Motley Moose – Archive

Since 2008 – Progress Through Politics

Wednesday Watering Hole: Check In & Hangout for the Herd

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Good morning, Moosekind. Don’t forget to let your peeps know where to find you.


  PLEASE Do Not Recommend the check-in diary! 

        Recs on the weather jar comment are still welcome.

The common Moose, Alces alces, unlike other members of the deer family, is a solitary animal that doesn’t form herds. Not so its rarer but nearest relative, Alces purplius, the Motley Moose. Though sometimes solitary, the Motley Moose herds in ever shifting groups at the local watering hole to exchange news and just pass the time.

photo Moosewateringhole_zpsfce12127.jpg

The morning check-in is an open thread and general social hour. Come back when time allows through the day – the conversation continues.

It’s traditional but not obligatory to give us a weather check where you are and let us know what’s new, interesting, challenging or even routine in your life lately. Nothing is particularly obligatory here except:

Always remember the Moose Golden (Purple?) Rule:

Be kind to each other… or else.

What could be simpler than that, right?

photo oldtimey1_zpsef5e781a.jpg

   


Categories: Uncategorized.

/ 131 Comments

131 comments

  1. iriti

    64 here, heading for a high of 81. Feels downright chilly after last week’s heat indexes of 105.

    Happy Wednesday!

    photo oldtimey4_zps7b32d4c7.jpg

  2. JanF

    I have your weather, iriti. 52 delightful degrees on its way up to 77 degrees. Dry. The light from the just-off full moon is streaming into my office and that is a reminder that I need to grab that energy and put my nose to the grindstone. Yesterday was a settling back in day, catching up on emails. Today is a project day.

    The president is going to make a speech today about the economy. I hope that people still care that the economy is not great for a lot of people and that we need to do more to help what is looking like the permanently unemployed and underemployed (the people celebrated by George W. Bush: “You are working 3 jobs? Good for you! That is what makes America great!!”).

    Remember: baby Windsor and butthead Weiner and bilious Wingnuts (:::cough Steve King cough:::) are not important in the grand scheme of things. It’s the economy, all y’alls.

    If I get my work done, maybe I will put a pom-pom diary up about the speech later this afternoon. I are a bot.

  3. Portlaw

    Checking in. Am using a first generation iPad, which is even slower than I am so don’t do much internet stuff like the weather. I did, however, check the story of the newest local mayoral scandal. What a gift to comedians. What was Weiner thinking..oh never mind.

    Hope it’s a good day for all Meese

  4. kishik

    Here’s to cooler weather coming up!

    photo magnolia7-18_zps1ef5a9c7.jpg

    Temps down humidity suopose to decrease, skies are clear…. What more could I ask for? 😉

  5. Melanie in IA

    Here is eastern Iowa Jim is pouring coffee, It’s 59 degrees out, and heading to about 76. Perfect.

    Several projects to work on today. I hope I manage better productivity than … some days. Let’s just start with paying this bill next to me… Done, and I even put the statement away.

    Fortunately I slept better last night than I have for several, so I should have enough umph to do what I need.  

  6. nchristine

    We still need rain – what a change from a month ago!!  The rest of the week is supposed to remain pretty nice.

    The ‘transition’ at work has started.  The boss is still pretty pissed about the whole thing, but then it’s primarily his and his boss’s fault!  Here are my comments on how things went down on Monday – http://www.motleymoose.com/sho…

  7. DeniseVelez

    of NY.

    I realize I have a few more weeks before my summer is officially over, first day of school is August 26th, but since I have to spend the whole afternoon in a pre-semester meeting I kind of feel like it has ended before it has even begun.

    The endless rain plus thunderstorms  plus sweltering heat days so far, have kept me house bound. Gave up on my garden and let the weeds take over.

    Coupled with eye doc visits and dentist visits, and internal emotional chaos over the Zimmerman trial and the response from so-called “progressive” allies – this hasn’t been a summer I want to remember.

    Oh well, you win some, you lose some.

    I’ll figger out something positive about all of this.  The best thing has been the gathering of Meese everyday (keeping me sane) along with the comfort of the Bkos porch on Tuesday’s and Fridays.

    Frankly without that comfort I would seriously consider abandoning blogging for something else – what, I have no idea. Maybe macrame, or taking up my paintbrushes again.

    At least getting back to classes will force me to focus on the political tabula rasas of entering freshmen.   It’s my job, along with my colleagues, to turn a group of basically clueless young women and men into feminists and anti-racists in a semester 🙂

    At least, with them there are visible results and they aren’t stuck on the stupid of comparing our POTUS with George Zimmerman, the new meme now picked up from Sirota and being spewed elsewhere by supposedly intelligent adults.

    I keep going back over to the Daily Banter and re-reading “David Sirota Unhinged”

    http://thedailybanter.com/2013…

    just to reassure myself that not everyone has gone completely round the bend.

    Thank goddess Meese are sane.

  8. Jim in IA

    Yesterday, I traveled 2 hrs from home to meet with 2 friends from high school days. We are in contact on Fbook. But the face to face was fun for a 3 hr lunch. Prior, I an older sister and her husband. After, I saw an older brother and another older sister.

    Tomorrow, I continue the ‘get together with friends’ tour by golfing with 4 former teaching colleagues. That will be a lot of fun, too. It is to be sunny and 78Ëš at tee time.

    I have nothing profound to say. I have no big problems. I am loved and get to love. Things are good.

  9. JG in MD

    I need a reality check. The question is “Is this normal? Where is it on the scale of manners and friendship?”

    Rhona’s friend Becky is also a friend of mine, going back 15 years. We’re introverts and not in touch, but I’ve fed her cats and taken her to the ER for a suicide attempt. Becky’s cat Pumpkin is my cat Katie’s littermate. Rhona told Becky about Katie’s health problems.

    (Ten-year-old Katie has mast cell tumors in her spleen, a form of cancer. I’m going to medicate her to control the vomiting & diarrhea and hope she has as much as a year left to live. It’s awful, but she doesn’t show signs of suffering and I’m taking it one day at a time.)

    Becky called me to commiserate. Rhona hadn’t mentioned my health problems, which I’ve discussed here and won’t reiterate.

    I know we all have cat connections, but we have human connections too. Seems to me R should have told B about my condition as well, as a matter of caring and friendship. Am I overreacting by being a little upset about this?

  10. slksfca

    Dense fog again. I can hear two different foghorns mooing through the murk. Fortunately it’s warmer and less windy today, which makes the whole thing a bit more bearable.

    Up too early again (4:30) but stayed in bed for awhile in fruitless attempt to get back to sleep. Nap later I guess.

    Happy Wednesday to all!

  11. Melanie in IA

    Steve King, also known as the vile and repulsive Steve King…

    The good news is, same-sex married couples now are to have BOTH parents listed on the birth certificate, as order by the Iowa Supreme Court in May:

    When the Gartners submitted the paperwork for the birth certificate, listing both Melissa and Heather as parents along with proof that they were legally married, the birth certificate was returned to them, it only listed Heather as the parent and left the second parent’s name blank. The Gartners sued the state to have both of them listed as parents without going through the adoption process.

    During 2011 arguments in the case, Assistant Iowa Attorney General Heather Adams argued that, thanks to gender-specific labels on vital statistics forms like birth certificates, it legally impossible to replace a “husband” with a same-sex “spouse,” the DeMoines Register reported.

    The Supreme Court didn’t buy this argument and wrote in its 6-0 opinion, “The Gartners are in a legally recognized marriage, just like opposite-sex couples. The official recognition of their child as part of their family provides a basis for identifying and verifying the birth of their child, just as it does for opposite-sex couples. Additionally, married lesbian couples require accurate records of their child’s birth, as do their opposite-sex counterparts. The distinction for this purpose between married opposite-sex couples and married lesbian couples does not exist and cannot defeat an equal protection analysis.”

    Sounds great, right?

    My friend Janet’s daughter just had a baby girl at the end of June. She is married to a woman, the other parent to the baby.

    The birth certificate came back with only Janet’s daughter as a parent.

    This is against the law of the state.

    Why did it happen? Because the person in charge of state vital records refuses to process them correctly.

    They will need to sue the woman personally, I guess, to get her to do what the court has already ordered.

  12. bill d

    For the record, the d in my id name does not stand for danger.

    Hope all are well and have the day they wish to have.

  13. PadreJM

    I stopped reading a couple of threads here this morning.  While I would guess that I find the radical right, and particularly the Christian right, as odious as any of my fellow Moose do, I don’t see the point in gratuitous name calling, but usually continue reading, anyway, stifling my tendency to cringe when humans denigrate other humans (even those who seem to deserve it).

    However, when I get to references to ceiling cats and flying spaghetti monsters, it does me no good to proceed.  Flippant disregard for that which others consider holy and precious advances no valid social or political cause which I can discern, and it certainly does not enlighten nor entertain me as I get ready to spend my day (and usually well into the night) serving the poor in the name of Christ, beginning by offering the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass for all of creation, for all people living and departed, especially my enemies.

    Setting any personal sense of woundedness aside, and looking at it from a purely practical viewpoint, willingness to offend any significant portion of the 78% of Americans who claim some religious affiliation (Source: Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life) is not a very effective electoral strategy.  Nor does it seem consistent with our claim of inclusivity.

  14. Jim in IA

    Going to tour the recycling facility in our community. I will take some pictures and might have a diary about it later.

    Have an interesting day.

  15. bfitzinAR

    ‘spozed to be in the 80s the rest of the week.  I can live with that.  Actually got some work done yesterday (afternoon) – now waiting for what I did yesterday to go through the approval chain so I can get to the next step.  Sigh.  Hope everyone has a good day.  Has Mercury gone direct yet?  {{{HUGS}}} bf

  18. Melanie in IA

    spot on as usual.

    In defense of old diagnoses, regarding the need for “new” policy prescriptions, which Republicans would still refuse to enact.

    FWIW, to those of you who would rather avoid going to Daily Kos for “front page” news, I’ve found the MaddowBlog coverage to be quite good during the week. Weekends, however, provide pretty slim coverage.

  19. slksfca

    …over to Haight Street, where I did a little shopping at Goodwill. I found a pair of Levi’s and a pair of khaki pants, both of which fit more-or-less. Turns out I’ve lost four inches around the waist from my biggest size several months ago. I plan to lose four more if I can, or at least get close. If I succeed, then I’ll buy some brand-new clothes, but in the meantime I needed pants to wear that aren’t either too big or too small.

    BTW, it’s actually sunny over in the Haight, which made for a nice change. I walked back home and into the fog again.

  20. JG in MD

    I heard from David the veterinarian after he consulted with an oncologist. The mast cell tumors in Katie’s spleen are definitely malignant. She has cancer.

    Treating the symptoms is not recommended. If we do that she will still suffer gradual, catastrophic organ failure.

    The best option is a splenectomy. The disease doesn’t appear to have metastasized; it will probably remove all of the malignancy, there’s only a small chance of failure. David said the sooner the better, since the disease is progressive. He can do it Friday. David is an outstanding surgeon and a dear man, so I know Katie will get the best treatment and the best care.

    I didn’t ask about cost. We both know this is expensive. I can’t take on any more debt, so I’d have to take a chain saw to my IRA.

    I was about to do that anyway because my employer/client is giving me very few hours of work this month. It’s a double whammy. There would be very little left of the small cushion I have.

    The other option, of course, is euthanasia. She’s still active and cheerful, not showing signs of suffering. If it weren’t for the vomiting, which doesn’t seem to bother her very much, I wouldn’t know she was sick. It would be wrenching to snuff out her beautiful life under these circumstances.

    Treat the symptoms as long as she behaves normally and put her down when she shows the first signs of being sick? I don’t know if the medication would really stop the vomiting. When the cancer metastasizes, she could get worse and not show it until it’s too late. If her kidneys start to fail she might pee all over the house, humiliating herself. Bowel involvement would be much worse.

    I had to find words for the situation. I’m sorry to dump them on you guys. Thank you for being here.  

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