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 32 degrees in Madison WI with an expected daytime high of 37. Mixed precipitation is in the forecast.
Have a great day, all y’alls!!
Sunday Meese. 30 degrees going up to 44 here in Kingston.
Watching hit job after hit job against MVP Harris has me tearing my hair out! Thankfully people are pushing back
Also appalling – folks can’t even mourn in peace
Sister Dee, thanks for this! How vile these Trumpanzees are for threatening the mourners! How “Christian” is that?
And for Goddess’ sake, there is no story too unsubstantiated, no rumor too vile, no article too mean to bring down both Madame Vice President and President Biden! A pox on all the journos! “Democracy does indeed die in darkness,” because journos refuse to tell the truth.
May the crusty curse of Oliver Cromwell fall upon their poxy penii.
Puerto Rico
Good morning. It is really warm — 67 this morning. Today’s plan: church, make next week’s breakfast… and that’s all I can think of. Currently eating breakfast & watching the news. Maybe when the caffeine kicks in, I’ll think of something else I need to do.
Black Music Sunday
Three cheers for your piece on Little Richard, Sis!
Thank you!
Good morning, 34 and light clouds. Thanks to family elves our Christmas tree is in place and better yet all the totes of Christmas makings are put away, yay! So today I should be able to collect branches and berries and make a few winter arrangements. I really enjoy doing so, especially when I don’t feel rushed. Best wishes to all.
It’s 60 going to 70 and sunny so far, which is good. Yesterday we didn’t get even 3 KWHs so the 21.66 m-t-d is not on track for 180. I have no idea if it can catch back up. The 10-day forecast is not promising.
I have had a very nice morning. My friend Natalia came over, with lattes, and we visited for almost an hour. There was a bunch of stuff I had set aside for her – some hers that I’d been using, some mine that I hadn’t been using and she could – she picked up while she was here. I seriously hope the bankruptcy goes through without a problem. She had to stop paying her credit cards last May. This geedee country that can’t have universal healthcare because “those people” would get “free stuff” and it doesn’t matter that everybody benefits from not having crushing medical bills. The whole effing economy benefits from not driving people into poverty over crushing medical bills. But it was so nice to see her and visit even if our conversation wasn’t about nice stuff.
Jill’s got more drama going on. sigh. Amelia does too. We’re not sure where to go or what to try next about finding her a doctor since hers seems to have retired. Fineena’s drama is in the same category as Natalia’s except that at least Fineena’s retired and got the Medicare. And doesn’t have a husband who should be on Disability but isn’t. (They’ve applied. It’s going about the way it “normally” does.)
My fingers are giving me trouble. I’m not in the serious not-functional stage, but I am in the randomly not-functional stage. sigh. I’m “behind my time” so I guess I’ll get to it. Dee’s diary and twitter. Bright the day, Meeses. {{{HUGS}}}
Regarding this: “This geedee country that can’t have universal healthcare because “those people” would get “free stuff” and it doesn’t matter that everybody benefits from not having crushing medical bills.”
I was having this conversation with my daughter last week in the context of the government possibly cancelling some student loan debt. When I explained that it was being resisted because people who paid their debt HATE the idea that someone won’t have to pay theirs (and that selfish Americans thinking that way is also what led to people losing their homes in the 2008 sub-prime mortgage crash), she was aghast. I think that people of her generation don’t understand that level of selfishness – the cancellation of student loan debt would be a boon to young people starting their lives and especially starting their lives after a deadly pandemic put everything on hold. Maybe there is hope that once Gen Z is in charge, the greater good will take precedence over “if it doesn’t help me personally (or I can’t see how it helps me), I won’t support it.” Young people’s ideology does not always survive deep into adulthood but maybe this generation will be different. We can only hope!
Good afternoon, Moosekind! Today is one of those days that can’t make up its mind:
Anyway, the temperature outside is 50 F. It won’t get much higher.I did vacuum my bathroom floor. I’ve nearly vacuumed the others but not quite. I have thought about it, though. I’ve made the beds (or unmade them in the case of Nora’s air mattress), cooked a large breakfast, and am now prepared to rest. We need to leave here at 3 so Nora can attend her online Chinese class at 4 p.m. I wish I could just keep her here.
I am so choked with fury about the probable overturn of Roe and the possible overturn of Griswold that I don’t know where to look. All that marching—all that demonstrating—all that “giving blood for choice”—all that getting up at 4 a.m. and putting on a bullet-proof vest to defend women’s clinics—all that fundraising—all for naught. I’d like to go live in a country where women aren’t so hated but can’t think of one. Perhaps New Zealand?
Nora is over here, having a little change and helping out. She finished decorating the dinky little artificial Christmas tree and has taken Monty out for some of his many excursions. I thought dogs and wolves slept all the time?
Well, I’m feeling a bit tired too, so I think I’ll read myself to sleep. Today is the last day I’m going to take a pain pill. That stuff ruins one’s liver.
Bfitz, I hope you get some sunlight and hope your hands will feel better as the day wears on. Wishing a nice, quiet day to all at the Pond.
There is no solution on Roe and people who think that Griswold is safe are ignorant of history. Access to birth control has been under attack since it was put into the ACA, with the right-wing and their court finding all sorts of exceptions. Soon the exception will be “birth control does not reflect the values of our state and therefore our state will ban access to it.” just like Mississippi is saying about abortion in the Dobbs case. I did not realize the endgame of the anti-abortion movement until I read Susan Faludi’s Backlash – it has always been to ban birth control and return women to barefoot, pregnant and in the kitchen. Maybe, Diana, the loss of Roe will energize another generation of young women when they realize that the men in charge of our country despise them and will never give them equal rights. I hope so.
To answer your question from Saturday, I generally get up around 4am and start work at 4:30 so that I can get ahead of people who start work at a more traditional time. I am usually done “being awake” at about 8pm but in the summer it is difficult to sleep at that time because THE SUN IS SHINING!! In the winter it is much easier but I have to resist going to bed at 7pm although it is tempting and sometimes I give in. I am definitely an early morning person, finding myself more productive when I am enveloped in darkness with just my desk lamp and the glow of my computer screen. I usually finish my work day by 9am but try to hang around online until about 11:30am so that I can respond to questions and concerns.
Wow! Well, there’s nothing like getting it all done early and having the rest of the day free. I should do that, since my sleep patterns have changed. I will give it serious thought.
If Democrats would take the long view, as the Rethugs do, we’d train up a generation of lawyers to get seats on appellate courts and win seats in the House and Senate so they could fix everything. I’d hate for the new generation to have to go through what we did.
How come all these “pro-life” people are against gun control?
I used to take an afternoon nap which I think is why I don’t last long into the evening (I am simply tired!). I don’t seem to be able to nap any longer, I think it is because after my intense project over the summer, my head still buzzes with what I should be doing (even if my body says I am done for the day) and I can’t relax. I am sad that COVID is going to make travel suck again – I would really like to take a warm weather vacation early next year and see if that de-stresses me.
I was sorry to see that your state has gone totally neanderthal – your Republican legislature will now have free rein to change all your laws with the trumpian governor signing them. It must be very depressing to go from a blue state to a red state in the blink of an eye. Wisconsin has always been a purple state so we expect swings back and forth. We also used to have reasonable Republicans, ones who did not think that bipartisan compromises were akin to their dicks falling off. Now it is a death match.
Good morning, meeses! Monday …
It is 30 degrees in Madison with an expected daytime high of 23. It says there is light snow now but I don’t see any. Tonight we will drop into the single digits for the first time this winter. My doggie has a new sweater – we are ready!
I don’t understand this lionizing literal piles of human garbage who put party over country, tax cuts and deregulation over human life. Bob Dole might have been a war hero but he was no protector of democracy – anyone who endorsed Donald J. Trump for president deserves to burn forever in whatever form of hell they believe in. No quarter. If people like Bob Dole had come out and said “this is insane, you can’t elect a carnival barker as president” 750,000 people would still be alive and our democracy would not be teetering on the brink.
Georgia’s gubernatorial race just got more interesting. Brian Kemp, he who would not “find” 10,000 votes to placate his lord and master Donald Trump, is going to be primaried. That should bloody both of them up pretty well – David Perdue still has the baggage that had him lose a statewide election in January and if Kemp survives, the MAGAts will stay home pouting. Governor Stacey Abrams? Goddess, the right-wing’s heads will explode!!
Busy morning so I best get to it. I seem to always promise things at the end of the week “I will look at that over the weekend” and then do other thing and end up with a big to-do stack on Monday morning. I got the projects done that required connecting to people’s computers before they start work, now I need to put a plan in place for the rest of the day.
See all y’all later!
Thanks for the Georgia update – pass the popcorn!
Monday Meese – raining here in Kingston, 37 going up to 58, which is fine by me – it is not snow.
Puerto Rico
Warm enough this morning that I was going to wear sandals. But there’s a cold front coming through and by the time I leave work, it’s supposed to be in the 50s. And, oh great it’s bringing in cedar pollen.
Cedar pollen?
Allergies!
Good morrrnnning, Moosekind! It’s another gray, ugly day here in Ashburn, with no long-stemmed American Beauty rose called Miss Pink Cheeks to cheer it up. Right now it’s cloudy and 54 F. in Ashburn, going up to 67 F. It’s very windy and might rain later—we shall see. Tomorrow is supposed to be extremely cold but dry, so I’ll go to see my friend, Goddess willin’ and the creek don’t git up. Haven’t seen her in 21 months because of Covid.
I worked myself into such a state last night after I went to bed that I couldn’t sleep. I kept thinking about my Mac, the operating system called Big Surly, and the total mess it’s made of my files. Also I have to click through three screens to open a document. I loathe this and my get the Geek back here.
Anyway, had a horrible night, so I will be ready to collapse when my energy dissipates. I’m trying a day without taking Motrin, since I fear for my liver.
Please forgive me for being very bitchy. Every time I think about the state of this country and how we women are being systematically deprived of our rights, flames come out of my nostrils.
I need to get on with my chores while I still have sufficient energy to do so, so will close for now. Goddess bless all here at the Pond.
It’s 35 heading for 45 and sunny. We generated a tad over 5 KWHs yesterday. The m-t-d is 26.22 and still losing ground. But it’s sunny today. So we shall see what we shall see.
Nothing new. Except Aji’s caught up with her NDN Silver posts which means she found some time and energy somewhere to do it. It would be nice if there were some resolution, some closure, somewhere. For anything. sigh. We’ll keep on keepin’ on. Bright the day, Meeses. {{{HUGS}}}
Good morning, 34, cloudy and a dusting of snow. I’m glad I got all the collected greens and branches prepped and in the garage yesterday so I can have some relatively warm flower fun today. We’ve patched and caulked every opening we could see light through so the garage stays warmer now. I’m getting Christmas together earlier than usual this year because we’re hosting a family party on the 12th following Ava’s dance studio’s Christmas performance. She has a large part this year and has been rehearsing since last summer so it will be fun to celebrate her accomplishments. Best wishes to all.
Good morning, meeses! Tuesday …
It is 7 degrees in Madison (feels like 3) with an expected daytime high of 21. Light snow expected later this morning. I am glad the winds died down – with yesterday’s winds we would be in the negative double digits for wind chill.
A quick scan of the news shows that the sausage making is in high gear. There are three bills being “negotiated” (a foolish term for the Senate which is the most ridiculous legislative body on earth) and all of them are a mess – raising the debt ceiling AGAIN, the Build Back (a little) Better, and the Defense Authorization Act which funds the military. I think I will put “Senate” on my trigger word list so I can ignore it all. The only entertaining thing coming from Washington is the work of the January 6th Committee whose staff keeps finding Trump White House fingerprints all over the riot and insurrection. If tRump had succeeded and had killed Mike Pence and Nancy Pelosi and Mitch McConnell and claimed that he was the rightful ruler of America, I wonder what his Supreme Court would have done. :::shudders:::
The editorial page editor for the Washington Post died of a sudden heart attack. Erik Loomis of LGM wonders if his paper will find some way to blame it on the Democrats. He was NOT a friend of progressives. Sorry for his family, not sorry that he won’t be picking winners and losers for the second most important paper in America any longer.
Time to get back to work! I have to prep for a training session and I need to pull together some notes so that we can follow an agenda and be productive. Plus December is disappearing at an alarming rate considering what I need to get done before calendar year end.
See all y’all later!
Heh! Just read the story at LGM. Very amusing.
There are so many hateful old white men at the WaPo–Thiessen, Michael Gerson, all that crowd. I hope the Hiatt mourning will last only one day and that Dole mourning won’t go on too long.
With all the lionization of Hiatt, people were conjecturing that when Chuck Todd dies they will fall all over themselves to laud his journalistic chops. Changing the reality of a dead person’s life’s work just makes the press even less respected – people have eyes and saw what they did, when you airbrush it you lose credibility. Loomis had an exchange with Jane Mayer where she took exception to his truth telling:
Agree with Loomis!
Tuesday Meese. 34 here in Kingston NY going up to 40 and sunny.
Was glad to see DOJ come out against Texas
and action being taken in Ohio and NC
Ohio
North Carolina
Sadly, the United States Supreme Court will be the final arbiter of these lawsuits and they are chomping at the bit to put the final nail into the coffin of the Voting Rights Act. Chief White Supremacist Justice John Roberts who famously declared that America is post-racial when he struck down pre-clearance in Shelby will be delighted to kill of the rest of it. Fk Joe Manchin with a rusty anvil for being a willing accomplice in the destruction of fair elections in America.
Amen!
Puerto Rico
Good Tuesday morning, Meese! It’s 32 F. in Ashburn at the moment. Sunrise happened a few minutes ago, revealing the black skeletons of trees starkly silhouetted against a gray winter sky. I do love winter sunrises and sunsets!
Our high today will be 43 F. My “high” is probably right now. Woke up at 3:30 this morning, which means that I had 5 hours’ sleep. If we really do experience four-letter-word tomorrow morning, I’m not driving in it. It would be too dangerous for a sleep-deprived person. I’ll go to Greenspring next week.
Our local ABC outlet, WJLA-TV, has been airing obnoxious forced-birth commercials. It’s all about how “life deserves a chance.” They don’t run commercials about the 11-year-old raped by her own grandfather in South America, forced to carry the pregnancy to term. Nor do they mention the nine-year-old Afghan wives who die in childbirth because their little bodies cannot cope with the trauma. Even the ancient Romans, according to Colleen McCullough, scorned too-early marriage. They believed that a girl (who naturally had no say in the matter of choosing a husband) had to be 18 years old or so to give birth successfully.
Sometimes I wish there would be a mass Lysistrata movement in this country. Oh, well, at least we can look forward to a much-reduced Rethug voter population because of Covid.
Back at the ranch I’ve decided to embrace too-early wakeups. Problem is, lack of sleep makes me too tired to exercise and makes me crave carbs. I usually give in, so that means weight gain. But I may be able to get a couple of things done.
I don’t think I’ll go see the new version of “West Side Story.” It would involve going to a theater, and I’m not sure I want to do that.
Wishing a good day to all at the Pond!
P. S. Forgot to mention that today is Pearl Harbor Day. Just think of that horror 80 years ago, when our ships were attacked.
Me too! “I do love winter sunrises and sunsets!” The light behind the gnarly tree branches creates a spectacular image. When we drove west after our thanks giving meal with friends, we caught a sunset that looked like the sky was on fire.
Wow! What a wonderful experience!
Cold here this morning — 40 degrees (compared to yesterday’s 72 at this hour, that’s cold!) But it’ll warm up this afternoon, and we’ll have highs in the 80s by Friday. Texas. Reading the NASA thread about the new astronaut class, so many amazing people. Working from home today, more Marvel stuff while I have Disney+.
It’s up to 32 now, heading for 50, and not sunny. Not dark either but not sunny. sigh. Yesterday we generated just over 6.5 KWHs so gained a little but the 32.8 m-t-d is not on track. Temps are going to go back up again for a few days then down then back up. Not quite a roller coaster, unless 40-degree differences is sharp enough to consider roller coaster, but definitely unsettling. And only a few sunny days in the lot. more sighs.
Amelia’s motel had a plumbing backup yesterday that wasn’t fixed until late afternoon and her mom’s husband died while that was going on. She truly wishes she could be with her mom but she knows with her current health situation she couldn’t help. In fact her mom would have to take care of her on some things. Jill’s got drama in about 6 different directions. And no end in sight on any of them. Aji’s fundraising for the Navajo guys who’ve been providing free firewood to Elders of the Navajo Nation – they get no “official” funding from any source and while they do the work for free gas and equipment cost money. I haven’t heard from anyone else in a few days. Holding the Good Thoughts for all of them. & everybody.
I did get almost 8 hours of sleep – but not uninterrupted – and wasn’t out of my bedroom until after 8. Good thing I’m retired. Off to twitter. Bright the day, Meeses. {{{HUGS}}}