Week-long Welcomings from Moosylvania: March 3rd through March 9th

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 (usually Saturday night with a Sunday date). 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!
 

36 Comments

  1. Good morning, meeses! Tuesday …

    It is 3 degrees in Madison with an expected daytime high of 16. Cloudy with occasional flurries.

    The big news yesterday was the announcement that the House Judiciary Committee has requested documents from 81 individuals and entities related to the Trump Crime Family. Yikes! At least we won’t have to worry about Trump’s criminal activities being ignored by the media in the run-up to 2020 as they were in 2015 and 2016. The media failed us – I will never be dissuaded from that and I will never forgive them for the damage done to people and institutions by their negligence. The election of 2018 which put Democrats in charge of Congressional investigations will be remembered as the point where the rush towards autocracy was halted. Yes, there is a lot of damage that can still be done – the courts are being packed with terrible people right now and will be a mess for a generation – but, finally, the light will be shining on every action and people will go into 2020 knowing the damage that the Republicans have done and must never be allowed to do again.

    I was looking back at my previous posts on Women’s History Month to see if there were any I could recycle since DoReMI will not be posting today. Most of them are too dated to reuse but I found a post from my Great Speeches series, one by Barbara Jordan which seems sadly current, sad because the promise she saw back in 1976 has still not come close to being realized. But her focus on We The People is still the Democratic Party’s guiding principle. I have it up in a tab and will try to finish it in between projects.

    See all y’all later!

  2. Tuesday – now have control of my puter back – hopefully it is fixed
    14 degrees here in Saugerties NY – going up to 30

    • The pushback against that racist tRump tweet was fierce. It won’t make any difference – Republicans no longer have the capacity to be shamed.

      • Rs never did have the capacity to be shamed. Just to know when something was going to reduce their fundraising. Right now the more Deplorable their actions the more money they raise. They won’t change their behavior until the money flow changes.

  3. Another freeze last night — but at least it’s supposed to get out of the 30s today. Got my plants covered yesterday afternoon, they’ll probably stay that way till at least tomorrow night. Shrove Tuesday, Lent starts tomorrow, I haven’t given it any thought. But doday’s song is baby Hozier (from his college days, back in 2012) ANÚNA : “La Chanson de Mardi Gras”

    and here’s a translation of the lyrics — even if you speak French, you’ll need it, because Cajun French is…different

  4. Good morning, Moosekind! It’s very cold and clear here in Northern Virginia today, with a current temperature of 26 F., going up to 37 F. Ugh. Still, at least we’re getting sunlight.

    Jan, could not agree more with this:

    The media failed us – I will never be dissuaded from that and I will never forgive them for the damage done to people and institutions by their negligence.

    So true! And, although I’m not a fan of AOC (cannot overlook her campaigning against Sharice Davids and others), she appears to be replacing Hillary as the focus of right-wing hatred. Apparently she wants to take away our hamburgers! Oh, dear me.

    Not looking forward to the rest of the day, as I’ll be wrestling with the income tax return. In previous years it’s been fairly easy, especially since I stopped laboriously entering contributions to charities and simply took the standard deduction. This year, because we sold a house last year, it’s absolutely corkscrew-curls-yanking. I just want to scre-am.

    Bfitz, Bill in Portland Maine’s post in Cheers & Jeers has a nice tribute to Tricia Wyse, who left us three years ago today. He even has a picture of her.

    Not much else to say except that if I don’t start exercising pretty soon, I’m going to be bigger than a house. Something about cold winter days makes me want to stuff my face.

    Wishing a good day to all at the Pond.

    • I didn’t think selling a house was a tax issue any longer – don’t they allow income from sale of your primary residence to be non-taxable now? I guess it has been a while since I had to deal with it.

      My tax returns are all done. I spent 4 hours on Saturday working on my company’s return which is due 3/15. It was a nightmare! Because most of the forms were not available when I initially downloaded TurboTax and ran my first pass around the beginning of January, the interview got out of sync with the forms. When I finally got to the point where I was ready to submit it, it said I needed a form that had to be filled out and attached – somehow, it had turned me into a Section 163(j) business and made a big mess. I was on hold/calls with tech support for over an hour with no success and then finally I went line by line through the forms and found the check box that had been misapplied. Because I had already attached the form I didn’t need, I had to dump that return and start all over (there is no facility to remove an attachment from a TurboTax file). Next time I will know – the tax season does not officially start until February 1st and TurboTax updates until then are just guesses including assumptions it makes from the interview. I sent my personal return off a month ago and I hope that there aren’t any hidden landmines in there that downloading and running early may have buried. I guess I will find out if I am audited. :(

      • OMG, good luck, Jan!

        We lost Internet and TV for three mortal hours this morning. I am so furious!

        May the 169 curses of the Gambia Goo-Goos descend upon the villainous Comcast.

  5. Mardi Gras and 3 years since Tricia’s been gone. The Wheel keeps turning as people step off or step on for the ride. I can’t get to DK from work but I’ll definitely go looking for memorials when I get home. I still find myself starting to call her of a Sunday. I guess the “hand memory” of 6 years of calling/talking to her every Sunday can’t be erased completely. Even after 3 years. Sending Tricia my love, wherever she is.

    It’s a lovely sunny day, might even get over freezing which would be nice. The twins are getting cabin fever – at least in the mornings. I’m not surprised. Actually I am surprised at how well they’ve done being inside considering they’ve been outdoor cats for at least 2 months. But they’re still very young. Young enough that Charlie and Cloud didn’t attack or try to drive them off – just avoid them when they get rambunctious as most elderly folks do around very active kids. We got over 10 KWHs yesterday, very good considering the sun had to remove the snow from the panels without the help of above-freezing temps. The m-t-d is 19.8 with the 1 KWH we’ve already gotten this morning. If the sun stays out we might even get to 15 today.

    Nothing new yet on Aji. This is chewing on my stomach, goddess alone knows what it’s doing to Aji’s. They’re also awaiting results on Wings’ MRI from yesterday. Hoping for strain and not a tear on the rotator cuff. More invocations per your Faith Tradition would be good. Meanwhile I need to get back to work. And more coffee. Bright the day, Meeses. {{{HUGS}}}

  6. Good morning, 29 and partly cloudy in Bellingham. I’m still achy and sneezy this morning so I have another day of napping and lots of liquids ahead. With the cold weather I’ve been basically home so I wonder how a virus found me? Hope RonK stays well because he’s doing the shopping and errands lately.

    Best wishes to all.

  7. Good afternoon fellow Meeses. It’s supposed to rain starting about 6pm PST. Currently it’s getting cloudier and colder. It was clear blue sky when I woke up. It’s cloudy and grey with a temperature of 62 degrees. Still working on getting all the pages done of deleting wrong OCLC numbers in the bibliographic records before we do the dry run this Friday. I’m on page 5 of 14 at the moment. Listening to the Josh Marshall podcast (TPM) while I’m doing this.

  8. Good morning, meeses! Wednesday …

    It is 3 degrees in Madison with an expected daytime high of 19. Isolated flurries are in the forecast.

    It looks like Individual 1 is going to have a very bad next two years – investigations are happening everywhere including in places where he has no control like New York state. Someone on Twitter pointed out that it looks like he got away with fraud for decades and it is all just coming to light. He thought that his Teflon coating (someone should investigate the Manhattan DAs office) would protect him when he moved his criminal enterprise to the White House. It did for a while, as he has the Republicans terrified of his power to control their rabid base, but with the Democrats having investigative power, the rocks are being turned over. He was whining yesterday about his life being exposed “they are taking a wrecking ball to my life”. THEN QUIT! You chose to expose your life to scrutiny when you ran for president – that the lazy press had no interest in any of the criminality back in 2016 did not mean it would never come out! Sheesh.

    I am following the Omar “controversy” and will stay out of it except to note that her treatment may have something to do with her race. Call it a hunch.

    See all y’all later!

  9. One more freezing morning then it’s supposed to be gone. I’ll uncover my plants this afternoon. Weather turning to our normal perfect just in time for SXSW. People fall in love with Austin, don’t listen to our warnings about 6 months of really hot weather & move here. Then when it’s 100 degrees in September, they’re mad. Anyway, I need to leave work early, got a book to pick up at the neighborhood library, and take a couple of checks to the Ride office, and then there’s Ash Wednesday service at church. Still loving the new Hozier, stuck on To Noise Making (Sing)

    You don’t have to sing it right
    But who could call you wrong?
    To put your emptiness to melody
    Your awful heart to song [I think they have this wrong, I think he means awe-ful]
    You don’t have to sing it nice, but, honey, sing it strong
    At best, you find a little remedy, at worst the world will sing along

  10. Good morning, Moosekind! It’s a lovely morning, if cold—21 F., with a high of 30 F. in the offing. We have a pale blue sky with little white wispy clouds skipping across it like lambs, and the sun is rising behind the woods. Just think (mournfully) as of Sunday morning we won’t be seeing wake-up sunlight for a while because of the wretched unwanted “daylight saving” time. Why must we still tolerate this anachronism? There’s not a war on in this country, except figuratively speaking.

    We lost the Internet and the TV for three mortal hours yesterday. The air in here rang with curses.( I have a very bad temper, especially since November 9, 2016.) Therefore I didn’t work on the tax or work on my book. Time was wasted!

    My poor granddaughter, who will be 25 next month, is undergoing a tonsillectomy this morning. I’d thought that particular operation was quite out of fashion! Anyway, M’Daughter-from-Austin is up there in freezing Ohio with her and will stay for a week. I will send the poor girl some flowers.

    Meese, let me ask your advice: I’ve been contemplating writing a blog titled “A Year in the Home for the Aged,” but am afraid it would sound unbearably frivolous at a time when people are experiencing trauma every day. After all, we are living in a nice, protective bubble here in the retirement community. However, the transition has been emotionally rough at times. Should I just can the idea, rather than risk people thinking my account sounds like the whining of an overprivileged old bat?

    Meanwhile, back at the ranch, the appetizing scent of toasted English muffins is drifting from the kitchen to my office, so I will wish a good day to all at the Pond, and good health to all who are suffering from colds or The Cold.

    • I think it would be useful for people to have a clear-eyed account of what it’s really like. The whole process – downsizing your possessions, finding a place, moving in….I think it would help people.

    • If it bothers you, I’m sure you could come up with a kicky subhead that illustrates that you’re not oblivious. Just like Moose is “Progress through politics,” yours could be something like “Privileged, ___, and ___”. I do think the blog is a good idea; as AD said, a clear-eyed account would be helpful.

    • Diana, reading about your transition has helped RonK and me make some decisions about how we want to live for the next few years. Reading about your experiences has lead to conversations we may not have had. Thank you!

      • Thank you, princesspat, that is good to hear. I wonder whether we always second-guess the decisions we make. When it has snowed, we’ve been pleased that we don’t have scrape it off our car and clean the sidewalks. Yes, I’ll go ahead and write it.

        It was the awfulness of my friends’ experience that convinced me to try again to sell the house and move after we failed the first time. Three years ago this very month my friend P. suffered a fall and after that, Alzheimer’s set in. We had noticed her aphasia for some time, but she was still functional. However, she went from independent living to memory care, which was seamless because of living in the retirement community and having a long-term care policy. There were numerous meetings, signings of papers, and consultations involving my friend S., but they were all on site. That was a blessing because my friend S. does not drive.

        • A move of some sort is inevitable – it is the timing that is tricky. I would think that having a choice rather than having something forced on you by circumstances would be everyone’s wish but once you move you will always second-guess – was it too soon, could I have stayed in my home longer? My mother has said she does not want to move – ever – and she is fortunate in that she has children who live in the same city as she does who do not mind coming over to mow the lawn, shovel the snow, do home repairs, and help her when she needs to get to doctor’s appointments. My grandmother stayed in her home until she had a stroke and then ended up in a nursing home and perhaps my mother sees that as her path. She has had friends who did the retirement community thing and regretted it and some who did it and were glad they did. So there is no one “right choice”!

          I would like to read your impressions as well.

  11. We’ve gotten all the way up to 19 on this sunny day – heading for low 40s which will hopefully thaw the outside water dish. It’s currently iced to the step so I can’t even bring it in to thaw it. The outside cat was sniffing at it – I hope just curiosity. I did put out a small bowl with warm water in it but I didn’t notice whether or not he drank from it. Anyway the beautiful but cold sunny day we had yesterday generated 18.6 KWHs (W00T!!!) and the m-t-d is 37.8 so we’re banking electricity today. The twins are still inside. They did a little in-and-out-the-kitty-cat this morning but decided that warm was better. Once it warms up – and for cats just about anything above freezing (& not raining) counts – they may decide they’d like to go back to being outdoor cats. We shall see what we shall see.

    The 3rd posting for this job (or rather the 1st posting for the up-rated job) has so far brought in 5 applications. One of them looks promising enough that she’s scheduled for a “preliminary interview” on Friday. If this round works, then this will be my last month working. If not, not. Another thing we shall see what we shall see. Still no word from Aji’s surgeon. Her doctor wants the operation this week and we’re fast running out of week. Aji’s got people to take care of the animals on standby – if she gets a call saying “come now” she makes some calls then is out the door. If. That’s the biggest effen two-letter word in the English language. Prayers and invocations – something under the heading of “highest good for all concerned” – very much appreciated.

    I need coffee and to get back to work. Running 185 copies of 3 versions of a 4-page midterm right now. The class starts 11:15. The noise is mind numbing. But I still need to get back to work. Bright the day, Meeses. {{{HUGS}}}

  12. Wednesday Meese
    I wound up this morning with another visit to tech support – so couldn’t get online on my puter till late – for me

    Anyway – I posted a morning chuckle

  13. Good morning, Meesefolk; 3 when I got up for the final time this morning (after 2 middle-of-the-night awakenings) with maybe a high of 19 today. The days have been partly sunny at least, so I don’t mind a bit of chill in the air. I actually had to open the bedroom window last night; I think the vent near our bed is stuck open (I usually leave it half closed or fully closed, because otherwise it’s like being in an oven). I’ll check it when I get home, because the heat caused me to get up twice last night, and I don’t want a repeat of that.

    My cousin’s daughter posted an anti-racism essay on her FB page this morning (not written by her), and I was saddened, but not surprised, that the immediate responses were of the “not all white people” variety. I don’t get why so many white folk bristle so much at the use of the words, “racism/racist.” One of the women even wrote, after a lengthy rant, that Love is the answer. I’m all for a world with more love, but only if it’s a verb, and I suspect a lot of white folk prefer love to be a noun. I didn’t want to start a war of words with my cousin’s [1x removed] friends, so I just suggested that since racism/racist seems to be such a trigger word, maybe the essay could best be understood by substituting white supremacy/white supremacist. That approach actually makes white complicity even more apparent, but that’s kind of the point if one is trying to grow and learn.

    Back to work…good day to and for all!

    • This: “I’m all for a world with more love, but only if it’s a verb, and I suspect a lot of white folk prefer love to be a noun.”

      “Love” lets people off the hook because it is defined in so many ways. Republicans call it “tough love” when they deny food to people who are hungry! How about kindness and compassion – following up the words with deeds?

  14. Good morning, 29 and mostly sunny in Bellingham. Seems like the sleep cure may be working…..it’s all I’ve done and I think I’m feeling better this morning :) Still sneezy, but the awful aching has eased.

    Danny Weastneat is cranky re the proposed changes to Wa State’s primary. I want the caucus to go away so I support the vote by mail part, but I worry about anything that may make a voter hesitate to vote for Dems. If declaring party affiliation is a barrier to doing so, the powers that be need to pay attention and allow people just quietly vote.

    ‘Highway robbery’: How our presidential primary is also a marketing scheme, run through your ballot

    Munro said that forcing voters to first pick a party, and doing it in a way that puts those choices on a publicly-available list, effectively brands voters as party members even if they don’t want to be. In our notoriously prickly, independent state, these rules alone could depress the turnout by 500,000 to 1 million voters, Munro predicted.

    “I learned this the hard way, when I was running elections as Secretary of State,” he said. “People here hate being told they have to sign up for a political party in order to have their vote counted. Many won’t do it. It makes this primary a form of voter suppression.”

    • I hope that they fix the primary problem – to willfully choose a method that will make 500,000 to 1,000,000 people decide not to vote is stupid.

  15. Good morning meese. It’s 53 and drizzly/cloudy, with a possible thunderstorm on the way this afternoon. I did not get to clear out the recycling but fortunately my roommate’s caregiver took care of that yesterday. Bit tired and having a slow start to the day, I’m wishing I had one of DoReMI’s favorite pązcki! But not the prune one. 😂

    • {{{basket}}} good that the recycling got out, not so good you’re tired & having a slow start. Healing Energy & moar {{{HUGS}}}

  16. Thursday Meese

    Good morning. 8 degrees here in Saugerties NY going up to 31.

    Women in the House are fierce:

    #OTD

    Puerto Rico

    • Great batch of tweets! The House committee did themselves proud in exposing and rejecting the horrors of the Trump administration’s policies at the border. Kirstjen Nielsen will forever be the face of the cruelty of Republicanism – may she never find peace.

  17. Good morning, meeses! Thursday …

    It is 7 degrees in Madison with an expected daytime high of 25. Sunny this morning then clouding up. The weekend now calls for “heavy snow” on Saturday, against my wishes!! I had declared winter over and this impertinence is quite irritating!

    I got distracted by a project and now I have no time to check the news. I am going to guess that it goes something like this: Trump says something completely unhinged/untrue to gin up his base, the media reports it ALL CAPS to make sure that his base is indeed ginned up, a few unread stories try to push back but because they are unread, the false narrative is set.

    Bidenmentum is heating up and it will be interesting to see where it takes us. People deluding themselves that there could be a Biden-Harris ticket have not been paying attention. Their policy platforms – and their old way new way differences related to funding their campaigns – are completely at odds with each other. It will more likely be a Biden-Klobuchar if he thinks he needs a female candidate and a Biden-Booker if he thinks he needs a person of color. That he will be the BernieSlayer is no doubt – but after those two knock each other out, people will look around for a 21st Century candidate to take us into the future. Center-left but not center-right. I am going to sit back and enjoy the debate rather than get into the fray at this point.

    See all y’all later!

  18. And the freezing weather leaves right on time. It really is just as if the chamber of commerce ordered the weather for SXSW. Though is is supposed to rain next week. Got my book from the library yesterday, and got my plants uncovered. Maybe this weekend I’ll move them out from their bunched-up places, winter should be really gone this time. Allergies are really bad, gonna listen to Snow Patrol’s Heal Me to encourage my immune system. (ok, that’s not what the song is about, but it’s an excuse to us this happy, bouncy song)

  19. Good morning, Meese, it’s the Thor’s Day before the unwanted changeover. We have greyish overcast here in Ashburn this morning, with rain and snow expected tomorrow. Right now the temperature is 23 F., going up to 40 F.

    Had a report by text from M’Daughter-from-Austin last night to the effect that the tonsillectomy on Ohio granddaughter was accomplished in very little time. She’s home now and in some pain. In between spending six hours cleaning the apartment yesterday and looking after granddaughter, my daughter enjoyed playing with the kittens, one black and one white. Hope the flowers that will be delivered today will cheer everyone up.

    Yesterday Dearly Beloved was occupied in calling Triple A about the car battery—the car suddenly refused to start. In fact it got mad and locked itself shut a few minutes later. Eventually the problem was solved, although we may need a new battery. We celebrated the return of mobility by going to an Indian restaurant. I’d forgotten how much I like Indian food.

    Also yesterday I finished Chapter 21! One more to write and then it’s done. I’d like to get it to the publisher by the end of the month but I need a couple of beta readers to look it over. Ohio granddaughter will be one of them, but knowing her penchant for privacy I’ll have to thank her in the Acknowledgments as “Anonymous Millennial.”

    On today’s agenda will be more Wrestling with the Devil (doing the tax return by way of TurboTax), and lunch with a friend who lives down the hall. Meanwhile, back at the ranch, Dearly Beloved is getting spring fever. He’s started looking up flights on his laptop and talks of buying a new suitcase.

    Hope everyone who has been ill will feel much better soon. After all, the weekend is coming! Wishing a good day to all at the Pond and Beyond.

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