Week-long Welcomings from Moosylvania: Feb. 5th through Feb. 11th

February 4, 2017 JanF Community 251

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.

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February 5th Welcomings – Page 1 Comments

February 5th Welcomings – Page 2 Comments

February 5th Welcomings – Page 3 Comments

February 5th Welcomings – Page 4 Comments

45 Comments

  1. Brrr! Very chilly! 13 degrees in Chicago metro right now, but will be in the 50s by Sunday. The hawk (what we call Chicago winters) not so bad this year.

    Morning all!

    • Morning, reese. MPLS/St Paul will be getting the warm up a bit sooner as it passes through on the way to Chicago.

  2. Ok, compared to y’all cold-climate people, it isn’t cold here. But – yesterday I was wearing sandals & capris. This morning it’s in the 40s. I had to wear a sweatshirt, over my long-sleeved work shirt. And I wanted a scarf because my hair wasn’t dry when I left the house.

    I walked 2.3 miles last evening. Had to wrap up by 6 for weekly fitness chat (yes, ironic); might walk longer this evening. But I am not at all ready for the race, like, more so than usual. Earworm is back to Salome. This is a different mix than last time.

    • When I say I’m not ready for the race, this is what I said to a friend elsewhere

      I always say I’m not ready, it always takes me too long. Last year, it was 4:48 & I swore I couldn’t do that again. This year, I’ll be lucky to do that time.

      Last year was just miserable. I have not trained enough this year. Luckily, I have no room on any credit card so I will not register for next year’s race when the have the post-race discount offer. Not doing this again. But I don’t know what I’m gonna do on the 19th.

  3. Good morning.

    21 and sunny in Chicago today. Tomorrow it will warm up and be in the 30’s and 40’s for the next few weeks. I think winter’s pretty much over here. We’ll see.

    Another day another chance for things to go horribly wrong in this country.

    Thanks for the email Jan.

    • Yay, broths! Thank you for persevering. Getting used to a new weblog can be daunting and this one is a little crankier than some. But the gentle serenity of the Moose Pond is, in my mind, worth it.

  4. Good morning, Moosekind! Gray this morning, but with blue breaking through. We expected to wake up to snow but had to settle for bone-chillingly cold rain. It’s 36 F. now, going up to 48 F. later. Time for slow cooker chicken vegetable soup with hot rolls for dinner.

    Jan, you really nailed it with your comments. Felt sick when I heard Sessions speak on the news this morning, even though it was only a few words. Felt even sicker when I remembered that McTurtle told a WOMAN to sit down and shut up, while allowing four MEN to read the same letter on the Senate floor. If Herself were president, there would have been none of this.

    Dearly Beloved and I are scrambling to fill the gaps this morning. Poor Younger Son is ill with the same debilitating fever experienced by DIL and, before that, Babylicious. Dearly is driving the children to school and day care; I’ll do the afternoon pickup. This afternoon I’m getting a new crown, which, I’m told by the dentist’s office, takes only half an hour to install. Good, because today is going to be busy.

    Try to have a good day, Moose Peeps, even if you have to turn off the news temporarily, just for mental health.

    • And then the Republican Senate followed it up by putting a man who is the stated enemy of Medicare and Social Security in charge of those programs! I am sure they are thinking they can control him once he is in place … just like they control Herr Twittler. I hope they grab that third rail and incinerate themselves and their party.

  5. 17 degrees here in Rochester, but there’s a beautiful covering of fresh snow and blue(!) skies.

    I used to always listen to the news driving the kids to school–not anymore, my stomach can’t take it.

  6. 18 degrees with a high of 22 today. Now this is what I expect winter to be.

    My workflow is getting back to less overwhelming vs the buried, buried, buried that it has been for the past week, which makes it easier to do the important stuff (like participate here) during the workday. I’m sure my boss would question my priorities, but fortunately for me, he’s never around. Heading over to the Village to see what’s going on…

  7. Got a whole day of sort of winter – 22 at dawn heading for 50 or so. Sunny like yesterday. Which is good – I go 11.3 KWHs yesterday, best since last October – and hoping for the same today. Seriously hoping for a sunny year – we need the energy. Both the electrical energy generated by sunshine on solar panels and the emotional energy that comes with sunny days.

    The hits keep coming but I hang onto my WWII analogy – at this point after Pearl Harbor we weren’t quite to the end of 1941. The Japanese had pretty much wiped all Allied defenses, were already holding most of the Pacific basin east of Hawaii, and there wasn’t a single Allied capital ship in what became known as the Pacific Theater of Operations that was fighting fit. The few that hadn’t been sunk outright were making their slow way to California for repairs surrounded by what the Navy could scrape together to protect them. A chunk of the Atlantic Fleet was still making its way to the Pacific. Except for the unfamiliar, untried carrier fleet we were wide open and people were seriously afraid the Japanese navy was going to show up and shell Angel Island (San Francisco bay area). But my recently widowed grandmother kept going to work and my mother kept going to school and my great aunt, whose reserve-officer husband had left for HQ after hearing the radio announcement on 12/7/1941 and didn’t come home for 5 years, kept taking care of my youngest aunt. Day by day, doing their duty. Whether it was going to work/school, enlisting, donating blood, starting/donating to scrap drives – doing wherever and at whatever something anybody could think of, even if that something didn’t turn out to be effective in the long run. Energy coming together to protect and defend America.

    Well, this time the threat is internal so we are a nation divided – again – but we outnumber the fascisti, we are getting our energy flowing, we are coming together and trying things – and ultimately we will win. But it’s still a day by day doing your duty process. Only history will tell how long it took.

    Gotta get to work. Bright the day and wind to thy wings, Meeses. {{{HUGS}}}

  8. Good morning, 38 and raining in Bellingham. I’m so glad to see the icy snow turning into slush. Yesterday’s snow was heavy and wet, with evening sleet forming an icy crust so the roads were very dangerous. I hope the melt doesn’t cause flooding…..just want it to all go away!

    I’m listening to the new Alison Krause CD, streaming on NPR, this morning. Yesterday’s news was so disheartening I’m going to try to stay in a musical, busy work bubble today.

  9. Moose peeps!

    An upgrade to one of the feature packs in WordPress has made the site non-responsive. I have a fix to apply but it can’t be done until the morning.

    Sorry!

    • Self-inflicted wound. I was trying to rush something in and did not do due diligence.

      Two things: never make a site change and leave for the day; never upgrade to a “fix” that is only 2 days old (I did not read the fine print).

      I will go back to my old routine of site upgrades on quiet Sunday mornings. As you were!

      • {{{JanF}}} – thank you for all the work you are putting in the Moose pond – all the work you always have put into it, but with the addition of the Village, there’s a lot more of it. Blessings upon you for you certainly are a blessing for us.

    • Oh, so it wasn’t just me :) Thanks for your efforts to make The Moose Pond even more awesome, JanF!

  10. Hai fellow Meeses! Finally got into the website. The sun is setting here in Costa Mesa with partly cloudy skies and 60 degrees. Dense fog forming early this morning and there is supposed to be rain tomorrow.

    • {{{Mvgal92691}}} – glad you made it although it seems to be having troubles. If there’s rain tomorrow I hope it’s needed (or at least not a problem) – not sure what the heck the weather is going to be here, it’s been up and down so much lately. But another day of 11+ KWHs generation would be just dandy. Hope you have a good evening. I’m heading offline and will see folks in the morning.

    • Ha! Great minds!! I posted that below.

      Snow days are great. Glad you got to enjoy it! I actually like the snow except for the “needing to get around” part. We could use some … our snow is getting a little nasty looking, melting enough to expose the dirt and soot and turning the soft snow into sharp pokey edges of ice.

      • I hate snow – however I love the way it looks as long as I don’t have to go out in it :)

  13. Good morning, meese! Friday …

    It is 19 degrees in Madison with an expected daytime high of 37. Partly cloudy skies are in the forecast.

    The Republicans, who have publicly declared their support for Medicare and Social Security, have just confirmed a man who has dedicated his life to destroying both to the agency that manages those two programs. #SeeYouIn2018RepublicanCongress.

    Yay, 9th Circuit!! My favorite part was when they cited the 5th Circuit’s odious block of DACA/DAPA in the section where they said that they simply had to make it a nationwide injunction! Lawyer peeps who read the order said it was a thing of beauty.

    @HeckPhilly

    “and then he tweeted in all caps ‘SEE YOU IN COURT’

    …… TO THE JUDGES.”

    See all y’all later!

    • Did you hear about the tweet from the Washington State attorney general (I think it was), who said,

      “We already saw you in court, and WE WON!”

      Haw!

  15. And back to warm today. Didn’t even need a jacket, though it’s too cool for sandals. After yesterday’s iPod drama, I’m hoping for a nice calm day today. Early night, because crack-of-dawn training tomorrow. Earworm: In Your Eyes by a local Austin band that I never knew why they didn’t “make it”. Kim’s voice is gorgeous. (careful of the video, it was made during that unfortunate jiggly camera, lots of cross-cuts time period — just close your eyes & listen). It’s 1 of 2 by them that’s in my marathon playlist. The other is Araby, after the James Joyce short story.

    • Did you watch Chaffetz’s town hall? They booed the hell out of him. In Utah! I’m loving these town halls.

      • No, I just read about it, looks like it was epic. If my gerrymandered “representative”, McCaul, is ever stupid enough to have a town hall in Austin ….. ok, no — he knows we hate him, all his votes come from the Houston end of this crazy district. If he held a town hall, it would never be here.

    • Of course, since they were critical of him, he claims that all the people there were “outside agitators”. These guys really live in a bubble. When their gerrymandering fails to hold up against the tsunami of outrage he and others are facing right now, he will be shocked shocked to find himself unemployed. And for someone as ignorant as him, that will be a real problem.

  17. Good morning from Chicago where it doesn’t snow anymore. Well, not since the middle of December. It’s going to be in the mid 30’s to mid 40’s for the next two weeks. Very weird.

    Alec Baldwin said to be sure to watch SNL tomorrow night. He said it’ll be special. Maybe Rosie?

    Off to check out twitter.

    • Ha! Did you see Rosie O’Donnell’s avatar? She is gearing up to play Steve Bannon on SNL. I am sure it will be epic.

      • I want Rosie’s (Bannon) paired up with Melissa McCarthy’s (Spicer); epic-ness would ensue.

    • Morning, broths. MPLS has gotten snow in fits and starts lately, but March is coming and we can usually expect a blizzard or two then.

      • Good morning. This is just really weird weather for Chicago. Doesn’t mean something bad can’t be down the road, but we’re getting closer to spring. Maybe we’ll have snow in June instead. ;)

  18. Good morning, Moosekind! Yesterday’s “snow in the morning” materialized into snow squalls in the afternoon that actually left white on the grass, the rooftops, and the car tops. The weather people never, ever get it right.

    This morning we have blue sky covered by white veils of cloud, with a current temp. of 21 F., going up to 38 F. later. For the weekend we’re off to the tropics, or so they say.

    Driving Babylicious home through the snow squalls was not fun but luckily the streets were so warm that they were merely wet, not slippery. Younger Son still feels dreadful, as does DIL. Miss Pink Cheeks stayed with us for dinner last night but said she was “not a fan” of bits of chicken in her soup. For goodness’ sake!

    Went to the dentist but the new crown was the wrong size or color or something, so they’re sending it back to the lab. It’s supposed to be installed next Tuesday.

    Feeling wildly cheered by the 9th circuit federal court decision yesterday! Good old liberal 9th circuit, I love it. Also feel cheered by the constituent pushback of ugly Jason Chaffetz in Utah yesterday. Harrumph, Utah of all places! Feeling distinctly glum about Tom Price’s 2 a.m. confirmation this morning. May karma punish the Republic party as it deserves.

    Hoping today will be a nice “catch up” day. Still feeling completely overwhelmed by the tasks I’ve left undone—Brownie stuff, Indivisible stuff, writing, correspondence…sigh. Will try to make inroads on at least some of it.

    Wishing a good, hopeful Friday to all at the Pond and Beyond!

  19. 40 at dawn, 50 already and maybe 70 for the high today in Fay., AR. In February. sigh. Clear and very windy (we’re under a fire warning) – got 11.8 KWHs yesterday, that makes 3 in a row over 10! (The total for the month was 77 as of last night.) Holding the Good Thought we do it again today.

    YAY! for the Court (and YAY! for Hillary’s very succinct tweet about it) – We’re still taking hits right, left, and sideways but good to take time to celebrate a win. You know, if somebody was paying for all these protesters to be out there protesting, it would be one hellvua boost to the economy! :) Too bad it’s not true. heh.

    Gotta get to work – also run by DK and deal with the community needs stuff. I’ll check back when I can. Bright the day and wind to thy wings, Meeses. {{{HUGS}}}

      • Got the St. Francis sector of the Ozark National Forest to the south and west of Fayetteville and another chunk of the ONF east of us. No rain in quite a while and high winds make fire warning weather. We’re under a burn ban (several counties are – from the MO border running down the OK border to the Arkansas River) and all of NW, most of northern AR is under a wildfire alert. Won’t be a problem if people are careful. The warnings and advisories are so people will be careful. :)

  20. Good morning, 45, raining and windy in Bellingham but the snow is melting away so I’m happy. We did have a mess to cleanup yesterday though……a broken pipe in the garage thawed, and the water flooded the back porch before we could make the new shutoff valve (installed last week) work. And a frozen gutter let water pool and seep into the basement laundry room. It’s all cleaned up and the pipe will be easy to fix but it was a busy day.

    Today is RonK’s 75th birthday and now that the snow is gone we’ll have a birthday lunch with the family tomorrow. So I’ll be busy today preparing flowers and food. Our Oregon daughter and her family will arrive this afternoon so I want to be as ready as I can be without stressing my cranky knees. Fortunately my kids are all good cooks, and the 10 yr old grand girls are energetic and want to help too. So it will be a family affair…..I just need to have all the pieces ready to assemble!

    • Happy Birthday to RonK – and have fun with the family visit. Hope the broken pipe is the last of the house “stuff” for a bit.

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