I can't stand all this Texas beaurocracy!

I told my mom this story, and she remarked, "You make Texas sound like heaven." And frankly, I have to agree. It is heaven.

We spoke to our contractor on Friday, and he said that we needed to make sure that there was power at the house so that he could do his work. Imagine my frustration when I realized that it was too late to call the utility company, and that if the power didn't get turned on right away, it would mean a delay in the remodeling since this was the only week available to do our house for the next month. I have to admit that I fretted about it quite a bit over the weekend. A delay in the leveling would mean the house might not get finished by the time we arrived in C.S.

I woke up on Monday and immediately called the utilites company. It was 9:00 our time, 11:00 down there. The operator asked all of the pertinent questions: address, phone number, social security, mailing address, and then she asked me when I'd like service to begin. I said, "As soon as possible." Her response? "So, you mean this afternoon?" I gasped, "Um, yeah." Hehehe....read it and weep. Those of you who have ever tried to get electricity turned on and off out here in the good ol' Northwest know that it takes a couple of days. But...that's not the end of the story.

The next step was to call the contractor. Tanner apologized for the delay, but notified him that the electricity would be turned on in the afternoon. The contractor said, "No problem. I ran in to a couple of glitches with the city over the permits." Tanner groaned. Permits???? Not our favorite subject. The contractor continued, "I figure, I'll get it cleared up by this afternoon, so I should be able to start work in the morning."

Huh? that was our response. I thought, "You call that a glitch?" That's a news flash compared to what we're used to.

Later he called and apologized for causing an unnecessary delay. The permit process is rather new in C.S., and after he talked with the permit department (which consists of about 3 people) they told him that he didn't need to wait for approval, he only needed to notify them about what he was intending to do, so apparently he COULD have started today.

Huh?

I have a feeling that is going to be an oft repeated phrase for us.