Building our House

Well, we are still waiting for the state to give final approval to the city for its shoreline management plan. Its kind of frustrating, since all they have to do is sign off on it. And it really is only a sign off, since this is the revised version containing changes that the city was required to make for final approval. The state is stalling because it says it can't spare the man-power due to budget problems. I guess I don't understand that, because really how long does it take to verify that the required changes were made from the original document?
I do have a solution though: What if the government were not so involved it the little nit-pickey things in our lives? Then they wouldn't have to spend money on stuff that they don't need to be worried about (like regulating what can and can't go into a vending machine) and put resources to better use like signing off on the shoreline management plan that I need to build my house. Just a thought...

At my grandparents house

This week for vacation we are using it to visit my grandparents at their house in Goldendale, WA. I haven't been to their house in several years, at least not since before my kids were born. Today, once we finally got here, my first job was to pull the starter out of my Granddads 67 VW Bug. I haven't gotten to work on a VW Bug for a while and it was refreshing to work on something so simple again. Makes me want to revisit my own Bug. But mine is going to cost me a lot more than his, since mine needs a whole new engine and his only needed a new starter. We are going to take them to the doctor tomorrow, Grandma has to go get a shot in her eyeball so she doesn't go blind. She has macular degeneration, so the shots are supposedly helping. Anyway, I was commenting to Granddad earlier that I hadn't had time in the recent past to just sit around and do nothing. We were sitting and talking for a while and then we just lapsed into silence, and there was no pressure and we just sat there for a while and I was really able to relax for the first time. It was a great feeling and I had forgotten just how it felt. Anyway, we are off to the observatory now so I have to go.