Day 107: My last day in the office was December 12. Kevin was going on leave, so I brought my government computer home with me so I could make a much shorter trip to Park Headquarters a couple of times over the holidays to clear out my emails, which I did on the 21st, the last possible moment before the shutdown took effect. Today...January 28, mind you...I was at last allowed back in the office, and believe me, I was expecting a nightmare. As it turned out, it wasn't as bad as I'd feared because...well, because everybody else was shut down too. The exception to that was Volunteer.gov, through which people could still apply for volunteer opportunities in the Park. A fairly good portion of my backed-up email consisted of those same people writing to find out why I hadn't responded to their applications yet. Um...d'uh! How can anyone have been unaware that the parks were only being operated by a bare minimum of staff? As much as I'd like to think of myself as "essential personnel," my job doesn't include enforcing the law, keeping water systems running or plowing the roads to buildings which must be kept secure against the ravages of alpine winter. At any rate, I got through my day's work with a minimum of stress, and it sure felt good to turn the key in that lock again.
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