On the 10th Day of the Takeover of our Country by the Minority Party

Today the sun is obscured behind a damp, gray sky. Tom made coffee and biscuits, and we sat on the patio talking about the events that have led to his being home on a weekday. When the local school bus passed, Tom said, "It's weird to hear the school bus," as he is always long gone to work with the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service by then, always arriving at his office by 7 a.m.. He began to notice other sounds of the weekday morning that he is usually not home to hear, such as the strange "Close Encounters" chime of a business or school ringing through the woods [I've yet to identify the source]. Yesterday, on the 9th day of the takeover, he began the process of repairing our lawn mower, which had sprung a leak in the fuel tank; he ordered a replacement fuel tank, and began the work of repairing the grass deflector on the side of the mower. He measured the chimney so that he could calculate the amount of steel lining we would need for the wood stove, which he also ordered. He planted bok choy seeds in the garden, hoed some weeds, and in the evening, went for a six-mile run. Today he plans to continue chopping wood and begin building a wood rack.

Meanwhile, I will continue the fall clean-up of the garden areas that I began yesterday, trying to keep at some emotional distance my increasing dismay over how the Republican party has brought our country to a halt. This is no longer just a "government shutdown" to me; it's a hostile takeover, a hijacking of the democratic process and an attack on a million American families whose breadwinners work for the federal government. Republicans are trying to put the blame on President Obama, but since they've been playing this card since at least 2011 and planning this takeover for months, only the politically naive, ideologically blinkered, or easily bamboozled  are convinced. In 2012, President Obama won re-election with a majority of the American vote. Not able to win the presidency at the polls, even with intense gerrymandering, Republicans have resorted to holding the whole country hostage to their policy demands. First, they wanted to get rid of the Affordable Care Act (a.k.a., ObamaCare); now they're talking about cuts to Social Security and Medicare.

Remember the sequestration (which we are still under)? The cuts brought on by sequestration were already affecting the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service; we weren't sure whether or not Tom's job would continue beyond next year. The takeover and total shutdown of the government on October 1st just adds more to that insecurity.

Need a review of the sequestration? Links below.  I have a yard to clean up.

• February 20, 2013: "The Sequester: Absolutely Everything You Could Possible Need to Know, in One FAQ," by Dylan Matthews, at Wonkblog, The Washington Post.

• February 21, 2013: Answers to Questions on Capital's Top Topic," Jonathan Weisman, The New York Times.

• February 28, 2013: "A Graphic Guide to the Sequester," Christie Thompson, ProPublica.

• May 7, 2013: "Everything We Know About What's Happened Under Sequestration," Theodoric Meyer, ProPublica.

Tom surveys his fall vegetable garden on his 10th day off work