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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w00t!
YES!
Good to hear him call the names of James Chaney, Andrew Goodman, Michael Schwerner, Viola Liuzzo, James Reeb, Fannie Lou Hamer and John Lewis
And address voter suppresion
Full Speech
Isn’t he wonderful! So glad to have him in the Senate!
Thank you for posting that! He is an excellent speaker with a keen sense of history and the State of Georgia.
Someone pointed out that the success of Democrats in 2022 in red states will likely lead to new and more onerous voting laws in those states. Pretty soon they will simply put “White Males Only” in front of the voting booths and dare the US Supreme Court to stop them (spoiler alert: they won’t). That Congress did not pass a voting rights law when we had the House, Senate and White House is congressional malpractice. :(
Good morning. Had to turn on the a/c yesterday. Sigh. Lows over the next few days….well, I’ll be wearing capris to work Thursday & Friday. So relieved about Georgia. Twenty-five arrested in Germany in a right wing coup plot. It’s the most exhausting version of whack-a-mole ever. So I’m gonna watch astronomy tv and get ready for wfh. Magnetars are actually the less scary thing.
great article by an old college friend: We Must Fight for a Better America. We Have No Choice.
Good Woden’s Day morning, Moosekind! It’s 50 F. in Ashburn, on its way up to 62 F., and drizzling. It’s going to be like this the rest of the week. Hope the clouds dissipate enough tonight for us to see the full moon smirking brightly in the sky over the Warnock win.
So relieved this morning that I feel as if I’ve lost a huge burden I was carrying on my back. Actually, I’ve got to get cracking to get ready for my 10:30 blood pressure check at the medical center. I’ll walk instead of taking the shuttle, as that will save me 22 minutes of wait time. (Takes 8 minutes to walk there through the buildings.) Dearly is already in Woodbridge for his doctor appointment. Just one more and then he’ll be finished seeing people at that location.
Just finished my Yule newsletter except for adding photos. Here’s the first paragraph:
Anyway, time’s getting on. Still have essays to read before tomorrow’s meeting, still need to ready myself for the day. Wishing a good, happy, relieved day to all at the Pond.
Good morning, meeses! Wednesday …
It is 46 degrees in Tucson with an expected daytime high of 61. Sunny skies are in the forecast. It looks like there may be some clouds moving in later this afternoon but it should clear again tonight for Full Moon viewing. She is called the Cold Moon which not very creative or accurate given that the southern hemisphere – which is in summer – has the same moon that we have! This morning the 99.6% moon was playing hide and seek with the clouds when I took my doggie out at about 5am.
The difference between a 51-49 Senate and a 50-50 Senate is huge. Beyond having a cushion in case one of our Senators gets ill, it means that we don’t have to have a power sharing arrangement with Mitch McChinless. Judicial nominations will get hearings faster and be sent to the Senate floor for a vote faster. It will also make Manchin less of a king – if he decides to caucus with the Republicans, we simply fall back to 50-50. One interesting thing for 2024 Senate watchers – when Joe Biden flew from Washington to Arizona yesterday to tout the CHIPS Act which is funding a huge chip factory in Phoenix, he brought Mark Kelly but not Kyrsten Sinema. He did bring Representative Ruben Gallego who is expected to mount a primary challenge against Sinema. Hmmmm.
We still have the Attorney General race recount here and then the inevitable court challenges to get through but the 2022 election season is wrapping up. The Arizona courts have already pretty much washed their hands of the MAGAt deadenders (they have already dismissed two bogus suits – one with sanctions) so there is not likely to be anything to stop Democrats from taking over state government in January. They will still have to deal with the legislature and it will be interesting to see if there are enough Republican legislators to make common cause with minority Democrats to pass bills to keep the lights on and address issues people here care about. I think the majorities are fairly thin (2 seats in each chamber) and one MAGA state senator says that she will not vote as her protest against what she calls "fraudulent elections" – you go, girl! In any event, it will be interesting to see how the dueling factions within the Republican Party actually govern with the Democrats.
I have spent too much time reading the news and now I better get back to work. I made good progress on December projects yesterday and I need to finish two of them today. I tried to place an Amazon order and the site said it was too busy – to come back later. Yikes! I have never seen that, I hope they didn’t get hacked.
See all y’all later!
It’s 50 heading for 58 and the 3rd day in a row of overcast. We did get a little bit of sunshine yesterday afternoon and generated 4.7 KWHs. The m-t-d is 26. I’m fairly confident we’ll get over 100 this month. I’m not particularly confident we’ll get much more. sigh.
YAY!!!! for GA & Warnock! That’s a relief. At least as far as the Courts are concerned we’re starting to work our way back to something vaguely approaching democracy. Today we celebrate. Tomorrow we can get back to worry. And working.
Holding the Good Thoughts for everybody’s health and wellbeing. I’m off to Twitter. Bright the day, Meeses. {{{HUGS}}}
Good morning, 36, cloudy, and a very familiar winter silhouette of my old maple trees outside my window today. So grateful the trees are enduring.
Yesterday I brought the majority of the Christmas trimmings to the dinning room and seeing everything all together was a bit overwhelming. I’ve worked away at sewing Christmas decor items for years so I’m surprised I was surprised at seeing the accumulation!
I’m so relieved the election is finally over and that small margins regardless, serious people are winning. Step by step our democracy seems to be correcting from the terrible tRump years.
My housekeeper will be here soon and I need to do my part to be ready for her so time to get busy. Best wishes to all.
Good morning. Walked ¾ mi, it’s warm & kind of sprinkling. Going to try for a whole mile tomorrow. Capris & sandals warm, in mid-December. But climate change is for sure a Chinese misinformation campaign. went to a holiday party last night, told a few folks I’m looking for a 2nd job. Hope I get some messages about that. In the office, sigh.
Thursday Meese. 45 here in Kingston going up to 53. Just saw the news that Brittney Griner is free
posted
Good Thursday morning, Meese! I’m so elated I can hardly type, because Britney Griner is FREE! Just watched President Biden announcing it with VP Harris and Chirelle Griner smiling in the background. SO HAPPY! She’ll need to rest and be checked out by doctors when she arrives back home, and I hope she can enjoy the rest of December quietly.
I’m sorry about the other American who is still there in horrible old Russia. And sorry about the poor young man who was executed this morning in Iran by the hateful mullah government.
Still, this is a happy day for the USA, especially Britney and Chirelle.
We have clearing skies this morning and 52 F. “They” say it will cloud over again. Last night when I went to the courtyard to look at the moon I couldn’t see Her because there had just been a shower. I could see the Christmas lights in people’s apartments, though, so I enjoyed that. It reminded me of other Christmases when I saw those same lights with Monty, so I became a bit teary.
The Writers’ Group meets today so I must hasten to get ready for it! Wishing a good day to all at the Pond.
P. S. Do you reckon that Madame Vice President telephoned Chirelle Griner at 1 o’clock this morning and said, “Have you a festive red dress to put on and is your hair done? We’re sending a chopper to pick you up for the White House announcement at 0830!”
You could see the emotion on Kamala’s face during the announcement – she felt this one personally.
By the way, I am going to stay away from Twitter today and avoid the anger from the right that one of Those People was saved while the white former military guy was not. Someone on TV suggested that Whelan would have been swapped for the Merchant of Death if Griner was not part of the equation which is utter bs. A one-on-one – Bout for Whelan – was never considered an option before Griner was detained, why would it be now? But that won’t stop the haters from hating and blaming Joe Biden. Maybe they should blame TFG for not asking his pal Putin to free Whelan, the detainment was on his watch.
It’s 57 heading for 65 and overcast but the sun’s trying to break through. Yesterday we generated 2 KWHs and the m-t-d is 28.46 – as we start the 2nd week of the month. At least we did get 1.5″ rain out of all this cloudiness. Of course the rain came after dark so it could just as well have been sunny during the day. sigh.
Wonderful news about Brittney Griner. Diplomatic wheels grind almost as slowly as the wheels of the gods and sometimes they manage to do almost as good a job. I hope her family’s got a good therapist lined up for her. She needs one – and will for quite a while – to deal with this.
No Wordle today, that would be virtually crossing a picket line. But Quordle isn’t owned by NYT so I can still do that one to wake my brain up. I meant to go to the Co-op and stock up on supplements & stuff but they’re having a sale next week so I’ll go then. I still need to go out and get milk this afternoon. Off to twitter. Bright the day, Meeses. {{{HUGS}}}
I did not know they were on strike and completed my Wordle in 3. Sorry, strikers!
Good morning, meeses! Thursday …
It is 48 in Tucson with an expected daytime high of 59. Mostly sunny skies are in the forecast. Last night we were unable to do more than catch a fleeting glimpse of the full moon but this morning she bathed the landscape with her glorious 99.7% illumination and was visible in the northwest sky when I got up.
I have already started my too-busy day and the news so far is all good – Brittney Griner was released from a Russian penal colony and Congress passed the Protect Interracial and Same-Sex Marriages from Those AHoles on the US Supreme Court Act. The bill will go to to Joe Biden for his signature which has to be a relief for people whose lives Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito longed to disrupt. Now let’s tee up court reform and dilute the power of the Federalist Society to destroy everything good via their agents on SCOTUS. Yesterday they heard testimony about the case that would allow state legislatures to act outside the laws of their own states when it came to running and certifying federal elections, effectively nullifying state constitutions and neutering the state courts charged with interpreting state law. I hope they reject that but I don’t have a lot of confidence in them doing the right thing. In my newspaper today, the article on this smooshed “Republican” and “led” into a single word coining a new term "Republicanled states". Republicanled which would be an intriguing adjective -it sounds painful and should certainly be illegal!
Back to my too-busy day.
See all y’all later!
If they really do that, Jan, democracy is dead.
Friday Meese. 32 here in Kingston going up to 43.
Watching the right-wing shit show over Brittney Griner’s release.
They are disgusting.
Puerto Rico
Good morning, meeses! Friday …
It is 43 degrees in Tucson with an expected daytime high of 59. It is cloudy now but the clouds will clear and sunny skies are expected into the afternoon.
Well, that didn’t last long. Kyrsten "look at me look at me PAY ATTENTION TO ME" Sinema, BFF of John Cornyn, has decided to quit the Democratic Party and return power to Mitch McChinless. Not surprising – the Democratic Party in Arizona has quit her and she knows that she will be primaried and won’t be the Democratic nominee. So the former Green whose interest in green turned to doing the bidding of big money interests, will now hand her seat over to the Republicans in 2024 (there is no way she wins as an independent and will simply give votes to the Republican). Another reminder that the Green Party cannot be trusted and should be burned to the ground. From Ralph Freaking Nader who gave George W. Bush the presidency in 2000, leading to the death of millions, to Jill Stein who gave berners a protest vote and helped install tRump in 2016, leading to the death of millions, they are simply destroyers. Way to harsh our buzz, Sinema.
I am going to put my head down and finish projects this morning so that I have nothing on my schedule for the weekend. One of the nearby state parks has been calling to me and we are going to have cold weather next week so this might be our last chance to hike it comfortable in the morning.
See all y’all later!
Another warm morning. Walked my 1.07mi in short sleeves. So glad Brittney Griner is home. I hope she gets to recover from her ordeal. And of course we can’t have even one good day, Sinema shocks no one by saying she’s not a Democrat. Sigh. Going to listen to some music before people start coming in.
Griner’s life is changed forever. For one thing, she will never feel safe playing basketball overseas which will severely impact her earnings (she wasn’t playing in Russia because she liked it there – it was a well paying job) – I can’t imagine her wanting to travel for Team USA if she is invited to play in the next Olympics. We don’t know yet what being in captivity for 9 months has done to her body – a body that likely needs constant physical exercise to maintain peak athletic competitiveness. I am sure she suffered mentally and it would not be shocking if she has PTSD and fears that she can’t overcome. I just hope people leave her the alone and let her recover in peace.
Good freaky Friday, Moosekind! Woke up at 6-something and realized the Cold Moon was visible. Went out to the screened porch at intervals and filled my eyes—did that about six times, I think, to make up for all the times I haven’t been able to see Her. Next summer I should emulate Morticia Addams and moonbathe. Why not?
The Writers’ Group meeting yesterday was great fun despite the fact that three people were missing owing to illness. However, I packed three little “care bags” to deliver to their apartments after the meeting. When the writers trooped in, they were treated to a display of 12 Christmas crackers and 24 petits fours. We all pulled the crackers, put on the silly paper hats, examined our prizes, and read the ridiculous jokes aloud. Universal groans greeted the jokes, of course.
Hope they’ll always remember that it was I who introduced them to the concept of Christmas crackers. Can’t think why more Americans don’t do this, it’s such fun!
We had an excellent discussion about the vignettes they’d written. For January, I told them they could have a free write on any subject, in any format they please.
Enough about that. Dearly is visiting the doctor (in Ashburn this time, so he can drive himself) this morning, and I have a party to attend this afternoon. I’m feeling a bit better after my fall, although my rib cage is still tender and my right knee is now yellow with the bruise. Thank Goddess it was no worse.
Must finish the Yule newsletter today so I can get it out tomorrow. I’m now choosing the photos. One good thing about sending it email, you can be as long-winded as you like.
Oh, by the way, it’s 38 F. in Ashburn, going up to 50 F. today, and clear as a bell. A Yuletide bell, of course! Wishing a good day to all at the Pond.
{{{Diana}}} Falling is not a good idea. I’m glad you’re feeling better. Healing Energy & moar {{{HUGS}}}
It’s 42 going to 60 but sunny at last! We generated 4.9 KWHs yesterday and the m-t-d is 33. If it stays sunny we might – maybe – even reach 40 today.
So Sinema showed her true colors – which are neither blue nor green. No surprise. rto has said all along she wasn’t interested in a 2nd term, she was parleying her time in the Senate for a big private-sector contract when she finishes. But as long as she’s caucusing with the Dems, she’s no worse than bernie. She counts as a Dem as far as leadership and rules are concerned.
Thank the goddesses Brittney Griner is back home. I hope she gets what she needs for as much healing as is possible for her. And that if she wants to, she will be able to continue her career in basketball. I’d strongly suggest a book though. She’s paid dearly for the fame and she might as well get some gain/secure revenue that fame can bring. Holding her in The Light.
I don’t know if my hands are any better yet. Too early in the morning, too soon online, to tell. But if I had trouble keyboarding yesterday, and I did, I was at least able to schlep about 25 cu. ft. of firewood off the carport and onto the sunporch. So that’s done. Off to twitter. Bright the day, Meeses. {{{HUGS}}}
This made me smile!
Brittney Griner
Good morning, 39 and cloudy. Thanks to an arthritis flare and and a lagging immune system I’m not feeling very well. I’ve ordered the meds that usually help, but they need to be compounded so that will take a few days. I didn’t cope very well yesterday but today I hope to do better. Best wishes to all.
I hope today is a better day, my friend. :(
Saturday Meese. 24 here in Kingston (brrr) going up to 38.
Puerto Rico.
Yes, “so-called Puerto Rican” should be reserved for those who make common cause with the Republican Party which wants those still living on the island to suffer in order to enrich their donors. Deplorable.
I’m not an AOC fan – for other reasons, however this attack on her Puerto Rican status is a low blow and unacceptable