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

Long day reviewing existing things at work so the new group to cancel them. Whee. Kept having to impress upon career people that this was a vibe check, that we’re going to get sued, and so be it, we just needed to get through it and be done with it.

The husband continues to bake, this time a small olive oil cake. Very tasty.

Regular doc checkup tomorrow, and an appointment with the postal service to pay for and turn in my passport renewal. It’s well over due, so I have to go in person, and this way they can do the photo, too. Getting the little card as well as the book, first as a just-in-case it’s useful, and then as an added, more easily carried proof of citizenship. Because yes, I’m that paranoid.

Went to the DC Men’s knitting group today, and the shop had these gorgeous knitting project bags in leather. I’d seen them online before, but they were just as dreamy in person. Despite looking them over multiple times I just couldn’t justify another bag, especially one that would really just be used to haul knitting from floor to floor in the house (the lack of anything other than a single handle makes it unpractical for hauling outside). But man were they pretty (and they had all four shades on display).

Knitting went well. Walking to/from knitting went well, with the brace on. Apparently a possible side effect of cortisone is a flushed face, which I had both today and yesterday. Took my temp several times, all normal, before bothering to google side effects. D’oh. And I made some good progress on this shawl. The current section has me adding 10 stitches every two rows, so it’s really growing. Got to chat with a new member who took up knitting during the pandemic, and has stuck with it. He’s going to attend the Maryland Sheep & Wool Festival for the first time this year, so we were sharing tips, like have a project list so you have an idea what you might want to buy, rather than just picking out every pretty skein you see, as that way lies an impossible yarn stash.

Survived another week working for the chaos machine that is the US government these days. Go me.

Hopefully I’ll be able to catch up on some meaningful sleep this weekend. Because it sure wasn’t happening during the week. The Garmin watch I’ve been wearing since December gives you a “body battery” score based on how you’re recovering, sleep, dealing with stress, etc., and all this week it’s been in the low to mid 20s. Out of 100. Yikes.

Only plan I have for the weekend, other than sleep, is looking for some walking shoes at the local REI. And maybe some knitting.

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.

After sort of being in remission the head cold the husband gave me last week came roaring back this morning. That or it’s a new things on top of the other thing from someone at one of the rest areas on the way home. Who knows. Still managed to straighten some things in my office and catch up on a few comics, but otherwise was pretty much a lump for most of the day. Back to the job tomorrow, but I may use the excuse of not wanting to infect my coworkers to telework the rest of this week.

Whole lot of changes coming down the pike at work, as expected. I suspect some of them will end up being pulled back as impossible to implement from a practical standpoint, but others will end up creating a lot of work. Eh, elections have consequences and all that. I don’t anticipate that it’ll be life changing for my little agency, just a lot of busy work changing language around.

We are expecting 4-8″ (10-20cm) of snow here in the Boston area overnight. We thought about leaving today, but then we would have been driving through the snow in the middle of the route, whereas it’s all supposed to be done by the morning, so hopefully the highways will have been well treated by then. Of course we managed to leave our ice scraper/snow brush at home, so I made a last minute trip to Walmart for that, some waterproof gloves, and some snack for tonight/tomorrow. And I spotted a relatively inexpensive gas station so I filled up as well.

Good last day visiting with the in-laws. We went candlepin bowling in the afternoon, which I had not tried before and quite enjoyed, then an early dinner before the snow started. Now we’re settled into the hotel for the night, packing what needs to be packed, and glad I remembered to pull the wipers out from the windows. Here’s hoping it’s a relatively easy drive tomorrow.

Uneventful day at work, which was fine by me. The husband and I are headed up to Massachusetts tomorrow morning for a couple of days, so we’ve been doing the light packing required. Mine is a little heavier than normal because I have to take my work laptop for a video meeting with my little cohort from the training I attended back in early December, a kind of mid-break check-in to see how we’re doing and (I suspect) get us back on track, post-holidays.

Did a three mile walk this morning on the treadmill. The knee did well, which was nice to experience.

Finished sorting the donations with the husband’s help. Now I need to document them so we can get rid of them on Wednesday when we’re out and about.

Headed to the office on Tuesday, then we’re escaping down Thursday to avoid most of the inauguration brouhaha, though we are driving back on Monday. I learned that being out of the city and watching it all from afar is more my cup of tea than being in the middle of the craziness that can strike. While I don’t want to drive in it, here’s hoping for a very wet and cold next Monday.

Late start to the morning, didn’t end up working out until around lunch time (walk 30 minutes on the treadmill; 25 minutes of strength training). Before that I emptied out three drawers in my dresser, sorted shirts into ‘yes, no, maybe’ piles, put the yeses away, put the nos in a bag, and put the maybes aside for a consultation with the husband. Those will likely be nos in the end, but there some sentimental bits in there so I’ll check first. Worked out, cleaned myself up, ate. Then back to the remaining drawers. I’d already done a cull of exercise gear last year, but needed to rearrange the order of things based on what I’m actually doing now (more walking, less cycling). There was a surprising amount of little junk in one of the drawers, which all got pulled out and bagged until I can find a home for some of it. But the dresser has been set back up so all the drawers close cleanly now, which was the major goal.

Went through a storage cube in the bookshelf in my office that really needs to be a set of drawers (the cube is too big for what I store in it, with the result that it’s difficult to find and pull out what’s needed). IKEA has some, but I’m not going out today.

Read a bunch of comics, but with the late start not as many as I thought I would today. I am down to just the box (huzzah!), and I’ll get through more tomorrow before the husband puts more in my pile.