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!
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It’s 75 going up to 91 and at least at the moment the sun is shining. Yesterday we only got 12 KWHs as the clouds moved in just as serious per-hour production was starting. We are at 161.2 for the m-t-d which is still on track, so that part’s good. I’m in the middle of doing laundry and also keep getting interrupted with emails that need to be addressed so I’m hit and miss on my internet “duties” this morning. But laundry is a part of life – and really a very comfortable part of a comfortable life when one has clothes to wash, a washer to wash them in, water (and soap) to wash them with, & electricity to run it. I’ve washed clothes by hand in my younger days – when my hands were up to it – and even a few times used a hand-powered washing machine. Blessing to be/are being counted.
The protests aren’t gonna stop. Neither is the pandemic. Neither is the recession (which we’ve officially been in since February – before we shut down for pandemic). I have no idea how things are going to shake out. So I will keep doing what I can and hoping for the best. Including hoping Aji’s dogs get home even though it’s been a week since they went missing. jan4insight’s death has shaken a number of folks – mostly those like me who live alone and always have in the back of our minds that we could go out that way. I’m getting emails and DMs from folks wanting to talk about it/her. (Those are the ones I answer as soon as I see them.) Life is. It just is. It’s not always here, where we can see/hear/touch, but it just is.
So many people, so much need, so much pain…Channeling Healing/Helping Energy to everybody, to your shaping. & need to get to hanging clothes before they sour. Bright the day, Meeses. {{{HUGS}}}
Bfitz, as you know, I’m one of the shaken ones. I wish there were a way to find and rescue all these people so that none of them would die poor, alone, and in pain.
If one could but win the lottery, I know exactly what I’d do with it.
{{{Diana}}} yes, I know. And yes, I do too. Well, there is sort of – but AmeriKKKa will never do it. We’ll see if we ever manage to get off this slimy evil path onto one that will lead us to an America that will. As to jan4insight – well, she was gonna die poor. Nothing could have been done about that. But alone and in pain? Not if the police had actually gone in and checked any one of the first 4 times we called and requested a wellness check. That’s why I’m at least as angry as I am sad about this. moar {{{HUGS}}}
Good hot Tuesday morning, Meese! It’s 75 F. in Ashburn, going up to 94 F. today with 66 percent humidity. Thank Goddess I walked the dog already. Dearly is getting his car inspected. Our Gov said it was OK to do it two months late.
I’ve got a headache from missing 2 and 1/2 hours’ sleep last night. Must get as much done as possible before The Crash at 1 p.m.
Good to see that our Kamala is out and about, as is our presumptive nominee. I hope this Black Lives Matter movement isn’t swept under the rug this time. Defunding the police is not a good idea but the entire police forces in every state need to be retrained. If only there were a Tolerance Transfusion Apparatus whereby the bigotry would be drained out of the white cops and tolerance transfused into their veins. Intelligent persons noticed some centuries ago that no matter the color of the skin, the blood beneath is the same color.
I have a new pen pal, a high school girl who lives in this area. She wrote to me, I replied, and now I’ve got to address the envelope and get it out there before noon.
Can’t remember whether I’ve mentioned this before, but there are two words that Americans do not want to utter: one is “die,” and the other is “toilet.” I just read about a Death Café, wherein people of all ages gather for an evening to write their obituaries. I think I’m getting an idea for a short story, possibly even a novella.
Well, the dog is exhausted from his walkies and sleeping it off on the sofa. He’ll start snoring in a minute. I think I’ll surprise Dearly by tidying up the public rooms. This place is a total wreck!
Hope everyone will have a nice, quiet day with no bad news.
Good morning, 53 and raining in Bellingham. A friend delivered a “welcome to the neighborhood” lasagna dinner to our son last night. Small gifts of kindness mean so much when people are stressed and exhausted. Hearing the pleasure in his voice was a good reminder of how important being a friend and neighbor is in our daily lives.
I rested the day away and as a result didn’t sleep very well last night so I’ll try for a better rest/activity balance today. I’m not doing what I usually do in our garden this spring but RonK and the deer are keeping up with the ivy and thanks to the rain what is planted is growing. And the rest can wait it’s turn. Best wishes to all on this rainy day.
Princesspat, it’s always so nice to know there are people like that in this world. It seems that your son is going to be happy in his new home.
Good Wednesday morning, Moosekind! Cloudy today with the possibility of thunderstorms tonight. Before the sky clouded completely, I took Monty out to the courtyard a little before six and saw the Strawberry Moon at last! Well, three-quarters of it, anyway. Where has it been hiding on these clear nights?
The current temperature is 76 F., going up to 93 F. We need to get our walks done before too long so we can spend the rest of the day inside.
Banana-walnut bran muffins are baking in the oven and the coffee is dripping into the waiting pot. For a change, I feel quite energetic. For one thing, I nearly had enough sleep; for another, the idea for a novella about the Death Café is taking shape. Life is always better when I’m writing.
What happened in Georgia yesterday is inexcusable! Why isn’t there a commission or some kind of organization that goes around checking that working equipment is in good order and that delivery trucks are ready to deliver them? Oh, wait, I know—Georgia has a cheating Rethug gubernator! Well, someone had better get busy and make sure the November election won’t be stolen. If the po-lice think the crowds are huge and threatening now, just imagine what could happen if the election is stolen.
I’m going to stop thinking about it or I’ll lose my mojo. Checked on the plants yesterday. Still no actual tomatoes but I spied teeny-weeny zucchini forming.
Wishing a good day to all at the Pond.
Our federal government has turned the apparatus of voting over to the states because they know that means Republicans will control – and continue to control – the red states. It is inexcusable. The first thing our new majority must do is kill the filibuster and then update the Help America Vote Act (HAVA) which was put in after the 2000 election ratfked our country for what is now looking like a third decade. It never went far enough because it had two Republican administrations to defang and defund it and only a brief one year period since 2000 where we had filibuster proof majorities in Congress to make good government stick – and we were dealing with a global financial meltdown that used up all of our time. The swamp was too wide to drain and now it is a fetid cesspool. :(
Good morning, meeses! Wednesday …
It is 70 degrees in Madison with an expected daytime high of 77. It is incredibly humid and the air is on so we don’t have to bring in that air. It looks like we will have a chance of rain today.
I can’t stay to read the news or anything! I was offline yesterday and today I have to travel for an unavoidable hardware related issue plus set up work for some critical projects. I did listen to Joe Biden’s taped appearance at George Floyd’s funeral and I am Fired Up and Ready for Joe! I love seeing Kamala everywhere and raising money for Biden 2020 – I hope it is soon Biden-Harris 2020.
See all y’all later!
Wednesday Meese. 69 going up to 89 with rain here in the Catskills of NY.
I wish people would not forget – Puerto Rican Republicans currently control both houses of their legislature, the Governorship, and the non-voting rep to Congress
Ugh!
According to the widget it was 58 just after dawn and is only 61 now heading for 77. Also overcast and very windy. Nippy wind, too. But that makes it a great morning to bake 5 lbs of chicken breast for the next couple of weeks’ worth of protein. So I am. Heck, if my laptop worked I’d be sitting on the counter with my feet on top of the stove while online. LOL. Yesterday we got 21.3 KWHs and the m-t-d is 182.46 – still on track.
Tomorrow I’m baking banana muffin bread. I’m trying to decide whether to do peanut butter banana or almond butter banana with added chopped walnuts. I’ve used the last of the teff so this batch will be besan and potato flour. We shall see what we shall see.
Aji posted on her blog that there’s been a sighting of one of the dogs so at least he’s still alive. Double up on the prayers to bring them home. Poor little Cricket – he’s too afraid of humans to let even Aji and Wings touch him but he won’t let them out of his sight. He showed up as a half-grown pup in a pack of 6 in Feb 2018 to a household that already had 2 – and until/unless KitFox and Chinook come home, he’s the only one left. And since Cricket won’t let them close enough to touch, Aji and Wings have just spent a – she called it “bereft” – week of reaching out to pet a dog and for the first time in over 20 years there not being a dog there to pet. (& this is at the forefront of minds and hearts – even with the taxes and plumbing repair due like now and needing to put in an expensive well/irrigation system to grow food for human and horse.)
I’ve heard from other folks. Hanging on. Sad/depressed. But hanging on. And as determined as they/we can be to vote this evil regime out of office in November. The policies of these evil mostly men since long before twitler are why they are in situations of just hanging on. And they’re the ones still alive. GA is being touted as a wake-up call. If folks had to wait until yesterday to hear the wake-up call, they’ve been pretty damned oblivious. But if GA yesterday forces mail-in voting/recountable paper ballots through in states who were hesitant, good. Meanwhile…Channeling Healing/Helping Energy to everybody, to your shaping. Bright the day, Meeses. {{{HUGS}}}
A friend on another blog said she doesn’t trust election officials not to throw her mail-in ballot away. I’m afraid of that too. Another thing that weighs heavily with me is that I like seeing my neighbors come out to vote. That’s why we took Miss Pink Cheeks and Mr. Kindergartener with us to the primary in February. I want them to grow up knowing how important it is to vote.
I love that I was able to take my daughter to the polls in 2008 to watch me vote for Barack Obama but that was a simpler time. We still had a Democratic governor and reasonable Republicans in the state legislature and we never imagined what would happen in 2011 with Walker taking over and immediately destroying good government and starting the gerrymandering that has sunk us for what looks to be a generation. The problem started in 2010 when some idiotic Democrats stayed home, bored that there was no presidential election, and angry that President Obama did not give them any ponies. The berning started in that election and it was led not personally but ideologically by Bernie Sandersism – the notion that Democrats and Republicans are the same and that boycotting elections was the way to “show those dems!”
We olds don’t have the luxury of in-person voting if our standing in line is keeping someone who can’t early vote (because of their schedule) from voting because of the daunting long lines.
We need election day to be a holiday and we need early voting – including weekends – to be required in every state. And we need absentee/mail-in ballots that are managed properly to give people confidence that the ballot will arrive and be counted. Colorado has a great system – you can literally see online that your ballot arrived and was counted. Wisconsin has a terrible system where you are lucky to get the ballot and then get it back and then the ballots sit in a box in the city clerk’s office until election night then walked over to the precinct instead of being tallied right away. We need systems updated so that people have confidence in the process.
/leaps off my soapbox
THIS! “If folks had to wait until yesterday to hear the wake-up call, they’ve been pretty damned oblivious.” I know that we are really tapped in and sometimes we forget that everyone does not follow the news like we do but, holey moley, ratfked voting has been the problem since 2000 and Georgia 2018 was one of the most egregious cases. That a Republican controlling the election “won” the governship in an election where black people were literally unable to vote ONLY TWO YEARS AGO should not be a slumber anyone was in. Stacey Abrams has been banging the drum ever since and the lawsuits started immediately but never achieved enough progress to help. One thing that Georgia Democrats can and should be embarrassed about – there was a special election to replace the Secretary of State after Kemp resigned to become governor and no one fking showed up! You have to vote in every election, even the ones that are boring, if you want to take back the levers of government. A Democratic Secretary of State would have fixed the voting problems or at least made progress – and made a stink if the Republican legislature blocked common sense reforms.
Vote. In. Every. Election. As. If. It. Is. The. Last. One. You. Will. Be. Allowed. To. Vote. In – because it very well might be if you stay home.
Had to cut my walk/run short again. Leg started hurting. Contacted a friend who is a coach, asked how much it costs for a personal coaching session. Got to figure out what I’m doing wrong. Cold front came in overnight, it was really pleasant while I was out. Still 70s, but lower humidity, so it feels nice. Today is a better day to drive into the office.
Hope you can get the help you need for your leg, another!
Good morning, 56 and mostly cloudy in Bellingham. Looks like a june/january day outside my window. The trees are green but the sky and the horizon are all too familiar shades of grey. I need to focus on indoor tasks today, so being in a cocoon of grey may be less distracting.
I think our son will take the last loads from the old house garage to his shop today and a friend has offered to help him clean the old house so he’s close to just having the new house to deal with. The last few loads to there have just been dumped so he’s got quite a mess to sort out. I feel for him but have done just about all I can do.
Best wishes to all.
Good morning, meeses! Thursday …
It is 57 degrees in Madison with an expected daytime high of 75. Mostly sunny skies are in the forecast. Yesterday’s front brought the promised cool down and it will be pleasant for a few days.
I am glad to see the Confederate monuments coming down – now we need to vote out the living Confederate monument in the White House and his enablers in the Senate.
Still catching up from yesterday’s travel day and a flurry of new – critical, of course – projects that landed on my desk.
See all y’all later!
Good Thor’s Day morning, Meese. Thor has been very much in evidence lately. We had a stormy evening with downpours, thunder, and lightning, and it’s overcast with pregnant gray clouds hanging around this morning. The temperature in Ashburn is 76 F., going up to 86 F. later. The thundershowers, if any, will be finished by noon, according to the weather widget.
Jan, I read your account of how Colorado manages its vote-by-mail system and was impressed. That should happen everywhere. The taking up a position in the voting line at the polls doesn’t apply to my situation: here at the Home we’re our own voting precinct. But it’s a compelling argument for those that live in regular neighborhoods, I agree.
This article in the WaPo today has me spitting teeth:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/kamala-harris-seizes-the-spotlight-as-biden-seeks-a-veep–but-worries-linger/2020/06/10/8f484f84-a991-11ea-9063-e69bd6520940_story.html
I’ll be going on Twitter proclaiming how excited I am to be voting for Biden and if he chooses Harris, I will work for their election 24/7. It will be so nice to have civilized, sympathetic human beings in the Oval Office again. Who says we Dems aren’t enthusiastic? The creep that wrote the article clearly dislikes Harris.
Some totally off-the-wall guy, writing from Malaya about the grim shortage of women in China, thinks women should have two husbands and multiple children. Well, honey, that wouldn’t work in a culture that routinely aborts female fetuses because men are regarded as sacred. A lot of Chinese women are liberated and want careers instead of domestic slavery.
The fact that Thing is holding a rally on Juneteenth in Tulsa, Oklahoma, is so disgusting that I can hardly comment on it. A hundred years ago Tulsa was the site of the worst race massacre in this country’s sorry history. I lived in that benighted city for four years and was never told anything about the massacre. Thankfully, I left there in 1965 and have never been back since. Loathsome place!
Wishing all at the Pond a good day with, Goddess help us, some good news for a change.
I am purposefully ignoring the racist president’s planned rally in Tulsa which is designed to trash Juneteenth and pump up his base – I hope they all blow COVIDs on each other (I only feel slightly sorry for their elderly parents – they should have raised better children!). I am hoping that some celebrities plan an event that day with singing and uplifting speeches that the networks will feel compelled to broadcast, blotting out the hate rally. It is up to us to remind everyone of Tulsa’s – and tRump’s – history and force the lazy press to report it and open some eyes.
The political press is stupid, by the way. “Questions linger about Harris” is lazy bulldung, just like the lazy headline a few days ago that suggested that Joe Biden is doing too well. WTH!!
I am glad you vote in your own enclave. Even if the lines were guaranteed to be short, I won’t vote in person any longer because they moved my polling place from the library to a church last year. I think voting should be in a neutral site, not in a building with a crucifix – to me personally a symbol of oppression – mounted on its roof.
They moved our polling places from the elementary schools to the churches over 10 years ago – Mike Flim-Flam Huckster was still the governor. I’ve been voting early at the Court House ever since. And either will again or will do mail-in voting if A$$hole Hutchinson allows it. Which he probably won’t unless the Waltons on their ilk tell him to. Yes, he’s a fascist – but on the capitalism side of fascism, not the religious side (like Cotton). sigh.
Our in-person early voting is at the library and City Hall. I will continue to do that if it is safe or get the absentee ballot and drop it off at City Hall (2 minute process). I don’t trust the mail after a bunch of bins of ballots ended up at a mail processing site in Appleton after the last election. A good tracing system on the ballots would solve a lot of those problems, along with better communication with the post office.
Cotton is scary and it is awful that the New York Times helped him burnish his reputation at their expense. I am hoping that his brand of christianist fascism stays a small minority. The traditionalists in the Republican Party (I won’t call them moderates or even decent) are not too keen on Cottonism – the question is if they feel they need to embrace it to win; I have no doubt that they will embrace anything, regardless of how offensive, to keep power. It is how the unholy alliance between the white evangelicals and the Wall Street crowd created the party of Reagan and the Bushes and paved the way for Trump.
The Post Office employees jacking with the mail is scary. Does it ever show where some people’s loyalty and priorities are (not with the nation or their jobs). Yeah, Cotton is scary. He always has been. Another Oliver Cromwell. Self-righteous evil.
Completely agree, Jan! I would find that very offensive too.
Cool morning, wish I could save this one to walk. Instead, I have my front door & kitchen window open to let the cool in. Talked to an old coach of mine, he gave me some stretches to do. Could only do the teeniest of them yesterday, my leg is so tight that any stretch feels like it might snap. Anyway, today: work, stand up every hour, stretch very carefully, increase water intake.
{{{anotherdemocrat}}} are you getting enough (or the right balance) of magnesium? My calf muscles used to do that all the time when I was a lot younger (now it’s not as often and my feet instead). I take 1200 mg Ca and 600 mg Mg when I’m getting Mg in my food, 800 mg MG when I’m depending on supplements along. And at certain times in our lives, women need even more. Healing Energy. moar {{{HUGS}}}
It’s 66 heading for 86 and sunny. Yesterday even with overcast until after 1 pm we generated 15.7 KWHs and the m-t-d’s at 198 – it’ll probably hit 200 by 10 am. We are definitely on track – a testament to both the much sunnier weather we’ve had so far this month and the new configuration which is in full sun by 10.
Aji’s dogs still aren’t back. She’s devastated. Also using time and energy she doesn’t have looking for them. They need money – sales are still pretty much one per month – for taxes, plumbing repairs, normal living stuff, and a big chunk (est $15K) to drill a well and set up an irrigation system in their north field. It’s been 3 years in a row without enough natural water – either rain or stream fed by winter snowpack – to grow their own food or hay for the horses and this year, while it started better, is looking like a 4th. But this year they aren’t getting enough sales to buy food and hay – especially not enough to share with the local Elders in need as they usually do – and they’ve got to get back to growing it. For that they need water.
Everybody else is hanging on. In pain, depressed, money issues but hanging on. So much hope for the November election. So much fear about it. IF we can get WH and Congress, we’ve got a chance to turn things around. So many folks mental/emotional health as well as physical health hanging on it. We do what we can. Even if it’s only make banana nut muffin bread and bake all the potatoes before they turn green. Which is what I’m doing right now. Channeling Healing/Helping Energy to everybody, to your shaping. Bright the day, Meeses. {{{HUGS}}}
Good morning, 58 and cloudy in Bellingham. Our first child was born on this day in 1968, 52 yrs ago! The country was in turmoil and assassination grief was profound yet in my personal life it was a day of love and joy. And here we are, in yet another cycle of fear for what is happening to our country yet life goes on. Happy Birthday Lisa :)
I’m somewhat bemused to read the articles re scary voting by mail because our kitchen table has been our polling place for years now. I still miss voting in person, but I never miss a vote now and I did when life interfered and I couldn’t get to the physical site. We seem to have a secure system in Wa State and it’s under the direction of the last elected R on the west coast. Pains me to vote for her, but the system depends on professional management and she does a good job.
Thinking of my daughter on her day and sending my best wishes to all.
{{{princesspat}}} – Happy Birthday to your daughter! 🎶🎶🎉🎂🍨🎁🎶🎶 & moar {{{HUGS}}}
Happy birthday to Lisa!
Good morning, meeses! Friday …
It is 52 degrees in Madison with an expected daytime high of 77. Sunny skies and a chance of thunderstorms later in the day. Tomorrow the predicted high is 68!
I am glad that the racist ER doctor from Ohio was fired. First, calling black people “colored” is really odd in 2020 but putting that aside, saying that they get COVID-19 because they don’t wash their hands is ghastly. No racism in tRump’s ‘Murica, for sure.
I feel sorry for the folks in Jacksonville FL who will have a disease vector this summer. Maybe next time you should elect a Democratic mayor or at least a Republican who is unwilling to be part of the Republican Death Cult. COVID-19 is spiking everywhere because the Republicans value the economy over human lives. Because they are anti-science idiots, they will have have killed people for no reason – the economy is not coming back until it is safe for people to work.
Another “too busy” morning as the critical projects that landed on my desk this week are requiring more effort than originally anticipated. New products and services to understand and deploy and that is slowing me down. Back to it!
See all y’all later!
Jan, you make me glad I’m retired! :)
The weekend is on the way, though.
I’m semi-retired but the few clients I have chosen to keep seem to be very needy all at once! I am doing some swamp-draining projects that should make life easier down the road but for now I am working much harder than I want to. I got too comfortable in my shutdown cocoon, I think, and not quite mentally ready to juggle multiple projects.
Friday Meese. 61 going up to 83 and sunny here in the Catskills of NY.
Saw this news re Puerto Rico and gasped
Chris Christie
Chris Christie? Jeebus! As if the Junta isn’t vacuuming enough money out of Puerto Rico. Just what they need – another worthless bloodsucker.
Great Mother! SOMEONE should stop this!
Cool morning, it would have been a good one to walk, but when I went to bed my leg still hurt so I didn’t set the alarm for walking. It feels pretty much normal now — I’ve stretched it twice and it feels ok. Today: get in 5 hours of work & my week is done. Listen to my U2/Snow Patrol mix — so much better for mind & soul than having the TV on.
{{{anotherdemocrat}}} glad your leg feels better. Hope you can get some walking in. I also hope they keep you working at home for a long time. Preferably permanently. Healing Energy and moar {{{HUGS}}}
Another, glad to hear the leg is better. I saw that bfitz recommended magnesium. Taking it helped me in the winter, when my leg is sometimes seized with a painful cramp during the night. I ordered mine from Amazon.
It was 58 at dawn, is 75 now, and heading for 90. Mostly sunny, which is good. At least at the moment the humidity isn’t bad. If it stays that way we won’t have a heat index problem. Yesterday we got 24.66 KWHs and the m-t-d is 223 so most definitely still on track. I like this. 😁🌞😁
Aji’s dogs are still missing. All we can do is try to “pray them home” – and hope. With the economy doing what it is, hoping/praying for the sales they need to get done what they need to get done seems forlorn. But I do it anyway. Wings is doing the beautiful and very worthwhile work. Heck, some of his work could be part of sacred regalia. It’s not created to be. Wings wouldn’t put anything out for sale that was sacred to his people. But it’s beautiful enough and has enough symbology sacred pretty much universally to do that. & Aji and Wings are the one family/household who actually could deal with all their financial problems with sales of their creative works. The other folks on my “worry about” list really don’t have much recourse beyond gifts as they’re already getting whatever they qualify for of the diddly the governments – federal and various locals – think poor and/or disabled folks are supposed to live on.
So the world is effed up – politically, economically, environmentally – and it’s entirely due to the evils of “colonizer culture”. That’s overwhelming. So. Find a piece that isn’t and do it. That’s pretty much what we can do. And if all of us do that…maybe it will be enough. Channeling Healing/Helping Energy to everybody, to your shaping. Bright the day, Meeses. {{{HUGS}}}
Bfitz, I suppose it’s no use for Aji to apply for Small Business help. Some businesses are doing that.
Unfortunately, given the current situation, few people have the inclination or income to buy anything beyond necessities.
A lot of the SBA help for the pandemic – even if minorities manage to get it at all – is geared towards helping small businesses make payroll. Aji & Wings don’t have payroll to make. They don’t have rent either. Electricity and internet, which thanks to them being on the reservation together run over $300/month (when they’re lucky), plus the materials (silver & stones) are their business expenses. And they’d have to have a “close relationship” with a major bank. Which “is to laugh”.
And yes, under the current economic/financial circumstances ordinary folks like us pretty much need to stick to basic living expenses. But now is really the time when folks better off should be buy/investing in things like jewelry and staying the heck away from the Stock Market. They won’t though. They’re the suckers who think they can “make a killing” – then they themselves get taken down when the Market tanks and they panic sell “before it drops any lower”. Nothing new under the sun. moar {{{HUGS}}}
Good morning, 58 and cloudy in Bellingham. Our son’s move is a nostalgia trip for me because he is now the caretaker of so many family treasures. Yesterday I washed the old house dust from my grandmothers quilts, getting them ready to be in his new house. So many memories! The new house has a gas furnace with hot water radiators so it should be much less dusty than the old forced air system he has been living with.
Our grand daughter wore her cap and gown for a solitary walk across the stage at her high school yesterday and then posed for an official photo with her diploma. Each graduate was filmed and the “graduation ceremony” will be shown on YouTube tonight so the family will bring pizza and watch with her. I’ll bring my computer and watch from a safe distance, but I’ll be there and that’s what matters.
Best wishes to all on this quiet morning.
I’m glad you’ll at least be able to view on TV, princesspat!
M’Daughter sent me pix of grandson in his graduation cap and gown, posing for unofficial photos. The one of him sitting on top of a wall is guaranteed to give any grandmother a screaming nervous breakdown! There was one of him posed with the University of Texas Tower in the background, so I told her I liked that one.
I feel sorry for all the graduates. There’s so much they’re missing! In America, senior year is meant to be filled with dances, picnics, the prom, and after-prom breakfasts. At elder son’s high school we parents put on an all-night party with the chance to win a car if they stayed all night for the drawing after breakfast.
Feel especially sorry for the millennials who will graduate from college to enter the worst job market since the Depression.
I asked my daughter about her graduation ceremony and she said she would have gladly skipped it; I think a lot of the kids look forward to the day but not necessarily the big to-do surrounding it. It has a lot of moving parts and rules and for a big school it is mostly just a lot of names being read and not-very-eloquent school administrators saying things that only apply to small minorities of the student body (sports seemed to be a big deal). Dressing in cap and gown and getting the picture taken is a nice thing and I hope that “Graduation 2020 – Pandemic” is something that binds these kids together for the rest of their lives. Maybe it will turn them all into Democrats when they realize that the Republican president and his administration essentially fiddled while the virus burned.
As far as the job market, yikes! I suspect that there will be a lot of kids living in their parents basements for a lot longer than they (and their parents!) would prefer. Entire industries have been shrunk and wiped out and until people feel safe shopping (which sadly is the only engine of the American economy now) economic activity will be slow and growth nonexistent. I am not sure why we do this – relative prosperity, hand the reins over to Republicans, mismanagement leads to economic crisis, Democrats clean up and return us to a semblance of prosperity, hand the reins over to Republicans. Let’s break that freaking cycle. At least we have a chance to limit the Republican damage to four years, we really would not survive a second tRump maladministration.
Good morning, Moosekind! I’m late this morning because I had to get ready for the Shred Truck’s arrival at 10 a.m. It’s a blissful day in Ashburn—clear, cloudless blue sky with no taint of pollution, sunshine, a little breeze. Right now it’s 83 F., on its way up to 85 F. The humidity is only 38 percent.
Took only one Tylenol PM last night because I’d had a Tylenol for my headache at 4 p.m. However, it worked. I had a wonderful sleep, 7+ hours.
This morning, while going through a huge pile of stuff, I came across my half-finished novel from 17 years ago, Iron and Scarlet. I was reading through it and although I say it myself, I was amazed at how good it was! I’ve been putting the first three chapters on my website for the last few months. I think I’m going to go ahead and finish the thing. I will, however, tone down the s*x considerably. That’s more exciting when left to the reader’s imagination. (My viewpoint has changed in 17 years.)
Another thing I’ve come across are Miss Pink Cheeks’ drawings and writings. It’s tempting to throw all that stuff away—I did it when our children were growing up, BUT time passes all too quickly and then one is left with nothing of their childhood except photos. I’m putting her work in a carefully labeled folder and will find a safe place for it. Bear with me while I reproduce a list for one particular activity she undertook:
This must have been compiled in 2017, when she was nine, because that’s when we rented our downstairs to a neighbor and his little girl.
Well, today I’m going to have a mani and pedi in a carefully sanitized environment. My toenails are so long they’ve been going through my Peds! I hate adventurous toenails that want to explore their surroundings.
Wishing a good day to all at the Pond!