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 86 degrees in the Desert Southwest with an expected daytime high of 106. Partly cloudy skies with afternoon clouds and a chance of evening rain is the forecast.
Have a great day, all y’alls!!
Sunday Meese. 58 going up to 84 and sunny here in Kingston. Finally a “normal” (or what used to be normal July day for us.
I’m still seething (and that will continue) about the re-writing of enslavement history by the Florida BOE and Ron DeKlantis promoting it.
Puerto Rico
Gentrification and displacement have many faces. On the island of Vieques, east of #PuertoRico , properties like this are selling for more than half a million dollars. Very few Puerto Ricans (to say the least) will be in a position to access something like this, leaving the options to potential millionaires willing to invest to keep a piece of Isla Nena. The phenomenon is not exclusive to Vieques, it is happening in other parts of the island as well.
Ron DeKlantis—I like that! Have you heard the phrase “Klanned Karenhood,” Sis?
I am at the point of apoplexy—oh, sure the enslaved learned valuable skills while being worked to death between being raped, beaten, and starved!
When I visited the Museum of African-American History I learned to my horror that the life expectancy of an enslaved person on a sugar plantation was seven years. Seven!
Yup – love “Klanned Karenhood” :)
As someone pointed out, slavery was not a freaking job training program. The bulldung that DeKlantis is promoting comes from the colonialist mindset – where people in Africa or elsewhere can’t possibly have robust and vibrant existences in tribal communities because white males are not running things. It is incredibly sad that the DeKlantis minion running education in Florida is a Latino man, willing to be the ugly face of racism.
BMS posted
Sis, in Aberdeen, MD, people are raising money to save a house in which the Freedom Riders stayed. The church was afraid of reprisals, so they couldn’t stay there. One of the murdered Freedom Riders was among the guests.
Thanks for sharing about that – do you have a link?
Found it. Here it is:
https://www.bing.com/search?pglt=41&q=Freedom+Rider+house+in+Aberdeen%2C+MD&cvid=c17eb4bb334f4a4ba6eb75aa75a8aa35&aqs=edge..69i57j0l7.21482j0j1&FORM=ANNTA1&PC=LCTS
Thanks!
Good morning. Got my tea steeping, watching the Tour do France Femmes — it’s only a week, but at least it’s something. The last stage of the men’s Tour starts later. The American didn’t win back the mountains jersey but he showed his team what he’s capable of. Two other Americans were great support riders to successful team captains, so that is also great. Anyway, today: church, make next week’s breakfast and exercise inside.
It certainly would be nice to watch that. Glad you’re enjoying it, another!
I forked over the $5 for the app. I resent it, for all the good that does. But I get the TdFF, and next month the tour of Spain (La Vuelta). Oh – an apparently, the Kona triathlon in October.
Just saw this nice news about one of the American riders for the race in Spain:
So, 2 of the top riders will be riding to support this American kid in that race, really nice.
Good Sunday morning, Moosekind! It’s quite delightful in Ashburn, low humidity and 76 F. with sunshine. I’m putting the cushions on the porch furniture for the first time in two weeks. Might sit out there, even though it’s a Code Orange today.
Breakfast has been had. I plan to make tiny yellow cupcakes and ice them with chocolate icing. I’m so bored, and so is Dearly, with this constant “dark chocolate cake with dark chocolate icing and yellow cake with vanilla icing” schtik.
Aside from that, today will be a ME day, by which I mean this old lady is damned well getting started on that short story. I also have to catch up with items for the Yule newsletter and write some more on the blog for my late sister.
Talked to fineena last night. Called to wish her a happy birthday. She was severely chastised on another blog—unduly and undeservedly harshly, in my opinion—so I tried to cheer her up. Gods, people!
Do y’all remember that Seals & Croft tune from 1972, “Summer Breeze”? I love that song.
Sweet days of summer, the jasmine’s in bloom
July is dressed up and playin’ her tune
Tell you what, the July tune I’m listening to is the Cicada Chorus, which is screeching its pleasure with this fine day.
Must get to the chores. Wishing a good day to all at the Pond!
It’s 75 heading for 90 and I just closed up the house. It’s sunny at the moment and hopefully will stay that way. Yesterday we generated just under 20 KWHs. The m-t-d is 347 and at least gained a little.
I got some decent sleep but the biggest chunk of it was between 3:30 and 6:30 which seems to make me groggier than usual. Fortunately both my household chores routine and my fixing breakfast/taking supplements routine are solid enough I can – and did – do them on autopilot. Anyway, I didn’t have to turn on the A/C yesterday and I’m hoping I won’t have to today. We shall see. For the rest of the month not even the heat index is getting quite to 100 but the overnights aren’t getting below 70 either so I’ll probably have to turn the A/C on tomorrow. Tuesday at the latest. But I should be able to open up overnight and let Mother Nature cool the house while I’m trying to sleep.
I haven’t checked on anybody yet. I’d best be off to twitter and spoutible to start my boosting day. And DK for Dee’s music of course. Holding the Good Thoughts for everybody. {{{Meeses}}}
sweetest interview of the entire Tour, and yes that’s because Lawson is from Texas:
Monday Meese.
62 going up to 86 – with rain (grrrr) Was going to get lawn mowed today. Sigh.
Don’t know how many of you follow Moose co-founder Peter Jukes (Brit at DKos) He’s been under right wing attack:
Puerto Rico
Dee, by now I bet you could write a history of Puerto Rico yourself!
All the while this was going on we were never told anything about it in school. Gods, how stupid was that?
One of the key things about the history of Puerto Rico that grabbed me when I learned it – was the role of prominent women, like Blanca Canales. I think I’ll write a diary about them.
Hmmm. Why is my earlier comment awaiting moderation?
Released. It is always a mystery to me why some Twitter filled posts are fine and others are not.
Thanks Jan.
Maybe it is the new X branding aka unicode character “U+1D54F”.
Melon has selected an X for his branding that cannot be trademarked because it is literally a symbol like a spade or a diamond using computer character strings.
Good Monday morning, Moosekind! It’s 77 F. in Ashburn already, with partly sunny skies. A high of 86 F. is predicted, along with afternoon thunderstorms. We’ll see about that.
As for Melon “renaming” Twitter “X,” ain’ nobody gonna call it anything but Twitter. Besides, “X” is uncomfortably reminiscent of Erik the Evil Prince’s renaming his gang of murderous mercenaries “Xie” rather than Blackwater.
Feeling tired because I stayed up too late, but I had to finish the book I was reading. Wanted to find out what happened to the main character.
Had disquieting news from M’Daughter in Austin yesterday. Our aunt, who is confined to bed in a nursing home, is being put into hospice care. Sigh. She has refused all food and drink for more than a week. It’s so sad! She’s been a wonderful aunt, so funny, and she was as beautiful as Persephone when she was young. She’s the youngest of a family of 10. Only one brother is still living out of a family of five boys and five girls.
I’m having lunch today with my charming British friend. She’s fascinating. She doesn’t know it, because she doesn’t like fiction, but she’s inspired three of my short stories so far. Speaking of that, have any of you ever explored caves? I’m wondering how, if a cave opening is so narrow that the smallest, lightest archaeologist has to crawl through it to get to the inner cave, how does she get back again or know when to get back? Would she wear a cord tied to her ankle so they could yank it? Sign me, “Just Wondering.”
Must get a move on, I have to make Dearly’s lunch tray before I leave. Wishing a good day to all at the Pond!
Good morning. Cut my walk short, my stomach is unhappy. At work, no Tour watching today, the women’s race starts at 8:30, when I’ll be working. Back at my desk, remembering how Friday went. Ugh. Hope today is better.
Good morning, meeses! Monday …
It is 82 degrees in Tucson with an expected daytime high of 102. Mostly sunny skies are in the forecast with a chance for rain in the afternoon. Last night we got a few raindrops from a lot of storm drama over the mountains including a spectacular double rainbow that looked like it encompassed the entire mountain range.
The 2024 Republican Primary horserace news is sucking the air out of everything. If I thought it would help make people despise Republicans, I would enjoy it more but there is literally nothing that can stop the 30% deplorables plus the 18% who want their tax breaks and deregulation, knowing that they will NOT get them from Democrats, making the next round of Biden v Trump even more fraught with anxiety. My fear this time around is that people don’t remember how awful the tRump years were and decide to stay home out of a lack of urgency. I hope our guys have plans to stop that from happening.
One more week of Julyness and I need to get some projects done.
See all y’all later!
It’s 72 heading for 94 and sunny at the moment. Yesterday we generated just over 20 KWHs. The m-t-d at 366.7 is of course not on track but it gained a little. And it’s still possible, if not likely, to reach 500 by end of month.
We’re looking to see the month out with temps almost 100 and heat indices a little over 100 but supposedly mostly sunny. I need to close up the house in a minute. Would have already except I had to steam potatoes this morning – smelled a rotten one, dumped the bag into the sink. Only 3 really gone, but the rest were at the going stage so I cooked them all. Once the steam is out of the kitchen, I’ll close up. We got 3 whole days in mid summer without needing the A/C but I’m pretty sure that stops today. Tomorrow is make pudding and mix/grill breakfast sausages and hope that doesn’t make the A/C cycle on early. LOL.
Nothing particularly new under the sun. I’d say I wish there were but. . . that’s asking for trouble. What I really wish is for something old under the sun. Cultures and societies living in harmony with the Earth. Oh well. Off to do my boosting chores. Holding the Good Thoughts for everybody. {{{Meeses}}}
Sweetie, you’d have to go back to the time before patriarchy to have societies living in harmony.
THIS!!!
I know. Something very old under the sun. At least in Euro/colonizer culture. There were still Natives to this continent doing quite well with it until shoved onto reservations over the last several centuries. Also in Africa and in just about everything that became part of the British Empire. sigh {{{Diana}}}
Good morning, 62 and raining outside my window today. We have enjoyed Erica’s visit, and all the family fun of last week. College tours for Sophie and Ava, Emma’s 21st birthday, and Ryan’s completion of his massage training program. The grandkids are all curious re what comes next, and so are we! Fun to celebrate with them.
Erica and her family leave today so I hope their drive is safe and smooth. I’ll miss them but everyone is tired and ready for quiet houses. Best wishes to all.
Tuesday Meese. 65 here in Kingston. Going up to a muggy 86. Rain predicted. Another day not being able to mow the backyard. :(
Puerto Rico
An excellent read:
Right wing groups/media here are flipping about this grant to Taller Salud – a strong feminist organization in PR
Good morning. Got my 30 minutes done before sunrise. It’s just too hot to do later. Didn’t try running, maybe tomorrow. Am going to the Barbie movie this afternoon, the reviews from crying rwnjs were just too much. Have my feminist icons t-shirt set out to wear, should be fun.
Please tell us about it after you go. I never go to movies, so won’t see it.
It was awesome!They talk about how our world is a patriarchy – repeatedly; show how easy it is to get co-opted – and how patriarchy is also bad for men. And America Ferrara has a speech about how impossible it is to be a woman. When it’s available to rent, rent it.
It’s 77 heading for 97 (heat index over 100) and sunny at the moment. Yesterday we got just over 17 KWHs and the m-t-d at 384 gained a smidge. Unless we get clouds worse than yesterday’s this afternoon, we’ll at least get over 400 today with a week left in July.
The house is closed up. Sigh. The A/C didn’t come on until 5:45 yesterday but I bet it’ll be earlier today. No overnights below 70 in the 10-day so I’m not sure how many mornings I’ll be able to open up at all. double sigh. But we’re heading into the Fall season. As hot as it is now the thought of a fire is not appealing but I need to start thinking about buying firewood so I’ll be ready when it is.
Time to get cranking over at Xitter and Spoutible. I wish I could do more than boost. Oh well. Holding the Good Thoughts for everybody. {{{Meeses}}}
My phone still shows a little blue bird.
The X branding appears to only be on the website right now. Melon probably fired the guys who wrote the Twitter phone app and can’t find anyone who knows how to change the code! I don’t use the Twitter app – when I saw what it wanted permission to do on my phone, I cancelled the installation.
I wonder when the bird will disappear from web sites what allow for sharing articles?
Good morning, meeses! Tuesday …
It is 77 degrees in Tucson with an expected daytime high of 108. Mainly sunny skies are in the forecast with a slight chance of afternoon or evening rain. The expected cooldown “scheduled” for Thursday appears unlikely to occur – maybe Sunday. People are getting a little bit of cabin fever; you can tell because they are driving worse than usual – which is terrible to begin with!
I am glad to see that they are still sentencing January 6th rioters to prison. I hope we can hold the presidency because if Republicans ever win it back, all of those people will be released and that will be the end of the rule of law in America. In other news, DeKlantis is unperturbed that he is called a racist and appears to be wearing it proudly as an “anti-woke” badge of honor. Pro-lynching song is making country western start rich and famous – gosh, I wonder why he thought that was okay? Completely unexplainable.
Today I got my walk in at 6am before it heated up and got a few tweaky little projects done. Now I need to focus on an accounting project and ignore everything else.
See all y’all later!
Good Tuesday morning, Meese! Ye gods, it’s nearly 11! We arose later than usual today because we were awake during the night. For me it was from 3 to 4, but for Dearly it was more.
We have partly cloudy conditions in Ashboring and 80 F. Imaginary thunderstorms will not happen this afternoon, just as they did not happen yesterday.
The good news is that this is an “empty square” day on the calendar. I did a great deal more research on the background for my short story. I’ll be ready to start writing soon. Found out that tiny, lightweight archaeologists wear hard hats with lamps on the front, as well as heavy gloves and kneepads. They also carry flashlights, extra batteries, candles, matches, and water. Dear Goddess, how one would hate to be an archaeologist! Insect-bitten, dusty, sunburned (if excavating above ground), and so on.
The bad news is that I still haven’t practiced karate. I may have to go to Willow Crossing’s exercise room and practice by looking at karate vids on my phone.
Had a delightful lunch yesterday with my friend, although I wish we had been in a quieter, less family-friendly restaurant. I took a photo of her standing under a tree against a background of trees and the brown water of a pond. We went to HomeGoods after lunch and had a great time looking at the Halloween merch already on display: enormous silver-black skulls, nearly life-sized Witches all in black with brooms, an enormous cauldron…it was wonderful but we didn’t buy any of it.
I must run to the supermarket and dry cleaners. Wishing a good day to all at the Pond!
It is TOO early for Halloween, as delightful as the decorations are.
Good morning, 63 and cloudy outside my window today. Yesterday’s rain smelled so fresh, and the garden really needed a soaking so I’m hoping for more showers today. I basically napped the afternoon away yesterday and am off to a slow start today. Oh well, it was a busy family time and both the house and moi will eventually recover. Best wishes to all.
Princesspat, you needed that nap. At our age, our bodies become stressed out when we put in a day’s work that we’d easily have managed when 30 years younger. It’s Nature’s way of helping you get back to normal.
Wednesday Meese. 62 going up to 89 and muggy here in Kingston.
Puerto Rico
TODAY in Puerto Rico is the day of ‘Cerro Maravilla’. We celebrate 45 years without Carlos Soto Arriví and Arnaldo Darío Rosado. On July 25, 1978, the two young independentistas were brutally murdered by the Puerto Rico Police on Cerro Maravilla.