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 Wednesday morning, Moosekind! Had such a treat this morning—went out to the screened porch to check my plants and there was Herself, still hanging about in the early morning sky! She hardly looked diminished at all. It’s 29 F. at 9 a.m. in Ashburned, going up to something or other. Cold, to be sure.
Re the plants—I’d hoped Miss Petunia would survive until St. Andrew’s Day, which is tomorrow. She is barely hanging on. Tomorrow I’ll just have to let it go, let it go, let it go! (Most overrated song of all time, the second most overrated being “When the saints go marchin’ in.”) Amazing that the beautiful flowers lasted more than six months, though.
Anyway, must get dressed because Dearly and I must go to the bank. He received his Social early! It usually comes on the third of the month. I’m furiously envious. Mine doesn’t come until the third Wednesday.
After telling me that the hideous shoes my granddaughter wants will not be here until mid-January or mid-February, UGG now reports they’re on the way.I suppose the presents I bought her for Christmas will just have to wait until February. Hope she doesn’t grow too much between now and then.,
Lunch with the most famous Ashby author today. She likes me, for reasons best known to herself, isn’t that odd? I’d better start getting ready. Wishing a good day to all at the Pond!
P. S. The “gutsy” winds blew over the giant Christmas tree on Capitol Hill yesterday! It’s a Norwegian Spruce. It was quickly righted with the help of a crane, however. I dislike wind, gutsy or mild,.
It’s 46 going to 61 and partly cloudy. We generated 6.58 KWHs yesterday and the m-t-d is at 157.87 – if we somehow manage to get 10 more over the next two (partly cloudy & very cloudy) days we actually will beat out last year. IF.
Fineena was at the radiologist clinic yesterday. A short CT scan and a very long ultrasound. The good news is no lumps or clots. The bad news is we still don’t know what’s causing the swelling in her legs & feet. She sees her doctor today and will find out what next.
Welp, it’s finally been cold enough long enough to mess with my hands. I’m dealing with a Raynaud’s + arthritis + tremors flare today. Very difficult to operate the mouse. Very frustrating. But I’ll get it all boosted if humanly possible. Holding the Good Thoughts for everybody. {{{Meeses}}}
Wish there were something that could help your poor hands.
Summer. That’s the only thing that helps. I’m actually surprised we got this far into Fall/Winter before I started having flares. {{{Diana}}}
Good morning, 33, foggy and frosty outside my window today. It’s our anniversary today….56 yrs!…. so we’ll go to lunch with my sister to mark the occasion. Party prep is on pace, the tea table is set up, cookies are baked and in the freezer, the tree is in the garage, I have an easy flower plan, etc. So despite my painful knees life does indeed keep happening.
Dee, I’m so glad to read the good news re your cancer treatment. Best wishes to all.
Happy Anniversary! 🎶🎶🥂💕🎶🎶
Happy anniversary, princesspat! I like the sound of your plan.
Happy anniversary – 56 years is amazing! What a blessing
Happy Anniversary!
28 going up to 45 here in Kingston.
Puerto Rico
Will be posting about Pablo this morning in Caribbean Matters
Health Department identifies syphilis outbreak in Vieques
Good morning, meeses! Thursday …
It is 52 degrees in Tucson with an expected daytime high of 59. Partly cloudy skies this morning and a chance of rain in the evening. Last night they said it would rain and it did not. The higher elevations are expecting snow.
War criminal Henry Kissinger is finally dead. Good riddance.
I have one more day of November busy-ness and then I can settle into the normal December frenzy. I need to do a dry run of my taxes to see what I might need to do in December to make sure that I have the best outcome. My plan for 2024 is to need to work less to pay bills so I will put a sharp pencil to next year’s budget to make that happen.
See all y’all later!
Good morning. Not too cold, but big storms expected. Glad I got my walk in early. I enjoyed the outpouring of joy across the intertubes last night at the news that Satan had finally called Henry Kissinger home. I dedicated Tramp the Dirt Down, the incredibly bitter song Elvis Costello wrote for Maggie Thatcher to him.
Posted
It’s 49 heading for 53 overcast and drizzling at the moment with real rain predicted to come later. Yesterday we generated 6.99 KWHs and the m-t-d at 164.8 is one shy of beating out 2019 and 3 shy of beating out last year. With the cloud cover I don’t know if we’ll manage either, but we’re a heck of a lot closer than I thought we’d be last week.
I guess the Devil, having Netanyahu (among others) doing his work right now, decided it was time to pick up HK. May his name be forgotten.
Fineena didn’t have anything new. All the tests done so far have been negative but fortunately she’s got a doctor who’s determined to find out what it is and will keep doing stuff until she does. Fineena is to start, has started by now, a diabetes drug (not insulin) to see if that helps and the next radiology will be a heart ultrasound. Fineena is also supposed to contact her urologist and discuss possible drug interactions with what he’s given her and what they’re trying in order to deal with the swelling in her legs & feet.
My hands are stiff but better. So far at least I’m not having problems with the mouse/cursor. So far. Off to start my boosting day. Holding the Good Thoughts for everybody. {{{Meeses}}}
Glad your hands are better Sis!
Good morning Meese. It’s 29 here in Kingston and I had to fire up the woodstove last night (glad we have it) – the furnace has conked out. Waiting to call our plumbing service – they open at 8AM.
Puerto Rico
“The success of the Puerto Rico Energy Resilience Fund depends on community trust and engagement, and our DOE team is excited to work with a committed network of local organizations that know the critical needs of their neighbors best,” said U.S. Secretary of Energy Jennifer M. Granholm and stressed that, “For Puerto Rico’s most vulnerable residents, a power outage can be a matter of life or death.”
As Solar Ambassadors, the organizations will receive $3.85 million and may be eligible for additional funding based on their efforts in “identifying, engaging, and assisting with intake processing qualifying households for residential solar panel and battery storage installations.”
The organizations selected include Alianza de Médicos al Rescate, Fundación Borincana, Sor Isolina Ferré Centers, Caritas de Puerto Rico, Centro de Microempresas y Tecnologías Agrícolas Sustentables de Yauco, Centro Madre Teresa de Calcuta, Cooperativa Hidroeléctrica de la Montañana and Corporación de Desarrollo Economico Vivienda y Salud (CODEVyS).
The list continues with Grupo Resiliente del Oeste, Movimiento para el Alcance de Vida Independiente (MAVI), Pathstone Corporation, Por los Nuestros, Productores de Café Puerto Rico, Programa de Apoyo y Enlace Comunitario, Vieques Love and The Saint Bernard Project.
Granholm, who leads the federal team assisting in the modernization of the island´s battered power grid, a condition confirmed when Hurricane María hit Puerto Rico in 2017, said the initiative is aims to help Puerto Rico achieve its goal of 100 percent renewable energy by 2050.
Yikes! If it isn’t one thing it is another on your old house. I hope they get the furnace fixed soon – it is good that you have an alternative heating source in the winter.
Gosh, I am so shocked that finding possibly live WWII bombs in a Vermonter’s Puerto Rican vacation home is VERY BAD while the islands used as bombing test sites and dangerous to people Not From White States is no big deal.
So very glad you’ve got a wood stove as back up. Stay warm & I hope it doesn’t cost too much to get the furnace fixed. {{{Dee}}}
Good morning. Did my walk — ran on every lap. And it is warm enough for just long sleeves. The big scary storms never materialized yesterday. There’s a thing for the AIDS Ride this evening. I will go and be social for as long as I can. I should write a diary to post this evening to get first donations.
Good Friday morning, December 1, Moosekind! Isn’t it incredible? (Still yawning, woke up too early.) The skies are grey, the temperature in Ashburn is now 38 F. Today was payday, yay!
I have a deadline to work on. Yesterday was horribly busy—had to meet the Director of Resident Life and interview her for an article on Catered Living. Then we toured the place. It’s a very nice setup, but pricey—$11,000 per month. But the residents get their meals delivered three times a day, trips off campus, arts and crafts, a common room where they can hang out with others, and so on.
Then I had a delightful three-hour lunch with a lovely woman from my past. We worked together 32 years ago. She is very happy, teaches writing, and travels around with her husband, who is also retired. She’s planning to step back from her work, as am I, to concentrate on her own writing. She told me she’ll use “The Drunken Ladies of the Garden Club” in the anthology of her students’ writings she’s putting together.
Was exhausted when I arrived back home. Didn’t feel like working or going to the gym yesterday, so I didn’t. We’re expecting rain today. Rilly? The weather app on my phone mentioned snow flurries, but of course they were invisible.
Wishing a good day to all at the Pond!
Good morning, meeses! Friday …
It is 55 degrees in Tucson with an expected daytime high of 57. It is sunny right now but expected to cloud up with a chance for showers after noon. Yesterday we had the clouds but no rain in our area.
I scanned the news just so I don’t lose track of any important stories and I see nothing compelling. Why is it that Republican elected and appointed officials are always getting caught doing crimes – and especially crimes of sexual violence? They are the biggest projectors in the world!
One local story I will share: the Arizona Supreme Court justice who claimed that he could impartially hear the abortion ban case even after he stated that “Planned Parenthood is responsible for the greatest generational genocide known to man” has taken so much heat that he has finally recused himself. The case will either be heard by only 6 justices (who tilt Republican) or the Chief Justice will appoint someone from the appellate court to sit in for Justice Montgomery. This case will decide if the territorial ban with no exceptions was replaced by the 2022 law that has a 15 week ban. It was never formally stated within the 2022 law that it repealed the territorial law so that is what the court will decide. Montgomery was just retained in an election last year where voters get to decide to keep or fire gubernatorial appointments. He barely survived (I voted against him) – he has one of the lowest Supreme Court ratings in a long time. He was shat out by the Federalist Society and the local “we hate liberals” groups and appointed by Republican Governor Doug Ducey. I hope people keep pressure on him to recuse from cases that he has already decided and he chooses to retire rather than be despised for the rest of his term.
I have a few projects cooking so I need to get back to it.
See all y’all later!
It’s 49 heading for 52 and overcast. We wrapped up November at 165.98 – so not as good as last year but we still beat out 2019 so 2023 isn’t in last place for production. Decembers goals at 203 for the miracle meet & beat, gee 180 would be wonderful, 156 beats last year, and 150 gets 2023 out of last place.
Cranberry walnut muffin bread (using the homemade cranberry sauce my DIL gave me at Thanksgiving) just came out of the oven. It smells divine. I tried a couple of new things so we’ll see how it came out once it’s cool enough to cut.
New month. There’ll be a lot of CF boosting for rent so I’d best get to it. Holding the Good Thoughts for everybody. {{{Meeses}}}
That cranberry bread sounds delicious!
Good morning, 35 and cloudy outside my windows today. Party prep continues with flowers, food and lights on the tree as the main tasks for today. I’m not going to try to get the ornaments on the tree so lights glowing in the corner will just have to do. My knees are slightly less painful today, so I hope that means this nasty arthritis flare is starting to ease. Best wishes to all.
Love hearing about your party prep, princesspat! Hope your knees will continue to improve.
Saturday Meese. Furnace was fixed and no charge for the visit from my home service company. I guess I should think about a new one instead of continued patching of the old – it was old when we bought the house. It would be just our luck for the thing to break down completely during a massive snow storm.
Puerto Rico – Over the next months, I am going to try to keep up with and explain the upcoming 2024 elections in Puerto Rico, since the political parties there don’t match up with ours. Puerto Ricans can vote in the D & R primaries (tho turnout is low); they cannot vote in the mainland election.
Since the 2012 election, Puerto Rico has seen a decrease in straight-ticket votes, along with a steady increase in mixed-ticket votes and a really fast increase in split-ticket votes, according to statistics from the State Elections Commission (SEC).
Split-ticket voting means that a voter casts votes for candidates from different political parties when multiple offices are being decided by a single election. Meanwhile, in mixed-ticket voting, a person votes directly for the candidates of their choice, from any political party.
[…]
This upward trend – in both votes – could continue in the 2024 election, according to Manuel Álvarez Rivera, a consultant to the SEC and owner and administrator of eleccionespuertorico.org, a website that documents local and international electoral events.
In addition, for Álvarez Rivera, the data reveal voter dissatisfaction with political parties and the search for candidates to support on the ballot, which he believes is an opportunity that the alliance announced between the Movimiento Victoria Ciudadana (Citizen Victory Movement, MVC, Spanish acronym) and the Puerto Rican Independence Party (PIP) can capitalize on.
Good morning. Wrote a diary last night about the Ride, got my first donation! Today: groceries, making Mediterranean couscous for a work thing next week, and putting beans to soak to cook tomorrow.
Good morning, meeses! Saturday …
It is 39 degrees in Tucson with an expected daytime high of 55. The sky is clear and the stars are bright and the forecast calls for sunny skies. Yesterday we had a significant downpour that had our wash running. That will be our last rain for a bit.
Another Republican destroyer of peoples lives has died. Unfortunately it will be impossible to avoid the stories about Sandra Day O’Connor’s passing as she is an icon here in Arizona. She ruined her legacy by saying the quiet part out loud – that she was voting in 2000 to install George W. Bush so that a Republican could name her successor. Well, that Republican started wars of choice that led to the death of millions and the destabilization of the Middle East, crashed the global economy, impoverishing millions of Americans, many of them permanently and generationally, and stopping cold and reversing any progress made on addressing the climate crisis, literally destroying the planet we live on. PLUS her replacement on the court was Bloody Sam Alito, hater and murderer of women, who undid her work to protect reproductive rights. No tears here, no pride in a pioneering woman, just sadness that one of our two political parties will always put party and their personal preferences over people.
The news mentioned that Gmail deactivation started on December 1st and I could not remember if I finished my work cleaning up gmail accounts created for social media that is no longer monitored. I had a reminder to take care of this but it must have missed the deadline – I thought it was December 31st. I think I got it all sorted out but I will take one more pass to make sure that Gmail accounts I need are active and that social media that needs email addresses have been switched to Outlook accounts which are easier to manage the authentication on. I lost two Gmail accounts this past summer that had been set up for the Moose when their authentication changed to require cell phones and neither would accept mine. I changed them to Microsoft based free accounts that can be linked to monitored accounts. Life is too short to deal with technology that is not human friendly.
I have two days of weekend to get caught up on projects that I had to set aside when it was too busy to find quiet time.
See all y’all later!
Very well said, Jan! I also will shed no tear for Sandra. By choosing Bush over Gore she, as you say, helped ruin American lives.
I suppose I missed the GMail thing too. I used to write funny emails to Nora’s parents at work about what she said and did every day. This was before iPhone pix became a thing. I wish I could recover those emails but what the hail.
I wanted to find a comprehensive “good riddance” article about Sandra Day O’Connor and I found one by Eric Loomis at LGM. Excellent recap of her life and career with this spot on conclusion:
Good Scottish Saturday morning, Meese! We woke up to Brigadoon, with fog shrouding the woods, the sky, the grass. It’s now 46 F. and the fog is dissipating. Miss Petunia and Minty are still alive, their little faces exposed to whatever sunlight will deign to show itself. The projected high will be 60-something.
Had a nice phone con with fineena the other night. She seems less depressed than before. I think having friends who care about her will form a large part of finding her way out of depression.
As for me, I have to work on an article about the upstairs neighbor’s Christmas decorations. She invited me to tour her apartment yesterday. Talk about “Christmas mornings long ago” and “winter wonderlands”! She has decorations—Santas, elves, carolers, ice skaters, even statuettes of Barack Obama and Michelle dressed in 18th-century costume standing next to Benjamin Franklin—you name it! I almost fainted. “How long did it take you to put up these decorations?” I asked. “Twelve days,” her husband answered succinctly.
At the end of my visit she told me their children are minimalists and would not do anything even remotely resembling this. It’s well known that one’s offspring want nothing to do with their parents’ traditions. I disappointed my mother by not eating black-eyed peas for luck on New Year’s Day, an old Texas tradition (Dearly does not like them), and Younger Son and family disappointed me by not wanting to stir the Christmas pudding mixture for luck. It was the last one I ever made.
I texted Younger Son that Miss Nora’s Uggly shoes have arrived in time for Christmas. Oh, well, what do I know? When I was young, we would rather have died than have tears and holes in our jeans. Just shows you.
Wishing a good day to all at the Pond!
It’s 42 heading for 57 and can’t make up its mind whether to be sunny or cloudy. I hope it decides on the former. Yesterday we only generated 1.7 KWHs which is a lousy way to start the month.
Talked to Fineena last night. Nothing new on the health front but she did manage to get an appointment for the heart ultrasound set up for next week. Anyway, off to start my boosting day. Holding the Good Thoughts for everybody. {{{Meeses}}}
Good morning, 46 and cloudy with heavy rain in the night. Another day of party prep….spacing things out has been wise given the state of my knees, but it’s been a long week and frankly I’m ready for this event to be over. I have two more small arrangements to make then the focus is on food and people. Best wishes to all.