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?
…
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.
…
Good “morning”, Motley Meese! The week begins …
Morning low of 16 degrees in Madison WI with an expected daytime high of 10. Mostly sunny skies are in the forecast.
Have a great day, all y’alls!!
Freezing rain predicted in SE Michigan tonight. I went to church at 5pm, so I don’t have to go anywhere tomorrow.????
I’m taking a break from politics and insurrection coverage to watch a little Red Wing hockey from the coast at 10pm.
I almost feel guilty about our gloomy but relatively nice weather. I’m trying to decide about going to in-person church. Today’s a special one in the Methodist church, but that can still be done watching the service on youtube. Otoh, if it’s warm enough that I’ll barely need a sweater, I feel like I should go and take advantage of the warmth.
Sunday Meese. It’s 24 here in Kingston and I’m not sure what is happening with the weather – one report says snow, another says ice and sleet.
I hope everyone will listen to what this frontline health care worker has to say
Puerto Rico
Good morning. We’re having very mild weather — 50s this morning, and it’s cloudy/foggy so that’s the temperature for the day. Unfortunately covid is surging. My church is still having in-person service but sent out an e-mail yesterday reminding people about masks & social distancing. I’m wavering about going vs watching on youtube. Watching the news, eating breakfast — will leave thinking until the caffeine kicks in.
Black Music Sunday
Our high of 49 was just after midnight. It’s 40 now and will stay there until dark, then drop to 20 by dawn. Overcast enough I have the lights on. The PV system is on but just barely. Yesterday we generated 2.7 KWHs and yes, the m-t-d of 41.9 means we lost ground. And unless this clears off we’re going to lose more today. sigh.
I’ve been doing Sunday chores – i.e. what little house cleaning I actually do – and my hands are not happy. & I’m not happy with them so it’s mutual. sigh. Hopefully they’ll get better as the day goes on. Had to get milk yesterday. Will have to get groceries tomorrow or Tuesday. I’m hoping the Co-op run will hold off for 2 weeks. I’m also hoping the Aldi’s/Tractor Supply run will wait until 1st week of February. But I’ll be opening the next-to-last bag of kibble today so I’m not planning on it going that long. Them’s my planned “outs” for the month anyway. Double masked of course. Still using cloth masks but hoping if I can get in and out of a fairly empty store in 20 minutes or less I won’t get enough exposure to “take hold”. I hope. I’m doing good to wear the cloth masks. Anything that doesn’t loop over the ears is a nope for me. And I’m truly not sure I can wear anything synthetic at all. I usually can’t on the rest of me and faces tend to be the most sensitive skin. sigh.
I haven’t connected with anybody this morning but as of last night it was pretty much same ol’ same ol’ – Amelia’s still exhausted but managed to get in a food order. Jill’s husband guessed her password on her T-Mobile account (yes, it’s been changed and more security added) and nabbed the $60 “reimbursement” for the double billing. Which he can get away with because 1) he “knew” the password & 2) they’re still married. Aji hasn’t had any sleep for over a week and her pain’s “off the charts” – goddess only knows how that woman keeps doing all she does. But unfortunately that is same ol’ same ol’.
Heading off to twitter & Dee’s diary. Expect much cussing as it takes multiple tries to RT anything. Bright the day, Meeses. {{{HUGS}}}
Good Sunday morning, Moosekind! I don’t know what to tell you about the weather, except that currently in Ashburn it’s 36 F. and cloudy. First we were going to have freezing rain. Then that was going to change to snow. Then it was going to change to all rain, starting now. It does seem to be raining lightly at the moment—whether or not it’s freezing rain I can’t tell. Lawks, how I’d love to be paid $300,000 a year for always getting the weather wrong!
Duhh. Yesterday the family came over for tea, including Miss Pink Cheeks’ Best Friend Forever, Alexandra. She brought some rich shortbread cookies. I made a spicy gingerbread with orange frosting and decorated it with dried crystallized orange slices. There was not a scrap left by the time they departed. I also persuaded Younger Son to take the ham: We’ve had fried ham, ham with scalloped potatoes, ham-and-scram, ham sandwiches, and tonight we’re having ham casserole. “You’re hammed out,” Trevor said, accepting the ham.
DIL shared that she had visited the new HQ of her government agency in December. It’s a four-hour-a-day round trip commute from where they live now. Dear Goddess. IMHO, everyone who wants to work at home all the time should be allowed to do so. I always loved working at home when I was allowed to. It was heaven to have a window, access to fresh air, freedom from office politics, and the boredom that pervaded my days there.
Speaking of potatoes, I read there is a potato shortage! Dear Goddess! Better stock up.
Nothing to say except I wish I hadn’t read the gloomy prognostications in the newspooper. For the rest of the day I intend to concentrate on my own projects. Wishing a lovely, peaceful Sunday to everyone at the Pond!
Good afternoon, 45 and sunny in Bellingham. I’ve been distracted with family phone calls and watching sewing videos on YouTube so I forgot to check in earlier. Seems like my mind is elsewhere lately! Ron bought some tulips at the grocery store yesterday so I’m going to wander around the garden and see what’s left now that the snow is gone. Making a winter bouquet may help me focus. Best wishes to all.
Good morning, meeses! Monday …
It is 3 degrees in Madison (feels like 0) with an expected daytime high of 9. Sunny skies are in the forecast.
I think junk science may be worse that science denial. At least with science denial, the positions of those promoting it are idiotic sounding – like “flat earth.” With junk science, you can probably dupe a lot of people who have no ability to discern nuance. Yes, vaccinated people can spread the omicron virus. But no, omicron does not make vaccine mandates obsolete; vaccine mandates will keep our freaking hospitals from filling up with deathly ill people and keep workplaces staffed so that the economy doesn’t shut down again. Why any business would want workplaces filled with people who could be out sick for weeks or hospitalized or die (and leave critical positions unfilled) makes no sense to me.
As soon as I see the words “Joe Manchin” I skip past the article (or close the one that I am reading). There is nothing you can say to convince a privileged old white male who will never suffer that the Republican minority taking back power and destroying what is left of good government is a bad thing. I think Virginia is going to be the template for what happens when a once blue state is turned over to the #RepublicanDeathCult – I hope people will be paying attention and doesn’t let that happen to our blue-ish country.
I cleared out my 2021 manila folders for scanning and shredding and set up my new 2022 folders. I hope to have significantly less paper as I am now storing PDFs of almost everything in the cloud. I have a scanning station set up right next to my desk that I can reach over and scan the paper things I still get so that they don’t become stacks. I have several bags of documents to shred that I will start on later today when I know it won’t wake anyone up. I still have some boxes of documents stacked in a closet that I need to sort/scan/shred and I will get to those next month after the January 31st tax form deadline and February 15th tax return filings which take priority. I need to get back to it.
See all y’all later!
Monday Meese. 26 going up to 27 here in Kingston.
Glad to see FLOTUS Obama gearing up to GOTV
Good for Mrs. Obama! There are so many voting organizations that one doesn’t know which to support—Stacy Abrams’ Fair Fight, Hillary’s Stronger Together, and so forth. I hope they all do some good.
Puerto Rico
They confirm that 56 nursing homes in Puerto Rico have outbreaks of COVID-19 –
Puerto Rico dawns today with another 12 deaths from COVID-19 – via
@primerahora
OMG, wonder whether the 12 deaths were owing to unvaccinated people or whether they were breakout cases.
Good morning. Cold enough for the heater to kick on, but not that bad. Watching the news, wondering what to do with my day. Should take a walk this afternoon — will wear a mask not because of people because there won’t be many, but because of the pollen. I had a really productive day yesterday — after church, I gathered up all my U2 books & lined them up on my bed (there isn’t anywhere else, I should clear some of the stuff off the dining table but nah) and took pictures for my diary Wednesday – I’m hosting Bookflurries on DK. There’s a lot, about 30. And I wrote a diary at the orange place about the AIDS Ride that will post tomorrow morning — it’s kind of a tradition to raise money for the Ride on my birthday. I can post it here. too.
Hi, another, interesting that you’re going to host bookflurries! Whatever happened to cfk? I wonder about some of the eople I used to know—bigjac, Sheddhead, and puddleriver. I suppose they’re long gone.
She retired from hosting it, but usually pops in. She’s had some health issues, is living at an assisted living place. We’ve taken it on, there isn’t one every single Wednesday, but most of the time, it’s there.
Sorry to hear about the health issues. She is such a lovely person.
Good freezing Monday morning, Moosekind! It’s 30 obnoxious degrees Fahrenheit, with a 12-mph-wind howling up the slope into the courtyard. Monty has to sniff every single inch of the ground while I’m shivering out there, gloveless. He’s such a PITA. Anyway, the high today will be 35 F., and at the moment it’s sunny. The rain yesterday cleared most of the snow off the grass.
It appears I have a doctor appt this morning that I’d completely forgotten about. I never can find my papers. Not for the first time, I wish I weren’t so scatterbrained. Anyway, I have to leave here in two hours.
Who is MiDeeDah? A churchgoing person who likes ice hockey, but who is he or she really? Never heard of him or her.
We were due to stash Monty in Doggy Play Care overnight on Thursday so we could go on an excursion to the Holocaust Museum but, given how Omikron is raging through here, I’m going to cancel the trip. Dearly has COPD so he’s at high risk if exposed. My Writers Group will not meet in person on Thursday. This morning I need to contact the head of the AudioVisual studio here to see if he can set us up for a Google Groups meeting.
It’s annoying that some of my 1099s won’t be available until mid-February. I like to file my taxes early, electronically, so thieves can’t take our refund.
Well, that’s all from me this morning. Hope everyone at the Pond will have a nice, peaceful day.
It’s 18 heading for 50 and sunny. Yesterday we generated 6.3 KWHs and the m-t-d at 48 at least gained a little back even if still not on track.
Again with the 4 hours of sleep, 3 hours mucus-scraping, give up and get up. Sigh. Everything seems to be same ol’ same ol’ with everybody. It would be nice to have something nice to report every once in a while. Well, I do, for me. I was talking to my son about how expensive the bagged popcorn was getting, saying I was thinking of getting another air popper. So he brought me one yesterday. (Said Sam’s and Walmart didn’t have any and this one was the last on the shelf at Target. I guess “supply chain” issues have hit the popcorn popper industry.) I’ll get bulk popcorn at the co-op when I go to stock up on supplements. Probably next week (I still have some bagged popcorn) but possibly this Thursday depending on what the long-range forecast turns out to be.
Hands are cold and achy but seem functional so far. Off to twitter to find out. Bright the day, Meeses. {{{HUGS}}}
Good morning, 39 and rain showers all day. We need to bring in some more gravel to help contain the mud around the garage and parking areas. We’ve been buying bags of gravel because it’s easier to manage, but this time I think we need to have a load delivered. But Ron’s back is hurting so he’s not shovel ready yet. Tine for coffee and to try to move a few desk piles around. Wish I were as organized as you are Jan!
Best wishes to all.
And just like that, it turns out that I am not organized at all! I make a lot of little notes and find that it is important to also READ THEM. I need a better way of reviewing my to-do list each morning.
Good morning, meeses! Tuesday …
It is 1 degree in Madison (feels like -11) with an expected daytime high of 30. Sunny skies are in the forecast. It looks like later tonight we will get above freezing but the rest of the week will be cloudy with a chance of flurries. I like the sun but I also like “above freezing.”
Joe Biden is going to Georgia for a speech on voting rights today. Bad timing in that the state will likely be celebrating the University of Georgia’s first national football championship in 41 years – last night they defeated archrival Alabama. It will also, sadly, put Hershel Walker back in the news. For some reason, voting rights groups are boycotting his speech – maybe because they did not get the pony they wanted? It doesn’t matter, Joe Biden is finding out that the institution he devoted his life to is the dumpster fire that the rest of us knew it to be. Sorry, Joe, your former Republican colleagues are mostly racist assholes and have been since the 1960s.
I have to avoid the news today because I got distracted over the weekend and lost track of two projects I had promised to deliver on Monday. I need to repair that oversight and get the projects done before I can do anything else.
See all y’all later!
Technical Note:
– I have disabled the automated copying of Moose posts to Facebook (and the widget here) after discovering that the API (application programming interface) had been updated and needs major revisions for us to continue using it. Posts had not been updated since last summer.
– Unless anyone has any objections, I am going to connect to Facebook and remove the Motley Moose page. It is probably not a great idea to have a presence on a social media platform that no one is managing and which we can no longer post automatically to. Personally, I despise Facebook for their part in destroying democracy and helping elect tRump so I have no interest in managing the page. If someone else here does, let me know and I will give you the codes.
– We will keep Twitter which seems to work well.
Fine with me. Tho I have a facebook page I never visit (except to hit a button on Dkos to post there) sounds like we don’t need
Fine by me. I don’t have an FB account because I already didn’t like/trust them even before the news of their anti-democracy/pro-nazi policies came out.
Thanks, Jan. I spend less and less time on Facebook. I have no particular grudge against FB because the only political posts I ever see are the ones that my daughter and I post. We are so liberal we can hardly sleep at night.
FB has been useful for advertising my website, to which I have not posted for a year, and for keeping up with my enormous, far-flung family. At least I know what my beautiful nieces and great-nieces look like in England and Australia, and can follow the academic and athletic progress of my adopted grandson in Yokosuka, Japan. However, as a social platform it just gets worse and worse, showing me useless or stupid videos and whatnot. That is why I spend very little time on it.
Personal Facebook has some value – I think some of my family members use it to connect. It is extremely dangerous if you link it to your other devices which means you have to be hyper-vigilant as you wander around.
Good morning. Cold by Texas standards, but I won’t complain, as our weather people are telling about the extreme cold elsewhere. Here’s a link to my AIDS Ride diary. When I signed up, they said they’re going to have it in person this year….. I bet that changes. Today: maybe a movie, definitely a walk.
Happy Birthday! ????????????????????????????❤???? – I can’t donate right now. Kinda on the edge until I can file for/get my tax refund. Hopefully that will happen while the fundraising is still going on. Healing Energy & {{{HUGS}}}
Happy belated birthday!
Will scrape together a donation!
Tuesday Meese. 12 degrees here in Kingston which feels like zero. brrr
Was delighted to see this:
Very angry about the LaTosha Brown diss of Biden Harris visit to GA – so I ranted on Twitter
Glad I didn’t see that, Sis! I have thought of the lead for my Kamala article, on which I’ll begin serious work next week. I need to research her record and her portfolio.
Bloody hell, who do these howling hyenas of the media think they are? Speaking for myself I think they are the diseased offspring of a mentally unbalanced camel.
Agree 100%
Puerto Rico