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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Wednesday Meese. 52 degrees and going up to a sunny 80 here in Kingston NY. Going to continue to work on my lasagna beds
For those of you who are curious – this is lasagna gardening
Thanks bigly, Dee! Dear Goddess, that’s a lot of work.
Thanks Dee, I was imagining a garden full of tomatoes, basil, oregano, parsley and chives! Makes me want to go dig in the dirt.
Puerto Rico
Good Wednesday morning, Moosekind! We have another hot, sunny day in store in Ashburn. Right now it’s 55 F., going up to 86 F. I’d like to wash all the porch cushions and set them out on the porch to dry. Will it happen? Let’s hope so. BTW, we’re in a drought. So far we are three inches under for rain. Too bad bfitz and I can’t exchange climates!
Yesterday was so beautiful that if it were possible to faint from beauty, I would have done so. I scored sun-ripened strawberries, skinny asparagus, and another Sungold tomato plant from the farmers’ market yesterday morning. I need to plant that Sungold today. The strawberries were great with vanilla ice cream for dessert.
Woke up at the ungodly hour of 4 a.m., had to get up at 5, with the result that I’m now wilting. Dearly still isn’t up yet. As soon as he rises, I’ll submerge.
I really have a lot to do today so it’s too bad I’m running on two cylinders instead of four. I can’t imagine how people stay up all night.
Wishing a good day to all at the Pond. Blessed be.
Good morning, meeses! Wednesday ..
It is 63 degrees in Madison with an expected daytime high of 73. Rain is in the forecast.
I can’t stay to even read the news! I woke up late and have errands I need to run this morning.
See all y’all later!
We had thunderstorms overnight, but not much damage — only minor flooding. More rain today, but just rain; and a chance for rain every day for the next week. Good news is we are out of drought conditions. Today’s plan: work, with dance & standing ab exercise breaks.
A bit cooler today – it’s 67 heading for 72 (we got over 80 yesterday) and overcast. We don’t even get to “partly cloudy” until Saturday and get a whole 2 days of “partly sunny” for Sunday & Monday. Predictions at the moment. Otherwise cloudy for the foreseeable future. We did get a few bits of sunshine here and there yesterday. Enough for me to dare a walk and to generate 13.8 KWHs (m-t-d is 232.89) which isn’t on track but it’s better than the last 3 days’ daily generation. Wouldn’t be bad if I didn’t know that 23 is possible on a sunny day in May.
Evil ones doing evil things in the world. & their evil propaganda machine keeps suckering all comers into continuing – both the evil from the evil ones and a lot of outraged tweets with no actions from the rest of us. sigh. Yeah, sure, you can get rid of vermin by burning down the house. But that not only hurts folks living in the house but it leaves them with no shelter and probably not food and water either. sigh. The Rs who aren’t rats and lice themselves are forever putting out tempting morsels to draw them in while the fascist propaganda machine keeps staying “rats are good people and lice is nice” (& pandemic isn’t real, just made up by the Dems, except it makes a good excuse to abuse & kill Asian Americans). sigh. So. Focus on what little I can do and that’s voting and supporting the Decent ones however I can. And help those close at hand survive. No movement on Jill’s GFM but she’s getting DMs from jerkwads telling her she doesn’t need as much money as she’s asking for. Actually she needs about 4x what’s she’s asking for but the absolute basics are the propane fridge, the manual clothes washer, and another 550-gallon water tank. And yes, added together with shipping (& instillation & filling for the water tank) while allowing for the fees she’ll have to pay the GFM payer (the public GFM brags about not charging them but the behind the scenes payer the GFM uses to release the funds always does) that gets her to $5K. IF there are no taxes on anything but the washer which she thinks is the case. Lisa’s still fighting fatigue. Karen’s doing a little better. Aji’s doing worse – not only the stress of waiting for the imaging on top of the stress of raising money so she can do it but a feral dog came on the property yesterday evening and Cricket (her feral who won’t let humans touch him) got hurt. My DiL is doing better. Doesn’t even need the Tylenol right now. (Still needs the hysterectomy and will need another transfusion along the way if she doesn’t get it soon.)
The brake job on the Camry wasn’t as bad as expected. Mostly because only the back brakes needed to be done. The front brakes were fine. So instead of needing $100 more than I’d estimated, I ended up needing $100 less. Just as well as I’d given somebody part of the $500 I thought I’d set back for it. (Math in my head is not good. Especially with a string of cloudy days fogging up my brain).
The day is inching itself’s cloudy, damp, foggy, probably-no-walk-today way along. Over 3 years & I still have to remind myself that, no, I don’t have a Wednesday helping diary I need to update with latest stuff before it posts this afternoon. Which is stupid. I’ve been banned for longer than I actually did those diaries. Maybe more coffee will help. Bright the day, Meeses. {{{HUGS}}}
And that, my dear, is precisely why I refuse to give dkos any money. They keep pleading for it. I mentally say, “I’ll give you $5 a month the day you reinstate my beloved bfitz,” which, knowing that crew, will be the Twelfth of Never.
Meanwhile, back at the ranch, that’s good news about the brakes!
After elections (when the ad dollars dry up), they start terrorizing their members – and it is real panic for some people when they say they will have to shut down if they don’t get money. It is a news site and I don’t donate to news sites, I purchase subscriptions when they provide a steady number of well-sourced, pertinent news stories and intelligent commentary. For most of my news, I follow AP and NPR and Reuters headlines and between the three of them, I feel I have news I can trust. The only DK posts I follow, besides Dee’s, are the election stats/polls who I follow on Twitter. The rest is very ordinary and I can get the information elsewhere without the toxic comments and ridiculous posts by ridiculous people splattered on the page.
Good morning, 46 and cloudy in Bellingham. Our daughter finally found an arborist to help them clear the broken branches so that will happen on Thursday. Then they will prune the broken plants and decide what to do with all the wood from the trees. I hope a “free” ad will move some along.
Thanks to laying low my legs are feeling better but I’m restless from so much quiet time. I’ve got laundry to do and some plants to plant so I’ll be careful and try to actually do something.
Best wishes to all.
Good morning, meeses! Thursday …
It is 66 degrees in Madison with an expected daytime high of 77. Cloudy with sunny breaks – it appears that the rain is done for now but there is more expected going into the weekend.
Republicans in the Senate have come back with their infrastructure bill and they have no pay-fors except to assess fees on electric cars – no rollback of the corporate tax rate or taxes assessed on bajillionaires. Ain’t gonna happen. So Joe Manchin, unless he supports the American Jobs Act to pass via reconciliation, will own the bridge collapses and shutdowns and families without the support they need to be able to get back to work.
I am fine with there being no bi-partisan commission on January 6th. There was no way it was going to go where it needed to go – to Donald J. Trump’s incitement – just like the 9/11 Commission was not allowed to criticize George W. Bush’s handling of the leadup to 9/11. Better to have a House Select committee empowered to investigate and tasked with keeping Republican complicity in the news for another year. Nancy Pelosi offered a bi-partisan commission structure – yielding to every Republican demand except to expand the scope to include things unrelated to the Capitol riot – and it was rejected. Now she can do it her way.
My schedule yesterday was more fractured than I anticipated and I had a late night and a too early wake up. Today, I need to get some accounting work done – sometimes it feels like that is all I do and I think it is because I do it in 15 minutes chunks because it is so tedious; any new project that shows up in my Inbox is a shiny bauble. A longtime client of mine, who also did billable consulting, said that she would shut down everything to get invoices out right away because it is too easy to find excuses to delay them and they should be cut in the first few days of the month while the previous month’s work is still fresh in the client’s mind. I have made some improvements in my process but gathering the hours, if I have not been good about noting the detail, is still incredibly time consuming. Back to the grindstone.
See all y’all later!
Thursday Meese. 56 going up to 83 here in Kingston – will be gardening today. Yay!
Puerto Rico
From the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO)
What GAO Found
Do not miss the extension of the investigation into the irregularities of Tu Hogar Renace (http://ow.ly/8BkK50EQPfb ) in Own Agenda. The full audio here.http://ow.ly/v5P950EQPdP
Translation: The @DeptVivienda
paid contractors of the Tu Hogar Renace program for incomplete or deficient work in most of the cases evaluated by the @OCEPR,reveals a report that was kept hidden until now.
I got up early and did my walk/run. Moving on to the next step on Saturday — 90 second running segments. Still a chance of rain today but less than has been; and we’re out of drought status. Today: work, have a zoom meeting with my supervisor for an evaluation (ugh), and that’s really it.
It’s 66 heading for mid 70s. Overcast and drizzle turning into rain later. We got 6 KWHs yesterday, probably/maybe the same today. The m-t-d is 238.8 and most definitely not on track.
Jill’s son and his father are missing. They left the Cancer Center in Santa Fe on Tuesday morning and haven’t been heard of since. State troopers are being dismissive (what’s it to a stupid women, disabled at that even if white, if a man and his son decide to off without telling her – yeah, yeah, sure he’s stage 4 cancer) but they did “ping” the cell phone in Las Vegas, NM as if they’re heading out of the state. On the other hand there’s a (not confirmed) sighting of the vehicle (’80 white Subaru Brat) in Santa Fe. So that’s the urgent on prayers by whatever name and whatever Tradition. (Everybody else seems to be pretty much as they were yesterday.)
Cloudy day, fuzzy brain. We’ll see if more coffee helps. Bright the day, Meeses. {{{HUGS}}}
Good morning, 49 and mostly sunny in Bellingham. I had to lay low again yesterday but my throbbing joints are quieter this morning so maybe this flare is easing. Sure hope so! All I did yesterday was be grouchy so I need to do better today.
Best wishes to all.
Good Friday morning, Moosekind, sure and it’s a grand immortal day! Another hot, gorgeous dawn is breaking in Ashburn. Right now it’s 56 F. with a clear blue sky and sunlight, going up to all the 8s. I probably won’t always rejoice when it’s going to be this hot, but right now I wish we were still at home—meaning the house we lived in for 41+ years—so Dearly could grill the dinner on the patio grill. He used to love doing that.
Never made it here yesterday because of watering the garden and the doctor appointment. She said I had 20-20 vision in my left eye, which has been corrected for near-sightedness. However, her incompetent office person put dilation drops in my eye, which meant I couldn’t see well enough to do anything until bedtime. Thankfully, I had asked Dearly to drive me to the doctor’s office and back.
The afternoon was terrible but I will not elaborate. I accidentally ruined something dear to me and it was entirely owing to my own stupidity. You’d think someone 150 years old would know better, but you would be wrong.
So this morning after I water the garden I hope to exercise, and then we’ll go buy tomato cages. This afternoon I have the Writers’ Group. I wouldn’t even bother with it except that I need to become comfortable with public speaking because I have to give a “welcome” speech at the Authors’ Festival in September.
Wishing everyone at the Pond a good day with no bad news. The new baby panda will be on display today at Washington National Zoo today. He was born August 21 and is considered a “miracle baby” because his mother, at age 22, was considered too old to produce any more offspring. She had help from the vet, of course. Blessed be.
Yay for 20-20 vision! I am nearly over my disappointment at having been diagnosed as needing cataract surgery (in 2019) only to have the doctor backtrack this year. I am not sure what happened – perhaps the rules changed. I now have a new glasses prescription which got me some improvement in the left eye but the right eye simply can’t get any clearer because of the cataract. The result is “good enough” but I miss 20-20 vision.
Perhaps you’ll have it in a year or two. My doctor said yesterday it takes the eye a month to heal, so I have to see her again in June.
My friend’s brother never could bear the idea of putting drops in his eyes. He refused cataract surgery and when he died at age 95 he was completely blind. I can’t bear the idea of being completely blind. The drops are nothing compared to that and anyway, the need for them is temporary.
I hate putting drops in my eyes but I learned a few tricks to make it more bearable. My eye doctor said I have Dry Eye Syndrome so I need to do some things to maintain my eyes. They are precious!!
YAY! for warm sunny weather. Even more YAY! for 20-20 vision. Blessed Be. Healing Energy & {{{Diana}}}
Good morning, meeses! Friday …
It is 72 degrees in Madison with an expected daytime high of 75. Mainly cloudy with a chance of showers this afternoon. Yesterday early evening the air conditioning needed to be turned on because the house was hot and the outside air was muggy. It was just needed to cool the house down in order to sleep.
This year’s Israeli-Palestinian conflict is now in a cease-fire. The commentary suggested that Netanyahu got maximum political mojo from it and that continuing to bomb the occupied areas was getting significant pushback so it was time to stop. Not that it was inhumane to destroy people’s homes and hospitals and kill children – they saw “diminishing returns” from continuing in the face of increasing international anger. Bastids.
The House passed a bill to fortify the Capitol and the Republicans voted against it because it will make it more difficult for their base to destroy democracy after the next election. Goddess help us if they take back the House in 2023 – Confederate flags will be welcomed to the literal halls of Congress. The Senate, by the way, is unlikely to pass the bill – they are all toeing the Former Guy’s line in fear of political retaliation. Bastids.
I want to finish off the work week by building a good to-do list for the weekend. I lost a day and a half with unexpected “emergencies” and I need to make sure I did not miss anything urgent. Next week is the last work week of May already! This month has screamed by.
See all y’all later!
Friday Meese. 61 going up to 85 here in Kingston NY
Please share this if you can
Puerto Rico
Film premiere
“PNP government cannot assure that the cost of electricity will not rise with LUMA”
Morning. My allergies went kablooey yesterday afternoon, no idea why. Should have washed all the pollen off with my post-workout shower, and I only went back outside for a minute. Anyway, I took 2 benadryl before bed and still had a totally miserable night, can barely say “sleep”. Today’s plan: cling to consciousness as long as I can, pick up groceries this afternoon. Will probably drive through the burger joint and get a veggie burger for dinner. I need to think of something easy (really, really easy) to make for lunch for next week. I have some frozen meals, but I’d rather eat homemade. I searched “5 ingredient vegetarian lunch” but all the websites have so many pictures, ads, etc that I just gave up looking.
Another, sorry about the allergies. Is it the cypress trees?
What did your office biggies decide about returning to the office? Will you have to go back?
We’re going back, starting with 2 days/week after July 4. Back to normal by September. They are working on keeping the density down, encouraging us to eat at our desks or outside. That’s another reason I need easy veg lunch ideas – something I can grab out of the fridge & go elsewhere to eat. I can stand on the porch, use the wall for a table & eat.
I checked the allergy count, and there’s nothing extraordinary. I don’t know what’s going on. Taking both zyrtec and benadryl. Still sneezing my head off.
It’s 66 and raining. May or may not get to the 70s. May or may not stop raining. Will not clear off. Yesterday we generated right at 5 KWHs – not enough to cover daily average usage. The m-t-d is 244 – we’re gonna be lucky to reach what we did last year when the system was off for a full week. sigh.
Jill’s situation is worse. The truck’s in TX – or it was last night – but according to the TX Highway Patrol who supposedly talked to her husband and son, they’re fine but don’t want to talk to her. Which reminds me a whole lot of the ABQ cop who told me he’d talked to jan4insight, that she was fine and just didn’t want to talk to people. About 6 hours before they found her body. No, I’m not going to tell Jill that. She’s got enough trouble not knowing whether her son is alive or not because this is totally out of character for him. Wouldn’t put it past her husband, but not her son. So now the “case” is officially closed and what diddly help the law was giving her is shut off. While she waits. For them to contact her if they’re really alive and OK. For someone else to contact her if they’re not.
Everybody else is holding or slightly worse than they’ve been all week. Including me with all this dark, dreariness. Excluding my DiL who seems to be doing OK now she’s got enough blood in her body to be OK with.
As to Israel-Gaza, ironies or something. The last big blow up the ceasefire was negotiated by Hillary Clinton. A fact the Haters either forget or deny. We knew about Puerto Rico and FEMA and ICE and. . . Jeebus! the ground we lost – in so many ways and places – the people we lost ’17 through ’20. Since Nobody seems to want to waste lightning bolts on the Evil Ones, I just hope Somebody will help us have the time to make things better. Not just clean up the mess then they take over where they left off. Really better.
I need more coffee. Or something. Sunshine but it doesn’t look like I’m gonna get that for the foreseeable future. Hold on to what matters. Definitely seeing my son Sunday. My friend and maybe Arkantart “coffee” visit in the relative near future. A very dear friend possibly coming to visit (I gotta remember how to cook for people!) next month or so. Connecting with folks I care for. That’s important. I can manage the lack of sunshine. Bright the day, Meeses. {{{HUGS}}}
Good afternoon, 58 and sunny in Bellingham. I’m really slow today, and morning phone calls interrupted my routine so I’m late with everything. Oh well, the day will muddle along and so will I. Hope everyone’s day is as good as can be.
Saturday Meese. 61 going up to 88 here in Kingston NY – which is warmer than normal.
Puerto Rico