Week-long Welcomings from Moosylvania: October 11th

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.

COUNTING DOWN …

38 Comments

  1. It’s 47 heading for 80 and sunny. Being laundry day I think I’m gonna have a fire this evening anyway – even if I have to leave the window open to do it. Drying clothes in the house without a fire takes over a day and there’s always a chance of things souring. With the fire stuff takes about as long as it would hung outside in July. LOL. We generated just under 12.5 KWHs yesterday and the m-t-d is 145 – on track and banking against less sunny days.

    I wish folks would go away with the “we gotta stop her” garbage on Barrett. The time to stop this was 11/4/16. The only thing that might – maybe – stop this is for her or McConnell to drop dead (or at least be hospitalized with an iffy prognosis) before she’s confirmed. There is not one single solitary thing Dems can do at this point. Raise money and GOTV to get them out of power so we can do damage control? Absolutely. Stop it from happening? No. If we fundraised the equivalent of the national debt it would still be no.

    My sleep patterns/issues are the opposite of most folks here. I have trouble getting to sleep. Once I finally am – barring episodes where I wake up with a skullbanging headache & urgent need for the bathroom because I’d stopped breathing – I sleep solidly until the sun’s up. (That “until the sun’s up” took over 18 months of not working. Before that I slept solidly until 6:30 am) But I need to be at the Co-op before 8 am on Thursday (hopefully by 7:30 at the latest) for the “senior shopping” extra safety precautions. So I hope I can manage to wake up early enough to do it. I certainly won’t be checking in until I’m back. heh. This is my supplement and cleaning supplies stock up run so I need to do it, but won’t need to do it again for at least 2 months. Other than a few very specific items (like GF bread when they have it) I do food shopping at Harps and Aldis these days.

    Once the cat sleeping on my lap gets up, I need more coffee. Meanwhile I’ll head over to Dee’s diary. Bright the day, Meeses. {{{HUGS}}}

  2. Good morning, 56, wind and rain in Bellingham. I did what was best for my legs yesterday but staying off them is not good for my soul so I hope to find a better balance today. Time to find some coffee and to see what the day brings my way.

    Best wishes to all.

  3. Squirrels, it’s Tuesday evening. I won’t be around in the morning because I’m going out with the Raging Grannies for the first time since February. Marilyn assures me that everyone is masked and stays 6 feet apart. I’ll be careful.

    We may have a pleasant surprise tomorrow morning when a member of the Moose Pond who has been absent for a while might pop in to say hello. I hope so!

  4. Good morning, meeses! Wednesday …

    It is 43 degrees in Madison with an expected daytime high of 66. Cloudy skies are in the forecast.

    I caught a few clips of the SCOTUS hearing that were on Twitter. I was particularly interested in finding out if our electeds are holding Mrs. Jesse Barrett’s feet to the fire on her plans to invalidate any electoral victory for Democrats. EVERYONE needs to be reminded that tRump said, plainly with no equivocation, that he wants his justices on the court to throw out the inconvenient ballots that are cast for his opponent. We can fix her repealing the ACA and can deal with the repeal of Roe and Marriage Equality – and can even fix the court system to dilute the stolen seats – but we can’t fix a ratfked election that gives tRump a second term. We will all die.

    I have a full morning of eyes-forward on a project and will skip the news until I finish.

    See all y’all later!

  5. Good morning Meese – I’m still upset that I don’t see Rep. Jahana Hayes getting enough support

  6. Wednesday Meese – 40 degrees here in Kingston NY – going up to 70

    Puerto Rico

    • Ugh, what kind of man beats up women when his life is going badly? A patriarch who has been brought up to believe that women are chattel, slaves, there to do his bidding and be a convenient receptacle for his desires.

      I wish male religions would vanish and female-centered religions would take their place.

    • It pisses me off the continually MSM fluffing up of AOC – Velázquez has been doing her best for Puerto Rico and Puerto Ricans since AOC was 4 years old and didn’t know what government is. sigh.

  7. Did my walk/run this morning. Had to talk myself into every segment. Today: might go into the office, otherwise just calling new library users and answering e-mails. But I’m really tired.

    • Another, you’re very likely exhausted owing to constant stress that’s not of your own making and that you can’t do much about.

      I read to escape the unpleasant present. For you, perhaps listening to your favorite music would be the stress reliever.

    • {{{anotherdemocrat}}} excitement of yesterday may have something to do with it. What goes up also comes down and that includes energy. Healing Energy & moar {{{HUGS}}}

    • I saw something on Twitter yesterday that said that 97% of eligible voters in Travis County are registered! Excellent!! I hope most of them are Democrats and vote every bum they can find – out!

  8. Good Wednesday morning, Moosekind! It’s already showing itself to be a lovely day here in Ashburn. The current temperature is 45 F., rising to 73 F. later on. I’m determined to get out of doors today and do some exercise. Yesterday I skulked inside practically all day.

    We have a gorgeous clear sky at the moment and sunlight is beginning to gild the tops of the trees. Noticed as I was walking to the Cafe to pick up dinner yesterday evening that some of the trees around here are turning red and gold. I love October!

    The political news continues to be discouraging with regard to Awful Amy and Thing, but rather good with regard to widespread early voting. People should not have to stand in long lines to vote, although I understand why they do. We might be doing it ourselves on Saturday.

    Must gulp some coffee and start getting dressed. I have to leave here at 9:20. Wishing a good day to all at the Pond and I hope one of our favorite Meese will stop by today!

  9. Ugh, I just typed a really long post, explaining why I was back, and my computer hiccupped. There goes that! Maybe I’ll try again tomorrow, but for now it’s 37 in MI with a cloudy but not rainy high of 63.

    I quit my job on Monday without notice, so I’ll be around a bit until I can find another job. As someone described by my family as “the least spontaneous person ever,” it’s a shock that I quit my job, and I’m still struggling a bit with the no-notice part of that decision (and also with the quitting a safe job when the job market stinks part). But sometimes mental health and integrity mean more than all the rest.

    And for the record, my ballot was put in a dropbox on October 2nd and recorded as received on October 5th. I could get used to this permanent absentee ballot thing.

    • {{{DoReMI}}} – I’m sorry for the reason you are back but am so very happy that you are back. I do understand about the “quit with no notice” – I’ve done that once in my 69 (as of next Tuesday) years and the reason was “young and stupid” not mental abuse. Holding the Good Thought that your path opens up clearly soon.

      Yay!!! on the voting. Mine’s in and accepted too. Voting by mail feels strange. I think I’ve done it twice in my life now. But it’s definitely convenient. And let’s you spend a lot more time thinking about issues than you usually have in the voting booth.

      Meanwhile, welcome back. Welcome home. We will enjoy your presence while you are here. moar {{{HUGS}}}

    • Yay!!! DoReMI in the house. Glad to see you and looking forward to sharing the election results.

      Also looking forward to hearing more about your job – mental health and integrity are more important than the niceties of notice, in my opinion.

    • Hi DoReMi…..so nice to see you at the pond this morning! Sorry about the job stress. I did the same several years ago and needed some time to rest and recover before I could move on to something else. Hope you can do the same.

    • DoReMI, welcome back and it’s so good to see you!

      We’ve missed you and the basset hounds and Kiddo. How’s her house looking, do you know? Has she sent pictures?

      Please do stop by tomorrow for a chat!

      P. S. I’m the nosiest person in the whole world, dying with curiosity about why you quit the job.

  10. It’s 57 heading for 83 and sunny so it’s very unlikely that I will have a fire this evening. Although I am feeling a bit chilly now. There’s a cat sleeping on my sweater though so… 😁 We generated 11.6 KWHs yesterday and the m-t-d is at 157 – very much on track. Enough so that the cloudiness expected tomorrow won’t knock us off. (& of course it’s gonna be cloudy on the day I need to get out and do my shopping.)

    Twitler says all kinds of crap and other than spewing his Deplorability to stir up his Deplorable cultists none of it’s true. He can say whatever he wants about who he appoints but he gets their names from fascists like Stephen Miller. He thinks it’s about him. They’re laughing at him behind his back. Yes, the Rs are setting up a Court that will blow off the constitution to keep a “president for life” dictator in office. No, it won’t be twitler. Probably Tom Cotton. Quite probably the next Deplorable R they get into office if we don’t manage to dismantle the propaganda machine and get the country off the path the fascists put it on some 50 years ago. They haven’t jumped any guns. It’s been slow and steady progress. We get people in office to clean up the messes they make, but they are standing in the same spot ready to move forward on their evil plans the next time they get power. They don’t even have any lost ground to make up because we never push them back. We just clean up their messes. That’s very necessary. Their messes kill people and in cleaning them up we save lives. But we have never, since Nixon, addressed the root cause. (& the LW is very helpful to the RW when it comes to shooting down candidates – like Hillary – who would.)

    So. I’ll be late checking in tomorrow. How late will depend on how early I manage to get out of the house. LOL. Bright the day, Meeses. {{{HUGS}}}

  11. Good morning, 53 and mostly cloudy. A good friend is in need of a 75th birthday moment today so I’m looking for an outdoor spot for lunch. I’ll either find a restaurant or order take out and set a nice table at a waterfront park. We’re both feeling very confined but not comfortable with indoor dining.

    Between awful covid reports (herd immunity….please spare me!) and tRump lies (laptop, emails!) and SCOTUS hearings ( I know nothing, trust me) I’m already done with today’s news.

    Best wishes to all.

  12. Good morning, meeses! Thursday …

    It is 44 degrees in Madison with an expected daytime high of 57. Mostly sunny skies are in the forecast.

    The SCOTUS hearing kept insinuating itself into my Twitter timeline and it was infuriating to see the outright lies. It was to be expected, Republicans can outright lie in their confirmation hearings with no repercussions and are then coddled by their Republican protectors. I am so looking forward to the screams of impotent outrage when the court is expanded to 13 and their 6 – 3 majority becomes a 7 – 6 minority that will protect the right of Congress to make laws that the majority of the American people support. Senator John “not that one!” Kennedy really lets his hatred of strong black women like Kamala Harris show through in his follow-ups to Mrs. Jesse Barrett. It will be fun to watch him gavelled out of order when she presides over the Senate next year in her role as Vice President and his role as backbencher for a permanent minority.

    I am going to try to watch Joe Biden’s town hall tonight on ABC (if I can stay up that late). I despise NBC for choosing “let’s air a sh*tshow to gain ratings” over fairness. tRump refused to do a virtual debate and he is being rewarded by the craptastic media with a VIRTUAL forum for his lies. It is not surprising, any media outlet that still employs Chuck Todd has no integrity. #ShunNBC.

    I will have to leave my cocoon and run errands today. The banking can be done via drive-thru but the post office has to be in-person. I have COVID weariness related to the Republicans whose judges keep knocking down Governor Evers’ public health orders. It is really really REALLY difficult to not want all the people who voted those cretins into office to get sick and find out that their hospitals are full and they are on their own. The judge a few days ago told the Republican legislature that if they want to block Evers mask orders, meet and pass a law. Of course they won’t, it will expose how they really feel about their constituents and it is too close to an election. Instead they are counting on finding enough literal deadenders in the state courts to do their bidding. With the most recent block from Sawyer County, where there is an outbreak, for crying out loud, they found a judge willing to say “don’t tread on our right to go to bars and blow COVIDs on each other!” In Dane County, we have a government that cares and they have their own orders which people and businesses are complying with. Masks, size limits on gatherings, public schools closed.

    See all y’all later!

  13. Puerto Rico

  14. Good morning. I am going into the office today, just a quick trip then back here for more calling new library users and answering emails. It is 75 degrees this morning, glad I’m not walking today. Cold front coming this evening so tomorrow should be better.

  15. Good morning, Meesefolk; 55 now and headed all the way up to a probably-drizzly 57. My plans to work in my yard may once again be curtailed; when I went out yesterday, I discovered that the overnight rain must have been heavier than I thought. It was just too wet to work, and at this rate, it will be Saturday before I can get my hands in my soil.

    With luck, I won’t lose today’s post, since I intend to quench the thirst of Diana’s curiosity. :)

    As one can imagine working in a nursing home during a pandemic can be quite stressful; one always worries that one could inadvertently become an angel of death by walking the virus into the facility. Because of that and fears that they might get sick FROM the facility, early on we lost quite a few employees. That shortage in fields that are already short (CNAs and nurses are worth their weight in gold) created a downward spiral as early as March that I was forever scrambling to stop and fix. By August, it looked like things might be stabilized. We had our full complement of nurses and although we were still short of CNAs, we were fully utilizing a waiver program that enabled us to hire folks with temporary certification from an online test, train them, and send them to our own CNA classes to get certified.

    And then the worst happened. One of our nurses was accused of abuse (physical) and giving a resident the meds of another resident solely for the purpose of “settling them down.” We reported the allegations to the State within two days, but allegations of that nature are to be reported within two hours. The delay was because our administrator was on vacation, and the next in the reporting chain, the Director of Nursing, was out with Covid (which she got because she was a freakin’ idiot who decided to attend a series of graduation parties one weekend) and had not turned the reporting chain over to anyone else. The one in-house nurse administrator who was informed was left a voicemail…on her work, rather than cell, phone. Anyway, the nurse admitted her actions, and the State hit us hard with fines and sanctions. Because allegations of that sort can impact individual licenses, another exodus started.

    And kept going. Once the dominoes started falling, there was little I could do to stop them. To help cover the cost of the fines, Group (the regional, corporate office) declared that there could be no overtime for non-clinical staff, while CNAs and nurses (but mostly CNAs) were getting mandated (required to work overtime) right and left. Because there are so few CNAs on the job market, we ramped up our hiring of waiver aides, but then inexplicably (I have since found out that we didn’t have a trainer available), Group stopped having CNA classes. So we were hiring in folks with the promise of classes, but suddenly I couldn’t tell new hires when those classes would occur. I started raising the alarm in mid-September that this was unsustainable, and we needed classes, particularly since the waiver program was slated to end on October 31. The nursing admins in-house handwaved the problem; they were 100% certain, just because, that the executive order would be extended by the governor. Group told me that they were looking into renting a space so they could hold larger classes. When? “Soon.” I suggested we quit hiring waiver aides until we had more certainty and was told I was being a Chicken Little by the new Director of Nursing (our Covid+ DON got sacked over the mishandling of the abuse situation, which also led to more nurses leaving who were “loyal” to her).

    So I practiced relentless positivity while at work, hired more waiver aides, and went home each night fretting and worrying. When I pointed out that if we didn’t have our waiver aides converted to at least non-certs (aides who have started CENA classes but not yet completed them or passed the CENA test) by October 31st, we would have to change their job status to resident aide, which meant not only no direct care allowed (e.g. anything that involved touching the elder) but also a $4.35 drop in pay. I was assured that wouldn’t be a problem, because apparently Group lives in a different reality than people like me.

    And then our supreme court declared that the law under which our governor was issuing her EOs was unconstitutional, which meant all of the hand-waving certainty about the waiver being extended was even less certain, but I couldn’t find a way to get anyone to share my sense of urgency. And my fretting and worrying started manifesting as my head in the toilet multiple times a day. I was assured by one of the regional directors that Group was working on some outside-of-the-box solutions, and I needn’t worry.

    And then the announcement of the solution came. Because we had an “overabundance of support staff,” all support personnel were going to be required to take the online course to become temporary aides through the waiver. Once we had our certificate of completion, we would be expected to work up to four hours of our workday on the floor. The outrage was immediate, and I met with everyone and asked that they hold on until I could get clarification. I was finally able to meet with our administrator the next day, and she assured me that we would never be expected to provide clinical support, but we could help with passing trays at mealtime, making beds, etc. I reported back to everyone and told everyone that they would have to make their own decisions; in all of the busy-ness, I missed updating our social worker.

    This past weekend, the staffing situation reached critical, and to meet the legally-required ratio of staff to resident, the administrator started calling non-clinical staff to come in. The deadline to complete the temp aide waiver course had been Friday, so she thought she had a well of non-clinicals to pull from. The first person she called was the social worker, who was still waiting for my clarification. The second person she called was one of the maintenance guys, who had decided to take his chances and not take the test. The third person she called was the scheduler, who had taken the test, and despite the fact that her father-in-law had died THAT morning, she agreed to work on Sunday.

    Needless to say, I had a scathing email waiting for me Monday morning (I really did mess up with the social worker, so I own that 100%); I had a maintenance staff ready to walk out en masse; and I had a scheduler who, despite assurances, had provided direct care all day Sunday…showers, changing diapers, the whole gamut of hands-on work. I had a crowd of people in my office, and I realized that there was absolutely nothing I could do. I couldn’t be relentlessly positive. I couldn’t suggest any solutions. I couldn’t see any path that would make any of this better; I just saw the ongoing grinding down of clinical professionals and the belittling and marginalizing of those of us who never, ever wanted to follow a clinical path.

    So I called Hubby and asked how upset he would be if I walked off my job without notice. His response was, “If it means you’ll be able to pull your head out of the toilet, do it.” So I did.

    • Great Mother, DoReMI! What an impossible situation!

      Wow. You’re much better out of it. It’ll be hard to lose pay, but I’m sure something will turn up!

      Thanks for the update. My head is spinning.

      • There was actually a whole bunch of “little things” going on, which added together became a Big Thing and created more stress. But the bottom line for me was the moment I realized that non-clinicals, despite our contributions, were viewed as Lesser by TPTB. It wasn’t a prevalent viewpoint within the facility (expect perhaps by the new Director of Nursing, who turned to me at a staffing meeting and said, “But you’re not really HR, are you? Because that requires someone who has a college education…” without having ever asked what my professional experience or education was), but there was certainly condescension dripping down from on high, when it was made clear that we were mere commodities who only had value when working in a direct care capacity. At first I thought I was being overly-sensitive, but I was getting a parade of non-clinical folks in my office expressing the same sentiment. And when I talked to my administrator, whom I genuinely liked and respected, about the message that was being sent, she didn’t see it at all. I really wonder if nurses are so often dismissed as lesser by doctors that they sub/unconsciously turn around and do the same thing to support personnel.

    • {{DoReMI}}
      Wow… I had no idea it was that bad. Hope that things will return to some degree of normalcy for you.

    • {{{DoReMI}}} – that was certainly a no-win situation for you. Walking out was the healthiest, sanest, option you had. If it were me, I’d probably write that up and send it to whatever governmental agency is over nursing homes in your state – and also to the newspaper as a letter to the editor if nothing else. But you do what’s best for you. Healing Energy & moar {{{HUGS}}}

  16. Good Thursday morning, Meese! This is our last beautiful day, and beautiful it is! Blue sky, sunshine, the lot. Current temp. in Ashburn is 53 F., working its way up to 77 F. before the sun sets. And then comes the deluge, at 1 a.m. (Or so they aver.) Rain all day tomorrow, chilly enough for chili on the weekend.

    Lots to do today, including a 2 p.m. meeting of the Writers’ Group by Zoom. The topic is “And for my second act…” The in-person, socially distanced half of the Writers’ Group apparently chose the topic, “My favorite fantasy.” Accordingly, I am contemplating reading five minutes’ worth of my Beltane story titled, “All Acts of Love and Pleasure.” That should get me kicked out of the group forevah!

    It must be noted that 37 years ago today I stopped smoking. I smoked for 26 years, have abstained for much more than that.

    First-world problem: Will we actually be able to have Thanksgiving dinner with Eric, Trevor, and family? Karl and Nora are supposedly going back to in-person classes by late November. Little Ethan is already in private school for kindergarten. The WaPo says the Second Wave has already begun.

    If there were a Nobel Prize for Procrastination, I’d win it. Those letters to voters are due out on Saturday and I haven’t done them yet. Well, I did write the postcards the day before they were due to be mailed.

    Early voting at our satellite polling place begins at 9 a.m. on Saturday morning. I want to arrive at 8 a.m. I’ll bring a chair and the newspaper for Dearly Beloved.

    Great to see DoReMI back and hoping everyone will have a good day in their personal lives. Amy Coathanger Barrett is bound to be confirmed. Doesn’t seem to be anything we can do about it—FOR NOW. Blessed be.

  17. Good morning meese. It’s currently 60 degrees F in Folsom, CA with a high of 91. We have been under a red flag / fire warning since yesterday due to high winds, warm/hot weather and almost bone-dry humidity. One of the utility providers, PG&E, has warned that they may have to do rolling electricity shutdowns yet again to avoid fires. Fortunately, I won’t be directly impacted since my county is served by SMUD which has (so far) not had to issue any shutdowns.

    My boss at work (who I’ve reported to for 6 years in one way or another) is leaving and his last day is next week. We had a heartfelt/frank discussion yesterday about why he was leaving and some of the challenges that the team will be facing. It’s not all bad news though, he told me that he really appreciated being able to work with me and my technical and leadership contributions. I don’t think I have ever left a job with or without notice (does a layoff count as involuntarily without notice?) but it might be time to start putting out feelers.

    Getting ready for another day at work and may be back intermittently.

    • {{{basket}}} – stay safe, please. Holding the Good Thought on your job situation. Forewarned is definitely forearmed and blessings on your boss for the warning. Healing/Helping Energy & moar {{{HUGS}}}

  18. Good morning, 47 and partly cloudy in Bellingham. Real life changed birthday plans yesterday so my friend and I enjoyed a phone visit instead. We were both too tired for anything more. I did get a flue shot though, followed by a long nap and then early to bed.

    I’m going to try to be in my sewing room today and if the inner fog lifts correct the tensions on my serger and finish the pillow cases from my TBF stack of projects. If I can’t manage that I’ll read something from my teetering TBR stack of books :)

    Best wishes to all.

  19. It’s 62 heading for 67 and cloudy. Yesterday we generated 11.4 KWHs (m-t-d is 169) but we’ll be doing good to get half that today. I’ve done my shopping, putting up stuff, everything that I would have done when I got up this morning except I was out doing shopping, and even have a pan of cinnamon-peanut butter muffin bread just out of the oven. That’s the good part. The not so good is that my GF crackers have gone up into the “nope” category and my GF bread people decided they needed to go “all new” with their recipe, making it more like everybody else’s bread that I don’t like, so that’s going into the “nope” category too. Not sure what the heck I’m gonna do about sandwich/toast type bread when I finish the loaf I’m on.

    Interesting thing yesterday. I got a call from one of my sisters – I haven’t seen any of them in 17 years and have only talked to one or the other of them about once every other year since. Anyway she’s the one who married petroleum engineers and has always been more interested in showing off for the “Joneses” than let’s say the sort of things I’m interested in. She’s also the one who managed, once her kids were grown, to go back to school & get a teaching degree. She’s been a teacher for almost twice as long as I was. (She gets along with the administration. I didn’t.) But didn’t renew her contract this year. So. Her husband’s retired and they bought themselves a top of the line travel trailer to basically enjoy that retirement. Her daughter is in NOLA and her son in KS (I can’t remember exactly where but probably Johnson County). They’re doing a trip from visiting my niece to visiting that nephew and Fayetteville actually can be on the way if one chooses the right roads. So they’ll be here tomorrow and we are going to celebrate my birthday a few days early with a BIL-grilled steak late lunch/early dinner at their campsite. All precautions are being observed. (At least as best one can and still eat.) We’re doing masks except when actually eating, observing social distancing as best we can (we will be in the same car – they’re picking me up and bringing me back from the campsite- but otherwise), she’s not coming into my house and I’m not going into their trailer. Now if we can just manage to catch each other up on family things without going into anything underlying the reason we don’t keep in touch much, this should be a pleasant afternoon. We shall see.

    National news sux. And I really don’t know if it can be turned around. Any changes Dems make is weaponized against us as soon as they get back in office. In fact, they behave the way they do to force us into making those changes so they can. Election security and break up the RW propaganda machine might do the job. Maybe. And while we might address the first I doubt we’ll address the second. sigh.

    So Holding the Good Thought for all in my circle of family/friends offline and online. Bright the day, Meeses. {{{HUGS}}}

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