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 “morning”, Motley Meese! The week begins …
Morning low of 55 degrees in the Desert Southwest with an expected daytime high of 73. Sunny skies are in the forecast.
Have a great day, all y’alls!!
For those of you NOT in Arizona, it is time to Fall back – don’t forget to turn your clocks back one hour. Enjoy your extra hour of sleep!!
Sunday Meese with a bonus of an extra hour of sleep.
In case you missed it – here’s a spirit lifter
I hope they all vote!!
Even with earphones and the sound turned up, I couldn’t hear it.
I never listen to Tweets – I just look.
Puerto Rico
Good morning. A fall-like morning in the 50s but the afternoon will be in the mid 80s. And tomorrow morning, during my walking time: 70 degrees with 50% chance of rain. Sigh. Today, I’ve got tea steeping and I’m watching the news & eating breakfast. I didn’t set my alarm to walk early this morning, figured the time change would have me waking up in the 5 am hour…. and I slept in. Which is fine. If I can sleep in, I figure that’s a good thing.
Black Music Sunday
Good Sunday morning, Moose Peeps. Just returned from a 45+ minute walk with Mandy. Early this morning, when I first took her out, we could see that it had rained. Now it’s just cloudy and 69 F. in Ashburn, and will remain so all day.
Did not get an extra hour of sleep this morning, woke up at 5 new time. Just my luck, eh?
Will make a list of telephone calls for tomorrow. Need to run to the store to get food for election night. Also need to prepare for my meetings Wednesday and Thursday.
I love autumn days like this, with dark red leaves under a grey sky and yellow leaves beneath my feet. It reminds me of bygone days. It’s too warm to do it, but I think I’ll make a gingerbread today. One must mark the season in some way, right?
Wishing a good day to all at the Pond.
It’s 59 heading for 73 and sunny. Yesterday we actually got 7.1 KWHs and the m-t-d at 30 is back on track for 180. Which I guess isn’t bad for a 4K system that’s functioning at a 3.25K level. The time change means I’ve finished all my Sunday housekeeping chores and am sitting down to breakfast at 9 am instead of 10 (or so).
I’m totally trying to hold some optimism and my spirits up for this election but it’s being hard. Partly it’s hard because I’m having to hope for christofascist misogyny to be stronger than its racism in order to win the governor’s race. sigh. AR – thanks to the Roberts Court gutting VRA we’re bloody red. And I do mean bloody. But I voted and I keep hoping.
I’m hoping to get some time with my friend today – to do something in honor of her 62nd birthday last Friday – but I’m not sure she’s got any to spare. Meanwhile off to twitter & Dee’s diary. Bright the day, Meeses. {{{HUGS}}}
My election spirits are flagging as well bfitz. I turned on classical music from the CBC station in Vancouver, BC yesterday and that helped distract me from worrying. This country is in a fever storm so we all need some safe places to be until it breaks. Just hope I live long enough to see that happen!
I’ve been mostly listening to classical music, too. Our votes count, whether we cast them in joy or just hope, that’s all that matters. Healing Energy to us all. {{{princesspat}}}
Good afternoon, 42 and rain showers outside my window today. I was going to do some errands but I’ve lingered too long so now I need to tend to biz here. Outdoor cushions need to come indoors and be put away, laundry is waiting, and my desk is always there. But I have enjoyed my family phone chats this morning. Best wishes to all.
Good morning, meeses! Monday …
It is 57 degrees in Tucson with an expected daytime high of 75. Mostly sunny skies are in the forecast. I can see the nearly full moon from my office window (west). Tonight I am going to try to wake up to see the Blood Moon lunar eclipse. It will begin at 1:02am MST and last for 84 minutes. I might have to settle for seeing the end of it because 1:02am is during my best sleep. This will be the last lunar eclipse until 2025 so it is likely worth getting up for. I think she will be nearly straight up in the sky since I am currently seeing the moon rise over the mountains (due east) around 5pm. This one will be a little harder to watch than the last one which stayed east and I could sit on my deck to watch it unfold. Someone pointed out that the Blood Moon will be watching over the casting of the first ballots of a critically important election for the country and the planet. May her illumination guide decent people to the polls and to make the right choices – and encourage the others to stay home and get drunk and forget to vote!
I am ignoring the people breathlessly exclaiming that the early vote somehow means that Democrats are headed to a landslide victory. The early vote projections are based on how a particular precinct would normally vote and carves up the votes that way. Junk science. The Virginia election showed that people who have voted for Democrats and who should be smart enough to not fall for a Fleece Fascist will vote with their race when they are told that their white privilege is at risk. You cannot predict future votes from past votes in this day and age. We will know tomorrow night if the issue of women’s bodily autonomy is important enough to get people to the polls – it never has been in the entire history of our country but hope springs eternal. All I can say is I hope that the olds understand that Social Security and Medicare are in the crosshairs of a Republican majority and the damage they can do with even one house of Congress. The olds are a reliable voting bloc and apparently COVID has pruned the Republican over 65 cohort quite a bit – I hope it is enough to make us a reliable Democratic vote instead of a reliable Republican vote.
Busy day here as I catch up on another lost weekend. The time I can spend on my computer is shrinking as I am dealing with some tendinitis in my mousing arm. I won’t be able to see a PT for two weeks because of the health care provider shortage here which is acute. In the meantime, I am mousing with my other arm and doing my best to stay on top of the hot projects. I already missed one soft deadline so I need to make an effort this morning to get my to-do list updated and prioritized.
See all y’all later!
It sounds as though the early part of the eclipse may not be very impressive anyway because of the faintness of the penumbra and if one were to start watching closer to the totality (around 5:17am EST) it would be better. That means 3:17am MST which is very doable. It will last for 84 minutes so there will be something going on even if I get up at my regular time of 4am. I will have to view it from my office window or the courtyard, if I decide I need to be outside to get the full effect.
Thank you bigly for providing the link, Jan! I want to send it to my writers.
Sorry about your arm, I know that hurts. Mandy yanks my arm violently when she springs forward, so I feel kind beat up too.
Healing Energy for your mousing arm. Mine’s not tendinitis but anything that messes with the ability to mouse is an issue as far as using the computer is concerned. So. Moar Healing Energy & {{{HUGS}}}
Short walk today, it is….75 isn’t hot technically, but wow. And foggy. I walked inside the garage, .6 of a mile — between the warmth & my ankle hurting, that was plenty. Working in the office today, listening to Bono’s memoir. Got to finish it so I can review it.
Monday Meese. 62 here in Kingston going up to 71. Temps will drop tomorrow.
I’m preparing mentally and spiritually for whatever happens tomorrow. If we hold – wonderful. If we lose – well will just organize for 2024 and be prepared to weather the racist fascist storm, having been through very hard times before.
Not much Puerto Rico news
We have weathered a lot. If someone had told me in January 2017 that we would survive a tRump presidency and vote in a House majority in 2018 and a Senate majority in 2020 along with a Democratic president and a woman of color as vice president, I would have laughed in their face. But we did. I am not looking forward to the pain that a Q-infected Republican House could visit upon us or the abrupt end to restocking our federal courts with decent men and women that losing the Senate would cause but we will have the veto pen, the ability to preserve the rule of law via the Justice Department and all of the powers of the Executive Branch to implement good government programs already funded. That is a lot better than where we were in January 2017. I am still hoping that Trump Republicanism implodes and that those left in that party are willing to purge the MAGAts and rebuild Eisenhower Republicanism but I will not hold my breath. It would be up to us to save as many people as we can while we wait for the next election cycle.
We’ll survive if the Deplorables get back into power. Not well, as you know much better than I ever will, but we will survive. And keep working. Healing Energy to us all.
Good Monday morning, Moosekind. Breakfast has been had. It’s a gorgeous day, our last warm one. We have sunny skies, 69 F., and a projected high of 78 F. Hot for November! I sweat so much after these 45+-minute walks with Mandy that I need a shower. I like to tire her out so she’ll sleep a lot. Haven’t been near the gym in a month.
Have four difficult phone calls to make this morning. I never had time to write anything this weekend, I was so busy cooking. Saw my neighbor, Raspberry Poodle’s Mom, out in the courtyard at 5:30 this morning. She said it takes 3 months for a rescue dog to settle in. Mandy is still trying to get on the bed with us, but she’s getting a little better about potty training—or we’re getting better at taking her out.
That’s all my news this morning, Moosekind. Tomorrow I’ll be handing out sample Democratic ballots from 12 to 2:30 at the elementary school up the road, and from 6 to 7 here. Wishing a good day to all at the Pond.
Good luck with your phone calls! Yes, it does take a while for rescues to settle in. Our dog was found on the mean streets of Chicago and was in foster care with the rescue people for a while so she had already had to deal with new places and people. Our biggest problem was that she had to mark everything. We wondered why she did not pee much outside but we did not realize the extent of it until we got one of those black lights and discovered stains everywhere. She eventually stopped and did not mark either of our apartments so it was a transition thing – or related to there being other dogs there (at the house) before her.
Dear Goddess! Glad all is better now!
It’s 55 heading for 66 and overcast at the moment. The sun’s trying to break through so I’m hoping. We generated 6.26 KWHs yesterday and the m-t-d at just over 36 is still on track for 180. We’ll see how long that lasts.
Holding us all in The Light and praying the election goes to whoever will do the least harm, even when not the most good.
I need to go get milk. So since the morning traffic has cleared and I’ve finished my breakfast I’m going to do it now. I’ll catch up with boosting stuff at twitter when I get back. Bright the day, Meeses. {{{HUGS}}}
Good morning, 34 with rain and snow showers outside my window today. I should have cut hydrangeas and gathered greens yesterday but I didn’t so I’ll just have to cope today. Birthday dinner is on Wednesday so I’ve still got time.
Dee, thanks for your wise words…..
Best wishes to all.
Yw princesspat. I have no intention of being bludgeoned into despair mode – no matter what!
Election day Tuesday Meese. Will be going to vote with hubby this morning around 10AM, then headed to pick up a few things at the store – will try to get a nap later in prep for staying up to watch returns tonight.
It’s 42 here in Kingston NY, only going up to 54 – but will be bright and sunny…good voting weather.
Speaking of voting – was elated to see tweets like this
GenZ also registered to vote at record numbers and are likely voting under the radar of the polls in this election. I am praying that those who registered take time to vote. GenZ will not be voting for Republicans – the time for them to take control of their future and bury the MAGAts is right now.
Puerto Rico
Good morning, meeses! Tuesday, Election Day …
It is 54 degrees in Tucson with an expected daytime high of 73. Sunny skies are in the forecast. I woke up at 3:15am to see the edge of the waxing umbra of the lunar eclipse and then laid back down for a while. The moon is blood red right now and the waning of the eclipse is poised to take place. She is to the west where I do not have a clear view except from my office window and the outside landing to the apartment. Not as nice as earlier in the year when we could watch the eclipse as part of the moonrise over the mountains to the east! Still – it is always delightful to witness natural phenomena and MOONS!
I am past ready for election day to be here and done. I am hoping the hate ads end but I am sure that the TV stations want to get every last dollar out of the political advertisers and will run them up until the polls close at 7pm. My vote has been counted and I am feeling pretty good about at least two races – Attorney General and Secretary of State. The SoS has real power in Arizona (not like Wisconsin where it is largely ceremonial) and is second in the line of succession to the governor. One of our ballot propositions is to create the office of Lt. Governor so that a resignation or death does not cause a power change would thwart the will of the voters who elected the governor. It has been tried in the past and failed – it will be interesting to see what happens this time. We also have two propositions that will help real people – one is to give in-state college tuition to DREAMERs who went to and graduated from Arizona high schools and another one caps the interest rate on medical debt at 3%. Our abortion rights proposition did not have enough signatures to be on the ballot this time but having a Democratic attorney general will protect some rights. Having a Democratic governor would help even more. It could happen! Arizona won’t release results until 8pm and won’t have the complete results for about 4 days. We count our early vote but what they call the “late earlies” take a while to tabulate. It would take a landslide to have an election night call and it will not be a landslide for governor or US Senate.
I plan to stay up for the returns – one advantage of being one more time zone to the west is that a lot of the east coast states will come in before I get sleepy. Today I have no errands to run other than the need to pick up my Powerball winning ticket, a short walk across the street, so I can probably take a nap.
See all y’all later!
Here is the eclipse chart (which is still unfolding):
I saw the last bit before she went red and was able to take a picture and I did see totality! Right now (at 5:15am MST) she is close to half “uncovered” and is white again. My photos of white moons don’t work because it is just a phone camera and is not smart enough to know what with the nuances of light – it will just look like a full moon.
Thanks for the report on the moon. I did check one of the times I got up in the night but our skies were clouded over. A sort of pearlescent light gray from horizon to horizon. I’m so glad you were able to see it.
She’s back! A beautiful full moon in the western sky!!
Oh, lovely!
No wonder I never win the lottery – I don’t even know when the drawings are! I thought they were Saturday and Wednesday but apparently they are also Mondays. There was a Powerball drawing this morning (delayed from yesterday). If someone wins it, I will have to decide if it is worth playing for the non-billion dollar payout.
Didn’t stay up to see the eclipse, or get up to see the Space Station, since it was going to be too low in the sky for me to see. They’ll alert you to anything above a 45 degree angle, but there are so many trees & buildings here that it has to be in the 70s or above for me to see it. Hoping things go well today. Can’t give it too much attention, gotta work. And revise my book review. Have I mentioned that I’m hosting Bookchat on Wednesday?
Good Tuesday morning, Moosekind, and happy Blood Moon Day!
My Goddess, the trollbots are out in full force today on Twitter! I don’t know how many I’ve blocked already. If Twitter is going to be like this, I might have to get off. I engaged a few of them before I realized this wasn’t the usual brand of hatefulness.
It’s 48 F., sunny, and breezy today in Ashburn. I’d better dress in layers while I hand out sample Democratic ballots and smile hard, trying to disguise what a bitch I am in rill life.
Miss Mandy started the day off wrong by scoring a poop coup IN MY OFFICE! And Dearly had just had her outside for a No. 1 run! I hope the vile smell dissipates, I have work to do in my office.
Will be handing out ballots from 12 to 2:30, then must dash to the store for more pet stain and odor remover, then I’ll be handing out sample ballots here from 6 to 7. Then we’ll have an Election Night Supper.
Wishing a good day to all at the Pond and VICTORY to the Democrats beyond!
I am looking into mastodon as a Twitter replacement but it appears to be pretty daunting, even for a techie like me. The winner will be whoever can automatically port your Twitter account to something else. I suspect that Musk gets tired of his plaything and sells it for pennies on the dollar to someone who just wants to maintain the servers and do content moderation. For now, we just need to stay out of the way of the bad guys.
I’ve seen a few posts about all those unemployed Twitter people, suddenly have a lot of free time. And they already know each other, and the good & bad things about Twitter….
It’s 63 at the moment heading for 76 and overcast. Yesterday we got 6.88 KWHs and the m-t-d at 43.27 is still on track for 180. If the weather widget is correct, it won’t be by tomorrow. Some good news though. I heard from the Ozark Solar guy and SolarEdge has shipped the optimizer for the one panel that’s practically dead. He promises to “check the other panels” while he’s here replacing the optimizer on panel 1.0.7 so holding the Good Thoughts that he can actually do something. I’d rather not have to wait – losing generation all the while – until they’re producing so little that even SolarEdge admits their optimizers need replacing.
Election day. Goddess help us all. Maybe the Blood Moon will make a difference for the better. I hope for a Blue Wave nationally, pray we don’t get an even worse Red Wave than usual for AR. My vote’s already in. We shall see what we shall see.
Lemon muffin bread in the oven. It’s starting to smell most sentimental. Meanwhile, off to twitter. Bright the day, Meeses. {{{HUGS}}}