Week-long Welcomings from Moosylvania: Feb. 2nd through Feb. 8th

February 1, 2020 JanF Community 91

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!
 

 

35 Comments

  1. Our high today was 55 sometime just after midnight. It’s 46 and still slowly falling on this cloudy, drizzly, chilly morning. We managed to generate 8.4 KWHs yesterday which added to the two 9.4s of the previous days brought the m-t-d to 27.2 – but the system is still in night mode and the day shows no sign of getting lighter so that may be where it stays for a while. sigh. It was a great start to the month. sigh.

    Nothing particularly good going on nationally. Locally we shall see. Nothing helpful happening with my circle of friends – health still yuk for just about everybody, financial issues (most but not all caused by the costs of health issues) still getting worse because they aren’t getting better. sigh. A very depressing time to be alive. But we are alive and so we keep on keepin’ on. Prayers/Invocations/Channeling Healing/Helping Energy to everybody. Bright the day, Meeses. {{{HUGS}}}

  2. Good morning, 35 and cloudy in Bellingham. So far the year 2020 isn’t so great, and the “Dems in Disarray” performance last night has me even more worried. Oh well, we made reservations for dinner tonight so we can avoid the State of the Union affair. Last year we did the same but without reservations so we had a long wait with lots of other people doing the same.

    My plans for yesterday were changed by needing a long nap, but I’m committed to resting when I get tired so I guess napping will be the top item on my list for now. When/if I regain some stamina I hope to go with RonK to his new gym. Our insurance pays for half of the membership and the facility has a hot tub that may work as a pool exercise spot for me. It’s only a few degrees warmer that the therapy pool I used to go to and seems to be rarely used so when I can I’ll check it out.

    Best wishes to all as we find our way through another day.

    • {{{princesspat}}} – the hot tub sounds like a great idea/plan. I hope that works out for you. Healing Energy and more {{{HUGS}}}

  3. Diary posted

  4. Good morning, meeses! Wednesday …

    It is 18 degrees in Madison with an expected daytime high of 27. Cloudy skies are in the forecast.

    I am going to go news-light today – after scanning the headlines, I need a smudging. Between the grossness of the SOTU, the further cheapening of the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the news media declaring a winner in Iowa using impartial results that don’t even include the major cities, the Milwaukee DNC host committee having to fire two of the people running it – one because he was an abusive asshole and the other because she let him be an abusive asshole (nice job of vetting, DNC!), it is a good day to put my head down and get some work done. I am so glad the I am not vested in any candidate in the nominating contest – I can stand back and look at it dispassionately.

    See all y’all later!

  5. A palate cleanser:

    Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, D-Mich., delivered the Democratic response to the vulgar talking yam’s State of the Union address on Tuesday, Feb. 4. Whitmer highlighted financial struggles many Americans are facing despite a strong economy and pointed to Democrats as the ones who are “doing something about it.” “It doesn’t matter what the president* says about the stock market. What matters is that millions of people struggle to get by or don’t have enough money at the end of the month after paying for transportation, student loans, or prescription drugs,” Whitmer said. The governor, who was elected in 2018, spoke about and her own fight to expand health care coverage for Michigan residents under the Affordable Care Act after witnessing her own mother’s battle with brain cancer and blamed Republicans for trying to take that health care away. Whitmer also praised young people for taking action in issues such as gun control and climate change: “They react to a world that’s literally on fire with fire in their bellies.”

  6. Good Wednesday morning Meese – I see a winter weather advisory for the coming week, tho today it’s 38 going up to 40 here in the NY Catskills. Did not see the SOTU – I was at a speaking engagement – focused on Black History Month.

    #ImWithFred

    Puerto Rico

  7. I didn’t watch any part of the speech, and very little of the analysis — a little bit of Rachel & company while I was brushing my teeth. Yesterday I could have worn sandals, this morning it’s in the 30s & tonight it’ll freeze. There could even be snow. It won’t stick, the ground is too warm for that — but to even have some falling is pretty exciting for us. Exercise will be covering my plants. Love this U2 song — I’m gonna change like the weather, hot to cold.

  8. Good Woden’s Day morning, Moosekind! The day outside is as gray and gloomy as my mood. It was 45 F. and breezy when I took Monty out to the courtyard at 6 a.m., but now in Ashburn the temperature has dropped to 41 F. There is a 50 percent chance of rain.

    I watched the SOTU for 15 minutes until I just couldn’t stand it any more. Was deeply disgusted by his regular stump speech, full of lies; by the behavior of the Rethugs, who kept jumping up and down like so many jack-in-the-boxes, and so forth. I was watching Nancy’s face, mostly.

    This morning I heard about the Medal of Wossname being awarded to that overfed crocodile, RL, and saw a video clip of Madame Speaker tearing up her written copy of his speech. Very pleased that SHE is getting all the attention that HE wanted!

    The WaPo is gloating over Thing’s rising poll numbers and its usual “Dems in disarray” theme this morning. I am not going to read the front section again until the Democratic nominee wins in November. Over at Orange, Biden is already being written off because he didn’t win the caucuses (despite the fact that no one else won either), and the next primary is in another tiny white state, which St. Bernard or Mayo Pete is expected to win. Jeez, honey, we haven’t even had Super Tuesday yet! Duh…

    Well, as you can see, I’m as cross as two sticks. Will try to concentrate on things that are pleasant until bedtime. Wishing all at the Pond a good day, as well as time away from the right-wing Rethug mainstream media!

  9. It’s 33 – might or might not make it to 37 before heading down again – and raining, lightly, in Fay., AR. The rain’s supposed to turn to snow this afternoon. It’s light enough for the PV system to be on but that’s about it. We got just under 1.5 KWHs yesterday and are at 28.7 for the m-t-d. We might make it to 30 by the end of the day. sigh. It’s dark enough I need the lights on to see the keyboard clearly.

    I didn’t watch or follow SOTU last night. Why bother? A pack of rambling lies, violence-generating attacks on everybody except himself, and a voice I can’t stand listening to. Didn’t particularly want to get swamped by the HOF responses to it either. The answer is what it’s been for decades – vote in numbers too large for them to cheat and then break up the media consortium that is their propaganda machine. We’ve occasionally done the former, Carter & Clinton both signed off on laws that permitted the latter to happen so we’ve done the flat-out opposite of the latter. I really do not know if we’re reached the point of no return on either one yet but if we haven’t we’re darned close.

    Amelia still has pneumonia and hasn’t had any voice for several days. Which of course means she can’t call her doctor and the coughing fits make it dangerous to drive. She got the motel manager to call non-emergency ambulance to take her to (a different) ER but…she sat around (this time in a clean) ER waiting room for a couple of hours. They didn’t do anything like a thorough work up and certainly didn’t do the X-ray she’d been sent to the (dirty) ER for last week but they did at least give her a “breathing treatment”, some oral steroids, and 4 prescriptions they apparently don’t fill at the hospital and she can’t get filled because it’s not safe for her to drive. We need to take the word “care” off what we’re calling the medical industry’s practices of keeping people alive just long enough, preferably in pain and misery, to suck all the money from them then let them die. Criminal negligence comes to mind. Right now I’m thinking of Amelia but the same descriptor could be used about Aji (and Tricia and Linda and maureenmower and Jennifer and…) Anyway I’m hoping the breathing treatment and steroids will give Amelia her voice back at least enough to call her doctor. (Meanwhile the Social Workers are pissed at her because they told her to call the Housing Authority and she hasn’t. Paying no attention whatsoever to the fact she’s got no voice to call them with.)

    Well, I’m OK if a tad chilly and depressed, right now. & my friends are alive and surviving, right now. Scared and in pain does not equal OK. But they are alive and not on the streets. Prayers/Invocations/Channeling Healing/Helping Energy to everyone. Goddess! I wish it didn’t take so much metaphysical Energy to impact the physical. But it’s probably just as well. Life is too complex for me to ever understand the ramifications of changes I want. It’s probably much better that it take a critical mass of entities Channeling, balancing out the specific desires to make an overall “Will to Good” focus. I hope. Bright the day, Meeses. {{{HUGS}}}

    • I have no idea what that gobblety-gook cryptic garbage is in the middle of my 2nd paragraph above but my computer’s been doing that for over a week. Usually it goes back to being works if I click on it – and it did this time, too – but obviously it went flipped back to being garbage by the time I hit “post” and I didn’t notice it in time to edit it. sigh.

      It was supposed to say “HOF reactions. The answer of what to do has been the same” for decades…

  10. Good morning, 37 and raining in Bellingham so yesterday’s snow is washed away. When the water table rises on our hill I get nervous about the basement flooding, but so far the drains are working and all’s well. The flood water in the county communities is receding and cleanup is underway, so I hope today’s rain doesn’t result in more flooding.

    We enjoyed dinner at a favorite waterfront restaurant last night. It was a needed diversion from tRump/election worries. But unfortunately I watched some of the SOTU analysis later and have scanned twitter this morning and now I need to breathe deep and try to ease the knot of anxiety I’m feeling.

    Best wishes to all as I find some coffee and try to get this day underway.

  11. Good morning, meeses. Thursday …

    It is 21 degrees in Madison with an expected daytime high of 28. Cloudy this morning then sunny this afternoon. The snowstorm that was in the forecast stayed south of us. Sorry, Illinois!

    The news is still Iowa and SOTU and Rush Limpbow. With a dollop of “Mitt Romney is a man of honor and integrity.” No, no, a thousand times, no. He is voting the way his constituents wanted him to – which is good, pay attention soon-to-be former Senator Susan Collins – and to recast himself as the Way Forward after the Republican Party wakes up from their 4 year long bender. He is overlooking that the Republican Party has been trending this way for 50 years – it is now a cult and he does not have the magic conjuring words which require loud and proud white supremacy and blatant cruelty. Sorry, Mitt!

    CAP had the talking point that we need to use going forward:
    “The Senate didn’t ‘acquit’ Trump. After holding a sham trial with no witnesses or documents, 52 Republican senators voted to cover up his crimes.”

    Busy morning of an unexpectedly busy week – time to get back to it.

    See all y’all later!

  12. Good morning Meese. 36 here in the Catskill mountains and raining – thankfully. They predicted a nasty snow storm. I’ll take rain.

    Puerto Rico

  13. We had snow last night! It is the top story — and the 2nd & 3rd…. on the news this morning. It didn’t stick, but it is quite exciting. Other exciting news — my brother sent me his old iPhone & Apple watch. Being the tech genius that I am, I’m still figuring basic things out. One thing — it’s asking for a passcode after restarting, like all Apple products do, but my brother swears he never had one on this phone. I’ve messaged Apple support but if any of you Apple aficionados have any thoughts, I’d appreciate it. I’ll use it for exercise — my iPod is way past it’s expected lifespan & the battery needs charging all the time, brother says it’s great for music. So — snow & a new exercise & music thing. I had a pretty good day yesterday. Here’s happy, dance-y Discotheque to celebrate.

  14. From Speaker Nancy Pelosi on the “acquittal”:

    February 5, 2020
    Washington, D.C. – Speaker Nancy Pelosi issued this statement after the Senate voted to acquit President* Trump after the House voted to impeach him for abuse of power and obstruction of justice:

    “Today, the President* and Senate Republicans have normalized lawlessness and rejected the system of checks and balances of our Constitution. Our Founders put safeguards in the Constitution to protect against a rogue president. They never imagined that they would at the same time have a rogue leader in the Senate who would cowardly abandon his duty to uphold the Constitution.

    “President* Trump was impeached with the support of a majority of the American people – a first in our nation’s history. And now he is the first President in history to face a bipartisan vote to convict him in the Senate. A full 75 percent of Americans and many members of the GOP Senate believe the President’s behavior is wrong. But the Senate chose instead to ignore the facts, the will of the American people and their duty to the Constitution.

    “The President* will boast that he has been acquitted. There can be no acquittal without a trial, and there is no trial without witnesses, documents and evidence. By suppressing the evidence and rejecting the most basic elements of a fair judicial process, the Republican Senate made themselves willing accomplices to the President’s cover-up.

    “Even without additional witnesses and documents in the Senate trial, our House Managers laid out an overwhelming, compelling and incriminating case about President* Trump’s scheme to corrupt the 2020 elections and proved his guilt. The President’s legal team could not and did not refute the facts of the case. Instead, they argued that the American people have no right to stop the President from using the power of his office to cheat in our elections. They argued that if the President* thinks that his re-election is good for the country, he can use any means necessary to win, with no accountability or consequences.

    “In December, the House defended democracy by passing two articles of impeachment to hold the President accountable for abusing his office for his own personal, political gain at the expense of our national security and the integrity of our elections. The President* has been impeached forever.

    “Sadly, because of the Republican Senate’s betrayal of the Constitution, the President* remains an ongoing threat to American democracy, with his insistence that he is above the law and that he can corrupt the elections if he wants to. The House will continue to protect and defend the checks and balances in the Constitution that safeguard our Republic, both in the courts of law and in the court of public opinion. Democrats will continue to defend our democracy For The People.”

    Bolding added.
    Thank you, Speaker Pelosi. Now – on to November.

  15. It’s 26, might make it to 26, and too dark for the PV system to come on even if the panels weren’t covered with a half inch of snow. Fascinating that where things are living – like the grass – there’s just a dusting but where things aren’t – solar panels, road & driveways, outdoor furniture – stuff’s covered with a solid (if thin comparatively speaking – Aji got a foot of it Tuesday) blanket.

    I have no idea how – or if – we can get something even vaguely akin to a democratic-republic back if we don’t win this November. I really don’t. Germany was given its free form of government by the military victors of a shooting war. But this time around the biggest/strongest “Allied Nations” are fascist. And who knows which way Communist China is likely to go, considering. Laps of the gods. I’ll keep on keepin’ on and hope we can pull it off in November. As with global warming, the “least of these” are going to get hit the hardest until we do manage to roll back tyranny/fascism.

    Everybody’s surviving even if nobody’s thriving. A few are inching toward thriving, thank Heavens. And I’m in good shape, mostly. All my worries are for others who aren’t. And I mostly can’t help. sigh. Barring health issues I don’t know anything about my only problem is a future maybe one. Do the Rs follow through on their promise to steal Social Security. If they do, I’m in trouble. If they don’t I’m not. Another lap of the gods issue. Healing/Helping Energy to everybody. Bright the day, Meeses. {{{HUGS}}}

    • Bfitz, could you still do part-time or “vacation coverage” work if you had to?

      Hope you don’t have to. Every time I think about getting a job I think about having to be in a certain place at a certain time, traffic issues, and the fact that I sleep so badly I usually need a nap, or at least a rest, after lunch.

      That’s assuming I could get a job at all. The only jobs I currently can get are unpaid (writing for our quarterly publication here at The Home), or child-tending. I quite like child-tending, but only one family in the area has taken me up on my offer so far. Oh, well (shrug) I’m not hurting for money right now. But if, as you suggest, bfitz, the Rethugs kill our Social and Medicare, we’ll have to move in with Younger Son.

      • I might be able to do some “temping” through the university – they’ve got “RazorTemps” as a nod to coverage when staff are sick. But basically, yeah, depending on circumstances of when it happened, I’d either move in with my elder son or his family would move in with me. And I don’t know which would be the more uncomfortable. sigh. His house was built in the 1920s and added onto (not particularly well) over the years. It needs to be rewired. They aren’t using appliances they own because the wiring won’t take it. And the only way they could afford to deal with mold in the basement is to shut off the basement from the rest of the house. The basement is where I’d end up so it would have to have the mold dealt with and something done to keep it from flooding. On the other hand my house, built in 1965, is not laid out for multi-generational situations or really much privacy at all. Best case at least from my point of view would be if he could sell his (more as development property – the location is being built up now) and we build a “tiny house” in my backyard for me. Mostly lots of prayers they don’t. An awful lot of folks on Social Security are Rs. Not a demographic they want to piss off. At least not yet.

  16. Good Thor’s Day morning, Meese! We’re between rain showers at the moment, but I have to leave here in 15 minutes to get a manicure so hope the heavy stuff doesn’t start before noon. Right now it’s 40 F., going up to 49 F. Chance of rain is 100 percent.

    Finished the big article yesterday, sent it to the subject of the interview. He’s busy making corrections and cutting the length. (We have a 600-word limit.) I had an idea for an article off the top of my head, sent that in too. Just had an inspiration for another piece, about how old people add value to the community and the economy. I’m sick of reading snide op-eds in the Rethug-controlled media about we Olds are a burden to the economy and should have our Social and Medicare cut (to provide more tax cuts for billionaires). Never mind that we’ve paid into Social and Medicare during our entire working lives!

    Here at Ashby we conduct food drives or grow vegetables to contribute to the County food pantry, organize a drive every July to buy school supplies for the children of hourly employees, contribute to the Benevolent Fund (this pays for residents who outlive their money so they can continue to live here), conduct a coat drive every November, and so on. As this is an affluent community, we buy a lot of airline, hotel, and cruise tickets, tickets to shows downtown, and occasionally eat out in expensive restaurants. Yes, I know, this is affluent “white people” charity—still, we’re far from causing a burden to society.

    I’m so sick of the MSM I can’t really pay much attention to the outside world right now. I refuse to think Thing can win. I think we’re going to have an El Biggo recession before November, so I’m starting to cast around and see what I can do to adjust our finances. Getting rid of credit card debt is No. 1 on the list.

    Gotta rush off, Meese, but first will wish all at the Pond a nice, quiet day.

  17. Good morning, 41 and raining in Bellingham. Our garden is soggy, but the basement is still dry. I really feel for folks living in northern Whatcom County where a flooding is still happening.

    I’ve got a haircut scheduled for this morning and I hope my new hairdresser and I can find a better cut this time. We finally got the color “right” so if we can communicate re the cut I’ll be relieved. I’m really missing Mary, my former stylist, but I know moving was best for her and I’ll adjust.

    tRump/election angst kept me awake last night so I hope I adjust to the reality of all involves that as well!

    Best wishes to all on this grey and rainy day.

  18. Good morning, meeses! Friday …

    It is 12 house-popping degrees in Madison this morning with an expected daytime high of 30. Mostly cloudy with some sun mixed in. Snowstorm expected on Sunday.

    So the winners of the Iowa caucus are two privileged white males who can’t win the Black vote. And the winner of the New Hampshire primary will likely be a privileged white male (who will win as a favorite son New Englander) whose plan for America is to insure that tRump wins another term so that it gets not just really bad but really really bad and millions take to the streets and call on him to save the country (psst, Bernie, that plan did not work in 2016 and it will not work in 2020 – a second Trump term will literally kill us all.) Good for you, Democratic Party, for choosing to highlight and promote the worst possible states to kick off our nominating contest. The suck up to redstate Iowa and the kowtowing to First in the Nation New Hampshire can be fixed if you have courage. If FITN wants to have their primary on New Years Day, fine, make them to it but don’t call it anything else but a peevish fit. I am glad that Kamala is not part of this fiasco. It would serve the DNC right if the only person left standing is Michael Bloomberg since they made this the old white guy election (I include Mayo Pete in there because he thinks and acts like an old white guy) and made it all about the money. I will still vote for whoever gets the nomination and hope and pray it is someone who can defeat the insane man in the Oval Office.

    Speaking of the insane man in the Oval Office, tRump splattered the bipartisan National Prayer Breakfast with his toxic butthurt (why does anyone still go to anything promoted as bipartisan in Trump’s Washington DC?) and then went on an unhinged rant at the White House (reports said he went on for 62 minutes!). It could be that “acquittal” may be his undoing if it burns down the last pretense that he is fit to be president. First act of revenge: open Utah’s pristine wilderness to oil drilling and mining. Paving the way for a blue Utah? Crazier things will happen this year.

    I appear to have made it to the end of the work week, thank the goddess. Unexpected crises made a mess of my schedule and I will be scrambling to meet deadlines. I am hoping for a quiet day today to gather the notes from the week’s activities and triage what I should be working on over the next two days. One of the downsides of aging is that I can’t do 14 hour work days any longer and I have to pick and choose what I will do in the 4 to 6 hours that I can work. Back to it!

    See all y’all later!

    • Sorry about the snowstorm on Sunday, Jan!

      This:

      I have to pick and choose what I will do in the 4 to 6 hours that I can work.

      You know, it’s funny—back in the days when I was working in a very busy department, I found that I could come in at 8 o’clock on a Saturday morning and leave at 1, having done a full day’s work in five hours. No lunch, no time-wasting conversations in the halls, no meetings. It was amazing and amusing. In those days I was paid for my overtime so it was often lucrative as well.

      • That is one of the reasons I start work so early – I am guaranteed at least a few hours of relief from incoming emails (hardly anyone uses the phone these days) and having to respond to questions. I do research and answer the prior days emails in a measured way and work on projects – I am often done with what I need to do by about 10am and get off my computer, keeping in touch via my personal electronic devices. Saturdays are the best because I can expect no emails and can work on what I need to work on unimpeded, including accounting work and – this time of year – tax returns and government reporting. I remember my days in cubicle-land (although just barely, that was in the late 70s and early 80s!) and having to go to meetings and socialize with co-workers. Back then I would work deep into the evening to get things done because the daytime hours were so unproductive. But also back then, when I left I was done working because there was no remote access and no email and no cell phones. I think I had a pager when I was on call for after hours computer crises. Do you ever think back over the years and years of your active working life and wonder at the changes? Sometimes it is mind-boggling to me – then I take a nap. :)

  19. Friday Meese. 37 and foggy going up to 39 with rain here in the Catskills

  20. Good morning, Moosekind! Woke up far too early so will be dragging all day. At 5:30 it was raining heavily when I took Monty out to the courtyard, so he did the absolute minimum. I think the rain is scheduled to depart by noon. Right now it’s 52 F. but “they” say temperatures will drop and the winds will occasionally gust to 40 mph. It’ll be a good day to stay in.

    Feeling depressed this morning because it seems that no matter what Thing does, he gets away with it. The Rethug-controlled media (WaPo) keeps saying he’s been “acquitted.” They’re also writing Biden’s premature political obituary.

    Thing, vengeful as the Furies of old, is going to push Vindeman out, try to do something to Pelosi, and now wants to eliminate FDIC insurance, which he thinks is welfare for banks. I won’t know where to put what money I have if he does that—krugerrands, anyone?

    I do wish something would happen to him. That poor doctor in China, who tried to warn his country about coronavirus, died. He was good, Thing is bad and getting worse by the day, so what the…?

    Wishing a good day to all at the Pond and hoping for some good news today on the national scene.

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