Last Thursday my husband and I flew to Washington DC to do some Truck Safety work. We flew home yesterday and today, on this first day of the Federal Government shutdown, I was driving to northern Michigan.
As I drove I pondered all that is going on, and how it will affect regular people who are just trying to move forward in their lives, whatever that means to them.
And I wished we could go back to the days depicted on the back of a menu in a DC restaurant where we dined last Thursday evening.
Change Is Hard 
October 1, 2025 at 7:50 pm
Hard to believe that was once upon a time even if it was long, long ago. They look so happy, too!
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October 2, 2025 at 8:26 am
Well, they WERE drinking…
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October 1, 2025 at 7:53 pm
When I first started working at a bar up here…way back in 1978…we used to hold “election night parties.” We all had hats or t-shirts advertising our “team” and there was a little back and forth now and then, but we all TOGETHER watched the votes come in, cheering when appropriate, booing when it didn’t look good. I’ve often thought about how very impossible that would be, in today’s political climate. Sad.
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October 2, 2025 at 8:27 am
I remember election nigt parties. It was sort of like watching a football game wit people from both teams in your family room. These days you can’t even talk about it among friends if you know they’re on a side other than yours.
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October 1, 2025 at 8:53 pm
I think it’s going to take a big Boom, tipping of baskets of the parties, and a large replacement endeavor before there’s any hope. Of course, a new President and VP will also be necessary. It’s like a dark comedy that’s not the least bit funny now.
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October 2, 2025 at 8:28 am
Someone said the party’s platforms change every 70 years. I didn’t know that. We must be in the midst of a year(s) of change.
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October 2, 2025 at 1:08 pm
Do the parties really have platforms now? It’s hard to tell. If so, it seems to me the GOP platform is to enrich the rich. And the Dems seem to be stumbling about trying to figure it out.
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October 1, 2025 at 8:54 pm
Clever cartoon – too bad things cannot stay the same. We were born the same year and have seen a lot of change Dawn.
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October 2, 2025 at 8:29 am
Yes we have. When I was in library science school in the early 2000s one of the professors said that we were living in an era as significant as the industrial revolution, the changes that were happening were that big. He was referring to the dissemination of information. He was right. Look where social media has us today.
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October 2, 2025 at 7:59 pm
Yes, indeed. We never had internet at work until we were on the brink of Y2K (that was only due to doomsayer’s predictions and we had a Unix-based system and we used Pine e-mail for intraoffice only). I didn’t get a home computer until after Y2K as I also believed those doomsayers. I could not believe the wealth of info on the internet the first time I got online.
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October 1, 2025 at 11:23 pm
My dad was Democrat (back in the 30’s and 40’s) when Democrats were the conservatives … and my mom was Republican back then, when the Republicans were the liberals. It has switched. My dad taught me that it switches every 70-100 years. And I read online (and in books) that it really does. So what … we have different views of finances, etc, but there is no reason for the current violence and damage to people’s lives and medical care, and removal/killing of hispanic people who were here before we were! I don’t really care whether Republicans or Democrats are “in power”, what I care about is that people who are elected realize that they represent ALL of us, and that they take care of all of us, and stop lining their own pockets by hurting all of us.
Hope some “truck safety” work got done, Dawn. Really appreciate you doing that.
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October 2, 2025 at 8:31 am
I had no idea that happened. How interesting!
We did get some truck safety work done, but really the town was soooo quiet (on a Monday supposedly no members are there, but many were, just in the chambers). Staffers were more focused on the looming shutdown. There wasn’t much even those that support us can do to stop the safety rollbacks. It’s heartbreaking.
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October 2, 2025 at 3:04 pm
Living through these changes is hard. I guess maybe one day, we’ll all wake up and realize we need one another. Glad you had a safe trip. Perhaps I’m just a sceptic, but part of me wonders about that menu — maybe they’re toasting because they’ve succeeded in pulling the wool over all our eyes??
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