As we lurch into this government shutdown, there are a lot of folks in my facebook family who are running scared, and frustrated. A large percentage of folks I know working at Puget Sound Naval Shipyard have been given their furlough papers. They were sent home today with no real idea of when they will get their next paycheck, or how much it will be written for. Even the ones that were labeled essential personnel might have to wait for a pay check.
That's unfortunate...and I can't begin to imagine how frustrating it is to flat out NOT KNOW.
What's blowing my mind though, is how many of them are already running scared...terrified even. How many of them have NOTHING. Nothing in the bank, no dry stores in the pantry, no meat in the freezer, no cans or jars in the garage. Just flat out nothing. It's very topical with something Commander Zero talked about last week.
Add in to that the number of them(at least three hands worth) who rolled their eyes and said something like 'but you can afford a much nicer house than that', when we decided to a buy a house that was valued at roughly 60% of what we could have reached to afford. Instead we played it safe, and frugal, and continued to do what we could to get ready for something like this.
Right now, I am safe. I'm not longer directly employed by The Man, and as a contractor, my company has cash reserves to keep going...at least for a bit. The initial guess is at least 4 weeks before we need to start reducing staffing.
If things get back to the point where I am not safe...well, it's nice to know that we have been trying to do the right thing. The 30 pounds of venison I picked up yesterday from deer #1 when I dropped off deer #2 is a nice bonus, and by the time we ate all that, there should be another 35-40 pounds ready from deer #2. Plus, there is bacon...and eggs. And more eggs.
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