This month began with a couple of disparate events, one personal, one on the macro side of things, one real, the other, questionable.

The real event was the personal one, as my best buddy in the world, Skye, my friend’s Belgian Shepherd, was mercifully euthanized on October 1 after just more than 15 years of an active, well-enjoyed life. Putting down a beloved pet is heart-breaking for many, but this went pretty well. We were all emotionally prepared, as Skye had deteriorated rapidly over the past few months. We gave him time, space, and comfort as he aged away with dignity.

On the macro front, the U.S. government shut down on the same day. This larger-than-life event is a little less jarring and by no means important longer term, at least that’s how it appears. The government hasn’t really shut down at all, except for furloughing about 750,000 non-essential employees, the remaining 2.5 to 3 million (egads, that’s too many) working without pay. There haven’t been any plane crashes or train derailments. Mail was delivered pretty much on schedule; Amtrak trains ran as late as usual.

There’s some suspicion that the shutdown isn’t really about the Republicans and Democrats failing to pass a seven-week funding bill to keep the government’s lights on as the 2025 fiscal year ends and the 2026 one begins. It appears to have been worked out by agreement of both parties long ago. After all, they’ve had since July 4 - when the last funding was signed into law - to put their noggins together and work something out. Rather, the congress took its usual month-long vacation in August and did little other than whine and point fingers through all of September, as if they were purposely leading up to the first government shutdown in seven years.

The whole thing is stupid and essentially not reality-based. It’s for show, as if to show the American public how important the government and all of its myriad of functions are to the American people. A day late and a few trillion dollars short, most of the American public could care less. Probably more than half of the adult population would rather the government remain closed and never reopen. After all, they’re the ones who have racked up over $37 trillion in debt, run deficits of more than a trillion a year, and haven’t passed any meaningful legislation that is of any conceivable benefit to most Americans in the past 40 years.

Who needs them?

And, if there are 750,000 non-essential employees, why are we paying for them?

The U.S. government, as currently comprised, is about as serious as a hangnail. They use more problems than offer solutions, and, when they do offer solutions to problems mostly they created, matters usually become worse by varying degrees.

Two things you never hear anymore coming out of Washington, D.C. are the words, “smaller government” or “cut spending.” In the unreal world of politicians and their lackeys, becoming smaller or saving money are anathema. Why would they take away the punch bowl from which they have so lavishly been drinking for the past six decades?

They wouldn’t. They won’t. And the public pays the bills.

That’s about all I have to say about this very real month of October, when summer really turns to fall and leaves change from green to red.

In case you’d like to see what Fearless Rick’s best buddy looked like in his younger days, there’s a nice shot of Skye at the bottom of Page 3