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!
Good Tiu’s Day morning, Meese! Today is the big day and it looks as if we’ll have fairly decent weather. The current temp. in Ashburn is 37 F., on its way to 63 F. A white haze of cloud is covering much of the pale blue sky. There may be showers, but not serious ones, this afternoon.
At 10:30 we’re going to walk across the parking lot to the club house to vote. At 11 I’ll be handing out sample ballots for an hour. At 2 p.m. Dearly Beloved will drive me to the elementary school where I’ll be handing out sample ballots from 2:30 to 5. Then he’ll pick me up and we’ll get the pizza we plan to have for dinner.
I actually did manage to do some work last night (it’s amazing how a looming deadline concentrates the mind), so feel in good shape to work on Wednesday. Two of the articles won’t be much trouble; the third, about pioneer feminists, is going nowhere. I can’t get anyone to admit to being a pioneer feminist. I’ve changed the focus to “women who made a difference.” So far I’ve interviewed a member of the AAUW lobbying group and will interview a woman who was one of the first women to be appointed a minister in the Baptist church. Wish I could get some more input.
Hoping very hard for a high Democratic turnout today. Jan, hope you’ve got everything you need to get through a snowstorm!
Wishing a good day to all at the Pond.
Good luck to Virginia!! There appears to be a lot of Democratic enthusiasm there – I hope the bad guys all stay home bummed out!
Last day of my long weekend. Today: gym (no, I didn’t make it yesterday), more housework, groceries & making tea and putting my overnight oats together. Warm morning & day — high in the 70s. Reading posts on Twitter & Instagram from people going to the U2 concerts in New Zealand, watching Stargate while I eat breakfast.
Good morning, Meesefolk; 37 when I got up and heading up to 43. Definitely a hoodie and jeans day with the rest of the week looking like sweaters and turtleneck weather. It seems a bit early to be so chilly, so maybe it’s a temporary aberration. I’d like to see a rebound into the mid-to-high 40s for most of November, but I have been reliably informed that Mother Nature does not accept orders.
I turned on MSNBC briefly last night and then decided I still needed to protect my gut from distress (I’m working hard at getting back to periodic, rather than regular, use of antacids). Instead I turned to the National Geographic channel, which I only recently realized I got, and learned about aurochs and hunter/gatherers in Neolithic Britain. I’m keep abreast of what is happening in the political world, but I think that world will function just fine without my total immersion (although I did see that Gary Peters is polling 6 points ahead of John James; unfortunately in this case, polls don’t vote).
Good day to and for all!
It’s 44 and might get over 60 today – the last temp that high for the foreseeable future. Cloudy right now but I hope they’ll clear off for a while. Rain’s supposed to move in after dark and stay through Thursday. Yesterday’s generation was 6.2 KWHS and the m-t-d is 29 so on-track but barely. We’ll lose the “on track” today. sigh. I didn’t do a fire last night. It stayed in the 60s until well after time to light one before bedtime. I’ll definitely be doing evening fires for the next 10 days or so and probably more than one day-long fire.
All the Rs, most of the Indies, and way too many Dems are being seriously, WASP Supremacist/colonizer, evil. A boatload of our team is pointing fingers at the loud-and-proud violent evil of the Rs and saying “we’re not like that so we’re the good guys” while still supporting the systemic & genocidal racism our country was founded on in more polite and less actively violent ways. Doing my best which is obviously not good enough. Meanwhile there are still people I know personally who need help/healing and are getting my focus. Also some of my money which also is obviously not good enough or they wouldn’t still need help/healing. sigh. Fineena checked in last night and said the surgery went well. Amelia managed most of her laundry and several other things of a household nature but needs to get back to crowdsourcing the motel bill. That’s a double sigh because I can’t help this month. I hope her FB friends step up quickly. The longer it strings out, the less energy she has to even start to look for something permanent. She is going back through the Section 8 paperwork so if she finds something she’ll be ready to actually try for it. Aji is in so much pain and under so much stress she’s operating on pure anger right now. Other than boost her stuff and pray (sales & pain relief mostly) there’s not much I can do. I can’t be as pissed off as she is about it, but the work she and Wings are physically and very painfully doing right now was supposedly done 2 years ago – and the folks who supposedly did it were paid pretty much “union scale” from the crowd-sourcing fundraising we were doing over at DK. I was on that team until I was banned and I’m pretty damned pissed off myself that about 20% of the funds we raised were, well, not exactly wasted but were paid to a couple of different groups of people Aji trusted who betrayed her – doing the work so poorly it had/has to be redone, using the wrong materials while charging top dollar for the right ones. So I can understand why Aji pretty much isn’t trusting anybody these days.
Damp and chilly but I’m trying to put off starting a fire until later. I want to save the wood bricks for those days later this week when it’s actually raining and the temps aren’t gonna hit 50, never mind 60. Coffee should help. Then there are Moose posts to read as well as twitter stuff to do. Still, after almost 2 years, I keep feeling that there’s stuff I need to be doing over at DK. Sigh. Some day the “what I’m supposed to do now” will show up and I’ll get to it. Meanwhile, coffee – once Murf gets off my lap again. Healing/Helping Energy to everybody who accepts it, to your shaping. Bright the day, Meeses. {{{HUGS}}}
Good morning, 44 and partly cloudy. It’s nice to see some blue sky behind the clouds. If my knees will allow I should finish the duvet cover project today. The pieces of fabric are large and heavy so managing them while keeping the weight off my knees means I have to think about what I’m doing. So much for mindless sewing!
I had an unexpected visit with an old friend yesterday. He stopped by to say hello and to see our house again as he is building a new house and trying to incorporate some old house features. I’ve tried to restore this house as opposed to making it “new” so it was nice to know he appreciates the difference.
Best wishes to all as we find our way through another day.
Good morning, meeses! Wednesday …
It is 28 degrees in Madison with an expected daytime high of 32. My weather widget says it is snowing but we must be in a lull because nothing is coming down. There is definitely new snow on the ground.
w00t, Kentucky! It was the revenge of the dissed teachers – do NOT diss the teachers. I hope the Beshear win holds and that they don’t “find” a bunch of uncounted Bevins ballots. I don’t trust these guys as far as I can throw them.
And w00t, Virginia! This headline cracked me up: “Virginia cyclist who flipped off Trump wins Loudoun County seat representing his golf club“. Double w00t for that.
I am sure that Republicans will claim last night as a “complete repudiation of Democrats” because a Republican won the governorship in Trump+80 Mississippi. Yes, go with that if it makes you feel safe.
Another busy day here. I hope to get a chance to come up for air and read some of the news stories. I will go put a few of them in tabs.
See all y’all later!
What the hell is going on with WI and the fired Ag Secretary? How on earth does the legislature have the right/ability to fire someone in the executive? Or did I read the article wrong (quite possible since I was merely skimming)?
He had not yet been confirmed – the Republican State Senate has been slow-walking all the cabinet confirmations as a poke in the eye to Governor Evers. They essentially are refusing to legitimize the elected governor and the elected attorney general because they disagree with the people of Wisconsin who elected Democrats. About 45% of the state elected these guys but because of their precise gerrymanders from 2011- which SCOTUS says is simplay “to the victor goes the spoils” – they hold 60%+ of the Assembly and Senate seats. And because they control the courts, there is no state remedy as there is in other states. Wisconsin is essentially a failed state, governed by destroyers of democracy held accountable to no one. :(
Wednesday Meese. 37 here in the NY Catskills – going up to 52
Puerto Rico
No celebration for this vote
Black population of Kansas City MO– 29.9%
Kansas City is, sadly, one of the most racist cities in America – it is part of Missouri which is one of the most racist states. I saw the article about the planned vote a few days ago and was only surprised that it took so long for them to “fix” this. :(
Back to work. I’d forgotten that the earpiece came off my headset as I was leaving Friday. I had a late caller to set up library service & went ahead & set them up, I guess being discombobulated on the way out I put it in the charger wrong. That’s a good project for Monday morning. So many victories yesterday: the Virginia Legislature, Kentucky & Kansas governors… a pretty good morning. Has anyone else been following the story of the unicorn left at Heathrow? The owner still hasn’t come forward. The people who found it are posting pictures of its adventures while waiting to be found.
Music still in my head from yesterday’s session on the elliptical machine: Lips Like Sugar. Happy, energetic song from my youth.
Good Woden’s Day morning, Moosekind, and a lovely day it is, too—literally and metaphorically. Literally, it’s 41 F. in Ashburn, going up to 58 F. later. Just took Monty out to the courtyard for the second time this morning, and came back in as quickly as I could: it’s too cold out there for a denim jacket.
Metaphorically speaking, it’s a lovely day for the Democrats—we flipped the lege! That is very nice indeed. Several races are too close to call at this writing, but it seems as if all that post-card writing, walk packet-assembling, and canvassing did some good. Next year I hope to do all that for Kamala and for Jennifer Wexton, whom I very much want to win a second term in Congress.
Turnout must have been pretty high: here at the Home for the Aged we went to vote at 10:30 but had to wait in line for half an hour. It seemed high at the elementary school too, once people started getting off work. I approached an elderly gentleman and his wife, asking him if he’d like a sample Democratic ballot. “No, thank you,” he said politely. “I’m 100 percent pro-life.” Hah, I thought. And just how many times in your life were you ever confronted with an unwanted pregnancy? The hypocrisy and stupidity of patriarchal males never cease to amaze me.
Anyway, I was so tired after my 3 and 1/2 hours of standing on my feet that after dinner (pizza), I went to sleep in the green chair until “Jeopardy” was half-finished.
According to the WaPo, which gave cursory coverage to the historic win in Virginia, all eyes are on Wisconsin now. Goddess help us! Jan, is there any hope? After all, your state did elect a Democratic guv.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/all-eyes-are-on-wisconsin-the-state-thats-gearing-up-to-define-the-presidential-election/2019/11/04/abf643dc-f40d-11e9-a285-882a8e386a96_story.html
I still remember the ruckus that happened at the State Capitol in 2011 and how the evil old dead-eyed Scotty survived the recall. Ugh.
Well, it’s time to get on with my day. Wishing a good day to all at the Pond!
Ben Wikler, the guy who founded MoveOn, lives in Madison and was elected chair of the Wisconsin Democratic Party this past summer. He put together a canvass that occurred last weekend to coincide with the 1-year-until-the-2020-election date and a bunch of people knocked on doors to get folks excited about getting registered and getting ids and volunteering. He is a committed activist and he knows what he is up against and what we need to do here. The problem is that we have a higher than average number of non-college white voters in the state and they are natural trumpers. Unless our candidate can convince them that the white male dotard in the White House is bad for the country, tRump will win Wisconsin again. That the polls show that we are likely to only be able to win with our own white male dotard is pretty sad but a lot can happen between now and then. If Kamala Harris is out of the race by April, I will vote for Biden rather than let Sanders or Warren win here. They want to destroy the party to make their purity points and I am not here for that.
If Harris is out…. Castro & Booker will be out before her…..I don’t like Klobuchar, but I dis-like her less than any of the “big 4”. Or I’d just skip the POTUS part & vote in the other races.
Yeah – Molly Ivins’s rule and all that. If I have nobody but a white man or old white woman (except Hillary of course but that’s somebody’s wishful thinking – and not Hillary’s wishful thinking) to vote for at the top of the ticket, I’ll do down-ballot only.
Yes, if Harris is gone by April, Castro and Booker will be gone also. Klobuchar is my fall-back if Biden flames out – a scenario I can’t see happening. We can’t win the electoral college with a left-of-the-left candidate – Kamala is center-left-left and Klobuchar is center-center-left. I can’t vote for Mayo Pete in the primary – in the general I will vote for whoever has the D after their name.
To abstain from voting for the “D” is to hand the election to, ah, Thing.
Even though I think Biden is a walking disaster, he’s still a Democrat. Buttigieg won’t get that far because he doesn’t have the vote of the black community—and it has nothing to do with his sexual orientation. He’s downright unqualified besides being a “Republic” in disguise.
His call for “More Anthony Kennedys!” on the Supreme Court is disqualifying to a lot of people so he has more than just the black vote to worry about. I don’t want him as the VP either, he is simply not ready. He needs to run for governor of Indiana first and then come back and tell us how that went.
Good morning, Meesefolk; 25 when I got up and headed to 41. Why did I get up before 7 this morning?! (Answer: dogs made me)
It’s actually a good thing I got up earlier than usual; while the dogs were outside, I decided to get an early jump on checking my email. I discovered that once again I had [almost] missed an email from a potential employer, although this time I wasn’t too late. It was the job I almost didn’t apply for that was very transparent about their use of assessments. The email said I was selected to move on to the assessment stage, so yay for my resume getting my foot in the door. I took the assessment, which was one of those personality assessments: “people see you as _______________; you see you as ______________.” There’s no way to prep for those (or to effectively game them for that matter), since there’s no way of knowing what the employer is really looking for. I’m not optimistic about moving on in the process as a result; most people (and tests) don’t get how a self-described introvert like myself can be good/effective at customer service and even sales…but I am.
When I went to bed last night, Bevin was intending to ask a judge to allow a recount, and I am assuming that hasn’t changed. If the recount happens, I hope Beshear puts out an Act Blue call for funding to bring in a team of lawyers. I don’t trust Bevin or most Republicans at this point, and we need to have our best recount/election lawyers camping out in KY. I’ll also be keeping my eyes on MS. A Federal judge there left the door open to ruling against MS Jim Crow “electoral college” election laws, so even though Hood didn’t win, I think someone could still file a lawsuit. I don’t know how standing would be determined in a case like this, but it doesn’t seem like the reviewing the law should be dependent on someone winning an election that the law subverts. I think Marc Elias has been involved in that case, so I’ll be watching his tweets.
Good day to and for all!
It’s 50s and damp right now in Fay., AR – might get to 60 after all. We got a little rain early morning but the rest of it seems to have pushed itself to after dark. It didn’t take the clouds with it of course. The PV system is on. Barely. Yesterday we got 7.8 KWHs and the m-t-d is 37.7 – we’re gonna have to get more sunshine than’s projected to even get to 40 today though. The goal doesn’t change. Just the likelihood of making it.
Seriously W00T!!! for VA, KY, & KS (as far guv is concerned). Seriously WTF!?! KS as far as removing the MLK street name. But then KS has a fairly bloody history of racism – even though it came in as a “free” state that was just against the institution of slavery, not the equality of “all men”. Only 10 years before it became a state it was “perpetual Indian” lands. Well, I happen to know the meaning of the word “perpetual” and it isn’t “until I want it”. sigh.
I haven’t heard from Fineena since Monday evening. Amelia is managing a lot of small things she couldn’t even see before she got back on her meds but her big situation hasn’t changed. She still needs to crowdfund the motel until she can find something permanent. Only good thing I can say about the current situation is this motel is in a quieter place and it less expensive. (It’s just under $2500/month instead of well over $3K a month – which considering it includes utilities except phone & at least a level of cable and wifi isn’t bad for CA. Just not affordable as a permanent thing for someone on Disability &/or Social Security.) Aji’s situation doesn’t seem to change except for adding more pain – both physical and emotional – and upping her stress load every time she turns around. Everybody else is hanging on by teeth and toenails. But things are promising with Dee’s husband. Not good, but better – and better means good is possible.
The atmosphere is heavy – sitting on my head and giving me a headache as well as messing with my joints. I’ll be glad when it actually rains and eases up a bit. For now, coffee helps. Healing/Helping Energy to everybody who accepts it, to their shaping. Bright the day, Meeses. {{{HUGS}}}
OK – just re-read that the KC in question is KC MO rather than KC KS – which I tend to think of since I taught school in KC KS for a year. It doesn’t makes KS’s racism any less but the vote to remove the MLK street name is a little more understandable on the MO side.
Good morning, 39 and partly sunny in Bellingham. I should be downstairs sewing but I’m not :) As I suspected the combo of denim and linen is heavy for both my knees and hands so I’m procrastinating.
And, truth be told, I made a dumb mistake yesterday and fixing it took more time than I expected so I’m not very happy with my myself.
Oh well, the sky is a lovely pinky blue behind wispy clouds so the big picture is right outside my window if I choose to see it. So it’s time for another cup of coffee and an attitude adjustment. Best wishes to all on this November day.
Good morning, meeses! Thursday already …
It is 18 degrees in Madison with an expected daytime high of 25 – sunny skies accompany the arctic blast. It was 6 degrees when I got up so 18 is an improvement. There is a wind chill.
Not unexpectedly, the Kentucky governor’s race is being contested. The same thing happened to the Wisconsin governor’s race and when the margin was eventually more than the free recount threshold, Snotty Walker conceded. Bevin has an asshole factor of Walker*2 so he will probably take it as far as he can. After the Trumps threw him under the bus, though, I am not sure where he gets the money to fight it. We shall see! Gawd, I hope our win holds.
Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III plans to run for his old Senate seat in Alabama. Rumor has it that tRump is unhappy about that – he will never forgive Sessions for recusing in the Russian investigation and blames him for what is happening to his presidency. Grab popcorn! I hope that Doug Jones can hang onto his seat and it would help if the Republican primary was contentious and off-putting. Alabama won’t be competitive in the electoral college so there may not be a lot of excitement by state Republicans to get to the polls on November 3rd.
Speaking of Alabama, Donald Trump’s desperate search for a sporting event that he can attend without getting booed led him to the Alabama football game (vs LSU) on Saturday but it is looking more like it might not be a slam-dunk. The school is warning students that if they are rude to Trump, they might lose their seats. Stifling first amendment rights is only called “PC run amok” when the liberal colleges do it. Meh.
It has gotten to be Thursday already in a week where I had hoped to take a big bite out of projects. I need to do a better job of triage – I am spending time on things that drop onto my desk when I should be putting those things on the project list instead and working from the top of the list. I still haven’t addressed the height of my to-do stack and it is growing. I have one client crisis to address when the business day starts and then I can turn my attention to the stack. I hope!
See all y’all later!
Jan—Monday is a holiday, so will that help? Good luck!
Yes, it will! Thanks!!
Thursday Meese. 41 going up to 51 here in the Catskills.
Was elated to see this
Kamala Harris –endorsement from Higher Heights
The shade the shade …
Buttigieg and black voters
He’s not going to make it to the candidacy. He’s a Rethug at heart, anyway—doesn’t “see” black people or women or any other group that isn’t white, male, and privileged.
Puerto Rico
Sister Dee, how is your husband doing? When will he come home?
Last regular work day of my short week, tomorrow is staff development day. I actually got some ok things, including a walk around the Capitol grounds looking at historic trees and a fitness thing to end the day. Cold front coming in today will make that walk around the grounds interesting.
Music. My library is participating in a pilot program for people with dyslexia & similar disorders. We have lots of applications, and I end up writing the word “pilot” a lot. So I’m hearing this song, from back when Elton John was a rocker: Take Me To The Pilot. Also, it just hit me that today is 11/7.
Kamala 2020 from Cecelia S
Good Thor’s Day morning, Meese! The sky looks like a rucked-up gray bedspread this morning. It’s 50 F. now, on its way up to 60 F., with rain expected in the evening.
Yesterday, when I queried Younger Son as to what arrangement he had made today for meeting Mr. Kindergartener at the school bus stop, he said he hadn’t thought about it. WHAT? Younger Son’s fecklessness is going to catch up with him; in fact, I think it already has. His unfortunate habit of changing jobs every year gives potential employers pause. Of course, it isn’t always his fault: no worker has control over corporate mergers, downsizing, or the purchase of automated accounts payable systems that eliminate human activity. And it’s true that his job change last year resulted in a $10K raise in salary. But the government job he wanted so badly seems to have eluded him, and the people there who interviewed him don’t even have the decency to let him know one way or the other.
At any rate, DIL has made an arrangement with her church to pick up Mr. K. after school and take him to a church-operated day care for an hour or so before she arrives to pick him up. This is a relief, because taking 9 hours a week out of my life and putting 75 miles a week on the odometer was beginning to cast a pall.
However, enough on that subject. I’m very uneasy about Kentucky and becoming uneasy about Wisconsin. Someone remarked that Virginia Democrats owe their victory to organizing for a year beforehand. I must investigate how to do this for Kamala. I will vote for any Democrat for POTUS. Feel safe in saying that because Saint Bernard of No Accomplishments is not a Democrat and will not be the nominee.
And with that, I must go start my day. Wishing a good day to all!