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

After work the husband and I went to see the newest Marvel film, Captain America: Brave New World. We enjoyed it, was probably a mid-tier Marvel movie (not the best, not the worst). For a couple sitting three rows back from us it was a very expensive nap – they both snored, loudly, through the vast majority of the movie. ‘Twas all we could do not to break out in giggles when it got particularly bad. Thankfully it wasn’t quite enough to drown out the movie itself.

Finally downloaded the Signal app for my personal phone. There are a lot of rumors that the new crew is installing key loggers and automatic transcription for all video meetings on our work devices, with monitoring to see if anyone is being ‘disloyal’ to 47. An incredible breach of several laws and national security requirements, if true. But after the firings of so many probationary employees this week it’s better safe than sorry.

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.

We’re expecting another big (for DC) snow storm tomorrow through Thursday. Four to eight inches (10-20cm), which is a lot for here. Work laptop came home with me, and I will take advantage of any and all “unscheduled telework” days that pop across, like the “Early Departure ?” DC area Federal offices status message that’s posted for tomorrow (the question mark, present in the original message, was my favorite part; like they weren’t sure they completely meant it).

Commuted in, met the husband in metro on the way home. Ordered pizza for dinner and watched the last half of season one of Big Boys, a British show on Hulu that we’re quite enjoying. Probably an early night tonight as Tuesdays are traditionally busy days for me as people manage to catch up on their weekend/Monday emails and start tossing bombs at the lawyers.

Figuratively and literally. Finally managed to pin down management to provide a final agency position on some things which we need for next week, balancing between court orders and administration priorities. After work I finished a hat I was making for the husband and wove in all the ends (Xmas themed, but he’ll be able to use it next year). Learned to use a new pom-pom maker (so much easier than by hand). Then after dinner I picked up the shawl I started last year and made some progress on that. Overall a nicely productive day, without quite as much insanity as the rest of the week.

After work the husband and I went to see Love Hurts, which was just as cheesy and fun as the trailers made it out to be. There’s a delightful unexpected romance that made us laugh out loud at several points. Definitely needed the break from current events, and glad we went.

Unscheduled telework because of weather here (the potential for ice all over the roads, and resultant school delays for those with kids). The husband was also home, though we didn’t interact much because we both had full schedules.

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.

Forgot I needed to go do emissions testing on my mini until someone at work mentioned the DMV. Zipped up to do that after work, passed, then back home again.

Court orders are stopping some of the payment stuff that 47’s people put in place, but we’re still cranking along on a good chunk of it. The nonsense happening at other agencies isn’t happening at mine (yet?), but that could just be that we’re too small and not in charge of anything this crew cares about. In the meantime his tariff and other dramas have actually given us time to try and catch up to the last two weeks. As one wag put it, January was a long year.

Made leave plans for our annual anniversary trip, and I’m prepping the travel orders for my training at the end of the month. Things aren’t normal, but you can’t stop living.

At least the car is now clean of new england snow removal chemicals, after sitting in the Metro parking lot in the rain all day. That’s one down side of having a garage – fewer chances for natural car washes. That said, I’ll take the garage any day, since it means the car is closer to a comfortable temperature when we get in, regardless of season. And it won’t get broken into out on the street.

Another exhausting day trying to meet deadlines, and trying to keep everything moving. Was just me, the GC and the Deputy GC in our suite today, though others were online. That situation won’t last much longer – another month and we’re all supposed to be back in full time. Oodles of rumors flying about over the supposed early out promises (which look quite fishy), and some good discussions with some of my older colleagues who are thinking of getting out sooner rather than later, reassuring them that they should do what’s right for them, and that the office & work will go on. Projecting calming rays.

Haircut and clothes shopping tomorrow. I’m in this odd in-between size for dress pants where one size is too tight, but the next size up is too loose. Very annoying. So I’m going to try some different brands, and if I can’t find anything that’s truly fits I guess I’m off to a dry cleaner for alterations, because I cannot take the too loose pants if I have to go in every day (and I won’t wear the too tight size). Ob-nox-ious. Joked yesterday that the return-to-office policy must’ve been partially pushed by professional work wear merchants to sell more clothes, because I imagine a lot of us will need new wardrobes after 5 years of work-from-home.

Practicing for the full return-to-office in the next month or so by leaving my work laptop at work (I went in today and I’m going in tomorrow as well). Feels weird not having it here at home. I have an iPhone for work stuff, which I do like having, mainly because it helps keep people from bugging me on my personal mobile phone, but it’s not the same, though it does let me keep up with email and Teams if I need to. But much like my paper journals, I don’t do work on personal devices, and I don’t do personal on work devices. The government gets enough of my life, I’m not giving them the whole kit and caboodle.

Stuck in way too much traffic getting to the comic shop post-work, because I keep forgetting that this one intersection of University Blvd near the U-MD campus is a total shit show because of purple line light rail construction. Why the city and/or state haven’t retooled the lights there to move things through is a complete mystery. If I actually lived in that city I’d be screaming at my mayor and council members daily until they got it fixed.

Another day, more back and forth with 47’s crew not knowing how to do what they want to do. Oh well. Full employment for me. For now. And no, there’s no way in hell I’m taking their fake ‘quit now, work from home for 9 months’ BS.

Dentist this evening. Thankfully he wasn’t talking down to me this time (I had a whole ‘dude, learn to code switch between clients’ talk ready to go, though). Three months and I’m back to do some sort of tooth repair that sounds unpleasant. Whee.

The husband met me after the dentist and we had dinner over in Dupont, which was nice. I miss the walk home together that we used to have when we lived in Southwest DC; that was a nice way to have some time to talk and bond over our days before the inevitable dinner negotiation. We don’t get that as much now, sometimes in the car from the Metro, but a 10 minute car ride is not the same as a 25 minute walk.