Week-long Welcomings from Moosylvania: March 18th

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.

 

Page One of Comments is HERE!
 

  • Page Two of Comments is HERE!
     


 

36 Comments

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

    Morning low of 27 degrees in Madison WI with an expected daytime high of 52. Sunny skies are in the forecast.

    Have a great day, all y’alls!!

  2. Hi, meeses! I had a brief chat with Diana in Twitter yesterday and she reports that she is OK and seemed to be in the process of planning a St. Patrick’s Day get together:

    I think we’re OK now. Happy St. Patrick’s day–I suppose. I’m wearing snake earrings to dinner tonight.

    I am hoping she gets Internet access back soon and can join her meese friends by the pond!

  3. Good morning, Moosekind, I’m ba-a-ck! Sitting here in our den watching the sun rise behind the woods outside our screened porch. We regained our Internet yesterday but not, alas, our large telly—apparently a certain vital part is missing. The Comcast technician, although very nice, was from another country and my husband found his English unintelligible. In the meantime we’re watching the bedroom TV.

    The current temperature on this sunny morning in Ashburn, Virginia, is 31 F., going up to 55 F. by tea time.

    As you can imagine our new apartment is chaotic, piled high with boxes. We can’t find much of anything. We can’t even get cracking on the unpacking because we have to go back to the house (it’s still ours until the 22nd) to finish emptying it. Tomorrow I am meeting the crew, consisting of one woman, who will undertake the move-out cleaning.

    So far I haven’t wept from homesickness because we’ve been too busy. We did stroll down the hall and around the corner on Friday night to have dinner. Met two very nice women, one of whom has a den with one wall of floor-to-ceiling bookshelves filled with actual books. Ashby Ponds has behaved very handsomely: not only did they provide lunch for six in our apartment (it was in the fridge) on Friday, they gave us a welcome basket, which we greatly appreciated. We ate the scones and marmalade for breakfast yesterday.

    Have missed you all terribly! Life isn’t the same unless I know how all of you are doing. Twitter worked for me in the public areas of Ashby on Friday, which was how I found out about the firing! Have been reeling ever since. Question for all you FBI guys: too bad you hated the woman candidate, eh? How do you like what you’ve got now?

    Time to start tidying while Dearly Beloved makes the coffee. Monty Beagle and I went out at six for obvious reasons. I’m hoping to find where the dog park is later today.

    Wishing a good day to all at the Pond and beyond, with—it’s to be hoped—no more news on this chilly March Sunday.

    • Thank you for checking in! It is nice that you were able to move in before you moved completely out – doing the two at once is even more chaotic. On one of my moves we cut it so close I was sure that I would have to have the moving van circle my new house for 2 days while we awaited the occupancy permit. The new owners of my old house were so desperate to get us out of there they said to not bother cleaning. That was okay. :)

      I hope your new Internet service is better than your old one. My guess is that it will be because having hundreds of angry customers at a single location will be sure to get their attention – one family’s complaint can be easily ignored.

      Yes, the McCabe firing – another example of the cruelty of the Trump administration. As awful as Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III is, I suspect that he would have let McCabe retire if he had not been forced. It just shows how cowardly all the Republicans are – willing to dispel with any notion of decency and honor in order to stay in power. McCabe probably deserved to be fired – he was the author of the timing of the Comey letter that likely changed the election results – but there is some evidence that his earlier non-desktop time at the bureau was honorable. I think it is funny that he has contemporaneous memos of his conversations with Trump – no one trusts him! Another bag of garbage tossed into the dumpster fire that is the Trump “administration”.

    • So good to know you are settling into your new home Diana. I packed two donation boxes of kitchen stuff in your honor. If I keep at it we may be ready to move in about 10 years!

  4. It’s warm enough for sandals again. Probably not going to put away the real shoes just yet, there might be another morning or few cool enough for them, but soon. Eating breakfast, watching the local news. Some jerk e-mailed a bomb threat to a SXSW show. Really not funny. And there’s a theory that the bomb that killed the young man was delivered to the wrong house. There’s a large, prominent African-American family with the same last name, but they aren’t related. Today: church, groceries, putting together next week’s food.

  5. 43 and feels like it heading up to 60 if I’m lucky, partly cloudy and ‘spozed to rain – too warm for a fire, too chilly and iffy to hang them out. But turns out my friend is a little short of cash until payday and offered to do some cleaning for me if I had the money to spare. Oh yeah! Been trying to find someone who’d do my floors for months, someone I can trust to do them right for years. For that I found the money. :) – and she’s offered to dry my clothes in her dryer. So I’ve done my usual Sunday stuff (molasses spice muffins this week) minus the floors and she got here a few minutes ago and is currently taking the washed clothes back across the street to her house to dry.

    The public side of this administration is like summer thunder – lots of noise but no substance (rain) – which gets a bit wearing after a bit. Actually it was a bit wearing before this lot actually became a pseudo administration. Underneath all the noise and being at least partly hidden by it a river/sewer of evil is flowing (see Ghostbusters II). Wish we had as immediate a solution. But we don’t. It’s slog along, precinct by precinct, election by election, until we get Congress and then the White House back. While we do desperately need to get the helm of the Ship of State back into our hands, we equally desperately need to refuel it with voting rights/civil rights/human rights – a ship must be underway before it will respond to the helm.

    Good news on community needs front that the list is so very short now. Not so good news that the anti-community needs people seem to have started invading the Village diaries to complain about them. Sigh. But then I’ve expected it pretty much for several months. Just sad to see it actually happen. Many sad things going on, covertly and overtly, where I “used to live” – only constant in life is change. And Love.

    Need to do my internets tour then get back to offline stuff. Bright the day, Meeses. {{{HUGS}}}

  6. Good morning, 42 and cloudy in Bellingham. Another sleepy morning for me, but this time it’s from being outside most of yesterday. One clip here and one there and the day was done! The upright supports for the garden fence are in place and I hope we have the height right. 8 ft is recommended but that’s so tall it looks like a stockade. 6 ft looks better so I hope the deer will decide it’s not worth the effort to jump over it.

    Time for coffee. Take care everyone.

  7. Good morning meese. It should be a fairly good, sunny day today and tomorrow before another heavy storm comes in on Tuesday/Wednesday. That’s good because it means I can take my (unpacked) moving boxes to recycling. Yep, still working on unpacking after 3 years. Don’t feel bad, Diana. :)

    Speaking of, here’s the diary that I thought you would enjoy.
    Tea, glorious tea!

    • Basket, I LOVED it! I’m quite passionate on the subject, as you know. Just went to read your diary and left a comment. It was so pleasant to read a post on a subject so close to my heart.

      See you at the nest, perhaps, later tonight.

  8. Berners channeling the shitgibbon. They can’t let go of their 2016 loss and are going to run on Hillary Hate in 2018 and 2020.

    • TheirRevolution apologists are running round saying “anyone can post an event, that does not reflect our position!” and then said there was a disclaimer on their web site. Someone got a screen cap and that language was added after they were called out. Plus, I call bs on those who claim that any post is fine with them – if that is true, they are stupid. Hmmm. I may have just answered my own question.

  9. There was another bomb, in yet a different neighborhood — and this one wasn’t on a doorstep, it was in a bag or backpack at the side of the road. Even scarier, the 2 people injured didn’t pick it up, police think it was set off by a tripwire. It’s the only thing on the news this morning. I’m listening to Love Is Bigger Than Anything In Its Way, on repeat.

    • {{{anotherdemocrat}}} – Healing Energy & holding you in my heart. Sending same to the entire city of Austin to help APD find and stop the evil ones. moar {{{HUGS}}}

  10. Good morning, meeses! Monday …

    It is 32 degrees in Madison with an expected daytime high of 45. Mostly sunny skies are in the forecast. Yesterday on the back deck – in the full sun – it was 67 degrees. Spring!

    This week Congress will be tasked with passing an omnibus spending bill or the government will shut down for the 3rd time this year. There are a few possible bumps in the road – the Republicans want to fix their literally passed-in-the-moddle-of-the-night-with-Orrin-Hatch’s-handwriting-in-the-margins tax bill and Democrats are hoping to trade that for something we want. There is 0 chance that a DACA fix will be included, Congressional Democrats seem resigned to letting the courts sort it out. The question will be whether or not the House Freedumb Cacas will try to add any poison pills to the legislation. Stay tuned for “Your Unified Republican Government Sucks at Governing”, episode elebenty billion.

    In Kansas, the ACLU vs KKKobach trial will resume and the judge will be deciding if SoS Kris Kobach should be held in contempt of court for refusing to comply with an order requiring that he allow people without proof of citizenship to vote. He won’t care – he is a trumper and rules are not for him! – but it is hoped that Kansas voters care when they reject his gubernatorial candidacy.

    Will this be the week that Mueller is fired and Republicans have to detach their lips from Trump’s ass and declare that they are for the rule of law? It is difficult to believe that the shitgibbon’s lawyers declaring on TV that the Russian investigation should be ended and then his tweeting out – for the first time – Mueller by name, is just a coincidence. Here is a snippet from the NY Times “Trump is Ready to Be Trump” article over the weekend:

    “[Trump] ultimately trusts only his own instincts, and now believes he has settled into the job enough to rely on them rather than the people who advise him.”

    “A dozen people close to Mr. Trump or the White House, including current and former aides and longtime friends, described him as newly emboldened to say what he really feels and to ignore the cautions of those around him.”

    Goddess help us.

    See all y’all later!

  11. Good morning, Meese! Another beautiful day, our last for a while, in Ashburn. Current temp. is 30 F., going up to 54 F. later, with sunshine all day. Yesterday I walked around the garden of our old house and noted tiny green leaves on the raspberry canes. They’ll get a shock tomorrow!

    Worked hard cleaning the fridge and the shelves in the old house so the one-woman cleaning crew can concentrate on vacuuming and polishing the floors. That’s one thing on her lists of tasks. I have to meet her there at 10 this morning. The workday traffic where we live now is so nasty that I’m allowing an hour to get there, although yesterday I got from our old house to Ashby in 18 minutes.

    Dreading the news today and all the rest of the week. Wishing a good day to Meese everywhere, however. Stay warm!

  12. 52 and feels like it, sunny at least at the moment, and heading for 62. Of course yesterday was supposed to top out at 60 and went to 75 instead before the rain moved in – it was overcast enough that we only got 11.3 KWHs but should do much better today if it stays as sunny as it is right now. M-t-d with this morning’s driblet is 256 so still on track to meet or beat 400 for the month. Which would be nice.

    I really don’t know where folks are getting the energy to be 24/7 OMGHOF about the Rs and especially the chief R – AND the energy to do the same over the latest asininity of the Extreme Left. I devoutly hope they aren’t taking it from what we all need to be doing – blocking what can be blocked of course but seriously working on the precinct-level organizing needed to win back Congress this year and the WH (plus keep Congress) in 2020. And equally seriously working on helping the folks the Rs are hurting beit Puerto Rico or kinfolk in need. That’s a heavy load right there. We don’t need to be feeding our energy to mad king donald, there’s too much other stuff to do.

    Gonna do my tour of the internets then do some offline stuff. If it stays calm once the temps hit 60, I may go for a walk – see what’s bloomed since yesterday. I do prefer that to the treadmill. Golden Energy to all your endeavors. Bright the day, Meeses. {{{HUGS}}}

  13. Good morning, Moosekind; started the day at 30, with an expected high of 36. sigh March is back after yesterday’s spring tease with highs in the mid-50s. Yesterday I had windows and doors thrown wide open, but by last night, I was scrambling to close everything up again. I’ve been obsessively checking the forecast for the 24th; originally it was showing a 70% chance of snow, but now the forecast is high of 39 with a 50% chance of precipitation. If we have to have precipitation, I’d prefer colder and snow, rather than warmer and rain, but I don’t get a vote on that! I’m going to the March for Our Lives in Detroit no matter what; I have a friend driving down from Flint to carpool with me, and we’re hoping to pack a few more people into our car.

    I spent most of the weekend in my sewing room, attempting to get it back into some semblance of order. That meant tackling the last [huge] pile of ironing I had left from my daughter’s wedding (yes, that was last October…don’t judge!) and forcing myself to complete all the boring, but necessary, mending. I also finished up a bunch of small projects that just had one or two more steps to completion, so although my sewing room doesn’t look that much different, I do feel like I accomplished a lot. My husband usually laughs when he sees me darning socks and can’t figure I out why I bother, but when he saw that I was darning his really warm boot socks that he prefers for work, for once he didn’t laugh. Sometimes I think I may be the last person in the world who still darns socks, but it’s a habit I just haven’t been able to break.

    • {{{DoReMI}}} – I’d darn socks if I knew how. My attempts at darning sweaters are, well, serviceable sort of. Socks I don’t even try – my feel are so sensitive I can’t wear most socks anyway and a “lump” or irregularity of any sort is quite painful. sigh. Seriously good for you. moar {{{HUGS}}}

  14. Good morning, 42 and cloudy in Bellingham. I should be at the pool now but I’m to sleepy so I’ll find some coffee and take my time waking up.

    Best wishes to all on this Monday morning.

  15. Good morning, meeses! Tuesday …

    It is 25 degrees in Madison with an expected daytime high of 36. Partly cloudy skies are in the forecast.

    So the “news” is that the Trump campaign – determined to elect an immoral “billionaire” – hired people entirely devoid of morals and tied to billionaires who want to destroy democracy? What is news – but probably shouldn’t be – is that the work done on Trump’s behalf also helped the Republicans hold the Senate despite what I thought were some excellent Democratic candidates in 2016. :(

    I will read the news later but for now, I am going to enjoy Springing into Spring with music:

    Praise to the Spring, Praise to all living things
    Praise to the Maiden and the joy that she brings
    Praise to the Earth let all her creatures now sing
    Hope is renewed with the coming of the Spring

    We turn from the darkness and the wise Crone within
    We turn to the Maiden and creation begins
    It’s a time for things growing and time now for flowing
    A time now for sowing the seeds of your dreams.

    (Chorus)
    The heart fires are stirring with the new life returning
    Its time now for learning what rebirth truly means
    We honor ourselves and all the faeries and elves
    May we dance and ring bells for the coming of the Spring!

    (Chorus)
    So open your heart to natures wondrous art.
    Its time now to start the Healing of the Green.
    Young rabbits abound and there’s flowers all around
    The air is filled with the Sound of the Coming of the Spring!

    See all y’all later!

  16. There was an explosion, but it might not be related, because it was at a Fedex distribution center, just north of San Antonio. None of the other bombs were mailed. This is either a bad copycat or completely unrelated. I got in a 25ish minute walk this morning, just at a mile. I played Summer of Love in my head — lush & at the same time, drifty, like a summer afternoon on the beach, the first time I heard it, the sheer beauty made me cry. But the lyrics are actually sad & sober, about the Syrian refugee crisis.

    • It sounded like a copycat to me. Some jerk too far from Austin to go there in person who wanted to be deplorable. :(

      • or more than one, they’ve now evacuated the FedEx facility near the Austin airport because of a suspicious package

    • {{{anotherdemocrat}}} – copycats abound – in deplorableness as in anything else. I’d say this is a copycat. Glad you got a bit of a walk in. Used to be some really beautiful walks in the Capitol area – even though I haven’t lived in Austin since 1980 I assume there still are. Healing Energy. moar {{{HUGS}}}

      • When I walk downtown, it’s before work and dark. So I just walk around the big parking garages near Waterloo Park – surveillance cameras & DPS officers abound, so I feel safe.

  17. Good morning, Moosekind! This rainy Tuesday morning is off to a very slow start. Currently it’s 36 F. here at Ashby Ponds, with an expected high of 45 F. The rain will change to snow tomorrow morning, or so they bleat.

    Woke up at 3:30 this morning despite a very hard day running around town and coordinating with the cleaning team (mercifully, she brought a friend or employee with her) and the realtor, not to mention the title company and the bank, by telephone. Don’t think I’ve ever worked so hard in my life as I did on Sunday and Monday! I actually lost a pound. (Cue sound of world’s tiniest violin playing, “You asked for it, you got it, chickie.”)

    Anyway, poor old Dearly has to pick up Miss Pink Cheeks from school today, stay with her until DIL arrives, then drive home through some very nasty traffic. Route 28 is awful anyway, but it’s going to be hell with freezing rain and sleet. Tomorrow the Fairfax County schools will undoubtedly be closed, so we won’t have to pick her up. We plan to tactfully inform Younger Son and DIL to make different after-school arrangements: driving 10 miles both ways at rush hour means Dearly will miss dinner here every night. We are paying to have dinner here, but since Friday night we’ve been eating sandwiches in our apartment. So they are just going to have to cut the cord!

    Horrible about the copycat bombing. Why do some people delight in death and destruction? Are they descended from Roman Coliseum crowds?

    Jan, thanks for the spring post and song! Will have to come back and read posts later. Right now I’m incoherent with fatigue. At least today we can focus on unpacking boxes and putting things away. Barky Manor is clean and shining, the fridge contains bubbly and a little welcome basket of snacks, cheese, jam, and fruit, and Dearly laid a fire in the family room woodstove ready to light on the buyers’ first evening in their new home.

    Off to cruise the news and then start work. Wishing a peaceful Ostara or Spring Equinox to everyone, and may the voice of the turtle be heard in our land.

  18. 39 windchill 31, 100% humidity and overcast, might get to 50 today, maybe. The “other side” of Spring. sigh. Only got 7.6 KWHs yesterday – m-t-d is 263.6 – and while we could still make 400 for the month, the current weather forecast (a week of days like yesterday) make it iffy. darn it. We shall see what we shall see.

    More “this will bring them all down” on twitter, more gishgalloping to hide evil past, present, and planned from the Rs. Day ending in -y. A wonderful morning almost clearing of the needs list was followed by a later afternoon and evening scramble to try and put together a plan to help someone in serious need. We’ve got a volunteer to write the diary and have cobbled together a small ($500) match but we need more information so we’re on hold until the person who’s going to write the diary can reach the person who needs it. Meanwhile he’s got a diary of his own out that sank like a rock – we were looking for people who could reblog it to communities he’s in but at this point it may be moot. As in too late to get it in front of eyes even if we did (& while Black Kos is still active I haven’t a clue about Elders of Zion or LGBT Kos Community and such). So we wait. And hope we can get him help.

    Need to tour the internets and get coffee. Or get coffee and tour the internets. I can’t seem to wake up. :) But I’m not going anywhere until Charlie gets off my lap. LOL. Bright the day, Meeses. {{{HUGS}}}

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