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 (dated 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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Good “morning”, Motley Meese! The week begins …
Morning low of 27 degrees in Madison WI with an expected daytime high of 34. Snow flurries are in the forecast.
Have a great day, all y’alls!!
Sunday Meese
31 degrees here in Saugerties NY, going up to 40, and some snow forecast for tomorrow.
PR
Today’s piece at DKos celebrates Puerto Rican Christmas
Why can’t they renew the VAWA for more than a few years at a time???!? It becomes a political football every time it comes up for renewal with the Republicans using it as an opportunity to pick and choose which women are “worthy” of protections and make sure it doesn’t burden white males any more than “necessary.” Maybe the new Congress can take a look at it.
Good question Jan.
I was curious so I did some research. The act was passed in 1994 in the wake of the Anita Hill travesty – which probably explains why Clarence-Thomas-enabler Joe Biden is tied to it – his attempt to erase the permanent blemish on his soul.
It had previously lapsed in 2012 after the Republicans took over the House in the teaparty wave of 2010. That fight was over extending protections to same-sex couples and Native Americans as well as some undocumented immigrants. It was eventually reauthorized in 2013. The first reauthorization was in 2000 for 5 years then the 2005 one was for 7 years. The issue appears to be that this year, the law was revamped to improve tools for protecting victims from partners with firearms and so it needs to be reauthorized with the changes which are tied to the held-up appropriations. It’s confusing! The best I can discern is that if you don’t change the law, it would continue to need appropriations but they would be baked into the budget already. If I find out any differently, I will post it.
Good Sunday morning, Meese. It’s clear in Ashburn at the moment, but They say it will turn cloudy later. Currently the temperature is 34 F., going up to 46 F. When I took Monty out at a few minutes after 6 a.m., I saw the beautiful full moon glistening in the winter sky. It’s so rare we get to see it in foggy old DC.
Dearly Beloved just took his temperature, which was 99 point something. He will have to spend the day on the sofa again. At least he’s eating a little more.
For me this will be another day of running around, involving two or three major errands. When will I get to simply stay home and do laundry? Also have postcards to write to likely voters, and they have to be done by Thursday.
Not feeling terribly hopeful about the new year, but will focus on having a nice holiday for the children in our family. Wishing a peaceful Sunday to all at the Pond.
Oh, no! I hope your major errands will not take you near any shopping areas. The traffic here yesterday near the malls and Costco was insane!
On my way to Sunday workout. It’s in the 40s, outdoor workout but I’ll be brave & not wear a jacket or gloves. Longer check in later. Have a great day, y’all!
Good morning, Meesefolk; 30 now with a cloudy high of 36. In other words, same old, same old. It’s a rare weekend check-in for me, because I want to get my Tuesday post done today, so I can devote most of Tuesday to cooking. Even though our holiday observance mostly happened last weekend, I still cook a full-blown turkey dinner for us on Christmas Day. I think I’m going to skip the Waldorf salad this time around though; Hubby always skips it at dinners, says he’s going to have it for dessert, and then forgets. The result is that I end up eating it for the next week, and while I enjoy it, it’s an indulgence I can forego.
Despite being here, I’m going to maintain my social media avoidance for the balance of the day. The video of the young man having his dreadlocks cut has upset me to a degree I didn’t think possible. I can’t see it without tear-raging; the brutality, the inhumanity, and the pure white supremacy at work in one short video just encapsulates all of the ugly. Where were all the fkn adults?! Did no one look at the child’s face and see the hurt? Did no one consider this was a public assault? And probably hardest for me to consider…would I have understood all of this in the moment and been the adult in the room if I had been present? I hope so, but I truly don’t know.
Diana, I still owe you an email. I’m waiting to see if SIL pulls together some notes for me today. If he doesn’t, I’ll answer by early this evening. Good day to and for all!
What I found particularly irritating about the wrestling story was the “attaboy” tweets saying how “wonderful” it was that he put his team above himself. NO NO NO – his team should have said “this is bullshit” and forfeited the match if the ref would not relent. There was nothing wonderful there, just another black kid having to bow to please the overseers.
I am going to turn down my newsfeed firehose to a trickle today. I was watching it intently yesterday to see if there would be any breakthroughs in the shutdown. Nope, nothing will happen until Thursday at the earliest. It is infuriating that the right-wing media celebrities – who do not live paycheck to paycheck – egged on the weak-willed dotard in the White House to do this. The CR had been agreed to, the Senate had passed it and then after Ryan was called to the White House, he gave in and added the poison pill. He could have said “no, this is what we agreed to”, put the CR up and got ready to override any veto if it came (I suspect it would not have). Ryan had essentially nothing to lose, his last day at the office is January 2nd and he grifted enough from his tax cuts to be set for life. Cowardly until the end.
Thank you, DoReMI!
I clearly didn’t get that email written last night; I’ll aim for tonight.
Post up
33 feels like 25 and mostly sunny (or at least the sun is finding the gaps in the fluffy clouds to make it seem sunny) in Fayetteville, AR this morning. I “slept in” the half hour needed for it to be light in the sky instead of pitch dark when I got up. Much to the kitties’ dismay. Very vocal dismay by the time I was actually dressed and ready to feed them. Seems there’s a 3rd little black kitty visiting my backyard for breakfast, 2 of them earclipped so I hadn’t realized they weren’t the same cat until I saw them together this morning. I think littermates from the way they were acting towards each other. Blessings on whoever is doing the TNR in our neighborhood! Anyway, we got 7.2 KWHs yesterday and the m-t-d is currently 116.5 with 9 more production days including today. I’ve generated 4.15 MWHs for the year which is slightly better than last year and almost up to 2015’s 4.154 – so not doing too badly, considering. Not gonna reach the 4.4 we generated in 2016 this year but we know it’s possible. Over the life of my system we’ve kept 14 tons of CO2 out of the atmosphere – the equivalent of planting 714 trees.
Not surprised about a Christmas shutdown. But then that’s what Rs do when they’re in power. I remember the shock of the 1995 shutdowns. I haven’t a clue why anybody’s been even mildly surprised since. That it’s incredibly damaging to our country, almost if not legally treason, is a feature not a bug. The short-sighted greed of the Deplorables has been obvious to me for decades. Like about 5 decades. White privilege allowed me not to notice for the first 3 of those 5 decades that 90+% of those thinking that way are white. But I notice now – and cast my lot as much as I am able and allowed and my vote always with BIPOC, especially #VoteLikeBlackWomen. They have survived worse and know the path out of this. Aji wrote yesterday of planning/acting for the 7th generation out. That’s long planning and working for a better world I’ll never see. I’ve a picture somewhere of being held (at 18 months) by my great grandmother with grandmother and mother also in the picture. That’s 4 generations – we won’t hit 7 counting from Maude Centennial Patrick Small until one of my grandsons has/fathers a child. I have no idea if I will be alive when that happens – the adults in that picture aren’t. So planning and acting for 7 generations out means not only work but faith. And an attitude of stewardship rather than ownership. Not something wypipo in general even know what is although they sometimes mouth the words. So. I will follow the lead of those who do and hope. We shall see what we shall see.
We’ve already started the new cycle as far as the Light is concerned. As bad as a shutdown in midwinter is, I still think we are up a loop on the spiral that is Life from where we were last Yule/year. In a year when #VoteLikeBlackWomen also meant vote for Black women – and Native women and Asian American women and Muslim women and…- and winning a wonderful number of those races, hope is easier to come by than it’s been for the last 2 years. Healing Energy to everyone everywhere shaped to the need. Bright the day, Meeses. {{{HUGS}}}
Good morning, 44 and raining in Bellingham. I woke up to see the moon shinning behind the branches of my old maple trees. The clouds soon covered it, but the moment was nice and made me think of all of you.
I finished my last sewing project yesterday, yay! Feels so good to be done. I just have a few gifts to wrap and flowers to refresh and then it’s time to relax and let the rest of December just happen.
I’m going to see the Bolshoi Ballet Nutcracker film with my grand girls and their mom this afternoon. I wanted to go to the PNB production in Seattle, but the price of the tickets plus getting there was more than I could handle. Going to the local movie theater is much easier, and the dancing will be memorable.
Time to find some coffee and check the news. Best wishes to all.
Good morning meese. 43 with fog in Folsom. I think I have a plan for moving (to an apartment across the street), now I just need to figure out how to move the furniture. I won’t be able to do it myself so will have to hire a service of some sort.
Surely you must know enough people who will still succumb to the beer-and-pizza bribe that is the staple of moving? If I were out your way, I’d still fall for it, and I’m old enough to know better!
The timing is a bit off unfortunately… I get the keys to my new apartment next Friday (the 28th) and need to be out of the old one by the 31st. Although I suppose I could try to ask on Wednesday when I go back to work and see if anyone’s interested.
When all else fails, give them sad puppy dog eyes…that should be worth at least a couch, and maybe a couch and your bed. 😉
Good morning, meeses! Monday that will feel like a Saturday …
It is 21 degrees in Madison with an expected daytime high of 30. Sunny skies are in the forecast.
I hope that Mike Pence is working on a package of pardons to convince the dotard to resign rather than be pushed out. As one wonders if anything would turn the cabinet against tRump, perhaps a stock market crash wiping out trillions of dollars of their wealth might do the trick. Also, the combination of tariffs hurting earnings and closing businesses, an unhinged person with advisors directing the largest military in the history of the world, and a government that is shut down and can’t even answer the phone if someone wants to know what the hell is going on, it may finally get us to the point where even Republican Senators decide that checks and balances are an important thing. They can re-assert themselves by telling the Republican House that they need to pass the original CR and plan to override any presidential veto.
I am going to turn off the news for a few hours and try to get a project out the door before noon. I hope I won’t regret not closing my IRA and stuffing the Benjamins in my mattress!
See all y’all later!
Monday Meese.
31 here in Saugerties NY going up to 42, with snow.
This should be interesting
I’ve had it with David Sirota – glad to see he is being challenged.
PR
David Sirota is not even being sneaky about it – he is out there declaring his allegiance to the “Nobody But Bernie” coalition of media hacks. One story I read defined them as practicing “bernalism” instead of journalism. I am not as impressed with Beto as others are (I guess we are all inspired by different things – I am drawn to intellectual heft) but if his presence exposes the rotten core of Sandersism and TheirRevolution, more power to him. I am building a mental list of favorites for the primary and will choose one when the time comes. On November 3, 2020, I will vote for whoever the Democrats have nominated. I hope it will be an actual Democrat but if it isn’t, I will still vote for him or her. We can’t let the 2020 election get Steined.
Dee, I have a question for you about the Women’s March. I knew they had some problems with anti-Semitism in their leadership but I thought that they had corrected the problems. The NY Times story yesterday suggested that they didn’t and now there are two women’s marches planned. I always worry that what I read is not the complete story and I am wondering if you know what’s up and who to follow. The quote I saw attributed to a Women’s March person suggesting that all Jewish people are white supremacists because of their whiteness was troubling to me. I am white but I am not a white supremacist.
I washed my hands of the Women’s March leadership cabal that includes Mallory, Perez and Sarsour – some time ago – and have them blocked so am not up on any new stuff
Will go take a look
This is what I needed to know:
There are plenty of places to spend activist energy and I don’t want to waste it on organizations that allow their leaders to put their own personal agendas over the cause. The article (Women’s March Roiled by Accusations of Anti-Semitism) suggested that there would be alternative marches this January sponsored by a group called March On. I started following them and will keep an eye on what they are doing.
Cold this morning — in the 30s & a high today only in the 50s. We’re having a very Texas weather week: tomorrow will be in the 70s, Wednesday thunderstorms, then Thursday & Friday back to 30s to 50s.
Yes, Virginia There Is A Santa Claus
I’ve always loved that. We can make that spirit of generosity real.
35 feels like 29 (there was ice on the bird water this morning) and sunny mostly in Fayetteville, AR. Yesterday we generated 7.5 KWHs and the m-t-d is 124. We’ve still got 8 production days left in the month & year so we shall see what we shall see. Slowly, step by step, day by day, we are moving back into the light and The Light. And that light/Light will guide us through the cold heartless months we have directly in front of us.
We ordinary folks seem to be in a holding pattern right now. Probably why there is so much OMGHOF on twitter and other platforms. Nobody knows exactly were to go, what to do, next. We know we’ve got to get power back to be able to fix anything but the next big set of elections is almost 2 years out. Even folks like me who work campaigns are in waiting mode – heck, our local Dem Central Committee doesn’t even have Chairs at the moment. The folks who did it this cycle picked it up pretty much under emergency circumstances when the previous Chair walked and they said at the time they couldn’t do it past the election. We’re having Central Committee officer elections next Thursday evening. And a whole lot of that isn’t “who’s best” but “who’s willing to do the work” – the latter doesn’t always include “who understands anything about what the work is” – sigh. So now is a good time to rest. To stay away from the angst, do our own recovering, our own work on ourselves so we’ll be ready and able to do what needs to be done when the time comes to do it. Healing Energy to everybody everywhere shaped to the need. Bright the day, Meeses. {{{HUGS}}}
Good morning, Meesefolk; 32 with a high of 32 today; there was a light dusting of snow on the ground this morning, but that’s the closest we’re going to get to a white Christmas.
Somehow this weekend slipped away from me entirely. I spent most of Saturday thinking it was Sunday, and most of Sunday confused. This is what happens when I shuffle my work schedule around, but I’m at work now so at least I wasn’t so confused that I slept in. Fortunately, it’s only a half day, so after work I’ll do a quick stop at the grocery store for a few last minute items, and then head home to start cooking.
I saw a headline that the WH has made a “counteroffer” (quotes from headline) on the wall funding. I’m not sure how any negotiations can succeed at this point, since there’s no guarantee Individual 1 will stand by his word. And since he’s spending his DC time with Freedom Caucus hacks, there’s also every reason to believe that any counteroffer would include enough poison pills that Leader-soon-Speaker Pelosi might refuse to bring it to the floor. In the meantime, I’m enjoying this moment of schadenfreude…poor Donnie isn’t in FL with his fawning sycophants and enablers. It wouldn’t surprise me if he had believed that a shutdown meant he would have more time to spend on the links.
Good day to and for all!
They can’t negotiate with Trump – the only way out of this is to pass the no-wall bill, give him some kind of talking point that he can use to show his fans that he didn’t cave, and then if he vetos it, override the veto. The House would have the votes after the new year, I am not sure about anything related to the Senate right now. I see tiny cracks but they are the ones that are by Senators “speaking off the record” or from the ones who are leaving. A lot of people are reporting the personal pain they will suffer from this shutdown – the first missed paychecks will be on 12/27 – but Congress people will not suffer in any way. I suspect that cowardly Paul Ryan is fine with kicking this down the road to Nancy Pelosi – why not, his legacy could not be more tarnished than it already is.
Thanks, DoReMI, for this tweet!
oh, y’all – this is beautiful
You must not go into the wood at night
Thanks anotherdem…..listening now, and yes it is a treat. Thanks!
Good morning, 41 and cloudy in Bellingham. I have my coffee and The Messiah is playing. A quiet moment before a busy day gets underway.
We’ll have our family gift exchange and dinner here tonight. RonK is the main cook, and I’m the baker, table setter, and flower arranger :)
Best wishes to all on this December day.
Good morning, 49 and drizzling in Folsom. Today will be a mostly indoor day since there are supposed to be thunder storms in the forecast.
Good Moon Day morning, Moosekind! This morning when the unshaven, ailing butler brought me a cup of early morning tea, I thought, “Oh, it’s Christmas Eve, I can have a nice slow day.” Squawk! I was just taking the blueberry bran muffins out of the oven when I suddenly remembered that today is in fact Monday and I had an appointment at the bank!
Y’all shoulda seen me getting ready in double-quick time. Walking through the buildings is much faster than waiting for the campus shuttle, so I did that, arriving with two minutes to spare. Then I sat in the office with the bank manager and opened a Running Away account for my youngest grandson, now aged 3. It’s not really for running away, the idea is more that when he’s 15 and his high school foreign language class wants to go to Paris or Frankfurt or Beijing, the money to fly and stay at a hotel will be there. I was putting money in his college account, but his parents and other grandparents are taking care of that quite handsomely.
Mr. Paw Patrol is over here right now, demanding to watch the “Star Wars” intro on my computer. I have to run to the grocery store anyway, so will get it up on the screen for him.
It sounds as if we are all busy and happy in Mooseland today! Best wishes to all for a peaceful day with no news, just enjoyment—perhaps watching “A Christmas Story” AGAIN on TV tonight while enjoying a hot drink. Merry Christmas, blessed Yule, Felicitous Saturnalia, Happy Hanukkah, and so on! Kwanzaa begins December 26.
Feliz Navidad Meese
Good morning, meeses! Tuesday …
It is 27 degrees in Madison with an expected daytime high of 36. Mostly cloudy skies are in the forecast.
Today we will go to the Chinese restaurant and pick up carry-out for our traditional December 25th meal. I will wish a Merry Christmas to people who I know celebrate the Christian holiday and Happy Holidays to everyone else. And I will not tell any 7-year old children that they are too old to believe in Santa Claus. Goddess help us, the butthurt white people put an idiot in the White House.
Today is a work day for me – or at least a work morning – so while the house is quiet I will get some projects done. I will not look at my IRA but I am researching options for preserving my principal which is now in danger. I think maybe it is time to move into cash, maybe some CDs that mature at different times so I can withdraw the money when I need it. The stock market is no place for someone who can’t afford to “ride it out”. In the 1988 and the 2008 crashes, there was still time to sit tight and wait for a recovery – in 2018, at least for me, there isn’t.
See all y’all later!