So, it’s the fourth day of the government shutdown. I haven’t been to work since Tuesday morning, when I went in for fifteen minutes to sign the letter telling me I was “non-essential” and changing my voice mail to reflect the fact that I won’t be available until congress gets their heads out of their asses (the actual voicemail greeting was much more diplomatic).

I’ve no idea how long this is going to last, but it seems like everyone’s digging in for the long haul. One nice, sort of unexpected thing thing that gives me hope, though, is that at last count, my Congressional representative has taken a break from doing whatever neighboring Congressman Eric Cantor tells him to do and stating publically that he’ll support the senate’s clean funding bill, which is nice. I like to think that my letter to him helped, though it’s probably that he has more currently out-of-work federal employee constitutents in his district than anyone else outside the Beltway. Hopefully they’ll be some movement soon.

However, I’m planning for this to last a while, cutting back on non-essential spending, and looking for alternative income streams, which mostly consists of getting off my ass to finally get rid of some collectibles and unused electronics that have been taking up space, now that there’s some urgency to motivate me. Last night, I sold some rare, mint-in-box action figures and an autographed picture of James “Scotty” Doohan to my local comics and collectibles shop, and made a decent chunk of change. I’ve got some old electronics ready to get posted to craigslist if necessary as well.

Some of my guitars are looking nervous, though I’m pretty sure they’ll be safe.

Otherwise, I’ve been filling the time with stuff, both useful and recreational. I cleaned out my storage room/home office, getting rid of lots of crap (and setting aside those old collectibles), we’ve washed lots of laundry (and set aside a bunch of old clothes for donation), and this morning, I sanded our stairs to prep them for painting and the installation of new non-skid pads, and only banged up my knuckles a little bit.

I’ve also watched a season and a half of Breaking Bad and started playing through Mass Effect 3, which I’ve had sitting on my shelf, still in the shrinkwrap, for about a year. It’s good so far (for the record, I play Fem!Shep).

The general uncertainty about when I’ll get to go back to work and start getting paid again, though, is taking it’s toll on life. The stress is hitting me in all the usual physical places, though I’m managing. There’s not much I can do about it, and I’m in better financial shape than some folks affected by this, so I think I’ll get through it okay (the planned furlough planning helps here). Still, I wanted to go to the MD Renfaire with friends this weekend, but I couldn’t justify the trip, given the cirucmstances, which sucks.

Anyway, that’s about it from here. Here are some tunes:

1. “Spirit In The Sky” – Norman Greenbaum
2. “Don’t Let Me Hide” – The Badlees
3. “Float On” – Modest Mouse
4. “The One I Love” – R.E.M.
5. “Kids” – MGMT
6. “Omaha (live)” – Counting Crows
7. “Summer of ’69” – Bryan Adams
8. “The Start of Something” – Voxtrot
9. “The Modern Age” – The Strokes
10. “Climbing The Walls” – They Might Be Giants