda.
I have an impossibly long to-do list as new accounting year and old accounting year – hard deadlines – are wreaking havoc on my schedule and projects promised for last weekend and pushed to this weekend need to be addressed. I always forget how bad January is and I need to start learning to say “I won’t have time to look at that until February.”
See all y’all later!
Thanks Jan. I’m hoping and praying that the new Biden-Harris admin will figure out a way to roll-out the vaccine faster!
I hope so too! I am a little nervous about the plan being floated to deliver the second doses now to be used as initial doses and just “hope” that there are enough doses available when those second doses are needed. It would be awful to have wasted all the initial vaccinations if the follow-up shots are not able to be given. I trust the Biden-Harris Administration to be consulting with scientists and to also have plan to get more vaccine from Pfizer and Moderna to fill the pipeline.
Saturday Meese. 17 degrees here in Kingston NY, going up to 36. I got the fireplace working in my office, and though it probably doesn’t put out more heat than my space heater – it feels better spiritually.
Puerto Rico
Sis, am crossing my fingers that help for PR will be high on Biden’s list after he’s sworn in.
Good morning from almost-freezing Austin. It’s 33 degrees, going up to 55 & rain moving in later. The weather forecasters are once again excited about possible “wintry mix” — sleet, maybe snow…. We’ll see. (and just as I’m typing this, an explainer about the polar vortex came on) For now, I’m watching the news & eating breakfast. Maybe a walk later, depending on when the rain comes in & how intense it is.
It’s 23 heading for 42 and sunny. We got right at 7 KWHs yesterday (m-t-d is 36.44) and hopefully will do as well or better today.
Americans are so effen manipulable. Impeach is not a magic wand. It does absolutely nothing to stop somebody who doesn’t care – and wouldn’t care if they’d impeached him once a month his entire term. Convict and remove are under the Senate. They won’t. Indict and convict are very much more the point – and that can start as of 12:01 1/20/21. At least the indict part probably will at the state level. Give Pelosi some credit for knowing what she can and can’t do (but they won’t because they don’t know what she can and can’t do) and going to Joint Chiefs to stop nuclear war as twitler heads out the door. Pay more attention to 4K people dying every single day from COVID, to things we actually do have the ability to do something about. Even if that something is to keep masking and social distancing and staying home when possible. Americans don’t want to work steadily at anything. They want a magic savior to make it happen – and blame the nearest powerful woman when it doesn’t.
Off to do my little bit on twitter. The sunshine is heartening and like hope helps us keep on truckin’ – which is good because neither sunshine nor hope will get us even one more foot closer to our goal. It’s the “truckin'” that gets us there. Bright the day, Meeses. {{{HUGS}}}
From what I read, the minute the Articles of Impeachment are passed, tRump’s pardon powers are removed. The Founders believed that an impeached president might pardon people who could testify against him. So that would be a good thing. Mitch McConnell slow walking the Senate trial, though, in an effort to block Biden’s cabinet from being confirmed is not good. In the unlikely event that they convict tRump (he will be long gone so there won’t be any removal as such), he can’t run for president in 2024 and will lose his Secret Service protection, the right to a post-presidency office and his federal pension. It would be interesting if the 2024 candidates might see that as a way to open up 2024 to the post-Trump era. Lots to think about!
That’s possible. It doesn’t say that in the constitution itself regarding the pardoning powers. And actually I doubt it. He’s been impeached once already and that hasn’t slowed him down a bit. Yes, convicting him after he’s out of office would stop his pension, Secret Service, and right to run again. Which is precisely why the Rs won’t do it. They want that carrot to dangle before the magats to keep them in the fold for the 2022 cycle.
Good morning, Meese. It’s sunny, cold, and windy here in Ashburn, 38 F. now, 44 F. later. I’m going to wash Monty’d towels and small rugs and put them on the porch to dry in sun and wind.
I, too, wondered what on earth the point would be of impeaching Outgoing now. Jan has done a beautiful job of laying it all out. It’s not like removal but it’s a lot better than nothing. I really think he should go to jail. I’m sure Tish James and others are circling like hungry sharks, waiting until 3 p.m. on January 20!
Meanwhile, back at the ranch, I just Googled Covid symptoms. I only have one of 10. I don’t understand. I just got over a cold, so why the nonstop sneezing and runny nose? I will not enumerate the number of Kleenex I’ve used up this morning. You can’t have another cold the minute you get over the last one, right? It would be like having a baby and then immediately becoming preggers again. Unfair.
Got to go feed the dog. Monty reminds me of a very needy toddler who can’t let Mommy alone for five minutes. No wonder I’m cross as two sticks all the time!
Wishing all at the Pond a good day. I so long for the day when I don’t have to think about the White House or the Capitol or politics 24/7! That will be so nice.
Good morning, 32 and foggy in Bellingham. My nap, then read, then nap again nights are a familiar pattern and the nap/sleep hours add up but I don’t feel rested. Oh well, I know I’ll sleep through the night again so it’s best to just let it happen. The winter greens and holly arrangements I made for Christmas are past their prime and the outdoor lights are starting to look garish so it’s time to do some more cleanup. I’m going to replace the colored lights with clear white though because we still need to counter the darkness as best we can.
Best wishes to all.