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 (every Sunday morning). 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 now 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 and use the link.
Good morning, Meese. Another overcast morning in NoVa, and this time it’s expected to lead to rain around noon. It’s 40 F. now, going up to 42 F. today.
Over at GOS some are already talking about good old Uncle Joe running for POTUS in 2020. Pardon me while I yawn. I can never forget the credit card card bill thing in 2005, so although he’s been okay as veep, I can’t see myself getting excited about yet another old white guy.
Thing goes from pit to pittier, if one may coin a word. Now he’s putting Carson in charge of HUD? Duhh. I can’t get over the stupidity of people who vote Rethug. I think, and shall continue to think, that it was the MSM who are mostly responsible for bringing down Hillary.
It’s been four weeks and I’m still not “over it” enough. I also don’t feel like doing any activism. Just feel burned out and bummed out. Going to concentrate on my patch today and try not to think too much about the outside world.
I am fine with Joe talking about 2020. It gives people who are hyperfocused on the presidency something to jabber about while the adults start working on 2017 – DNC meetings to select a new chair and the New Jersey and Virginia governors races in the fall. Plus recruiting and battle plans for 2018.
I would have voted for Joe in 2016 but he would not have been my favorite. People will say he could have won and maybe he could have – but he had a lot of baggage from his attacks on Anita Hill and his MBNA contacts. I am sure that Sanders would have attacked him too as a corporatist and driven down his favorables. Maybe Joe will be the perfect guy to tell Sanders to just STHU.
The Dems need a positive spokesperson right now, and Joe can do that. Thanks for the storify link Jan…..
The lesson and the message is important so I’ll share the link again. https://storify.com/DemFromCT/public-policy-polling-on-observations-about-the-nc
It should really be bookmarked on every progressive’s browser.
I am going to try to find a place to start showcasing the positive Here’s the Way Forward posts we find.
Thanks for that link Jan – FINALLY someone outside of us fervent Rev. Barber supporters, recognizes the role of Moral Mondays and long haul movement building!
I am hoping I can find time to start writing again … there are some good things out there that we need to focus on and definitely some battles that need our attention now. December and January are busy months for me; my November projects suffered greatly when I fell into a chasm of self-pity after the election so I started December behind.
42 at daybreak and going to oscillate around that all day – clearing off later and temps should drop like a rock after dark. Hoping it clears off enough for some decent (by this time of year’s standards) production. So far I’m averaging 4 KWHs per day which is less than I use. sigh.
I never got off “primary rules” at GOS which is just as well. The Haters who used Bernie as their poster child are back in full force and pushing the same b.s. they did all along. And of course since Bernie didn’t win to prove them wrong, as he would have, they can promote their woulda/coulda/shoulda until Kos gets tired enough of it to shut them down. Which is why I did my part to create the Village community (and why the Haters are invading just like they did in the primaries and trying to shut down just like they did in the primaries) – there has to be at least a couple of parts of GOS actually trying to work on solutions if that collection of communities that I love is to stay viable and not go the way of other political blogs. So the Village supports each other, periodically bitches about the latest Bernie outrage, and mostly tries to come up with ideas of what to do next. Like immediate next – how to block the worst of the worst – and next up next – how to get Congress back in 2018. Just damned tired of doing it under fire from both sides. But then, that’s what tells us we’re doing it right.
Need to get to work. We who know just how bad – and abnormal – this election is seem to alternate between depression and anxiety attacks. Neither of which is conducive to focus and multi-tasking is a bridge too far right now, so it takes me longer to get through the morning emails even. sigh. So. Bright the day and wind to thy wings, Meeses. {{{HUGS}}}
Here is some Twittering that should resonate with you:
I replied that if it were just one thing, the anxiety might be manageable – but that it is every damn thing!
Yeah. It’s every damn thing.
Good morning, 33 and cloudy in Bellingham. We had some Christmas fun yesterday……lights are on the porch and patio trees, evergreen and holly wreaths are on the doors, the big artificial wreath is up on the garden trellis and will get new (working) lights today, the pine cone lights are looking festive on the patio, and the real tree is in the garage……might make it into the house today.
Thanks to Ava for even more fun……her school play, Jill and the Beanstock, made us smile last night. And her school fundraiser poinsettias are enormous so I just kept one and gave the other two to my flower shop friends. It was fun to “elf” them, and to see their surprise.
So I’m muddling on, countering the darkness as best I can.
TN Senator Corker worried about the “delay” part of “Repeal and Delay”, wants to replace now.
The problem is that there is NO consensus – and never will be. The “Repeal and Delay” is really just “Repeal” with a fig leaf for congress members who want to pretend to their constituents that they will not lose their healthcare. We need to call their bs.
Good morning, meese! Wednesday …
It is 21 degrees in Madison and it will not get above that today. Mostly sunny skies are in the forecast and we are expected to stay cold through Sunday. Maybe some snow on Friday.
The House passed the Continuing Resolution to fund the government through April 28th. They included a poison pill to change the law to remove the restriction on General Mattis being allowed to go pretty much right from active duty to head the defense department (there is a 7 year waiting period). So instead of a debate over the role of the military in civilian government, the lawmaking apparatus gets short-circuited before Trump is even sworn in. This is your Unified Republican Government – fk the rules, they have damage to do, no time to waste!! I hope the Senate can strip it out and, if they can’t, that President Obama vetoes it as his final shoutout to the role of the constitution.
Today is December 7th and the 75th anniversary of the Pearl Harbor attack. Later this month, the prime minister of Japan will meet with President Obama in Hawaii to “honor the power of reconciliation” kind of a full circle from President Obama’s visit to Nagasaki this past May. Whenever I think about how this election has transformed us in an instant from a thoughtful, caring nation into a belligerent embarrassing spectacle of ugliness on the world stage, I want to cry all over again. President Obama is a unique figure, not just as the first black president, but as a person whose dignity and respect for traditions raised America’s profile in the international community. :(
See all y’all later!
The “poison pill” is less poisonous after analysis but still troubling (in my mind):
Good mornin’ Meese
35 here in the NY mountains and light snow expected.
I wanted to stay home today – but have to go into school for an early meeting :(
Hope all is well with y’all – off to grab coffee.
Cold again — supposed to freeze tonight. I moved all my plants together to make them easier to cover. There might even be snow just north of us, in Waco. (it’s an hour away, but snow that close this time of year is freaking people out)
Have you seen the sweet Polish Christmas ad? Prepare for tears.
it’s early but I’m calling this the Tweet of the Day
https://twitter.com/ChuckWendig/status/806487123012546560
Good morning, Meese. More overcast skies and wet streets, although it doesn’t appear to be raining at the moment. Later today the sky will clear. Current temp. is 40 F., going up to 50 F.
Over at GOS this morning’s APR suggests that it was a “Throw the bums out” type of election, that no party can win a third term (wrong: Bush Sr. did), and that the white working class hates the idea of anyone besides themselves getting any benefits. Hindsight is so helpful in analysis.
Having lunch tomorrow with someone who lives and breathes politics. She probably wants me to get involved, but I don’t feel like it right now. Not to mention that November and December are the busiest months of the year for women! We’re going to miss a Brownie troop meeting Tuesday night because of a Christmas party, plus there’s the Christmas newsletter to write and send, as well as silver polishing, tidying, summer sheets to be put away—the list is endless.
Hope everyone will have a good day.
As you might expect (!), I have some opinions about what kind of election it was and “Throw the Bums Out” is not part of it. For one thing, Hillary Clinton got over 65 million votes and may yet surpass the vote total for Obama 2012 – hardly a repudiation.
I am not ready for my 2016 election retrospective yet (I have a title and some thoughts). I will not put anything out on the universe until everything is settled.
32 maybe getting to 39 – if the clouds clear off. Only upside to that is if they don’t tomorrow will greet me with mid-20s instead of mid-teens. Not much of an upside. Didn’t quite get to 4 KWHs yesterday and quite probably less today. Got the desk lamps on in the office. sigh.
Ignoring FP and rec list at GOS. The only political stuff I’m involved in is via the Village community, the rest is more communities (Street Prophets – for which I need to throw together a diary today – Community Fundraisers, and of course the Pootie diaries, although I’ve taken to visiting KTK in the evenings before I log off) and Denise’s diaries, of course. And I try to at least skim the Black Kos diaries but seldom comment. Considering I’m still holding down a 40+ hour a week job, I think that’s enough. I hope that’s enough.
Anyway, work to do so I’d best get to it. Bright the day and wind to thy wings, Meeses. {{{HUGS}}}
That’s a lot, bfitz! Don’t overdo, my friend.
Good morning, 28 and mostly clear in Bellingham. I’m looking at a wintery sky outside my window today. When I cleaned up the garden for fall I left the blooming begonias, fuchsias and inpatients in the pots but they will be frozen now. I’ve also got greens and some flowers in water in the garage that I should have dealt with yesterday, but I didn’t. So I’ve got some more clean up to do today. My up and down election angst was difficult yesterday so I just did what I could.
We did get the tree into the house and Ron got the lights in place so now the years and years accumulation of tree ornaments can come out of their boxes and stir sentimental memories once again.
Take care everyone.
I said to someone the other day that for those of us who realize just how wrong everything about the election was/is, it’s like we’re carrying a 100-lb backpack while slogging through hip-deep mud. Focusing on small, family and community things we can do doesn’t relieve us of the backpack, but it at least gets us into shallower mud.
Enjoy your tree. Normally I wait to get my tree until the family gathering known as “Decorate the Tree at Grandma’s” – but this year we’re not gathering until the 18th and since the ’08 crash most of the Christmas tree vendors stopped vending. We’ve only got the WI Tree people, Lowes, and a local tree nursery. Once they’re gone, they’re gone – usually by the 15th. So I’ll be getting my tree on Saturday – just trying to think of a place to keep it safe until he 18th. But then yes, the ornaments come out of their boxes – and each one has its story/memory.
For me, the holidays were looked forward to because on the holidays, but only on the holidays, it is/was OK to express the love I have for my friends and family. Moar {{{HUGS}}}
Good morning, meese! Thursday …
It is 16 degrees in Madison with an expected daytime high of 27. The forecast calls for variable cloudiness.
Well, the tRump administration is certainly aiming to be historical.
We do have to be careful, though. There is a certain amount of truth to this:
And also that all of his picks are intended to outrage us so that we just oppose everything instead of focusing. If we oppose everyone (which we would be justified in doing), we look like sore losers and obstructionists and our concerns are easily dismissed.
This pretty much sums up the election:
Paul Ryan would like to kill 36,000 of us a year. Republican Death Panels! The good news is that hospitals and healthcare providers are starting to weigh in. Republicans don’t care about lives lost but they likely care about $150 billion in losses and the collapse of the entire health care industry.
See all y’all later!
Good morning Meese.
32 here – but feels colder.
Got up early am to let the dogs out – and waiting for them to come back – saw lights in my driveway. It was two State Troopers – and they had the dogs with them. Instead of the dogs using our 5 acres to do their do – they decided to run out in the road – where the troopers saw them and brought them home – thankfully safe.
Now I can’t let them out at night alone – I don’t let them out in the daytime – so hubby will have to walk them when he gets home – they are too strong for me to manage on a leash.
Good morning, Meese. Overcast in NoVa this morning, 37 F. now, 47 F. later.
Can’t think of anything edifying to say about the political situation. Feeling unnerved by something I read in a diary on GOS yesterday, to the effect that we’ve already reached the tipping point on climate change. Our species will be wiped off the face of the earth, and this is the worst possible time to have someone like Thing for president.
Today someone I know from GOS wants to have lunch, so we’re meeting in a nearby location. I hope she’s not going to ask me to do any political activism. As Darling Niece and I discussed over coffee yesterday, we are both simply weary. I have plans for the next year that don’t include doing anything political.
Wishing everyone a good day!
Cooooold! I had to wear a coat & gloves. I picked a cloak, that has an attached scarf because my hair’s still wet. This is lunacy — I don’t know how you cold-climate people do this for months at a time. It’s supposed to freeze tonight, I’ve already covered my plants.
2016 has claimed another victim, Greg Lake of ELP. His Christmas song makes me cry (this is U2’s cover of it). And John Glenn has been in the hospital for “weeks”, the story I read said. Can’t wait for this year to end.
18 at daybreak 20 now heading for 30 – overcast but so much lighter than yesterday it’s almost sunny in comparison. Almost. (Didn’t even get 1.5 KWHs yesterday.) I’m going to need more firewood to get through the winter but am OK through December. I always do – only enough space along my carport to stack a full cord and it takes two – it’ll take a lot more once I’ve retired and am doing fires all day during the week instead of just evenings on workdays. I’ll worry about that next winter.
Getting old sux – I’m very sensitive to cold and barometric pressure changes now. My hands and feet start being effected with temps in the 70s, I’m clumsy and achy when they’re in the 60s, and they just plain hurt and don’t function well when the temps are any lower. Like now. Hurt and hard to type. And then I think about Aji – day temps in the 20s, nights around 0, auto-immune problems, falling, dropping things, and living in an uninsulated tin can/RV where the only way to get warm is wrap up in an electric blanket – as long as the power’s up which it frequently isn’t in storms – and I just want to cry. Which doesn’t help and just makes my head hurt, too. sigh. And of course she isn’t the only one. I’ve currently got 6 on my community fundraiser list – with PDNC the top of the list and Aji 2nd. Sigh.
Politically so many people are arguing about this, that, and six other things and missing the underlying causes. When you get to the roots we’re dealing with voter suppression and RW corporate ownership of 90% of the media and way too much influence on the rest. We ‘re going to have to figure out how to circumvent both until we can get back into power long enough to actually do something about them. And meanwhile, we need to block everything we can coming out of the proposed administration (which as best I can figure out is actually going to be run by Thing’s totally unelected children).
Well, no matter what happens on the national stage, I still have work to do right here and right now so I’d best get to it. Bright the day and wind to thy wings, Meeses. {{{HUGS}}}
Good morning, 25 and partly cloudy in Bellingham today. Snow is forecast for tomorrow and then we should be back to temps in the 30’s. I prefer chilly rain! I’ve got a collection of holly and greens ready to arrange in the outdoor pots but I’m going to wait until it’s warmer.
I’ve got a busy day ahead with a visit to the lab for coumadin monitoring, then the dentist, then the appliance store for some help with the stinky seals on my front loading washer, and then the messy desk must be tamed once again. Tending to daily life is mundane, but it’s a welcome relief from election angst.
The sewing room project has one last messy task…..repairing the plaster walls and a rotten spot in the wood floor of the closet, which is actually under the front porch stairs. We hope to add some insulation because it’s cold and drafty……just have to be careful not to create a space for mold to grow. When the mold is on the surface of the walls it’s easy to see and remove, but when it grows in enclosed spaces it’s not. I’ve got an insulated drapery made to cover the opening and that will allow air to circulate while keeping the room warmer. So we’re getting closer to being able to put the room back together again.
Hope everyone is enjoying moments of the day.
This is an extraordinarily powerful account of the Roof trial in Charleston. So much hate, so much love, so much sadness.
Emotional testimony as Dylann Roof trial begins
In his words are the seed of what drove so many to vote for hate in the 2016 election:
He could have been a speech writer for tRump.
a beautiful, hopeful twitter thread — you might not think it from the start, but read it all, it is beautiful
https://twitter.com/xeni/status/807036994530312192
Good morning, meese! Friday …
It is 19 degrees in Madison with an expected daytime high of 21. Mostly sunny skies are in the forecast.
Here is the video of the tribute to Harry Reid from yesterday:
Hillary Clinton speaks at about 8:34 in.
Time to go on a news hiatus again – quick scan of headlines and close. I am hoping that someone invents a feed that only gives us the information we need to survive and to focus on winning electoral battles. Right now the awfulness of tRumpism is coming at us like a firehose. There is literally no part of our government that won’t be wrecked by his cabinet picks. We can’t stop them all – heck, the Republicans are so kumbaya right now, we may not be able to stop even one of them! I am hoping that the career government workers stay on and make sure that the laws are followed and that our laws are sturdy enough to withstand the expected attacks.
See all y’all later!