OMG. It’s happening. We’re going into default. I knew it. I knew weeks ago when Rachel Maddow, Chris Matthews, Luke Russert, Wolf Blitzer and the entire Fox network said the end was coming. Even Dr. Mehmet Oz looked worried.

First came the shutdown, and they closed all the national parks. I never really wanted to go to the top of the Statue of Liberty or watch Old Faithful erupt, but does that include Disney World?

I wonder if anyone in Augusta is watching the governor. I see that he has issued a proclamation declaring a “civil emergency.” Civil emergency?

I don’t know exactly what that means, but it sounds suspiciously like a Maine “Prague Spring,” or worse, Tiananmen Square.

I keep looking out the window to see if there are any tanks in the street. It says right there in the paper that this gives the Governor strong additional “powers.”

I knew it. I knew he would seize on this national emergency. He can now “suspend certain rules and regulations.”

Well, there goes the Portland Press Herald. I suppose that means that as the last and oldest liberal on this paper that I will have to go and bring cookies and reading material to Bill Nemitz in his detention cage.

That is unless they come for me first. Maybe not. I think all the state police officers that do that kind of work have been furloughed.

Lord, I remember  back in 1953 when furlough was a fun thing. It meant three days in a cheap hotel in Hong Kong with a dance teacher. She couldn’t speak English, but I did learn to fox trot.

I’m not getting any work done here, because I’m here in the living room with two cans of Pringles and my wine, watching the news nonstop. I guess I could sit in the kitchen or dining room, where there are some small screens, but if we’re going to go down the economic rabbit hole, I want to see it on a big screen.

NBC says that if we default on our debt, the consequences would be “dire,” that there will be another “Great Depression” worse than the first one which I kind of remember.

Social Security payments will halt if we don’t pay up by Oct. 17. That’s my nephew’s birthday. Well, he won’t be getting a card from me or the usual 10 bucks I send him. Sorry, Pal.

Did you know that China and Japan hold $1.28 trillion in our treasury securities? What if they come knocking at the door looking for their money? Do we have to pay in yen?

OMG. Here’s a flash report on Huffington Post. “Some have a strong belief that the default would wipe out bank equity. Does that mean the banks would crash?

I have suggested to she who is in charge of the money in our account that we consider taking our entire life savings, $678 dollars and 87 cents, right out of the bank now and hide it.

I remember sitting on the back porch back in 1938, listening to the older folks who got hit in 1930.

Aunt Winnie knew of friends who got their money out and hid it under the mattress. Uncle Jack, who had no money nor a mattress, wasn’t worried, but Aunt Mamie said that some folks were hiding their money in Folgers Coffee cans and burying it in the yard.

It may not mean anything, but when I went to the store last night, most of the Folgers Coffee in cans was sold out. Wouldn’t you know? I go to Starbucks where the coffee comes in paper bags and cups.

Some guy on one of those financial shows says we should have six months of cash in hand. Six months? I’m a freelance writer, she is a retired teacher. Do the math. I think it’s time to muffle screams and say the rosary.

This is scary. Last night I saw one my neighbors who is a banker, digging in his back yard. He said he was planting his garlic bulbs. I’m going out and collect that change under the car seat.

J.P. Devine is a Waterville writer.