Week-long Welcomings from Moosylvania: May 15th through May 21st

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?

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.

39 Comments

  1. Good morning, Motley Meese! The week begins …

    It is 30 degrees in Madison WI, on its way up to 58. Mostly sunny skies are in the forecast.

    Have a great day, all y’alls!!

  2. Rainy weekend. Got a ice cream social to go to after church. My friend who has put these on says next year’s (the 25th) will be his last. I’m trying to talk my club into taking it over. I mean — “ice cream social”, what’s not to like? For now, eating breakfast, drinking tea, getting ready for church.

  3. Good morning, 58 and cloudy in Richland, Wa. I expected (and packed for) sunny hot weather, but the rain followed us over the mountains. Our hotel has a view of the Columbia River, so I’m enjoying a quiet moment watching the water.

    Looks like we’ll have to be creative and flexible today because just as we arrived plans changed.

    The building where we planned to have the sale is owned by an associate of the estate seller, but unfortunately that man died in a motorcycle accident last Monday. He was working on some fire code violations when he died so of course the work wasn’t completed and now the fire marshal has closed the building. We will regroup later this morning re the sale and regardless we can sort and pack the remaining family items.

    I’m frustrated and disappointed, but life and death happens so it’s best to just cope, and we will.

    • Yikes! I hope things get sorted out and that your trip does not turn out to be wasted. You can be glad that your things weren’t already in the building as that would have complicated things even more.

      Good luck!

      • Thanks Jan….I’m ready to rent a big tent! But unless something else changes it looks like we will have to come back in a few weeks. It’s just a five hour drive, but it sure seems longer.

        I do have some good news to share re our grandson. His hip injury is finally healing and he can now walk with a cane, yay! The injury happened on Jan 7th so he is very relieved to be off the crutches and have life seem more “normal” again.

        • Good news about your grandson! But a pain about the estate sale, sorry you’ll have to make a second trip. It will all sort out eventually, though.

  4. It would be nice if it were a little sunnier on this Sunday, but at least we’re supposed to get to the upper 60s today (only got to 62 yesterday) and we are getting intermittent sun. (It’s just passed 11 so just getting into the “power generation” block of the day and have almost 5 KWHs. Even if we only double that we’ll have reached 280 to date for the month.)

    I’ve just finished up all my baking and cleaning for the week. (Cinnamon vanilla muffins with walnuts – funny thing, the nutbutter muffins rise higher. Both recipes taste good, come in at approx. 100 calories and 3 g protein each, so I guess that’s all that matters.) Making chicken pie for dinner this week. I suppose since it’s 1 lb chicken to 2 lbs mixed veggies I should call it veggie pie with chicken. heh. Gonna try using the rendered chicken fat from the stock to make the pastry. We shall see what we shall see.

    Hope everybody’s week is starting off well. Bright the day, Meeses. {{{HUGS}}}

  5. Good afternoon Meese
    Rain here. Just finished up my diary duty over at Orange and am going to now take a break before digging into paper grading.

    Hope you all have a great day.

  6. Good morning, meese! Monday …

    It is 47 degrees in Madison, on its way up to 68. Partly cloudy skies with a chance for evening showers.

    The president’s address at Rutgers University’s commencement on Sunday had another message about the hard work of democracy and the importance of voting. It contained a similar message as his speech to the graduates at Howard last week relating to the future and the past. He reminded us that the “good old days” weren’t always so good and when he pointed to “life in the ‘50s, when women and people of color were systematically excluded from big chunks of American life” I was struck by the realization that the “good old days” were only good from the perspective of white males. It was when uppity wimmins and blacks knew their place, when Mexican immigrants picked melons and did not ask for decent living conditions or a fair wage. The 50s were the Golden Age of Male Whiteness and that is the America that the #MakeAmericaGreatAgain’ers want to return to.

    I am going to post the video and the full transcript of the speech after I get a few projects done.

    And, Dee, how rude of you to interrupt the Twitterers explaining to you the meaning of your legacy!! Ha!! Mute is your friend. :)

    In political news, RNC chairman says “people don’t care about how Trump treats women” or what he did or said 30 years ago. This, from the leader of the party that is still talking about Whitewater and Vince Foster, is hilarious. I hope that the pollsters are right, that the die-hard Trump contingent is a small sliver of the electorate because, really, we will never be able to cut through the wall of bullsh*t that Trump has erected around himself. If the press reports the truth, they are “dishonest and corrupt” simply adding to the butthurt party’s butthurt. You can’t damage someone with the truth when “truth” is not fixed but mutable.

    See all y’alls later!!

    • heh – I don’t bother with mute – go straight to the block ;)

      • There is a lot of berning in Wisconsin so if I block the Democratic primary idiocy, I may miss something important. Usually when it reaches peak bern, I just mute for a few hours. But I don’t have as high a profile as you and from some of the things I see, you need to block or your mentions would be a dumpster fire.

        I have often thought that “Block” would be a useful feature on certain unnamed lefty blogs. Many of those people only post nasty comments to get a rise out of their enemies, sometimes to get them to engage so that they will be punished (moderators usually have no interest in the facts). If the idjits are left shaking their tiny fists at the clouds, would they find more productive uses for their time?

  7. Good Monday morning Meese.

    Nippy here in the Hudson Valley – 45 going up to 65 and cloudy. Spending much of the day grading papers.
    The news from Venezuela is grim

    Dying Infants and No Medicine: Inside Venezuela’s Failing Hospitals

    The day had begun with the usual hazards: chronic shortages of antibiotics, intravenous solutions, even food. Then a blackout swept over the city, shutting down the respirators in the maternity ward.

    Doctors kept ailing infants alive by pumping air into their lungs by hand for hours. By nightfall, four more newborns had died.

    “The death of a baby is our daily bread,” said Dr. Osleidy Camejo, a surgeon in the nation’s capital, Caracas, referring to the toll from Venezuela’s collapsing hospitals.

    The economic crisis in this country has exploded into a public health emergency, claiming the lives of untold numbers of Venezuelans. It is just part of a larger unraveling here that has become so severe it has prompted President Nicolás Maduro to impose a state of emergency and has raised fears of a government collapse.

    Maduro is already deflecting from the crisis by blaming the U.S. Lots of left folks here will probably repeat the mantra – which is a simplistic analysis of Venezuelan problems.
    Trying to keep an eye on both Venezuela and Brazil.

  8. The weather guy pointed out this morning that it has rained every day for a week, and is likely to rain every day this week. But it’s fine. I just posted in my Facebook event for Dining For Life tomorrow that there’s plenty of trees in the neighborhood near the restaurant, so you can (sort of) avoid hail.

    I woke up hot several times last night. And I’m hot now. Sigh. And I bought a fancy “keep cool” bottle at Target — and my crappy bike shop bottle does a better job (& you may have noticed the adjective I used for it…) of keeping my tea cold. Grrr. But my brain is playing Who’s Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses, which has a gorgeous guitar part, so at least there’s that.

  9. 53 at dawn and cloudy – may or may not get up to the mid 60s today. We’ve already had some light rain and may get some more before the day is out. Looking at definitely overcast and maybe rain all this week and into next week. Not good electricity generating weather. Reached 289 KWHs for the month as of sunset yesterday. We shall see if we reach, much less exceed, May ’15’s 474.78.

    I was a little kid in the 1950s and little kids accept that what is, is the way it’s ‘spozed to be. We didn’t have a TV until I was 6 or 7 and mostly what I liked was afterschool cartoons. :) But even then I didn’t like “Father Knows Best” and “Life of Riley” – although I liked “Ozzie and Harriet” (mostly because they usually had music and the Nelson boys were about my age). In the ’60s we mostly watched westerns, music/variety shows, and old movies – not much there to tell me anything about racial or gender reality. Growing up straddling the poverty line, one side or the other depending on the year, was reality enough for me. I would not call those the “golden years” for me or anybody I know/knew. Even when I was married in the 70s there wasn’t a single person in my house or close family who came under the “male WASP” category as my husband was Catholic. heh, sort of.

    Bright the day, Meeses. {{{HUGS}}}

  10. Good morning, Meese, what a 24 hours! Before I get going on that, let me just say it’s a gorgeous, blue-skied morning with plenty of sun—perfect for collecting solar energy. Current temperature 50 F., going up to 64 F. today. Harrumph! Tomatoes are supposed to go in on 15 May but with the temperature going down into the 40s at night, we haven’t even bought the plants, much less earthed them.

    We had a telephone call from Younger Son round the corner mid-morning yesterday. He’d been in bed all weekend with a temperature of 102 F. Yesterday his forehead was bright red and his face swelled. We dressed hastily, went to his house, and looked after the Littles until Son and DIL could get to the doctor, obtain a prescription, and come home.

    The doc-in-a-box was as mystified as we were but prescribed Tamiflu and amoxicillin. Younger Son took some of both and feels a little better today but his face is still bright red and swollen. He’s going to a proper doctor as soon as he can get an appointment. I think it might be mumps. Apparently even that gaggle of Harvard students who’ve been vaccinated got it. Good thing Younger Son’s family is complete, because otherwise it might be very dodgy.

    We took Miss Pink Cheeks home with us and looked after her until dropping her off at school. Then I took Babylicious to day care. He can say all kinds of words now and even talk in two-word sentences! (Grandma smiles beatifically.)

    Furious with the front-page story in the WaPo, although I’ve only read the first paragraph so far. It’s talking about Hillary’s “unlikability” problem. Oh, yeah, so unlikable that 3 million have voted for her and she’s 300 pledged delegates ahead. The WaPo, like every other conservative white male organ, wants Trump elected so they can have a four-year screechfest. Blast them all!

    • I don’t know who WaPo wants but they clearly want a horse race. If the headline were simply “Republicans nominate totally unsuited candidate; Hillary on path to victory”, no one will read political stories for the next 6 months. I saw a Tweet over the weekend “CNN: Looking ahead to 2020” and no one wants that either! So we will have to put up with the faux horse race stories.

      I am glad your family is up to date on their shots. Is there a vaccination resistant mumps making the rounds? I should probably pay more attention than I do. :)

      • Jan, I haven’t paid much attention either, only read the headlines. I think some of the ones that got it at Harvard had been vaccinated.

        But all it takes is one unvaxed student infecting another unvaxed student and all of a sudden people whose immunity has worn off start getting it.

  11. Morning all! Sunny and warm here – I think it’s reached the time of year when I can macro that and just paste it in every day except for days we’re supposed to get thunderstorms. I’m grading, so really the weather today doesn’t bother me much – I should have gotten a lot more done this weekend, but I got caught up in Twitter drama Saturday night on the Nevada convention idiocy from the Sanders folks there, and then last night was Game of Thrones night! What an episode! I may write something about it, in addition to something on Elizabeth Warren, when I get my grading done – last night’s episode was truly about strong women pushing the action, and some spectacular scenes. You’ll see a GIF of the final scene of Danerys emerging unscathed (for a second time!) from the fire, it will be all over Twitter and the internet – and I’m not alone in thinking of it as a visual metaphor for Hillary Clinton.

    On the Nev convention – here is the best description I read on what went on there from a Clinton delegate who was there –

    https://medium.com/@mamajeanab/the-nevada-state-democratic-convention-c55076db43a#.la61a31im

    The Sanders people were whipped up and misled by their own leadership – it’s just unconscionable that people working for a major party candidate could act so irresponsible. And now that group is in full 1968 Tear the Corrupt Dem Party down mode – I just hope their numbers dwindle before Philadelphia.

    All right, back to grading – I have 21 exams left to do and have to get them done by tomorrow afternoon, wish me luck! have a great day everyone!

    • GOT was indeed excellent last night…..

      …..last night’s episode was truly about strong women pushing the action,

      My only quibble is with the lighting. It’s very effective for the drama, but I want to see more of the details.

      • I was so happy with the first scene – I think the show writers are more willing to give viewers happy moments than George RR Martin is with his readers lol!

  12. Good morning, 54 and cloudy in Richland, Wa today. We regrouped with our sale plans…..the building will be ready next week and given all that’s happened the estate seller will have the sale for 2 weekends instead of just one. This means we’ll have to come back here 2 more times, but each trip should be easier.

    We had a long day of sorting, packing, and finding things yesterday, but it was a good family day of remembering, reminiscing and helping each other as well. We ended the day relaxing in the hot tub in the rain, followed by dinner for the guys ( I was to tired) and then watching GOT.

    Today will be more of the same, with my focus on the many piles of papers. Family photos, journals and letters are all mixed in with old tax returns, cancelled checks, medical records, etc. I’m really glad our sons are here with us to help, especially with the contents of Ron’s dad’s shop and all the garden collectibles. He restored antiques and motel T cars so what looks like dusty junk isn’t for those who know. And they can lift and stack boxes with relative ease!

  13. Good morning, meese! Tuesday …

    It is 47 degrees in Madison on its way up to 62. The forecast calls for partly cloudy skies with a slight chance for rain.

    Today is the day of the Kentucky and Oregon primaries. There are 116 pledged delegates at stake and Hillary’s target is 51 to stay on track. The polls have been a moving target but she should hold her own in both states. A close loss or a win in Oregon will be a huge victory because 6 weeks ago she was down by about 50 points (ha, I sound like a berner!!). Anyway, the polls close at 6pm Eastern in Kentucky; there are no polls in Oregon (mail-in ballots) and results will be released at 8pm Pacific.

    In other news, the Supreme Court simply couldn’t decide what to do on the contraceptive mandate and sent it back to the Circuit Courts to “work it out among the parties”. Yikes! I thought the court was there to make decisions and that by the time it got to them “working it out” had already been tried. Anyway, none of the lower court rulings have been overturned so from what I can tell, the 6th Circuit is the only place where this mythical “working things out” will take place. We live in bizarre times.

    President Obama did an interview with the news(?) site Buzzfeed yesterday. One of the topics was transgender bathroom access:

    “Anybody who has been in school, in high school, who has been a parent should realize that kids who are sometimes in the minority — kids who have a different sexual orientation or are transgender — are subject to a lot of bullying, potentially,” Obama told the web site Buzzfeed Monday.

    It was his first public comment on the issue since the Department of Education announced the new guidelines last Friday.

    “They are vulnerable, and I think it’s part of our obligation as a society to make sure everybody is treated fairly, and our kids are all loved and protected, and that their dignity is affirmed,” he said.

    It is not just transgender people, it is anyone who does not conform to people’s ideas of how men and women should dress and look. In Danbury CT, a woman who had donated her hair to children with cancer was harassed in a women’s restroom because she looked male:

    [Aimee] Toms was accosted by another woman while she was washing her hands in a Walmart bathroom in Danbury, Connecticut. Toms was wearing a baseball hat and she had very short hair because she recently donated her hair to a charity that makes wigs for children with cancer. She said that she was approached by a complete stranger in the bathroom and was told that “You’re disgusting!” and “You don’t belong here!”

    That was never a problem and the right-wing made it a problem. Toms: “No one was telling these people to be scared of transgender people before. No one was telling them that they should be throwing people out of bathrooms.”

    See all y’all later!!

    • What a dreary bunch are the religious right! Thank Goddess I ditched patriarchal religion long ago. I have a transgender friend whom I first met at Witch Camp in 2007. Beautiful, intelligent, and highly accomplished, she loved her “week between the worlds” at Camp. She hated to leave because at Camp she was loved and accepted. We were roommates one year.

      This is one of the reasons I put GLBT characters in my books and stories. I’m sick of prejudice. I’d like to tell the RWNJs in terms they’re capable of understanding, “If God is all-knowing and all-powerful, God knew what he was doing when he created gays, lesbians, bisexuals, and transgender people. The rest of us breed like rabbits and overpopulate the earth!”

      Rant over. Hope I didn’t offend. I just get so sick of prejudice of all kinds.

  14. Good morning, Moosylvania! Whoopee, it’s raining! (Sob.) Current temperature 53 F. here in NoVa, going up to a whopping 54 F. during the day. Time to turn on the electric with its comforting fake flames.

    We woke up much too early, before six, but that was all to the good. This being bacon and egg day for my diet, I cooked it for both of us. Dearly Beloved had to leave here at 8 a.m. to pick up Miss Pink Cheeks and Babylicious and deliver them to school and day care.

    Younger Son feels better physically but looks worse than ever, with a bright red, swollen face. He went to a real doctor yesterday who was mystified but thinks it might be an insect bite. Great Goddess! Hope it’s not Zika.

    Have training at the gym today, will spend some of the day catching up on letter-writing. I started the May short story yesterday and can’t wait to get going on it again.

    Wishing a good day to all in Moosylvania and to Hillary in Oregon and Kentucky!

  15. Not raining right now, but severe weather expected tonight. I posted a link to the hourly forecast in my event on FB. I don’t want to tell people not to come, but I have some friends who are coming from more than 30 minutes away, I don’t want anyone stuck in a hailstorm. Anyway, that’s my concern for the day.

    I do love the anti-Trump ad that Priorities USA put out. I think it’s more effective showing women lip-syncing the words.

    • That was my favorite of the two ads. The other one featured Fox “News” reader Megyn Kelly prominently and, really, why would they want to give her and her network any publicity? I also thought the man with his young daughter lip-syncing Trump’s creepy words about his daughter Ivanka was an effective part of the ad:

      In other NoTrump news, Charlie Pierce finally lost his patience with the berners, the Nevada convention being the tipping point:

      … the Sanders faction went completely bananas because the rules by which you had to be a Democrat to participate in a Democratic convention were simply too much for them to bear. Senator Barbara Boxer got booed. Punches and chairs were thrown. […]

      … this whole mess was over four freaking delegates, and the Sanders people should know better than to conclude what has been a brilliant and important campaign by turning it into an extended temper tantrum.

      I voted for Bernie Sanders. I even wrote about why I did here at this very shebeen. But if anybody thinks that, somehow, he is having the nomination “stolen” from him, they are idiots.

  16. Good morning Meese.

    Jan- I put up my BKos commentary early – since I’m in and out today.
    51 here – and more rain. May is full of April showers.

    Reading all the Hillary Veep pick speculation – one thing I’ll say very strongly is I hope it isn’t Elizabeth Warren

    Off to do more paper grading – have a good day!
    I

    • Thanks, Dee!! It is up in a tab now and I will read it after my morning work is done.

      #NoSenators #NoSenators #NoSenators

      It think part of the problem is that we don’t have many Democratic governors who would be suitable as a running mate. They are either too old (Brown-CA), uninterested (Dayton-MN), already running for something (Hasson-NH), or plainly toxic (Cuomo-NY). The states have not been doing a very good job of electing Democrats to statewide office so the pickings are pretty slim.

      That leaves cabinet members and former cabinet members.

      I am sticking with my pick, Labor Secretary Tom Perez.

  17. 62 at dawn and all day long today – was drizzling a bit this morning. Forecast seems to be same as yesterday and all week long. YUK! I did generate just over 5 KWHs yesterday, lowest for the month but actually remarkable as at one point it was dark enough to put the system in night mode. At this rate won’t reach 300 KWHs for the month until tomorrow afternoon. sigh. Climate change means weird weather from year to year – last year I had the A/C on in May and didn’t have my first fire of the winter season until mid-October. This year I’ve got the furnace on in May. So maybe not so much A/C this year?

    Can anyone be so single-mindedly focused on one ideal as to not know what encouraging the anti-Dem Party and Hillary Hate would create? It’s like torching a crowded theater then screaming FIRE into the crowd. Nobody can control that. Not that he’s trying. Either he is gormless as all get out or he thinks he’s a modern Napoleon and all he has to do is destroy the existing order and he can take over. Either way, not good.

    Got a bunch of stuff to do today – including cleaning up the mess made when one of my professors used the travel-only credit card instead of the regular purchasing credit card to buy a bunch of research texts from Amazon. Sheesh! You’d think somebody with a PhD could read the clearly-stated purpose on a credit card. Bright the day, Meeses. {{{HUGS}}}

    • Harry Reid is livid. The Sanders campaign response to him was awful.

      Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid sharply criticized Bernie Sanders’ supporters for turning the Nevada Democratic Convention into chaos over the weekend, saying the Vermont senator should not “accept” how his backers behaved.
      “I’ve been dealing with Nevada state conventions for 50 years: To say I was disappointed was an understatement,” Reid told CNN in the Capitol on Monday.

      “I hold his people accountable, and I’m sure if Bernie found out about it, he would not accept what happened there,” Reid said.

      Sanders’ spokesman Michael Briggs pushed back at Reid’s comments, calling on Democrats to harness the energy of his boss’ backers.

      “The Democratic Party would be doing itself a favor if it could find a way to embrace the millions of people who have been energized by Bernie’s campaign and want to participate in the democratic process,” Briggs said.

      Sanders may return to his day job as the most despised Senator, beating Ted Cruz for that “honor”.

  18. Good morning, 58 and sunny in Richland, Wa. Thankfully we have an easier day ahead because yesterday was a long one. Sorting through financial and medical records, finding canceled checks from the ’50’s, all the cards and letters they received and saved, was quite a job. One well secured envelope was labeled “not important”, but another, full of newspaper clippings had a note “……read all of this. I collected these for years!”

    Everything had to be carefully sorted because pictures and family history papers were all mixed in, so we were all feeling deeply emerged in their lives. Throwing so much away is hard, but it’s also an important way to say goodbye to lives well lived. And an important motivation to keep cleaning up my own clutter!

    Our sons will drive back to Bellingham so we’ll pack their car with boxes of slides and photos and other treasures. Our oldest daughter has volunteered to sort the photos and find a way to share them with the rest of the family. All of the items for the sale are boxed and stacked in the garage and 2 rooms of the house, ready for the seller to collect when he can. All the family history and older photos are now safe in boxes and a cedar chest so work with those can wait for the next trip.

    We’ll stay another day or two, depending on how much progress we make today with selling the house to our nephew. Ron and his brother have some other estate work to do as well.

    So I’m going to relax with some coffee and enjoy the view of the sun shining on the river before I start the work of the day.

    • Good to hear that things are progressing well. It made me tired just reading about it. ;)

  19. Good news for the Pith Challenged!

    The social media company will soon stop counting photos and links as part of its 140-character limit for messages, according to a person familiar with the matter. The change could happen in the next two weeks, said the person who asked not to be named because the decision isn’t yet public. Links currently take up 23 characters, even after Twitter automatically shortens them. […] Twitter’s 140-character limit was originally adopted because it was a way to send Tweets while fitting all the information within a mobile text message — a common way for sending Tweets when the service debuted in 2006, before the proliferation of smartphones.

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