Week-long Welcomings from Moosylvania: Apr. 21st through Apr. 27th

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?

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.

 


Page One of Comments is HERE!!
 

  • Page Two of Comments is HERE!!

 

36 Comments

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

    Morning low of 46 degrees in Madison WI with an expected daytime high of 73. Mostly sunny skies are in the forecast.

    Have a great day, all y’alls!!

  2. Happy Easter and Eostre to those who celebrate.

    Prayers for those who died and were injured in Sri Lanka

    58 and cloudy here in Saugerties NY.

    • There was a “document” being shared that tried to falsely blame Muslims for the attack. The attorney general’s department issued a statement asking people not to spread the falsehood.

  3. Good morning, Moosekind! It’s gloriously sunny and blue-skied here in Ashburn (although “they” said it would rain this morning), with a current temperature of 50 F., going up to 65 F. Dearly Beloved heard turkeys gobbling in the woods earlier, when he got up with the dog.

    Paris was full of French people behaving Frenchly, whereas in London the Metropolitan police (you can always tell them because they wear black-and-white checkered bands round their caps) were very much in evidence. We saw climate a few change protesters on the Tube, but the majority of them congregated in Central London, which we mostly bypassed.

    Our spring break was tremendous fun, the highlights being our journey on the Eurostar train from London to Paris, and the cruise down the Thames from Tower Bridge to Greenwich. At Greenwich we photographed Miss Pink Cheeks standing on the Meridian Line—Greenwich Mean Time! I was surprised by the train journey: somehow I’d thought it would all be through the Chunnel, but Dearly Beloved said because the English Channel is only 22 miles long, traveling through the Channel Tunnel is only a small part of the journey.

    We arrived home Friday night and as soon as we were through Customs and Immigration everyone’s phone went off with a tornado alert. A weak EF0 hit nearby Reston but in Ashburn we had only rain and wind. The United Airlines captain, walking behind us en route to Customs, said he was pleasantly surprised that the weather hadn’t been as bad as predicted.

    As one would expect, the big news in London and Paris involved the climate change protesters and Notre Dame, not the Mueller report. I must say it was rather pleasant to be away from the nail-biting anxiety I feel every day at home. I also notice the news is full of “Dems divided” memes, not “Rethugs complicit.” I really hate the mainstream media.

    Years ago when I was Christian I loved Easter because usually there was good weather and everyone at church looked so happy. The dean of the cathedral would walk around saying, “He is risen,” to which the parishioners would reply, “He is risen indeed!” ( I’m a big one for ritual.)

    Now I focus on Eostre rather than Easter, and feel glad for the children with their decorated eggs and baskets full of green cellophane grass and chocolate bunnies. Whichever holiday you celebrate, I wish you a good one!

    • Glad to see you here again! I could not remember how long you were to be away and everytime I tried to go back and check the comments, I got distracted.

      I would not Chunnel for love nor money – they would have to sedate me to get me into a train that went through an underwater tunnel! I hope it is never the only way to get from England to the north of France as I would like to visit Normandy some day. I am told that my French peasant ancestors immigrated from the Normandy area to French Canada.

      • Jan, you could always take the regular boat from Dover to Calais, or go by hovercraft. Dearly really wanted to cross by hovercraft but there simply wasn’t time. The Eurostar takes only 2 hours and 20 minutes from St. Pancras to Gare du Nord.

  4. Last night was amazing! The show was fantastic, and I got to hug Gary after & tell him thank you for writing such amazing songs. I’m in a tremendous amount of pain from standing for so long, even after putting pain-relief gel on them, I had trouble sleeping. Totally worth it. I have lots of videos, will upload after I figure out how. But here’s a video someone who was a little to my right shot: Just Say Yes.

  5. Good morning meese, 45 with high of 77 here.

    My brother was taking part in a round-the-island cycling event in Sri Lanka to raise funds for wheelchairs for cerebral palsy. He messaged us last night to let us know that the hotel was on lock down and he would be flying back home when it was safe to do so. I wish I could say that the violence was a one off thing but it is just the latest expression of racism and nationalism that has been simmering for at least 60 years.

    In happier news my roommate will be getting her bedroom rearranged to make it easier for her to move about. I’m glad to hear that!

    • {{{basket & brother}}} I’m so sorry your brother is in such a sad/scary situation, I hope he gets out safely

    • {{{basket}}} – Healing & Be-Safe Vibes to your brother. Yeah, no matter where, the racism goes underground for a while sometimes but when it boils over people get dead.

      Wonderful that she’s getting better situated. That should lighten the whole household atmosphere. Skritches to the kitties. {{{HUGS}}} & Healing Energy to you both.

  6. It’s 60 and heading for 80 on this so-far sunny Eostre Sunday. I said “Good Morning/Night” to the just-past full moon out my west window when I got up this morning. Because Easter is always the first Sunday after the full moon folks in bygone days had light (barring rain) to get to wherever they were going to celebrate the sunrise service. Which may or may not have been the point. My PV data-tracker is acting up again. While it’s recording the actual generation for the day, the monthly total is showing a lot more than it should (which is truly disappointing). It started that Friday afternoon but I didn’t notice until the discrepancy got big enough to get my attention. The inverter itself is fine, just the “Overview” program. Yesterday was a very good day – we reached 23 KWHs for the first time this year – but the m-t-d isn’t nearly what the program is showing. I checked the inverter readout though and we’re at 321.6 for the month with this forecast-to-be sunny day’s generation yet to go. If it’s as good as yesterday we should get up to 340 anyway.

    With Dee’s comment I looked up Sri Lanka – definitely prayers. basket was born there and still has family there. What is it with human beings anyway? Violent/evil and proud of it. sigh. More prayers. For Sri Lanka and everybody else. In large like Puerto Rico and in small like Aji (and other individuals in financial or health or both needs). So much just wrong – some of it directly deliberate, some of it the natural (and obvious) outcome of deliberate choices. I’m tired. But not nearly as tired as folks like Bobby or Aji – & others whose screen names I don’t remember how to spell and whose real names I’m not going to use online. If they can keep on keepin’ on, then I can – I must – too.

    After dealing with feeding cats, scooping/changing litterboxes, breakfast, and the lemon muffins I just got out of the oven I just got online. I haven’t done a single thing about the cat fluff everywhere I look on every flat surface – 5 cats generate a lot of fluff! But I will. I need to at least wipe down counters and change my sheets. Time to put up the heaviest of my covers (Murf won’t be happy – it’s the wool blanket that’s so comforting to his arthritis) as the nighttime lows are pretty much in the 50s now. Yesterday’s dawn 39 was Winter saying “Bye for now” and yesterday’s fire was probably the last for the season. Life goes on and mostly we go with it. Bright the day, Meeses. {{{HUGS}}}

  7. Good morning, 51 and sunny in Bellingham. We have a quiet Easter day planned, so I hope to be in the garden for a few hours. The rhodies are starting to bloom, fern fronds are unfolding, perennial bulbs are blooming, clover and violas are coming back from the winter cold…..seems like spring!

    Best wishes to all.

  8. Monday Meese

    54 here in NYS – going up to 70!

    This:

    Puerto Rico

    • Maybe his running mate will be Tulsi Gabbard and they can run on the All Delusional ticket. Is there really a “nomination lane” for “Hates Nancy Pelosi” – on the Democratic Party side?

  9. Good morning, meeses! Monday …

    It is – impossible to know what the temperature is because my weather widget crashed and won’t come back online! I have the window open to get the nice morning breezes so I will declare the temperature “just right”. I think I remember rain being in the forecast.

    I was disgusted to read about the Archbishop of Sri Lanka calling for vengeance while declaring the Easter morning bombers “animals.” JHC (literally!) on a popsicle stick! If those who claim moral authority are channeling the worst of Donald Trump and every other right-wing strongman, how can we expect to get past this awful time? Religious bigotry has fueled some of the worst human behaviours in history and the answer is not “make them pay” but “make a world where your religion does not disqualify you from humanity.”

    I was glad to see a consensus (except from the delusional left) is forming on “let’s take the Mueller report, fill in the blanks, and continue to investigate” rather than drawing up articles of impeachment right now. They may very well need to impeach in order to lay down a marker for the rule of law but giving the Senate the opportunity for a vote to “vindicate” Trump makes me itchy. The Republicans in the Senate cannot be shamed into putting country over party. Period. And if they did, what kind of uncharted territory do we enter running against Mike Pence in 2020? I say we hitch up the cart to the horse and let it go where it may – with an emphasis on televised hearings that the press can’t ignore. And may I say that I find it not shocking at all that the left of the left is coming after Nancy Pelosi as the bad guy in this (“why won’t she impeaaaaaach?!) There will always be a woman or a person of color to demonize. Maybe they should have gotten up off their couches and voted for Hillary Clinton.

    I decided to be lazy rather than productive this weekend so I need to send out “sorry I did not get your projects done” emails this morning. I did manage to clear some accounting projects off the list so there is that.

    See all y’all later!

  10. Good morning, Meese! It’s partly cloudy here in Ashburn with a coolish wind. Looking out from the screened porch I can see the woods half-dressed in their green spring finery: a purple tree in their midst adds a decorative touch. The current temperature is 50 F., going up to 70 F. later. Tomorrow will be even warmer.

    Today I must finish proofreading the galleys of Turnabout. I’ve already noticed two instances where a word was repeated. Sigh. No matter how assiduously one proofreads before submitting the mss., one always misses something. And the publisher hasn’t yet made the chapter titles into hypertext links, which has to be done at some point. I may need to call my contact there.

    Also on the agenda are a nice walk, the keto diet (ugh), and more laundry. Dearly Beloved cherishes the delusion that all illnesses of women can be cured by doing laundry, so as my toes are hurting, I’ll do a lot of it today. I’ll have to skip the environmental lecture on the Green New Deal this morning, as the galley proofs are more important to me right now.

    Haven’t looked at the news yet, although a notification on my phone tells me the death toll in Sri Lanka is up to 290. What a ghastly event to happen on Easter Sunday, a time when Christians everywhere want to celebrate. One is tempted to say the possession of testosterone predisposes its owners to violence, yet most owners of it aren’t violent at all, so that would be unfair. Perhaps we’ll have to go back to believing in old-fashioned evil.

    Wishing a good day to all at the Pond and consolation for the suffering of all beyond.

  11. So glad I took the day off, even with a nap yesterday afternoon, I slept till 7. One night of 4 hours sleep really throws me off. Today: housework & groceries. I should have recorded individual songs, but here’s Empress from the show I went to.

    • {{{ad}}} – I’m so glad you had such a good time – & yeah good thing to take the day off. Healing Energy & moar {{{HUGS}}}

      • Thank you! My feet don’t hurt any more – walking the block from where I park into church yesterday was interesting, but today I’m not actually in pain (it’s more like an echo, just reminding me to step carefully & stay off my feet) and my shoulders….. do hurt, but not so much that I mind. And I found some muscle relaxers from an old prescription, they aren’t expired so I will take one tonight & see if that gets them to let go.

        But. I got to say thank you to someone whose words have helped me so much. When I’ve gotten too sad, they were my security blanket & when I needed energizing, I got that too. Saying thank you is good for the thanker, too, that’s the moment I really remeber from Saturday.

  12. My widget says it’s 60 but I don’t believe it. It’s gotta be warmer than that. I can’t stand the touch of wool on my skin (except my feet – I always need wool on my feet) & the mock turtleneck is starting to feel, well not exactly uncomfortable but as if it’s thinking about it. I turned off the furnace and opened the east & west windows before I left the house. Silly cats – 4 of the 5 want the single east window. They aren’t exactly fighting over it but you can certainly tell who’s the alpha of the clowder (Cloud, the single not-black cat in the house). Charlie and Murf haven’t quite determined who is beta and who is delta but they’re working on it. Everybody pretty much ignores the Twins as to ranking cuz they’re still liddle (under a year). The SolarEdge tech people were on my tech case first thing this morning – they had it fixed by the time I got to work and logged on (pretty good considering they’re in CA/on CA time). So now the cum totals match as they should. Yesterday we generated 22 KWHs and the m-t-d is 343. If we get a like day of generation today we’ll be at 365 by sundown. I like that.

    I’m so glad saner – and more long-sighted – heads are in control regarding the impeachment issue. I can’t think of a faster way for twitler & company to “get away with” all the illegal, immoral, unethical, and evil stuff they are doing than to run off and impeach him so the Senate can clear/”vindicate” him. I can’t think of a better way to insure he wins a 2nd term either. Investigate, investigate, investigate for the next 18 months while also doing all the “For the People” work that needs so desperately to be done – and run all our candidates top to bottom on that – well, then we might be able to get both Houses back and be in a position to actually impeach and convict if we need to, and definitely indict either way.

    Evil Ones being evil and citing religion as an excuse. Nothing new under the sun. Sri Lanka or Mike Pence, same ol’ same ol’ – I understand the atheists who blame religion but they’re missing the point. Evil religions are invented by evil people who want the cover of god telling them to do it. The evil is in the hearts of men – usually but not always literally the male side of the human species. I’m not sure what can be done about that. It seems to be in the DNA of at least enough to keep getting the species and the world into trouble. Maybe in all of us recessively and only dominant in a small percentage – but like red hair or blue eyes, it keeps showing up. Meanwhile none of the hurting individuals I’m holding in my heart have any news or progress on anything. So Time moves on and eats the possibilities for change & improvement while things get worse. Not a happy thought for this supposed joyous resurrection week. So prayers/invocations – a few bucks when and where I can (which soon will be fewer) – and do what comes to my hands to do. This is my last week at the job. I’ll have one more full paycheck and one partial. But it is my last week at work so I’d best get back to it. Bright the day, Meeses. {{{HUGS}}}

  13. Good morning, 49 and cloudy in Bellingham. It’s Earth Day, and Ron and Ava are going to be planting willows along the Nooksack River today. The activity is organized with a local school but Ava was quick to claim her spot with Grandpa, so Ron will pick her up early at her school so she can go too :)

    I will honor the day with some more pruning and plant tending in the garden. But laundry and more desk work has to happen first.

    Best wishes to all.

  14. Good morning, Meesefolk; I didn’t pay attention to the actual temperature when I got up this morning. I just noted it was warm enough to let the pups out and go back to bed for another 20 minutes without worrying that they would get too cold; that’s not something I can do in the winter, when Pups-Up-Time is also my getting up time. It’s 55 now and supposed to get up into the high 60s with loads of sunshine.

    My weekend was spent with The Kiddo and SIL, and we did a lot of running around. In the morning, Kiddo and I drove to pick up some garden chairs she’d purchased from an antique mall (the chairs aren’t actually antique, but they matched some small tables they already had). They have three decks plus a patio, so extra chairs are always a good thing. In the afternoon, we went out to eat at a Columbus “institution” of ten years, a hot dog restaurant. Hot dogs aren’t normally the sort of thing I would seek out, but their dogs are either vegan or kosher, and there are a zillion ways to order a dog (Kiddo had a “Big Boston” with Boston baked beans, onion, and cheddar; she substituted a romaine lettuce leaf for the bun since it’s Passover. I had a “Chicago” with fresh tomatoes, diced onion, Vienna® sport Peppers, relish, dill pickle, yellow mustard, and a dash of celery salt; SIL had one with cheese and tater tots). Then we wandered into the bar next door which has old video arcade games, which you can play without having to feed them quarters. I spent a good 30 minutes reliving my Centipede days…and remembering just how awful I was at it. From there, we went to Columbus Architectural Salvage and got lost in the wonders of Old Stuff for an hour or more. Nothing was purchased; I think architectural salvage is very cool, but I think it’s the sort of thing that you shop with a purpose in mind, or you just browse. We browsed. The bottom line is I was out of the loop completely this weekend (by choice) and still have a lot of catching up to do. I’ve only read about Sri Lanka here, but basket, I’m relieved that your brother is ok…while stunned at the overall loss of life.

    Good day to and for all!

    • I love Chicago style hotdogs! It is the only time I allow myself to eat beef because they are so great. I got hungry just reading your description!!

      I have come to the conclusion that missing a few days of news is not harmful in any way. Our not knowing instantly the latest terrible thing coming out of the tRump White House does not cause the end of civilization. In fact, if the end of civilization were to occur, it might be best to not have to worry and just enjoy the weather and/or the company of those we are with until it sweeps over us.

  15. Tuesday Meese.

    54 going up to 75 here in Saugerties NY.

    Tried to stay up to watch the CNN Kamala Harris town hall last night- woke myself up with an alarm – saw about 3 minutes and fell asleep.
    Watching clips this morning.

  16. Good morning, Moosekind, and a lovely day is dawning outside. The current temp. in Ashburn is 50 F., going up to 81 F.

    Today is Shakespeare’s 455th birthday and it’s the first time in years that I haven’t ordered a cake. There simply wasn’t time and anyway, the arbitrary and capricious rules of this place forbid my sharing a cake in the Game Room across from the pub. (I could go on and on about the machinations of Olga-from-the-Volga who rules the allocation of space, but will forbear from doing so.)

    Instead of a cake I put my only poster of Shakespeare (the one that makes him look like a Hollywood script writer) on our shelf in the outside hallway, with a label pointing out which birthday it is and a quatrain from one of his sonnets:

    From you have I been absent in the spring,
    When proud-pied April, dress’d in all his trim
    Hath put a spirit of youth in everything
    That heavy Saturn laugh’d and leap’d with him…

    At 9 o’clock I’m meeting with others in front of the only detached building here, Maple Grove, in order to begin the Volunteer Cleanup Morning. We’ll go around the campus picking up bits of rubbish. Afterwards we’ll be treated to lunch. I’m not sure how much of it I’ll be able to eat on this keto diet, but we’ll see.

    We watched half of Amy Klobuchar’s town hall last night on CNN, and all of Elizabeth Warren’s. Elizabeth was impressive. I refused to watch Saint Bernard of No Accomplishments, and we taped Kamala and Mayor Pete. Hope to watch them tonight.

    Must set about boiling an egg for breakfast. Wishing a good day to all at the Pond and beyond!

  17. Good morning, meeses! Tuesday …

    It is 45 degrees in Madison with an expected daytime high of 61. Sunny skies are in the forecast.

    The conference call that House leadership had with members seems (to me!) to have struck the right tone. There are some people who will not be happy unless we vote TODAY on impeachment, their having seen enough terrible behaviour from Donald Trump to seal the deal. Except that is not how it works – nor should it work; it makes us no better than the Republicans who impeached Bill Clinton because they hated his guts. The House will open an investigation using Mueller’s report as a roadmap, bring in the various witnesses (including Robert Mueller) to testify before Congress, establish the facts, and build a case for impeachment. Right now public support for impeachment is not even at 50% because of the lies being spread by Bob Barr, the White House, and the Republican Party propaganda outlets. Any vote now would be seen as partisan and would spark anger from even those who might dislike Trump but would consider it unfair to undo an election. Trump will not be removed, I would bet a large sum of money on that, but impeachment will be the rebuke needed to protect the rule of law. I am glad we have Nancy Pelosi’s steady hand running the House.

    I did not watch CNN or read any of the CNN articles because I am still boycotting them specifically over the Chris Cuomo Harris birther thing and generally for giving Donald Trump the presidency. I will scan Twitter later to see if anything newsworthy was said by the candidates.

    In a fair world, right-wing Christians in America would see the Sri Lanka attack as, rather than an attack on Christianity, what happens when religious intolerance is allowed to flourish, where Othering leads to religion-inspired killings. But they won’t because they lack a single introspective gene and they will continue their attacks on non-Christians and go to church on Sunday, certain that they are blessed by their god and are righteous in their bigotry. Fie on them.

    See all y’all later!

    • Jan, I hope it’s okay to copy and paste what you said about the impeachment thing to send to m’daughter-in-Austin. She’s gone off Kamala for not speaking out against Thing, for not calling for impeachment now, and for taking money from big donors. I’d like to lay out your argument in front of her just so she sees another point of view.

      • Anything I “say” on these pages is in public view so you are free to share as you wish! My thoughts on impeachment are still evolving – if the Supreme Court rejects Congressional oversight using the normal methods of subpoenas, then the House may have to start impeachment proceedings in order to trigger a different set of rules. I read something yesterday that said that the White House has not provided a single page of information requested by House committees! That will create a Constitutional crisis that can only be resolved by an illegitimate Supreme Court tilted right by stolen seats. Goddess help us.

  18. Wow, it’s early. Just took one day off, but today feels…. really early. Shoulders are still stiff, but at least my feet don’t hurt any more. They do remind me every so often to step carefully. Still totally worth it. I saw on FB that there’s another matching thing for the Ride today, so I’m throwing together a diary to auto-post at the orange place at noon. Doing the purple version in a minute. Here’s one of the 2 songs I included, This Isn’t Everything You Are.

    Just take the hand that’s offered, and hold on tight

    This isn’t everything you are

    There’s joy not far from here I know there is

    This isn’t everything you are

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