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?
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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.
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– Page One of Comments is HERE!
– Page Two of Comments is HERE!
Good morning, meeses! Tuesday, August 18 …
It is 59 degrees in Madison with an expected daytime high of 75. Sunny skies are in the forecast.
An upgrade to WordPress 5.5 has eaten our old comments! They are there – and weirdly, we can post new ones, but they are simply no longer linked up properly. I reverted our site back to 5.4.1 but that did not help. We must start anew! (I will work on trying to relink the old comments this weekend when I have time to fool with it.)
The Democratic National Convention was on too late for me. By 8pm, I am flagging and have little energy to keep my head up, much less concentrate on speeches. Many of Monday night’s speeches would have been muted anyway so I will watch the ones I want off my DVR.
Today is the 100th anniversary of white women getting the vote. I wish I could celebrate but I can’t – the current state of the country makes it impossible to celebrate anything. I will do all my celebrating for all the anniversaries missed since January 20, 2017 on January 21, 2021, the day after the Biden-Harris Administration is sworn in.
See all y’all later!
After looking at the issues, I am going to need to recover the database from a backup in order to relink the comments. The good news is that I have a good backup from Saturday night – the bad news is that we will lose comments added after that time.
I will not have time to work on this until early tomorrow morning. Thank you for your patience.
Blessings and thanks for your work in keeping the Moose Pond going. You don’t know how much I appreciate having this community. Or well, actually you probably do. More blessings & {{{HUGS}}}
Thank you, Jan! We can be as patient as you like. We all realize what you do for us, and what a boon this site has been to our continued sanity.
Nice morning, 75 degrees for my walk/run & I made it to 5 segments of 1 minute running — most ever! The streak of 100+ degree highs continues. Loved the convention last night, felt hopeful for the first time in….maybe years.
As did I! I really dig the new virtual format, so much less tedious.
Good Tuesday morning, Jan and Meese! What a weird thing for WordPress to do! Hope they don’t mess with my website because I’d be incapable of fixing it.
It’s sunny and nice here in Ashburn this morning, with a current temp. of 68 F., going up to 86 F. No chance of rain today.
Well, we watched most of the Democratic convention in bed and it was the most watchable convention ever! How I blessed the short speeches, the input from regular people, and the far-ranging variety of speeches. I didn’t even mind the Rethug speakers because their speeches were so short. We wilted at 10:30 so we missed Michelle’s speech, but we recorded the whole thing. We’ll watch it this afternoon in the living room.
Breakfast has been eaten. I’m about to go for a walk while it’s still fairly cool. I walked yesterday and felt better for it. Problem is, I’m old now; when I walk outside I’m assailed by numerous allergens, so when I return I’m either itching or sneezing.
My tomatoes are nearly finished. They were fun while they lasted! I was glad to be able to share some of them with my charming, funny Irish neighbor next door, and with Miss Pink Cheeks and her family. The latter don’t really have time to grow anything, and even when they try, Mort the Boxer pees on everything so their plantings all die.
Hoping very much to do some writing after I return from my walk this morning. I have something due for the Writers’ Group on Friday, plus other work.
Wishing a good day to all at the Pond.
It appears to only impact comment visibility so unless you allow comments, you are probably okay. I updated to 5.5 on two other sites I manage and there were no problems so I thought I could run a quick update without any ill effects. But neither of those sites has comments so I was lulled into a false sense of security. I hope that 5.5 doesn’t kill commenting – WordPress has been leaning that way for a while, they prefer you use FaceBark to post comments, something that I will never do.
I hope to heaven they don’t kill commenting. That’s the heart of community. 🙏🙏🙏
I’m late checking in and it’s already – 71? LOL – dawn started at 59 but I’ve dealt with morning cat routine, vacuuming, washing laundry and hanging it on the racks, fixed breakfast for myself and now here I am. We’re heading for 83 with no heat index (I like that) and sunny again. At least so far. We got just over 20 KWHs yesterday so I’m guessing that’s pretty much the max for this time of year/sun at this angle. The m-t-d is 308 and still on track. I’m not gonna hubristically claim we’re gonna make it because that totally depends on the sun or lack thereof for the rest of the month. But we’re definitely headed that way.
I didn’t watch the convention. Heck, I logged off about the time it was starting. I may or may not go find video clips of anybody I’d actually like to listen to. Everybody’s hanging on. The country’s hanging on. We shall see what we shall see. Omaha Beach wasn’t guaranteed. And there was a lot of work/fighting to go once we actually took that beach. Decent people with decent policy, that’s what I’m hoping/working for. Decent policy will give enough help to folks on the edge to get back from it, will give communities the abilities they need to survive comfortably. Bright the day, Meeses. {{{HUGS}}}
Good morning, 69 and partly sunny in Bellingham. Michelle Obama’s warning that “it can get worse” if we don’t vote tRumpism out of office gave me an epic night of tRump angst so I’m sleepy and slow this morning. I know Wa Sate will vote blue, but that’s small comfort.
Voting by mail is secure in Wa State, but voters still have to pay attention and follow the rules. Some ballots were not postmarked on time, some were signed incorrectly, and some were just not filled our properly. We vote early, use the drop off box at the Courthouse, and check online to make sure our ballots were received and counted.
hmmmm……trying again with the link to the Bellingham Herald article.
Here’s why more than 1,000 of Whatcom primary ballots were rejected
Good!
Good morning, meeses! Wednesday …
It is 55 degrees in Madison with an expected daytime high of 81. Sunny skies are in the forecast.
I do not for one minute believe Postmaster General DeJoy’s statement about not planning to hamper the vote in order to deliver the election to his pal Donald J. Trump. Nancy Pelosi is right to be skeptical. The DeJoy statement was simply done so that Ron Freaking Johnson, second dumbest man in the Senate, could have a show hearing on Friday where he gets fluffed and the billion dollar deficits at the postal service (caused by Senators bought by package delivery lobbyists and fueled by anti-union sentiment) get highlighted. I am glad the People’s House will be doing a hearing on Monday to counter the lies certain to flow from the Senate. Let’s see some sorting machines and mailboxes put back in place, then we can talk.
So AOC nominates Bernie Sanders and says “Bern it all down, what could go wrong if we don’t vote for the one person who stands between chaos and a return to sanity?” Fk them. Really, fk them. I have no patience for those who insist that their way is the only way and who won’t even promote solidarity in the face of an existential crisis. No, I was not thrilled that the DNC invited anti-choice Republican Kasich to the convention but if the path to victory requires convincing suburban Republican white women that voting for Joe Biden won’t destroy their immortal souls, go for it; we have mute buttons. I don’t like that Friend of Epstein Bill Clinton spoke at the DNC, reminding everyone again and forever that his personal failings led directly to Bush and Trump. Go away.
It is 2:30am and I woke up at 1:30 unable to get back to sleep with my head buzzing with unfinished projects. I did some research on one project – I think I will stay up and go start my pot of coffee.
See all y’all later!
Wednesday Meese. 56 degrees here in Kingston NY going up to 78. Spent the day yesterday traveling to NYC and back. Exhausting.
Puerto Rico
Good morning! I wrote a diary about the AIDS Walk. It’s going to be super challenging raising money between Covid & the presidential campaign, but they need it. It’ll auto-post at 7 at the orange place & 7:05 here. Loved the convention last night — the corniness of the roll call was just perfect. And I love the Biden’s story. Jill is so cool.
Good rainy Wednesday morning, Moosekind! In fact, when we woke up a little before 7, rain was falling steadily. I put my hearing aids in right away and opened the door to the screened porc, as I like the sound of falling rain. It seems to be tapering off a bit now.
Currently it’s 66 F. in Ashburn, climbing to a high of 83 F. today. I could get used to these lower temperatures!
We watched the convention until 10:30, at which time we simply had to go to sleep. We’ll watch Dr. Jill and Colin this afternoon. I am finding the virtual convention very much more to my taste than the regular kind of convention. We watch on C-SPAN, of course, so we don’t have to listen to tiresome pundits.
As there’s no possibility of a walk this morning, I can focus on writing and laundry. I’m glad.
Can’t WAIT to see and hear Kamala tonight!
Wishing a good day to all at the Pond. Our ponds here are really filling up owing to the rain we’ve had. On my walk the other day I saw a turtle sunbathing on a big rock.
This is August? It was 55 at dawn, 57 now, heading for 84 and still no heat index. I doubt I’ll close up at all today and if I do it won’t be until close to noon. (Closer to “normal” temps come back over the weekend.) Sunny for most of the day, too. Yesterday we generated 19.7 KWHs and the m-t-d of 326.8 is very much still on track. I’ve got pumpkin bread in the oven and it feels good to have the oven on 😁. The recipe I’m sort of following was for 2 smaller loaves but I’ve only got a large (well, largish) bread pan so we shall see how it works to make one big loaf. Edibly I hope since I hate wasting food anyway and GF ingredients are expensive. It smells good anyway. We shall see what we shall see on that, too.
The convention, which I’m not watching, is hope and promise. Both what we want to do and what we can do if we get the power to do it. Whether it can be done fast enough to make a difference in small (like Amelia’s situation) or large (like global warming) is another issue. But we can help a lot of people and we can do damage control and mitigation IF we get that power and hang onto it for long enough. That’s the rub. It takes so much less time to destroy things than to build them. And some things cannot be restored at all. But still, hope and promise give us the energy to keep working on it. And if Channeling Energy to that end is all a person can do, that’s still work and it’s still a good thing. Bright the day, Meeses. {{{HUGS}}}
Good morning, 62 and partly sunny in Bellingham. While I’ve known that the arthritis in my back is making it harder to walk, covid confinement has kept me so close to home I didn’t realize how much had changed until this week. Fortunately I asked RonK to go with me to shop for Ava’s birthday gift because I could barely make it back to the car. So, despite my extreme reluctance yesterday we bought a rollator that also works as a transport chair so I can walk with better assistance and be safely pushed when my legs have had enough. And to my surprise the local medical equipment store met the Amazon price. I didn’t want to bother with Medicare prior approval so the price adjustment was nice.
I’ve been moping, but my grand girls are pleased I have new wheels. I just have to adjust to the reality of them pushing me around. Oh well, it was nice to have a trial run yesterday and experience moving without pain. Getting older is so humbling!
Best wishes to all.
{{{princesspat}}} It’s very good that you’re taking care of yourself. And that your family is so delighted to help you do so. Healing Energy and moar {{{HUGS}}}
Good morning, meeses! Thursday …
It is 70 degrees in Madison with an expected daytime high of 82. Sunny skies are in the forecast.
I did not stay up for the speeches and will find them later. I had seen snippets of Barack Obama’s speech and knew it would be a stemwinder. I have the transcript saved off to read later. I will build a “Biden-Harris Administration” category for the Moose (after I get the site comment data restored this weekend); that transcript and some other DNC speeches and the Harris announcement speech will go there. From President Obama, still hoping and still believing the best of us:
I am still trying to wrap up work on a completed project and keep getting sidetracked. Today I am vowing to finish! The good news is that the project work itself is finished so the time sink is done, I just need to gather notes to finish the billing for it and it is extremely tedious.
See all y’all later!
Always and forever bless you for all you do. Thank you for planning to put together a Biden-Harris category. It’s not always easy to find videos of full speeches, it’s down-right hard to find the transcripts. Thank you again. {{{HUGS}}}
Good Thursday morning, Moosekind. It’s rather cloudy at the moment in Ashburn, although it’s supposed to be fair today. Right now the temperature is 63 F., going up to 83 F. later.
I’ve been up most of the night, unable to sleep. Part of it was because we stayed up late to watch Kamala’s speech. It was terrific, as was Obama’s. I’ve just been reading the whole newspaper in the green chair and taking care of the dog.
After breakfast I’m going back to bed. This will probably be another ruined day. I hope I can be sufficiently awake and coherent to attend the socially distanced book club meeting at 1 p.m.
I’m still so upset by the USPS debacle I don’t know where to look. Wishing a good day to all at the Pond.
I’m upset too – am posting about USPS and what it meant to my family, this morning.
Barbara Lee talks about it
Good Thursday morning Meese. I’m still on a Kamala high!
Jennifer Hudson
Puerto Rico
Great morning — it’s cool out, 73 degrees & low humidity. I did 5 segments of 1 minute running & 2 at 45 seconds. I got 2 donations yesterday, so that’s not bad. And the convention is going really well. I loved all the speeche, so good to hear Pres. Obama again, and Kamala is just wonderful . Looking forward to Joe tonight.
Posted
My usual weather widget station is down so I went to the next closest one. Looks like today is pretty much supposed to be the same as yesterday. Dawn was in the 50s, it’s in the 60s now and heading for mid 80s with no heat index and sunny. I’ll close and curtain the west-side windows around noon but the rest can stay open. Lovely weather that I wish would continue. But weather being weather of course it won’t. It’s a nice respite though. (Just wish I could get rid of the no-see-ems – I’m really tired of being bitten inside as well as outside. But they’re small enough to come through the screens.) The little bit of afternoon cloudiness we had didn’t slow the PV system down much. We generated 19.7 KWHs and the m-t-d is 346.8 – which is just a few shy of what the 2.5K system did in 2014. We’ll pass that by noon today and keep climbing on track to our 534 goal. We might actually make it this month. 🌞😁
I logged off about the time the convention coverage started. I’m sure I’ll be able to find snippets of the speeches today. Sounds like our folks are doing a very good job of what the convention is really all about – rallying the troops and raising Energy. And that’s a good thing. President Obama’s right – there’s a whole lot of work to be done but we can’t do any of it if we don’t win the election up and down the ballot. All “my” folks are hanging on. Some barely and that’s all they’re doing. Some with a little better grip and still fighting. (Wings finished 6 new works yesterday – 2 cuffs and 4 rings – that Aji showed last night. Gorgeous work. I hope some folks who’ve got some money stashed back see them and buy them. They are not only beautiful but all of his work has a spiritual side and our world needs that connection desperately now.)
So on we go. Doing what we can, doing the preparation work to “hit Omaha Beach” (& the other 4 – all were crucial, Omaha was just the best fortified) in November with everything we’ve got. Bright the day, Meeses. {{{HUGS}}}
Good morning, 67 and partly cloudy in Bellingham. President Obama’s emotional and honest words of warning re the upcoming election made for a long night of tRump angst. People had better listen this time!
Time for coffee and to find a more positive attitude. Best wishes to all.