The shutdown

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 After Covid I was sorta hoping to have a decade or two of, well, precedented times but here we are.


Before I begin, let me just say if you haven't donated to a food bank recently, please do. With folks having their EBT cut and federal workers not getting a paycheck, a lot of our neighbors are in dire straits. Also, check out this post from The Points Guy about donating unused credit card perks to food banks. 

The shutdown continues and the transportation secretary has decreed that airlines need to cut their flights by 10%. Our flights for our annual Sydney holiday visit involved going from Newark to Seattle on Monday (10 Nov) for a few days, then to San Francisco for a few days, then onward to Sydney. Given the lingering trauma the three of us have from our Covid shutdown separation, my first instinct was to get out of the country as fast as possible. 

But we decided to wait a day or two and see what would happen. Once the details were announced, we decided to just suck it up and stay with our original itinerary. After lots of hand wringing and second guessing ourselves, we also decided to book a backup points flight from Newark to San Francisco on the 13th, in case the Seattle flight ends up in a rolling cancelation. (United said no hub-to-hub or international flights will be cut, Seattle isn't a hub.) I'm sure the airports will be chaotic, so I'm bringing extra food and xanax with me. 

Wish us luck…

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