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

Welcome to The Moose Pond! The Welcomings posts give the Moose, old and new, a place to visit and share words about the weather, life, the world at large and the small parts of Moosylvania that we each inhabit.

Welcomings will be posted at the start of each week (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.

&npsp;

Page One of Comments is HERE!
 

 

24 Comments

  1. Good morning, meeses! Wednesday … Merry Christmas to those who celebrate!

    It is 36 degrees in Madison with an expected daytime high of 50. Cloudy-ish today with fog this morning and then again tonight. I hope holiday drivers are paying attention! Fog can be deadly.

    I am enjoying reading about the rift in the white evangelical community over whether to embrace a corrupt shitpile whose policies literally kill – and effectively reject the teachings of Jesus Christ – or to call out his immorality. It should not be a difficult decision. I read a national article interviewing some of the people at the Elmbrook megachurch in the blood-red suburbs of Milwaukee and it was frightening. They have essentially traded their souls for the right to discriminate against people they don’t like and for tax-payer money for their private schools. I hope this opens up the eyes of people who might not have realized the devils bargain they have made but I am not holding my breath waiting for it. This alliance between the Republican Party’s tax-and-regulation cutters and the godpeople has been very good for both.

    I will be working today, taking advantage of my clients being offline. Chinese food this afternoon.

    See all y’all later!

  2. Merry Christmas Meese

    Spent Christmas Eve listening to Earth Wind and Fire

    Thinking about Puerto Rico and people in cages this morn

    Christmas in cages

  3. Merry Christmas, Moosekind! We’ve always embraced the Pagan aspects of this winter solstice festival as we’re not Christian. We simply like the fun, the traditions, and the delight on the children’s faces. It has become a secular holiday.

    I’ve been awake the entire night. Made the mistake of thing that with a 50-minute walk with the dog in the morning and no nap in the afternoon, I wouldn’t need a sleeping pill. Wrong! So now I’ve somehow got to get breakfast on, make the hard sauce, and take a nap in time to wake up to prepare the dinner. Have just ordered a herbal sleeping aid, will see whether it works. That wretched weighted blanket doesn’t “comfort” me, it just feels oppressive. Don’t think I’ll try to use it any more.

    It’s 25 F. in Ashburn right now and seems to be working up to a mild, sunny day with a high of 49 F. Oddly, the pollution levels are high enough that sensitive persons should not engage in vigorous activity. Humph!

    We had a great time at Elder Son’s house last night with the family. The noise the three children made was not to be believed! But the food was delicious and the occasion was fun.

    Time to heat the oven for the cinnamon rolls, a Christmas tradition of ours. Wishing everyone a happy, peaceful holiday!

    • This non-Christian celebrates culturally as well :)

      We are not doing much – hubby will sleep most of the day away – and I’m baking a Virginia ham – not doing the usual cooking, since his appetite has suffered because of the stroke and taking so many meds.

      I wistfully would love some pernil

      I do have pasteles

  4. Merry Christmas! I’m watching the Dr. Who & Harry Potter marathons. Hope everyone has a happy day.

  5. Merry Christmas, Meeses! Yes, a most secular holiday with little or nothing to do with the holy day it supposedly represents. But there have been times in my life, a good 35 or 36 years in fact, when I celebrated it. Total disconnect from what it is supposed to be for all but 8 of them. I was very Xtian – RC in fact – for those years. (My younger son says I was a religious fanatic. I disagree. I never proselytized. But it’s true the boys were stuck going to church with me 2x on Sundays plus Xmas day.) It’s always been and always will be a family gathering celebration as far as I’m concerned. Which is why today only means anything different from any other Wednesday because I’m having dinner at my son’s house. It’s also why I once knew every movie and TV edition of “A Christmas Carol” out there – and even have a recording of a 1930s radio show version with Lionel Barrymore as Scrooge (presented by Campbell Soup & produced by Orson Wells). 🎄✨🎁🎶🌞😁😁

    Christmas doesn’t stop me worrying about people – but it also gives me hope that something nice will happen with/for them today. And Christmas is no different from any other day in Channeling Healing/Helping Energy to all who need and accept it, to their shaping. However you deal with this day, I hope you enjoy it. Bright the day, Meeses. {{{HUGS}}}

  6. Good morning, meeses! Thursday …

    It is 45 degrees in Madison with an expected daytime high of 48. Mostly cloudy skies are in the forecast. We came up short by one degree of the record high for December 25th – the walking/bike trails in the neighborhood were busy and kids got to use their new skates and bicycles. People who got cross-country skis for Christmas were not as happy. :)

    The news, fortunately, slows down around the holidays a bit. I feel as though having the impeachment vote behind us helped ease a lot of anxiety, at least for me. Also, no longer having a favorite candidate in the 2020 race has taken the edge off that contest. I can read the news and shake my head at it rather than shake my fist at it. Or laugh when I see that Karl Rove wrote an editorial in the Wall Street Journal claiming that Bill Clinton’s impeachment was “dignified”. JHC on a popsicle stick! They impeached him for having oral sex in the Oval Office and the hearings made sure that every graphic detail was covered! Yes, very dignified, turdblossom. Republicans have chosen “facts optional” in their analysis of history; the depths of their hypocrisy is limitless.

    The front page of my local paper had a story about a UN “Happiness Report” and apparently Americans aren’t very happy – and getting unhappier (“On a scale of 1 to 3, American happiness slipped from a high of 2.28 in the 1980s to recent score of 2.16”). We probably don’t need a special report to tell us that. Certainly social media and the instant access to online news (and the pushed breaking news) makes it more difficult to find peace and quiet and to worry when we are not tapped in. Holiday pictures now show a roomful of people staring at their phones and tablets rather than looking up and engaging with those who they are with. Some of it is probably being with families of birth rather than families of choice – our friends and other people who are part of our lives – and the holidays can certainly be fraught with angst as memories of holidays past loom large. I can avoid most of them because I no longer have a reliable enough car to make the 10 hour drive and air travel is too expensive and chaotic. I don’t miss the big gatherings – I was part of them for 60 years; I do enjoy other non-holiday moments with my family members.

    This week will feel like it has two weekends. Yesterday certainly felt like Sunday and here we are back at work again! I need to get motivated to take some big whacks at my to-do list but today I have some errands to run in the middle of the morning that will chop up the day. I hate to start anything and have to set it aside so I need to find a couple of little things I can do.

    See all y’all later!

  7. Thursday Meese
    29 going up to 41 here in the NY Catskills

    Trying to avoid going out today – since traffic will be a mess with all the shoppers – but have to drive hubby to physical therapy.

    Puerto Rico

  8. Watching the Dr. Who marathon. I really should do something today, appreciate the nice weather if nothing else. For right now, I’m eating my overnight oats & enjoying Christopher Eccleston’s Doctor.

  9. Happy Boxing Day and Kwanzaa, Moosekind! It looks like a lovely, mild (although polluted) day here, with sunlight and clouds mixed. The current temp is 30 F., going up to 51 F. later.

    Guess what, Meese, I had 7 hours’ sleep last night! (Cavorting with joy.) I owe it to Zzzquil. Feeling quite perky this morning, which is good as I have to see the Torturer later on. They’re going to pull the stitches out this afternoon.

    Today will be a Penance Day to make up for yesterday’s excessive indulgence in sweets and red meat. Porridge with chopped apple, cinnamon, and walnuts for breakfast; salad for lunch; and blackened salmon at the Pub for dinner. Hope to get out for a walk later, as it’s such nice weather.

    Jan, here is some info on Witchfest (Saturday, 7 March 2020, from 10 to 5) in Austin for you.

    https://www.facebook.com/events/jourdan-bachman-pioneer-farms/austin-witchfest-2020/381051749458823/

    I’m going to think about going. Not sure where Pioneer Farms is—anotherdemocrat, do you know?

    Still have some housework to do. The cleaners didn’t do everything, that would have been impossible in two hours, but they did the important things. There’s a lot I can do, including cleaning out the front hall closet so we’ll have room to store visitors’ coats after the large luncheon on Saturday.

    Had a very nice day yesterday after the night-long insomnia. Took a short morning nap and a long afternoon nap. It was great!

    Wishing a good day to all at the Pond. Have begun thinking of how to register voters next year and get them to the polls. We must FLOOD the polls, especially in the seven crucial states. Still not enthusiastic enough about Unca Joe to donate or volunteer, but will vote for him, naturellement.

    Wishing a good, quiet day to all at the Pond.

    • I’m vaguely familiar with Pioneer Farm, but have never been. When babysitting was my main income, kids would talk about going there.

  10. Well, we made it through another Xmas and are in the “holding pattern” the Xtian calendar forced on us while we wait for the start of the new year. Yesterday I had a pleasant visit with my son and at least got the traditional “coming and going” hugs from my grandsons. Wish I’d had a little more time with the older boy – he doesn’t live with his folks any longer and I was going to offer him a ride home but he left before I could. He’s 19 now. Time flies and all that. He’s kinda the odd man out – he has a different last name (was born before his parents married and when he was old enough to ask decided to keep it to carry on his mother’s family name) and while the oldest grandson (different mother) looks like his father’s family and the youngest one looks like his mother’s family, this one looks like my side of the family. His eyes are just like my mother’s in fact. I will have to try again when opportunity presents itself. He’s always been, well, almost aloof from the family – since he was in grade school he’s preferred to “hang out” with his friends. We shall see what we shall see here as with everything else.

    Christmas brings so very many emotions – a lot of them aren’t good. Those with seriously dysfunctional families…well, I don’t know what’s worst. Being with them or being rejected by them. Both are bad. But the kindness of strangers can make so much difference. Yesterday the Latina housekeeper at the motel Amelia’s staying at right now brought her homemade tamales. So as she said, she had Christmas dinner after all (and supper – there were 3 large tamales, 2 savory and one that wasn’t wypipo sweet but also wasn’t savory for dessert) – and was all the happier it wasn’t anything you’d see in a Norm Rockwell painting. But with the help of family, friends, or kindly strangers, we survive.

    I’ve got some errands to do today and muffin bread that needs to come out of the oven. Healing/Helping Energy to all who need and accept it, to their shaping. Bright the day, Meeses. {{{HUGS}}}

  11. Good morning, 32 and cloudy in Bellingham. The main floor of my house looks like Christmas exploded, and it did! Lots of fun, but I’m done so I’m going to try to rest this morning and pick up the pieces this afternoon.

    We were at our son’t house for breakfast yesterday, and then to the new Star Wars movie in the afternoon. I enjoyed the day but was to tired to sleep last night, so it’s time to slow down. Best wishes to all.

  12. Good morning, meeses! Friday that feels like Monday so won’t tomorrow be a nice surprise! …

    It is 34 degrees in Madison with an expected daytime high of 36. Sunny skies are in the forecast.

    The news is still quiet – North Korea did not nuke any of our allies, tRump is getting more and more unhinged (and the impeachment vote seems to have allowed people to express their desire to have him removed – now at 55%!), Mitch McConnell is under fire both at home in Kentucky and from Lisa Murkowski of Alaska for his declaration that he will ignore the oath he will take in the impeachment trial. It won’t matter, he just sucked a billion dollars out of the recent budget bill for Kentucky projects. THAT’S how you stay in power even though you are underwater in favorability – Kentuckians don’t like him at all, they just like the bacon he brings back to the state.

    I went to my first Medicare Wellness Visit and I found the government questionnaire interesting. It asks you two questions about food insecurity which begs the question: what would they do if you say you don’t have enough money to buy food when the Trump administration is doing everything in its power to repeal SNAP benefits? Are they taunting the elderly poor? :(

    I still haven’t recovered from holiday mode and may just do the minimum today and try to get back in the groove over the weekend. I have some end of year projects to do but they are boring!

    See all y’all later!

  13. Friday Meese. 44 and cloudy going up to 48 here in the NY Catskills.

    Puerto Rico

  14. Boy, that alarm was early this morning. At work, eating my overnight oats, drinking tea. wondering how few will be here today. Love this version of Christmas Baby Please Come Home — it’s hilarious, because Bono just canNOT remember the words.

  15. Good Freya’s Day, Meese! It’s completely cloudy this morning in Ashburn, with a current temp. of 39 F. The forecasted high for today is 56 F.—yesterday it got up to 55 F. Not bad, for winter. Had a decent sleep because of the overnight cold pills.

    We are cleaning out closets and so far have managed to get them in vastly better shape than they were. Today I have a manicure in the morning and a birthday lunch to attend at 12:30. I have to MapQuest the driving directions to Sterling, a location down the road. Ashburn is such an ugly place that I don’t feel like driving around it any more than absolutely necessary, so I barely know how to get anywhere. Apparently there is a Staples in Leesburg, so some day we have to drive out there to dump all my used printer cartridges. They’ve been sitting around my desk forever and a day.

    Time to eat breakfast and start the chores. I’ll probably go news-light, as there won’t be much time to become deeply involved in it.

    Wishing a good day to all at the Pond.

  16. It’s 43 heading for 61 and overcast in Fay., AR. This warm spate of 60s highs and 40s lows will be washed away in tomorrow afternoon’s rain but it’s here now. Yesterday I got a bit of outside work done. A very small bit. But with no leaves to brush my face or arms and cause a rash, I got out and pruned the Rose of Sharon bushes. Not up to princesspat’s standard but at least I won’t have to dodge to keep from walking into them when they leaf out again next spring. Today I’ll go back and pick up the branches (couldn’t hold anything by the time I quit pruning). I might add them to the wild-spot nature corner of my back yard or I may just pile them by the street to be turned into mulch. I get one free brush pile pick up per year. The last few days have been sunny – generating 6 to 7 KWHs per day (m-t-d is currently 153) – but looks like the rest of the month/year is gonna be overcast. Fitting somehow. But I’m over 4 MWHs for the year so while I’d love to generate more, I’m good.

    Nobody’s out of the tunnel/cave yet but several of my friends/folks I’m worried about are seeing glimmers of light and my friend no-longer-across-the-street is seeing serious daylight and a very strong indication of where out is. There are a few signs out there that 2020 may actually be a better year. Maybe. There’s no less work to do. In fact there’s more. But those glimmers of light…they lift hearts, strengthen arms, firm determination. We shall see what we shall see. And without in the least knowing what is the way out for anybody, I’m Channeling Healing/Helping Energy to all who need and accept it. To their shaping. Bright the day, Meeses. {{{HUGS}}}

  17. Good morning, 41 and cloudy in Bellingham. I slept long and well last night so my post Christmas crash may be over….sure hope so! I want to see Little Women with my grand girls, so that may happen today. If not I’ll start reading a book from my teetering TBR stack.

    Best wishes to all on this quiet day.

  18. Saturday Meese

    37 going up to 46 here in the NY Catskills

    Puerto Rico

  19. Good morning, meeses! Saturday …

    It is 25 degrees in Madison with an expected daytime high of 43. Rain is in the forecast.

    I was following a few tweets related to the passing decade and I will participate in one EOD retrospective: the 2010s really REALLY sucked politically. 2010 alone was a year of nightmares – ushered in by Scott Brown’s Senate win and the loss of our filibuster-proof Senate majority, the racist teaparty’s anti-ACA summer leading to the 2010 midterm backlash against our black president – and his agenda being stopped dead in its tracks, the loss of statehouses in a census year leading to the gerrymandering and the successful voter suppression, in Wisconsin the crushing of our unions. Thank the goddess that is done. We start 2020 with a clean slate with the wind in our sails after our first year of a House majority: the impeachment of the most criminal president we have had since 1974 and the hope that the Democratic Party of 2020 will not be as foolish as the one that let Teddy Kennedy’s seat fall to the Republicans while they were consumed with in-fighting like they were in Massachusetts, that let outsiders choose their gubernatorial candidates like they did in Wisconsin leading to the election of Scott Walker, that nationwide allowed #BernieOrBust instead of crushing it – which led to “bust”. We can be smarter as long as we ignore the national party, put everything we have in our statewide parties where GOTV and registration happens, and then swamp the vote.

    I did the Windows 10 upgrade on my main computer last night and I was surprised at how seamless it was. So far I have not found any of my daily tasks thwarted and the desktop looks the same as it did. Later today I will open each of the programs I use to make sure I can do things like accounting and paying the bills. The biggest change is that it made Edge the default browser which superseded Adobe for opening PDF files. Easily fixed! And because I had upgraded dozens of Windows 7 computers over the past 9 months, it was something I had already seen.

    The Fighting Back post will return today from its hiatus with House Democrats talking about their very productive first year. Not many bills were signed into law but the markers were laid down – the Democratic Party’s #ForThePeople agenda will be something all of our candidates can – and should – run on.

    See all y’all later!

  20. Up & watching the news. Today I need to buy the last couple of ingredients for my New year’s dish — I already have the kale (green leafy), carrots & yellow squash (I’ll cut in rounds so they look like coins) & plenty of broth for soup. So the mushroom broth isn’t symbolic, but everything else is. I just need the blackeyed peas. For now though, I’m enjoying my almond butter sandwich & tea.

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