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!
Good morning, Moosekind! After the thunderstorm at 11 last night, we have a fair morning with sunlight striking the clouds stretching across the blue. The current temp. in Ashburn is 64 F., going up to 83 F.—unusual for August. There are signs of an early autumn everywhere, yellow leaves blowing off the trees, cricket song in the woods, spiders busily weaving webs. Wonder whether we’re in for a hard winter?
August is always bittersweet to me anyway, because no matter how old I get, September makes me think of buying new shoes to go back to school. :)
Still reeling from the double whammy yesterday and still grieving for the people of Venezuela after the earthquake—as if they didn’t already have enough to deal with. And I’m grieving over that poor girl in Iowa. The news yesterday was what I expected, but I’m still outraged over her life being cut short because of some random dirtbag.
However, we have to carry on. I have a meeting today to discuss possible stories for the quarterly issue of our little paper, “Around the Ponds.” My husband is a piece of walking, talking history: he was evacuated from London when the war broke out, snatched back by his outraged mother when she discovered the conditions he and his brother were living in, and spent the rest of the war hiding in the Andersen shelter in the backyard with his family when the “take cover” siren sounded. At one point his school was bombed, so he and the others didn’t have to go, much to their delight.
Also, I discovered that one of the women in my building had been a Mary Kay superstar. Over the years she won 13 cars, nine of which were pink Cadillacs. “I drove that pink Cadillac to the Pentagon when she was out of town,” her husband bragged. “When my colleagues twitted me about it, I asked them ‘What kind of car did your wife give you to drive this morning?'” LOL!
Wishing a peaceful day to all at the Pond and beyond. May Jan’s business meetings go well, may bfitz get some sunlight for her solar collectors, and may the smoky air in princesspat’s corner of the country dissipate so everyone can breathe.
I had to look up Anderson shelters, and it was totally unsettling. It’s hard to believe they held up to the bombing; I’d say your husband and his family were very, very lucky. I’d love to hear more of his recollections, even if they never make it into “Around the Ponds.”
{{{Diana}}} – when, if, you are so inclined and have the time a post of some of your husband’s memories of WWII would be very interesting. Memory is not a trustworthy thing as far as facts are concerned, but you don’t have a finer source for feelings and general impressions. moar {{{HUGS}}}
Walked again this morning, .71 mi. Not pushing the pace, I want to start easy. My allergies are out of control & I left my pill box at home, so no benadryl for me, I may have to go home early. In honor of yesterday, here’s Beautiful Day.
{{{ad}}} – considering the weather you’ve got and your allergies, definitely start easy. Take care of yourself. Healing Energy and moar {{{HUGS}}}
‘Morning Meeses. Wednesday is clear and sunny at the moment which we can use. I can anyway. 65 with 100% humidity so my hands are cold but heading for 81. (That’s the daytime high. In August. Global Weirding.) Got just over 13 KWHs yesterday and the m-t-d is 294. With 10 days of production left in the month 500 is still technically possible – but it would take over 20 KWHs generated each and every day to do it. Not likely. I’m pretty sure we’ll get over 400 but how much over 400 depends, as always, on the sun.
Some friends and I are trying to do a sort of crowdfunding twofer – Aji really doesn’t like donations, she wants sales – and Sharice Davids is a superstar in our books just for running this serious and credible race. So, we’re crowdfunding a pair of Wings’ beautiful “wearable Native art” earrings as a thank you gift to her for running in the first place. We’ve gotten some big chunks to start it off (at least $400) – the idea is for folks to send the funds directly to Wings’ PayPal with “toward earrings for Sharice Davids” in the comment line. Aji will keep track and once the funding slows down/stops, Wings will either select from his existing stock or create a special pair for her – depending on timeframe. We’ve passed the idea back and forth (and progress back and forth) via email – I don’t know how to create a Tweet for that to try and get it out to a wider audience. (If it works I’m thinking Deb Haaland next – it would be great to have 2 Native women voices in Congress!)
Meanwhile the office situation is totally up in the air. The person is gaming the system – got on FMLA just in time to forestall being fired. And has actually showed up – late – yesterday and today. Considering just how much FMLA is written to favor the employer, there must be something in there to protect the department from “I’ll show up when I want to and you can’t do anything about it. Nyah!” Finding that something is being an issue at the moment. So I worked Monday and the place seemed to heave a sign of relief and relax – until about 4 pm when the word went out about the system-gamer being back Tuesday. Then it was shoulders hunched and head down again. Which upsets the hell out of me. sigh. Need more coffee. Healing Energy to everybody. Bright the day, Meeses. {{{HUGS}}}
Dear Goddess, bfitz, I’m having cat conniptions over what you and your former office are going through!
If I had done ANY of the things that guy has done I would have been fired after Day 1! What on earth is wrong with that place? Rinse. Repeat.
In the meantime, please stay cheerful. And by the way, set your own schedule at Dem. HQ–let other people work around YOUR schedule for a change!
Yeah, my friend and the dept chair tried too hard to help him fit in. He should have gotten the boot months ago. Like his 3rd more than 15 minutes late or his 2nd didn’t come back from lunch. He was a techie, he’d never been office staff before so wasn’t – and unfortunately still isn’t – used to the more rigid schedule kept by folks who keep the office open during posted office hours. (And his momma works down the hall in another department.) So he milked their kindness, milked his “minority” status as male in a female-dominated position, milked his “minority” status as Bangla, milked his minority status as Muslim. And when he’d milked all those dry, he applied for FMLA (emotional issues) and here we are.
As to the scheduling, well, I promised my friends at the dept I’d come in whenever he didn’t show up. So I have to be available to come in whenever he doesn’t show up. But I can cover the weekends as I’ve always done. And will. moar {{{HUGS}}}
Good morning, 59 and still a smokey haze in the sky. The moist marine air from Bellingham Bay is especially welcome today.
I’m slow and sleep this morning, and my thoughts are still settling re “Tuesday in the tRump administration” so I’m listening to Preet Bahara and Joyce Vance sort it out. It was a big news day for them too!
Take care everyone.
Good morning, Meesefolk! 63 when I got up this morning with an expected high of 72. This is my kind of weather, but by Sunday, it’s supposed to be close to 90 so I’ll enjoy while I can.
I didn’t watch the rally last night (as per usual), if it was even on somewhere , but also per usual, I checked @HoarseWisperer on Twitter in advance. He seems to have a clear understanding of narcissistic personality disorder (from personal, rather than medical, experience), and his insights are helpful to me. When everyone on Twitter was predicting that the Unhinged Occupant version would be showing up for the rally, Hoarse was saying otherwise. His predictions were spot-on, at least as far as I could tell by reading @ddale8’s livetweeting. All that really means, of course, is batten down the hatches, because the worst is yet to come. Will we ever see an elected Republican stand up and say, “Enough is enough”?
Busy day at work, so back to it. Take care, all.
{{{DoReMI}}} – enjoy the weather while it lasts. And it may be a generation of minority status before elected Rs start supporting country over party. But we won’t get that generation of Dem majority unless/until we find a way to break up or circumvent the 5 RW-corporate consortium that owns 90% of the MSM and influences the rest. sigh. Have fun at work. moar {{{HUGS}}}
Good morning, meeses! Thursday …
It is 54 in Madison with an expected daytime high of 77. Sunny, I think.
Still traveling but I expect to be home later this evening. I hate laptop keyboards! As you were.
See all y’all tomorrow!
Have fun and safe travels. I can only stand laptop keyboards if I have a real mouse. I seriously cannot deal with the mousepad thingy. {{{HUGS}}}
I’m less adaptable than both of you; I attach a regular keyboard and mouse to my laptop. If I don’t, my typing speed slows to something akin to hunt-and-peck speed (and my frustration level speeds up to off-the-charts territory).
80 degrees at 6am, ugh. And so close to a mile: .97, aargh. If this afternoon’s dermatologist appointment doesn’t leave me in too much pain, or having to use that really toxic cream that you can’t sweat in, I’ll definitely do a mile tomorrow. I’m hoping he can do the usual freeze & scrape, but there are several spots I know about & he always sees stuff I don’t. And the places on my scalp… dunno what he’ll do about them. And my allergies are just driving me nuts. At least I remembered my benadryl today. Here, listen to Love Is Bigger Than Anything In Its Way.
{{{ad}}} – lots more Healing Energy. Holding the Good Thought on the dermatologist appointment. moar {{{HUGS}}}
66 with 100% humidity going up to 80 again today but overcast again. sigh. Got 12 KWHs yesterday which at least pushed the m-t-d to 306. 12/day will at least get us over 400. Barely. Even though I only worked Monday, the week’s gotten away from me. I had to look to see what day it is. (Happy Thorsday!) Just putting Good Energy out in the world right now because everything else is up in the air. Healing Energy to everybody everywhere shaped to the need. Bright the day, Meeses. {{{HUGS}}}
Good Thor’s Day morning, Moosekind, and a grand and glorious morning it is, at least with regard to weather. There’s a cloudless blue sky that we haven’t seen in days, sunlight everywhere—I’ll take it! It’s 63 F. at the moment, going up to 78 F. later today. This is most unusual for August, so thank you, Goddess!
Miss Pink Cheeks and I are getting ready to go to her house before we make our way to her school for “Back to School Night” at noon. Duh…most parents work outside the home nowadays and can’t take off during the middle of the day. Miss PC’s mother works in downtown DC, 17 miles away through dense traffic, and her father just started a new job and can’t get time off yet. Thank Goddess Grandma is incurably nosy and wants to meet Miss PC’s teacher and classmates.
Bfitz and DoReMI, I will take your advice and write up Dearly Beloved’s wartime experiences to share in a blog post. Thanks for the encouragement! I’m researching the right way to conduct an interview. I learned during yesterday’s meeting that I have to float my story ideas before the entire communications committee; if they accept them, either I or someone else will be given the task of writing them. (Heck with that, darlings: there’s nothing to stop my writing the stories anyway and publishing them elsewhere if they reject them.)
We’ve lived through six months’ worth of news already this week, so we’re all exhausted. Wonder what other revelations there will be? Jan, I join you in your condemnation of laptop keyboards, which can drive one to the point of madness.
Wishing a good day to all at the Pond and Beyond!
I look forward to your post! I think these stories are so important, but the real benefit is the gift they will be for the grandkids.
Good morning, Meesefolk! Yesterday was a perfect September day; today it looks like we’ll be getting a perfect August day with the morning low of 61 and a projected high of 79. Clouds are supposed to move in and bring a chance of rain for tomorrow, but it’s clear and bright right now.
I read about the Manafort juror making the studio rounds who is stating that one juror stood between guilty verdicts on the 10 counts. If true, that’s useful information for the prosecution team, but it’s not what really stood out for me. Instead, I noted that the juror claimed to be a Trump supporter, and I have to wonder if she would have even been on CNN (and certainly not Faux News) if she had declared herself a Hillary voter. The media has so boxed itself in over the years, with their fear (or corporate support) of the right-wing backlash that they’ve effectively silenced the voices of the majority of the voters in this country. Maybe I’m just being cynical, but I really think that if the juror had supported Hillary, that would have become the focus of the story.
I think you’re right, DoReMI.
Good morning, 59 and still hazy in Bellingham. A slight breeze is blowing so the marine air should start improving air quality. Yesterday was really smoky.
We made good progress with our basement cabinet project yesterday. Ryan sanded all the drawers and doors, our son rebuilt the bottoms of the drawers, and we have a truck full of old florescent light fixtures and paint to take to the toxic waste recycle. The back side of the broom closet section is lovely old clear fir so we’re going to strip the paint off the front and restore the wood. When I find such treasures I always think of the carpenter who built this old house and wonder where he found it. Hope the next owners will do the same!
Last night was fun too. We ate dinner at the bookstore cafe and then listened to James and Deborah Fallows read from their new book, Our Towns: A 100,000-Mile Journey Into the Heart of America. The focus of their talk was about what’s right with America so it was refreshing to hear. They also spoke strongly re the importance of community colleges and state universities, so that was good for Ryan to hear.
Take care everyone.
Well, that was an interesting evening, princesspat! Glad you’re making headway on your project.
Good morning, Moosekind! It’s going to be another beautiful day with clear skies and sunlight, not to mention low humidity. On a scale of 1 to 10, yesterday was an 11. The current temp. in Ashburn is 55 F., going up to 82 F. Screened porch-sitting time!
Yesterday Miss Pink Cheeks and I went to her wretched back-to-school function. As we drove toward the building I nervously invoked Asphalta, the Goddess of Parking, but to no avail. The parking lot was chaotic! Irate parents drove round and round, finally to be directed by the assistant principal to the street around the corner. We went there and then trudged back under the brilliant blue sky to the school, there to be directed to the classroom.
After a few minutes, the children were taken to another classroom for “team building” while the parents listened to the teacher’s plans for the school year. He seems a nice person, although so soft-spoken I had to turn up my hearing aids to their fullest extent (good thing Grandma brought her iPhone). After the presentation, more chaos! The children, instead of being brought back to the room in which the parents were sitting, were sequestered Somewhere Else. We parents trailed miserably around like followers of the Pied Piper: “They’re in the cafeteria.” “No, they’re in the music classroom.” “No, they’re in the room with the stage.” When Miss PC and I were finally reunited, it was great.
The classroom is a grim-looking affair, I think: no windows, and the walls are painted cinderblock. I guess they’re training the junior population to accept the ugly chaos of the work environment when they grow up—no windows, stale air, noisy, open-plan offices, cubicles in which there is no quiet to concentrate. Ugh.
Well, enough of that. Today I plan to potter about, doing things I’ve been putting off. Formula I begins again this weekend, much to Dearly Beloved’s delight, and yrs truly may actually get some writing done.
Wishing all a good day, with—it’s to be hoped—no more news. It’s exhausting!
{{{Diana}}} – at least the weather’s good. How old is that school? It sounds like one of the ones I went to in the slightly post-Cuban missile crisis era that was planned as a community air raid shelter in case of nuclear attacks. Unfortunately it also sound like some of the Rs’ plans for dealing with school shootings. sigh. Hope the teaching is more inspiring than the building. moar {{{HUGS}}}
The school is more than 40 years old. Elder Son went there for his first three grades, starting in 1976, and it was old then. He attended until the county built a school in our neighborhood in 1980. Even those classrooms are indoors, though.
I HATE modern architecture! Humans need to look out of windows. Last night I dreamed we went back to our old house to live, and in my dream I thought, “Thank Goddess.” My office, with a window overlooking the street below was still there, as was the spare bedroom, which also had a window overlooking the street. When I woke up I felt disturbed. We have lived here for more than five months. I’m supposed to be getting used to it.
Yeah, sounds like it was built during the “OMG nuclear war” phase for public buildings. Yes, they’re ugly. And aren’t meaning for living, just survival.
You are getting used to the new place. But you spent a lot of years in the old place. Those years won’t be erased. You’re just overlaying a new map on top of an old one. Cherish the good memories. Let the not so good ones remind you of why you moved. The new needs to stand on its own – and it will, eventually. Moving was sort of like losing a family member. It takes at least a full year to create the new path in the new place. moar {{{HUGS}}}
That’s nice to know, bfitz. Thank you!
WooHoo! Over a mile! 1.2 to be exact. Yay me. No painful procedure at the dermatologist yesterday, I just have to use the nasty chemo cream for 3 weeks. In a couple of days, my forehead will be all red & irritated. But it’s not that big a deal. Better than the freeze & scrape. And way better than so many others have it. I’ll take an irritated forehead for 3 weeks, any day. Sending all my good thoughts to Ono & to Bill. Brain is still playing Discotheque to me.
Healing vibes to you, another! Sorry about the chemo cream.
{{{ad}}} – Yay, Yay, and sending Healing Energy. moar {{{HUGS}}}
Good morning, meeses! Friday …
It is 66 degrees in Madison with an expected daytime high of … 66! The forecast calls for cloudy with showers which I am sure that no one in Madison wants. The intense rainfall from Monday night is straining the dam on one of the lakes. I don’t know if people are aware of how Madison is laid out. It is an isthmus that is between two lakes and while that makes for a beautiful setting, it requires that the lakes stay where they are! I am not near that part of the city but I do need to go downtown for an errand this afternoon – I will have to see which streets are open and which are closed.
I am not going to be able to read the news until I get caught up on projects. I did see that the shitgibbon’s attorneys are recommending that he not pardon anyone right now. Good luck with that! I was also amused that David Pecker is very very upset with social media that they are making fun of his name. #EverythingTrumpTouchesDies
See all y’all later!
Welcome back, Jan, and I hope the lakes stay put!
Definitely Holding the Good Thought on the lakes staying put. I lived east of the isthmus but usually worked west of it – and the only way to get from one to the other was through! Good luck/Holding the Good Thought for your project completion. {{{HUGS}}}
70 with 95% humidity and supposed to go to 90 today. Of course it was supposed to go to 80 yesterday and didn’t make it. But I’m actually fine with 90 if that humidity goes down a bit. And the temps drop after sundown. Only got 6.6 KWHs yesterday so m-t-d is 313. Hope we’ll get some decent sunshine today. It says “partly cloudy” and it’s most certainly that right now. We’ve only got 8 production days left in the month and the sun’s gonna have to do some serious shining to get us decently into the 400s – it’s gonna have to do better than yesterday just to get us to 400.
Twitter is being irritating. I can’t RT anything that isn’t actually on my TL. When I click on a tweet anywhere else it takes me to a sign in page (hello! I’m already signed in – at least to my own account) or tells me the account does not exist. Then I get an Edge message saying the twitter login page opened in an app. I’d like to smack whoever did whatever they did to make this start happening. I haven’t been able to RT stuff from Black Kos or other sites, Aji’s @Patreon account from the site, or even open a link basket sent me of something he thought I’d be interested in. sigh. Meanwhile the twitterverse is on fire with all the stuff going on. Oh well. I think I need coffee. Healing Energy to everybody everywhere, shaped to the need. Bright the day, Meeses. {{{HUGS}}}
You can undo Edge opening things as an app…I don’t remember the exact steps, but it was pretty much one-click and done right from the page where the message appeared. I’m sorry I can’t be more precise, but it was so straightforward for me that I just did it without much thought. (It started defaulting to apps right after the latest update this week, so I suspect it’s more of an Edge thing than Twitter.)
{{{DoReMI}}} – Ah! This just started happening this week so I bet you’re right. If I can’t figure it out, I’ll go back to Chrome until I can get some help. Thank you so very much. This has been driving me nuts! moar {{{HUGS}}}
https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/75455-turn-off-open-sites-apps-microsoft-edge.html
The link above gives you the step-by-step instructions for how to turn off the app setting.
Good morning, Meesefolk! It was 54 when I got up this morning with a high of 77 today. Rain is moving in tonight, which is not good news for getting things done in my yard. At the rate the weeds are growing though, I may have to go outside and work in the wet. It’s not optimal, but I stayed inside on Tuesday because of the rain, and I’m getting tired of looking at weeds instead of my flowers.
Between laundry, dishes, and burying my head in a book last night, I have no idea if there was any news of note, but I’m sure I’ll catch up today. In the meantime, my dishes are done and my laundry is caught up, and sometimes that’s all the news I need. Actually, it’s reason enough for a party, so please do so on my behalf…I’ll join you once I get home from work.
Good morning, 60 cloudy, but still some smoke in the air. Another busy family day, with some project work, a hike along the Nooksack River for some, and dinner here tonight for who knows how many people! I’m just letting it all happen and trying to keep up with the laundry and food :)
Looks like tRump dam is finally starting to give way. I’ll believe he’s gone when he actually is, but this should push him along the path to the exit door.
WSJ: Trump Org CFO Granted Immunity In Michael Cohen Probe
Good morning, meeses! Saturday …
It is 66 degrees in Madison with an expected daytime high of 81 and muggy. Mostly sunny skies are in the forecast.
Holey moley, trying to catch up on the news is going to be impossible! One could overdose on the richness of this Schadenfreude. One article, from ProPublica, suggested that this only touches the tip of the iceberg of rampant white collar crime – only a special counsel is equipped to go after people cheating and gaming the system and outright stealing (pretty much Trump World.) I would like to see these kind of inquiries expanded – if the top .1% (and the banks who we bailed out) are going to toss their lot in with those who would suck every last penny from our retirement and healthcare money, I want to see the criminals among them do time and die penniless in prison. Yes, I am that way. Damn them all for destroying our democracy by covering up for a man who scammed his way into the presidency.
Democrats need to keep their eyes on the prize – winning back Congress. We now have a little more force to our claim that we need to serve as a check to the “culture of corruption” in the Trump administration. Today’s weekly address is by Elijah Cummings and he goes right to it. I am looking forward to sitting back and listening to his speech.
I will catch up on everyone’s lives – and the rest of the news – a little later. I kept my head above water on client projects despite losing two days traveling and today, in the quiet of a Saturday morning, I can get my delayed-too-long accounting projects done.
See all y’all later!
Good morning, Meese! We have a layer of white cloud over the blue for this, our last day of delightful October weather in August. Right now it’s 59 F., going up to 81 F. Hope I get something done today.
The news is so addictive I’m not getting much done around here at all. There’s ironing to do. Haven’t done any in two years, but I bought a “hang over the door” ironing board and the cheapest iron I could find. I might buy some spray starch as well.
M’daughter-in-Austin called last night and we talked for an hour and a half. We have had very little communication the past two months because she’s been busy moving out of one house and selling it, and moving into another, much larger house. “I’ve never worked so hard in my life,” she said. LOL, I know the feeling!
Best wishes for a quiet Saturday so everyone can get all her or his projects done.
{{{Diana}}} – glad you had a nice visit with your daughter. I still “telephone parent” with my younger son – and with my elder more than I’d like considering he lives in the same town. Meanwhile, don’t buy spray starch, make it.
If you don’t starch much stuff, make half a recipe as it will “sour” in the spray bottle over time. It won’t on the clothes – the heat from the iron “cooks” it. 😁 moar {{{HUGS}}}
Lovely to sleep in. Full week next week, I’m going to try making overnight oats instead of baking oatmeal. Today: groceries, library (my copy of Everything Trump Touches Dies is ready for pick up) and…..that’s really it. I can’t think of any indoor walking options, so that’s not going to happen.
Here’s Lights of Home. I use it for my alarm, because I just love the guitar intro.
{{{ad}}} glad you got a “sleep in” – and lack of indoor walking options is why I got a treadmill. The non-electric kind doesn’t have bells and whistles and you most certainly cannot hold a book while on it but they’re relatively inexpensive and take up a lot less space than the electric kind. So if you ever have a spare $150 (including shipping)… 😁 moar {{{HUGS}}}