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 70 degrees in the Desert Southwest with an expected daytime high of 86. Partly cloudy skies in the morning, rain expected in the afternoon.
Have a great day, all y’alls!!
Good morning Meese. Rain here, 63 going up to 74 in Kingston.
Thinking back to these memories today
!@#$%~&
White supremacists think Jesus had brown hair (neatly combed), blue eyes, and pale skin, so we should all look like that.
What a dismal religion. What awful adherents. I’m sorry your handsome husband came in for some of that hatred. I hope it has dissipated.
Puerto Rico
I want to announce with great enthusiasm that I am part of @MareaEcologista
, a new independent media outlet on the island. Together with @MarcosPerezRam
we will bring you news with an environmental and conservation touch about our natural resources.
Good morning. I got up early to see the Space Station go overhead, took a 20 minute walk while I was up. Now watching news, eating breakfast. Tea is steeping & I’m going to make breakfast for next week soon, as I’m going to the office opening for Beto O’Rourke’s campaign this afternoon. I actually watched a few minutes of football yesterday — UT was ahead of the #1 team in the country for about 5 minutes.
Um, how can you differentiate the space station from other celestial bodies (besides our dear old Moon, of course)? Are you using the naked eye or a telescope?
I signed up for texts from NASA, they tell you the direction it will appear from. And it moves fast. Like, very fast. It’s only overhead for about 5 minutes.
Also looked at the Moon, with Jupiter very bright nearby.
Black Music Sunday
Good Sunday morning, Moose People! Or rather, it’s the anniversary of a not good at all morning, a morning we thought would never happen over here.
In Ashburn right now it’s 70 F. and raining steadily. Mr. Monty kept his business meeting as short as possible and scuttled back inside, where he enjoyed the way Mommy rubbed him dry with a big towel. He was wearing a raincoat but he still had a wet head and tail.
Today’s high will lurch up to 77 F. About 2 p.m. or so I’m going to have to go out to buy a chicken and various accompaniments: Goddess forbid I should actually cook them myself. I’ve become a short-cutter: last night I served Crabmeat Pasta Salad. Quickly boiled frozen broccoli florets, put a packet of rotini pasta in the micro to cook in 60 seconds, grabbed the capers that were already in the fridge as was the Italian dressing. Noting that a fresh red pepper at the store was $1.99, whereas a jar of fire-roasted red pepper was $1.89, nolo contendere—I diced that instead. Dumped in a small tin of white crabmeat, mixed it all up together, and voila! A fast dinner that met with even Dearly’s notoriously picky taste.
I also noticed with horror that a can of pumpkin was $4 at the store. Our dog eats it every morning for breakfast, along with other things. “To hail with that,” I muttered, as I sought for and found, a bag of frozen diced butternut squash for $1.79 in the freezer section. Pumpkin is also a squash. Monty won’t know the difference after I’ve cooked and mashed the butternut stuff.
Thus do the lazy get by. Managed to write two letters yesterday, change the sheets on the bed, put the dark laundry where it was supposed to go, and went to the gym. I’m reading Walter Isaacson’s biography of Benjamin Franklin. It makes me profoundly grateful that I live now, even though we have awful problems, and not then. Women weren’t allowed to do anything except breed, clean the house, and cook! BF was a bit better than most men, but he was still a product of his time.
That’s enough from me this rainy Sunday. Called our bfitz last night and had an enjoyable chat. Hope all the Meese will have a good day!
{{{Diana}}} it was indeed. It was lovely to hear your voice. Healing Energy & moar {{{HUGS}}}
It’s 61 heading for 77 and not only will I not close up from the heat today, I actually thought about closing up from the chill this morning. Overcast and misty. Maybe it’ll clear off. Maybe it won’t. Yesterday we generated just over 11 KWHs and brought the m-t-d to 99. So it looks like my “target” for September is 300 – if we get over that I guess I’ll have to call it a gift. (Well, actually anything is a gift.)
Miskwaki didn’t make it. He rejoined his herd yesterday at 11:46 MDT. Leaving a 4th horse-shaped hole in Aji’s and Wings’s hearts in 10 years. Amelia’s doing better (and the cats are integrating nicely) but it’s slow. And of course there’s a point beyond which it won’t. But getting back to that point will be a good thing.
All the Sunday chores are done. So off to twitter and DK. Bright the day, Meeses. {{{HUGS}}}
It’s sad about Miskwaki.
Good morning, 59 and the air is full of smoke from wild fires burning around us. I think we’ll still have lunch outside today but the patio furniture has a light coat of ash so I’ll wipe it down and hope for the best. Busy day ahead so I’d best get going. As always, my best wishes to all.
Gosh. Will you get any of the rain from Hurricane Kay?
Monday Meese. 62 here in Kingston, going up to 81. Looked for Puerto Rico news – found almost nothing. Sigh.
Puerto Rico
Walked again this morning, a little over 20 minutes. Now that our lows are below 80, I guess I should make this a regular thing. No Space Station this morning (well, if I’d been outside, and somewhere I could see as low as 48 degrees above the horizon, at 5:20, then I could have seen it), just walking. We had someone drama quit last week (how dare they expect her to actually show up before 9 am — we open at 8 — and sit down and work!) so the phones will be great fun this week.
Good Monday morning, Moosekind! This was a heavy weekend from an emotional standpoint, considering world events and anniversaries. We’re expecting rain this afternoon, right at rush hour. It’s currently 71 F. and overcast, heading for a high of 82 F. Our temps will be in the low 80s for the rest of the week.
Daughter and SIL are on their way from Austin to Athens. They’ll see the Parthenon and so forth, then make their way to Piraeus to take the ferry across to Santorini. One of the biggest thrills I’ve ever had was standing on the deck of the ferry at dawn when we sailed into the caldera and I saw Santorini poking up from the sea. I found the Greeks to be less than satisfactory about informing people, so naturally the ruins at Akrotiri were not on view in the spring of 2004. (No mention was made of this on their website before we went.)
Daughter swears she’s going to bring back a replica of a Minoan flush toilet for me, or at least a statuette of a bra-less goddess. She knows how much I loathe that particular female undergarment.
This morning I’ll pack up a bunch of books for Jennifer Hoge Williams, whose ambition is to give away 1 million books to children, and stop by the post office to mail the box at the media rate. I also have to send off that certified mail to Vanguard.
So that’s going to be my day, Moosekind, hope yours will be productive and satisfying too.
Good morning, meeses! Monday …
It is 70 degrees in Tucson with an expected daytime high of 84. It is mainly clear right now and we could see some rain after noon. I was awakened twice, once at 1am and once at 2:30am, by extremely loud claps of thunder. When they are close, the sound reverberates off the mountains and they are impossible to sleep through. My dog was upset on the second one and I ended up taking her out. So I stayed up!
One more set of primaries tomorrow then election season begins in earnest. I am getting an itchy feeling about the polls and our supposed “advantage” especially as it relates to the Senate. In 2014, we had high hopes based on polls and Feelings and we got shellacked in the Senate, lost our majority and, because we could not fill the Scalia seat in 2016, lost the Supreme Court for a generation. The polls are tightening in Arizona with Senator Mark Kelly only ahead by 2 points (within the MOE) and with Blake Freaking Masters having higher favorables than Kelly. I have no idea what to make of that – all the stories have been about how extreme Masters is especially on abortion. Maybe too many people want the extreme and people are lying about their caring about abortion access. If we lose the Senate, we have no way to confirm judges and we will be pulling Judge Aileen Cannon shrapnel out of our buttcheeks any time we want to protect the rule of law. We need to make sure everyone is literally terrified that we will lose the Senate and doesn’t believe any rosy polls. The only poll that matters is the one on election day.
I have a busy week planned and I was hoping my early morning start would allow me to get ahead of the curve. Instead, I exposed my failure to take good notes on something I was testing and I can’t recreate a problem occurring at a client’s site. I will try again to google what I need to know but I am not very confident I will find it. :(
See all y’all later!
Hope you can find what you need and get some SLEEP!
Unfortunately, over the past decade I had been relying on my memory to find important snippets of code or procedures. I stopped doing that and started documenting things I was doing in Word documents which are more reliably scannable than my brain! That does not help with the older things (unless I can find printouts with notes on them in some of my To Be Scanned boxes that I can convert into documents) but I feel less concerned about the things I have been properly documenting since mid 2021.
It was 49 when I got up and only 53 now, heading for 81 and sunny at the moment. Yesterday I had to close up against the chill rather than the heat and haven’t opened up yet. LOL. But warmer temps are returning as of tomorrow and my opening and closing routine will return to suit it. We generated 11.5 KWHs yesterday and the m-t-d at 110.96 is at least on track for 300.
Everybody’s hanging on which I suppose is good. Some of the folks aren’t in very good places though. I haven’t checked yet this morning but as of yesterday afternoon the Las Vegas NM Jewish community was still $83K to go for getting their synagogue back and now only 3 days left to raise it. I’ll check and boost it again in a bit once I’m over at twitter. Healing & Helping Energy to everyone.
I’m steaming potatoes for later this week when it gets hot. I need to check them then get over to twitter. Bright the day, Meeses. {{{HUGS}}}
Good morning, 62 and the sky is still smoky. A bay breeze made lunch outside comfortable yesterday so we enjoyed our time together. RonK and I were distracted with people so our sons stepped up and made sure the food was cooked and served “on time”…..love that they are good cooks! The food was tasty, the garden is pretty and comfortable, and the ice on my knees confirms I’m as tired as I feel. Grateful for the fun, and that ice and elevation continues to help my creaky legs. Best wishes to all.
Good morning, meeses! Tuesday …
It is 70 muggy degrees in Tucson with an expected daytime high of 86. Mainly sunny with a chance of rain in the afternoon. I think we are switching over from Hurricane Kay rain to monsoonal rain but it is difficult to tell. They are similar in their out-of-the-blue appearance and the short intense bursts. We did get about a quarter of an inch of rain from the overnight storm Sunday night – I think that was from Kay.
I am hoping that the gains that the Ukraine military have made, stick. It sounds like Russian troops simply cut and ran. One wag on TV said that the second biggest supplier of military hardware to Ukraine was Russia – from abandoned tanks, vehicles and weapons of war! If news accounts are to be believed, Putin’s pals are not happy with the way he is running his war and may be itching for "regime change". Fingers crossed!
The January 6th Committee is getting back to work, New Hampshire Republicans are duking it out over who can be uglier and more trumpian, and the DOJ is turning up the heat on the tRump PAC grift, the fake electors and tRump’s inner circle. They won’t treat Grand Jury subpoenas like Congressional subpoenas – I am glad that they are not getting off without having to lawyer up. May their ill-gained wealth be depleted and may they spend their remaining days in poverty.
I have many things to do and need to get started on them.
See all y’all later!
Tuesday Meese. Stayed up late responding to lying crap from the “Family Research Council”
Puerto Rico
Good morning. Got up and walked, 25-ish minutes, .9 mi. I’m not pushing, since it’s been a couple of months. Watching an astronomy show, they’re talking about when we found the Kuiper Belt — in 1992. How we’re making discoveries about the solar system, so recently, just blows my mind. Anyway, got to consume some caffeine so I can work.
Good Tuesday morning, Meese! It’s already past 9, so must get washed and brushed pretty soon. The meeting on Thursday afternoon has been cancelled, thank Goddess. Lots to do today.
Right now in Ashburn the sky seems to be clearing and there are occasional gleams of sunshine. The current temp. is 68 F., going up to 82 F. later.
Last night’s dining experience was surreal. We didn’t like the carryout menu for the Pub, so we wandered down the hall to actually sit there. The Pub was more full than I’ve ever seen it, owing to the unbelievable rain. (Of course, we rarely eat out, preferring to eat at home most of the time.) There were no knives, forks, or napkins at our table by the window. We were not given menus, so the couple next to us, who happened to be D. S. in my Writers’ Group and his lovely wife Linda, kindly lent us theirs. The menus were from last week!
We sat and sat. We did get drinks eventually but Linda, who originally wanted the salmon cake, had to settle for the Cobb salad. They had been sitting there since 5 p.m. We arrived a few minutes later. I ordered gazpacho and both Dearly and I ordered fish and chips, which appeared on the long menu printed and distributed a few days ago in the restaurants.
My gazpacho eventually arrived. D. and Linda waited ONE hour for their soup and had to remind both the waiter and the manager. Eventually four gazpachos arrived for them. The couple next to them had been waiting just as long, in vain, so they whipped out folded crossword puzzles from The Washington Post and started crossly filling them out.
Our fish and chips arrived but D. and Linda were still waiting for their dinner. “They must be out on horseback, rounding up Cobbs for your salad,” I suggested inanely. Linda said it was ridiculous, that most restaurants prepped their salads in the afternoon and put them in the fridge for the evening rush. FINALLY, just as Dearly and I left, the long-suffering couple received their Cobb salads.
One of the ways in which The Home cuts costs is to dispatch shuttle buses to area high schools to recruit wait staff. The staff are fresh-faced, sweet, and innocent-looking, but completely clueless. They’re supposed to be trained before they start work here. You’d never know it.
At any rate, it’s just one more reason to cook at home tonight. I might wander down to the community garden to see whether there’s any fresh basil. I always put it in my chicken pie. Linda, who also prefers to cook at home, confided that she often gets three meals off one $5.99 roast chicken. Moi aussi!
There’s a morning meet-and-greet for new neighbors from 10 to 11, so I’d better hurry avec les ablutions. It’s been organized by The Home’s very own version of Perle Mesta. She lives on the fifth floor, and is a beautiful woman who delights in arranging social occasions.
Forgot to mention that Daughter and SIL left Austin yesterday on a Lufthansa flight to Frankfurt. “Our three pilots are 7 feet tall. I heard them speaking German. So cool,” Daughter texted. They’ll have a 6- or 7-hour layover in Frankfurt before catching the flight to Athens. They’re going to be so tired! She asked me what I wanted from Greece in addition to a piece of Minoan toilet.
Wishing everyone at the Pond a very good day.
Late start, hands acting up, & laundry on. It’s 58 heading for 87 and sunny at the moment. Another round of late summer these next 10 days but the overnights will be low enough I won’t have to turn on the A/C again. Yesterday we generated 11.5 and the m-t-d at 122.5 is at least on track for 300 for the month.
When I logged off last night the Las Vegas NM Jewish community still had $75K to go and now only 2 days left to raise it. Holding Good Thoughts. Jill’s stalker sent her a nastygram using only the subject lines of 20 emails. It lost most of its abusive impact because of course it was broken up by other emails. Amelia was still exhausted from activities of Sunday – probably will be today as well. I hadn’t heard from anybody else so I’m figuring they’re hanging on. Healing Energy to everybody.
Everything’s going to take longer unless/until my hands recover. sigh. Off to twitter to get started. Bright the day, Meeses. {{{HUGS}}}
Sending healing thoughts for your hands Sis!