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 to view previous pages, shown here with 3 pages of comments available and Page 2 circled.
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Good Tuesday morning, Meese! Actually, it’s just 25 minutes until noon. It’s sunny, blue-skied, and 81 F. right now, going up to 86 F.
September 7 is the day Good Queen Bess was born. Had a friend once who doted on GQB so much that every year on this day she’d bake a white cake and frost it with white icing, in her honor. Speaking as a resident of the state named after the nonexistent sex life of this 16th-century monarch, I must say I heartily approve of my friend’s yearly ritual.
Today is also Rosh Hashanah, which explains why the schools are closed and I have little Ethan with me. We walked down to the garden to pick tomatoes and herbs, which he greatly enjoyed. “Fresh and healthy,” was his verdict. Now we are going to work on what he calls “The Nut Project.” Actually, it’s making a lethal kind of candy—you take Hershey’s kisses, put a mini-vanilla wafer on top with a bit of icing, then a peanut butter chocolate chip on top of that, with more icing, and it looks like an Acorn. Fineena was the one who showed me a pic of this culinary cholesterol trap and I’ve been unable to get it out of my head.
We’re now going to wash our hands and put masks on (can’t breathe on something we’re going to give away), so we’ll see what happens.
We had a wonderful time at the barbecue at Elder Son’s house yesterday. His new sitting area outside with the Adirondack chairs and the fire pit reminds me of princesspat’s description of her outdoor space. One night they even showed a movie out there!
Meanwhile, Mr. First Grader is being a very good boy. Wishing a nice quiet day to all at the Pond.
{{{Diana}}} I hope you and grandson have fun. That concoction sounds like something it is best to give away rather than eat. 😁 moar {{{HUGS}}}
Thank you for sharing the story of your daughter! I am glad you were reunited and very glad that you enjoy each other’s company.
Yes. We get on so well I sometimes think we’ve known each other in another life. We’re so alike!
You probably did. 😍 And I’m so happy for you that things turned out that way. {{{HUGS}}}
Good morning, meeses! Wednesday …
It is 59 degrees in Madison with an expected daytime high of 73. Mostly sunny skies are in the forecast.
Women will surely be flocking to Texas which has decided to “ban” rape to get around the fact that they now have no abortion exception for rape! I suspect it is more likely that they will change the definition of rape to only include violent sexual assault where the victim dies, thus eliminating the need for an abortion. The lawsuits for the abortion ruling are waiting for a test case (and probably won’t happen until after the Planned Parenthood stay request hearing scheduled for next week) but the lawsuits for the voter suppression bill, SB1, were filed yesterday by Marc Elias and the NAACP. SCOTUS won’t concur so it is an exercise in futility unless someone can convince Manchin, Sinema, Feinstein and the Delaware boys to kill the filibuster and pass the John Lewis Voting Rights Act. When the history of this time is written, I hope that the Democratic Senators who loved Senate Comity more than democracy will be vilified.
Busy day here as I will be off the grid for about 4 hours helping a friend with some medical appointments this afternoon and I need to get a few things done this morning.
See all y’all later!
Wednesday Meese. 60 degrees here in Kingston going up to 83 with rain.
Puerto Rico
Good morning. Working in the office today, will be mindful about stretching and moving. Pleasant morning, only 70 degrees, but it will still hit 100 this afternoon. I’m keeping track of the Tour of Britain via Twitter, since there’s no TV coverage here. Yesterday’s finish was in the national botanical gardens of Wales. That was gorgeous.
Good Wednesday morning, Moosekind. It’s 70 F. under blue skies today, going up to all the 8s later. We have been promised a thunderstorm this evening. We’ll see.
Had another terrible night. I finally ended up sleeping in the green chair. Why is it easier to sleep there than in a perfectly comfortable bed? We shall never know.
Little Ethan is back in school this morning. Yesterday he let me hold his hand as we walked down the hall to the car outside, where his mother was waiting, he in his little mask, Monty Grandma wearing a mask to keep him company. I enjoyed his visit as he is the grandchild I know the least. Ethan asked if he could have another sleepover soon, so I infer that he enjoyed himself!
On the agenda for today are nails and hair, as I’m being interviewed on Friday. I have one photo to research, the Pentagon as it looked after Flight #77 hit it, for the September 27 issue of the quarterly. Still to be done are wrapping the prizes for the Festival, compiling a list of my books, and making various phone calls. The Authors Festival is two weeks from today. Yikes!
Wishing a good day to all at the Pond.
It’s 72 heading for 85 and another day of humidity low enough there’s no heat index. It’s supposed to be mostly sunny today and it’s looks like it’s trying to be anyway. We generated 13.8 KWHs again yesterday and the m-t-d is 90.57 – we should clear 100 by end of day.
Well, I’ve got a new emergency phone – another flip phone which is what I wanted since it’s just for emergencies – and it’s activated but I’ll have to enter all my contact information manually. Which I’m having trouble with. I hope it’s just my fingers and when my hands recover/become more functional again I’ll be able to do it. All I’ve managed to do so far is erase the Customer Support name line – the number’s still there but the name isn’t. sigh.
Still needing that last piece for Jill. Almost everything’s set for her to get out of her very dangerous situation. But one very vital piece is missing. Amelia had a bad episode yesterday. It’s more than a little triggering to see the person you depended upon to be companion/advocate during radiation treatment but walked out midway through the 1st session be in the situation you were in and get more help than they even need. Especially since not having an advocate to call doctors’ attention to treatment going sour is why she’s in the situation she’s in. But Fineena got some help and the fundraiser for Aji’s & Wings’s niece was made, so there is some good news in the world. (Blessings upon the helpers.) Everybody’s hanging on. That being pretty much all they/we can do.
Discovered a cat had pissed on my laptop. Which has been sitting on the back counter for over a year – since COVID hit and going anywhere to see about what’s wrong with it became problematic. Heaven knows if the laptop is salvageable at this point. It took half a roll of paper towels and a lot of cleaner to deal with that. Then multiple washings of my hands with multiple kinds of soap to get the smell off. sigh. My hands are not happy with me this morning.
Coffee, then twitter. For at least as long as my hands stay functional. Bright the day, Meeses. {{{HUGS}}}
Good morning, 62 and raining in Bellingham. I’ve got several donation boxes partially filled so I’ll do more of that today. I wanted to make space in a kitchen cupboard for some different bowls, but one thing led to another and now I’ve got piles of fabric, kitchen things, and clothes we aren’t wearing. I’m going to focus on getting the unwanted items out of here today and then I can decide what to do next.
Best wishes to all.
Ha! That is my normal mode these days: I open a closet, preparing to sort and pack and get distracted by everything I see. When I look around an hour later, I have turned one task into 5 and created several new stacks of things to be addressed.
Thursday Meese. Very heavy rain last night and still raining – going up to 72
Just posted
Yay, Tish James!! I hope she stays out of the governors race and focuses on being the best Attorney General New York has ever had.
Good morning. I watched the Star Trek Day celebration last night. It was mostly about all the new shows set in the Trek universe that are coming up. Still fun to see. Working at home today, back is stiff, I guess I didn’t stretch/move enough yesterday.
Hi, another. Ethan told me he wants Santa to bring him a “light sabuh” for Christmas. I shall have to consult his parents.
Good morning, meeses! Thursday …
It is 48 degrees in Madison with an expected daytime high of 73. Mostly sunny skies.
I was pleased to see that the horse deworming “treatment” for COVID results in sterilization of males taking it. This is how our species survives – natural selection will stop the MAGAts from breeding and kill off those who reject science. Sorry if this sounds harsh but I have no patience for those who are destroying our country and our planet. I was chuckling at the TV last night as Joy Ann Reid was very upbeat about our chances of surviving the MAGAt rioters – that their numbers are small and their path filled with stumbling blocks they themselves set up. It is so unlike her, she is usually doom and gloom! Anyway, I will enjoy the few bright spots that present themselves. It sucks bigtime that the anti-vaxxers anti-maskers are thwarting our recovery.
I have no appointments today so I can put my head down and get some neglected accounting projects done before I run out of brain power and am only fit to sort and box. I have a few deadlines looming that I need to lay out on a timeline to get a better handle on. I am more productive when I have lists and can offload things from my brain to “paper”. The trick, as always, is remembering to look at the lists!
See all y’all later!
Not harsh at all, just common sense.
It was 52 when I got up this morning, 60 now and heading for 88. Still no heat index. We’re looking at low 90s the next 4 days then back to the 80s. Winter is a’comin’ in and all that. I’ve got to see about getting wood bricks. The “updated” set up at Tractor Supply will of course make it harder. sigh. We generated 13.77 KWHs yesterday and are starting at 104.35 for the m-t-d.
Gotta say Fuck PayPal – Jill had a chance at an actual mobile home, elderly but sound, already in an established park with low lot rents and ideally located. And Effen PayPal would not release the funds – the guy tried to work with her but after almost 8 hours of jacking around & PayPal customer service reps bleating that they couldn’t override the “security function” someone else walked in with a stack of $100 bills and that was that. So we’re back to hoping for a decent RV and a safe park to put it in – which no matter where will not be as well situated or as inexpensive as that mobile home. Jill was offered a miracle and PayPal refused to let her have it.
Everybody’s holding on. I guess that’s all we can do. As maddening as that sometimes is and depressing as it always is.
I just got lemon-walnut muffins out of the oven. The house smells wonderful and the kitchen is pleasantly warm. I’ll close up the south and west windows in a few hours. I’m not sure I’ll need to close the north windows at all today. Meanwhile. Coffee. Dee’s diary. Twitter. Bright the day, Meeses. {{{HUGS}}}
What terrible luck for Jill, bfitz! So sorry to hear this. Hope better luck comes her way.
Lemon-walnut muffins sound good. I made Carrot Bran Muffins this morning, substituting half a cup of unsweetened applesauce for the 2 tablesp. of oil, and they turned out to be moist and delicious!
Your muffins sound wonderful. I used to do that – with the applesauce, also pumpkin in some recipes – but it doesn’t seem to work as well with GF flours. Or at least with the ones I use.
Yes, about Jill. My personal/pagan opinion is that her husband is evil and as long as she’s connected to him, that evil will keep trying to keep her from escaping. But she can’t cut the connection (divorce him) until she does escape. So the Powers of Good need a focused effort to get her around those blocks so that she can do the rest. She knows what to do and even how to do it, but all the steps are blocked until she gets out of where she is. So prayers up or candles or whatever – it’s not just circumstance here, it’s also active evil.
Good Thursday morning, Meese! It’s so dark this morning one would think it’s going to rain. Apparently we did get rain last night, according to Dearly, and so much lightning it woke him up. No thunder, however. Right now in Ashburn it’s 68 F., going up to 72 F. The clouds are supposed to dissipate by noon.
I wanted a cool gray morning so I could stay at home and catch up on laundry and email, so this is perfect. This afternoon I’ll be leading my first meeting of the Blue Ridge Writers’ Group.
Yesterday was my friend’s 84th birthday. I sent her flowers, an ecard, and a physical card. We talked after dinner last night. She wonders (as do I, but I didn’t want to say it) whether this will be her last birthday. Her quality of life is poor. She has morning and afternoon aides, some that she likes and some that just want to come in and sit down, problems getting the meals she orders, and inability to move very far without her oxygen. Getting the ‘flu followed by pneumonia in January 2019 did not help matters.
There are now 13 cases of Covid at Greenspring. There are five here. At Greenspring they’re starting to crack down—no visitors are allowed in the dining rooms. Here, visitors are still allowed but they, the employees, and the contractors, have to wear masks. We have to wear them if more than 30 persons are in a room. My friend says if there’s another lockdown at Greenspring she’s just going to go ahead and joss it. I don’t blame her, because she no longer even has the escape that I have, which is burying myself in fiction: her vision is going. She has cataracts and getting them treated is taking a very long time.
She said the flowers and their scent, and the balloon, are cheering up her living room.
Well, it’s time to start making those telephone calls to doctors and so on! Wishing a good day to all at the Pond.
Your friend who is losing her sight can have free audio books. (also people with a physical impairment that keeps them from holding a book, turning the pages), either mailed to them – the player is provided – or to download for those who are able to do that. Here’s the Virginia one: http://www.vdbvi.org/library_resourcecenter.htm.
Thank you, another! I will suggest that to her.
Good morning, 67 and partly sunny in Bellingham. Well, I now have one clean and organized kitchen cupboard and a counter full of dishes I still want to keep but will have to make room for in the basement. The old Vernon Kiln State Plates are interesting to me, and the Mexicana dishes are the everyday dishes my grandmother used so sentimental me will find a new space for them today. The pile of clothes continues to grow so that will be a job for another day. The fabric stacks are ongoing but I do have an empty tote so some progress is happening. Fortunately I don’t have a deadline ’cause I would never meet it!
Best wishes to all.
Good morning, meeses! Friday …
It is 52 degrees in Madison with an expected daytime high of 77. Sunny skies are in the forecast. Sadly, I had to turn on the air conditioning again yesterday and will likely have to do so again today. Looking ahead, it will probably be a couple more weeks before we are consistently 75 or below in the daytime.
Big news day yesterday! I was thinking about Merrick Garland and his stolen Supreme Court seat. Being Attorney General at this moment in time – when our democracy is literally on life support – may actually result in a more lasting legacy than being an Associate Justice writing minority opinions on the Sanders-Collins Supreme Court. He will be able to retire when he chooses to without it being the ghoulish subject of the punditry. His task is enormous: clean up the Justice Department and put in place safeguards to shield it from political interference as well as prosecuting the voters rights, abortion rights, minority rights and criminal justice violations that have sprung up out of the MAGA years. I hope he is in a good place about the injustice done to him and embracing this challenge.
I have a gazillion errands to run today, so my work day needs to begin now.
See all y’all later!
Good morning. It’s not hot — only 70 degrees, I should have woken up early & walked. I may do that tomorrow. If it’s going to be below 80 degrees at dawn, my “it’s too hot” excuse is gone. Today: work till 3:30, then pick up groceries. Listen to music, get up and dance at least twice.
Friday Meese. 57 going up to 73, and sunny here in Kingston NY.
Puerto Rico
It’s 64 heading for 93, sunny, and still no heat index. Yesterday in fact we had a short spate where the “feels like” was a few degrees lower than the air temps. (I gotta see about getting those wood bricks.) We generated just at 13 KWHs and m-t-d of 117.38 starts the day.
I used my last egg with yesterday’s baking and have opened my last bags of a bunch of stuff so I need to go shopping today or tomorrow. With the not-as-hot weather, midafternoon is as good a time as early morning as far as crowds are concerned. So either this afternoon or early in the morning. It’s just the one store. (Unless Tractor Supply has the wood bricks in – then that’s multiple trips to schlep the pallet-load home with unloading between each trip.)
At this point I don’t know what to hope for. For just about anybody. So just focusing on safe, secure, comfortable housing (& it ain’t comfortable without water, food, & the appropriate fuel/power). Preferably in supportive communities but just non-threatening communities will do. And reduced pain. Healing Energy to make things better.
Coffee then twitter. Bright the day, Meeses. {{{HUGS}}}
Good morning, 61 and partly cloudy in Bellingham. I went outside to relax a moment yesterday but the garden had other plans….plants were wilting, ivy grew overnight, dry twigs from the cedar tree are everywhere, etc. So today I’ll be outdoors making the seasonal transition from summer to fall.
Best wishes to all.
Good morning, meeses! Saturday …
It is 61 degrees in Madison with an expected daytime high of 88. Sunny skies are in the forecast. A line of storms will move through tomorrow and cool us down some.
I will stay away from the news today. I feel sad about the human toll of the events of 9/11/2001 but I am even sadder that the media chooses to ignore history and lionize George W. Bush for his response to 9/11 and his craptastic wars. His incompetence led to the massive intelligence failure that allowed 12 hijackers train in the United States to drive planes into buildings. His daddy issues led him to invade Iraq over lies and lose focus on destroying the Taliban in Afghanistan when he could have. His political party was built on the racism of Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan and Lee Atwater which led directly to Donald J. Trump and the insurrection that nearly toppled – and may yet topple – our government. He should not be making pretty speeches at memorials to the pain he created, he should be in prison along with Dick “Dick” Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld. So, no, I can’t separate the sadness of an attack on America that led to so many innocent people’s deaths and lives ruined from the person and political party whose negligence led to it and whose incompetence changed the world – in a bad way – forever. By the way, my “never forget” on George W. Bush’s tenure is John Roberts and Samuel Alito, the foundation of the Supreme Court that is planning to overturn 50 years of precedent – and the right of the legislature to pass binding laws – in service to their political party.
Lots to do here today after a fractured week. I need to take advantage of the quiet of the mornings to get caught up. I am finding I can only sit at my desk for about 3 hours at a time and I need to start managing that time better.
See all y’all later!