What I've been doing instead of blogging

For those of you who might have noticed that LifeEthics took a bit of a slow down over the last couple of months - I have to admit that there's only so much time in the day. And so much adrenaline in my body.

For one thing, we've been involved in the Republican Primary. Our local incumbent State Representative lost to the new guy -- by 17 votes out of 30,000!

The really time consuming thing, though is that we've been living in an old house for the last 14 years. Over the last year, we've been developing plans for a pretty extensive remodel. After we came up with the perfect new floor plan, the city refused to give us a permit. It turns out that FEMA's new flood plain map "moved" our house from the 500 year plain to the 100 year plain - and the architect didn't notice.

The rules would have meant raising the house 2 feet. However, the house was concrete pier and beam -- and walls, floors, and ceilings. Concrete evidently doesn't handle being raised, very well.

So, we had to move, store most of our stuff, and tear down the old house - see the pictures of the demolition. And remember that this is the house that the city engineer claimed might float up and turn on its side.