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”, Motley Meese! The week begins …
Morning low of 70 degrees in Madison WI with an expected daytime high of 90. Sunny skies are in the forecast.
Have a great day, all y’alls!!
Sunday Meese. 66 going up to 92 here in Kingston NY. Much warmer than the usual temps for early June
Had a long day yesterday – spiritual ceremony from 9 to 5 and then spoke at a 9PM zoom session in St. Paul Minnesota with young activists, and filmmakers about the film “The First Rainbow Coalition”
Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico
#BlackMusicSunday
Good morning, 71 degrees heading into the mid 90s — pretty normal for June in Texas. Made a stirfry yesterday, going to try it cold today to see if it works for lunch. For now, I’m watching the news & eating breakfast.
It’s 69 heading for 78 and I’ve got the lights on. Sigh. The windows are open so at least the cats are happy. We generated 11.5 KWHs yesterday. Starting today at 58.6 for the m-t-d. We’re already so far behind I’m not sure we can catch up. We’ll be falling further behind today.
Jill, Karen, and Lisa are all pretty much the same. Jill’s the one who has the best chance of getting out of the hole (if she can get the non-electric appliances she needs) once this mess with her husband and son works out. She’s also the one most in danger if this mess doesn’t work out. There are things to be said for being single and having your kids grown and gone. (Or not having them in the first place. No, I wouldn’t give mine back.) Aji’s wrist “went out” last night which makes it harder than usual to type. But that, while painful and definitely unhelpful, is relatively normal for her. The other thing. . . waits for the MRIs to see just how bad things are.
I hope our team can find a way to get more stuff done. The economy is coming back simply from dealing with the pandemic. Of course having opened up too soon, we will have “Biden’s pandemic” shortly. Just like there was the “Roosevelt Depression” in 1938 from trying to “normalize” too soon. Fortunately or unfortunately, modern weaponry is such that even a world war now wouldn’t be able to do for our country – politically and economically – what WWII did then. Which is another scary thought. Churchill “knew” we’d win he said because with the U.S. in the mix, the Allies had 2/3 the world’s population and 4/5 the world’s resources (steel, petroleum, etc). So what happens when we’re the fascists? More scary thoughts. So lots of prayers and hope – which there always as long as there’s life – that we manage, even with our slim majority that includes power-abusing blue dogs voting with Rs, to short-circuit this before it gets to critical mass and can’t be stopped. Gloomy thoughts.
Tomorrow is basket’s birthday and while I can’t share it with him or even get it to him, I’m making cocoa-orange-walnut mini-birthday cakes in his honor. (And Amelia’s whose is next Friday.) The batter is “resting” and in a few minutes I’ll preheat the oven, beat in the leavening, and get it baking. Need to get over to Dee’s diary so I’ve got music to work by. ???????????? Bright the day, Meeses. {{{HUGS}}}
Good morning, 52 and cloudy in Bellingham. I was at the garden shop yesterday, list in hand, so I’ve finally got a manageable planting plan. I put all the plants in place before stopping so if I can keep my focus today I’ll plant some begonias. It’s always rewarding when I’m done but for some reason I’ve struggled this year. Best wishes to all.
Good morning, meeses! Monday …
It is 73 degrees in Madison with an expected daytime high of 86. Thunderstorms are expected this afternoon but it will not bring cooler air – it looks like it will just bring more thunderstorms!
I don’t have much to say this morning. I try to stay away from news on Sundays and this mornings news looks pretty much like last weeks news. It was gross to see the Former Guy parading his disgusting self on my Twitter feed. How anyone could be attracted to such a gross ignoramus is beyond me. Blinded by the white.
I have a busy week ahead with some projects that need to be finished and/or documented for post-vacation. Scraps of paper stacked in a pile that I intend to get to “soon” turn into “what the HELL was that all about?” after they sit on the pile for a week. There is no guarantee that documenting the projects more thoroughly will make it completely clear what I need to do when I return but it will definitely be better!
See all y’all later!
Monday Meese – 72 going up to 93 (heat wave) here in Kingston NY.
Puerto Rico
Comedian Suni Reyes mocks LUMA’s non-Spanish speakers
“Luma is learning Spanish !!!!”
Ladrones = thieves
Invasores = invaders
La Junta = The Fiscal Control Board
Good Monday morning, Moosekind! I was offline all yesterday so it’s good to be back at the Pond, catching up with the news.
It’s a delightful, silver-tinged morning here in Ashburn, meaning white cirrus clouds hovering in a pale blue sky and sunlight that’s not quite as strong. It’s 75 F. at the moment, going up to 91 F. later.
Had a child-tending gig yesterday from 4:30 p.m to 10:30 p.m. The girls and I had a hilarious time performing the play I wrote for them called, “The Mystery of the Missing Dog.” It was all about the alleged disappearance of their dog, Penny. We also danced to music—at least the youngest and I did—and played their favorite game, to which I introduced them, called “The Dictionary Game.” I pick a word at random from the dictionary, and when the girl spells it correctly, I reward her with a chocolate chip. The girls are all “wicked smart,” as people say nowadays.
Today I must answer all the emails I didn’t answer yesterday, water the garden, and get my exercise on the treadmill. Tomorrow, of course, is the Democratic primary. We’ll vote in the morning because we are taking Miss Pink Cheeks to get vaccinated tomorrow afternoon. I’ll probably take a thousand photos of her. Grandmotherhood, at least in my case, borders on battiness!
I’m starting to feel the three sisters down the road are my grandchldren too. We have such a good time together I almost feel as if I ought to pay the parents, rather than the other way round! They’re a delightful couple and seem so grateful to have an evening away when they can be “just two.”
Yikes, it’s nearly nine, getting hotter all the time, so I need to get down to the garden. I harvested two little Sungolds yesterday and ate both. Yummy!
Wishing a good day to all at the Pond.
It’s 70 heading for 79 and dark enough the lights are on. Rain expected later today and in the morning, clouds until Wednesday. Maybe. It cleared off enough to generate 13.4 KWHs yesterday. So we’re at 72.37 for the m-t-d. Sigh.
A “happy” thing – it’s basket’s birthday! ????????????????????????✨????????????????
I talked to Fineena last night. The new meds are helping the nausea. Her doctor gave her a month’s Rx with one refill hoping that will take care of it. That Rx at least was free. The pain meds were over $40 & her inhaler was $120! Jill & Lisa are hanging on. So’s Aji although the pain and symptoms are apparently increasing.
I accidently reported one of Aji’s tweets when I was trying to report the bastid who’d replied to it just underneath. I do not know how to UNreport anybody. I did a tweet to twitter support & hope they’ll get back with me. I went ahead and reported the bastid (& blocked him). But she doesn’t need hits like that – even accidental ones – from her friends. She gets enough of it from her enemies. And that pretty much tells you how my day is going already.
Hope coffee will help. Bright the day, Meeses. {{{HUGS}}}
Good morning, 48 and partly cloudy in Bellingham. I did plant a few begonias yesterday and hope to do more gardening today. The garden has grown so much this year it’s an explosion of green so the spots of color are nice to see. Best wishes to all on this quiet Monday morning.
I went into the office this morning, got several people whose phones had been going straight to voice mail; I figured it’s because we mask our numbers when we call from home. I got 4 people set up. Our weather is back to normal for Texas in June — feels like a steam room when you go outside. The long rainy spell kept it cool longer than normal, but I guess even the weather is going back to normal now.
Good morning, meeses! Tuesday …
It is 72 degrees in Madison with an expected daytime high of 86. Chance of thunderstorms. Yesterday’s “chance of thunderstorms” resulted in about a 20 minute downpour and a 10 minute loss of the satellite dish but I did not hear any thunder and my dog (who reacts poorly to storms) was unfazed. We shall see what today brings.
I am glad to see that Andrew Yang is dropping in the NYC mayoral polls. New York is a serious city and needs serious people to run it, not goofy gadflies whose only claim to fame is a lot of social media “follows”.
The saga of Joe Manchin, white male millionaire of West Virginia, continues. I read something yesterday that was interesting – a suggestion to lower the filibuster to 55 from 60 which is proving to be an impossible threshold. Apparently Senator Byrd – Manchin’s mentor – was in favor of that number. That would require with this Senate makeup that a filibuster could only be broken with bipartisan support, meeting the Manchin “democracy” standard. One wonders, by the way, if he thought that bills passed with a 60 vote Democratic-only threshold in 2009 were “tyranny”. I personally think that a Mitch McChinless led Republican Senate will close ranks and not pass anything even with the lowered threshold but maybe that would pull the scales from Manchin’s eyes? I will not hold my breath.
I hope that Kamala had some success on her Central America trip! It is good to see her in the halls of power, meeting with foreign leaders womano a mano.
See all y’all later!
In from my walk/run, it was already 80 degrees at 6am, so it was like walking in a sauna. I made it to 5 segments of 90 seconds running, 3 more at 60 seconds. It was just so hot. Today: just work.
Good Tuesday morning, Meese! Do y’all have Generation X cicadas where you are? If you don’t, you’re lucky. Monty thinks they’re a new kind of lunch, and I myself feel attacked when I try to walk outside.
It’s another silvery morning in Ashburn, with a layer of white cloud over the blue and weak sunlight. The present temp. is 79 F., going up to 88 F. Thunderstorms with rain are predicted, which is a load of old codswallop. It won’t rain. We’re four inches under for the year in our area.
Today is Democratic primary day! I’ll be voting forJennifer McClellan for guv, Mark Levine for Lt. Guv, and dear old LGBTQIA-defending Mark Herring for AG. Herring will never be governor, most likely, so let him keep doing a terrific job as AG.
In a non-Covid world, today would have been graduation day for my beloved Miss Pink Cheeks. There will be no cap, no gown, nor tightly scrolled diploma for her and her classmates. Instead there will be a car parade. Dearly and I are taking her to that and right afterward to get her first vaccine jab at Kaiser. After that we’ll go to Starbucks and get her a cake pop.
Because of the lack of a formal ceremony, I completely forgot she’d be graduating. I’ll ask her to pick whatever she wants in the way of a new book or game from Amazon.
First-world problem, I know. Next September she’ll be going to the middle school for smart kids. A lot of them go on to Thomas Jefferson magnet school for math and science geniuses. I wish the powers that be thought writers and musicians can be geniuses too.
I’ve got to get dressed, water the garden, pop over to the farmers’ market, and vote. Then I need to exercise in the gym. It doesn’t seem to be having much effect on my weight or waistline, but it makes me feel as if I’m Doing Something.
Wishing a good day to all at the Pond. I wish Joe Manchin would lose all his multi-millions overnight. It would be a good lesson in humility for him.
It’s 70 heading for 83 and light’s-on cloudy. We only generated 7.5 KWHs yesterday (at a time of year when 25 is possible) with 79.5 as the current m-t-d. I’ve upped my vitamin D intake to try an help me deal with this cloudy year. So far I don’t see any difference but this depression, lethargy, & messed-up depth perception is truly not good, so I’ll keep trying and see if there’s a cumulative effect. I hope. (Of course getting “normal” sunshine would take care of it, but there’s nothing I can do about that.)
I talked to Jill yesterday. Believe it or not, I’m fairly good at being someone folks can talk to when they need to talk to someone. As much as she’s putting out on twitter, which is more than I would, she’s not putting out everything. So she talked about some stuff that’s better and some stuff that’s worse than what she’s saying publicly. Her situation, like everybody else’s, is a holding one. Waiting is hard. Whether it’s resolution on something like Jill’s situation or getting MRIs and answers like Aji’s situation. It’s just hard.
Biden-Harris are finding stolen children and getting them back to their families. Which of course isn’t in the MSM so when another ICE or DHS evil thing happens people have no “good” they’re working on to go with the “bad” that’s continuing. Often court-supported after Biden ordered them to stop. Often flat-out illegal Biden’s DOJ is going to have to investigate and put together court cases about before they can publicly do anything. sigh. So very much to do just to undo (what’s possible to undo) the damage of the previous administration. So little time to do it and rebuild the economy – probably without the jobs/infrastructure bill – to a point we keep the “independents” and the “see, didn’t matter” voters going to the polls.
I got my insurance premium statements yesterday. Need to call the bank and move most of the money out of my savings into my checking so I can pay them. That’s what that savings account is for. Putting aside monthly the money to pay insurances and taxes. But I still don’t like clearing it when it’s time to do that. LOL. Then off to twitter. Well, probably more coffee first. Bright the day, Meeses. {{{HUGS}}}
Good morning, 48 and partly sunny in Bellingham. I planted a few flowers yesterday and will finish today. One large pot was completely rootbound, with roots growing through the drain hole into the ground. Getting that one empty and ready for new plants was a struggle but I like the way it looks now with a large astilbie, begonias and bacopia. The astilbie will come back next year so adding the annuals will be easier now.
Our make the best of it garage project has been on hold waiting for our son to move a big shelf and than happened yesterday. So today we’ll start putting the old work bench together. It’s quite a mess so we’ll do what we can. Best wishes to all.
Good morning, meeses! Wednesday …
It is 68 degrees in Madison with an expected daytime high of 90. Sunny skies are in the forecast.
Joe Biden stopped negotiating with the unserious Senate Republican leadership, led by Senator Capito, and is now going to try his hand with the Gang of 20 – a group of 10 Democrats and 10 Republicans who promise to vote for the stuff they come up with. Good luck with that! We have seen this movie before and it ended up with the American Rescue Plan being passed via reconciliation because when push comes to shove Senate Republicans take their orders from Mitch McChinless who will not allow any victory for the Biden Administration. So it will come down to whether or not Joe Manchin is willing to vote for a reconciliation infrastructure bill or go home to West Virginia to tell his constituents that their failing bridges and dialup Internet are not his concern. Well, of course they aren’t his concern, he is a white male multi-millionaire!!
It sounds like New Jersey Republicans rejected the tRump candidates which is probably not great news for New Jersey. They have this nasty habit of electing Republican governors and it would probably be easier for Gov. Murphy to run against a GQP nutcase. I hope he reminds everyone that the entire Republican Party is enthrall to tRump and that turning over the state to them – and a faux moderate – would be a terrible idea.
It sounds like turnout in the Democratic primary in Virginia was high; that is good news: now is no time to disengage from politics.
See all y’all later!
Wednesday Meese. 68 going up to 88 with rain and thunderstorms here in Kingston NY.
I am getting so damn tired of attacks on VP Kamala Harris I could spit.
Especially those from the fake leftists like Always On Camera Ocasio-Cortez.
Grrrrr
Ha!! “Always On Camera Ocasio-Cortez.” Perfect!! She is Republicanesque in her rush to the TV to bash the Biden-Harris Administration and Democrats she sees as lacking in “purity.”
Puerto Rico