Week-long Welcomings from Moosylvania: Aug. 14th through Aug. 20th

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.

31 Comments

  1. Stopped raining, but it’ll start again Saturday afternoon. I wish the rain in Louisiana had spread out, we had a little flooding & some road closures, but nothing like the disaster they have.

    Head still hurts some from the freezing/scraping. The spots are like intense scrapes. Speaking of pain — the naked Trump statues. Ugh, really? I mean, sure, get under his thin skin. But people are tweeting & posting NSFW pictures all the time…. because the statues are naked.

    Early to bed tonight because alarm goes off at 5-freaking-30 on Saturday for the next 6 months. Sigh.

    • another, do you and the other team members have to get up that early because it’s cooler then, or because everyone is busy the rest of the day?

      Hope your face stops hurting. My husband has undergone the same thing, so I know how unpleasant it can be.

      Quick question: Can steel-cut oats be used in your Baked Oatmeal recipe? I tried nuking my steel-cut oats this morning, which resulted in an ungodly mess.

      • The group meets in the park at 7am. Runners are just crazy that way. I was telling a co-worker that I need to learn to take a nap after workout, because being so tired just messes up my day. Supposedly, it’s good to get your workout in early “and then you have the whole rest of the day”. Eyeroll – you only have the rest of the day if your body/brain can cope with no day to sleep in.

        I haven’t tried steel cut oats, but I don’t see why it wouldn’t work. Maybe more liquid & longer cooking time? I cook longer & lower temp because the ground flax wants lower temp.

      • Try soaking the oats overnight, then put them in another’s baked oatmeal recipe (using the liquid you soaked them in).

          • Any of the more “whole” grains work better and cook faster if you soak them overnight in what will become their cooking water. Enjoy.

      • I cook my steel-cut oatmeal in the slow cooker overnight, and it comes out great – I love oatmeal in any form, though, but I add some maple syrup and apple pie spice at the start, and it gives just enough sweetness and flavor to it. My cooker automatically switches to warm when the cooking time is done, so overnight works great for me. I do want to try that baked oatmeal recipe, but hadn’t tried it with the steel cut oats, soaking might be a good idea.

  2. Good Friday morning Meese
    We are headed out tomorrow morning for a mini-vacation on Long Island tomorrow morning and will be back Monday evening.

    Am taking laptop but won’t be online much.
    Gave a good weekend.

  3. Sometime this weekend, I will be installing WordPress 4.6, an upgrade to the WP platform. It does not look like there is much new but some of the changes are deep in the internals and, as such, may cause issues. It is called Pepper, named after jazz baritone saxophonist Park Frederick “Pepper” Adams III:

    One improvement that authors might notice is that broken links will be reported so that they can be fixed before posting.

  4. TGIF and all that – this is being a very cloudy year. The only good thing I can think of is that the temps dropped enough as of pre-dawn 8/6 that I haven’t had the A/C on since. Hopefully that will make up for the much lower electricity production. More clouds, rain in the morning (hope it finishes by dawn or the Market will be both soggy and poorly attended). Still saying sunny and clear for Sunday – hope so, since I’m doing laundry as well as needing the electricity generation.

    Mother Jones doesn’t suffer as much from HDS as the Reader Supported News, both of whom I send a small amount to each month. RSN has been having damn-near hourly fund-raisers because after the primaries ended and Bernie was most seriously defeated, instead of shifting to general election mode, they doubled down on the HDS (carrying on the Revolution in Bernie’s name even though he wasn’t going to be able to lead it). And they are totally surprised (and don’t believe it’s due to HDS) that their donations dropped like a rock when they did that. I hope somebody convinces their managing editor to change his attitude or what was a very good alternative news service is going down – like about next month. sigh

    Got the brushfires put out before I got here but still gotta a lotta stuff to do, so I’d best get on it. Bright the day, Meeses. {{{HUGS}}}

  5. Morning all – very late start for me today. I’m feeling very lethargic, and I’m angry with myself that I missed the Hillary campaign office opening yesterday. I lay down for a little nap and woke up at 7:30, way too late to go down there. Grrrr. I will try to get there today or tomorrow to see if I can sign up for some volunteer work.

    So, after that non-apology apology last night, designed to lure a bored press into falling for yet another pivot, today that effort got stepped on by Manafort’s resignation. I truly think no one is in charge of this “campaign”, it’s just lurching from moment to moment – and depending on the fundamental racism of a segment of the American population – mainly older white men- to carry them to victory. I think Nate Silver is saying it could still turn around for Trump mainly because it’s his livelihood – who’s going to keep reading his reports if the race is over? I don’t say this to be complacent – we’ve got to have a massive turnout and vote to crush this nativist Nazism completely – but I simply don’t see where the electoral votes are for Trump now.

    Everyone have a great day!

  6. Good morning, 70 and sunny in Bellingham. Thanks to being awake when it was time to be asleep I’m late for everything today. So no pool this morning because I need to shop for a birthday gift for Ava and that’s all the walking my knees will allow. Being careful with activity is keeping the pain manageable but my spirits are low.

    Oh well, I’ve got flowers to arrange, a good book to read, and lots of yam news to ignore!

    • I am sorry to hear that your spirits are low. :( I hope working with flowers helps.

      Yes, there is a lot of yam news to ignore today – the not-really-a-pivot, the sacking of the Manafort, the ad buy designed to solidify his position with the 20% of Americans who believe that the deaths at the hands of terrorists of 4 people in our embassy in Benghazi 4 years ago is worse than 9/11, Pearl Harbor and the sinking of the Maine!! I have decided to ignore it all except where it might be amusing.

      Shortly I will go offline to watch the women’s water polo gold medal match and then the women’s soccer gold medal match.

  7. Good morning, meese! Saturday …

    It is 68 degrees in Madison on its way up to 72. Thunderstorms this morning, cloudy skies this afternoon. The high humidity will keep it from being a nice 72.

    I was following Twitter yesterday while watching Olympic sports (yay, women’s water polo gold!!). Here is the Tweet that summed it all up:

    And the Trump Louisiana photo op where he and Pence are handing out boxes of … Play-Doh. You can’t make this stuff up.

    The president’s weekly address is celebrating the 100th anniversary of the National Park Service. The NPS, like all Good Government programs, is suffering from the bad stewardship of the Republican Congress. I am not sure how Republicans can look at the beauty of the earth, and the wise preservation that the government has put in place, and want to destroy it all.

    See all y’all later!

  8. Up for my workout. Ugh. I’m definitely taking a nap after, because to say I had an awful night’s sleep implies that I slept. Back later.

  9. Good morning, Moosekind! It’s a flawlessly beautiful day, although it will be hot and humid. It’s 68 F. now, going up to 89 F. I do wish this would be an easier day.

    So Paul Manafort is a traitor, according to GOS. Honestly, is there no end to the sleaze? And now “Judicial Watch,” whateverinell that is, wants Hillary to answer more questions about the damn emails? Goddess give me strength! I want the whole thing to be over, with her installed in the White House and Bill tending Michelle’s garden and advocating veganism.

    Miss Pink Cheeks’ family came over last night, bringing pizza. Of course I couldn’t have any, but it was still a pleasant evening. When it was time for her parents and little brother to leave, Miss Pink Cheeks looked stricken and real tears rolled down her cheeks. She’s only seven and I think she feels like an exile over here while her parents get the new house ready. (The upstairs is pretty much finished, but the downstairs is not.) So she went home with them but will be back tonight, and will go home for good after breakfast tomorrow.

    Another, hope you get some sleep. I had the night from hell too! Couldn’t sleep, so finally got up at half-past 12 and stayed up until 3 a.m. The no-gym-for-10 days is beginning to take its toll.

    Wishing everyone a good day!

    • Restlessness seems to be everywhere! I wonder if there is some sort of disturbance in the force.

      Don’t worry too much about Judicial Watch. They have been hounding the Clintons for years and this is just the latest. In the fever swamps of right-wing media, they will be saying “FINALLY! THE SMOKING GUN!!!” but it is just a minor distraction. Hillary will not have to answer any of the questions until after the election and the questions they are asking can easily be answered in most cases by saying “I don’t know”.

      Judicial Watch will continue hounding the Clintons until Hillary leaves office on January 20, 2025 – and likely beyond. And I am sure that Paul Ryan’s House of Representatives will have a House Permanent Committee on Investigating Hillary Clinton. It is one more reason to focus all of our energy in 2018 to taking back the House.

  10. Cloudy Saturday – while I see the sun most afternoons for at least an hour or two, I haven’t seen the moon or stars for almost a month even though it’s now still full dark when I put out the morning bird seed. Not doing much for the electricity generation – still, the A/C’s been off for a full 2 weeks now so hopefully I’m generating enough. Did a reset on my computer (once my friend showed me how – silly me, I was looking for a place to log in as administrator but since I’m the only user…) last night. I didn’t have any sound but now that it’s been off overnight, I’ve got sound back. I’m going to have to re-install Microsoft Office – but at least I found the box/package again so it can be done.

    I do my best to ignore all the downer crap in the news. Hillary’s been under attack for over 30 years and she’s as squeaky clean as President Obama is – they only got Bill with a combination of entrapment (which, yes, he walked into) and pretending that a literal truth is still perjury if it’s not the answer they want/isn’t the answer to the question they carefully didn’t ask – and she’ll come through this just like President Obama did. Lots of threats of indictment but nothing to indict on. And as I said over at GOS, we’re her Village – our energy, work, and belief in her is what gives her the energy so she “won’t stay throwed” – and will be the difference between her limping into the White House or running into the White House.

    Just checking in everywhere before I get to what I usually do Saturday afternoons since I’ll be staffing Dem HQ from noon to 4 (or so). Depending on how busy I am, I may check in from there. Bright the day, Meeses. {{{HUGS}}}

    • I am not sure that defending Bill Clinton as a “victim” is a winning strategy, Bfitz. There were certainly some things he was blamed for that he did not do but his inability to keep his johnson in his pants cannot be blamed on anyone but him. To try to put lipstick on that piggish behaviour requires getting dangerously close to the “men can’t help themselves – preyed on by women!” excuses we hear too often. You will not win anyone over with that.

      In my mind, it is best to make every effort to pivot to the present and let the right-wing media talk about whatever they want to talk about to their ever shrinking “base”.

      I was laughing this morning reading a story about Trump’s new campaign manager’s attempt to characterize Trump’s “regret” speech as a pivot:

      As for Trump’s opponent, Hillary Clinton, Conway said she hopes the [Clinton] campaign “pivots to substance.”

      “Every time she’s asked about a policy position of her own, she takes an opportunity to insult Donald Trump. She’s going to insult Donald Trump and we’ll talk directly to the voters,” Conway said. “I hope, I absolutely hope this campaign pivots to substance because we want to challenge her on the issues.”

      Last night, he Tweeted out this insult:

      Donald J. Trump @realDonaldTrump

      #WheresHillary? Sleeping!!!!!

      I guess that is an “issue” and not an insult. Sheesh!

      • Just saying they aren’t going to indict Hillary because not only is there nothing there, there’s nothing they can distort to pretend like something’s there. (The defense of Bill is because he did nothing illegal – nothing – the moral issue is there and I’ll never say otherwise. It was entrapment – you don’t keep a DNA-stained dress for 2 years if there is no intent to entrap – but Bill did willingly walk into that trap. What he was indicted on was perjury. He didn’t commit perjury. If you are asked if something is going on – present tense – and it is not even though it has gone on in the past, the truthful answer is “no”. They indicted him for not saying, “but there was a couple of years ago” even though that was not the question asked.)

        Trump will never argue issues because he doesn’t have any. Not sure he’d recognize one if it bit him in his over-generous butt. Hillary can’t go that kind of negative though. She has to keep hitting on the unfit for office domestically, down-right scary for office internationally. And she will. She’s good. Has our backs as we have hers. :)

  11. Tech Support Alert: The site was updated to WordPress version 4.6 a short while ago. Sorry if anyone was knocked off during the update but I wanted to get it completed before I went offline to watch the Olympics.

    It looks like everything is functioning normally!

  12. Morning all! Up late today, but I have Joy Reid’s show on, and she is just so great – she has Trump surrogates on, but she doesn’t let them get away with spouting nonsensical lies, about the only TV reporter who won’t. And she just covered the story in the Times this morning about Trump’s empire being in debt to the tune of 650 Million, more than previously disclosed, and a lot of it to the Bank of China. This guy’s crookedness is just unbounded. And that photo op yesterday in La was really disgusting – disrupting relief efforts for transparent political reasons is simply, and once again, disqualifying.

    Opera today as usual and it’s a good one – Manon Lescaut by Puccini, featuring the great soprano Anna Netrebko in the title role. I’m a Puccini fan through and through, so really looking forward to this one. Have a great day everyone!

    • I think it is becoming obvious that anyone who runs his “business empire” the way he is running his campaign, would not be very successful. It sounds like he has simply been staying a few steps ahead of personal bankruptcy his entire life. I suspect that the money that the chumps are turning over to him will find its way into his personal accounts.

      I am trying to feel sorry for those people and I can’t.

  13. Good morning, 66 and sunny in Bellingham today. We’re celebrating Ava’s 9th birthday tomorrow so I have a bouquet to make and presents to wrap. I found a cute striped T-shirt with appliques that look like her drawings, another one with an interesting PNW motif that will remind her of her trip to the anthropology museum this summer, and another with a simple mandala design. I was on sparkle overload by the time I left the store though.

    Reading through the comments at PEC was interesting and amusing this morning. Sam’s comment…….

    If I had to guess, I would think Trump could end up with 42% of the national vote. This would put him ahead of Goldwater 1964, McGovern 1972, Mondale 1984, and tied with Stevenson 1956. Yet it will be regarded as a huge loss – and it is, by current standards. It illustrates the extreme polarization that has arisen in the last 20 years.

    • His ceiling is definitely 47% and I have been feeling like it will come in at around 45%, depending on how well Gary Johnson catches on. There are still many many Republican voters who really don’t care who runs – they will vote R no matter what. I think they make up about 25% of his support.

  14. I did my mile, and core work/stretching after. One of the coaches works at Ebay & we’re going to set up a joint auction page with some of my X-Files, Star Trek & Star Wars stuff. She knows how to do this. And if we say “hey, it’s for kids at the Children’s Shelter” we might get higher bids. I also ran for 30 seconds; and next week the goal is 30 seconds on the way out & another on the way back. AMJoy will be over soon, then I’ll take a nap. Ms Reid was not having any bullshit this morning.

  15. Had lots of rain yesterday, and it’s downright cool this morning. I may wear a long sleeved shirt to church. Watching the men’s marathon, though I don’t care as much as I did last week’s woman’s race. Don’t have to cook today, but I do need to take out trash & recycling this afternoon. So, a nice lazy day for me. I should get started writing my DK Wellness diary for next week.

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