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 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.
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COUNTING DOWN THE TIME UNTIL DECENCY RETURNS …
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It’s 70 heading for 71 – in about 2 hours – then a front moves in with maybe some rain and definitely dropping temps. I’ve got the house open and airing out again before we close up for the next week or so. (Maybe – the projected highs seem to change by the hour & a couple of them are now showing upper 60s.) Anyway, we only got 6 KWHs yesterday but the m-t-d is 70 and that’s still on track.
I had a rather amusing in an not particularly good way thought about 2 am. Wanna see Nancy Pelosi be the next president? Easy – keep the presidential part of the election from being certified until after noon 1/20/2021. Congress is sworn in 1/3/2021. Pelosi is on-track to be Speaker again. At noon on 1/20/2021 twitler stops being president. Law of succession says if there’s no president then it goes to Veep and if no Veep it goes to the Speaker of the House. Now she’d only be president long enough to get all the authorizations in place. But then, since the Veep is sworn in first, Nancy’d hand off to Kamala who’d be president until Joe could be sworn in. So we could have 2 women presidents (of exceedingly short duration, but they’d be presidents) with Nancy Pelosi number 46, Kamala Harris number 47, and then back to white men with Joe Biden at number 48.
More personally, closer to home, everybody’s hanging on. Some better than others. Everybody who can is sleeping more. COVID situation is getting worse by the minute, especially for BIPOC, and the states seem to be trying hide just how bad it is. Not surprising with R-governed states like mine but more than disappointing with Dem-governed states like NM. The “lower the numbers trick” they’ve been doing all along but is just getting out just erases people. Don’t count a death as ours if the person isn’t a state/county resident AND don’t count as ours if one of ours dies in another state. Even if that person had been transferred to the other state for medical attention not available at home. I hope to heaven that changes with Joe’s team. You have to know the scope of the problem before you can allocate enough resources to deal with it.
Gotta do laundry today so gotta clean up the den enough to hang laundry. Cats being notorious for knocking things over. Including racks hung with wet laundry. And need more coffee. Bright the day, Meeses. {{{HUGS}}}
And I wish our team weren’t so gee dee gullible. Somebody’s got a clip out supposedly showing the Biden COVID plan that doesn’t mention masks, PPE, isolation, testing, or anything else that’s part of the immediate, day-one, plan – but it does mention “predict, prevent, & mitigate pandemic threats, including those coming from China” – so all our team is screaming and cursing Biden before he even manages to get in. Same source I’d bet as all those R-cabinet appointments Joe’s supposed to be considering. If Dems won’t do “disarray” on their own, the Rs (Russians/Republicans) will help. And goddess how we help them do it. sigh.
Not. My. Team.
I spent years pushing back against the frustrati who hated President Obama and sought to undermine his agenda with their “me first” attitude towards governing. It is the reason I left the Giant Orange Derangement at the end of the 2012 election cycle. Those people are not on my team, they are on their own team and, quite frankly, too many of them are ignorant. The left-of-the-left and those who hang on every tweet as proof that they should be butthurt over the pace of government can jump in the lake. I want slow and steady, I want measured and direct, I want the tone I am seeing. I watched the Joe Biden ACA statement and presser yesterday and it was perfect. He refused to take the bait, resisting the call to file lawsuits choosing instead of letting the process run its course. He gently mocked the Senate Republicans and ignored their president’s pouting. I’m on HIS team.
I agree. Steady progress is never fast. Solid, locked-in progress it takes them longer than one administration to undo is really never fast. It’s not so much the folks who want faster progress though that drive me nuts. It’s the ones who assume, all evidence to the contrary, that Joe is going to be R-Lite. And then use every gee-dee tweet some russian bot sends out about who Joe’s planning to appoint to what or crap like that one about Joe’s Covid plan being to prepare against pandemics coming from China as proof that they’re right. As if Joe’s COVID plan hasn’t been reported multiple times and places – and just the day before his advising team was named with some heavy-hitters we were all happy to see. sheesh.
Good morning, Meesefolk; 57 when I got up and going up to 75 today. The rain moves in later and then the temps start getting back to a normal November range–low 50s and high 40s. I’ve been making some progress on my yardwork although not at all what I planned to work on. I had an “oh, shiny” moment and got distracted by the number of Amur honeysuckle (Lonicera maackii) that’s been spreading in my back and side yards. They pop out a lot easier than black walnuts, so I decided to start tackling a few of them (it’s invasive and while the birds do eat the berries [hence the spread], I have enough other good stuff in my yard for their buffet). Of course, I started with them, and then I decided to reclaim a border I had long since let go to grass and weed, and then I decided to tackle some of the maple volunteers popping up by the driveway, and then I… Anyway, you get the picture. I haven’t ventured to the front where I was supposed to be focusing my efforts.
I got a phone call last Friday after 5pm, while I was on the phone with my daughter bemoaning the fact that I didn’t get the hospital job. It was the hospital, offering me the job I had been telling Kiddo I didn’t get. LOL, never hire me as a prognosticator! Their onboarding process is tedious, drawn out, and rife with roadblocks; I spent most of yesterday emailing back and forth, just trying to get access to the forms I needed to complete. I won’t start until December 7th, because it’s going to take that long for them to get me in for a physical and to complete all the background check stuff (which they will discover is far more streamlined than they’re anticipating because I did everything in January for the nursing home position). But I will be starting, for which I am immensely grateful. It’s just business office work for the family medicine department of the hospital, which means less responsibility and lower pay. And I’m fine with that. After all the stress of the last job, it will be nice to be able to come home from work and have left the office at the office.
I see that quite a few of my follows on Twitter are having a meltdown re Manchin’s comments re the filibuster and court expansion. I’m having a totally different reaction. Although I don’t agree with him at all, I can appreciate the strategic value of his comments. I see someone who is effectively giving cover to Ossoff and Warnock and providing “permission” to GA voters, who may be on the fence, to vote for both. By saying that, he’s acting as the spoiler, rather than forcing Ossoff or Warnock to claim that mantle (and potentially doom their chances). I may be overthinking this, but I do think that Manchin is far more strategic than someone like Ocasio-Cortez (ok, so maybe it’s not hard to be more strategic than her!), and he has been known to “reluctantly” change his mind. Does he change his mind about both if given the opportunity (i.e. the election of both Ossoff and Warnock)? I doubt it, but I can envision a situation where the commission re court reform convinces him of the need for change and gets his vote. Manchin is many things, but stupid is not one of them. He almost always finds a way to justify his difficult votes in a a way that gives WV voters space to understand/forgive him. Anyway, that’s just my take, and I could be 100% deluding myself.
Good day to and for all!
Hahaha! “far more strategic than someone like Ocasio-Cortez (ok, so maybe it’s not hard to be more strategic than her!)”
She is the perfect leader for the deluded wing of the Democratic Party – more power to her. I think there are more members of the Democratic Wing of the Democratic Party than followers of AOC.
Joe Manchin is the perfect example of a guy who matches his state – he will caucus with Democrats and that is the key thing. Lisa Murkowski, who voted against repealing the ACA in 2018, is another one. You have to respect that they, unlike Susan Collins, both care about their constituents and respect their opinions. Murkowski congratulated Joe Biden on his win – she may vote to save the ACA if it comes up for a vote. I don’t have to agree with her on ANWAR to be glad she is the Senator there rather than some of the mouth-breathers who have run against her in the R primary.
Good Tuesday morning, Meese, and it’s already 11 a.m.! Currently we have a lovely, sunny day in Ashburn with 71 F., going up to 73 F.
Was in a good mood until the dog interrupted me. It was my turn to to take him out, but he’d just been out for a walk and arrived back 10 minutes before! The air rang with vile oaths and imprecations but I took him out. I also hurried him back in after a few minutes. Dearly made me a cup of tea—sadly, not laced with brandy—so I’m trying to calm down.
Have just begun to realize how much more active I am since The Curse has been lifted! I’m making great progress on articles and other projects. It’s amazing, really. It seems that for the last six or seven months my mind has been in paralysis.
I must get out for a walk on this lovely day and finish the laundry. Thank GODDESS I don’t have to go anywhere much except the Club House to pick up dinner at 5 o’clock.
Like Jan, I’ve decided to basically ignore all the sheet going on with the transition. The law is the law, and at noon on January 20, 2021, President Biden will be inaugurated. Then we’re all going to boogie! I’d go downtown to dance in the street if I weren’t in the high-risk category for Covid.
Wishing a nice, peaceful day to all at the Pond. Wouldn’t it be nice if Thing had to be led away by men in white coats? Then everyone would be happier.
Good morning, 38 and mostly cloudy in Bellingham. I knew I was way behind with our birthday dinner, but we all rallied so it was a true family affair and a very nice evening. It’s a good feeling to wake up tired but happy this morning.
I haven’t checked the news yet today so I’ve got a break from tRump angst! Best wishes to all as we make it through another day.
Wednesday Meese. Veterans Day. 59 going up to 69 with rain here in Kingston NY
Will have a Veterans Day post at 7AM
Puerto Rico
Didn’t the election officers undergo training before the election? It’s required in my state.
Veterans Day post
Thanks, Dee.
Good morning, meeses! Wednesday …
It is 32 degrees in Madison with an expected daytime high of 41. Sunny skies are in the forecast. We were under a tornado watch yesterday afternoon as the front that ushered out All Halloween Summer made its dramatic entrance. The thunder and lightning made my dog unhappy but other than very heavy rain, we were spared the worst of it.
I am delighting in the return of government by adults again! Yesterday I watched the Biden-Harris ACA statement and presser and what we need as an antidote for the last four years of chaos is More Joe. He was not my first choice or even my fifth choice but he is the old hand we need on the tiller of the ship of state. Someone on Twitter said that we need Joe Biden to do weekly fireside chats to soothe the nation. I concur!! I consider myself a fairly tough person but I found myself nearly shattered by the past four years. I need to be soothed right now. Reading the list of people on the Agency Review Teams and their qualifications soothes me. Knowing that a lot of the really smart people who worked in the Obama Administration will be running the country again soothes me. I am not going to set my hair on fire over the pace of the transition or the ridiculous Republican lawsuits being filed. A Reuters/Ipso poll said that 80% of Americans believe that Joe Biden won and the number who think tRump won is 3%, which is lower than I expected. His 70 million fans will probably never be happy with a Biden Administration but a large majority of them will accept the win. That’s a start.
By the way, we have to be careful to not fall for the reports that the Supreme Court appears poised to accept that you can zero out the mandate tax and not have to throw out the ACA in its entirety. I think John Roberts is being sincere in his comments but Bart Keggernaugh is a Republican political operative and it benefits his party to have everyone think that the ACA will survive as we head into the Georgia Senate election runoff. He may very well be Lucy holding the football. The January 5th vote is the last chance we have to give the Biden-Harris administration a chance to repair the ACA if it is struck down. We have to keep that front and center. Don’t spike the football at the 10 yard line and don’t believe anything a documented liar says.
Diana, I gave to Stacey Abrams’ Fair Fight yesterday. Everyone should listen to what Doug Jones said – that we need to stop being candidate-centric and put resources into states. We need to refocus on the 50-state strategy. The ungodly amount of money spent on Senate candidates this year was embarrassing. If the money had gone into state party building in North Carolina instead of Cal Cunningham personally, maybe we would have turned North Carolina blue when he imploded. Georgia went blue because of the turnout. I will watch with interest how the DNC changes – I am not sure that Tom Perez is the answer. In my mind, he did not do enough to tamp down the berner wing of the party and they felt emboldened to trash candidates who ran as centrists to match their center-right districts. Where an upgrade is possible, like Dan Lipinski being replaced by Marie Newman in Illinois, fine. But don’t burn seats we need to hold our majority on an altar of purity.
Wow, I had a lot to say, didn’t I!
I have a bajillion things to do this morning and I know in about an hour I will run out of the energy to do them so I better get back to it.
See all y’all later!
Biden-Harris statement on ACA plus presser.
Transcript from rev.com. Snippets, with shade:
Understatement of the century!!!
Agree, Jan. Thanks for donating to Fair Fight! Howard Dean had the right of it: when he was chair of the DNC I donated every month. The 50-state strategy is the right strategy.
I too hope the ineffectual Tom Perez gets his marching orders.
Good rainy Veterans’ Day, Moosekind! “They” say it will rain all day. Goody! I hope my old, dry skin will suck up the moisture. Currently it’s 68 F. in Ashburn. One more degree and we’ll be at our daytime high.
Sent another article off to the Managing Editor, made good progress on the second one, and will work on the third one today. I’m also about to interview a guy for another article.
Feel much more relaxed nowadays, even though I still need pills to get to sleep. That laugh Joe gave after someone mentioned what Pompous Pompeo said yesterday made me grin bigly. I hope all the Rethugs watching were properly taken aback.
Off to get ready for the interview. Wishing a good day to all at the Pond.
He mocked them which is the worst thing you can do to someone who claims to be a serious person. I enjoyed that moment as well!
It’s 37 heading for 62 and sunny. Frost still on the roof and PV system but melting off fairly quickly in the bright light. We only got 3 KWHs yesterday but the m-t-d (73) is still on track. Won’t be if we don’t get at least 4 today, but today looks good for at least that and maybe over 7 – which would be nice.
I have always figured twitler was going to have to be forcibly evicted from the WH. No, I didn’t just mean the election and no, I wasn’t joking. I’ll be pleasantly surprised if he goes some easier way. But I’m seriously hoping DCPD is preparing to overcome whatever fences or walls he has built between now and 1/20/2021 because I’m pretty sure they’re gonna need to. As to paying any other attention to the bastid or the rest of the Rs, nope. Not giving them the air or clicks.
Our team though – jeebus! I wish they’d go read their constitution or something. As Obama had to keep telling people in November and December and right up to 1/20/2008, there’s only one sitting president at a time. Joe is not the president yet. Nor can Nancy or Chuckie do anything about his claims that he’s not leaving yet. Is he trying to stage a coup? Yeah, although I doubt he knows what that word means and wouldn’t care if he did. Lots of people would like to stage a coup. That’s why twitler’s in office. But I see no indications that the state and local governments are buying into this. Nor is the military for all that we have way too many fascists in it. Not for twitler. I’ll worry when it’s Tom Cotton. Who I think is being groomed for the position of first dictator/president for life. (And may get it if we don’t break up that propaganda machine.) Twitler has a cult following it’s true. And cults are always dangerous. But they aren’t going to face down the military.
So. I’d forgotten it was Veterans Day. I’ll get some more coffee and head over to DK for Dee’s diary. Bright the day, Meeses. {{{HUGS}}}
I think it is the Secret Service who removes trespassers from the White House, not the DC Police. But the idea of Mayor Bowser leading the way makes me grin!
I saw conjecture that he will go to Mar-A-Lago for Christmas and not return to the White House, leaving Pence as acting president and hiring Two-Men-And-A-Truck to move his plague-infested personal belongings to Florida. Although, they may not take the gig unless they get paid in advance in cash.
I was thinking more in terms of evictions than removing trespassers – and yes, the idea of Mayor Bowser directing the eviction makes me grin.
Day off in the middle of the week, so I both slept in and got in a walk. No idea what I’m going to do today. For now, I’m eating breakfast & watching the local news.
Good morning, 34 and mostly cloudy in Bellingham. I can see frost in the roof tops and the maple tree branches are finally bare so the morning light has a feeling of winter. I made progress on getting the front porch ready for a winter outdoor spot but had to stop for birthday doings and recovery so today I hop I can shop for a rug, seat cushions and maybe two new throw blankets. The front porch isn’t as sheltered and private as the patio, but it does have a view of Bellingham Bay and I can get the wifi signal and have a plug for charging devices. So if I can stay warm I can easily be outdoors. Wish I could go with Ron on his long nature walks but I can’t so oh well.
I’m trying to let tRump angst ease so haven’t checked the news yet this morning. Doesn’t take much to trigger a big stress response so avoidance wise for now. Take care everyone.
Thursday Meese. 51 and raining here in Kingston NY, going up to 53.
Puerto Rico
It’s 35 going to 65 (the highest high we’ll have for at least a week) and sunny. I like sunny. We generated 8 KWHs yesterday and are definitely still on track with the m-t-d at 82. The couple of overnight freezes we’ve had convinced the oak tree to start dropping her leaves so while there’re still a fair number on the tree there’re not enough to block the sun completely. So more energy produced as long as the clouds stay out the way.
Things going pretty much as expected. Rs want a panicked Dem party flailing at twitler over his refusal to concede or start any of the transition process. Joe isn’t falling for it which is keeping the party calm if not the twitter OMGHOF brigade. And Joe’s right. They don’t have any power to stop Joe from preparing for transition and Joe doesn’t have the authority to do anything with or about the information they’re withholding from him. So is that good? No. He would be better prepared to deal with it if he had it before he steps in, but he will deal with appropriately even if he gets it at 1 pm on 1/20/2021.
Same ol’ same ol’ pretty much with my friends/fam circle online and off. But Aji got something she can actually work on and that helps her peace of mind. An anonymous donor is offering a $25K match to the local (Taos area) community clinic so Aji’s fundraising for that. They’ve only got until Dec 1st so here’s the link https://taoswholehealth.org/nonprofit if you’ve got something to spare and would like to help. This obviously goes directly to the clinic. Taos County is being really hard hit with COVID and the hospital space is just about gone so the clinics are going to be doing double and triple duty on everything that isn’t COVID.
My eyes gave out on me last night (my hands are still giving me trouble) so I need to go see & boost what I got offline too early to see. LOL. sort of. Bright the day, Meeses. {{{HUGS}}}
{{{bfitz!}}} Hope you get to feeling better, dear. The situation outside the Pond is mood-lowering, which is why I plan to refrain from too much news today.
Good morning, meeses! Thursday …
It is 32 degrees in Madison with an expected daytime high of 52. Sunny skies are in the forecast but things will cloud up later today and there may be some mixed precipitation in the evening.
I spent too much time reading/watching news yesterday and since the news is terrible regarding the pandemic, I did not sleep very well. The big question now is will it be possible to eradicate the virus if it is actively infecting several hundred thousand a day and people refuse to wear masks. It is being pointed out to the dunderheads who chose “Herd Immunity” that the reason that Great Britain backed away from that initial plan was because of what it did to hospital capacity. We can only save those who we can treat. I am very frustrated that the work we did this spring and summer was undone in about a month by the #RepublicanDeathCult. Blast them!
I am going to go into a news-lite zone for a couple of days while I get caught up on projects.
See all y’all later!
Good morning. Ran into the office to drop off completed work & pick up more. Now to watch DS9.
Good Thursday morning, Moosekind! The wind is driving rain across the woods and the campus. The heavy layer of gray cloud is beginning to lift, however. The rain may stop by midday. Earlier this morning the temp. was 59 F. but now it’s dropped to 53 F.
Feeling rather tired because I had the second Shingrix shot yesterday. One never enjoys this sort of thing but it’s better than having the actual condition.
Making progress on my work, hoping to finish at least some of it today. Thank Goddess I really don’t have to go anywhere. We’re having dinner delivered tonight.
We had a visit from Younger Son and family yesterday. They came to tea. For a one-hour visit, Nora brought her B-flat clarinet and lesson book, her laptop, and a 3-inch novel about rampaging dragons. She simply slays me! Little Karl now drinks tea like the rest of the family, although he prefers it warm, not hot. We put a lot of milk into his cup.
The situation out there is so impossible I will not comment on it. You all know how I feel anyway.
Wishing a good day to all at the Pond.
Good morning, 38 and mostly cloudy in Bellingham. Thanks to ice and elevation I can walk a bit better so that’s a relief. Given the covid numbers I’m staying close to home, but just hobbling less here is a big improvement.
I’ve got a day of laundry planned so I’d best get started. I can’t change the beds or get dressed until some full baskets come upstairs, and the upstairs hall is full of bedding needing to go downstairs. Somedays I’m glad to just have busy work to do. Best wishes to all.
Good morning, meeses! Friday …
It is 28 degrees in Madison with an expected daytime high of 36. Sunny skies are in the forecast.
After about 10 days of watching political news on TV, I am going to pivot away and return to my normal diet of Weather Nation and HGTV. The outrage machine is ginned up and searching for something to be upset about and it is getting repetitive. I watched for the vote counts and those are done – I don’t need to have it broadcast at me – ad nauseaum – that tRump is a terrible person in every possible way and doing damage to the federal government and that the political party he leads is going to do everything it can to destroy America for the next four years. Joe Biden will do what he can within the executive branch but when he needs money to save people’s lives and our economy, he will be unable to get it. It is like 2009 all over again – to please the Senate, we went too small in our recovery packages for the Bush Recession and the recovery was slow and left a lot of people behind, mostly homeowners. This time around, the people left behind will be dead, literally, killed by the pandemic raging in our country. Anyway, I don’t need that firehosed at me by TV, I can go to Twitter where I can skim the news, read what I find interesting and see puppy pictures as palate cleansers.
By the end of November most of the state results will be certified, on December 14th the electoral college will “meet” and elect Joe Biden president and from there we will count down the 37 days until the inauguration. And we will thank the goddess that the inauguration is not in March like it used to be!
See all y’all later!
Friday the 13th Meese
37 here in Kingston NY going up to 46