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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Yesterday we generated right at 12 KWHs and the m-t-d at 180.3 looks like we’re going to make my “at least” goal before my birthday Sunday!
Widget says we’re at 30, wind chill 26, heading for 65 & sunny. The bird water wasn’t frozen or even ice-rimed so I think it’s warmer at my house. It was 59 in the hall when I got up so the furnace is on for the first time this winter season. I also just got 2 mini-loaves of cheese bread out of the oven.
Yesterday’s eye doctor appointment went well. I think. Only the woman at the “register” masked without being asked – and she only put the mask on when she saw a masked person coming up to her. But the rest did put on masks when asked to. Surgical masks so not much good. But still better than nothing. My eyes seem to be in good health. There are cataracts developing but they are not anywhere near the “time to operate” stage. They did an optical nerve scan for glaucoma as well and as far as I know that’s fine. I got a new Rx for eyeglasses and told to come back in a year for a checkup on those cataracts. The medical part was only $65. The eyeglasses part, even going as bare basics as I could and getting the $100 my “plan” puts towards glasses, was $365. Next month’s credit card bill is going to be high. Not as high as the vet bills for Rennie, but high. (I really miss Rennie. He was the last of my “lap cats”. The rest are sweet kitties and like to be petted and scritched, but they’re not lap cats. Even Cloud, who wants on my lap several times a day, only stays for 5 minutes or less. From Scotty to Rennie I was blessed with 18 years of lap cats. Sigh.)
Off to start my boosting day. Holding the Good/Healing/Protecting Thought for everybody. {{{Meeses}}}
Good Wednesday morning, Moosekind! It’s such an incredibly beautiful day here in Ashburn that it reminds me of a long-ago perfume called “Golden Autumn.” I used to wear it. Of course, nowadays one can wear perfume only at home because so many people freak out about it.
Rehearsal was in Farmwell Hall last night because the theater was in use. I lost my cue once but other than that I did OK. I’m still reading my lines from a script. It’s just too hard to memorize something as chopped up as this.
Have seen the beautiful moon every night this week. Last night Herself was shining in the sky, so lovely, and just two days from the full. Hope I get to see her tomorrow night, but knowing the way things are here, I won’t hold my breath.
Senator Kaine will be here today to speak, but I have a long-deferred lunch with my ex-Circle Sister in Reston. I’m getting ready for the Fall Festival on Saturday. So far exactly two members of my group have volunteered to sit at the table to allow those of us who are fixtures to get up, stretch our legs, and go to the bathroom. I’d love to get my face painted, but dare not take the time. Last year they painted me as Diana Prince, which I greatly enjoyed.
What else…nothing much. Must take a shower and get on with things. Wishing a brilliant day to all at the Pond, and I long for the day when I don’t have this stress-induced rash from Trump angst!
Thursday Meese. Brr!
Was surprised to see Puerto Rico trending. It was due to Congresswomen AOC and Velazquez
Good morning. Did my walk/run — I really thought I’d make it to a mile today. 33 minutes, 17 of that running, .81 mi (1.4 all together). So chilly – 50 degrees – that I was glad I brought a 2nd shirt. So many people are leaving Twitter for Blue Sky that their servers are crashing. I had hopes for the whale place as the Twitter alternative, but they drove away the authors, and the scientists followed them… Anyway, happy Friday Eve!
Don’t give up entirely on the whale. It’s a solidly Dem site w/ an option to just get news if that’s what you want, and still has a few authors and scientists on it. (But yeah, bluesky seems to be where most folks are heading.)
I find all the authors and pundits I need on BlueSky but I wish that the official government accounts would move there. Xitter is now all in on sowing chaos and disinformation in service to tRump.
It’s 41 heading for 69 and sunny. Yesterday we generated 11.96 KWHs and the m-t-d at 192.3 looks like it’s going to reach my “bare minimum” goal of 210 on if not by my birthday Sunday.
Saw the moon shortly after moonrise between trees She’s usually hidden by. Saw her again a few hours before I got up as She reached the point in the western sky where She was shining into my room, moonlight covering my bed. The furnace kicking on woke me up but I was able to get back to sleep. And I appreciated being woke up long enough to see the moon. The next full moon I should be able to see clearly – my glasses are supposed to be ready around Samhain/Halloween.
Haven’t heard anything from anybody so I’m assuming they’re all OK. Off to start my boosting day. Holding the Good/Healing/Protecting Thought for everybody. {{{Meeses}}}
Good morning, 48 and partly sunny in Bellingham today. Bri will be here today so I’ll work in the garden with her this afternoon. I sit and clip while she does the real work but it’s still nice to be outdoors. Best wishes to all.
Good morning, meeses! Thursday …
It is 81 degrees in Tucson 🌵 and mostly sunny, high will be 88. I saw the full moon this morning, she was shining into my office window for several hours before she disappeared behind the buildings to the west.
I got off my computer after a morning racing to get client work out the door so this is a phone check-in.
See all y’all later!
Good morning. Walk/run done, 1.5 mi all together, .95 running. I dunno if I’ll make a mile tomorrow, there’s hills on the Saturday route. Got to look up my Dem club’s endorsements in the nonpartisan races before I vote on Tuesday, because I have not been paying attention. Anyway, happy Friday everyone.
Friday Meese. Jan – site keeps logging me out every time I try to post. Hope this goes through
Ah it worked!
Puerto Rico
I keep forgetting to clear the site cache – I have not been on the site at the right time. I will do it now.
Good, beautiful Friday morning, Moosekind! ‘Tis an ill wind that blaws nae body ony guid, and that’s certainly true here in Ashburned. Although our lack of rain is making this the third driest year since 1963, I DID get to see Herself shining and lovely last night. The Hunter’s Moon, of course, appeals to Diana, Goddess of the Hunt. She didn’t look like a Supermoon to me, just regular. This morning she swung around to the side my screened porch is on, and shone on the denuded porch furniture. As we’re heading for a week of warm temperatures, I’m going to put the porch cushions back out there.
But enough of this meteorological chitchat. This morning I shall bake the Better Homes and Gardens version of an applesauce cake—totally delicious—, possibly go to the gym, and study my lines. One of the people I like best in the Drama Club has promised to help me with my lines this afternoon. Then at 7:30 I have rehearsal.
Last night’s rehearsal was a disaster. I kept missing my cues because at one point there are EIGHT of us in a tiny space (the elevator set) the size of the Black Hole of Calcutta. There’s hardly room to breathe, let alone room for the standing mike and the chair on which I sit when I’m not opening and closing the door. We all do multiple eye rolls and curse the play under our breath. Last night, walking home, I encountered one of the other characters who was shanghaied into doing this. “I’ll be so glad when this goddam play is over,” I said. She kissed me on the cheek! I lead a weird life.
So, anyway, where was I? Oh, you’ve had enough already? I simply can’t bear to think about Polly Tix, although I’m chuffed that the lines for early voting are so huge in Mecklenburg County, NC, and Fairfax County, VA.
Will have to go to BlueSky now that Melon Husk will not allow blocking on Tweeter. I don’t want maggots—pardon me, MAGAts—crawling all over my feed. I will miss so many people who are on Twitter, though! BrooklynDad, Portia McGonagal, RC de Winter, and Radio Justice, just to name a few. RC de Winter has the funniest jokes I’ve ever read.
Wishing a good day to all at the Pond, and an end to the war on Gaza. (Bibi, go jump in the lake.)
{{{Diana}}} Aji’s people call this one the Falling Leaves Moon. Good luck with the bloody play. Now you know why I never let myself get dragooned into being on stage. Lights, sound, and occasionally stage crew were enough for me. LOL. Thank you for the b’day present. Healing Energy. Moar {{{HUGS}}}
Wow, I did not realize that he had done this: “Melon Husk will not allow blocking on Tweeter.”
I took my account private back when NPR was labeled a “propaganda outlet” and only click once in a while on people’s links but never to engage. I hope my account did not get made public again.
I checked my account and it is still private. It appears that all of my blocks and mutes are intact so maybe it is not retroactive or maybe it is only disabled for the MAGAt bots that are being unleashed. Melon is a caricature of rich white entitled a**hole and it is a tragedy that no one else was willing to buy Twitter and keep it as a public utility. So many accounts do things like notify people of disasters and provide information about government programs – it can’t really be replicated anywhere else. I do hope that the Harris Administration reviews all the government contracts that Tesla and SpaceX and any Musk enterprise has – after he has announced that he is all in on autocracy and the dissolution of our government, he should not be allowed to profit from it.
It’s 38 heading for 74, a slight warming trend (we’ll be in the 80s for a few days next week) and sunny. Yesterday we generated 11.69 KWHs and the m-t-d at 203.97 will reach the “at least” goal by end of day as long as it *stays sunny. Might, maybe, even make the next goal of 229 by the end of my birthday Sunday.
Saw the moon again last night, just before bedtime, and again this morning. Lovely to see Her at all and definitely this many days in row. I need to do some research on “non-partisan” judges and a few ballot issues over the next few days. Our early voting starts Monday. Meanwhile, need to get started on my boosting day. Holding the Good/Healing/Protecting Thought for everybody. {{{Meeses}}}
Good morning, meeses! Friday …
It is 64 degrees in Tucson 🌵 with an expected daytime high of 77. Sunny skies this morning with a chance for rain in the late afternoon. The weather widget says that the temperatures will drop 20 degrees from 3pm to 8pm! I saw the full moon last night and this morning, again. On my walk, I saw the sun in the east and the moon in the west in the clear blue sky.
Barack Obama will be here for GOTV. I am finishing up my research on Judicial Retentions to make sure that no Federalist Society members get my Yes vote. Democrats are already targeting the two Supreme Court justices who thought that reverting back to an 1864 territorial law outlawing all abortions was a good thing. That law got overridden (just barely) by the legislature and we still need to enshrine abortion rights into our constitution via Proposition 139 but the chance to punish those justices who had their heads firmly up their asses is on the ballot and I will delight in filling in the NO oval. I will drop my ballot off at the local library drop-box and bypass Louis DeJoy’s post office. It is too important to turn the ballot over to the vagaries of a Republican holdover from the tRump maladministration.
I am going to ignore the news. I am glad Kamala did not go to the pretend “friendly” Al Smith Charity Dinner – send a check and stay on the campaign trail rather than be in the same space as a convicted criminal who wants to destroy America – and who reportedly stinks. I hate those events where people pretend that partisan politics can be set aside in this day and age. It can’t be set aside, the stakes are too high and the Republicans are only a political party on the ballot line, they have ceased to exist as a rational actor that follows any norms.
I have a few things that need to get out the door but mostly I can kick things into the weekend. This is the time of year when I can take my afternoon naps on the deck and I do not want work to get in the way of those.
See all y’all later!
Good morning, 44 and cloudy outside my windows today. The leaves on my old maple trees are magically turning color overnight and the breeze is chilly. The furnace is turning on now too so I should close the bedroom windows but the we’re really enjoying the fresh air. Election angst continues to disrupt my sleep but garden therapy helps so today I’ll clip the salal crowding a sidewalk. The family visit at the end of Oct is coming closer and my BIL uses an electric scooter so he needs a clear path and a ramp for access to the house. Thankfully I can rent the ramp. I also need to do as much as possible ahead of time so I’m going to bake and freeze the desserts this weekend and hope they will still taste ok. I usually bake as close to serving time but with 14 people here for lunch and dinner I need to be as organized as I can be. We had originally scheduled this visit for late summer when we could be outdoors but plans and weather have changed so now we will be in the house for meals. As always, my best wishes to all.
So the cleanup changes I made appear to have wrecked the Mobile version of the web site.
I will check the desktop version.
Thank goodness I took notes on what I did! The site stopped rendering properly on Mobile and Desktop and looked like an old 1990’s web site. The caches are cleared and everything appears to be back to normal. I did not have to re-enter my password so I hope that resolved the glitchy problems that Dee and Diana had.
Good morning, meeses! Saturday …
It is 50 degrees in Tucson 🌵 with an expected daytime high of 68. Partly cloudy skies are in the forecast. We got a little rain, maybe 10 minutes worth, but not enough. It will be cool today and tomorrow but then back into the 80s and the low 90s again. We are going to try to avoid turning on the furnace because we literally turned off the air conditioning yesterday. It is also a big production – the heater coils gather dust all summer and the first use burns the dust off and sets off the smoke alarm. It can be mitigated by opening all the windows and setting up fans to blow the burning dust away from the smoke detector. I am just not in the mood to deal with it. That said, 50 is pretty cold and if we can’t keep yesterday’s indoor heat intact, we will have to do it.
I know all of you are as surprised as I am that the contractors hired by tRump related PACs for GOTV are scamming the PACs and lying about their voter engagement! The GOTV work was outsourced by the Republican National Committee when the tRump family ousted the professionals and took it over so that they could use any RNC money to pay tRump’s legal bills. The Republican Party that went all in on MAGAtry is going to go down with the sinking ship. Good riddance. Any political party who calls itself the Party of Lincoln and runs on the principles of white supremacy should internally combust. I am concentrating my energy on a Kamala win first and foremost but a Republican Party in disarray would be icing on the cake.
I have many things to do today as yesterday I ran out of steam pretty early in the day. I really need to finish cleanup of all the crises that erupted this past week – the longer I put it off, the worse it will be. However, I have sporting events that I want to watch so I have to figure out the right balance.
See all y’all later!
Saturday Meese. good morning. Couldn’t log in earlier for some reason. Just posted
Glad you were able to log in! Some changes I made late on Friday night messed up the site and you could get in but the site was not rendering properly. I was worried when no one showed up this morning that I killed it.
The WNBA Championship Series goes to 5 games! I know you want the Liberty to win but I am glad to see it go to 5 games for two reasons. One, more basketball! and Two, the Liberty can win it all at home and Stewie can retire in glory and she and her family can become private people away from the haters.
I want to see Stewie get her flowers!
Good morning. I got up in time for my crack-of-dawn workout, but my stomach has other ideas. Watching local news, nibbling on an oat cracker. Got to eat enough to be able to take my eye vitamin. Glad I bought graham crackers the last time my stomach was angry. Unplanned rest day, ugh.
It’s 41 heading for 78 and sunny again. Yesterday we generated 11.27 KWHs and the m-t-d at 215.25 is heating for the next goal (229) by the end of my birthday tomorrow.
Sun to the east and moon to the west. A lovely if chilly morning. Seeing her for almost every day in October so far is another lovely birthday present. As was the gift from Diana yesterday, and the 2 gifts I got via Amazon yesterday evening. A set of emergency battery lanterns (& batteries) from earicicle and a stir crazy popcorn popper (because I told her I didn’t like the texture of the air popped but doing it in the skillet was hurting my arm) from aashirs nani. That’s more birthday presents than I’ve had at one time in years. Unless something comes up to prevent it, my son will prepare a steak dinner for me tomorrow late afternoon/evening. It’s being a good year as far as birthday presents are concerned. We’ll see how good a year I have being 73. LOL.
Off to start my boosting day. Holding the Good/Healing/Protecting Energy for everybody. {{{Meeses}}}
If I don’t “see” you tomorrow, Happy Birthday!!
I am sure you know that you share a birthday with our next President. I wish her a Happy Birthday, also!!
Thank you. I think I’m 13 years older than our next president so it was mine first. But I’m happy to share it with her. LOL.
Have a very happy “Birthday Eve” Sis.
Thank you. It is so far. LOL.
Good morning, 52, wind and rain in Bellingham today. I finished the pruning job yesterday and needed a nap and a long night’s sleep to recover. I loved the shape of the hemlock branches with salal growing through them but we need to we need to use the walkway so it’s now clear. Just hope I’m ok with what I see when I venture out today and that I haven’t harmed the tree. I tried to blend the cuts with the natural shape of the remaining branches but I’m not a pro…..just a fussy gardener :) As always, my best wishes to all.