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 One of Comments is HERE
– Page Two of Comments is HERE
Good morning, Moosekind. There’s a gentle rain from heaven dropping on us beneath in Northern Virginia. Current temperature is 61 F., going up to 66 F. Today would be a good day to have slow cooker pot roast for dinner.
The news is so appalling I don’t know where to begin. Harvey’s devastation, the shooting in New Mexico (at a library, for godsake), and now Kim Wrong ‘Un shooting a missile over Japan. Does he want Thing to nuke him? You know, I don’t see anything ahead but manmade disaster. If Thing isn’t removed from office pretty soon, all our troubles will be over because we won’t be around to have any problems.
Harvey is such a disaster for Houston’s citizens! I read that most of them have no flood insurance. Their houses are wiped out. Ted (Bad News) Cruz, who voted against helping the victims of Hurricane Sandy, wants help for his constits. I hope he gets voted out of office before he can vote to deny aid to other states again.
Dearly Beloved spent 5 hours at the doctor’s office yesterday, mostly waiting for an X-ray of his foot. He now has a cane to get about with, some prescribed liniment, and nonstick bandages. He’s been told to take strong Tylenol and to rest as much as possible.
Miss Pink Cheeks has a play date today so I won’t be picking her up after all. Mr. Toddler, who unlike most two-year-olds, can actually talk a little, uttered the magic words: “Go sleepy,” yesterday. That’s just what he did, too, from 1:30 until 4. At 4:30 he was rescued from post-nap grumpiness by Mommy, who’d left work early. All in all a most pleasant afternoon of child minding!
Hoping everyone will have a good day, with a minimum of bad news.
57 when I got up – still dark – 60 something right now heading for low 80s – got sunshine at the moment. yesterday’s production was 15.8 KWHs and the m-t-d is 363. So maybe we might get above 400 by shutdown Thursday. We shall see.
The only good coming out of anywhere is the 1st responders and ordinary American response to Harvey. Hillary was right on that, too. America is great because Americans are good. Keep holding onto that. Hold it in your heart. We will survive not just Harvey but this evil administration. We will clean up once its gone. We will rebuild, hopefully more wisely. We will.
Gotta get to work. Too many diaries to visit today but I’m still getting paid for doing something else. Bright the day, Meeses. {{{HUGS}}}
Good morning, meeses! Wednesday …
It is 55 degrees in Madison with an expected daytime high of 79. Mostly sunny skies are in the forecast.
I was sickened by the sociopath-in-chief’s visit to Texas yesterday. In a sane world, the people of Texas would turn away from him and his party but the politics of white identity damages brain cells. I keep seeing the “but Obama abandoned New Orleans during Katrina!” tweets and I hope they are from Russian bots and not from people so ignorant and/or so blinded by hate that they don’t know that George W. Bush was president in 2005.
It sounds like Harvey is back on land this morning. I hope he quickly moves away from the Houston area so that people can get a break.
Nice bit of prose here from the judge in the Sarah Palin case. Too bad it is wasted on the paper whose Clinton-hate handed the election to a Russian embed.
See all y’all later!
sadly the Obama attacks are not mostly from bots – have been looking at many of them :(
The level of “ignant” is mind boggling
Good Wednesday Meese.
Watching the situation in Port Arthur – which is dire.
National Flood Insurance expires
History:
Thurgood Marshall! It is a permanent blemish on our nation that Clarence Thomas sits in the Thurgood Marshall seat. He is not fit to carry his briefcase.
Good Woden’s Day, Meese! Fair this morning, with the last traces of rain drying from the streets (wish that could be said of Houston). Current temp. in NoVa is 59 F., going up to 76 F. later. So far we are six inches over normal for rainfall this year.
Have just been reading about the awful devastation in Houston, some of which was caused by the city government’s callous disregard of zoning. According to the WaPo, Houston has no zoning laws. They’ve paved the area with concrete, obliterating the prairie and wetlands that help absorb the rainfall.
This morning’s Home Edition of the WaPo failed to mention that Karen Keys-Gamarra, a highly qualified Democrat, won 2 to 1 in the special school board election here in Fairfax County yesterday. She’s replacing a Republican and will be the first African-American to serve on the FC school board. Turnout was 10 percent higher than anticipated. Trust the Rethugs to hold an election at a time of year when a lot of people are still on vacation or otherwise in “summer mode,” and not paying attention to elections!
On the home front, hubby is still disabled and will try to cancel our beach weekend this morning. If he’s unsuccessful, we’ll go, but he won’t be able to sit on the beach. It’s painful for him to walk, even though he’s still using the cane.
I have child-minding responsibilities after school today and tomorrow, and, it appears, next Tuesday and Wednesday. Wishing all a good day.
Woot! “Karen Keys-Gamarra, a highly qualified Democrat, won 2 to 1 in the special school board election here in Fairfax County yesterday”
I saw it on my Twitters. Good job, Diana!
The fundies started the takeover of our government by getting control of school boards and education and tax policy. We should take a page from their book. The woman running in the Democratic primary in Wisconsin CD-01 to replace Paul Ryan is a school board member in Janesville.
That’s exactly right, Jan! Today’s sheriff could be tomorrow’s state legislator. Years and years ago I wrote an article for Virginia NARAL News titled, “Should Your Sheriff Be Prochoice?” for that very reason.
Lost amidst all the hurricane news, there was a terrible statement released by a bunch of anti-LGBTQ churches yesterday. It will hurt a lot of people. Sad & angry. Yesterday the Orange Shitgibbon visited Corpus Christi and didn’t mention the suffering & sadness, didn’t hug one person or offer comfort in any way. He did talk about his FEMA guy, whose name I don’t know — saying “he’s become very famous” because of this damned storm. I really, truly hate this man.
My boys are putting out a song today, called Blackout. One of the lines is “in the darkness is where we learn to see” Seems appropriate for now.
I was looking for a news story on the #NashvilleStatement (I will not click on their web site – linked in Twitter – and give them my personal information) and just now found one but haven’t had a chance to read it yet. The god people feel empowered because “their guy” got in and is rolling back protections for LGBT people. There are a lot of victims from giving Republicans control over all the branches of our government; people who voted for Trump will not be looked on kindly when the history of these times is written. I have no intention of letting a single one of them off the hook.
I love this
https://twitter.com/rmnetwork/status/902685267185815553
Good morning, 63 and smokey in Bellingham. A breeze is blowing, but the sky is a hazey yellow and my eyes are burning. Took me several tries to connect with the Moose this morning, but it may be operator error. I can’t find my comment from yesterday either, which tells me I prolly forgot to click post.
I’ve been distracted with concern for my good friend. They are restoring the exterior of their old house and had a fire on Monday. They are ok and the damage repair is underway but it was very scary and they are very tired. We restored the exterior of our house about 10 yrs ago and it was hard to do then when we were relatively younger.
http://www.bellinghamherald.com/news/local/article169901267.html
Princesspat, hope your friends are all right.
here’s my boys’ new song — both dance-y & rocking (if you know their music, it’s as if Vertigo & Discotheque had a really happy baby)
Good morning, meese! Thursday …
It is 59 degrees in Madison with an expected daytime high of 68. Mostly sunny skies. We had a line of storms come through last night that brought cool air in. It did not rain much here but the winds were pretty fierce.
Great news out of Texas on SB4! The federal court blocked the implementation of the sanctuary city ban, stopping it from going into effect tomorrow. It was inhumane to begin with but even more so after Harvey is creating tens of thousands of homeless people, many of whom may be permanently separated from evidence of their legal immigration status. This is why elections are so important and why sitting them out has real life consequences; the Republican Party is now stocking the courts with men who will rule that people should freeze to death in their trucks in service to their employees – and who must show their papers if they are brown. The problem was not just 2016, the low turnout 2014 election gave the Republicans a Senate majority and the right to destroy our judiciary when a close election put one of theirs in the Oval Office.
But for now we celebrate the judiciary we have. Good job!
See all y’all later!
Good morning, Meese, and happy Thor’s Day! On second thought, perhaps it’s better to ignore Thor, he’s been throwing his weight about too much lately. Another fair day here in NoVa, with a current temp. of 62 F., going up to 83 F.
Just saw over at Orange that there has been flooding in several different parts of the world—Mumbai, Ontario, Pakistan, and even Ireland. We get only USA-centric coverage in our news, of course.
Very tired from waking up too early and very depressed after reading about the devastation in Houston. It reminds me of the aftermath of a world war: lives completely dislocated, loss of all possessions and papers, everything.
Hubby is a little better after the Apple Tree Accident on Sunday but not that much. Hope everyone will have a good day.
I hope hubby continues to improve!
Thanks!
Good Thursday morning Meese
Sitting here waiting for my septic system contractors to show up – they cancelled yesterday.
Keeping tabs on the March from Charlottesville to DC
So a chemical plant is exploding near Houston, but the company isn’t required to tell us what’s there because odious government over-regulation.
I did a lip-synch video using the new U2 song, because:
“When the lights go out
Throw yourself about
In the darkness where you learn to see
When the lights go out
Don’t you ever doubt
The light that we can really be”
“odious government over-regulation.” Sigh. :(
Hi Meeses – i really was here yesterday but for some reason not only did I get booted off about mid morning when I was in the Village diary, but the comment i’d already left in here disappeared, too. Basic weird. like our weather that’s acting very early October instead of end of August. i’m going to have to dig out my long-sleeved shirts this weekend. It’s still too warm for my sweaters but it’s way to chilly to be comfortable in short sleeves. High 50s when I got up, into the 60s now and heading for low 80s. Got 16.5KWHs yesterday and 18.7 the day before. m-t-d right now is 397.7 so we’ll get over 400 for the month but not by much. I’m still generating more than i’m using so that’s good.
The R elected officials seem to go out of their way to show how evil they are while the ordinary don’t pay attention to politics Rs are down in the Gulf area saving lives – of all races. I have to remind myself of that. They vote R because they are racist a$$holes – but they’re rescuing people of color from the flood. Not saying that makes them friends or even allies except in extreme “clear and present danger” emergencies – just saying i don’t feel quite so p.o.’d that to save ourselves we have to save them, too. :) – but now we have to hope they remember about “all together” when the funding for clean up and rebuilding comes up.
Finally heard back from my Fort Worth sister whose daughter lives in NOLA and step-sons live in Sugarland. Everybody’s OK – some time without power but no flooding (as in nothing more than a few inches in the streets, not even in the yards much less the houses). She has a couple of friends from Houston staying with her – they got out when they saw it coming so not exactly an evacuee situation but not exactly not either. Still haven’t heard from my cousins in the Tomball area. Other Houston cousin, according to my sister, was marooned in her apartment but she’s on an upper floor so OK.
My fundraisers are being slower than usual which is probably due to Harvey. I don’t begrudge my home town one cent – she’ll need every penny to clean up the mess and get people’s lives back on track – but 1% of what DK raised in 48 hours would not only clear my urgent list, it would help if not clear the rest of my list so I wouldn’t have an urgent list and could concentrate on the “important but not urgent” issues. So yeah, please give to “Harvey Relief” – but maybe think “I’ll send a sawbuck or two to a kossack in need while i’m at it”. Oh well. (And we won’t go into my immediate but immediately suppressed reaction to the “if we had SP they wouldn’t need…” spewers – maybe they would and maybe they wouldn’t but we don’t have SP so step up or shut up.)
Need to get to work. Hope this comment doesn’t disappear later in the day. Bright the day, meeses. {{{HUGS}}}
Good morning, 63 and cloudy in Bellingham. I’m relieved to see the air is less smokey today. Just a quick “hi” because I’ve got someone coming to give me an estimate for cleaning the roof and gutters this morning. The work part is straightforward, but planning how to keep the water involved from overwhelming the old perimeter drain system and coming into the basement will take some thought.
Hope it’s a good day for all.
TGIF Meeses – it is only 49 degrees here in Saugerties!
Barely awake – have class today
Surfing twitter – catching up on articles I missed
Need coffee
The lynching comment was not even the worst one of the bunch! Making someone “go missing” I suspect was a good Jim Crow tactic as well. They really don’t even care how it looks and the fauxpologies are getting more and more ridiculous. The latest genre of “think piece”, Republicans claiming that these people don’t reflect Republicanism, are getting on my last nerve. This is EXACTLY Republicanism and has been since 1968. You can’t use racism and othering to win elections and then claim some sort of place above the fray but insist you should still be in power. You want to put actions to those words? Quit the Republican Party and make common cause with the Democrats to help us get our country back. Until them, STHU.
Good morning, meese! Friday …
It is 48 degrees in Madison with an expected daytime high of 68. Sunny skies are in the forecast. Yesterday the forecast called for “sunny skies” also but we had a smokey haze most of the day from the Canadian wildfires. It smelled like – a forest fire! That was the first time my weather widget said “Smoke” as the weather condition..
I am just sick about the DACA thing and that nothing can be done in the courts to protect them. The decision has to be made by September 5th because of the lawsuit the red state governors filed. People expect a 5pm holiday weekend Friday announcement because that is how it is done now. The selfish people who voted for purity will have to live with the fact that 800,000 people’s lives will be directly ruined and millions more irreparably damaged due to their action – or inaction. There is a move afoot in Congress to pass a law (the BRIDGE Act) protecting them and apparently it has bipartisan support. The only question is if the shitgibbon would sign it because it surely won’t pass with a veto-proof majority. He is getting a lot of heat from his base who are getting egged on by right-wing radio haters. It is beyond cruel that tRump’s hand is being forced by Texas AG Ken Paxton, who refuses to delay his lawsuit, while his state is in the middle of recovery from a natural disaster. Let’s add deportation anxiety to drowning and “how the hell am I going to get my life back” anxiety.
See all y’all later!
Richard Painter makes a point that should appeal to Repubs:
Had an accident on the way in to work. I’m fine. Guy decided to turn into a 7-11 from the left lane. Luckily it was a company truck so they should be covering everything. My poor car, though. Just got off the phone with insurance. Sigh.
Rotten luck, anotherdemocrat!
Hope everything will be repaired sooner rather than later…
Oh dear! Glad you are okay – and hope the $$$ to repair car comes quickly
{{{anotherdemocrat}}} – Healing Energy – and holding the Good Thought about the insurance/getting your car fixed. Do kindly keep any eye on yourself though – adrenaline jolts can hide soft-tissue injuries for hours. moar Healing Energy.
So sorry anotherdem. I hope you are still feeling ok, and that the hassles of repairing your car are easy to maneuver
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Good gray Friday morning, Meese. It’s 61 F. in NoVa, going up to 71 F. later because a cold front moved through last night. Tomorrow the high will be 65 F.! Very likely it will be cooler at the beach, and it’s supposed to rain in Delmarva anyway, tomorrow.
Not being a swimmer, I want to go to the beach just to get away from it all for a few days. Yesterday I was devoured by insects as I stood on a playing field watching the younger of my charges learn how to play soccer.
Dearly Beloved is still moving slowly, still finds it painful to walk, and is still using his cane. He can sit on the balcony and look at the sea, at least.
For the last few days, since the Apple Tree Accident, we haven’t had the TV on in the mornings. This adds very greatly to one’s peace of mind. The news on line is bad enough: DACA, Houston, forest fires, North Korea.
BTW, the Moose has been very skittish this week! I’m having to sign in every time so I can fierce and comment.
Wishing all a good weekend.
Upper 50s this morning – still 59 – with an expected high of 81 and sunny with a bit of haze at the moment. Still early so still generating in watts rather than kilowatts, but generating. Finished off August with 415 KWHs with a year-to-date of right at 3 megawatts. That’s good because that’s about what i use in a year so anything forward should be sent out into the world to do good work – but i seriously doubt I will reach the 4 megawatts generated in 2015 and 2016.
The political news is awful and will be until we manage to get Congress back. Even then we’ll have to work hard to both keep it and get the White House back. But once we have Congress there will be visible progress. Harvey is almost gone – rain in TN and neighboring states – the energy and drive that those emergency adrenaline jolts give us is dropping back. Most of the volunteers who came in to rescue folks from high water are leaving if they haven’t left already. And Houston and the rest of the Gulf Coast are in an ungodly mess that will take lots of time, energy, and money to deal with. meanwhile I’ve got 2 on my urgent needs list whose rent is due right now and a third with association fees due right now. And 3 of the 5 on my list also need to pay auto insurance right now. So I’d appreciate folks focusing on a Flow of Good to those in need.
Gotta get back to work. Will visit Villages next break I get. Bright the day, Meeses. {{{HUGS}}}
Good morning, 60 and sunny in Bellingham. Seeing the blue sky outside my window makes me want to work in the garden today instead of going to the pool. I’ve got a few minutes to decide what to do. And yes, I’m very fortunate to have such a dilemma!
Regardless I’ve got to clear my head from tRump anger because I had another sleepless night, worrying about the DACA decision. How I wish I could do more than worry.