So...

Lo and behold...

They shut the government down.

Sigh. And I am out of a job at the moment, since I am a gub'ment employee.

And I was thinking today, "I've never been out of a job."

I went to work on Tuesday and signed my furlough papers. One of the youngsters in our group was in our boss' office tripping out because she wanted to know how to get up on some food stamps. We all fussed about that. I was to work for 4 hours, but after 3 hours and 15 minutes I hollered "Bump this! I'm bouncing!"

I couldn't concentrate. I left and went home.

I am still breathing. I feel alright. I am a bit annoyed, because I don't want to touch my savings. (This is a very high class problem, you see).

Oscar-Tyrone is a bit annoyed, as you can see.

I have been sitting in his favorite chair. I am disturbing his daytime routines.

He has a general doctor's appointment on Saturday. I'm canceling that. He would smile if he knew that. Yes he would.

I didn't want to write about it immediately. My feelings were a bit too raw. My faith has to go past my feelings. And getting the faith to pass those horrible feelings takes a moment. I had a couple of good cleansing conversations with my sister Kentucky, my brother Milk and Cookies, and my best friend LadyTee. So that was helpful.

Actually, I had some funny blog posts to put up about other stuff, but I didn't put them up. I thought I would think about all this and do a post, if only to record and remember this event.

 I sat down and came up with a mini plan. That wasn't too hard to do.  Took me all of about 10 minutes. I had to change some things around in my bank account, and I was done. No big deal.

But you know what really bothers me? I'm all good. I have savings, and I'll just cut myself a check out of savings every two weeks. So I'm good. But what really bothers me is that uh... a lot of people live paycheck to paycheck. So loss of pay can be devastating. And trust, they have been running the story of different families on the news. It is heartbreaking.

All of this is because of a dysfunctional government. Highly dysfunctional. And when the leadership is bad, the people groan. That's what my bible says. That is sad.  I'm not all that surprised with the deepening dysfunction of the everyday people in our country. Look at the leadership. We are only as good as our leadership. And our leadership is dysfunctional. That is all.

So my prayers go out to those who have lost a check who have no savings and are waiting to see what happens.

My overall goal is spend my money and time wisely, and keep occupied. I in no way want to lay around the house. I am the consummate loner, but not when I am not working daily. So I prefer to be around people. I love morning bible study at church and I definitely got up this morning and made it to the 10 am service. I am SO glad that I did because it was a good service, with one of my favorite lady ministers preaching. And I had one of the ushers laughing...

"Come on in here and sit on the front row, sister!" the usher said with a smile.
"NO!" I said, a frown lighting my face.

Sit in front? The horror. No way. I sit in the back or the middle. I don't want to sit in the preacher's face. Not I.

That's just me.

I did some grocery shopping. I even came across Baton Bob in Buckhead.

He walks past my workplace from time to time. And we all run to the window to see what he's wearing that day. (One day he had on a fabulous wedding dress. We ooohed and ahhhed over that dress).

Baton Bob is our downtown ATL version of Forrest Gump. You know how Forrest got so depressed after Jenny left that he started running? Well Baton Bob was so depressed one day that he just grabbed his baton and whistle, put on an outfit and marched the streets of ATL bringing joy to himself and everybody around him.

He refused to sit at home and be depressed. I don't blame him.

I tell you, it's something else when one stands up and makes a decision to be happy.

Spread joy. Make your ownself and everybody else happy. Indeed.

Tomorrow is a new day. I may clean and stain my porch. That's a huge undertaking. I was in damsel in distress mode the last time I was outside staining the porch. I think this time I can take my time with it.

I also plan to go hang out with Grandma. I hung out with her on Monday. Seeing me twice in in a week will be O_O for her. But I am ready for some good conversation and good crocheting indeed.

I think this shutdown will be over soon.  They are messing with these veterans' benefits and money, and that's a no-no. And I am not sure what's up with the NIH and CDC, but man... listen: we are in trouble if some sudden disease outbreak pops off. And they're keeping the cancer patients out of the NIH. WOW. Crazy.

All of this over a pissing contest in Congress. (You know this isn't about The health care act or the budget.)

The masses are going to get louder and louder... and angrier.

Plus they shut down all the national parks. It's only a matter of time before folks start raising hell over that. You know darn well it don't make no kind of sense closing Yellowstone and the Grand Canyon. And folks were being turned away from the King Center and the Statue of Liberty. Humph.

Anyway. I'm gonna be alright. By design and on purpose.

And hopefully all of this will be over soon.

The sooner, the better.