The Goodness of People

I was walking around with a heavy heart today. So much craziness in the world right now. Pick your poison. You've got Khadify (or whatever the spelling du jour is of his damn name) slaughtering people, GOP controlled state houses rolling back collective bargaining all over the place, an impending government shut down, Rush Limbaugh calling Michelle Obama fat (oh, the irony), big earthquake in New Zealand...and that's all just off the top o' me head.

And then I had to go get The Child from rehearsal and it was snowing. By the time we were on the return trip the roads home were all getting very slide-y. And, as you may know, Seattle is just chock full of hills and we live atop one of them so no matter what I do I HAVE to drive on hills. In the snow. We were only 3 blocks from home, on the last hill, when the car said, "Yeah, no". And it wasn't the worst situation to be in. I mean we could walk home. But I was so stuck I wasn't even sure if I could get the car to the side of the street to leave it.

Then some dude came up and said, "Would you like me to push you?" I gratefully accepted his offer, praying to the Little Baby Jesus in His Golden Diaper that I didn't end up rolling back over my Good Samaritan. The car wouldn't budge.

So dude called over to his buddy for help. "What for?" said Dude 2. "A car is stuck," said Dude 1. "What car?" asked Dude 2. "Uh, the one in front of the house. Hello?" So Dude 2 came out. He assessed the situation and opined that if they could push me a few yards I could roll back into the driveway and then gun it up the hill.

"Do you have a lot of experience driving in snow?" I asked.

"Yeah," said Dude 2. "And I'm a mechanic".

"Ok," I said. "You're driving".

They pushed me the requisite yards, I put her in park, we got out and Dude 2 took over. He expertly negotiated the car into a firm position and got her up over the crest of the hill. Thanking him and Dude 1 profusely, The Child and I returned to the vehicle and they both called out, "You ladies have a good evening".

Just restored my damn faith in humanity, I tells ya. And I am so baking them some cookies.

And Speaking of Patriotism....

Actually, this has nothing to do with patriotism. But I only just now realized that if the government shuts down on March 4 that means me, too. Like, I won't get paid. And yes, I've kinda been thinking about taking a few days of personal leave because, well, I can...but taking it because John Boehner is a prize jackass wasn't exactly the scenario I envisioned.

I'm kinda freaking out a little here.

I Got Your Patriotism Right Here

The population I work with is, generally speaking, pretty conservative. Not all, mind, but most. Meanwhile, none of my co-workers are. Because of the environment we are in, we keep our mouths shut about politics, unless we're all alone in the office. And it's fine. I hear some stupid stuff from time to time but I can finesse it. Except for this:

A big (and very attractive) framed picture of the President hangs on the wall of our office. We're not obligated to have a picture of the President in our office but when Public Affairs offered an extra one, MAB and I snapped it up. And it makes us happy. But a couple of times it has happened that someone has been in the office and said something along the lines of -and I'm not making this up- "Can we turn that to the wall?"

Now mind you, as a federal employee I am to conduct myself as a non-partisan while on the job. But when I hear something like that it makes the big vein in my head go "thumpa-thumpa". Until I hit on the perfect response. I look at the person who just uttered the offensive comment, smile sweetly and say, "Sir, with all due respect, that is the President of the United States, the Commander in Chief and my boss. We will not be turning it to the wall".

And every single time you know what happens? The offending person shuts the H up.