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?
…
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.
…
–
Good “morning”, Motley Meese! The week begins …
Morning low of 81 degrees in the Desert Southwest with an expected daytime high of 104. Sunny skies are in the forecast.
Have a great day, all y’alls!!
Sunday Meese. 67 going up to 81 here in Kingston. Air quality has improved a bit, thankfully.
Puerto Rico
Good morning. Didn’t walk yesterday, except for walking over to the laundry room. Between that & cooking, I satisfied my smart watch’s goal for the day. Oh, last night’s music diary was hoppin’. So many comments and songs, it was fun. More cooking today. Currently watching the news, eating breakfast & enjoying the smell of my tea while it steeps.
BMS
It’s 75 and sunny at the moment. The widget says neither air temp nor heat index will get to 90 today but it said that yesterday and it was wrong. Yesterday we generated 15.5 KWHs so we start the month not on track. But we’ve still got 30 production days left to catch up in.
We got the predicted clouds but not the predicted rain. Widget keeps moving rain chances around, both percentages and days we’re supposed to get it. I need a not-raining day next week to do laundry. Tuesday for choice. We shall see what we shall see. Yesterday twitter suffered from EM not paying the google bill. Things were back to relatively normal about the time I signed off. We’ll see how long that lasts. I really don’t understand the folks who want to shift to bluesky. Jack’s the guy who allowed twitter to become a RW cesspool and then sold it to a guy who made it worse and is trying to destroy it. A decision I understand he’s still defending. For functionality spoutible is very close to twitter & getting closer as fast as CB’s very small team can roll out updates and new apps. And is managing to deal with troll infestations very quickly. Oh well. That’s another we shall see what we shall see.
I’ve done my Sunday chores, hands and back protesting, and need to close up the house. Then I’ll get on my online chores – and Dee’s diary at DK of course. Holding the Good Thoughts for everybody. {{{Meeses}}}
FYI – twitter just went down about (about 20 minutes ago) – nobody can like, tweet, or DM. RTs are still working but that’s it. sigh.
It wasn’t platform wide after all and now I can tweet again – hopefully everyone who was blocked like I was can too.
Monday Meese. 68 here in Kingston, going up to 83 – with rain and thundrstorms.
We are going to get our COVID (Moderna) boosters today. Everyone else up here is acting like COVID no longer exists, but we aren’t buying it.
Puerto Rico
I got my booster a couple of weeks ago; too many people are still dying from COVID. I am going to treat it like the seasonal flu shots I get annually – I want to be protected from the diseases floating around that can make me deathly ill. I wish the vaccination kept us from getting it at all (it simply makes the symptoms less deadly) as it would make more people interested in taking it. I mask in stores and when I will be in close-in spaces with other people.
I’m still masking – though it seems no one else is up here – except in my primary care docs office – they are all masked. The local hospital no longer requires masks, and my pharmacist has stopped wearing hers.
Good Moon Day morning, Moosekind! Here I sit, cross as two sticks because today is the day I have my fasting labs test, which means that I can neither eat nor drink before it happens. I’m envious of every person who is up and about and enjoying early morning tea.
However, this morning a WaPo columnist, John Kelly, has asked for reader accounts of family brushes with famous people, so I sent off my account of my father’s coverage of Elvis Presley’s induction into the Army in 1958. I attached photos of Dad and Elvis. That helped use up some of the time. I have to leave here at 8:15 to get to the medical center vampire at 8:30.
We have 76 F. in Ashburn with overcast skies this morning and the usual prediction of afternoon thunderstorms all week. Duhh. Yesterday the clouds formed in the afternoon, lour’d sinisterly o’er our house, and then moved off merrily into the distance, leaving the drought untouched.
Yesterday, in addition to cooking breakfast, I had to totter to the grocery store to get a few things. My left foot is much better. The anti-inflammatory NSAID is certainly helping. I wonder what will happen when I stop taking it? Also, my voice is about 93 percent back. Still slightly raspy when I have to speak for any length of time, however, or sing more than two lines of a song.
Was able to get some work done Sunday on the play, on the blog, and to at least set down the narrative hook for the short story. Also decided, if the next issue of the quarterly comes out in mid-October, I’ll be able to write a story about Banned Books Week, which is October 2-7. We oldsters plan to get up to some stuff!
Well, that’s enough from me this morning. Wishing everyone at the Pond a good day, and I hope y’all get to see the full moon rise at 9:28 p.m. EDT!
I am glad to hear that your medical issues are resolving. I have some fasting lab tests next week, so I feel your pain. I was able to book the first appointment but my early morning snack is part of my routine and it is difficult to skip that and my coffee. Good luck!
We are having a literal Moon Day today! Last night the nearly full moon rose over the mountains just after sunset. We turned off the interior lights so that we could watch her rising. She will be full sometime today when she is not visible to us.
Oh, Jan, you and Daughter are so lucky to be able to see Her! Haven’t seen the Moon since May. Missed the Strawberry Moon entirely. I’ll have to Google what this moon is called.
Glad to report that I am in a much better temper after a large cup of tea, some cantaloupe, an English muffin with vegan marge and marmalade, and a shamelessly large mug of coffee with half-and-half.
Thanks for the good wishes for my health!
{{{Diana}}} I’m glad your feet and voice are both doing better. Moar Healing Energy. moar {{{HUGS}}}
Thank you, dear!
Good morning, meeses! Monday …
It is 82 degrees in Tucson with an expected daytime high of 106. Sunny skies are in the forecast. We saw the mercury top out at 107 yesterday and the overnight “cooldown” got us down to 81 for a few seconds. The Excessive Heat Alert runs until 8pm tonight and we might see overnight 70s again tomorrow morning. Looks like another hot spell at the end of the week after normal “just hot” temperatures. All you can do is stay out of the heat and pray for the homeless.
Twitter is now limiting posts that users can read. There is no doubt that Melon has no interest in keeping the platform running – it would be difficult to believe that he truly thought that cutting processing capacity and firing the engineers who keep the servers running would be sustainable. I hope his advertisers abandon the platform – why would you pay to promote your products on a platform that no one can read? I am glad to have a presence on Mastodon but I truly wish that government entities and media organizations would build Mastodon instances to publish their messages to. I read the sad lament of a meteorologist saying that limiting tweets makes it impossible for people in the path of dangerous storms to follow weather alerts – it often requires reading hundreds of them over the course of several hours. The biggest mistake was probably relying on a private company to provide what has essentially become a public good. Who could have predicted that a rapacious capitalist with libertarian tendencies would destroy a public media source by paywalling it? :::insert hmmm emoji here:::
I need to get my morning walk in before it heats up any more. I have a number of things that I should do today but all of them are tedious and boring and I am weary from a tiring weekend. I have a cushion because of the holiday but so I can do them tomorrow but I really should get them done today. One has a Friday deadline that I don’t want to run right up to.
See all y’all later!
It’s 69 heading for 93 and sunny at the moment. Neither rain nor clouds predicted for yesterday showed up and we generated 21 KWHs. The m-t-d is 36.6 and we’re on track for 500. Yay!
Yesterday was frustrating and a bit upsetting over at the bird app. Apparently not everyone was having the problem but a lot of us were blocked from tweeting/liking/replying for hours at a time. I got done what I could get done in the short intervals I was allowed to and didn’t even get to do my usual signoff. Spoutible got swamped with “refugees” and their team had a job to keep the servers from going down because so many new accounts were being set up at once. But they managed. So much of the stuff I post on Spoutible I get from twitter though. I guess I’d best find a few “primary sources” to check daily for when EM finally manages to kill the bird. It will be very limiting because I’m not very good at it. And I purely don’t know what I’ll do about the needs list/crowdfunding. Start the needs thread on Spoutible and see if anybody shows up I guess.
Anyway, other than stress from the bird app & tremors that don’t want to go away I’m fine. I guess I’ll go see what, if anything, I can do over there. After I close the house. Holding the Good Thoughts for everybody. {{{Meeses}}}
Good morning. Got my walk done, watching Le Tour — an American has the “king of the mountains” jersey, and he seems like a sweet kid, smiling and waving a lot. I’ve got beans simmering. Going to do a standing abs workout this afternoon, my health insurance has workout videos.
Good morning, 69 and sunny outside my window today. Looks like I got busy with house and garden work yesterday and forgot to check in. I seem to be more absent minded lately, and my focus on working in the garden is partially to blame. I’ve wanted to do what I’m doing outside for several years, and while I enjoy the work and seeing my plans finally coming together I get so tired I forget about everything else. Oh well, life is short and the lists are long! Best wishes to all.
Tuesday Meese. 68 going up to 81 here in Kingston. We had major thunderstorms yesterday and more to come today. Dogs freaked out -as always.
This toon applies
Husband and I got our COVID boosters yesterday. My arm is a bit sore, but no other side effects.
Puerto Rico
Sister Dee, glad you and Hubby received your boosters. I hate fireworkd, completely agree with the cartoon.
Fireworks and thunderstorms made my various dogs upset and when they lost their hearing it was a blessing in some ways. Thunderstorms are a part of nature but the fireworks are totally unnecessary. Even in a place that has not seen rain for 3 months, idjits will be blowing off personal fireworks. :(
Good morning. I’ll have to exercise later because Le Tour is on now. An American still has the Mountains jersey, very cool. Yesterday, there were lots of flats because some jerks had thrown tacks/nails on the roads. So that’s my morning, not sure about the afternoon.
Can’t these dirtbags think of anything better to do? Some people suck.
It’s 72 going to 93 and sunny at the moment. Some clouds, no rain, yesterday but it was sunny enough to generate 17.5 KWHs which with the m-t-d at 54 keeps us on track. We’ll see what today brings.
Clouds last night so I missed what Aji says her people called the Berry Moon. But I saw it almost full Sunday night.
The washer’s running. I want to get the laundry out by 9 just in case the predicted afternoon rain actually shows up. The cats will probably escape while I’m juggling the heavy clothes basket out the back door. They usually do. Little wretches. Other than that it’s an ordinary day I hope. As long as twitter holds up enough to let me boost everybody. Spoutible had something like a 700% increase in accounts over the weekend and had to temporarily disable the search function to keep the servers from crashing with the rapid influx. It should be back soon. Maybe .5% of those were trolls sent over by some bluecheck or other on twitter specifically to harass CB. (I mean, when the bios tell CB to kill himself it’s kind of a hint, right?) But we (I did my little bit of reporting and blocking) have pretty much cleared them out again. I am going to have to bookmark & track some original sources I guess when twitter goes down completely. Right now a lot of what I post at Spoutible comes by way of twitter. (Like, if Dee tweets a Latino Rebels article, I go to the article, copy the address, then spout it.) We shall see what we shall see.
Anyway, my tremors are not as prominent this morning so that’s good. I need to close up the house then get over to twitter and see what I can do today. Holding the Good Thoughts for everybody. {{{Meeses}}}
Glad the tremors are better, bfitz!
Spoutible won’t be where people land nor will Bluesky. Maybe Meta’s entry into the online text posting arena (Threads) will be successful. Mastodon isn’t really a company, it is a platform and I still think that if someone smart could build the right kind of app/website to bring the federation to ordinary people, it could catch on fire. But right now, it is difficult to set up and hard to understand. I have a good app and can Toot anything I see on the Internet from my phone but the Mastodon button is not in enough Share places.
If you want an easy to follow news aggregation link, go to “Memorandum”. It is news sources, opinion sources and blog sources. It includes right-wing news sites but you can avoid those easily. I have a link to it on my phone so that I can follow the news without opening Twitter.
I guess we’ll see how it ends up when we get there. sigh. I hadn’t thought of a news aggregate since I don’t really follow the news. Most of the articles I spout are are Puerto Rico- or Indigenous-related with a sprinkling of other minority-related articles. I do a little political but not a lot because that’s so well covered by everybody else. LOL. Thank you. I’ll check that out.
Good Tuesday morning, Meese, and happy Fourth! Last night I went out to look for the moon, saw lightning flashes, heard thunder rumbles, and felt raindrops, so I scuttled back inside. Probably won’t see Her tonight either, with all the blasted fireworks. Some cities are now doing “firework” displays with drones. Wonder whether those are less noisy, less expensive, less polluting, et cetera.
It was such a beautiful morning when I went out on the screened porch at 6 a.m. that I took photographs. Now the blue sky has clouded over and it’s not as pretty. It’s 78 F. in Ashburn, going up to all the 8s. The air quality was good when I woke up, but is now back to Code Orange.
Today I want to think about pleasant things. Those don’t include the damage the Supremes have done to the rights of women, Black people, and other groups. I am now convinced that Defeated Former Guy will NEVER do the perp walk, be handcuffed, or serve time in prison. Everything just keeps dragging on and on. When Biden is inaugurated for his second term, I expect the news coverage to focus on DFG 24/7. So sickening.
Made Banana-Walnut Bran Muffins for breakfast, gave some to the neighbors, and now it’s high time to get ready for the day. Letters to write, a play to work on, so tally-ho!
Wishing a good day to all at the Pond!
We watched the moon rise over the mountains again last night at about 8:30. She was not completely full but was at 99.1% which is pretty close. I am still amazed that when she is framed by the mountain peaks, you can literally see her rising like sped up time-lapse video but in real time. I assume she always rises like that but when the backdrop is the horizon, it is less obvious. I will see if I can find a video.
Thank you. You are lucky, seeing Her rise over the mountains.
Back in the Late Cretinous when I was growing up, there was a singer named Kate Smith who sang, “When the Moon Comes Over the Mountain.” I think it was the intro to a TV show, but I’m not sure.
Good morning, meeses! Tuesday the Fourth Day of July …
It is 81 degrees in Tucson with an expected daytime high of 104. We saw 108 on the outdoor thermometer in the late afternoon. All we can say is “it’s worse in Phoenix!” which we say for a lot of things. Tucson’s slower pace, the majesty of the close-in mountains surrounding our valley, the smaller city charm suits us perfectly. It may be too quiet for my daughter in the long run but she wants to stay here for a while.
The news was easy to scan: megalomaniac right-winged Melonhead destroys his new toy, Florida Man destroys his state’s economy in service to right-wing terrorists like the Moms for Liberty aka the Klanned Karenhood, Republicans pretend that they will have a primary. Our attorney general Kris Mayes said she will not stop enforcing Arizona’s public accommodations laws that support the rights of LGBTQ+ people and told SCROTUS to pound sand.
Fourth of July is not one of my holidays. I enjoy a day when my clients are not working and I can get some things done in the quiet of the morning but I don’t do the rah rah. I still cringe when I see all the flags – they bothered me in the 70s, they really bothered me after 9/11 and they sickened me at tRump rallies. The symbol of America has been turned into (always was?) a symbol of the oppression of dissent and diversity. I just can’t celebrate that.
See all y’all later!
“Klanned Karenhood”—that’s priceless! :)
That was on the protest signs at the Moms for Adolph appearance in South Carolina. Brilliant!
Good morning, 71 and mostly sunny outside my window today. RonK is reminiscing about the large 4th parties we used to host, but thankfully just putting 2 flags in the front porch flower pots and buying some salmon to barbeque is enough for him this year. The tRump years have made me less interested in patriotic displays so I’ll make some lavender based flower bouquets, bake a berry shortcake, and water the garden. A nice easy day. Best wishes to all.
Wedenesday Meese. Got zero sleep last night due to the neighbors firing off fireworks all night and my dogs freaking out.
It’s going to be very hot here to today in Kingston – 65 now, going up to 90.
Puerto Rico
Potential blow to the pocket of thousands of people in Puerto Rico due to federal ruling
Oh, girl! Hope you get some sleep tonight and the poor dogs will as well.
Hopefully the neighbors used up all their fireworks last night and didn’t save any for tonight/the rest of the week. And that you and the dogs can get a nap in today.
Good morning. Did my walk, it is gross out — 79 degrees & so humid, it feels like a sauna. Getting ready for work, watching Le Tour.
FYI – am featuring Mavis Staples this Sunday and am in love with the tune she did with Hozier. I hear you are a fan :)
I love that song, and their repoire. The studio one is great, but there’s some live ones & they are great together. He obviously adores her.