Week-long Welcomings from Moosylvania: Aug. 9th through Aug. 15

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!
 

 

27 Comments

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

    Morning low of 70 degrees in Madison WI with an expected daytime high of 86. Mostly sunny skies are in the forecast.

    Have a great day, all y’alls!!

  2. Sunday Meese. 69 degrees here in Kingston NY going up to 89. Sunny.

    Yet another night of interrupted sleep. I wonder if after the election I will get back to normal and finally be able to sleep the whole night? I doubt it will happen till the lunatic is out of office.

  3. Puerto Rico

    • Why do Puerto Ricans reject the idea of becoming a state? If, as we hope, the Democrats win big, surely PR would benefit under a Democratic administration?

      • Because they are very afraid that they will lose their identity and culture – 80% of Puerto Ricans do not speak English. They are well aware of the history of their relationship to the US – they haven’t benefited under either US party.

  4. Good Sunday morning, Moosekind! It’s fair today, 72 F. in Ashburn at this hour, going up to 89 F. Rinse, repeat. I’ll be glad to see September, that much I can tell you. Believe me—many people are saying it will be cooler.

    Yesterday I ordered plastic visors and disposable gloves. We’ll go masked, visored, and gloved to vote early, in person, in October. No way am I trusting my ballot to the U.S. mail now that the Criminal in Chief is actively slowing down the mail service. I’m getting to where I hate billionaires. They have no concept of the suffering of regular people.

    While researching the short story I intended to write for the contest, I ended up in tears. The story is about a dying woman. I think I’ll write about something else. Judges don’t like downers.

    Not much news here, except that Monty appears to have fully recovered from his unpleasant time at the vet’s the other day. For any dog owner thinking of leaving her house and moving to an apartment, I have one word of advice: don’t. Either keep the dog and the house, or find the dog a good home with someone who has a huge fenced backyard. I cannot sit down to focus on a piece of writing without being interrupted by the dog, who always wants something, whether to go out, a snack, a meal, or playtime.

    The media, like a snarling pack of rabid hounds, are getting ready to eviscerate whoever Joe chooses as his running mate. But this time there are bunches of women across the country who are ready to scream and eviscerate right back.

    With that jolly thought, I’ll wish everyone a good day at the Pond.

  5. Happy Sunday! I meant to get up & walk, but I didn’t. I wanted to sleep in more. Now, I’m drinking tea & watching the news. Today: church, then making overnight oats for the week.

  6. It’s 77 already and I need to close up the house before it gets any warmer. (Going to the mid 90s, heat index around 100.) I’ve got a little time as it’s also overcast which slows the temperature rise. The widget sez yesterday, today, and tomorrow are the worst of it. Then the overnights will start inching down again followed a day later by the highs. Not cool by any stretch but not suffocatingly hot and humid either. & hopefully the ‘no-see-ems’ will also go away again. Liddle efffers are small enough to come through the screens and they seem to think I’m very tasty. So do the mosquitos outside. sigh. Yesterday’s clouds cleared off early enough we got 14.5 KWHs bringing the m-t-d to 145. 3 – which is still on track but losing ground. We shall see what today brings.

    No news anywhere. Not real news. The Evil Ones are being evil, the stupid Evil Ones are lapping up the latest lies the MSM so happily gives them and using them as “proof” that evil is actually good, and the decent folks are doing what they can to survive and help each other survive. Microlevel with “my” folks and macrolevel up to and including the entire world. sigh. I guess Decent folks managing to overwhelm the Evil Ones, righting the Ship of State, repairing the holes, and heading us towards Justice and Sustainability wouldn’t really be news either – nothing new under the sun and all that – but it would certainly be a cause for rejoicing even as we do that hard work it entails. 🙏🙏🙏🕯🕯🕯🤞🤞🤞 Channeling Healing/Helping Energy to everybody everywhere, to your shaping.

    I’ve gotten the house what Momma used to call “broom clean” and can settle in with Dee’s musical sermon as soon as I’ve closed up the house. Bright the day, Meeses. {{{HUGS}}}

  7. Good morning, 64 and sunny in Bellingham. The family enjoyed their day at Mt. Baker yesterday, and Heidi and I had a quiet day. But we all had fun sharing dinner and photos at our son’s house last night. It’s nice to be together.

    Lisa and Ryan are finding coffee and breakfast so I’m going to join them. Best wishes to all.

  8. Monday Meese. Sunny going up to 90 here in Kingston – have to head out soon to a film shoot

    Posted a quick diary on the primary mess in Puerto Rico

    • Stay as cool – and as safe – as you can. & tell us about the photo shoot when you have time. {{{HUGS}}}

  9. Hot morning leading to a hotter day. Highs this week are supposed to be 103-106. It was 80 at 6am when I did my walk. I did 3 segments each at 1 minute & 45 seconds. Today: might go in to the office, I have 1 finished application. Hope there are some to pick up. I would really love to get more than 7 hours of sleep, you’d think the exercise would help with that.

  10. It’s 78 heating for mid 90s, heat index low 100s, and sunny. We’re heading into 10 days of slightly cooler temps – highs upper 80s, heat index below 100, and overnights dropping back to the high 60s. But we have to get through today first. Yesterday we got 18.4 KWHs (m-t-d 163.8) which is still on track. I like that. This heat (& the humidity) gives me heat rash. It also brings out the midges/no-see-ums that are actually in the house. And of course mosquitos outside. (& who knows what else – those are just the bugs I more or less recognize when/if I see them.) The rains we’ve had brought ants into the house. You only realize the blessing of “no ants in the house” after you’ve fought the battle of “ant in the house” – but I had to practically drench the floor under the table and by the counters in poison several times to do it. Heaven knows what walking on that does to the cats – or breathing it does to all of us – even though it is a “water-based” formula that’s supposed to be safe for vertebrates once it’s dried. But they’re gone now and I’m grateful. I wish everyone’s issues were so easily solved.

    Anyway, I need to close up the house before it gets any warmer. I didn’t already because there was a cool breeze coming in but the breeze has stopped being cool. Channeling Healing/Helping Energy to everybody everywhere, to your shaping. Bright the day, Meeses. {{{HUGS}}}

  11. Good morning, meeses! Monday …

    It is 75 degrees in Madison with an expected daytime high of 77. Chance of thunderstorms this morning – mainly overcast.

    I opened this page about 2 hours ago and never got back to it!

    I hope our team is ready to go full-throated “Social Security and Medicare are on the ballot!” In 2016, “Decency is on the ballot!” got a yawn but maybe no one does a cost-benefit analysis on “decency.” :( Everyone knows what losing Social Security and Medicare will mean. I look forward to reading the news later.

    Not sleeping worth a damn – I need to get some projects done that are huge stressors.

    See all y’all later!

  12. Good Monday morning, Meese! It’s very hot and bright here. At six-fifteen, when I opened my bleary eyes, there was so much condensation on the windows I thought there was fog outside. No, it’s just humidity, which is 75 percent. Right now in Ashburn it’s 77 F., on its way up to 92 F.

    Thought I’d found a solution as to what to write about for the short story contest, but it involves children. I could do it through the eyes of a teacher, like an epistolary account, but I don’t know whether that would find favor either. Never mind, I’ll think of something: I usually do.

    Another thing I’ve got to start writing is letters to voters in New Hampshire. I picked NH because it seemed more like Virginia than Nevada or Arizona.

    This morning I made Carrot Bran Muffins for breakfast, for the first time in years. The recipe involves grating a carrot and the rind of one orange, so it’s somewhat involved. The results are worth it, though, if one has the time. The recipe calls for only three tablespoons of brown sugar because the carrots and orange rind are sweet anyway. Very tasty!

    Today is “change the sheets” day. I like to make Mondays even more horrible than they already are. I have to go shopping too, to buy boring stuff like shower cleaner and whatnot.

    Do you suppose today will be the day we KNOW? I wish it would, I’m so tired of waiting!

    Wishing all at the Pond a good day.

  13. Good morning, 58 and partly sunny in Bellingham. Lisa and Ryan are safely home and our house seems empty and quiet now. I rested and read outdoors yesterday afternoon and went to bed early so I’m as ready for Monday as I can be. I see my dentist this morning for a long deferred teeth cleaning. I know the office has all sorts of covid protocols in place so I’ll be relatively safe.

    My best wishes to all.

  14. Good morning, meeses! Tuesday …

    It is 57 degrees in Madison with an expected daytime high of 81. Sunny skies are in the forecast. We had a major storm roll through the bottom part of the state – the shared border with Illinois – that wreaked havoc there. My dog and I were unnerved by how close it got!

    The Biden VP rumor says that the pick will be made “mid-week.” That would technically be tomorrow but there is nothing very precise about this. If this is like every other VP pick, it will be someone who has not been discussed much. Except that the “it will be a woman” requirement and the release of a short list makes it more difficult for there to be a surprise. I could name on zero fingers the number of people who predicted Hillary would pick Tim Kaine and probably the same for Barack Obama and Joe Biden. I do remember that in 2016 Julian Castro’s hard lobbying did him in and the only person I see doing that this time around is Stacey Abrams. Kamala Harris is not lobbying but her friends and supporters are definitely making noise! I am pretty confident that it won’t be Elizabeth Warren and it won’t be Susan Rice and it won’t be Karen Bass. I think it is down to Harris and Whitmer and I hope smart people tell Joe that Whitmer needs to stay in Michigan and finish the job there before she is elevated to the national stage. She adds nothing to the ticket. She can run in 2024 if Joe decides not to and she will still be young enough to run in 2028 if he does.

    It sounds like the fly in the stimulus package ointment this time around is teapartier Mark Meadows. That is bad news because history has shown time and time again that the Tea Party does not care one bit about human suffering and unnecessary death – they love it! He is the perfect point man for the Trump Administration. The only way a complete economic collapse can be avoided is if the Republican Senate passes a House approved stimulus bill with veto-proof majorities. tRump now appears willing to go down with the sinking ship and dragging his entire party with him. I hope enough people can vote in November and we can deflate their life rafts.

    I was able to sleep better after writing a few clarifying emails yesterday regarding issues I am trying to resolve. I should have a clear path forward on some pending projects by the end of the week and I can set aside worrying about them for at least today.

    See all y’all later!

  15. Tuesday Meese. 65 here in Kingston NY going up to 93. We had really bad thunderstorms and rain up here yesterday evening – though nothing like what hit the midwest.

    I’m getting very very tired of the pundit veep drama. Glad it will be over soon.

    Puerto Rico

  16. Our 100+ streak continues, 11th day in a row today and it’ll be 80 tomorrow morning for my walk. We might, maybe get some scattered rain next Monday, but they say it won’t be enough to cool us off. I didn’t get in touch with a supervisor early enough yesterday to check on going in, so I’m going today. Early, before it gets too hot. Oh great, now the news is talking about mosquitoes with West Nile in my neighborhood.

  17. Good Tuesday morning, Moosekind! It’s already bright and warm, 77 F., on its way up to 93 F. After tomorrow we’ll be in the mid-80s for the rest of the week. Good.

    Yesterday we were surprised by an unexpected dinner-time storm of amazing fierceness! I’ve never seen such protracted heavy downpours since we moved here. There was a great deal of wind, too, although I didn’t see any thunder or lightning. Anyway, it rained for a good couple of hours.

    An interesting thing happened yesterday. Remember how I told you the head of the Philanthropy Department here contacted the Writers’ Group to see if we would be interested in writing little blurbs about “Why we give” to the Benevolent Care Fund? Well, I sent mine in and she emailed back to say she liked it. Yesterday she emailed again, asking whether I’d like to read my piece as a voiceover during a commercial for BCF week. The visuals would consist of scenes from around our scenic campus, with its ponds and little parks. Of course I said yes.

    The topic for the Zoom meeting of the Writers’ Group next week is “How I Want to be Remembered.” That’s a bit bloody personal in my opinion, so I’ve decided to write that I want to be remembered as a Wiccan priestess. I’ll cite my attendance at five Witch Camps in three states, how I studied for four years at the Restored Covenant of the Goddess Institute, and how I led circles for 15 years. This will freak the other members out to the max, and I may even end up being banned from the group.

    I must say that before we moved here I didn’t expect the other residents to be so openly churchy. Religion is just fine as long as people keep it to themselves, which I usually do. When I’ve read my work aloud to this group in the days when we were meeting in a large room, they’ve all looked so disapproving. That’s why I want to follow the sentiment of the country music song, “Let’s give ’em something to talk about.”

    We may know The Big News tomorrow. Agree with Denise that the veep speculation is becoming super-tiresome.

    Wishing a good day to all at the Pond!

  18. 80 going to 85 but overcast and really humid. We are supposed to get rain. Maybe. And if we do the humidity may or may not go down – probably not. So I’ve closed up already. Yesterday although hot and sticky was sunny and we got 21 KWHs. The m-t-d is 185 which is still very much on track. At least that part’s good.

    Came online to a real jolt this morning. There was an email “confirming” an Amazon order for $1200 going to “Mike” in Hawthorn, CA. Bless the one who set up security on my system – the links weren’t live. Because my first stupid thought was to go in and cancel the order. duh. I contacted Amazon and they confirmed it’s a spam email – the sender address is not Amazon, the confirmation number isn’t Amazon, and the “if you need help” contact phone number isn’t Amazon. And just to confirm they showed me a list of things ordered from my Amazon account – nothing since March which is as it should be. The CSR also reported it to Amazon security for me and I routed it to “spam” in my email files. But it was still a jolt to my system.

    Same ol’ same ol’ out in the world. (I too will be so glad when the “veepstakes” is over. I don’t really care who he picks as long as it’s not Warren. I didn’t want Kamala running for president in the first place – although of course I supported her & her choice to do so. If she can hang onto that Senate seat, which unfortunately is in more doubt than it should be because she ran for president, I’d love to have her there for 30 years. Lioness of the Senate. But I’ll still support her in whatever she does.)

    Part of the same ol’ same ol’ includes what happens when “dr. gods” know an old lady complaining about pain is just her trying to get attention – until after ignoring her and her pain for 3 g.d. m. effen years they “discover” endstage cancer in her spine. Then they magnanimously get her home hospice and drugs “to make her comfortable” for her last two weeks. My best friend’s mother passed last Friday morning. And yes that’s what happened with her. The close family know their mother wouldn’t want people standing out in the August sun (and bugs) so no funeral. Actually, even as little as I knew her mother, I doubt she’d want a funeral anyway. But a memorial sometime or other when it’s safer will happen. Helen Karnes. Remember her name.

    Try to stay cool. Channeling Healing/Helping Energy to everybody everywhere. Bright the day, Meeses. {{{HUGS}}}

  19. Good morning, 59 and sunny in Bellingham. I needed a nap after the dentist and one simple errand yesterday, woke up for dinner, went back to bed and am slowly waking up now. I don’t want to sleep my life away, but I wouldn’t mind waking up next January to a better world!

    I need to tend to the desk and laundry today, and for fun I’ll water a few plants. Then I’ll prolly need another nap :) Best wishes to all.

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