Week-long Welcomings from Moosylvania: Dec. 9th through Dec. 15th

December 8, 2018 JanF Community 108

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!
     

41 Comments

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

    Morning low of 16 degrees in Madison WI with an expected daytime high of 32. Mostly sunny skies are in the forecast.

    Have a great day, all y’alls!!

  2. Sunday Meese

    24 degrees here in Saugerties NY, going up to 38.

    Black folks are shedding no tears about Trump dumping Kelly

    • Nice roundup of John Kelly, faux adult, tweets. He was a less orange version of tRump, a Mainstream Republican who got power from the dog-whistle racism rather than the bullhorn racism that defines the Trump era. I wonder how long before Kelly’s protege, DHS’s Kirstjen Nielsen, gets shown the door? The Senate will be busy with cabinet confirmations next year.

    • He’s the best. One of the things that gives me pause with the push to change the way committee chairs work (ending seniority and rotating chairs) is that he would not be in charge of the Oversight Committee. That would be a bad idea. We need his wealth of experience and his take-it-right-to-them demeanor. Would someone else be able to be as effective? Maybe – but why mess with success? The other part of that is that getting to be committee chair makes you a major player and if you take Elijah Cummings’ gavel away and make him just one of 435 people in the House, what is his incentive to run for office again? I am not sure what the solution is – you don’t want people to feel as though they have to wait for someone to die before they can get ahead but let’s not throw out the baby with the bath water.

  4. Good Sunday morning, Moosekind, although the sun is nowhere in evidence. We have a completely gray sky. It looks as if it wants to do something, but what? It’s currently 30 F. in Ashburn, going up to 34 F. “They” say the alleged snow will be to the south of us.

    This will be a wonderful day to do laundry, clean the house (a bit—not too much, don’t want the place to get used to being sparkling), and catch up on things.

    Do you think, if Thing and Deal were in jail, if people went to Hillary and begged her on bended knee to take her rightful place as our president, that she’d say “yes”? Or would she just laugh bitterly and say, “F*ck all y’all.”

    One wonders. In the meantime, here’s hoping everyone will have a nice, quiet day.

    • Your region got clobbered by the snowstorms! State of emergency in Virginia and North Carolina. I saw that parts of North Carolina got 18.5 inches of snow – yikes, that would even be considered a lot up here it the Frozen North.

      I hope you are safe and warm.

      • Thank you, Jan, yes, perfectly safe and warm. I feel sure We’re Gonna Git It one of these days, but thank Goddess, that day has not arrived yet. :)

  5. I slept in, will save the insane busyness for the afternoon. Eating leisurely breakfast, watching the news. Church, meeting, party and maybe church again. Sharing Christmas songs: The Rebel Jesus.

    But pardon me if I have seemed
To take the tone of judgement
For I've no wish to come between
This day and your enjoyment
In this life of hardship and of earthly toil
We have need for anything that frees us
So I bid you pleasure and I bid you cheer
From a heathen and a pagan
On the side of the rebel Jesus.

    • Enjoy your day and especially your music. The pageantry of the “traditional” churches is high on the list of why I stayed in the Xtian church as long as I did. There is something about it that touches the spirit. Of course a lot of it was cribbed from pagans in the first place. 😁 {{{HUGS}}} and whatever combination of Healing Energy you can use.

  6. After 3 days there’s some “skystone” trying to make its way through the gray clouds and haze. It’s 29 windchill 25 here in Fayetteville, AR heading for a hopefully clear 45. We only got 1.5 KWHs yesterday, the m-t-d is 32.7 and there are 23 production days left in the month counting today. The target of 180 is still possible. Not likely but possible. We shall see what we shall see.

    I wonder if Schumer decided he was sick of this and retired if Hillary would be interested in another term in the Senate. She’s older than he is so the scenario is exceedingly unlikely – and of course she wouldn’t be Senate Leader if she did. In fact she’d probably be back to being the junior senator from NY, depending on whether her “prior service” counted. But we could certainly use her intelligence, skills, and caring in there. Especially with folks so determined to pull our experienced leadership out of the Senate and run them for president. sigh.

    Anyway, just waiting for the molasses spice muffins to come out of the oven. (I had a bit of cranberry sauce still so I added that in. We shall see how it comes out.) I don’t know why I bothered to tidy up yesterday for today’s family decorate the tree party. The cats undid all my tidying over the night. Of course they’re sleeping the sleep of the innocent and just right now. 😂😂😂 Healing Energy to everybody shaped to the need – be that need an actual physical health issue or one of time/energy/money. Or a combination thereof. Bright the day, Meeses. {{{HUGS}}}

  7. Good morning, 39 and cloudy in Bellingham. I was awake in the night again, so instead of fretting I started reading Louise Penny’s new book, Kingdom of the Blind. I’m sleepy this morning, but my time in Three Pines with Gamache was fun last night!

    Another busy day for me with Christmas prep and ongoing house tending. Ron’s going to a community college event at the Lynden Sikh Temple today so I’d best get the hem finished in his new pants :)

    Best wishes to all.

  9. Monday Meese
    29 degrees here in Saugerties NY going up to 35.

    Waking up slowly. Need moar coffee.

    Puerto Rico

  10. Good Moon Day morning, Meese! It looks as if a clear day is dawning here in Ashburn. My husband, who took the dog out early, reports that it is very cold. The current temperature is 30 F., going up to 39 F. today.

    Yes, as Jan indicated, the counties and states to the south of us were clobbered by the snow! However, Arlington, Fairfax, Loudoun, Prince George’s, and Montgomery counties escaped it this time. There’s not a flake on the ground, whereas North Carolina and southern Virginia got it big time.

    Today will be spent getting ready for the upcoming flying visit. Yes, we are off to London again tomorrow, AND taking Miss Pink Cheeks with us! She refused to be left behind. Lest you think we are (1) rich or (2) crazy, let me assure you it’s (2). Dearly Beloved used to work for the airlines, which means we can fly for very little. Of course, sometimes it means we can’t get on the flight, but at this time of year there is apparently room for us all.

    We’ll be flying back on Thursday, so we won’t be gone long. Dearly wants a cardigan and it must come from Marks & Sparks. Elder Son wants proper tea, also from M&S. We all want Cadbury’s Chocolate Biscuits, which are unobtainable in this country.

    So looking forward to revised version of Congress three weeks from now! They don’t have to be sworn in on January 21, like the POTUS, right? They can go to work on January 2, I trust? Hope to Goddess 2019 is going to be better than 2018 and 2017!

    Wishing a good day to all at the Pond.

    • My googles say that the new Congress is set to convene on January 3, 2019. I am not sure why it is not January 2nd – there must be some statutory reason. I am holding my breath until then; with this presidency* anything can happen and I won’t feel comfortable until I see the gavel safely in Nancy Pelosi’s hands.

  11. Good morning, meeses! Monday …

    It is 14 degrees in Madison with an expected daytime high of 34. Mostly sunny skies are in the forecast.

    I hope that people with clear skies last night were able to see the waxing crescent – she was spectacular! I was driving when she was at her full height in the sky and it was everything I could do to keep my eyes on the road. She was incredibly thin but very tall. I saw something on Earth and Sky about Saturn being part of the evening sky for a few days. We will cloud up tomorrow so tonight will be the last chance.

    I have project work today so I can’t spend much time reading news. I found Dave Leonhardt’s column in the NYTimes interesting. He is pointing out the corporations who were party to the ratfking in Wisconsin, particularly Walgreens, buying up politicians to kill off bipartisan legislation that would have required them to pay their fair share of property taxes. We can’t shame the Republican legislative leaders (or Scott Walker ), they are shameless, but we can certainly make lists of the companies who hate democracy and shun them:

    You might think that an organization that claims to care about community values would speak up [about the assault on democracy]. But Walgreens has not. Neither have other corporate supporters of Wisconsin Republicans, like Microsoft, Dr Pepper Snapple, J.P. Morgan Chase or Humana. It’s yet another example — alongside soaring C.E.O. pay and stagnant worker wages — of corporations abdicating the leadership role they once played in America. […]

    The Walgreens loophole [allowing them to declare low property values] is deeply unpopular, based on the results of a nonbinding ballot initiative across Wisconsin. And last year, a bipartisan group of state legislators began a push to change the law. But then, somewhat mysteriously, the effort died. The legislature’s Republican leaders — including Robin Vos, the Assembly speaker, and Scott Fitzgerald, the Senate majority leader — appeared to play a crucial role in the demise of that measure.

    A few weeks [after killing off the bipartisan legislature that would have made Walgreens pay their fair share of property taxes], Walgreens donated $1,000 to Vos. Over the summer, it donated another $6,000 to the Committee to Elect a Republican Senate. A couple of weeks before Election Day, the company gave $1,000 to Fitzgerald. These donations weren’t simply a matter of spreading money around. Walgreens did not donate to state-level Democrats this year, as it has in the past. The sums here may not be enormous. But neither are the budgets for local campaigns. Even more important is the message that Walgreens is sending to politicians: We don’t care if you undermine democracy, so long as we get to keep our tax break.

    “Somewhat mysteriously” indeed.

    I am anxious to see if his column is trending or if it just got shrugged off. It might need more tweeting. :)

    See all y’all later!

  12. Staying home from work, I need the rest. Today: cooking, a long but mild walk — will try to make as flat a route as possible ( a challenge in Austin), and make tea for the week. Yesterday was nice — Lessons & Carols was gorgeous. Then the party in the afternoon — was good to see everyone. A suggestion from youtube: Saoirse Ronan and Jimmy Sing “Fairytale of New York” (they stop before the depressing/controversial part, just the 1st 2 verses)

  13. Good morning meese. A balmy 46 degrees currently, with a predicted high of 55 in Folsom; it appears to be 29 degrees currently (high of 44) in Little Rock and 29 with high of 45 in Fayetteville. However, I will defer to Our Intrepid Fayetteville Moose for the actual weather there. :)

    Today’s the day!! Some last minute packing and errands to do, before I leave for the airport. My first flight is at 2 pm Pacific and I expect to get to Little Rock by 11:00 pm Central. Will I have to run through O’Hare again to make my connection? I’ll let you know tomorrow.

  14. It’s 26 in Fayetteville, AR and sunny at the moment. The winter storm that was supposed to have hit us Saturday went north through MO & apparently fast-tracked all that snow to NC and southern VA. All we got was a couple of icy spitballs Saturday and clear skies yesterday. We generated 7.8 KWHs yesterday – not nearly enough to get us back on track but at least a gain. The m-t-d is 40.5 – 180 for the month is still possible. Sort of.

    Yesterday was “Decorate the Tree at Grandma’s” and that was fun. The tree looks lovely. At least I think so. And it smells divine, no question. The Austin contingent wasn’t here – they’ll be visiting in March and have more than just a day – which had us at 9 instead of 13 but it was magical anyway. Not that we do anything of that nature – but I doubt the “Big Good Thing” cares all that much about the trappings in relation to intent. The rituals and pageants are for humans, to help us Channel our collective Will, which makes them important. But a gathering of Love and Caring is also important. And powerful. Another manifestation of the Protecting Healing Energy going out into the world to all who need it shaped to the need.

    Anyway, I’m at work. Today and some/most of tomorrow this week. Then basket will be here and we’ll figure out what we want to do and do it – probably partly depending on the weather. Which at least is supposed to be nice if a bit nippy today and tomorrow. Bright the day, Meeses. {{{HUGS}}}

  15. Good morning, Meesefolk; 25 when I got up this morning with a cloudy high of 32. I’m beginning to feel like bfitz…looking up at the sky and wondering where the sun is. Different reasons, but same search!

    My weekend plans of high productivity hit a snag when I woke up Saturday with the mother of all sinus headaches. Usually OTC sinus medication works almost immediately, but this was a stubborn, stomach-churning headache which didn’t recede until late Saturday evening. I tried to catch up on Sunday, but my to-do list still has more unchecked than checked boxes on it. Of course, that’s pretty much the norm for me, so I’ll just keep plugging away and then toss the list when we leave for OH on Friday.

    I found myself annoyed with AOC on Friday, because of what I thought was her somewhat misleading tweets about attending the Harvard Institute of Politics’ conference for freshman MOCs. I keep checking myself for internalized misogyny when it comes to AOC, but I’m beginning to think that she’s just not my cup of tea. Why wasn’t this what all the coverage was about?:

    Good day to and for all!

    • Good morning DoReMI. Glad to hear you’re feeling better! I wonder if there was something in the air that caused us both to have terrible headaches last weekend (I had a migraine on Sunday that didn’t go away until late evening).

      My guess is that the tweet you linked doesn’t jive with what the “roses” want to push as their message. They even dug up accusations made by Van Jones last year at their “Summit” about the Clinton campaign and tried to pass that off as a new insight. Could it be that they’re running scared?

      I don’t know if you saw my comment just two above yours but I’m off today and will be back late on Sunday evening, in time to go to work on Monday. Will send you pictures via DM, in case you’re interested. :)

      • I’m trying hard to not be the old white lady complaining about “these kids these days.” I’m not doing very well at it! I have friends here who are gushing about AOC, and I’m just trying to urge them to remember that she’s pushing a narrative that elides [what I think are] pertinent details. So many of my friends are former-Berners, and I see them falling into the same savior trap that they did with the senator from VT. I don’t have a problem with someone promoting a narrative; I have a problem with people who are not doing their due diligence and understanding that there might be more than meets the eye. But that’s just me.

        And yes, pictures are always welcome; I won’t be on Twitter much if I stick to my to-do list (ha!), but pictures are always good.

  16. Good morning, 45 and cloudy in Bellingham. The urge to create with holly and ivy is strong this morning so I’m headed outside, clippers in hand. “tis the season :)

    Best wishes to all on this December day.

  17. It’s a cloudy, windy and 64 degrees here at Costa Mesa.Worked my 2 nights till midnight at the library last week. The library will be open until midnight Mon.-Wed. and am very glad someone stepped up to the plate. My brother’s birthday is tomorrow and got almost all of his birthday presents. I’ll pick up some of his favorite take out for dinner and we’ll watch some Big Bang Theory episodes on Apple TV.

    • Glad you aren’t doing more “to midnight” shifts! Happy Birthday to your brother & you have fun celebrating. {{{HUGS}}}

  18. Tuesday Meese

    17 degrees here in Saugerties NY – going up to 36.

    Was furious when I saw this – will address in Black Kos today

    I’m getting tired of people doing to Kamala Harris what they did to Barack Obama.

    Harris self-identifies as Black/African-American, with a parent from India.

    I’m also pissed that the fauxgressives are all over twitter and in “think pieces” and comments at Orange calling her a “cop”

    Will deal with that next Sunday.

    Puerto Rico

    • I am getting a bit testy over how the berners are treating Kamala Harris. And then yesterday, it appears that Barack Obama and his handpicked “Find Us A 2020 Candidate” guy, Deval Patrick, are pushing Beto and not even talking to Cory Booker and Kamala Harris! Barack Obama was a great president but he is not a very good politician – Patrick is a Rahm/Axelrod guy and those two have the worst instincts when it comes to electing anyone not named Barack Obama. They ratfked the Wisconsin governor’s race in 2010, paving the way for Scott Walker and – to climb on my high horse again – they killed the 50-state strategy. No one should put them in charge of anything!

      • Obama is very good friends with the Harris sisters – have no clue what he is about at this point with Beto. As long as it isn’t Bernie – I don’t care – things will shift as we get closer to primary time.

        • Maybe he just doesn’t see her as electable – or maybe he already knows she is not going to run. Like I said, he is a brilliant guy and was a great president but I am not sure his political instincts are the best. I think that may come from his strong belief that in the end, people will do the right thing, that our institutions are strong enough to withstand the onslaught of the factions of anti-democracy and the craven moves of an opposition party that has nothing to lose – and willing to burn it all down in order to keep power away from the people.

          The good news is that in 2020, California will have a say in who our nominee is – it won’t be based on the white states of Iowa and New Hampshire and undemocratic caucuses to pick who will lead our diverse party. Maybe Beto O’Rourke will emerge as more than a cult figure or the great white hope – right now there is more heat than light and we have probably a year to sort it all out.

          • Amongst my friends who are not close observers of politics, Beto has piqued their interest. Not because of any of his policies…they don’t know what they are. Based mostly on the one viral video defending taking a knee, and the observation that he reminds them of Obama (and that seems to be mostly about loose, lanky guy in shirtsleeves). The good news is that they know that’s not a strong basis for supporting a candidate, but it does provide an interesting glimpse into how at least a small group of voters sees things.

  19. Good morning, meeses! Tuesday …

    It is 21 degrees in Madison with an expected high of 32. Mostly sunny skies are in the forecast. The prediction is for light snow overnight turning to freezing drizzle tomorrow morning – I hope they are wrong as I have to be on the road tomorrow.

    For those who is screaming for the House to move quickly to impeachment of Donald J. Trump, look no further than the report yesterday of Senate Republicans’ attitudes towards the crimes disclosed on Friday afternoon: “just campaign finance violations, not real crimes” “he doesn’t know the ins and outs of the laws” “he is a good president and is being railroaded”. They will never ever EVER vote to remove him from office and any time spent on impeachment in the House is time taken away from getting our agenda passed and putting stops wherever possible on plans that the Trump cabinet has for the continued dismantling of the government’s regulatory process. We have the power of the purse and we can’t get bogged down in lost causes. I would like Trump gone as much as the next person but I don’t want us squandering our mandate on symbolic gestures – we were elected to make the lives of ordinary Americans better, let’s get to it. The Republicans will pay in the end – 2020 is going to be worse for them than 2018 by having a damaged president and their being on the record as willing to protect him at all costs. I will take my chances on the electorate being the ones to remove him and his enablers from office the old fashioned way – via the ballot box..

    See all y’all later!

    • If we don’t do stuff that makes ordinary Americans lives better – in a way the MSM can’t hide – we are not likely to keep the House. Let Mueller – the only honest R I know of – handle that part of what’s wanted. The House should be investigating things they can actually change – the Executive departments – via funding but otherwise get busy on making things better for the 90%.

  20. Good morning, Moosekind! Clear and cold here in Ashburn. The current temp. is 23 F., going up to 41 F. later today. We’re leaving here at 1:30 this afternoon to pick up Miss Pink Cheeks from her school at 2 p.m. Then, after a stop at her house to pick up her travel bag and dump her school bags, we’ll head to the airport.

    Hope I’m not premature with this, but it looks like the sheet is finally hitting the fan. About time!

    The Moose doesn’t like it when I comment on others’ posts, so let me say I’m glad to hear basket and DoReMI got over their sinus headaches. Happy that princesspat got her holly! Am furious along with Denise at the disrespectful treatment of Kamala Harris, who is my hope for 2020. Also, Dee, I happened to glance at a travel article in Sunday’s WaPo to the effect that Puerto Rico is just fine! Really! Come for a lovely holiday in the sun! /s. It was at such variance with what Denise is reporting from her sources that I was staggered.

    Hope basket and bfitz have an enjoyable visit, and that MVgal enjoyed watching “The Big Bang Theory” with her brother. We’ve been watching “The Last Kingdom” on what three-year-old Mr. Preschooler, unable as yet to articulate blended consonant-vowel sounds, refers to as “Netf’ix.”

    Wishing a good Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday to all at the Pond and here’s hoping to see you on Friday.

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