What part of Non-essential Don't You Understand?

Just curious - has the government "shutdown" affected you personally?  In our household we have not  seen any effects.  I am assuming that Ron's Social Security check will arrive at the bank as usual.  We are not trying to visit any of the national parks, so no problem there.  Of course, I would be upset if we were planning a trip to Glacier and found it closed, but, hey, it's already snowed up there, so pretty soon the Going To The Sun highway will be closed for the winter anyway.  

I read that all "essential" workers were still working, and it was only "non-essential" workers were staying ofy the job.  Ummmm, wonder what would happen if the definition of non-essential were actually applied?