Week-long Welcomings from Moosylvania: Apr. 12th through Apr. 18th

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!
 
Page Three of Comments is HERE!
 

 

41 Comments

  1. Good “morning”, Motley Meese! The week begins …

    Morning low of 41 degrees in Madison WI with an expected daytime high of 46. Light rain is in the forecast.

    Have a great day, all y’alls!!

  2. Here’s some Stacey Abrams to get you fired up about voting! By the way, the 6 states cited as the keys to winning the general election all have “no excuse needed” mail-in absentee ballots. NOW we just need to pull together the resources to get everyone registered and show them how to order their ballots. We can do this.

  3. Sunday Meese. 31 going up to 62 in Saugerties NY.

    Puerto Rico

  4. Good morning, Meese, it’s a gray-looking Easter Sunday here. The current temperature in Ashburn is 40 F., going up to 70 F. I wonder how many will go to church today and contract COVID-19?

    Yesterday I ate carbs, carbs, carbs so my weight this morning is shocking. I’ve really got to watch it. Had a 90-minute FaceTime session with Darling Daughter in The Hills, Texas. She told me that on Friday she spent an hour watching two garter snakes having sex on the garden path. She added that afterwards they appeared exhausted.

    The little girls down the road, whom I look after when their parents go out for a date night, sent me some drawings and cheerful messages they’d created. So sweet of them! And it was definitely a day brightener.

    The entire day got away from me yesterday so I hope today will be better. I’m extremely worried that THING refuses to fund the USPS. He doesn’t want people voting by mail. How in the die-diddley hail did we end up like this? The only reason I can see is that crass, orange-faced, ugly THING gave people permission to reveal their ugly, racist, white supremacist selves with no penalty. Rethugs basically unite, whereas we Democrats like to fight among ourselves in our quest for the perfect saintly candidate.

    Oh, well, that’s been said approximately 1,000 times before. I’m going to get on with making breakfast. By the time the newspaper arrives we will have lost interest in it, having read most of it online.

    Hope everyone will have a good Easter Sunday, perhaps with a nice dinner to take your minds off what’s happening in the world.

  5. Sunday Sermon posted

  6. No overnight thunderstorm, no hail, just a little rain. And even that was over before I could set my basil out for free water. Oh, btw — I’ve managed to keep my poinsettia from Christmas alive. I’m pretty proud of that. Today, I’m going to order a nice meal to be delivered, just a little splurge. And I really mean it this time, I’m going to get out & walk. Church Friday was on Facebook live, I’m guessing today’s service will be, also. I’ll miss our usual big, loud, joyous service — we have a bigger than usual choir, a 6 or 8 piece brass orchestra (is that the right word?), and all the stops out on our really big organ. I hope they manage to keep 1 tradition: the service ends with a ragtime tune. It’s a fun, light way to end a happy service. A great song for today: Love Is Bigger Than Anything In Its Way. I hadn’t thought of it as an Easter song, but it is. Especially this version, where in the intro Bono says to the audience: “be safe, be brave”

    • {{{another}}} – enjoy your special meal and I hope the service, even as FB live, speaks to your heart as the in-person ones do. (Congratulations on keeping your poinsettia alive. That’s an Easter present right there.)

      I still can’t get your donate button to load from the link in your tweet. I really do want to send something for your virtual ride. moar {{{HUGS}}}

  7. Good morning, 40 and sunny in Bellingham. Our Easter is low key this year……a simple lunch with our son, followed by a porch visit with our grand girls, grand puppies, and their parents. We’ll all keep a safe distance :) I’m just grateful we can be together again.

    Ron’s mom was a talented baker and her rhubarb custard pie was a tasty treat. I’m making a gluten free version today, using her pie filing recipe and a shortbread cookie crust. It’s more of a torte than a pie but I haven’t made a gf pie crust worth eating so this is an acceptable alternative. Ron’s been nurturing the rhubarb growing in the veggie garden so I hope there’s enough. If not I’ll add frozen strawberries and it will taste just fine.

    Best wishes to all on this Easter Sunday.

  8. To those who celebrate it, Happy Easter. We’re at 56 heading for the low 70s before the temps start dropping like a rock around 7 pm. Overcast. sigh. Got some rain overnight and more expected throughout the day. Yesterday’s 6.7 KWHs looks puny next to Friday’s 18.3 (more sighs) and the m-t-d is 122.8 so even with today’s probable diddly we’re on track for 300 – but 300 is only 70% of the “norm” for April with the 4K system.

    Waking up to a cloudy day and then having to deal with multiple cat barf’s and an over-turned litter box has left me disinclined to do housework. So I have even started today. I will. I’m eating Sunday breakfast (oatmeal, sausage, OJ, and coffee) at the computer. I’ll get to work when I finish. (Or possibly after I’ve visited Dee’s Sunday Sermon.)

    The times, they are scary. For my friends and family. For the nation. For the world. Well, we wouldn’t be here if our parents, grandparents, and further back hadn’t survived scary times. Looking back, knowing the ending as it were, people have a tendency to both glorify and diminish what happened in those earlier scary times. In no set of scary times did anyone there know they’d survive them, know their family/community/culture/Nation would survive them. All they could do is do what came to their hands to do, hope (and pray by whatever name), and keep going. Some of them didn’t make it but their kids did. Some folks were the end of their particular lines – family and community/Nation. They didn’t know. We don’t know. So we keep on keepin’ on. And support each other to the best of our abilities. Colonizer culture pushes the meme of the Individual (while using those suckered as cannon fodder) – well, last man standing is dead man walking. For a very short time. Only together are we strong. Only together can we survive. So. Healing/Helping Energy to everybody. Bright the day, Meeses. {{{HUGS}}}

  9. Good morning, meeses! Monday …

    It is 32 degrees in Madison with an expected daytime high of 37. The weather widget says snow but it appears to have stopped for the time being – there definitely was some overnight. Today it will be mostly sunny.

    Virginia, yikes!! Governor Northam signed laws making Virginia the blue-est of the blue states. I am sure heads are asploding all over “Real America” – say bye to Robert E. Lee whose statue will be removed from Statuary Hall in the U.S. Capitol. That is one huge reminder that Elections Matter.

    I bought some stamps in solidarity with the U.S. Postal Service, which is being targeted by tRump and the Republicans. It was great to see that big middle finger trending on Twitter. The link is store.usps.com. I bought a sheet of Gwen Ifill and a book of Earth Day stamps. I don’t use stamps much any longer – I may donate them to the Wisconsin Democratic Party later this year.

    I will be watching the “May Re-Opening Plan” closely – it probably won’t be overseen by Dr. Fauci who has apparently done the unforgivable: upstaged the malignant narcissist in the Oval Office. Joe Biden put out a plan in a New York Times editorial that I haven’t read yet. I thought it was interesting that over the weekend there was a poll published that asked people if they would attend an in-person sporting event if given the chance. Only 6% said yes! I was shocked, I expected the number to be 30% matching the percentage of die-hard(!) MAGAts who will do anything to own the libs, even die a horrible death connected to a ventilator isolated from your loved ones. Maybe it is finally getting through to people that it isn’t a hoax.

    It has become Monday again (weekends are too short) and I need to get a couple of projects done before people start work.

    See all y’all later!

    • Also, follow the USPS:

        • Don’t use them now. At least not in the kinds of numbers we’re buying them to keep them going – use them, but considering the strain they’re under right now with the pandemic, keep that curve flat enough as well so they aren’t overwhelmed. {{{HUGS}}}

  10. Monday Meese

    60 here in Saugerties NY and raining all day, going up to 64.
    Taking my husband for an MRI this morning – hoping we can find out why he is in terrible pain from his shoulder.

    Puerto Rico


    “Cancela spoke. If the local press does not have access to special government programs, Telemundo will not broadcast them.”

  11. Good stormy Monday, Meese! It was raining BIGLY at 6 a.m. when I took Monty out to the courtyard. The poor little thing got soaked even though I put his raincoat on him. “We’re in for a rough day,” my neighbor, who was attending to her little poodle, Raspberry, said.

    Indeed we are. Right now it’s 59 F. and raining, on its way up to 76 F. One wave of thunderstorms is passing through right now and the other will pass through at midday. There is the possibility of a tornado.

    I gather quarantine will last through May. That’s okay. In fact our governor wants us to stay home until June 10. He did not sign the bill raising the minimum wage, to my disappointment, but I do understand. Revenues are down because so few people are working.

    Other things he did were to roll back the stupid-ass restrictions on abortion and institute new, if namby-pamby, restrictions on gun owners. BTW, I heard on Orange that the NRA is laying off staff bigly. Could it be that at last people are tired of the slaughter? (Beginning to entertain self with fantasies—what if COVID-19 dispatches all the death culters?)

    Younger Son FaceTimed with us last night. He’d just served lamb with roast potatoes to 3/4 of the family. Mr. Kindergartener was upstairs melting down because he didn’t want to leave his video games. Just as I have abandoned my bra during this time of coronavirus, so have both sons abandoned shaving! They’e now as hairy as potters.

    Wishing everyone as peaceful a day as possible. I think he wants to fire Fauci and the Scarf Lady for saying Bad Things about when to open the economy. We’ll see.

    • That must be the storm we were supposed to have the other day. Glad it missed us, hope all goes well for you.

    • Diana, I was surprised to see our son with a full beard yesterday. His has a fair amount of gray hair, another reminder of how much older we all are.

      • Yes! I have to stop mentioning Elder Son’s gray hair. He is very sensitive. When he was born his hair was flame-red. He always hated it but it did turn strawberry blond as he grew up.

  12. ohmygoshit’scold. 40s overnight — which is winter weather for us. It’s 70 in my apartment, I might need to turn on the heater tonight. And it’s supposed to stay cold all week. Got to get in 8 hours working today, and a walk. If it’s going to be in the 70s this afternoon & beautiful blue sky, I have to get outside.

  13. It’s 33 heading for 48 and sunny at the moment. Forecast is for cloudy by mid morning. Also a freeze warning for overnight. I hope they’re wrong on both counts. But especially for the cloudy. They keep going back and forth about whether or not we get snow/wintry mix tomorrow. So we’re getting another week of winter before hitting the 70s again by next Monday. Yesterday we got 6.8 – the weekend together didn’t reach what Friday did all by itself. The m-t-d is 129.8 so still heading for over 300 – we’re gonna need a lot more sunshine in the latter half of the month to get anywhere near “normal” for April. Live in hope.

    USPS would be considered a money maker if that R 2006 lame duck session hadn’t decreed USPS and only USPS must set aside 70 years worth of projected retirement benefits before they can budget and use the rest of their revenue. I wish our team weren’t such suckers for the MSM RW propaganda. No, it’s not twitler wanting to prevent vote by mail – it’s a long held and cherished dream of the Rs to get rid of the only means of communication they cannot control. They own 90% of the media – radio, TV, newspapers – and most if not all of the big social media platforms. They’re working on the internet in general. But they can’t stop the mail. They can’t charge more to folks they don’t like, want to scam, or want to put out of business. They can’t grease the skids of their propaganda. So yeah, twitler probably sees it as a way to stop vote by mail – but that’s not what it’s about or been about since the Rs managed to shut down Post Office savings accounts umpty decades back.

    But so far it’s a sunny day, if cold,so I will enjoy the sunshine. Channeling Healing/Helping Energy to everybody. Bright the day, Meeses. {{{HUGS}}}

  14. Good morning, 46 and mostly sunny. I love seeing the garden come to life, but this year the pollen and budding plants are making me sneeze…..a lot! I finally took an antihistamine in the night so now my foggy brain is refusing to function.

    I’ve got a few desk chores to do today, and then I need to sew some masks. At the rate I’m going we’ll all be out of quarantine before I get them done!

    Best wishes to all on this sneezy sunny day.

  15. Good morning, meeses! Tuesday …

    It is 27 bone-chilling degrees in Madison with an expected daytime high of 37. Sunny this morning then clouding up and a chance of precipitation this afternoon.

    Good news out of Wisconsin! Dane County Judge Jill Karofsky defeated Scott Walker’s handpicked destroyer of democracy and won a 10-year seat for the good guys on the Wisconsin Supreme Court. We don’t hold the majority but we narrow our minority to one vote. That means that the worst of the worst can’t hide like they did a few times last year – with a 5-2 majority you can let the weakest member sit one out or you can get a recusal if you make a big enough stink. Now it is all in and we might win a plus we will have a chance in 2023 (edit) to regain the majority after two years of seeing who is doing the bidding of their donors rather than the people of Wisconsin. Jill will be seated in August after what I am sure will be a lot of court challenges – the victory was decisive though, 7 points and across a lot of counties, so there will be no official recount. It is beyond sad that people were required to vote in-person during a pandemic – goddess keep them healthy. We got a sneak peek at the challenges we will have for the partisan primary in August and the general election in November – fortunately we have a smart guy, Ben Wikler, in charge of our party – and a lot of national attention on Wisconsin to help us vote. Now, get people registered, get people signed up for absentee ballots and for crying out loud #FundThePostOffice!

    I was heartened to see that the reaction to tRump’s nepotistic craptastic economic death cult commission – and his unhinged claim that he can order the economy to open – was for states to create their own regional recovery consortiums: one in the west and one in the northeast, so far. I wish we had a state legislature that cared about people – Wisconsin, Minnesota, Illinois and Michigan would be a great region to work within. But our Republican legislature will be pushing back against every smart and decent thing our Democratic governor wants to do and we will surely open up too soon – tourism is huge here and I cannot imagine them not letting the water parks and resorts open up. :::sigh::: I know that I will personally continue social distancing until there is a vaccine – I will avoid crowds and continue to wipe down purchases. I am hoping that the grocery stores continue senior hours and order pick ups although I am not thrilled about having someone shop for me. Too many out-of-stock situations that require a trip to the grocery store anyway. Plus I can’t afford to pay the premium prices for the stores that have pick-up – our local warehouse food store has none and the price differences are pretty significant.

    Tomorrow is mid-month and the April work I must do beckons. I was somewhat lazy at the beginning of the month, doing only the most pressing things. Now I need to take a deep breath and dig in.

    See all y’all later!

      • In the dead of winter, 27 degrees feels balmy. But after some nice warm days – shorts weather! – in the middle of April it is bone-chilling. We won’t see the 50s again until the end of the week. Brrrrr!

  16. Tuesday Meese. 43 in the Catskills going up to 56.
    Receipts

    Puerto Rico

  17. Good Tuesday morning, Moosekind. I’m sort of losing track of which day it is and I haven’t seen the newspaper yet, so I’m a bit foggy. Had almost 8 hours’ sleep last night so feel quite happy.

    Also happy because of Wisconsin! Kudos to the brave souls who masked up and stood in line six feet apart for hours until they could vote! They’ve set an example to us all and I commend them for it, but I do hope we don’t have a repeat situation in November.

    Hope the Post Office survives, because writing postcards to voters is one of the few ways that old, tired, arthritic people can help with elections. I know I feel touched and grateful when I receive such a postcard, even though I don’t need any reminders to vote.

    Still feeling extremely frustrated because of getting nothing done. It’s hard to focus on anything when the dog demands attention every 15 minutes. I’ve turned into an even bigger b*tch than usual, threatening to divorce the dog when All This is over, and I’m sure Dearly would like to divorce me for being so bad-tempered. Thus doth the pandemic make viragos of us all.

    Anyway, it’s 44 F. in Ashburn at the moment, on its way up to 55 F. With the winds only 5 to 10 mph, I can go for a walk today in the hope of seeing a better number on the scale tomorrow morning.

    Denise, hope the MRI results will help the doctors to find a solution for your husband’s shoulder pain.

    Wishing a good day to all and hoping the day’s news won’t be too awful.

  18. Another crazy cold (for Texas) morning. 40s for an overnight low is winter weather, as is a high in the low 60s. I didn’t get in my walk yesterday, the day just got away from me. I worked some extra in the evening, to give me some flex time so I can be sure I’ll get outside today.

  19. It’s 37 heading for 52 and overcast. again. We got some rain but not the snow and wintry mix they threatened. Anybody who’s already put out tomatoes had better have covered them (and do so again tonight) but we’ll be back to 60s/40s Wednesday and 70s/50s next week. These few days are just a reminder of winter not winter really coming back. We got 10.8 KWHs yesterday – m-t-d is 140.7 – and since it’s supposed to clear off this afternoon we might get more today. Which is good because it’s gonna take a bunch of sunshine to get even near our “norm” for April.

    I am not surprised at Twitler thinking he has dictatorial powers. I am not surprised at the Rs going along with it – they’ll take him down whenever he stops being useful them. I am surprised at the Dems/very intellect folks I know who seem to think him declaring he has them means he really does. That he’s taken them somehow by demand or wishful thinking or something – and keep demanding that the Dems, who’ve already impeached him (their legal recourse) do something. Sure everybody should be calling some version of “liar, liar, pants on fire” or “no you don’t” every time he opens his mouth but what magic do they think Dems, holding a single house of Congress, are supposed to be working? Hell, if we had that kind of power twitler wouldn’t be in the WH and moscow mitch wouldn’t have hamstrung Obama’s appointments in the first place. sigh.

    OK, need to get my muffin bread out of the oven then get on doing the laundry. Healing/Helping Energy to everybody – as needed and as accepted. Bright the day, Meeses. {{{HUGS}}}

  20. Good morning, 51 and partly sunny in Bellingham. RonK is making good progress cleaning the winter debris from the patios and one of my favorite garden shops is open again so patio season is underway. It will be nice to expand our four walls to include the outdoors.

    The rule of three applies to my sewing…..three screw ups and then I’m focused! Got those out of the way yesterday :) Best wishes to all as we find our way through another day.

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