Week-long Welcomings from Moosylvania: Dec. 10th through Dec. 16th

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.

 

  • Page One of this week’s comments are HERE
     
  • Page Two of this week’s comments are HERE
     

43 Comments

  1. Good morning meese. 37 with high of 60 and predicted low of 31. Warm front still over CA blocking any and all rain, which could help SoCal a lot with the fires. sigh.

    Some unexpected (very unexpected) good news with community needs, to kind of balance the not so good news from the last few days. Hoping that there are more positive trends.

    Will try to get some more sleep but I might also just go to work early and try to leave early. {{{HUGS}}} to all Meeses.

  2. 26 at dawn, 32 now, and heading for 46. Sunny again which is good for electricity generation. Got 7.1 yesterday and the m-t-d is 72.7 – so far so good. I guess that goes for just about everything right now. We’re at least holding line and we’ve gotten some wins. We’ll keep resisting, blocking, and pushing back everywhere we can. And GOTV like crazy for every election that comes up. Seriously holding the Good Thought for today’s in AL. Winning that one would increase our ability to resist, block, and push back by about 50%.

    Also holding the Good Thought for CA and maybe some rain to help put out the wildfires, for all the hurricane damaged areas especially in the Caribbean as they are getting the least help, and all the folks on or helping with community needs stuff. blessed be.

    Need to get back to work. Got stuff still from yesterday I need to move at least one more step towards being done before I leave for early lunch. A former asst. dean is taking me out today to celebrate my retirement. :) Bright the day, Meeses. {{{HUGS}}}

  3. Good morning, 40 and mostly cloudy in Bellingham. Another December day, another long list. If I don’t get the rest of the ornaments on the tree today I’m going to just put the totes away and try again next year!

    I did finish the quilting yesterday, so today’s task is to make the binding and sew it to the quilt. Note to self……the quilting process should not be done with a deadline looming!

    Time for coffee. Hope it’s a good day for all.

  4. Good morning, meeses! Wednesday …

    It is 21 degrees in Madison with an expected daytime high of 23. The forecast calls for isolated flurries most of the day; it doesn’t appear that there will be any accumulation here (some possible up north).

    I woke up at 1:30am and could not get back to sleep so here I am! It was probably a disturbance in the force from A DEMOCRAT WINNING A STATEWIDE RACE IN ALABAMA! Holey Mackeral!! What this means is that as soon as the race is certified and Doug Jones is sworn in, the Republican Senate majority will be 1+Pence. Instead of having to peel 3 Republicans away to block incompetence and unsuitable judges – and healthcare defunding – we only need two. Two will still be tough to get but it gives us some hope.

    Headlines of “resounding defeat for Trump”, by the way, are probably not going to sit well with the thinskinned tiny-fingered dotard in the Oval Office. After yesterdays tweet, where he called a sitting U.S. Senator a whore, I am not sure what to expect. Dr. Google says that he should drink more diet Coke. Wait, did I misread that? ;)

    I will not read the rest of the news as it will just harsh my buzz. I understand that Minnesota Gov. Dayton will have a press conference at 10am Central to announce his pick for the Franken seat. I hope he chooses well. Dayton is retiring from politics and he has been a steward mainly, most of his governorship has been spent keeping Republicans from destroying his state. His Senate choice will likely be his only legacy. I personally hope he picks someone who will run in 2018 as an incumbent, not a placeholder. We are already defending 25 seats – it would be nice to not have to worry as much about a seat that was on even on the list.

    See all y’all later!

    • To me that photo of the girls killed by the KKK in Alabama is the iconic symbol of this election. Moore’s loss to the man who prosecuted those killers, and whose win was fueled by black voters, is sweet revenge.

    • A very, very good rant. Not that it will reach the ones it’s aimed at – but it will reach the oblivious ones who don’t think of it that way (not willfully, just never stopped to think about it – something that only white privilege allows) and also the ones who don’t know what Black Kos is nor that white folk allies are welcome.

      {{{HUGS}}}

  5. Good morning, Moosekind!

    HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! (Didn’t know that Bubbanomics and I are twins, did you?)

    The news came just before bedtime, so for once I had a good night’s sleep.

    Currently it’s as cold and clear as chilled champagne here in NoVa, 20 F. now, on its way to a whopping 35 F. later.

    So nice to have good news for a change, but we have to call, call, call nonstop starting Monday against the tax scam. Of course McTurtle will wait as long as possible to seat Jones. In keeping with #NoMooreEver, the horse said yesterday on Twitter that she hates her current life and wants to switch to Doug Jones.

    Jan, please try to get a nap sometime today! Otherwise you are going to feel terrible.

    With a 20,715-vote margin there can’t be a recount, can there? Going to read Dee’s post now—calloo, callay, O frabjous, fabulous day!

    • Actually, Mitch McConnell does not get a say in when Doug Jones is seated. As soon as Alabama finishes the canvass and certifies the election (probably around December 27 or so), he will be sworn in. Luther Strange may very well get a chance to vote on the tax scam although in 2010, Senate Democrats agreed to delay some important votes until newly elected Senator Scott Brown was sworn in. We should not expect the courtesy to be extended because courtesy is for chumps in the Republican Senate.

      I think I will be able to get a nap but it depends on my clients not needing me for anything. I am monitoring an issue at one client’s site right now so fingers crossed!

  6. Ugh. I’m delighted about Alabama, but I feel terrible. I got close to zero sleep last night. No idea why, just tossing & turning all night. Nothing would slow down the way it’s supposed to at night, to let me sleep. I called in sick to work. More afraid of the drive home than anything — when I drive in, there’s no traffic, and I can do most of my work in my sleep after nearly 20 years. But driving home in traffic? No. Anyway, sitting & watching the news. I’ve become quite a fan of Stephanie Ruhle. Got flow-y, magically gorgeous Book Of Your Heart playing in my head.

  7. System logged me out between my last posted comment and finishing this one. fortunately I remembered to copy it before I tried to post it. 40 around dawn heading up to 60 or so, be back to mid 40s tomorrow, slightly cloudy and mostly sunny again today. Got 7.3 KWHs yesterday and the m-t-d is 80 and climbing. Ordinary day good news.

    Serious W00T! W00T! W00Tity W00T!!! for Jones winning AL. Very much thanks to the AAs who turned out to stop a racist, misogynist, homophobic, xenophobic, pedophile from going to the Senate – and to send instead the Clinton appointee who prosecuted the bastids who bombed the church. The folks who really are the base and foundation of the Dem Party – because they know what really is important and really know that rights – equal, civil, voting, health, criminal justice system, life-impacting rights – will bring economic progress with them but economic progress of the already privileged will not bring those life-impacting rights. I’m very grateful to them and very grateful to be allowed to call myself a friend.

    Worried about my younger son – he called last night – running a fever he can kind of control with Ibuprofen and tepid showers but can’t seem to shake. If it’s not gone by Friday they won’t be coming up for the family party. His insurance at his current job (thankfully soon to be over job – he starts a new one in January) sux. He hasn’t met the deductible even yet and so he’s trying not to go to the doctor. I of course told him to take care of himself and if that means not coming up, then it means not coming up. (And my standard vitamin C and garlic soup for enhancing his immune system.) Worried about Aji – blast Amazon for losing her CPAP – they shouldn’t be selling medical equipment if they aren’t going to get it to the folks who need it when they need it. Sending Healing Energy to everybody everywhere.

    Another of those days when I started my check-in comment at least an hour prior to finishing it. sigh. Gotta get back to work. Seriously want this desk cleared before I leave next Thursday. Cleared and cleaned for my friend who will be taking it on Tuesday January 2nd. Bright the day, Meeses. {{{HUGS}}}

  8. Good morning, 38 and mostly sunny in Bellingham. Must have been a disturbance in the force at work last night because I was in and out of sleep too. Maybe, just maybe, our country is finally waking up from a long winter’s nap!

    If all goes well I’ll finish the binding on my quilt project today and have the pillow shams cut and ready to sew. I’ve learned more than I knew I needed to re quilting and I have several more projects in mind, but no more quilting for deadlines….too much pressure! Brings back my sewing for hire days.

    Take care everyone.

  9. Good afternoon, MeeseFolk. I managed to keep myself busy with laundry last night, so I wasn’t obsessively checking for updates on the AL race. By the time I finished at 11, the win was announced, and I was able to get a relatively decent night’s sleep.

    This is our current weather warning:

    WINTER STORM WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL MIDNIGHT EST TONIGHT…
    * WHAT…Heavy snow. Plan on difficult travel conditions,
    including during the evening commute. Widespread snowfall
    accumulation of 5 to 7 inches with a band of 6 to 9 inches
    possible. Snowfall rates will exceed 1 inch per hour between 3pm
    and 7pm and will occasionally reach 2 inches per hour.

    I’ll be spending my evening after work shoveling snow. It’s coming down heavily right now, so from the looks of things, we’re going to be closer to the 9″ than the 5″. It’s so pretty, and tonight there will be that snow silence that’s so soothing. Between that and the workout I’ll be getting (never buy a house on a corner lot!), I should get another restful night of sleep.

    • {{{DoReMI}}} – a restful night’s sleep is good. Be careful shoveling the snow. moar {{{HUGS}}} and Healing Energy as needed.

    • I hope you survived shoveling! I once had a house on a corner lot (it wasn’t a corner when I bought it but they added a street later) but thankfully we did not have sidewalks. I see my next door neighbor who is on a corner spend a lot of time moving snow. Do you have a snow thrower for the big snows? I once had a circle drive which is very elegant but when it snowed it was like doing three driveways. I broke down and got a snow thrower that year and was glad of that when we had a New Years Day snowstorm that dumped 18 inches of snow. It still took the better part of two days to clear.

  10. Good morning, meese! Thursday …

    It is 10 degrees in Madison with an expected daytime high of 25. Sunny skies are in the forecast with clouds and a chance of flurries in the evening.

    Gosh, is it dark at night these days! At 7pm it feels as though surely it is 10 o’clock. In one week, the light begins to come back although we won’t see a whole lot of change until Imbolc. I hear the owls mating calls in the early morning hours so the cycle of the earth is still something we can rely on.

    I listened to MN Gov. Mark Dayton’s presser introducing Tina Smith as the next Senator from Minnesota, expected to be seated in January. She is smart and fierce and, most importantly, she will be running for the seat in 2018. Gov. Dayton said he had spoken to Chuck Schumer who asked that he appoint someone willing to finish Al Franken’s term rather than a placeholder and he said that is what changed his mind. He felt that having someone who was running for re-election would make her more accountable to her constituents. Good point! Anyway, if she does a good job, she should have no problem winning that seat next November. The big IF is if she is primaried by a purista. I would hope that she would not be but Minnesota politics is funny. Democratic infighting handed the governorship to Jesse Ventura in 1998. I am not sure if the dynamic is still there but it is worth noting.

    I just read a depressing article about why the budget Continuing Resolution passed last week and why Democrats will not be able to force a DACA fix into the government funding bill. Apparently, the House Freedom Cacas decided that they had more leverage for their priorities if they voted with Republican leadership than if they let Democrats be the deciding votes. Senate Democrats could have blocked it but then the blame for the shutdown would be on them. Since the bills have to start in the House, our leverage is gone unless they can get an agreement there which seems unlikely. So 800,000 young people – most of whom never knew any other country – will likely be deported. And I don’t doubt for one minute that DHS will prioritize their removal because this is an administration that gets its jollies from watching human anguish. JHC, I will never EVER forgive the people who voted third party out of purity or who stayed home and let this happen.

    See all y’all later!

  11. Good Thursday Morning Meese

    Tis very cold here in the NY mountains – 21 degrees but feels colder.

    Have not finished my Sunday writing chores yet – got derailed by yesterday’s rant – which, much to my surprise – got moved to the front page. The good news is that it garnered new members, readers for Black Kos – I was in despair because after all the work dopper puts into preparing the Year in Review – it had only gotten 34 recs

    As a result of the links and mention – it got dragged out of obscurity onto the rec list and wound up with 170 and a slew of new members. Lots of people weren’t even aware we exist over at DKos.

    • Excellent news on Black Kos exposure! Now that Twitter is available as a way to promote blog posts – with links to a specific post – it is a great way to get the word out. It is probably not a real shock that no one would expect DK to have a lot of black writers (it has a very bro-ish reputation). Do you guys have a Twitter handle just for BKos? If not, you should set one up so that people don’t have to follow DK to get to your posts.

    • {{{Denise}}} – glad your rant yesterday got some eyes on Black Kos. A large number of the newer folks don’t/didn’t even know it exists and the one who had noticed the community didn’t think of checking it out because they aren’t black. sigh. You did good. Stay warm and moar {{{HUGS}}}

  12. Good morning, Meese. It’s clearing here in NoVa, with gray clouds scuttling away. Some of them are now tinged with rosy-gold. Current temp. is 31 F., going up to 40 F. Today will be even busier than usual, drat it! So looking forward to a quiet Friday-plus-weekend.

    Today is the sad anniversary of the Slaughter of Innocents. What can one say, except that this country is insane? The NRA reminds me of Baal-Moloch, to whom the Phoenicians sacrificed their children.

    Still waiting to see the results of the recount in four Virginia House races. It would be nice if the Dems picked up at least one more seat.

    After breakfast I have to make half an apple pie, put the pot roast and vegetables in the slow cooker, and go to the gym. This afternoon I have child-tending jobs from 2 p.m. until 6 or 6:30 p.m. Meanwhile, here at Barky Manor, Grandpa will be minding Miss Pink Cheeks and Mr. Preschooler. They’ll be here until 7:30 p.m., so I’ll feed them dinner as well.

    Wishing a good day for all at the Pond and Beyond.

    • Do the recounts in the House races include the two districts where people were given ballots for the wrong district? The last I had read was that they might have to redo the elections there but that the Republicans didn’t want to (their guys won in both districts).

      We have such a stupid way of doing elections in our country. I hope that the next time we are in power we do a little swamp draining and get that straightened out.

  13. At work. Never did figure out what was wrong with me yesterday. Just stared at the TV the whole day, barely moved. Drama at the White House….. wonder if she’ll violate her nondisclosure agreement. Still loving all the new U2 music, this one is Lights of Home. Not talking about his house. He had a “serious health issue” this time last year.

  14. At work. Never did figure out what was wrong with me yesterday. Just stared at the TV the whole day, barely moved. Drama at the White House….. wonder if she’ll violate her nondisclosure agreement. (apparently she’s going to be on GMA this morning) Still loving all the new U2 music, this one is Lights of Home. Not talking about his house. He had a “serious health issue” this time last year. None of them will talk about it, but the opening line of this song is “I shouldn’t be here because I should be dead”.

    We’re supposed to get rain on Saturday. Hope that means that California will get it first.

  15. ok, this is weird, I’ve posted my check-in comment twice, and it’s not here…..

    • So I’m pasting it here

      At work. Never did figure out what was wrong with me yesterday. Just stared at the TV the whole day, barely moved. Drama at the White House….. wonder if she’ll violate her nondisclosure agreement. Still loving all the new U2 music, this one is Lights of Home. Not talking about his house. He had a “serious health issue” this time last year. Opening line of this is: “I shouldn’t be here because I should be dead. I can see the lights in front of me”

      We’re supposed to get rain on Saturday. Hope that means that California will get it first. Please let those fires go out.

      • maybe it’s the link? pasting it without – if you want to hear the song, go to youtube & search for Lights Of Home U2

        At work. Never did figure out what was wrong with me yesterday. Just stared at the TV the whole day, barely moved. Drama at the White House….. wonder if she’ll violate her nondisclosure agreement. Still loving all the new U2 music, this one is Lights of Home. Not talking about his house. He had a “serious health issue” this time last year. Opening line is “I shouldn’t be here because I should be dead. I can see the lights in front of me”

        We’re supposed to get rain on Saturday. Hope that means that California will get it first.

        • That’s weird – usually when it is because of the links, there is a comment held for moderation. Nothing there!

          • I found them all in “SPAM” which should not occur for Moose users, especially users who are also authors. I wonder if YouTube links are getting extra scrutiny because of the stuff going on there.

            Anyway, I released them from SPAM then approved them so now we have a complete online record of your attempts to share! :)

            By the way, the spam folder was very “interesting”. Lots of Russian bots, a whole bunch of posts about cat urine problems, the usual “your web site is very nice, please visit mine” bots, and lots of offers to make our web site more popular. No thanks! We are popular enough.

  16. 30 sometime just after midnight and slowly (33 at the moment) creeping its way towards 45. Overcast – not enough to shut down electricity production but enough to slow it down. Not sure how much of the slow is due to clouds and how much is angle of the sun at this point. Only got 6.2 KWHs yesterday and the m-t-d is 86.3 – still on track for 200 but we’ll have to get back above 7/day to do it.

    Still riding the high, well actually more of a warm glow, of the AL election and that is good news about Tina Smith. I wish Conyers had had enough sense to retire contingent on his replacement. Expect the Evil Ones to do evil. Do not do anything that gives them an opening to do more evil than they already are. Even if you are a slimeball in your personal life, put the good of the country first and make sure your seat will be filled and with a Dem. Lives depend on it. That is a fact that every Dem in office needs to keep in mind. Lives depend on them being there and working to block the Rs evil. Lives depend on all of us resisting, blocking, and pushing back the Rs evil. But the AL election reminds us of how to do it – precinct-level organizing starting early enough so the voters feel like they’re important and not just being used. The old Dem party machine without the graft. We can do this.

    Gotta get to work. Still trying to get everything cleared for my friend and successor by next Thursday which will be my last day. Bright the day, Meeses. {{{HUGS}}}

  17. Good morning Meeses. 37 with projected high of 60. I literally just woke up but did not get very much sleep. At least I can breathe a bit easier now.

    • {{{basket}}} – breathing is good. So is sleep but you do what you can with what you got. Purr therapy helps. moar {{{HUGS}}} and Healing Energy

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