Did I hear the phone ring?

When Ray dropped the new survey off at the Zoning Office yesterday the girl behind the desk told him that she would "sneak it through faster" for him and that she'd call him later in the afternoon to let him know if it was approved.  He sat there grinning at me... trying to show me that a little patience, kindness, understanding and a friendly smile "can get you almost anything."  Not that phone call though.  I KNEW that she was just telling him that to get him and his friendly smile out of her face and away from her office.  She never called him back yesterday.  Or this morning.  I called her.  Her machine came on and said she "was not at her desk" and to "try again later."  I did.  She wasn't.  This time she was "out for lunch."  Finally someone answered the phone but told us that the girl we needed to speak to was "busy waiting on another customer" and would "call us back when she was finished".  We waited.  Ray told me not to be "a pain" and to "stop bothering them."  I did.  She still didn't call.  I dialed her number once again.  This time the recording said that they were "gone for the day."  I could feel a hot flash coming on.  To make matters worse the recording went on to list their days and hours of operation.  None of which included Fridays or the weekends.  I guess all the patience, kindness, understanding and friendly smiles are going to get us all the way to MONDAY now.  Actually... even farther.  We leave on Sunday for a business trip to Georgia and we won't be back until Thursday.  It will take at least a week after that to get the porch approved by Buildings and Inspections.  Maybe longer since we'll have the Thanksgiving Holiday in there.  But I'll still be ... thankful.  For that bottle of Scotch I have left over after putting in the master bathroom shower last week...