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 (every Sunday morning). 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 now 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 and use the link.
Stay safe.
Good morning, meese! Tuesday …
It is 65 degrees in Madison on its way up to 72. Thunderstorms are in the forecast.
I saw some photos and video of the Texas storms last night. Holy mackeral! From drought to flood in two years. I hope that bodes well for California. Although I think it just means extreme climates are the norm. I noticed in my news feed that a deadly tornado in Mexico was called a “freak tornado”. There is no freak weather anymore.
Speaking of tornados, I hope that bfitz is okay. It looks like a lot of bad weather heading her way all week.
Not much new news. On my Twitter stream last night, I noticed that Jorge Ramos from Univision is going to interview Ann Coulter about her new book “Adios, America“. I asked him if that meant she was leaving the country. I guess I will have to wait for the interview. :)
The worst part of the holiday weekend news is the continued gun violence EVERYWHERE! This is really the problem but there is no fix.
We will never have a majority in Congress that will vote against the NRA. They will go down in history as our most effective lobbying organization: convincing people that their own government will be coming for their guns and that their only defense is to have a stash of guns in their spare bedroom. Sigh.
President Obama spoke at Arlington Cemetery yesterday. I will go put up the video and a Tweet or two in the Weekly Address post then start my day. I liked that I was able to show my daughter pictures from his visit there and say “do you know where he is?” and have her reply “the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier”. EVERY kid should go to Washington DC and EVERY kid should go to Arlington Cemetery. Our nation’s wars … and war dead … should be a reminder that there is a steep price to pay for both our “good” wars and our bad wars.
See all y’alls later!!
Is it wrong of me to wish ill upon the property of these people from New Jersey?
It seems to me that this is the very definition of “common good”. If you leave a gap in the protection, you risk everyone’s property not just your own. I hope the non-signing of the easement is returned in kind by a refusal to offer assistance when their homes are washed away. Or, better yet, insurance cancellations.
p.s. “we allow the public on them”? {bad words redacted}
Good Morning, Meese. Summer is here. It will be 85 today.
Hope that Another and bfitz are OK. The weather in their parts of Mooslyvania is uncertain
As I was typing Moosylvania, I suddenly realized why I like the new purple forest as a header…Sylvan….. which was. of course, the point and why it’s perfect. I must be slow. It took me a bit to catch on!
Hope it’s a good day in your neck of our woods.
Well, duh me too, Portlaw!! I never even thought of that but it does make it perfect, doesn’t it? I will have to stitch Moosylvania into the site lore to tie it all together. I believe it was you who coined the term Moosylvania.
Good! I thought I was the only one!!!!!! Not sure who coined the term. Others may remember.
Good Tiu’s Day morning, Meese! 64 F. here in NoVa on a fair day, going up to 88 F. with possible thunderstorms later. We exhausted ourselves cleaning up the screened porch and patio this weekend–it does look nice, though. Had a good time eating hamburgers yesterday evening and chatting with Elder Son, who had some interesting things to say. DIL was feeling dreadfully tired so she stayed at home.
Jan, completely agree about the NRA. I’m not going to say what it would probably take for those bozos to reverse their stance. Feeling heartsick about the devastation in my native Texas. If only there were some way to capture all that excess water and keep it for future use! Seems such a waste.
Have swollen bits on face and arms where I was bitten by insects yesterday. Tonight will take Miss Pink Cheeks to the Daisy Troop meeting if we aren’t put off by thunderstorms. We’re going to tour the fire station. Don’t know whether I mentioned that she has been accepted into Japanese immersion at her school next year. That means half her classes will be in Japanese. My son is going to practice speaking Japanese with her this summer.
Wishing all a good day and adding extra wishes that anotherdemocrat and bfitz will be all right!
Ouch! It seems too early for bugs but yesterday when I went to sit on the deck for a while I noticed that there was a bee buzzing around. :( That period of time between when the weather is nice enough to use the deck and when the stinging insects take over seems too short this year.
I hope the weather stays nice enough for you to have fun today. We had a little blip of a storm that showed up a while ago but the main storms won’t hit here until about noon. I need to get my doggie out for a walk before that happens. She (and I!) do not like getting rained on.
Much calmer day today. Minimal chance of rain in the forecast, 20-30% chance the rest of the week. I drove in on Lamar – which was covered by Shoal Creek yesterday. You could see debris in the median. There was flooding near me, too. If you go almost halfway on this page, you’ll see “Anderson Lane” – that’s about a dozen blocks north & a couple west of me.
Good things: the Red Cross volunteer training was crowded, and when the animal shelter begged for people to take fosters, the line went out the door.
Sad: one confirmed death, and 2 families missing – they were in a house that was picked up by the flood water & swept away. One man from the group was rescued & is in the hospital, but everyone else is still missing.
And now Houston is getting hit – they have a flash flood emergency. Good thoughts for the folks there.
today’s Google doodle is in honor of Sally Ride’s birthday, she would have been 64. Check it out!
Good morning, it’s 54 and cloudy in Bellingham today. A thoughtful opinion piece from Crosscut….
Guest Opinion: When it comes to oil drilling, the enemy isn’t us
I read last week that the total costs of subsidizing the oil industry worldwide is in the mega billions. So not only are we subsidizing the destruction of our planet but we are tossing away money that could be spent on getting our planet cut over to renewable energy. Shame on us, too, for allowing Big Oil to call the shots.
I hope the Paris climate summit later this year convinces countries, including our own, to get serious about reducing CO2. The only way to cut emissions is to stop burning fossil fuel. Period.
Crazy hit me coming in the door so I’m later than usual checking in. (Hate Monday on Tuesday!) 63 heading for 80 in Fay., AR – only partly cloudy at the moment but chances of rain for the entire week, darn it. After reading anotherdemocrat’s posts I emailed my son – that part of my family lives in north Austin (wasn’t even part of Austin when I lived there back in the 1970s) – and while they most certainly weren’t having a backyard grill-fest to celebrate Memorial Day and they’d lost a bit of their landscaping they were fine. We’ve had pretty much non-stop flash flood warnings but nothing in our area. South of us, down the river valley, is having some problems. Most of my cherries are split and I’m not sure I’ll have any more edible even tomorrow. That’s the worst I’ve personally experience from all the rain. It’s good the drought has broken for a bit but it mucks with the fruit production.
Love the sylvan header (I’m not sure but I may have been the one who coined the term mooselyvania – don’t want to take credit if it’s not due, but I was definitely using it pretty soon after I got here) but all my gold thumb’s ups disappeared and I had to “re-like” everything. Of course I don’t have a problem liking everybody :) but I do use it to tell me what I’ve already read. Got to get back to uncrazying my crazy. Thanks for the breather. {{{HUGS}}}
Yes, I think you were the adventurer who named our Pond.
Sorry, peeps. We lost our Likebtn when the 7 day trial ended. They wanted more than I thought it was worth to provide Likes for Comments as well as posts.
We are trying a new tool. I am not sure how it works with notifying you that you have Fierced a comment.
It works just fine. It tell me that I can unfierce, which is not my wont, so I so know that I have fierced.
I don’t like Unfierced. Is this better? It also has more text so it looks different.
Ir doesn’t identify
but it does tell us that we have fierced and therefore read so I think it is fine and wouldn’t worry. What do others think?
I thought I turned that feature off! I want to keep this as simple and lightweight as possible.
Great. It’s now off. I had to log back in but here I am ready to fierce the Meese.
Good! Sorry this is such a pain. I am not sure how I missed this particular plugin when I was searching for a like button over the last two weeks. It is very simple and easy to configure. We really don’t need Dislike, in my opinion.
Like the fierce – love that it lets me know what I’ve already fierced and therefore already read – and we absolutely do not need a Dislike here! :)
Sorry you lost your old “Likes” the other day. This new button remembers you based on your login name NOT your device so we should not have that again. This will help me a lot because I spend half my Internet time logged in from my phone.
Good morning, meeses! Wednesday … I think
I like the days off for holidays but they really mess with my brain. It is either Tuesday or, for some odd reason, Thursday. Anyway, it is 60 here right now and the expected high is 78.
Bernie Sanders has a very funny web site person. It is the height of geekdom that he made a video that you will see if you go to a page on his web site (berniesanders.com) that does not have a valid page … the infamous 404. Our page gives you a sad emoticon. His gives you this:
Ha!!
So the Fifth Circuit flashed a big middle finger at the American citizens whose parents face deportation because they entered the country illegally. I hope that those harmed by this delay, the DAPAs and their children, remember this in November 2016. Only one party’s candidates have pledged to uphold President Obama’s executive order … every single Republican presidential wannabe has vowed to repeal it on January 20, 2017.
Gotta go … see all y’alls later!
Good morning Meese
67 going up to 86 with rain here in Saugerties
Hope the rain stops in Texas
The judicial hold on immigration is such bullshit –
I see the IRS was hacked – we need better cyber security.
I am sure that the Republicans are gleeful. They hate the IRS and don’t care about the 100,000 people who sought help and are now at risk for identity theft.
The thing that troubles me most about this morning’s news is the Evenwel case that SCOTUS decided to take up next term. A real attack on “one person, one vote” and a significant setback for those of use hoping that the demographics will finally make the Republicans a permanent minority. I am still reading.
Just read two good pieces on it over at orange
Here’s one:
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/05/26/1387790/-Supreme-Court-to-Revisit-One-Person-One-Vote-Rule
Thanks! I opened it in a tab to read later (along with the other pieces I am still waiting to get a chance to read).
This is pretty scary because it will allow the states to gerrymander the cities even more tightly, giving outsized power to rural areas.
I guess it goes to what we want representative government to be. Do we want House members and Senators to only represent eligible voters, excluding children and those who hold green cards? Or do we want it to represent everyone in a district? If children are basically unrepresented, who will care if they have food to eat, health care and a place to live?
I hate that we have to keep litigating this. The guy who brought the suit, by the way, is the right-wing crank responsible for the Shelby v Holder lawsuit. He will not be satisfied until the vote is reverted to be only white male landowners. :(
Good morning, Meese. It’s headed for 84 with some thunderstorms to brighten things up.
The weather news from Texas is horrible.
Hope all are safe and well. Will check back in after coffee and news.
Hope it’s a good day for all in the Pond and in the world.
I tried to laugh when I saw people mocking the Texas government, wondering if they will turn away help from the federal government over concerns that it is an invasion. But there is nothing funny about it. The people of Texas deserve our help even though the government of Texas is run by fools.
Good morning, Moosekind! 72 F. under cloudy skies here in NoVa, going up to 86 F. with thunderstorms today. Surprised by the reports of an FBI raid on certain parties in Zurich and Miami at dawn. Apparently bribery and corruption are responsible for setting the World Cup in Qatar in 2022. The players will die of heat exhaustion in that place.
Despite putting on insect repellent yesterday I was attacked by insects. Part of my right hand has turned brown, if you please, owing, no doubt, to the nasty medications I have to take. Time to order some long-sleeved, lightweight shirts. The good news is that Miss Pink Cheeks and I picked enough strawberries yesterday from the backyard patch that we were able to have them for dessert after the salad. It’s too hot for anything except salad.
A good day to all in the Pond and beyond!
There is too much money in sports and therefore too much opportunity for bribery and graft. It is a strange world we live in where millions are spent bribing officials to select a specific locale for a sporting event and there is no money to help the victims of the Nepal earthquake. :(
It’s raining again. Not a lot, but still…. The death toll in this area is up to 5, haven’t heard how many in Houston but I’m sure there will be some. The 2 families are still missing, can’t imagine how the one man they did rescue is feeling.
I have to explain my earworm. The book I’m reading is one of Jim Hines’ very different fair tale series, this one about Red Riding Hood. Who is actually a ruthless assassin, who can shapeshift into a wolf, and who is a pack leader of wolves…. Anyway, ever since I started reading it, the chorus from Raised By Wolves has been in my head. The song is about a terrorist attack that happened when U2 were teens, a bombing that killed 33. Here’s the part that’s stuck in my head:
Raised by wolves
Stronger than fear
Raised by wolves
We were raised by wolves
Raised by wolves
Stronger than fear
If I open my eyes,
You disappear
The lyrics are tough. Again, I wonder, like I do when I listen to Every Breaking Wave — if this is their Innocence, what will Experience sound like?
Good morning, 54 and cloudy in Bellingham. RonK arrived home via Amtrak last night so my quiet house is less quiet and more messy! He enjoyed his time in Oregon and is ready to be home.
He had time on the train to note rusty bridges and the bumpy ride. This piece, by Ann McFeatters, echos his thoughts….
Our unwillingness to fix infrastructure will cost us dearly
Already 76 at 9:30 a.m. so I think the supposed high of 79 is a little short of the mark. Had a little rain overnight. Our chances of rain today are under 25% so I may actually get to walk home – something I haven’t been able to do for one reason or another for over a week. Got a handful of cherries – all split but still tasty – and may (or may not) get another handful tonight if the not-quite-ripe ones I saw on the tree last night haven’t been eaten by birds or turned fuzzy by the time I get home. Things are quieter today at work so I might actually get a layer of paper off my desk :)
I heard from my son in Austin, my cousin in Tomball (part of Houston GMA), and my aunt in Bay City (down the coast from Houston towards Corpus) – all are OK if a little soggy still. The worst anybody had was my cousin and family driving through that torrential downpour Monday evening after visiting my aunt in Bay City for Memorial Day. Don’t have valid emails for my sisters (Houston, just outside Austin, and just outside Waco) but I figure my cousin would have let me know if anything was wrong. Holding the good thoughts for the folks in TX – and everywhere else. {{{HUGS}}}
How funny, bfitz, I have an aunt in Bay City, TX too! Have just ordered flowers to be delivered for her birthday on Friday.
Glad your relatives are okay and good luck with the cherries!
My aunt’s birthday way May 5th :)
Yes!!!
Just wonderful news. Let’s hope all the remaining states will do the same!!! Then we can join the civilized world.
Good morning, meese! Thursday …
It is 59 degrees in Madison on its way up to 83. Mostly sunny skies are in the forecast.
Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin thinks that mandatory trans-vaginal ultrasounds are “cool”! Greatest headline ever: “Scott Walker thinks ultrasounds are like a selfie for the womb. It would be funnier if the 20 week abortion ban about to be passed in Wisconsin didn’t come with a big kick in the teeth: it does not include exceptions for rape and incest. It will be challenged in court, the legal defense funds at Planned Parenthood will be strained further and Wisconsin taxpayers will be left paying the bill to defend a law that most of us do not want. Elections matter; if Walker had lost re-election we would not be having these conversations. Those who were willing to take Scott Walker’s word during his re-election campaign that ending a pregnancy was a personal decision to be made by a woman and her doctor need to wake the hell up. Join the chumps in the private unions who voted for Walker only to have him poke them in the eye. And the public works project workers who are about to get a huge pay cut with the repeal of prevailing wage laws. But they have their guns!! … that no one was really coming to get. And Those People in the Big Cities, who are surely living large on the actually non-existent dole, have been put in their places!! Sigh. Scott Walker has proven once again that intelligence is not a requirement for public office as long as you have people you can scare into thinking that their way of life is in danger. It actually is! But not by the boogiemen that the Republicans are conjuring up … by their own willingness to believe people who are using them as a steppingstone to higher office.
The clown bus keeps filling: Santorumentum (the “Just Don’t Google Me” candidate) and later today Pataki-palooza!!
See all y’alls later!
Jan, completely agree with what you said about Scotty. I hope his “candidacy” for the rethug nom is going to wind up humiliating him to the point where he’ll never dare show his ugly mug on the national stage again.
Just wish someone or something would bring him down from the position of governor. One keeps reading rumors of Something Terrible they’re going to pin on him, but so far it has yet to appear.
His latest budget plan, an attack on just about everything that Wisconsin stands for, is opening a lot of eyes. Some of his plans are being voted down by Republican legislators who may be getting a lot of heat from their constituents.
The criminal investigation called John Doe is looking into illegal campaigning by his staff and he, like most crooks, was careful to keep that at arms length. He is not a subject of the probe. That investigation had been held up pending a Supreme Court challenge that was rebuffed last week. But it has to get past the new hurdle of the bought and paid for Wisconsin Supreme Court so that case will probably be pending for a bit longer (there will be some lawsuits related to recusal that I expect will get to SCOTUS).
However, there is a new investigation related to his using WEDC, a quasi-governmental agency, to reward his campaign donors with free money for their businesses. His fingerprints are all over that (he abruptly shuttered the agency a couple of weeks ago) and the feds have been asked to investigate. That will probably dog him.
There is also a chance that someone will start a recall. He can’t be recalled until January 2016 so the recall couldn’t even crank up until November of this year. I would expect that would throw a monkey wrench into his plans to run on how much the Democrats in Wisconsin love him.
Good morning Meese
Got hit by a powerful thunderstorm last night – which knocked me off line for a bit, lots of trees down up here – and we lost half of a really old tree that is the host tree to our gigantic wisteria.
What roared through sounded like a tornado – but wasn’t. Scared my dogs.
Denise, how awful! Glad you’re safe and have your electricity back. Sympathy re the tree–it’s always sad to lose trees. Hope the weather will settle down in your part of the country now.
Yikes! Sounds a little too close for comfort.
Here is what you missed by not being online:
– Scott Walker thinks that if pregnant women would just look at the fetal tissue in their womb, they would change their minds about carrying their pregnancy to term.
– Rick Santorum thinks it is His Turn because he came in second in 2012 including winning the all-white Iowa Republican caucus. Plus there are not enough christianists in the clown bus yet.
– Senator Ernie Chambers wins the perseverance award for working for 37 years to ban the death penalty in Nebraska … and finally getting it done. Yay, Ernie! I may put up a post on that if I have time.
– The Obama Administration will not appeal to SCOTUS on the hold put on the DAPA/DACA executive order but will concentrate on their appeal at the 5th Circuit which will be heard in July.