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 57 degrees in the Desert Southwest with temperatures dropping to an expected daytime high of 50. Rain expected all day.
Have a great day, all y’alls!!
Happy New Year Meese. 47 here in Kingston going up to 50. Was happy that the rain last night stopped most of the neighborhood fireworks!
Happy New Year, Dee! I hope you are feeling better.
We had intermittent fireworks between about 7pm and 9pm, possibly for local events, but really not much after that. It is illegal here although that did not deter them on Fourth of July. It is one of the times I am glad my dog is deaf.
Am feeling better Jan – will continue to take it easy!
Apparently when the traitor-flag waving folks down the street moved out, so did our fireworks. There were a few bottle rockets sent up a block or so north of me when the ball dropped on Times Square but nothing at our own midnight. I’m glad you didn’t have many. And even more so that you’re feeling better. More Healing Energy, {{{HUGS}}}
Tee-hee, Sis, I bet your husband and doggies were happy too!
Black Music Sunday
Good morning & happy new year, everyone! Normal Sunday morning here: tea steeping, eating breakfast & watching — not Velshi but the West Wing marathon. Love the Matt Santos episodes. Later, there’s church, making next week’s breakfast and eating the blackeyed pea dish I made.
Happy New Year! It’s 53 heading for 68 and more or less sunny. We wrapped up December with 156 KWHs and 2002 with 3.827 MWHs (only slightly less than 2021). The best we’ve ever done for January is 236 so that’s the “impossible dream” target. I’ll be happy with anything over 170 and delighted with anything over 180.
We know we’ve got some not-good stuff coming (R House for a biggy) so mostly I’m hoping we survive – and in relative comfort. We’ve got each other and that’s a very important thing.
Meanwhile, I’ve done all my Sunday chores and am heading for twitter & Dee’s diary. Sometime today I need to do my end of month and year spreadsheets and start the new month and year but that will wait a bit. Bright the day, Meeses. {{{HUGS}}}
Wow. I couldn’t do a spreadsheet to save my life! I’m impressed.
Happy New Year, Moose Peeps! It’s 58 F. and sunny in Ashburnikins, so the minute that roast beef goes into the oven, yrs truly is going for a walk around at least two of the ponds here—Fisherman’s Pond and Magnolia Pond. I must say, not having a dog means no sunlight and fresh air. I just warned Dearly about that. He must sit on the screened porch or out in the courtyard when the weather permits. Of course, at this time of year our porch is in shadow most of the time.
Younger Son and family are coming to tea tomorrow. I’m trying to get my chores done so I can have a “Me” day tomorrow. I need to write.
Today we are having the traditional dinner we didn’t have at Christmas: roast beef, Yorkshire pudding, roast potatoes, green peas, gravy, and for afters, Christmas pudding with hard sauce. Dearly will watch the Washington Commies while we are eating dinner around 3:30.
There is a never-ending list of chores to do. As we speak, I need to finish making the bed with clean sheets and make the hard sauce, a.k.a. brandy butter. Yesterday I went to the Hair Cuttery for the first time in years. (I’m p.o.’d at my regular stylist at the barbershop.) Anyway, I was delighted with the guy who did my hair: he came strolling out of the back regions, wearing a hat and a waistcoat over a short-sleeved shirt and dark trousers. He was a short, skinny man of color with a wrinkled humorous face and merry eyes. He did a good job, too. He’s too expensive to visit regularly, so back I’ll go to the barbershop next week.
We had an afternoon and evening of blissful rain. Periodically I went out to the porch to listen to the sound of falling rain and to breathe in the scent of the rain-washed air. It rains so seldom here that I go ape when it does, especially if it happens in the daytime. We can’t leave the windows open at night because of incoming aircraft, the noise of which is guaranteed to waken the dead.
I texted a picture of our new dog to Younger Son and he asked if it were a real dog. LOL!
Well, that’s all I have today, folks, so I need to run and finish making the bed so I’ll have a surface on which to fold the laundry.
Wishing a good New Year’s Day to all. Wishing a good 2023, come to that! SURELY it can’t be worse than 2022!
Good morning, 43 and cloudy. The sky, horizon and Bellingham Bay are all tones of blue/gray and the familiar outlines of our old maple trees look very familiar. A new year, but my morning view remains the same.
We enjoyed a late lunch at a waterfront restaurant yesterday, then naps, then to bed early. Not an exciting New Years Eve but a very comfortable one. I’m taking advice from friends and leaving my tree shinning in the corner for another week but the arrangements of twigs, holly and branches that I made in early December need to go so I’ll do that today. Best wishes to all.
Monday Meese. 34 going up to 52 here in Kingston.
Puerto Rico
OMG, I have to Google leptospirosis.
Good morning. Got in my walk — it’s 70 degrees, so definitely short sleeves. It might get up to 80 this afternoon. My blackeyed pea soup is okay. I don’t love b.e.p.s so that’s actually as good as possible. That’s dinner for this week. In the office today. Hope people take it easy on us.
My Goddess, another, in Texas they don’t give you Monday off when New Year’s Day falls on a Sunday? You probably don’t get Martin Luther King’s birthday off, either, or Juneteenth.
We were off on Friday. We do get MLK Day – that’s actually going to make my birthday time off stretch to over a week. Juneteenth might be an “optional” holiday, I’m not sure.
Good Monday morning, Moosekind, it’s clearing here in Ashburn, with cirrostratus clouds giving us a mackerel sky. When the clouds blow away we’ll have a mild afternoon and lots of sun.
Need to go for another walk, a longer one this time. Wish Dearly’s sleep patterns would become more normal. It’s driving me crazy.
No plans today except writing, vacuuming, and entertaining Younger Son and family to tea. It will be nice to see them again. Had some enjoyable talks with Younger Son on Christmas Day as we waited for the others to arrive.
Wishing a good day to all at the Pond.
It’s 54 heading for 71 and sunny at the moment. Clouds are moving in and we’re supposed to have thunderstorms this afternoon. Yesterday we got a hair over 7 KWHs so we at least started the month & year on track. I hope that’s an omen.
For all that it’s warmer my hands are acting like it’s not. Raynaud’s and tremors are playing merry hell with my ability to keyboard as well as mouse. It’s very aggravating. Oh well. Since it’s slower – and I need to go get milk this morning – I guess I’d best get started. Bright the Day, Meeses. {{{HUGS}}}
Good morning, meeses! Monday …
Quick check in as I have a busy day and need to get it started. It is 51 here and cloudy, more rain this afternoon. Maybe 70s by Thursday.
See all y’all later!
Good morning, 39 and partly sunny. Thanks to an early morning wake up I’ve now had an early morning nap and am somewhat ready to start my day. Lots I could do, lots I prolly won’t do too! I think my priority will be to spend some time outdoors. Best wishes to all.
Tuesday Meese. 36 going up too 44 and rainy all day – heading out to doctor’s office for a round of tests this morning.
Puerto Rico
El Museo del Barrio – NY
Hope you’ll get some remedies from your doctor, Sis!
Did you read about the death of Elayne Jones, aged 94, a Black percussionist who broke the color barrier in classical music?
Looked up leptospirosis. It sounds awful. Does it come from contaminated water? Is that why people in Puerto Rico are getting it?
RIP
{{{Dee}}} Holding the Good Thoughts regarding the tests. Healing Energy and moar {{{HUGS}}}
Good morning, meeses! Tuesday …
It is 45 degrees in Tucson with an expected daytime high of 48 which will not occur until 4pm. Mix of clouds and sun with a chance for rain. Yesterday we got some glimpses of sun but it was mostly gloomy and overcast. I did see the 90% waxing moon in the late afternoon sky to the east.
The McCarthy era in the House may begin without Kevin McCarthy! After giving away most of his power to Marjorie Taylor Green, allowing his members to focus their energy on Hunter Biden’s laptop, agreeing to impeach Joe Biden, and promising to shut down the House Ethics Office, Trump’s Kevin may still not have the votes to ascend to the Speakership. I hope there is chaos, 20 ballots and then they elect the KKK guy as Speaker for a House of Representatives that will be run by a party that owes its power to white supremacists, consists of one known criminal and ten as-yet-uncharged insurrectionists. May their time in power be short and unpleasant as their members are perpwalked and the new leadership rules bite them in the ass.
Arizona now has the top three constitutional offices filled with Democrats. There is a one vote Republican majority in the Senate and the House so there is a pretty good chance that Governor Katie Hobbs will be able to govern. It will be more difficult to find one sensible Republican because the Republican Party and the legislature became trumpier but some of the more moderate Republicans, especially those in the Phoenix metro area, represent people who don’t want dysfunctional government and voted for Katie Hobbs. Now I can set politics aside for a while and not worry about what fresh hell Republicans plan to unleash here.
I was watching Monday Night Football and saw the young man take a hit to the chest and suffer cardiac arrest. I am glad they suspended the game, sad that it took them so long to realize that no one wanted to play after seeing their teammate collapse after his heart stopped beating and needing CPR and AED on the field and leaving in an ambulance. “Take 5 minutes to gather yourselves and warm up” was an ignorant and unsustainable directive. It is an important game for the NFL Playoff seeding on the penultimate weekend of the regular season but any game played last night was not going to be reflective of what either team can do – it may still be impossible to muster mental energy to play. Prayers raised that the young man recovers completely but I hope he does not play football any more.
Well, it is now officially the first work week of 2023 as yesterday was still a holiday “New Years Day Observed”. Banks will be open, mail will be delivered, holiday travelers should be back home and at their desks. My 2023 calendars have been hung and with 2022 in the rear view mirror, I can begin to organize my space more efficiently knowing that two years of packing and moving is done. I have a number of boxes whose contents need to be scanned and then shredded (or marked for off-premise storage). I can make a better assessment of the things that I packed up and which can probably be tossed now that the contours of my new life are nearly defined. That will wait, though, until I finish end of year and beginning of year projects for myself and clients. January is typically a busy month and January 2023 will be no different.
See all y’all later!
Sounds like an ambitious set of plans, Jan, but one that you are well on the way to accomplishing! May success crown your efforts.
Good morning. Got in a walk — 4th day in a row. I forgot to turn on the walk thing on my watch, looking at all the things to see where to add a workout. All I remember about where it is, is that it’s somewhere I didn’t expect. Eating breakfast & watching astronomy. Wfh today. I hope it takes at least 3 ballots to get a Speaker elected. Let whoever it is know they can’t just steamroll.
Three ballots, no Speaker! They adjourned the whatever-it-is (apparently Representatives can’t even be sworn in until there is a Speaker, so there is no House of Representative right now!) and Republicans will meet in the “Speakers Office” to decide if there is a way forward for Trump’s Kevin. The 19 then 20 who wouldn’t vote for McCarthy seem pretty adamant so my guess is that they start looking for an alternative. I think that members will not get paid until they can become a legislative body so the folks who traveled to DC on their own nickel will be particularly antsy. Squirm! I love how the Democratic caucus is not only united but look like they are having a good time. :)
Good Tuesday morning, Meese. It’s 52 F. and overcast here in Ashburn. Yesterday it remained overcast, so I was not motivated to go for a walk. Had just enough mojo to get down the cups and saucers for tea (even little Karl drinks tea now), but not enough to actually vacuum. No problemo—a vacuumed room a day is on the way! (Say when.)
Dearly has gone back to bed. He sleeps a lot and feels cold all the time. His appetite has diminished. He’s lost a lot of weight. I do not like to consider the implications of this. I noticed that the future NASA scientist, aged 8, and Miss Teenager (14 next month) were so shocked by the evidence of Grandpa’s new life (cannula in his nose, 80 miles of green plastic tubing, La Machine snorting and hissing ominously in the hallway), that each went over to hug and kiss him at the end of the visit.
DIL has got it into her head that visiting London would be a nice way to celebrate her birthday, which is two weeks from today. Miss Teenager immediately said she wanted to go too. If it happens, they will go at the end of January, when Miss Pink Cheeks has two days off from school.
Meanwhile, back at the ranch, it’s an ugly grey day, 55 F. and I have to go to the dentist this morning. I really think part of a filling has come out and that’s why I’m so uncomfortable. I’m also experiencing a few cold symptoms which, without the daily Vitamin C, would be far worse.
I understand that little Qevin has already started moving into the Speaker’s office. I hope it takes so many ballots that Hakeem Jeffries will be elected SOTH. That would be so amusing!
Wishing a good day to all at the Pond.
Republican child trafficker Matt Gaetz, who is not a fan of Trump’s Kevin, sent a letter to the House Architect notifying him that McCarthy had moved into the Speaker’s office without having been elected and wants to know when he will be considered a squatter and removed. McCarthy is about to get a ginormous comeuppance – I hope they film him being moved from the office and his belongings moved to a coat closet since he probably already gave up his old office to another member of his caucus. HA!! There is some suggestion that he may have to resign in disgrace – he would have no leadership role in the 118th Congress. It sounds like the members who don’t want McCarthy don’t like his willingness to placate the donor class rather than fight for their conservative principles. It will be interesting to see if they stick together.
It’s 52 heading for 58 and sunny. Yesterday we did manage to generate 4.6 KWHs before it clouded over completely and the rain started. We got over an inch and it rained most of the evening and was still drizzling when I went to bed. The m-t-d at 11.6 is already not on track, but there’s a lot of lengthening-day month left to go.
I’m waiting for a “call back” from TIAA. I managed to not withdraw anything for the entirety of 2022 while the Market was being manipulated to skew the election and give the House to the Rs. Unfortunately there’s a rather expensive car repair I need to repay my son for, so I’m doing what I hope will be my only withdrawal in 2023. Of course I have to get out more than I need since they withhold taxes on it. I’ll get the withheld amount back next year since they’ll be less than the standard deduction, but that doesn’t help right now.
Meanwhile, off to twitter. Bright the day, Meeses. {{{HUGS}}}
Can’t you ask for the withdrawal without withholding? I used to do that with my IRA withdrawals, preferring to manage my tax payments. It seems wrong to have to give and interest-free “loan” to the federal government for a year.
Not that I know of. But since I no longer make enough income even with TIAA withdrawals of $5K or less added to my Social Security to pay taxes at all, I don’t mind giving the govt an interest-free loan for a year. ????
Good morning, 36 and cloudy outside my window today. I have a gardening project I want to do, but yesterday was so cold and icy I didn’t last long so I’ll dress warmer today and try again. When we had an aspen tree removed a few years ago I kept 3 logs thinking they would be good side tables for the patio. They did look nice but they soaked up rain water and soon became heavy and moldy so we moved them to an out of the way spot by the alley and they are now covered with moss. They are still very heavy but RonK has moved then back to the garden and I want to partially bury them to create a focus to plant against. The area is hard to garden as the soil is full of roots from trees and the laurel hedge so if I can maneuver them into place I can fill the planting area with top soil and hopefully grow ferns and hellebores. Right now the space looks like a forgotten clearing with tall plants looming overhead….not the look I had intended to create when I started clearing the salal. Once I have a plan someone can help me wrestle the logs into place so I’ll see how far I get today. Best wishes to all.
That sounds like a very ambitious plan! Just when I think you could not possibly have another gardening project left to do, you find something. :)
Wednesday Meese. 40 degrees and foggy here in Kingston going up to a rainy 52.
Puerto Rico
When the US Supreme Court evaluates the case of the CPI against the Junta on January 11, it will assess the arguments of more than 30 entities and 19 law professors who expressed their support for the CPI through briefs presented as amicus of the court.