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

The House managed (barely) to pass the Senate’s continuing resolution, so my coworkers will all be back online tomorrow. The House majority is so thin they needed several minority votes to make it happen. What a mess.

Our human capital folks warned that while pay checks will be issued next week on the regular payday, they’ll be a mess as the payroll provider tries to handle all of the calculations, deductions, taxes, etc. Whee.

I just hope they get it sorted before December.

Still on medical telework, so I will not be on the Metro with the rest of the Feds, trying to remember how to commute after 43 days off work.

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.

Had it thoroughly in my head that I had a doctor’s appointment at 9:30 this morning. Got there around 10 minutes early, was all good. They took me back, I’m in the middle of talking to the doctor when my phone gives me the one-hour-before-your-appointment alert for the appointment which was apparently scheduled for 10:30. D’oh! It worked out, because their 9:30 was running late, so hopefully I allowed them to adjust the schedule. I did apologize to the receptionist and thanked her for handling it so smoothly.

Passport appointment went as scheduled. The woman at the post office was great, pulled it all together, took the requisite unflattering photo, and I’m all set. New one should arrive in 4-6 weeks. Whee. Also managed to snag some of the Betty White and Keith Haring stamps.

The husband was at home today as well, so we picked up comics and Wendy’s for lunch in between appointments. Did a little knitting – I’m halfway through repeat 2 of 3 in the last section of the Hoek shawl I’m working on now. Leftover pizza tonight, and the cats are enjoying the windows being fully open for the first time in ages. Not a bad middle of the week.

Passed my 8k step goal today just from running around the office. Ended up staying later than I’d intended, but the husband and I still did comics and dinner out, albeit a late one. Almost forgot to grab my work shackle, er, iPhone, because it was sitting on the charger. Alas, I remembered it before I got out of the suite. I do appreciate being able to leave the computer at work now.

If I’m reading the budget resolution correctly (which is kind of a crap shoot, honestly) my agency might just be looking at a 4% reduction below the previous administration’s planned budget for this year. It’s hard to tell because those are written at a very high level (think “here’s the total amount for all national defense spending, by year, for the next decade”; or here’s the total amount for all energy spending, or all medical spending, etc. – no breakdown by agency or even by appropriations committee). I’ll try and quiz the budget office tomorrow to see what they’ve heard.

Went shopping for foodstuffs for the office, and I have to say that the canned soup selection at the local Wegman’s was sorely lacking (I have a lunch crock pot I like to use in the office). Five gazillion types of wine, but a distinctly soviet feel to the tiny little soup section. I was hoping not to have to cart cans down from home. I’ll try a couple and see if they’re viable, but I may still need to haul the occasional can down as well.

Well, snow telework day. It finally started mid afternoon and we’re up to a couple of inches outside now. Lots of leftovers for lunch (ordered pizza last night), and various and sundry work messes to clean up as we attempt to normalize what 47 is doing.

It’s unclear if I’ll be attending the second half of the training course at the end of this month because he issued an order dissolving the training institute that’s putting on the training. Rumor is that as part of an orderly shutdown they’ll finish out the class that’s there now, and then have my class come down for our last two weeks (because we already paid them for the training last fall), at which point we’ll be the last ever class there. The whole point of the institute is to train federal employees in leadership skills, and as we know this team hates the idea of a profession, non-partisan civil service (because he just wants yes-men), so it makes some sick sense that they’d close one of the ways that we maintain that professional civil service. Depressing, really.

The rest of this week is going to be a mess of people in the federal government checking news and just generally being stressed out. The Fork offer closes tomorrow night, then it’s likely they’ll take action against probationary employees shortly thereafter. As for the rest of us? Supposedly reductions-in-force (layoffs) are coming to take agencies down by some arbitrary percentage. And who knows if they’ll actually follow the regulations that lay out the procedures there, since this team doesn’t seem to care about the law on anything else.

This looks and feels like a coup. I desperately hope I’m wrong here, that somehow we muddle through, but given the capture of all of the branches of government I’m increasingly worried that no one is going to stand up to him, at least not without massive upheaval. I would describe myself as a true believer in the American experiment. I’ve dedicated half my life to serving this country. And I’ve never felt so much angst about where the government is going.

Overslept this morning, which was odd because 1. I set an alarm; and 2. I got more than my normal seven hours of sleep. Was okay, was only a little late. And hey, I got stuck there until 7pm trying to fix some other thing that 47 and president fElon broke anyway, so it didn’t really matter.

Also, I really hope the folks who stayed home, or who didn’t vote for the other party because they ‘weren’t doing enough’ for whatever cause was near and dear to them are happy with everything that’s going on, especially today’s news about the middle east. And I really hope they don’t have the temerity to complain about anything he’s doing within earshot of me, because I’ve had it. These people are bound and determined to destroy 249 years of self governance, without a monarchy, and without (official) aristocracy.

We took down all the Xmas stuff today. Well, the interior stuff; the exterior stuff came down before some wind storms earlier this week. First it was off to haircuts, lunch, and picking up some cheese for homemade pizza, which I promptly nixed in the late afternoon for tonight because the Xmas stuff took too much time & energy. *insert raspberry sound here*

They’re predicting that we’re to get 6-10 inches (15-25cm) of snow tomorrow. Was supposed to start late tonight, but it looks like most of tonight’s stuff is staying south of us. Nevertheless the county government just sent out the ‘yeah, everything is closed tomorrow except emergency services’ email. Nothing, of course, from the Office of the Poorly Managed on what the Federal government will do tomorrow (massive telework, at a minimum, because everyone with kids will be stuck at home when the schools all close). While I miss the days when a snow day meant a true vacation from work, I’ll take the lack of a commute as a consolation prize.

Saw my sister-in-law and niece off this morning, after they popped down for the holiday weekend.

Made some homemade pumpkin spice coffee additive last night (1.5 cups sugar, 1.5 cups water, bring to boil over medium heat, whisk in 4 teaspoons pumpkin spice blend and 1/4 cup pumpkin puree, lower heat to simmer for 20 more minutes. Strain through a fine mesh sieve (and cheesecloth, if you have it, to further reduce the solids) and add 1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract. Stores in the fridge for up to a week). Also made toddy coffee concentrate, so had homemade iced pumpkin spice lattes this morning (1/2 cup concentrate, 3/4 cup milk, 2 Tablespoons PSL mix). Was tasty. I’m normally a black coffee drinker, so anything beyond that is exotic for me, but this was a nice treat. And the SIL was impressed, which is what really counts.

PT this afternoon. I have some pitting edema going on, meaning there’s still a lot of extra fluid in the knee, so if that’s still there at the end of next week I get to ask the orthopedist about that. Flexion was about the same as last week, which may be related to the extra fluid at this point.

Short week last week (and weird because of the almost-government-shut-down), short week this week. My new attorney shadow gets here in two weeks; it’s someone I recruited from my old agency, so I know I’ll work well with him. Looking forward to training him on the new agency, and a new area of law, as well as passing off some of the stuff that I’m not as well versed in but that he has much more experience with.

Oooh, we played Uno Flip last night and really enjoyed it. The husband and I own it, but hadn’t played it, and it was quite a fun variation on the regular uno. Both sides of the cards are playable, a light side and a dark side, and every now and again people can make the deck flip from one to the other, which also flips all the cards in your hand. Kept things lively.

Got some more of the Halloween stuff put up, including the green-purple-orange light strings we bought last year but didn’t get up (maybe we bought them at the end of the season on sale? I don’t remember why they didn’t get put up). Our neighbor does a much better job with it than we do, but we outshine them at Xmas. 😉

Hunkered down here in suburban MD as we await freezing temperatures to fly through over the course of the morning and afternoon. Managed to sneak off yesterday afternoon to fill up the car, pick up the last little thing I’d gotten the husband for Xmas, and hit the grocery store to get most of what we needed for the weekend and Xmas day, before today when it’s supposed to get icy (and just maybe a hint of snow in the afternoon), and this weekend when it’s supposed to stay in the 20s and below. Still will need to walk over to the local organic market for some bits and bobs, but don’t need to drive any more, which was what I was going for.

Things have been going okay here. The husband had two work trips, to New Orleans and then to New Zealand. He had fun jumping off things in Auckland (bungie jumping off a bridge, leaping off a building), and generally enjoyed everything other than long the plane ride. He’s still not completely back on east coast time, but he’s getting there. It was odd having him gone for almost two weeks; I think that might be one of the longest times we’ve spent apart since we got married.

Two more sleeps until Xmas. No family around this year because of leave situations (on their end), so it’s just the two of us. Trying to figure out what the husband should bake, and I’m leaning toward a gingerbread bundt cake. We’ll see how he feels about it when he gets up. Melting potatoes are definitely in the plan, and probably some zucchini in the air fryer, plus whatever veggies look tasty over at the organic market.

The cats have gotten incredibly spoiled by new heated cats beds we got them. And much like Susan’s experience, they love the smaller ones (even though Benjamin spills out of it), and won’t use the larger one. And they won’t use each other’s – I tried to move them around when we got the big one, and Ezri took one whiff of the one B had been sleeping in, hissed, and ran away. Ah well. But they definitely appreciate the heat, and it makes it easier for me to find them when I’m looking. I also don’t feel as guilty keeping the thermostat set lower.

Slowly closing out of triathlon related things. My membership in USAT won’t end for another two years, but I’m going to let the local DC Tri Club membership lapse next month. I joined that back in 2004, and it was a great experience, especially coaching the new triathletes, but I haven’t raced in over a decade, I have no plans to race in the near future, and I don’t do anything with the club, so it’s time to say farewell. Adjusted a bunch of social media sites to unfollow the club and triathlon related things, which then lead down a rabbit hole of unfollowing other stuff to trim down the time sucks and give the various companies headaches in trying to figure out what ads to serve me.

Hoping Congress hurries up and finishes up work on the latest mega-bill to fund the government so I can dig into that for work. I have some projects I want to do there that will involve spending some time now to make my life, and the lives of many fellow money law practitioners, easier going forward. Plus I’d also like to take the half day our head of agency gave us off today, but that won’t happen until I know we don’t have to shut down at midnight. At this point in my career I just sort of sigh, shake my head, and move along with my job, as Congress is stuck in this pattern now and there’s nothing I can do to stop it, so I just roll with it.