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, meeses! Wednesday …
It is 82 degrees in Tucson with an expected daytime high of 102. Mainly sunny skies are in the forecast. Another record was set at the Tucson airport yesterday. In theory, the heat dome will move on later this evening and usher in more normal temperatures for this time of year. The weather guy says we may see overnight lows in the 60s next week. I hope so, I am definitely ready. This morning when I got up at 4:30, it was 91 degrees – still working on coming down from yesterday’s high of 107.
Canada warns its LGBTQ citizens about travel to the United States where they might run afoul of local laws. We are now a freaking third world country, run by christianists determined to enforce their scriptures on everyone. I was glad to see that the Pima County Library system made a point yesterday to announce that LGBTQ books will not be banned (or removed from displays) despite “complaints” by the right-wing here. Good for them.
I was watching the Idalia news yesterday as it takes aim at Tallahassee and found myself hoping the that governors mansion would get flooded and Ron DeFascist and his wife Cruella would have no dry clothing to wear. I started out thinking meaner things about the impact of the storm on him and realized that it was not my place to decide his karmic punishment. So I settled on suffering with wet clothing.
Back to the grindstone. I will likely not get my walk in today because it will be over 90 before I can break from early morning work projects. I might try to get to the fitness center and walk on the treadmill for a half hour. Or I might not!
See all y’all later!
Good Wednesday morning, Moosekind! It’s 75 F., windy (5 to 15 mph), and dry as those bones Georgia O’Keeffe used to paint in the desert. We never received any rain, and we are now 10 inches under normal rainfall for the year. I’ll say no more about that.
We’re about to go out to World Market to buy some decent marmalade and tea. Yesterday I did read my story aloud, caught a couple of errors in punctuation, and made myself cry at the bits that I found rather moving. I am so emotional! When we return from our little shopping expedition, I’ll correct the mss., format it (I may send Jan a desperation email), and upload it to the library.
Then I have to work on memorizing my part in the play. Would you believe I forgot a couple of words in my lines, and I wrote the dam’ thing! I was concentrating so hard on “projecting” and speaking slowly enough to be understood that I suddenly just blanked on three words. I’ll try harder.
Hope people will be safe from the hurricane. Apparently a lot of trees have been blown down. Friday starts meteorological autumn, so we have three more months of this.
Must get washed and brushed. I made apple-walnut bran muffins this morning, gave some to the neighbors, and saved some for a future breakfast. Tonight I’ll make chicken pot pie. Dearly stated that he could eat chicken every night of the week. Well, we’ll see about that! The food offerings from the restaurants this week are extremely blah.
Wishing a good day to all at the Pond.
I replied to your email and will do what I can. I am not sure how long I will stay online this morning but will check it at least once more before I move to my non-computer spot, probably around 9am MST (your noon).
Thanks, Jan! Emailed you back!
Hi there. I thought I had checked in, but apparently not. I had a nice walk — it was only 70 degrees! Watching astronomy and working.
My word, another, was it a COLD FRONT?
It’s 66 heading for 88 with no heat index to speak of and sunny. I’ll need to close up soon to keep the coolth in, but basically a nice day. Yesterday we generated 13.5 KWHs and with the m-t-d at 415 we’re ahead of last year and have attained my “at least” goal. With 2 more production days to go. Yay!
I’d appreciate the Good Thoughts/prayers/candles for my brother and family who live outside Tallahassee. They’re going to get clobbered. The hurricane is then expected to go right up the coast so Fineena is likely to get some of it too, but if it stays on land rather than going back into the water to do it, it should lose some intensity by the time it gets to her.
Fineena had errands yesterday (disappointing ones – the grocery store had “it’ll do” but nothing she was looking for and Lowes no longer carries 3-prong adapters) and was in enough pain last night to be having memory problems. But the new bed should be there soon, Henry’s feeling better and she may not have to take him to the vet before his regular annual, and she managed to unload another couple of boxes and bags. Step by step.
Aji needs one more sale to get her through August. In that she’s in better shape than some of the disabled artists on my needs list. One of them needs 100. Of course their stuff is a lot less expensive. It would be the equivalent of 3 of Wings’s more modestly priced pieces. But they all need sales. Desperately. Or they wouldn’t be on my needs list.
A small crew showed up to cut the empty field next door just as I was going out to hang laundry. Fortunately the wind was blowing to the west. It was good to have that then-5′-tall grass cut. It was great to have it mowed properly (multiple passes til the field actually looked like what it is – a double city lot and not a cow pasture). But it was wonderful that they not only cleaned up their side of the fence, they came into my yard (with permission) and cleaned up my side of the fence where their stuff had grown through.
Anyway, off to my boosting chores. Holding the Good Thoughts. {{{Meeses}}}
Will send good vibes to your brother in Tallahassee, bfitz!
Thank you. {{{Diana}}}
Good morning, 61 and mostly cloudy. Thanks to rain in the night the air seems cleaner. I want to work in the garden this afternoon so less smoke and light rain will be appreciated. We are making good progress with pruning and cleaning all the planting beds and I’m very pleased and relieved. The long list of deferred maintenance is finally getting done! Best wishes to all.
Thursday Meese. 59 going up to 74 here in Kingston. Yesterday was a mess – I drove to the pharmacy to pick up some medication and my car conked out. Couldn’t reach roadside assistance via my insurance company – calls wouldn’t go through. Finally got a tow, and my girlfriend picked me up and brought me home. Can’t use our other car because my housemate took the key with him to NOLA where he’ll be for a week, and I can’t find the spare. Called NOLA – and asked him to express mail me the key. Living up here without a car sucks – there is almost zero public transportation and I have to take hubby to two doc appointments tomorrow. (okay – end of whine)
Puerto Rico
Bummer about the car! I hope you get a quick resolution.
Fingers crossed that it isn’t expensive. sigh.
One of my retirement location requirements was that there would be things within walking distance so that I would become less car dependent. I can walk to a grocery store and several restaurants that are okay but not my favorites, I could walk to the library if I wanted to, when I was rehabbing a sore shoulder last year, I could walk to PT. But there are still too many things that I need a car for. One of the retirement communities nearby, named SaddleBrooke, is tucked away in the foothills and when I went up there to look around, I noticed that the residents drive around in golf carts a lot. That would be too weird, in my opinion. We have a few bus options here that I have not investigated yet because I have a working vehicle and I could always get a Lyft. I will look more closely when it costs more to keep my 20 year old vehicle running than it does to pay for occasional transportation.
Well Crud! about the car. I hope it’s a cheap and easy fix. {{{Dee}}}
Me too!
Another actually pleasant morning! 74 degrees, practically chilly. Not counting on it staying this nice, but it made this morning’s walk a good one. I even ran a little on each lap. In the office, preparing for the onslaught of noise.
For baseball fans
Good morning, meeses! Thursday …
It is 75 degrees with an expected daytime high of 93. Mainly sunny skies this morning with a more than 50% chance for rain this afternoon. It is a good thing that I saw the nearly full moon Tuesday night over the mountains because we saw nothing but storm clouds last night with a monsoon rain pop-up that gave some parts of the metro area quite a bit of rain. This morning, there is a slight breeze across the deck and the clouds are wisps with plenty of stars interspersed among them. The fullish but waning moon (99.6%) is visible over the buildings to the west this morning and she is beautiful but not as spectacular as the mountain view.
It was gratifying to see some of the chickens come to roost for the people who helped tRump destroy democracy and the rule of law. Georgia election workers Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss had their day in court and the loser was Rudy Guiliani, America’s Chump. They won’t see a penny because he is broke and facing millions of dollars in legal bills to stay out of prison in his felony cases but the victory has to be sweet. If MAGATs were normal people, this would be a cautionary tale that might make them stop and think. But they are a cult and will go to prison and die penniless in service to their delusional attachment to a lifelong con man who could care less who he damages.
Mitch McChinless got another glimpse of the fires of hell that await him and he froze up on camera. It really does not matter who is minority leader, there are plenty of awful people ready to replace him if he strokes out. Kentucky law requires that he be replaced by a Republican chosen by the party, not the governor, so his seat would be filled by another terrible person from Kentucky. The best we can hope for is that he refuses to step down when he can no longer do the job and our vote margin in the Senate is less dependent on NoLabels Manchin.
Today feels like a Friday because it is the end of the month! I got my August work done and today is going to be tidying up loose ends and deciding what my September will look like. I expect to use the Labor Day weekend to get ahead of some projects. My plan is to take a lot of time off in October (which is our nicest month) and enjoy the retirement part of semi-retirement.
See all y’all later!
OK, this is brilliant:
Will be in a good mood all day because of this.
It’s 70 heading for 86 with no heat index and sunny. Nice. I haven’t had the A/C on since Sunday. And have slept over 7 hours a night since Monday. Yesterday we generated 12.85 and the m-t-d at 427.9 is already in 5th “place” for the life of the system and will move up into 4th today.
I saw the full moon through a hole in the tree canopy around 9:30 last night – I had to go 50′ west and stand in the middle of the street to do it, but I did. And even nicer, although it did interrupt my sleep, she was high enough in the sky that when she got far enough west of my house her light came through my bedroom window and shone on my bed/face for about half an hour. This is/was the first full moon I’ve seen in months. If we haven’t had clouds then she’s been tracking too far to the south and is blocked by trees.
Fineena’s mattress may or may not have come yesterday – whatever came went right back. The delivery guys were so impatient to leave that they were halfway down the sidewalk by the time she got to the door. Admittedly they’d woken her from a nap and she doesn’t move very fast at the best of times, which this wasn’t but still. And when she said the object wrapped in plastic they were carrying didn’t look right they said it’s what was ordered – no showing of paperwork or even bringing it into the house and letting her get a good look at it – and if she didn’t think it was right to reject delivery. So she did. And still is wondering if it actually was right because she hasn’t been able to reach anyone at the company who knows anything about the order at all. sigh.
Anyway, I’ve made chocolate pudding (batch makes 4 servings so I’m making it every 4 days) and am about to close up the house then get on to my daily boostings. Holding the Good Thoughts for everybody. {{{Meeses}}}
Good morning, 63 and partly sunny outside my window today. I worked in the garden yesterday so am hoping for rain today. One more focused work time and the long overdue garden maintenance list can be retired, yay! I will be at the lab for a blood thinner check up this morning and at the dentist to decide what to do re replacing a tooth this afternoon. If I remember to call for an eye appointment my body maintenance list can be checked off too :) Best wishes to all.
Good sunny Thursday afternoon, Meese! It’s lovely out, although too windy to suit me. I probably won’t bother to put the porch cushions out until the wind dies down. Right now it’s 76 F. in Ashburn, going up to 81 F. We’ll have two more delightful days, then September will wreak its vengeance: high 90s every day, starting Sunday! Crud.
Well, ’tis done! I converted the story to a .pdf file as I simply cannot manage dynamic headers in MS Word, and uploaded it. Today is the deadline. The winner of the contest will be announced on October 19. Whether my story wins or languishes in obscurity, I certainly enjoyed doing the massive research required and then writing the tale. I didn’t begin the writing until I booted the critic out the door and let the creator in. That’s always the best way to proceed.
When we came out of rehearsal last night a few minutes after 9, we saw the moon through veils of cloud. So disappointing! I’ll be pushing up the daisies next time we have a supermoon of this ilk, some time in 2037. However, the prettiest weather forecaster promised that tonight would be CLEAR, and the supermoon would be just as lovely as last night. Harrumph!
It looks as if there was some awful damage from Idalia. Sometimes I wonder why anyone lives in Florida or along the Gulf Coast, or indeed, in red states. Life there sounds so miserable. Anyway, there are places, it is said, that will never be the same.
Denise, I hope you can resolve the car situation before too much time has passed! How miserable to be without one, it’s not as if public transportation is widely availabe.
I’m going to submit a short story for an anthology, but the deadline isn’t until October. I might submit “The Drunken Ladies of the Garden Club,” because “Home to the Heather” is a bit too Pagan for most people.
Looking forward to a nice quiet day. Had a horrible night because yesterday was very stressful, so I’ll do some laundry and just move gently about. Wishing a good day to all at the Pond.
Friday Meese. 50 (brrr) going up to 77 here in Kingston. No word on my car – but got the keys via Express mail to the other car so I can take care of bizness today.
Puerto Rico
Thank Goddess you’re mobile again, Sis!
Yay! for having a working car!
Good morning. Nice walk, I only did 2 laps instead of my usual 3, but my knee was unhappy so I listened to it. Anyway, 8 hours of work then a 3 day weekend.
Good Friday morning, Moosekind! Today marks the beginning of meteorological autumn. Great Mother, can you believe it’s already September? Right now it’s 63 F. in Ashburger, going up to 80 F. Beginning Sunday the place name will change to “Ashburned,” as we’ll be having 99 F. temps and no rain. Ten inches under normal for the year, people!
Last night I went looking for the Moon, walked half an hour but could not see Her anywhere. It is particularly annoying as this is a fairly low-rise community: no building is more than five floors high. Was deeply p.o.’d, as a Blue Super Moon won’t happen again for years. Asked a friendly shuttle bus driver if he’d seen Her and he hadn’t that evening, but had at 6 a.m. that morning.
Went out this morning at 6 a.m. in my dressing gown and bedhead (what the hail do I care what I look like?), and finally DID see Her! She was hanging out between Great Oak Clubhouse and Cherry Blossom Square apartment building. Big, still silver, just gorgeous. Feeling considerably better, I shuffled off home to breakfast.
There was an irritating op-ed this morning in the WaPo about how “affable” Gubernator Dumbkin is, and how lovely it would be for the house and senate in Virginia to become all-Rethug after the election. Then he could step in late to run for President. I’ve got news for Karen Tumulty, who is clearly as stupid as they make ’em: do you think WOMEN are going to FORGET that Roe v. Wade was overturned? Not only that, but we know perfectly well what would happen if the Rethugs did win. No oral contraceptives, then no vote, then head-to-toe burqa. I’m tired of being told how “popular” Dumbkin is, and how “unpopular” Biden and Harris are. The media are a failed institution.
Turning to more cheerful matters, I need to write my three shut-ins today. These are people I write to who can’t write back because they’re too ill or too incapacitated. I enclose short letters in brightly colored Trader Joe’s cards. Everyone loves to get mail that isn’t bills or stern reminders from the DMV or the doctor.
What else—Nora is supposed to come over today to work on the slideshow for the memorial dinner on September 10. After we take her home tomorrow I need to work on the blog for my late sister, and on my assignment for the writers’ group. One is always so fearfully busy.
That’s enough from me. Wishing everyone at the Pond a lovely Friday, September 1st!
I am glad you got to see the moon! I also had to wait until the next morning to see the Super Moon and since she was at 99.6% illumination I don’t feel cheated. I am not as impressed seeing her over the buildings as over the mountains but we can’t control the weather – we should work on that!
Good morning, meeses! Friday …
It is 72 degrees in Tucson with an expected daytime high of :::checks again::: 86 degrees! Mainly sunny skies with a chance for rain off and on throughout the day. A very noisy cleansing storm came through last night that cooled things down. We will be in the low 90s for a few days and then see 100s again by the end of next week. Maybe we can get our visit to Mount Lemmon in before it heats up again.
The news is both dumb and boring. No one is talking about the government shutdown that will take place on September 30th because it happens freaking every year!! Why are people so stupid that they don’t realize that putting people who hate government in charge of government is a bad idea??!!? Unless you are living on a freaking mountaintop off the grid, you need government and the things that government provides in order to survive. I am sure that 80% of the people displaced by Hurricane Ilania voted to put government defunders in charge of the government – I wish there was a way to deny only them the FEMA funds needed to house them and feed them while they rebuild. Fools.
I don’t have to hurry to get my walk in before it heats up too much, it should stay cool enough to walk pretty much all morning. I flipped over my calendars so my first September project is finished. Maybe I will declare a victory and take the rest of the day off.
See all y’all later!
It was 56 when I got up, it’s 67 now heading for 89 and sunny. Back into the 90s tomorrow. We wrapped up August at 441 – 4th best for the life of the system. For September, as the year darkens, the best we’ve ever done was 459 so that’s the “miracle” goal. Getting to 400 at all would be special. If we can manage 365, we’ll keep the 4th place ranking (would have to reach 385 to move into 3rd place) so that’s my actual goal with anything over 300 being the “at least” goal.
Karen paid her 1st full month’s rent yesterday. And DirectTV came and hooked up the 13″ TV she still has so at least she can listen to it if not watch it. Step by step.
My Patreon is still effed up. I was able to get back all my “creators” who are on the pay ahead (pay for September on September 1st) but none of my “creators” who are on the standard pay behind plan (pay for September on October 1st). Which means I’ve got Anne Louise Avery and her lovely Old Fox world stories but I don’t have Aji. I’ve sent another message to PatreonSupport. We’ll see what we shall see.
The cool mornings are great for everything but my hands. LOL. But they’ll warm up as the day does. It’s about time to close up the house and get to my boosting. Holding the Good Thoughts for everybody. {{{Meeses}}}
Good morning, 61, with sunshine outside one window and fog outside the other…..foggy inside as well, but coffee is helping me wake up. As suspected my warfarin level is too high so I’ll adjust the meds and go back for another test next week. And the irritated nerve isn’t healed enough to finish the implant so that’s on hold until/if it heals. I’m restless this morning but need to keep my legs up so I’ll play some solitaire and then see what happens. Best wishes to all.
Saturday Meese. 54 going up to 82.
Puerto Rico
Defeated Former Guy is even more of a cochon than we thought! No, wait, pigs are intelligent. He’s a hyena. PR needed the help after Maria and he denied it. Well, he’s got a rocky road head and he alone is responsible for it.
Good morning. Slept in so I guess I’m going to the gym this afternoon. It’s UT’s season opener so hopefully it will be pretty empty. Today: groceries and housework. And I wonder what tonight’s music diary will be.