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 Thor’s Day morning, Moosekind! Dearly Beloved reports that it’s mild and breezy outside, and the sky is overcast. The current temp. in Ashburn is 42 F., going up to 55 F. later. The weather gadget indicates rain off and on.
Have a couple of writing chores today and some telephone calls to make. The third piece I sent out, to a woman who experienced antisemitism, was “edited” so extensively it amounted to a rewrite. I’ll have to ask the Committee honchos whether her name should be on it rather than my own. I’m not going to get into it with a 90-year-old woman and anyway, I have other venues for expressing my thoughts.
Today is Younger Son’s 44th birthday. He was born a month early and the doctors thought he would die, he was so seriously ill; however, the new advances in neonatology saved his life. He was born in the Chinese Year of the Rabbit; while in the hospital recovering from the birth, I read that “rabbits cling with great tenacity to life.” I’m so grateful! He’s grown up to be a fine man, a husband, the father of Miss Pink Cheeks and Mr. Paw Patrol, and in general is a source of great delight to his brother, sister, parents, and cousin.
It’s time to get on with breakfast and start my day. Wishing a good day to all at the Pond, and Jan, hope you don’t have to go out!
Congratulations on Younger Son’s birth day and birthday!
There is the possibility of a local trip today that I will have the option of deferring but which would mean pushing it out another week. I hope I don’t have to make the decision – it will be tempting to brave the elements. Apparently the highway traffic is moving well but city streets are not very good.
{{{Diana}}} – definitely congratulations to your son on attaining his 44th birthday. & to you. I also am a rabbit. 😁 Have a lovely day and don’t let the “discussion” with the editor get you down. moar {{{HUGS}}}
Happy Mother-of-the-Birthday-Boy Day!
What a wonderful testimonial!
Best Birthday Wishes to you and to your son Diana. I always feel like my kids birthdays are my real mother’s day.
Our high for the day was 59 just after midnight. At the moment it’s 29 and feels like 18, so dark the PV system is barely on (generating at 5 watts/hour), and has “wintry mix” slated for later today. Once I get off work today I’ll go to the departmental library/conference room next door and either read or play on twitter. I ain’t gonna walk or take the bus home today – and if it doesn’t get any lighter it’s not safe for me to drive either – I’ll just wait until the office closes and go home with my friend, same way I came in. We got 2.6 KWHs yesterday and the m-t-d is 41. If we can get at least a whole kilowatt today – which is not a given – we’ll at least be at my usage so far this month even if not gaining anything.
Aji’s phrase is “all your favs are problematic” and she’s right. As best I can figure out the male personality type that sends them to high-profile careers like politics or entertainment goes with a tendency towards sex scandals. It wouldn’t please me of course but it also wouldn’t surprise me if 90% of them have at least one event in their backgrounds. And the ones who don’t, like Jimmy Carter, “lusted” in their hearts. That same kind of personality, if raised in an atmosphere that promotes it, would also find blackface or other racist/Deplorable speech and activities to be funny. & Goddess above and below, it takes some retraining for them to “get” it. Not so much the behavior. They’re quite good a picking up cues on what behaviors will get them the most approval. But it’s so much harder to get them to understand the earlier behavior was wrong, it was hurtful, it was even potentially dangerous & definitely could be a trigger to the person or groups who were their targets. Not saying it’s just men. But it’s mostly men. And we’ve got to get them out of positions of power until that changes.
Meanwhile I need to get back to work. This is gonna be a 4 or even 5 cup of coffee day though. I don’t do dark as well as cold very well. Channeling Healing/Making Things Better Energy to everybody to their shaping. Bright the day, Meeses. {{{HUGS}}}
Good morning, Meesefolk. I’m going to let Twitter tell my weather story. Yesterday:
Today (although this particular tweet is from the 3rd):
The news coming out of VA yesterday had me so demoralized that I made the decision to turn off my phone for the balance of the day. I’d like to think there’s a way for VA Dems to climb out of this morass without relinquishing all power to Republicans, but the only path I see would require Northam to resign and timed resignations after that, eventually allowing for new people to be appointed and ascend to the leadership positions. It would be a complex, cynical dance which doesn’t begin to address the greater need for moral courage and clarity. “Retain power at all costs” is not a moral response, but I’m not sure how moral it is to relinquish the reins of power to a party that delights in its racism and celebrates white supremacy. What a freaking mess…
And on that less-than-uplifting note, it’s time for me to get back to work. Good day to and for all.
That we have to do the “cynical dance” to retain power is awful – but I think we should do what we can to stay in power. Virginia voted overwhelmingly to go blue and for everyone to resign and turn the government over to the Republicans would thwart the will of the people. As a lesson learned, it is invaluable – candidates need to fess up about their pasts and let the people decide before the election. Punishing the citizens of Virginia seems the very definition of cutting off one’s nose to spite one’s face. But I am not a member of a racial minority so it is not my place to decide if it is “okay” or not to let Northam or Herring to stay in.
The Justin Fairfax situation is easier in my mind: if he assaulted that woman he needs to step down now. It was reported that he said “Fk that bitch!” when he found out about the accusation and to me that is disqualifying. I don’t care if the allegation is false, that level of disrespect towards women is not okay and will never be okay. I think that Northam’s transgression was worse than Herring’s because of his age and because his photo involved the KKK which is racial violence not just racial insensitivity. So I don’t know how you get from Northam to Herring and I think people need to dig a little deeper into Herring to see if racial insensitivity led to racial bias at any time since 1980 (it would be difficult to see how it wouldn’t have but I don’t pretend to know what is in anyone’s hearts).
A mess, really a MESS.
Good morning meese. 30 with high of 52. I’m still tired but can’t sleep in today as I have a 9:30 am call. Well maybe I can get about another half hour of sleep?
{{{basket}}} – hope you got the extra sleep. Or have somewhere you can take a nap during the day. Healing Energy & more {{{HUGS}}}
Good morning, 25 and partly sunny in Bellingham, with more snow in the forecast! So much for an early spring. Oh well, the budding hydrangea plants have grown quite large so another pruning will keep them from over taking the sidewalk next summer.
I had a good day in my sewing room yesterday and finally solved an interlining problem so I’m back in control again. Going back to the basics of careful basting is usually the best solution :)
Best wishes to all on this wintry day.
Good morning, meeses! Friday …
It is 3 degrees in Madison – feels like 11 below – with an expected daytime high of 7. Sunny skies are in the forecast. The rain/sleet/ice pellets/snow that landed yesterday has frozen and roadways that were not cleared will be glare ice.
Good news from (I hope you are sitting down!) the Supreme Court. It should have been a no brainer to uphold their ruling from 2016 against Texas when Louisiana wanted to enforce a nearly identical abortion rule. But precedent means squat to those guys, especially when it harms women, people of color, or religious minorities. Anyway, Louisiana’s law is dead for now.
Former Michigan Rep. John Dingell has passed away and the Twitterverse will never be the same. I hope that his passing makes people read up on his significant contributions to [edit] health care laws and choose to protect those laws and the other good government initiatives Democratic Congresses have passed over the years. Every day another protection is weakened or destroyed heightening the sense of urgency for 2020. We have to win back the Senate to stop the deluge of right-wing hacks being given lifetime appointments to the court – and target the worst ones for impeachment and removal. And goddess help us if Individual 1 – or anyone in his party – wins the presidency.
It is the last day of the work week and I have to organize projects for the weekend.
See all y’all later!
Friday Meese
Just posted a quick call for help –
Please retweet/share as many NAP stories as you can
r,t,s, & I re-tweeted your tweet
Boosted signals wherever I find them. Is there anybody you recommend for donations? My bloody Senators (Boozman & Cotton) are Genocidal Deplorables. Boozman doesn’t care who gets hurt and Cotton gets his rocks off every time a BIPOC dies (especially a baby or elder). I can’t send much – I’m getting close to overcommitted now – but I can send something.
Yesterday at this time, it was 72; when I left work it was 52 — and this morning it is 33. Thirty freaking three. And wind chill. So it feels like the 20s out there. Definitely a wool socks kind of day.
So the usual whirlwind of news. I really hope AMI loses their non-prosecution deal over this Bezos thing. Rachel pointed out that they agreed not to commit any crimes whatsoever for the next three years, and blackmail is certainly a crime. Seems that it is part of their everyday operating procedure, so maybe they forgot that. And the passing of John Dingell. I didn’t know much about him when he was in Congress, Detroit is pretty far away. But He was great to follow on Twitter, so funny, and man he hated Trump.
On this cold morning, I’m going to warm up with the sexy Michael Hutchence — Disappear. Such a sweet song.
Good morning, Moosekind! It’s like Brigadoon outside, the fog is so thick. Glad I don’t have to drive in it. Fog and drizzle will be the order of the day, it seems. Currently the temperature in Ashburn is 45 F., going up to 50 F.
Had the night from hell. Despite taking a sleeping pill at bedtime, I’ve had only three hours’ sleep. I’ll pay for it later! Perhaps a nap after lunch would be in order.
The good news is that I started writing Chapter 19 last night. After the first 500 words, I’m about to jump into the flashback in Kashmir. This book is just getting weirder and weirder, but it’s fun.
The bad news is News Overload Syndrome. This has been a monstrous week for everyone in Virginia and has ruined our reputation, which was just beginning to recover from its previous loathsomeness. One is exhausted trying to keep up with it all.
Here’s hoping nothing really bad happens today with the world at large and that everyone at the Pond has a peaceful, safe day.
Good morning meese, 39 with high of 52. A winter storm is forecast for this weekend so mountain travel is not advised. I really would like to see what Lake Tahoe and the surrounding area look like in winter some time, but I can wait a bit.
Still kind of underwater at work with “travel claim” type stuff so not sure if I’ll be active on social media today.
{{{basket}}} – oh, those “travel claim” projects! Hope things come together soon. Healing Energy & more {{{HUGS}}}
Good morning, Meesefolk; 18 when I got up with a high of 19 today, but I bet it’s going to feel a lot colder. The wind is whipping today; it was so bad last, I huddled in bed listening to the trees around my house sway and groan. I suspect my backyard is littered with branches from my black walnuts, but I’ll wait until tomorrow to deal with that mess.
I’m unexpectedly emotional about John Dingell’s passing; every new tweet I read brings on another bout of weepiness. My reaction makes no logical sense (I only met him once, briefly), but I have this sense that something great and important has been lost; something beyond him. On a more mundane level, his twitter feed was always must-read for me; he’s one of the very few people that I actually checked on for tweets, rather than just waiting to see what might show up in my feed. I think I’m just going to need time to be sad.
Good day to and for all.
{{{{DoReMI}}}}
His passing leaves a great void in people’s lives.
Hoping that you stay warm and safe and the pilot light at the office furnace doesn’t go out again!
In his own words……
John Dingell: My last words for America
Thank you for the link. He is a good man. He’s earned some rest.
Good morning, 29 and snowing in Bellingham. Son #1’s furnace won’t turn on and son #2’s hot water heater is kaput so our birthday dinner is postponed so they can fix things. We’re warm and don’t need to go anywhere so I’ll drink my coffee and try not to glare at the fluffy white stuff outside my window.
Best wishes to all.
I’m so glad I didn’t need to get out this morning – it was 10 with a -5 windchill. Nothing as bad as what’s up north but it will do. We got sunshine though! In fact we’re already 2/3’s a kilowatt short of yesterday’s 2.3 – our m-t-d is 45 at the moment but if the sun keeps up it will definitely be over 5 by this evening. That’s a W00T! as far as my mood is concerned even if we’re no way on track for the Feb. 2016 of 320. If we can get over 200 I’m back to banking electricity rather than spending it.
I can’t do much about Puerto Rico besides boost signals, which I’ve done, but I just finished figuring my state taxes and I’m getting a refund so I sent some money to World Kitchen. I’m sending little bits of grocery money a bunch of places but I can carve out one more. Deplorables are Deplorables. There isn’t a direction you can turn or an issue you can bring up where they aren’t being genocidal. So we hang on, block what we can, and please goddess replace the Deplorables with Decents as fast as elections come up.
Baking cocoa peanut butter muffins and need coffee. Bright the day, Meeses. {{{HUGS}}}
it’s sleeting in Austin – which is super weird for us
This was posted to Black Kos yesterday
Must watch Sam Bee segment
Thanks for that! I always forget to check her videos.
Saturday Meese
23 degrees here in Saugerties NY going up to 34.
Well, the attacks on every woman running for POTUS are ramping up.
Kamala is now under attack for having a white husband
Klobuchar is “The Queen of Mean”
Warren’s Native dreams continue to be an issue
and the Franken brigade persists against Gillibrand
No women should bother to run it seems.
F-that.
Yes, we’ve gone from “just not that woman” to “turns out, not any woman!” In a way I am glad that people are announcing their candidacies so early. The things that are “coming out” now are about personalities; by the time the debates start, hopefully we will be able to talk about issues. Some stories say Klobuchar is simply very demanding – others suggest a management style that is abusive. I have never been a fan of belittling as a motivator and don’t have a lot of respect for people who use that method. I see it in women’s sports – the most famous example was Pat Summit. I saw a show where she was mic’ed up and the way she used “you are a terrible player” as a motivator. It would motivate me to find another place to play basketball! It is no wonder that many women feel that they are unworthy, when bosses and coaches and teachers work to undermine our self-esteem it takes a lot to overcome that.
That they are picking on Kamala because she married a white man is not surprising but still awful. Is that from the left-of-the-left?
Yeah the “loony left” fed memes by the MSM and Russian bots are in full attack mode. But they would be anyway. They are totally of the “we can’t let girls compete, they beat us” group. Which is very obvious when they don’t use the words given them by the MSM and Russian bots.
Good morning, meeses! Saturday …
It is -2 degrees in Madison (feels like -11) with an expected daytime high of 18. Mostly sunny skies.
A quick scan of the news leads me to believe that we need to put a wall around stupid parents who (proudly!) won’t vaccinate their children, men who don’t understand the word NO, and, as always, cable news.
On Twitter last night, a tweet reported that someone had asked a question of Whitaker related to pardons and he said there are a number of pardons drawn up for individuals and, the assumption could be made, ready to be issued. I hope that Mueller is not willing to just shrug when those he indicts and convicts walk away scotfree – that he has been gathering material on state crimes that can be passed on. And JHC, New York, get that “double jeopardy” bill passed! If the Trump Organization and Trump spawn and hangers on walk away unscathed, it will be a travesty. We know that Senate Republicans are onboard with Trump pardoning those who did crimes at his behest – the Mueller investigation is the only chance the American people have to see justice done.
I had a very fragmented week and have some neglected accounting projects that I need to get done this weekend. I may have to travel on Monday and Tuesday so I have to use the weekend to get caught up at the very least and hopefully make a dent in next week’s to-do list.
The Democratic Party Weekly Address is by Barbara Lee and she will be featured in the Fighting Back post.
See all y’all later!
Good morning, Moosekind! It’s 26 F. in Ashburn, going up to 35 F., as far as I can make out. During the night the Mac updated itself, with the result that none of my gadgets work this morning. When I took the dog out at 6:30, it was so bitterly cold and windy the poor thing refused to do any business at all and scuttled back into the building! I’ll have to get dressed and take him out in a minute.
Must do some chores today. Yesterday we went to tea at the house of a dear friend who lives nearby. She had a fire going in the fireplace, which was delightful: I do so miss our woodstove. She went all out—two sorts of sandwiches, scones with cream and jam, date bars, and an English coffee cake (nothing at all like American coffee cake). I helped her order the ingredients for it. At 85, she’s not as adept with the computer as younger folk.
Haven’t caught up with the news yet: do I even want to? When I get on Twitter, though, I’ll certainly let the bros and journos have it for criticizing women candidates! Which are the journos and people who are criticizing, does anyone know?
The WaPo had a fascinating story about Paul Jennings, one of James Madison’s slaves who, sold to someone else after Madison died, earned his freedom and became a businessman, husband, father, and property owner. In fact, when his former mistress, Dolley Madison, fell upon hard times, he helped her financially! He wrote an account of the storming of Washington in the War of 1812 too, one of the few contemporary accounts. It did my heart good to read about him.
And as for Kamala Harris marrying a white man, so freakin’ what? Wasn’t that the whole point of the Loving Supreme Court decision 50-odd years ago? People should marry whom they jolly well please, as long as both parties are of legal age and consenting adults.
Wishing a good day to all at the Pond and please, Goddess, no awful news!
I hate when this happens! (“the Mac updated itself”) I have an older Windows 10 2-in-1 (laptop/tablet) that I keep in my living room for occasional use and I opened it up yesterday to find out that it would not boot up anymore. I did a system repair and one of the options was “remove latest improvement update.” I chose that and it turned out that was the problem. How can they call turning my computer into a brick an “improvement”??!!? I am not sure if it will try to install it again but I will be sure to give myself time to re-repair (and then turn off all updates). I can control the timing of updates on my business computers but ones that are not part of a business network are essentially controlled by Microsoft. :(
Americans are constantly policing interracial interactions: from Cindy McCain deciding that a child who does not match the race of the adoptive mother surely must be being trafficked to people choosing the color of our political leaders’ spouses. They need to butt out.
34 degrees & more sleet. We get winter this weekend, apparently. Watching the news & hugging my space heater. Hope it clears up this afternoon.
It’s 17 feels like 9 which is why I’m not at the co-op doing grocery shopping right now. I’ll wait until it at least gets into the 20s. The sun’s shining at the moment although I’m seeing rain to tonight I will hope it will keep shining until sundown. Yesterday was cold but sunny and clear. We generated 12.6 KWHs and expanded the tracking grid. W00T! The m-t-d is 56 at the moment so I’m slightly ahead of use for the average. I’d like to be banking but staying ahead of use will do.
The main difference between ignorant and evil is that ignorant doesn’t intend the evil consequences, is frequently sorry about them, and sometimes even tries to make amends. Evil either doesn’t care or is actively getting their jollies from those evil consequences. Unfortunately it mostly doesn’t make any difference to the victims – especially if they’re dead. At the moment Evil is on display with the Rs. But a boatload of ignorant is being displayed by mostly but not totally white, mostly but not totally male Dems. We have to do better if we’re going to have any chance to take power away from evil and start making cleaning up the mess. And we have to clean up the mess before making amends is even possible. (Molly Ivins’ – 1st rule of holes is stop digging.) Meanwhile the folks I’m concerned about are at least OK enough to be online. That’s not great but it’s also not on the streets, unconscious, or dead. I’ll do what I can to help – and pray a lot. (I really don’t like the word “prayer” – to close to “preyer” which I consider the mega- & TV church fundies to be – but it’s a lot shorter than anything else and it at least relatively conveys what I’m doing. sort of.) Spring is coming. Maybe this year it will bring rain and sun in the balanced way that leads to bountiful harvests everywhere. More prayers.
I’ll check back later for the Fighting Back post. Bright the day, Meeses. {{{HUGS}}}