Week-long Welcomings from Moosylvania: Nov. 24th through Nov. 30th

November 23, 2019 JanF Community 82

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!
 

 

29 Comments

  1. Good Wednesday morning Meese. 38 going up to a rainy 53 here in the NY Catskills.

    Puerto Rico

    Two years on, “we are in the same situation as we were in the days after the hurricane,” said Rafael Surillo Ruiz, the mayor of Yabucoa, on Puerto Rico’s hard-hit eastern edge.
    An examination of Federal Emergency Management Agency data and records demonstrates the degree to which the recovery from Hurricanes Maria and Irma on America’s Caribbean islands has been stalled compared with some of the most disaster-prone states on the mainland, leaving the islands’ critical infrastructure in squalor and limbo. FEMA officials say 190 long-term recovery projects have been funded in Puerto Rico — out of more than 9,000 requests. On the United States Virgin Islands, about 218 projects had funding — out of more than 1,500 requests and still counting.

  2. Good morning, meeses! Wednesday …

    It is 43 degrees in Madison with an expected daytime high of 37. It is raining lightly now and is expected to rain most of the day. Points north are expecting the snow. My trip was uneventful – sun on the way there but clouding up on the way back. The nasty lashing rain and thunderstorms erupted about 9:30 or so. Seems weird to have thunderstorms in what already feels like the dead of winter.

    I think it is wise to give up on trying to figure out what “poll movement” means this far out. That the Elizabeth Warren bubble was going to burst when people found out that her rigid ideology would sacrifice the good at the altar of the perfect was inevitable – we are a center-left not left-of-the left nation. That there was a ton of negative press from the media outlets favoring people who would be “harmed” by a wealth tax probably contributed but a lot of the drop was people kicking the tires and finding them overinflated. The knives are coming out for Mayo Pete – as they should – and for a young guy he sure has a long history of bad takes about poverty and race. He is Young Newt and we really have no “lane” in our primary for that.

    Impeachment hearings in the House Judiciary Committee a week from today – on December 4th – with All The President’s Men invited to testify! I suspect none will show up.

    A lot of my clients are closed today but some are open. Even at the places that are open, a lot of people will be gone, taking vacation days. That will – I hope – allow me to work quietly on the things I need to get done. Later this morning, I will hunt and gather our Thanksgiving meal at a local supermarket’s prepared food section, giving thanks that I don’t have to do any actual cooking (it is my tradition). Since my daughter is in school and their break is so short, we don’t travel to the big Thanksgiving in Missouri any longer. Plus my 15 year old car can’t make the trip without croaking and I don’t have the patience for holiday air travel.

    Diana, I cleared cache again this morning – I hope that helps you get in. I have noticed that more aggressive security settings are causing a lot of shortcuts to fail – computers have taken to blocking URLs that have been saved off because they can become malformed by bad programs. For example, say you have a link saved for your bank site that some rogue process turns into a link that looks like the link to your bank site but is in reality a link to a phishing site. That would suck! So security scans may disallow older links which can lead to the 404. I think the workaround is to type the Moose’s full web-site name into the address bar. If I get caught up on projects, I will see if I can get some tech support on the 404 problem – sometimes the tech guys who have seen an increase in a certain issue have some ideas.

    See all y’all later!

  3. Remember how I said yesterday, I did my walk in short sleeves? 24 hours later, not just long sleeves but a jacket with the hood up. It’s around 50 & very windy. But I did my 1.02 miles — 6th day in a row! Song stuck in my head — not a super bouncy one for walking, but oh, it’s gorgeous: Chasing Cars. The title is from how the lyricist’s dad used to teas him about chasing girls, “like a dog chasing a car”. Anyway, I love this:
    I need your grace
    To remind me
    To find my own

  4. This is what Diana emailed me this morning:

    Good morning, bfitz! It’s gray and showery here in Ashburn, current
    temp. 47 F., becoming windy this afternoon–ugh. Was supposed to make an
    apple pie but bought one at Trader Joe’s instead.

    STILL can’t get into the Moose! I almost did this morning but as usual,
    when it asked me to log in, I got the error message again. Deleted the
    URL then put it back. Now it only shows me the home page and I can’t
    even click on “Community” to read without commenting.

    This makes me very sad, as I regard everyone at the Pond as good
    friends. Hope your day will go well, and please tell everyone I said
    hello and that I’m thinking of them.

    Blessed be,

    D.

  5. What a difference a day makes and all that. It’s 32-feels-like-23 this morning. It is sunny at the moment but who knows how long that’s gonna last. (Rain’s expected to move in just before dawn tomorrow but the clouds usually precede the rain.) Yesterday we got 3 KWHs and 148.5 for the m-t-d. We should reach/get over 150 today but with rain scheduled for the rest of the month…we shall see what we shall see.

    Evil Ones out being evil. That includes the Far Left calling themselves progressives. A lot of pain and anger on twitter in my TL – I follow a number of Natives and for them “Thanksgiving” is white people celebrating genocide, for them it’s a Day of Mourning (& Celebrating the Ancestors – they do balance in their Tradition). For me the first 40 years of my life it was family getting together, women and kids in the kitchen, men watching football – I knew about the cutsy Pilgrims & Indians mythology (can’t escapte it in school) but it never really meant that to me. And by the time I was in my teens I knew enough about Pilgrims/Puritans to not trust anything they said or did anyway. Even as a family get together it’s been hit and miss since Momma died. Mostly miss. So I feel more distanced than anything else.

    Doing what I can everywhere I can. Sometimes I get it right, sometimes I don’t. Monitor and adjust as we used to say when I was doing my teacher training. Sending more money than I really should (but I can deal with it – I’ll quit when I can’t). “Thoughts and prayers” are such a pitiful response to the evils and ills but it’s mostly what I got. Invocations for/Channeling Healing/Helping Energy to all who need and accept it, to their shaping. Bright the day, Meeses. {{{HUGS}}}

  6. I will be upgrading the site’s PHP tomorrow (Thursday) morning and hoping it solves the login problems experienced by some people. In December, PHP is supposed to be at 7.0 and we are at 5.6. If the site fails to upgrade – the last time it borked the login screen – I will add replies to the most recent Welcomings tweet with updates:

    Fingers crossed!

    • I decided not to wait since everyone except princesspat had checked in.

      PHP 5.6 to 7.0 appeared to have worked seamlessly – but I have not tried the login screen (I stayed logged in). I then generated a free auto-SSL which took the site offline for about 45 minutes but it is back up now.

      I will check the new login in the morning. People who stay logged in are probably okay.

      • I stay logged in and I’m apparently fine. Crossed fingers for those who don’t. Thank you so very much for taking care of the site for us. Happy Turkey day however you do or don’t celebrate it. {{{HUGS}}}

  7. Thanksgiving Thursday Meese. 46 going up to 48 here in the NY Catskills

    Puerto Rico

    Customs and Border Protection (CBP)and Puerto Rico travel

  8. Good morning, meeses! Thursday …

    It is 30 degrees in Madison with an expected daytime high of 36, mostly cloudy skies are in the forecast. All day yesterday, I felt like it was Saturday and it discombobulated me. I did manage to hunt and gather so we will have a good meal – with extra leftovers – today.

    Color me cynical but I don’t see Bill Barr’s “Justice” Department charging Rudy Giuliani with any crimes. Whether or not he has “insurance policies”, he is going to be protected to protect tRump. It is amusing and entertaining but will turn out as disappointing as Fitzmas was.

    The next set of candidates on the debate stage are Biden, Warren, Sanders, Harris, Klobuchar, and MayoPete. While I would like to see Booker and Castro on the stage, I think that field of candidates works for this round. I think Mini-Newt will flame out now that his racism has been exposed and his ties to Keggernaugh – there is no path forward for him; if Iowa wants to stand by their flavor of the day white guy, go for it – cement your irrelevance. The Democratic Party Wing of the Democratic Party wants nothing to do with you.

    Anyone surprised that a Trump supporter who bought an ambassadorship to fluff himself would turn out to be a sex harasser has not been paying attention. It is what they do and who they are.

    The Moose site appears stable, I was able to do a new login from one of my other computers and the scary message about PHP is gone. There is a new challenge message when you log in, though, about viewing only secure content. I said to show it all – it is possible that if you don’t, you won’t see anything because we don’t have any secure content that I know of and if it means “pages that start with http instead of https” that is everything! Keep me posted. I expect to be at my desk until around 10am working on client projects.

    I am having issues with the Preview button on comments and will see if clearing cache helps. If you have issues, post the comment then fix it with the Edit plugin.

    See all y’all later!

    • It appears that the comment Preview button did not survive the upgrade. It is only compatible with PHP 5 and we jumped from 5.x to 7. I have not had any luck this morning finding a version that will work with the newer PHP – most sites want you to use social media plugins to comment (not gonna happen here) and not many people are coding plugins for native WordPress comments any longer. I have to put this on the backburner for now – in the meantime, post your comment and fix it via the Comment Editor if you dislike how it turned out. I am not proficient in “web coding” so I don’t know what program code might fix the plug-in. I will keep it activated for now in the event that it simply needs a code tweak.

  10. Nice to sleep in, watching the news & eating breakfast. My brother & I did our usual thing of texting back & forth about meeting in Waco (halfway-ish between us) and calling that off. I have one of my favorite Amy’s bowls — broccoli & pasta — and some more broccoli & mushrooms, buffalo not-chicken, and a chocolate pecan dessert from the bakery around the corner. Here’s a good song for today: Love Is Bigger Than Anything In Its Way.

  11. Calloo, callay, O frabjous day, I’m back in! Thank you, BlogGoddess, and thank you, bfitz, for keeping me in touch. I miss the Moose Pond mightily when I’m locked out, peering wistfully through the fence.

    But enough of that nostalgic chitchat. Good morning, everyone. We’re having some clouds but it’s mostly sunny. The current temp. is 45 F., going up to 48 F. Winds will gust up to 30 miles an hour and I believe that, because the wind has blown over the sofa on our porch! And let me tell you, this is no lightweight wicker thingy, this is an actual sofa that we didn’t have room for in our tiny flat.

    The lovely French apple tarte, topped with concentric circles of apples glazed with apricot jam (the French are geniuses when it comes to food) has been waiting in the fridge for today. At 10 I’ll start prepping the scalloped potatoes. We’ll feed the dog, take him out, and then settle him down to watch the Macy’s parade while we go to Younger Son’s house for dinner. No food for me the rest of the day after that!

    Darling Niece, Beloved Nephew, and Mr. Fourth-grader/Future Wrestler have been sitting outside Radio City Music Hall since 5:45 a.m., shivering as they wait for the parade to start. Yikes! Cold is one thing, wind quite another.

    It’s weird, but I feel excited and happy at this official kickoff to the holidays. I’m seriously old, so neither want nor expect presents, but I love the excitement of the season with its accompaniments of oranges, peppermint bark chocolates, cinnamon-scented pine cones, colored Christmas tree lights, and the heady scents of balsam, Fraser fir, and pine.

    Wishing everyone at the Pond a happy Thanksgiving. Glad to be back! I do stay logged in all the time, actually, it’s never my idea to log out of the Moose Pond. Very much appreciate Jan’s explanations of what’s going on. (It makes me feel less clueless.)

    Must be off—see you later!

    • There we go! I was only staying online for long enough to see if you got in. The PHP 5.x to PHP 7 is not a simple “let’s change this code and it will work” – there are web sites out there with a lot of information which is greek to me. I have bookmarked a few of them and will check them out when I am not under a month-end deadline.

      • Brilliant! Just now I typed the URL and got in to see that my comment had actually posted! Whoopee! However, the font showed up as very tiny. My eyes are Lasiked, however, so I can read it just fine.

        The scalloped potatoes are in the oven, it is only to put my face on. Happy Thanksgiving to all!

        • The font size is not controlled by the web site but is controlled by the user’s browser. See if there is a setting there.

          Which browser do you use?

          Also, if you are seeing/not seeing things it might be that you are saying “only show secure content.” That will not show you pages that are “http” which is 90% of the Moose.

        • As far as “only showing secure content”, I am not sure how to change that after you are logged in. I was given that option on a new login.

  12. Here’s from Diana:

    Hi, bfitz! Once again I call upon your good offices. I got IN, which
    made me very happy, but the comment just won’t post. So here it is, if
    you have the patience to copy, paste, and post it:

    Calloo, callay, O frabjous day, I’m back in! Thank you, BlogGoddess, and
    thank you, bfitz, for keeping me in touch. I miss the Moose Pond
    mightily when I’m locked out, peering wistfully through the fence.

    But enough of that nostalgic chitchat. Good morning, everyone. We’re
    having some clouds but it’s mostly sunny. The current temp. is 45 F.,
    going up to 48 F. Winds will gust up to 30 miles an hour and I believe
    that, because the wind has blown over the sofa on our porch! And let me
    tell you, this is no lightweight wicker thingy, this is an actual sofa
    that we didn’t have room for in our tiny flat.

    The lovely French apple tarte, topped with concentric circles
    of apples glazed with apricot jam (the French are geniuses when it comes
    to food) has been waiting in the fridge for today. At 10 I’ll start
    prepping the scalloped potatoes. We’ll feed the dog, take him out, and
    then settle him down to watch the Macy’s parade while we go to Younger
    Son’s house for dinner. No food for me the rest of the day after that!

    Darling Niece, Beloved Nephew, and Mr. Fourth-grader/Future Wrestler
    have been sitting outside Radio City Music Hall since 5:45 a.m.,
    shivering as they wait for the parade to start. Yikes! Cold is one
    thing, wind quite another.

    It’s weird, but I feel excited and happy at this official kickoff to the
    holidays. I’m seriously old, so neither want nor expect presents, but I
    love the excitement of the season with its accompaniments of oranges,
    peppermint bark chocolates, cinnamon-scented pine cones, colored
    Christmas tree lights, and the heady scents of balsam, Fraser fir, and pine.

    Wishing everyone at the Pond a happy Thanksgiving. Glad to be back! I
    do stay logged in all the time, actually, it’s never my idea to
    log out of the Moose Pond. Very much appreciate Jan’s explanations of
    what’s going on. (It makes me feel less clueless.)

    Must be off—see you later!

  13. Happy day to count blessings and be thankful for them. I’ve got laundry, a washing machine, racks to hang it on, and a fire to hang it in front of. That’s riches right there. Food, water, shelter, and friends. Internet friends – especially the Moose Pond. More riches. & I’ve got a PV system which (unfortunately) most folks don’t. Serious riches. We’ll work on the rest of it. It’s 34-feels-like-29 heading for 39 and drizzly. The PV system is actually on. Barely. But we got just over 8 KWHs yesterday and are at 156.7 for the m-t-d. Considering the forecast I’ll be (pleasantly) surprised if we manage to get to 160 for the month – but it’s possible so…we shall see what we shall see.

    Depending on the weather I may or may not visit my son today. We aren’t doing a family dinner or get together but I may just ‘drop by’ if it’s safe for me to drive. He and I had a nice visit earlier this week so if I don’t manager to get over there it’s not as bad as it could be. Grandsons will be doing their usual thing – gaming together (from 3 different locations – modern technology is interesting). I’ll probably get a phone call from my younger son sometime today as well. Mostly it’s another day to me. One to be grateful for the riches I have to be sure. But they all are.

    Holding the Good Thought/sending Healing/Helping Energy to all who need and accept it. Heading for coffee when Murf gets off my lap. Bright the day, Meeses. {{{HUGS}}}

  14. Good morning, 33 and clear in Bellingham. The last of the basement dust storm is finally cleaned up, Ron has the the shopping done, my flower shop friends made lovely bouquets, our daughter and her family are here and now, a cooking day will soon be underway, and the rest of the family will be here tomorrow. Many memories and feelings of gratitude this morning.

    Thanks Jan, for tending to the Moose and to all of you here for your daily friendship. Best wishes to all as we enjoy our holiday.

  16. Friday Meese. 31 going up to 41 here in the NY Catskills

    Potable water

    Puerto Rico/USVI

  17. Good morning, meeses! Friday that will feel like a Saturday or Sunday …

    It is 30 degrees in Madison with an expected daytime high of 36. Isolated flurries are in the forecast.

    It seems as though most of the people who generate the news took the day off yesterday – for which I am very thankful! I feel like I should scan the news so that I know whether to pack up my car and my important belongings and head to Canada. For the record, I have no idea what I would put in my vehicle if I was told that I had to leave my home permanently – obviously my dog and food for her, a laptop computer (with charger), then what? There is not enough room for everything I need to recreate my life somewhere else – I need to go through at least one downsizing before I could get my arms around that. I think for the time being, it would be a good idea to make this country work for me and my dog!

    SITE NOTE (recap):
    – The security enhancements to the underlying code for the Moose were rolled out Wednesday.
    – It appears that everything survived EXCEPT for the Preview button on Comments (I removed it – the workaround is to post and then edit if you see a typo). That plugin uses older code and has not been updated by the author for over 3 years. I was shocked that there appears to be no replacement among the millions of WordPress plugins out there – I suspect that is because most sites no longer use the built-in WordPress commenting but use third-party commenting tools like Disqus or allow people to use other social media logins. We don’t do enough commenting to worry about the speed issues and since our commenting is subscriber-only, we don’t need to manage anonymous comments. I will keep looking and will also see if there is a way to fix the things in the current plug-in to make it work. None of that will happen until Sunday, when we are safely in December and my November projects are done.
    – If you are not seeing the site, it is probably because you said “only show secure content” which is pretty much none of the Moose. I am not sure how to clear that setting – it varies by browser.

    See all y’all later!

    • Thank you for taking care of the Moose Pond. We couldn’t be here without you. {{{HUGS}}}

  18. Yesterday was my 7th day in a row walking at least a mile — I did 2! Supposed to be rainy all day, I may have to get my mile in at the gym. For now, I’m eating breakfast & watching Harry Potter.

  19. Good Freya’s Day morning, Moosekind! It is so nice to see the cheery “Howdy, Diana in NoVa” at the top right corner of my screen!

    We have a pale blue sky overlaid with white cirrus clouds this morning, along with a temp. of 39 F. Today it will go up to 47 F.

    Got up early to make delicious “Morning-After Cranberry Muffins.” Wish I could fax you some, they’re so delicious. Stupidly burned my left hand taking them out, so I’m sitting here with Burn-B-Gone and an ice pack. Pretty soon I have to drive, though, which is a pity. Left my car keys at Younger Son’s house yesterday.

    We had a lovely Thanksgiving dinner, although two of the children, seized by a sudden fit of shyness, were in hiding when we arrived. They eventually came down to dinner. Was pleased to see the boy cousins, aged 4 and 5, becoming pals. They’ll be good companions for each other.

    Going to keep it short today because I have to get dressed and out of here. Younger Son and family are going to New York to visit friends, coming back on Monday. Thank GODDESS the neighbor is looking after the dog so I don’t have to! He’s a sweet dog, but it’s hard for him to be alone with two visits a day from Grandma. The neighbor will check on him several times a day.

    Yes, Jan, up in the address bar the legend is “Not Secure—motleymoose.net/2019/11/23/12995/week-long-welcomings.”

    Just praying that it all keeps on working, and thank you for your efforts in keeping it going. BTW, I use Safari because that’s what this Mac comes with.

    Wishing a good day to all at the Pond!

    • Thanks for the followup on your browser! Safari is indeed what “comes with” Mac but you can also add Firefox and Chrome to Apple iOS devices. Now that I know you use Safari, I can use my iPad to test the web site after changes.

  20. Looks like we’re gonna be in a cloud bank through tomorrow here in Fay., AR. I hope not but we’re certainly in one now. The PV system is just barely on – like at 14 watts per hour barely on. It didn’t do a whole lot better yesterday – we got one whole kilowatt hour the entire day and the m-t-d is sitting at 157.76 so getting to 160 by the end of tomorrow is possible/probable but certainly not much more. sigh.

    Our nation’s economy is sort of doing the same. As all the small vendors I know are dealing with. Somebody’s raking in money but it’s certainly not them. Sales are down everywhere during the time of year that is “normally” the highest for the year. Wings hasn’t had a single commission this season & I spend most of my twitter time boosting product (mostly jewelry but some knitted or crocheted items) for them and about 10 other small business folks I know. And of course more homeless and hungry to strain a system already hamstrung by the Rs. And then there are folks like Amelia – who hasn’t heard back from the minister and is having daily panic attacks over becoming homeless. Folks on Disability, folks who’ve got what assistance there is – but can’t get the help they need to actually get into safe housing (of which there isn’t enough – as both Harris and Castro have pointed out & have plans to fix) so they can actually use that assistance. In large and in small right now this country sux. sigh.

    There are Lights shining in the world though. Yes, Harris and Castro – but the Meeses, a few of the folks still at DK, some of the twitter folks I follow, among many others. You are the Light of the World. Invoking/Channeling Healing/Helping Energy to all who need and accept it, to their shaping. Bright the day, Meeses. {{{HUGS}}}

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