You’ve heard the frustrating stories about the government shutdown. So here’s a couple more. Clients of mine were in China last week. While over there, a local woman was driving them and said, “Your government closed.” Visibly upset and motioning with her hands, she said friends of hers were visiting the US for the first time. They had saved for their once in a lifetime trip. And now they couldn’t see the national parks or sites they had hoped to visit. That’s the pain that was felt. Another client of mine who lives in Alaska told me about his friend who is a bear hunting guide. He gets $30k per client trip. He was told he could not hunt in the national refuge if the government was still shutdown. Fortunately for him the season doesn’t start until Sunday. Not so fortunate for the bear.