If you will permit me. . . .

The last few weeks have been a grueling and arduous journey of obtaining permits.  We ask for permission all of the time.  As children we learn to do so nicely because as you do unto others, so they will do unto you.  As adults we sometimes aren't so nice about getting permission.  Some of us have been heard to say that it is better to seek forgiveness rather than ask for permission.  When building a house that last strategy is probably a bad one.  Plus, generally speaking both of us are rule followers although we've been known to push quite hard when provoked.  Provocation comes in the guise of bureaucracies.  They need their rules and timelines, but what we object to is the inflexibility of these organizations.  They seem wholly unable to accommodate individuals or to navigate through a thorny, exceptional situation.  Truly maddening is when you get caught in the middle of two warring bureaucracies.  That'll have you bouncing around like a ping-pong ball.

In our project we have tried to learn the process for working with several groups that have some hold over and responsibility for the appropriate completion of our house.  The learning curve is steep and it's nearly impossible to do it in a quick fashion.  Perhaps the most frustrating circumstance arises every time we have an encounter and the agency involved expects us to know what to do.  Why is that?  I am a biology teacher and yet I don't expect people working in a government agency to explain the life cycle of the bacterium Escherichia coli and why all of our lives depend upon this tiny beastie.  Why am I expected to know the jobs of our bureaucratic friends?  If it's so easy to understand their job, then why do we need them to be doing it?

Frustration is high in our lives because we have yet to break ground and won't be able to for at least another 2-3 weeks.  When we finally have all the t's crossed and i's dotted, our big sigh of relief will be heard around the neighborhood.

This story from http://myhumor.org/clean-jokes/bureaucracy-humor.asp  may tickle your funny bone:

Three Wishes

A Government Employee sits in his office and out of boredom, decides to see what’s in his old filing cabinet. He pokes through the contents and comes across an old brass lamp.

"This will look nice on my mantelpiece," he decides, and takes it home with him. While polishing the lamp, a genie appears and grants him three wishes.

"I wish to be on a beautiful island in the Caribbean."

POOF!

He suddenly appears on a gorgeous beach.

After overcoming his initial surprise, he states his second wish.

"I wish to be waited on hand and foot by beautiful women."

POOF!

A crowd of gorgeous women flock to him, attending his every need.

He tells the genie his third and last wish: "I wish to never have to work ever again."

POOF!

He’s back in his government office.

Onward and upward,

Mark and Mark