Week-long Welcomings from Moosylvania: Oct. 20th through Oct. 26th

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!
 

 

33 Comments

  1. Yesterday was interesting. Long day at work — I managed to stay the whole day, even tired & itchy. When I got home, there was a huge pile of packages on my doorstep. Literally covering my doorstep. I should have taken a picture, didn’t. I was tired & all I could think about was a barrier to getting home. The Amazon delivery driver had dumped all the packages for my 10-building complex on my doorstep. There were packages from 4 other buildings. When I called Amazon to complain, they said I should just keep them, that people who were supposed to get them will complain, they’ll replace it & all will be good. What a crazy world it has become. I put a notice up by the mail boxes. I’m expecting 2 packages today. I hope: 1. the driver isn’t mad & does something to my stuff 2. either the driver or the people they belong to pick up all the packages. Anyway, like I said, “interesting”.

  2. Good morning, Meesefolk; 48 when I got up and heading to 59. It would be a perfect day to work outside, but it rained through most of yesterday and last night, so it’s too wet still for garden work. I do have to start stripping spray paint off the 1920s table lights I got for the Kiddo, and that requires acetone…and that requires working outside. So I may be able to find a way to take advantage of the mild temperatures after all.

    I’ve been so far out of the news loop the past 4 days or so that I’m still not caught up. I’m not sure I’m going to bother getting caught up either; it’s been refreshing to avoid the firehose. I’m pleased that Trudeau won; I really wasn’t convinced that was going to happen. He’s not nearly as popular in Canada as he is elsewhere and has been on the fringes of multiple scandals (beyond his blackface debacle). But there’s no question that Scheer would have been far worse, so the formation of a minority government is far better than an outright Conservative win.

    Good day to and for all!

  3. It’s 42 heading for 63 in Fay., AR and sunny. Which is nice but doesn’t mean what it did a couple of months ago. We generated 10 KWHs yesterday and the m-t-d is 191. Hopefully we’ll clear 200 today – which is actually the goal for the next 2 months – which keeps us on track for 250 for the month. My hands hurt, which isn’t surprising. Not the best weather for me – although I do love the fires in the evenings. I’m still learning with the wood bricks. I didn’t stack them as closely together last night and they didn’t last as long before they died back to red coals. With the addition of some kindling and one of the other brand of wood bricks the fire got going again and did last until I went to bed but I definitely need to figure out how to get the most heat with the fewest bricks as we go into winter. Not gonna be long before I’ll be wanting day-long fires multiple times a week. As in possibly starting next week when the forecast is showing a minor possibility for snow.

    The Birchers/KKK/Nazis must be getting really frustrated that Pelosi is going very carefully, following every legal procedure, crossing all the T’s and dotting all the i’s, before moving on impeachment. I say that because if they didn’t want us to know about how disconnected from reality (& dangerous) twitler is, then we wouldn’t. Any more than we did with Reagan. Nancy is not going to let this be seen as a partisan witchhunt no matter how many times twitler or other Rs call it that. With or without twitler in office the Rs will continue everything he’s being blamed for. Without him, it will be quieter and all the white folks currently riled up about things will go back to “business as usual” while BIPOC keep being suppressed, red-lined, and killed. They are using him to normalize their Deplorable evil. We can use him to take down the entire Deplorably evil party. Will we?

    Gonna get coffee as soon as Cloud gets off my lap. That will warm my hands a bit. Meanwhile I’ll tour the internets. Maybe go back and re-read Kamala’s very good Native policy she released yesterday. I know doing policy by ethnicity/minority group rather than by issue isn’t her style but the situation with Natives is so special that it was needed. Healing/Helping Energy to everybody, shaped to your need. Bright the day, Meeses. {{{HUGS}}}

  4. Good morning, 54 and cloudy in Bellingham. I’m hoping to be in the soggy garden later today but I have to work at my desk this morning. And I need to clean up the mess I left in my sewing room last night. I was indecisive and tired so I left options scattered around hoping for morning clarity. This used to happen when I was working so I known the drill. Thankfully there’s no paying client involved now!

    Our son will be here today installing a new baseboard on the basement wall RonK painted last week. He’s also painting the ceiling and the fixing sloppy cut outs around the radiator pipes. Then he will make some stained wood shelves and brackets for the wall behind the cabinets we restored 2 summers ago. We’ve been slow finishing this project and I’m ready to be done.

    Best wishes to all.

  5. Good morning, meeses! Wednesday …

    It is 41 degrees in Madison with an expected daytime high of 52. Sunny this morning then rainy this afternoon. Still windy!

    It appears as though tRump does care if he is impeached even if he is not removed. A malignant narcissist cannot bear even the mildest rebuke and impeachment – even if he keeps his job for another year – will be something he will fight with everything he has. In Nixon’s case, he chose resignation rather than certain impeachment, but he also was told that the votes to remove him were there. Resigning let him take a helicopter ride, waving to his remaining fans. I am in the “Trump will not go willingly” camp and think that we will have a problem getting him to leave on January 20, 2021 when his term expires much less if he were to be removed. I think that Pence should consider the 25th Amendment path to save us a lot of trouble and do this now. He can’t be happy that he was depantsed in front of the world – being sent to Turkey to “negotiate” a cease fire only to have it ignored and then superseded by a Turkey-Russia pact to carve up northern Syria. Oh, the humanity!

    DoReMI!!! Tell me that the Michigan polls are wrong and the we are not going to lose Gary Peters’ Senate seat. We can’t afford to lose any seats but especially seats in states we also need to win in 2020 to regain the presidency!

    I am going news-lite again today as I work on a project that needs to get out the door. A scan of the headlines shows that the defense for the Bill Taylor testimony (after failing to smear him as a partisan Democrat – which he is not) is that “this is how Trump does diplomacy – he is not a career politician.” It will probably work and rather than scream at my computer, I will put my head down and get my project done.

    See all y’all later!

  6. Glad I went to Savers & got 3 long-sleeved shirts last weekend, I’ve needed them. 57 this morning — jacket + long sleeves weather. I actually slept fairly normally last night — almost 7 hours! Today’s plan: like yesterday, stay awake & try to not scratch (though it really is better). Using beautiful, soaring City of Blinding Lights to stay awake today.

  7. Good Woden’s Day morning, Moosekind, and a fine, fair morning it is, too. Currently the temp. in Ashburn is 45 F., going up to 66 F. Saw a sliver of waning moon when I took the badly behaved beagle out to the courtyard at 5:30. Woke up at 4:30, finally got up at 5, going to be bitchy from lack of sleep by noon.

    Yesterday at the postcard-writing party I completed two street sheets’ worth of names. By the end of the second one my eyes were blurry! Anyway, I think the crew that showed up did a lot. Only managed 20 minutes on the treadmill, but walking to and from the clubhouse is 8 minutes each way, so there we are. Hope to get proper exercise today. While on the treadmill I read books on my Kindle. Have almost finished reading Catch and Kill.

    After reading that and various ghastly stories about rape on college campuses and other stuff that goes on even in middle school, I feel like wrapping Miss Pink Cheeks in cotton wool and sequestering her in an ivory tower. Perhaps as she gains more control of her life with increasing age I’ll pay for aikido or kung fu lessons. I want her to be safe, or at least to have a fighting chance of defending herself.

    Interesting rumors abound, to wit: HRC might jump into the race if she thinks she can win. It’s OK with me, although I think it would be a bit late. However, there’s a year to go before the election, of course. Oprah, I read, wants the head of Disney to run. NO, NO, NO! No more amateurs inexperienced in politics and governance!

    This morning will be busy with exercise, getting my nails done, and picking up 20 copies of the fiction booklet from the printer. Miss Pink Cheeks’ Saturday morning math class is going to keep her from helping me with my table at the bazaar. Bummer.

    Very much hoping for a writing afternoon today. Wishing a good day to all at the Pond!

  8. A tad warmer this morning – 53 – heading for 70 which is a bit cooler than yesterday. Sunny – supposed to be the last sunny day for a while – but at least the few times I’ve been outside this morning the wind is a bit nippy. Not quite cutting but thinking about it. Yesterday we generated 9.8 Kwhs and the m-t-d is 201 so we’ve got a good chance of making the 250 goal in the 9 production days we’ve got left. It may be close though. The next 3 are projected rain (and in the 50s) so diddly for those. Still, a good day today and the last 4 days of the month would do it.

    Twitler is getting less and less connected with reality, which should surprise nobody. He was already doing that during the campaign. Added stress of the Executive office wasn’t going to do anything but escalate that. By the time he’s forcibly removed from office – as he would always have to have been whenever it happens – Pence will look like a nice, safe, comforting “father” figure. To everyone but BIPOC and the minority of white women who can’t afford to leave the country to get a safe abortion and actually think about that. President Harris really will be nice and safe (and comforting to so many of us) – but she’ll also have to have even more security than President Obama did. And she’ll have do figure out how to deal with a white terrorism problem that comes close to the power of the KKK in the 1920s without (at least overtly) using military force. I think she can do it and since she’s volunteered for the job as it were more power to her as my grandmother used to say – but she’s gonna age a decade for each year in office.

    Meanwhile “my” folks are having health issues and money issues – both worse than usual which is bad enough. I usually can do a little bit about the latter but this month between helping someone with an emergency plus my roof repairs plus my wood bricks I am totally tapped out. If I give any more I’ll have to do a fundraiser for me which is sort of not the best idea. So for the rest of this month at least it has to be the prayers/invocations alone. Healing/Helping Energy flowing through me to everyone everywhere who accepts it, shaped to their need. Bright the day, Meeses. {{{HUGS}}}

  9. Good morning, 47 and partly sunny in Bellingham. Thanks to RonK’s help I got some of the pruning done yesterday. I’m pretty good with the pole pruner, but I got dizzy looking up so he stood behind me keeping me steady. What a pair we are:) His muscle using the saw, and two sets of eyes looking at the mature plants and deciding which branches to remove is the only way we can maintain this garden now. We filled the truck, called it a day, and will finish after we recover!

    I’m tired today so I’m going to try to stay news light. Finding the balance between being aware but not overwhelmed is a daily challenge.

    Best wishes to all on this leaves are falling day.

  10. Good morning, meeses! Thursday …

    It is 37 degrees in Madison with an expected daytime high of 45. Mostly sunny skies but clouding up in the afternoon. The next few days will have overnight lows below freezing!

    It is obvious that the Republicans in Congress are getting increasingly desperate to find a bandage big enough to cover the gaping wound that is their party’s presidency. The stunt yesterday will play nicely to the Fox News base but it won’t change anything. People are testifying behind closed doors and in SCIFs because Trump’s crimes created a national security crisis. Probably not too smart of them to remind people that this is not paying a porn star hush money, this is using appropriated funds to extort political favors from a foreign leader. That they are clamoring for the name of the whistleblower is a tell – they want to blow his or her cover and put them in danger – they can’t be allowed to do that. They scream for open hearings but you know that they would decry open hearings as “showboating” for the cameras. Sheesh.

    I was glad to see that the MSNBC/WaPo November debate will have an all-female moderating panel. It will be nice optics but I am not sure it changes much – we still have one member of the left-of-the-left trying to get people to self-immolate on the third rail of health care and the Republican Andrea Mitchell making sure that she rolls her eyes at everyone. Anyway, since it is not CNN – and MSNBC appears to be trying, at least – I will probably watch it. I just need to remember to only turn it on when it starts and shut it off when it ends so that I don’t have to see the MSNBC studio team which will surely include the insufferable Chris Matthews and the living-in-Bernie’s-colon Chris Hayes.

    I can see the light at the end of the tunnel for time sensitive project work so I need to make sure I keep rolling.

    See all y’all later!

    • I spit my coffee Jan – give a warning ROFLMAO
      “living-in-Bernie’s-colon Chris Hayes”

  11. 42 going up to 67 here in Saugerties NY.

    My husband is still in ICU – they have been waiting for 2 days to get a bed to move him to a regular unit.
    :( I am waiting for them to move him to rehab – 10 minutes away – instead of where he is two hours away.

    Puerto Rico

    • It is incredible to me that Puerto Ricans are Republicans much less tRumps. They should be ashamed of themselves, being enablers of those who hate their fellow citizens and who are intent on adding to their misery.

      • Puerto Rico is a very class (and racially) structured society – and the elites who are in control are conservative.
        The heavy U.S. military participation contributes.

    • I’m glad he’s doing well enough that they want to move him to a regular unit. I know it’s hard having him so far away. I had a hard time visiting Minerva when she was in a rehab on the (way far) other end of town – though, it can take an hour to get to something on the other side of Austin these days.

    • So glad it’s just they don’t have a bed for him elsewhere that he’s still in ICU. I hope he gets to rehab soon.
      Sending more Healing/Helping Energy up your way. {{{Dee}}}

    • Two hours away and in ICU is hard Dee. I hope a rehab spot closer to you opens soon.

      • When they release him from the hospital in Westchester – he will be transferred to a rehab about 10 minutes away from our house.

  12. Good Thor’s Day morning, Moosekind! There was still a thin slice of moon showing when I took the BBB out to the courtyard at 5:30 a.m. It was 38 F. then and it’s 37 F. now. We’ll have a clear day with a high of 69 F. in Ashburn.

    Yesterday was so achingly beautiful it had to be experienced to be believed. Days like that happen only in October, when the air is so clear that you can see the distant Blue Ridge Mountains as you drive along the road. Glimpsing the flawless blue sky behind the vibrant orangey-red of maple trees is intoxicating. During my walk I became quite drunk on beauty, the shadows were so deep and the sunlight so golden.

    But enough of that meteorological chitchat. Yesterday I picked up 20 copies of the booklet from the printer. They look really nice! The booklet, titled Five-Minute Fiction, contains four of my short stories, a brief author bio, and a mention of my backlist. Hope I can sell them all to make money for the Benevolent Fund.

    Today would have been my mother’s 99th birthday. She loved her family, the opera, and Tabasco sauce. I think of her every time I see a bottle! She used to put it on grits, for Pete’s sake, and we only just prevented her from putting it on ice cream. I’m dedicating my new collection of short stories to her memory.

    Tomorrow at 7:30 a.m. “they” are shutting off all the electricity so they can fiddle about on the roof (cue Tevye and his violin). We’re going to Elder Son’s house in Arlington to look after Mr. Preschooler, who evidently has a day off from that institution. Since I’ve never yet been able to get to this site on my iPad, which is what I’ll have when at his house, I’ll probably be out of reach until Saturday.

    Feeling so knocked back by the latest stupidity of the Fools on the Hill I can hardly comment. Wishing a good, noneventful day to all at the Pond today and tomorrow!

    • Thank you for this, do NOT stop sharing the meteorological chitchat!!

      Days like that happen only in October, when the air is so clear that you can see the distant Blue Ridge Mountains as you drive along the road. Glimpsing the flawless blue sky behind the vibrant orangey-red of maple trees is intoxicating. During my walk I became quite drunk on beauty, the shadows were so deep and the sunlight so golden.

      A maple I planted in the back yard shortly after moving here is finally tall enough to see from the 2nd story windows and shares her beautiful red leaves throughout the day as I move from place to place. I will be sad when she loses her leaves but for now I am enjoying it.

      LOL at Tabasco sauce on ice cream! I don’t believe I have ever used it on anything – is it a Southern thing?

  13. So, yesterday the Republicans staged version 2.0 of the Brooks Brothers Riot, and it looks like once again there’ll be no consequences. No wonder they keep doing this stuff. Another warm day today then storms tonight & cooler tomorrow — another long sleeves day, and astonishingly cool 40s on Saturday morning. That is just… wow. I got a whole 6 hours of sleep last night — lately, that actually is pretty good. Wondering how long I should keep taking multiple zyrtecs per day. Got one more doctor appointment this afternoon, then hopefully that’s all the co-pays for a while. Keeping slow soothing music going in my head to keep the blood pressure down: Song For Someone.

  14. It’s 52 and raining in Fay., AR. Spozed to be that way all day. PV system isn’t exactly in night mode but it’s not exactly not either. We got 9.4 KWHs yesterday (don’t have that many watts so far today) and the m-t-d is 210. We’ve got 8 production days left including today to try and generate that last 40 and make the 250 goal.

    Evil Ones doing evil. They’ll keep doing it until they’re stopped. They’ll get away with it until we break up the RW propaganda machine. That is just a fact. One I doubt I’ll get anything done about considering Molly Ivins and Hillary Clinton couldn’t. But it’s still a fact. & while the Rs are doing illegal and to a certain extent actually treasonous stuff, they’ve still managed to disassociate the party from twitler to the extent that once the rabid squirrel is gone – by whatever means – well over half the wypipo in America will thankfully accept quiet Christofascist tyranny in place of his noisy Christofascism. And that is also a fact. A deplorable, despicable fact. This election cycle is our last chance for at least a generation. & a lot of people are gonna die either way – but a lot fewer will die immediately and a whole lot fewer will die in the future if we win. So…if there is a deity with any interest in the people of America, guard the election process please.

    Rotating cats on my lap – I’ve had Cloud, Murf, and now Charlie since I got online. Sooner or later I’ll be able to get coffee. heh. All the black kitties want to eat this morning. Like almost non-stop. I think they’re remembering this time of year and this sort of weather last year. They weren’t abandoned quite this early in the year – I don’t think – but it’s close. Cold, dark, and wet. Actually once I have a clear lap, I need to light the fire. I was warm enough getting out of bed I didn’t need it but sitting at the computer…yes, I do. Cold, dark, and wet is not comfortable to much of anybody – except maybe a deep-water fish. Healing/Helping Energy to everybody who accepts it, shaped to your need. Bright the day, Meeses. {{{HUGS}}}

  15. Tribute to Elijah Cummings at the Capitol today.

    Via CSPAN

    Ceremony at the Capitol for the Late Rep. Elijah Cummings
    The casket of the late Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-MD) arrived at the U.S. Capitol for a ceremony before lying in state.

  16. Good morning, 47 and mostly cloudy in Bellingham. When I feel stuck with a sewing project there’s usually a reason. I tried to just push through yesterday but fortunately I stopped again because in the middle of the night I figured it out! I even got out of bed and found the fabric that I thought I had but couldn’t find. So today I’ll take the replacement fabric I bought but didn’t “like” back to the store and then my simple sewing project will be easy again.

    The basement work I though we would be doing earlier this week should happen today. Better paying customers take precedent for our son, as they should :)

    Best wishes to all.

    • {{{princesspat}}} – the subconscious mind holds a whole lot of knowledge that our conscious mind has shut off. Dreamtime can bring it back to the surface – if we let it. 😁👍😁 Healing Energy & more {{{HUGS}}}

  17. Good afternoon, Meesefolk; 43 when I got up this morning for the final time (bad night of sleep meant I was up and prowling the house multiple times) and an expected high of 54. That’s about what it is now, so my widget may be accurate for once.

    Diana, I haven’t seen the latest Senate polls for MI, but we’re definitely in a take-nothing-for-granted mode. The likely Republican candidate is very smooth, very charming, and very much a Trumpster whose first move was to try to erase any online evidence of that from social media. He’s also an African-American vet, so he appeals to the country club Republicans who want to claim they don’t see race and just vote for the best person. Peters, on the other hand, is much more low-key, more of a “grinder” who avoids the spotlight, but has been in politics for awhile and before that was involved in investments/investment banking/something BAD according to the leftiest lefties. He also was in the military, but most people don’t know that…and he certainly doesn’t flash it around like his opponent does. Sen. Peters has grown on me; he’s far less Dem Lite than I originally thought, and while his speech-making style is obviously a learned art (he uses the style common in the Black sermonic tradition), if you don’t hear him too often, his speeches can be quite inspiring. His biggest problems are twofold: his first impression is often “meh;” a bit on the lackluster side. But it’s the state of MI Dems that is more worrisome. There are still too many Berniecrats gumming up the works in the party, and they view Peters with a certain amount of disdain. I keep waiting to see if they are going to push a primary challenge to Peters, because far too many of the Berniecrats view Peters as a tool of the financial industry. Anyway, I don’t think the situation is bleak, but it’s just dicey enough that it’s why I’ve been largely staying clear of the presidential primary (despite my preferences) and focusing on our Senate race.

    Good day to and for all!

  18. Friday Meese
    44 degrees going up to 62 here in Saugerties, NY.

    Puerto Rico

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