Week-long Welcomings from Moosylvania: Oct. 22nd through Oct. 28th

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.


Older Comments
Page One of Comments is here

47 Comments

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

    Morning low of 66 degrees in Madison WI with an expected daytime high of 57. Rain is in the forecast.

    Have a great day, all y’alls!!

  2. Good Sunday Morning Meese
    41 here in Saugerties NY – going up to 74

    Watched the former Presidents do their fundraiser last night – then went to bed.
    Getting coffee and some oatmeal and preparing to do comments duty for my Sunday morning piece.
    Yes – it is about Puerto Rico again :)

    Why is this community still cut off?

  3. Slept in, we had rain this morning — very nice, free water for my basil. Gone in time for the Formula 1 races this afternoon, so good for Poli & Mr. P. Today: make oatmeal, and tea for next week, thaw out lunch & parcel it out. Right now — breakfast, tea & waiting for Joy Reid — she is interviewing Nancy Pelosi, that should be cool! Playing dreamy, drifty Rise Up in my head.

  4. 54 as the sky lightened up a bit – been raining since about 1:30 am. (yes, I was awake to hear it. why do you ask? LOL) It’s still very overcast and I’m not sure it’s done for the day. PV system is awake but it’s generating in watts not kilowatts right now. The m-t-d is 187. I’ve got a fire going but I may let it die out – I’ve also got the oven going – cocoa peanut butter muffins and cinnamon walnut oatmeal cookies.- and it’s getting a bit warm in here.

    Just taking a coffee break before I finish my housework and cooking for the week. Haven’t looked at anything political. I did watch a chunk of the One America benefit last night although they didn’t have much in the way of my style of music and there were an unfortunate number of really sleazy Rs being recognized. It was kind of a tribute to Daddy Bush as well. And to a certain extent it should be. While he does believe the R line about how charity should be doing the safety net stuff rather than the government, he put his money where his mouth is and created the Points of Light Foundation to actually carry some of that load. (But it was really nice to see the cheers our Dems presidents got in that TX A&M setting.) And they gave a shout-out to Jimmy Carter and Habitat for Humanity, too. Goddess knows that group is needed big time to help rebuild what those hurricanes destroyed. Just don’t know how active (or supplied) HFH is in the Caribbean. I hope if it’s not very active, it gets active. ShelterBox is wonderful and does life-saving work – but tent cities in hurricane alley are no way a permanent solution even if some folks in TX (whose asses were pulled off roofs by the Puerto Rican deep water search and rescue team) think that’s the way “those people” normally live anyway. sigh.

    OK – coffee break over. I need to get stuff wrapped up – blessings on a group of the Village folks who sent me a camera for my birthday. I’m going over to my elder son’s house this afternoon and plan to show it off. :) Bright the day, Meeses. {{{HUGS}}}

  5. Good morning, 51 and partly sunny in Bellingham. RonK finally arrived home last night but it was a long travel day. He was delayed in Seattle for 4 hours due to various plane malfunctions and it was pouring rain so it was a nervous wait for both of us.

    Best Sunday wishes to all.

  6. Monday morning Meese
    52 going up to 70 here in the NY Catskills.

    On my second cup of coffee – scanning news for Puerto Rico stories and tweeting them out.

  7. Good morning, meese! Monday …

    It is 43 degrees in Madison with an expected daytime high of 59. Partly sunny skies this morning will give way to light rain this afternoon and into the evening. Snow in the forecast for Wednesday! Yikes!!

    With all the negative right-wing attention being paid to black women’s hats over the past few days, I was thinking about Aretha Franklin’s hat at Barack Obama’s inauguration.

    They can try their damndest to erase the legacy of President Obama but they will never erase the feeling that most of us had that day and the pride we felt that Our Country had elected him. The feelings are still there for a majority of Americans, we just need to educate young people about how the two party system works (ya gotta pick one) and win the battle over protecting the franchise. I want to see more hats like that at the next presidential inauguration.

    See all y’all later!

  8. Good morning, Moosekind! Too dark to see what kind of day it’ll be at a few minutes past 7 a.m. The weather gadget on my Mac says it’s 56 F. now, going up to 74 F. today. Sigh. This too-warm October weather is getting me down.

    We had a fabulous anniversary party weekend! It was wonderful to see how the two local children and their spouses (spice?) worked with their local cousin, my nephew and his wife, and m’daughter-from-Austin, who flew up to celebrate the occasion. Younger Son, who rarely gets a chance to show off the skills he acquired at culinary college, produced a five-course meal. There were golden “50th anniversary” balloons, flower arrangements by my DIL (who used to run a flower business as a sideline before she became a mother), and four happily shrieking children playing downstairs.

    When I got on the scales yesterday morning after that gourmet dinner the night before I almost fainted, but the extra weight is gone this morning.

    Today will be busy: defrosting and cleaning the freezer, baking an old English pear pie, making chicken and vegetable soup in the crockpot so it’ll be ready when I come home from my child-tending job this afternoon. The publisher sent the cover proof and page proofs: haven’t even looked at the latter because my iPad is dying, so I have an appointment with the Apple people at noon. Almost had a heart attack when I saw the cover proof. It’s great, but they used the photo I bought from Canstock.com for the cover image. Thinking it might be a violation of the licensing agreement, Daughter and I searched frantically through the language on the Canstock site. It seems to be okay, although if my book sells more than 500,000 copies I have to pay Canstock some more money. No problemo! No book of mine has ever sold that many. :)

    Have taken a news break this weekend, obviously, but I’m still fretting about Puerto Rico and VI. What a villainous so-called government we have!

    Wishing all a good day. Wish I hadn’t heard that HE has put the B-52 bombers on alert. The Russia thing must be closing in…

  9. Woke up at 4 for nor reason, made myself stay in bed till nearly 5, gave up. (did the same Friday) Ugh. Chilly enough for shoes & a sweater — and it may actually be “fall-like” by the end of the week. Must dig out long sleeve shirts from the back of the closet. Head is playing Little Things, that bit at the end just gives me goosebumps.

  10. Depending on the weather widget I looked at it was either 41 or 39 just after dawn of this so-far sunny day. It did clear off yesterday afternoon and I got 5.7 KWHs – m-t-d with this morning’s driblet is 192.8 – should crest 200 today but there’s not enough month left to reach 300.

    Too many people on the community funds list for my peace of mind but I will persist. I haven’t had peace of mind as far as the political situation is concerned for years. What we have now is something I saw the potential of 40 years ago. Every Dem president and Congress has pushed it down the road, every R president and Congress has brought it nearer. I will persist in blocking what I can, enduring what I have to, making things better for whoever I can wherever I can whenever I can. As my parents and grandparents did in WWII, I will do my duty. And be thankful for every win.

    Busy at work, busy at DK (my community fundraiser stuff is almost a 2nd job already – I have no idea how people who do real fundraising manage) – need to get back to it. Bright the day, Meeses. {{{HUGS}}}

  11. Good morning, 46 and partly cloudy in Bellingham. The pool is closed thanks to a broken heater so my dilemma of how far to push my dizzy stability is resolved. Looks like I can find another cup of coffee and read for a bit without feeling guilty.

    I’ve washed the Dr. Who prints and and hope to go to a the quilt shop this afternoon for the rest of the fabric so I can start cutting the squares. It feels good to have a creative process happening in spite of my tRump angst.

    Best wishes to all for a pleasant Monday.

    • Wait – “Dr. Who prints”??? I haven’t been reading your posts closely enough. Going back to find out more about this project…

      • My grand daughter has become a committed Dr Who fan so I’m making her a quilt for her 11th birthday, which is also Christmas Eve. Celebrating both together overwhelms her with “stuff” so I try to do something personal. I’ve got 6 printed fabrics to cut images from, the Exploding Tardis print will be some of the banding, and I want to find a flannel for the backing so she’ll feel cozy while watching the shows. I’m not really a quilter so I have to keep the actual cutting and sewing simple, but I try to combine the fabrics in a more complicated way.

        So I’ve got some creative fun happening, and as a bonus I’m learning about Dr. Who.

        • I have been a Dr Who fan since I was her age. (back when it was a low-budget goofy show – you had to seriously suspend disbelief because of the cardboard scenery)

  12. Good morning, meeses! Tuesday …

    It is 46 degrees in Madison and 46 is also the expected daytime high. Tomorrow the high will be 48 and the overnight low could dip below freezing for the first time this fall. Right now it is raining and tomorrow’s precipitation may be snow! I guess this winter thing is about to happen.

    So the anti-bullying initiative by the bully-in-chief’s wife and the bullier-of-disabled-children, Betsy DeVos, has been rolled out. Irony is dead.

    On day 9 of the shitgibbon’s – and his political party’s – attacks on Myeshia Johnson, it is so obvious that they are racially motivated that the denials are risible. That any person of color would want to serve a country so disrespectful to them, a country that allows white supremacists and literally the most hateful people in the world to run the government, should give pause to anyone who is considering military or government service. And that the Republican Party sits by and lets this happen is more embarrassing than a narcissistic dotard’s bleatings:


    I hope this motivates every decent person to get out and vote next year. And JHC! Democrats and their newly funded organizations need to look at what happened in Wisconsin and find a way to get voter ids to everyone who wants to vote. Pissing it away on throwaway Internet ads is foolish – put some muscle into the effort to enable voters to vote!

    See all y’all later!

  13. Another chilly morning — but tomorrow will actually be cold — in the 40s! Tea, oatmeal. I brought my AIDS Walk shirt, thinking I’d do another lip synch video to the new U2 song — there’s a rumor of one this week, and it’s Tuesday which is new book/music day, but alas. If there’s not a new song, I’ll do a video tomorrow to an existing one. One of the fan pages on FB pointed out that today is the 37th “birthday” of I Will Follow, the U2 song that made me a fan. I was in a tape shop in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia when I heard it coming from the store across the street. I’ve always sworn the notes wrapped themselves around my spine & pulled me over to them.

  14. Good morning, Meese. Currently it’s 59 F. here in NoVa, going up to 73 F. We had a little shower last night, but nothing like the thunder, heavy rain, and strong winds predicted in the weather forecast. How do these people get it so spectacularly wrong all the time? The streets are already drying, the sky already clearing, and we’re four inches under for the year so far.

    Feeling weary from the Occupant’s hijinks and the activities of the weekend and yesterday. Today priority will be given to finally looking over the page proofs of my book. As it’s a political satire, it couldn’t be more timely.

    Got a decent night’s sleep for once, so will devote the day to weight training and exercise in addition to checking page proofs. Wishing everyone a good day!

  15. Was somewhere around 40 when I got up, 53 now, and heading for 57. Sunny but windy so it’s not going to feel warm even if you count 57 as warm (which I don’t). Got just over 10 KWHs yesterday and hope to do the same today. The m-t-d is 202.9 – might but unlikely get up to 275 for the month. Winter’s moving in later this week – the highs in the 40s, lows below freezing sort of weather I will be so happy not to have to go out in starting in January. :)

    the political news sux I’ve no doubt. I’m not looking. Not sure what’s happening with my community needs folks as the urgent ones are all getting funding via PayPal and haven’t given me an update. Unfortunately that’s probably because nobody’s given anything in the last 48 hours. sigh. I do have a retired techie Kossack in VA who’s asked me for help in getting him old cases and motherboards so he can rebuilt “rigs” for our kos katalogue vendors who are working off old and iffy computers. All I have to do is find people who have old stuff lying around they’d like to see repurposed. ;0

    I’ve been interrupted so many times since I started this comment I’m not sure the temp at the top is correct anymore. LOL. So I’d best finish up and get back to work. Bright the day, Meeses. {{{HUGS}}}

  16. Good morning, 49 and partly sunny in Bellingham. Another slow and sleepy morning for me, but apparently that’s what I need to do.

    I’m avoiding the news today…..makes my dizzy head spin and I want that to be over!

  17. Good morning, meese! Wednesday …

    It is 37 degrees in Madison with an expected daytime high of 48. Mostly cloudy skies are in the forecast.

    In the dead of the night, Republicans voted to deny legal protections to consumers defrauded by financial institutions. I must say, the Republican donor class is getting their money’s worth out of the millions they spent to buy Congress and the presidency. “Principled” Republicans Flake and Corker voted with the herd, in case you wondered.

    The bored DC press has finally found a story they can get their teeth into: a political campaign paid for opposition research last year!! Wut!!? FRONT PAGE HEADLINES. While Puerto Ricans have no water or power, 150 people a day die from the opioid crisis, 9 million children have been kicked off health care, 800,000 young people are about to be deported to countries they have never really lived in, the citizenry is arming itself with automatic weapons – all while Congress finds new ways to crush the spirits of ordinary Americans – we are going to get another year of Hillary email stories. I give up.

    See all y’all later!

    • Since I have zero hopes of Congress doing anything to benefit me and mine – I guess I’ll just stand on the sidelines and watch the assholes who voted for them suffer. And they will.

      Black folks are used to being on the bottom of the barrel – we will survive no matter what is thrown our way.

      • I don’t give up on change through political activism, I give up on expecting the media to cut through the bullshit.

        And I am going to start pushing all these Democratic Party organizations that keep asking me for money to start spending their money on people.

        Is there any reason that we can’t have law firms like the right-wing has, the ones who just won big cases for the god people? Why not firms dedicated to protecting consumers? If we can’t have class-action, why not have a law firm file 100, 200, 300 cases on behalf of individuals against the worst of the big banks? Why not put that political money into a fund to help women who can’t get abortions in their home state to get to states where they can get same-day abortions? Why not put that money towards getting ids for registered voters instead of tilting at windmills in the courts and buying air fare and hotel rooms for people flying around TALKING ABOUT voting rights? Push the alligators away and then drain the swamp. Our political class’ priorities are garbage right now and people are suffering.

        • I gave up on the media doing real reporting over 20 years ago when I attended a Molly Ivins lecture. She explained how the telecom restructuring bill Jimmy Carter signed had led to consolidation of the media ownership to the extent that 5 corporations owned 90% of the media and influenced the rest. So does it surprise me when NPR is fox-lite? no. appalls me. but doesn’t surprise me. And this will not change until we find a legal/legislative way to break up that media consortium.

          And of course the resistance to the very idea that our media is controlled in a country that prides itself on a free press is part of the problem. The thought that somehow having lebenty-billion channels and stations to choose from means there’s no problem is another part of the problem. But a big part of the problem is that in trying to take down the purveyors of propaganda you have to do it fast and pretty much secretly as undemocratic as that sounds or the propaganda machine will stop you.

      • Exactly! Jeff Flake and Bob Corker and John McCain voted a combined 150+ times to take health care coverage away from millions of Americans including children and the elderly. They are reliable votes for repealing every good government initiative ever put in place; they voted for Betsy DeVos and Scott Pruitt and Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III, for crying out loud!

        There. Are. No. Decent. Republicans.

        • Right. And I do not admire potential election losers Corky and Flaky for “speakin’ out.” The rest of us knew years ago about the vileness of Thing!

      • this:

  18. Wednesday Meese
    56 going up to 66 here in Saugerties NY.

    Was up early – doing required midterm evaluations for students – which are pointless – 100 students in an auditorium who you don’t get to know and can’t write up detailed assessments on. Grrr.
    Trying to find something that will make me smile today.

    • That must be frustrating. Much of the enjoyment from teaching is getting to know students and learning what they are thinking about and what motivates them, not just assigning them a grade. :(

      • It is – I am not going to take a class like this again – it was a last minute “rescue” for me to be able to teach this semester – however this is not teaching.
        I’d rather stay home.

Comments are closed.