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 41 degrees in the Desert Southwest 🌵 with an expected daytime high of 68. Mostly cloudy skies are in the forecast.
Have a great day, all y’alls!!
Good morning. I didn’t take any flower pictures yesterday, maybe today. For now I’m just enjoying the smell of my steeping tea and watching local news. Hey — does anyone know if there’s a limit to how strong you can make tea? In a gallon of water, I put 2 gallon-sized bags, 2 normal size bags of chocolate puerh tea, 2 bags of loose leaf flavored tea and one of Barry’s, an Irish brand. I just wonder if the water has a capacity of how much tea it absorbs. Yes I really like my tea strong.
Don’t know about the others, but Barry’s is one of the teas we drink every day. We like strong black tea with milk and sugar—at least his Lordship does, I don’t use sugar in my tea.
Tea is full of antioxidants that protect you against various dreadful conditions. Can’t remember what they all are, but you’re better off drinking tea than not drinking it. So, go for it!
Oh, I love my tea, was just wondering if I was wasting some of those bags because the water can maybe only take a certain amount.
It may not be an issue of how much the water can hold as an issue of at what point your taste buds can’t tell the difference. They’ve only got so many receptors and once they’ve all been hit, that’s it. The easiest way to tell is try making it with fewer teabags and see if you can tell.
A sunny Sunday here! Yay! Tonight is the big March Madness women’s basketball selection Sunday – so I’m gonna have to take a nap so I can stay awake to see it.
Posted:
The selection show will be on at 5pm MST so I will probably not need a nap to stay up for it! I am actually hoping that the Arizona Wildcats don’t get one of the Plus 4 spots and instead get a WBIT bid. I would like to see them in person this year and that would be my last chance.
I managed to stay awake and watch with the help of two mugs of coffee :)
I’m been fascinated by the team from Grand Canyon University in Phoenix- who I had never heard of – who made it into the Big Dance
They are a Christian school that has D1 sports. They probably got an automatic bid because they won their conference, the Mountain West. They actually have a pretty good team and their coach is being looked at to take over the Arizona State University program which just fired their Black woman coach after only giving her three years to right that ship. She actually made a lot of progress, just not enough for the white males in Tempe. :(
Good drizzly Sunday morning, Moosekind! Sure, and isn’t it just like the Auld Sod, gray as it is with the promise of more rain. It’s okay with me: Dearly is watching Formula 1, where the rain is causing havoc in Melbourne, Australia, and I’m about to get ready for the day.
Breakfast has been cooked and eaten. Early morning tea has been drunk, as has coffee. Elder Son is going to cook our dinner as a way of celebrating my birthday.
Yesterday, half the cast was absent from the Drama Club meeting, as was most of the audience. One can only suppose people had better things to do with their time than to listen to cast autobiographies. Mine, as Irene, was well received. Afterwards I had the opportunity to do a bit of priestessing. One of the duties of a friendly neighborhood priestess is to listen, without judgment or offering advice, to overburdened souls who need to get something off their chest. At any rate, the actor who has the lead role in the musical talked to me for an hour. He’s a dear man that I hope will become a friend.
Today I have to type a long, long list of dates and sent them to the Chair of the Drama Club Board. Hope I don’t fall asleep while I’m doing it.
Guess what, seven years ago today we moved from our house to here. It’s funny to think I didn’t like it here at first. Now, I’m having the time of my life! I love being in plays, leading the writers’ group, hanging out with the UUs and Progressives, playing drums, and dancing at the “Open Mic” nights. Never thought old age would be so much fun.
Wishing a good day and no bad news or bad weather to all at the Pond!
It’s 39 now but there was frost on the roofs so it must have been at least right at freezing early this morning. Heading for 58. Yesterday we got 7.2 KWHs and the m-t-d at 202 definitely lost ground. Here’s hoping we gain some back today. Or at least don’t lose any more.
Got all my Sunday chores done but woke up tired and was really slow about it. Still being slow for that matter. But they’re done and it’s another whole week before I have to do them again. Meanwhile I’m very late getting started on my boosting day so I’d best get to it. Holding the Good/Healing/Protecting Thought for everybody. {{{Meeses}}}
Good morning, 41 and partly cloudy. I woke up so rain so it’s nice to see a bit of blue in the sky now. We’re cooking corn beef, cabbage, and Irish soda bread for dinner tonight and then we’ll start watching season 3 of The Wheel of Time series. I’m trying to keep our real life interesting with the hope the mess of the felon and his minions will be background noise. I chatted via text with Marcus yesterday and he will call me next week to schedule pruning the top of the laurel hedge. He is relocating his business to the Seattle area so I’m greatly relieved he still wants to work with me. The top of the high hedge needs to be hand clipped this year so his skill and tall ladders are needed. My hope is that thinning the branches will let more light reach the new lower growth and then the hedge will fill in again. Nurturing and restoring the hedge has been a years work so it’s good to see it looking healthy again. Best wishes to all.
Monday Meese.
Puerto Rico
“I’m not asking for permission”: Melisa López-Franzen seeks to become the first Puerto Rican elected to the United States Senate –
Happy St. Patrick’s day! I braved the fancy grocery yesterday to bring my office a loaf of soda bread. Crazy crowded, and the parking lot is terrifying. Got my walk done, in the office. Wearing green from head to toe because some of my ancestors killed some of my of my other ancestors over this color.
Good Monday morning, Moosekind. Outside it’s 50 F. and very ugly.
All I can say is merde. I’m cross because it was so hot when I woke up. We received hardly any rain, let alone the tree-knocking-down high winds, lightning, golf ball-sized hail, and a teeny tiny tornado. Wish I could be paid $300,000 a year for getting the forecast wrong every damn day. It says 50 F. on the outside thermometer, which means jeans today and a long-sleeved shirt.
Must run to Costco soon to get my hearing aids cleaned. I’m still deafer than a post, despite having these aids. And I can’t find my password book. Hope something happens to make me feel less b*tchy today. Well, I did get a place in the Drum Circle for April 7, so that’s good.
That’s enough of my whining. Wishing a good day to all at the Pond and hope your weather is nicer than ours!
It’s 56 heading for 76 and sunny. Also windy which will make it feel cooler but won’t bother the PV system any. Yesterday we generated 18.85 KWHs and the m-t-d at 220 if not on track is catching up.
I saw the moon just before and after dawn as I was waking up and doing my back exercises. Beautiful as always and so close to full I couldn’t tell the difference without my glasses. Since I’d accidently used some live coals in laying my fire yesterday (which I do just before preparing lunch), the fire lit itself as I was cutting carrot sticks. Very nice of it. I was warm yesterday afternoon as well as evening. Meanwhile, today may be warm enough to not have a fire at all. Depends on how soon the temps start dropping. As in will it be in the 60s before or after sunset. I’ll lay one anyway, just in case. But I’ll be careful and check to be sure there are no live coals.
Low back is still complaining about the vacuuming I did yesterday. And my hands are a bit stiff. Oh well. Best get to my boosting. Holding the Good/Healing/Protecting Thought for everybody. {{{Meeses}}}
Good morning, 43 and mostly cloudy in Bellingham today. Cooking a corn beef supper yesterday was a tasty distraction from the national chaos. After dinner we watched the new episode of the Wheel of Time……fantasy chaos is easier to accept! Ny Irish soda bread wasn’t very tasty, but sometimes gf baking just goes wrong. The outside looked perfect but the inside was gummy, grrr. The recipe I used was written for a flour I didn’t have so I substituted and apparently it was flour specfic. Gf free flour is expensive so I don’t like to waste it.
After dinner we watched the new episode of the Wheel of Time series and it is more fun to see chaos in a fantasy world that it is in real life. I should read the news of the day but I’m discouraged so I’m going to play some solitaire instead. As always, my best wishes to all.
{{{princesspat}}} if you haven’t already just tossed it in the compost or something, try toasting the soda bread. I’ve found that sometimes that will make a gummy GF bread edible. Not great but not bad. Like you, I hate to waste food. Especially stuff as expensive as GF flour. Moar {{{HUGS}}}
Good afternoon, meeses! Monday …
It is 77 and sunny in Tucson 🌵 with an expected high of 84 degrees. The moonlight was cascading across the wash this morning and beaming into my office window.
Another too busy morning but I think I finished everything I needed to in order to take it a little easier for a couple days.
See all y’all later!
Good morning. 31 going up to 55 here in Kingston.
Puerto Rico
Toon depicting New Progressive Party Republican President of the Senate of Puerto Rico. Thomas Rivera Schatz
On two occasions, Governor Jenniffer Gonzalez has used mental health to invalidate a person. As a patient in recovery from anxiety and depression and a member of the working class in Puerto Rico, I consider this disrespectful. People with mental health issues are human and functional, and many of our difficulties come from the very system she administers. Don’t use mental health to discredit others, because that reflects that those of us who deal with these challenges are not worth it to you.
Translated with DeepL.com (free version)
Good morning. Calm, happy wfh day. Working on accommodations to keep my 2 days. Cool enough that I have a window open for some nice fresh air.
Good morning, meeses! Tuesday …
It is 54 degrees in Tucson 🌵 with an expected daytime high of 68. Sunny skies are in the forecast. Yesterday the weather widget said highs in the upper 60s and we got to 80 here so I am not going to count on it staying that cool.
The 24×7 barrage of troubling “Breaking News” emails subsided so either the MAGAts are done with their shock and awe, their god is having a mental breakdown and is lying low, or they are busy plotting exactly how to ignore the courts and send the military into everyone’s homes to root out undocumented immigrants and destroy families and upend the economy. In any event, it is a welcome respite. I was reading an article about how we survive this and the author pointed out that “the Republicans will be punished at the polls” is not really true. They have not been “punished at the polls” for anything they have ever done, going back to Watergate and through Iran Contra, Bush’s 9/11, Bush’s Great Recession, or tRump’s pandemic. They will do lasting damage – again – and will still win elections because the American people are stupid.
The Arizona Wildcats Women’s Basketball team will be hosting a game (and we hope two games) in the Womens Basketball Invitational Tournament (WBIT). We will be playing Northern Arizona University which beat us in Flagstaff earlier in the season but when we had our best player out with a concussion. We are hoping for a better outcome this time and the chance to host a second game. We are in the same corner of the bracket as Stanford so if we both make it to the semi-finals, it should be an interesting matchup. The WBIT has a neutral site for the semi-finals and the championship game, Butler University’s 1928 stadium in Indianapolis. The WNITs (the precursor to the WBITs) used to have host teams host all the way through to the championship. It was great for the fans but not so great for the visitors who almost always lost to the host team.
I need to sort through my stack of notes from yesterday to see if there is anything that requires my attention. I have some soft deadlines approaching and I should try to organize a good to-do list.
See all y’all later!
It’s 64 heading for 79 and while sort of sunny there are clouds moving in. Yesterday we generated 17.2 KWHs and the m-t-d at 237.4 is less than a KWH from being on track. IF we get 15 today, we’ll be there. IF.
I wish what I thought America was when I was younger was true. But the majority of Americans are racists who define everyone who isn’t white cis male & their breeding stock as “other” and America is a genocidal fascist country attempting to eliminate, one way or another, all the “others”. They’ll kill themselves in the attempt. But they refuse to believe that. And they’re going to take a whole lot of good people down first. Sigh. Meanwhile there are good people out there and my boosting is done in hopes of catching their attention to help folks in trouble that money can fix. So I’d best be about it. (And bake gingerbread this afternoon to distract myself and make the house smell good.) Holding the Good/Healing/Protecting Thought for everybody. {{{Meeses}}}
Good morning, 41 and partly cloudy in Bellingham today. I have a haircut this morning and will try to do something in Fairhaven after. I’m feeling better but energy still fades fast so I’ll be careful. Best wishes to all.
Good morning Meese. Still have spring weather!
Puerto Rico
“Today, the power-drunk woman is trying to write a sad chapter in our history. She mobilized the entire Puerto Rico Police Force to Rincón just to cut down a tree and build a wall on the beach. She believes her abuse of power will impose her ignorance, but this town will endure. The aftermath will be harsh.”
Good morning. High fire danger here again, very dry and windy. Worked my butt off yesterday, was still typing in stuff for a new person up to the last minute of my day. Let no one say in my presence that wfh means goofing off. Today: astronomy between calls and I am leaving early to get exercise.
Good Wednesday morning, Moosekind! It’s going to be a beautiful day here in Ashburned, 75 F. and sunny. AND—I got mah Social! I was so afraid I wouldn’t. One never knows what Melon will do next. I am in tears for all the unfortunate people who’ve lost their government jobs and paychecks. They have bills to pay, and good jobs aren’t that easy to find nowadays.
I hab a bit of a code, so may hab to wear a bask todight when I go on stage for rehearsal. There’s a scene where I have to ask a guy to marry me. He has the second biggest male lead in the play, and I don’t want to give him my cold. He has to bang on a washboard for one scene. I am now wondering where on earth the property mistress managed to find such an object. Don’t think I’ve seen one since 1950.
Yesterday I had to go to the Clubs Fair, which I always enjoy. I think I now know where the Woodworking Club hangs out. I need to take some manky pieces of wood to them, as Dearly is convinced they will be of some use. Steve, the president of said club, promised to throw them away if they’re not usable.
It was almost warm yesterday evening, so I went for a little walk to see my new garden tub. Steve, who’s also president of the Garden Club, says I have 20 cubic feet of earth. I can’t think what to grow besides tomatoes and English parsley. What doesn’t take up much room? And doesn’t get too tall? The Garden Club have arranged for a trapper to humanely trap the groundhog that lives under the garden shed and scarfs up all the vegetables. I’ll have to buy nets.
That’s enough of me rattling on. I need to write an email to the Dining Goddess to reserve the patio and screened porch for a summer solstice ritual. One has to reserve three months in advance. Annoyingly, summer solstice happens at 9:49 p.m. on June 20. Hope it’s not a million degrees that day.
Morning prayers have been offered for all the people on my list, including two of our own here. Wishing a happy, healthy day to all at the Pond!