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

Work is just intermittent enough to keep me from really getting into a comfortable ‘not working’ groove. That said, I did finally finish the dancing droplets scarf on the trip up to Boston, and started the little Pierre skinny scarf as well. I’m about 1/3 of the way through that one now, and I think I’ll make some good progress on it tomorrow because my one morning check-in meeting was cancelled. It’s an easy pattern, four different sections (garter ridges, seed stitch, twisted ribbing, and textured triangles) of twelve rows each. I do have to have the pattern print out in front of me to follow along, but it’s easy beyond having to check where you are. I think the next one in the queue will be less needy in terms of reading the pattern, at least for most of it.

The visit to Boston and Salem was a lot of fun. We got to do more touristy stuff than we normally do when we go up to see family (though we did get to see my sister-in-law and her daughter). On a side note, high school seems to agree with the niece, as this was the chattiest we’ve ever seen her. Good deal. I overdid it walking; the knee was not happy with me, and I bowed out of some stuff a couple afternoons to rest it, but I think I’ve recovered sufficiently to start back on more activity now.

The husband managed to come down with a head cold the day after we got back, and I managed to avoid it until the following Sunday (this past Sunday). It’s more annoying than debilitating, but seems to be on the mend now. Had some tests with my gastroenterologist this week based on an anomalous test result from back in August at my annual physical, but it all came back fine, thankfully. The six week wait from August was annoying, but the practice was hopping as all of these furloughed feds catch up on doctor visits.

Overall the furlough is just … boring. Beyond the stress of the no-pay situation, the vast majority of us would simply like to be doing our jobs to serve the American public, so it’s demoralizing when our leaders keep fucking around with political gamesmanship rather than doing their damned jobs.

The local DC area community, no stranger to government funding lapses, has done a good job in stepping up for furloughed Feds. One of my local yarn shops is running free classes to teach knitting and crochet, with donated supplies, other places are offering food or drink discounts, etc. So yesterday the husband and I took advantage of one of these and went out to an alpaca farm. They were shorter than I expected; I think I was thinking llamas, which are taller. Mostly well behaved – no spitting, though there were some disagreements over who got to come up and take the snacks we took out to them. ‘Twas quite fun, and I’m glad we got to do it. Of course I bought some yarn, though I’m not quite sure what I’ll turn it into yet (which is a violation of my recent ‘no yarn buying unless you have a pattern picked out for it’ anti-stash rule). All in all a nice way to spend a late Tuesday afternoon.

Knitting group was nice. Well attended (six of us), and people were just chatty enough without dwelling too much on the Current Unpleasantness. Got to the midpoint of my current scarf, and started the decreases (it starts small, gets wide in the middle, then tapers back down). And I may have bought some chunky yarn for a hat, just in case. We will see how far I get before we take off for Boston and Salem this upcoming weekend, for a tourist visit with friends who’ve never been. Salem will be insane (and crazy crowded), but the husband grew up in the area and I’ve been there in the fall often enough to just appreciate how crazy it gets. Looking forward to the friends’ reaction.

Finally tackled a long-desired task, cleaning out the pantry. Did toss a bunch of overly old things, though nothing from before our move in 2020 this time (we were so ready to get out of the old apartment that we just tossed it all in boxes and dragged it with us, regardless of age). And now we have a better mental map of what’s there and what’s gone, plus we can see everything again. Plus it motivated the husband to use up the bananas on the counter; he’s making banana chocolate chip muffins as I type this. I know what breakfast is going to be the rest of this week.

Men’s knitting group this afternoon. Definitely feeling the need for some social time with knitters today, with all the shutdown stuff leaving me bored out of my mind. The knitting store we’re going to today has been offering free classes to furloughed feds, which is very generous of them. Not that this is the DC area’s first shutdown rodeo, but this one feels very different from previous ones, and not just because I’m directly affected this time (in previous ones my agency had funds so I worked fairly normally).

Done with my Continuing Legal Education credits for the year, as of yesterday. There are more offerings, so I may go ahead and bank credit for next year since I’m not doing anything else. The Virginia bar makes you do twelve hours yearly, but allows you to roll up to a year’s worth of credits from one to the next, so this would save me for next year.

I do enjoy a good freebie, so I wandered over to the local Starbucks this morning after doing some necessary shopping at the pharmacy next door. Ordered one of their seasonal specialty drinks because I had a coupon for a free one today. It was good, but it wasn’t coffee; it was dessert. I should have prefaced this by saying that I normally drink my coffee black, no matter the form (hot, cold brew, etc.). So the addition of flavoring, sugar, and oat creamer was so incredibly sweet. I don’t see how people drink those regularly.

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.