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, 48 and partly sunny. I think it’s safe to prune the hydrangeas now so we’ll start that annual task today. The plants are still recovering from last winter’s freeze so we need to be careful. Our son is working here this week so a long list of small jobs is being addressed, and Elsa is supervising :) Nice to have a new spout on the downstairs tub so the shower diverter works as it should again.
I have an appointment in March to deal with my dental issues. I wish it were sooner but the oral surgeon I prefer to see is very busy so I’ll wait. Being so sick for so long delayed plans. Fortunately the pain comes and goes so I’ll chew carefully and cope.
I’m going to call the offices of the R Wa Congressional reps re cuts to Medicare today. My opinion won’t matter to them but the call will be on record and I’ll feel like I did something. Best wishes to all.
Good morning, meeses! Thursday, the penultimate day of February …
It is 54 degrees in Tucson 🌵 with an expected daytime high of 79. Sunny skies are in the forecast. A new moon will begin at 5:44pm MST and I plan to dump a lot of useless garbage into the last bit of light and focus on the waxing energy for the next 15 days. Saturday is March! The best month evah!!
I spent yesterday morning working through the 503 attack and yesterday afternoon fretting about Internet attacks. I wish people would just be good and decent. Too much to ask in an era where children will be starved to make sure that billionaires do not pay taxes. I am wondering how Senator Doctor Cassidy of Louisiana feels about voting for RFKjr now that he realizes that the seasonal flu vaccines will not be made this year because HHS cancelled the meeting of the doctors who will decide what will be in it – and because “we” dropped out of WHO which is where the data comes from to make the determination. I plan to drive to a Mexican clinic over the border from Yuma to get my flu shot as I don’t want to be part of the next million people killed by the Felon’s ignorance. I just noticed that RFKjr look a lot like “ratfuck.” Coincidence? I think not.
I have many things to do today and best get to it.
See all y’all later!
Good morning. In from my walk, warm enough (just barely) for no jacket. Might run tomorrow.
Good overcast Thursday morning, Meese! Clouds are louring upon our house, so we may actually have showers today. Won’t count on it. Right now in Ashburned it’s 48 F.
What a DAY for you yesterday, Jan! Thank you for restoring the Pond. I hope nothing else happens to it. I know you had other work to do.
And you, Bfitz, with an R-A-T in the house! OMG! We had one years ago when we lived at home. Dearly set up the film camera and the next day we watched the shadow slinking across the basement of our house. Dearly set a trap, and I made him dispose of it. I’m a wimp, I admit. Hope you can get rid of your visitor and plug the hole where he gets in.
A fellow Thespian who has declared herself to be my BFF and I are going to lunch off campus. A family member (not immediate family) has been so depressed by the Melon and the Felon she had to see a shrink for a while. I can understand that. I have a grandchild who is trans. They’re not in the military, and luckily they work for a private organization (Emily’s List), so they’re not in danger of losing their job. It’s just so damn depressing to think of innocent people’ lives being upended like this. Dee, whatcha wanna bet that uglymotha Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares jumps into the governor’s race, counting on the fact that many Virginians are so hateful they won’t vote for a woman—Black or White? We did vote for a Black male governor once, the first state in the nation to do so.
Jan, why do you say March is the best month of the year? I think so, but that’s because I was born in it. I’m trying to figure out how to buy what I need for the slow cooker stew without violating the boycott tomorrow. I guess the best thing to do is go get the stuff for it today. It’ll keep until Saturday.
Well, time for me to get going. Wishing a good day to all at the Pond and a frustrating day for the Melon and the Felon. There will be a new moon tonight, but we won’t see it—too many clouds in the way. Blessed be.
March is also my birthday month although I am in the Aries part of the month and I think you are in the Pisces part of the month.
Apparently Chief “Justice” John Roberts refuses to frustrate Melon and Felon as many people of Africa are poised to die because the USAID payments were cut off and Roberts is just fine with that. Is it wrong of me to hope that when Ebola is once again unleashed on the world, it finds its way into Melon’s life pod? The Felon is a normal grade Republican pile of garbage but Melon is in a position to do real and permanent harm to our democracy, our country and our world.
It’s 47 heading for 67 and sunny at the moment. Clouds did move in yesterday afternoon but fairly late. We generated 11.86 KHWs and the m-t-d is 150.8 so we’ll at least end the month better than ’15 and ’19. And hope we do better in March. A lot better.
Bless Jan for dealing with the site and the attacks on it. Why anybody would attack Moose is beyond me. Talk about a waste of powder & shot! There are only 6 of us who regularly check in. I guess the evil ones just attack whoever comes within line of sight.
My son came by and set traps. Snapper traps – we couldn’t afford the live traps. I haven’t checked this morning to see if we caught one or more. I will later in the day when it warms up a little more. If we have, I will call him to dispose of it.
I got all my errands done. I have cash, 6 library books I haven’t read before (trusted authors – some of the books they wrote between ’19 and now), plus cheese, frozen veggies, OJ, and bread. The concentrated OJ – generic, not brand-name – is now $4 for a 12-oz can!
I got less than 2 hours of sleep overnight – sinusitis – so it was a good thing I had a new book to read. But I’m very slow and very groggy today. Sigh. Best get to my boosting. Holding the Good/Healing/Protecting Thought for everybody. {{{Meeses}}}
I have no idea where the attack came from but I am suspicious of the old web site address still connected to the old hosting service. I shut that off and disconnected it in the hopes that may be the source. I am going to refine the IP blocks I put on the site but later after everyone checks in. I may have been a little aggressive as it looks like I am blocking all of California as well as the bad guys in Singapore and Hong Kong. Oops!!
Oops. No you don’t want to block CA. Not that he checks in often but basket is in CA. Thank you again for everything.
Good morning, meeses! Friday …
It is 50 degrees in Tucson 🌵 with an expected daytime high of 73. Mostly sunny skies are in the forecast. Tomorrow we expect to hit the 80s and then the temps will drop some early next week. In the meantime, we are enjoying the lovely weather.
Our moon is waxing again, bringing us new energy to fight the battles – or at least to help us keep our heads up while others with more power fight those battles. I already know who is not being helpful – Senate Democrats who are giving cover to the Felon and the Melon. I don’t care what they say, confirming the nominations sends the signal that everything is fine when it clearly is not. I hope that they name this fall’s flu epidemic the Cassidy Flu after the cowardly Republican Senator who thought he could hang on to his Senate seat (he can’t, he voted to remove tRump) by sucking up to the cult leader and voting to confirm RatFKjr to HHS.
I will watch the Moose closely this morning for any new attacks. I locked down everything I could and we now have a set of protections in place PLUS I now know how to quickly lock us down again if there are problems. I am eying other options but they will have to wait until I have more time to research them.
Today is the last day of the shortened month and I need to get projects done.
See all y’all later!
Friday Meese. 39 here and we have snow mixed with rain.
Puerto Rico
Good morning. Did my walk, almost turned around because my heel hurts, but I got in my mile. I finished reading Jodi Picoult’s latest yesterday, By Any Other Name and I highly recommend it. Started reading a nonfiction that makes the astonishing argument that humans don’t actually suck. Humankind: A Hopeful History. It’s really hard to wrap my brain around, but he has numerous examples of researchers looking for people going all Mad Max after a disaster — and not finding any. People help each other. (all that stuff about Katrina — mostly myth; the one true thing was people murdering people fleeing because they thought they were looters). Anyway, we may be wrong about human nature, isn’t that good to know?
Good sunny Friday, Moosekind! Yes, it will be sunny with little puffs of white cloud, and up in the 50s today, BUT there will be wind. Ugh. Right now in Ashburn it’s 45 F. As usual, the showers yesterday were imaginary.
In a tearing hurry this morning because I have a dentist appointment in Herndon at 11, a fitting of my costumes at 3:30, and Rehearsal tonight at 7:15 p.m. So there will be a mad scramble to get other things done in between.
Have just worked out that it must be my detergent that exacerbates my eczema—causing unbearable itching, redness, and swelling. It’s a shame, because these detergent sheets dissolve while they’re washing the clothes, thereby helping the environment. I hated big heavy plastic jugs of detergent and of having to dispose of them when they were empty.
Three more Rethugs have jumped into the governor’s race in Virginia (we elect a new one this fall) to save us from electing a…BLACK WOMAN! She’s a Rethug, so she’s awful. Had her picture taken with an AR-15 to show how Trumped Up she was. One of the Rethug males will probably win the primary, and he’ll defeat Abigail Spanberger, who is…a WOMAN! Quel horreur! It constantly amazes me how much men hate the women who bear them, take care of them, and provide endless wifely duties when the said men grow up and get married.
Gotta go—the dentist awaits! Wishing a good day to all at the Pond!
It’s 57 heading for 71 and sunny. February going out the way it came in. Temps will drop back to the low 60s tomorrow. Yesterday we generated the highest single day for month and year (so far) with 15.2 KWHs. The m-t-d at 166 could actually reach 180 today. While not the 280 I’d hoped for 28 days ago, it still covers what I use in a month so that’s good.
The one rat trap I can see without going under the house is still set. When it warms up a bit I’ll check the other one. I haven’t seen or heard evidence of them since Tuesday. But rats are sneaky that way.
I got better sleep last night but I’m still a little groggy. The stiff and slow moving is temps. That’s the only reason I look forward to summer heat, to lose the stiff & achiness in my hands and back. I’ve got baking to do today. But first I’ve got boosting to do so I’d best get to it. Holding the Good/Healing/Protecting Thought for everybody. {{{Meeses}}}
Good morning, 49, and as the fog drifts away I can see some blue sky, and that lifts my spirits. Yesterday was no fun with both low BP and oxygen levels making me feel weak and dizzy. And today the levels are all normal again…..wish I knew why. Oh well, today is a new day so I’ll see what happens. Best wishes to all.
The rat’s been caught! Or at least one very large (like almost as big as a squirrel) rat has been caught. The yard guys came by to see if I needed anything. I had them check and there it was. They disposed of it for me. And reset the trap. Just in case.
Yay! Was the rat named Trump?
LOL. No, of course not. The rat was a much better neighbor and citizen than twitler. I just couldn’t have him living my walls/house.
Saturday Meese. Tra la la it’s going to be 51 today! Yay!
The Dumpster has issued another racist xenophobic exec order.
Dump – English only order
Bastid. I hope that every Hispanic person who voted for that pile of garbage feels deep remorse and shame.
Good morning, meeses! Saturday, the First Day of March …
It is 54 degrees in Tucson 🌵 with an expected daytime high of 81. Sunny skies are in the forecast. I was reading that there will be a lunar eclipse in March and a Blood Moon. I think we had one the first year that we were here and watched the moon rise above the mountains and then turn red and then dark. It was an amazing thing to see.
Someone on BlueSky yesterday, after the Felon and Boy Blunder announced the US alliance with Russia against Europe from the Oval Office, said that America First means America Alone. Indeed. I hope that Europe has the resolve to push back against the drooling dotard that people wanting cheap eggs elected to run the largest military the world has ever known. It sounds like the EU is ready to take on their own security and protection. The photos of Lindsey Graham doing something to someone (Tom Cotton, maybe?) must be truly awful for him and the other Senate Republican hawks to agree to leave NATO and eliminate the need for a military industrial complex to protect American interests in Europe and keep Russia from doing essentially anything it wants to do. I will say this about tRump, picking JD Vance as Vice President was a stroke of genius – he is the ultimate protection against impeachment and removal. Literally no one want that pea brain as president.
I have many things to do today and a determination to focus on getting them done.
See all y’all later!
Good Saturday morning the first day of March—Rabbit! We have blue and white skies, a predicted high of 55 F. and WIND! Oh, today is St. David’s Day in Wales, so be sure to stick either a daffodil or a leek in your hat when you go out.
OMG, the sight of The Felon and UglyPants Vance snarling like hyenas and attacking President Zelinskyy was so deeply outrageous and vile that it should end forever the Felon’s hope of a “Noble Peace Prize.” (He can’t spell “Nobel.”) It made me sick to see it. Thank GODDESS President Z. left without signing away his country’s mineral rights. The USA is now officially a shithole country.
Last night I was reading, to my bone-dissolving horror, of the prevalence of the Ku Klux Klan throughout the 1920s. Almost every state in the Union was part of it! This is a racist country and always has been.
Going to rehearsal last night, during which we actually spoke lines for a change (most rehearsals so far have been strictly musical), thankfully took my mind off my problems: my husband’s health is growing worse, our Social Security deposits may be late or nonexistent next month because MELON has taken the axe to SSA, and whatinell is making me itch to the point of madness? I found some Earth Breeze laundry strips, supposedly hypoallergenic in the utility closet, and will use them to see if I’m allergic to my current detergent. Hey, that rhymes!
I have to put on the slow cooker stew by 10 a.m., take a shower, go to the gym (haven’t been in two days), and do the taxes this afternoon. My fittings yesterday went beautifully! The costumer was ecstatic that the blue opera gloves matched the dress I’m to wear. The little fascinator hat looked great with a new, glittery bow. It’s so much fun dressing up! And I’m going to enjoy it all as much as possible because what’s coming isn’t going to be pretty.
Wishing a good day to all at the Pond, and especially to those who aren’t feeling well. Blessed be.
Posted
Good morning. Austin has our first case of measles. I’m vaccinated and have never been to the places the unvaccinated idiot went but jhfc I want a time machine to go back to the invention of the measles shot and tell people about the idiots who refuse it. And then there’s the idiot in the White House. Ugh. Well at least I have motivation for my kickboxing workout later.
It’s 50 going to 60 today and sunny at the moment. Yesterday was another 15+ KWH-day and we ended February with 181. Not great but at least more than I use in a non-A/C month. The best we’ve ever done in March is 421.7 so that’s the “gee, it would be nice” target. The lowest for the 4K system was 338 so that’s the “at least beat this” target. I’d love anything over 400 but even 380 would be good. We shall see what we shall see.
Yahoo, after 20+ years that I know of with a decent email format, decide to let the techbros w/ AI assistance eff up my email. It’s possible although unlikely that some of the damage can be reversed or at least ameliorated via settings. If I could figure out how. But at the moment I’m stuck with a program that decides what’s priority for me and defaults to the priority view. The format bar for when I’m creating emails is hard to find (no longer on the tool bar with the italics/bold/underline buttons) and when found it sits there blocking the typing space so I have to type blind then scroll around to find what I typed and correct typos/erroneous autofills. No, the box doesn’t have a little x in the corner so I can close it. It’s a 3-clicks and scroll bar operation to move emails to file instead of a 1-click and scroll bar. Essentially they’ve totally changed it to something a 30-something techbro can use on his phone – and nobody else can use comfortably if at all. And there’s now an extra step I haven’t figured out how to do to get a person (if there are any people left) in the help “desk”. I am not happy. (But at least the rat is gone. That I’m happy about.)
The boosting won’t do itself so I’d best be about it. Holding the Good/Healing/Protecting Thought for everybody. {{{Meeses}}}
Bfitz—Gods, I hate techbros. Email should be simple and a human should be the one in control of it.
A-Men!
Good morning, 50 and partly sunny. I know what I should do with my day, but what will I do? For now I’m enjoying the quiet but I’d best get moving soon. Best wishes to all.