Fall in North Bethesda

It is truly a beautiful day here in North Bethesda!

Yesterday was great also - not too much cold at once, just dipping into low temps and then raising the temps by afternoon, lovely!

The government shutdown 2013 is in the rear view mirror.  We await the pending shutdown of January 2014 now.  It was all much ado about nothing - and everything too.   Our country is changing and it some ways it is not for the better.   Many of my co-workers are displeased with the way things went, even though we got paid.  We know some of our contractors / co workers did not recover pay.  I didn't get to take my much anticipated vacation with loved ones and that makes me sad.  I was really looking forward to it.  In general, I don't feel very appreciated at work.  Although, I remain grateful to have a job, and thankful it has benefits and decent pay.  Still...respect?  The whole debacle was dismaying.  

I'm looking forward to starting to feel better.  Somewhere in the shutdown days I got a really bad cold.  I've missed work and stayed in bed for 3 days at least --- my weekend shot.   Its Tuesday and I do feel better - but still stuffed up and coughing.  My friends say the coughing lasts the longest.  I'm fairly miserable.  Have a DR appt. on Monday.  

Some days you just "show up" and that's as good as it gets.  I think this is one of those  days for me.   

I do love this time of year here.   It is nice and cool and lovely.  Comfortable!

Day 15 - Government Shutdown

Sadly, Glacier Park (and countless more relevant things) remains closed today.  It is Day 15 of an unbelievable shutdown.  

Personally, this has disrupted my life.  It has cost me money, wasted my time, created stress in my life, necessitated the cancellation of a much anticipated vacation, and, most important, cost me time spent with family I love.  

This is a beautiful time of year at Glacier. But, as shown in the photo above, now the road to the beautiful lake is blocked off, the flagpole barren, the little restaurant prematurely closed, the teaming visitors gone. I feel lucky to have found this webcam even operating for this moment.  That was yesterday, but today the site just has words. Words describing what parks might be open and for which dates. 

There is something fundamentally wrong with our system.  We're broken.