Day 22 - Waiting for Permission

It felt like I spent the day waiting for permission. Everyone else seemed like they were waiting for permission, too.

I left work at 715pm and while I was eating a salad in my hotel room, I read this WashPost article about red-tape. And I wonder if my dithering today implicates me as a suspect on the scene.

There are ways to do things to ensure that FEMA will reimburse your agency for money spent. Yeah, the fabled red-tape. But, legally-speaking, there is not alternative because:

1. It is illegal for Federal agencies to spend money you don't have (but, then, where does the deficit come from?); and
2. It is illegal for Federal agencies to spend money that allocated (by Congress) in your budget for another purpose.

Then there are the grey areas. I'm working on issues that my agency typically doesn't address. Consequently, we don't really have defined resources (people, tools, equipment) to solve my problems. Although FEMA has given my agency the money, FEMA is not, in theory, authorized to provide "permanent" solutions to problems - only funds for "emergency-repairs."

But when significant portions of infrastructure have been wrecked - 'permanent' repairs are pretty hard to distinguish from 'emergency-repairs.' Maybe today, no one will care about defining that line. But rest assured, that a year from now, that line will be debated endlessly by the financial people and the auditors.

Maybe I shouldn't be waiting for permission. But I'm just steps away from committing lots of money and creating a lot of work for people other than me. And I'm not even confident that this direction will solve problems identified. Maybe this is not one of those situations where you ask for forgiveness later.

It's been 22-days since I left home. The 21st day of working 12-hour shifts. But I feel surprisingly okay - getting decent sleep and I'm not internalizing the stress anywhere near as much as I did last year. I bought the new DEATH CAB FOR CUTIE album and the 2-disc Best of Bowie. SunVolt will be playing in Jackson next week. I need some exercise. And in a weird way, I'm bored.