Week-long Welcomings from Moosylvania: Apr. 2nd through Apr. 8th

April 1, 2017 JanF Community 147

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.

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  • Page 1 of this week’s Comments can be found here

  • Page 2 of this week’s Comments can be found here

50 Comments

  1. Cool again — starting in the low 50s, will go up to 78, they say. Perfect & sunny.

    So, my former governor is on the National Security Council. Better than actual Nazi (or is it Russian spy? I get confused) Bannon. I think that Perry actually does love this country, at least the white male, Beaver Cleaver version of it. It’s just that he’s actually dumber than a box of rocks. He’s terrifyingly stupid. But — not a literal Nazi, so I guess that’s what passes for a win these days. Mere misogyny, homophobia & graft barely rate complaining.

    While we were having the Planned Parenthood rally yesterday, there was a committee hearing on an awful abortion bill. Sigh. The fight must continue. So, here’s our Fight Song.

  3. Good—or should I say dreadful—morning, Moosekind! Here in NoVa it looks very ominous indeed. It’s so dark you’d think it was dusk rather than daylight. Awful weather on the way, including rain, wind, thunder, lightning, and dear Goddess knows what else. Current temp. is 54 F., going up to 65 F.

    Hope it’s all over by 12:30, because we’ve got a lunch to attend at the place I call Gatsby Woods. Even though we’ll probably never move there, we like to keep our hand in. We’re still on the Priority List, which means we get invited to these birthday luncheons.

    On the home front I’ve printed out what I’ve got so far of the birthday short story. The end is kind of petering out, which is dismaying. If it bores me, what’s it going to do to the recipient? Perhaps I’ll be able to think of some way to jazz it up.

    The rain has just started coming down in torrents. I’d better go have breakfast while we still have electricity. See you all later!

  4. Good morning, 49 and cloudy in Bellingham. Being busy with the grand kids is a needed distraction from tRump worries, but his performance yesterday overwhelmed my resolve to stay focused on the kids. He’s a dangerous ignorant liar and seeing him try to bluff his way through another day in The White House was terrifying.

    Charles Blow, at the NYT, Creeping Toward Crisis

    I am racked with anxiety that our buffoonish “president” — who sounds so internationally unsophisticated and who is still operating under a cloud of illegitimacy — is beginning to face his first real foreign crises.

    ~snip~

    Trump has exposed himself to the world as an imbecile and burned through American credibility with his incessant lying. Even many of our allies seem confused and worried about where we stand and how we plan to proceed.

    Trump is full of pride, obsessed with strongman personas, and absent of historical and geopolitical perspective. This is the worst possible situation. The man who could bring us into military engagement is woefully deficient in intellectual engagement.

  5. 36 at dawn heading for 60 and blessedly sunny today. Lots of things are blooming – many of them that shouldn’t be yet – which is beautiful but also gives us a mixture of pollens that our bodies are totally not evolved to deal with. Even without allergies, folks are reacting to this mess – burning eyes, headaches, sinus problems – because there’s just too much in total as well a a bunch of miniature maces (have you ever looked at ragweed pollen under the microscope?) we shouldn’t be dealing with at all for another 4 to 6 weeks. sigh.

    “News” is awful – so what else is new? It will be until we can take back the helm of the Ship of State. We block what we can, derail what we can, patch the holes as fast as we can – and prepare for each and every election as it comes up. Celebrate what wins we get, laugh when we can manage, and keep on keepin’ on. There is no “giving up window” and Duty calls.

    Gotta check in the Village diaries (one at DK is sort of mine, as in I created the draft and WYgalinCali added the tweets) then get to work. Hopefully all the brick walls I ran into yesterday have had doors put in them so I can actually complete the various jobs. Bright the day and wind to thy wings, Meeses. {{{HUGS}}}

  6. Good afternoon fellow Meeses! It’s a warm and sunny 85 degrees out here in Costa Mesa, CA.

  7. Well, here it is, 3:37 a.m. on Friday morning and I haven’t been able to get to sleep yet. Went to bed at 11:30 but it was useless. I hate these sleepless nights. I wish I could arrange things so I’d get an hour of hard exercise every morning—that would take care of this insomnia.

    See you all later!

    • An hour of hard exercise and, please goddess, a few days in a row where the horrors visited on our world and our democracy by the Republicans who are in power are not on the front page of the paper. It is difficult to sleep when you are living in a shitstorm.

  8. Morning, meeses. Friday …

    It is 36 degrees in Madison with an expected daytime high of 55. Sunny skies are in the forecast.

    Not much to say. Seems like everyone is fine with the United States unilaterally bombing things, the Supreme Court is going to have a Mike Pence clone for the next 40 years – further politicizing the court system which was our last hope, acts of brutality continue to be committed by the federal government, and the health insurance markets are collapsing because the Republicans have chosen to let the ACA die a slow horrible death. But hey! At least the puristas did not have to soil their hands by filling in the oval for an imperfect Democrat. If I live to be 100, I will never ever forgive the selfish people who are leading this “revolution”.

    I am going to be traveling for the next week so I will be very lightly online. I will try to check-in – and check on all y’alls – every day but I won’t be able to do much more. PLEASE stay out of trouble!! :)

    See all y’all later!

      • I think mostly pleasure, except for the traveling part. As I get older, traveling is less pleasurable. Certainly air travel is more complicated than it used to be. I will be bringing our passports because who knows what fresh hell the tRumpers will have in store for us? My daughter was not born in the United States and looks foreign.

        I am checking out a part of the country (New England) where I may want to relocate to when my daughter finishes school. She is now thinking she would like to stay here for college which is fine but I don’t envision myself living here past when she would graduate from college (I have no money so I promised her a place to live while she goes to school). It is too cold here and too Republican; I need to live in a blue state where educating all kids – not just the rich ones – is a priority. There is already too much stupidity and the trend is to add to that!

    • Safe travels – and draw your Energy from The Mother. Enjoy what you can. {{{HUGS}}}

  9. Good Friday Meese
    46 and raining here in Saugerties. I have a film crew arriving this morning to interview me about The Young Lords. My dogs are going to protest – they hate visitors they don’t know.

    I am calling Trump’s bombing adventure #EgoStrike
    :(

    • Good morning, Meese.

      Forecast: Sunny with a high of 62.

      With every dawn, when first light penetrates the sea, many seahorse colonies perform a dance to the sun.

      I would love to see that.

    • I bet your interview will be stellar, Denise. Will we get to see it at some point?

      #EgoStrike….heh!

      • If and when the young filmmaker gets the money to finish the film – I’ve participated in quite a few of these – average time to complete 7 – to 9 years

    • Have fun with the interview. If you get a link to the resulting tape/film, please pass it on. I’m going to start spreading your name around here – see if maybe we can get you a lecture gig next Fall. Wouldn’t that be fun! (I’m assuming your lecture fees are somewhere between 1% and 10% of Hillary’s – otherwise we can’t afford you. sigh)

      And yeah, #EgoStrike.

      • I feel for the filmmaker – public grant funding sources for documentaries will be drying up if Trump has anything to do with it. They are already slim

        I doubt my speaking fees are even a 10th of a 10th of a percent :) :)

        • Well, let’s see – Hillary’s fees for one speech at GS was $200,000 – 10% of that is $20,000 and 10% of that is $2,000. OK. You aren’t charging enough. {{{HUGS}}}

  10. Back with a check in in a minute, but first, this (also, if you like science fiction & fantasy, follow this guy)

  11. I bet I’m not the only one who slept badly last night. Still on the cool side — had to wear shoes. Bur high of around 80 & sunny. Eating oatmeal, drinking tea that will not be strong enough. Only fitting song for today is from REM.

    • Oh hai, anotherdemocrat.

      I’m sure you are referencing the state of things regarding our ability to sleep last night, but I slept OK until 3:00. Then my cat, Gabby, woke me for breakfast. (Taps on face, nope that didn’t work; ok, then sit on her shoulder and tap on face; still nothing, purr loudly, sit on her shoulder, and tap face.)

      • I woke up at 12:30 and 3something – but for the 2nd day in a row, was actually asleep when the alarm went off. I usually wake up on my own slightly before 5, not today or yesterday. Even though I posted the REM song as the theme of the day, my brain is playing a Snow Patrol song at me (A fire, a fire – you can only take what you can carry. A pulse, your pulse, it’s the only thing I can remember. I break, you don’t – I was always set to “self destruct” though. The fire, the fire, it cracks & barks like primal music)

  12. 35 at dawn heading towards 70 on another bright and clear sunny day. Got 20 KWHs yesterday – first time since last August – and hope to do it again. 78 for the month right now.

    Doing my best to focus on Earth Mother-Sky Father Energy. Garden-tending Energy. Healthy-growth Energy. Returning-sustenance Energy. Foundation secure under our feet Earth Energy. Spirit-lifting (vitamin D making) Sun Energy. Loving, kind, good Energy. I will not let the noisy Evils banging against my head distract or block the Good Energy channeling through me to Heal the world.

    Work to do – stuff still stuck in the approval chain – one needs editing anyway as a flight was canceled and the guest speaker had to rent a car and drive (he made it in time) – but will check with the Villages first. Bright the day and wind to thy wings, Meeses. {{{HUGS}}}

  13. 34 heading to a high of 44 today, but the weekend is expected to be in the 60s. Yesterday was wind and snow and more wind…and did I mention wind? It was the kind of blustery day that I expect in February but resent in April. At least today I’ve seen a few glimmers of the sun; I am more than ready for some bright sunshine.

    I spent yesterday in fits of rage and despair; I needed to re-center to something more positive, so I immersed myself in old speeches of Dr. King and some newer speeches by Dr. Barber. I needed to do it anyway for my reading group, but once I started, I kept going. I find myself in awe of their ability to find hope even in the depths of despair, and by the time I was done, I felt renewed and reinvigorated. Oh, to have such faith…

    • {{{DoReMI}}} – such Faith in Good/Love radiates outward and warms our frozen hearts – and really does renew and reinvigorate us to go forth and do what we can. And the lovely little secret of such Faith is that it first makes us want to have it, then to act as if we have it, then to really have it. moar {{{HUGS}}}

  14. Good morning, 48 and cloudy in Bellingham. Ryan had an overnight with the grand girls so the house seems very quiet today. I hope to spend the day in my sewing room, but if rain changes the kid’s plans I’ll be flexible.

    I don’t usually read David Brooks, but this article made me laugh….

    The Coming Incompetence Crisis

    I just read that the Trump administration has filled only 22 of the 553 key positions that require Senate confirmation. This makes me worry that the administration will not have enough manpower to produce the same volume and standard of incompetence that we’ve come to expect so far.

    Granted, in its first few months the administration has produced an impressive amount of ineptitude with very few people.

    Lets hope bumbles back to the golf course and stays there!

    • Having the federal government run by career professionals rather than a tRump appointee is just fine with me.

      • That was the general idea behind the Civil Service – that and to reduce the number of assassination attempts by disappointed appointment seekers.

  15. Cloudy and blustery today, Meese, after yesterday’s violent storm. It downed a lot of trees, tore off a couple of roofs in DC, and caused flooding here in NoVa (not anywhere near us).

    Didn’t sleep at all last night. Had a nap this morning, going to have another after lunch. Was going to go out and pull weeds, but all of a sudden I don’t feel like it.

    FINALLY got granddaughter’s birthday story off to her. I’m going to write parts 2 and 3 just for my own satisfaction. After witnessing my smart, sassy friend of more than 20 years descend into dementia, I do want to leave some account of my life behind for my grandchildren. My writing is all that will remain of me, physically, because I want to be cremated.

    It’s noon now and I understand Gorsucks has been confirmed. I will NEVER forgive the Rethugs! What can we do to make their lives miserable? Let’s brainstorm!

    • {{{Diana]}} – The Rs are already miserable. That’s why they act like they do. Yes they are evil little s***s and filled with short-sighted greed – but they also know they aren’t really as strong as they pretend and they are terrified that somebody is going to find out how weak they really are and do unto them as they have been doing unto others. It must be really miserable to live in that kind of fear. But that’s their Faith as well as their Fear – not going to change them, never going to reach them. All we can do when we are able is to render them harmless.

  16. Good morning fellow Meeses! A few clouds in a basically sunny sky with a current temperature of 63 degrees. Supposedly going up to 68 degrees today.

  17. Good morning, Meeses! Woke up late and am rushing to work. Should be in the 60s today with some rain showers. It rained yesterday evening and last night, perfect while I read a book about “holy” fire (BRIMSTONE by Cherie Priest). It’s set in the 1920s in a Florida spiritualist community. I think it’s worth a read. :)

    • {{{basket}}} – take care, enjoy the “pleasant” weather and even more enjoy the book. moar {{{HUGS}}}

      • I finished the book… Could not put it down!! (this is a bad habit of mine to finish reading books in one sitting)

  19. Good morning, Moosylvania! It’s clear and frosty here in NoVa, with a beautiful blue sky. Current temp. is 30 F., heading for a high of 60 F. today. There’s frost on top of my husband’s red pickup truck parked in the street.

    Feeling much better after a decent night’s sleep and a not-too-bad number on the scales. Waiting for the almond croissants to bake so we can start the cappucinos.

    Well, granddaughter loved the birthday story, declaring it the “best yet” (I’ve been writing them for her for 9 years ), so now I feel free to get on with the day’s chores. There’s nothing I can do about the Fools on the Hill and in the White House at the moment, so I’m going to get on with my novella.

    Lots of grocery shopping to do today, so I must start on my lists. Wishing a good day to all at the Pond and traveling beyond (that’s you and Daughter, Jan)!

  20. 56 heading for mid 70s, bright and sunny again – got over 20 KWHs yesterday – 2 in a row W00t! – Heading off to the Farmers Market. Will check back when I get back. Bright the day and wind to thy wings, Meeses. {{{HUGS}}}

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