Week-long Welcomings from Moosylvania: April 25th

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.

35 Comments

  1. Good morning everyone! Very excited to go get my 2nd vaccine later today. I keep believing the weather people about overnight rain & not setting my alarm for walking, then it doesn’t rain. Sigh.

  2. Good Wednesday morning, Moosekind! It’s already 70 F. in Ashburn and the morning clouds have given way to sun. Today’s high will be all the 8’s. It feels weird to get up at 5 a.m. (not by choice) and not need to flick on the little fake woodstove for warmth.

    The woods across the way are half-dressed in their spring green finery. I love watching the changeover! We’re well past the green fuzz stage. I’m disappointed the dogwoods didn’t retain their starry white blossoms as long as they usually do. Climate change!

    Looking forward to our President’s address tonight. Just this morning someone said in the WaPo that it’s so nice to have newsless weekends! I’m sure my blood pressure’s way down.

    Liar Tuck is causing no end of upsets. Did y’all see tweets of the incidents where some maskless karens lined up to scream at little kids wearing masks on their way to school? Have these people no shame? How is this “Christian” behavior?

    Not much to say. Got up too early, will attempt to work this morning, will likely crash this afternoon. Wishing a good, peaceful day to all at the Pond!

  3. It’s 66 but feels warmer and heading for 73. It’s also raining, seriously raining, dark enough the lights are on and the PV system is still in night mode. We’ve got a flashflood watch and a tornado warning out there (as in somewhere in the county not necessarily my neighborhood) as well. And as much as I’d love the sunshine, there’s something cozy and comforting about being warm and dry drinking my coffee and eating my oatmeal while the rain comes thundering down. It’s warm enough to have the carport door open so most of the cats are lined up at it looking at the rain and smelling the rain smells. Yesterday’s cloudiness kept the production down to 9 KWHs but we did at least get the 9. And the m-t-d got up to 371 so only another 6 to get out of 4K-system last place for April. We may not manage that today but we will tomorrow. We’ve still got a chance to reach 400 before May steps up and we start over.

    Lisa recovered enough from dealing with the car impoundment to do her laundry over Monday and Tuesday. And discovered the motel (corporate, not just the one she’s staying in with the nice manager – who protested but corporate didn’t listen) has outsourced the laundry room. & the new “owners” of the equipment immediately doubled the price and replaced the coin pay on all but one of the machines with credit/debit card readers that nobody in their right minds would trust. sigh. Jill (@Pastor_Jill on twitter) just found out the person she’s got a POA for (is unofficially caretaker for) has 4th stage colon cancer. So a lot more money has been added to her GFM (originally just for a propane refrigerator and a manual washing machine – and not moving anyway) to cover what she’s going to need to keep him safe and as comfortable as possible under the circumstances. I don’t know if she ever was on DK. I didn’t “meet” her until I got on twitter. Good Thoughts by whatever name would be greatly appreciated.

    I may “check in” at the beginning of the speech tonight – if I can find a link somewhere – for the same reason Jan is. To see the president of the United States backed by 2 women. It’s exceedingly unlikely that I’ll watch the whole thing but I certainly will read the transcript once it becomes available. Nice to have Decent people in charge. Not that they’re perfect. Not that they’re doing everything needed. But they’re decent and they’re trying and they aren’t deliberately hurting anybody. Even more, when they have hurt somebody, they try to fix it. I don’t know how long we will have this blessing, but it is a blessing and I’m counting it.

    More coffee and off to twitter. I need to boost Jill’s update on her GFM and hope this time somebody will pay attention. Bright the day, Meeses. {{{HUGS}}}

      • Oops – I meant Amelia. I know her under 3 names and sometimes I get mixed up as to which name the people who’ll read what I’m writing know her as. {{{Diana}}}

  4. Wednesday Meese – Just when I got ready to post – doorbell rang, exterminators were here to take care of our garage termite problem
    Done!

    Puerto Rico

    • Good that you got the termite problem dealt with before it became serious damage. 👍💕

  5. Good morning, 52 and cloudy in Bellingham. I persevered yesterday and the curtain project for my son’s house is ready to go but it was frustrating to realize how much I’ve forgotten. Getting all the poles, brackets, rings and screws organized was a pita! Small comfort to remember I still dislike pinning draperies. Oh well, my curtain making days are basically over so I guess it’s ok to forget. Gives me more mental space for my solitaire games :)

    Time for coffee and a light look at the news. As always, my best wishes to all.

  6. Good morning, meeses! Thursday …

    It is 46 degrees in Madison with an expected daytime high of 63. Cloudy with a chance of isolated showers, maybe a few glimpses of sun.

    I wanted to check-in early as I have an extremely busy morning and once I get started on it, I will probably not be able to come up for air until afternoon.

    I watched the speech and it was very odd to see the House chamber so empty for a major speech by a president. It looked like the middle of the night CSPAN speeches that crazy Republicans give and then tweet out to followers who then think that people were there to hear it. In any event, the speech was not for those in the chamber – quite a few of them were falling asleep! – it was for the American people. I think Joe Biden took his pandemic response victory lap and laid out his agenda. Congresscritter Lauren Boebert was the Joe Wilson of this speech, shaking her head at gun safety and feeding the hungry. “Let them eat lead!” I will put up a video and transcript if I can find a window of time between client work and when I have to leave for errands.

    See all y’all later!

    • Heh! I did notice that a lot of people seemed to be asleep. I think Speaker Pelosi really wanted to seek her bed.

      Loved the sight of Madame Vice President and Madame Speaker sitting together on the dais.

      • I thought that the speech was at 7pm Central but that was when the coverage started! I stayed up but it was a struggle.

  7. Thursday Meese. 57 going up to 67 here in Kingston NY.

    Um.

    • Deplorable. A Clarence Thomas Republican, convinced he got where he got because of merit rather than because he is willing to close his eyes to the truth.

  8. Puerto Rico

    The La Perla neighborhood, in Old San Juan, has become “practically a ghost community” since the murder that occurred there last Saturday of a tourist in the middle of what, according to the information handled by the authorities, would have been a failed controlled substances transaction.

    The situation, explained community leader Ángel “Chago” Marcano, is complicating the subsistence and jobs of many people, as well as the achievements that the community had achieved to become a tourist attraction.

    “Right now, it’s sad, because (La Perla) has practically become a ghost community. An entire effort that had been made in recent years, in a matter of days has been lost ”, lamented Marcano. “What merchants and residents tell me is that there are police officers who are not letting anyone down who is not a resident. The shops have been empty since that unfortunate event ”, which happened”.

  9. Good Thursday morning, Meese! It’s cloudy this morning in Ashburn, with a current temp. of 68 F., on its way up to 84 F. It may rain and then again, it may not. I’m thinking of going for a walk now to get it over with.

    Yesterday I surprised myself by actually doing some work. Completed the article I was working on and will send it off this morning, I hope. Didn’t make much progress on the short story, though. Too much is going on this week, with a meeting this afternoon, an orientation on the in-house computer app tomorrow morning, and a Zoom Beltane ritual tomorrow afternoon. Wish I didn’t have to be bothered with that. I’m at the age and stage of life when I just want to think about the sabbats rather than actually doing them.

    Saturday is May Day, so we’ll be off to Lowe’s to get some tomato and zucchini plants. Sunday morning we’ll have little Ethan for a while, as his parents want to celebrate their 8th wedding anniversary with lunch at L’Auberge Chez François.

    That’s all from me this morning! Wishing a good day to all at the Pond.

  10. Big thunderstorms overnight. Austin is actually lucky, just thunderstorms & some minor hail. Southwest of us there was a tornado, and there was huge hail around Dallas. I’ve set some plants out for water. Shot yesterday went fine, didn’t even have arm pain until night time; but even that wasn’t bad enough to keep me from sleeping on my side. I even went for a 20 minute walk, just to get the blood really circulating. Today’s plan: just work. If I start to feel bad, I can always log off early.

    • W00T!!! On getting the 2nd shot in the first place and totally YAY! on no unpleasant side effects! Healing Energy & {{{HUGS}}}

  11. It’s 63 heading for mid 70s and overcast this morning. Heavy mist more than rain and at least the PV system is on which is better than this time yesterday. Apparently we got 4″ of rain yesterday which does explain the flashflood warnings. My friend got to the University before it started but she said she had to wade through ankle-deep water to get to her car when she left just after noon. I was probably marooned (both ends of the block flooded) but I didn’t go out to look. It did clear off, sort of, in the afternoon. Enough we got 3 KWHs generated and brought the m-t-d to just under 375. That’s a hair under April 2016 production and 13 less than April 2020. It’s still possible to reach 400. Holding the Good Thought.

    I got tied up with multiple emails and just plain forgot to look for a link to Biden’s speech. What little I’ve seen about it my various emails and such sound like it was good.

    Amelia called because she was going to be offline when I normally log off and she knows I worry when she doesn’t respond to my logging-off post before I actually do – she said she was too tired to actually type anything. But she’s starting to recover or she wouldn’t have had the energy to call. Can’t seem to get Jill’s GFM moving. (Jill is also going to need cash by the 17th to take the person in her care to ABQ for a bunch of tests and a 2nd opinion – cancer center will cover 2 nights in a motel but not food or the gas to get there – and she doesn’t do PayPal, just VenMo.) I haven’t heard from Karen and am getting a bit antsy about her, too. And Aji. . . well, among other things if Aji’s had 4 hours of sleep in a night in the last 10 years I’d be surprised and that just exacerbates all her other health issues which are causing the lack of sleep. A very vicious feedback loop. Good Thoughts by whatever name or Tradition.

    My focusing isn’t exactly great this morning either. I start one thing, get interrupted and move on to that, get interrupted by something else and move on to that – so far I’m managing to get back to the thing I was doing first but it ain’t easy. More coffee maybe. Bright the day, Meeses. {{{HUGS}}}

    • Karen checked in last night and said she was still much beset by nausea. It’s been more than a week since the surgery, so I wish she would call her doctor about it. A friend dropped off an early dinner for her, though, so that’s good.

      • Thank you. Yes, I wish she’d call her doctor. I also wish she had the Home Health care she should have so she wouldn’t be going through a lot of what she is. Yes, it’s always nice when a friend drops off dinner. Old-style community is a good thing. moar {{{HUGS}}}

  12. Good morning, 53 and mostly cloudy in Bellingham. It’s time to change some patio plantings from winter bouquets to flowers so I hope to find a few plants today. It’s still to cold at night for begonias so the main planters will have to wait, but geraniums will be fine in the smaller pots.

    I loved watching President Biden’s speech last night. Feeling the words flow in his conversational style was solace for the angst I’m carrying around thanks to the other guy. I’ll take hope over carnage every day!

    Best wishes to all.

  13. Good morning, meeses! Friday …

    It is 50 degrees in Madison with an expected daytime high of 57. Sunny skies are in the forecast. The full-ish moon was beaming in on me when I got up this morning!

    It appears that the Biden Bucks and the other help from the American Rescue Plan are doing their job – economic growth is projected to be over 6% this year. When jobs jobs jobs are added with the infrastructure plan, that will be locked in. I think the American Jobs Plan will pass in reconciliation but the American Families Plan has a tough path – taking care of people has always been a low priority and the Senators willing to go to the mat for bridge repairs are not going to want to stick their necks out for family leave, health care, and education. We need to Build Back Better a new Democratic Senate majority, starting with adding two new Senators in 2022 who will kill the filibuster. It is embarrassing that our agenda languishes because there aren’t enough Democrats who want to win the day – you know damn well that the Republicans would not hesitate to use their power. When George W. Bush “won” the presidency by 467 votes in Florida – and lost the popular vote – he declared that he had a mandate. Joe Biden has an actual mandate and his cowardly cohorts are cowering in fear of – no one exactly knows! Success? Popular programs that the American people want? Embarrassing.

    Florida joins the states that will severely curtail mail-in voting and early voting. In a just world, it would come back and hurt the Republicans who want to make it more difficult to vote. But when it comes to voting rights in Joe Manchin’s America, it is NOT a just world.

    I am going to head out and stock up on popcorn to watch the Rudy Giuliani legal drama unfold. It sounds like it is ensnaring Ron Freaking Johnson which would be good news for Wisconsin and America. I will likely not be here to vote against RoJo one more time but, assuming he is not in prison, it will be fun to watch him squirm.

    Nice touch with Joe Biden going to Georgia to thank the voters there for giving him a Democratic Senate and to visit Jimmy Carter. Decency and kindness is back in the White House and it is so refreshing.

    See all y’all later!

  14. Friday Meese. 54 going up to 63 here in Kingston NY.

    Jim Crow 2.0

    • Insanity! The Republicans WON Florida and stand poised to win again in 2022 with the rightward move by Latino men. DeSantis just wants to make sure he gets his share of attention in the voting rights wars – I hope this comes back and bites his face off.

  15. Puerto Rico


    This is a very important read.

  16. Good morning. Allergies are killing me, I’m assuming the mold count must have skyrocketed because of the rain or maybe it’s ragweed. Even after taking benadryl, still sneezing, runny nose & super itchy eyes. I only have to work till 3 today, so at least there’s that. More thunderstorms today, so maybe all the pollens will be washed out.

    • Healing Energy & I hope the rain will wash the pollen away for you. {{{HUGS}}}

  17. It’s 57 heading for 80 and sunny this last day of April. Yesterday didn’t clear off as early as it was supposed to and we only got 9.5 KWHs. That took the m-t-d to 384 so we’re within reach of 400 today as long as it stays sunny. That’s not great but it’s definitely good.

    Need to my “end of month” stuff today. Already started actually by putting flea goo on the cats. Not too well. The mark on the syringe has faded and I’m not sure how much I got on each cat. But I know it wasn’t right because it should have come out even and I had some left over. So I put the leftover stuff on Charlie and Cloud as they’re the largest. Mostly what else is the Xcel spreadsheet I keep track of month energy use and what I spent on food supplements for me and whatever on the cats. (This month and last have big-chunk vet bills which will hopefully be the last until next March!)

    Amelia’s still recovering from doing the laundry the other day but hopes to be fine by Monday when she needs to go out to get her 2nd jab. Karen checked in last night. From what she didn’t say I don’t think the Home Health showed up. I’d like to slap her doctor. (Knock him into a wall actually – well, metaphorically.) She’s still having nausea but her doctor’s not worried because “it’s not the pain meds” – em effer should be worried. If it’s not the easy answer of pain meds, then WTH is it? Jill’s GFM is not moving at all. I mean 9 people have made 12 donations over the 2-month time period the GFM has been up – she’s raised just over $400 which isn’t anywhere near the original $3.5K ask (for just the propane fridge and the manual washing machine) much less the current $20K one (adding another 550-gallon water tank, stabilize flooring, and especially a small PV system that can handle medical equipment) so she can take good care of the stage-4 cancer person she’s caretaker of. Doesn’t help that she’s on Disability herself. Which is so low she doesn’t qualify for the low-income rural assistance grants that would have covered part of that. Our country’s health system sux. It just does. I know it’s better. I know we’re working on it. But it sux. And our country’s “assistance” to disabled people doesn’t just suck. It’s vile and cruel and punitive.

    More coffee. Then read various things and do my twitter chores. Since I’m 2 weeks out from my 2nd jab and it’s a sunny day, I may even take a walk around the neighborhood. For the 1st time in over a year. Bright the day, Meeses. {{{HUGS}}}

  18. Good Friday morning, Moosekind! “Sunny day, chasing the clouds away,” as the song says. The winds will gust to 50 mph, which is awful. Hope it doesn’t knock down any trees! It’s 64 F. in Ashburn right now, going up to 68 F. Oh, goody.

    We never received a nanodrop of rain all yesterday nor during the night, despite frantic emails from the Emergency Update people. Great Goddess, I get tired of those people. Don’t know how they got my address in the first place.

    This morning really got away from me. We have a meeting at the Great Oak club house in a few minutes so Dearly and I have to start making our way there. I have a ritual this afternoon. I wish I could get to Trader Joe’s AND exercise!

    Managed to nearly get a full night’s sleep without drugs. I dread bringing on Alzheimer’s by taking sleeping pills.

    Tomorrow is MAY DAY, people! Celebrate, bring in the May, dance nekkid in the woods, do whatever!

    Wishing a good day to all at the Pond.

  19. Good morning, 54 and raining in Bellingham, Yesterday didn’t go as planned so today I’ll be cleaning up the patios and the plantings in the rain today. Oh well, I don’t shrink when wet even though I wish I would!

    Best wishes to all.

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