Week-long Welcomings from Moosylvania: April 4th

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.

36 Comments

  1. Good morning, 40 and mostly sunny in Bellingham. Ron and Ava are doing on a photo adventure along the Nooksack river today but my old knees need another day of rest so I’ll stay here. If I can get over feeling sorry for myself I may have a nice day regardless :)

    I haven’t tuned into the news yet, but with tRump gone and competent people in charge I don’t feel such urgency to know what’s happening. My main task today will to be trying to get the J&J vaccine. I haven’t heard from the allergy clinic so I’ll start there.

    Best wishes to all.

    • Good luck finding your vaccine! I am working on getting one for my daughter. Our governor opened up the vaccinations to anyone 16 and older on April 5th and the only appointments available are in the hinterlands where there is a lot of vaccine hesitancy – everything in Dane County is booked until mid-May. I will check daily to see if anything changes. She wants to take a trip in June and a mid-May shot 1, unless it is J&J, won’t have her fully immunized until June 20th at the earliest. PLUS the variants and the surge are scary.

      • Good luck on the vaccine for your daughter, Jan! Vaccine opportunities seem to pop up all the time, leaving many people pleasantly surprised. Let’s hope that happens for your family!

  2. Wednesday Meese. 39 going up to a sunny 67 here in Kingston NY.
    St. Louis elects first Black female mayor – Tishaura Jones

  3. Puerto Rico


    For some background on the Borinqueneers:

  4. Good morning, meeses! Wednesday …

    It is 57 degrees in Madison with an expected daytime high of 73. Scattered thunderstorms expected this afternoon.

    Good news from Wisconsin – the Scott Walker/Betsy DeVos/Bell Curve candidate for Superintendent of the Department of Public Instruction was defeated and Dr. Jill Underly, who likes kids and teachers, will be the new DPI head. The loser had planned to move all the DPI staff out of Madison – where libruls wreck things for the god schools! – and put the state “choice” program on steroids. Thank goodness people who care about kids and respect teachers came out to vote in this normally low turnout spring election. Our county executive, who “tyrannized” us with mask mandates and social distancing rules, was re-elected with an overwhelming majority. There are still places where good governing is rewarded.

    People with “fears of losing white supremacy” were the main component of the tRump mob that stormed the US Capitol on January 6th? I’m shocked!!!

    I had a very fractured day yesterday and I need to organize some personal and business projects so that I can get back on track.

    See all y’all later!

  5. I can’t really say it’s hot, though 72 for this time of morning….. A front is coming through that will cool/dry the air, so that’ll be good. Still close to 90 today. And today’s plan: just work. We had a agency-wide meeting yesterday & they announced that we will start transitioning back to the office in July. I really hate the idea, but I think my management will try to make it as easy as possible. Still, sigh.

    • Bummer, another. Home is so much nicer—actual windows that open to fresh air and sunlight, music of one’s own choice to listen to, birds to look at on the balcony—unless one is a raging extrovert, which I am not.

      I loved working at home when I was allowed to. It was one of the best experiences of my life. Never missed the office politics, the cattiness, the unreasonable attitudes of males.

      Retirement has its own set of problems but working at home is not one of them.

  6. We’re at 63 heading for 69 and overcast enough that I need lights on to work by. PV system is on, but barely. Supposedly more rain in a few hours and then clearing off. Meanwhile, even though it’s not cold the damp makes it feel like it is. Yesterday we got 12.9 KWHs and the m-t-d is 95.7 so we’re still on track.

    My son just brought back my treadmill. He messed around with it a bit and got it adjusted at his house but it went right back out of adjustment when he put it in my house. He had to go to work but will try again when he gets off. I hope he can get it so I can use it. I am really feeling the lack of exercise.

    AR GQP managed to meet its goal of being the 1st worst – ahead of TX – with the anti-Trans bill they just passed/overridden the Guv’s veto. Asa knew they would which is why he vetoed it. He now gets “good guy cred” for his next campaign (probably for prez in ’24) while still having the evil bill become law. sigh.

    Need more coffee. Then I’ve got twitter and house stuff to do. Bright the day, Meeses. {{{HUGS}}}

    • He now gets “good guy cred” for his next campaign (probably for prez in ’24) while still having the evil bill become law.

      A president named “Asa”? Can you just imagine the pejorative puns? Of course my feelthy mind immediately thought of that.

      I’m trying to think of someone more hateful than white Christian Rethug males and having a very hard time doing it.

      Hope the clouds move off!

    • I hope that the ACLU has a lawsuit ready to challenge that law. For a state legislature to intervene in and direct the medical care of anyone should be called to question. Of course, the same legislature passed the onerous anti-abortion laws that intervene in and direct the medical care of women so it is not shocking.

      • Nothing shocking or even surprising about any evil the GQP does. Deplorable of course. Despicable, in fact. They’re evil. They do evil in the name of Good which makes them the worse of the worst.

  7. Good morning, 45 and raining in Bellingham. I decided to read outside and enjoy the sunshine yesterday and then I napped. So it was a restful day, and today will be a laundry day. It’s easier to tend to indoor chores when it’s raining.

    Danny Westneat, at the Seattle Times…..
    COVID herd immunity? Parts of Washington state appear in no mood to join this herd

    “Without vaccine hesitancy, we’d be in really good shape,” Carl Bergstrom, a UW evolutionary biologist, said in a commentary the other day on herd immunity. “With vaccine hesitancy, it could be close here in the U.S. I’m hoping that much of the hesitancy we see is really more like … vaccine deliberation.”

    Hope so, too. It’s perfectly understandable that people would be leery, or in “wait and see” mode. The data cited above suggests something else may be going on, though — something familiar and cultural that’s plagued us with the coronavirus from the start. Which is that America may just be too tribal and rebellious to get to where 80% of us ever agree to do anything.

    Not having the second shot and making slow progress towards getting the J&J is making me feel more vulnerable, and even more angry re the impact of stupid tRump propaganda.

    So on that note I’d best find some coffee and a better attitude. As always, my best wishes to all.

    • Good luck, princesspat! The selfishness of others never ceases to amaze. I badly want to live long enough to see my grandchildren grow up, so I leapt at the chance to get the vaccine! The only thing that keeps me from getting the yearly ‘flu shot is my bad experience in 2007, after which my doctor told me never to get the ‘flu shot again.

  8. Good Wednesday morning, Moosekind! Sure, and it’s a grand immortal day here in jolly old Ashburn: sunny and 72 F. if you please, on its way up to 79 F. Winds light and variable—might I get off my lazy assets and go for a walkies? Wouldn’t that be nice? For tomorrow it may rain.

    Bfitz gave me a spell to retrieve my lost car keys yesterday and it worked! Thank you, bfitz, and thank you, Goddess of Lost Objects. Having torn this flat apart with no success, I finally called Lost & Found in the main clubhouse. They were dead last on my list of things to try, as they’ve never been particularly helpful in the past when I’ve lost things. However, they HAD THEM! I hotfooted it over there to retrieve them, brought them home, and propped them on a little stand so I could gaze at them worshipfully from time to time. Basket, a good friend to the Pond, told me about “Tile,” something I can order to make sure I won’t lose the keys. Amazon will deliver it today.

    So that’s that. There are still other things to do, like watching the YouTube video a couple more times to find out how to replace the domes on my hearing aids. I hate doing new things. First of all, I’m terribly afraid of damaging the hearing aids, which were just as expensive as this lasik cataract surgery I’m to undergo on Friday.

    Today is Political Granddaughter’s 27th birthday! She lives in Ohio. If Emily’s List wants her to move back to DC, Granddaughter is going to look for another job. She’s tired of moving all over the country for political campaigns, even though it was kind of fun for a while. Her Significant Other lives nearby where Granddaughter lives. Anyway, I gave her a copy of my book and a Starbucks gift card. She can drink while she reads.

    I was feeling VERY depressed the other day and am still fighting it. I wish more people would read my book and leave a review (if they liked it). I’m about to give up fiction writing altogether. Why bother, if no one reads it? I realize, however, that this is a very first-world problem, so I’ll shut up now.

    Wishing a good, sunny day to all at the Pond!

    • {{{Diana}}} Healing Energy – for whatever needs Healing – & moar {{{HUGS}}}

  9. Cool morning, hot afternoon. Going to log off work early, need to go to the grocery store & maybe get in a walk — 90 is hot for this early but not that hot. Trying to get used to the idea of going back to the office on a regular basis; they’re going to start the transition in July.

    • {{{anotherdemocrat}}} Holding the Good Thought. Maybe your manager will find a way to allow you to work from home. At least part of the time. Obviously there isn’t a problem with productivity. You have months of proof of that you can call upon if you want to give it a shot and talk to your manager. Healing Energy & moar {{{HUGS}}}

  10. Thursday Meese. Sun is shining and it will be 70 today here in NYS. Yay!

    Puerto Rico

    • People knowingly traveling to virus hot spots are deplorable. The variants are now the main cause of infection and they are both more infectious and more deadly. Until we can get everyone vaccinated, stay the hell home!!

  11. Good morning, meeses! Thursday …

    It is 59 degrees in Madison with an expected daytime high of 61. Rain is in the forecast. Yesterday’s expected thunderstorm hit at exactly the moment my head hit my pillow last night but thankfully it did not last very long.

    I woke up this morning with a large to-do list from yesterday and I got most of the “early morning” part of it done. I try to connect to client computers before they start work but it is difficult sometimes because a lot of people are working from home and often connect to their work computers at odd times. This morning I was a little late getting to one client’s server and people were already connected – I will have to delay that little project until tomorrow morning or the weekend.

    I am going to go news-light today to cleanse my brain of Matt Gaetz “revelations”, the Chauvin defense attorney’s weasel face, and Joe Manchin’s re-writing of history to cover his white supremacist ass as he stonewalls fixing voting rights. He doesn’t mind killing Joe Biden’s agenda because his state will re-elect him and he doesn’t mind being in the minority because the Republicans will always reward him for his perfidy. I may watch the Joe Biden gun safety measures rollout and possibly post video and transcript. I will see how my day unfolds.

    See all y’all later!

  12. Good Thursday morning, Meese. We had a high of 83 F. yesterday, so the trees are bursting into pink blossomy bloom. Today will be mostly sunny (it looks like a pastel wash outside), with a high of 72 F. Right now we have 59 F. with winds 10 to 20 mph. When I took Monty outside he mostly wanted to eat shriveled black worms.

    Yesterday was the ninth anniversary of my late mother’s death, so I spent the day being weepy and rereading my diary entries for that month and year. Today my aunt sent me the link to the legacy book, so I’ve become weepy all over again. Contemplating death makes me wonder (1) why we’re here, (2) why we have consciousness, and (3) what it’s all for. I’ve just got hold of a fascinating book that explains how one day our sun will become a red supergiant, then explode into a supernova, then finally dwindle into a white dwarf. However, this is not going to happen for another 7 billion years.

    Well, now that I’ve cheered you up, what’s happening? Good for Biden about the gun laws! I despise the attention-seeking street prostitute Joe Manchin. If he’s ever done a good thing for anyone, I have yet to hear of it.

    Today I have begun the wretched eye drops four times a day, five minutes apart. That reminds me, I need to call the doctor’s office to ask if I have to do them tomorrow too, on the way to the surgery center.

    Not looking forward to tomorrow at all. It’s to be hoped that the so-called “surgery center” will be a bit more human-oriented than my eye surgeon’s office. There, one is whisked along like a product on a factory assembly line—this room for one test, another room for another test, a third room for the old-fashioned “look through this and read this line” test, until finally one ends up in a “consultation room,” which is actually a hallway with random persons passing through while you’re talking to the surgery coordinator.

    But enough of that opthalmological chitchat. No plans for the rest of the day, nor for tomorrow (which I’m supposed to spend largely asleep), or whatever.

    Wishing a good day to all Democrats, particularly those at the Pond.

    • {{{Diana}}} Losing one’s mom is something you just deal with. Every single day & 10x on anniversaries. Healing Energy & moar {{{HUGS}}} – & there’s a purposed candle that’ll be burning tomorrow.

    • {{Diana}} – that pain never goes away, as my favorite poet says:

      I’ve seen for myself
      There’s no end to grief
      That’s how I know

      That’s how I know
      And why I need to know that there is no end to love
      All I know and all I need to know is there is no end to love

      Early March is the tough time for me, I had that song on repeat. And soon the Mother’s Day commercials will start. I hate them. It’s like getting stabbed in the heart, for weeks. I wish there was a way to filter them out.

      • {{{anotherdemocrat}}} – I hear ya on the Mother’s Day commercials. Even with no TV and not listening to the radio I get hit by them online & email practically nonstop. I’m with you on wishing there was a way to filter them out. Healing Energy & moar {{{HUGS}}}

      • {{{another}}}! Thank you for sharing that poem.

        I know. The day doesn’t pass when I don’t think of Mother, or look at an object and think, “She gave me that.”

        What is remembered lives.

  13. Late this morning – was out doing my west-side stores stock up. They only had 1 bag of the kibble I use so I’ve got to go back in 2 weeks but at least they did have 1 bag. And they had tomato plants! (I was afraid I’d have to go to Walmart or Lowes for that.) So I now have a Sweet 100s cherry tomato plant in a large pot on my porch. The “cage” I put around it should keep it safe from the cats. I hope. It will/would be so nice to have fresh tomatoes this summer.

    Anyway, it’s mid 50s now heading to mid 70s and more or less sunny. (Although it certainly was not this morning while I was out.) We got just over 10 KWHs yesterday and the m-t-d was 105 to close out the day. We’re already generating at over 1 KW/hour right now. This is good.

    However we manage to do it, we’ve got to get the jobs/infrastructure bill passed and in action soon. We don’t have time to jack around. Biden may know something about 1 or more somebodies on the R side (folks who’re retiring anyway & want to go out taking credit for Dem initiatives) who can make up for our power-mad Blue dogs. Whatever. We gotta get it done.

    Much catching up to do – both around the house and over at twitter. More coffee first. Bright the day, Meeses. {{{HUGS}}}

  14. Good morning, 43 and mostly sunny in Bellingham. Thanks to Sue’s help my house is clean and the laundry is manageable. I usually try to have it done so she can focus on cleaning this big old house but yesterday she did double duty. I really appreciate her assistance.

    I think I’m in a better mood today, but just in case I’ll try to be careful. As always, my best wishes to all.

  15. Friday Meese. 45 degrees here in Kingston NY going up to 68.

    I can’t watch Chauvin trial but have been getting ypdates via Twitter

  16. Puerto Rico

  17. I’m gonna go ahead & call it hot. 72 this morning, headed to 96 if we’re lucky, we’ll tie the record of 98 if not. I’m watching a Soyuz dock at the ISS, at least there’s some things we can still cooperate with Russia on. Today: work till 3:30 then I set up my groceries for this afternoon — as long as they waive the fee, I’ll keep doing curbside.

  18. It’s 62 heading for 77 & sunny at the moment but I can already see clouds to the west and we’ve got rain in this afternoon’s forecast. I’d prefer it shove itself – clouds & rain – into the evening and let my PV system do its good work. But of course that’s not something I have any say about. Yesterday it cleared off early enough we got 18.37 KWHs bringing the m-t-d to just over 124 – still on track.

    I’m gonna call the vet and talk to them about Cloud. Tuesday, when he had the dental work done, he was eating just fine. Wednesday started out normal and then tapered off to not much by the end of the day. Yesterday and this morning he’s only eating a few bites and then walking away. He’s still getting the pain meds in the morning so that shouldn’t be it. Maybe it’s just (just) that he’s having trouble getting used to eating without 5 of his teeth and was too hungry on Tuesday to care. I hope.

    I’ve 2 friends at eye doctor offices today. Candle burning for them. And another friend with an emergency that I purely don’t know how to help. Her tags were expired and the lot she thought was private turned out to be city property. They impounded her car last night. I can help with the expense of getting it back. I can’t help with physically getting it back. And since her driver’s license is also expired, she needs that physical help. (She hasn’t been able to get any of the governmental online programs to accept her updates. Not to get a mail-in ballot, not to update her licenses, nothing.) So. I guess I’m asking for Energy toward “best outcome” by whatever Tradition y’all use.

    So. It’s late enough to call the vet. And I have online stuff to do. Need more coffee first. Bright the day, Meeses. {{{HUGS}}}

  19. Good morning, 44 and cloudy in Bellingham. I just finished reading book #11 in the Chronicles of St Mary’s series and this book bends time and merges reality and fiction in an unsettling way. I love the experience of being lost in a book, but I need to reorient myself from this one.

    I finally have a vaccination appointment for what I think will be the J&J jab but I don’t know how to be sure, I haven’t heard back from the allergy doc, and I haven’t informed my doc. So what to do. Part of me wants to say the hell with it and just get the shot but another part tells me to continue working with my docs. It’s a frustrating dilemma. More and more family members are getting fully vaccinated now so that’s a relief and makes me want to do the same. I know it will get sorted out but I’m losing patience.

    Oh well, time for coffee and to see what’s happened in the real world while I’ve been time traveling with the St Mary’s crew. Best wishes to all on what I think is a Friday in April.

  20. Good morning, meese! Friday …

    It is 48 degrees with an expected daytime high of 54. The forecast calls for cloudy, showers and then cloudy with showers.

    My too busy morning has kept me from reading the news until now. I am glad that the garbage person carrying the Confederate flag in the Capitol has been arrested. I hope he can be linked to the wider conspiracy and spends 20 years in prison thinking about the damage he did to our democracy. And I hope that Mitch McChinless, who is often photographed in front of Confederate flags as he meets constituents, joins him. Seditious bastids.

    I need to get back to it.

    See all y’alls later!

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