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 43 degrees in Madison WI with an expected daytime high of 45. Rain is in the forecast.
Have a great day, all y’alls!!
Sunday Meese. It’s 36 here in Kingston, going up to 65 with rain.
I’m excited because we get our new puppy today – we’ve been mourning the passing of our oldest dog, and our doggie Chica has been miserable. She will now have a pup to nurture.
Welcome home, new puppy!
They are on the way!
One is ours (on the right) one is our housemates
Cute puppies! Are they going to cry for their mom and keep you awake all night? Or are you going to do the ticking clock and hot water bottle hidden in a blanket thing?
Adorable!! What breed are they? I can’t tell – they just look furry. :)
Thought they were Terrier Mini-Pin. Was wrong – they are Shih Tzu Mini Pin mix
Nothing like a new puppy to distract your mind. And yes, Chica will be much happier. Dog need at least one other dog in their “pack”. Welcome new pup.
No name yet – will take pics after pup arrives :)
I think that dogs who grow up with other dogs miss their “pack” but there is no evidence that a dog needs another dog in the house to be happy. When we got a spare backup dog (when we thought our dog had a congenital problem that would shorten her life), it made her miserable. We were her pack and she did not need someone chasing her around and eating her food. We got her through her medical crisis by finding a better veterinarian and the two dogs lived together for about a dozen years. But she would have been just as happy being an Only Dog. :)
Puerto Rico
Good Sunday mornng, Moose Peeps!
Right now it’s 62 F. and cloudy in Ashburn. It looks as if it would really like to rain but just hasn’t got round to it yet. We’re waiting for Miss Pink Cheeks to wake up so we can go out to breakfast and then take her home. I hate to wake her as teenagers need their sleep, and during the week she leaves the house at an appallingly early hour.
We rented “Belfast” from Netflix last night and considered it a waste of money. As is usual with modern films, nothing was explained. Events happened seemingly without reason. It didn’t help that the accents were unintelligible. So much for modern films.
After we return, I expect a jolly afternoon of wrestling with the devil, meaning TurboTax. It’s been fun having Miss Pink Cheeks here. Yesterday we had some Girl Talk Time, during which she told me the annoying habits of a Gemini male fellow student who keeps up a nonstop line of chat when they’re on the bus going to school at 7 in the morning. She likes best to sit by Nicole, who stares straight ahead and says not a word. Not everyone enjoys chatting early in the morning, and these poor junior high kids are required to be at school much too early.
Well, nothing else to say except that the situation in Ukraine continues to deteriorate. Blast Putin!
Wishing a good Sunday to all at the Pond. Wish those in PR and Ukraine could have a good Sunday.
TurboTax seemed better prepared this year than they had been in previous years. I did not have any problems and the mistake that is going to require me to have to file an amended return was my own overconfidence – I did not carefully review every category and missed a credit that I have not taken in many years and so was not “recommended” to me. I was anxious to get the return in the mail and the missing credit dawned on me the day after I mailed the return while I was reviewing bank accounts for an unrelated thing. I am sure the amendment will turn into a bloody mess (I get more money from the feds but will owe the state money) – I hope I learned my lesson!
Black Music Sunday
It’s mid 40s heading for mid 60s before the rain actually moves in and the temps start dropping. Cloudy of course. sigh. Yesterday we didn’t quite make 4KWHs – the m-t-d is 55 and we’ll lose more ground today. more sighs.
Life and the world are being exceedingly depressing right now. It’s not made any less so by the fact we’ve seen this coming for decades – the environmental destruction, the rise of fascism, the general meanness of of people in a kkkolonizer society. Yes, as far as society is concerned it’s been worse. A lot worse for the most marginalized. It doesn’t make watching social gains being eroded by a Nazi storm any easier. And has to be so very much worse for those who are still the most marginalized.
A least I do now have my treadmill set up. I can only manage 5 minutes at a time right now. My target is 30 minutes a day and if that means 6 walks of 5 minutes each, so be it. I’ll do the 1st walk today as soon as my breakfast settles.
I’ve already started my twitter chores – while listening to the music on Dee’s diary. Need to intersperse with household chore. But I’ve done a few of those already, too. Bright the day, Meeses. {{{HUGS}}}
Good morning, 44 and light clouds outside my window today. I decided to find, clean and sort all my terracotta pots yesterday and it feels good to know what I’ve got. The new shelves we got for the garage last fall are working really well, and that’s satisfying too. Today I’ll do a bit more in the garage and tomorrow we’ll try to order a load of gravel for the outside parking area. Unfortunately the last freeze left us with a broken pipe to repair but that won’t be too hard.
So this morning I’ll restlessly rest my BCH leg and then then afternoon will be busy. My best wishes to all.
I checked in in last week’s diary this morning:
Good morning, another warm one. Will wear sandals to church today, but there is another cold front coming so can’t close up the coat closet yet. Wearing my shirt with daisies on it, close enough to sunflowers, right? Got lunch for the week made yesterday (rice, vegetables, plain yogurt, cheese), and cooked the vegetables I’ll add to the spaghetti I’ll have for dinner. This morning, tea for the week is already steeping, so all that’s left is making the overnight oats.
Good morning, meeses! Monday …
It is 28 degrees in Madison with an expected daytime high of 34. It is snowing now and it looks like it has accumulated a fair amount. I have no plans to go anywhere so that is good.
I need to avoid getting bogged down in the minute by minute news about Ukraine. It is an emotional rollercoaster – one day buoyed by the hope that the Ukrainians can resist annihilation, the next day looking at the wanton destruction, the lives lost, the lives upended and feeling like it can never be fixed. There is no evidence that Putin won’t unleash nukes when he realized that there is no way out or if we do more to help. I wonder if Biden and his team have intelligence that says he is looking for a way to justify nukes and that that is why they are hesitant to engage. When does what is happening in Ukraine become genocide and when does that trigger some sort of global offensive rather than the current arms-and-encouragement we are sending to Ukraine?
I have to focus on creating a short list of things that have to be done by March 31 versus things that I would like to have done by March 31. I have lists ranked as lists, short lists and shorter lists – that is the curse of being an Aries! The listing action guarantees that the task is recorded somewhere but when everything looks important, it is difficult to order things. Anyway, my Lists beckon.
See all y’all later!
Fiona Hill—you remember the woman with the British accent who’s an expert on Russia—says Putin will not hesitate to use nukes. However, what good would a devastated Ukraine be if he did? The wealth of a country lies in the brains and hands of its people, and if they’re all dead and the earth is poisoned, Ukraine will no longer be the “bread basket of Europe.”
When a person is insane, I am not sure he is game-planning the various outcomes of his actions. :(
Good Monday morning, Moosekind! It’s 61 F. here already, on its way up to 80 F. (or so they say), and it’s going to be ugly-windy this afternoon with gusts up to 40 mph. It’s overcast too. Altogether a good day to stay indoors.
We took Miss Pink Cheeks to Virginia Kitchen for breakfast for the first time in two years. She ordered pancakes stuffed with bananas, strawberries, and—Goddess help us—chocolate chips. She’s going to participate in a school concert next Saturday afternoon, so we will have to see whether that fits in with our plans.
Not much news here, just the same-old, same-old. Was too tired to finish taxes yesterday so will have to do it this morning. Anything I get done gets done in the morning, because the afternoon is filled with nap, tea, walk or exercise, and fetching dinner.
Wishing a better day to poor old Ukraine and PR, and a good day to all at the Pond.
Monday Meese. 41 going up to 51 with rain here in Kingston. Have to make vaccination appointments for the puppies today.
Got worried when I saw reports of armed men at Joint Base Andrews – glad everyone is okay
Puerto Rico
Good morning. I didn’t get in a walk yesterday, I fell asleep after lunch. And wow, it is cold this morning. Ok, 41 degrees is not technically “cold”, but yesterday morning it was 67. And it might freeze Friday night. In Austin, in March. Madness. Working in the office today. I saw a headline saying Biden said remote work should end, hope that’s a misquote or someone tells him many of us do better that way.
I hated working in an office, with all the interruptions, stupid meetings, office gossip and politics, lunch breaks, and so forth. I found that when I came to work at 8 a.m. on a Saturday morning I could complete a day’s work by 1 p.m. because of no interruptions.
At home everything was so much nicer—a window that opened, so I could breathe fresh air, all the music and beagles underfoot I wanted (beagles make nice footrests), coffee, tea, and so forth. But there, I’m an introvert. It’s not that I don’t like other people, I do, but they must be of my choosing. ;)
I am fairly certain that I would be unable to work in an office environment again. The last time I had to was in the early 90s when some of the contract work I did required spending time in cubicle-ville.
It’s 30 heading for 44 – cloudy at the moment but it’s supposed to clear off by mid morning. Yesterday we generated 6.3 KWHs and the m-t-d is at 61 – hopefully the clouds will clear off early enough we can start regaining ground.
Fineena’s in the middle of another financial emergency. She lives right on the edge – Disability wasn’t enough and Social Security retirement isn’t enough so even expected things periodically put her over the edge. Unexpected things always do. She’s in pain all the time & the doctors don’t know why so of course they can’t treat it. Depression just makes it all worse. Lisa got up enough energy to do an Amazon Fresh food order last night. She keeps hoping she can get enough to actually go out – Ralph’s or Trader Joe’s – and save all the delivery fees and such. But at least she is taking care of her food needs somehow.
I know the shingles is doing better. I know this. The rash is covering less area and what I can actually see of it is less red. But it doesn’t feel like it’s doing better. sigh. Someday, maybe, not likely, I’ll find out what triggers sinusitis flares. I didn’t have one last night. I did the night before. Only heaven knows. My hands are another situation where I know some of what triggers flares – but not all by any means. Anyway my hands are flaring this morning and my sinuses aren’t. I did manage to get my half hour (total) in on the treadmill yesterday before dinner. Yay! I’ll start today’s as soon as my breakfast settles.
Putin is sane. Cold, calculating, genocidal, and evil – but rational. He’s not going to use nukes although he’s happy to use the threat of them against people he thinks are too weak and scared to know it’s a bluff. That doesn’t mean he can’t win – if he put the entire Russian army on it, there’s no way he couldn’t. His full army is almost as big as the entire population of the Ukraine. But the entire population of the Ukraine big enough and hale enough to hold & throw a molotov cocktail is fighting back. And every atrocity he orders – like shelling an agreed-upon ceasefire evacuation route – makes the entire population more determined to do just that. I just hope to heaven we and EU – NATO et al – give them the “tools to finish the job” as Churchill asked us for in 1940.
So. Off to twitter. Bright the day, Meeses. {{{HUGS}}}
Sorry about your poor hands, bfitz! Perhaps today will be better.
Good morning, 45 and cloudy outside my window today. Our son is here to fix the broken pipe and I think we have the gravel order sorted out so now we just need to get it done. The world at large continues to overwhelm me so I’m going to gratefully focus on my small world for now. Best wishes to all.
Good morning, meeses! Tuesday …
It is 14 degrees in Madison with an expected daytime high of 39. Sunny skies are in the forecast.
The Supreme Court let stand state court maps that Republicans challenged in North Carolina and Pennsylvania (a Wisconsin challenge is on its way). Sadly, it was not because SCOTUS was turning redistricting powers over to the states as they ruled in 2019 in Rucho – it was because of their new favorite rule that it is “too close to the elections.” That means that they very well might rule again on partisan gerrymandering, this time being more clear that it is Okay If It Favors Republicans. Last time they left open the possibility that a state court could rule in favor of the state constitution – can’t have that! :(
I think the opinion polls which support the Russian oil ban do not ask the followup question “are you willing to pay $6.00 a gallon for gas to poke Putin in the eye?” I am – because I think cheap gas is a terrible thing for Mother Earth and oil has always been used to blackmail countries into ignoring bad behaviour. Chop up journalists? Fine, just don’t cut off our oil. Bomb babushkas in Ukraine? Fine, just don’t make me pay more at the pump. We give rogue nations a weapon and wonder why they point it at us. Ban all fossil fuel.
Okay, I give up: Millions of Palm-Sized, Flying Spiders Could Invade the East Coast – A huge invasive spider that invaded Georgia from East Asia could soon take over most of the U.S. East Coast
See all y’all later!
Tuesday Meese. We had a ferocious wind storm last night, and we have snow on the way for today and tomorrow. The puppies are yipping and yapping.
Happy International Women’s Day!
Yippy-yappy but happy, I trust! :)
Puerto Rico
Good morning. Glad to be wfh today, it’s cold out there. Not going to get out of the 40s today. Definitely not even thinking about a walk.
Good Tuesday moaning, Meese. Moaning because the weather peeps lied again: there is just as much wind howling up the slope to the courtyard as yesterday, and that was bad enough. Also, it’s only 42 F. in Ashburn right now and won’t get much higher.
But that is very small beer compared to what’s going on in PR and Ukraine.
Yesterday I overdosed on chocolate so my weight was up this moaning. Duhh. If I’d ever learn not to do that, I might be better off. At least I exercised yesterday—30 minutes plus 5 minutes of cooldown on the treadmill, and 10 minutes on the river that runs past the Philadelphia Art Museum, with the steps that Rocky ran up and down. I never saw the film but I did see that particular scene.
Made Banana Bran Muffins with walnuts for my breakfast. I gave a couple to my neighbor. In return, she supplies us with miniature bundt cakes, which are delicious, that she picks up from the bakery down the road. She doesn’t cook.
As our Sister Dee says, today is International Women’s Day and March is Women’s History Month. Let us therefore take a moment to remember Alice Kober, the unsung heroine who, year after patient, tedious year (without computers, mind), built the framework that led to the decipherment of Minoan Linear Script B. Apparently the script is a very, very early form of ancient Greek. She did all the work (the records are held at the University of Texas in Austin), but a great big ol’ hairy may-yun, Michael Ventris, got all the credit. A woman invents something, like the sewing machine, and some guy gets the credit. What else is new?
I deeply applaud the Minoans, who showed us what it is like to live without the confinement of the brassiere. Wild and free! If only we could let it all hang out! They clearly believed in Titsterhood, and I’m a convert too. Why should we have brassiere-confined, pointy-looking mammary glands just because it pleases the male gaze? I’m like 43 years past the male gaze, so I care not.
Well, now that I’ve bored y’all, I’ve got to get on with my day. Hope that all of us at the Pond, everyone in PR, and everyone in Ukraine, will have a better day than usual.