The Great Flood

I don't often post about my private, spiritual life. But I have one. It comes in handy when (in no particular order) I'm:

• running/closing an accidental business
• selling real estate
• homeschooling
• raising teenagers
• mourning the loss of my bonus mother
• pulling one's self up from financial ruin
• dealing with rentals and soon to be homeless renters

In this case, a couple of weeks ago, I mentioned the chaos magnet I am dealing with. My clients are serial renters who seem to have drama follow them where ever they go. In some cases, the drama is unfathomable. I mean, at some point it suspends reality to worry about a herd of buffalo stampeding through your dining room, but yet!

The Mrs., who is a very sweet person, is a chronic worrier. I am guessing from the dynamic of her and her husband, this is a bone of contention in their marriage. Also, because of their last rental nightmare, the Mrs. and her five children are living at her parents' home. (The husband is in a hotel--I don't know why). The Mrs. and the Mr. have both told me her parents are kicking them out. So, if one needs a home pretty darn quickly, it would be best to actually find one. But that's just me.

Anyway, the Mrs. has some tough criteria. She doesn't want under 2000 square feet. She doesn't want anything managed by a property manager company (she had a "bad" experience once). The property can't "feel" old and a litany of other intangibles. Two weeks ago I thought we had found it. Except it was "old" and she wasn't sure whether or not it was falling apart. After an hour of dithering at the home, she even asked me if I thought it might catch fire.

At any rate, they applied and were approved.

And then she sent me a text message, concerned that the place may flood. Well, you know, anything can happen. There is no reason to think it would flood any more than there is any reason to think it might catch fire. It wasn't just one text message. Mrs. Constant Worrier, sent manuscript, concerned  about what would happen if there were a few drops of water on the inside. She dithered for hours about this. I know this because she wrote volumes to me via text message about her dithering. She told me the worry was making her sick. It was giving me a headache.

But both of us being the Catholic, when she called I talked and prayed with her. I asked for the decision to be abundantly clear. That there would be no question in her mind whether or not this was the house for her. We said "Amen" and I went on with my day.

A few hours later she called me. She was at the house right then and there with the listing agent to hand over her deposit. And what do you know? There was two inches of water throughout the front room. And here is the weird part. The water to the house was off.

Had she been at the house prior to this and known it? Maybe? But doubtful. Especially when she called me crying, wondering what to do. Besides, she has transportation issues like I do right now. And it doesn't change the fact the water was OFF. It hadn't rained recently. The water department hadn't run over there from Friday night to turn it on and then back over on Sunday afternoon to turn off the water. And why would the owner want to pay for that even if the water department did do this?

At any rate, all I asked her was, did this qualify as "abundantly clear?" Apparently it did.