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 (usually Saturday night with a Sunday date). 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 25 degrees in Madison WI with an expected daytime high of 37. Partly cloudy skies are in the forecast with a chance of snow flurries.
Have a great day, all y’alls!!
Happy Three Kings Day Meese. ¡Feliz día de Reyes!
35 degrees here in Saugerties NY going up to 43.
Good news – voting rights
I hope that Governor Racist DeSantis and his Republican legislature is discouraged from stopping this. He is saying that he needs to be involved to make sure the process is “orderly.” Bull! He wants to try to ratfk it. The law was clear – people with felony convictions who have served their time can register to vote. Period. Now Florida Democrats need to follow that up with voter engagement activities, finding candidates to run in every race for every city/county/state/federal seat and then GOTV. It is past time to turn Florida blue (Barack Obama did it twice). We flip the legislature, win the electoral votes in 2020 and then FINALLY kick Marco Rubio to the curb in 2022. That will be very satisfying.
diary up
51 heading for 61 in Fay., AR on a partly cloudy day. I can see blue sky and the clouds are white and fluffy rather than dark and menacing – but they’re still clouds so the direct sun is intermittent. But the day itself is brighter and that’s good. We generated 7.4 KWHs yesterday and with this morning’s driblet the m-t-d is 19.19 – I haven’t a clue as to whether or not that’s an omen of some sort.
As in electricity generation so in politics and every other aspect of life. We shall keep on keepin’ on cuz really we don’t have a choice. Time really doesn’t wait for anybody and while there are many fantasy tales about stepping outside of Time (really outside this time-space continuum to do stuff in another time-space continuum then step back into this one at the point of departure) I don’t think anyone’s every actually done it. Momma used to say that she’d give up but she could never find the givin’-up window. And so we go.
I’ve got most of the household chores done for the weekend. I’ll be taking down the decorations and putting the tree outside (my DIL’s “Greedy Goats” apparently like fir trees but they have to be unsprayed for it to be safe for them to eat – and of course I got an unsprayed one since I’m not fond of breathing chemical crud). Happy Three Kings day. Interesting to think that the riches brought by the Kings probably went to an escape to and setting up a business in Egypt. We use what we have to do what we have to do – and give heartfelt thanks for the kindness of strangers helping us. Healing Energy to everybody everywhere shaped to their need/s. Bright the day, Meeses. {{{HUGS}}}
Hi. Back from workout, it was chilly but I layered up. Grabbing some breakfast then off to church. Today, all I have to do is prepare my overnight oats for tomorrow. Have a good one!
Good morning, Moosekind, and a beautiful, blue-skied, sunny morning it is, too. Well, actually, the time is 11:59, so I should say “good afternoon”!
We are relaxing in our messy abode after taking Miss Pink Cheeks to breakfast at Virginia Kitchen, stopping by the medical lab so Dearly could undergo a blood test, and then taking Miss PC home. She has shot up since summer: the size 8 swimsuit I bought for her last summer is too small. I’ll buy a size 12. She likes to spend the weekends visiting her cousins or grandparents, so she may want to go swimming again soon.
Have a lot to do today, but as usual I’m not sure how much I’ll get done. Have a badly needed haircut scheduled for the afternoon. I put the plants on the porch but moved them nearer to the wall, as last night was very cold. Hope they survive but if they don’t there’s not a whole lot I can do about it.
The news is too depressing, so I’m just going to take a day for me and put off thinking about it until tomorrow. Wishing a good day to all at the Pond!
Good morning, 43 and mostly cloudy in Bellingham. I’m just finding my coffee, but it’s still morning on the lazy left coast! Wind and pouring rain woke me up in the night so that’s my excuse for such a slow start to my day.
So my plan for today is to not add any items to my deferred list. Checking something off will be a bonus :)
Best wishes to all for a restful Sunday.
Good morning, meeses! Monday …
It is 37 degrees in Madison with an expected daytime high of 50. It is raining hard right now and will be raining pretty much all day. will be raining all day. Tonight it gets colder and snow is expected overnight and into tomorrow.
It will feel weird to have 5 workdays this week for the first time in what feels like a month. K-12 went back to school last week but most of the colleges here are still on break and won’t go back until after Martin Luther King Jr Day.
I am watching the AOC coverage with interest. Her ties to DSA and the Cenk crowd suggest caution but it is fun watching how she is living rent free in the right-wing’s head. The media does not know what to make of her; because “Democrats in Disarray” is the only meme they know, her “rise” is considered a Democratic Party shakeup. That shakeup already happened – our party has been trending left for a while – it is the Republicans who are freaked out by her poise and take-no-sh*t-from-idiots social media presence. The bottom line is that she is both clever and smart – in the end, she voted for Nancy Pelosi as Speaker and appears willing to work with House Democratic Party leadership at this point.
The Republican hardliners telling Individual 1 to never give in on the border wall are doing more damage to his presidency than they realize. Will Republicans in the Senate really choose to let people on SNAP simply die? Or hold up the billions of dollars in tax refunds that their constituents are owed – their money embargoed by the federal government? When Mitch McConnell surveys the potential damage to his members, he will be forced to bring some of the House bills to a vote. The House is rolling out a series of appropriation bills to open up each of the government agencies currently shuttered so that the Republicans can piecemeal the reopening. If the DHS funding is the sticking point, they can hold that one up until CBP and ICE employees walk away from their jobs because they can’t pay their bills and need to find work. In my mind, this week will be crucial.
I have one more 2018 end of year project to finish and I have to get it done today because I have some travel days coming up this week.
See all y’all later!
I am watching AOC become the new shiny object for “progressives” – while most of the new congresspeople are ignored.
She’s been on my shit list since she campaigned against Sharice Davids – and I’m not taking her off the list.
She has a ways to go to demonstrate that her ties to the berners and DSA are not disqualifying. If she takes an occasional “purity vote” that does not block important strategic legislation, that’s fine. But if she tries to build a Tea Party Left to throw out the baby with the bathwater of pragmatic progressivism, she will lose a lot of support from people who are willing to give her the benefit of the doubt right now.
Here is one of those new members not getting a lot of attention, maybe because she came out in support of Nancy Pelosi for Speaker right away – without the drama:
Having people on TV unabashedly calling Trump a racist is a good thing. And saying “Trump did not invent racism” and pointing out that it is a Republican Party problem is even better.
Same here. The good stuff she finally does is offset by a whole lot of very noisy bad stuff first.
Good Monday morning Meese
20 degrees here in Saugerties NY going up to 31.
PR
So sleepy after just a 2-day weekend. Yesterday’s workout was surprisingly tough for a track workout — normally the hilly street ones are the hardest. Having my tea & overnight oats — don’t know why I didn’t do this years ago, it’s so easy. Hoping the upbeatness of Head Full Of Dreams will help me wake up.
Today is inauguration day in Wisconsin. At noon today, our long nightmare will be over. We will not have a lot of power to change policy – much like the problem the House Democrats have – but there is a lot a governor can do, the biggest of which is to use the power of the veto to protect the vulnerable.
Overnight low was 57, which it still is, but the clouds have moved back in. It’s drizzling and the temps will rise to 65 by noon then start falling into the 30s. Yesterday we generated 6.8 KWHs and the m-t-d is 25.7 – definitely not on track for 200 much less the 236 goal. But we’ve still got over 3 weeks to go, 3 weeks of slightly lengthening days as we go. We shall see what we shall see.
Haven’t paid much attention to the national scene, not even as much as I usually do. Probably nothing new – Deplorables being deplorable and proud of it. Got emotionally slammed when swampyankee died (Nurse Kelley tweeted it out Saturday morning) & then Aji’s “trickster girl” Coyote was killed by a car yesterday morning. (That’s is 5 beloved rescue dogs and 3 beloved rescue horses Aji’s lost in the last 2 years – aside from her own physical pain and episodes that could kill her – OK Universe I don’t know WTF is going on, but stop it!) Hoping the day, week, month, year gets better. But we keep on keepin’ on no matter what. Healing Energy to everybody everywhere shaped to the need. Bright the day, Meeses. {{{HUGS}}}
Good morning, 37 and cloudy in Bellingham. I enjoyed sometime in the garden yesterday, but the TMJ I’m still struggling with reacts to cold air so I had to come indoors before I wanted to. It was nice to be outdoors regardless.
I need to tend to my list today because the desk chores and the laundry just don’t go away by themselves. So I’d best get busy! Best wishes to all.
Good morning, Meesefolk; 28 when I got up and heading for an overcast, then rainy, high of 45. There was a bit of snow on the sidewalks this morning – enough to make me think I might have to get the shovel out for the first time this winter. But then I saw the forecast and realized, “Not yet.”
Amazingly productive weekend for me. After I picked up the table for The Kiddo, I decided to do my clean, restore, wax routine on it right away. Once it was done, I decided to do the two pieces (a bookcase that was made from an antique wood refrigerator, and a child-size stepback cupboard that was either a primitive or a salesman’s sample) I’m taking down on my next trip. So that’s done and out of the way; of course, the trade-off is that the dishes are still sitting, waiting to be washed. There’s always something!
I actually “watched” some of the MSNBC Sunday morning/afternoon line-up while I was working on the furniture. I got to hear the Republican strategist who reportedly concocted the Wall line for Candidate tRump so that he would remember to talk about immigration. He was defending the choice then and now, and overall was just a spew-er of talking points. But then I did get to hear a later guest refer to the same strategist as basically a low-level, second-rate, xenophobic hack, which is the only type of Republican talent the Candidate could attract. Overall, the shows weren’t as bad as I feared, but I don’t think I’m likely to repeat the experience unless I’m working on a project that could benefit from being powered by anger.
Good day to and for all!
Good morning meese, 49 with a high of 55. It rained on both Saturday and Sunday, which was good but also meant I couldn’t take any of the flattened boxes to recycling (the recycling bin is about 100 yards away from my apartment). I’m hoping it doesn’t rain this evening, so I can take them out before the AT&T person gets here tomorrow to install internet and TV. Good day to all!
{{{basket}}} – hope you get your boxes out tonight and your internet tomorrow. moar {{{HUGS}}}
Afternoon fellow Meeses. It’s a cold and blustery 62 degrees in Costa Mesa. The book order has begun to arrive at my desk. I’m cataloging today. I just wish they would turn up the heat. It’s freezing in my office.
Half the offices on campus here are so cold in winter (& sometimes in summer) that most of us have electric heaters under our desks. Which is of course an incredible waste of energy. sigh. Even then my fingers are sometimes so cold I can’t type. That’s one of the reasons I drink so much coffee when I’m at work. Handwarmers. {{{HUGS}}}
Also reason why I drink so much hot tea during the winter and wear fingerless gloves.
Good morning, meeses! Tuesday …
It is 36 degrees in Madison with an expected daytime high of 37. The forecast calls for rain/snow this morning and then mostly cloudy skies the rest of the day. Overnight we drop into the 20s and the high winds will bring some below zero wind chills.
So today is the Big Reveal – tRump’s plan to finish off our democracy by declaring a National Emergency and using the military to build his wall. I don’t like David Brooks (no, Nancy Pelosi was not saying “walls are immoral”, you ninny, she is saying that the purpose of Trump’s wall is immoral) but he is right in his op-ed that the key to whether we are a functioning democracy or a failed state is in the hands of Senate Republicans. Which is really really scary considering that Senate Republicans are led by the morally bankrupt Mitch McConnell and their members include Shrieky McGrahamspittle, Ron “Doodiehead” Johnson, and the soulless Tom Cotton. I won’t watch the address (I won’t watch tRump, ever) and I hope that the networks give the Democrats a chance for a rebuttal of his falsehoods.
I am still not caught up on 2018 projects – people need to quit having emergencies!! :)
See all y’all later!
Tuesday Meese
29 here in Saugerties NY, going up to 43
It’s about time! Those investigations are being led by Senate Democrats – who are still in the minority. Why did it take them so long to push for this? :(
Nydia has been pushing in the House – and she got NY Senators on the case. Waiting to see who else is on board .
Super dense fog this morning — couldn’t see to the end of my block. Today’s mile walk will have to wait till after work — so I just e-mailed my supervisor asking to leave early so I can get in 2 miles before dark. One more warm, sandal-wearing day, then a cold front & highs no more than 50s by the end of the week. Putting together a diary to post tomorrow for the AIDS Ride. I wanted to put it up on a day I’m at work, this desktop is better for having multiple tabs open. Also my computer at home has stopped playing sound — yes, I’ve checked the mute button. So this one is definitely better for picking music videos.
diary is written, I’ll post it here this evening
My computer stopped playing sound two days ago – it turned out to be a problem with needing new drivers. Now fixed – I ran troubleshooter.
I have a driver update thing, but it just runs & runs, never actually updates anything. Guess I should see what’s up with that.