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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COUNTING DOWN …
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Good Tuesday morning, Meese. It’s partly cloudy with pale sunlight in Ashburn, and our current temp. is54 F. The high will be 77 F. today.
Looking at a day of lots of work, including laundry and writing, watering the garden patch, and picking whichever tomatoes are ripe.
Would like to wish our bfitz a very happy birthday! Hope the sun shines on the solar panels for you, bfitz!
It’s Kamala’s birthday too. I can’t remember whether the news hounds cover the vice-presidential swearing-in or not. I can’t seem to recall watching any. Just think about January 21. Is Melanoma going to wear her coat that says on the back, “I really don’t care, do U?” What a disaster she is.
Wishing a good day to all at the Pond.
{{{Diana}}} Thank you very much for the wishes (also ecard & gift). I hope your day goes well – both pleasant and productive. moar {{{HUGS}}}
Happy Birthday, bfitz! How exciting to share a birthday with a celebrity!! I hope your day is everything that you want it to be.
Thank you. I find it more amusing than exciting but yeah – Kamala’s 13 years younger than I am. The baby-est of Boomers and pretty much the last change for us DFHs to actually accomplish any of the good we’ve worked for over the last 50+ years. LOL. As to what I hope my day to be, I’d be happy with calm. heh. {{{HUGS}}}
We never got out of the 50 yesterday – and generated less than 2 KWHs. We’re on track but barely. It’s 56 heading for 72 and so overcast the PV system is still in night mode. But it’s my birthday – 69 years of breathing on the planet – and it’s nice to get the cards and wishes. That brightens the day even when the sun can’t.
Twitler will try to take us down with him if he can’t be convinced that this is just another business he’s bankrupted and can now walk away from with money in his pockets. It’s really going to depend on how much damage his handlers are interested in inflicting as to how they’ll handle him. Because he’s been handled – mostly by the likes of Stephen Miller – for the last 4 years. And before for that matter. Not controlled, I doubt anybody could do that. But handled. Show him a squirrel and let him run. They’ve just determined which squirrel to show him. One more we shall see.
Aji, Bobby, and I share this birthday. The last Bobby told me he’s doing OK – a safe place to live and food for him and his pup in exchange for being a chef and possibly even an additional salary if the money situation gets there. Aji…well, she’s been given an uncontrolled wildfire just over the ridge – as if this year hasn’t been about the 2nd worst she’s had in decades. And without the good stuff that happened in the worst. (In 2017 she almost died, twice. But the house got finished enough to move into and she and Wings got married which makes 2017 the worst and the best.) I’m getting along. Not bad, not great – and most if not all my worries are for other folks.
Gonna go do some more “happy birthday” -ing on twitter. LOL. Bright the day, Meeses. {{{HUGS}}}
Happy birthday!! Hope you had a good day today.
Thank you. I did. It was quite pleasant. {{{anotherdemocrat}}}
Belated Birthday wishes to you and the crew -born so auspiciously
Thank you. & yeah, we’re a pretty good crew, aren’t we? 😁 {{{Dee}}}
Good morning, Meesefolk; 39 heading to 52 today. It rained at some point during the night, so my outdoor plans are derailed. Tomorrow looks promising though with only a 20% chance of rain but a high of 57. If that holds true, I could get a lot done…assuming I am actually still motivated by tomorrow.
I have a job interview on Friday for a job with a non-profit that works with seniors in their “next steps.” They bill themselves as similar to a realtor, except instead of buying/selling houses, they work with seniors or their families, at no cost, to help them determine what the next best housing situation is: assisted, long-term care, senior community, etc. Then they help navigate the process. The funding comes through grants, government agencies, and even from finders’ fees from facilities/communities themselves. They’ve been doing this for eight years, and from everything I can find, they’ve been growing slowly, but steadily. I applied for the office coordinator position and in the initial phone screening, they were mostly concerned that I was over-qualified. I am, but without using the actual word, I was able to assure them that I was ready for something that wasn’t a meatgrinder. But, and this is a huge BUT, they’re offering the position as a contract position, and I’d be working on a 1099. That’s fine. I don’t have a problem with quarterly taxes and all that goes with it. But I do have a problem with my very strong suspicion that this job is misclassified as independent contractor when it’s actually an employee position. There is no way that I’m aware of that they can expect me to be in the office M-F, 9-4, using their equipment and still consider me a contractor. I wouldn’t be surprised if all of their positions started out as contractors, and they haven’t changed anything as the business grew. The end result for me would be that I’d likely end up under-paying the IRS and over-paying Social Security; an IRS audit in such a circumstance would require prompt payment but no penalty, and the Social Security refund would easily take a year or more (but with interest). [Yes, we’ve been in this situation before!] The bigger problem is the damage this could do to the non-profit. The fines could be substantial if they’ve been doing this improperly for a long time, and that could be enough to shut the place down. So I’m going into the interview with a strong desire to do the job, lots of questions, and very little hope that I’m going to hear answers that assuage my concerns. I hope I’m wrong, because it’s really a shame. If they had just said I’d be an employee but they offer no benefits, I would have been fine with it (one of the advantages of being a retired military family). Oh well, now I just have to wait and see.
Happy birthday to bfitz and Kamala; who knew this was such an auspicious day?! Good day to and for all!
{{{DoReMI}}} I hope your concerns are wrong but I wouldn’t bet on it. You’ve been on the merrygoround long enough to know. If you’re right the next issue is – is it deliberate or do they just not know better. (In which case they need a different accountant like now since they can’t start any sooner than now.) If they don’t know, whether or not you get the job, it might be a kindness to tell them. Or not. Depends on how things feel when you get there and talk to them. But they sound like an organization it would be good to keep going. Holding the Good Thought. & thank you for the birthday wishes. moar {{{HUGS}}}
Good morning, 46 and cloudy in Bellingham. Nuthin’ new from me……a restful day yesterday, a hair cut today, maybe some sewing later this afternoon.
Happy Birthday bfitz! I will enjoy a slice of chocolate cake in your honor :)
{{{princesspat}}} thank you and please do enjoy that slice of chocolate cake since I can’t have any.😁 Healing Energy and moar {{{HUGS}}}
👇👇👇!
Wednesday Meese. 53 going up to 72 here in Kingston NY. Now that I’ve moved into the city – Wednesday is “garbage pick up day” – the city has a complicated system of pickups – you get bins with 3 diff colored lids – and one of them alternates each week. I’m mostly watching to see what neighbors put out till I get used to it. We didn’t have garbage pickup on the farm – we hauled ours to the dump.
Home run ad for Biden. Sam Elliott narrates.
Powerful ad! I saw it trending in headlines and was glad to be able to see it. I hope he is right: that there are enough people who love the idea of America to want to return to it.
This made me cry. Biden has a genius advertising team.
Good morning, meeses! Wednesday …
It is 43 degrees in Madison with an expected daytime high of 50. Mostly cloudy skies are in the forecast with rain expected overnight.
During my waking up time (after I wake up and my brain starts working but my body is not ready to get up yet), I started thinking about the huge number of absentee and mail-in ballots that are being cast in our election – and if it would lead to a more permanent vote-by-mail choice post-pandemic. It dawned on me that the biggest benefit is PAPER BALLOTS. Even if Russians hack the voting machines, we have paper ballot backup – they can disrupt election night but not the election itself. In Wisconsin, we have paper ballots for in-person voting as well as the absentee so we always have the ability to recount if the numbers don’t seem right – they are remarkably accurate as people who gave money to grifter Jill Stein in 2016 found out. You can’t hack a paper ballot and you can’t program voting machines to “lose” votes for certain demographics if you have paper ballots to back them up (something that we did NOT have in Georgia in 2018 leading to the “election” of Brian Kemp and, sadly, the unnecessary deaths of thousands of Georgians killed by his COVID-19 policies.) In any event, paper ballots are good and we need them in every state. Put that on the “Fix The Voting System” list, Joe!
People who are micromanaging Joe Biden’s cabinet picks need to settle down. There will be plenty of time to sway the president-elect – you don’t start making demands related to withholding your vote if you hear a rumor about a specific pick for a post the latest that there may be Republicans. I will make a bold prediction – there will be no Republicans in Joe Biden’s cabinet. Joe Biden wants the votes of Republicans and Republican-leaning voters because he wants a mandate and a Democratic Congress. If musings about potential Republicans in the cabinet encourages voters who are on the fence to choose Biden and down-ticket Democrats, that is a good thing. I think even Joe is starting to realize that the Republican Party is not a reliable partner in the governance of our country and that will be made plain as time goes on. I have some ideas about cabinet members, also, and my line in the sand is Lawrence Summers; if he is even considered for Treasury, I will scream bloody murder. But I am not going to withhold my vote – what an asinine thing to say. Steps: get everyone to vote, count the vote, declare the winner, get the concession, THEN we can have “Democrats in Disarray”. :)
It is Wednesday and I am nearly caught up from the crises that landed on my desk on Monday into Tuesday. Now I should have a chance to get my scheduled work done including some accounting projects that I am determined to finish by Friday.
See all y’all later!
Jan—so far, it’s not illegal in Virginia to photograph one’s ballot, so I did it in 2016 and last Saturday.
I have mine photographed as well. The first time I ever did that was in 2008 when I wanted to memorialize that I had voted for Barack Obama. I don’t think it is illegal here, either.
An excellent read from Reginald Dwayne Betts.
Kamala Harris and Caribbean voters
Puerto Rico
A must read article:
Good morning meese. It is 63 degrees in Folsom, CA with a projected high of 86. The AC continues during this heat wave with no rain (yet?) in sight.
I have been tossing and turning the whole night and will shortly get up to work early. I may need to take a nap this afternoon!
Afternoon naps for all the Meese! I’ve been trying the breathe-hold-release method to get back to sleep, it seems to help.
Hope your day gets better, basket! It’s awful not to get enough sleep.
{{{basket}}} – Healing Energy to you & your household (& entire area) – Naps are a good idea. moar {{{HUGS}}}
In from my shortened walk/run. My stomach is upset, I had to talk myself into doing 20 minutes. I did 3 running segments. It’s also warm & muggy — 74 degrees, which yes is better than it was a month ago, but come on, it’s October. Today’s agenda: into the office to take in my 15 completed set ups since Monday, and maybe take a nap this afternoon.
{{{anotherdemocrat}}} Healing Energy – maybe some ginger ale for the tummy? Naps are good. moar {{{HUGS}}}
Good Wednesday morning, Moosekind! Gray and warm here in Ashburn. It’s 64 F. now, going up to 80 F. later. I dislike summer temperatures in the autumn.
Today Dearly Beloved and I have been married for 53 years! Wow. He was 37, I was 23 when we wed. We both had LOTS of hair in those days.
Not much to say except that yesterday I was so fatigued I was not able to do anything but water the garden patch and pick green tomatoes. Perhaps today will be better.
Must just remark that Miss Pink Cheeks brings magick with her. Before her visit (Saturday night to Monday evening), we hadn’t seen any deer in the woods since Lockdown in early March. On Monday when we were looking out of the bedroom window we saw two, looking at us through the fence.
Also magickal: As we were at Heathrow, preparing to fly home to the USA after our third visit to London with her, she looked up at the golden sunshine flooding down from the rooftop windows and asked, “Does it ever rain in London?” Both the gate agent and I repressed smiles. The sun always shines in old London town when she’s there.
Wishing all at the Pond a good day and hoping for continuing good news on the early voting front.
Happy Anniversary!!
{{{Diana}}} Happy Anniversary! 🎶🎹🎉🎁💕
Best Anniversary Wishes Diana!
Thank you all, Meese!
happy anniversary!
It’s 77 heading for 81 and sunny. I had a very pleasant birthday yesterday – many online friends sending wishes plus calls from my younger son and youngest sister and a visit from my older son (who brought chocolate – 88% dark) – and although it started very dark, it ended with the sun coming out. The 3.4 KWHs we generated yesterday is half again what we got the day before. M-t-d is a still-on-track 207 and if we can get double digits today it will stay that way for at least a few more days.
The world is scary and getting scarier as the (R)ats are baring their teeth at us from their strategically superior position (& the rabid squirrel is not just running loose but is running frantically loose). First we have to win, then we have to get in (and it legally doesn’t matter what twitler wants, constitution says all elected officials stop being elected officials at the end of their terms – that’s why the vice president is inaugurated first, so in case there’s a delay in the presidential inauguration for any reason, the new administration takes over with the ending of the old) – then we have a whole lot of work to do. We shall see if we are up to doing all that needs to be done. Meanwhile, I had a visit from my friend this morning – her birthday gift was a couple of boxes of fatwood firestarter (she knows me well) – and so am “behind my time” as it were. But it was very good to see her and visit. She lives in a space where cell contact is iffy so we can’t talk like we used to.
Anyway, I have stuff to do and need to get to it. Bright the day, Meeses. {{{HUGS}}}
Good morning, 47 and mostly cloudy in Bellingham. I was barely awake for most of yesterday and my brain is still foggy this morning. Oh well, I’m old and if I want to drift in and out of awareness I can! I’m going to try to polish some silver and draft a pattern for a skirt for Emma but I’ll see how the day goes.
Best wishes to all.
This this this …
Here’s the speech, with transcript: Barack Obama: “Making things better is within our reach, if we vote.”
Thank you – I’ll read it in a little bit & really appreciate it that I don’t have to go hunting for it.
Thank you, Jan!
Good morning, meeses! Thursday …
It is 41 degrees in Madison with an expected daytime high of 59. Rain expected all day – the system that is dumping a ton of snow to the north of us is bring us heavy rain. This should knock the last of the leaves off the trees. Winter is on its way.
I am shaking my head at the headlines. On the one hand, the federal government is telling people that bad foreign actors are attempting to sow confusion with emails sent to voters – on the other hand, they are completely silent about what appear to be fabricated emails that are attempting to paint Joe Biden as a crook. The tRump administration is pure projection. Yes, Hunter Biden is a damaged man, a troubled soul, but there is no evidence – or anything in Joe Biden’s personal history – that would suggest that Joe was part of any scheme. We are going to have to hope that people aren’t stupid, that the trumpers have gone to the well too many times and that they have run it dry. Vote vote vote.
I will not watch the debate tonight. It will turn into another sh*tshow despite plans to turn off the microphone during initial answers so that the Potus Interruptus can’t distract from Joe Biden’s words. But you know that it will be an unhinged rant, with personal attacks and outright lies, when the microphone _is_ turned on. I hope that Joe Biden has a plan for when Plague Rat Trump approaches him on the stage and that he can get out of there without getting infected. We need him healthy for this last 12 days sprint to election day!
I have a couple of things that I should do before clients start work so I should get to it.
See all y’all later!
Thursday Meese. 58 and foggy going up to 68 here in Kingston NY.
Like Jan – I doubt I will watch the debate – will get reactions later from twitter. Trump will manage to turn it into a shitshow.
Puerto Rico
Good morning, all. Laryngitis struck again yesterday, sigh. One more hot day today then a cold front tomorrow afternoon & lovely weather on Saturday. Today: make a stab at working all day. Oh, and the debate tonight, unless the Toddler In Chief decides not to go.
{{{anotherdemocrat}}} Healing Energy & more {{{HUGS}}}
Good Thursday morning, Moosekind! ‘Tis a misty, moisty morning, when cloudy is the weather. The fog is so thick I’m glad I’m not a pilot or a commuter! Had to reinstall the weather widget this morning, so now I can tell you that it’s 61 F. here in Ashburn this morning, on its way up to 78 F.
Tossed and turned for an hour before falling unconscious last night. Tried anotherdemocrat’s breathing technique but couldn’t remember the number of seconds I had to hold my breath. When I awoke this morning, I realized that I either have a cold coming on or that I can look forward to a particularly bad allergy day.
What I saw on the scales this morning sent me racing to the BMI calculator to see whether I’m clinically obese. Not yet, apparently, but getting there.
Going for a walk soon to clear the fog out of my brain. Basket gave me the URLs for two websites that help the elderly with legal problems. I will call one of them this morning.
Wishing a good day to all at the Pond and beyond. No, I’m not watching the debate, I can’t take it. Will ask Dearly to search for the new “Rebecca” movie on Netflix.
{{{Diana}}} I hope whatever you have coming on is of short duration. Please, please, ignore the BMI. That scale was pretty much designed by the diet industry to make people feel bad about themselves. And in our fat-shaming society, it unfortunately works – if you actually look at it. What weight you wish to be/are comfortable at is totally your business. Using their propaganda measures makes it theirs – multibillion dollars a year’s worth of theirs. Holding the Good Thought for all your endeavors this day. moar {{{HUGS}}}
it’s inhale through the nose for 4, hold for 7, exhale through the mouth for 8 – though I can never get much past 6