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, meeses! Wednesday that feels like a Monday …
It is 81 degrees in Tucson with an expected daytime high of 102. Sunny skies are in the forecast. Excessive Heat Warning in effect until 9PM MST on Friday for the metro area (we are cooler on our side of town). Next weeks cooldown is delayed until the 15th – we had been hoping to see it as early as the 11th. The fireworks did not go on long last night. I think I remember that from last year – a barrage when it gets dark at 8pm then almost nothing after 9:30pm. Last night’s fireworks were punctuated by the sounds of sirens and we were hoping it was not fire engines. Sorry, people who blew your hands off – I do not have a lot of sympathy for you. I do care that you don’t start a wildfire.
Yesterday was a pretty quiet news day. It is definitely funny that Ron DeFascist’s advisors are suggesting that he limit his in-person campaigning because when people see him, they dislike him. He is extraordinarily ugly – the hate within leaking out of his very pores.
I am working to finish the projects that need to be done by Friday. I have one place I have to be this afternoon so I have the morning to finish up. I think I am pretty close – I will find out shortly.
See all y’all later!
That is HILARIOUS!
Good Wednesday moaning from Ashburned, Moosekind! Polluted air is in effect, my weather widget says. Currently we have 78 F. and humid. Sheet. Here it is summer, the porch looks rather nice—the flowers did survive for July 4 and are still blooming—but we can’t sit outside. I’ll wear a mask because of the polluted air when I go out to get my hair done.
I cooked breakfast for Dearly, who will now be in a good mood for quite some time. Today we are saying goodbye to our Executive Director, who is leaving for an even richer community of old folks, newly built in Fairfax. His son is at Liberty University, his wife is a biggy in Concerned Women for America, and while he is an outwardly polite and personable man, I’m glad to see him depart. (He wouldn’t allow Pride flags to be flown in front of the main clubhouse during Pride Month.)
Finished the first draft of the play but OMG, despite having 10 characters (a no-no anyway in playwriting), it only ran 4 and 1/2 pages! For a 15-minute playlet, it should run at least 12 pages! Yikes! The board member to whom I sent it made a suggestion: my subconscious worked on it all night long, so I woke up with IDEAS. How gratifying!
Anyway, even though we have a Code Orange today, it’s still quite a nice day—a rather hazy blue sky and diluted sunlight—so it will do.
The next full moon will be August 1, which is Lammas! That’s our Sister Denise’s birthday and my daughter’s birthday. After Samhain, it’s my favorite sabbat of the Wheel of the Year. I like to say little Ethan’s birthday, July 30, is Lammas Eve.
That’s enough from me. Feeling quite happy, wishing a good day to all at the Pond.
P.S. Forgot to tell you that yesterday Younger Son and family drove to Lancaster, PA, to pick up a boxer puppy from a farmer. “Why not a beagle?” I asked rather huffily. “Don’t want a dog dancing around my feet when I’m cooking,” Trevor replied shortly. Oh, well.
It’s 76 heading for 92 and overcast although the rain has stopped. (We got a whole quarter of an inch.) Yesterday we generated 20 KWHs and the m-t-d at 74 is not only still on track, it’s got enough “padding” that we’ll still be on track if we can get 11 today. We shall see.
Fingers crossed but the latest stage in the twitter meltdown may have leveled off. Until the next one of course. And I haven’t been over there yet today so I could easily be wrong. Spoutible is still dealing with the obvious trolls sent over from twitter (the ones telling CB to kill himself plus whatever other vile/evil thing crosses their minds when they are creating their accounts) and now have the covert ones to separate from the honestly confused people. The covert ones wait until the overt ones have covered the TL, then say that they’re leaving because Spoutible is worse than twitter for nastiness. (Instead of helping by reporting the nastiness & blocking.) Meanwhile CB is spouting that the latest influx showed them where there are issues in the programming and they’re fixing them plus asking about other apps Spouters might like to be added. Also asking what Spouters who’ve been there think of other platforms, whether there are things Spouters want Spoutible to try/add. Betch Jack isn’t doing that over at BlueSky.
I’ve closed up the house already. Sigh. Turned the A/C back on. We’ll see when it actually kicks on. It wasn’t until 4:15 yesterday. Meanwhile, I’ve got boosting to do. Holding the Good Thoughts for everybody. {{{Meeses}}}
Good morning, 63 and hazey outside my window today. Our quiet 4th was nice, but my friend’s recovery from cancer surgery is rough so her family is in Seattle with her and I’m caring for her dog. He is a standard poodle and too big for me to walk, but he responds to my touch and voice so he’s doing ok. He has had several bloating episodes, needs daily meds and a special diet, etc so keeping him healthy is an issue. So far so good for both my friend and her dog. Best wishes to all.
Thursday Meese. It will be 93 here today in Kingston. Took my car to the shop yesterday – air conditioner is not working.
Puerto Rico
How awful, she was beautiful! There is so much hatred toward transgender women. I even wrote a story about it.
Good morning. Did my walk — even ran 9 segments. Watching Le Tour on my phone. Trying to prepare for the onslaught of noise that is an in-office day.
It’s 70 heading for 82 and overcast. We may or may not actually get rain but we’ve certainly got the clouds. sigh. The 10.4 KWHs we generated yesterday brought the m-t-d to 84.76 – not quite on track and we’re going to lose more ground today.
Basket & earicicle are up in OR for a few days. Earicicle is visiting her mom and basket is visiting pentathera.
I talked to Fineena last night. She’s dealing w/ a lot of anxiety & depression right now, of course. There’s good news, bad news, & needs prayer news. The good news is she’s leased a new and infinitely better place and will be moving in about mid-August. Her current landlord has not only extended her time to be out until August 20th and not charging her for August even pro rata (which I call finally doing something honest rather than great because he wasn’t ever going to give her back her deposit). The bad news is the rent’s more than her Social Security and she has to rehome Harriet. Here’s the needs prayer part, 2 parts actually – Joker may be taking Harriet. They’ve met and like each other but Joker wants a few more visits before making a final decision. Harriet behaves very well with some who not only knows how to handle dogs but is physically capable of it and she’s away from the mice. AND there’s a possibility that the owners/management of the place Fineena is moving to will be hiring a part-time real estate accountant, something Fineena did for over 20 years, and have asked her if she’d be interested if they do. That would solve most if not all of Fineena’s financial problems. So prayers, please. I told Fineena to take some deep breaths and then make lists, get this overwhelming mess into some kind of order, and figure out what this is all going to cost. Then we can start collecting funds for it. (Joker’s even thinking about doing a fundraiser at DK – which might even work since she doesn’t do fundraisers much, if at all.)
It’s cool enough I can leave the house open for another hour but so dark I need the lights on. Still, having to have the lights on but not the A/C is a perfectly fine tradeoff on a day I’m not going to be generating the 17 KWHs I need to run the A/C. Off to start my boosting day. Holding the Good Thoughts for everybody. {{{Meeses}}}
Good Thursday morning, Meese! How I hate having to rush off first thing in the morning! As it happens, it’s a gorgeous morning here, 79 F. going up to hellish, but with Code Green air quality! How agreeable it would be to sit on the screened porch in the early morning coolth and read the…well, the newspaper is too depressing for words but there’s plenty of other reading material.
We’ll be at the medical processing facility (used to call these places doctors’ offices) all morning. The doctor is going to Do Something to Dearly’s eyes, so I’ll have to drive home.
Today Miss Pink Cheeks and DIL are flying to Japan at noon. Miss PC and I texted furiously last night. She refused to believe that she has to “dress formally,” as she put it, to get on the flight. I told her the gate agent would determine her class and her seat by her appearance. United has rules (not unreasonable, in my opinion) about the appearance of its employees, retirees, and their families.
She eventually agreed to “dress formally” but will ask the flight attendant if she can change into her PJs.
Gotta go—wishing a good day to all at the Pond!
Posted
Good morning, meeses! Thursday …
It is 82 degrees in Tucson with an expected daytime high of 106. Sunny skies are in the forecast. They put some possible rain in the forecast for next week (starting this Sunday) which won’t help a whole lot with the heat but will help other things. It looks like we won’t see much cooling until the 20s of the month.
The ruling against government working with social media to block disinformation is being appealed. That “conservatives” have their wildass conspiracy theories blocked is not discrimination – it is because their theories are insane and will kill people. Talking to social media about how they manage their platforms is not a free-speech violation, failing to talk to them would be a dereliction of duty. It is probably a lost cause anyway, ignorant and gullible people are not going to be persuaded to stop being ignorant and gullible. I am not sure what the answer is.
I have to take my morning walk before it gets too hot. See all y’all later!
Good morning, 63 and sunny outside my window today. I will be at the dentist this morning starting the process of getting a new tooth. The post goes in today, then 3 months of healing and a crown will be attached. He uses iv sedation so I’ve got the no food/liquid headache starting. To be honest I’m whining about the whole procedure, wish I could just let the tooth stay missing but it’s hard to chew so I’ll write the big check today and eventually have a new tooth. Best wishes to all.
Friday Meese. 68 here in Kingston, going up to 89 with rain and thunderstorms.
Puerto Rico
San Juan (EFE) – Some thirty people demonstrated this Thursday in front of the Multiple Use Center, in the Vieques Public Square, in protest against an auction of properties on the island-municipality, reported the Police.
“Today 10 pieces of our land will be auctioned that will surely end up in foreign hands because the conditions of these auctions do not correspond to the economic condition of Viequense families,” said the Campamento Resistencia collective in a letter published on the networks.
According to the group’s statements in the letter sent to the mayor of Vieques, José Corsino, and to the members of the Municipal Legislature, these families need “safe and affordable housing.”
Good morning. Got my 30 minutes done, only ran 8 segments but 2 of those were over a minute. I missed the last one because I tripped, and the way I caught myself made my quad or that ligament unhappy, so I walked it off. Watching Le Tour on my phone. The American guy got his mountains jersey back yesterday. The finish was really exciting. Today is a long, flat one — they’re talking about how scorching hot it is, the high will be 92.
It’s 70 heading for 86 and sunny at the moment. Widget says clouds will move in by midmorning and (possible) rain this afternoon. Yesterday we generated 6.9 KWHs and the m-t-d at 91.8 is off track with just over 10 to catch up. And 28 in a day isn’t possible for this system. sigh.
I wish I could thing of something hopeful about the state of the world and the future of mankind but I can’t. There are those who’ve been calling out warnings of what was to come, is here now in many places, and what needed to be done to stop it – but those folks have been mocked, ignored, or murdered. (I hope Mia Mottley has a good security detail.) At this point IF we take drastic action, like unto WWII mobilization of resources & labor, we can slow it down and maybe ameliorate the damage. We can’t stop it. We’ve tipped over too many tipping points. But I guess hope or no hope, there’s nothing to do but keep on going. Until we’re gone.
It was cool enough yesterday I didn’t have to use the A/C and I’m hoping for the same today. Get some good out of the cloudy weather. I’ll close up in about 30 minutes. Meanwhile, I’ll get started on my boosting day. Holding the Good Thoughts for everybody. {{{Meeses}}}
Good Friday morning, Moosekind! Here’s the weather: 90 F. with thunderstorms today, and for the foreseeable future.
Right now it’s 85 F. and Code Yellow. We sat on the screened porch and drank our coffee anyway. It was very agreeable, looking out at the deep green woods. We have some veils of white cloud over a blue sky, so that’s nice. Yesterday we had a couple of surprise showers! How can it rain when the sky is blue and the sun is shining? Weird.
Joined Threads yesterday! It’s so easy. I already had an Instagram account. Unfortunately, my Threads name has to be the same as my Instagram name: Thee_squirrel Diana. I’d rather be DianaInNoVa. Anyway, I hope to see some Twitter friends there. Yaroslava Antipina and Bill Palmer are already there, as is Victor Shi. Now I just hope that Anne Louise Avery will join. Bfitz introduced me to her work. Heavenly!
More news from the home front: DIL and Nora did not Get On yesterday. There were 16 Space Availables, and all were supposed to get on, but they didn’t. At least the airport is near home, so they were near enough for Younger Son to pick up. They’ll try again today.
Beloved Nephew, Darling Niece, and the future Steven Spielberg (East Coast version) are flying to Los Angeles this morning. Great-Nephew has two weeks of film-making camp.
I’m still working on the play. Great Goddess, L.—who is a member of the Drama Club board—keeps after me every minute! She’s already set up a meeting for Wednesday morning but wants another one today. This play isn’t even supposed to be finished until July 31! I’m having a little trouble with the ending, but we’ll sort it out. At today’s mini-meet I must tell her tactfully that people who go to lots of meetings generally don’t write anything.
Did I tell you Younger Son’s new Boxer puppy? He joined the household on July 4. They drove up to a farm in Lancaster, PA, to get him. I hear he is a Very Good Boy. Goes by the name of Casey. “Why not a beagle?” I asked, rather huffily. “Don’t want a dog dancing around my feet when I’m cooking,” Trevor said shortly.
Different strokes for different folks.
I desperately wanted a quiet, slow morning that didn’t involve rushing off somewhere, and that’s what I’m getting. To show my independence, I put on some perfume, which I generally can’t wear outside our flat, with people being so bloody sensitive to chemicals. What would they do if they lived in Grasse, FR?
That’s enough from me for today! Wishing a good day to all at the Pond!
I requested to follow you on Threads – I am JanF_Blogs. Just remember that if you get sick of Threads do not delete your account as it will delete your Instagram account as well. The way to “close” it is to turn it private.
Thanks! We’ve accepted each other. My Threads account is private to begin with. I blocked someone named Kardashian.
Good morning, meeses! Friday …
It is hot and getting hotter. Excessive Heat Warning extended until next Thursday.
I tested out Threads and I will wait until they add a way to curate my timeline to limit it to my follows before I use it again – I don’t need to see every post including ones in languages I do not know. I turned my account to Private and will wait and watch. It was interesting to see that media outlets like NPR are on there and I followed some of them.
I got some important things done this morning and I am going to take it easy for the rest of the day.
See all y’all later!
I tried Threads – deleted it along with my Instagram which I never use so no loss.
Threads too chaotic for me – full of posts I didn’t ask to see from people I wouldn’t bother to follow.
Someone suggested that no one at Meta did any market research on what Threads users would want – I don’t know a single Twitter user who signs up saying “give me every single Tweet in random order – how fun!” They needed to have a tailorable timeline at rollout because it is useless if you are getting random people in your timeline. I changed my account to private and will wait it out; apparently the EU will not allow it until changes are made to privacy and moderation. I will check it and add users to my follows as I find them because I have a pretty strong sense that this is the platform that government agencies and news organizations (like my local weather guys) will eventually adopt.
The biggest problem right now, if Threads wants to replace Twitter, is the lack of a website. If you can’t send non-signed-up people to view a thread, then it is not of much value to a lot of people. Millions of tweets are embedded in online articles and blogs and what some people tweet is news. If a Threads thread can only be viewed by a Threads account owner, that limits its value.
If I want a hot take on a news story, I go to Mastodon. I have a pretty good mix of liberal commentators, news and technology follows and my timeline there is pretty good.
Saturday Meese. Nasty weather continues here in Kingston- more rain, thunderstorms on the way. 68 going up to 85. I looked at long range forecast – looks like we’ll have rain for the rest of the month give or take a day or two. Have never had a rain-filled July like this up here that I can remember.
Puerto Rico
Good morning. I slept in, watching the Tour. Exercise will have to be indoors today. Don’t have to cook, so once the Tour is done for today, I guess I’ll go to the gym. I joined Threads, first impression is it’s much too chaotic — you don’t see just people you follow but everyone, so I spent a lot of time yesterday blocking & muting sports teams and “influencers”. Sigh.
Don’t bother blocking and muting – it will be a full time job. Wait until Threads has a timeline like Twitter does (the people you follow and the things they share) and then you can start using it. I started blocking icky people and then realized that even the click to block was more effort than I cared to expend.
Good morning, meeses! Saturday …
It is 81 degrees in Tucson with an expected daytime high of 102. Sunny skies are in the forecast. We might see some rain beginning tomorrow from a monsoon weather system forming in Mexico. If we do, temperatures will drop into the 70s, even if just temporarily. Both the rain and the cool will be a welcome respite. Fingers crossed! We were talking about hot weather “cabin fever” and comparing it to the same feeling of being trapped indoors in Wisconsin. The difference is that you can still drive places and could be outside if you stay in the shade – when it is 50 below and a blizzard is raging you can’t go anywhere and there is no place outside that is safe. Here we just need to manage our outside time carefully – outside activities in the morning and inside stuff from 11am until 9pm. Every location has its challenges.
Last week was crazy busy in a not-so-great way. I am looking forward to a quiet weekend to catch up on projects and prep for a busy week next week. I got a haircut yesterday so I feel ready to carpe diem when I get back from my walk.
See all y’all later!
It’s 73 heading for 84, lights-on overcast, supposed rain soon, lousy production day. Yesterday we managed to at least get into double digits – 13.68 KWHs – and the m-t-d at 105 is not on track. sigh.
Rocky night that ended with 2 hours of too heavy sleep too late into the morning for summer. At least the 10 minutes on the treadmill has eased the backache. Aji’s recovering from another “episode” almost as bad as her original one 11/10/2017. And dealing with the stress of having to find $25K cash up front for Wings’s dental. Basket and earicicle are having great fun, her with her mother and him with pentathera. I haven’t heard from Fineena in a couple of days and will call her if I don’t hear from her soon.
I’ll be closing up the house as soon as I post this. Time to get to my boosting chores. I may have to go to bluesky and threads if the folks I started my twitter account to stay in touch with go there, but I don’t want to. I don’t particularly want my data to be handed over to Cambridge Analytica by going to threads and I don’t trust jack to not do the same Deplorable stuff on bluesky he did on twitter. And Spoutible is growing – they just added The Salt Lake City Tribune – it’s slow but it’s pretty steady. Anyway, off to do my boosting chores. Holding the Good Thoughts for everybody. {{{Meeses}}}