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!
Good “morning”, Motley Meese! The week begins …
Morning low of 37 degrees in Madison WI with an expected daytime high of 59. Mostly sunny skies are in the forecast.
Have a great day, all y’alls!!
Sunday Meese. 48 going up to 49 and raining here in the Catskills.
Just learned that my favorite young colleague from school got COVID-19 – as did her husband and two baby daughters – thankfully all survived.
Puerto Rico
NO ONE in PR has received the stimulus money? This is beyond disgraceful! Can the ACLU sue-sue-sue?
And here we affluent old peeps are, getting ours! Most of mine is going to food banks and, of all things, diaper banks. There are young parents who can’t afford clean diapers for their little ones.
Sunday – music music music
The front that is giving Austin perfect, gorgeous weather also brought/encourages a ton of pollen, so my allergies are just miserable. Yesterday kind of got away from me. Going to try to do some of that stuff I meant to do yesterday, Though I did enjoy the Saturday Song Write (watching it required very little brain power on my part).
Another, sorry about the allergies. M’Daughter outside Austin has to take to her bed periodically because she suffers so much in allergy season. She says the pollen from cypress trees particularly bothers her.
Hope you are taking good care of yourself. After a week off it, I’ve had to start back on Allegra just so I can breathe.
It’s 55 heading for 75 and supposed to be sunny, which is actually is at the moment. A lovely day. If it weren’t for the pollen/fungi that invasive honeysuckle is so free with, I’d spend a bunch of it outside. Fortunately very little of that actually blows to the house so when it’s warm enough I can and do open windows. Most of it comes from the east and I only have one east window – and that faces the neighboring house which cuts most of it. All the cedar trees are to the west and south with houses in between so it takes a heck of a wind to get it into my house. But if I’m out walking around or trying to do yard work? sigh. But the sun is lovely and I am thankful to Whoever blessed us with it today. Yesterday we got 16.77 KWHs which brought the m-t-d to 312. We’ve only got 5 production days left, counting today (which has already generated 1.3 KWHs), so I’m feeling comfortable about beating out the 2.5K system’s 335. But isn’t that a sign of a cloudy year – to be happy about a 4K system barely beating out production of a 2.5K system. Oh well. It’s still more than I use. Even though I’m using more lately – when the temps don’t drop until too late to build the fire, I use an electric “foot warmer” heater. Electric heaters are incredibly inefficient. They have to be. That’s how they work. But soon enough it will be warm enough to not need that either.
I’m ignoring everything I can while still boosting the folks I’ve committed myself to boost. I know things are bad. I support in what little ways I can the folks who can and are trying to do something about that. I support in what little ways I can the folks I’ve been helping whose situations are now even worse than they were before this started. I Channel and otherwise Petition the Universe for help. Even knowing the Universe is too vast to even notice the need much less the petition. Can’t hurt, right? And exercise my body and my patience as best I can. Tend to what is at hand. (Well, sometimes I put off things. The cats are all sleeping so I’m not getting out the vacuum cleaner just yet. 😁😁😁 ) So more coffee and twitter boosting then head over to read Dee’s Sunday Sermon. Channeling Healing/Helping Energy to everybody to your shaping. Bright the day, Meeses. {{{HUGS}}}
You actually know east from west in your house? (Taking off plumed hat and bowing low before bfitz.)
I never could get the hang of that stuff. In the days when I conducted Circle meetings at my house, I had to rope Dearly Beloved in to tell us where East was so I could call the quarters. Or, if he refused to come up from the downstairs rec room, I’d have to hunt down the nearest compass.
There are some things that a person just isn’t going to understand in this lifetime.
{{{Diana}}} – it’s all windows and the sun. I know which window gets only morning sun (east), which windows get only afternoon/evening sun (west), which windows get some sun all day (south), which windows don’t get direct sun at all (north). 🌞🌞🌞🌞 Now if I’m in an enclosed space with no windows…nope, haven’t a clue. 😁😁😁 moar {{{HUGS}}}
Good morning, 50 and cloudy in Bellingham. I enjoyed a front porch visit with a friend yesterday. Life in my COVID bubble is comfortable but I miss being with other people so it was nice to keep our distance yet actually be together.
No surprise, her visit resulted in a few more masks to sew but oh well. I’ve got a routine now so the actual sewing is relatively simple and the slower part of cutting and making the ties is nearly done. I’ll sew a few more today. I want to be outside but the garden is covered with pollen. Seems like more than usual this year.
Best wishes to all on this quiet Sunday morning.
Good Sunday morning, Moosekind! It has been raining since yesterday evening here in Ashburn. Right now at 11 a.m. it’s raining heavily. The current temp. is 49 F., going up to 59 F. I don’t mind the rain. As I’ve remarked rather vulgarly in the past, the rain washes all Monty’s poop off the grass in the courtyard. We scoop, of course, and put the bags into a covered bin thoughtfully provided for that purpose, but still, rain cleans off the grass in general.
We watched the daily briefing at 4 p.m. yesterday and heard there has been another death. (Our community has 1,400 residents and 200 or 300 staff.) It’s true that the unfortunate victim had already been living at Maple Grove (the Skilled Nursing/Assisted Living/Memory Care building), and people there tend to be suffering from chronic illnesses in the first place. Some of those who’ve had the virus have now recovered, which is good. However, there is another case of COVID-19 in Independent Living, where we are. This person had left the campus to visit family. The ED also said there were discussions underway about reopening the community.
Afterwards I wrote to our Thing-supporting ED and politely said that our governor has ordered a lockdown until June 10. I said that even after that date, it was going to be a very long time before my husband and I felt comfortable eating in any of the restaurants here or attending any of the events on campus. I ended by saying I can’t control what the other residents do (like going off-campus to get a haircut or visit family and thereby contracting COVID-19), but I can control what my husband and I do. Also said I hoped carry-out dinners would continue to be an option. So there! (Righteous sniff.)
Well, on to the next thing. Let me say that all of you Meese are the BEST friends anyone could ever have! Thank you all. Bfitz, I appreciated your words of comfort the other day; Jan, I appreciated reading your opinion that we made the right decision in 2017; and princesspat, it’s nice to know that talking about our experience here has been helpful to you and RonK.
Very soon I’m going to post something I’ve been wanting to share since the end of our first year here (March 2019). I’ve hesitated about posting it on Orange for two reasons: first, I am afraid of the feedback I would get. My essay could be interpreted (with some justification, admittedly) as the whining of an overprivileged old white bitch. Secondly, there has never seemed to be a good time to post it: so many dire events happen every single day that I haven’t thought anyone would be interested in reading what I’ve written. Our national situation never improves, it only worsens.
However, if it helps anyone here to decide the next stage of their lives, I’m glad to offer it in the hope it will be received in the spirit intended.
Remember the old Russian proverb: “After the wolf comes the bear,” which means no matter how bad things are now, they’re only going to get worse.
{{{Diana}}} – Yes, Meeses are the best. And help with deciding “what next?” is always good. The world may or may not being going to hell but we still live our daily lives and must make our personal decisions. moar {{{HUGS}}}
Monday Meese. 44 going up to 47 with rain here in the NY Catskills
Virtual Town Hall – today
Puerto Rico
Good morning, meeses! Monday …
It is 46 degrees in Madison with an expected daytime high of 47. Rain and gloom predicted all day.
It is difficult to believe that it is almost May! How did that happen? I feel like April was a blur after a March that lasted about 60 days; March and April merged and became Marpril. I think that May 1st is the day I promised people I would be able to return to normal, with support of stay-at-home workers winding down and people starting to gear up for more normal work flows. I am not sure we are ready but I need to be ready from my end. I will clean up my to-do lists and organize for May.
It sounds like the vulgar talking yam will be ending his daily shitshows – turns out that it makes him more popular with his base (those who manage to survive ingesting bleach!) but less popular with about 80% of Americans who are horrified. Many of those people thought he was just another Republican (tax cutter and zygote protector) and voted for him in 2016 – a lot of those people are realizing now that his incompetence, ignorance and malignant narcissism set the stage for the country to be devastated by a global pandemic. People are dying, the economy is in shambles and the only way out is to wait it out which Americans are terrible at. I saw beaches in California starting to fill up as though a flattening curve meant we were out of the woods. The headline in my local paper about the Green Bay outbreak “Brown County was ahead of the curve, until they weren’t.” A (now closed) meatpacking plant there was the source for what is a spike over the past two weeks to 6,000 infections. “Ahead of the curve until they weren’t” – JHC, people, don’t be stupid about this. One article I just finished reading said that opening too early will make the economy take a bigger nosedive in a second round. Restaurants open and then get slammed shut because of new spikes, then what? How soon before people come back from that? As the article asked, who wants to be the test case for if it is safe to reopen? The only way the economy can reopen is if an effective treatment/cure is developed so that the infections can be managed. I won’t venture out – the $1,200 will allow me to spend $200 more than normal per month on groceries and meals for the next 6 months. My auto insurance is sending me a refund, I am spending way less on gas – $0.99 per gallon! – my full tank will last two months. Utilities went up having an extra person in the house but not by much – just summer expenses a little early. I know I am one of the lucky ones and feel sad for those who are struggling to live crammed into a small apartment, trying to keep their kids on task for school and working from home in less than ideal circumstances – and maybe without a job at all. I was pleased to see that folks (Kamala!) are talking about rural internetification just like they talked about rural electrification a few generations ago. Internet access should be everywhere with low-cost devices distributed to those who need them – this pandemic may be the impetus for a change in how we treat internet access, not as a luxury but as a right, like water and electricity and landlines.
See all y’all later!
“Marpril” is a keeper!
WaPo
Biden’s campaign could have a wider reach if the asinine MSM would give HIM the coverage it gave the criminal! And Biden is the presumptive nominee of his party, which Thing was not at the time.
I saw something that suggested Biden is getting one media mention for every 10 by tRump. Of course, the tRump mentions are usually negative! But we need a shadow White House, a parallel “universe” where competent people are managing the coronavirus pandemic and response. That the news stations, cable and network, are NOT doing that is a sin. If they spend 5 minutes on the lies, they can spend at least 2 minutes on the Democratic Party’s antidote.
True!
Biden’s campaign is getting more and better coverage than Hillary’s did. Mostly because he’s an old white male with name recognition. MSM isn’t asinine. They’re criminal. The RW propaganda machine put together by the Birchers and run by whatever Cabal the Birchers are now a part of.
Good Monday morning, Moosekind. The early rain has given way to partly cloudy skies but no matter, it’s going to become cloudy again. In fact we have a solid week of clouds, rain, and chill coming up. At the moment in Ashburn it’s 44 F. on its way up to 60 F. Out in the courtyard a few minutes I saw ugly dark rain clouds scuttling off into the distance and noted the wind is already kicking up. I plan to take my walk very soon, before it gusts to 30 mph.
The post I spoke about yesterday is nearly ready to upload, but I’ll have to do it after my walk. I keep fiddling with it, that’s the problem.
What else…just signed up for the Biden/Harris virtual townhall (thanks, Denise). Still feel terrible about all the suffering of poor families and middle-class families. The idea that children are hungry in our own country makes me want to yank my hair out. I have a bit more to donate to food banks, will do that in a week or two.
We Facetimed with Elder Son and family last night. Mr. Preschooler kept climbing onto Daddy’s shoulders and thrusting a piece of paper showing his “artwork” (scribbles in rainbow colors) in front of the viewfinder. Today is Elder Son’s and DIL’s seventh wedding anniversary. What a wonderful occasion that wedding was! Four members of the English branch came over, one member of the Australian branch, M’daughter from Austin with handsome grandson, and a never-to-be-forgotten time was had by all. Dearly took a photo of the four “Mrs. Reads” in the room.
If social distancing continues through the summer we won’t be able to celebrate Mr. Kindergartener’s birthday, Mr. Preschooler’s birthday, or Dearly’s 90th birthday. (First-world problem, I realize. It’s just that in our family we always make a big deal out of birthdays.)
So the Resident hasn’t received his “Noble” prize for journalism? OMG. Someone with an IQ would know the difference between a Pulitzer and a Nobel prize. That someone would also know how to spell “Nobel.”
Best wishes to all at the Pond for a quiet day with less bad news.
{{{Diana}}} That’s the worst, the hardest, part of the quarantining. Not being able to be with family, especially in the important times. It’s more than just an “inconvenience” to not be with family. It tells our social-animal brain that something’s really wrong and adds to the stress. So no, not just “first-world problem” – a core-deep need just slightly above the air/water/food/shelter/music level. Since you’ve got Facetime, use it as much as you can for that connection. more Healing Energy. moar {{{HUGS}}}
Apparently, tRump or someone in his administration, deleted a number of his tweets from yesterday’s more-insane-than-usual meltdown. They were too much even as output from a well-known drooling dotard suffering from narcissistic injuries that are appearing more and more to be debilitating. My prediction is that the burden of being so vilified – with his protections failing – will eventually lead him to either check out or bail out.
The people who put him in power will take him out again as soon as he stops being useful. He’s been great cover for RW court packing, really nasty SCOTUS rulings, and serious election fraud. And they’re just fine with a Crash – they make millions buying everything in sight at pennies on the dollar – but then they have to allow Dems to get back in again to rebuild the economy so all that “worthless” stock becomes valuable again. I’m just hoping that with pandemic in addition to Crash they may have overreached. The voter suppression and rule changes they’ve put in to keep themselves in power will keep us in power if we overwhelm the vote and get there.
I keep saying it’s the last cool day but now I really do think this is it. I walked 2 miles early — it’s easier when it’s still cool. Working now, and we’re going to start doing new applications; only people who have e-mail addresses, still no way to communicate with people we have to call. Anyway, happy Monday.
{{{anotherdemocrat}}} I’m glad it’s cool enough for you to get a good walk in. Is old-fashioned snail mail an option with your folks who don’t have email? Healing Energy & moar {{{HUGS}}}
When we go back to the office, we will make calls. Until then, only people with e-mail addresses can be set up. In the before-times, we would call to set up new users, we can’t do that now because we’d have to use our personal phones. We can’t do that without them getting our personal numbers; and also they’d have to figure out how to reimburse us for the use of our phones. So, that’s just not going to happen.
Understandably. I wonder if rotating a few of you in once a week each to set up new accounts – and only to set up new accounts – would work. Few enough people to maintain “social distancing” but able to get to the equipment needed to do the job. moar {{{HUGS}}}
It’s 62 heading for mid 70s and overcast. Rains starting soon. Storms for tomorrow afternoon. (I’d best bring the grow boxes back under the carport before that starts.) We got 20 KWHs yesterday and the m-t-d is at 332.5 so if we get much of anything at all today we’ll at least beat out the 3.5K system’s 335 – but getting to 375 to get out of last place for the 4K system? Maybe. Getting to 400? Nope.
Welp, we’re surviving. Some of us in better shape than others – I’m actually in pretty good shape – but so far surviving. I’m worried about Amelia. And Aji – they’re getting diddly sales and they can’t make it on Aji’s Patreon alone (but at least that’s something). A few others who aren’t as known to the Meeses. Folks in this country are totally unwilling to accept that it’s gonna be a slog. That it takes time and quarantine to get through a pandemic relatively safely. I say relatively because it’s already way too late for just safely. Only the goddesses know how this mess is going to shake out. Meanwhile…Channeling Healing/Helping Energy to everybody to their shaping. Bright the day, Meeses. {{{HUGS}}}
Good morning, 53 and partly sunny in Bellingham. Thanks to the magic of the internet I visited with family and watched a live concert yesterday. It’s not the same as being together in person but it’s better than no contact at all! The concert was interesting……2 people playing their music and managing the technology, and comments streaming in from around the world.
Our son will be here soon to install the shelves he’s made over the old work bench area in the basement. Yay for project completion! I’m already enjoying working in the cleaned up space and this will make it even nicer. It’s been a slow process, but it’s good to have something easy to work on between more demanding projects.
Best wishes to all on this sunny sneezy day. My garden is coated with yellow pollen!
{{{princesspat}}} Yay! for your son and completed projects. The one good thing about the rain today and tomorrow (OK, there are lots of good things about rain – I’m being self-centered here) is the water will wash the yellow pollen off the solar panels. 👍😁 Healing Energy to your household & moar {{{HUGS}}}
Good morning, meeses! Tuesday …
It is 39 degrees in Madison with an expected daytime high of 66. The forecast calls for rain all day with a few thunderstorms scattered in.
I am up way too early – I finally gave up on trying to sleep at 2:30am and got up to see if I can get some things done.
Okay, so now what? Are the charges against Joe Biden credible now that a neighbor of the person who reported the sexual assault collaborates it? And – not that this excuses anything – on what planet does a serial adulterer and person who pays hush money to porn stars get to run a campaign tsk tsking over the sex assault claims against his rival? I am going to give up and hope that the asteroid hits us tomorrow – I can’t deal with the berners demanding that their completely unsuitable candidate become our nominee.
See all y’all later!
p.s. The moose web site is pestering me to update to the next version of WordPress (5.4) so I am going to do that later this morning. So if the site is unavailable for a while, check back.
Thanks for doing the update, Jan! It is very confusing to post here. I wanted the one I uploaded yesterday, “Life in a Home for the Aged” to have that headline but WordPress demanded a new headline, which is “Downsizing from a House to an Apartment.”
That is quite odd! I have a lot of posts that are the same name (my holiday posts, for example) and usually WordPress just adds a “1” after it. I wonder if it was because it was from another WordPress site?
No, I’ve actually had this piece sitting around for a year because I couldn’t make up my mind to post it. Much more important news seems to be happening all the time. So yesterday was the first time I’ve posted it. It’s OK, I rearranged the headline because “Life in a Home for the Aged” is much more indicative of the subject matter than the other title.
If anyone reads it, please let me know whether you think it’s too self-absorbed or something. I just wish I’d known beforehand what a rocky transition it was going to be.
Good Tuesday morning Meese. 41 going up to 63 and sunny (for a change) here in the Catskills.
Spending the daytime hours at the new house, working frantically to finish repairs – we’re moving the furniture from the farm to the ‘city’ (10 minutes away) on Saturday.
Still have no cable/internet over there – sigh.
Puerto Rico
Dee, it’s so awful what PR is enduring. I hope our new, longed-for prez next January makes PR one of his top priorities.
Is it because of the corona crisis you can’t get the Internet installed in your new house?
Take care of yourself and good luck on the move. Holding the Good Thought you’ll have your internet by the weekend. {{{HUGS}}}
Missed my walk this morning, and it is going to be hot & sticky today — expected to be in the 90s. So this seems like a good day to skip it. Between my confusion with new processes and computer issues — not mine, the software that lest us work remotely — I got very little work done yesterday. Hope today is better.
Good morning, Moosekind! It’s another grayish day here at the Home. The temperature is 46 F. in Ashburn on its way up to 59 F., with steady light rain predicted for the whole day. Not a really good day for a walk, but might do it anyway. My weight is ballooning because of my inability to control my sugar addiction.
We FaceTimed with Younger Son yesterday. DIL was watching a Korean soap opera on her laptop and Mr. Kindergartener, who is very camera-shy, ran off to another room. Miss Pink Cheeks was using her mother’s phone to talk to her best friend, so we just talked to Younger Son, who is enjoying the respite from shaving every day. He said the other day he was having a beer in the garage when Mr. Kindergartener came up and said, “Do you want a drinking buddy?” LOL! Miss PC, apparently, has become very much like an imperious princess, demanding baguette, brie, and strawberries for lunch or wanting her father to make sushi.
Apparently Fairfax County’s ridiculous hash-up of online learning means the kids only have it for a couple of hours a day, through Zoom, not Blackboard. They do have “work packets” that arrive by mail. At four o’clock all bets are off—that’s tea time, after which the kids rush off to play video games. The dog is really enjoying having his family at home all day.
Nothing much of interest happening here. I still have the same old undone chores to do. I’m getting to where I simply cannot deal with any more bad news.
Hope everyone will have a decent day!
It’s 67 heading for 77 and can’t decide about sunshine or not. It was sunny at 8 am. It’s sunny now. In between it was dark enough I needed my lamp. We got 5.5 KWHs yesterday and the m-t-d is 338 so at least we’re ahead of the 2.5K system. Whether or not we reach 376 and get out of last place for the 4K system is totally up to how much sunshine we get these last three production days of April.
I had some 47 emails this morning – most of them end-of-month fundraisers. But there were a few I actually wanted to read. LOL. One day at a time is how we get through stuff. We “normally” are too busy in a lifestyle we’re accustomed to living to notice that. Now we’re not. But we still do what’s at hand to do one day at a time. So I have some online stuff to read (like Diana’s post) and some coffee to get. Check my garden boxes. Do some “sympathetic magic” and such. Channeling Healing/Helping Energy to everybody to your shaping. Bright the day, Meeses.
Good day, 56 and cloudy in Bellingham. Between tRump/election/covid angst I’m not sleeping well, having very disturbing dreams, woke up way to early, went back to sleep, and am now trying to start what should have been a busy day. Our son is going to be in Seattle tomorrow, donating plasma as part of a COVID study at the UW Medical school, and he will stop in Edmunds on his way home. So I want to send the masks for Lisa’s family with him, and that means I need to get sewing!
Best wishes to all on what is now a short day.
I was reading that some 2,600 people have had the plasma treatment, there have been no ill effects reported and the anecdotal “evidence” suggests it is working. It will be interesting to see how they decide who gets that treatment as opposed to other treatments, especially if it gives long term recovery not just short term mitigation of symptoms.