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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The widget says it’s 25 but the daffs aren’t even bent over “kissing the ground” like they get when they’re frozen and the bird water is still water so I think it’s warmer in my backyard. At least close to the house. The high is supposed to be 47. The clouds have moved off, hopefully for the day. Yesterday we only generated 7.9 KWHs but the m-t-d at 267 is in second place for the life of the system so now we’re just watching to see how close we can get to 300 in these last 2 days of February. If we get good sunny days, we’ll get very close.
I got an email from my friend and I’m very glad I’m no longer working in the department. I wish she didn’t have to either. But she’s over 4 years from full retirement, almost 2 from being eligible for Medicare, and she simply can’t afford it. My “job” is boosting stuff – on Bluesky, Spoutible, & Xitter. So I’d best get to it. Especially since I need to do laundry this afternoon. Holding the Good Thoughts for everybody. {{{Meeses}}}
Good morning, meeses! Wednesday …
It is 46 degrees in Tucson ???? with an expected daytime high of 66. Sunny skies this morning giving way to clouds and rain this afternoon. I finally got to see morning stars over the mountains after what seemed like forever (actually just two days). I should not complain – I was watching cable weather and the thunderstorms that hit the Midwest last night followed by a temperature drop and snow and (likely) ice looks awful. Our weather this time of year is more predictable and we always love more rain.
Funny not so funny headline in Mother Jones this morning: “Florida Man Facing 91 Criminal Counts Wins Michigan Primary”. Gawd, we are such a broken country.
A friend who filed her taxes on February 22nd received her tax refund, neatly deposited in her bank account. I connected this morning to my tax account and paid my taxes owed. It is not due until April 15th but if the Republicans shut down the government it might be for months and I do not want to be unable to make a payment. Gawd, we are such a broken country.
I got two little projects done this morning and have a few tweaky little online things I need to do. I am planning to take the rest of February off from project work (except emergencies) and start with a new to-do list for March and beyond.
See all y’all later!
Thanks Jan, we are indeed a very broken country. I’m just skimming the news now, but I do pay attention to Simon Rosenberg. Maybe I just need a dose of optimism but if so he delivers.
https://www.hopiumchronicles.com/
Good Wednesday morning again, Moosekind. We had breakfast. I uploaded my post but could not “set featured image” to save my life, nor could I add the last photo of Beryl ever taken, on 12/23/23. Sigh. Anyway, I hope you enjoy it.
Plans for the day include getting washed, brushed, and off to Ashburn Spa for a pedicure. Let’s see if they rub raw orange sections on my feet again. My toenails are so long I can hardly walk. Then home again to make lunch, nap, and go to the gym.
We’ll be cooking and eating at home tonight because of rehearsal. Tonight the cast will learn to do the Dream Ballet.
Meanwhile, I must research legal forms for allowing one’s work to be published in an anthology. Wishing for the refunds to arrive so I can donate to World Central Kitchen and Doctors Without Borders.
Wishing a good day to all at the Pond!
Good morning, 35 and mostly cloudy outside my windows today. I’m using heat on my joints today, hoping that will help. Walking has been painful for a long time but with the new muscle weakness in my legs it’s even harder. So if heat on my back helps I’ll be very grateful. Best wishes to all.
Good morning. Wow, it is cold. Ok, I know that 42 isn’t cold for February, but after a week of warm enough mornings for t-shirts, it feels really cold. Did my ½ hour walk — running is tomorrow. In the office. SCOTUS really demonstrated their love for tfg yesterday. Depressing.
I guess crime pays – literally. The Republicans stole Barack Obama’s SCOTUS pick, the Russians stole the 2016 election for tRump and he was able to pack SCOTUS with his handmaidens. Now they have ratfked the 2024 election by signalling that they will allow a literal insurrectionist to run for and possibly win the presidency. Gawd, our country is broken.
Posted
Good Thursday morning, Meese!
It’s been a busy week, so busy that now I’m down with a cold. Going back to bed as soon as I finish my coffee. Dearly, bless his heart, is going to get me some daytime cold medicine. I feel bleargh and it’s 32 wretched F. here, on a sunny but frosty last day of February. Hope everyone is feeling their oats this morning!
It’s 32 heading for 53 and sort of sunny but clouds moving in for this last day of February. (Happy Leap Day!) Yesterday we generated the best for the month & so far this year – 15.2 KWHs. The m-t-d is at 282.7 and depending on how cloudy it gets, may reach or even go over 290 for the month. It’s already the best we’ve done in 9 out of 10 years.
Most of the wood pruned off the elm was live and won’t be dry enough to burn until next season. (Bless my neighbor across the street for splitting & stacking it for me.) But some of it was actually deadwood and that I can burn/am burning now. It’s wonderful. It burns hot enough to catch the red oak. Yesterday’s fire was just lovely. I was able to actually latch down the stove door. And the laundry dried more quickly than it has in months.
I haven’t heard anything new from anybody. I hope that’s good. Off to start my boosting day. Holding the Good Thoughts for everybody. {{{Meeses}}}
Good morning, meeses! Thursday …
It is 44 degrees in Tucson ???? with an expected daytime high of 68. Sunny skies are in the forecast. We got the forecasted rain yesterday afternoon and it included thunder and lightning and snow on the mountains. I was glad to not have anywhere that I needed to go!
I am going to go news lite today because it is so freaking depressing. SCOTUS appears to be concurring that a Republican president is indeed a monarch and will do nothing to expedite TFG’s trial for plotting a coup in order to stay in office after he lost the election – a criminal fraud on the American people and a repudiation of the Constitution that they swore to uphold. I despise them and every person who stayed home in 2016 because Bernie Sanders told them that Hillary was worse than Trump. If the 2024 election is between tRump and Biden, as it appears that it will be, it will again be very close and goddess help us if this time tRump’s bloody confederates manage to kill the election certifiers. In any event, I need to rest my brain and will catch up on my Spring Training sports reading.
See all y’all later!
Good morning, 39 and cloudy in my garden today. RonK has cleaned up the frozen ivy fences, Marcus will be here next month to trim the laurel hedge, and one way or another I hope to start pruning the salal. I may have to find a way to garden while seated this year though. Best wishes to all.
Friday Meese. Happy start of Women’s History Month!
21 here going up to 45.
Puerto Rico
Statehood loses support in Puerto Rico, while sovereignty options reach 35% of the support of Puerto Ricans, according to the most recent survey by @noticel
. Support for Statehood 2012 – 61% 2017 – 97% 2020 – 53% *2024 – 47%
Good morning. I made it to 5 segments of 4 minutes running, 2 walking! Trying to enjoy these last few days of cold, I know I’ll miss them during our 6-month summer. Trying to be as optimistic as Lawrence O’Donnell is about the tfg stuff. Anyway, just have to make it to 5pm and then it’s finally the weekend.
Good morning, meeses! Friday …
It is 46 degrees in Tucson ???? with an expected daytime high of 73. Sunny skies are in the forecast. Stars over the mountains! Today is meteorological spring and March is coming in like a lamb.
Another day, another group of headlines prominently featuring the orange pustule. I am not sure I will be able to make it to November without help from drugs! In any event, the government shutdown can was kicked down the road one week.
I was reading about the Missouri Republican Party seeking to expel a KKK member from their gubernatorial primary and I am confused. Why would being a racist white supremacist be disqualifying in a party that self identifies as racist white supremacists even to the point where they deny that slavery was bad for the enslaved? This is a head scratcher for sure.
For what it’s worth, I am not that bothered that SCOTUS wants to delay answering the “question” about whether a president is indeed a monarch until it becomes too close to the election and the court invokes the Purcell rule saying that Jack Smith cannot try a candidate that close to an election. The story will stay in the news until the election, the court will likely rule that tRump can be tried after the election and then the voters have a clear answer on what the stakes are in the November election. If they choose a literal nazi who is saying he wants to install himself as a dictator, I am done with them. I will mask up for the next unnecessary pandemic and hope they all die the miserable deaths that they were spared in 2020 when there were enough Republicans who believed in science.
We have a new month and I need to flip my calendar! March is the best month of all and I will not hear otherwise.
See all y’all later!
Of course March is the best month! It’s my birth month.
Mine too!
Just found out there is a small-donation match starting at noon, so I threw together a diary at the orange place. Please visit it when it posts — if you can’t donate, please share it around!
It’s 38 heading for 60 and supposed to be sunny. It’s not at the moment but I’m hoping. We wrapped up February with 295.6 KWHs – the last 12.9 being a gift from the Fairies for Leap Day. I hope it’s a good omen for the rest of the year but I’m not counting on it. The miracle goal for March is 422 and the at-least goal is 326. Anything in between is good but the closer to 400 the better.
The daffs are still blooming, the yellow crocuses are done and the purple ones are out. The Bradford pear buds are starting to open. The spirea near the back fence is starting to bloom. And there’s a green haze all along the fence that shouldn’t be there for at least a month. It’s Spring. I’m just hoping this doesn’t mean another killing summer with temps over 110 for days in a row. The last one of those we had took out 1/3 of the pine trees in Fayetteville. Including the one we’d planted in the backyard 9 years earlier that I’d babied through winters of snow heavy enough to bend it over. Climate collapse in real time.
As far as I know there’s nothing new with anybody. I’d best get to my boosting. Holding the Good Thoughts for Everybody. {{{Meeses}}}
Good Friday moaning, Moosekind! It’s 43 F. and beautifully sunny in Ashburn, on its way up to the high 50s. We’re going to have excessively mild temperatures for the weekend and next week.
Meanwhile, back at the ranch, I’m still coping with this honking big cold. I do feel slightly better now that I’m taking the cold meds, but I don’t feel well enough to rejoin society yet. Truthfully, I wondered if my subconscious manufactured this cold because I hate performing the duties of the assistant director. However, if that’s the case, my mind must be pretty powerful to manufacture the sore throat headache, nasal congestion, cough, and other nasty symptoms!
I also dreamed that a white rat was living somewhere in this flat. That can’t be good. It escaped, so perhaps that gives cause for hope.
The news is too depressing. Will try to think of something else. Hope everyone else is doing well, and three cheers for anotherdemocrat with her exercise and bfitz’s solar for exceeding the monthly goal!
Wishing a good day to all at the Pond.
Wishing you speedy healing
Good morning, 39 and partly cloudy in Bellingham today. I saw the PT yesterday and per his orders will not be working in the garden for a while, sigh. Arthritis in my spine is pinching nerves down my legs so that along with my creaky knees means I’ve got to be very careful, do the simple strengthening and stretching exercises, and hope for the best. Today’s task is to master walking down the stairs backwards because that movement doesn’t trigger shooting pain. Hope I don’t take a tumble! Best wishes to all.
here’s the diary: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2024/3/1/2226819/-Small-donations-matched-to-the-Hill-Country-Ride-for-AIDS-starting-at-noon-central-time
Saturday Meese. 35 here in Kingston and raining.
Puerto Rico
Good morning. Slept in, getting groceries later and I have to get in a run/walk this afternoon. I got a few donations yesterday, got to plan better for the next match. But I will enjoy our gorgeous weather today, grateful that the fires are far from us.