Week-long Welcomings from Moosylvania: January 31st

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 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.

34 Comments

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

    Morning low of 27 degrees in Madison WI with an expected daytime high of 30. Light snow is in the forecast.

    Have a great day, all y’alls!!

    • We have heavy snow predicted for here in Kingston NY – starting tomorrow morning
      “Heavy snow. Total snow accumulations of 8 to 15 inches possible”
      Sigh.

      • Holey moley, that’s a lot of snow. We ended up with about 4 inches and it’s not quite done. People south of here had quite a bit more.

      • {{{Denise}}} as a friend of mine keeps emailing me, “stay in, stay warm, stay safe”. (& I’m praying your power stays on.)

  2. Puerto Rico

    Rep. Velazquez is currently being attacked for supporting self-determination for Puerto Rico.
    An example:

  3. Good morning from warm, dusty Austin. There was a big dust storm in Lubbock yesterday, blew through to Dallas (a couple of hundred miles) and we got the edge of it here. Not nearly as bad as either of the other cities, just enough to bother my allergies. I stayed inside & got some cooking done yesterday. Might go out this afternoon.

  4. It’s 36 going to 39 and we might see the sun later today if we’re lucky. Maybe. It cleared off late afternoon yesterday so after struggling most of the day to get a whole kilowatt we got a bit over 2 more by dark. So 3.4 KWHs and the m-t-d at 171.5 – possible to get to 180 today but not likely.

    Next week’s Imbolc – Spring begins by some Traditions and a good time for new starts. Or at least starting new phases of ongoing projects/life paths. In December Aji created the hashtag #HelpFolksLive2020 (changed to 2021 this month) and put up a daily thread for folks in need to hang their links – which also gave folks wanting to help somewhere to look. But Aji really does not have time to do this so I’m picking it up as of tomorrow. So in a sense I’m back in the community fundraiser business. This is easier in one way. She didn’t & I won’t vet anybody or write up posts for them. But it’s definitely more time consuming. It’s put the post up daily and then RT/boost the links of whoever replies. (& block scammers & “how do you know they’re really in need” people) At this point there are some “regulars”. I’m betting they aren’t citizens and don’t have access to any of safety net citizens do. And certainly didn’t/won’t get a stimulus check to help. Heck, Aji hasn’t gotten her $600 and doesn’t know anyone locally who has. (I got mine which paid 2 maintenance bills then some went to JoanMar and the rest was spread in $15 chunks to folks on the HelpFolksLive list needing food. Amelia/earicicle got hers & it paid 1/3 of her January “rent”. But we’re both white women.)

    I have some faith and some hope in the new administration. More than “at least he’s better than…” kind of faith and hope. But while he’s issuing orders not all of them are being obeyed and so far no enforcement happening. Mostly in the “immigration/wall/kids in cages” category. Those are very significant to be enforced and rather urgent too. More prayers.

    Meanwhile, I still to clean the house. Or at least remove a layer of dust and cat fluff and call that clean. And I’ve a bunch of stuff I need to boost on twitter. Fortunately I can do both while listening to the music in Dee’s diary. So I shall. Bright the day, Meeses. {{{HUGS}}}

  5. Good morning, 46 and raining in Bellingham. Fortunately it’s not windy because no one has replied to me regarding removing the tree by our front porch. We haven’t had another windstorm but I know the tree will continue to bang against the house so it needs to go. I hope the arborist we have worked with will respond but if he doesn’t I’ll keep looking.

    My plans to have bake cookies didn’t happen yesterday so I hope I can regroup today. My family is frustrated with covid confinment and the slow pace of getting a vaccination so sorting all of that out took my energy and attention.

    Best wishes to all on this rainy Sunday.

  6. Good Sunday morning, Moosekind! Snow is falling and will fall more heavily this afternoon. A new system will bring more snow on Monday. I have instructed the parents in my circle to send photos of children playing in the snow and making snow persons.

    Right now it’s 31 F. in Ashburn, going up to 33 F. This is our first significant snowfall in two years. We’re always glad to see the first one, not quite as happy to see any after that.

    Yesterday morning was sunny and gorgeous, so we did a lot of errands. We delivered Mr. Future Movie Maker’s birthday present, to be opened on Wednesday, when he officially turns 11. In the afternoon Younger Son and DIL came to tea, along with Miss Moody Preteen and Mr. Bouncy First Grader. To be fair, Miss Moody was not feeling well. We may be hosting a very small birthday celebration for her on Sunday the 15th, the day before her twelfth birthday.

    Today I’m looking forward to a blissful slow day. I have decided there will be NO LAUNDRY. I want at least one day without laundry. Also, we’re going down the hall at noon to pick out something for Sunday Brunch. It’s all takeaway, of course. We don’t dine in even when the option is presented. We happen to like dining chez apartment, without having to make stilted conversation on neutral topics.

    Younger Son has been offered a job with the Virginia Employment Commission, which he has accepted. He’s wanted a government job for a long time. In the private sector one confronts the reality of being laid off every year or two. He regrets that it pays so much less than his previous full-time position, but time will no doubt remedy that. It did in my husband’s case.

    In the meantime, I’ve a slew of February birthday cards to send out electronically. I also might do a little work.

    Wishing a good day to all at the Pond and to our new President and Vice President!

    • The appeal of a state job, at least in Texas used to be good health insurance. Now, I suppose it’s health insurance that sucks less than private sector.

      • Yes. Fortunately, DIL has great health insurance with her job at the federal government. Younger Son, of course, was not able to contribute to a 401(k) during his 11 months of unemployment, so he said he’ll have to delay his retirement for a year.

  7. Good morning, meeses! Monday …

    It is 18 degrees in Madison with an expected daytime high of 28. Mostly cloudy skies are in the forecast. It looks like we will be safe from more snow until Thursday when our next winter weather event arrives.

    The storm in DC will delay the confirmation vote for DHS Secretary again, a vote that had already been delayed and used to raise money from right-wingnuttia for the sedition caucus. I wonder what Secretary Mayorkas is going to find when he starts the cleanup task at DHS and looks into their involvement in the Capitol Riots. One can’t help but wonder if the delay was so that political embeds could burn papers and erase disks. I am not sure who the acting secretary is but their role is probably limited to keeping things running, allowing bad actors to keep acting bad.

    Another batch of “Republicans in disarray” articles are making the rounds and will be all sound and fury signifying nothing. The Republican Party has been on the verge of a “day of reckoning” since 1968 when they decided that the Southern Strategy, embracing butthurt white people upset about the Civil Rights and Voting Rights Acts, was the way to win elections. They never quite get there because it is a winning strategy and winning is all they care about. Until the Republican Party says “decency is more important than winning with the support of terrible people” the supposed day of reckoning will simply be fodder for breathless articles. I do know one thing: corporate America holds the key to this; if they decided that a functioning government was better for business than chaos and anarchy and chose to throw in their lot with the party that knows how to govern, it would be game over. Yes, tax breaks are nice, regulations cost money to comply with but do you really want mobs attacking the Capitol seeking to overthrow the government? It would be nice to think that they could be persuaded.

    I am enjoying the spectacle of tRump’s legal team quitting because he wanted to use the impeachment trial to advance his “theory” of the stolen election. It really doesn’t matter who stands up and speaks for him, 45 Senators have already said they think it is illegal to try a former president. So the trial will be the House reminding everyone – in as graphic terms as possible – that the storming of the Capitol that almost destroyed our democracy was an act of sedition instigated by the sitting president – they will let the American people make the judgement. I am not a constitutional lawyer but it seems to me that the Republicans are missing a chance by going down that path – if they allowed the trial to proceed on the merits and then acquitted him, they might be able to make a double jeopardy case if Merrick Garland’s Justice Department decided to file charges against tRump later. It will be interesting to watch it unfold. Did you see that Trump refers to himself as “the 45th President”, unable to use “former President” in his press releases? I wonder if he is still hoping that the March 4th gambit will put him back in power.

    See all y’all later!

  8. Monday Meese. Only about 2 inches of snow so far here in the Hudson Valley of NY – they are predicting about 18 inches.
    Happy #BlackHistoryMonth.

    Puerto Rico and USVI

    The PR political history they don’t teach you

    • We got about 4 or 5 inches here but Milwaukee and communities along Lake Michigan got over 10! It has been a long time since they got that much snow all at once.

  9. Cold morning — well, I had to wear a sweatshirt going into the office, and I kinda wished I’d worn gloves. But it will warm up to the 60s this afternoon. Today: work. And I should log off early to enjoy the pleasant weather.

  10. Good Monday morning, Moosekind! Well, we received 2.3 inches of snow yesterday, very far from the gleeful predictions of 8 to 14 inches the weather persons made. I wish I could get a job making $300,000 a year for being wrong all the time. However, be that as it may.

    However, the 2 inches was enough for people to enjoy sledding down hills, if not enough to construct politically correct snow persons. Mr. Kindergartener, videoed while taste-testing fresh snow, pronounced it “delicious.” Grandchildren are such a delight!

    This morning I absolutely must do some work. There will be a Communications Committee meeting on Thursday and I don’t want to confess that I’ve done no work at all. There’s other work to do as well.

    It’s a good thing I’d already planned to cook at home tonight because Dining Services just called to say that dining options would be even more limited than usual. We’ll have spaghetti and salad and whatever I can think of for dessert. The low-calorie option would be blackberries topped with vanilla yogurt or raspberries topped with whipped cream; the high-calorie would be baked bananas topped with pineapple-coconut ice cream.

    Have a Facetime appointment with my doctor at 3 this afternoon. This is for my six-month checkup. I’ll have to find something to do while waiting, because medical appointments are always later than scheduled. I might actually do some filing while waiting for her to show up.

    Wishing a good day to all at the Pond and a very bad day to all the feelthy, obstructive, lying Rethugs on the hill.

  11. Happy Week of Imbolc/Candlemass – it’s 32 heading for 46 and trying to be sunny. It’s at least light enough I don’t have to turn on the lights. January wrapped up with 173 KWHs. Not great by any means but better than the last two. We seem to be starting the new month with sunshine. At least for a couple of days. And relatively warm weather this week before we drop back into winter next week. For me, Imbolc has been like that more years than not – a reminder that it’s the beginning of Spring (by the Celtic Tradition I know) before finishing out the cold weather. I hope the symbology holds for our nation. We’re coming out of that deadly winter, relax a minute & take a deep breath or two, but there’s still a lot of cold weather to survive before it’s warm again.

    So on we go. Doing the best we can. Helping as best we can. The crocuses will be out soon. Bright the day, Meeses. {{{HUGS}}}

  12. Good morning, 42 and raining in Bellingham. RonK was busy in the kitchen all day yesterday so I didn’t bake cookies but I did bundle up and read my book outside, on the porch. It was nice to be sheltered from the rain with hot tea and my book.

    Last year, before the reality of Covid settled in, RonK’s brother used his time share points to reserve rooms at a resort on Orcas Island for a family gathering. Because of Covid we will not be going, and our kids won’t either because they are not vaccinated. Ron’s brothers and their families will still go, so needless to say our decision has upset a few people and there have been far to many phone calls! Oh well, when the danger of contracting Covid is less we’ll have a family time together and hopefully the tensions will have eased by then.

    Best wishes to all on this rainy morning.

    • We are finding out what people’s attention span is – many have decided that a year is enough time to give over to common sense and safety and they are determined to return to normal too soon. Last month was the deadliest month of the pandemic and we have at least two more months before our most vulnerable are vaccinated and immune, giving us some chance for hope. I’m sorry to hear that it led to family strife but you are right to resist. People who were determined to have Christmas and New Year gatherings killed themselves and others with their selfishness. :(

  13. Good morning, meeses! It is Tuesday and the day I celebrate Imbolc

    It is 19 degrees in Madison with an expected daytime high of 28. Sunny skies are in the forecast. Groundhogs in the Madison area will definitely see their shadows – portending :::checks notes::: 6 more weeks of winter weather. In Wisconsin, this prediction does not need a groundhog – February is the depth of winter, the cabin fever time, when there is little likelihood of warm weather. By mid-March you might start seeing some warming but in February, we just count off the days.

    It sounds like there will finally be a Senate vote on the DHS Secretary this afternoon. I am confident that the people Joe Biden has put in as acting secretaries will do a good job keeping the government running but the departments need permanent leadership so that the job of doing the people’s work can begin. I saw something last night that suggests that the Senate power sharing agreement has not been approved and Lindsey Graham is still the chairman of the judiciary committee and is blocking Merrick Garland’s hearing for Attorney General. Good lord, these people are the worst of the worst.

    I made progress on converting my to-do stack into a to-do list yesterday and I am starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel on a project that has been taking more time than I wanted to give it since the beginning of January. I still don’t have a good daily schedule I am comfortable with – one that is truly part-time so that I can enjoy my semi-retirement. I have at least 18 months where I need to earn enough money to help my daughter through college so I don’t want to shed clients too quickly. After the mad year-end year-beginning crush, I need to take some time for long-range planning.

    See all y’all later!

  14. Good morning. Cold right now (30s is cold for Austin), we’ll have a nice afternoon in the 60s. I worked all the way up till 5:00 yesterday, hope I can get enough done today that I feel justified in logging out early to take a walk. I’m hosting Bookchat at the orange place this week, got my post written for tomorrow, will of course keep tweaking. Drop by and chat about books if you like, it will post at 7pm.

  15. Good Tuesday morning, Moosekind! It’s snowing busily here and will do so on and off until around 6 p.m., they say. As much as three inches of snow is expected. Right now in Ashburn it’s 31 F., going up to 35 F. this afternoon.

    Wishing the One Hundred and Sixty-Nine Curses of the Gambia Goo-Goos to fall upon Lindsey Graham. Hasn’t Merrick Garland suffered enough? Why doesn’t bloody Lindsey get the Rona, or leprosy, or something?

    I did manage to do some work on my nonfiction task. The deadline is 1 March. I did a lot of work on the recalcitrant Chapter 9 last night. It needs still more work but it’s a good feeling to have it in half-decent shape. The rest of the book won’t be nearly as difficult, merely involving trickery, abduction, battles, death, supernatural events, estrangement, and so on. Once this wretched boar hunt has been dealt with, I’ll happily go at it.

    The FaceTime doctor visit yesterday did have one good result: She wrote me a prescription for sleeping pills and they’re ready to be picked up now. I’ll walk through the buildings to the CVS store in the clubhouse to get them. I’ll probably take the shuttle home, though, because I also have to pick up milk from the CVS. We didn’t have enough milk for Dearly’s porridge this morning, so I prepared a soft-boiled egg with soldiers for him. We need bread, so the frozen loaf is thawing gently in its loaf pan, preparatory to rising sufficiently to be baked. I might also make a Banana-Black Walnut Cake with cream cheese frosting. Have been intending to make it for a couple of years now. Tomorrow we’ll receive our second vaccine jab, and I know we’ll feel like doing NOTHING the rest of the day and all day Thursday.

    Wishing everyone here a good day and hoping the Dems on the Hill will prevail over the feelthy Rethugs. Blessed be…underneath Her blanket of snow the Earth is stirring, getting ready for spring.

    • They say that the second shot knocks most people for a loop so planning to do nothing is the best strategy.

      For the first time, the number of vaccinations exceeds the number of new infections which sounds like progress.

  16. Blessed Imbolc – things are stirring, time for planning and preparing. Even though it’s still cold. It’s 28 heading for mid 50s – we’ll have that spot of daily warmth this entire Imbolc week – and sunny again. Yesterday we generated 10 KWHs which is the best we’ve done since mid-October. A good start for the week and the month. The ‘meet or beat’ is 320 but that’s unlikely. Getting to 275 would be great and 250 would be decent. It’s time to get back to not only accruing more than I use but banking against bad weather, next winter, & whatever A/C I end up using this summer.

    Dems are saying what they want to do, what they know needs doing, and only promising what they can do. But they are keeping those promises. Folks who are desperate for what needs doing are not happy – and keep acting as if we’d promised what we want rather than what we can. sigh. But they are desperate, they need the help & they need it now. Meanwhile apparently nobody has gotten even the $600 if it was being mailed rather than direct deposited. Including Aji & Wings – the $1200 for the 2 of them would cover the firewood and propane they’ve bought in the last 2 weeks. Somebody’s going to have to investigate and fix that problem before they send out the other $1400.

    First day of doing the #HelpFolksLive thread went reasonably well. I wish I was better at navigating online sites – not just twitter, I wasn’t any good at finding things on DK or much of anywhere else – because the longer I do this the more I’m going to need to find things in an ever-increasing mess of tweets. I’ll manage somehow. And when I get my $1400 share the wealth at least a little bit. As I said yesterday, I think most of the “regulars” aren’t U.S. citizens so they aren’t going to get any help from the govt at all. sigh. People, especially kids, need to eat. My daddy wasn’t a particularly deep thinker. If you ask him why he was fighting it would have been “for freedom” but couldn’t have told you what that means. Except. FDR laid it out with the 4 Freedoms. And the first of those Daddy was definitely personally fighting for – Freedom from Want everywhere in the world. That doesn’t mean if you’re a citizen or even if you’re worthy. It means folks have food, water, shelter. Period. So unless & until that works out officially, it’s up to regular folks in community.

    Need more coffee. Then off to Dee’s diary & twitter. Bright the day, Meeses. {{{HUGS}}}

  17. Good morning, 42 and cloudy in Bellingham. It is so wet outside but we’re dry inside. Hope it stays that way!

    Whatcom County reports 90 new covid cases today, and the vaccine supply is still very low so we’ll continue to stay home. I want to do a few errands today but I’ll double mask and keep my distance. Best wishes to all.

  18. Good morning, meeses! Wednesday …

    It is 3 degrees in Madison with an expected daytime high of 30. Sunny this morning then clouding up as the next storm system moves in. Freezing rain tonight then snow with 4-6 inches predicted for tomorrow. I will get my errands done today.

    We have a DHS secretary! Someone pointed out that it is the first time in 2 years that DHS has a leader who was legally appointed and Senate confirmed. I am sure that Secretary Mayorkas will have his hands full trying to weed out the bad guys in a department whose immigration agencies had goals for four years to perpetrate as much cruelty and pain as possible. Start by disbanding ICE and rebuilding it from the ground up with a different mission, one more in line with respect for human rights and the rule of law.

    I am still not sure what the holdup is in getting the gavels for Senate committees but a tweet I saw before I went offline suggested that Dick Durbin had finally grabbed the gavel from Lindsey Graham and was in charge of Judiciary. I wonder if it required fisticuffs! I would not want to engage in a physical argument with Graham – he looks unhealthy and unsanitary (does he ever wash his hair?) We are still waiting for the Merrick Garland confirmation hearing to be scheduled.

    Speaking of the Senate, Joe Manchin blinked!! After being in a huff about Vice President Harris (a Black woman!!) daring to speak to his constituents in the state of West Virginia – without his permission! – he is finally realizing that throwing in his lot with the Party of No was a bad idea. He has voted to start the reconciliation process and it looks like we might get a relief bill. Now if we can convince him to kill the filibuster, we can make real progress. But this is a good start.

    See all y’all later!

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