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

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?

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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59 Comments

  1. Good “morning”, Motley Meese! The week begins …

    Morning low of 43 degrees in Madison WI with an expected daytime high of 50. The forecast calls for cloudy skies with showers.

    Have a great day, all y’alls!!

  2. Daylight Saving Time Ends!

    Don’t forget to turn back your clocks and claim your extra hour on Sunday!

    • lol – I no longer have clocks or watches so my phone and puter did it automatically :)

      • I still have several old fashioned clocks including the one that runs my furnace and the one in my older car. It’s probably best to not have them automated; I have one household device that is automated and adjusts for the old DST! So it is springing ahead and falling behind on a different schedule and today it is back in sync. It is not time-dependent, like my thermostat, so I can ignore it. If it ran anything important I would need to replace it because it can’t be reprogrammed!

        I still hope that someday they repeal DST. I hate the one in the spring where it is just starting to get light in the morning and then it reverts. It is literally a killer.

  3. Good Sunday Meese

    47 degrees here in Saugerties NY and raining – going up to 57.

    Have been following Antonio Paris on twitter – look at the conditions of the roads in Utuado

    Mayor Carmen Cruz raises an important question – and kudos to Rachel Maddow for covering this

    • Holy mackeral! I don’t see how they fix that road – ever. Considering that the roads are probably deteriorating even further from post-storm neglect, it is indeed clear why you would not want to drive after dark.

      If under-reporting the death toll is letting FEMA off the hook because their response is “just right for only 54 dead” then they need to push hard to report the accurate numbers. They know how many died and how many are dead because of the storm compared to a normal time – it is not as though there are no historical records.

      • Put a bridge across the subsidence area, from solid to solid ground – the Sea Bees could do it in a day or two. If they were allowed.

          • They “over build” – not to the edge of the washed out cliff but enough above it to have each end resting on stable road. The Sea Bees bridged all kinds of stuff – and for heavy equipment and tanks, not just foot traffic. And they did it under enemy fire. The Navy could turn this whole situation around in less than a month (not fix it in less than a month, but get all the immediate urgent crucial stuff up in less than a month). if they were allowed to.

  4. Good morning, Meese. Pleased to say we’ve had blessed, beautiful rain here since yesterday afternoon after tea. Current temp. in NoVa is 51 F., going up to 63 F. under gray skies. The grayest, most beautiful November skies ever, without question. Believe me.

    Still grieving over PR, which the foul, corrupt administration has banished to the 19th century. May karma get 45 and those who surround him. When, Mueller, when?

    I can never think of this date without remembering our cousins overseas:

    Please to remember the Fifth of November
    Gunpowder treason and plot

    In the U.K. they’ll be gathering fireworks to set off tonight when darkness falls (and it’ll fall at 4 p.m. over there). A straw figure of the person they’ve most disliked all year will be dressed in clothes resembling those of the person in question and perched on top of the bonfire. Then it will be lit.

    In a little while we’ll dress to go out, pick up the nearest grandchildren, and take them out to breakfast at Virginia Kitchen. Wishing everyone a quiet day.

  5. Last night on Twitter I saw the tweets about November 4, 2008 and it gave me goose bumps. Barack Obama will go down in history as one of our greatest presidents:


    We owe it to him – and to ourselves – to not give up and to dedicate ourselves to taking back power, first the states, then Congress, then the presidency. Yes. We. Can.

    • Si, si puede, Jan!

      Love seeing photos of his beautiful face. Will never forget the look on his face when he walked out on the stage that night after the election had been called. Never, as long as I live.

    • We can. We will. Guarding our backs from fake allies, covering our own flanks when supposed allies fall back. We will do this.

  6. Slept in, watching the marathon. They have a camera attached to one of the wheelchair athletes, giving a cool view. Today: church, put together next week’s food, and the gym. I walked a little over a mile yesterday, going to use the elliptical. Making the sweet potato/black bean dish for next week’s lunch. Omg, Katherine Switzer is running today! She the woman who snuck in to Boston when women weren’t allowed. You’ve seen the picture. She’s 70, and running the NY marathon. That is so cool. Still have U2’s American Soul in my head.

    • They are showing a woman – Beverly Ramos – who trained in Puerto Rico after the hurricane. She talked about how important is was to train there & show people that things will get better.

  7. Good morning, 35, windy and cloudy in Bellingham. Last Sunday was light sweater weather but today we still have snow on the ground. RonK was going to drive Kennewick today but it’s snowing on the mountain passes and chains are required so he’ll drive to Portland instead. He and his brothers will meet in Seaside, OR for a few days together.

    I’m still to dizzy to travel (or drive, grrrr) so I’m staying home. Fortunately I’ve got lots to do if I can just focus, and my sons will be in close touch. I hope to make progress on the Dr. Who quilt but yesterday I flunked quilt math. Who knew pin wheel blocks would be so hard to size correctly? I certainly didn’t!

    Time for coffee. Hope it’s a restful Sunday for all.

  8. Almost finished with my weekly chores – taking a coffee break – 70 at the moment heading for 80 but a cool front will move in tonight. At least it will if the wind blows these clouds somewhere and we get clear skies after sundown. Yesterday only got 5.4 KWHs and I’m afraid it’s going to be the same today – maybe the rest of the week. That’ll blow the 200 for the month target. I need to generate almost 7/day to reach 200. Right now with this morning’s addition we’re at the 28 KWHs needed by the end of yesterday to be on track. Oh well. As long as I reach 180 for the month I’ve (slightly) more than covered my usage.

    Add me to the chorus of those who hate daylight savings time. It doesn’t save energy – in modern America it actually wastes it – and it causes negative health and safety impacts for weeks after each change so it most certainly doesn’t save any money either. Of course if your purpose is to disorient people so they can’t even find much less take aim at the real target (the corporations who own the media) and drive up health-related revenue, it does a fine job. The same kind of fine job the current administration and R-own congress are doing.

    Need to check the Villages and my fundraiser stuff and Denise’s FP over at DK then get back to work. Healing Energy to everybody and bright the day. {{{HUGS}}}

  9. Good morning, meeses! Monday …

    It is 28 degrees in Madison with an expected daytime high of 41. Sunny this morning then partly cloudy this afternoon. There might be some flurries tomorrow but so far we have not seen any snow this season.

    Watching the Texas massacre unfolding yesterday on Twitter it is clear that the problem is not guns in America but craven Congressmembers who refuse to acknowledge the difference between assault weapons and other types of guns. Their glorified “good man with a gun” has no chance against a man with an automatic or semi-automatic weapon mowing them down. And the call for “more security in churches!” takes the cake for idiotic statements trying to cover up for those who sold their souls to the gun lobby.

    Busy day here, see all y’all later!

  10. Good Monday morn Meese. 62 and raining here in Saugerties NY.
    This:

  11. Didn’t get in a workout yesterday, was cooking till around 7. But I have healthy food for the week. The shooting, the sort-of coup in Saudi Arabia…. What is happening in this world? Yesterday, multiple security experts on MSNBC said that “of course” all churches should have security guards. What? Really? Leaving aside money & practicality (my church building is 130 years old, has multiple entrances — how would that work?) — they were saying that churches need security guards. Not that we need to confiscate every semi-automatic weapon & melt them all down. But that people going to church, or the movies, or shopping need to be ready to react to a shooter. I hate this world, want to go back through the looking glass to the sane place we were even as recently as the ‘90s. Playing U2’s The Blackout in my head, seems appropriate for today, but still has some hope.

    • Exactly, anotherdemocrat: “we need to confiscate every semi-automatic weapon & melt them all down.”

      By the way, wasn’t your attorney general under indictment? What is he still doing in office?

  12. Good morning, Moosekind! Another cloudy day here, with morbidly high temperatures. Right now in NoVa it’s 59 F., going up to 71 F. later.

    The kids in Fairfax County are off today and tomorrow—again—no wonder school lasts until the third week of June! (Grumble, grumble, “In my day, back in the late Cretinous, … mumble mumble.)

    Have an unpleasant, email-related task to do this morning involving Verizon. I hate that company. I don’t understand anything about SMTP and POP servers, nor why I, an elderly, nontechnical person, should be asked to change my own settings. Blooey.

    Feeling depressed today for several reasons, but must try to disguise it. Miss Pink Cheeks will be here in half an hour, so I need to get ready for the day. We’re going to bake bread and possibly banana-oatmeal-chocolate chip cookies. She finished reading all seven Harry Potter books, which I think is pretty good for an eight-year-old! They’re not exactly “See Spot run” books.

    Hope today is reasonably good for everyone, including our fellow citizens in PR. A little Mueller-induced cheer would be nice.

    • That they have not automated this more for “elderly, nontechnical” people is probably a chicken and egg thing (what comes first) and exacerbated by the gajillion options people have for email:

      I don’t understand anything about SMTP and POP servers

      It would be different on each platform (Windows, Mac, Linux, Android, iPhone) and it would vary by the email software you use (Outlook, Windows Mail, Apple Who-the-hell-knows). That said, a company that cared about customer service would hire someone to design a tool. Telecoms don’t really care if you are happy and telecoms who have a locked in landline market care even less.

  13. Gray and overcast today and not supposed to get above 60 (note I said “not supposed to”) today – it apparently cleared off enough over night for the cool front to move in so it did. I did see the moon this morning for a few minutes – sent my love and a lot of unformed Energy for their forming to everybody. Falling behind on the 200 KWHs for the month goal. Not by much so far but the forecast is not promising this week. Did get 6.9 yesterday and the m-t-d is 34 so i’m still staying ahead of my average usage and that’s good.

    There are so many things we have to resist and block right now – the Rs’ tax bill and rollback of Net Neutrality – and so many things we need to pry out of the Evil Ones – aid to Puerto Rico, renewal of SCHIP, renewal of the assault weapons ban. Evil just saps the energy we need to do all the work we need to do. But we will support each other and find that energy. We can and we will do this.

    I need to check in over at DK and then get to work – got 4 urgent things on my desk right now – and also find time to visit the Benefits office so they can sign off on a form I need to send in to get Medicare part B starting 1/1/18. I have to be accepted for that before I can get an Advantage plan of some sort to augment it. Bright the day, Meeses. {{{HUGS}}}

  14. Good morning, 35 and cloudy in Bellingham. The snow is lingering but should melt away today. I hope I can salvage some of the hydrangeas. They were just starting to turn to the burgundy color I love, but now they are snow burned and will prolly just turn brown.

    I finally solved the pinwheel quilt block problem, but how an 8″ square of fabric cut into 4 pieces and then sewn back together becomes a 10″ square will remain a mystery to me!

    Time for coffee, then to the pool, and thankfully my son can drive me. Take care everyone.

  15. Well, this is interesting. As of about 20 minutes ago I’ve been bojo’d at DK. I’ve got a private message in at Helpdesk to ask why but haven’t heard back yet. It will certainly simplify my life if it holds. But there are a dozen or more folks on my community needs list who’ve just been hung out to dry. We shall see what we shall see.

    • According to elfling’s cryptic post in the Village, it’s because you posted Michael’s diary for him yesterday.

      Collusion with others offsite to spam Daily Kos with zombie accounts is maybe not a path to greatness (or a good example to follow).

      I think this is fight-able, but it’s up to you how much you want that fight.

      • {{{DoReMI}}} – well, as soon as I figured out that I was banned – I got no warning before or after – I put in a private ticket to Help Desk asking why. Marti (of the Peeps) emailed me and said I have to ask for reinstatement so I updated my ticket at Help Desk to do that. I still haven’t heard back. (Of course they never did answer Batch as to why he’d been banned so they may never answer me either.)

        If that cryptic and rather nasty comment from elfling means posting Michael’s British breakfast it’s interesting nobody said anything about it the last time Michael was on TO – this happened several months back and I copied Michael’s “breakfast” from the Moose posting until his TO was over. Truth to tell, I don’t think it can be by elfing’s comment. Being on TO does not put you in the category of being a zombie account that I know of. (Of course what do I know?) Nor does cross-posting count as spam much less spamming DK with zombie accounts. I think it’s dawned on somebody that I am not only the founder of The Village on DK but I also belong to the other Villages including the infamous Squirrel and this is the same kind of politics that got other Village writers banned without warning before or explanation after. We shall see whether or not I am correct. If I am, well, there are a dozen people who just got dropped in the grease and Denise’s Puerto Rico diaries and helping links that aren’t going to be carried into other community diaries any longer.

        Moar {{{HUGS}}}

        • Yeah, elfling just left another comment which seems to indicate it wasn’t Michael’s diary that did it. If it’s not that, I can’t even begin to imagine what they think you’ve done. Basket mentioned that he thinks it might have something to do with the “Cammie” that you and I both followed after she appeared in a fundraiser diary for Aji. She was a Hillary supporter/defender, who was bojo’d shortly thereafter for being a “zombie account.” I don’t know how following someone because you like their opinions should put anyone at risk; I had no idea she’d been bojo’d, much less for being a zombie account, until map said something. So, if that’s the case, if you follow the wrong person, you’re at risk? Who knows…there’s so little transparency that it’s incomprehensible (although it’s noteworthy that the only folks recc’ing elfling’s comments are known, rabid Bernie supporters).

          Anyway, if they don’t reinstate you, this is likely to be the last straw for me. I feel badly about the community needs, but those aren’t you’re sole responsibility, nor are they the responsibility of the Village. Let elfling shoulder that burden.

          • Apparently somebody accused me of “colluding” with another site to spam DK with zombie accounts. Since I am not doing that there cannot be any proof that I am so equally apparently an accusation with no proof is all that’s needed.

            As to elfling or anyone else doing what I do/did, the reason I started doing it was because nobody else was. Well, my loyalty to DK is long gone but I’m sorry my work is being cut short. I’ve got/had 12 people either on my list or I was about to put them on my list for what was going to be tomorrow’s Helping Humpday diary. Property taxes, mortgages, doctor bills, vet bills – people who live on the edge are always in danger of falling over. The folks in Puerto Rico need all the help they can get. And there are a lot of people I’m going to miss. sigh.

          • I wish my schedule was predictable. I’d offer to take over one of the diaries. But in a call center, there’s just no telling when we’ll have a super-busy day. Like today: normal Monday business & 3 people extended their weekends.

          • {{{anotherdemocrat}}} – thank you. I’ve worked in a call center in my time. You just never know when it will be quiet as a mouse or going gangbusters – and it can go from one to the other in a NY minute. I’d never ask anyone to do my community fundraiser diaries or carry-forward comments. They are just too time consuming to keep updated. But thank you. moar {{{HUGS}}}

        • Hi bfitz! Sending you moar hugs, darling. So mad I can spit. Wednesday will be a blast of cat memes and then I’m retiring. <3

          • {{{MomentaryGrace}}} – I’ve got an eye doctor appt in about an hour but I’ll try to visit your post first. moar {{{HUGS}}} and Healing Energy to your household.

          • MG, please don’t retire. Then they win. They want to break up the Village. We persevered when they did their first banning…please consider staying.

          • I won’t leave DK but I can’t do the Wednesday posts any more. My heart isn’t in it. Hope you can forgive me.

          • Thanks for the heads up on this, meesers. Usually DK dustups bring new people looking for a safe haven. I will check the comment moderation queue more frequently today. It is times like this that I am glad we are a closed group – meta fights won’t end up as dueling posts by new arrivals, sucking the spirit out of us when we need to band together and #RESIST.

            For what is it worth, there isn’t – or shouldn’t be – anything wrong with cross-posting; I used to do it all the time. I do know that there are blogs all over the Internets that sprang up over one butthurt or another and that some of them are rabidly anti-DK. That was one of the reasons that the Moose has a policy of discouraging the trashing other blogs and especially not other bloggers by name. We are not defined by who we don’t like but by what we stand for – Progress Through Politics.

            The Motley Moose has been a haven off and on for DK expats – some so that they can regroup and return, some so they can figure out the next steps in their online life, a few to stay and molt. We welcome them all.

          • Originally I thought it was a mistake. But I thought I’d best warn folks. No response from the help desk so no mistake. Wrong but no mistake. I’m so glad we have the Moose pond. I’m very upset at being cut off from my DK family and my fundraising/community building but I’d be a lot more upset if I didn’t have the Moose to come to. {{{HUGS}}}

  16. Good morning, meeses! Tuesday …

    It is 32 degrees in Madison with an expected daytime high of 41. The forecast calls for clouds this morning clearing by mid-day.

    Today is the BIG DAY in New Jersey, Virginia, and Washington state. New Jersey governorship could turn that state completely blue (which it should be, for crying out loud), Virginia is the first test of the staying power of trumpian politics – will white identity politics and the Old South overcome the trending blue of Virginia – and Washington state could flip their state senate blue making them a completely blue state (which it should be, for crying out loud). I will tell you this – I will NOT look at a single exit poll or assume anything until actual vote totals come in.

    Shocked Not Shocked to find that the Texas church murderer was a domestic abuser and that the Air Force (fk them) decided not to upload his criminal conviction to the FBI database – which might have kept him from purchasing an assault weapon. But the problem still boils down to the fact that military-style assault weapons should not be owned by civilians, period. Let’s start there and work our way back to figuring out how to make the background check database work.

    See all y’all later!

    • Re:

      Shocked Not Shocked to find that the Texas church murderer was a domestic abuser

      I follow a priestess named Max Dashu on Facebook. She has consistently pointed out that these mass murderers have a history of domestic abuse. When I saw on the news that this latest murderer had even abused his own baby, I felt sick.

      Someone or something needs to teach the testosterone gender that the world and everything in it is not their property to dispose of at their will.

      • It was his stepchild but little difference – a child in his care was injured at his hand. The Republicans are all “let’s enforce the laws we have!” Fine, let’s put some money into enforcing the law that says a person convicted of battery cannot own guns. Go to their homes, confiscate their weapons, close businesses who sell guns to them and charge individuals who help them get firearms.

  17. Tuesday Morning Meese

    Heading to the polls to vote
    Will bbl
    BFitz – I let Yas know about the Aji and Wings diary – HUGS!

    • What kind of races does New York have today? I saw a weird tweet about New York wanting to vote for a Constitutional Convention. I hope that is not something they are contemplating. I am not going to stay up nights worrying about it – I have more immediate concerns – but if the Constitution of the United States is re-written in trumpian times, people like us will not survive the type of government that would emerge.

      • We’ve mostly got people who are running locally – like town clerk
        The big deal is the CC vote
        No way in hell I’d vote for a CC – because who would control the process is state senate districts – they are Rs (with a few sellout Ds who keep them in power)
        Above us in Albany there is a mayor’s race

    • Back from voting – good early turnout here
      I think that the push to get people to vote against the Constitutional Convention from unions has gotten people out for an off year election

    • {{{Denise}}} – thanks – kishik emailed me last night so the word is out. At least i’ve figured out I can read diaries even if i can’t participate so as long as somebody tells me when it’s going to post I can read it and help make whatever match is offered. Have fun at the polls. moar {{{HUGS}}}

  18. Good gray Tuesday morning, Meese. It’s 45 F. here in NoVa at 7:30, going up to 59 F. later. We’ll go to the polls around 10, when we’re feeling coherent after coffee.

    OMG, now The Occupant wants Japan to shoot NK missiles out of the sky. He is such a travesty of a president it makes me feel quite ill.

    Between that and bfitz getting bojo’d, my stomach is roiling this morning. I’m depressed that our so-called government is doing virtually nothing to help PR. As someone said, this is only the beginning. Climate change will create refugees worldwide.

    Jan, I’ll be sending you an email soon. BTW, I’m pleased to say that my tenant, who seems to know his way around the “intertubes” said there was no need at all to change my settings, and that the snippy email I received from Verizon was a random email sent to everyone. Apparently, my POP and SMTP settings in Thunderbird were already perfect, which was what I had thought when I looked at them. Faugh!

    Back later. Wishing a good Election Day with good news to all!

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