I'd rather push Gerald Ford than drive a Chevy.

This coming Tuesday is the National Day of Mourning for former President Ford. That likely means that any sort of government business will be postponed to Wednesday. It kind of puts me over a barrel, since I'm a contractor for the government and not an actual federal employee, and as such, don't receive admin leave for those days like federal employees do. I have to use a day of personal leave instead.

(An aside: It still boggles my mind that, even though I work for a defense contractor, we don't get Veteran's Day off. We're a defense contractor. WE'RE A DEFENSE CONTRACTOR. But, thankfully, if I wanted to take a floating holiday on Idi Amin's birthday, I could do that. Seriously. And I could take it for Veteran's Day, too, but that would shoot holes in my righteous indignation.)

Anyway. Before the edict came down from on high that Tuesday would be the day of mourning for Ford, there were rumors floating around to that very effect - that there would be a day next week that all of the government employees on the base where I work would likely get the day off.

Silly me - I made the joke that, since Ford only served half a term, that the government employees should only get a half a day off.

Silence.

There are some things you just don't joke about to federal employees, (chief among them being their seniority-based, not merit-based, promotion system), and one of those things is the occasional day of admin leave for things like presidents dying. It's a sacrament.

* The headline on foxnews.com the day after Ford's passing read, "America Mourns."

I think that's overstating the case a little bit. I imagine that a more appropriate headline would have been, "America Says, 'Huh.'"

Or, "America Thinks To Itself, 'That Guy Was Still Alive?'"

I confess to having both reactions.