Week-long Welcomings from Moosylvania: May 7th through May 13th

May 6, 2017 JanF Community 130

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 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 Comments are here.

  • Page 2 of Comments are here.

46 Comments

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

    Morning low of 36 degrees in Madison WI with an expected daytime high of 57. Sunny skies are in the forecast.

    Have a great day, all y’alls!!

  2. At some point on Saturday afternoon, the site went into a slowdown mode that is causing the page display and posting speed to be excruciatingly slow. I just spent 2 hours on the problem including an hour on livechat with the hosting firm who led me down several blind alleys.

    I think it is a problem with one of their servers and until someone can convince them to look at it, there is nothing we can do. I am hoping that at some point overnight they get it resolved.

    Sorry!

    In the meantime, see you on Twitter!

  3. Gad, slowdowns are the worst. Hope the problem can be solved soon.

    Spent more than three mortal hours on a “slowdown” Metro system Saturday. A journey that should have taken an hour each way took much more. Thank Goddess for Kindle and cell phones!

    • It appears to be fixed now. That is generally how it works – people like me are the canary in the coal mine and report a problem, get a runaround, then later the problem is discovered and corrected.

      The techs start from the assumption that 1) everything is your fault and 2) you are stupid. One of the techs scolded me for my troubleshooting technique! He is fortunate that I had no way to reach through the monitor and throttle him. I did a lot of different things as requested and got our score better but only intermittently, they made one change that made it worse (removed) and then I decided to go to bed.

      I suspect that overnight the server or router showed up on a diagnostic report and someone addressed it. Here are our grades: B for page speed, C for display but a sterling 1.7 second page load time (during the slowdown it was over 30 seconds). The change the tech made got the C up to a B but did not work well.

      • Thank you for everything you did for Moosylvania, Jan!

        Woke up at 3:30, lay awake until 4:30 a.m., then got up and bla bla bla. Went back to bed hoping to catch up with sleep but my mind was too active.

        We’re going to go out to breakfast and then come home and vegetate. Wishing a good day to all at the Pond and Beyond!

        • For the second day in a row, I left my alarm clock off. Yesterday I slept until 4:30am awakened by the birds tweeting. This morning I slept until 5:45am, awakened by the daylight! Maybe I am getting my internal clock reset – finally. I had been on TDA (Trump Devastation Alert) time and now that I am seeing signs that he won’t be allowed to get away with every awful thing he has planned for us, I can rest a little. He is still a gross man and I am offended by his presence in my life but I take comfort in every tick down of his popularity. After the ACA repeal passed, and his juvenile reaction to it, his approval has ticked down two notches. I think he will be at 35% by the end of the week once it sinks in that people will lose their health insurance – and that he lied about that. As Nancy Pelosi said, all politics is local but when it comes to people’s health care, all politics is personal.

    • okay that worked – Sunday – will be very busy at Dkos – have interviews and discussion with 4 white women (most you know) on white allyship
      Will be an interesting conversation

      • I will check that out! Allyship is a topic I am interested in because I am always hesitant to declare myself anything in connection with a group I am not a member of because it seems like it is not really up to me. I try to be respectful yet I want to show solidarity. I hope you have some pointers.

        Sorry about the site issues. I think the problem you had is that the site’s caching (the information that is kept in your browser and on the site’s servers) underwent a radical change and if you don’t clear the cache you may be getting a mismash. Last night when I was testing, I had to click Post twice – the first time nothing at all happened, no feedback – nothing. I rebooted my computer this morning to start fresh and the site is actually popping for me.

      • Here is the link: White allies: Thoughts and conversations for today’s movement

        Yes, Yas!!

        Yas: How do you define white allies? What makes someone an ally and simply just not “against you”?

        Dee: I define a white ally as someone who sees racism as a fundamental evil to be fought, who accepts and groks that being born with white skin grants you privilege, who does not have a problem with working under black leadership, and who doesn’t get bent out of shape when racism is addressed and immediately call the black (or POC) person addressing it a racist. […]

        Yas: If someone does want to step up their game and be an ally, how can they go about it? I’ve seen people who have questions as to how to proceed and—I feel at least—it’s not up to poc to teach them. What do you suggest?

        Dee: The first thing I suggest is that they join a black-led organization like the NAACP or Moral Mondays. The second is that they begin to read blogs and websites that are run by POCs or that focus on issues involving racism.

        And dear Ono:

        For days I’ve been pondering how to reply to your questions on how I, a white grandparent from white bread Maine, became an ally in the fight for equality and justice. There is no one simple answer that encapsulates the journey my life has been, but there is a beginning.

        It seems my journey as a white ally is rooted in the violence and fear of my childhood. In knowing what it is like to be afraid and hurt, to know what it is like to be afraid for those you love. To wonder if this was the day they would be taken from you.

        Excellent, Dee.

        • Thanks Jan – taking a break for a sec – some of the comments are extraordinary – very wonderful response!

  5. My friend is back in the hospital. I got a lot of the cooking done yesterday so I can visit this afternoon. Right now, tea is steeping, oatmeal is thawed so all I have to do is dish it up; and I bought chopped mushrooms to cook up & add to the frozen dinners I bought. So that’s my day: church, hospital, housework. Posting Walk On, since so many of us need strength.

  7. Good morning, 50 and partly sunny in Bellingham today. My mind in already in the garden, but my knees haven’t recovered from yesterday. We got the large pot under the fir trees planted with a red twig dogwood, an evergreen huckleberry, a winter blooming hellebore, and heather. We planted a large sword fern at the base of the pot and now I want to add several more. They are tough and hardy and the deer won’t eat them.

    The dogwood will grow tall, so we cut out the bottom of the pot and secured to the ground with rebar so the wind won’t blow it over. It’s fun to see my garden dreams become a planted reality, and having a problem to solve adds to the satisfaction. I can’t fix the tRump mess but I can tend to my garden!

    Best Sunday wishes to all.

      • Thanks Diana. I love hellebore and have collected them for years without knowing they are poisonous. So much for my garden knowledge! The more common name is Lenten Rose because they bloom in the winter. This variety is to stinky to cut for an arrangement but I love the color in the garden.

        Helleborus, 2014

        http://www.thepoisongarden.co.uk/atoz/helleborus.htm

        • That’s beautiful, princesspat. Susan Wittig Albert once wrote a murder mystery about someone who had a “poison garden.” Imagine!

  8. Have no idea what the temp was at dawn – light sweatshirt was enough – going up to mid 70s and sunny. At the moment month to date is 77 KWHs and should be over 90 KWHs by day’s end so starting to catch up from the slow start. Got my muffins (cinnamon almond) and cookies (hazelnut oatmeal) baked which warmed the house up enough I’ve taken off the sweatshirt. :) Got the first (Mexican bean and rice) of three pots of soup made and bottled and taking a break before starting the second (pasta veggie). Those are lunch soups (I put them in 1/2 pint jars). The dinner soup (3/4 pint jars) will be potato veggie. There’s 8 oz of chicken in each one to bring the protein up. Also finished my house cleaning, such as it is. Figures that the sunny warm Sunday would not be a laundry day. Hoping we’ll have sunshine next Sunday which is – it’s definitely getting too warm for fires but when it’s raining it’s too damp to not have one and dry the clothes properly/without souring.

    Nothing new on the Resistance front. Just keep doing what we’re doing until we take back Congress and can start pushing back, regaining ground. DK is proud itself for raising over $900K for future elections. Actual Kossacks in need on the other hand, which could be cleared with 5% of that, has seen almost no movement. Way too many Kossacks who cared about community first are now former Kossacks. Those of us left can’t carry the load. And that’s not even talking about how DK5 hamstrings us – no separate Community category on the sidebar means the political, especially the rash of OMGHOF diaries push community fundraiser diaries out of sight in 2 hours or less. (My fundraiser diary for Fineena was gone in less than an hour due to all the “ACA is dead” diaries I’d hoped to miss by posting mid-day Friday.) But I’ll keep on keepin’ on because that’s what we do.

    Heading over to DK to check kosmail, fundraiser stuff, and read Denise’s diary. By her definition posted above I guess I can call myself an ally. And proud to be so named. Then I need to get back to soup making. Bright the day and wind to thy wings, Meeses. {{{HUGS}}}

      • {{{Denise}}} – I am honored. I also didn’t manage to comment in your diary. Read it, got interrupted, by the time I got back it had so many comments my laptop didn’t want to reopen it. Been pondering off and on all day how I’d have answered your questions. I’m afraid I’m still at “heck if I know” – I cannot remember a time when I wasn’t aware of racism (individual racism – getting the point of systemic racism, well, you have been my teacher on that) or when I didn’t think it was wrong. I’m not as good at speaking up as I’d like, but I try. And I most certainly try to “lead by example” around the students. As an ally, I’m a “work in progress” – but at least I have your word for it that I am progressing. Thank you.

        • I understand about the number of comments – there are 436 atm – many were diary length. Interestingly – the diary was featured in Top Comments and Yasuragi submitted about 16 of them – which are linked – very worthwhile reading

          We are all a work in progress :)

    • I read & rec’d. Didn’t comment, having one of those “put one foot in front of the other” days – complex things are beyond me. Went to see my friend & she is bed-ridden, on the neuro floor of the hospital (I hoped she was in the rehab section). She was very drowsy, in mid-afternoon. But maybe today was just a bad day. A year from now, her daughter will graduate from MIT, she has to get to see that.

  9. WooHoo! LePen only got 35% Her “concession” speech was kinda icky, and the guys on MSNBC are talking about her continuing the fight, but at least she lost today.

    U2 Celebration

  10. Good morning, meeses! Monday …

    It is 36 degrees in Madison with an expected daytime high of 57. Sunny skies will give way to late afternoon clouds and evening showers.

    The site is having the slowdown issue again. It takes about 30 seconds to display the initial page and then about the same amount of time to preview then post a comment.

    I will connect with livechat later today and perhaps I will have better luck during a weekday in getting a technician who will dig a bit deeper into the problem. We are on a shared hosting server and I am going to guess one of the sites on our server is getting slammed. Normally this is monitored more closely but perhaps on weekends they are shorthanded.

    I will leave you with the JFK Profile in Courage 2017 Award show. President Barack Obama is introduced at about 36:16:

    See all y’all later!

  11. Good Monday Meese
    We are in a weather setback – it is 41 and some areas nearby, but a little higher up had a light dusting of snow last night.

    Dragging my winter coat out again.

    • We started having that weather setback a couple of days ago. We will be in the 60s but not into the 70s until much later in the month.

  12. Good morning, Meese!

    And…speaking of weather setbacks, although it’s sunny with a mackerel sky of white cirrostratus clouds across the blue, the current temp. is 43 F. The high is projected to be 60 F. today; the sixties are projected for highs all this week.

    Not much planned for today except catching up. Yesterday was a total loss because I kept trying to make up for my lost sleep. Hope today will be more productive.

    Wishing a good day to all at the Pond and Beyond!

  13. Had a really crappy night’s sleep. Seeing my friend in the hospital yesterday was wrenching. She’s gone from being pretty much normal to being bedridden & barely alert yesterday. Maybe yesterday was just a bad day. Anyway, my tea isn’t strong enough. The news is awful — Gov. Abbott signed the “sanctuary cities” bill yesterday. Because Republicans believe in local control unless “Austin”.

    Finding good things: the French election, seeing Obama speak last night, and Jack Schlossberg who could easily pass for his uncle. Ha: House Republicans Drank Your Sorrows Away.

    And music — again with Adventure of a Lifetime. Because:

    Turn your magic on, to me she’d say
    Everything you want’s a dream away
    Under this pressure, under this weight
    We are diamonds taking shape
    We are diamonds taking shape

  14. Hi, peeps! We may have found the cause of our slowdowns and I will be trying something a little later this morning. We seem to have become “interesting” to some Russian webcrawler bots which are pounding the site pretty hard. When they are active, it makes it difficult for valid users to connect and this morning resulted in some timeouts related to the database.

    I will probably be making the change around 10am Central after I get some other projects completed. It should not impact regular uses – it should just block the bad guys.

    • The change was made. I looks like we are bot free (except for the ones we like such as Google and Bing) for now. I hope that is the end of it!

        • I wonder if they follow Tweet links. We have had a lot more Twitter embeds in the past month than we did in the past. Our new Villagers are great Tweeters!

          I will watch the logs over the next few days and see if the change helps. I hate when the moose won’t open – it feels like having a phone line down where I can’t talk to my friends!

      • OMG! Thank you, Site Goddess!

        Well, we talk about politics a lot of the time here, so perhaps that’s why the borscht boys are interested.

  15. Good morning, 49 and partly sunny in Bellingham. The sun did shine yesterday afternoon so I washed all the patio furniture, brought out the umbrellas and seat cushions, and set up my outdoor living space. I’m ready to be outdoors even if I need a blankie!

    It’s a pool morning for me, and once again I need to stop thinking about going and just do it. I’ll be tired after but the muscles keeping my knees in joint need to keep getting stronger so I can keep hobbling around in my garden.

  16. Day started at 56 heading for 80 and sunny – catching up on electricity generation but having internet issues (not just with the Moose) so can’t get a reading right now. Reminding everyone to contact Senators about Rsdontcare (toll-free to Congressional Switchboard is 866-338-1015). Nothing moving – and I mean nothing, not a geedee nickle – on the community fundraisers. Got lebenty-something partial projects at work that are getting to the “urgent” stage so need to get back to it. Bright the day and wind to thy wings, Meeses. {{{HUGS}}}

  17. Good morning, meese! Tuesday …

    It is 43 degrees in Madison with an expected daytime high of 52. Showers will end this morning and there will be clouds and sunshine this afternoon.

    I watched the Yates hearing (even though it meant watching Cruz and Cornyn) and it was another example of Republican men discounting how intelligent and effective women can be. That they tried to besmirch a person who was a 27 year career public servant shows the panic that they are feeling. The hearing was supposed to be about Russian meddling in our election and instead became a vehicle to dredge up Hillary Clinton’s emails, the lie about the DNC denying access to their computers, to bash Susan Rice, and to discuss the Muslim ban. I am glad they brought up the Muslim ban, though, because it gave people a chance to hear in Sally Yates own words why she wouldn’t – couldn’t – ask her Justice Department to defend that executive order in court. And, using Ted Cruz as a foil, she did a great job.

    See all y’all later!

  18. Good morning, Meese! It’s another lovely day in NoVa, so nice to look at after endless skies and rain. Current temp. is 42 F., going up to 65 F.

    We have a Brownie meeting tonight, after which many of the girls and mothers are going on to Chipotle for dinner. Dearly Beloved and I ate there once, and it was the worst-food-ever. I’ll take Miss Pink cheeks home and then Dearly and I will have Tuna and White Bean Salad, this being a fish night.

    Very pleased to read that Sally Yates held her own in the hearing yesterday. I despise Republicans, I really do. Don’t know how they can live with themselves.

    Chapter 9 ended up a couple of hundred words short, so either Chapter 10 will have to be really long or I’ll have to throw the kitchen sink into Chapter 9. I’m sure I can think of something.

    Wishing a good day to all at the Pond!

  19. Hola Meese! Tuesday – stayed up way too late reading the outraged remarks to
    Markos’ latest salvo – and supporting those who approved.
    Have to go write Bkos – be back later.

  20. Oatmeal. Tea. Music playing in my head (this morning it’s Hozier). I’m glad Sally Yates kicked ass yesterday. But I don’t really have anything today. I’m depressed about my friend & the week before Mother’s Day sucks anyway. Or maybe it’s just Tuesday. Douglas Adams wrote about not being able to get the hang of Thursdays, for me it’s Tuesday. I just don’t get Tuesdays.

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