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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Puerto Rico
I got an email from Diana – she’s not any better and so is going to the medical center. Should be there now in fact as it opens 8 am eastern time. Hold the Good Thought in whatever way your Tradition indicates. 🕯🕯🕯
The overnight low was 75 and it’s already 80 heading for mid 90s with heat index in the 100s. The house is closed up. I’m hoping I can make it without A/C – I can’t say I sleep/slept well but I haven’t had to use a decongestant or nasal spray in weeks and I’d like to keep it that way. Today will probably tell me if I can. Yesterday clouds moved back in late afternoon (and are starting today with them). We generated 17.5 KWHs with 229.7 for the m-t-d. That’s another reason for not wanting to turn the A/C on – when it’s running my average use is 18 KWHs a day and we’re not averaging that.
Fuzzy-brained today (already). Worried about Diana. Worried about Aji. Worried about Amelia. Worried about… Channeling Healing/Helping Energy to everybody everywhere, to your shaping. Bright the day, Meeses. {{{HUGS}}}
Hot again, heat index (at 6 freaking am) 82. I got in a 30 minute walk but it’s like breathing under a hot wet blanket. Today: going in to the office to drop off the my done work, see if there are any new applications; do my taxes (I think I’m going to have to pay something), do my health insurance stuff for next year; listen to music. No one I voted for yesterday won, and I’m deeply bummed about a couple of the choices. So, music. Lots of music.
{{{anotherdemocrat}}} Music is what gets us through. Healing Energy and more {{{HUGS}}}
I’m going to have to get over my congressional candidate being a Bernie Bro (or having a lot of support from Our Revolution & the Sunrise crowd). And State Senator replacing Kirk Watson – you might remember him, he was on the environmental board, then he was mayor, a really good guy and super effective as a senator – being replaced by WW privilege woman, who is abrasive & well, privileged and will not be an effective senator. Ugh. Ok back to listening to music.
It’s always hard watching our team zoom by the exit we need to take to get where we want to go. Music is good. Sometimes it’s all that gets us through, but it does. moar {{{HUGS}}}
Well, good Wednesday morning, Moosekind. As bfitz told you, I haven’t been well. Throat hurt so badly last night I slept in the green recliner. It’s a bit better this morning. There have been other disquieting symptoms, so I had a FaceTime session with our Nurse-Practitioner here at The Home. She listened to the description of my symptoms and said it didn’t sound like COVID to her, more like a gastrointestinal something. Anyway, she’s sending a tech around this afternoon to give me a COVID test—we’ll get the results tomorrow—and in the meantime I’m to take a Tylenol if the headache gets worse, wear a mask even inside our flat, and stay six feet away from Dearly Beloved!
So that’s where matters stand now. It’s another beautiful day, 81 F. on its way up to 91 F., low humidity. I may sit on the porch this afternoon if I feel up to it.
I so hope this illness isn’t what I fear the most. I don’t want Dearly to get it. Most of all, I want to live to be 106 so I can watch my precious Miss Pink Cheeks, her brother, and her boy cousins grow up. Moreover, I have an honorary grandson living in Japan and I want to watch his progress as well. He’s already supersmart and a whiz at karate.
Our guy seems to have the lead nationwide, Mary Trump’s book is an easy read—I’m going to go on with it—and the coronavirus situation appears to be getting worse. I don’t want my precious grandchildren going to school this fall.
Wishing a good day to all at the Pond.
I hope that it is “just” a gastrointestinal disturbance. I find myself worrying also about not being around to help my daughter navigate a complex world while she is still in college and concentrating on getting an education. I want to have time to teach her how to do basic things related to setting up a household and the like. There are other causes besides a deadly disease that would move us from this earthy plane but it would tick me off royally to die that way, as a casualty of the Republican Party’s belief that they could put an ignorant, damaged person in the White House and nothing bad would happen.
moar Healing Energy, moar {{{HUGS}}} 🕯🕯🕯
Hope you feel better soon Diana. I had an antigen test for Covid last week and the results were negative, which was a relief for our son. Given the reality of Covid it’s hard not to worry.
Sending all good thoughts.
Good morning, meeses! Wednesday …
It is 72 degrees in Madison with an expected daytime high of 70. Rain and thunderstorms were in the forecast.
My “easy” morning was anything but – we had storms roll through last night and the dog was extremely upset; I was too! One of the thunderings lasted a full 7 seconds and shook the entire house. So I started out with little sleep and only did the bare minimum this morning but very slowly.
I am going to take a pass on reading the news and duck out again.
See all y’all later!
Good morning, 62 and mostly sunny in Bellingham. I was outside most of the day yesterday and my pruning skills/tools got a workout. I started with the Camilla I’ve let grow as a tree, moved on to the ivy by the back steps, then to the Alaska cedar tree, then to the salal by the upper patio, then to the laurel hedge growing to close to the barbecue, then to the rhododendron crowing the library window, and then I was done for the day. My sewing room windows are still obscured and the Nootka rose is still growing to close to the handrail on the front steps, so I’ll try to do that today. But first I need to tend to laundry and pay a few bills. I knew this garden would be a pruning challenge as it matured…..just forgot I would be older too!
Best wises to all.
Thursday Meese. 68 degrees here in Kingston NY, going up to 83.
The GOYA sage continues.
Good morning, meeses! Thursday …
It is 66 degrees in Madison with an expected daytime high of 81. Mainly sunny skies are in the forecast.
So the Georgia governor has suspended local mask mandates because “local control” is only important for Republicans when the governor is a Democrat. We saw that in Wisconsin when Scott Walker and his band of Republican miscreants suspended all sorts of local control for silica mining, minimum wages, taxing authority, you name it. I hope stores take it on themselves to do their own mask mandates – I saw that Walmart and Kohls have them now. Will red state governors override private enterprises who want to protect their customers and employees? I guess we will find out – I suspect that pro-free enterprise is easily discarded to fluff up their president, as well.
The Republican Senate wants to force schools to open by planning a COVID-19 relief package that only gives money to schools who choose to join their death cult. I hope Nancy Pelosi laughed in their faces – there should be money for schools and local governments but not held hostage to the anti-science Republicans who really don’t care if 2 million school children die. :(
Today I will try again to organize my desktop so that I can find and work on the correct projects. My current level of work activity is more than I want and I need to think about paring back again. I will look at where my time is being spent and decide which clients may need to be encouraged to find help elsewhere. That is difficult to do that after some of the lean years when I worried month to month if I would have enough work to pay the bills – does it tempt fate to say “I don’t need this business any longer”? I will have to think about it – I do need to keep working some and what if I choose the wrong clients to “move on from”?
See all y’all later!
That’s a dilemma indeed, Jan. I can sympathize because I freelanced for 11 years. There were times when I would sit with my hand on the phone, wondering whether it would ever ring again with news of a job. I ran a resume business out of my house for 10 years, but it was never a full-time living. One year it did well enough to finance a visit to Scotland, because my main gig as a contract editor during the day paid the everyday bills.
I also worked a Christmas holiday job at Brentano’s that turned out to last more than a year. The pay was abysmal but I’ve never enjoyed a job more than that one. I finally gave it up at my husband’s request because freelance editing came roaring back, and the $5.60 an hour at Brentano’s couldn’t compete with the $18 an hour from editing.
So it’s a situation that bears much thinking about. If you’ve put by a rainy day fund and you have gigs you can go back to if the main work dries up, you could pare back safely, I’m sure.
A quick post
Good Thursday morning, Moosekind. It’s 74 F. in Ashburn right now, on its way up to 90 F. At 5:30 I took the dog out for a business meeting and was thrilled to see a thin sickle of moon peering out between the clouds. We have partly cloudy skies with rain in the forecast for this morning. That’s a load of old codswallop. It’s not going to rain.
Was obliged to arise at 4:30 this morning, so of course I’m beginning to wilt. Other than that, I feel better with each passing hour, so I’m hoping when the nurse rings with the test results, they will be negative. If I really had “IT,” wouldn’t I be feeling terrible at this point? We shall see. Thank you all for your good wishes!
Finished reading Mary Trump’s book. I hope it’s a best seller! That would be such sweet revenge on her vile uncle. WHAT a nasty family! OMG, I couldn’t believe what I was reading. When I think of the great love I have for my husband, children, grandchildren, cousins, friends, and so forth, I just couldn’t believe the lack of affection, caring, and anything human that characterized the Tr*mp family.
It is a fast, easy read even for me. I generally can’t finish a nonfiction book because I become bored after a few chapters. Mary makes it very clear that the media are mainly to blame for propping up the idea that Tr*mp is a successful businessman and politician. For 50 years they’ve never challenged his own assessment of himself, never probed his dubious past, never questioned his qualifications for any job at all. I absolutely despise the media.
Well, time to eat breakfast and await the telephone call. Wishing all at the Pond a good day. I’ll come back with a report after I receive the news.
So glad you’re feeling better!
{{{Diana}}} so great you’re feeling better. Holding the Good Thought on the results. Moar Healing Energy. Moar {{{HUGS}}}
So, we’re officially tied for the hottest July on record. 102 again today. Not leaving my apartment for anything. So: work & music or some Marvel movies (got to get my $7 worth out of the Disney subscription).
It got down to 72 by dawn outside but never got below 82 inside so the A/C is on. I’m going to try just cooling the house down then turning it off again with the house closed up as if it were a ‘normal’ day without the A/C. I hope it works. Of course it would work better if the afternoon/evening clouds would go away and let the overnights drop early enough to do some good. When I was a kid I wished houses were built with roofs like drawbridges so they could be opened after midnight in the summer time and let all the accumulated heat out. At the moment I still do. 😁 That afternoon cloudiness not only holds the heat in but also cuts electricity production. We did at least get 18 KWHs yesterday bringing the m-t-d to a hair under 248. I’m not sure we’ll even make 500 this month. It’s got to get to 490 to get out of last place.
Big jolt for Amelia yesterday. Her phone was cut off. Apparently her father’s increasing dementia caused the, call it confusion. When he told her she had 2 weeks starting 7/15 he meant the service was being cut off 7/15 (which was actually 1 week from when he told her). I’m not going to call it a “saving grace” because of how many “spoons” she uses doing it but after we scurried around trying to get her on somebody else’s plan and couldn’t because it required her father’s SSN, she finally got angry. That gives her an adrenaline rush that lets her do stuff. So 3 hours on the phone (fortunately they called her back after talking a few minutes to cut the motel charge) talking to multiple reps and they managed to open a prepay account in her name. But something was wrong with Verizon’s computer so payment…they charged then pulled back the charge on her debit card (which locked it and hopefully she got it unlocked again last night – she was gonna try anyway), then charged then pulled it back on the credit card I’d have preferred to use (at least that didn’t lock it – I checked), and finally took the charge on a second credit card of mine – but didn’t send a conformation or receipt even though she now has phone service again. If she’s still got any of that adrenaline going she’s going to call Verizon about that sometime today. But once the adrenaline’s gone, she’s gonna crash for at least a week. If we’re lucky only a week. That’s what living with her disabling condition is like. (It’s also why Aji sounds so angry all the time. Anger is the energy she’s running on. & thank goddess/es for Wings – Love is the reason she bothers.)
Other folks I’m seeing on twitter so I know they’re at least alive and online. The ones who don’t do twitter…always on my mind, always in my prayers. Channeling Healing/Helping Energy to everybody everywhere, to your shaping. Bright the day, Meeses. {{{HUGS}}}
Meese! The nurse just called! NEGATIVE on the COVID test!
No quarantine, no sign on the door, just be a little more careful, only see family, and so forth. I asked, “Well, what DID I have?” She replied that it was most likely a 24-hour gastrointestinal virus. Almost everyone gets something like that from time to time.
So I am feeling highly relieved. Now we can take a little mini-vacation with Monty next week at Elder Son’s house. We’ll use his barbecue to grill steak and corn on the cob. That’s what Dearly misses the most about living here, not being able to grill.
Dear Goddess, I am so happy and thankful! Thank you all for your good wishes and have a good day.
W00T!!!! W00T!!! W00Tity-W00T W00T!!! – That’s wonderful and I’m relieved too. (I envy you the grilled steak and corn on the cob. I haven’t had that since my friend’s first husband died. Enjoy.)
Healing Energy & Blessed Be.
Good news Diana! Now you can rest easy and start feeling better soon.
Yay!!!
Good morning, 66 and partly sunny in Bellingham. I have a hair cut this morning but the stylist I have been with at the new salon is no longer working there so I’m hoping for the best. The new reality means arriving with clean dry hair, and leaving with cut wet hair but staying safe is impt. And after months of home trims any professional cut will be an improvement!
Yesterday was a house keeping day, so I hope to do some more pruning this afternoon. Now that the rhodie by the library window is cut back I can wash the window, and it’s needed. Amazing how much more light comes in when just a few layers of branches and leaves are gone.
Best wishes to all.
Good morning, meeses! Friday …
It is 68 degrees in Madison with an expected daytime high of 86. Sunny skies are in the forecast. Tomorrow we will be in a dangerous heat index alert as the temperature goes over 90 and the heat index goes over 100. I thank the goddess every day that I have – and can afford to run – air conditioning.
There is extreme pushback to the #RepublicanDeathCult‘s insistence that schools reopen. I saw a Reuter’s poll yesterday that showed that only 1 in 10 of white suburban women support reopening schools. In 2016, that demographic went to tRump by over 16%. If that flips, there is no way he will win “re”-election. Whoever is advising him about who votes in most elections and what is important to them is insane – I suspect they know he is doomed and just want to get their juicy paychecks. Mothers do not want their children to die in order to fluff up the Republicans’ president’s “plan” to reopen the economy. Until public places are made safe by requiring masks, there will be no recovery. People. Will. Not. Shop. If. It. Will. Kill. Them. The Mayor of Atlanta says her mask ordinance is still in place and dared Gov. Kemp to sue her. I hope they can find a judge who is not a member of the death cult.
It is Friday, so I should be able to put off any work requests by saying “I will look at it over the weekend.” I have one thing I need to do during a work day and I will try to do that today but the rest of my to-do list does not require human interactions.
See all y’all later!
Friday Meese. 63 here in Kingston NY going up to 86.
Puerto Rico
Citizens denounce jamming of passengers who arrived this afternoon from Florida, Boston and New Jersey to the Luis Muñoz Marín airport in San Juan
9th day in a row over 100, ugh. And mosquitoes carrying West Nile were found in my neighborhood. The dot on the map was where I reported some dumped tires back in May that still hadn’t been picked up last time I walked that far. I didn’t walk this morning because I didn’t feel well yesterday. I signed out from work early yesterday, took a nap and still never felt better. And I only got 5.5 hours of sleep last night, sigh. Looks like the Discovery channel is having a Mythbusters marathon today, don’t know if that’s a normal Friday thing or a tribute to Grant Imahara. Gonna watch at least some of that.
{{{anotherdemocrat}}} Healing Energy. & maybe a nap later. Enjoy the Mythbusters. moar {{{HUGS}}}
At 78 heat index 80 it’s still cooler outside than in so I’ve still got the house open and will until the outside temps reach the inside temps. Which should be within an hour. Then I’ll run the A/C one cycle to bring the house temps down. Today’s temps are supposed to be about the same – about 90- but the heat index isn’t supposed to get to the 100s. The temps will drop a little sooner (like open up the house at 10 pm instead of after 11 pm) but the overnight is still mid 70s so I’m probably gonna have to do the A/C in the morning again. sigh. And maybe – tomorrow and today – have to run it for a cycle in the evening a couple of hours before I go to bed. That worked yesterday for sleeping/breathing. I’d forgotten what running that blower does to my eyes though. I’ve been reminded. sigh. Anyway, happy Summer or something. We generated 16.5 KWHs with 264.4 for the m-t-d. No that’s not on track but that average will get us over 500 so that’s good. Especially with the A/C use.
Aji got some rain yesterday! Not much more than “lay the dust” but anything helps in that drought. Just keep stuff alive right now is the important part and rain before stuff dies, even a small amount, keeps stuff alive. She still needs one good sale or several small ones (2 or 3 of the gemstone coil bracelets would do it) to “get through” July. Double that and she could get the plumber back and the chimney inspected/cleaned before the service is swamped come Fall. Amelia crashed before she could contact the bank much less Verizon. Holding the Good Thought she can scrape up enough energy to at least deal with the bank today. Other folks I’ve seen online. I don’t know how they’re doing but I know they’re alive and online.
Me? I’m keepin’ on keepin’ on. Not sure how well I’m doing it. Especially with my eyes bothering me the way they are – and will continue to be as long as I have to use the A/C at all. But I’m here. And I don’t need my eyes to care or Channel. So. Channeling Healing/Helping Energy to everybody everywhere, to your shaping. Bright the day, Meeses. {{{HUGS}}}