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, 35 and foggy. It’s damp and chilly but I’ve been enjoying sunny Boudreaux. Love how I can armchair travel via computer and explore places I’ve never been. RonK is at Costco so he gets a gold star for doing a real life errand :) Time to get busy myself. Best wishes to all.
Wednesday Meese. 13 degrees here in Kingston NY, going up to 24.
Puerto Rico
Maybe the bitcoin crash that erased $1 trillion in fauxwealth will slow down the destroyers.
Good morning. I moved my plants around yesterday, put several of them on shelves & other elevated spaces. It might freeze Friday night….. I’ll decide tomorrow about bunching them back together.
Good Wednesday morning, Moose Peeps! It’s 23 thrilling, chilling degrees F. here in Ashburn this morning. It’s also a beautifully sunny day. Our high will be 30 F.
Feeling so disgusted after reading the news that I don’t know what to do. I need to focus this morning, insofar as that is possible with Dearly and the dawg interrupting my train of thought every five minutes.
The stupid states…it is so depressing to think about them. On the other hand, I’ve been interviewing Americans who left their comfortable lives in the USA and went to teach English or build houses in countries with roaches and rats everywhere, raw sewage running down the main streets, and gun fire ringing out close by. There are some good, brave, people here.
Smiled bigly when I read that Goobernator Dumbkin’s snitch line is backfiring, just as the “Periods for Pence” campaign did. Remember that one? I applaud the women of Indiana for doing it. Someone called the Virginia snitch line to report they’d just learned that half the founding fathers were enslavers! Our Sister Denise wrote an epic blog titled, “George Washington is not my great white father” years ago. Wish there weren’t rules against republishing. It was an eye-opener.
I did everything yesterday so I wouldn’t have to go out today. When I went to pick up dinner in the Deli yesterday evening, I was swanking around in my just-arrived, wine-colored “newsboy” hat. People admired it. I love hats! Unfortunately I have a big head (literally) and a lot of hair. I need to find a hat like it that’s bigger.
OK, that’s enough out of me this morning! Looking forward to reading about how things are going for the rest of the Pond dwellers and wishing you all a good day.
Good morning, meeses! Wednesday …
It is -13 degrees in Madison with an expected daytime high of 9. Mostly sunny skies are in the forecast. It was -20 when I got up this morning with a -33 windchill. Some of the rural schools are closed today – some are starting later. I am not sure about the “starting later” part, it is not going to warm up much.
Oh great, the berners have not given up on ratfking democracy – Nina Turner wants a rematch with Shontel Brown in Ohio. Go away, berners, haven’t you wrecked enough!! Almost a million dead from your “both candidates are the same” ratfking of the 2016 election and losing the Supreme Court for a generation with women poised to lose reproductive rights. When Roe falls, abortions in Wisconsin will be felonies.
I was tossing and turning most of the night but eventually fell asleep. I was surprised to wake up at 5:30, that is unheard of. Of course, since that is an hour and a half later than I usually wake up, I am behind. I am completely reworking my network so that I can get rid of two more computers and I am mostly there. It is very disruptive, though.
See all y’all later!
It’s 23 heading for 42 and sunny. Windy too. Probably gonna be a slightly warmer version of yesterday when the air temps got to 40 but the wind chill certainly didn’t. Yesterday we generated 7.59 KWHs and reached 129 for the m-t-d. So we’ll at least get beyond the 2.5K system’s January 2015 generation today.
Amelia’s doing better. The fever’s not spiking as it was and while she doesn’t feel good it’s not as bad as it was. The cough’s still bad and hair-trigger so it’s messing with her sleep. The sore throat limits her ability to talk for long, but again, it’s better. Jill’s dealing with drama – no news there – but most of it is family rather than her own. The PTSD is there of course. A truck backfiring next door sent her and the dogs into panic mode and it took hours for them to settle down. But things are better and she’s a lot safer now. I haven’t heard from anybody else.
I got more sleep but it was interrupted enough I slept until almost 8 to get that more sleep. (Still wasn’t 8 hours but it was over 7.) I think my hands are better. Using the keyboard to open and close tabs and navigate through the tabs is really helping. I’m not going to push it – limited emojis and no FreeCell (or Wordle) for the time being. Shopping yesterday was a pain. Not even going into lack of masks or masks appropriately worn because that hasn’t changed any. sigh. Aldi’s doesn’t carry any soup I can actually eat and Tractor Supply was out of the kind of canned catfood my cats are willing to eat. Tractor Supply is also already shutting down its winter seasonal stuff and the pine-wood fire starter I prefer/normally use is gone until probably September. I got a different kind (it’s got paraffin in it) just in case they don’t have any the next time I’m in there. At least Harp’s had both soup and catfood I wanted – and the stuff I had on my list for my next planned visit 2 weeks out. So hopefully, other than milk, I shouldn’t need to go out again for another 4 weeks. Hopefully.
Anyway, I’m a bit behind on my twitter stuff so off to get on it. Bright the day, Meeses. {{{HUGS}}}
Good morning, 31 and foggy so it’s been another slow and sleepy morning. My mornings are quiet and my afternoons are relatively boring with necessary chores. Oh well, such is life, and files are getting sorted and ironing done regardless. Best wishes to all.
{{{princesspat}}} these days quiet and boring are good. moar {{{HUGS}}}
Good morning, meeses! Thursday …
It is 18 degrees in Madison with an expected daytime high of 28. Partly cloudy skies are in the forecast. The temperatures will go below 0 overnight but then we will move into a pattern with more typical late January early February temperatures – daytime highs in the upper 20s low 30s and overnight lows in the teens. They say if you can survive cabin fever until the middle of February, you have a good chance to make it through the winter. Actually, I don’t know if they say it but I say it.
It appears as though Joe Biden will have the opportunity to nominate a Supreme Court justice. Whether he will be able to get one confirmed is up in the air. The confirmation rests on the health of the Democratic caucus which contains a number of octogenarians, a few imuno-compromised folks, and “human beings” who can pass away in lots of ways – including from a deadly virus. I will include the continued good health of our Senators, even those I do not like, in my daily candle intentions. It will be nice to have a Black person on the court after so many years with “grew up white, wants to be white, and thinks he is white” Clarence Thomas. I will also put in my daily candle intentions that Thomas decides to retire also. Surely he will not want to serve with a Black person who has actual lived experiences being Black! Plus more wimmins!!
Senator Ron Johnson says “those lazy poors won’t work – can’t they just leave their post-born babies at home alone to fend for themselves!!” I hope he is not Wisconsin’s Senator next year, he is truly an awful person.
My office is back running smoothly with my Internet issues resolved after a network change. I learned a lot about connectivity that I had only had a passing familiarity with. Every challenge is a learning opportunity.
See all y’all later!
Thursday Meese. Brrrr. It’s 2 degrees here in Kingston NY going up to 29.
Weather predictions for us re the oncoming storm still not clear
SCOTUS
Puerto Rico
Posted: Caribbean Matters
Good morning. Chilly but not cold. It’s supposed to nearly freeze Friday night so I’ll take the plants I put on shelves down; but not going to bother covering them. Working from home today, so I’ll watch the event with Biden & Bryer.
It’s 35 going up to 45 (maybe) and overcast. The lights are on but so is the PV system. Yesterday we generated the highest single day for the month at 7.92 KWHs so far. Not going to do that again today. The m-t-d is 137 with 5 production days left to go. Obviously 180 isn’t possible – but 170 is. IF the sun comes out.
Amelia is feeling better. Not good and this case of COVID isn’t over yet, but better. Once she is over this there’s a possible path out of her situation but I’m not gonna type it or say it out loud for fear of jinxing it. Prayers up. Amazon has twice in a row sent Jill the wrong hose to connect her RV propane tank to the RV heating system. So she’s cold and pushing the RV electrical system with space heaters while Amazon tries again. Aji’s worse. On top of a whole lot of pain and very little sleep her balance is shot and her hands are so unsteady she has trouble holding a cup of coffee with both of them. As usual, all she asks is folks boost the links and help bring in sales. I haven’t heard from anyone else.
I actually got 8 hours of sleep overnight. Interrupted of course. But I still got it. Hands are doing better. basket found a list of twitter keyboard shortcuts. I’m learning how to use them but the ones I’ve tried definitely work. It’s taking time to retrain myself to using keyboard “shortcuts” instead of the mouse. But then it took me years to train myself to use the mouse – and I really didn’t until I was forced to. LOL.
Off to Dee’s diary and twitter. Bright the day, Meeses. {{{HUGS}}}
Good morning, 28, frosty and a bit of blue sky outside my window today. I’m ready to bring spring to the porches but it’s still to cold. So today may be a good day to find the spring green fabric I’ve tucked away and make a new runner for the dining room table. I can add spring flowers and twigs and make my own indoor garden. Best wishes to all.
Good morning, meeses! Friday …
It is 3 degrees in Madison with an expected daytime high of 14. Sunny skies are in the forecast.
I wanted to throw things at my TV when they were talking about our next Supreme Court Justice being an “affirmative action pick.” The same racists who trashed Sotomayor are trashing all the Black women who are being floated as possible SCOTUS nominees. They are also the same disgusting people who thought that legacy pick Keggernaugh – mediocre white man with entitlement issues – should be the template. I want the Supreme Court to reflect America and I want us to finally have a Black justice who identifies as Black.
Anyway, the gerrymandering wars are heating up with federal courts blocking some maps and Democratic governors in purple states blocking others. Sadly, in Tennessee they eliminated the Nashville Democratic Congressional District because the Republicans realize that their only hope is to split up the cities to dilute the power of the urban vote. Bastids.
I have an overflowing to-do stack on my desk because I spent yesterday on household/business related projects and my work projects languished. I need to clear the decks so that I can concentrate on getting tax returns done this weekend to get them filed before the crunch.
See all y’all later!
This crap from Georgetown U new hire
Georgetown – weak response
I agree with the people who responded to the Dean of Georgetown Law – “what are you going to do about it?” He has no business directing the education of young people. By the way, did the Dean even know him? He referred to Ilya Shapiro with the neutral pronoun “their” – maybe he thinks Shapiro could be a woman?
OK, what gives? When I tried to edit my comment to get rid of the blank line, the editor told me my comment cannot be edited because it is marked as spam. Huh?
Let me test.
EDIT: No problem editing but the display did disappear for a moment. I will check to see that the comment editor plug-in is at the latest version
Thank you!
Good morning, Moosekind. What day is this? What planet is this?
My brain is befogged. It’s going to snow at midnight, 4 to 8. No, it’s going to start as rain at 3 p.m., then change and we’ll get 1 to 2. No, it’ll start at 1 p.m. and hardly stick at all. My dog Monty, who gets paid nothing a year, predicts the whole thing will move out to sea. The weather dummies don’t know and we don’t know.
Meanwhile, back at the ranch, it’s overcast and 31 F., going up to 37 F. That’s why I don’t think we’ll get anything
Yesterday was stimulating but exhausting. I had to hasten to get ready to leave here at 10-ish so I could meet Darling Niece at the Starbucks in my old neighborhood. We double-masked, but once we entered the nearly deserted store, we chose a table right at the back, so we took off our masks and drank our coffee.
As usual we had an excellent time chatting. It’s such a comfort to talk to someone who knows the same people you know and to whom you can freely express your opinions. Her about-to-be-12-years-old son, who is a movie fanatic, wants go to film school after he graduates from high school. His favorite film is “Casablanca.” Told by his parents he could do anything he wanted on February 3, his birthday, he said he wanted to go ice skating in Paris with his “lovah.” OMG!
In the afternoon I interviewed a man who had served in Senegal while in the Peace Corps. He had a great deal to say and it was extremely entertaining! Asked what cultural factor stood out to him on his arrival in Dakar, he said, “The smell.” It was a combination of sewage, probably cooking fires (everything was out in the open), and gasoline exhaust. Anyway, he had the time of his life. It’s so interesting to talk to these retired volunteers.
I have one more Peace Corps volunteer to contact. In the middle of this Elder Son informed me there would be no school in Arlington on Monday, so could we please look after Ethan. OMG. One’s children visualize their parents as waiting in suspended animation, to be brought back to life only in response to their demands. As it happens, I am SLAMMED with work (typing up all these notes), on Sunday I’ve got more work plus housework plus cooking a decent dinner, and on Monday I’m supposed to have an hour-long doctor visit during which I will receive an infusion. We will of course let the darling child stay with us from Sunday afternoon until Monday afternoon. I get such a kick out of the things he says and does. I’ve hidden all the child-sized scissors because once when he was over here he calmly snipped off his front hair, leaving a large round hole. We’ll think of something to do, though.
So, Imbolc approaches. A former Circle sister wants to conduct an online ritual at 7 p.m. on Tuesday. We’ll see. I’m usually nodding off in a chair after dinner.
Forgot to mention Goobernator Dumbkin and his “snitch line” so that parents and children can rat out teachers who mention slavery during history lessons, and how he’s “having a ball” his first weeks in office! Gods, what a hypocrite! Many jurisdictions are resisting his “masks optional, parents know what is best” stupidity. If parents know best, why do we even need teachers? What a slavering idiot he is.
Well, now that I’ve cheered y’all up, I’ll go off to cook breakfast We’re going out to tea this afternoon at the house of our English friend. She’s promised a fire in her fireplace. I love her house, which has a little “library” overlooking the street outside, and a big round table where she drinks her coffee while reading the newspaper.
Wishing a good day to all at the Pond and mass enlightenment descending on the Trumpanzees.
I tidied up your comment. That was WEIRD. I will clean up Cache and see if that helps.
Lovely! Thanks again.
Friday Meese. Sitting here watching weather to see if we will miss getting buried in snow this weekend. Fingers crossed we may not get buried in snow.
Right now it is 25 and snowing lightly.
Puerto Rico
Good morning. Cold enough for gloves but not really cold cold. I need to remember to take the plants that are on shelves down. It’s supposed to get down to 33 tonight. Got the excellent news that I can say for 3 days/week until February 11. Hurrah!
It’s 27 heading for 40 – all the highs except Monday have been backed down a degree or 3 – and overcast. sigh. At least it’s supposed to clear off later today. Yesterday we generated right at 3 KWHs and are starting today at 140 for the m-t-d.
My hands are cold. Adding to difficulty typing, I got a paper cut and now have a Band-Aid on one fingertip. The rest of me is cold, too, but hands and feet are the coldest. Three hours of sleep, three hours not, hour of dozing before I got up. Heaven knows my issues are mild compared to just about everybody else’s. I’m not seeing doctors or taking Rx for anything which is a clue/measure of severity right there. (Reminds me, I need to inform the nurse practitioner that the Rx we tried for the sinusitis didn’t work.) But I’m still not comfortable. Of course overcast and cold doesn’t help. Neither does having to clean up multiple spots of cat barf first thing in the morning. This too shall pass, right?
Lisa’s feeling better sort of. The cough’s still there and when she called last night she sounded hoarse again. But the body aches are less and the fever’s still down while the pulse ox is still in “normal” ranges. Nothing new with Jill. Thank heavens. I’m pretty sure everybody else is maintaining. Which isn’t good but at least isn’t bad.
Gonna be slower than even what’s become normal on twitter so I’d best get to it. Bright the day, Meeses. {{{HUGS}}}