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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Wednesday Meese. 24 here in Kingston going up to 41 with rain which will wash away what is left of the snow. My husband Nadhiyr is still in hospital, undergoing tests but should be home today. Thanks for the prayers.
Puerto Rico
“How sad, overwhelming and shameful it is to see [Puerto Rico] go from one owner to another without ever having been its own owner, and to see it go from sovereignty to sovereignty without ever having commanded itself.”
Vieques: Uncertainty Continues Due to Lack of Affordable Housing
Best wishes for a quick recovery for Nadhiyr!
Prayers, healing white vibes, and rosy clouds of love for Nadhiyr!
Blessed be.
More prayers/Holding Good Thoughts for Nadhiyr – & you. {{{Dee}}}
He’s home from hospital – they say it was a seizure, not another stroke and have shifted his medications accordingly.
Thanks for all the prayers!
Glad he’s home. More prayers. {{{Dee}}}
Happy 1st Day of Women’s History Month
Love the pictures, Sis!
Wouldn’t you know, I have an appointment with a doctor on International Women’s Day, so I can’t participate in any morning festivities.
Good morning, meeses! Wednesday …
It is 39 degrees in Tucson with an expected daytime high of 57. Sunny skies this morning and then clouding up as the storm system moves in. There is a 100% chance of rain tonight and into Thursday with 1-3 inches of snow expected in the valley (over a foot in the mountains). It will not warm up much in the daytime Thursday but the sun will come out to dry things off.
I hope that young people see what a Republican Supreme Court majority means to their future – short, hard lives filled with misery as the majority ends reproductive freedom, cancels vaccine mandates and the role of the government to manage health crises, and now refuses to give them any kind of relief after having their lives upended and their future put on hold during the pandemic. I hope those old enough to vote in 2016 realize that if you stay home in a peeve because you believe the lies your berned-out hero promoted that the primary was stolen, your votes could have made the difference between a Hillary Clinton appointed Supreme Court majority or what tRump’s court has done to you. Elections matter, every vote matters and Republicans hate you and every decent thing. Period. I feel badly for those who were planning a new life with a clean slate and I hope that some of the new loan regulations changing minimum payments and years before forgiveness can ease the pain. Fk Bernie Sanders.
It is March and I flipped over my calendar page, manually moved the day from 29 to 1 on my old fashioned wrist watch and am ready to carpe diem. We were not on the inspection list yesterday but will be invaded for about 15 minutes at some point today or tomorrow. Fingers crossed that it is today so that tomorrow we can recover our peace and quiet.
See all y’all later!
Good morning. Got in my walk yesterday, just barely to 30 minutes — but I did it. Weather is supposed to be stormy tomorrow, but not the crazy cold and snow that some of y’all have had. Will be glad to walk in sunshine today. Got in-person Democratic club meeting tonight. Have got to go to it — need to ask if anyone knows about a part time job, and for donations to the AIDS Ride.
Good Wednesday morning, Moosekind! We have a mixed sort of day with white clouds, pale blue sky, and weak sunlight. Right now it’s 51 F. in Ashboring, going up to 60 F. but with lots of breezes. Don’t think I’ll be walking outside, will have to go back to the gym.
Finally sent off the disability story yesterday afternoon. The deadline was today. Now I have to do income taxes. My back hurts just thinking about sitting in this chair and doing it. Tomorrow submissions from the Writers’ Group are due, so that’s going to keep me busy as well.
Was sad to see the obituary of an actor from my favorite police procedural show of all time, “Due South.” Gordon Pinsent, who played Constable Fraser’s father, died. He was 90-something, however, so he had good innings. That show dominated my life for years. I wrote a ton of fan fiction for it, which is still available, I believe, on the due South Fan Fiction Archive. I still have friends that I made during the fandom of that show.
In other news, we Zoomed with my sister-in-law in Oz last night. Things aren’t hunky-dory there either, it seems, and apparently they did not have a summer. Our March is their September, and she said they’ve gone straight into winter. I feel sorry for my eldest niece who is 55 and was laid off from her job. No one hires people that age.
Today is the first of March, as we all know. It’s my birth month, and also the month in which I have FOUR doctor appointments, three of them indecent. Being old is like driving a vintage car: parts keep wearing out and needing to be patched up, maintenance is costly, and so forth. However, I cannot pop my clogs yet, because I must look after Dearly.
It’s time to get ready for the day. Thank Goddess I don’t have to go anywhere except Trader Joe’s in the afternoon, when my energy is low anyway.
Wishing a good day to all at the Pond.
My birth month also! As we know, March babies are the best as they are brilliant charming and humble.
LOL, how true! “The child born on the Sabbath day/Is fair and wise/And good and gay.”
I was born at 1:25 a.m. My poor, exhausted mum—the oldest woman ever to give birth in Jack County Hospital (she was 23)—was drifting off to sleep when the admin. person came in to interview my father. She asked Mother’s age, and then asked my father’s. “Fourteen,” he replied. At this my mother woke up, practically spitting teeth. He was 21, actually.
February went out and March is coming in like a lamb. We’ll see how long that lasts. It’s about 65, has been 65 since before sunup, and appears to be going to stay 65 until sundown when the temps are going to drop about 20 degrees fairly quickly. No fire yesterday but definitely one tonight. We wrapped up February with 14 KWHs yesterday, the highest since 8/25/22, and a total of 210! That’s 4th place for the life of the system or about dead center. It’s cloudy today but so far the sun has been rather successful at finding chinks in the cloud cover.
My peanut butter muffin bread came out rather nicely. That’s over a week of midmorning snacks, almost 2. I’d planned to do laundry today but I’m going to save it until Friday when the temps will be down enough I can light the fire earlier in the day. As long as it’s done before Monday I don’t have to worry about running out of underwear. LOL.
Off to twitter etc to check on folks and do my boosting. {{{Meeses}}}
Bfitz, just out of vulgar curiosity, how come you’re baking muffin bread rather than muffins?
Feeling a bit sad and nostalgic this morning. Gordon Pinsent, one of the stars of my favorite TV show of all time, “Due South,” died last Saturday. He had good innings, though, he was 92.
https://www.tvinsider.com/1083278/gordon-pinsent-dead-babar-the-elephant-due-south-hogans-heroes/#:~:text=Canadian%20actor%20Gordon%20Pinsent%2C%20who%20starred%20in%20TV,away%20in%20his%20sleep%20on%20Saturday%2C%20February%2025.
It’s easier to wash a single bread or square cake pan than to wash muffin tins. ???? The basic recipe is an old WWII or possibly earlier muffin recipe -much less sugar and fat than modern muffins (that are really cupcakes with muffin additions & no frosting) that I adapted to be gluten free. It makes 16 squares with 100 calories and 4 grams of protein per square.
Well, 92 really is “good innings” – sounds like he had a good life too.
bfitz, totally agree about modern muffins being too laden with sugar and fat. The bran muffins I make rely on the sweetness of fruit, very little sugar, and in the case of the blueberry muffins, applesauce instead of oil. That’s why I bake my own muffins rather than buying them in the store.
Forgot to say congratulations, bfitz, on getting 210 for the month!
Good morning, 28 and light clouds but the snow has melted so it’s just wet outside now. Rain is forecast for the rest of the week so I think we’re on the way to spring weather now. I want to finish pruning the ivy and salal but have been waiting for warmer temps.
Best wishes to all.
Good morning. Big storms expected this afternoon/evening. I’m really hoping we’ll be sent home early. I did 1.2 miles this morning, 8 30-second running segments. It’s easier in the parking garage, even though I get up so much earlier.
Good morning Meese. CM posted
Good morning, meeses! Thursday …
It is 32 degrees in Tucson with an expected daytime high of 37. It is snowing right now with a predicted accumulation of about 4-5 inches – it appears to be about 3 inches right now but it is not sticking on the roads, just the bushes and the golf fairway. By late morning, the precipitation will end and we should see the sun. Last night we had a great view of Venus and Jupiter to the west and the waxing moon to the northeast – I was glad that the storm clouds waited to gather until I could enjoy the night skies.
Interesting that Republicans now want to pass the rail safety legislation that their god tRump removed during his time in office. Could it be that a horrific derailment where their base lives turns out to be a bad look? It is difficult to successfully pin the blame Biden when the facts point to TFG. They are not going to like how their craven donor, the CEO of Norfolk Southern, looks in the upcoming Senate hearings. Thank goodness that there is still enough non-Fox media left to get the facts out.
Kevin’s Marj is making a complete ass out of herself after he elevated her to House leadership. She is a perfect example of MAGAt ignorance and the 18 Republican House members elected to Biden districts are going to have a difficult time explaining to their constituents what they gained by handing over the House majority to Republicans. I hope our party has some good candidates ready to run against them and are gathering video clips of the unhinged and disgusting behaviour of House Republicans. In Arizona, the MAGAts newly elected to the state legislature are giving the Republican Party heartburn as they turn hearings into what is being called a “clown show” by Governor Hobbs. Even Republicans are embarrassed by their ignorance and that is a pretty low bar!
I have two things that I want to do before I call it a day and I best get to them lest I end up doing neither! My home “invasions” have ended so I have no excuse to not work. :)
See all y’all later!
Good Thursday morning, Meese. We awoke to the delightful sound of dripping rain, which has now gone away, leaving us with cloudy skies and a temp. in Ashbored of 51 F. It’s supposed to get up to 65 F., but who cares? The morning paper warned us that March will be colder than February, with possibly some snow. Laugh, laugh! Don’t want to die yet, even from laughing.
Already have a wash going, have stripped the bed, which is now airing with the help of an open window. My friend in Germany wrote to me about her Summer Solstice ritual: she bakes a Sun King out of bread dough (I did that once), which is consumed during the ritual. It symbolizes how the encroaching darkness gradually consumes the long daylight, so it’s eaten during the Cakes and Ale portion. She and her fellow coveners make little bundles of three woods and three herbs to throw into the fire. The herbs are rosemary, thyme, and sage. I must find out what the three woods are. I don’t think we are going to be allowed to throw anything into the fire, however. Anyway, in between doing 1,000 other things, such as coming up with ideas for a play, doing the taxes at long last, and choosing the best of the quarterly newsletters to incorporate in a new publication, I will investigate solstice rituals.
I need to do the rest of the wash and get dressed. Should run to Trader Joe’s this morning, and I have a Pubs meeting this afternoon.
Hope everyone at the Pond will have a good day!
It’s 53 trying to get to 62, cloudy but the sun’s trying to break through. The 5.74 KWHs we generated yesterday is a lousy start to March. The “it’d take a miracle” goal is 422, the “stellar” goal is 400, and anything over 375 is wonderful. We are not on track for any of them at the moment. But there’s a lot of month left.
Yesterday the weeping willow down the street decided it’s not Winter any longer and has greened up. The Bradford pear in my backyard has budded out. I’ve got a nice bunch of purple crocuses under the hazelnut trees to the east and several bunches of daffs in both front and back yards. sigh. If this were the beginning of April rather than March I’d be delighted. But it’s not. Still, they are beautiful and I will enjoy the beauty while we have it.
Wretched night. I didn’t actually go to sleep until after 4. So my eyes are burning and I’m groggy as all get out. But I’m managing. Off to do my online chores. {{{Meeses}}}
Good morning, 38 and light clouds outside my window today. I think it’s safe to assume winter is over so I’m going to try to plant some flower seeds today, and if energy allows do some more pruning.
A minor annoyance ……the crown on an implanted tooth fell off yesterday so I have what feels like a gaping hole in my mouth. The tooth has never felt “right” so I hope when it’s fixed on Monday it will feel more natural. Fortunately it doesn’t hurt, just looks unsightly and makes chewing difficult. Aging bodies do require ongoing maintenance! Best wishes to all.
Friday Meese. 29 here in Kingston, going up to 42.
Gasp! An excellent Op-Ed about VP Harris
Very refreshing after the bullcrap being peddled that we should be allowed to have a primary to pick a new Vice President for Joe Biden. Too many people don’t understand the role of the Vice President and conveniently forget about her pre-VP successes.
Good morning, meeses! Friday …
It is 34 degrees in Tucson with an expected daytime high of 50. Sunny skies are in the forecast. The weekend will see 70s and the weather guy promised that we have seen the end of overnight freezes until next winter. We shall see! I know that the hummingbirds will appreciate their nectar not freezing.
Democrats are planning to run in 2024 on tRump’s SCOTUS killing student loan relief just like they ran on tRump’s SCOTUS repealing reproductive rights in 2022. It is going to be difficult to find a group of people not harmed by the rogue court created by people staying home in a peeve instead of voting strategically. We can fix some of the damage the court is doing legislatively but we need to get the House back, add a couple of reliable Democratic Senators and re-elect a Democratic president. It is at least something to work toward – we can’t give up.
I have a busy day of errands to run and TurboTax finally has all the forms I need to finish my tax returns so I need to get that done. I want to get my refund request in before the Treasury runs out of money.
See all y’all later!
Good morning. Got my 1.2 mi in, even some running segments. It is cold. Ok, not by most of y’all’s standards. But yesterday I exercised in a t-shirt & worked up quite a sweat. Today I wore 2 long sleeve shirts & even 45 minutes inside, I’m still chilled. We had strong storms last night, but no damage here.
It’s 43 heading for 48 and overcast again. Yesterday we generated another 5 KWHs bringing the m-t-d to 10. Which is most certainly not on track. Since the rain’s supposedly done for a few days I hope the clouds will move off soon. Like this morning.
Wretched night, slept in, and got up to find the ring holding the inlet hose to the toilet in the main bathroom had broken and water was spewing all over the bathroom floor. Thank All That’s Holy I replaced the tub with a walk-in shower 12 years ago. It was only on the bathroom floor and not all over the house. I’ve got wood floors. I couldn’t turn the water off and had to call my son. Bless him, he left work immediately and came over. He turned the water off and headed back to work. We’ll discuss fixing it later. Meanwhile, I can’t use that toilet because if I pour anything in the tank, it’ll run out the inlet hole. My other toilet has the water shut off too, but that’s just a float valve problem. I can – and have been – filling that tank with a bucket. So I have a usable toilet in the house. For which I am truly grateful.
Off to see what’s going on with folks on twitter & elsewhere. {{{Meeses}}}
Oh dear! Hope you get water/toilet problem fixed soon!
Thank you. I do have water to the house. Just both toilets are shut off. But having to fill a toilet tank from the bathroom tap using an old 3-pint coffee canister is definitely a 1st world problem that many folks in Puerto Rico (or MS or a number of Native reservations) wish they had. The main bathroom was the messier of the 2 but it’s also the easiest to fix. It just has to wait until my son can get time.
Good morning, 36 and raining outside my window today. I couldn’t physically work in the garden yesterday so I read seed and plant catalogues and daydreamed about possibilities. I must admit just turning the page and seeing something new was comfortable, warm, and creative. Time for coffee now and then to decide what my legs will allow me to do today. Best wishes to all.
Good Saturday Meese. It’s snowing here in Kingston atm – don’t know if it will last or turn to rain.
Puerto Rico