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 to view previous pages, shown here with 3 pages of comments available and Page 2 circled.
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Good “morning”, Motley Meese! The week begins …
Morning low of 55 degrees in Madison WI with an expected daytime high of 79. Sunny skies are in the forecast.
Have a great day, all y’alls!!
Sunday Meese. 56 here in Kingston going up to 80. A lovely day.
Will have a post celebrating Auntie Maxine’s Birthday today as well as the usual Black Music Sunday.
Puerto Rico
Haiti
Good morning. Watching the news, may flip over to a home renovation show because it is just too sickening. My church decided to not re-open the sanctuary today, since it was short notice they are having an in-person service in the parking lot for those who really want in-person stuff. Not me. Today, all I need to do is make next week’s “overnight” oats and thaw out some lunch.
Sunday Music
It’s 71 and sunny at the moment. Going up to 87 – heat index isn’t supposed to get over 90 – with a chance of mid-afternoon rain/clouds/temporary drop in temps. It never really cleared off yesterday but the cloud cover was light enough we got 10 KWHs (m-t-d 212.6) which is OK since I didn’t use the A/C. Not on track for even 450 for the month, but better than what I use.
Managed to clean my “half-bath” this morning and sweep the “living area” before my hands started bothering me. I’m taking a bit of a break now, hope to do the kitchen and make my bed shortly, and maybe save the full bath until this evening just before I take my shower so I won’t need to do anything but go to bed and let my hands recover overnight. We shall see.
The house Jill is living in was never finished. Even for off-grid. Guy put in a plank subfloor and didn’t put the actual flooring on top. Planks now have gaps between some of them for a flash drive to slip through. Jill managed to pull up a plank and get it back – but what she found down there! Guy claimed to be a Buddhist but was dabbling in dark magics. White-people dabbling so a bunch of appropriated stuff (including the skeleton of a dead cat that was probably black when it was alive) but the intent was clear. And evil. Hold the Good Thought she can find a decent RV that’s both cheap enough for her to afford on her Disability but enough that the dealership will both warranty it and finance it. Amelia’s still recovering from cleaning up the extremely messy Chewy shipment. Which doesn’t surprise me. Fineena’s still in pain and still suffering from the heat. The storms moving in are going to freak Henry and have Harriet bouncing off the walls. Aji seems to have gotten some energy back. From where? Well I can only think a goddess or three are involved because her health sure isn’t better. I haven’t heard from Natalia. Which I hope is good.
There are multiple ways to do damage control on global warming. All of them take changes in the tax code that aren’t going to happen. We can spend trillions on “green infrastructure” but as long as we’re also essentially paying Big Business (not just Big Oil) to throw gasoline on it, it’s not going to work. I been watching this for over 40 years. Jammed-on brakes can slow down but never stop a big engine being floored.
2nd mug of coffee and over to twitter. & DK of course for Dee’s diaries. Bright the day, Meeses. {{{HUGS}}}
Maxine Waters
Good morning, 61 and partly sunny in Bellingham. Thankfully the air is less smoky today. I worked in the garage yesterday and the paint and painting supplies are finally organized on the new shelf unit. The work bench and tools are next. I set up the splash pool before I started in the garage, knowing I would be hot, sweaty and in need of a rest and recovery spot. It was nice to relax in the cool water, a moment of summer.
I’ll need to stay off my knees today, but that’s ok. Best wishes to all.
You are the busiest retired person I know! It is good that you have had extra help over the past few days, I hope Ryan is staying around for a while longer.
So, this is next door to where I work…..
It is the goddess trying to wash away the hate.
Yep! :)
Good morning, meeses! Monday …
It is 55 degrees in Madison with an expected daytime high of 79. Sunny skies are in the forecast. This is the same weather we have had for the past two days and it is very nice. It gets a little warm in the afternoon with the sun beating on the house so the air conditioning usually needs to go on around 2pm. But once the sun goes down it cools again. We are not done with summer heat but by the end of the month, it should be consistently below 80. I’m ready for Fall!
I despise the Republicans and their captive media (literally every channel and newspaper) claiming that “Afghanistan will stain Joe Biden’s legacy.” Actually, no. He did not just fall off the turnip truck, he knew this was going to bring out the knives for him. He also knows that the truth of the matter is that the legacy is Bush-Cheney’s with a little Trump-Pompeo incompetence thrown in to make sure it was a total shitshow. One of my favorite tweets was a tweet at Liz “Dick” Cheney who was decrying Biden and demanding an explanation for the mess – the twitterer asked “Don’t you have your dad on speed dial?” Enough of that. I think the Republicans are happy to have something to scream about in order to take people’s attention off their pandemic response where they have essentially declared that they don’t care how many children and teachers die, they will have maskless in-person instruction this fall. Goddess help us.
Meanwhile, Joe Biden is increasing food stamp benefits by redefining some nutrition standards and Social Security is looking at a 6.2% bump for 2022. Once we pass the budget with its shoring up of the social safety net, that will be Joe Biden’s legacy.
Busy week here, I have project deadlines and appointments almost every day.
See all y’all later!
This is an excellent analysis of how we got here and the choices we faced.
Here is the Threadreaderapp link (so you can avoid the dangling commentary). This, this and this:
Good moist Monday, Moosekind! I was up to my ears in grandchildren all weekend. After the second one was picked up yesterday I collapsed into bed and that was basically that.
Currently the sky is overcast, there’s a chance of rain at 10 a.m., and the temperature is 71 F., going up to 80 F. Chance of thunderstorms this afternoon.
Agree with the preceding remarks about Afghanistan. Who’d ‘a’ thunk it would be front-page news after all these years? And Haiti, again. You’d better believe I won’t donate to the Red Double-Cross. Better the money should go to José Andrés, who’s over there feeding the survivors. Why he isn’t nominated for a Nobel, I’ll never know. Probably because the pure white Norwegians are prejudiced against Latinos.
It had been so long since Miss Pre-Teen was over here that I couldn’t find the colored sprinkles for her hot chocolate with whipped cream on Friday morning. She’s at the age before she’s interested in attracting the male gaze, so her hair looked like a bird’s nest. I marched her off to the barbershop, where “Kathy” (I’m pretty sure that’s not her real name) muttered as she washed Nora’s hair in the basin, “Who she?” Nora, whose hearing is better than mine, said, “I’m her granddaughter.”
Anyway, Kathy took three inches off Nora’s hair (the latter negotiated it down from four inches), and blew it dry. The darling girl looked so gorgeous that I sent pictures to her relatives.
Little Ethan was lively and energetic yesterday. He accompanied me to the garden plot and helped me pick Sungold tomatoes. When we looked at the communal garden plot, he picked a hot pepper to take home to Daddy. Elder Son was not completely delighted as he can just about tolerate jalapeños, but nothing hotter.
So, having bored you sufficiently, I will simply add that I’ve a very busy day ahead, including lunch with a Witch that I haven’t seen for quite a while. Hubby’s 91st birthday on Friday was celebrated nicely two days in a row. Elder Son invited us for dinner and I must say it was delicious. To top it off, we Facetimed with my husband’s brother and wife in Australia. It was 8:30 in the morning there. It was good to see him again.
Wishing a good day to all at the Pond!
Checking in on my phone is weird. It keeps erasing everything,so I’ll just say hi.
Was 67 now 71 heading for 85 (heat index supposedly under 90) today. Sunny at the moment. We got 11.8 KWHs yesterday and the m-t-d is 224.4 to start the day. Not on track but at least ahead of usage.
Already got my first phone call of the day from Jill. Another nightmare but at least no harassers around last night. She’s given up on other ways to find the money to get out of there and posted a GFM last night. She set it for $16K (10% will go to the payor company that the GFM never talks about with their “no fees” schtick), estimating high on everything she could think of so if she gets nasty surprises – and she gets them practically hourly right now – she doesn’t have to raise the goal. And if she’s pleasantly surprised by anything, she can do it on less and have “stocking up” funds.
We shouldn’t have gone into Afghanistan in the first place. Afghanistan did not attack us. There was never going to be a good way to get out again. That doesn’t mean I’m not upset and angry about what’s happening to the folks over there – especially the women and girls. But I know that whenever we left, whoever was president when we left, this would happen.
I haven’t checked anywhere with anybody yet this morning so I’m assuming things haven’t changed from yesterday or one of them would have contacted me. Hasn’t changed doesn’t mean good. It just means not worse. But that will have to do.
I’ve got to get the laundry on and the house closed up shortly. By the time the washing machine’s finished the dew should be off the grass. Holding the Good Thoughts for everybody. Bright the day, Meeses. {{{HUGS}}}
Good morning, 63 and cloudy in Bellingham. I’m loving the feel of more moist and cleaner air. It may have rained last night so I may have wet cushions and towels to deal with…..or they may be dry before I find out!
Yesterday was a relaxing summer day with time in the garden, fun in my splash pool, time with Ryan, ending with dinner on the patio. I need to tend to my desk today so I’d best do so. Best wishes to all.
Tuesday Meese. 66 and raining here in Kingston NY going up to 77. Rain all day.
Puerto Rico
Our Olympic GOLD medalist Jasmine Camacho-Quinn arrives today in Puerto Rico and Noticentro will broadcast the entire celebration and reception caravan. See the caravan route here:
Good morning, meeses! Tuesday …
It is 55 degrees in Madison with an expected daytime high of 82. Sunny skies are in the forecast.
I was amused by the pretzels that the Republicans are twisting themselves into in order to try to pin the debacle in Afghanistan on Joe Biden. The most hilarious is the “you must help our Afghan allies!” turning quickly into “OMG, they are MUSLIMS – you can’t let them into our country!!1!!” Afghanistan is a shared failure but the invasion was started and botched by Republican President George W. Bush. I am sad that President Obama bought the bullsh*t peddled by the generals that somehow the war was “winnable” if we just pumped more money into it, that eventually the Afghan military would stand up and we could safely leave. We should have left years ago when it was obvious that there was no exit strategy. Even if the new leader of Afghanistan had not been released from prison by tRump, someone else would have stepped in and reconstituted the Taliban. One thing that Republicans should understand is how determined religious extremists are when they have a goal. They are a White Christian Nationalist party and have the same goals as the Taliban does – to subjugate women and establish total control by church leaders.
I think I will stay away from the news until things settle down – the stupid is difficult to watch.
See all y’all later!
I did lots of stretches & took aspirin yesterday, my back is only slightly stiff this morning. It’s the first day of school for several districts, mask requirements are the big story on the news. We have a 40% chance of rain, since I’m working from home today, if I hear it I’ll move some of my plants out from the porch.
I was reading that Dallas schools are going to ignore the Texas Supreme Court and mandate masks – is that true or were they just testing the waters? I wonder if Abbott would send in his personal militia to enforce his death cult edicts.
Heh! Dallas is going to put the mask mandate in the dress code. If they can regulate girls’ bare shoulders, they can bloody well regulate bare faces.
Brilliant!!
Good cloudy Tuesday morning, Meese. It’s 72 F. on its way up to 87 F. in Ashburn. There may or may not be a thunderstorm.
This morning I am so congested I can’t breathe through by dose. Just proves I can’t skip even one day of Allegra at this time of year. I’ve taken a pill and done the Neti Pot thing, but I’m still breathing through my mouth. Oh, well, as long as I can still do that…
Today at 10 I have an appointment with the hearing aid people at Costco. The right aid has never fit properly and despite paying a whole lot of money, I still can’t hear well. I need them to find out what’s wrong.
Had a long, enjoyable lunch yesterday with a friend I hadn’t seen in a few years. Well, I’ve seen her on Zoom, but that’s not the same. By the time it was over and I’d done an errand, my energy was gone for the day.
It’s breakfast time, so I think I’ll partake. Coffee!
Wishing a good day to all at the Pond.
It’s 70, raining, may or may not go up to 87, may or may not get a heat index over 90. We shall indeed see what we shall see. Yesterday we generated 12.99 KWHs, currently 5 watts, and the m-t-d is 237.35 which may or may not – probably not – reach 250 by end of day.
We should never have invaded Afghanistan. They did not attack us. All of W’s wannabe war president crap about 12/7 = 9/11 was just that. Crap. 19 religious nutjobs skyjacking 4 commercial airlines and flying them into buildings is terrorism, is murder, is not war. The Afghanis offered to hand bin Ladin over to an international court for trial if we’d give them some proof he was behind it. W’s say so rightfully did not count as proof. We started a war that was never going to end any way but the way it did. With a lot of people dead who shouldn’t have been and what precious stability Afghanistan had before we invaded destroyed. This was the foregone conclusion from the first planeload of “boots on the ground” over there. Am I sick about what’s happening? Yes. Have I been sick about it for almost 20 years? Yes.
Jill keeps running into roadblocks with every plan to get out of the dangerous situation she’s in. Most of which she can’t even talk about online. sigh. Lisa’s on the same “merry-go-round” – anything she does takes enough energy to require a day or so recovery. Anything she does because somebody else screwed up (or jacked up like that cop having her car towed a few months back), that she shouldn’t have to be doing, sets her back further than that. Fineena’s focusing on a friend in the hospital and not herself. Partly because she’s a good and caring person, partly because it’s a distraction from her own pain and problems. Aji’s got some energy back. Probably from some goddess or other because her situation hasn’t changed. And the longer the pain, lack of sleep, subluxed joints, & other issues keep going, the more wearing it is. I haven’t heard from Natalia in about a week. I hope it’s just that she’s busy. Which she most certainly is since the university is open – and face-to-face. Students and some staff are ignoring the mask mandate.
Wretched sleep. Sinusitis. sigh. I hope more coffee will help. Off to do my twitter stuff. I’m “behind my time” already. Bright the day, Meeses. {{{HUGS}}}
Good moist Wednesday morning, Moose people. It’s like a steambath outside. Currently in Ashburn it’s 76 F., going up to 85 F. We are supposed to get more rain (80% chance) and even a tornado or two. Hope that doesn’t happen! At any rate, we’ve progressed from being 6 and 1/2 inches under for rainfall for the year to 5 and 1/2 inches under, so that’s something.
Oh, I found out why I couldn’t hear. I didn’t realize that I had to pull the skin of my middle ear back to properly insert the dome into the ear canal. The audiologist also reinstalled the plastic wires to my hearing aids so they don’t dislodge so easily. Duh. The things I didn’t know!
This morning there are three items on the agenda: finish working on the ESL story (we have residents here who teach English to our mostly Spanish-speaking cleaners), go to the gym, and get a haircut. Hope I manage to do it all before lunchtime. I also need to order bookmarks for the authors’ festival.
I also want to see if my niece can update my website because my technical skills are inadequate to the task. So I have enough to keep me off the streets and out of the pool halls, as you can see.
Wishing healing for bfitz’s sinusitus and hope she had a better night, plus a good day to all at the Pond.