True Grizzled; a bureacratic playoff

Further to last weeks post, we continue to wait patiently to begin work on all the un-finished fixes around the back of the house. It's not that we aren't motivated, quite the contrary, we are over motivated - a motivation that comes in the form of contractual agreements and financial deposits. We are about to finally hire someone to do some of the heavy lifting and we have placed deposits on the material orders. So we're actually in a very good position to begin un-doing all the duct tape solutions that surround us save one slight hold-up.... the permit has not yet come in. Yes, applied for months ago and follow-up weekly it continues to sit on one man's desk at the Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs untouched. I know this because i've become quite familiar with the process of paperwork within the backrooms of the District and I built in plenty of extra time... you see we applied for this piece of paper in September. Given the Zoning work and the requisite system misplacement we gladly surrendered 3 months to the process... but we left that behind back in January. It's an unusual feeling of futility to stare into the eye of a well practiced bureaucrat and blink. It's enough to make a man question his own sanity, and probably the reason I've given up on most personal hygiene in a half-assed attempt at a 'playoff beard' to rally through. I feel like one of those contestants on "Who's More Grizzled":

"I've buried wives, but a father should never bury a son."

Personal beard 'curation' is always on the list of goals for most men but mine sadly lies somewhere amongst the rustic dandy:

and less within the full blown gentlemans garibaldi:

eventual winner of 'Who's More Grizzled'; Mr. Robert Duvall

But there is an upside to all of this as beards do have their place amongst the home craftsman and their stand in television counterparts. Take for instance the paladin of personal home improvent and garage-built shaker furniture Norm Abrams:

Tim Allen stand-in and the caricature of know-how Mr. Richard Carn:
And of course the late '70's Bob Vila (whose visage I'm sorry to report just made most of you women schedule your next bikini wax)