So, the big weather system that was supposed to cause such havoc ended up just being kinda wet and cold around here. Didn’t stop a bunch of things from being cancelled this weekend, though – which means, among other things, something I was hoping to be clear of after about 5pm on Sunday ended up […]

and now, the rather rare occurrence of “Chuck talks a bit about work-y business sorts of things”… One of the things I find myself doing in my career is writing business case documents and presenting them to various authorities in order to sell them on the idea of taking on (and allocating funding to) various […]

My friend Steve is a very talented musician and songwriter. He’s played all kinds of interesting venues from honky tonks to places of worship. He builds beautiful native american flutes, and plays upright bass (airbrushed with gorgeous Betty Page pinup artwork) in a Rockabilly cowpunk band. He’s written and released lots of material over the […]

So yes, I only work four days per week (never mind that it’s ten hours per day). Doesn’t matter, I sit here on Friday morning, paying my bills, and I can’t help but reflect that this was one long week, at least from the point of view of this observer. Relativity in action, folks, look […]

So, tomorrow, Tuesday, is election day in America. Here’s where I make use of my little pulpit to encourage everyone within reach of my electronic voice to make the effort to get out to your polling place and vote. Sure, it’s an off-year election, and unless you happen to be in one of two states […]

Costumes for kids are still coming together, but the spouse and I got our kit on early for a party last weekend…with a theme: “dress your favorite decade.” We were kind of stumped for a while, though it was kind of a foregone conclusion that we went with different aspects of the 80s; her the […]

I’m finding that for the first time in my adult life, my work group is made up primarily of people my own age. For most of my tenure as a civil servant, I’ve been the office “baby”, well into my late 30s. The federal service cadre I’be been part of is made up largely of […]

Even though the Government is still shut down, I went back to work on Monday, as I’d been, thanks to a broad interpretation of the Pay Our Military Act, determined “essential”, at least until someone makes another decision that I’m not. Who knows if I’m going to get paid for it any time soon, though. […]

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 […]

So, it’s looking more and more likely that, barring a miracle before midnight, Tuesday morning I’ll be heading into the office to sign furlough paperwork, then getting essentially locked out until Congress can stop playing chicken with my paycheck. While I’m known for getting occasionally political in this space, I haven’t actually done so in […]