Week-long Welcomings from Moosylvania: November 15th

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 THE TIME UNTIL DECENCY RETURNS …

31 Comments

  1. Good morning, 49 and mostly cloudy in Bellingham. I think/hope I’ve got better control of my trump/Covid angst today. Yesterday all I could do was worry. To my relief the bookstore is going to stay open with even more covid controls in place so I’m going to buy President Obama’s book today. I may not read it yet but it will be nice to know it’s in the teetering stack of TBR books beside my bed.

    Time for coffee. Take care everyone.

  2. Wednesday Meese. 27 degrees here in Kingston NY going up to 36. Snow on the menu (oh nooooo)
    I love this

  3. Puerto Rico

    “With these additional deaths, the confirmed deaths add up to 756 and the probable ones are 215, so the total number of deaths is 971”

  4. Good morning, meeses! Wednesday …

    It is 34 degrees in Madison with an expected daytime high of 46. Mostly sunny skies are in the forecast.

    A front page editorial in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (the largest paper in Wisconsin and one that I support via an online subscription), included this passage calling out the Republican Party and their legislative “leaders”:

    Since when is it right to let the least informed, least responsible among us lead the way?

    I know, I know, call on me! When people vote based on their racist and nativist feelings and put power into the hands of the worst people on the planet.

    Meanwhile in my blue county, our health department rolled out some new restrictions on gatherings. I feel we are an island of sanity surrounded by ships of fools. I hope that the sane people can hold on until there is a vaccination.

    I can’t watch the news, it is too depressing realizing that the Republicans in power are going to let tRump strip the government bare, destroy every last institution and then, in January, be allowed to turn their efforts towards making sure that Joe Biden can’t fix anything and has to govern with debt limit and government shutdown guns pointed at his head. In a just world, they would not have any power and would have been punished for their craven assholery and the deaths of tens of thousands of people. Now, we will be left to wait until 2022 to finish the work we started this year.

    See all y’all later!

  5. Another chilly morning, 40s going up to 79 this afternoon. Today’s plan: just work. At least there’s a webinar to break things up a bit. I really hope we’re able to keep working from home for a long time. My team leader & I were talking the other day about how much less stressful this is.

    And hey, y’all – there’s an auction that starts today, benefiting the Georgia runoff. If you need gifts for a romance or fantasy lover, a writer or just a book lover (there are many book store gift cards), go here: https://www.32auctions.com/romancingrunoff

  6. Good Wednesday morning, Moosekind! It’s partly cloudy and quite cold, 39 F. at 9:30 a.m. Today’s high will be 44 F. As the winds are predicted to be 10-20 mph, that pretty much precludes going for a walk.

    Work continues. Getting unfavorable feedback from the Communications Committee for a picture to illustrate the article I wrote (which apparently they did like). I recommended a photo from the Before Times, as the whole article is about that, but there’s a bit of backlash about showing a picture from a previous year. The whole point of the article “Seniors–Societal Burden or Benefit?”, is that we ancients were extremely active and fun-loving in the Before Times. Obviously, no one is having any fun this year.

    Well, enough about that. The encouraging news is that Magical Encounters–Short Stories with a Twist is now ready to send off to the publisher! Remaining tasks involve knocking out two more articles for the quarterly, then I can get cracking on the novel.

    That’s all my news for today. Wishing a nice, quiet day to all at the Pond.

  7. It’s 50 heading for 67 and sunny. It’ll probably get to 70 actually. It did yesterday. Enjoy it while it lasts. The clouds are supposed to start moving in Friday. We generated 7.75 KWHs yesterday and the m-t-d is 125.5 – still on track.

    I hope I’m not giving away our plans to the enemy, but if I were doing the planning, I’d be in contact w/ state AGs all over the place to start indictments of Senators who’ve been doing highly illegal stuff (from voter fraud to insider trading to heaven knows what) but were protected by twitler’s AG. Between COVID and indictments we might be able to rebalance the scale that the Rs have their feet on. However bad the mess, Joe’s got to figure out a way to get the money to fix it. Or we’ll not only lose the WH in 2024, we’ll lose Congress to a veto-proof majority in 2022. Which is exactly what the Rs plan.

    Aji’s anniversary today. I will always regret that I didn’t find some way to get there. I was invited but combination of work (early registration had just started) and a 2-day drive to & through mountains in November…but I should have worked it out somehow. So I sent a bit to the Taos community clinic fundraiser she’s been doing in their honor. Other folks…health and money needs. Sending bits out in those directions, too. As long as I’m breathing and the Rs don’t steal my Social Security, I can do this. Bright the day, Meeses. {{{HUGS}}}

  8. Good morning, 46 and raining in Bellingham. I have a dentist appointment this morning so I’ll actually leave the house today. I hope to go to the book store and the pharmacy on my way home and that will ne my outing for the week. I reluctantly dug into my fabric stash yesterday and now have some Christmas gift sewing underway. I wasn’t going to do that this year but it’s safer than shopping and I’ve got the goods. Just need a creative moment to plan something and then some focused sewing time. Creativity and focus are illusive this year so it’s a challenge.

    Best wishes to all on this quiet Nov. morning.

  9. Good morning, meeses! Thursday …

    It is 45 degrees in Madison with an expected daytime high of 63. Partly cloudy skies are in the forecast. This warm spell will only last a couple of days.

    The tRump campaign asked for a recount of the ballots in Milwaukee and Dane County – places where Biden won with 69% of the vote and 75% of the vote respectively. No one knows if he is looking to find fraud, perhaps Black votes for Trump being tossed out in Milwaukee (Madison does not have a significant Black population) or just harassing librul cities. The campaign was made to pay up-front and they wired the $3 million in. We have done recounts before so this is pretty straightforward and it would be shocking if the vote total changed by more than a vote or two. They would probably be smarter to recount the Republican counties where not-as-smart people are running the votes. Anyway, some people will have nice fat overtime paychecks going into the holiday season. :)

    I have not scanned the news yet but will do so after I get a few things wrapped up. I am glad that there may be vaccinations for health care workers and first responders before the end of the year. Goddess knows that they deserve first dibbies. I do wonder if the tRump administration will find a way to divert doses to their favored states and/or favored groups, ie, donors. I would not be shocked if they sold access and pocketed the money.

    See all y’all later!

    • Thanks for reporting in on your state Jan. Have to admit I’m surprised the Rumps sent the money.

      • Recounts require pre-payment – I am sure that our state realized that losers might renege on any agreement. And the tRumps still owe money to cities from the 2016 campaign; they are notorious deadbeats.

  10. Thursday Meese. 25 degrees here in Kingston NY going up to 45.

    Puerto Rico

    Threatening to arrest opposition officials, amend post-election regulations to violate court orders, open briefcases with unauthorized votes. That is happening at the Roberto Clemente Coliseum. It is not in Cuba or Venezuela. It’s here in Puerto Rico.

    “The PNP is solely responsible for the chaos that is occurring in the Roberto Clemente Coliseum and for the crisis generated throughout this electoral process” –
    @manuelnatal

  11. Good Thursday morning, Meese. It’s a nice sunny day in Ashburn, about an 8.5 on a scale of 10 as the blue sky is overlaid by a thin film of white cloud. The current temperature is 35 rockin’ degrees F, going up later to 54 F. Might go for a walk.

    Last night I was so stressed out by the sabotage perpetrated by Apple Pages (the Mac’s word processing software) that I broke out and ate an entire chocolate bar. Naturally the scales signaled their disapproval this morning. I really must find another way to relieve stress.

    It’s going to be just another boring day here at The Home. Chores, followed by writing. Also have a Zoom meeting of the Communications Committee at 3 p.m. Trying to stay away from the news because it’s stressful again.

    Wishing a good day to all at the Pond.

  12. It appears to be Thursday. How’d that happen? 😁 It’s 60 going to 70 and sorta sunny. As in we’ve got high(ish) winds blowing clouds all over the sky including sometimes in front of the sun. Hopefully they’ll have stopped that in another hour or so. Blow the clouds all you want Wind, just not in front of the sun. Yesterday we generated 7.8 KWHs and we’re at 133.7 for the m-t-d. On track. We’ll see how long that lasts.

    Last night I was counting up – Dems have had the White House and both houses of Congress exactly 2 years in the last 20. People keep screaming at Dems for not being magic. They keep insisting the Resistance should do an army’s job. And cutting supplies and equipment when they don’t. That is why I really have little hope we will manage to turn this around. Until we can get and stay on the battlefield there isn’t a battle to win. Just minor skirmishes that slow the enemy down a little. And until we dismantle the RW propaganda machine we will not be “allowed” on the battlefield.

    Folks are hanging on. Some in better shape than others, but hanging on. Most of my stress is from not being able to help. But being OK when others are not, well, survivor’s guilt. I’ll deal with it. They don’t need to deal with my problems as well as their own. More Channeling. More purposed candles (& blessings on the one who gifted me with them when I ran out of beeswax candles to purpose). Bright the day, Meeses. {{{HUGS}}}

    • The left-of-the-left deplorables demonstrating against the incoming Biden administration are ignorant fools. They did it against the Obama administration as well. They don’t understand how laws are made, don’t understand that Democratic electeds are not monolithic – the Great Recession Recovery Act was ratfked by Conservadems and the ACA was ratfked by Joe LIEberman. The Green New Deal would require 60 Democratic Senators or at least enough to change the filibuster which, given the number of Conservadems in the Senate right now, would be at least 54. They should put their energy into bolstering our majority, saying nice things about the Democratic Party and helping us pick up swing districts with pragmatic policies instead of demonizing those who dare to reflect their constituents. But their “moral” leader is a man who spent his entire adult life calling Democrats and Republicans the same and convinced enough people of that that he ratfked the election of 2016 and gave us 4 years of Donald Trump – leading directly to millions being sickened and is on path to kill half a million people. I despise him and the movements he shat out.

      • Amen and Amen. bernie & crew don’t just have blood on their hands, they’re covered in it. & the lies they tell (& probably believe)! I swear if one more tells me Obama had & didn’t use a “veto-proof” (they mean filibuster proof) majority in the Senate…that majority was never over 60 and it depended on people like bernie & LIEberman to even be a majority. We’ve had the WH & Congress 2 effen years out of the last 20. As bad as things are, and they are very bad, I’m surprised we’ve managed to do as well as we have.

  13. Late check in, I did my walk/run this morning then went into the office to drop off completed applications. Now back home to work until the zoom luncheon — we usually have a big get together of the entire division and more food than…. Well, we’re not doing that this year, but we’ll all eat lunch together over Zoom.

  14. Good morning, 44 and partly sunny in Bellingham. I was at the bookstore yesterday afternoon and to my relief it was relatively “safe.” I’m going to my Christmas shopping there this year….easier for me physically and good to support an independent bookstore. I was one of the first customers when the original owners opened in a small space in Fairhaven so Village Books has been a fixture in my life. Covid has brought so many changes to our community, but if the bookstore survives there’s hope!

    The power is out at our son’s house so he and Heidi are here for breakfast and coffee….a welcome surprise. Take care everyone.

  15. Good morning, meeses! Friday, finally …

    It is 52 degrees in Madison with an expected daytime high of 50. Showers this morning then partly cloudy this afternoon. We are back to “normal” November temperatures and looking ahead to the prospect of snow Thanksgiving week.

    I feel like this week lasted forever! But it is typical COVID time – my internal clock has been out of whack since February. I have never looked forward more to putting up a new calendar; when I put the 2021 calendar on the wall, it will have January 2021 on it and the end of the tRump maladministration will be literally within sight.

    So Mitch McChinless is telling his Senators that they need to stay healthy because he has plans for ratfking more courts and poisoning the quasi-governmental agencies where terms will overlap and Joe Biden will have to deal with the deplorables he will put in there. They tried to ram through a woman for a Federal Reserve seat who wants to repeal the FDIC and believes in the gold standard. Last week, before Chuck Assley and Rick Snott got infected, they confirmed a 33 year old who had never tried a case in court to a lifetime appointment on the federal bench in Florida. Goddess help us if we don’t get the two Georgia Senate seats so that we can put smart people into those agencies, into our cabinet and onto the federal courts. If every piece of legislation has to pass through Mitch McConnell’s bowels, we will not have COVID relief or money for a vaccination rollout and are likely to face a debt limit battle and a government shutdown. And sadly, Republicans won’t care. They know that 73 million people want them to strangle the Biden presidency in the cradle and bring back the good old days of austerity, when people lost their houses and no one had no health care.

    In the meantime, we can celebrate GEORGIA!! We have been trying to turn Georgia blue for quite a while. I remember that in 2014, Sam Nunn’s daughter ran for an open Senate seat and we thought we would finally break through. That was the year that the polls were hideously wrong, voters forgot about the 2013 government shutdown caused by Republicans and swept away our majority. That led directly to the 6-3 Supreme Court after they stole the Merrick Garland seat. Maybe winning Georgia this year will banish that bad mojo and give us a run of luck. I was reading that the Georgia GOTV groups never stood down after the election and are working to expand the electorate by trying to register that last 3% and newly 18 year old Georgians and to convince the 16% who did not vote that Voting Matters. They will have great success to point to – register and vote and you can change your state from red to blue.

    I have a busy morning going over my weekend project list and making sure I have everything I need to hit the ground running tomorrow morning. Next week will be fractured as I have to pick up my daughter and then hunt and gather for the Thanksgiving meal and maybe get a holiday tree.

    See all y’all later!

  16. Friday Meese. 41 going up to 59 here in Kingston NY
    Puerto Rico

  17. Good morning, Meese! It’s a beautiful early morning here in Ashburn with sunlight gilding the woods under a clear sky. Currently the temperature is 37 F., going up to 65 F. later. Really, it couldn’t be better for the time of year!

    Dearly has just made the coffee and English muffins with butter and marmalade are in the offing. Like a heroin addict, news junkie that I am, I read a good deal of the front section of the newspaper this morning. BIG mistake. When I think about it I feel really depressed by Outgoing’s antics. Although I expected nothing less, it’s still depressing to think of thousands dying because of him.

    Work is going really well. I found a new converter for my old WordPerfect files and it works just fine. Had a lot of trouble with my printer yesterday, which drove me to despair, but then I unplugged the wretched thing, waited 60 seconds, plugged the cord back in, and presto! It worked again. One of my friends told me that wifi printers are really dodgy. Her own printer goes mad every once in a while.

    Anyway, this little thing I bought in 2012 is perfect for me and has given me very little trouble compared to the miseries I endured with Hewlett-Packard printers. Long live Xerox!

    I won’t be around very much for a few days because I intend to make a really big push on the Roman Britain novel.

    Wishing a good day to all at the Pond without too much aggro from politics or anything else.

    • Good luck on your “big push”!

      And this is very true:

      One of my friends told me that wifi printers are really dodgy. Her own printer goes mad every once in a while.

      Wireless EVERYTHINGS are odd – I much prefer my cabled devices.

  18. It is so warm here I’ve turned the a/c back on and even had the ceiling fan on last night. It’s 65 already at 7am. Today’s plan: work till 3. Not sure what I’ll do after that.

  19. It’s 63 heading for 70 and sunny at the moment but the clouds are supposed to start moving in shortly. I hope not as shortly as the widget shows. I’d like us to generate more electricity before we slip back into clouds and winter (OK, Fall – but winter by the Houston standards I grew up with). Yesterday we did 8 KWHs and we’re at 141.7 for the m-t-d. We’re still on track for 200 – but actually reaching it means averaging at least 6 KWHs per day for the rest of the month. Holding the Good Thought.

    The Rs hope for a “red wave” in 2022 & 2024 to push the country over the edge into pure and unconstitutional-but-Court-backed fascism is to be sure Joe can’t do anything he promised. At all. Just like McConnell is sitting on all the bills Nancy and the Dem House have passed that do exactly what Dems are screaming they should do and making it look like they haven’t done anything. We shall see if they get away with it once we have the Justice Dept. to enforce the laws they’ve been breaking.

    Meanwhile folks need food and rent and money for doctors/dentists. Crowd sourcing can deal with some of that but it never was able to do all of it. That’s why there are govt programs, however weak (& punitive), to deal with such things. And the govt money to help is tied up in multiple bills sitting on McConnell’s desk. So we give what we can. And pray. A lot. But there is a new day coming. We shall see what it brings. Bright the day, Meeses. {{{HUGS}}}

  20. Good morning, 49 and cloudy in Bellingham. I have a long list I should work on today, but I’m not very motivated so I’ll see what happens. 47 new covid cases reported in the paper this morning so our quiet life continues. TBH I’m relieved we’ll have a simple TDay this year. I enjoy everyone being here but reading my countdown list from last year makes me weary!

    Best wishes to all.

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