Week-long Welcomings from Moosylvania: December 10th

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 to view previous pages, shown here with 3 pages of comments available and Page 2 circled.

28 Comments

  1. Good morning, 40 and cloudy outside my windows today. If I can get a few packages in the mail today I will rest easier tonight. We are exchanging gifts with the intown family because we will all be together and for meals and fun and that’s enough. But I do want to send something to our out of town family because I miss them not being here too. Time to get busy! Best wishes to all.

  2. Good afternoon, meeses! Wednesday …

    Nice day 70 and sunny – but very busy.

    See all y’all later!

  3. Thursday Meese. 28 degrees here in Kingston, going up to a sunny 40.
    Am changing the time I post Caribbean Matters at DKos to 8AM EST to give me an extra half-hour to post things to comments, due to my now daily morning trips to the doctor for treatment.

    Puerto Rico


    Puerto Rico’s death rate last year surpassed that of any year in the past two decades, including when Hurricane Maria destroyed parts of the island in 2017.
    Washington Post reporter Arelis Hernandez joins us to discuss her reporting on how Puerto Rico’s crumbling health care system is leading to the high death rate.

    Caribbean/Latin America

    SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — Dengue is sweeping across the Western Hemisphere in numbers not seen since record-keeping began more than four decades ago, with experts warning that rising temperatures and rapid urbanization are accelerating the pace of infections.
    A record more than 4 million cases have been reported throughout the Americas and Caribbean so far this year, surpassing a previous record set in 2019, with officials from the Bahamas to Brazil warning of crowded clinics and new infections daily. More than 2,000 deaths in that region also have been reported.
    “This year is the year we’ve been seeing the most dengue in recorded history,” said Thais dos Santos, adviser on surveillance and control of arboviral diseases with the Pan American Health Organization, the regional office of the World Health Organization in the Americas. She noted that record keeping began in 1980. “Vector borne diseases, especially these diseases that are transmitted by mosquitoes … provide us a really good sentinel of what is happening with climate change.”

    • Dee, hope the daily treatments aren’t too uncomfortable for you.

      Dear Goddess, that’s so sad about the health care system in P.R. Does Remote Area Medical ever go there? What about Doctors Without Borders? That’s my go-to charity when I have a little extra to contribute.

  4. Good morning. Got my walk done. Somehow, even though I lengthened my running segments to 45 seconds, I decreased my pace. Ugh. Yesterday was not awful — training days frequently are. Anyway, back to normal today.

  5. It’s 32 heading for 53 and sunny at the moment. We didn’t quite make it to 6 KWHs yesterday but I’m calling 5.997 close enough. The m-t-d at 72 isn’t on track but it didn’t lose any ground.

    I did manage to get my hair cut yesterday. Yes, I went back to the same shop – it’s close & also next door to the grocery store – but by going in the afternoon instead of the morning I managed to not have to deal with the jerkwad manager. I also managed to bake a pork loin roast. Depending on how many leftovers I have after Sunday’s family gathering/Yule celebration, it may last until I bake the New Years ham I got at the grocery store yesterday. LOL.

    Anyway, off to start my boosting day. And hope it does some good. Holding the Good Thoughts for everybody. {{{Meeses}}}

  6. Good morning, meeses! Thursday …

    It is 41 degrees in Tucson with an expected daytime high of 61. Sunny skies are in the forecast.

    Definitely a good day to ignore the news. So I guess the most important task for any new Congressional majority is to impeach the president of the other party – not because of high crimes and misdemeanors in office – but because they don’t like him. :::sigh::: It is not as though they have nothing to do, the government, except for Defense, is not funded past the end of January and our allies in Ukraine are begging for money to continue their war against Russian expansion. I hope that NATO and the European nations can step up and fill the gap with the military aid that is being blocked by American stupidity.

    My Internet is acting up so I am going to reboot everything. I have a sense it is my Edge browser which was updated as part of Microsoft Patch Tuesday and not really the Internet but I need to at least give it one good restart. I am really unhappy with Microsoft decisions related to products I need in order to do business, both personal and work.

    See all y’all later!

  7. Good Thursday morning, Meese! When we woke up it was 23 F. in Ashburger, with the sun slowly gilding the frosty gray woods across the way. It’s going to be another beautiful day. Right now it’s 32 F., going up to 50 F.

    One is too busy. Last night Dearly and I both had the Night from Hell. This is too bad, as No Sleep = No Voice for me, and today my Writers’ Group meets at 1:30. Two people will be absent, which I suppose one expects at this time of year. I’ll require a ton of black British tea with milk to stay awake. Just got hold of some Twining’s Christmas teabags, so am eager to try them.

    For the “Name the anthology contest” during the meeting today, five people have submitted six names. Not one of them really grabs me (including my own suggestion), as most of them are cliches that have been used many times. For the craziest holiday-related clothing, I’m going to wear my Christmas ball ornament earrings and a bell necklace of flashing lights. I had fun buying flashing-light bow ties for my grandsons, aged 8 and 9!

    Lawks, after I spent Sunday wrestling with the Devil (Microsoft Word), I finally had time to call Erickson Computer Services. The tech guy told me to turn off the laptop, then restart it. Voila! I could retrieve my documents. Hail, I will never understand computers.

    What else…oh, my hearing aids started to die, so I had to hotfoot it to Costco, there to deal with a dispassionate young person, who informed me the aids would have to be sent to the lab, and that because of the holidays, it would take longer than the usual two weeks. I wish this person had told me to bring the charger as well. I did get “loaner” hearing aids, which aren’t nearly as good as the ones that are making their way to Ohio or somewhere. Tomorrow I will be horribly busy, even more so than today, so Dearly has offered to drop off the charger for me. It has to be there by 10:30.

    What else…we watched two episodes of Season 3 of “Lupin” last night. To show you how excellent it is, I never once glanced down at the book in my lap.

    Oh, crud, it’s almost 10:30 a.m. and I still have to arrange myself! I realize I sound frivolous, ignoring the world news. Well, it’s either that or go mad grieving about something I can do absolutely nothing about. The God of Abraham is stone-deaf.

    Wishing a good day to all at the Pond!

  8. Friday Meese. 32 here in Kingston – going up to 55 YAY!

    Puerto Rico

    Guyana/Venezuela

  9. Good morning. Did the “longer run” thing during my walk, and today it actually worked — 2 minutes shorter than yesterday. Anyway, happy Friday.

  10. Good morning, meeses! Friday …

    It is 42 degrees in Tucson with an expected daytime high of 66. Sunny skies are in the forecast. We are going to get back into the 70s over the weekend.

    Congress is going home so we won’t have Stupid Congress News for a few weeks, a blessed respite. tRump’s New York fraud trial is over so that is one less story that will require pictures of the orange anal cyst’s face in my news feed. I will still be avoiding the news because the stories about polls are annoying. Sensible people know not to take polls this far out seriously but sadly most of the voters are not sensible and they will begin to accept the results as a foregone conclusion. At this point, Biden’s ratings are people reacting to their anger at high prices. They are less “Biden’s ratings” than the rating of the government’s ability to make their lives better. When Biden v Trump becomes the question, it will be a different story.

    Another week spent not being as productive as I wanted to be. I did get some things settled for 2023 taxes so that I am not surprised on December 31st so that is good. I realized, however, that I am going to need to get 2023 accounting up-to-date which means putting my nose to the grindstone and not letting myself get distracted by things I would rather be doing.

    See all y’all later!

  11. It’s 53 heading for 57 and overcast, supposed to rain. Maybe. The PV system’s on but so are my lights. Yesterday we got another 5.99 KWHs and the m-t-d at 78 is at least more than the 2.5K system did back in 2014.

    I’m groggy & my hands are cold & achy. Nothing at all compared to what other folks are dealing with but still not pleasant. Fineena’s got her heart ultrasound today. So. Off to do what I can in the world, namely boost stuff. Holding the Good Thoughts for Everybody. {{{Meeses}}}

  12. Good morning, 43 and cloudy outside my windows today. I have one box ready to mail and if I can keep my sewing focus the second will go too. I’m really trudging through Christmas this year, enjoying moments, but basically wishing it were over.

    I made the mistake of reading the news this morning so outrage/angst is making me weary. The NYT report on how the Dobbs decision was manipulated is infuriating, the missing intelligence binder is too. I’ll never understand how millions of voters put tRump and his supporters in power. Oh well, My sewing room is waiting, I’ll turn the music on and hopefully my day will improve. Best wishes to all.

  13. Rumor has it that Melon killed off Tweet embeds meaning that the tweet will show text and links but won’t expand.

    Just a heads up that it is not a problem with WordPress but with the Xshitter servers.

  14. Saturday Meese. 32 going up to 47 here in Kingston.

    Twitter is wack – so can’t embed Puerto Rico Tweets. :( Oh well.

    • I wondered how long it would be before Melon killed off the embedded tweets. Someone must have finally told him that he was paying to keep the servers running that displayed people’s tweets in news articles and blogs. I am sure it was a lot of money – there must be trillions of active tweets posted all over the world.

      I did not realize that the embed code was removed also. I thought it was just hobbling the actual display of the embedded tweet. I think they did that on Facebook a month or so ago. Really, the end of an era. I remember seeing my first embedded tweet and marveling at it. I think Floja Roja was the first one I saw doing it.

  15. Good morning. So glad for the weekend, last week was really long even with the workshop day. I need to get in a walk today, and I have a party at 6. Hope the weather allows for me to only be outside, all the talk of covid and the other illnesses has me wanting to be cautious.

  16. Good morning, meeses! Saturday …

    It is 42 degrees in Tucson with an expected daytime high of 70. Mostly sunny skies with a few high clouds. The very thin waxing crescent moon rose in the southwest sky last night just over the sunset and it was gorgeous. There is a small space where we can see moons to the southwest and just lucked into it.

    Giuliani hit with a $148 million judgement is hilarious! Apparently the DC jury were not impressed by the defense attorney’s statement that he is an important man or that a judgement of $48 million would be a civil “death penalty.” They heaped on another $100 million! Har! I am sure it will be reduced in appeal and that, much like Alex Jones’ victims, they will have a difficult time collecting anything but they won, they were vindicated and Giuliani, sans law license and with no way to monetize his name, will struggle with debt for the rest of his life.

    I have a stack of notes that gathered during the week that I need to get to and hopefully shrink.

    See all y’all later!

  17. It’s 44 and the air temp is supposed to get to 48 but the windchill won’t on this cloudy, misty, moisty morning. Yesterday we generated 2.1 KWHs and we’re at 80 for the m-t-d.

    I’m groggy and moving slowly today. It’s supposed to clear off tonight. Also the temps are supposed to drop like a rock. But it’ll be sunny and hopefully that will make a difference. I’ve got more than my usual Sunday morning cleaning to do because family’s coming tomorrow evening. Meanwhile I’d best be about my boosting day. Holding the Good Thoughts for Everybody. {{{Meeses}}}

  18. Good Saturday morning, Meese! We have another frosty morning gradually giving way to a blue sky streaked with white, and tentative sunlight. The current temp. is 39 F., going up to 54 F. or something. “They” allege the sunlight will give way to clouds this afternoon and tomorrow morning, after which we will have a deluge of almost Biblical proportions. Uh-huh, uh-huh. We’ll see.

    I hate being so busy! Yesterday princesspat said:

    I’m really trudging through Christmas this year, enjoying moments, but basically wishing it were over.

    How perfectly this sentiment expresses what I feel! I just want to sit home without the need to go out, listening to “This Winter’s Night” on YouTube and catching up with the laundry.

    Thursday’s writers’ group meeting was exhausting. We had a guest speaker, who gave us some great insights on what goes into publishing a book of the kind we want to put out, then we went through our agenda. Prizes were awarded for the best suggestion for a working title of our anthology, and for the craziest holiday-related costume. A former member very dear to me returned to the group as a visitor (I wish he’d come back permanently), and made a most generous offer to pay the publishing costs himself. Then we’d pay him back by selling enough copies to cover his loan and turn any profits over to charity.

    Went to the UU dinner last night. It was nice but not as spirited as usual.

    I managed to print out four copies of my newsletter and mail them to people who don’t use computers. The text was printed back-to-back on thin cream-colored paper, and the photos of the family were printed back-to-back on the other sheet. So just two sheets had to be mailed, all with first-class stamps except the one going to Japan.

    This morning I need to go to the shred truck, which will be here for another couple of hours, and send my .pdf’d newsletter by email to the English, the Ozzies, my almost-daughter-in-law in Japan (Younger Son married someone younger than this lady), and various others. Oh, my, what a day! And tomorrow, I’ll have to go out and buy some flowers before the rain hits because we’re having lunch with our British friend on Monday.

    Wishing a good, not too tiring day to all at the Pond!

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