Re: 4/6 Willie AMPS 104, +2~115, +3~153
Looks like the bounce is on. Hoping he keeps it in the blues today! We had a nice morning... He batted his jingle ball around a couple times this morning... 5:45am and later after I got up. Second breffis (raw + BG Turkey with some bonitos sprinkled on top) was eaten with more gusto than I'd seen in awhile, with a case of the fudnose to show for it. He got brushed this morning, and his furminator is supposed to be delivered to day, though I forgot to leave a note for the UPS guy to leave it in the bushes. Hopefully I can pick it up before my 7:00pm tennis lesson tonight. If not, we'll furminate tomorrow!
He was not happy about me heading to tbp today. Today is my scheduled work at home day, but I went to the office b/c my boss has been weird about work at home (even though I am entitled to do it and he can't stop me), and a colleague's birthday was yesterday and I wanted to give him his card and gift (milk chocolate candy bar with BACON in it!!!). Perhaps Willie knew I was supposed to be at home today? I had opened windows and he also knew it was nice outside. Part of the grousing was that he wanted to go outside... he headed for the back door and there was definite grumbling when I told him he'd have to wait until tonight!!
Government shutdown talks looming again, and it's looking increasingly likely. I wish they would pass the 1 week stopgap just because we get paid next weekend, so payroll would still likely go through. I know we are processing our payroll on Friday, but if we shut down next week, I won't get paid for the pay period we just finished (no workers to process the payroll), and if the shutdown drags on, I will likely miss a second paycheck (that may or may not be paid to me after the fact) as well. One is manageable but would suck. Two becomes very worrisome.
I know that the people have all kinds of opinions about the size of the federal government, the nature of the programs we have, etc. But at the end of the day, federal employees are your neighbors. Your friends. And no matter what you think of the importance of the job they do, they have mortgages to pay, mouths to feed, etc... and missing an entire paycheck or even two is really a scary proposition for many. Further, if they don't get paid, then your state/local government takes a hit from the loss of income taxes (and in the Kansas City metro area, for example, the federal government is the single largest employer, providing jobs for 30K+ people). Even employees deemed "essential" that will be required to keep working during the shutdown will not get paid until after the fact.
[Edited a bit as this isn't the place for politics. :smile: :smile: :smile: ]
Sorry... this is the dominant topic of conversation at tbp today. I'll step down from my soapbox now.
