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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Will be back later. Dealing with the “blame Kamala” crowd, instead of the blame racists and misogynists is exhausting.
SHE ran a perfect campaign! The problem is the racists and misogynists!
Grim Wednesday morning, Moosekind. I went to bed, I was so nervous and tired. I feel doomed and depressed. What an evil country this is! That people could elect a rapist and convicted criminal instead of a WOMAN!
I can’t find any joy or hope this morning. Goddess help us all.
Well, crap. Don’t really know what else to say. We did get rid of the one Republican on the Austin city council. Just looking for the tiniest of good things. We had a cold front come through and it is actually cool — I’ll probably need long sleeves for tomorrow’s early morning run. So that’s 2, all I can come up with.
Numb. Don’t know what to say. We have each other. We’ll survive. Mostly.
It’s 45 heading for 70 and supposed to be sunny when the fog clears off. Yesterday we generated 6.7 KWHs and the m-t-d at 25.7 didn’t lose any more ground.
Boosting folks fundraisers at once seems less use and more important. Off to get started. Holding the Good/Healing/Protecting Thought for everybody. {{{Meeses}}}
Good morning, 48 and cloudy with more wind and rain soon. I have no words, just overwhelming feelings of anger and sorrow. Election results in Wa State are all good so I’m going to retreat to my blue bubble and try to cope with the rest. Wish I had something comforting to offer, but I just don’t. As always, my best wishes to all.
Kamala’s speech to her supporters at Howard did not concede hope for a better future and clearly said that the fight for that was not over. Good for her.
Found on the Internets:
“One source of hope is that the future is unwritten.”
From Time Magazine:
“Good afternoon. Good afternoon. Good—Good afternoon everyone. Good afternoon. Good afternoon, good afternoon. Thank you all.
Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you. So let me say (crowd screams love you), and I love you back and I love you back. So let me say my heart is full today. My heart is full today, full of gratitude for the trust you have placed in me, full of love for our country, and full of resolve. The outcome of this election is not what we wanted, not what we fought for, not what we voted for. But hear me when I say, hear me when I say, the light of America’s promise will always burn bright as long as we never give up and as long as we keep fighting. To my beloved Doug and our family, I love you so very much. To President Biden and Dr. Biden, thank you for your faith and support. To Governor Walz and the Walz family, I know your service to our nation will continue. And to my extraordinary team, to the volunteers who gave so much of themselves, to the poll workers and the local election officials I thank you. I thank you all.
Look, I am so proud of the race we ran. And the way we ran it. Over the 107 days of this campaign, we have been intentional about building community and building coalitions, bringing people together from every walk of life and background, united by love of country with enthusiasm and joy in our fight for America’s future. And we did it with the knowledge that we all have so much more in common than what separates us. Now, I know folks are feeling and experiencing a range of emotions right now. I get it, but we must accept the results of this election. Earlier today, I spoke with President-elect Trump and congratulated him on his victory. I also told him that we will help him and his team with their transition and that we will engage in a peaceful transfer of power.
A fundamental principle of American democracy is that when we lose an election, we accept the results. That principle, as much as any other, distinguishes democracy from monarchy or tyranny. And anyone who seeks the public trust must honor it. At the same time, in our nation, we owe loyalty not to a president or a party, but to the Constitution of the United States, and loyalty to our conscience and to our God. My allegiance to all three is why I am here to say, while I concede this election, I do not concede the fight that fueled this campaign—the fight: the fight for freedom, for opportunity, for fairness, and the dignity of all people. A fight for the ideals at the heart of our nation, the ideals that reflect America at our best. That is a fight I will never give up.
I will never give up the fight for a future where Americans can pursue their dreams, ambitions, and aspirations. Where the women of America have the freedom to make decisions about their own body and not have their government telling them what to do. We will never give up the fight to protect our schools and our streets from gun violence. And America we will never give up the fight for our democracy, for the rule of law, for equal justice, and for the sacred idea that every one of us, no matter who we are or where we start out, has certain fundamental rights and freedoms that must be respected and upheld.
And we will continue to wage this fight in the voting booth, in the courts and in the public square. And we will also wage it in quieter ways: in how we live our lives by treating one another with kindness and respect, by looking in the face of a stranger and seeing a neighbor, by always using our strength to lift people up, to fight for the dignity that all people deserve. The fight for our freedom will take hard work. But, like I always say, we like hard work. Hard work is good work. Hard work can be joyful work. And the fight for our country is always worth it. It is always worth it. To the young people who are watching, it is okay to feel sad and disappointed. But please know it’s going to be okay.
On the campaign, I would often say when we fight, we win. But here’s the thing, here’s the thing, sometimes the fight takes a while. That doesn’t mean we won’t win. That doesn’t mean we won’t win. The important thing is don’t ever give up. Don’t ever give up. Don’t ever stop trying to make the world a better place. You have power. You have power. And don’t you ever listen when anyone tells you something is impossible because it has never been done before.
You have the capacity to do extraordinary good in the world. And so to everyone who is watching, do not despair. This is not a time to throw up our hands. This is a time to roll up our sleeves. This is a time to organize, to mobilize, and to stay engaged for the sake of freedom and justice and the future that we all know we can build together. Look, many of you know I started out as a prosecutor and throughout my career I saw people at some of the worst times in their lives. People who had suffered great harm and great pain, and yet found within themselves the strength and the courage and the resolve to take the stand, to take a stand, to fight for justice, to fight for themselves, to fight for others. So let their courage be our inspiration. Let their determination be our charge. And I’ll close with this. There’s an adage a historian once called a law of history, true of every society across the ages. The adage is, only when it is dark enough can you see the stars. I know many people feel like we are entering a dark time, but for the benefit of us all, I hope that is not the case. But here’s the thing, America, if it is, let us fill the sky with the light of a brilliant, brilliant billion of stars.
The light, the light of optimism, of faith, of truth and service.
And may that work guide us even in the face of setbacks toward the extraordinary promise of the United States of America. I thank you all. Make God bless you. And may God bless the United States of America. I thank you all.”
Thank you, Jan. I couldn’t bear to listen to it. So thanks.
I prefer reading speeches. I may watch this one someday but it hurts too much right now.
I do too. And yeah.
Good morning, meeses! Thursday …
It is 43 degrees in Tucson 🌵 with an expected daytime high of 55. Sunny skies are in the forecast. Normal fall temperatures expected to return on Saturday.
I woke up yesterday morning to the sounds of a pack of coyotes howling at about 1:20am and I got up. It turns out that it was the earth crying, sad that her brief respite from the worst-of-the-worst being in charge of the future of our planet was soon to be over. When I checked my phone and saw that Pennsylvania was lost, and Wisconsin was nearly lost, I realized that there was no path for Kamala to the White House this year. We are going to have a lot of work ahead of us to protect those hurt by what is about to happen. I will personally probably be okay as long as they can find three Senators who don’t want to end Social Security and Medicare but there will be enormous pain as Republican policies roll out here and across the globe. In 2020, people showed up and voted because the horror of the pandemic was still fresh in everyone’s minds; what kind of catastrophe will make them show up at the polls in the next election? I am not sure what happened to our voters and if they are just exhausted by it all. Kamala ran a nearly perfect campaign and I think she simply ran out of time to introduce herself to the American people and generate the kind of enthusiasm that she needed to get out the vote on election day. I refuse to believe that the majority of Americans wanted a return to the horrors of the tRump malAdministration, but sadly the majority who voted did. We have to pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off and get busy. There is still the off-chance that we win back the House and we need to hope and pray that we do. Our local congressional race, which looked like a red to blue flip at the end of the first day of counting, is now leaning toward red and too close to call.
I put off all my project work until next Tuesday and will spend the day doing accounting and getting my to-do lists in order.
See all y’all later!
Good overcast Thursday morning, Meese! Wurra the day, as old Irishmen mutter into their Guinness. It’s 64 F. already under cloudy skies, with the promise of rain at 4 p.m. Of course, we’ll be performing at that hour.
I’m numb, dumb. My fellow cast members looked stricken, if not downright haggard. Last night at rehearsal we either forgot some of our lines or stepped on each other’s lines. We MUST do better: after all, our fellow residents have paid actual money to see this thing. Sandy, who plays the Waitress from the Pub, and I keep rolling our eyes at each other and saying, “Nine o’clock Friday night. Nine o’clock.” After that we don’t have to do a thing until the Cast Party on Friday the 15th.
I’m feeling the urge to write a better play than the one we’ve been acting. I’m going to retreat into my writer’s shell, as I can’t face the real world. I’ve also started downsizing again. If Thing banishes Social Security and Medicare, we’ll have to move out. We’re not rich. In fact, as I told one of my friends, I don’t understand why they even let us in here.
I refuse to watch the news or read most of the paper. I’ll continue to read the Metro section for the weather news and the obits. I like to see who popped their clogs.
Dearly is calling for me to start breakfast. Wishing a good day to all at the Pond and a telephone call for our KDH from HRC, who is the only person in the world who knows how she feels this awful morning. Blessed be.
Good morning. Just a walk today, ankle feels glitchy. Researching retiring in Portugal or Morocco, but as I commented in the “Don’t Go” diary, the Right is on the rise everywhere. If something goes wrong, I’m in this same situation only in a country where I’m not a citizen. I’m still too sad & angry to start working on Resistance, but I ain’t going nowhere, either.
It’s 52 heading for 69 and overcast but trying to clear off. Yesterday we generated 8.1 KWHs and the m-t-d at 33.9 actually gained a little.
There was sun yesterday and I saw the moon last night. The mountains have not moved and the rain we had last week put water back in the creeks and small ponds. I fed and cleaned up after cats and myself. Heard from my DIL that yes, they’d be here (with a plate dinner for me) for Thanksgiving and that they were trying to find a date when everyone would be available to celebrate Yule. Life is going on. (Although, like Diana, I don’t know what I’ll do or how I’ll live if they do get rid of Social Security.) Meanwhile there are folks who need boosting so I’d best get to it. Holding the Good/Healing/Protecting Thought for everybody. {{{Meeses}}}
Good morning, 42 and partly sunny outside my window today. Yesterday was a hard reminder that stress and my autonomic nervous system don’t get along. I was wobbly all day so it’s time to disengage from tRump angst as best I can. I’m in the habit of reading around the internets while elevating my BCH leg so that needs to change. Hard as it is I need to hold to my core values and let my worries re the reality we now live with sort its self out. Best wishes to all.
Good Friday Meese. 40 here – going up to 65. Trying to deal with all the blame Kamala bullshit coming from “progressives.” Bernie bros have resurfaced with a vengeance. On top of that many of my Black friends and family feel so betrayed they don’t want fail”allies” anymore. My Latino friends and family are in an uproar – some are furious about “white” or wannabe white Latinos who supported Trump, others are screaming don’t blame Latinos.
Can’t really share more.
I blame single issue Democratic voters who wanted to punish the Biden Administration for Gaza (as if tRump will be better for the Palestinian people!) or not passing Medicare for All or some other thing that was NOT going to happen. Too many stayed home and now we are all going to suffer. The Berners helped elect tRump in 2016 and their ideological descendants put him back in charge. Goddess help us.
Ran this morning. 22/37 minutes was running, and 1.1 out of the 1.57 mi total. Not bad considering the terrible week. It’s supposed to rain tomorrow morning so I’m planning to get up as if it wasn’t and I’ll go to the gym & run on the treadmill if it is. Anyway. Got to start thinking now of something good for this evening’s Cheers & Jeers diary (Friday evenings at the orange place, it’s just a fun, friendly, silly diary)
Good morning, meeses! Friday ….
It is 41 degrees in Tucson 🌵 with an expected daytime high of 61. Sunny skies are in the forecast. We will see 80s again next week.
Our Democratic candidate for AZ CD06, Kirsten Engel, is now up by 209 votes over the vile Representative Juan “Close the Border Now That I Am Here” Ciscomani. Kirsten was up 4,000 in the first batch on election night but her lead kept getting smaller and smaller then it flipped to a lead for the Republican by as many as 1,100 votes yesterday morning. For her to be up this late is a good sign. If it stays at 209, it will be within the margin for a recount so we won’t be getting a certification for quite a while. Our Democratic Attorney General won by about 400 votes in 2022 and it held up on a recount (although the loser filed multiple lawsuits over the 2 years). Our Senate candidate, Ruben Gallego is up by about 41,000 votes and it is unlikely that the odious Kari Lake can make up that kind of gap. From what I understand, there are still a million uncounted ballots in Maricopa County so that race won’t be certified for a while either.
I am trying to figure out how many “reasonable” Senate Republicans there are left who would block the Project 2025 agenda. So many terrible people have won seats in the Senate over the past few election cycles. They will have a 4 vote majority now and assuming that Collins and Murkowski will not vote for a national abortion ban, they still have a 2 vote majority to first, kill the filibuster, then pass the ban.
I am not sure what to hope for, what to put out there that I want to have happen. I guess at this point the general “pray for the best outcome” is the only thing because I don’t see any path forward that does not run into an immovable wall. The 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence in 2026 is going to be an odd moment. The country’s forefathers kicked one king to the curb but left such an imperfect Constitution that it allowed for a dictator to be elected. The Electoral College, born from the need to placate slave owners, gave us two elections in this century that put awful men into power and paved the way for them to win second terms. I won’t be celebrating the Semiquincentennial.
I have a bunch of projects that I am trying to organize into a coherent weekend to-do list. I am glad to be busy right now because when I am working I am focused on work and not obsessing about the future of our country.
See all y’all later!
It’s 56 heading for 66 and cloudy today. Yesterday we generated 8.1 KWHs and the m-t-d at 42 is exactly on track for 180. Unfortunately we will lose ground again with today’s & tomorrow’s definitely clouds and maybe rain.
The Camry has been dying for months (transmission was going) and finally died Wednesday. (A sign?) The transmission and the water pump both went kaput. My son called yesterday to tell me about it. And that he’d found someone who’d buy it for parts. $300 but definitely beats having to dispose of it ourselves. I agreed so he came by with the title for me to sign. That leaves me with the Subaru. Ironic since the Subaru’s transmission issue (won’t go into 4th/top gear) and engine leak we can’t trace is the reason we got the Camry in the first place. But as long as I stay off the freeway the Subaru is doing fine going to the grocery store & such. And hey, it cuts my insurance and property taxes (slightly).
As long as I stay busy I don’t think about what I’m going to do if the Rs are stupid enough to end Social Security. And I do mean stupid. Most of that national debt they hoo-rah about is loaned to the fed govt by SSA. It’s not private lenders like BoA or CitiCorp. Hopefully there are a few Rs who know that. Meanwhile I’d best get busy. Off to start my boosting day. Holding the Good/Healing/Protecting Thought for everybody. {{{Meeses}}}
Good Friday morning, Moosekind! It’s another beautiful, warm day—60 F. right now in Ashburned, going up to 70-something later. Will it EVER RAIN AGAIN? Stay tuned.
However, the upside of this is I saw the beautiful quarter-moon last night and felt so cheered! She’ll be full the 15th, the day of the Cast Party.
One more performance tonight, then we’re finished, thank Goddess. People coming through the Receiving Line after the show don’t even know who I am! They think the elevator (constructed of styrofoam or some such thing and painted gray) is automated! Dear Goddess. Not that I mind, I’ve never been deeply invested in this role.
Lots happening in my personal life: one of my writers is going to lend me a jester hat, which I have to pick up in an hour or so. The Bazaar is tomorrow from 9 to 2, and we hope to sell our remaining books there. I decided not to appear as Weird Cousin Ingrid from Stockholm in the blonde wig because I’m too depressed. Monday we have our Hallway Luncheon at a fish place, and I have a board meeting in the afternoon. Wednesday night there’s a musical evening put on by my ex-Leading Man. That morning we have to listen to six candidates running for a state senate seat vacated by Suhas. We don’t want to give Gubernator Dumbkin an evenly divided Senate. Then on Saturday…
Oh, this is too much, I’m thinking aloud. I’m also planning what to wear to the revolution!
Wishing a good day to all at the Pond. Remember we still have Biden until January 20th, and anything could happen before then.
Good morning, 46 and light clouds in Bellingham today. I feel more stable today so anger shouldn’t make me tip over. And I am angry and still struggling to understand how so many voters could make the choices they made. If our retirement fund doesn’t crash we will be ok but my kids and grandkids are suffering and that makes me mad and sad. But tRump angst is literally making me sick so I have to cope.
I did go for a short walk yesterday and will do so again today. Holiday lights are going up around the neighborhood so we’ll light the tree on the front porch and I’ll plant some winter pansies and hellebores by the back entrance. We will have winter color in the garden and that will reassure my family because they are worried. Best wishes to all.
Saturday Meese. 38 here in Kingston going up to 53. Have a friend who found out his son voted for Dump, and another who found out her daughter voted for Jill Stein. Both friends are Puerto Rican. They are furious, frustrated and gob-smacked. SMDH.
Caribbean Matters posted
Hi. Did my walk/run, on my way to kickboxing then meeting my workout group for breakfast tacos. There was a diary on the trending list at the orange place asking people to not use tfg’s picture in their diaries, and I couldn’t agree more. It’s traumatizing, triggering, whatever you want to say, but it hurts to see him and I just can’t. I change channels when the news — local or national — puts on a clip of him.