Week-long Welcomings from Moosylvania: Sept. 27th through Oct. 3rd

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 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 (right before “Leave A Reply”) and use the Pages Tool, shown here with 3 pages of comments available.

28 Comments

  1. I didn’t watch the debate, watched an astronomy show. It’s cool & dry here, more cold fronts coming — unfortunately they’re dry. We could use some rain. Today: just work.

  2. It’s 65 heading for low 80s and sunny again, which is nice. We generated 14 KWHs yesterday and the m-t-d is 349.8 starting the last day of September. Barring something weird we’ll get above last year’s 356. September production seems to be in 2 clusters and getting above 356 will put 2020 at the top of the lower cluster. No fire tonight. The temps won’t be low enough by dark. But the forecast indicates we’ll be doing fires for the next several days. Until next Wednesday in fact (unless the changeable weather changes to warmer sooner).

    I haven’t a clue why anybody watched the twitler show last night. The only thing different from 2016 is this time he doesn’t have a small woman to try to physically intimidate when she’s speaking. If you saw even a few minutes of his performance in 2016, there’s no reason to subject yourself to it again. But to each their own.

    My energy and interests are in “making things better” for my circle of friends, for my state, for my country. And the world, of course. There’s little enough I can do to help besides whatever good “prayer” does – I’ll keep my focus on that and ignore the noise. And on the much more mundane side, a cat just horked up a hairball so I’d best go deal with that. LOL. We do what’s closest and hope for the rest. Bright the day, Meeses. {{{HUGS}}}

    • I checked with friends and most of them who chose to watch the “debate” lasted no more than 10 minutes, most lasted about 5. It was the worst ratings for a debate in years – turns out that no one really wants to watch a sh*tshow especially when one of the participants is clearly deranged and holds the power of life or death over you. tRump thought he won! I suspect it is because he only polled his family and Twitter followers. I hope they don’t do another one – for all of our sakes.

      • Anybody with a grasp of reality is likely to react that way. As to who won, I suppose that also depends on one’s grasp of reality. Twitler declared himself the winner before the show started. And wouldn’t have polled anyone anyway since he declared years ago that he has the best mind and doesn’t need advice or facts. (Pity that wasn’t enough to reach the berners in 2016.)

  3. Good Wednesday morning, Moosekind!

    Well, we watched what Dana Bash on CNN termed a “sh*tshow” last night. She added, “we can get away with calling it that because we’re on cable.” Jake Tapper, whom I normally dislike bigly, muttered it was “the worst debate I’ve ever seen in my life.”

    It was insane! I’ll never watch another presidential debate this cycle. It was mortifying. Thing is a complete Barr-barian, like Attila the Hun’s brother. Biden made his point by laughing at Thing and looking straight into the camera to talk to the American people. Chris Wallace was steamrollered by Thing.

    Enough of that. Biden’s campaign raised close to 4 million dollars in the hour between 10 and 11 p.m. I had been saving up to contribute and I’m glad I did.

    This morning is positively Shakespearean—“Full many a glorious morning have I seen/Flatt’ring the mountain tops with sovereign eye…” It was 55 F. when I got up this morning after a blissful drugged sleep. I know I’m risking Alzheimer’s by taking sleeping pills, but I’ll continue eating lots of berries and writing all sorts of things. The temp. will go up to 77 F. today. Soup and cheese toast for lunch, for sure!

    Speaking of writing, I emailed “Catwalk” to the contest last night and received an acknowledgment. The winner will be announced November 21. I have to clean up Chapter 7 to post to my website tomorrow and find a photo to illustrate it. Then I’ll work on the corrections to the manuscript.

    What else…deskwork for what remains of the day. Also I should pop out and get my hair done as there’s a Communications Committee meeting tomorrow. I wish they’d do it by Zoom.

    No other news today. Wishing a good day to all at the Pond!

  4. Good morning, 53 and mostly cloudy in Bellingham. I was in the garden yesterday, and filled the truck with another load of branches from our overgrown plants. I can work on the lower levels, but I need RonK’s help with the pole pruner and we both need the tree service guys to do anything requiring a ladder. It feels good to have a pruning plan, but some plants need to be pruned in the winter and some next spring after blooming so we’ll have to stay focused. Np surprise, my joints are not happy this morning but oh well.

    Lisa was at work last night and asking for debate reports so I watched more than was good for my mental health. tRump was awful, worse than my low expectations. Biden is a decent man and I wish he (and all of us) could be done with tRumps abusive behavior. I need more time in the garden to recover.

    Best wishes to all.

  5. Good morning, meeeses! Thursday …

    It is 45 degrees in Madison with an expected daytime high of 52. Chance of showers is in the forecast again. Overnight it will get down to 34!

    The government will stay open until at least December 11th with the Continuing Resolution signed. I believe it includes money for food because Nancy Pelosi’s House does not want Americans to starve. She had to trade a tRump bribe to farmers in order to get the money. Fine. Ridiculous to think that farmers needed a bribe to vote for their Great White Saviour. Joe Biden is white, of course, but obviously a “race traitor” because he cares about social justice and values the lives of all humans. The breathless headlines “Republicans distance themselves from Trump’s white supremacist comments” are such bulldung. They do no such thing!! The unholy alliance between the fundies and the white supremacists and the Wall Street tasseled loafer crowd IS the Republican Party. They can’t win without the racists and misogynists and they will never denounce them.

    Anyway, I had a busy last day of September, got enough done to not fear the day and this morning I am following up on projects started and set aside for the end of month crunch. I need a workable to-do list and then I can begin Octobering.

    See all y’all later!

  6. Thursday Meese. 53 here in Kingston NY going up to 71.

    But unlike SNAP benefits in the 50 states, the island’s Nutrition Assistance Program in the U.S. territory is funded through block grants that cannot be readjusted after they’ve been approved—not even to accommodate increased need during times of disaster or a pandemic.
    “In August, we saw that funds began to run short. By September, we saw a funding abyss,” said Javier Balmaceda, the senior policy adviser at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities who authored the analysis.
    The current funding cliff stands to have “more serious repercussions” because over 100,000 people more than last year enrolled in the program, said Balmaceda.
    Making matters worse, Congress excluded Puerto Rico from the Pandemic EBT program in March, which provides additional food aid to children who are missing free or reduced-price meals due to school closures. This is leaving hundreds of thousands of Puerto Rican public school students without assistance. Puerto Rico already participates in the federal school meals programs.
    Without money, Puerto Rico stands at a crossroad. The local government could try to keep all enrollees in the program and cut back their benefits or reduce the number of enrollees in order to keep current benefit rates. “We could also see a combination of both,” Balmaceda told NBC News.

    • May Nemesis overtake all the Rethug pols who are blocking aid to Puerto Rico!

      Can Chef Andre go back there? Is there a way to get food to them, i.e., donations to food banks? I assume there is food but it’s not getting into the hands of the people who need it.

      I hope Kamala starts doing something about PR on Day 1! After the election I’ll start harping about it on Twitter, not that I have any influence, but sooner or later an idea begins to sink in.

      • Chef Andre’s team never left. But they’re an NGO and operate off donations. They’re simply not big enough – even with the boost they have from the Clinton Foundation, another NGO operating with donations – to do what government is supposed to do. “Charity” has never had the funds to deal with the job. That’s why gov’t has to step in if the job is going to be done.

  7. Good Thursday morning, Meese. Here in Ashburn it’s a blue-and-silver October day, with rags of white cloud drifting across a pale blue sky. The light is pale and silvery rather than gold. I looked up from the newspaper to see a skein of wild Canada geese flapping away into the distance, and a cricket sings every now and then somewhere near our screened porch.

    Right now in Ashburn it’s 57 F., going up to 70 F. later. The WaPo predicts a much cooler October than usual.

    Yesterday I received an aquamarine-colored T-shirt from the Texas Diaper Bank bearing the legend, “Every baby deserves a change.” I donate to them occasionally. My heart is wrung by the plight of young families with babies and toddlers, and who have one or both breadwinners out of work.

    Went to the barber shop yesterday to get a shampoo and blow-dry. After waiting a full half hour to be tended to by the stylist, I emerged with a mushroom on my head. Well, you get what you pay for: she charged me $15. I always add a generous tip so they’ll be glad to see me coming.

    Today I need to upload Chapter 7, fill out some Medicare forms, do laundry, bla bla bla. However, after my delightful drugged sleep I feel quite full of energy, so I’m game.

    Helen Reddy died. When I heard the news I uttered a shrill scream. “I am Woman, hear me roar” still strikes a chord even 50 years later! According to her obit she had a pretty good life, although she did have a couple of bad ailments at the end. Anyway, I will continue to love that song.

    Well, that’s enough from yrs truly. Wishing a good day to everyone here!

  8. Lovely cool morning here — 56 degrees when I was walk/running. I stuck with 8 running segments, hadn’t looked up the next stage; and my allergies are bothering me so I thought 8 is plenty. Today: waiting for the computers to be re-booted at work; listening to U2 radio.

  9. Welcome to October. It’s 52 heading for 70 and sunny. I certainly will have a fire this evening. It’ll be doing double duty as I have cat-barfed-on chair cushions I need to wash. LOL. Yesterday we generated 13 KWHs and wrapped up September with 363 – not great but definitely not bad. The meet-or-beat target for October is 308 but 275 is the more realistic one. As long as we get above 200 we’re ahead of the 2.5K system so call that the bottom.

    My hands are bothering me. sigh. Winter is a’comin’ in and all that. Also dealing with allergies/sinusitis which is not helpful. Yesterday I only managed one 15-minute session on the treadmill instead of my “normal” more hoped for 3 or even 4 sessions. But my stuff is still better than most of my friends. I’ll deal with it. And do what I can to help others deal with theirs. One of the nice things about being retired is being able to “get up with the sun” – so if I’ve had a bad night early on at least I can make up some of it with sleeping later. Of course that means I’m posting later in winter than I do in summer. But I’m here and that’s the part that matters.

    Holding the Good Thought for everybody – from friends with whatever issues to the planet herself also with whatever issues. Bright the day, Meeses. {{{HUGS}}}

  10. Good morning, 56 and foggy in Bellingham. I was awake in the night so I read myself back to sleep and am slow to wake up again. I got the new Harry Dresden book, Battle Ground yesterday so I’m back in Chicago with Harry, the urban wizard, saving the city from a very scary Titan attack. The Dresden Files is fun escapist reading for me but RonK can’t handle the werewolves, vampires, and other such characters :)

    Looks like a need another cup of coffee before I face the day. Best wishes to all.

    • I need to catch up with Harry. I think Ghost Story was the last one I read. Those are good books.

  11. Good morning, meeses! Friday …

    It is 37 degrees in Madison with an expected daytime high of 48. Mostly sunny in the morning, then clouding up later in the day. The moon was full yesterday – the Harvest Moon! – and there will be another full moon in October, on Halloween. I am going to use moon energy all month to get ahead of projects so that I can take it easy in November and watch news all day of President-Elect Biden and Vice President-Elect Harris planning their administration.

    I am not going to pretend to be sad that Donald J. Trump and his spouse have COVID-19. But I am not going to pretend that I want him to recover quickly or completely. I don’t particularly want him to die – goddess, the conspiracy theories would choke us for decades! I do want him to have every single COVID-19 symptom and think about the 209,000+ people who it was his job to protect who died unable to breathe, strapped to a ventilator laying in their own bodily fluids. He won’t, of course. He is already blaming the infection on military personnel who wanted to hug Melania – not on the White House infection zone he promoted and his own masklessness which was the result of his not wanting to muss his $70,000 hairdo. He won’t like what laying in a hospital bed does to his hair!

    In other news, the House passed another COVID-19 relief bill that will not be taken up by the Senate or signed into law; businesses, with their lifelines cut off and no hope for more funding, are now starting to permanently eliminate jobs. Good job, Republicans!

    See all y’all later!

  12. Republican Senators won’t care, they are heartless and they are focused on putting in place the woman who will reverse Roe v Wade and make IVF illegal because it “kills” zygotes.

    My guess is that Mrs. Barrett will be the first Republican nominee to formally drop the charade and announce that she does not consider Roe a precedent and that it is ripe for overturning. There are 51 anti-Roe votes in the Senate – the only downside to announcing it and then having her confirmed before the election is that Republican anti-choice voters may decide to stay home, their life’s work finally achieved. That would be sad for tRump!!!

  13. Tuesday Meese 50 degrees and raining here in Kingston NY going up to 60.

    With the news breaking re COVID and Trump – the latest news re Puerto Rico will take a back seat

    Puerto Rico

  14. Another lovely cool morning. Went outside to look at the Moon & Mars, gorgeous. Today, I’m working till 3:30. Tomorrow is the cooler morning of the weekend, so I’ll walk/run then.

  15. Good Friday morning, Moosekind! When I went out with Monty at 5:30 there was still a light sprinkle of rain, so Monty wanted to bolt straight back inside after doing a little business. Now, at 8:30, the sky is turning blue and gold. It’s going to be a nice day. Currently it’s 55 F. in Ashburn, going up to 66 F.

    Call me a bitter old cynic, but I’m not sure I believe that Thing and Melanoma really tested positive for COVID. It’s most likely a ploy to get out of the next debate. Also, it’s a new toy to distract the MSM, ever eager to play with whatever shiny new toy Thing throws out. It’s also interesting to know that Melanoma hates Christmas and children. So far from being “beautiful,” I think her face is a nightmare.

    Had a terrible night’s sleep but I felt I accomplished a lot yesterday. WordPress has a FIENDISH new editor that they imposed on my site without consulting yrs truly. I wrote and told them I hated it. For one thing, when I uploaded Chapter 7 to my website, I couldn’t get my scene change underlines to center on the page. Feel totally freaked by the whole thing.

    Got to run to the store today to buy food for the weekend. We don’t have to eat any Dining Services meals until Monday. Good!

    If the COVID story is true and Melanoma, Thing, and Awful Amy have to quarantine for two weeks—as well as everyone else who was exposed to Thing—that could derail the Awful Amy confirmation until after the election. I read that 300,000 people have already voted in Virginia, and early voting goes on until Samhain! Ha! I’m also very amused by the thought of President Pelosi if Tuppence gets it and has to quarantine.

    Wishing a good day to all at the Pond.

  16. It’s 44 heading for 68 so while I’m a bit chilled at the moment the house will warm up with the day. Curtains open, windows closed – and benefit from the gift of the sun. Yesterday we “set the graph” for October with 14 KWHs. We’d have to do that every day to hit the “meet or beat” goal, but it’s doable. It’s a good start for the month and that’s encouraging.

    What Karma twitler has earned is his problem. The earning of it is ours. sigh. I don’t know what to wish so I’ll leave it in the lap of the gods. & goddesses. We can’t seriously start addressing pandemic, recession, or anything else until we get WH & Senate as well as keep the House. Meanwhile I’m doing what I can and Holding the Good Thought for my circle of friends/family to survive and make it to the point of thrive – or at least surviving comfortably. Which may or may not be the same thing, depending on one’s point of view.

    Anyway, my hands hurt. That’s gonna be a given pretty much until next June. Trade off for fewer (I wish no) bugs. Bright the day, Meeses. {{{HUGS}}}

  17. Good morning, 53 and foggy in Bellingham. So the tRumps have covid, and if not for a diligent reporter we would still not know. I’m remembering our son’s experience……traveling with 5 people, and all had different experiences with the disease. He isolated for 7 weeks, and was sick for 3 months. Scott was in the hospital with blood clots, Doug had a flue like response, Christina was sick at home but her husband didn’t show symptoms. The variability makes me feel even more unsettled re our national government. Stay safe Nancy!

    I’m going to be in my sewing room today, trying to remember how to sew. I made numerous stupid mistakes yesterday so I hope to be more productive today.

    Best wishes to all.

  18. Saturday Meese. Woke up at 1AM and couldn’t go back to sleep. It’s 42 here in Kingston NY going up to 60.

    I’m getting really sick and tired of reading stuff like this tweet from Maddow. (She is getting ratioed for it)

    Puerto Rico

    • HAHAHAHAHAHA!! Hilarious with the paper towels from Puerto Rico!!!

      And I know this is unpopular because so many people hero-worship the MSNBC hosts but MSNBC gave microphones to tRump’s white supremacists and to berners like Chris Hayes. They helped “elect” tRump and it is unforgiveable. I shun them just as I shun CNN.

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