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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– Page One of Comments is HERE!
– Page Two of Comments is HERE!
32 windchill 29 heading for upper 40s and very overcast, darn it. Yesterday was cold but very clear and beautiful – and we got 12.8 KWHs, high for month and year so far, and the m-t-d is 94. If we manage to get enough to reach 100 today, well, it’ll have to clear off for that to happen. sigh. The 10-day forecast is up and down for temps and who knows for actual precipitation but totally sux for electricity generation.
Evil Ones being evil – mad king donald’s budget is totally kabuki. The revenue & spending bill just passed and signed was a 2-year bill. FY18 and FY19 are covered – mostly so the Rs wouldn’t have to campaign while dealing with budget stuff that could be used against them. This is the R wish list but as far as the FY19 budget is concerned it’s moot. But it’s a great distracter from the fights we need to be fighting. For the Dreamers immediately, for Puerto Rico always, and seriously for getting Congress back in November. ADD doesn’t begin to describe what 24/7 MSM and social media has done to our country. sigh.
Got stuff to do so I’d best get to it. Bright the day, Meeses. {{{HUGS}}}
Good morning, 32 and partly sunny in Bellingham. My primroses are still waiting to be planted and I forgot to mail valentines :::sigh::: Oh well, I’ll see the girls tomorrow and the out of town grand kids are getting used to me being late.
Best wishes to all.
Happy Valentine’s Day Meese
with some from Puerto Rico
31 degrees here in Saugerties NY going up to (drum roll) 50!
Spent two hours yesterday trying to get my computer working – right after I posted a diary – only to find out that internet was out over my entire area – my modem lights were all on and puter said I was connect to the net so it didn’t occur to me to check for an outage till later
Sigh – can we send “turds and no way” to Trump?
I’m angry angry angry
A budget cut killing 300,000 people is a selling point to Republicans! I was just reading an article about the environment and how people are really starting to dial it up as an issue. The polls show that 69% of Republicans support destroying the environment and the article said “despite the report showing that it will kill 100,000 people a year.” That is probably why they support it! I am sure they think the dead only include The Other and not their aunt and uncle living in Florida.
The “America’s Harvest Box” program is receiving a lot of mocking but also a lot of thoughtful commentary about what even suggesting such a thing says about Republicans. The issue of food insecurity and food stamps now has a visceral hook – even a hates-libruls Kentuckian might get itchy about the federal government delivering a box of “foodstuffs” instead of giving them the ability to choose the food that their family will eat. I am still shaking my head over why they thought it was a good idea to release this blueprint of their intentions.
I can’t understand cutting funding for AIDS agencies. I need to do a fundraising diary. Trying to come up with the energy/heart. I haven’t been doing anything beyond just the routine, I feel like I’m walking in jello. But maybe this is the jolt I need.
{{{anotherdemocrat}}} – you can’t understand it because you are a good person. To the Rs, all evidence/data/facts totally denied, AIDS=gay=evil=should die. The Rs are evil and every plan & program they come up with is designed to kill people. moar {{{HUGS}}} and Healing Energy.
I have been very worried about the AIDS groups in PR:
Good morning, meeses! Wednesday …
It is 27 degrees in Madison with an expected daytime high of 39. Sunny skies are in the forecast. The moonlight is the thinnest of thin waning crescent as the new moon is expected tomorrow.
Right before I went to bed, the Florida House special election in District 72 had been called for the Democrat, Margaret Good. This is a flip – R to D – and also a 7 point win in a Trump+4 district. Corey Lewandowski, the gropenfuehrer’s woman-punching former campaign manager, was campaigning on behalf of the Republican. Perhaps not the smartest thing to do. Good ran on the environment and hung the Trump administration’s climate denial around her opponent’s neck. This is a good issue to run on in Florida – and a terrible issue for Republicans, 69% of whom think that the environment is “just fine” and love the work that Scott Pruitt is doing at the EPA. Keep thinking that, loser party, while we drive a truck over you.
Another federal judge, this one in New York, issued a nationwide injunction staying the DACA program cancellation indicating that the lawsuit against arbitrarily dropping the program has “a good chance of winning on the merits”. So now we have two stays and most likely a date at the Supreme Court. The government has appealed to the court to block the California stay and is waiting to hear if the SCOTUS will take it up. This is our only chance now as Senate Republicans gave themselves an arbitrary deadline of Thursday to find a plan that gets 60 votes. Even if it passes, it will not be taken up in the House and the shitgibbon said he would veto it if it passes. He sees the power is slipping from his tiny tiny hands and needs to shore up his nativist racist base. Anti-immigration with the most virulent racism attached to it is his defining issue and he knows it.
See all y’all later!
Good morning, Moosekind! We have a haze of gray veiling the blue here in NoVa this morning, and apparently it’s going to stay that way. Current temp. is 31 F., going up to 56 F.
If Darling Niece doesn’t get called to work today, she’s coming over to help me make Strawberry Cupcakes with pink icing for Miss Pink Cheeks, who will be 9 years old on Friday. Today is the last day I’ll see my little girl this week because tomorrow and Friday her mother, who telecommutes those days, will pick her up from the bus stop after school. It does my heart good to know that Miss PC is reading her way through the children’s classics I bought for her years ago, despite her abiding love for computer games.
After reading Jan’s post in the “Fighting Back” area, I realize how deeply compromised our democratic processes are. Our republic has never seemed so frail except, perhaps, in the Revolutionary and Civil wars. One of the chief problems of this country, I think, is that either television or Hollywood, or both, have convinced a great many people they’re one lucky lottery card away from being rich, or from becoming rock stars or inventors of killer apps. Because they’re convinced that the week after next they’re going to be stinking rich, economic inequality doesn’t bother them. It’s a mindset: reducing the matter to its simplest, some cheer when the winner on “Wheel of Fortune” wins all the cash before the bonus round, while I like it best when they all wind up with a nice sum of money each.
Denise, sorry about your Internet going out! How annoying! Hope you created your post offline first.
Wishing a good day with no bad news to all at the Pond!
Foggy & cool here but it’s supposed to get up to the 60s today and warmer tomorrow — then an arctic front Friday. I like Ash Wednesday service but I don’t know about going to service tonight. Doing something that starts at 7 just sounds exhausting.
This made me smile: the Pantone color of the year is ultra violet, which is gorgeous, but that’s not the part that made me smile. They even said: “Ultra Violet lights the way to what is yet to come”, which made me think of the U2 song; and I love B-man’s introductory speech.
48 heading for mid 60s and damp and gray. The water in the air is more than fog, less than mist – and it’s dark enough that PV generation is 58 watts (on a clear morning like Monday it’d be 10x that by now). Got 7.8 KWHs yesterday bringing the m-t-d to 102 so not exactly good but better than I’d hoped for yesterday morning. The 10-day still sux for generation. Cold front moving in late tomorrow night but 60s today & tomorrow. Not exactly seasonal – hope it doesn’t start the fruit trees budding. I’ve got 3 crocuses blooming in the yard – pretty much what’s left from a bag of 100 I “naturalized” over the front and side yards almost 20 years ago. The daffs are sending up leaves. They don’t believe me when I tell them it’s too early.
Evil Ones being evil. We will do what we can to stop, block, and push back. Save as many lives as we can – hold vigil and help the families for the ones we can’t. I’ve got to get back into doing postcards. My congresscritters seem to have permanently disabled their phones or something. I haven’t gotten through the last dozen times I’ve called. Heaven knows I have time right now.
Gonna tour the internets then do some stuff around the house. Bright the day, Meeses. {{{HUGS}}}
Good morning, 34 and cloudy in Bellingham. A quiet morning, and then valentine fun this afternoon. We’ll be with the grand girls this afternoon and have dinner with our son this evening. We were going to go out but decided being at his house, lighting a fire, and cooking salmon tacos together will be more relaxing.
Best Valentine wishes to all.
{{{princesspat}}} – time spent with loved ones is the best Valentines Day gift of all. moar {{{HUGS}}}
Morning, meeses. Thursday …
It is 37 degrees in Madison with an expected daytime high of 39. Mostly cloudy skies are in the forecast.
A DACA compromise was reached but it is not mean enough for Stephen Miller and faces a veto threat which means it would not be taken up by the House. Unless cooler heads prevail, DACA protections will not be extended legislatively and we will have to depend on the courts. Even if the shitgibbon supported it, Ryan is getting a LOT of pushback from the Freedumb Caca, which needs to feed red meat to the base that they just disappointed by adding $1.5 trillion to the deficit. “Hey, look over here – pay no attention to the fact that we plunged our nation into debt, we are doing the ethnic cleansing you love so much!!”
As the mother of a high school student, I watched in horror as the text messages and videos and tweets from the students at the Florida high school were reported. Those kids will never be the same. And the State of Florida’s reaction? “We will pay for the funerals and grief counseling” – fk you, Florida. I hope we can turn it blue.
See all y’all later!
I think this guy is an NBA coach. “Vote in people who care about fixing this.”
Thursday Meese.
34 and foggy here in Saugerties NY – going up to 56
Finished up my writing for deadline – have eye-doctor appointment later this morning – then I can chill out.
Still shuddering over the school shooting – one day perhaps elected officials will do something about gun laws – I won’t hold my breath.
One of the commentators yesterday talked about how we changed the culture around drinking & driving. Back in the ‘60s & ‘70s it was totally normal to drink & drive — literally. Then MADD came along & slowly things started to change. Now you’d never hear someone talking the way we used to, and the laws followed after people’s thinking changed. No, drunk driving hasn’t been eliminated, but there’s a lot less than there was. I think we need to do the same with guns. I said this on Twitter last night: We need to borrow an idea from Starhawk’s 5th Sacred thing, & haunt the NRA executives & their bought politicians. Everywhere they go, follow them, calling out the stories of our loved ones killed by gun violence. Everywhere. All the time. Give them no peace.
I’ve never been able to listen to this song, you can hear the pain in his voice & it’s too much for me. But these words this morning, Peace On Earth:
Jesus could you take the time
To throw a drowning man a line
Peace on Earth
Tell the ones who hear no sound
Whose sons are living in the ground
Peace on Earth
No whos or whys
No-one cries like a mother cries
For peace on Earth
She never got to say goodbye
To see the colour in his eyes
Now he’s in the dirt
Peace on Earth
This:
Absolutely.
Good morning, Meese. Clearing after a predawn shower in NoVa. Current temp. is 49 F., going up to 69 F. today.
Speechless after yesterday’s massacre. No other civilized country would tolerate this. It will never get better until the children of the NRA board and Rethug Congresscritters are at risk. And when will that be? They’re all rich and live in sheltered enclaves.
My heart is broken for the parents of the slain.
After the Republican Party accepted the murders of 20 1st graders as “the price we pay for liberty”, there was no hope to convince them to vote against their NRA donors. We really have to move past yelling at them about taking NRA money and vote them out.
61 already heading for the low 70s before the front moves in tonight. In a little bit I’ll probably open up the house and air it out. The kittehs will love it – the ledges are narrow enough they can only sit in the windows when they are open. Forecast says cloudy but we’ve got sunshine at the moment. Helps some but the real generation for my system is in the afternoon. Got 4.9 KWHs yesterday so not quite my average daily usage but close. The m-t-d is 107 – and since we’re now on the downward half of the month looks like I’ll be lucky to generate 200 for the month rather than the 300 I was hoping for 2 weeks ago. Still, anything over 150 is good.
Rs are evil. That’s just all there is. They’re evil. Everything they do, every stand they take, every bill they introduce – every one of them – is designed to kill people. Always people who don’t – even if because they can’t – vote for them, usually for folks who don’t – even if because they can’t – give them money. They’re psy-vamps – they feed off pain, suffering, and stolen years of life. Whether it’s rules’ changes that take food and meds away from folks who need them or refusals to make rules keeping white supremacist nutjobs from getting the military weaponry they use to shoot up schools – doesn’t matter. As long as it will kill people, they’re happy. And one of the reasons I retired when I did was that some of the faculty (and some of the staff in other departments in my building) voted for this. They protest that they don’t approve of it – but they voted for it. I have been having a hard time even talking to them and I had to work with them. And every time there was/is another atrocity it gets harder – I’m having trouble making my phone calls to my congresscritters even when somebody actually answers the phone. They are evil. We have got to get them out of power – sooner rather than latter. Lives depend on it.
Gonna tour the internets then go schlep firewood onto the porch so it can dry out from yesterday’s mist before the cold front moves through. Holding everyone in my heart. Bright the day, Meeses. {{{HUGS}}}
Good morning, 38 and cloudy in Bellingham. Being with family yesterday was necessary antidote to the tRump angst and anger I feel. The girls were aware of the school shooting so we had to talk about that and at the same time be in the moment with our Valentine Day plans. Gives me emotional whiplash, and pains me to hear the worry in my older grand kids voices.
I’ve got lots I should do today, so I hope I can find my focus. Take care everyone.
I visited Min this afternoon. She was awake, her daughter is here, and another friend. We watched the Olympics, men’s speed skating and reminisced about having crushes on Eric Heiden in 1980. That was the school year that we met, I was back in Texas for 10th grade. We moved again for 11th. But Min & I had French class together. She had lived in Munich, I had just left Salzburg. It was a good visit.
{{{anotherdemocrat}}} – Healing Energy to your friend – to her shaping. and to you. moar {{{HUGS}}}
Good morning, meese! Friday …
It is (wait, my weather widget died – okay, back) 28 degrees in Madison with the temperature dropping to an expected daytime high of 25. Sunny skies came in with the cold front.
No DACA protections, no assault weapon ban. The kids at the Parkland high school and the kids watching their peers on TV will tie the inaction, rightly so, to the Republican Party. They will also tie the older siblings and parents of their friends getting sent to a country they don’t know, rightly so, to the Republican Party. Republicans have lost Generation Z and that they don’t care is stunning to me. They can’t disenfranchise them all. About 25% of the kids in high school right now will vote this fall, 75% will vote in 2020. We need to convince them that if we change the people in Congress and the White House, we will have a better country.
Busy day here. See all y’all later!
Good Friday Morning Meese
45 and raining here in Saugerties NY – temps will drop later in the day and we may get snow
Saw eye doc yesterday – I have to now schedule surgery with a specialist who can do both cataract and glaucoma at the same time.
Thankfully there are several excellent candidates – only problem is that they are in Albany – an hour away so I’ll have to get a car service to take me
Will do one eye as soon as I can get an appointment and then have to wait two months to do the second.
So sad to hear of the passing of Lerone Bennett Jr
His “Before the Mayflower” is a classic text
Things are falling apart for evacuees from PR who are here
Postcards
{{{Denise}}} – Healing Energy and definitely holding the Good Thought on the eye surgery. But won’t it be great to see again! moar {{{HUGS}}} more Healing Energy
Oh, Dee, glaucoma as well as cataracts? Double whammy! Holding good thoughts for you too.
Thank you both!
Good gray Friday morning, Meese. It’s been raining here in NoVa. Current temp. is 60 F., going up to 67 F. A cold front will move through later, so our online newspaper, the Patch, is excitedly predicting several inches of (nonexistent) snow for tomorrow.
Has everyone seen the photos of those who were murdered in this latest mass killing? The U.K. and Australia both experienced such massacres in the 1970s and both countries did something about it. We’ll never do anything about it. Why do these MAGA bozos think “a-bor-shun” is evil but find mass murder acceptable?
I don’t know whom to grieve for more, the young people whose lives were so cruelly cut short or their devastated parents.
On a lighter note, Miss Pink Cheeks is nine years old today. It seems impossible! I can remember when she was a baby and I was rocking her out on the screened porch. Where does the time go?
Well, the Iceman will Cometh this morning between 8 and 12, so I’d better get dressed. For no good reason the waterline in our fridge suddenly stopped functioning so that we haven’t had ice since Tuesday. Hoping to get that repaired this morning.
Wishing a good day to all at the Pond and Beyond.
{{{Diana}}} – Happy B’day to Miss PC – hope your day goes well. moar {{{HUGS}}}
Thank you, bfitz! Right back at ya! {{{bfitz}}}
Had a good visit with Min yesterday. We watched speed skating — remembered having crushes on Eric Heiden when we were in 10th grade. I’m going again on Saturday. Definitely not doing the training ride in the morning — cold & maybe rainy, and waaay too far for me. I do promise I’ll ride my bike in the afternoon.
So the House voted to roll back the ADA. Because nothing says “over regulation” like saying that you need to let blind people & those in wheelchairs access your business. I have 2 blind co-workers, 2 visually impaired and 1 with a physical impairment. They all contribute to the workplace – and to the world. They overcome obstacles just to come to work every day – special transit is appallingly bad, I would be screaming at their complaint office daily if I had to put up with what they do. I supposed it shouldn’t be surprising that this Congress just had to hurt disabled people, but….. really??? Playing the DNC version of Fight Song because I need something to make me keep fighting.