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 is HERE!
– Page Two of Comments is HERE!
I’m not sure how Wings would feel seeing a representation of his work on a Funko, but I hope he is at least pleased that it is iconic enough to George R.R. Martin that it was included. Like Mei Mei, I made sure to retweet with a reference to Wings’ site, because how cool is this?!
Anyway, good morning! 48 when I got up and going up to 63; there’s solid cloud cover now, but my widget assures me that the sun will appear at some point today. We’re clearly going to be spending the rest of this month getting the April showers that never appeared. Overall, that’s a good thing, although it also ensures I’m going to have a jungle before I have the weather/time convergence I need to get some cleanup done in my yard.
The messaging out of Team Pelosi has been focused on the Democratic legislative agenda, and it seems likely that it will continue that way for the foreseeable future. It looks to me like this is an extension of the approach that won us the House in ’18; Dems talking about Dem priorities rather than focused on 45*s idiocy. I get the frustration from the twitter bubble, but until it starts being expressed by the wider electorate, I don’t expect to see a change in Pelosi’s strategy. When the strategy changes to an impeachment focus — and I fully expect it will at some point — it’s going to be nimble and fast, because the preparation will have been done.
Good day to and for all!
I never watched GoT, so forgive my ignorance but — George RR Martin use some of Wings’ work?? That’s so cool!
I started reading the 1st book, needed a map & genealogy chart…and I just quit.
This from Aji’s blog: http://ajijaakwe.blogspot.com/2011/04/of-turtles-and-thrones.html
(Also I’ve never watched GoT or read the books either, so you are not alone.)
Nor have I.
Makes 4 of us. 😁😁😁
It’s 60 and thinking about going up to mid 70s today. It’s also overcast and going to rain again today. So much for doing laundry today either. (Although I could have yesterday – the rain started about 2 hours after originally scheduled so to speak. But of course I didn’t know that until it happened.) We actually got 17.7 KWHs yesterday which isn’t bad considering the rain. The m-t-d is 323 but my brain is too fuzzy to calculate whether or not it’s still possible to make 500 this month. We’ve got 11 production days left, counting today.
Depression still dragging at me. I’m not sure how good a job I’m doing at fighting it but I’m still here. I emailed the Washington County Dem party volunteer coordinator yesterday. Told her I’ve got a computer and internet and I’m a notary but my transportation is iffy and I can’t do phone banking. And ask her what I can do to help until we open the office after the primaries in 2020. (I’ll be staffing the office as usual then.) I haven’t heard back yet. As to the national stuff, it’s so bad I’m limiting more than usual. I’m 100% behind investigations running for the next 18 months. Do everything up to actual impeachment. Because once impeached the process leaves our Dem House and goes to the R Senate. Where it’s possible they won’t even have the trial but dismiss it out of hand but it’s more likely they’ll have the trial, vote to acquit, which is hammered 24/7 by MSM and on social media and Twitler rides to a Nixonian re-election and we probably lose the House again. (I did mention I’m depressed, right?)
Wonderful news for Aji – financially everything’s stable for at least the foreseeable future (as long as they get normal levels of sales for regular stuff). Right now the doctor’s think she’s stable enough to work on getting the asthma under control – which IMO will be helped a whole lot by not having to deal with hounding bill collectors daily. Once the asthma is under control there will be more testing of the other stuff and whatever treatment is needed but for now things are calm and relatively inexpensive. Calm is good.
Meanwhile the roof damage is relatively minor – the roofer will be bringing a trusted handyman to do the work since it’s almost totally labor and he’d have to charge about double what the handyman will. Mostly it’s that over the years the wind has ripped loose the leading edge of three courses of shingles in 3 different locations. They’re still there and look OK but now they let water underneath. And my cherries are getting ripe. I might even be able to pick some today. It’s been a wet year so there’s a lot of fuzzy fruit but there’s still a lot of sound fruit too. We shall see if there’s enough sound fruit within my reach to do jam this year. Just having fruit at all is a blessing. Late frosts have taken the fruit the last several years. Last time I had cherries from my own tree was 2015. So. DoReMi’s post, #Khive diary, and coffee. Bright the day, Meeses. {{{HUGS}}}
Good morning, 54, rain and haze in Bellingham. The house is so dark and quiet I’ve been slow to wake up today. But I don’t have to be anywhere, so I’ll just stay here and see what the afternoon brings my way.
I’m listening to a Talking Feds podcast, Game of Trump: A Song of Vice and Ire, and the conversation is interesting as they discuss the content of the Mueller report, what constitutes an impeachment offense, and the infuriating reality of the impact of Barr’s conduct. Listening to people who have worked in the courts and in leadership at DOJ helps balance the flood of twitter info and opinions. But it certainly disrupts my sense of calm and quiet.
Best wishes to all on this rainy day.
Wednesday Meese
51 going up to a sunny 72 here in Saugerties NY.
Reviewing all the fireworks from the Congressional hearing with Ben Carson
I’m pretty sure summer is here. 77 is probably the coolest morning we’ll see until October. The rally yesterday was smaller than I hoped, but spirited. Looks like it was bigger at one point, just not when I was there: https://www.statesman.com/photogallery/TX/20190521/NEWS/521009995/PH/1
Today’s song: U2 Ultraviolet. The sound on this isn’t the best, but that’s not the point of this — the background is — look at all the women the Herstory Project found to put pictures of; I love this song & I love that they dedicated it to the women in their lives, and in history.
this one is better, because it includes the speech about the women who stood up or sat down for their rights… who resisted & persisted….
It’s 62 going up to 80 sunny at least at the moment and I hope it stays that way as I’m doing laundry today. As in the washing machine is running as I type. If the lawn guy shows up (unlikely) he’ll just have to go away again. I just hope there’s enough line to hang everything out. The honeysuckle has taken over more of it. Yesterday we got 6.8 KWHs bringing the m-t-d to 329.9 – 10 generating days left in May. IF we get at least 20 a day we can still become the highest May since I got the system. That’s a very big and unlikely IF but it’s still possible.
Aji’s dog Raven passed late yesterday afternoon. He’s a good boy. He lasted about 4 months longer than expected and I personally think he hung on until that financial boulder came off Aji’s chest. Not that he’d know the cause but he was very attuned to Aji and he must have known when the stress dialed way down, her BP came down, and her breathing was a little easier. He stayed as long as she really needed him to.
Evil Ones being evil. And the LW being willfully ignorant (AKA stupid). I had one tell me yesterday that we have to impeach twitler because the elections are rigged and we can’t vote him out. WT-ever-lovin’-F? If we ever manage to get back in power at all levels long enough we gotta get Civics back as a required class in school. Maybe 4th, 7th, and 10th grades just to make sure. It might slow down the next attempt at Hate taking over. Maybe. Even of the folks who aren’t fascisti, there are too many wypipo who don’t/won’t believe it’s happening until it happens to them. BIPOC always know because it happens to them first. Also Jews, Muslims, and any other non-Xtians (and the traditional rather than fundie Xtians) – & of course the LBGT community. But wypipo never pay any attention to the warnings – because white male supremacy is our system and so nobody except white males know anything and until a white male tells us it’s happening obviously it isn’t. sigh.
OK – washing machine just stopped. I gotta go out and hang up clothes. I’ll check back here and find/visit Bobby’s #Khive diary when I get that done. Bright the day, Meeses. {{{HUGS}}}
Good morning, Moosekind! This Woden’s Day has a veil of white cloud over the blue, but at least it’ll be warmer today. Currently in Ashburn it’s 59 F., going up to 72 F.
We are doing half an hour of work a day on clearing out the walk-in closet. It’ll be done in early 2024! Some things are just too daunting to do all at once.
Having a very late start to my day: it’s almost 9:30 and I’m still sitting here in my dressing-gown, having just finished breakfast. The monthly building party is scheduled this afternoon from 3 to 5. I’ll make sandwiches for it.
While out shopping yesterday I couldn’t quite get up the courage to buy almond creamer for my coffee, so I bought almond milk for my cereal instead. I did have soy marge rather than butter on my muffin this morning, so that’s a step forward. A Facebook Witch Sis told me she’s lost 20 pounds on her vegan diet since last November, but advised me to work with a dietician-nutritionist as she did. Stay tuned for further adventures in veganism! (Ha. Is this for real, or is it merely a reaction to that loathsome keto diet?)
The actual news is so depressing I can’t bear to contemplate it. Today is a good day to dispose of my writing obligations so I can get back to exercise. Just as the need for diaper-changing and soothe-walking the floor with a crying infant seems to go on forever (although of course it doesn’t), so does the unending barrage of news-related, Rethug-created crimes.
So on that quote, I’ll wish everyone at the Pond a good day.
P. S. Bfitz, isn’t Aji represented by a Congress critter? Can she enlist the aid of her or him? When I worked for HQ Marine Corps back in the Late Cretinous, believe me, when a letter from Congress appeared it received LOTS of attention! The response to a “Congressional” was hand-carried from office to office. I once advised a woman who had trouble getting the state of Maryland to issue a replacement birth certificate to contact her Congressperson. She received that birth cert. duplicate within DAYS, obtained her passport, and went off on her European vacation! Just sayin’.
[{{Diana}}} – Aji, like most Natives and especially Natives who live on reservations, is caught in the “colonizer trap” – things like food, housing, healthcare are covered in the treaties so they’re disqualified for aid from many of the safety net programs most of us non-Natives know of. BUT the treaties aren’t being honored/guaranteed programs aren’t being funded. And that’s just not something a call or letter from a congresscritter can fix. A Dem majority in both houses that doesn’t forget about it and wants to fix it can. Deb Haaland and Sharice Davids will make sure it doesn’t get forgotten about. We need both houses of Congress to actually fix it. & a WH who won’t veto it. sigh.
Good morning, Meesefolk; 52 rainy degrees when I got up with a rainy high of 68 expected. I suppose rain isn’t the worst thing, although I am not happy that Saturday is showing an 80% chance. If only rain could be restricted to [my] workdays…
Somewhere in the twilight moments between waking and sleeping last night, I had a burst of clarity about Speaker Pelosi’s strategy re impeachment vs legislation vs pressure from the public vs pressure from the caucus. At least I think it was clarity; I just know that I literally felt my stress levels drop, and I slept more soundly than I have in weeks. The problem is that I can’t remember what it was that seemed like such a burst of insight at the time, and I’m now doubting if there really was an insight. Maybe it was my psyche just saying, “Enough!” and shutting out the noise. I’m really grateful for the night of pure rest; at some point, I’ll either remember what seemed so important or just move on.
In the meantime, I love this tweet from Joyce Vance:
Of course, Riotwomenn’s tweet works too:
Good day to and for all!
I know it is unpopular to say “I trust Nancy Pelosi to manage the impeachment process” but I do. I don’t think she is playing games, tamping down her more vocal members to preserve some sort of electability thing for her more moderate members. I think she is managing it by making sure that every committee chair is taking a measured approach, building the court cases and not flying off the handle. That it will tick people off will not bother her – those who think otherwise have not been paying attention.
Good morning, 58 and mostly sunny in Bellingham. I’ve got housekeeping help today, the laundry is under control and my desk is in safe to ignore mode, so I hope to be in the garden. My BP, TMJ and tRump angst need some nature therapy :)
Best wishes to all.
Good afternoon, meeses! Wednesday …
It is 63 degrees in Madison and likely to get to 72. Rain is in the forecast.
Too busy to stay – three critical projects hit this morning with the force of 1000 hammers and I am still sorting everything out.
See all y’all later!
Thursday Meese.
57 here in NYS going up to 71 with major thunderstorms this evening
That is terrible from Pew! Puerto Ricans don’t “migrate” to the United States any more than people from Alabama “migrate” to California. I hope they respond to you.
I was laughing out loud at the fact that the judge with the Hispanic name – born in Puerto Rico and appointed by President Obama – was the judge denying the Deutsche Bank subpoena quashing. I did not see if there was a Twitter rampage about Obama judges and biased Puerto Ricans – maybe he was too busy setting up faux outrage, with professionally done signage, on the South Lawn.
Pew usually does better.
The fact that the Judge was born in PR is a small bit of karma :)
And that he was confirmed unanimously
Great Goddess, people are ignorant! Hope they fix this, Dee.
Good morning, meeses! Thursday …
It is 57 degrees in Madison with an expected daytime high of 72. Sunny skies are in the forecast.
I know in the grand scheme of things this is not important but I am livid about the dissing of Harriet Tubman and those who chose her for our new $20 bill. It is EXACTLY what one would expect from an administration filled with white supremacists and KKK members and whose very existence is dependent on hatred of blacks and women – a hate twofer! The only silver lining is that Steve Mnuchin’s bony white hand won’t be putting a signature on the first Tubman Twenty. I hope that people in Treasury will stealthily work on the redesign and that President Harris expedites getting it rolled out as one of her first acts in January 2021. The symbolism matters.
Nancy Pelosi keeps setting little traps for tRump – which is easy to do when you are dealing with a simpleton. Using the “probes” as an excuse for not doing infrastructure (which has no support within his own party) was SO blatant that even the mainstream media called him out on it! Today is Speaker Pelosi’s weekly news conference and I am sure there will be more fireworks from that.
See all y’all later!
I’m livid about that too, Jan! I say it will happen in 2021, after we take over the White House, the Senate, and even more of the House. Then President Harris can fire all the vile Thing appointees.
Anyone who has seen that mural of Tubman seemingly reaching through plasterboard and paint to extend a hand to desperate people fleeing persecution cannot fail to be outraged by Moochin’ Mnuchin. May 10,000 hostile fleas infest his underwear!
This one?
Here is the completed mural, with the hand finished:
Stunning!
Hot & sticky morning — 77 at 6am. So our little boy POTUS pitched a fit yesterday — a pre-planned one. Of course, his fans will believe him. Ugh. Going to listen to some good old U2 — Discotheque. It sounds like a poppy, fluffy song but it’s actually deep:
Looking for the one
But you know you’re somewhere else instead.
You want to be the song
The song that you hear in your head
Love, love, love, love.
It’s not a trick, you can’t learn it
It’s the way that you don’t pay that’s okay
‘Cause you can’t earn it – love
full lyrics here
Good morning meese from Nashville! It is currently 72 degrees going up to 91 (!!!).
Arrived late last night after a delayed flight due to needing to change aircraft (the first one had a busted generator so the pilots rejected it) and had dinner at Waffle House. Will be meeting my best friend for lunch at a fried chicken place today and then starting on the drive to MS. The old-time piano contest is this weekend.
{{{basket}}} – Sorry you didn’t get more time with your friend. Have fun and safe travels. moar {{{HUGS}}}
Good Thor’s Day morning, Meese! It’s a nice enough day, with weak sunlight and white cirrostratus clouds drifting across the pale blue. The temperature in Ashburn is currently 65 F., going up later to 87 F. with a bunch of jolly thunderstorms arriving tonight.
Ye olde allergies kicked in as soon as I woke up this morning. Ugh, intolerable itching inside one’s nose reaching all the way to the brain, sneezing, the works. Just popped an Allegra, which ought to do the trick.
The intolerable cruelty practiced by Thing and his minions is simply too staggering to deal with. The only good part is that there’s finally beginning to be some pushback. Judges aren’t having it; Pelosi knows how to get under his skin in a way that no one ever has before; and even some of the media are beginning to notice that Thing is “not at all nice,” as Nanny would say.
When the Dems take over the government, YES, let’s make civics mandatory, as someone suggested the other day. First of all, inform children in the fourth, seventh, and 12th grades that Puerto Ricans are American citizens. Secondly, make it clear that immigrants have profoundly enriched our lives: corned beef, pizza, tacos, you name it. (I’m still p.o.’d that SHE isn’t in the White House: where’s that taco truck on every corner that one of her opponents said she’d decree?)
In other news, a man I met at the Birch Point party yesterday belongs to the theater club here. He wants me to write a one-act play to accompany his own one-act play. Together the performance time of the two plays would amount to one hour, which is as long as old people can stay awake or refrain from getting up to go to the toilet. I’ve already started examining how I might turn my short story, “Temps in the Eighties” into a one-act play. Lots of characters in it! Don’t know whom we’d get to play the parrot, though.
Wishing a good day to all at the Pond and Beyond.
Yesterday we started chilly enough for the furnace to kick on (not for long but still…) and today we started at 75 with 100% humidity. Not quite hot but definitely sticky. Yesterday they also changed the forecast to rain after I got my clothes hung out. Fortunately it didn’t happen. We got 19 KWHs and the m-t-d is 348.9 – sort of on track. IF we keep getting close to 20 a day. Cats are still a handful. Especially Murf. Hold the good thought I can maybe find a better placement for him. He really would prefer being an only cat and not one of five. But whatever happens, happens. I’m certainly not throwing the poor guy back outside.
Dem party volunteer coordinator got back with me. They’re trying to keep an online log of who’s attending what meetings/seminars – see what’s successful and what needs work – so tomorrow she’s bringing me the sign-in sheets to input. It’s something I can do and I am delighted to be able to do something useful this early on. Evil Ones can’t be stopped now – but they can in 2021 if we win elections in 2020.
basket will be here Monday – my son is gonna feed the cats, none of the grandsons’ schedules worked – and we leave for Sedalia next Wednesday. I am so looking forward to his visit. And the festival of course but his visit is primary. Meanwhile I’ve got some stuff to do online – and need to walk down the block to see WTH all this heavy machinery and beeping is about. Bright the day, Meeses. {{{HUGS}}}
Good morning, Meesefolk; 54 when I got up either the second or third time this morning, with a high of 75. What a night! I was wiped out last night, so I went to bed early. My bladder decided not to cooperate with the change in schedule and when I got up at 1:00 to accommodate it, I banged the blazes out of my kneecap. The subsequent colorful exclamations woke the pups, who then decided their bladders needed accommodation also. I limped my way to the back door to let them out, whereupon I walked into the door jamb and banged my other knee. At this point, it seemed wise to turn on some lights (one could argue earlier would have been wiser…) and rather than return immediately to bed, ingest some Aleve and wait for the dogs (who had determined that it was also playtime). I finally got back to bed by 1:45 and assumed that since the pups had watered the lawn in the middle of the night, they might actually sleep in. Assumed wrongly. Promptly at 6:00am, my bed became a trampoline as the pups announced the arrival of morning. I let them out for their morning ritual, and thought that maybe, just maybe, I’d leave them to play again and go back to sleep myself. But no, as I was powdering my nose, I heard the distant crack of lightning and roar of thunder. By the time I got to the back door, the rain was starting and the lightning and thunder were no longer distant. The pups scampered back to bed, but instead of falling back to sleep while the storm raged outside, they decided to constantly rearrange themselves in an attempt to see who could spoon closest to me. The upshot of all this is that I’m very tired, both of my knees are sporting large bruises, and when I left for work, the pups were snoring loudly because apparently it was time for them to get some sleep.
Good day to and for all!
What a catalogue of mishaps, DoReMI! Poor you, with banged knees! Hope you can have a lovely, quiet weekend with lots of rest.
Animals…they keep us on the hop! Yesterday we had a tremendous thunderstorm, which Monty Beagle did not like at all. He wanted to be cuddled during the awfulness of lashing rain and rolling thunder. Luckily, it didn’t last long.
Good morning, 60 and sunny in Bellingham. My “safe to ignore” desk demanded attention yesterday and after the unexpected snafus were fixed I was to tired to work in the garden, so I’ll try again today. I have all the plants I need, just have to find some energy. Maybe coffee will help.
Best wishes to all.
Good Friday Meese
62 and cloudy here in NYS going up to 72
Hard to pick among the top stories this morning. Theresa May, Trump insanity…
Decided to find something to make me smile instead
Looks like there might be a bit of good news for Puerto Rico
I was proud to see our Senators stick together to not allow the racist in the White House get away with his denial of aid to Puerto Rico and money for his border wall. There was a LOT of pressure – Mike Pence was sent to farm country to gin up outrage over the Democrats holding up their aid and I am sure our own Senators from flood devastated states were feeling the heat. In the end decency appears to have trumped hate – I won’t believe it until I see it get signed. With his increasingly unhinged rantings, he could easily decide not to sign it.
Good job keeping this issue on the front burner!!
Good morning, meeses! Friday …
It is 54 degrees in Madison with an expected daytime high of 64. The forecast calls for rain all day and it is raining now.
Yesterday should be a reminder of why our 2020 candidates, really, any Democrat, should not go on Fox “News” and why it should be disqualifying if they do. The glee with which Fox glommed onto the Nancy Pelosi faked video and promoted it as the truth, added to their hosts pushing a war with Iran and pardons for war criminals – what the hell more do you need to see to understand that THEY ARE NOT A NEWS NETWORK! They are the propaganda channel for the Republican Party and the white supremacists in the White House. They hate an America that includes women and people of color in power, actually, they hate women and people of color merely being alive. In Madison, a white supremacist gun humper from Two Rivers decided to show a black woman Assembly member that her “silly” sign declaring her office a gun-free zone was not the boss of him. When asked to comment, he declined, saying that “his constituents won’t care” that he broke the rules. Of course they won’t, they will consider him a hero for showing an uppity black woman the barrel of his gun!! I despise my state, I am angry about what is happening to my country and I worry that the trumpers will find a way to ratfk the 2020 election. Another Trump term will kill us all.
See all y’all later!