Week-long Welcomings from Moosylvania: Sept. 13th through Sept. 19th

September 12, 2020 JanF Community 80

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 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 (right before “Leave A Reply”) and use the Pages Tool, shown here with 3 pages of comments available.

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31 Comments

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

    Morning low of 57 degrees in Madison WI with an expected daytime high of 72. Partly cloudy skies are in the forecast.

    Have a great day, all y’alls!!

  3. Puerto Rico

  4. Did my walk/run this morning. Didn’t want to, and it was hard — I barely got 5 running segments in, but my music got that 5th one going. Now I’m watching Le Tour, and Ali Velshi’s show on MSNBC. Today: church, make tea for next week, and my “overnight” oats (are they still overnight if it’s 6 days from now?)

  6. Good Sunday morning, Moosekind! It’s beautiful outside with a clear blue sky and sunlight. When I awoke from a satisfactory, if drug-induced, sleep the weather app on my phone informed me that it was 57 degrees F. Right now it’s 67 F. in Ashburn, going up to 81 F. I haven’t gone for a walk in ages, so I’ll set off as soon as breakfast settles. When I stepped into the courtyard with Monty just now the air smelled of a fragrant shrub that produces tiny white flowers. I wished princesspat were there to identify it for me.

    Our little jaunt out of town didn’t go quite as well as we had hoped. The “patchy drizzle followed by clearing” turned into steady rain by the time we went over the mountain to Winchester, about an hour from where we live. We only saw one fruit stand, on the opposite side of the road. We enjoyed driving through Winchester, which is charming, and getting lost in Hamilton, Virginia, on our way back. Both have early 19th century architecture in the old parts of town. We stopped at the fruit stand we’d passed earlier and I was disappointed again. The apples were quite ordinary except for the Golden Supreme, so I bought some of those and some Honeycrisps (not my favorite). The cider wasn’t what I was looking for, either. The Bartlett pears were tiny but I bought some anyway. They’ll do for snacking. I put the box out on the porch so the COVID germs could blow off them for a night and a day.

    Still grieving for the plight of the West Coast and the Pacific Northwest. Just think where we’d be if that *&^%$#@! Sandra O’Connor hadn’t handed the 2000 election to Dubya. Gore would have encouraged the use of electric cars, instituted stringent environmental measures, and so on. Perhaps California wouldn’t have suffered so greatly. I often wonder why modern engineers don’t take a tip from the prehistoric Nabateans, who used every drop of water that fell from the sky. That’s how they could keep the “rose-red city, half as old as Time” going, even though the buildings were carved out of desert cliffs. They even had a swimming pool and gardens!

    All right, enough of this historical chitchat. Although it is highly unlikely I’ll ever travel by air again, I’m falling in love with Seville as I keep reading about it. Now I want to go and visit the Alcazar for myself and smell the delightful orange blossoms from the trees that line the streets.

    Wishing everyone at the Pond a nice, quiet Sunday with no bad news.

  7. It’s 65 heading for 81 and overcast but it is supposed to clear off by noon today. That would be nice. We got 11.7 KWHs yesterday and the m-t-d is 140 – at this rate we’ll be doing good to get over 300 rather than 400. We’ve got to do at least 341 to get out of last place for the 4K system.

    I talked to my son last night. Things have finally settled down on campus and now there’s an actual routine he can use the “few hours here, few hours there” students to cover heavy traffic and he & his one full-time person from the old store are splitting opening and closing. And managing 5-day work weeks. So he borrowed the Camry (better gas mileage) this morning to go to the Gurdwara up in Bentonville – and brought me milk. That’s a relief on so many fronts. I was worried about him pulling 15/7 shifts of course. Not healthy for so many reasons. Including not getting his spiritual recharge. And of course I still wasn’t able to figure out how to keep my own outing to over 2 weeks and still get milk.

    Anyway, muffins need to come out of the oven & I need to get over to Dee’s #BlackMusicSunday. Bright the day, Meeses. {{{HUGS}}}

    • BFitz, is this your Congressional District?

      • Nope, I’m in AR-3 and we haven’t had a Dem in that slot since the CRA/VRA passed. Funny thing is, we didn’t have many before that. This is the only chunk of the state that voted against seceding in 1861. We probably have more traitor flags flying up here now than then. Celeste Williams is our candidate running against Steve Womack.

  8. Good morning, 53 with yellow/grey smokey skies in Bellingham. The hot wind that started the horrible fires in the PNW turned the leaves on my old maple trees crispy, seemingly overnight. It’s a small but powerful change in our garden, and makes me all to aware of how a spark could turn into a raging fire with little to no warning. The fire close to Erica is contained, but the skies are still orange and her Forest Grove community is mourning.

    Wildfires Live Updates: In Oregon, Firefighters Face a Threat of Resurging Winds

    The raging fires in Oregon have already consumed more than one million acres and forced tens of thousands of people out of their homes. Combined with a record-setting 3.1 million acres burned in California and more than 600,000 acres burned in Washington State, the West Coast has been blanketed for days by thick smoke that has left cities bathed in an apocalyptic haze and the worst air quality on the planet.

  11. Puerto Rico

  12. Good morning, meeses! Monday …

    It is 52 degrees in Madison with an expected daytime high of 70. Mainly sunny skies are in the forecast. That is the forecast for the next couple of days then it will cool down a bit. I can’t believe next week is the Autumnal Equinox! In some ways 2020 is screaming by – in other ways it is dragging its feet.

    I am trying to understand what the issue is with Biden’s “Latino Outreach”. Do Latino voters needs special outreach to realize that Donald Trump and his Republican Party are destroying the economy, demonizing brown people, and bent on repealing health care for all but the wealthy? I am also trying to figure out why people think that door knocking is necessary or even desirable during a pandemic. Maybe I am in a “I don’t need anything to make me enthusiastic about voting” bubble but people – youngs, olds, Black, Latino, women, LGBTQ, people with lonely doors – need to just suck it up and vote for the Democrat. If you think that Republicans care about your issues, you are insane. Sorry to be grumpy but JHC on a popsicle stick, I am running out of patience with people. I hope it is just the media trying to gin up a controversy so that they can write about it.

    I finished a bunch of accounting work over the weekend and now that I am caught up, I need to start back in on client projects. In June, the end of the quarter (and all the extra accounting things required for that) snuck up on me – I want to make sure that September is under control so that I can work on projects without the feeling of impending doom.

    See all y’all later!

    • I hope it is just the media trying to gin up a controversy so that they can write about it.

      That’s probably it, Jan. After all, Thing’s demonization of Biden as a “far leftie” isn’t sticking. It’s precisely because Biden is an old-school middle-of-the-roader that even Rethugs want to vote for him. He’s non-threatening.

      A crochety old man who has been rejected twice by voters in 2016 and 2020 is trying to gin up controversy that lefties won’t vote for Biden. He needs to sit down and start knitting a muffler. That’s what he needs.

  13. Happy Monday. Getting ready for work, so happy I can work from home. Nothing going on today, rest day for Le Tour and for me. Nothing good on TV, so I’ll listen to the U2 radio station between calls.

  14. Good Monday morning, Moosekind! It was cloudy when I woke up at 6:45 this morning but is now clearing a bit—at least there’s some sunshine now. The current temperature in Ashburn is 70 F., on its way up to 78 F.

    Realized yesterday that I’m getting a cold. I feel pretteh crappeh, so will take it easy today. I didn’t write more than a word or two last night because I used up my writing time to research free speech in Franco’s Spain. There wasn’t any. As a matter of fact, there’s not all that much free speech now. We take our right to free speech so much for granted in this country, we simply cannot visualize what it would be like to have the Guardia Civil or the Guardia Armada listening in to our casual conversations in sidewalk cafés.

    Not much to say except that I despise the MSM and hope our side will win. Wishing a good day to all at the Pond!

  15. It’s 63 heading for 82 and mostly sunny at the moment. Not supposed to stay that way. Widget shows clouds moving in by noon. We did generate just over 13 KWHs yesterday – I doubt we will today if those clouds do move in for the afternoon – and the m-t-d’s 153 is in the “lucky to get over 300” category. sigh. But it’s still covering what I use so that part’s good.

    My son is finding himself in a place neither of us ever thought he’d ever be – upset (that’s not the right word – it doesn’t convey the intensity of this – but I can’t think of the right one) about the coming increase in minimum wage in AR. He’s in this place because of a 10-year history of really stupid marketing choices his MBA boss/company owner made which has them now trapped in the “hot-and-ready $5 pizza” market. Last January when we went to $10/hr that shoved him to the edge. With the next January rise to $11/hr he will be losing money. They either raise prices and let Little Caesars/Dominos take them down or go bankrupt maintaining the same price. Part of that is an almost 30% increase in ingredient costs since the pandemic started, more is having to throw away all those “hot and ready” pizzas that haven’t sold – always a few that “age out” over the day but lots at the end of the day. So the revenue to pay for the making of them isn’t there. (Like I said, some really stupid choices the owner made years back trying to “grow” out of the niche he made (& owned) by trying to compete w/ the “Big Brands” – he killed his own niche and is not big enough to play with the Big Brands.) Nothing about knowing the reasons behind this – my son saw it coming and protested against at managers’ meetings at the time the changes were suggested – helps him now. He doesn’t know how long his company is going to stay in business but unless something changes, he’s betting they’ll go down about mid-2021. Which will leave him a 50-year-old looking for a job in what is likely to still be a pandemic. So any Good Thoughts or Whatever to stop that from happening before it does would be really nice.

    Nobody else in my online or offline family is doing much if any better but we’re still all “OK right now” – breathing (if in pain), housed somehow or other, have food, water, etc. So for this we give thanks. Bright the day, Meeses. {{{HUGS}}}

    • Work and life changes at 50 yrs old are not easy bfitz. I share your worry. The work our son is best paid for doing is hard on his body now and will keep getting harder. But what to do next is a dilemma lurking around the edges.

      • Truly. Holding the Good Thought for your son. Thank you for holding the Good Thought for mine. May the combined Power of concerned moms help them find their paths. Healing Energy to you and your household & {{{princesspat}}}

        • Bfitz and princesspat, that is very worrisome. Younger Son had a good job with prospects before the pandemic, but that job is gone and he can’t seem to get another at age 45. While he’s off he’s taking courses at Northern Virginia Community College to get an Associate’s degree. He has one from Johnson & Wales, but that doesn’t do him much good in the Accounts Payable world that he’s worked in for several years.

          Looks as if reinvention will be necessary for all our guys, either driving for Lyft or working for Instacart, while they study to change fields. Problem is, as we all know, age 50 seems to be the cutoff point for getting hired for a professional job. Age discrimination is still rampant in this country.

  16. Good morning, 55, foggy and smokey with a bad air warning. Rain was in the forecast but that has changed. Our son will be working here today so I need to move some things in the basement and kitchen. It will be a messy day, but at the end the new plug in the kitchen should be working, the hole in the basement ceiling covered, the leaking faucet in the kitchen repaired and a new faucet installed in the wine room sink. Progress!
    The multiple crisis alerts we’re all living with have me feeling very weary today so I’m going to ignore the news as best I can. Best wishes to all as we make it through another day.

  17. Good morning, meeses! Tuesday …

    It is 57 degrees in Madison with an expected daytime high of 77. Sunny skies are in the forecast.

    Each day’s news brings new horrors related to climate change. We lost 4 years – and likely went backwards some because of environmental protection repeals – and we have no idea if we can make that up. When the world went into shutdown for the COVID-19 pandemic, there were signs that the earth could bounce back if given a little bit of – literal! – breathing room. Now the challenge will be to achieve that level of carbon emissions without halting the economy in a way that creates human misery. It can be done but it will require investments. And it will require a president who believes in science and a political party that is not a handmaiden to the fossil-fuel interests. Last chance – vote for Biden and put more Democrats in the Senate or bust.

    I have a few errands to run today so I will be wrapping up early. I need to make sure I have good notes so that Wednesday can be productive.

    See all y’all later!

  18. Tuesday Meese.45 degrees here in Kingston NY -brrrrr. Going up to 69.

    Horrid

  19. Puerto Rico

    • Thank you for keeping vigil for all these years. Maybe in 2021 Puerto Rico will get the attention it deserves.

    • {{{anotherdemocrat}}} – I didn’t see it. Is the match still going? If so I’ll see what I can cobble up. Healing Energy and moar {{{HUGS}}}

      • I’m going to go with no, because I’ve gotten 3 donations this morning & I don’t see a match.

        • I’m glad you got 3 donations this morning, but I’ll save back what I can find for the next match. Or when you’re sure there won’t be another match. moar {{{HUGS}}}

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