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. Really cold, by our standards — later this week it will freeze and Friday’s high will be in the 30s. Brrrr. Anyway, today: groceries, and reading articles on how to write a resume. I started to apply for something on Linked In and realized I hadn’t updated mine in 24 years, and things might have changed a bit.
Good Saturday morning, Meese, and welcome to Part 2, Vol. 338, of I Lead A Weird Life.
Yesterday I attended the political meeting that featured Democratic speakers. It was great to see our Democratic state delegate and our (outgoing) Democratic state senator! Jennifer and I go back all the way to 2003 and the Howard Dean campaign, and I volunteered for her very first campaign for delegate. Because of redistricting, she’ll now have a different district as a state senator. Makes me wish I still lived in Herndon, but—shrug—there’s nothing I can do. Just as I used the mike to thank her for her work eradicating the sales tax on menstrual products,* and asked whether the Democratic majority in the state Senate could defeat a proposed 15-week ban on abortion, the fire alarm went off! Gods, it screeched for 10 minutes!
After that, though, Jennifer answered my question. Several fellow Democrats came up to me afterwards and said, “Good question.” Apparently Goobernator Dumbkin has stuck antiabortion language in the budget bill, so it’s all very snakey. What a dumbass!
Meanwhile, back at the ranch, it’s a frosty 39 F. this morning in Ashbored, with a flawless blue sky and lots of sunlight. The rain on Thursday reduced our yearly rainfall deficit to 3.5 inches—it had been more than 5 inches. Good. Jay’s Wintry Mix Facebook page is predicting a massive White Christmas for us in the District-Maryland-Virginia area. He’ll know more on Monday. I’ll believe it when I see it, but in the meantime I’ll stock up on supplies.
The quarterly, Around the Ponds, came out yesterday. The so-called “proofreaders” ruined my punctuation, which is ALWAYS correct before I submit it to the Head Eds. That much I can tell you. The only comfort is that most people who bother to read my two stories won’t know any better. I’d hate for them to think I don’t know my punctuation!
I really need to get washed, brushed, and cracking on all my chores. Wishing a good day to all at the Pond!
Invisible line for footnote:
I mentioned menstrual products to freak out the men who were present. Men HATE to hear anything concerning menstruation.
It’s 25 heading for 40 and sunny. We generated just at 7 KWHs yesterday. Which is actually good for this time of year. The m-t-d is 66.96, which isn’t. Be nice if we can do another 7 today.
It was a lovely gathering yesterevening. Late, as usual, but lovely. It was “scheduled” for 6. Half the family showed up at 6:20 with a fruit tray for appetizers, sweet and sour green beans for a side dish, some very dark chocolate fudge and a baked version of GF donut holes covered in powdered sugar (called snowballs) for dessert. Also hot chai and a bottle of sparkling apple cider we didn’t open. They left it with me for New Year’s. The other half of the family got here at 7 with the turkey, dressing, gravy, 2 different roasted veggie medleys, baked potatoes, cranberry sauce, a cranberry cheesecake, a yule log, “regular” fudge, and a case of hard cider. I provided the mulled wine, half of which is left and in my fridge along with a week’s worth of leftovers, plates, cups, and eating utensils. We did lot of talking and visiting and eating. We hung the wreath here in the den and decorated it. Then decorated both den windows and the front living room window. We masked until the eating started. But I have a MERV-12 filter for my HVAC now and we ran the fan continuously as well as having the east window open. The fire kept the room warm enough that the window ended up being fully open for most of the visit. Men in general and young men in particular run a lot hotter than I do. LOL. It was so very wonderful to have the family gathering again. In the 3 years since our last one, my youngest Fayetteville grandson grew a full foot! And he’s turning 18 just next week so he may do some more growing. It was just. . . lovely.
They didn’t leave until almost midnight and I didn’t get to bed until about 1 – cats and sinusitis made sure I didn’t sleep all that well but I’m OK. Off to twitter. While it’s still around, I’m still boosting fundraisers. Bright the day, Meeses. {{{HUGS}}}
bfitz, reading your words brings a smile……
Good morning, 35 with rain and snow. I want to just linger with coffee and solitaire this morning, but my yule list is not checked off yet so I need to keep focused on Christmas tasks. I feel like I’m trudging this year, doing what I can but the elusive seasonal cheer remains very elusive! I did finish sewing a pair of pillow shams yesterday and have the duvet cover ready to complete today. To my relief I’ve been able to fix my absent minded errors so the finished items look like I know what I’m doing but staying focused is hard this year. Oh well, just a few more days and I’ll be done. Best wishes to all.