Week-long Welcomings from Moosylvania: Feb. 3rd through Feb. 9th

February 2, 2019 JanF Community 105

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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  • Page One of Comments are HERE!
     

  • Page Two of Comments are HERE!
     

36 Comments

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

    Morning low of 39 degrees in Madison WI with an expected daytime high of 45. The forecast calls for cloudy skies and drizzle.

    Have a great day, all y’alls!!

  3. Good Sunday Meese.

    A balmy 28 here in Saugerties NY.

    Black History

    Puerto Rico

    • Speaking of Black History, Henry Louis Gates is going to be doing a PBS special on Reconstruction in April.

      Historian Henry Louis Gates can trace the roots of his upcoming PBS documentary about the Reconstruction to his days in school, when he’d hear about the end of slavery during the Civil War, then virtually nothing about race relations until the civil rights movement in the middle of the 20th Century.

      “It led me to think, if Lincoln freed the slaves, why did we need a civil rights movement?” the Harvard historian said at a news conference on Saturday.

      The answer arrives April 9 with the Gates-produced, four-hour “Reconstruction: America After the Civil War,” which he hopes enlightens people to what he believes is one of the least understood periods of the nation’s history.

      I wonder if he will include the work done by Rev. William Barber II? It would be difficult to imagine how he could avoid doing so.

  4. I came across this article about Kamala Harris. It is a very well written and calm discussion of her race and her attitude towards it.

    ‘I am who I am’: Kamala Harris, daughter of Indian and Jamaican immigrants, defines herself simply as ‘American’ https://wapo.st/2SksXKq?tid=ss_tw&utm_term=.7cbf7b119e3c

    “She said she has not spent much time dwelling on how to categorize herself.

    “So much so,” she said, “that when I first ran for office that was one of the things that I struggled with, which is that you are forced through that process to define yourself in a way that you fit neatly into the compartment that other people have created.

    “My point was: I am who I am. I’m good with it. You might need to figure it out, but I’m fine with it,” she said.

    Harris’s background in many ways embodies the culturally fluid, racially blended society that is second-nature in California’s Bay Area and is increasingly common across the United States.

    She calls herself simply “an American,” and said she has been fully comfortable with her identity from an early age. She credits that largely to a Hindu immigrant single mom who adopted black culture and immersed her daughters in it. Harris grew up embracing her Indian culture, but living a proudly African American life.”

    I have her book and am looking forward to reading it.

  6. Eating breakfast, watching the news. Got it muted on the Northam segment. He should just go away. Slink off to a place with no electricity, no media, etc. Just, go. Today: church then cooking. I understand there’s a sporting event. I’ll be clearing out my dvr while I cook.

  7. Definitely overcast but it’s 54. Too warm for a fire, too chilly for not. I’ve just finished baking cookies and will put off the fire as long as I can. At least this time of year it gets dark early enough that I can get a fire going and have it throwing off some good heat by the time I need to warm up for bed. Today, even with the overcast, feels like Imbolc. That soft wind from the South in the middle of Winter that renews the promise of Spring. It did clear off enough yesterday to generate 6.76 KWHs which brought the m-t-d to slightly over 12 – what’s at least averaging for what I actually use. (Or what I think I use anyway.)

    I haven’t checked my TL but I’m assuming that R-pretending-to-be-Dem Northam decided to follow the R playbook and stay put. I suppose from his point of view it really doesn’t matter whether Dems continue to support him since he can’t run for re-election anyway. I hope there’s a way to remove him other than waiting until his term is up. If not, we’ll have to deal with it as best we can – and start doing a damn-sight more vetting of our own team before backing them. Meanwhile there’s a boatload – hell, a full fleet – of other things to deal with. All of which are damaging in the least and life-taking in the most. We’ll keep on keepin’ on but it’s a long and wearying slog.

    I need to do a Tractor Supply run. Feeding 5 cats instead of 2 is running me out of kibble at a scary rate. And I think I’ve picked up another for the morning feeding. A creamsicle kitteh like Cloud but with long hair has showed up the last 2 mornings and the 3 black kittehs have just rubbed noses and let him/her eat with them. Sigh. Hopefully these guys will find homes or at least another feeding station once the weather warms up. But first coffee and my internet stuff. Bright the day, Meeses. {{{HUGS}}}

  8. Good morning, Moosekind! ‘Tis Sunday, which means that Dearly Beloved gets an actual cooked breakfast, and I’ve spent a little time preparing food for the slow cooker. The Mousse Grand Marnier pudding (a.k.a. “The Husband-Killer”) will be prepared around 5 for a 6 p.m. dinner.

    It’s partly cloudy here in Ashburn this morning, with a current temp. of 31 F., going up to 52 F. Positively balmy!

    Re the Northam mess: if he persists in behaving as if nothing has happened and that he can keep his current position, he’ll find himself forced out anyway and a member of the Disgraced Ex-Virginia Governors’ Club. Bob McDonnell and Chuck Robb are already members. Someone on Orange described him as being in shock, unable to believe the tsunami of detrimental news that hit him. It all reinforces my belief that one cannot trust an ex-Republican.

    Hoping for a quiet day. At first we were planning an unhealthful guacamole-chips-barbecued wings-pizza dinner until we found out that the Super Bore starts at 6:30. We can therefore have a normal dinner and then watch it.

    Last night I went to see “Crazy Rich Asians.” One of the nice things about living here is that I have only to walk across the parking lot from Birch Point to Great Oak Clubhouse (4-minute walk) to see movies on Saturday evening. I’m not terribly interested in rich people, but I did want to see scenes of my beloved Singapore, and so I did. It was a cute movie and quite funny! It was also nice to see a film that involved no foul language, no killing or fighting, and no graphic s-x. Of course, half the white-haired audience is stone-deaf, so they put captions of the dialogue on the screen. Don’t mind this at all, I’m one of the hearing impaired.

    Got to get on with Sunday chores, so wishing all a nice, quiet Sunday.

    • We will watch the Puppy Bowl and then hate watch the Super Bowl, rooting against Kraft and his MAGA team of white supremacists. I wish James White, a former Wisconsin Badgers star, was not on that team. It is difficult to root against him but I have to.

  9. Good morning, 34 and mostly cloudy. Snow with a high of 40 is forecast, but so far the skies are just grey. I have a few plants wintering in the garage but I don’t need to move them yet.

    Yesterday I was lamenting my lack of creativity, but I’ve fixed that……my cutting table now has more projects stacked up than I can manage so I’ll have to make some choices. My self imposed challenge is to just work with what I’ve got and that is not a restraint!

    Best Sunday wishes to all.

  10. Yup. Imbolc. There’s a crocus blooming in my front yard that wasn’t yesterday. 😁

      • I love bluebonnets. That’s the main thing I miss about TX. But in February? Anybody who denies global warming isn’t paying attention!

  11. Good morning, meeses! Monday …

    It is 43 degrees in Madison with an expected daytime high of 45. Cloudy this morning giving way to glimpses of sunshine.

    Every day that Ralph Northam is governor of Virginia is a bad day for America. That the photo came to light because a former medical school classmate was upset by Northam’s comments regarding third trimester abortions does not matter one whit – it came out, the apology-denial-crazypresser showed an unfitness for higher office and he needs to resign. That it means a Republican Lt. Governor (the Republican legislature appoints him or her) is not relevant – we don’t sacrifice our principles for power, we are not Republicans.

    I found out that pull-quoting can lead to some odd Twitter reactions. I tweeted out the story about Henry Louis Gates and his upcoming PBS program on Reconstruction and people thought I was highlighting cluelessness by Gates when his quote was meant to show the gap in people’s understanding of civil rights history, not a gap in his understanding. Next time – more context!

    We have a new moon so I am going to grab some waxing energy and get some projects done this week.

    See all y’all later!

  12. Monday Meese. A balmy 36 here in Saugerties NY going up to 54.
    Have to take my car into the shop – all the check engine lights are on.

    Watched the puppy bowl. Ignored the Super Bowl – other than a clip of Gladys Knight singing.

    Waiting to see what Northam is going to do today. Marianne Williamson has entered the Dem race and raised the issue of reparations to black American descendants of slavery. Venezuela issue is splitting the left. SOTU tomorrow.

    Need moar coffee.

    • An AP story on Northam’s status had a quote from Fairfax and laid out the limits to repentance:

      In politics, should sincerity and repentance for a racist past matter more than the hurt feelings of Americans who live on the receiving end of racism?

      Northam’s lieutenant governor doesn’t think so.

      “I have worked closely with Ralph Northam over many years. He has been a friend to me and has treated my family and me with hospitality and respect,” Fairfax wrote in a statement Saturday, noting that he is a descendant of people enslaved in Virginia. “While his career has been marked by service to children, soldiers and constituents, I cannot condone the actions from his past that, at the very least, suggest a comfort with Virginia’s darker history of white supremacy, racial stereotyping, and intimidation.” […]

      “I don’t know how he thinks he can show up in the black community,” [said Anthea Butler, a University of Pennsylvania religion professor who has written about politics.] “He’s hobbling what he can do for his African-American constituents, and we’re asked to do the labor of forgiveness and healing. We’re over it. Why should he be allowed to stay?”

      The article goes on to say that people (read “white people”) tend to only see racism if it is something active and egregious:

      Many Americans have come to view racism since the end of legally-enforced segregation, defined by only the most egregious, blatant examples like using the N-word or the Ku Klux Klan. “That’s the boundary. Everything else is not,” said Carol Anderson, Emory University African American studies professor and author of ‘White Rage: The Unspoken Truth of Our Racial Divide.’

      “Unless you’re burning a cross, you’re not racist,” Anderson said. “But racism since the Civil Rights Movement is deceptively structural.”

      Some of the tweets this weekend pointed out how horrifying the medical school yearbook was when you consider that those people (his was not the only page with blackface, Klan images) went on to become doctors who were tasked with serving all people while holding in their hearts such contempt for African Americans.

      • I am so hoping that Northam comes to his senses & resigns today. I also hope that picture of McConnell proudly getting an award from the confederate group in front of that ginormous traitor flag is spread far & wide.

  13. What an amazing picture! So bright — I feel more awake having seen it. Warm day today — 60s this morning up to 78. And cloudy, foggy… Just strange for February. But I’m wearing sandals. And I’m glad my tea is good & cold. I wish Northam has resigned over the weekend. Maybe on Tuesday? Just, please go away. Ugh. Okay, today’s song is gonna be Sara Barielles’ Armor.

    • I was looking at the video for armor – it starts with this little girl in this bright yellow shirt. Woke my eyes up but not my brain. Must drink tea before I start typing. Or wait to start the music till after I’ve typed most of what I’m gonna say. And here I thought I got a good night’s sleep because I finally didn’t wake up coughing.

  14. Rosa Parks

  15. Good Moon Day morning, Moosekind! It’s clear this morning in Ashburn and the sun is rising behind the woods. The current temperature is 29 F., going up to 56 F.—yay! I have a doctor appointment in Cardinal Clubhouse this morning, an 8-minute walk from here. I may even walk outside.

    The Super Bore was the most boring I’ve ever watched, including the commercials. In fact, I started reading the spy thriller I’ve got on Kindle, and almost missed the Washington Post commercial.

    Got some nonfiction writing to work on after I return from the doctor’s office, and then on to Chapter 19, which is finally coalescing into something writable.

    I keep checking Twitter to see whether Northam has resigned yet. He’s as delusional as Thing if he thinks he can stay on. I’m also furious that vetting clearly wasn’t done on him before he started running for governor. Our side needs to be more careful. He needs to join the Disgraced Ex-Virginia Governors’ Club and start atoning. After a decent interval he should go to work for the American Civil Liberties Union or the NAACP.

    It’s 8:30, must eat breakfast before traipsing off to the doctor’s office. Wishing a good day to all at the Pond.

  16. Good morning, Meesefolk; 41 when I got up this morning and headed up to a rainy 50. The respite from subzero this weekend was welcome, even if it has left my body (and unfortunately that includes my sinuses) in a state of total confusion.

    I spent the weekend in OH, and it was an example of princesspat’s “things don’t always go as planned” writ large. The four hour drive down took closer to seven, after I experienced a spectacular blowout while on the highway. I was never really in any danger (rear tire, thankfully), but my tire didn’t just go flat, it exploded. My brain registered this as “danger, danger” and then “trauma, trauma”, and I pretty much shook uncontrollably even after road service came and put my bubble tire on. I was almost exactly midway between home and Kiddo’s home when it happened; I called Hubby, and he recommended putting my GPS on “avoid highways” and making the rest of the trip to OH…it’s easier to limit one’s speed on less-traveled country roads (the route to OH) vs heavily-traveled, pothole-riddled, suburban roads (the route to home).

    I got my car into the shop on Saturday, and they put on a new tire as well as fixing ALL of my other tires, which were in various states of leakage. Note to self: never, ever buy tires from local auto shop again, because despite the price, they are apparently substandard or cheap or mounted wrong or something. Once that was done, and I had them do a full safety check on my car, the shaking subsided. I’m still kind of stunned that I had such a strong reaction; it’s hardly the most traumatic thing I’ve ever experienced, but for some reason my brain went into adrenaline overdrive that seemed to take forever to subside.

    There were other annoying, but minor, snafus during the visit, e.g. Kiddo and SIL went out Saturday night, and I planned to do some sewing while they were gone…except Kiddo pulled out her machine for me, but neglected to provide the power cord/foot pedal, a necessary detail that neither of us noticed at the time. I gave up and went to bed early, but not before I found an antique phonograph on Ebay for a price that was reasonable, even cheap. Kiddo and SIL had mentioned wanting to get one; when they got home and discovered it was “local pickup” in a community less than 10 miles from them, they bought it. So Sunday was spent driving my car (the only one with enough cargo space) to pick up their new-old Edison phonograph while SIL was at theatre rehearsal. It’s a beauty, they’re thrilled, and I felt like driving my car was not such a bad move after all.

    I’m just now catching up on the political news of the weekend, and I think I’m glad I wasn’t following it all as it happened. Given the way the weekend started, I probably would have gone into full meltdown mode.

    Good day to and for all!

    • Good to know you are safe, and yes, plans do change. I tell myself that being able to adjust to changing realities is a challenge worth meeting but some days it’s a challenge!

      • This is not a humble-brag, but a realistic assessment: one of my strengths is my resilience and adaptability in the face of the unexpected. But boy, for whatever reason, this weekend challenged that, and I think the fact that I didn’t snap back as fast as usual created a loop of self-doubt and uncertainty that fed on itself. The Kiddo finally set a glass of wine down in front of me and ordered me to drink; that’s not a coping method that either one of us would usually promote, but I have to admit it helped to break the feedback cycle that was going on. Brains…can’t live with ’em, can’t live without ’em!

        • Yep, feedback loops are like augers – you gotta stop them or they just keep getting deeper entrenched. I’m pretty good at dealing with an emergency while it’s happening – after that I unfortunately tend to go to pieces & frequently need somebody’s help to stop that “what if” feedback loop. Brain function changes as we get older and one of those changes comes from simply recognizing our mortality (as we didn’t when younger) and having more knowledge from experience about just how much can go wrong.

        • What a traumatic experience, DoReMI! Glad you’re safe, the car was dealt with, and the phonograph conveyed to its new home. What a weekend!

          Now you can settle down and breathe a sigh of relief. :)

    • {{{DoReMI}}} – I’m so glad you’re safe and totally not surprised at your reaction. “Exploded” is supposed to generate that kind of reaction, whereas a blowout just gets a “oh damn” if you realized what it was or a “WTF?” if you didn’t. (As basket can tell you about last August in Orlando…) Cars are very handy for schlepping stuff, mundane or arcane as it were. moar {{{HUGS}}} & also Healing Energy.

  17. It’s 60 right now. Heading for 65. That takes a minute or three to sink in. NW AR. February 4th. 60 heading for 65. O-kaaay. I will definitely be walking home today. I guess enjoy the immediate benefits of something that is a long-term disaster. That’s the white culture’s way of doing things, right? (not snark) I got 5.76 KWHs yesterday so not quite on track for even covering my usage but close. The m-t-d is 17.8 – we shall see what we shall see.

    I hope Northam will do the right thing for the state, the nation, and the party – but I doubt it. Essentially doing that would require he care about the state, the nation, and the party. There’s no other reason since this is it for his political career. He can’t run for re-election so he doesn’t need to keep up the facade. He’d probably have preferred it not come out until after he’d left office but really it’s immaterial to his career.

    A nice as well as maddening thing happened as far as U of A is concerned. They’ve finally gotten around to naming a couple of buildings – residence halls – for Dr. Gordon Morgan and Dr. Margaret Clark, the two first tenured Black folks on the U of A faculty. Both started teaching in 1969. Dr. Clark was still working on her PhD in education while teaching world languages at the time. I didn’t know her as she was in the College of Education. Dr. Morgan had gotten his MA in Sociology here but gone on to get his PhD. at Washington State. After MLK was assassinated the Dept Chair here at the time (Stephen Stephan) basically tracked Dr. Morgan down and asked him to join our faculty. He was with us until 2012, having climbed the academic ladder to full professor and to our “excels in teaching” rank of University Professor. He’s a wonderful teacher and a very caring man. He loves to start discussions with comments guaranteed to bring out the racist assumptions white people, especially young white people, have – and see where it goes. And see what kind of pretzel logic folks have to twist themselves into in justifying those assumptions. And see whose eyes the light came on in by the end of those discussions. I am one of those people – and I was the secretary at the time, not in one of his classes at all – in whose eyes the light came on (racism v. classism). The maddening part is how he was treated, especially but not solely by the person who was Chair in 2012 Dr. Morgan’s classes kept getting smaller and scheduled to less desirable times. His signature class (Whiteness) was never given its own number in the catalog – it remained a “special topic” for over 30 years. He was pretty much forced into retirement and his “emeritus” status is pretty much in name only. He doesn’t have an office on campus for his research as other emeritus professors have nor has he continued teaching his signature class as other (white) emeritus professors do. OK, he’s in his late 80s and he’s very fragile and maybe at this point he doesn’t have the energy for it – but as far as I could tell he wasn’t given the choice. & that is very, very maddening. I hope he’s pleased with having a residence hall named for him.

    Obviously I’m at work as it’s taken me over an hour to get this comment written between lawful interruptions. I need more coffee and then to get back to it. Bright the day, Meeses. {{{HUGS}}}

  18. Good morning meese. 47 with high of 48 and cloudy. There was a steady drizzle over the weekend, and another big storm is supposed to come in either this afternoon or evening. It’s going to make for interesting driving…

    My roommate is in a lot of pain the past few days and the only thing I can really do to help is to help her with getting dinner or meds. 😕

    • {{{basket}}} – steady drizzle is good if not exactly mood enhancing. Soaking in at least ameliorates the drought and reduces the wildfire dangers. Be careful driving, please.

      {{{HUGS}}} & Healing Energy to your roommate. There really isn’t much of anything you can do for someone dealing with chronic pain except those little errand-type things. So you do what you can. moar {{{HUGS}}} & Healing Energy to you both.

  19. Good morning, 22 and cloudy in Bellingham. It was 17 and snowing when I went to bed last night, so my early budding plants will have to cope. The snow plan for Bellingham is “wait for rain” so schools are closed. Given the slippery hills I’m glad to know my grand kids are home for the day.

    I found even more sewing fun in my sewing room yesterday and then took a long nap to recover. Today I hope to organize the mess I made so I can cut the fabrics and actually sew something. I’m making table linens and pillow covers, and trying construction simple. Easy sewing and using lots of fabric is my goal!

    Best wishes to all.

  20. Good morning, meeses! Tuesday …

    It is 19 degrees in Madison with an expected daytime high of 27. The forecast calls for ice pellets then snow then mixed precipitation. A winter storm advisory is in effect until tomorrow (Wednesday) morning. I hope I don’t need to go anywhere today! I do have errands to run tomorrow.

    I am averting my eyes from the mess in Virginia – trying not to be SHOCKED that Northam’s medical school cancelled doing yearbooks when their doctors-in-training were wearing Confederate garb in their pictures. Sounds like a place where “fine people” graduate and are given the power of life and death over others including those who they think should still be enslaved. And why is there always a sex scandal in every politician’s past? On second thought, I don’t want to know the answer to that!

    Tonight is the Stacey Abrams State of the Union Address. I am trying to figure out how to time my viewing so that I can watch her address but not accidentally hear/see the orange orshole or the commentators talking about the orange orshole and his poliitcal party. It looks like CSPAN will carry the address (State of the Union Democratic Response: Former Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams delivers the Democratic response to the Orange Orshole’s State of the Union address. ) – I may just watch it off the link in the hopes that it will only include her speech rather than the end of the other speech. It also says that her speech will not begin until 9:15pm my time which is past my bedtime. I will likely just watch it in the morning. Sending “knock their socks off” energy to her – she is the future of our party: smart, inspirational, focused on what is important to people’s lives and a proud Democrat from the Democratic Wing of the Democratic Party.

    See all y’all later!

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