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 Wednesday morning, Moosekind, and happy Valentine’s Day! We celebrated by giving each other cards and eating Hot Cross Buns for breakfast. It’s a wretched 38 F. in Ashburn, partly cloudy, and VERY windy. Good thing I had my hair done yesterday.
Went into a rage yesterday after setting aside the morning to wrestle with the devil (TurboTax). TT informed me that it would take 2 hours and 20 minutes, and so it might have if I’d had all the paperwork. Dearly’s mutual fund has refused to either mail the 1099-DIV or post it on the website until tomorrow. I may try to skip that part and do the rest of TT this morning.
Also have to pick up a prescription in the main clubhouse, and today I will exercise. Somehow I never had a chance to do it yesterday.
Feeling very pleased that Suozzi the Democrat won in NY’s special election yesterday. Take THAT, pollsters! I read that Jennfer Boysko, my long-time friend who I hope will be our next 10th District Congresswoman, cried as she read a letter about our current Congresswoman, Jennifer Wexton, aloud to the Virginia Senate. They are considering a bill that would allow a person with a terminal illness to request, verbally and in writing, to obtain a prescription to end a life of suffering.
I need to get going on my day. Wishing a good day to all at the Pond.
It’s 57 heading for 66 and sunny again today. Yesterday we reached 12.9 KWHs for the first time since early September and the m-t-d at 102 gained enough that while not on track yet, it may be by the end of the day.
Happy whatever you celebrate day! I’m running late because I baked cocoa-walnut-cranberry bread this morning. Just got it out of the oven & and the house smells “most sentimental”. But I’d best get to my boosting chores. Holding the Good Thoughts for everybody. {{{Meeses}}}
Good afternoon, meeses! Wednesday …
It is 62 degrees and sunny in Tucson 🌵 with more sun on the way.
Yay, New York CD-3 for flipping Blue! Boo, House Republicans! The reason to rush the vote on the Mayorkas “impeachment” was because it would have failed as soon as the new Congressman was sworn in. I hope that the freshmen New York Republicans realize that they are one-term Congressmen – they would be better served quitting the Republican Party and caucusing as Independents with the Democrats and electing Speaker Jeffries.
I had a busy morning and need to get my notes organized so that I don’t lose track of projects I started but won’t have time to complete.
See all y’all later!
Thursday Meese. 24 here in Kingston, going up to 38.
Let’s make the Minority Leader the Majority Leader
Puerto Rico
Speaker Jeffries will happen in 2025 – it would be nice if it happened sooner. Right now the House needs to pass the Ukraine funding and queue up another Continuing Resolution to keep the government open. I would not be surprised if the right-wing thinks that shutting down the government during tax season is the same as “defunding the IRS”, one of their pipe dreams. No, actually it will tick off people who are expecting tax refunds and whose returns will be sitting unprocessed while the Republicans dither again. The rats abandoning the sinking ship (another Republican House committee chairman announces his retirement from Congress) should look within and realize that anyone associated with this disaster of a Congressional session who doesn’t help by working with Democrats to keep the lights on and the world’s bad actors at bay will forever carry the stench with them.
Good morning. I didn’t try running this morning, but I did walk for 35 minutes. In the office. Our phones are so busy and we’re so short staffed, they’re taking away ½ of our time to dial out and do new people set ups. Ugh. Anyway — hi. Happy Thursday.
Good morning, meeses! Thursday …
It is 41 degrees in Tucson 🌵 with an expected daytime high of 72. Sunny skies are in the forecast. I am trying to get two walks in while the weather is so nice.
Mr. TFG Projector claiming that Biden wants to turn Ukraine over to Putin would be funny if it weren’t so serious to let the lies go unchallenged by the media. People will believe it and then the messages will get muddled and no one will remember that it is tRump who wants to disband NATO and encourage Russia to attack our European allies. And Putin claiming that he would “prefer” Biden get elected being reported as straight news instead of for what it is – another lie from a master propagandist trying to once again ratfk an American presidential election. Goddess help us if the clickbait media reports the lies and propaganda as anything other than bs and we end up with a second tRump term or a too-close-to-call which ends up in another bloody insurrection. The only ray of sunshine I saw in the news was that tRump taking over the RNC and planning to route money to lawyers for his legal problems will deplete their bank account. Good, go bankrupt to prop up your “billionaire” nominee and neglect the House and Senate races. There are no bigger chumps than Republican donors.
I am almost where my to-do list is visible under that scraps of notes that accumulated there since last Friday. Time to get back to it.
See all y’all later!
Posted
It’s 52 heading for 63 and sunny at the moment but the widget says clouds will be moving in later. Just hopefully a lot later. Yesterday we generated 12.85 KWHs and the m-t-d at 114.6 is on track for over 200.
I had a nice phone visit with Diana last night. Didn’t reach Fineena but she may have been asleep by the time I called. Either that or out doing something with Joker whose visiting her right now. (With Harriet.) Got a email from my friend that makes me glad I’m not still with the department. And wish she were old enough to retire so she could get out of there, too. sigh. At least she has her Warrior Woman pin.
Time for me to be off about my boosting day. Holding the Good Thoughts for everybody. {{{Meeses}}}
Good morning, 37 and cloudy outside my windows today. I’ve got a quiet day ahead with laundry and desk work. I want to clean up the garden but freeze damaged leaves are still falling so it’s best to wait. I’m relived to see some buds forming on the plants so maybe the damage won’t be as bad as I feared it would be. Best wishes to all.
Friday Meese. 34 here in Kingston – going up to 39, and windy.
I support DA Fani Willis 100%.
Puerto Rico
Project 85 and Afro-descendant leaders unite in key forum on anti-racism in Puerto Rico
Robert Rabin Siegal was a beloved activist on the island
Good morning. Changed my walk route to be on the roof of the garage to see the Space Station, but it was too cloudy. I see the news is terrible and getting worse. Going to listen to music.
Good morning, meeses! Friday …
It is 42 degrees in Tucson 🌵 with an expected daytime high of 70. Sunny skies are in the forecast. I got my second walk in yesterday and it feels good to soak up the sun. In a few months, the hottest time of the day will have to be spent inside but right now it is very welcome.
I have been following the Kansas City post-parade shooting and that it turns out that it was a dispute turned deadly because of the presence of guns is not shocking at all. What is surprising to me is that with 800 law enforcement officers at the rally site and what they said was “months of planning” no one thought to have some of those uniformed cops patrolling the parking lots to provide a presence to de-escalate a location that was sure to be filled with people anxious about getting out of the crowds. Yes, the proliferation of guns, aided and abetted by the Missouri legislature and their MAGAt governor, is the main problem but it is a failure of imagination that people leaving the rally might need protection as well as the people at the rally. In any event, without the footballers parade having it make the news, it would have been “another day of random gun violence” in Kansas City. Infuriating.
I have some late morning appointments so I need to get some things done before the sun comes up.
See all y’all later!
Good morning, Moosekind. It’s Friday, but the news is hardly good. I was shocked when I woke up and looked at my phone. Navalny dead! In the prime of life and reasonably good health, too! It was said he collapsed and died while taking a walk. I’m sure the bullet in his back helped with the collapse and death. How vile is Putie, and viler still are people like *ucker Quarrelsome, Thing, and the other people who help him.
We’ve awakened to a pale blue sky with wisps of white cloud making their way slowly to the west, and pale sunlight. The current temp. is 38 F., on its way up to 50 F. Tonight “they” are predicting 1-4 inches of four-letter word. If this forecast is as accurate as the one for last night, during which precip. was supposed to happen, we’ll have no traffic trouble at all tomorrow. Annoyingly, the snow is supposed to fall during the night so we can’t watch the thrilling sight. Yesterday, as I was delivering some papers to someone in another building, I saw the forsythia had started popping out. That groundhog was right.
Today is my darling granddaughter’s 15th birthday. Yesterday, by the time Dearly and I had coaxed a 1099-R out of his mutual fund website and downloaded it, and I spent the rest of the morning chatting first with a robot, then a real person about Nora’s Lululemon leggings, the morning had gone. Then I had to make lunch and scuttle down the hall to the Progressives’ meeting. I’ve learned not to open my mouth at these gatherings because the precinct captain, who does not like me, fixes me with a gimlet gaze and inquires sarcastically as to why I think this or that would be a good idea.
Felt terrible to learn on Facebark that a dear woman, who battled cancer 9 years ago, has been told it’s back again. Damn that disease! I hate it.
Must run to the store for the ingredients to make vegetarian chili for tomorrow’s dinner. Then I’ll have to wrestle with the devil again and, it is to be hoped, get some exercise in. All the weight I lost while I had that stomach upset is back again, and then some. Tonight is rehearsal so we’ll have to eat dinner at the appalling hour of 5 p.m. GROAN! I’m so hopeless at being an assistant director. I get so lost in the music that when the director turns to me and asks about the blocking, I don’t know what to say. Crud.
Time to stop this nonsense and get on with my day, which is already chock-full. Wishing a good day to all at the Pond!
We’ve hit our high for the day at 57, may or may not get rain over the next couple of hours, then the temps will start dropping. It’ll be below freezing by sundown so I will definitely have a fire tonight. Yesterday we generated 12.83 KWHs and the m-t-d at 127.4 is definitely on track. We’ll see what today brings.
Talked to Joker about Fineena yesterday. Bless Joker for visiting a few days (bringing Harriet). She got Fineena’s TV working (and showed her what the issue was) and took her to her doctor appointment. Most of Fineena’s issues come down to isolation and lack of money. Both of which would be dealt with very well via programs she could get IF she lived in a state & county that interested in keeping older & disabled people as functional as possible for as long as possible. Joker’s still looking for those very well-hidden programs (federally funded but state run means the state makes up the eligibility rules – and the accessibility).
Time for me to get to my boosting day. Holding the Good Thoughts for everybody. {{{Meeses}}}
Thank Goddess for Joker, who lives nearer Fineena than we do!
Absolutely!
Good morning, 41 and sunny outside my windows today. The air is cold but the snow that surprised me yesterday is gone. I have a few errands to do today, and then I want to start a new book that will take me to a world far away. Best wishes to all.
Saturday Meese. Snowing lightly here in Kingston. Thankfully it isn’t going to be much of it.
Puerto Rico
Good morning, meeses! Saturday …
It is 42 degrees in Tucson 🌵 with an expected daytime high of 72. Sunny skies are in the forecast. The just-past-first-quarter moon was bright enough to be visible most of the day over the mountains and last night at about 8pm it was straight up in the sky. Soon, it will cast moonglows onto the greenspace I can see from my deck.
That tRump is finally getting his just deserts from his lifelong criming involving his business enterprises is delightful. He will find some way to not pay, of course, or his rich donors (or people he can blackmail!) will cover the bill but if he and his demon spawn are barred from running the organization, that will be pretty strong punishment right there. No future Republican president can help him with a state matter just like no future Republican president can pardon him if he is convicted in New York or Georgia in the two criminal cases brought against him in those states. A future Republican governor of Georgia can pardon but I hope that New York will avoid their occasional propensity to elect Republican governors thinking that “both parties are the same.” That canard may finally be so rotted that it will be discarded. Both parties have in the past had the best interests of the country in mind when they crafted policy but the Republican Party will never be the same after what tRump has done to the brand – according to his daughter, even Ronald Reagan would have have denounced what they have become.
Today I am going to catch up on some little projects and organize the large ones that I have promised to clients for 2024. I miscalculated, as I do each year, how long it would take to close the year and start a new year and get tax prep done for myself and clients. I wish some of these things could be spread out over the year but the hard calendar deadlines always win.
See all y’all later!
Good morning. Wow, it’s cold. A front blew jn, the wind has been howling around my building and down the chimney since I got home last night. If I walk/run this afternoon, it will be inside. Anyway, happy Saturday.
It’s 25 going to 38 and mostly sunny today. Yesterday we only generated 2 KWHs but the m-t-d at 129.6 is still, barely, n track. The previous 3 days of 12s not only caught us up but gave us a little cushion.
Nothing new that I know of. So I guess I’ll get to my boosting. Holding the Good Thoughts for everybody. {{{Meeses}}}
Good Saturday morning, Meese. Well, we received our little bit of snow so we woke up to a white world. It wasn’t a “let’s watch it falling and drink hot chocolate” kind of snow, as it fell during the night. When I stepped out to the porch it was raining noisily but it’s now stopped. We have 33 F. at the moment, going up to the high 40s. Right now there’s a freezing wind moving white clouds across a cold blue sky.
Last night’s rehearsal was OK. The cast was trying on wigs and costumes. I put a dark, curly wig on the guy playing Curly, but he looked like King Charles II. Just not on! I think that wig was meant for a woman. The cast is interesting: there’s one guy who never stops smiling, one who never smiles, and the rest are OK. Because last night was not a music rehearsal, the cast spoke their lines and flubbed most of them. “Curly” later confided to me that it’s a lot easier to remember words if you can sing them. Indeed.
Not much news. There’s a Drama Club meeting at 2 p.m., so I’ll go to that. I need to go to the gym. I’m enthralled that my phone records the number of steps I take in a day, and that 2,000 steps equal approximately one mile.
Doing laundry this morning and will make vegan chili tonight. For afters we’ll have fresh pineapple with ginger cookies. I still need to do taxes, however.
Wishing a good day to all at the Pond and healing white light to anyone who needs it.