Babylon ...

You could argue that our life is boring and monotonous, we get up in the morning, we have breakfast, we fix windows (well, E! is), and that's it. This at least is how our last few days have felt. Today didn't start out any different.

Our routine was interrupted twice. Our neighbor Larry stopped by, asking whether he could have some heavy equipment delivered to our parking lot instead of his gravel driveway. How could we say no, we lust for heavy equipment, and we miss AL.

The second visitor was somewhat surprising, it was a representative of the health department. This isn't unusual in the sense that we wouldn't expect the health department to show, but at the present stage of Gunk Haus we usually know they are coming, largely because we invite them.

This was different. It was a field officer who wanted to check up on the status of our place. The last (written) record shows the transfer of the former Hollywood Bar to some new owner (= us).

I wasn't there for the entire conversation, but when I joined the location of our grease trap was already questioned (remember the ditch I excavated for the grease trap), the layout of the dish station didn't seem up to snuff anymore, and in general we got a different vibe as before.

Here is the thing, shortly after we bought Gunk Haus, we went to the health department to have them come by and talk us through as to what they would like to see in a our restaurant, what was important to them.

Well, that didn't completely go as planned. We quickly learned that there seem to be different voices, telling you different things, and you have to figure out what is actually important and what is being said because it needs to be said.

We did manage to get the health department to visit us, and we did talk and we were told things. Today, we were told different things, that is after we bought a grease trap and dug a hole in the dish station.

My beef with it is not what the rules and regulations are, what I care about is that I know what they are, and not being told one thing on one day and another the next day. I am not trying to get away with something, but what I need is clarity.

Life can be frustrating, but I bet you already knew that.

Dirk