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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Puerto Rico
Before I read Rita Moreno’s autobiography I never realized how beautiful Puerto Rico is.
There are parts of the island that are breathtaking – and most tourists never visit them
Good morning. I slept poorly, did something to my knee yesterday & the pain kept waking me up. I put cream on it a couple of times, hoping it clears up today. I took a walk, hoping that would help it shake out — just a mile, and I didn’t push the speed; may try that again today. Glad I’m wfh today, between the achy knee & poor sleep, being in a noisy office would be unpleasant.
Good morning, meeses! Wednesday …
It is (:::not possible to check the weather when my WeatherEye app crashes – okay, restarted:::) 63 degrees in Tucson with an expected daytime high of 86. Sunny skies are in the forecast. The winds yesterday were not as fierce as forecast but seeing clouds for the first time in 10 days was alarming!
It is not shocking that most people want the mask mandate for travelers. It does not take a rocket scientist to look at an airplane and realize that you are breathing the air generated from people infected with a deadly virus (no, Delta, is it not like the “seasonal flu”, #ShunIgnorance). The most frightening thing is that all the MAGAts who refused to wear masks will now be traveling via airplanes and the flights will be 10 times worse than they are now. Drunken slobbering COVID-spraying braying asses crammed in cheek to cheek in a small metal tube. No thank you! I was looking forward to a long delayed family gathering in June but I won’t drive and unless I can find an airline with mask mandates, I will have to stay home. :(
I am watching the Mike Lee situation in Utah closely. Utah is not really down with the MAGA movement and to find out that their Senator actively tried to thwart the Constitution to install tRump as a dictator is not going to go over well. I think they choose their candidates via a convention and kicking Lee to the curb would not be the first time they decided that a sitting Senator was not their preferred candidate and pushed him aside. Utah will never elect a Democratic Senator and this year Almost-Mike-Lee Evan McMullin is running as an independent to complicate matters. McMullin will not confirm any Biden judges and will vote 99.9% with Mitch McConnell but he has one degree less of a punchable face than Lee – progress!
I need to get back to my to-do list work. The 20th was my target date for an accounting project and I am already looking for excuses to put it off until tomorrow. I really shouldn’t.
See all y’all later!
Good Wednesday morning, Moosekind! Well, ’tis sunny and blue-skied this morning in “Ashburg,” with a current temp. of 48 F., on its way up to 61 F. There is no wind that I know of, thank Goddess.
Whaddaya know, even the WaPo got after Goobernator Dumbkin on the op-ed page this morning. For someone who was going to “unify” the state, he’s the most divisive, hateful goobernator we’ve ever had, and who, moreover, has ZERO knowledge of proper governance. His lieutenant, Winsome Sears, is just as bad. No one, however, can equal DeathSantis for being the meanest, ugliest, and STUPIDEST governor in this entire lost republic.
Well, now, having cheered y’all up, let us discuss other matters. When I texted a picture of Ethan’s dinner to his parents, Elder Son remarked, “My God, he’s like a king.” I texted back that all my grandchildren are royalty and should be treated as such. This sent Ethan’s mom into gales of giggles.
Dearly Beloved is going to the leg doctor this morning. Our lives are one long series of doctor visits. Oh, well, we are at the age when the machine keeps breaking down. Thank Goddess we have no plans to travel!
Dearly, who had a rotten night, is having an hour’s nap before going to the doctor. I’m not yet washed and brushed, so I’d better get on with it. Monty is starting to sneeze loudly, which means he wants attention.
Wishing a good day to all at the Pond with no bad news, or at least no bad news overload.
It’s 55, might reach 70, cloudy and drizzly at the moment. Yesterday clouds moved in during the afternoon but they were fairly light and only reduced production slightly. We generated 18.6 KWHs and brought the m-t-d to 268.87 – not on track but we gained a little. It today’s clouds don’t go away we’re gonna lose it again. sigh.
I got almost 5 hours of sleep – but the last hour was as the daylight was starting so I’m both groggy and running behind. I need to go to the bank and stores today and would have already if it weren’t so dark. There’s a little black dog – Chiweenie, I think – that’s been hanging around here for over a month stealing the cat food I was putting out of the neighborhood cats. (They don’t get enough from who or whatever is their “primary source” when the weather is bad so I supplement.) I quit putting it out so didn’t see him much for a while. But last Sunday he was in my yard and the poor little guy had “washboard” ribs. I had called Animal Control, over a week ago when I realized he didn’t seem to have a home, and they said they’d put out a trap “when the weather’s better” – we’ve had a couple of nice days in a row since then so I guess they’ve got a really high standard for better weather. Meanwhile, as of Sunday I started feeding him again. I’m going to get real dogfood today. It’s probably not good for him to be eating that much catfood but I kept thinking Animal Control would be back. Aashir’s nani would love to have him. But she lives in Johnson County KS and there’s no way she could do the drive to get him. Nor I do the drive to take him to her. sigh. At least his ribs don’t look so pronounced any longer. So anyway, bank, dogfood, milk – at the very least those are my goals for the day.
Same ol’ same ol’ everywhere. Amelia got some laundry done and used the rest of her energy getting stuff “tidied” so when the housekeep comes today she’ll be able to do a deep clean. Aji’s in pain, short on sleep, and not sure she’ll be able to come up with the money for the trial pain treatment she’s got scheduled in another week. Jill’s still working on going forward with her life while being harassed by the people abandoned/stranded her and supposedly took themselves out of her life. Same ol’ same ol’
I hope I can ungroggy myself enough to do rationale twitter comments, quote tweets, etc. Bright the day, Meeses. {{{HUGS}}}
Good morning, 44 and mostly sunny outside my window today. I woke up early, needing ice for my knees (which thankfully does help) and made the mistake of reading the news. Two cups of coffee later I may now be able to restart my day with a more positive outlook. It’s a beautiful spring day here, but so at odds with much of the world we live in I find it hard to enjoy the peaceful beauty of my small world.
Our tree guy is coming tomorrow to give the laurel hedge it’s annual trim so I want to do a bit of work getting ready for him. I think some large branches need to be removed from the base of the hedge but will defer to his judgement. It’s a very imposing hedge, but important to the structure and privacy of the garden and what is “right” for our side isn’t for our neighbor’s side so I need to talk to them too and have a mutually agreeable plan in place. Their house is higher up on the hill we both live on and that makes a big difference re the height of the hedge. A small world problem and one I’m most grateful to have. Best wishes to all.
Thursday Meese. 33 going up to 61 here in Kingston NY.
Finally got the damage and debris in my backyard from the ice storm cleared up. I can now start prepping my garden for planting which I won’t do till the first of May since I don’t trust the weather.
The crazy continues
Kee-riced!! That is insane. I am so glad I am not parenting a school age child right now – or teaching. I predict good teachers leaving in droves and the replacements being unqualified persons with high school diplomas and a certificate from a god school. That is what happened in Wisconsin in 2011 after Scott Walker killed the teachers unions; thousands of years of experience retired rather than feel his boot on their neck and the quality of the teaching staff suffered immensely. My daughter’s K-6 was 1000% better than her 7-12. Sad for America.
Puerto Rico
Good morning, meeses! Thursday …
It is 61 degrees in Tucson with an expected daytime high of 90 (will feel like 86). Sunny skies are in the forecast.
Oh, great, Bernie “Coathanger” Sanders wants to run for president again. Hasn’t he and his cult done enough damage to our democracy?
I am going to ignore all the talk of “generic ballots”, “Speaker McCarthy” and the “lost Senate majority”. That said, I am glad we got our Breyer replacement queued up – Mitch McConnell will surely block any Biden SCOTUS nomination in 2023 and 2024 were he to become majority leader. If Clarence Thomas “retires”, I am fine with 4-4 SCOTUS ties with no further damage.
Well, I promised myself that I would get the accounting project done yesterday and I did not so I need to put my nose to the grindstone.
See all y’all later!
Warm morning, it’s sprinkling a little bit, just enough to get the car extra dirty. I woke up early, so I went ahead and got downtown early, intending to walk. Got started, and my knee said “stop”,so I did. Luckily,I had tucked some salonpas patches into my bag. And I think sitting in my office chair is a good angle for it.
Last night I replied to a comment about a book ban with a link about the Brooklyn library making their downloads available to any teen, anywhere. It was very popular. And I replied to that, saying that people with visual impairments can get books free also….. Never know when someone might see that who needed to know.
Good Thursday morning, Meese! Here in “Ashburger” it’s partly cloudy with namby-pamby sunlight, 49 F., and the winds are howling from 15 to 30 mph today. Ugh. Yesterday was so windless and pleasant.
I just read an item on Twitter about light from a star so distant that it took 12.9 billion years to travel so Hubble could see it and photograph it. Just imagine that. It makes earthly concerns seem very petty, except that we have to live with the results of those concerns. Look at the poor old Ukrainians, just to cite one example.
Got nothing done yesterday as several members of the extended family were frantically calling and texting about New Orleans Niece. The hospital released her on Tuesday but by Wednesday another blood clot had developed in her brain. Her doctor put her on Coumadin, which is a very nasty medication. Dearly is on it. Her employer is as stingy as most Southern employers with paid time off, so instead of staying home she has to go back to work. It’s insane. Daughter in Austin talked to Nola Niece yesterday and said she sounded fairly cheerful.
Have a doctor appointment at 1 and a meeting at 3 today in the main clubhouse, which is quite tiresome. I really need to see the doctor about my bp, which is far too high. It’s up in the 150s the first time Dearly takes it and in the 180s the second time he takes it. I wish he wouldn’t squeeze my arm so tightly. It hurts. My bp is always high when the technician takes it because I have White Coat Syndrome. Duh.
First-world problems: Went to the supermarket and found out that my favorite brand of strawberry ice cream was now priced at $5+ ! Price gouging. Then yesterday I was going to buy molasses but they want $5 for it too! They do this because they can get away with it. Amazon wants $7.49 for a 1-lb box of white sugar cubes, which I can buy at Harris Teeter for $2.49. It was $1.99 before Covid. I refused to buy the ice cream and molasses at the price asked.
My problems are infinitesimal. Jan, I hope you are nowhere NEAR Flagstaff!
Wishing a good, quiet day to all at the Pond.
I am not near Flagstaff and have no intentions to travel there in the short term. That area has a lot of forests and a wildfire will (sadly) burn for a long time. In the desert Southwest, we have a lot of desert and not much that can burn here in the valley. The wildfires are on the other side of the Catalina mountains from Tucson and, while it is not impossible, it would take a lot of things going wrong to affect us. Last year when we drove from Phoenix to Tucson in June, we saw the wildfire haze. Earlier this month we drove through wildfire haze in the panhandle of Texas and in New Mexico. I am glad we were not trying to make that trip right now – that whole area is under warnings!
Thank Goddess you are safe!
Caribbean Matters
It’s 66 heading for 77 and cloudy. sigh. Yesterday we got a bit over 4 KWHs and the m-t-d is 273 – goal isn’t possible, but over 400 still is. Maybe. The PV system is on, barely. So are my lights.
I used the nasal decongestant spray last night so got better sleep. Of course it leaves me groggy too. But usually that passes off and lack of sleep groggy mostly doesn’t. My hands are cold but so far mostly functioning. At least no problem with the mouse. So I’m OK. mostly.
Fineena called last night. It was lovely to talk to her. Her medical stuff is a mess. But she does a lot better mentally if she doesn’t take the pain pills, so she’s tolerating the pain as long as she can to be able to think straight. At least she’s got some hope for things getting better. So far nobody’s found anything that shouldn’t be treatable. Finding the right treatment is the catch. Unlike Aji and Amelia. Most of what both of them have is not really treatable, just ameliorating the symptoms. If they’re lucky. Jill’s son is graduating/graduated Basic – she thinks the unit’s heading for Fort Bliss. She thinks. The abuse issues are as bad as ever, getting worse in places. Step by step for everybody.
The vet will be here in about 15 minutes so I’ll be offline for a bit. I’ve started boosting over at twitter but I’m nowhere near set up and won’t be until probably after the vet leaves. Bright the day, Meeses. {{{HUGS}}}
Good morning, 46 and cloudy but the rain has stopped for now. My knees kept me grounded most of yesterday so I’ve got the same list to pursue today. I’ll try to talk to my neighbors first because the tree guys will be here about 10:00 am. My knees feel much better so I should be able to hobble forth. Best wishes to all.
Friday Meese. 48 going up to 52 and sunny here in Kingston. I’m still seething about the SCOTUS decision re Puerto Rico.
Puerto Rico – SCOTUS
Ghastly! I read that SCOTUS had ruled on a Puerto Rican case and did not have time to read up about it; thanks for the insight. Apparently, even Gorsucks pointed out how awful the laws were that related to the Puerto Rican colony – but still approved cutting off benefits because the lives of human beings don’t matter to him. The Sanders Court, built by the vanity of a self-absorbed man and his cult, strikes again.
Good morning. Humid here ahead of expected rain on Sunday. We need it, some areas are in extreme drought. In the office today, hope there are lots of new applications.
Good morning, meeses! Friday …
It is 61 degrees in Tucson with an expected daytime high of 73. Sunny skies are in the forecast with a few clouds expected later this evening. Perfect day for a walk in the Saguaro National Forest, methinks. Some cactus are blooming already.
Florida: punishing corporations who withhold contributions to Republicans over their deplorable policies should be illegal extortion. I suspect that the Sanders SCOTUS, when the lawsuits finally make it there, will not see it as such – they will see it as necessary to protect minority Republican rule. DeSantis is going to destroy everything good that is left in Florida in order to bolster his presidential ambitions. Bastid.
Busy day here again – need to get back to it.
See all y’all later!
Good Friday morning, Moosekind! Well, whaddaya know, it’s a rather nice morning here in Racist County, Virginia. It’s 62 F. already, with a pale blue sky showing white jet trails. The sunlight is rather weak. The blossoms are beginning their transition to bright green leaves, and the birds are flying around energetically, lookin’ for worms in all the right places. The high today is supposed to be 74 F.
It’s sickening what SCOTUS has done to Puerto Rico. In my dreams we’d get Democratic rule for 40 years, all three branches, with laws that cannot be subverted by radical Rethugs as yet unborn. We’d authorize reparations to Black people, Natives, and Puerto Ricans, and take care of P.R. in all ways possible. OTOH, we may yet break into two countries, Red and Blue.
Goobernator Dumbkin has set up two PACs so he can campaign for Rethugs in other states, especially governors. When he won blue Virginia by two measly points, he was considered to be so goddamn wunnerful that he could run for POTUS. He certainly is uninterested in governing Virginia. All he knows how to do is start fights. I am still praying that he and his cohorts will be caught on video with a pool boy, not swimming or playing golf.
New Orleans Niece is apparently doing OK for the moment. My doctor said yesterday that even if I took .5 mg of Ativan every night, I would not get Alzheimer’s from that. Accordingly, I took one last night and enjoyed 8 hours of wonderful sleep. I’m going to be cautious, though. Last May she prescribed 60 tablets and yesterday when I went to see her, I still had one left. She also prescribed bp medication that makes one’s ankles swell. Oh, swell! My ankles are unusually skinny anyway, so I’m not too worried.
Well, that’s all the news. I continue to admire the Ukrainian people. Slava Ukraini, y’all!
Wishing a peaceful Friday to all at the Pond.
It’s 70 going up to mid 80s (or higher) and mostly sunny. Which is good. Yesterday we got 9.3 KWHs so still losing ground – but not as much ground. The m-t-d is 282.6 – 118 to reach 400 and 9 days to do it in. It’s possible. No bets on likely, but it’s possible.
Welp, the vet forgot to call before he reached my house. So. He pulled up and Bobbie disappeared. He knocked on the door and Rennie disappeared. And the only reason Freddie hadn’t was he was “trapped” in the den/kitchen area. But after trying to catch him for a good 10 minutes I tried to slip out and get another cat but he got by me and he disappeared. Oh gosh, the vet was so sorry – rescheduled in 2 weeks for the youngsters, promised to call first (it’s on the permanent chart), and not going to charge me for the extra house call. Meanwhile he saw the old guys. Charlie’s fine – tartar on his teeth, but he’s always got tartar on his teeth and it doesn’t seem to cause a problem. Cloud isn’t. The rest of his teeth (5 were removed last year) are in bad shape and he’s got two “masses” that could be inflammation and could be cancer. If it’s cancer it’s not treatable and the prognosis is not good. So not good that waiting a few months will tell the story. That being so I’m not going to put the poor guy through having more teeth removed. He was very slow recovering from it the last time, and going to give him anti-inflammatories to ease the discomfort if that’s what it is. We shall see what we shall see. Murf is doing much better – and gained 2 lbs since the last time Dr. Jones saw him. A month or so back it finally dawned on me that Murf wasn’t eating not because he wasn’t hungry but because with his arthritis/joint issues it hurt him to bend down to do it. So I started bringing the food to him and holding the bowl under his nose while he eats. And petting him when he stops which usually gets him to eat some more. Yes, I have to hold it. Putting it on a stand doesn’t work. Yes, he’s got me trained. But he gained 2 lbs and his eyes are much brighter. So. A couple hundred went out the door with Dr. Jones and about the same will go out the door with him in 2 weeks. (I’m OK. I think. But my discretionary income is done gone for at least April and probably May as well. The insurances hit in June. sigh.)
I haven’t connected with anybody yet today but as of last night it’s pretty much same ol’ same ol’ – and oh, how I wish it were better. But at least it’s not worse. Heading off to twitter. Bright the day, Meeses. {{{HUGS}}}
Good morning, 49 and partly cloudy outside my window today. I’m headed outside to clip ivy and to rake up the remaining laurel clippings. Marcus and his son cleaned up well but more clippings fall from the hedge for awhile after it’s pruned. He did remove several full branches from the interior, allowing more light to get to the base of the hedge so I can now underplant with some ferns and other understory plants. The hedge is 6-8′ wide so the “sky lights” don’t show, they just let the light in.
The state of our country and the world at large has me full of angst today so I’m hoping some garden therapy will help. Best wishes to all.