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.

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.

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.