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 to view previous pages, shown here with 3 pages of comments available and Page 2 circled.
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Good “morning”, Motley Meese! The week begins …
Morning low of 70 degrees in Madison WI with an expected daytime high of 84. Rain and thunderstorms are in the forecast.
Have a great day, all y’alls!!
Sunday Meese. 68 going up to 85 here in Kingston. Had a very busy day yesterday and am tired. Celebrated my husband’s initiation birthday, and then went to my annual women’s meeting – very small this year – no un vaccinated women allowed.
Hope to just chill a bit today.
Puerto Rico
You are beautiful, Sister Dee, and so is Taina.
That is definitely Dee’s serious face!!
Sunday music
Good morning everyone. I made my gallon of tea for next week, love how my apartment smells with it steeping. Watching the news & eating breakfast. Ali Velshi is talking about how close Jan. 6 came to being a coup, and how people like Tucker Carlson are still trying to overthrow our democracy. Depressing. But the local news had a story about a celebration & parade for Wally Funk, and she is awesome. Later today I’ll make “overnight” oats for the week. Got lunch thawing out, and that’s my cooking for the week.
It’s 77 heading for low 90s – you know the heat index will get over 100 – and partly cloudy. I’ve already closed up the house and turned on the A/C. We shall see when it comes on. Yesterday we generated 17.7 KWHs and the m-t-d is 103.5 – on track for 450 if not 500.
Fineena emailed to say “hi” yesterday. She didn’t say how she (or Henry) were doing but she did say Harriet loves the (surviving) squeaky squirrels I got for Henry a couple of years ago. Amelia’s hanging on. Sort of. Also Jill. Who at least has more energy to keep trying to find a way out of the 3 overwhelming situations she’s in. All the pups but “hers” are gone which helps. The adults are still there of course. They aren’t all hers but her husband and son aren’t there to take care of theirs and she’s certainly not going to let them starve if she can help it. At least the “we’re not a pound we’re animal services” came out and got the dangerous one who killed Tanis. Aji’s still in severe pain and becoming more and more depressed at the idea she’s living her “new normal”. If some asshole male god’s been piling stuff on all these years to find her “can’t function” point, he’s found it. She’s managing her job as far as NDN Silver is concerned – but nothing else. Nothing new with my friend. Or my son although he’s looking more energetic since he’s had that long motorcycle trip – solitude and being away from his overwhelming responsibilities helped.
I’ll see how many of my “Sunday chores” I can actually get done today. Right now it’s breakfast & coffee & over to Dee’s Sunday diary. Bright the day, Meeses. {{{HUGS}}}
Good beautiful Sunday morning, Moosekind! It was nice to wake up from a full night’s (drugged) sleep to a lovely day. Right now in Ashburn it’s 80 F., on its way up to 90 F.
Have just been down to the garden to water my plants. Y’all tomato growers, is it my imagination or is production really slowing down? The Sungolds aren’t ripening as exuberantly as before, while the biggies keep trying to hide from my steely-eyed gaze while they slowly turn red..
Je suis une vache (French for bitch). I’m just ill-bred enough to laugh at the idea that 10 Rethug legislators in the Texas legislature have tested positive for Covid. They will not get a quorum. I wish Sehkmet the Blood Drinker, she of the lion head and vile disposition, would find a way to fix the legislature so they can never achieve their goal of suppressing the Democratic vote. So there.
I’m busy signing up authors to buy masks for the Authors Festival next month. So far, 14 authorshave agreed to buy them at $7 each. They will be custom-made. I have to put the order in at 5 p.m.
In the next half hour we have to get in the car and find the building where I’m to show up for a mammogram tomorrow.
Wishing a peaceful Sunday to all at the Pond.
I laughed (cackled actually!) at the Texas Republican lawmakers sidelined by COVID. In a just world, the destroyers of all that is good would be punished and rendered incapable of carrying out their evil plans. May their recovery be slow, to buy more time for our democracy.
Indeed!
Good morning, meeses! Monday …
It is 70 degrees in Madison with an expected daytime high of 77. Chance of thunderstorms until midday then cloudy – we won’t get a good glimpse of the sun until Wednesday at the earliest.
So Norwegian Cruise Lines had to sue Gov. Ron DeathSantis in order to provide a safe travel environment for their customers and employees. Thank goodness that sanity prevailed and the courts allowed them to leave the anti-vaxxers on the dock, bleating their cries of “tyranny.” Meanwhile in other parts of Floriduh, pediatric hospital beds are filling up with kids infected with COVID and struggling to breathe – the conservative paper of record, the Wall Street Journal, wrote a sharp editorial decrying masking children because it ruins their “quality of life.” Better to die, Murdochites? Deplorable.
For the first time ever, grocery store workers and restaurant workers average pay is over $15 per hour. Turns out that if you have a worker shortage, paying them more lures them back. Who knew? Besides every economist, ever. The artificially low minimum wage is not based on any real-world calculation, it is the end product of the time honored tradition of rapacious business owners increasing their wealth off the backs of their low-wage workers who are used and discarded. IMO.
I have a week with (currently – knock on wood) no appointments or hard deadlines. My hope is to get caught up on and ahead on work projects so that I am ready for next week which will be busy and chaotic.
See all y’all later!
Good luck with the catching up, Jan!
Monday Meese. 67 here in Kingston going up to 84. Had a lovely weekend spent with my women friends at our annual gathering even though it was very small this year – because only those vaccinated were allowed to attend.
It’s really distressing that so many people I know who are “left of center” have bought the antivax CT
The fictionalized story I wrote about your annual gathering is still one of my favorites. It’s included in my latest book, Magical Encounters: Short Stories with a Twist.
Puerto Rico
Natalie Jaresko’s salary, paid by the taxpayers of a bankrupt state, set by a body not elected by anyone, is immorality, indecency and abuse.
The Fiscal Oversight Board renewed Natalie Jaresko’s $ 625,000 annual contract until 2023, reports
@jayfonsecapr
Yikes! That’s a lot of money to give to someone who isn’t accountable to anyone and who holds so many lives in her hands.
More than half again what POTUS gets.
Good morning. Working in the office today, but it’s a short one because I have an eye doctor appointment this afternoon. I need to remember to ask her how bifocal contacts work, because I really don’t notice.
It’s 78 heading for 93 with heat index definitely over 100. Sunny at the moment but “partly cloudy” for the day. The A/C kicked on at 4 yesterday. It’ll kick on a lot earlier today. When the “overnight” low is 75 at 6:30 am the house doesn’t cool down. Although I do have it open and airing out at the moment. I’ll close it up again as soon as I post this. We generated 15.98 KWHs yesterday. Not quite enough to cover a full day of A/C – but we didn’t use a full day of A/C so hopefully we’re still “banking” electricity.
Still having trouble with my right hand, especially the right index finger. Which is mostly only an issue with trying to click a mouse. But I do a lot of mouse clicks in the course of a “normal” day. It’s not really noticeable except when I’m trying to click a mouse.
Jill is asking those of us who’ve been “with” her through this entire – well, I can’t think of a word for it, “mess” certainly doesn’t convey the trauma/drama & total evil of the on-going/escalating situation – to write up as much of it as we can to give to the judge. She’s hoping the judge will realize how dangerous – and escalating – the situation is. And cut the wait time after service to 2 weeks rather than the more normal 30 days. I’m trying to force my brain into making it coherent. Her husband may not have any money – and at least officially he doesn’t, nobody knows who’s bankrolling him – but the folks he’s sic’ing on her to threaten and harass her apparently do. Money but no sense. There’s a private helicopter “surveying” but only over her property/around her house. Strange vehicles driving by her place & parking where she can see them but not on her place. Just last night someone came by at 11 pm yelling “hey, Jill” – on foot (ran off after the dogs got hysterical). The “estates” has roads that are literally made from the tire tracks of 4WD vehicles, not named much less marked and is almost an hour from Taos. It takes time, energy, at least some money, and a lot of dedication to harass Jill where she lives. Bastid is evil. He just is.
Everybody else is hanging on. Yesterday my friend came by and we visited a bit. She brought me a “mess” of green beans and a few tomatoes from her garden. Saturday was one year since her mother died. And her dad is dying but a lot slower. As with a lot of other folks, the now is overwhelming the everything else. But step by step, everybody is keepin’ on keepin’ on.
Need coffee, gotta close up. Then to twitter. Bright the day, Meeses. {{{HUGS}}}
Good morning, 63 and cloudy in Bellingham. Erica and her family are safely home now and Ryan is back here, ready for another work week. He is so grateful for this summer work opportunity and so far his muscle/insomnia issues are not interfering.
I’ve got a busy day of laundry, housekeeping, and tending to my aching knees but I’m smiling. Last week was full of family time and I’m very grateful. Best wishes to all.
Good morning, meeses! Tuesday …
It is 66 degrees in Madison with an expected daytime high of 90. We have a heat alert today as the “feels like” is supposed to get to 105. Storms expected tonight.
Texas Governor Greg Abbott is begging for help with the crisis he created – a surge of COVID cases that is swamping his state. Vax up and mask up, doodiehead! He is like the guy who asks god to help him win the lottery but won’t buy tickets – you have a way to “win” this thing but it requires quitting the #RepublicanDeathCult. I feel sad for people stuck in Texas who really can’t leave and who have no choice but to stick it out and hope they survive. To the California companies planning to relocate to Texas, I have one question – why would you willingly put yourself in the hands of leaders who reject science, reject common sense and who are bent on creating a Republican Utopia where there are no rules – and also no safety nets?
The infrastructure bill is moving forward, The Former Guy is not happy and vows to primary any Republican Senator who votes for it. For once it appears that constituents well-being is overriding the political calculations. I suspect that it has to do with pending retirements and Senators who just won new 6 year terms – they are hoping that tRump is gone by then, either in jail or in exile in Qatar.
I hope someone is still keeping an eye on voting rights, I haven’t seen it in the news lately.
See all y’all later!
I find following Marc Elias and Democracy Docket useful.
He is definitely the go-to guy on election lawsuits. I am not sure how Gov. Evers hangs on in Wisconsin, there is a lot of Republican dark money here ready to take back the state. They were shocked in 2018 – the kids saved us – but won’t be complacent this time. There are a lot of important governor race “holds” we need to make (MI should be on that list) and maybe some pickups but we have to be alert to lame duck ratfking. In Wisconsin, they took away a lot of the governor’s power between the election and inauguration; they tried to remove his power to veto redistricting but the Constitution controls that.
The forecasters on TV this morning said Wisconsin is gonna git it today with nasty thunderstorms. Hope you have everything you need, including a thermos of hot coffee.
Tuesday Meese. 68 and raining, going up to 85 here in Kingston NY.
Puerto Rico
Good morning. Working at home today, yay. Even though they’ve pushed “normal” back to October, I turned in my paperwork to keep working from home some when we do. Saw on the news that a concert series has been postponed, has me wondering about ACL Fest. I think the damn virus is here to stay, thanks to people refusing to get vaccinated; and gathering in huge groups like Lollapalooza.
Another, I think you’re right about the virus being here to stay. Hope you can keep on working from home.
Good Tuesday morning, Meese! It’s 77 F. here, on its way up to 95 F. We have a fairly decent morning with blue skies and tentative sunshine. “They” say there might be thunderstorms this afternoon but I’m going down to the garden to water it anyway, because “they” usually lie.
Two nice things happened yesterday: my publisher sent me a royalty payment for my book. It’s enough to keep two robins in worms for an entire week! Number 2 is that Miss Pink Cheeks texted yesterday evening to ask if she can come for a sleepover. I’m not sure whether she really wants to spend time with her aging Grandma, or simply wants to get out of doing chores, but I’ll take it. Her family moved house 10 days ago so there’s still plenty of unpacking to be done.
The Death Cults continue to depress me, but I’m going to get on with my little bit. Wishing a good day to all at the Pond!
It’s already 78, heading for 94 – widget says the heat index will only be 101 but the widget lies. Odds are good it will be closer to 111 considering what it’s been the last several days when the widget said it would be under 100. Sunny at the moment. Hopefully it will remain so. Yesterday we generated 15.79 KWHs and I’m running A/C this week. The m-t-d is a hair under 135.
Jill’s found a start-up group that might, maybe, do the non-profit legal stuff and stand guarantor for a business loan. And while this program is usually “higher rates b/c higher risk” they do have a program for folks like her who have a good plan, enough experience to actually do it, and no other resources at all. She’s checked them out as best she can and thinks it’s worth a shot – IF she can come up with even their much lower cost of $3K. Working on it but Good Thoughts would be nice.
Aji’s upset over a couple of twitter white-privilege-I-know-better-than-you troll telling her that she shouldn’t be taking the meds she is, should be take meds she most certainly shouldn’t, and masking isn’t necessary if you’re vaxxed. Not as much at the jerkwad as she didn’t get any backup from friends. I responded/reported/blocked one of the but I couldn’t see the tweets on the other. I could see her reply, but for me it just said “tweet not available” so I couldn’t report & block the bastid. Twitter really needs a “pandemic lies” report category. Which is probably why they don’t have one. Ahem.
I need to go to the store for milk. I’d have gone already but I don’t want to close up the house until I have to. Which will only be another half hour anyway. It’s only a mile or so to the Braum’s. I wish I could manage to get my outing back to one day out to multiple stores each month. But things just keep coming up. (Like the special election today I early voted for last Friday.) So I’ll finish my breakfast and start my twitter stuff while I wait. Bright the day, Meeses. {{{HUGS}}}
Good morning, meeses! Wednesday …
It is 72 degrees in Madison with an expected daytime high of 88. Chance of thunderstorms. We had a line of storms move through yesterday evening – it looked massive when it entered the state but by the time it moved through the area it was a thin line and was here and gone pretty quickly. Obviously it did not cool anything down!
An unrepentant Andrew Cuomo should be a surprise to no one. Kathy Hochul will be the first woman governor of the state of New York – I hope she can clean up the Albany cesspool. It seems like New York leads the nation in governors forced to resign because of sex scandals, let’s hope putting a woman in office changes the culture.
It was finally infrastructure week!! It will be interesting to see if the bipartisan bill picks up any Republican votes in the House – apparently the left-of-the-left anti-Biden wing of the Democratic Party plans to vote against it which could sink it. Nancy Pelosi will have her work cut out for her.
It sounds like the anti-masker anti-vaxxer governors of Texas and Florida are running into a few roadblocks in the courts and the court of public opinion. “Don’t Tread On Us but send us nurses because our negligence is killing people!” is not a great motto. People like the Texas governor who says “people are smart enough to choose for themselves” need to extrapolate that into every other aspect of public health and safety and see how freaking insane that is “yes, there is a train derailment that is leaking toxic fumes but it should be up to everyone in the town if they want to evacuate.” Ignoramuses. In a just world, they would be punished at the ballot box but they won’t be.
Congressman Ron Kind (D-WI) decided he is done trying to win in a tRump+20 district that went red two presidential cycles in a row. He said he is “out of gas” – I don’t blame him, it must be very frustrating to try to convince people who are ignorant that their ignorance will result in bad outcomes for themselves, their families and their communities. He was not a lockstep Democrat (he voted against Nancy Pelosi for Speaker in 2019) but he was a reliable D vote for the stuff that mattered.
See all y’all later!
Good morning Jan. Was glad to see this
Wednesday Meese. 69 going up to a very muggy 94 here in Kingston NY.
Puerto Rico
Rachel Maddow’s A block last night recounted Kathy Hochul’s career. She said it was a path paved with an astonishing number of men behaving astonishingly badly and getting caught. I had forgotten about the Attorney General. No, not him, the other one. (the one who actually literally hit women)
On a much more positive note:I got my U2 fan club gift last night so I have a new mask! My boys sent a mask out to all the members. It’s the design they have behind them when they sing Love Is Bigger Than Anything In Its Way. There’s also dvds and postcards. This is the best, though.
https://twitter.com/beckythecyclist/status/1425426887053127684?s=19