Week-long Welcomings from Moosylvania: Mar. 25th through Mar. 31st

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 Comments is HERE!
 

  • Page Two of Comments is HERE!
     


 

42 Comments

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

    Morning low of 23 degrees in Madison WI with an expected daytime high of 45. Mostly sunny skies are in the forecast.

    Have a great day, all y’alls!!

  2. Good Sunday Meese

    Sigh – 30 degrees here in Saugerties and it is snowing.

    Spent the day yesterday watching the marches and speeches. Spent the evening talking to Bobby – newpioneer in Puerto Rico – filling him in on news since he has not had internet connection except very briefly

    Love this sign

    and this pic

    My Sunday piece today is – of course – about Puerto Rico – however it is a bit of a rant – I’m soooo tired of inaction and the fact that the situation has been normalized – essentially ignored.

    I’m also getting truly pissed off by all the Bernie surrogates – the latest is Killer Mike and his NRA support.
    Grrrrrrrrr

    • The bernie surrogates continue to be deplorable. Sanders will never recognize it because he is completely tone deaf to anything to do with race or women’s issues or, really, human decency. I hope the kids pay close attention to how he talks about guns (“All people in Vermont are responsible gun owners, the problems are in the INNER CITIES!”) and, more importantly, how he voted on gun control. Bernie Sanders will never call out any of his surrogates because when he does, he will admit that he had control over their behaviour and that he was complicit in electing Donald Trump.

      • Actually I don’t think bernie does have control over his surrogates but it’s immaterial since he agrees with them mostly and won’t give up the adoration over the areas where he might not. His “dog whistles” are as much bullhorns as those coming from the Rs and pretty much always have been. Hillary was really stuck between two sets of Deplorables and unable to call out the berners because they were pretending to be Dems – she was trying to bring the party together and calling out the berners would have split it worse than bernie was already doing. She pulled off the popular vote anyway.

  3. here’s a link to the couple of pictures I took yesterday:
    https://www.dailykos.com/comments/1747863/69673420#comment_69673420

    Wow, yesterday was amazing! It was muggy & warm but still a beautiful day. There were about 20 from my church, marching with our banner. Today: Palm Sunday service at church, finishing making lunch, and I’m sure something else will come up. I posted this yesterday on FB: watching all the speeches by the kids has Love Is Bigger Than Anything In Its Way playing in my head, because a wave is coming — these kids love themselves & each other enough to change the world.

  4. Good morning, 34 and mostly sunny in Bellingham. Watching the march events yesterday was a welcome relief from the tRump reality show our country is currently mired in. It was wonderful to see and hear the values I believe in being so eloquently presented.

    Jennifer Rubin, at the Washington Post……

    They came, they marched, they inspired

    The most powerful moment, however, was unspoken. Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School senior Emma Gonzalez read the names of those killed that day and the things they would never do. She then stood silently at the microphone, letting the seconds tick away and the tears stream down her face. “Since the time that I came out here, it has been six minutes and 20 seconds,” she finally said. “The shooter has ceased shooting and will soon abandon his rifle, blend in with the students as they escape and walk free for an hour before arrest.” She added, “Fight for your lives before it’s someone else’s job!”

    And so we are left with the stark contrast — the sincerity of the students vs. the canned platitudes of the gun absolutists; the speed and vibrancy of a mass movement vs. the gridlock and sameness of our politics; the dogged determination of teenagers not yet world-weary vs. the sense of futility that pervades our politics. The outcome is not preordained. Yes, democracies are under assault. Xenophobes and nativists certainly have come out from under the rocks. The president has tried to make the abnormal commonplace and the unacceptable inevitable. But if nothing else, the marchers reminded us we have a choice. We can be fatalistic and passive, or determined and active. If teenagers can take the capital by storm, surely the rest of us can do something more than complain and yell at the TV.

    • Jennifer Rubin is a strong voice from the #NeverTrump wing of the Republican Party; her only blind spot, like Ana Navarro’s, is the belief that Trump is Trumpism, rather than Republicanism and that he is an aberration rather than the natural progression of the party of Nixon and the Southern Strategy.

      I found Saturday to be very healing! I never watch cable TV because I hate what happened to MSNBC – adding the haters for “fairness and balance” and giving a microphone to an idiot like Chris Matthews. But I wanted to see the rallies so I watched MSNBC until I left for the rally then when we came back we flipped to CNN which had no offensive right-wingers on. More than a few times, tears welled up in my eyes and I was so proud of those kids – kids who are my daughter’s age and suffered so much and still suffer. Sunday I tried to limit my Twitter intake to keep the buzz, retweeting the positive things from the rally and the coverage.

  5. mid 40s right now – might make it to 60, maybe – and quite overcast. Not “night mode” overcast but definitely not the clear blue sky I saw as the sun was edging its way above the mountain/hill to the east of me. Got 16.9 KWHs yesterday and the m-t-d is 342.7 with this morning’s driblet. Still can get to/over 400 if we average about 10 a day.

    Yesterday was a wonder of hope and resolve. Emma Gonzales is a marvel – with a wonderfully internalized “education” of the kinds of training our Civil Rights leaders got. Years ago when it was my “turn” at the prayer and pledge to open a Quorum Court meeting I incorporated a minute of silence – truly a minute, as Emma did I timed it – people on the Court and in the audience were fidgeting at 20 seconds. How Emma managed to hold that group together, mostly silent, for about 5 full minutes I will never know. The young woman makes me think of Joan of Arc. I hope she accomplishes as much without being martyred once she’s accomplished it. As with Hillary, Emma has my support in anything she wants to do. Because I know whatever she wants to do will be right, will be to “make things better” as Bill said about Hillary.

    OK – lemon muffins are made, cooled, and need to be put up. I need to vacuum which I’ve been putting off because I’ve got a sinus headache and don’t need the noise – but I also don’t need to be inhaling cat fluff. Bright the day, Meeses. {{{HUGS}}}

  6. Good morning, meeses! Monday …

    It is 25 degrees in Madison with an expected high of 48. Sunny this morning then clouding up, rain expected this evening.

    Today looks like a great day to ignore the news as I have no interest in reading stories that will evoke images of a naked vulgar talking yam. I was glad to see over the weekend that another endangered Republican from Pennsylvania has decided not to seek re-election. When the maps are fair and reflect the partisan makeup of a state, Republicans don’t like the odds and, regardless, anyone in an R+5 or tighter district will think long and hard about spending time and money on re-election. PLUS guys with A+ NRA ratings have a literal target on them – and a general election challenger. People were talking about Conor Lamb being a DINO and Republican Lite but he cut an ad for improved gun safety measures including background checks. And he won in a Trump+19 district.

    See all y’all later!

  7. Monday Meese
    27 here in NYS – going up to 50
    Spring break is over for me – will spend the day entering midterm grades – back to school tomorrow

    Puerto Rico

  8. Good morning, Moosekind, I’ve missed you all! Sitting here in bed with my laptop, watching the sun rise behind the woods. We have such great views of the woods that we may leave the windows uncovered, even if cold air is coming in. The current temperature in Ashburn is 28 F., going up to 50 F. It will be sunny all day, which makes me wish that bfitz’ solar collectors were having a holiday up here!

    Our place is still an unholy mess. At least Dearly Beloved and Miss Pink Cheeks will be able to sit at the breakfast bar for breakfast now that Dearly has assembled the bar stools we bought at Bed, Bath, and Beyond. We’re awash in paperwork, still waiting for the wretched bank to deposit the proceeds of the sale of our house in our bank account, and yada, yada, yada.

    As it’s spring break this week, Miss PC is spending a few days with us. I can take her swimming at the indoor pool, one or two days. She can also help us unpack. Her mom wants her to do math homework while she’s here and she’s brought a couple of library books.

    Monty Beagle has been spending a lot of time in doggy play care while we run errands, but otherwise is adapting better than I expected to our new place. We finally discovered where the dog park is, although it’s a bit soggy at the moment from melting snow.

    On Saturday, although I would have liked to at least watch the march, we had too many errands to permit that. We recorded the “60 Minutes” interview, which turned out to be less interesting than expected, so yawn, yawn.

    With El Stupido in the White House constantly acting up, I don’t see how PR is ever going to get the help it needs until we have a Dem. Congress. But that’s next year! Thing is the embodiment of entitled white male privilege and selfishness. Tell you what, Meese, the current debacle makes me exceedingly wary of ever voting for a so-called “outsider.” I prefer people who are serious, who pay their dues, and who know how the legislative process works.

    Wishing all a good day at the Pond and beyond!

    • Good morning Diana…….welcome back! Makes my tired head swim to think of all you’ve been doing. It’s good to know you can now focus on getting settled in your new home.

    • {{{Diana}}} – good to see you back and glad you have a lovely view (and lovely weather to go with it). I figured Monty Beagle would settle down quickly. Dogs are pack oriented so as long as his pack is with him he’ll be fine. People not so much. LOL. But you’ll get used to it too – and enjoy all the benefits that were why you moved in the first place. I followed the “scandals” on Bill Clinton because most of them were lies and I wanted to be able to respond/help however I could. I don’t follow twittler’s scandals because they are true. He is an evil man and the only reason I don’t want him gone immediately is that Pence is more evil – and more competent about it. As to outsiders – first see whether or not they really are or just claim to be. (Also depends on what level – outsiders at the local level if elected become our experienced bench for state and fed later on.) moar {{{HUGS}}}

    • Glad to see you check in! I had seen you around Twitter and hoped your absence was simply because you were too busy and not because your Internet was acting up.

      We do indeed need to find “people who are serious, who pay their dues, and who know how the legislative process works.” The emphasis should be on the last one. No one – governor or president – can rule by fiat, there needs to be legislative action or it has to be done within the limits of the statutes and/or the constitution otherwise the courts will intervene. It is really not that difficult to understand and I think that the issue with the Orange Orshole is that it does not suit his management style and he has no interest in complying with those statutes or constitutional requirements.

      I watched some of the Twittering related to the 60 Minutes story last night and the only thing I saw that had some possible bearing on our present mess is someone suggesting that if there is proof of adultery, the pre-nup Trump has with Melania is nullified and a divorce will give her 50% of his wealth. I don’t know if that is true but if it is, it hits him where he cares – in the wallet. He does not care about being embarrassed, his base does not care if he is a literal pig but he does care if Melania gets half his assets – and that a divorce would require him to expose his financial situation to the courts. My hope would be she convinces him to resign for the good of her son and they go back to New York City – or Moscow – and leave us be!

      • I agree there are some issues to be worked out – I think young David tossed out the “invite their opponents” as a response to someone who asked “what if they won’t meet” – so more of a stick to get the reps to meet. And like the marches, the specifics are local so it would be up to the local group of kids & parents doing it as to who they’d invite. Your case is definitely gnarly though. Loud-mouthed misogynist berniers have taken over more than one meeting by being loud-mouthed and belligerent and I can’t think of anyone more likely to pull that than the berniebro hoping to run against Ryan. sigh.

  9. I walked this morning — 1.1 mi. It’s warm & muggy. But I need to get in better shape, or standing all night at the concert will kill me. Eating oatmeal, drinking tea. Thinking about doing an AIDS Ride diary.

  10. Good morning, 43 and raining in Bellingham. It’s my turn to be suffering with the dreadful cold our family is sharing wit each other. Eveyone else has recovered after a few days so I hope I do the same. But this morning I’m a squinty eyed, aching, drippy nose mess :(

    Made the mistake of watching 60 Minutes last night. Abuse of power is always wrong, even between a deplorable man and a porn star. Disgusting!

    I don’t even want coffee this morning, just ice water and cold-be-gone.

    Take care everyone.

    • {{{princesspat}}} – lots of Healing Energy. Hot lemonade or orange juice might help – definitely 500 mg of Vitamin C every couple of hours will as it boosts the immune system. (Nice thing about not having a TV – I’m never tempted to watch it. LOL) moar {{{HUGS}}}

  11. 53 and trying to clear off – not sure how successful it will be considering the forecast but I’m hoping. Only got 6.9 KWHs yesterday, m-t-d is 349.2, so to get to 400 need an average of 9/day for the rest of the week/month. Very possible if the sun shines bright.

    The almost euphoria of the March is wearing off but the solid warm glow that is these young folks still working, still leading – that’s still filling my heart with hope. They’re already working on a nation-wide community meetings with reps (or their opponents if the reps won’t meet) day – I think they’re targeting 4/7 – to be followed by more walkouts on various “anniversaries” – and including voter registration at all the events. They know what it’s going to take to actually make change and they are working on it. They make me proud. As to twitler – yes, he’s dangerous, but he’s not nearly as important as he (and apparently the media including twitter) thinks he is. The blood on his hands come from refusing to do his job – that only gets fixed by replacing him with someone who will. I will keep my focus on progress – eyes on the prize, Team Blue – and ignore the sound and fury that exists mostly to derail me.

    Today’s my elder son’s 47th birthday. I’m taking him to lunch today – he hasn’t decided where yet. So I’d best do my tour of the internets before it’s time to go pick him up. Bright the day, Meeses. {{{HUGS}}}

    • I noticed that the Parkland organizers are working on some town hall actions on 4/7. My only concern about “meetings with reps (or their opponents if the reps won’t meet)” is that many of the opponents are not set yet (our primary is not until August) and they may undo a lot of good if they start picking and choosing who they invite. For example, in Paul Ryan’s district there are at least two Democrats running – one is a big berner whose main goal seems to be turning himself into a national celebrity – the other is a woman who has won local elections and understands door-to-door grassroots. Will they pick the celebrity or invite both? What about districts where Libertarians and Green Party candidates are also planning on running? Anyway, there are some gnarly issues that need to be worked out – it is a great idea and I wish them luck.

  12. Good morning, MooseKind. The morning started with a chilly 28, but we’ll be climbing to 46 today…and 50 tomorrow. I’m starting to think that we’ve turned the corner from the tease of Fake Spring to Real Spring. I sure hope so; I’m starting to feel like turtlenecks under crewneck sweaters has become a uniform.

    I marched in Detroit on Saturday and will be posting about it tomorrow (part travelogue/part account of the march); anyone who went to NN14 (I’m looking at you, Dee) will be very familiar with the area we marched. I’m still very sore from the day; it’s almost as if my body decided I needed a reminder that I’m not getting any younger. But I’ll take a few aches and pains if it helps to advance the conversation and the cause.

  13. Good Tuesday Meese

    27 here in NY – going up to 50. Sigh – spring break is over and off to school I go.

    Spent part of yesterday in a twitter battle – first time for me – heh.

    And now back to my regular Puerto Rico beat

    • I saw you “picking on” the poor uninformed person on Twitter! How would she know that not everyone is madly in love with Bernie Sanders and that being called the “Bernie Sanders of Puerto Rico” might not be considered a compliment?!? They live in a wispy, white cocoon.

      • lol – just logged in from school – and checked twitter – the chastising of the Burned continues :)

    • {{{Denise}}} – I saw and laughed at your twitter fight yesterday simply because you never do it. I RT’d your comments (& Aji’s) in that thread. clueless what’s her face picked the wrong folks to pull that crap on. LOL

      Proud of the teenagers. But not surprised. I used to teach teenagers. They’re a lot more responsible that most folks give them credit for. They just have to see a reason to be responsible. Danger to family and friends? The kids always step up. Always. Which just makes me more proud of them.

      • I grinned when I saw Aji had jumped in – and saw all your retweets and reply’s :)
        Yup – I don’t do that stuff normally but that Nomiki person pissed me off

        • I did, too. That’s the sort of fight Aji can never resist. Righteous wrath, my sister, righteous wrath. :) {{{HUGS}}}

  14. Good morning, meeses! Tuesday …

    It is 43 degrees in Madison with an expected daytime high of 50. Lingering rain in the area and fog will give way to partly cloudy skies. Tomorrow will be sunny and close to 60 – then back into the mid-40s. So far it appears as if March will go out like the lion it came in as, with snow and cold weather.

    The Commerce Department will reinstate the citizenship question on the census. Can people refuse to answer the question? If enough people refused to answer, it would become meaningless. They claim they need it to help them enforce the Voting Rights Act. HAHAHAHAHA!! As if this “administration” cares about the VRA? More likely they want it in order to suppress the counts and keep blue states from expanding their congressional delegations. Bastids.

    Linda Brown, the Brown in Brown v Board of Education died. She was only 76. My daughter, when she saw the news, said “wow, it wasn’t that long ago that segregation was allowed!” Indeed. I hope Brown’s death and coverage of the court case remind young people that a lot of gains were relatively recent and are extremely fragile. We once had a ban on assault weapons; abortion in the first trimester was once an established right. Democracy is not one and done – it is a continuous process.

    See all y’all later!

  15. Good gray Tuesday morning, Meese! Currently it’s 32 F., going up to 44 F. in Ashburn today. Had a rotten night, waking up at 3 a.m. and finally just giving up on getting back to sleep at 5:30 a.m. I’ll pay for it later today, no doubt.

    We’re still in the throes of unpacking, trying to make sure the dog gets taken out regularly and walked once a day, plus the usual chores of life. When we’re all settled I think we’ll like it here.

    Haven’t the energy or time today to spend on the news—need to take Miss Pink Cheeks swimming this morning, then out to lunch. She wants pho at the Vietnamese restaurant up the street.

    Dear Goddess, I hate this laptop keyboard! Can’t wait until I have a desk once more, with the open laptop balanced on its stand and a full-bore wireless keyboard beneath. With the laptop keyboard, pages suddenly shrink and vanish or the font magnifies itself 500 times, or some other stupid thing happens. It’s a pain in the derrière.

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

    • Laptop keyboards definitely make us pine for real ones! I understand the need for compactness – and I suppose one would eventually get used to it – but they slow me down a lot. Worse is the touch-screen “mouse” which never does what I want it to. When I have space, I attach my mouse but when I don’t I have to struggle to select and click.

      Do you think your sleeplessness is from being in a new place, new sounds that must be incorporated into your sleeping brain? I hope you can get a nap if you need one.

      • Hi, Jan, didn’t see this yesterday so I’ll answer now. No, the reason is that when I wake up to go to the bathroom, I can’t get back to sleep again. Once I’m out of bed, that’s it. I put a night light in the bathroom to reduce the need for light, but it didn’t help much. I’ve tried not drinking decaf after dinner but it makes no difference

        The GOOD part is that now I’m retired I can jolly well take a nap after lunch! :)

    • One of the big challenges of BCH is the amount of time I spend with my leg higher than my heart. Having a computer to use has helped keep me sane, but typing with my hands so high is interesting. I use a lap top desk whenever I can because the heat of the computer hurts my leg. The desk makes the computer a bit more stable and gives me a place to use a wireless mouse.

  16. Walked again — 1.17 miles. Won’t tomorrow — supposed to be thunderstorms. Tea, oatmeal. Got a couple of donations & lots of re-tweets & shares yesterday. I’m $348 away from my goal. I really need to wake up, it’s taken me 30 minutes to write 3 sentences. Bringing out City of Blinding Lights to make my heart soar.

  17. Good morning, 46 and cloudy in Bellingham. I still need a tissue box close by but thankfully the worst of the sneezing and aching seems to be over. The flue lingered for so long this cold seems like a real no fair moment!

    Easter is coming, the kids spring break will be next week and I’ve made no plans for anything. Oh well, I’m sure we’ll find a way to have some fun together regardless.

    Take care everyone.

  18. After an overcast & drizzly yesterday (only got 5.7 KWHs) the full front moved in last night – temps never dropped out of the low 60s and it started really raining. Mostly hasn’t let up and it’s so dark the PV system is in night mode (i.e., not generating at all). The m-t-d is 354 and while it’s still possible to get to 400, I need to average almost 10/day to do it. Unfortunately it doesn’t look like that’s gonna happen. sigh. Still, if the rain clears off by Thursday and we get a couple of 20 KWH days we can still do it.

    I suppose I’m not paying all that much attention to politics right now because everything coming from the Rs and Extreme Left is evil I can’t really do much about and everybody else seems to want a savior. I swear I’m going to say something nasty to the next person who says “Mueller will save us” or “the kids will save us” – we don’t need one or more saviors. We need some leaders and some pointers on how to do what we need to do to get Congress back – and keep it when we take the WH back – saviors can go pound sand. And the folks who want them can get off their lazy butts and start doing stuff if they can or supporting the folks who are if they can’t – but we’re talking people showing up. March and register voters – which happened, the March for Our Lives registered the most people in a single day on record – town halls and register voters, walkouts and register voters. And GOTV for every election.

    Welp, dark and raining. Too warm for a fire but the damp is making my joints creaky. I think I’ll tour the internets then wrap up in a blanket and have some coffee. Bright the day, Meeses. {{{HUGS}}}

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