Week-long Welcomings from Moosylvania: Sept. 16th to Sept. 22nd

September 15, 2018 JanF Community 168

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!

  • Page Three of Comments is HERE!

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52 Comments

  1. Good morning, meeses! Tuesday …

    It is 66 degrees in Madison with an expected daytime high of 79. Storms are moving through the area and will bring a couple of cool days but today will be nasty and humid. Yesterday we got to 91, within a degree of the record high.

    I did not get anything done yesterday because I was watching the slow-motion train wreck that the Kavanaugh nomination has become. Between being outraged at the suggestion that a 17 year old boy should get a mulligan on attempted gang rape because he is a “good man” NOW – per Oral Hack – and watching Chuck Assley try to get by with a conference call and holding the committee vote as planned on Thursday, it was a busy Twitter day. The good news is that the damaging information about Kavanaugh’s drinking problems (he was still boasting about getting blackout drunk when he was well into his 30s) and anti-woman frat buddies is now coming out because it is now relevant. My hot take: his resolve to “clear his name” is replaced by the realization that his reputation is being torched and he withdraws his name “for the sake of his family”. He then goes back to the DC Circuit (destroying fewer lives because he is outnumbered there), Oral Hack sputters about “borking” and tRump puts Amy Coney Barrett up as the nominee. She is also reliably anti-Roe so it doesn’t help us there but putting her on the court is better than having a Lee Atwater/Kenneth Starr/Karl Rove protégé on the court – there is a possibility that she might actually consult the constitution instead of asking the RNC how to rule.

    Meanwhile, a constitutional crisis is playing out with the White House declassifying material in an ongoing investigation, material that will burn sources and ratfk the Mueller investigation. How that plays out is that Rod Rosenstein objects and gets fired then a reliable pro-Trump Justice Department hack is put in charge of the special counsel and the report he is preparing never sees the light of day. I hope Mueller has some more tricks up his sleeve. So far he has not disappointed.

    I am going to try to get some work done now that the flurry of news has subsided.

    See all y’all later!

  2. I’m glad the Kavanaugh hearing will be re-opened, but it is really hard to hear this stuff. Rachel played long clips from the Anita Hill hearing last night & I had to mute it. It was too much, remembering how awful that was. And her parents were there. If Biden really wants to run in 2020, he needs to come out with an abject — and I mean really abject — apology. Today is definitely a day for Nina Cried Power, must cleanse that ugliness from my mind.

    • This time around there are more than just old white men on the Judiciary Committee but on the Republican side it looks like a throwback to 1991. Biden trashed the court by allowing a sexual harasser off the hook and allowing him a lifetime appointment to nurture his butthurt about how awful women are. Clarence Thomas won confirmation by a vote of 52 to 48. If additional witnesses on the harassment charge had been allowed – and three Senators were convinced to vote no – he would not be sitting on the court right now. And maybe – just maybe – sexual harassment would have been taken more seriously.

  3. Good morning, Meese. Really dark and gloomy this morning, looks as if it’s about to rain any minute. The current temp. in Ashburn is 70 F., going up to 80 F. today. Rain and thunderstorms are expected this afternoon. There was a tornado near Richmond yesterday, two hours south of here, with lots of damage. Unfortunately, one person died.

    Got a lot of cleaning up to do today and a list of letters to answer. I’ve been so fascinated by the political goings-on, as well as wrapped up in a family crisis (somewhat removed from my nuclear family) that I haven’t accomplished much lately.

    It’s already 8 a.m. so must get to it! Wishing everyone at the Pond a decent day.

    P.S. The Moose is acting funny this morning.

    • Was the tornado spawned by Hurricane Florence? I am reading about the ongoing problems in the Carolinas and how it appears folks thought that the wind and storm surge was all they needed to worry about. The death toll keeps climbing. :(

  4. Good morning, Meesefolk; 63 now with a high of 79 today. Usually I can look at Jan’s weather and know that I’ll be getting something close the next day, but it looks like we’re going to be spared the 91 she had yesterday. Thank goodness; mid-September and 90s is just wrong.

    Got my computer issues from last night resolved…for now, but I think it’s clear my 7-year old laptop is on its last legs. Fortunately, my SIL has said he’ll give me his old one next time I go down to visit, so I’ll be spared [what for me is] the pain and anguish of buying a new one. There was a time when I stayed on top of the latest tech improvements, but those days are long gone. The Kiddo gained a husband; I gained a tech guru.

    I also had a brief text conversation with SIL yesterday about their house-hunting plans, and it’s reassuring to see how grounded he is. The Kiddo tends to be like me; she falls in love with houses based on looks and character, while he is much better at considering the nuts and bolts like if the electrical been updated, the roof is sound, or the other various and sundry homeowner fixes that go beyond the cosmetic. Since the house they will be looking at is 89 years old, those are critical considerations. He’s of the opinion that part of the reason the house hasn’t sold (beyond being initially overpriced) is because the closet space is inadequate, by modern standards, for a family home. But they have no intention of having children (and no, that isn’t likely to change), so it gives them a bit more freedom than the average young couple. He envisions using the smallest of the four bedrooms as a “dressing room.” I also have two wardrobes we brought back from Scotland that may come in handy; time will tell. I recognize I’m burbling about a house that they may not even like once they see it, and I have to admit, I’m taking advantage of this platform. The more burbling I do here, the less I drive The Kiddo crazy. Back to finishing my Tuesday post…

      • Thanks, bfitz! I’ll either be in burble overflow Thursday morning, after their Wednesday viewing, or detailing why the pictures and the reality diverged so much. Either way, Thursday’s check-in will either be the beginning or the end of this particular “obsession.” You have been warned!

        • I’ll probably laugh either way. That house is twice the square footage of my house, which is twice the square footage I need. 😂😂😂

          • Right? I once told them that I thought 1800 square feet was their sweet spot for a house; I was immediately shot down. When I asked why, they told me that 1800 feet was probably too small, because they wanted enough room to host 25-50 people, without having to use a basement or have people separated into too many different rooms…but they also strongly dislike “open concept” layouts. That sounded like an odd requirement to me, but then they pointed out that game nights are usually at least 20 people, and cast parties are even larger. Having been to some cast parties for “their” theatre, it makes a whole lot more sense.

            They’re now into the tempering expectations phase for this house (theirs or mine?; I’m not sure). SIL sent me a whole list of possible reasons yesterday why he thinks this isn’t THE house but is still worth viewing. Their appointment is at 12; I told him that if I received a text about the house at 12:15, I’d know before reading it that this was a “satisfied the itch, moving on now” house.

      • It’s so much better to do house buying vicariously rather than actually! Although if they move sooner than later, I’ll also be helping sooner than later…ugh. On the other hand, once they have a house, I can finally clear mine of all the furniture I’ve been storing for The Kiddo, so that’s a definite perq for me.

        • I like living vicariously. Paperwork is always nasty. Better someone else has to do it. Freeing up storage in your own house is a bonus. Then you can fill it up with your own stuff.

  5. Already 75 and heading for 90 – humidity is “only” 79% so the heat index may not be so bad. I hope. Got 12.6 KWHs yesterday, m-t-d is 210.6 with over 1/3 of the month to run. We shall see what we shall see. It’s getting harder and harder to get up when my kitties want me to – sun doesn’t come up until 7 now and they like to be fed at least by 6:30. Of course they’re napping now. I need to do my baking before it warms up. Also mix my breakfast sausage and get it into the fridge to “meld” the flavors (I’ll be grilling the patties on Thursday). At least I don’t have to manage my food so that I can always do the cooking on weekends any longer. Mostly stayed offline yesterday – checked in a few times to boost some signals, offer some support to some victims of sexual abuse who’ve been triggered by all this. Well, I am too but my experiences were so minor compared to other folks – yeah, I still get flashbacks which are disrupting but the actual events are still very minor comparatively speaking. The Rs are evil. Pick a category, they’re evil. And the only way we stop them is vote them out. So. Working on it. Meanwhile I need to get busy before the day heats up. Healing Energy to everybody shaped to their needs. Bright the day, Meeses. {{{HUGS}}}

  6. Good morning, 50 and mostly cloudy in Bellingham. Apparently I’ve been clenching my teeth in my sleep because I’ve got a nasty TMJ flare and my jaw keeps slipping out of joint. It’s uncomfortable, especially when it won’t go back into place. So instead of going to a community college event with RonK last night I was home with Tylenol and an ice pack. tRump angst is hard to contain :(

    So today will be quiet, with some desk work, a little sewing, and more flower fun. Yesterday I used hydrangeas, salal, ivy leaves and blossoms, and branches with beautiful leaves from an ornamental maple tree to make an arrangement that became bigger than I intended. Oh well, it was fun to make and looks great in my son’s dining room.

    Hope we all survive whatever tRump storm blows through today!

    • {{{princesspat}}} Healing Energy. Your arrangements always sound wonderful. Acts of beauty as well as acts of kindness are acts of Resistance, you know. moar {{{HUGS}}}

  7. Good morning meese, late to the party… 57 with a high of 80 or thereabouts. Lots to do this week both at work and on a personal level. Some difficult/tough decisions to make too.

  8. Another beautiful day in Costa Mesa, CA. It’s currently a sunny 72 with a projected high of 78. I need to work the books to be discarded (leaving the library). They’re driving my sinuses crazy.

    • Hope you can come up with some way to deal with the sinuses. Mine also hate book dust (among other kinds of dust). Healing Energy. {{{HUGS}}}

      • My way to deal with it is to get the damn things out of here. The sooner the better. At least I finally have time to do it. I had to catalog all the new books I received first.

  10. Something weird is going on with the Moose. I can’t “fierce” any more because the word “fierce” is no longer in a clickable box, it’s just a word. It’s bizarre and I feel bad that I can’t fierce people’s posts.

    • I wonder if there was an update of some sort. I had to Log In twice this morning.

      For what it is worth, the Fierce button is not a precision instrument – very often I will revisit the site and find that something I know I “Fierced” is unfierced. It works off a database and sometimes links up with the wrong things. When I post the Welcomings on Saturday night, it posts with a bunch of Fierces that came from an odd connection to a cloned post (I think).

      I hope it eventually clears up! In the meantime, we will assume you love all of our comments!!

      • my “fierces” rarely stick the first time, I usually have to do them several times before they do

  11. Wednesday Meese.
    66 going up to 76 here in the Catskills.

    Waiting to get out of here and get the surgery (have to be there at 10AM)
    I can’t eat or drink anything till it is over (fasting since last night) and I’m hungry :)

  12. Good morning, meeses! Wednesday …

    It is 55 degrees in Madison with an expected daytime high of 72. Rain and thunderstorms are in the forecast. The freakish weather will give us a steamy high of 84 tomorrow then drop back into the upper 60s, low 70s.

    With the Senate adjourned, I can finally take a break from the news and get some work done. I am glad that Dr. Blasey Ford has decided to skip the hearing unless the FBI first investigates the attempted rape allegation. Without the reopened background check, without the ability to call witnesses, it becomes an inquisition by the White Republican Men of the Senate and a fig leaf for them to claim that they did due diligence. We caught a glimpse of what will happen yesterday – George W. Bush said that he stands by his man because he owes him one for ratfking the 2000 Florida recount. Oral Hack said that she is confused and – so, what? – look at what a great guy he is now! Lindsey Graham said “we will let her have her say but in the end – Men Rulez!” It appears that a lot of other nasty stuff about Judge DrinksALot is coming out now and that may be enough to sink him. News reports suggest that Ivanka wants Daddy to drop Kavanaugh – I hope she prevails. I would like to see Orrin Hatch collapse in the well of the Senate, carted off screaming “he was borked, he was borked!” It will be a fitting exclamation point for his Senate legacy.

    What Digby Said:

    See all y’all later!

  13. A Wednesday that is also a Friday. I don’t have any of our rotating duties for the next several days, so I put in to take off. I’m going to sleep in, walk in the afternoons, since it isn’t 100 degrees any more, and finally do something about my shoe shelf that broke oh those many months ago. In case you had any doubts that Kavanaugh is a sick & twisted person, let my college friend Paul Begala disabuse you of that. Listening to The Miracle of Joey Ramone. All the stolen voices will someday be returned.

  14. Bleary eyed good morning to all Meese. 55 going up to 88 today, but I’m traveling for work to the Bay Area where I expect it will be cooler. Running on about 2 hours of not quite sleep and hoping my coffee kicks in soonish.

    • {{{basket}}} – safe travels – there and back – & hope you could at least get a nap on the plane (not likely, I know). Healing Energy. moar {{{HUGS}}}

  15. Good Woden’s Day, Moosekind! The Moose Pond now won’t let me preview, so I must be very careful as to what I write! Arr, ’tis a beautiful morn in NoVa on this September 19th, “Talk like a pirate” day. Currently it’s 68 F., going up to 82 F., and gloriously sunny instead of darkly cloudy.

    Please remember that I fierce all of your comments, that I hope Jan’s work, another’s walk, and basket’s travels will proceed smoothly, and I’m sending energy to our Sister Dee for her surgery.

    Just read something HORRENDOUS on Orange in the APR. Rebecca Traister, whoever she is, posted something purporting to be an excerpt from Coathanger Kavanaugh’s high school yearbook entry. I have two questions: (1) is this true , and (2) how on earth was such filth allowed in a high school yearbook? If this is the kind of thing that goes on in modern high schools, I’m sending my precious Miss Pink Cheeks to high school in Luna City, where there are only four students, all exceptionally bright girls.

    Am suffering from Something, which I believe to be allergies. Dealt with it appropriately and now feel much better. That’s good, because I need to go to the gym this morning.

    Come Saturday morning the high school students are coming to help us with our iPads and iPhones. Will try to put the Moose Pond and the Squirrels’ Nest on the iPad, which we are taking with us for the overseas visit next month.

    Wishing a pleasant day to all at the Pond. Please know I love you ALL and would fierce you if I could!

    • I read Rebecca Traister’s post, and yes, I think it does go on even now. (Here’s more about Ms. Traister: http://www.simonandschuster.com/authors/Rebecca-Traister/62924196). And I think students get away with it, because it’s coded in slang that most adults would never understand; I also think “getting away with it” is part of the game. I saw someone else comment to the effect that Kavanaugh is the poster boy for affluenza, elite private schools, and misogyny. I can’t comment on elite private schools, but the rest certainly tracks.

      Glad to hear you’re feeling better; after reading everyone’s travails with allergies, I’m counting my blessings that I am largely unaffected.

    • The Preview is part of a Comments plug-in that includes the Fiercing so it sounds like a plug-in may need to be updated. I will look at it when I have time to research the updates. I hate to make things worse!

      The Georgetown Prep that Kavanaugh went to is apparently where all rich people send their sons to make sure they become privileged assholes. Gorsucks is an alumni from the same era as Kavanaugh. Nuff said.

    • I updated the ULike plugin and the buttons went from sort of rounded to flat. I hope that fixes their clickability for you.

  16. Already 75 when I got up – sticky/muggy humid too. Back in shorts and very light tee shirt today (& tomorrow) before we start heading back down into Autumnal weather. Got 13.8 KWHs yesterday and the m-t-d is 224.4 – definitely heading for over 300 barring a week of dark clouds and storms, but over 400 is no longer even technically possible (although close is).

    Running later than usual today – partly slept late (not longer, just late) and partly got caught up in an article mentioned on twitter (as in Aji tweeted the thread that mentioned the study so I drilled down and read the report) about under-representation of Black and Native folks in Big Pharma’s clinical trials. In anybody’s interested here’s the link to the actual article https://www.propublica.org/article/black-patients-miss-out-on-promising-cancer-drugs – as far as I’m concerned it lets Big Pharma get away with their victim blaming (claiming Blacks & Natives don’t apply for clinical trials because they don’t trust the system – which it’s true they don’t trust the system and with good reason, most aren’t even aware of the trials and most who are can’t afford the costs of doing it even when the test drug itself is free) but is otherwise a good and needed study.

    Anyway, I need coffee. Healing Energy to everybody, shaped to your need. Bright the day, Meeses. {{{HUGS}}}

  17. Good morning, Meesefolk; 63 this morning with a high of 82. September-ish weather, although I am more than ready for October-ish weather. It looks like I may get my wish this weekend.

    I’ve been in a rage about Kavanaugh and his Republican enablers for a few days now; watching Hillary on Rachel last night may have actually ratcheted it up a few notches. The cold truth is that I personally don’t know a single woman who hasn’t been a victim of sexual assault (of varying degrees), and yet we still have to listen and watch as smarmy, entitled, arrogant men (and a few women) try to pooh-pooh it away. If Kavanaugh is confirmed, I don’t know what I’m going to do with this rage, but it sure as hell can’t be ignored.

  18. Good morning, 52 and partly sunny in Bellingham. Cleaning up my desk mess was like climbing anxiety mountain, but I slept long and well last night so I hope I’ve recovered. Procrastination has it’s price to pay!

    Nancy Letourneau, at the Wa Monthly…..

    ‘This Isn’t About Politics, It’s About Basic Human Decency’

    You wanna know what’s fueling the resistance? It is hundreds of thousands of women who are sick and tired of the fact that someone who has no sense of basic decency—especially toward women—is in a position to nominate Supreme Court justices. Enough is enough!

    Thanks to all for writing. Sharing snippets of our lives, our concerns, and our values is important. Gives me hope we will survive this miserable time in tRump America.

    • Your Senator, Patty Murray gave a great statement yesterday – clear and concise, strong. She said “women are watching.” I am not sure that Republicans care – they have always managed to convince enough women that they should ignore the awful way they are treated. Maybe 2018 – and then 2020 – will be different.

  19. It’s noonish here in Costa Mesa, CA. The morning clouds have cleared off and it’s a sunny 74. Can anybody remember a time when you got up in the morning and the first you did was check the weather outside instead of seeing what Trump tweeted while you were asleep. It’s a distant memory for me.

  20. Good morning, meese! Thursday …

    It is 61 degrees in Madison with an expected daytime high of 81. It is storming now and the forecast calls for rain and storms all day. I can’t imagine how the people in the area, still trying to recover from the past few week’s devastating floods, are managing this second round of continuous rain. Tomorrow starts a string of 60 degree days – and is also Autumnal Equinox! The wheel of the earth seems to be spinning faster the older I get.

    The old white Republican men of the Senate are doing everything they can to remind people that they are old white men who have nothing but contempt for women. There will be no hearing unless Dr. Blasey Ford agrees to the fact-free witness-free forum they have set up. If I were her attorney, I would decline to participate in the sham hearing. If that means that the panel votes on the Kavanaugh nomination on Monday instead of holding the hearing, so be it. It is not up to us to decide what she should do and she should not be forced to do anything that would make this nightmare worse than it has been for her. We need to redouble our efforts to take back the Senate, educate people about the dangers of third-party votes in a two-party system (Roberts, Alito, Gorsuch, Kavanaugh) and do what Mazie Hirono said:

    “I hope to enable everybody to connect the dots. That they better be voting at the state legislative level and the governorships for people who are going to provide the kind of protections that maybe they will no longer be able to expect from the Supreme Court.”

    There are plenty of reasons to not vote for Kavanaugh and we can only hope that our red state Democrats and two Republicans can find their way to vote no.

    Today is the anniversary of the landfall of Hurricane Maria on Puerto Rico and I will be retweeting throughout the day to help keep the news trending.

    See all y’all later!

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