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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Wednesday Meese. 47 here in Kingston, going up to 74. We have had quite a bit of haze here from the fires in Canada.
Heatwave continues in Puerto Rico
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p lang=”en” dir=”ltr”>Your daily reminder that #Vieques still has no hospital! We are on day 2,081 without a hospital. <a href=”https://twitter.com/hashtag/PuertoRico?src
Good morning. Got up early & walked, it’s going to be hot today. We aren’t getting the wildfire smoke, but do have an ozone alert. Watching astronomy. Savoring my wfh day.
Good morning, meeses! Wednesday …
It is 64 degrees in Tucson with an expected daytime high of 90. Mostly sunny skies are in the forecast. We will have a few more days of cool morning weather before the monsoon season starts on June 15th. Then it gets very very hot.
More Republicans throw their hats in the ring, making certain that tRump will get the nomination. Some like tRump, some despise him, others pretend he doesn’t exist but they all have one thing in common – they can’t beat him. Twelve people splitting the non-Trump vote will give every winner-take-all primary to TFG. There must be some kind of grift I am missing – do they take the campaign donations and plump up their bank accounts, do they live to have the media attentions – what motivates them to want to jump in this fray? Molly Jong-Fast headline: “The 2024 GOP Field Is Basically Donald Trump and His Mini-Mes.” Indeed. And like Democrats who run as Republican-Lite, these candidates will quickly realize that there is no lane for Trump-But-Less-Personally-Gross.
I have to get back to work – I completed some projects this morning and need to write them up and report back on them to clients. I am hoping to take a nice long walk this morning to remind myself that I am semi-retired – lately it has not felt like it.
See all y’all later!
Jan, when do you plan to fully retire?
Good question! It was my original intent to be much more retired than I am now but as I thought about it, I realized that I should work as long as I can because some day I won’t be able to work and then my retirement money will be pretty much it. I am not actively seeking new customers, just supporting existing ones. Last year two clients closed their offices, the year before one fairly large one did. Right now I am particularly busy but at a client whose support needs goes in spurts – I think later this summer I will (happily) be less busy.
Yay for late summer leisure!
Good Wednesday moaning, Moosekind! Today, instead of moaning about the lack of rain, we’ll moan about the air quality. It’s now 128 for particulates, which rates a “Code Orange.” Right now in Ashburn it’s 62 F., going up to 79 F. I would prefer that Dearly not go outside at all today. We can get to the Tech Fair by walking inside. We both have questions about our iPhones and iPads.
Busy day—haircut in the morning, then grocery shopping, lunch, tech fair, then I have to make the lavender shortbread cookies and rosemary lemonade. All totally organic of course! Have to finish my final read-through of my writers’ submissions. They had to write two pieces this time.
The air quality will be worse tomorrow. I’m going to mask for the first time in weeks when I go out today and tomorrow. Our local environmental honcho wants me to attend the Environmental Fair next door tomorrow morning, if only for a few minutes. She wants me to enter the drawing for one of the prizes. Last month I did order a tree to be planted in my late sister’s memory.
The Pride luncheon yesterday was GREAT! Simply everyone was there, the UUs, the Progressives, the Christian ministers, and all the Publications people. We had a wonderful time. Notably absent was our Trumpian Executive Director, who will be moving on to be ED for a new Erickson facility. Conveniently, it will be located right across the street from the cemetery in Fairfax. Everyone was invited to drop a note into the goldfish bowl (empty) stating what we’d like to see next from the LGBTQIA community here. I wrote, “Drag Queen Story Hour,” and dropped it in.
Don’t think I have to worry much about writing a play. The Drama Club has no Director or Producer, so plays, therefore, cannot be presented. What I do have to worry about is putting together an Interfaith Ritual that doesn’t involve a lot of talking on my part. I also have to choose the music for it. Mercy me!
Wishing a good, indoor day to all at the Pond who are affected by the bad air, and to those who are mercifully free from it.
It’s 63 heading for 88 and sunny at the moment. Clouds moved in yesterday afternoon and we only generated 15.2 KWHs so with the m-t-d at 96 we’re still losing ground. Sigh.
Today is basket’s birthday and I hope he has a good one. 🎶🎶🎂🍨🎁🥂🍓🎶🎉🎊💖🎶 I wish I could do something special for him but we are a couple of thousand miles apart (unlike last year when he was in my spare bedroom recovering from COVID) which makes it a little difficult. I think I’ll get a pizza from my son. It wasn’t for basket’s birthday, but my son brought us a lovely GF pizza while he was here.
Off to do my boosting chores. Holding the Good Thoughts for everybody. {{{Meeses}}}
Happy Birthday, basket!! 🎂🥳
Good morning, 64 and sunny outside my window today. I’ve been slowly addressing multiple lists but today I need to find my focus and try not to get distracted. I was sewing last evening and didn’t water the newly planted pots so that’s the first task this morning, then the desk, and then even more laundry. Best wishes to all.
Thursday Meese. 49 going up to 64 here in Kingston – with rain predicted. Hopefully the rain will help wash away the smoke in the air here.
As you can imagine I’m distressed about the weather in Puerto Rico.
Fer gawd’s sake. And I suppose the family losing its land won’t be offered any compensation.
Thus do the powerful fuel the embers into the flames of revolution.
Good morning. Got my walk done, in the office cooling off. It’s already 70 degrees. Much excitement about an indictment, but I’ll believe it when I see it. Oh — I’m hosting Bookchat next Wednesday, on books that inspired songs/albums. wasn’t there a Jimi Hendrix song inspired by a science fiction book he liked? Must find that article…
Good Thursday morning, Meese. It’s 57 F. here in Ashburn, on its way to the high 70s. It would be the high 80s, but the pall of smoke is keeping temperatures down.
Made the Small Batch Lemonade last night, put it in the fridge. Made the cookie dough last night and will bake the lavender shortbread this morning. I spoil my writers. But hey, we see each other only once a month as a rule, and I like to make it into a party!
SUCH a busy day! Writers’ Group meeting at 1:30 this afternoon. We’ll have a special guest, I hope, the Director of Philanthropy. Many of us wrote one-paragraph contributions to the campaign literature. I’m hoping she’ll pick at least two of them. The campaign will begin in July and wrap up in August so as not to interfere with the 15th anniversary celebration of the Home’s founding.
Ugh, I could smell the smoke when I went out to water my flowerpots. I think it’s beginning to creep into the flat.
Wishing a good day to all at the Pond and rain to wash away the smoke!
Good morning, meeses! Thursday …
It is 64 degrees in Tucson with an expected daytime high of 90. Mostly sunny skies are in the forecast.
FINALLY, tRump is identified as a “target” in the Grand Jury investigations. There are two of them, one in Florida and one in DC. It sounds like prosecution for the purloined document crime might need to happen in Florida because that’s where most of the criming took place, especially the obstruction and moving the documents around to hide them from the FBI. The DC Grand Jury will probably still do the January 6th prosecution.
Pat Robertson is dead. Good riddance to bad rubbish. Won’t he be surprised when he meets his maker and finds out his eternal fate? Cherry picking the bible to decide who to hate and oppress – and which poors deserve to be fed, clothed and housed – will probably get him a very warm place, indeed.
Busy morning. See all y’all later!
CM posted
It’s 73 heading for 88 and sunny at the moment but clouds and maybe even rain supposed to move in this afternoon. I’ll believe the rain comes when I actually see it. The clouds I’m sure will. sigh. But hopefully later than the widget says. Yesterday we generated another 18.6 KWHs – high for this month so far but not high for what the system is capable of in June. The m-d-t at 114.74 is not on track even for 500 but it’s gaining. A little.
Amelia/earicicle fixed basket a lovely salmon dinner for his birthday. They called while she was in the middle of preparing it and we had a nice phone visit. I don’t know if it’s really an indicator but both their voices sounded good.
I had my annual in-home physical (one of the “wellness” programs through my Medicare Advantage BCBS coverage) yesterday and if one goes by “vitals” – temperature, pulse, BP (sitting & standing), weight, reflexes, hearing, and whatever she was listening to/for in the various places she checked with the stethoscope – I’m in perfect health. Even my hands were behaving enough that the tremors weren’t noticeable. And of course things like acid reflux and sinusitis aren’t anyway. So I guess I’m good for another year. LOL. She gave me a list with all the recommendations they always give us oldsters, most of which either I already do or I’m not planning to follow. And I will continue to do what I do to stay in this shape as long as I can so I don’t have to.
Off to shut up the house then get to my online boosting chores. Holding the Good Thoughts for everybody. {{{Meeses}}}
Good morning, 65 and mostly sunny outside my window today. I nearly have the patios ready for a family lunch on Sunday. I’m looking forward to being together outside again but my knees are already protesting. Hard to believe Lisa will be 55 yrs old, even harder to accept that I’m older now too! So the more party prep I can do ahead the better so I can enjoy the fun on Sunday. Best wishes to all.
Friday Meese. 50 here in Kingston going up to 68 and raining. Thankfully – checked out air quality at the airnow.gov site and we’re good.
Puerto Rico
{{{Denise}}} I’m glad your air is getting more breathable. Healing Energy & moar {{{HUGS}}}
Yesterday was quite nice — the indictment, Ken Paxton’s pal also indicted (please, please, please flip on him!), and Pat Robertson and James Watt both died. I got a good first draft of next Wednesday’s Bookchat written, joined the new group for the Saturday Night Music diaries at the orange place….. Just, all around, a pretty good day. I woke up ridiculously early (4:15??? come on, body, we can do better than that) and got downtown earlier than usual, did my 1.2mi, and still had to walk around the loading dock a couple of times till the building would let me in. If you follow me on Twitter, I posted a picture of the Capital.
Good morning, meeses! Friday …
It is 61 degrees in Tucson with an expected daytime high of 86. Sunny skies are in the forecast.
I was chuckling at my local newspaper with the headline “Trump says he’s been indicted.” They know him and how much he lies! Considering how he is using the “indictment” as a fundraising tool, it is best for everyone to wait until an actual indictment to pop the champagne bottle. I am curious about what the indictment counts are and, to be honest, more interested in the indictment related to trying to overturn the election on January 6th which will come from Washington DC. People will call the document stealing a nothingburger – and a Florida jury will probably not convict him – but the January 6th charges are more serious and jurors in DC won’t let him off the hook. We live in interesting times.
Great news out of Alabama, by the way. Section 2 of the VRA is not dead and the redistricting changes required by SCOTUS could get us a net 5 seat pickup in the House, enough to win it back. Add that to the possible changes in New York State, and if we don’t do anything stupid between now and November 2024, we could be in good shape to end the ugly reign of terror by Marj’s Kevin. Fingers crossed!
I had planned to get up early to work on a computer in Central Daylight Time and when I woke up at 2:30am and could not get back to sleep, I decided to get up and carpe diem. I got the most critical work done and now I will take a break and pick up the rest of it later. I am going to get a COVID booster later this morning and will probably need a nap later in the day. It should be a lovely day to nap on my lounge chair on the patio.
See all y’all later!
It’s 73 heading for 85 and I’ve already closed up the house. Partly cloudy already and rain supposedly due right after lunchtime. sigh. Still, we did get to 20 KWHs yesterday and the m-t-d at 135 is actually on track for 500. It won’t be by end of today if the forecast is correct, but it is for the moment.
I take it “the Lord called home” two men seriously responsible for our society’s transphobia and the world’s climate collapse. Too bad He didn’t call them home before they did their damage. Not for me to say. What would have replaced them might have been worse. Although I really don’t want to know how.
Not much going on – that I can think of anyway – closer to home. I put flea goo on the cats – actually managed to get 4 of the 5 – because they manage to slip outside every time I do laundry. That’s about it. My friends in physical and/or financial pain are pretty much still there. Trucking along, no worse but no better either. So. Off to do my online boosting chores. Holding the Good Thoughts for everybody. {{{Meeses}}}
We can speak ill of the dead with impunity. Why not? They spoke ill of the living, which hurts a lot more.
Good Friday morning, Moosekind! Well, the news couldn’t be better! I hear New York City set off fireworks last night, and the Safeway in Washington, DC, ran right out of Veuve Cliquot champagne! Ha! I laid in some popcorn for myself (Dearly, being British, doesn’t like it), and am waiting for the Perp Walk next Tuesday.
It’s trying to be a sunny summer morning outside, but we have to keep the doors and windows closed because of the bad air. It’s 74 for pollution today, which is considerably better than yesterday, when we had our first Code Purple ever! Today it’s just Orange. (Fitting, don’tcha think?) I wish we could get some of Sister Dee’s rain.
The Writers Group meeting was most successful yesterday! I served rosemary lemonade (the rosemary flavor hardly came through, alas), and lavender shortbread. (Note to self: next time you want lavender shortbread, order it, don’t make it yourself.) However, I had to make it myself this time because I wanted to riff on the little poem in Alice in Wonderland:
Well, I thought, why not turn that around and do it this way?
It took me all morning to laboriously cut the shortbread dough into heart shapes and bake them. After I reached our meeting room, I decorated the plate of shortbread with sprigs of lavender and the homemade lemonade with sprigs of rosemary. It all looked very festive!
Anyway, we had the Director of Philanthropy as our guest, and she was lovely. She explained the Benevolent Care Fund to those who didn’t know much about it. She also–get this!—said she would pay for a book of our writings. We could sell them at the bazaar on November 11 and give the proceeds to the Benevolent Care Fund! Our group has produced some very good work, and some have wondered aloud how to share it with the community. I am so excited about this!
Bfitz, glad to hear you are as healthy as can be (aside from the creaks and groans of age). I have to start eating two sticks of celery at lunchtime (lowers blood pressure) and eating porridge for breakfast every morning, six days a week (lowers cholesterol). I have a fasting blood sample test coming up in early July.
Was so exhausted yesterday I went to bed at 9. Dearly brought me a cup of EMT this morning, so, as one good turn deserves another, I cooked scrambled eggs, bacon, and breakfast biscuits for him.
That’s enough from me this morning. I bet y’all are asleep! Wishing a good day to all at the Pond.
Footnote: I’m not really the Queen of Tarts. Alas, I was never beautiful enough nor politically well connected enough to be asked to join the International Tarts Society. (I probably don’t regret this. Imagine having to work in McTurtle’s office!)
{{{Diana}}} I know that I am lucky – I seem to have inherited every single good health gene either of my parents carried. Holding the Good Thoughts for your fasting blood test. & always sending Healing Energy & moar {{{HUGS}}}
Good afternoon, 58 and light rain outside my window today. I’ve been reading around the internets so now I get to do my outdoor tasks in the rain. Oh well, I know I won’t shrink when wet! I’m going to make few easy flower arrangements now, then bake the cookie bases for Sunday’s lunch. I bake the base in cupcake liners, then on the day of I’ll add strawberries and cream to some and melted chocolate and almonds to others. Makes a tasty, pretty, and easy to serve dessert for an outdoor meal. Best wishes to all.
Please give us the cookie base recipe and instructions for adding strawberrries and cream to some and chocolate and almonds to others!
Hi Diana, happy to share, but for now the recipe is just in my head. I’ll organize the steps on paper next week.
Saturday Meese. 47 going up to 76 and mostly sunny here in Kingston – which is great. Friends are coming over to celebrate my husband’s birthday, and the birthday of my girlfriend’s husband.
I made 10 lbs of potato salad yesterday – and will be frying chicken wings. My girlfriend is bringing lots of Puerto Rican food (tomorrow is the PR parade in NYC and our little town of Kingston is celebrating PR Pride all weekend.
{{{Denise}}} Yay! for Birthdays & Yay! for Puerto Rican Day celebrations!