Week-long Welcomings from Moosylvania: Apr. 15th through Apr. 21st

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. Both widget agree this morning :) – 59 heading for 80, mostly sunny. Yesterday we got another “highest generated for day, month, & year” at 23.86 KWHs and the m-t-d is 218. So 400 is still very doable. Holding the good thought on that. Looking less and less like any cherries this year. Still holding the Good Thought on that, too, but I’m afraid last weekend’s hard freezes zapped them. For the 3rd year in a row. sigh.

    Lots of sound and fury. More knowledgeable people than I can tell how much is signifying nothing. Twitterstorms are not worth straining my eyes. Our primaries are hotting up. I was glad to get some email confirmation (from the folks who urged me to run for county office) that my choice for state rep is the right one. I’ve got her sign in the yard and when something comes up that I can actually do, I’ll get more active. If we’d started 30 years ago we could have done like the Rs did – start local and work our way up. We don’t have time now. We need to work on electing Dems at every level in every precinct. Just like on the environmental front we have to work on every part of CO2 reduction we can while we also work on adapting to what is happening and what is going to happen because it’s already too late to stop it.

    I can do less and less to help the folks at DK but I’m still checking in to see if there’s anything. Even just tweeting out a diary. Oh, to win the lottery. (Yeah, I know – gotta buy a ticket first.) Aji’s patreon is still at 11 patrons & $603 so just a hair over 60% of her goal. The link’s up above in my Sunday check-in comment & I’d appreciate it if you’d tweet it out again (or any other social media you might be involved in). I need to check the Villages and do a twitter tour. I’ve RT’d Denise’s Puerto Rico tweet already but I haven’t done Aji’s stuff yet. And coffee. :) Bright the day, Meeses. {{{HUGS}}}

  2. Looks like a coalition of the youngs and olds forming.

  3. Good afternoon, 48 and partly sunny in Bellingham. I woke up preoccupied with life and forgot to check in. The good news is I’ve completed a few tasks, I’m taking an earned rest, and have enjoyed reading all of your comments now.

    Best wishes to all for the rest of the day.

  4. Good morning, meese! Wednesday …

    It is 28 degrees in Madison with an expected daytime high of 34. The forecast calls for snow this afternoon.

    The news has settled down into a dull hum. Trump Administration is rude and disrespectful to the women working there – NOT breaking. Mitch McConnell clears path for Republicans to destroy the rule of law – NOT breaking. Richard Cohen is an complete and utter jerk. NOT breaking. My favorite on Cohen: Mediocre White Guy With Highly Compensated Sinecure More Secure Than An Article III Judgeship Wants You To Stop Talking About Privilege.

    I am not saying anything about the death of the wife of the man who hired Lee Atwater to put the Southern Strategy on steroids and the mother of the man who set the Middle East on fire and plunged the world into a global financial crisis. Nor will I comment on the characterization of her as “unapologetic and plain spoken.” I am sure that things are working out very well for her now.

    See all y’all later!

    • Jan, could not agree more about the wife of the man who hired Lee Atwater. For myself, I will observe the Joan Rivers passing rule: don’t say anything.

      • It is difficult to say nothing because the racism that the Bush family profited from – and whose political party continues to profit from – did not appear magically. You’ve got to be carefully taught.

  5. Good Woden’s Day, Moosekind, and a sunny, beautiful morning it is, with a clear blue sky. Only problem is that it’s cold. Right now in Ashburn it’s 32 F., going up to 60 F. later. Whoopee! It’s certainly better than snow.

    A night from hell again—woke up at 3:30, could not get back to sleep, at 4:30 said “what the hail” and got up. I’ll pay for it later. Yesterday was disquieting: not only did I have to take the dog to his new doctor, but there were all sorts of things wrong with him. He has an ear infection that requires administering drops twice a day. To show his outrage over the things the doctor did to him, he peed on the carpet yesterday evening. Of course, we hadn’t got round to getting the Extrac-Vac out of its box and charging it up, so we weren’t able to take care of the stain right away. We’ll do that this morning.

    Moving from one county to another means tons of paperwork: new driver’s licenses, a new county license for the dog, new library cards, and so on. Plus there’s a ton of paperwork associated with simply living here.

    We did make it to the New Residents’ party, although we were late. I met a woman who had been a Foreign Service Officer, so I hope to encounter her again. There are so many single women here (many are widows) that some of them have formed a club. The seating at the restaurants is geared to multiples of two, so single women, unless they quickly acquire a friend, often have to ask to join a table.

    Feeling staggered that Pompeo met with Kim Jong Un at Easter! Feeling outraged that yet another unarmed innocent black man was savagely murdered by police gunfire. The police are out of control and have been for a long time. There’s testosterone poisoning in this country,

    We have a health and wellness meeting this morning (not sure what that entails) and voter registration this afternoon. It’s weird how we’re busier than ever!

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

    • I wonder if your sleep disturbances are from all the changes – night sounds are different, patterns are disrupted. I hope things settle down soon!

  6. Back to shorts weather this morning — 67 as I was walking, but a cold front’s coming through & tomorrow morning will be back in the 50s. 1.85 miles today, not bad. Got to add some evening workouts to my routine, but not today, I have my Democratic club meeting.

  7. Well. Something weird happened after I logged off last night – when I got online I was logged out of everything. Thank goddess most of my regular sites “remember” my password because I don’t on the ones I don’t have to “re-up” on a regular basis. Wonder what the heck it was.

    56 and heading for 65 so nice but not nearly like yesterday’s nice of mid-70s sunny with a warm breeze. I opened windows and the cats were delighted. That’s not gonna happen today although I probably will open the window to the porch in a bit. Got 22 KWHs yesterday and the m-t-d is 239.7 – so 400 is still very doable. Still keeping an eye on the cherry tree – still no sign that the cherries themselves survived the 3 in a row hard frosts over last weekend. sigh. It’s a very good thing for me that I do not depend on my own food production to be able to eat. If I did, I wouldn’t be here.

    The wife of one president and the mother of another dying is one of those occasions where you can really tell “heads of state” from “failed game show hosts” – the Clintons and Obamas made very gracious statements by cherry-picking for the few times the woman actually had been gracious to them. The current WH couldn’t even get the date right. Considering the attacks made on both the Clintons and the Obamas by the political family in question, I give really high marks to them. And will otherwise keep my own mouth shut. :) Some urgent fundraising going on at DK but I’m now far enough out of the loop that I don’t even know/remember them. Holding the Good Thought anyway. I didn’t know half the folks I helped until they contacted me for help. Nothing new here.

    Aji’s patreon https://www.patreon.com/AjiWings/posts is still at 11 patrons & a few hairs over 60% of goal. Sharing out the link for the signal boost is greatly appreciated. I’ve RT’d Denise’s Puerto Rico tweet, need to get Aji’s out and then see what’s going on. But will read RonK’s diary first. And there’s coffee in my future somewhere. :) Bright the day, Meeses. {{{HUGS}}}

    • Yes, Bill Clinton: “She was fierce & feisty in support of her family & friends” is not untrue – but it does leave a few things out. :)

      • As someone at another site put it “Bill’s southern roots are showing” :) – oh yeah, they left out a whole lot to make those gracious statements. But they did them. Because that’s what heads of state do. {{{HUGS}}}

  8. Good morning, Meesefolk. I agree with all the comments about The Matriarch. It’s amazing how her well-known mean streak is being conveniently forgotten now.

    I finally went to the urgent care next to my workplace this morning. I was feverish all weekend, it went away, and then reappeared yesterday. I decided to take a nap yesterday afternoon; a nap for me is generally 1 1/2 hours. Instead, I slept for 7, so a checkup seemed advisable. It turns out I have infections in both ears, as well as a sinus infection, which is just weird since my only symptoms are the fever and feeling “meh.” I’m loaded up with antibiotics, so I’m on the mend but still bemused at the absence of any symptoms.

    • Oh no! I am glad they found it and that you are on the mend. Ear infections are very tricky to diagnose according to Dr. Google. And they lead to all sorts of strange symptoms.

    • That is totally weird, DoReMI! Glad you sought help because ear infections are serious. That’s partly how I lost my hearing.

      Rest as much as you can and I hope you’re restored to health soon.

    • {{{DoReMI}}} – glad they found it, glad you are doing better – and add 500 mg vitamin C every couple of hours to your regimen to boost your immune system. And garlic soup if your household will allow it. (If not tell everybody you need Chinese and please bring you some Hot and Sour soup. It’s not as good as garlic soup but it will do.) Ear infections literally throw your balance off so your symptoms will be whatever your body does when it’s feeling unbalanced – sounds like yours sleeps. Which is good because you heal in your sleep. Lots of Healing Energy and moar {{{HUGS}}}

  9. Good morning, 45 and cloudy in Bellingham. RonK and I had an afternoon of aging in place reality yesterday. Thanks to the muddy spring weather and time passing more quickly than we realize the rugs on the back porch and kitchen entrance needed to be replaced. So I found two with a lovely fern and flower pattern and a mud brown background but they didn’t have a rubber back and were therefore slippery. We can’t risk a tripping hazard so I decided we could cut a rubber rug pad to fit and secure it to the woven backing, but that proved to be easier thought of than done because neither one of us could bend over without our glasses falling off. So I finally sat on the floor, and Ron stood on the rugs to flatten them and keep the pad in place while I wrestled the duct tape and tried to keep everything straight. Whew……we both needed a nap to recover our dignity!

    Take care everyone.

    • LOL, princesspat…I can so relate. Those things that I did without a second thought 20-30 years ago now have new wrinkles added to the process (pun intended).

    • Goodness, princesspat, that sounds quite an awkward situation! Glad you were able to solve it together.

      So you’re going to age in place instead of moving to a place like the one where Dearly and I live? We thought of doing that, but when I thought of possibly being alone one day in that house and not knowing how to cope with a nonworking TV feed, power failures, or even replacing lightbulbs, I quailed. Here, you don’t have to replace lightbulbs: they don’t want the olds falling off ladders, so they come and do it for you.

      • We’ve tried to make a decision re moving Diana, but we just don’t want to yet. I know we will have to at some point but for now we’ll stay here. My hope is that by editing possessions, doing necessary repairs and improvements, and hiring help for things we should no longer try to do we’ll be more ready to move when it’s time to do so.

        As we all know, life happens and plans have to change. But for now it’s a relief to just keep living here as best we can.

  10. Good morning, meese! Thursday …

    It is 27 degrees in Madison with an expected daytime high of 46. Sunny skies are in the forecast. Yesterday, we got hit with about 6 inches of snow in a short period of time which made the roads tricky just in time for the afternoon commute. It was wet heavy snow by late afternoon so if you had the right kind of vehicle and tires, it was not too hard to get around. I had to run an afternoon errand and considered rescheduling but braved the elements – and survived!

    Puerto Rico got hit with another power outage caused by the “repair” company that has been paid almost a billion dollars to fix the power lines. This time it happened while Major League Baseball was wrapping up their 2-game series on the island and it will get a lot more attention. Maybe that attention will translate into action.

    I find that when I ignore the soap opera surrounding the vulgar talking yam’s personal slimeyness and corruption – as opposed to the slimeyness and corruption coming from his administration, which needs attention – my scan of the news goes more quickly. Americans are treating this shitshow as a long-running reality TV series and the media is “helpfully” providing clicks to every salacious detail. A lot of important things are not being reported in the limited space local news has. Fortunately, the work on the ground for the 2018 special elections and mid-terms is proceeding apace. New Jersey just added automatic voter registration and are considering other voting reforms. New York just re-enfranchised felons on parole. The federal judge in Kansas City Kansas just hit KKKobach with a contempt of court citation for disobeying a court order related to the 2016 elections. A graphic from the Brennan Center, which tracks pending and passed election laws, showed that for the first time in a long time, state laws seeking to expand the franchise outnumber state laws seeking to suppress the vote. Good news for small d democracy!

    See all y’all later!

  11. Thursday Meese

    Grrrr…it is snowing here – even though it is 38 degrees :(

    Just heard from Bobby (newpioneer) in PR – his power is back on (he’s in San Juan)

    You are right Jan – baseball got PR a lot more coverage

    Was glad to see this from our Gov – re voting rights

  12. Back to cool this morning — 58 as I walked my 1.5 miles. Got to write a diary, as there’s another matching opportunity this morning. Not sure what theme….

  13. Good gray morning, Moosekind, and happy Thor’s Day. Overcast and chilly here, and although the creek won’t git up, they say the wind will. Ugh. Currently it seems to be 50 F. in Ashburn, going up to 54 F., with possible showers.

    I’m sitting at the nice desk Dearly put together for me. The printer doesn’t work yet (whyinell not?), I don’t yet have a desk chair or chair mat, and I can’t find my printer stand or the full-sized wireless keyboard, but—hey! I have a desk. It feels great. I can look through the full-length glass doors that lead to the screened porch, which overlooks grass and woods. A carpenter told us yesterday that several wild turkeys live in those woods, along with the deer, the fox, and goodness knows who else.

    Bad news on the custom-built bookcase front: the estimate came in at $5,000! Dearly Beloved says NO. I’m getting depressed by tripping over cardboard boxes of books, so we’ve got to think of something quickly. We might look for already-built bookcases this weekend.

    On the agenda for today is getting my eyes checked in case I need a Lasik touch-up (I think I do), walking the dog, and meeting our “welcome person” and her husband for dinner tonight at the Robin’s Nest. Yesterday we had dinner with our next-door neighbors and the food was so delicious I may have to start calling this place “Ashby Pounds” instead of Ashby Ponds!

    Wishing all a good, peaceful day with no wars, insurrections, or other awfulness.

    • {{{Diana}}} Already built bookcases can be nice. Heck, stacked milk crates turned on their sides are inexpensive, quite serviceable, and lend a certain air of youth to the place. :) Enjoy finding what you want and getting your home uncluttered. {{{HUGS}}}

  14. Good morning meese. I just want to go back to sleep… But waking up and going to work early means I can also leave work early. Hmmm.

    • {{{basket}}} – since you’re awake enough to be online, I’d vote for going to work early and getting off early. That’s what I’d do anyway – did back when that was an option. :) Have a good breakfast & skritches to Belle. moar {{{HUGS}}}

  15. 38 windchill 33 and heading for mid-50s today. Sunny though so I’m (relatively) happy. Not sure I’ll get a walk outside today. Depends on the wind. Yesterday got 23.5 KWHs – lovely in a sense that it’s not the highest for day/month/year to date :) – and the m-t-d is 263. 400 is definitely possible at this rate. Holding the Good Thought. (& thinking how much Puerto Rico needs PV!)

    Ignoring the “sound and fury” coming out of the White House is better for everybody’s mental health (and digestive system), paying attention to what the Rs in Congress are up to is unfortunately required for survival. So we pay attention and block what we can. And work, work, work on getting Congress back in the Nov elections (and of course any specials between now and then). I’m RTing all the specials I find, RTing Dem candidates and register/reminder to vote things I find. That’s my political Resistance. For the rest, it’s boosting Denise’s and Aji’s signals on a daily basis and other “specials” like anotherdemocrat’s fundraisers. Until the Dem office opens here – probably around the 1st of September – I’ll have to be an online Resister.

    Need to do my twitter/internets tour then do some offline stuff. I’ll try to keep an eye on the time & be back around 11:30 to boost another’s fundraiser post. Bright the day, Meeses. {{{HUGS}}}

  16. Good morning, 43 and mostly sunny in Bellingham. Last night’s sunset and the blue sky I see this morning makes me feel spring is finally here. It’s still to cold to do much in the garden but I’m starting to think about planting flowers again, and that’s very welcome!

    Sunny day best wishes to everyone.

  17. Good morning, meeses! Friday …

    It is 25 degrees in Madison with an expected daytime high of 53 degrees. Sunny skies are in the forecast. Spring has boomeranged!

    The news is all Comey, all the time. I think someone finally got him to admit that we would be better off with Hillary Clinton as president than Donald Trump. Duh! Now his infamous “memos” will suck up another news cycle.

    Meanwhile, in news that matters, the conservative 7th Circuit rejected the Trump Administration’s sanctuary city defunding plan allowing the stay placed in the lower court to remain in effect, Puerto Rico fired the incompetent firm that plunged the island into darkness twice in the last week, and Democrats are on the ground working to flip the Trent “Baby Daddy” Franks seat in Arizona and are within single digits now – election day is Tuesday.

    See all y’all later!

  18. Friday Meese
    Late getting here cause I just posted a rant before heading to school in a few

    Will be back after my first class

  19. The Moose is acting up again. Sigh. Still, good morning, Meese, and happy Freya’s day! It’s sunny but chilly here in Ashburn. The current temp. is 36 F., going up to 57 F.

    Never made it to the eye doctor yesterday as I became hopelessly lost, with Google Maps giving me insane directions in a soothing but completely unrealistic manner. After driving about for two hours wondering whereinell I was, I called my niece, who happened to be at home. Went over and we bitched and moaned to each other for about an hour and had a good time. She wished I had called her, as she knew exactly where the building was. Problem is—Courthouse Road and Old Courthouse Road in Vienna are separated by 3 miles! The last time I visited that doctor was 14 years ago. A lot has happened since then.

    On the home front, we found the printer stand, we found the new keyboard, but are now wondering whether there’s a mouse in the house. Might have to go to Best Buy and get a new one. This morning I’m going to the auditorium to hear Jennifer Wexton, our candidate to replace The Woman Comstock, report on the recent General Assembly session. The WaPo, as is its wont, published a long, loving story about Comstock this morning, tenderly describing the high opinion that everyone except Democrats has of her and neglecting to mention how she ran away from the constits who wanted her to hold town halls. Nor did they mention that she’s an antichoice bozo. One long ago dropped any respect for the WaPo, which also adored Dubya.

    This afternoon we have various chores and I will order the cake for Shakespeare’s 454th birthday. We’ll be celebrating on Monday, of course.

    Wishing a good day to all at the Pond and beyond. Hope the nationwide school walkout goes well.

    • Oh dear – sorry to hear you got lost – enjoy your Democratic session today

    • Ha!

      The WaPo, as is its wont, published a long, loving story about Comstock this morning, tenderly describing the high opinion that everyone except Democrats has of her and neglecting to mention how she ran away from the constits who wanted her to hold town halls.

      I know exactly how you feel! Our paper is a right-wing rag even though our city is more librul than about 98% of America. Their editorial page is run by mouthbreathers and you can tell from their headline choices (I have access to AP and know what the originals looked like) that they are trying to push a narrative. Fortunately, no one looks to newspapers for endorsements – everyone knows that their biases lean status quo. Comstock is the worst – she is a local Susan Collins, a woman who pretends to be moderate but who, when push comes to shove, votes with her leadership over her constituents. She needs to be voted out and I will enjoy watching the returns on November 6th formalizing her demise.

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