But I have a can of Raid nearby -- just in case.
So I was sitting here at the kitchen table while the kids ate breakfast... and I saw Lawrence the inspector drive by in his shiny red Dodge truck. He's back out in the neighborhood - and early too.
Now I'm thinking back.... The same truck was in the neighborhood early yesterday morning. I saw it parked at at least five houses within my line of sight from here.. and when Dave came in he said the inspector was at an acquaintance's house at the beginning of the neighborhood entrance.
Lawrence had informed us that he had around 40 inspections to do for people who had appealed their percent damage assessments. If he's spending this much time in our neighborhood alone - it wouldn't be a bad guess to assume that those appeal inspections are all right here. Of course - that would mean that just about everyone in our neighborhood who applied for a grant also appealed the grant decision. Maybe it's just me - but these sorts of things really make my mind start whirring.
There's also the fact that a past news article mentioned that the greatest percentage of grant applications came from Jackson County -- and of those the vast majority from the city of Pascagoula.... So then it would stand to reason that our neighborhood would be included in that...
But it's more about what Lawrence and Mr. Brown told us about how they were assessing percent damage: by first arriving at a dollar figure for a potential grant.. and then working backwards to the percent damage that gave them that dollar figure. Isn't it at least possible that certain assessors were more likely to assign lower grant amount figures in neighborhoods where they believed the homeowners were better off? I think so.
Even some of what the fast-talking assessor told us about the actual calculations is not quite clicking with me this morning (I may need more coffee).. However, he did mention that most of the houses in the less 'affluent' neighborhoods were given 40 and 50% damage assessments while those such as ours were given 15 and 20% damage assessments because it didn't take as much of a percentage to come up with the same sort of grant amount.... Uhm.. but wait... Why are we trying to come up with the same sort of grant amount? Why would it take $100,000 to repair a $80,000 home..... and $100,000 to repair a $250,000 home? That's gonna leave me scratching my head for months to come....
No gremlins today.. just brainteasers.
Ah so in the meantime.. I'm waiting to hear from Dean again. The weather has made him a no show all week so far. Dave's calling back and forth with the fireplace people trying to coordinate an installation... and we're waiting to hear from the bathtub people about when the new tub will arrive. Tile? Well... no real decisions there yet.... But we still have time.
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