Of Moose And Men
The Best Laid Plans Of Both Often Go Astray

October started with a lot of new things. New toothbrush (once a quarter I swap them out), new paper journal, and a government shutdown where my agency’s salaries and expenses funding actually ran out so I’m dealing with furlough crap for the first time in my almost 27 years as a Fed. I myself am excepted from furlough in this one because I’m working the legal issues around the lack of cash, but in all the previous shutdowns my big gubm’nt agency had funding that carried forward into the new year, or had gotten its regular appropriation already, so we never closed. So the actual rhythm of this all is new, despite being the money lawyer and so very much in the middle of preparations for lapses for decades now.

Mostly it feels like I’m going to be bored. And then, once I finally settle on whatever distraction I want to indulge in (reading, knitting, video games, etc.) I feel like I’m going to be annoyed when the inevitable one-off legal question comes in. At least my agency is doing the smart thing and having those of us who are still working do so remotely; I understand some of the bigger agencies are still insisting that people come to the office to do their excepted work, in line with the overall return to office policy. That seems like a nightmare, and a recipe for even worse boredom, especially since you’re not legally permitted to do your normal job duties, only those which fit the narrow legal exceptions to the lack of funding (imminent threats to life or property; constitutional functions; etc.).

I’ve never been able to read these things correctly, so I have no clue how long this one will last. As I like to explain it at work, if I could guess with any accuracy what Congress would do in a given situation I would be making a lot more money somewhere else. So we’ll see. The husband and I discussed finances and I think we’ll weather a protracted (month or so) shutdown with a little tightness but no missed bills. Heaven forfend it go longer than that. Though it would perhaps give me time to start and finish a knitted blanket (with already-purchased yarn) that I have in the queue.

The annual DC tradition of trying to guess whether Congress will fund us before the fiscal year ends at the end of this month has begun. I get asked, because of what I do, but my go-to response is always, “If I could guess with any accuracy what Congress would do on any given day I would be making a lot more money in some other job.”

Easing back into commuting to the office, though still mostly on medical remote work. I tell folks when they ask why I’m in that I’m practicing walking. Which has the virtue of being true. And it allows me to assess the stuff in my office for disposal and/or taking it home before we (eventually?) move office buildings.

The current scarf hit a snag, mostly because I bought a Switch 2 and have been playing on that instead of knitting. The pattern has been fine, the amount of attention has been finite. Speaking of, here’s the niece’s scarf (three links/pics). I’m very happy with how it turned out.

Today’s PT was all about bouncing, hopping, breaking, etc. Those movements that are necessary if one is going to be out walking/running. So we’re pretty much done with strength training now, and on to working my hip flexors and glutes in new and interesting ways. Progress!

Work had me read something to see if we should cancel it. I said it was borderline, but leaned to keeping, but management was spooked, so they were planning on canceling it. It was at that point that I repeated my work zen mantra to myself – “they pay me the same no matter what; they pay me the same no matter what.” It’s not as bad as paying me to make photo copies (which is a waste of salary at my level), but whatever, if that’s what you need me to do, that’s what I’ll do. Ohm.

Just about halfway through the niece’s scarf and I think I may add some length to it in the middle section. I have the yarn, so what the hey.

At work we continue to lose lawsuits left and right, which frankly is fine, because it means people can continue to do the grants we gave them. Means more work for us (it’s terminated, lawsuit, now it’s reinstated, whee!), but again, whatever. It does make one want to toss the meme from Liar, Liar at 47’s people – the one where Jim Carrey is yelling, “Stop breaking the law, asshole!” into the phone.

It’s been a long six months.

Four more rows done today; ten more to go. Cue “little engine that could” noises.

The husband picked up Thunderbolts on blu-ray, so we watched that tonight. We’ve gotten so used to streaming that it was a pleasant surprise to be reminded how much better the picture quality is on physical media, especially blu-rays.

Work is a mess as people try to get the last funds out the door before the end of the fiscal year, plus dealing with lawsuits, cancelling awards at the whim of the administration, reinstating awards at the order of the court, etc. Full employment, but not full engagement. And no news on when our agency will move, if it does (it probably will because it’s a cabinet agency that wants our space, but they haven’t found us a replacement space yet). D-r-a-m-a.

It’s closeout for spending funds at work, so everyone is going nuts trying to get money set up. Add to that the chaos of 47’s various policy changes and all of the resultant lawsuits, plus a good chunk of the attorneys being out, and you have me running around like a mad man.

I did get four more rows done this evening. It’s taking about 50ish minutes for 2 rows, so 12 or so more hours on this thing? I’m definitely in the home stretch and I’m motivated to finish. No letting it sit for months more at this point.

My other two team members are both on leave the rest of this week, so I was doing treble duty fielding questions today. I’m proud that only once did I say that something had to wait or go elsewhere.

No knitting tonight because we went to see Fantastic Four: First Steps. Marvel really nailed this one. They got the characters right (e.g., Johnny was quietly smart, but still a doofus; Sue was a leader, but not a ‘girl boss’), just enough comic fan nostalgia while still being accessible to new viewers. Fun. Five stars. And the mid-twentieth century architecture and clothing were spot on. Highly recommend.

This morning was the latest check-in with the orthopedist. He’s quite pleased with the progress. The numbness I still have around the bottom of the kneecap, though it’s been receding, is normal. Twelve weeks is this guy’s mantra for recovery, so we power on through PT. Physical therapy is more like a workout now than earlier on, progressively heavier weights as we strengthen the quads. Whee!

But it’s nice to have some external validation that the recovery work is humming right along on schedule.

Past that I’m just keeping my fingers crossed that my small gubm’nt agency keeps humming along. The latest draft budget out of the House wasn’t nearly as much of a cut as 47 proposed, just $2B less than the current budget, as opposed to $5.1B less. We expect the Senate to be even less enthused with his request, but none of this is final until it’s final, so I’m just keeping going as long as they’ll let me.

We did some random out of the house shopping this past weekend. Tried a new (to us) used bookstore, where I found some fun stuff. Tried to go to a thrift store, but the parking lot was full, with more cars in the aisle. Luckily we were able to turn around and get out without getting trapped. Ikea for some shelves for Legos, lunch at some point in there, and home to nap. Did walk a bit too much without the one crutch that I’m using out of the house, but that’s another thing I’m trying to stretch.

My physical therapist definitely upped the weights in our session today, and my quads are complaining about it. Which is all good, because it means the knee is getting stronger. Also the swelling is going down and I can see the normal dimples coming back, so yay.

I did some minimal shopping for prime days, mostly needed upgrades for stuff that was on its last legs, like the toaster oven that has crossed wires somewhere behind the buttons so sometimes the start button turns it on, sometimes it changes the convection settings. Always an adventure with the current one, so out it goes when the new one arrives.

Teleworking after the last few months of return-to-office mandates has been odd, since I’m typically the only person not there in person, and it always has to start with a recitation of having had knee surgery that I’m recovering from. Not that I regret either the surgery or the telework, it’s just an odd situation.

Pro-tip: Clip your toenails before you have knee surgery, and not a week afterwards. It’ll be a lot easier. 😉

Sutures are out, balance is good. I drove to PT. Hardest part of driving right now is getting in and out of the car. Strength and coordination while driving were fine, it’s just awkward getting out of the car. So now it’s working on range-of-motion (so much flexing of the knee) and strength (so many variations of squats).

In other news, it’s hot as all get out here in the DC area. Currently around 96F/35C. Which was a perfectly fine temperature when I lived in Taiwan and had acclimated to sub-tropical heat, but not so much now that I’m stuck in AC all the time and fat.

My small gubm’nt agency is getting kicked out of our new (2017) office building in favor of a big gubm’nt agency that wants to move out of their mid-century brutalist monstrosity downtown. We found out definitively yesterday evening, with the press stuff happening this morning. So far the rumor is that we’ll be moved to the federal center in Suitland MD, which would be fine by me because it’s a straight shot down the green line for me – no more switching trains. But I bet it would lead to a lot more attrition, as both the current and former HQ buildings are in Northern Virginia, and people aren’t going to want to go to Maryland.

In better news, since I can drive we can go get haircuts. And comics. And groceries. Yay!