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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Good morning, 41 and mostly cloudy in Bellingham. Nice music, hot coffee, another quiet morning. I hope to be in the garden this afternoon but I have to work at the desk this morning so I’ll see what happens.
As always, my best wishes to all.
Good morning, meeses! Wednesday …
It is 30 degrees in Madison with an expected daytime high of 41. Sunny skies are in the forecast.
It will be an easy day to skip todays news. I could not care less about Republican electeds demonstrating – once again – that their pinched view of human sexuality results in scandals and criminality surrounding human interactions. I hope that Liz Cheney is enjoying the Schadenfreude of watching Matt Gaetz sweating and – we hope – driven from office. One would hope that he would not be visiting Wyoming for another anti-Cheney rally while he is under indictment – but Republicans have no shame to he probably will!
Very good news from Wisconsin – they will open their vaccination appointments to everyone over 16 beginning Monday, April 5th. That means my daughter will be eligible! w00t!! The United States won’t reach herd immunity because there are too many COVID truthers and anti-vaxxers so it is up to us to protect ourselves. You can’t make stupid people smart.
It is the last day of March and I have two things to do before I can let the month end so I best get back to work.
See all y’all later!
Hurray for Daughter’s vaccination!
Things are beginning to look up.
Wednesday Meese. 45 going up to 61 here in Kingston NY.
Puerto Rico
Warm to start (72) but a front is blowing thru and it will cool down as the day goes on. Taking a sweater when I leave for my shot. Today: work, shot, more work. Kindle is charged and new book is downloaded because there have been varying reports about whether or not there’s a wait. Kind of bummed that the Science channel has astronomy shows on today, I hate missing any, even though I’ve seen them before.
Didn’t realize you were able to get a jab, another! That’s great!
It’s 45 heading for 59 and the lights are on. sigh. We didn’t get any actual rain yesterday or this morning. Just the clouds. Which hopefully will be blown out of here by noon. Yesterday the PV system did manage to generate 10 KWHs which surprised me. We started this last day of March with the m-t-d at 364.5 – we’ll have to get a full 19 to move up a notch in the ranking (from 4th to 3rd w/ the 4K system) so I doubt we will. But it’s still been a good month in that it’s not only covered usage but has made up for the last 3 which didn’t.
Just a regular day. Twitter stuff to do. House stuff to do. With the 2nd jab scheduled for the 15th that means I’ll be as safe as possible by Beltane. That’s a nice thought. And – weather and pollen permitting plus masked – I may even start taking walks around the neighborhood again then. The trees have pretty much flowered and are starting to leaf out. Pollen everywhere of course but that’s pretty much a year around thing here.
Praying for Justice – that is Mercy to the victims. No matter how much the Evil Ones claim “Mercy” is letting them off the hook for the evil they’ve done – that ain’t it. Praying for help for those who need it. Whatever sort of help. Bright the day, Meeses. {{{HUGS}}}
Good Wednesday morning, Moosekind! Gray and gloomy this morning. It’s 63 F. in Ashburn, on its way up to 67 F. Rain this afternoon, which is fine, we need it. Besides, I hope to finish my errand in Herndon before it starts.
There’s been far too much to do this morning. I have to leave here in little more than an hour. I went on the NextDoor app for my old neighborhood and found a nice person who had a laptop in good condition. Now that she has her new Mac, she was wondering what to do with her previous laptop. I am picking it up for a friend in another state who is not in a financial position to afford one. I’ll mail it UPS this very day.
Thank Goddess, I did manage to do some actual work yesterday. Fear of public humiliation is a powerful motivator. I noticed that the “My brush with history” series has three categories of two articles each: school integration, September 11, and famous marches (MLK in 1963 and the Women’s March in 2017). There are also at least two articles in the “Meeting Famous People” category. After I turn in all these articles, I’m going to ask the Committee if I can step back a bit so other people can have a chance to write. I’ve got a short story that’s dying to pop out into print and I’d like to finish my novel before my clogs are well and truly popped.
We’re going down the hall to dinner tonight with a friend. We don’t like going out to dinner here, but the thing is, it’s like working in an office: if you’d rather bring your lunch most of the time to save money, boredom, and time, it’s okay, but once in a while you have to go out to lunch with the others or you get a bad reputation. I preferred to put that $100 a month into a mutual fund instead of eating it five days a week, but once in a while…
That’s enough from me today. Wishing a good day to all at the Pond and a really bad day to the villainous Matt Gaetz.
I’m home & I feel fine. The shot didn’t even hurt — I almost asked if she was sure she even gave me one, I didn’t feel anything. Yay!
Wonderful! That’s the way mine was, too. I hope you have as few (i.e. almost none) side effects as I did as well. Healing Energy & {{{HUGS}}}
My first shot one was like that – the second one was given by Nurse Attila and I could feel it for 4 days. There is definitely a technique.
Oh, sorry about that, Hun!
Hope your arm has recovered now. I’ll fax you a nice cup of herb tea.
Ha! Yes, it has FINALLY recovered. :)
Yay!
Good morning, 45 and sunny in Bellingham. I was distracted this morning, trying to find a way for son#2 to get a vaccine appointment. Wa State has more vaccine, more clinics are open, he’s now eligible, etc. But, he’s really busy at work and getting an appointment is far to complicated. On line info is out of date, phone lines are always busy, the wait and see what happens clinic lines are impossible for him, etc, etc. So he’s now on the wait list with his doc’s new clinic so a shot will happen, just don’t know when.
Good news for my 14 yr old grand girls…..
Pfizer and BioNTech say vaccine prevents Covid-19 in adolescents
So there’s hope if we can all stay healthy for a little bit longer. As always, my best wishes to all.
Oh, GOOD!
Glad to say Younger Son’s wife is not an antivaxxer, she’s even got the wossname shots for both children. Why can’t I ever remember the name of the vaccine that works against cervical cancer? Boys are supposed to get it too.
That shot may be named Gardisil. As I age, my memory worsens.
Good morning, meeses! Thursday …
It is 21 degrees in Madison with an expected daytime high of 41. Sunny skies are in the forecast.
Infrastructure week! I watched Joe Biden’s announcement yesterday and it seems like a no-brainer to raise the corporate tax rate to what the corporations themselves had proposed back in 2017 to pay for rebuilding bridges, water systems, and broadband networks – and expanding Amtrak. However, since the Senate is completely dysfunctional, it will probably be used for toilet paper in Joe Manchin’s Senate office.
I have followed the Chauvin trial news, which is difficult because I don’t want to see (or hear) videos of George Floyd’s death, and I really don’t see what kind of defense is possible. The only thing Chauvin has in his favor is hundreds of years of history of white men in power not having to answer for their murders of Black men. It will be interesting to see if the Minneapolis jury has the courage to break with that “tradition.”
April 1st! Be careful about retweeting – there are still people who think that April Fools Day jokes are funny.
See all y’all later!
Thursday Meese, 41, raining, going up to 47 here in Kingston NY
Tomorrow I get my second shot.
Puerto Rico
Sad to say, I’ve never read a history of Puerto Rico. It, along with any kind of history of Black trailblazers and achievers, was never mentioned in any school I attended.
Cold morning — I ran into the office for supplies & kinda wanted a jacket over my long sleeves, it’s 40 degrees. Today’s plan: work, get up every so often & exercise my arm because it’s a little sore. So far, that’s the only reaction. And another U2 concert this afternoon! It’s one from their early 90s tour; they’ve been re-mastering them in HD and they’ve all been gorgeous so far.
It’s 40 heading for 57 and sunny. A good way to start April. (Or would be if my hands weren’t doing the carpal tunnel-Raynaud’s flares again. sigh.) We got just over 18 KWHs yesterday and wrapped up March with 382.785 – still 4th place but just barely (3rd place is 383). The meet-or-beat target for April is 477 but anything over 400 is good.
Well, my goofy cats still don’t like people food to eat but apparently playing with it is fun. I walked out of the kitchen for a minute and came back to find Bobbie and Rennie playing hockey with my sausage patty. (No, they aren’t “allowed” on the counters. What’s your point? ????????????)
Being the 1st of the month all the “needs help” folks are going to be getting desperate. Food’s an on-going thing but a few bucks can help there. Rent is a big chunk and depending on where you live there can be little or nothing to keep you from being evicted the day after it’s due. The whole situation isn’t right – but it’s legal. So I’ll be boosting a whole lot of desperate tweets today and the rest of the week. Sigh. I devoutly hope somebody (yeah, I know it won’t be Schumer) knows where Manchin’s skeleton is buried and let’s him know they’re gonna dig it up if the infrastructure bill doesn’t pass. Up to him how he manages it – blow up the filibuster, twist some R arms, whatever – doesn’t matter but that bill better pass. Among many other things there’s a boatload of housing helps in that bill.
Hold the Good Thought for Fineena today. She’s got a scary test today – as in the test itself is terrifying (they cut off the O2 while you’re breathing through the apparatus to see what your body does – only fascist/Nazi/Deplorable white men could come up with something so abusive and call it a medical test).
I need coffee. Then over to twitter for what I can convince my hands to do. Bright the day, Meeses. {{{HUGS}}}
Good Thursday morning, Meese! It was totally ugly when we woke up this morning but now it’s partly cloudy, windy, and COLD! It’s Mother Nature’s little April Fool’s joke: in my bedroom, lying around, I have a pair of capris and a pair of Bermudas, both of which I’ve needed in the past week. Was terribly pleased I was even able to get into them, considering how much weight I’ve gained.
Right now in Ashburn it’s 47 F., one degree away from our day’s “high,” with winds from 20 to 30 mph and HIGHER. Guess who won’t even try to go for a walk today! I hate exercise anyway, and do it only to avoid taking blood pressure pills.
Poor Fineena, I knew she had a fearful breathing test this morning, sending love that she comes through it okay. Her laptop has left Chantilly, VA, and is on the way to Gaithersburg, MD. ETA at her address in Charlotte is 7 p.m. tomorrow.
Sorry about your hands this morning, Bfitz, but I’m glad your monthly electricity use was covered!
We had dinner with two other residents, both very nice people, last night. It was agreeable, but we arrived back so late it quite spoiled the rest of one’s evening. The late dinner also brought on an attack of GERD after I went to bed. At midnight I had to take a Pepcid-C but I did manage o avoid taking a sleeping pill, which is good.
I can’t watch the Chauvin trial coverage, I’m sorry. It upsets me too much. Of course, it’s cowardly of me, but I can’t help it.
Wishing all at the Pond a good day, and a visit from St. Lorena during the night to all Rethug pols in Georgia. Thank Goddess this is a closed blog so I can’t be had up for libel!
Good morning, 41 and light clouds in Bellingham. Yesterday’s sunshine made us feel young so we finally moved the climbing hydrangea into a big pot. Digging it out from under the hedge was hard, needing RonK’s muscle, a crowbar and shovel, and all the lifting I could do. But it looks nice in the pot and I love the twiggy iron trellis. If it settles in and blooms it will be a nice feature planting.
My desk mess is now contained and I have a manageable working list, so I’d best get busy and finish the onerous tasks. Best wishes to all.
Friday Meese. Headed out this morning to get my second Moderna shot.
Its 25 here in Kingston NY going up to 40.
Puerto Rico
Self-Determination Act
Yay! on the 2nd shot – hope few to no side effects! Healing Energy & {{{HUGS}}}
Good Friday—literally—morning, Moosekind! The hot cross buns are warming gently in the oven so as not to melt the white-icing crosses on top, and Dearly is busy making coffee, as a good husband should. It was bitterly cold, windy, and dark when I took Monty out to the courtyard at 5:30 this morning. This really is past a joke.
However, now the sun is rising on what appears to be a delightful blue-and-gold day. Currently the temp. in Ashburn is 29 F., going up to a pathetic 47 F. Beastly winds up to 25 mph are in the forecast.
Well, for all I am the Empress of Procrastination, for once my terrible failing has been rewarded. Yesterday at the end of the meeting the Managing Editor confided that he didn’t want a series spread out over a year’s worth of issues. Um. That means I have to drastically curtail the series of articles I was going to write. I’ll have to blend them. The “meeting famous people” category had some funny bits: more than half a century ago a group of high school girls in DC found out where Senator John F. Kennedy lived in Georgetown. They decided to visit. The first time they went the maid who answered the door said, “Sorry, he’s not here.” The next evening they tried again and this time the maid said, “Oh, yes, he’s here, I’ll get him.” He came to the front door and actually had a nice chat with the girls. I want to laugh when I think about that.
“Monty Grandma,” as my five-year-old grandson calls me to distinguish me from his other grandma, is coming this afternoon for an overnight stay. It’ll be nice to see him. He’s very observant: when he draws pictures of his Monty grandparents, he includes the bent handle of Monty Grandpa’s walking stick.
Nothing else is happening in my immediate future as far as I know. The poor old Nats were unable to play their opening game last night because three of them came down with Covid. I’m glad they didn’t play, it was so horribly cold and windy, 30 mph.
Wishing a good day to all at the Pond.
Chilly by Austin standards — phone says it’s 38, high is supposed to be 72. They’re predicting our 1st 90 degree day on Thursday. Today: work until 3, which leaves plenty of time for a walk. Loved the U2 concert last night, it’s fun having a “group” thing, so many comments on twitter.
Good morning, meeses! Friday …
It is 28 degrees in Madison with an expected daytime high of 52. Sunny skies are in the forecast.
I took a break from the news yesterday and watched Opening Day for my baseball team. They won in very dramatic fashion in the 10th inning after tying it up in the 9th inning. No baseball today but the Womens Final Four starts tonight and I will be watching that.
I agree with Stacey Abrams and Jon Ossoff that it is too soon to start boycotting Georgia businesses. I will be boycotting Delta, though, because they came out in support of the Jim Crow voting suppression law before they even read it and then “changed their minds.” Liars. American Airlines came out forcefully against the planned Texas laws and I will use them for my (hope for) trip this summer. Companies need to line up in favor of HR1 to override the states – that is the only thing that will solve this problem.
I am late because I have a bunch of irons in the fire and now I have to tend them.
See all y’all later!
It’s 44 heading for 63 and sunny – at least at the moment. Yesterday we started April off with 19 KWHs generated. If that keeps up we will have a very productive month. My hands feel better but they aren’t working any better. So I’m being slow with everything online today. Again. Also slow, just not as slow with everything else as well. I’ve got to flea goo the cats today. And also bake my cocoa muffin bread for desserts. I’m not sure I’ve ever had hot-cross buns – can’t now and they’re probably too sweet anyway – but they sound lovely.
So. More coffee. Then off to do stuff – alternating online and off to see if that helps any. Bright the day, Meeses. {{{HUGS}}}
Good morning, 45 and cloudy in Bellingham. Seems like Easter is too early this year and I’m not ready so no cards are in the mail. Oh well, we’ll have brunch and bake a rhubarb custard pie regardless. And since covid is still with us we’ll be outdoors, rain or shine.
RonK is moving the cars and getting ready for a dirt delivery so our sons can fill the dug out veggie garden with new soil tomorrow. He’s looking foreword to planting his garden and I’m ready for flowers. We seem to be rooted here!
Best wishes to all.