Week-long Welcomings from Moosylvania: Sept. 2nd through Sept. 8th

September 2, 2018 JanF Community 98

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!

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35 Comments

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

    Morning low of 68 degrees in Madison WI with an expected daytime high of 82. Chance of thunderstorms throughout the day.

    Have a great day, all y’alls!!

  4. 71 heading for 82 but humid enough to feel like I’m in a steam bath even at these lower temperatures. And like I’m moving through treacle. Sunny so far today. Yesterday got 15.9 KWHs – I still think something’s not functioning fully with my system but the installer came out, checked, didn’t find anything, and fell back on his evergreen excuse of shade from my wild cherry tree. The syndrome isn’t as deadly when the male expert not listening to women isn’t a medical doctor – but it’s the same syndrome and just as irritating. And with as little recourse. It’s very difficult to “go around” my installer for a 2nd opinion. sigh.

    Something in the air is bugging the hell out of my eyes. I thought it was just having spent all of Wednesday reading online stuff (mostly at Aji’s blog – some of her older posts on appropriation and erasure) but it not just not gone away, it’s gotten worse. I can spend about 15 minutes online before I start noticing. I can spend about to an hour online before it becomes bad enough I’m closing or covering one eye to be able to focus enough to read. And somebody’s bonfire last night didn’t help any – I had to keep the house closed up so it’s not as cool as I’d like this morning. Oh well. Life is what it is. But this stuff with my eyes isn’t helpful. I’ll be at the Dem HQ again this afternoon (noon to 4) and I’m supposed to be entering names onto a spreadsheet while I’m there. We shall see what we shall see.

    Meanwhile it really is a beautiful day. I might see if I can wade through the humidity for a walk before I force myself to vacuum. 😁 First coffee & see if Denise’s diary is up yet. Healing Energy to everybody, shaped to your need. Bright the day, Meeses. {{{HUGS}}}

  5. Good morning, bfitz. Do you think, Goddess forbid, you might be getting cataracts? My Lasik surgeon told me that if we live long enough, we all get them.

    Either that, or there is something horrible in the air around you. In my own case, I freaked out when I realized that being older was precluding outdoor walks and even going out in my own backyard to pick runner beans. I wasn’t allergic to the beans, but touching the leaves made me break out in itchy hives.

    Hope you can find out what’s wrong. Healing vibes to you!

    • {{{Diana}}} – not that I know of. My eye doctor’s been expecting it for years but once he finally listened to me – my eyes have been photosensitive since I was in my late teens, reaction to an antibiotic I was given – he backed off. And yeah, my skin is more sensitive than it was when I was younger. Tomato leaves! I break out just thinking of them. And definitely something in my backyard but I haven’t a clue what. sigh. 🤗🤗🤗

      • {{{bfitz!}}} We must make an offering to Herne* and ask for cooler weather. Cool but sunny would be desirable.

        (*You create an altar out of field stones or rocks and lay acorns, oak leaves, wild berries, and similar woodland things on it as an offering. Then ask.)

  6. Another day of sleeping in, and I don’t have to rush around & get ready for the week. It isn’t supposed to hit 100 today — and there’s even a chance of rain most days this week. Sending wellness vibes out to all who need them. Here is Love Is Bigger Than Anything In Its Way, so you remember that, and get better.

    • {{{ad}}} – glad you could sleep in. Hope those temps start dwindling down. I know Sept’s a bit early for that where you are but it’s been a weird year so why not? Thank you for the “wellness vibes” – and the music. 💖💖🤗🤗

  7. Good morning, Meese! Here in Ashburn it’s rather mixed, with clouds alternately hiding and revealing the blue sky beneath. Last night we had plenty of rain: today we may have a thunderstorm. Right now it’s 66 F., going up to 87 F.—ugh—presaging a hot, humid, and horrible week. Hope this is summer’s last gasp, because I am so ready for the “season of mists and mellow fruitfulness.”

    One of the nicest things about living here is that we can see movies either free or virtually so, and the theater is a short walk away. We chose to walk under cover last night because of the rain. The film was “Australia,” starring Nicole Kidman (my favorite actress after Cate Blanchett) and Hugh Jackman. It was absolutely riveting! I’m so ignorant I hadn’t realized that the Japanese bombed Darwin during the war. It roiled my stomach all during the movie that the white Australians called the aborigines “boongs,” and mixed-race children “creamies.” Most days I’m ashamed to be white.

    Well, aside from the film, we’re looking forward to a quiet day. We’re about to watch the Italian Grand Prix. Wishing all a nice, quiet day at the Pond.

  8. Good morning, Meesefolk; low 70s when I got up with a high of about 86 expected. There was rain overnight, after rain yesterday, and rain in the forecast through Wednesday. I’m beginning to think it’s a plot to keep me from working in my gardens…or it may be my excuse to avoid working outside when the heat and humidity are high. I have plenty of inside projects to work on, so I’ll try to focus on those instead.

    The Kiddo’s 30th birthday is Tuesday, and it will be the first time I haven’t spent time with her right around the day. I visited a few weeks ago, and we did a joint “celebration” of her birthday and mine, but I’m realizing now it isn’t quite the same. I’ve long known this was coming, and particularly since she got married last year, but I’m a little stunned at how much this is bothering me. They never quit being your babies, do they?

    I’m going to try to stay away from Twitter and the news today, as I do most weekends. I’ll be in my sewing room if anyone needs me…!

    • {{{DoReMI}}} – no, they don’t. But you get used to it after a while. I’ve been a “telephone mom” on birthdays for decades now. Lots of decades b/c I was a “telephone daughter” on my own mom’s birthday any year we weren’t living together. 💖💖💖🤗🤗🤗

    • DoReMI, they never stop being our babies. I blush to admit that I addressed my youngest child as “Baby” until he was married and expecting a child of his own. Lawks! What weird creatures we humans be!

  9. Good morning, 53 and mostly sunny in Bellingham. Thanks to a deer eating breakfast on the patio this morning I have fewer flowers to tend to. I think of my patios as outdoor living spaces, and apparently so do the deer! Oh well, summer is nearly over and the flower plantings don’t last forever.

    I’ve started working in my sewing room again, but I need to pay attention to what I’m doing. When I cut a pillow project last winter I was not well and apparently I made a few mistakes. So when I finished a pillow yesterday (with corner tucks and hard to sew cording) and inserted the form it didn’t fit, grrrrr! Fortunately it was to big so I’ve taken it apart, re cut the pieces to the proper size, and today I’ll check twice!

    Best Sunday wishes to all.

    • Oh, deer, princesspat! How utterly annoying. You’ve put out DeerSkydd, right? If only the deer creatures would go back to the woods. I suppose all the woods have been cut down, though.

    • Oh, princesspat, I feel your frustration! My family learned early on that if they saw the seam ripper in my hand, it was best to run and hide, lest they have to hear my running commentary of frustration and self-flagellation. I hope the cover reassembles with ease (and accuracy).

  10. Good morning, meeses! Monday …

    It is 70 degrees in Madison with an expected daytime high of 81. Thunderstorms are in the forecast for most of the day. Last night they were streaming through the area, definitely NOT needed due to already high lake levels. I was traveling and thankfully made it back before yesterday’s storms hit.

    One nice thing about traveling is that it is very easy to stay away from the news! I scanned Twitter a few times and checked that the moose was still running and caught up on some old news stories I had saved off but generally ignored the news. When I scanned it yesterday morning, I noticed that the dueling themes were “Meghan McCain’s eulogy is a progressive call to arms” and “Meghan McCain shamefully let politics into the funeral of her politician father!” And, of course, the head-scratching “George W. Bush wasn’t such a bad president after all.” JHC people! Meghan McCain is John McCain – a person who supports endless wars and whose white European privilege exemplifies the Republican Party. There is nothing there to laud. She is married to a white supremacist and one of the people packing the courts with the mouthbreathers who will be ruling on our laws – and trying to wreck our lives – for the next generation. And George W. Bush??

    I have a busy day today as I try to get some projects completed before people return to work tomorrow. Some projects are best done when no one is working which is why my weekends tend to be busy – the extra day (today) will make up for the day off yesterday.

    See all y’all later!

    • Good luck with the projects, Jan! Agree completely about Ms. McCain and Dubya. I still loathe and despise Dubya for starting a war against a country that had never done us any harm, thereby causing the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people and destabilizing the Middle East for the next century.

      As Prez-dint, he was fully as incompetent as Thing. I don’t miss him, I’m glad he’s off the national stage for the most part.

      Incidentally, were McCain’s children from his first marriage at the funeral? And what about his first wife?

      • I don’t know about the McCain kids! Did he have children from his first marriage? I admit to having no curiosity. :)

        I did wonder how the military children felt about their sister attacking their Command in Chief. Probably a bit awkward! But probably also awkward hearing their Commander in Chief attack their dying father at every campaign rally. I wonder if he will continue doing that? I suspect he will.

  12. Good Moon Day morning, Moosekind! It was pitch dark at 6 a.m. when I took the hound dawg out to the courtyard for his “business” meeting. There was a waning moon in the sky—first time I’ve seen the moon in ages. It’s generally clouded over when we have a full moon in this area. The current temp. in Ashburn under sunny skies is 70 F., going up to 91 F., ugh.

    We’ll skip the holiday buffet here today as Elder Son has kindly invited us to a barbecue at his house. We’ll stash Mr. Monty in doggy play care for a couple of hours as he and Elder Son’s Labrador do not get along. None of the family dogs like each other: my theory is that all dogs want to be the One and Only Furry Friend and regard other dogs as potential rivals.

    After a fairly decent night I have a little energy, so I must use it judiciously. Hope everyone will enjoy their day off!

  13. Slept in, got laundry on & water heating for tea. Going to make lunch for the week, and clear out the dvr. Keeping it mellow while I get some stuff done. This is the song where B’s voice gave out, giving everyone a scare — but the crowd finished the song for him. It’s hard watching how bad he feels when he can’t go on, but he’s ok.

  14. Good morning, Meesefolk; currently 73 with a high of 84…or 86…or 89. The forecasts are not in agreement on temperature, but they’re all in sync about the humidity, which is high.

    We had our holiday dinner yesterday. After 37 years, I’ve finally mastered bbq ribs (at least according to The Hubby), and since he loves ribs, he was a happy camper. I’m less of a fan, but as a non-foodie (and basically a non-cook), it’s always fun to watch him enjoy a meal I’ve prepared. He’s going to make omelets for our dinner tonight, which will make me a happy camper, particularly since my omelets are never as good as his. Sometimes it’s the little things…

    I still haven’t settled on what I’m writing for tomorrow, so that will take up much of my day. The news is like standing in front of a firehose, and I need to find a way to filter it to a trickle so I can concentrate.

  15. Thanksgiving will be awkward at the Manafort’s:

  16. No precise agreement among the weather widgets – currently in the low 70s heading for the mid 80s and humid. Very humid. Also “partly” cloudy which isn’t helpful as far as electricity generation is concerned. Got 12 KWHs yesterday and the m-t-d is 27.8 – it’s still ahead of my use but… I’m thinking the panels need to be cleaned. There’s tree sap on the eastern end lot and pollen on all of them. Of course I’m not capable of getting on the roof to clean them. I’ll see if one of the neighborhood young men (there’s nobody on this block under 18 any longer and I’m not sure about under 21) would take $20 to do it. Otherwise I’ll have to find a pro, get an estimate, and wait until I can afford it. sigh.

    Avoiding the “news” firehose, as usual. I’m certainly not going to get in the middle of the McCain, father or family, fight – McCain did some honorable things for which he should be honored. Not very many and not very often so the honoring of him should be the same. Most of the time he used his power to hurt/kill peoples already marginalized. He sure as hell shouldn’t be honored for that. So I check Aji’s tweets for her daily stuff, RT anything by Meeses & some of others, check my TL once or twice a day. And let it go.

    Eyes are still bothering me. I’m thinking it’s a combination of various outdoor dusts, seeds, and pollens plus smoke from the various (illegal) leaf pile fires. Just hope they calm down a bit and I don’t have to wait for full winter. Which may or may not be soon considering I saw starlings in winter plumage at my feeder this morning. (Note to self, order more firewood soon.) Need to check my TL then get offline. Need more coffee, too. Healing Energy to everybody, shaped to the need. Bright the day, Meeses. {{{HUGS}}}

    • There was a story on an Arkansas Democrat running in CD-02 in today’s AP feed. It will be interesting to see how successful he is running as a stealth Democrat:

      Tucker doesn’t talk much about being a Democrat, something that’s a deal breaker for many voters in a state that hasn’t sent one to the U.S. House in eight years. The fact that the 37-year-old state legislator is making a surprisingly competitive bid to unseat a Republican congressman is boosting his party’s hopes that it can still find issues that attract voters in conservative places.

      Tucker is challenging incumbent Republican French Hill in the 2nd Congressional District, which encompasses Little Rock and seven central Arkansas counties. The urban section gives Democrats a better chance than the state’s other three districts, which are mostly rural. Nationally, Democrats’ hopes of flipping 23 Republican seats in November and regaining control of the House may depend on winning some races in Trump country like this one.

      • I don’t know how successful he’ll be – the ballots clearly label who is who – but that’s largely what AR is. They’d have been Nazis in a NY minute given the opportunity. Fayetteville is the blue dot but parts of Little Rock do have a clue. Our main hope is farmers reacting to #45’s tariffs – AR is an agri state. Holding the Good Thought.

  17. Good morning, 58 and cloudy in Bellingham. Now that I’m retired everyday can be a holiday if I decide it is, but I still pay attention to weekends and certified holidays. So today is a day “off” regardless!

    I did successfully re sew my to big pillow cover yesterday, and my fingers seems to have found some muscle memory re working with hard to manage decorative trim because it went back together easier. I have seven more covers to go so I hope I can stay focused and finish a few more today. When I was working this would have been as easy project!

    Best holiday wishes to all.

    • {{{princepat}}} – glad that one went back together more or less easily. Energy as needed (Healing, sewing, whatever). 😁💖🤗🤗🤗

  18. Good morning, meeses! Tuesday that feels like a Monday …

    It is 72 degrees in Madison with an expected daytime high of 86 (heat index 104). A line of thunderstorms will move through around mid-afternoon and will bring cooler weather for the remainder of the week.

    I am going to avoid the news today and instead stew in my anger that people could not be bothered to vote in the midterms in 2010 and 2014 and we lost our 60 vote supermajority in the Senate then our simple majority – and then simply lost the right to choose the people who will be on our Supreme Court, our Circuit Courts and our district courts. It did not take long to go from “things are looking up” to “holy shit look what happened!” – 8 years. I will wait and read about the destruction of our democracy and the loss of voting rights, reproductive rights and civil rights when I can bear to – maybe in 2021.

    See all y’all later!

  19. Agree with Jan – feels like Monday only it is Tuesday. A muggy 70 going up to a sticky 88 here in Saugerties.

  20. We got rain on & off yesterday, and supposed to again today — high of only 90. Brrr! I did my 1.08 mile walk. If it isn’t raining in the morning, I’ll walk further. Had a very restless night — and the weirdest dream about washing my hair, it was so intense & real I was actually startled when I woke up & my hair was up & dry. Today’s song: The Blackout (“when the lights go out, don’t you ever doubt, the light that we can really be”)

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