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!
Good “morning”, Motley Meese! The week begins …
Morning low of 28 degrees in Madison WI with an expected daytime high of 30. The forecast calls for blizzard conditions in the early morning and snow all day.
Have a great day, all y’alls!!
The weather widget from last night was mostly right – 22 mph winds, gusting to 40 – but the precipitation is not snow but crusty ice pellets! It is indeed 28 but feels like 14 if anyone is crazy enough to go outside in this.
We have a taste of the same weather…though not that bad.
They have warned about hazardous driving conditions – and I worry since the hubby is driving into work today
Sunday Meese
We’ve got sleet and freezing rain here – temp going up to 36.
Glad to see the pushback against Starbucks – whose “nopology” sucked.
I had to giggle a bit when I saw that Beyonce at Coachella took over twitter trending.
I did not see it – am reading the reviews.
Puerto Rico
I tweeted “No” as an answer to this
I will probably get pushback this morning from a few people at Dkos since I’ve called Trump a “murderer” That’s how I feel about him.
I tweeted out a NO, also!
The Starbucks thing was not even the worst thing to occur last week in “terrible things that happen to black people in America” – a young black teen was shot at while asking for directions. This is absolutely the worst timing for having a white supremacist federal government – there had been some progress under Eric Holder and Loretta Lynch towards making police departments accountable for their racist policies and that progress has been halted and, in many cases, reversed. The answer has to be making city government responsive. Urban areas are – in theory – overwhelmingly Democratic; why can’t we elect people who demand better of our police?
{{{Denise}}} – he is a murderer. So is everyone who didn’t vote for Hillary because a not-for-Hillary vote or no vote at all counted as a vote for him. So it’s probably a good thing I’m already banned because I’m sure to have said that somewhere.
I am really, really, really pissed off. I live in New York’s 19th Congressional District. We currently have John Faso (Rethug) as our Congress-critter as a result of a piss-poor campaign run by the progressives darling Zephyr Teachout.
Quite a few excellent Democrats are running in the primary – to have the chance to challenge Faso in Nov.
There is a wrinkle. A so-called Democrat has thrown her hat in the race – but she isn’t running as a Democrat. She’s now “Independent” and could wind up splitting the vote if she’s still around in November
She’s only lived up here since 2014.
Diane Neal is an actress known for her role as Casey Novak on Law & Order: Special Victims Unit.
She has zero political experience.
See this
The emergence of The Celebrity Candidate should concern everyone – electoral politics is serious business and they trivialize it. “Anyone can be president!” is a very bad idea as anyone with a brain can see. “Anyone can be a Congressman!” gave us the teaparty Congresses filled with stupid people who have never read the Constitution and have no idea what the government does. I hope the people voting aren’t duped.
Another cold-by-Texas-standards morning: 40 headed up to the 70s. Windy & dry, so we have red flag warnings even with the cold, meaning wildfire danger. Today: church, put food together, do taxes.
Hillary appearance:
Weather widget says 27 windchill 12 – the bird water has a film of ice on it – I don’t think I’m going to get any cherries again this year. Sigh. The tree was totally covered with blossoms 2 weeks ago. I was thinking “cherry jam” again as well as fresh fruit. double sigh. Got 8.2 KWHs yesterday which is better than the day before but… the m-t-d is 179 with this morning’s driblet. We’ll make the 180 I consider my “baseline” sometime today so at least that’s good.
Everybody I’m worried about as far as fundraising is OK for the time being. Breathe sigh of relief this time. With Aji I’m less concerned with fundraising and more concerned with getting her more patrons for her writing site. Here’s the link again to tweet (or otherwise share) out – https://www.patreon.com/AjiWings/posts?utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter&utm_campaign=creatorshare2 – so far she’s got 9 patrons and is just over 40% of her goal. The various political things range from depressing to a few funny. I do RT a lot of them. I never realize how many until I go to my own tweets tab to try and find a specific one. LOL. Not many of them are RT’d, but some are so I will consider it a good sign.
I need to get my laundry hung up on the racks – washer just stopped – make a really swift tour around the internets then go get milk. I am totally out and I don’t do coffee without it – not much, a TBSP, but gotta have it. Also gotta have the coffee. So. I’ll check back later.
Bright the day, Meeses. {{{HUGS}}}
Good morning, 44 and mostly cloudy in Bellingham. RonK and our son made good progress with the deer fence yesterday, and Heidi had fun playing in the mud and then slipping into the house to dry off. We keep a dog towel by the door but she can’t use it by herself! So we’ve got some clean up to do today.
The fence looks very imposing so it’s going to take some getting used to. But RonK enjoys growing veggies and feeding the to his family, not to the deer so we’ll adjust.
Best Sunday wishes to all.
Monday Meese
35 and raining/sleeting here in NY going up to 53
Headed to the eye specialist today at around 11AM – to find out when I will have my surgeries
Hubby took off from work to drive me. since the doc is about an hour away in Albany.
Haven’t really looked at the news yet – except to scan for Puerto Rico stories – not very many new ones :(
Will you wait until school ends before you have your surgeries? It is hard to believe that it is already the middle of April and that the school year ends in most places in a little over a month. Our colleges have last day of classes on May 10th and then a week of finals. Our K-12 goes until the end of the first week of June but actual teaching and learning often ends in the middle of May. I wish they would change the schedule to start earlier and end earlier to match kids attention spans; the reason for the late start – so high school kids can work in the resorts through Labor Day – is out-dated. It won’t impact me after this school year ends so I will have to find something else to complain about!
Will try to do that. My last class is May 7th – however I have final exams to give on May 11.
May have to space the ops out – first one eye – then 2 months later the second.
Will know more after talking to the surgeon.
{{{Denise}}} – Healing Energy headed your way – to your shaping, of course – and holding the Good Thought on best outcome both with today’s doctor visit and the surgeries themselves. Stay warm. moar {{{HUGS}}}
Good morning, meeses! Monday …
It is 25 degrees in Madison with an expected daytime high of 32. Light snow this morning with mostly cloudy skies this afternoon. We got about 3 inches of snow on top of the sleet but the northern part of the state got more than 20 inches so we lucked out. We will have steadily climbing temperatures this week with the 50s expected by Saturday.
Comey bashes Trump, but blames Loretta Lynch for politicizing the email server investigation and still won’t accept that he had a bias against Hillary Clinton that led him to re-open the investigation based on the flimsiest excuse. And still no good explanation for why the voters did not have a right to know that the other candidate, Trump, was under investigation. I won’t read anything but the headlines because life is too short. Today, Trump’s bagman Cohen appears in court and his lawyers claim the right to sort through the evidence first and remove anything they feel is privileged. I hope that is rejected out of hand – no one else gets that courtesy and the crimes Cohen committed on Trump’s behalf were before he became president. He is just another Joe Blow caught up in a money laundering scheme and they should not adjust their procedures for him.
The Philadelphia chief of police says essentially if a business owner calls and doesn’t want black people in their place of business, he will send cops in to arrest them. I am not sure how different that is from Jim Crow – at least with Jim Crow there were signs warning people about the rules. It is no wonder that many people of color consider law enforcement the enemy.
Busy day here and I am feeling not the least bit motivated! Maybe more coffee will help.
See all y’all later!
The whole Starbucks thing is pissing me off – glad to see protests in Philly – really bugged by all the “but they must have been doing something wrong” remarks and the CEOs statement didn’t help matters.
So – walking while black, driving while black, flying while black, shopping while black, asking for directions while black, and waiting for a friend in Starbucks …are all dangerous if you are black.
I hope that more white folks will step up and speak out – since we are only 13% of the U.S. population we can’t fix this.
They charged the white retired firefighter who shot at the 14-year old boy in Michigan – the charge was “assault with intent to murder and felony firearm.” They set bail at $50,000 and the next court date for April 24th. The sheriff said “we will seek all applicable charges. There is no world where this is acceptable.”
I found it interesting that the homeowner’s own security system video ratted on them! People only seem to find outrage at the injustice when there is video evidence.
Good Moon Day morning, Moosekind. It’s gray, damp, and drippy here in NoVa this morning, with a current temp. of 46 F. Later it will climb to 52 F. Last night we had some heavy rain that led us to cover the furniture on the screened porch.
After our warm, sunny Friday and Saturday, this weather is quite a disappointment. Elder Son, DIL, and Mr. Toddler came for Sunday brunch yesterday. The meal was nice enough but there was a long wait for it—it was 1:45 before we actually sat down at a table. Our grownup visitors liked our apartment with its high ceilings and think our new community is a nice place to live.
We didn’t stay up for the Comey interview. Although I’m interested in it I won’t buy his bloody book, as I blame him in large measure for the current debacle. When I think of what we could have had, I want to scream.
This morning I have to finish the cleaning I didn’t get done yesterday, and in the afternoon I’m going on a photo shoot. Democrats in the 10th Congressional District of Virginia, in which I have resided for some 50 years, are determined to get The Woman Comstock out of that seat. The precinct captain here at Ashby is picking me up after lunch to go to the courthouse in Leesburg to meet with Jennifer Wexton, who currently serves as a senator in the state legislator, and whom we support. So that’s my Monday.
Denise, Jan, and bfitz, sorry to hear about the awful weather in your areas of the country. What kinda spring is this? Hope it gets better, and here’s wishing a good day to all at the Pond and Beyond.
Imho the only thing good about the Comey book is that the media frenzy foiled Trump’s fail deflection move of bombing Syria.
I am hoping that Comstock finally gets her comeuppance. She keeps winning when by all rights she should lose her seat, being a poor fit for her bluing district. Has Jennifer Wexton run for that seat before – her name sounds familiar.
I am convinced that we will one day have Spring weather. We have had April snowstorms in the past, some quite fierce, and even early May snowstorms. The flora know – the trees are not budding and we have no spring flowers yet. The birds, though, appear to have arrived here a bit too soon because there will be no more worms for the robins or ants for the flickers for a while. We feed seeds and they will have to make do with that.
48 — cold for Texas. And my stomach decided I wasn’t walking this morning. I’m getting a truly tiny refund, like it isn’t worth the cost of the electricity for them to direct deposit it to me. I found a FB group for the U2 Chicago shows, getting lots of info on the city. And I can’t stop listening to this new Snow Patrol song. It’s sweet, beautiful, and… I don’t know what to call it (link is to full lyrics & you can listen if you want:
Oh this ancient wildness
That we don’t understand
The first sound of a heartbeat
To riots roaring on
This is not the love you’ve had before
This is something else
This is something else
This is not the same as other days
This is something else
This is something else,
and Charlotte Clymer has won twitter – some talibangelists made the mistake of walking up to her & asking if they could pray for her
Good for Charlotte; I was pumping my fist in the air when I read this!
I had a similar experience during the ’08 campaign. I called a woman who told me that she didn’t know who she was voting for, because her husband hadn’t told her yet. She handed the phone over to him, whereupon he told me he was a “strong Christian” before proceeding with an ugly, racist rant about Obama. At the end of the call, he told me he would pray for me. I responded that I would pray for him too, and perhaps we could pray together? There was a long silence, and then to my surprise, he agreed. He started with the usual style of prayer heard in evangelical circles (“I just want to thank you, Jesus…”) with a few digs about ungodly Democrats, baby-killers, etc. When it was my turn, I went in a totally different direction, not focusing on politics, but on Jesus’ teachings about love. Another long silence when I was done, the guy just said, “thank you”, and hung up. I don’t think for a second that he was swayed in any way, but I do think he was more than a bit surprised that an ungodly Democrat could meet him on “his” turf. Of course, my FO and the other phone-bankers were just staring, wondering what the heck had just happened on my call.
One weather widget say 27 windchill 17, the other says 33 windchill 25 – I’m inclined to go with the latter as the bird water isn’t frozen. :) Anyway, it’s heading for 60 and sunny which is wonderful but probably too late for the cherries. I will keep an eye on the tree, but 3 hard frosts between full bloom and now… Yesterday got 14.8 KWHs and the m-t-d is 194 – 400 is still possible so I’m still hoping. (Actually 500 is technically possible – but that would take averaging 20/day for the entire rest of the month. Not likely.) Although I’d take making only 300 but getting my cherries if given that tradeoff. heh.
Political news is still very much “sound and fury” – hard to sort through the stuff to pay attention to and the stuff “signifying nothing” – although I’m not impressed with Comey’s attempts to whitewash what he did. You don’t tell sensitive information to the worst gossip in town (Chaffetz) if you don’t want it to get out – and in the most malicious way. As to the Starbucks & other very clear evidence of the systemic racism Hillary talked about, well. any POC can tell you nothing new there. And Hillary did not only talk about it, she listened to POC about it, and she had a plan to address it. Not “fix” it – it’ll be a long time fixing – but to get started fixing it. And that is a whole lot of the reason a bunch of Deplorable people, including James Comey, worked together to stop her. Unfortunately “Villages” can be used to do evil work as well as good work.
Speaking of Villages and good work though – bunch of fundraisers finished last week, but a couple are still ongoing and there’s a new urgent one (like of the $1500 she needs, she needs $900 today) that I basically can only hold the Good Thought about and hope for the best. The “village” of folks spreading the word on Aji’s patreon site are – slowly – doing some good work. She’s up to 11 patrons and 60% of her goal. So thanks everybody who has shared it out (and the link’s up above so you can do it again. LOL).
I’m not sure the new eye drops are working. This is my 3rd day on them – the first 2 gave me some relief but today I might as well have been using water. That could just be that I was online too much yesterday and even the drops can’t handle the extra strain. I seriously don’t know what I’m going to do if I have to severely cut back on my online time. I guess I’ll think of something. Speaking of which, I need to tour the internets and start my RTing for the morning. Bright the day, Meeses. {{{HUGS}}}
Good morning, 44 and raining in Bellingham. I woke up at a more normal time, but I’ve already had two naps so I guess my sleep and hopefully recover plan is still underway. Given that reality we’ve moved the April birthday dinners to restaurants. Our oldest son will be 48 yrs old on Wednesday, and Ryan will be 17 yrs old next week. How has this happened! Maybe that’s another reason I need frequent naps :)
Time to find some coffee and perhaps a focus for my day.
I decided to spend a click on the Charles Blow article on the Comey book. I really need closure on the 2016 election and maybe this last piece falling into place will help.
It was probably a combination of all of those things – not any one tipping point but substantial weight should be placed on voter suppression and the ridiculous minute-by-minute polls guaranteeing a Clinton victory. I am with Blow, we can dislike Comey and despise Trump at the same time.
But, really, it is time to bury 2016. The best way to get over a bad election outcome is with a good election outcome. In 2018, we take back Congressional power and reintroduce accountability to our government; we take back some statehouses and strengthen voting rights. In 2020, we fight the Republicans head to head in the presidential election – this time prepared to do battle against “racism, xenophobia, misogyny and ethno- and religious hostility” with our people wised up about voting rights and intimidation tactics and what is at stake. Time to flip the page.
It’s been time to flip the page – but the berners haven’t let us. They keep tearing down and trying to sabotage our party, the one who has the chance – just the chance – to take back Congress and start dealing with this mess. Until we can get our microphone away from them – let them exercise their free speech rights with their own megaphone on street corners if they wish – we will be fighting this battle even as we try to do what needs to be done against the real enemy.
Nothing is stopping us from turning the page on the general election but our own inability to let go of the what-ifs. It doesn’t matter any longer and simply adds to the stress of the Trump era. He is the president and that sucks but we can’t change it.
As far as the primary wars, the way we protect the party from the berners is to make sure we positively support candidates who represent our values and demonstrate that they will not bern down the party in the pursuit of purity. If the DNC – and DCCC – had any brains, they would insist on candidates pledging to support the general election candidate when the primary ends. Candidates unwilling to instruct their supporters to vote for their former opponents should be shunned. But at this point it is all conjecture – no primary elections have happened that I know of where the losing candidates have demanded that their supporters bern down the party.
I largely let go of the “what ifs” within a few weeks of the election. They periodically raise their heads when twitler does or doesn’t do something that costs lives but otherwise I’m doing my best to focus on winning back Congress. As with many other evils in my life and in American history, I know the shape of them. I don’t need to know the specifics to try and make things better. And at least for me personally I would get so very bogged down in the specifics that I would not be able to do anything to make things better.
But – every single time bernie or the bros trash Dems in general & Hillary in particular, every time they try to change the rules to benefit themselves, every time they give money and lots of publicity to a “pure” candidate who is only pure because he supported bernie or mouths bernie-phrased talking points to the detriment of a solid Dem candidate who has a proven record (Cathy Myers for example) – well, it turns right back into the primary battles because when they are called on it, their immediate response is “you – yadda, yadda – Hillary” – So as long as they have the Dem party microphone this will keep coming up. Not because I want it to – I mute these guys – but because it’s worked so well for them.
Tuesday Meese
Raining and 40 degrees here in NY – going up to 47 with some weird stuff about snow flurries too.
Visit to eye doctor specialist in Albany was made in pouring rains yesterday – thankfully hubby was driving – the doc turned out to be very interesting young man who is raising his daughters to be feminists.
He is the best in this area at what he does (combo glaucoma cataract surgery) and after several hours of tests – he informed me I don’t need glaucoma surgery – my glaucoma is doing very well using just eye drops – the eye pressure is responding so well to drops I am better than most normal folks – I will not go blind – and to simply have cataract surgery asap – so I’m headed back this week to the top cataract surgeon who is about 10 minutes away from where I live – she’s very busy – so don’t know when I can get started. Soon – hopefully.
PR daily count
Yay!!!
“I will not go blind”
Excellent news. I hope you can get in for the cataract surgery quickly!!
I hope so too – will keep ya posted
My mother had cataract surgery done on both eyes (at different times) and it is a pretty simple process. In the olden days it used to be much more involved. I remember my grandfather having to wear an eye patch for a long time – he looked like a pirate! I have cataracts forming but they are a ways from needing surgery.
Denise, glad to hear about the cataract surgery and your eyes responding well to the eye drops. People I know have been really happy with their cataract surgery.
{{{Denise}}} Seriously YAY!!!! for the eye dr visit results. Holding the Good Thought for you getting scheduled soon for the cataract surgeries. Healing Energy for your shaping. moar {{{HUGS}}}
Good news! I’m so relieved your vision will be ok.
Good morning, meeses! Tuesday …
It is 28 degrees in Madison with an expected daytime high of 37. Sunny this morning and then clouding up. Tomorrow another icy winter event rolls through the state. :(
The Twitterazzi were delighted by the Cohen hearing in NYC. It was an entertaining break because that case is not going to cause a constitutional crisis – Cohen will go to either a federal prison or a New York state prison (if Trump pardons him). The constitutional crisis would come from firing the entire Justice Department to find someone willing to fire Mueller. By the way, funniest headline: “Hannity Ethics Under Fire.” HAHAHAHAHA! That should be “ethics”.
On this Tax Day, the news is bad for Republicans in the House hoping to hang onto their seats: people don’t like the tax cuts – only 27% think they are a good idea. People are starting to realize that next years taxes will rise for most people especially homeowners in blue and purple states where SALT caps will limit deductions severely. In New Jersey, the latest Monmouth poll showed four Republican House seats flipping blue with the number one issue being the tax hike. The tax scam, the trillion dollar deficit and Republican plans to pay it down from the Social Security trust fund will be the perfect storm to wash away the blue state Republicans.
Busy morning here, see all y’all later!
Good morning, Moosekind! Yet another cloudy day here, although the sky is lightening now we’re past dawn. It’s 39 F. in Ashburn, going up to 47 F. later—ugh. Yesterday during the photo shoot there was an icy wind blowing and clouds overhead, so it really was less fun than it could have been.
Jan, as far as I know Jennifer Wexton hasn’t run for U.S. Congress before. The Woman Comstock is reported this morning to have raised lots of cash, as the Rethugs want her to hold on to the seat. However, lots of cash doesn’t always translate into lots of votes. Wexton is sound on choice, in favor of curbing gun violence (“gun violence” is the new framing for what used to be “gun control”), and believes in science, public education, and protecting the environment. She’s coming here to Ashby to speak on Friday morning, so I’ll attend that. I couldn’t get into the luncheon as I was notified too late.
This afternoon Mr. Monty needs to have his checkup, and then there’s a “new residents” party at 4 p.m. here on the first floor. We ate pizza in our apartment last night instead of hitting one of the restaurants for dinner, so today I’ll try for a reservation.
Wishing a good day to all at the Pond, and will we EVER have real spring instead of a winter hangover?
I am glad your candidates visit your retirement community, that is very helpful! It is shocking that we have to talk about a candidate believing in science. :(
p.s. “Curbing gun violence” is excellent framing.
Walked this morning, yay! 1.15 miles, was nervous about pushing too hard even though I feel fine. I will push tomorrow. I need to polish the eulogy for Saturday. I wish I hadn’t been assigned the high school years – we were only in the same city for 10th grade. Lucky I only have 2 minutes. There are several speakers. She & I used to joke that between us, we knew everyone in town. Ok, now I’m going to turn up the music in my head.