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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Good “morning”, Motley Meese! The week begins …
Morning low of 34 degrees in Madison WI with an expected daytime high of 45. Partly cloudy skies are in the forecast.
Have a great day, all y’alls!!
Sunday DLS day. Need more coffee. 32 going up to 44 here in Kingston NY.
Puerto Rico
Good morning. We were supposed to have storms overnight, if we did I didn’t hear it. Supposed to be nice today, sunny and 70s. Today’s plan: make next week’s tea, watch church on youtube, make next week’s lunch. I did a search for high-protein pasta dishes & found a recipe for pasta with an avocado sauce, which sounds good so I’m going to try it. Adding more vegetables than it calls for, make it more of a meal.
So, the recipe was really minimalist, it had the avocado, lemon juice, garlic, cherry tomatoes and basil. I cooked up a package of spinach & one of diced asparagus, added a can of artichoke hearts, and since I didn’t want to use a whole thing of basil from the store (the herb bunches are always too big) I bought a can of diced tomatoes with basil. And I toasted a small package of pine nuts. I think it’ll be really good, will find out tomorrow at lunch.
It sounds good. Yum.
Sunday Music
It’s 60 going to 63 and cloudy. Supposed to rain later today and tonight. (& actually get sun tomorrow.) Running “late” because I get up with the sun. Not the clock. The only reason I change the clocks – all 2 of them – at all is so I don’t have to keep remembering to adjust for when stuff (like Black Kos) is going to happen or for safe shopping hours (presupposing the store I’m going to has them). We generated 7.8 KWHs yesterday (m-t-d is 147.4) which is better than I expected. Unless that “afternoon” rain shoves itself into the hour-later dark and the clouds thin up a bit we won’t get that much today. sigh.
Deplorables being Deplorable. Which is tiresome at the best. MSM struggling to find a nit to pick regarding the Biden-Harris administration. Since they can’t find any they’re complaining that he’s working from home on weekends and isn’t holding press conferences (so they can try to trigger a stuttering incident they can air as a sign of “dementia”). And of course are reporting RW & LW bull pucky as if they were “leaks” from the administration. (I wish our team would quit taking the bait on that.)
Anyway, it’s Sunday. Most of the too-far-from-the-computer-to-hear chores are done. At least the ones I do each week no matter the fatigue level. So. Off to DK to get the music to do the east-side housekeeping & online chores by. Bright the day, Meeses. {{{HUGS}}}
Good morning, 46 and will be sunny in Bellingham. My clock tells me the time has changed but the daylight outside my window tells me my body doesn’t agree!
My Edmunds daughter and her husband were able to get their first vaccine shots last week so they will come for a visit soon, yay! Seven more family members to go and then we can all take a deep breath. Our 14 yr old grandkids will probably be the last to be vaccinated and that concerns me, as returning to in person school increases the risk for them and for their parents.
RonK was busy in the kitchen yesterday, cooking corned beef for today’s early St Pat’s dinner and baking a gf berry pie in honor of pi day. I’m enjoying his developing cooking skills but keeping the kitchen clean is a challenge. He’s an enthusiastic cook!
Best wishes to all.
My first “the clocks have changed” moment occurred at about 5:30pm yesterday. Usually my dog’s tummy alarm goes off at 4:50pm (supper is at 5pm for her) and I wondered how it had gotten to 5:30 and she was still napping instead of standing on my leg staring at me! :)
Glad to hear your family is getting vaccinated – your first large family gathering will be a joyous occasion! I am hoping that they move college students to the front of the line after they finish with teachers. My daughter’s campus has done a really good job of testing and convincing the students to be responsible but Spring Break has me really nervous. I am going to talk her into staying home for a few days after students return and let any surge work itself out before she goes back. She has in-person labs on Mondays.
Good morning, meeses!! Monday …
It is 30 degrees in Madison with an expected daytime high of 34. Winter is back! It is flurrying and we are expected heavy wet snow today. I had planned to run some errands but they can wait until tomorrow when Spring returns.
Today the Joe and Kamala Show hits the road to tout the American Rescue Plan in places where people will be grateful for the help. It is clear that the right-wing hates cities – even though their red states would shrivel up and blow away if there were no cities – and feel that any help to them is a “Democrat gift.” Well fk them – cities are people and people need help and that is the main focus of the bill. Lots of businesses went into debt to stay afloat and the aid they will get to re-open will be the difference between staying in business and closing their doors. I saw projections that unemployment might get to the 3 or 4% range by the end of the year because of the aid package. That is a BHD.
The press is embarrassing themselves with their focus on “Joe Biden won’t do a presser” whine. They are upset because they won’t get to preen and pose in front of the camera and push for a gotcha moment that will go virual. I take that back, they are not embarrassing themselves because they are incapable of shame; they elevated and promoted a literal crime boss into the presidency in 2016 and their malfeasance led to the deaths of over half a million people. They can all pound sand.
I am really struggling with how to think about the MAGA crowd not wanting to get vaccinated. If it means that there will always be certain parts of the country where the virus will be active and likely morphing into new variants, it is a bad thing because those variants may eventually infect those of us who are vaccinated. If it means that natural selection will cull the MAGA herd, I find myself less concerned. They are deplorable.
I hope that the red state clamoring to disenfranchise minorities and young people is noisy enough to wake up Joe Manchin. If he enjoys being in a permanent minority, he can brush it off but if he likes the idea of controlling the agenda in a 50-50 Senate, he should help kill the filibuster. I heard a suggestion changing the filibuster rules to not require a 60 vote majority for legislation involving voting rights and civil rights, on the premise that the filibuster historically has been abused for that purpose. That sounds good on the surface but I could see a day when Republicans are in charge and they pass a law that declares that religious rights trump civil rights and we end up with some really bad outcomes. Of course, that assumes that the Republicans won’t kill the filibuster the next time they have both Houses of Congress and the presidency. I think that they will and I think that we have to do everything we can to not let that happen.
Busy week, although today got easier because I won’t be going anywhere.
See all y’all later!
Chilly morning — I needed long sleeves & real shoes for my dash into the office. But it’s going to be 80 this afternoon. This is the weather that we pay for with our 6 month long summer. Today: work, find out if that pasta is as good as I hope, log off early & walk.
It’s 53 (heading for 68) so not as warm as it looks, but it’s a gloriously sunny spring day. After 2 dark rainy days the world is not only washed and clean, it’s green! The field next door went from mostly yellowish-brown to lush almost overnight. Actually it probably was overnight since night is when green things grow. They got tall enough to be seen before dawn today. We got just barely 3 KWHs yesterday – m-t-d is 150 – but I expect solid double-digits today.
It’s such a lovely day all the youngsters want out! I’m not going to let them. They are youngsters and smaller than the neighborhood cats. But this is truly the sort of day I wish I had a cat-proof fence (which would cost almost as much as my house – LOL) so they could. I’m still thinking about a catio of some kind. Should I have any money left over from my tax refund and stimulus after I’ve done vet stuff and car stuff and some fundraiser stuff I’ve committed myself to. . .
Anyway, it’s officially 9:30 rather than the 8:30 the sun’s angle indicates. So I guess I’d best get to my daily twitter chores. Bright the day, Meeses. {{{HUGS}}}
I am in favor of not changing the clocks but I want to stick with Standard Time, not change to Daylight Saving Time. I prefer dark at night and light in the morning. I saw an editorial that suggests that no children walk to school in the morning any longer so it shouldn’t matter. JHC!! Kids here walk to school – that editorial writer is living in an elitist cocoon. Anyway, one of the strongest proponents of keeping it DST all year long is Marco Rubio of Florida where the sunlight is pretty even – up here DST on December 21st would have the sun coming up at 9am. Plus Marco Rubio, ick!!! I will move to Arizona if they try to take away my morning light.
I’m with you. I want my light in the morning. It sets my day, largely determines how much energy I’m going to have the rest of the day. And I most certainly do not want my light at night when I’m trying to wind down and go to bed!
“Beware the Ides of March, Caesar!” Good Monday morning, Moosekind. It’s a bitterly cold and windy 36 F. at the moment, going up to 49 F. in Ashburn.
Was on the go since early yesterday morning. We grabbed the dog, jumped into the car, and took off to meet Younger Son and family at this house:
https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/12208-Fairfax-Station-Rd-Fairfax-Station-VA-22039/51890311_zpid/?
We only had 20 minutes to tour the downstairs part, where we would be living, because we had to get to the doctor’s office for Hubby’s Covid test. He’s having outpatient surgery on Wednesday so Kaiser insisted on the test, even though we’ve both been vaccinated twice.
Afterwards Hubby and dog remained at home while I went to get a haircut and stop by the store for some half-and-half. We had a bit of lunch and thankfully took naps. After that, Younger Son and family came to tea.
The pictures of the house were taken in summer, probably some years ago. When we toured it we could see that it would need a LOT of work. Still, the house has possibilities, so if the sellers will accept a lower price because of the shape it’s in, we may get it.
With this Covid quarantine, lockdown, and so on, I would prefer to be with family. Don agrees with me. We’re introverts anyway, and would be happy to live quietly at home. And it would be nice for Monty to once more have a fenced back yard with interesting sniffs. Living here for three years is making me remember why I hate apartment living.
Must rush to the gym! I was lucky, I scored three 11 a.m. appointments for this week! Wishing a good day to all at the Pond.
Looks very spacious Diana, and seeing the pool makes my want to be there!
Good morning, 32 and will be sunny in Bellingham. Yesterday became a very wet and rainy day so I hope the sun shines a bit longer today. I want to prune the salal growing around the upper patio so I’ll see what happens this afternoon.
Vaccine distribution is puzzling….Whatcom county has sites for giving shots but no vaccine. And the two counties south of us have even larger sites and open appointment times. Our son has the clearance code for a shot and an appointment at a clinic near Seattle and if he can make the logistics work wants to participate in a new UW antibody study. But it requires giving blood at the Seattle lab before getting the vaccine, more lab work between shots, and then more after the second shot. So he needs to be able to schedule the shots and navigating the supply system isn’t easy.
Time for coffee and maybe and earlier start to my day. Best wishes to all.
Tuesday Meese. 19 degrees here in Kingston NY going up to 40.
Can’t begin to express how relieved I am – hubby gets first vaccine shot at 9AM.
Puerto Rico
So very glad your husband’s gotten his first shot. Holding the Good Thought on few side effects now & no issue with getting the 2nd shot timely. {{{HUGS}}}
So good to know you and your husband are now protected Dee.
Yay, vaccinations!!
I almost feel guilty about our beautiful weather here. 68 this morning ahead of thunderstorms overnight, and the rest of the week will have highs in the 70s. I set a reminder to myself to log off early to go get some soda bread and get in a walk. Starting tomorrow, U2 are streaming some of their concerts again, so the fans are organizing live tweeting. That was a good thing we did last spring, looking forward to it again.
{{{anotherdemocrat}}} – enjoy the pleasant weather while it lasts. We both know what it will be like 3 months from now.
Also enjoy your U2 streaming/live tweeting “parties”. It’s good to have things to look forward to. That’s half the fun. moar {{{HUGS}}}
Good Tuesday morning, Meese! It’s a hideous day, 40 F. going up to 48 F. Little chance of rain from these clouds, but They are saying that will happen on Thursday.
Was busy all day yesterday until the blessed afternoon. I sold another paperback to a fellow resident. Did I mention I’m trying to get up a book bazaar so that we authors in The Home can display our books and possibly make a few sales? I suggested September, when residents will be back from their vacations (if they even go.) A fellow writer from the Writers’ Group has enthusiastically embraced the idea. Another writer, our most successful author, has suggested that the press be invited.
Well, as of today we have been here three years. It hardly seems possible! There may be a move in our future, or there may not. We know that Younger Son is getting itchy feet and would like to move from his current house. His current house, which has ample space for four humans and one dog, wouldn’t quite stretch if we were to move there. Besides it backs on to a very busy road, which DIL hates.
When she came over on Sunday with the family she said she did have Covid, but it was a relatively mild case. One thing she did say was that her lungs hurt so badly she thought she might have lung cancer rather than Covid. Another thing she said that puzzled me was that the doctors could do absolutely nothing for her—prescribe medication or anything else. At any rate, her latest negative test cleared her to rejoin society after 10 days of isolation.
She said she did feel like the Queen of Irish Moss Court, with not having to referee children’s quarrels, wine delivered to her door every night, and Korean soap operas to watch after the day’s work was done. She worked on her laptop all through isolation.
We have been reflecting a great deal on our three years here. We are deeply grateful to be alive still, because neither of us thinks we’d have survived if we still lived in the house and had to do all the shopping, etc. ourselves. On the other hand, life here is considerably different from what it was when we arrived. One thing that has become outstandingly clear to me is that we don’t need external activities like the Drama Club, Movie Night, and parties to be happy. We do, however, need family. Three years after moving here my three best friends are the same as when we moved in. I’ve met some women I like, and there have been activities I’ve enjoyed, such as the “Guess the Subject Biography Book Club” and the Raging Grannies. There won’t be any more demonstrations, however, as the NRA is moving to Texas, where it will feel more at home.
But other than that, I think we could live much more cheaply and equally happily with Younger Son and his family. At least, when we die, we won’t die alone.
Sorry to inflict these philosophical musings on you! I should have written a diary called, “Life at the Home for the Aged—Three Years In.” However, it’s now 10:30, which I can hardly believe (damn daylight saving), and I need to get on with my day.
Wishing a good day to all at the Pond, and I do hope everyone’s stimmy arrives in our checking accounts during the night!
{{{Diana}}} – Holding the Good Thought on your book sales ideas. And even Better Thoughts on your family finding a house that will work for you to be together. moar {{{HUGS}}} & Blessed Be.
I am also still waiting for my Biden Bucks. It seems like last time around, I was in the first batch – maybe my bank has fallen out of favor!
This:
Then it served its purpose and if you decide to move on you can be grateful for that! Don’t forget, when you are analyzing your next move, that one of the pluses about where you are is that you have the nursing home built in. If one of you became sick and needed a nursing home temporarily or permanently, and you were living with family, you would be separated again and facing additional costs. One of my siblings’ mother-in-laws was in a setup like yours and she was in and out of the nursing home for several issues over the years and not having to deal with finding a place was a huge relief. I am sure you have thought of all those things – it is a difficult decision and one with no clear-cut answer.
Thanks, I agree with that! My husband, however, is still on Kaiser, which refuses to “liaise” with the Home. If he needed nursing home care, he’d be moved off-campus anyway.
Every time he visits his primary care physician in Reston, she says in an awed voice, “My father is two years younger than you, uses a walker to get around, and gave up driving years ago.”
And yet Dearly drove himself to Kaiser in McLean this morning for Mohs surgery. His devoted wife prepared a lunch bag with everything a man could possibly need: a paperback book, a crossword puzzle pamphlet, coffee in a thermos, cold water in a little bottle, a sandwich, fruit, cheese crackers, two chocolate chip cookies, and a small chocolate bar. He may be there all day.
It’s 48 heading for 75 and off and on sunny this morning. Yesterday was both beautiful and productive. As in we generated 17 KWHs for the first time since last August. The m-t-d is 167.75 which is at least on tract to get us over 300 by the end of March. Considering the cloud cover in the 10-day forecast I don’t know if we’ll stay on track for that but at least we are now.
I’m “behind my time” and will be until the sun is coming up early enough to make up for the gummint manipulating the clocks to shove my morning/waking up sun an hour towards my winding down/going to bed time of day. At least I don’t have to leave the house and actually be anywhere. Unlike folks who are still working outside the home. (One of the benefits of working from home is exactly why the authoratarian/power-mad employers hate it. You can log in and check/respond to your emails from bed if you want to. Well, they hate it if you’re doing that between 8 & 5 – no problem with you doing company work in bed if you’re on your time.) Yes, I think “daylight savings time” should be abolished? Why do you ask? LOL.
Anyway I’ve fed cats, dealt with litter boxes (2 of which were turned over this morning – oh joy), fixed and eaten breakfast so the day’s off to a good start. I think. Need to do the breakfast dishes and get more coffee, then I’m good to go for my twitter chores. Bright the day, Meeses. {{{HUGS}}}
Good morning, 32 and sunny in Bellingham. I enjoyed working in the garden yesterday, but needed a long soakin the tub and a nap to recover. Oh well, at least I did something to recover from!
Our son will be able to participate in the Coivid study so he’ll be in Seattle today and we’ll take care of Heidi. She is nearly 15 yrs old now and sleeps most of the time. Every day is a gift at her age.
Time to find my coffee. As always, my best wishes to all.
Ah, sweet doggy. A dog’s life is all too short.
Monty will be 10 in hooman years in July and is just as bouncy as ever! Last night he went crackerdog, racing around our flat, jumping in and out of his bed—it was bizarre. He just needs to run, but unfortunately the place where he can run unfettered is some distance from here, especially on a cold, dark night.
Good morning almost afternoon, meeses! Tuesday …
It is 34 degrees in Madison and that will be today’s high. The sun is shining but it won’t be warming up much. We got a fair amount of snow yesterday and the roads, sidewalks and trails are slick so I am going to stay home.
I had a number of early morning projects to do and they ran a lot longer than I expected and so this is a very late check-in. I am trying to figure out what Ron Freaking Johnson is up to – does he have polling that shows that the votes of out-and-proud racists plus the business community are enough to get re-elected in Wisconsin? Why else cast oneself in the role of declaring that white MAGAs who definitely did break laws and lead to death and destruction are not as scary as the people who support Black Lives Matter and whose protests resulted in violence in Kenosha but mainly violence from the White Supremacists who came from Illinois to kill Wisconsinites? I want no part of that mindset and if he is convinced that he will win with racism on the ballot, I am out of here.
See all y’all later!
Good morning, meeses! Wednesday …
It is 34 degrees in Madison with an expected daytime high of 39. Cloudy and rainy all day.
It is amusing to see Mitch McChinless rant about “gumming up the works” if the Senate reforms the filibuster rule. JHC!! He has been gumming up the works in the Senate since 2009 when he vowed that he would never let any Democratic legislation pass as his way to make Democratic presidents unpopular. And in the past 4 years, he has done nothing except pass a tax scam for the donor class and confirm mouthbreathing anti-democracy pasty white male judges to the federal bench. You don’t get any gummier than that. We can deal with two years of 30 hour cloture votes if the tradeoff is saving our democracy from a political party that wants to limit the franchise, that wants to literally pick their voters rather than risk that the voters will toss them out. Pass the key components of HR1 and the rest of it will fix itself. Plus you know damn well that McConnell will eliminate the filibuster – shaking his head in faux sadness – the next time his party has complete power, something we have to be willing to crawl through broken glass to avoid.
I have a bunch of articles up in tabs that I hope to get a chance to read and I will put Vice President Harris’ UN speech in a post shortly (done: Vice President Harris: “We want to help empower women worldwide.” ) . I have a boatload of projects to do that had to be set aside to address a thorny client issue and also to take time to watch my Badger Women’s Hockey Team advance to the semifinal round of the national championship. Last year, they were getting ready to defend their 2019 Championship when the post-season was cancelled. This year, the tournament is in a bubble – one venue for all 8 teams over a one week period. I hope they can finish and win!
See all y’all later!
There may have been storms overnight, but I didn’t hear them. The news showed some hail in a northern suburb. Anyway, supposed to be gorgeous weather for the rest of the week. Today: work, check to see if there are any restaurant specials for St. Patrick’s day, and watch a U2 concert & people live-tweeting this afternoon.
Good cold gray St. Patrick’s Day, Moosekind! It’s 42 F. in Ashburn and quite ugly with a grayish white sky and the woods looking all misty. It’ll go up to 59 F. today so when it’s a bit warmer I’ll take the Mont-ster out for a walkies. Dearly is tied up at the medical facility for most of the day.
Heard last night that a whole batch of stimmys was going to hit people’s bank accounts and sure enough, we got ours! So happy that I can now donate to some pet charities. The Texas Diaper Bank and Houston Food Bank will receive some, as will the Southern Poverty Law Center. Anotherdemocrat, if you’ll provide a link, I’ll donate to the AIDS ride charity. It’s so nice to have some money!
I oughtta buy a 3-D printer as last night I suffered my worst choking episode in years. it took me all evening to recover. I can just see myself inserting cartridges of roast beef, Yorkshire pudding, roast potatoes, and gravy in the printer and having brown puree, white puree, and so forth extruding into the output tray. Ugh. When Younger Son was a baby I puréed bits of the family dinner, froze it in ice cube trays, and then heated the cubes in the steamer (microwaves weren’t a thing back then). He’s 46 now, so it seems to have worked.
I must go and put in my snake earrings to show that St. Patrick pisses me off, the Pagan-destroying old boot. All the priestesses at the sacred site of Kildare suddenly had to turn Christian, although I believe they secretly muttered Pagan devotions under their breath. Sniff.
I can’t think of a single rational thing to say except for the simple fact that I love Kamala and Joe more than ever. Wishing a good day to all at the Pond, with a hefty glass of Bushmills whisky to all those who celebrate this day. To the others, I wish a nice cup of tea. Long live Goddess!