Lord of the Castle

Talk about sudden change!

I finally got over being sick and having a tooth pulled. When I dropped my wife off at Costco @ 11:00, we decided that she should pay the rent, because if I paid the rent, they would know that I was there, and that would have been too many people in their single apartment.

I then headed about 30 minutes south to a neighborhood of beautiful houses sitting on a few acre lots to find a place to pray over our next steps. About 30 minutes into it, I distinctly felt that we should wait to buy a house, and that we should move into a new apartment. Not eventually…but  today! … before she pays the rent!

I drove back to Costco to run this by my wife. After all, I thought it might be a little awkward if I signed a lease and moved her things without her knowledge!

“Oh, yeah, honey, I forgot to tell you. This is our new place! What do you think?”

I stopped by a couple of and picked up booklets listing all of the apartments in the general area, drove by several and then actually went inside to look at one. It was a big complex, but had very few openings. They took me to the only 3 BR, 2 BA place available. “This is great…we’ll take it.”

We went back to the office to discuss the particulars. When they learned that I had just arrived in KC, that I didn’t have a job, but that I had cash from the sale of our house, they wobbled. Well, they worse than wobbled.

“What if I pay the whole year’s rent up front?”

“No. We can’t do that.”

But that convinced them that I was serious. 

“But let’s start working on all of the documentation.” 

After multiple trips back and forth to the bank, Costco, the high school, etc., I had all  of the documentation and verification (bank statements, my wife’s employment, children attending local schools, yada, yada, yada).

The women at the desks were amazed! “We’ve never seen this done this quickly. This usually takes three days.”

Everything was completed and got processed minutes before their office closed at 6:00 P.M.! And that is no exaggeration. We were talking as they walked out and locked the office door. We just had to wait on our background checks before we could move in.

The dentist office was on a horse farm, but a NICE horse farm. The barn was BEAUTIFUL!

The sign at the entry made me laugh.

“Painless Dentistry! Gas and other miracles performed here!”

In the waiting room, I stirred up a conversation with an older man (which, by the way, that is getting harder to say each year!). He had driven his daughter (a big wig with the U.N.) over 80 miles to see THIS dentist.

“That’s a long way to drive to see a dentist.”

“This guy is the best in the whole area.” (It turns out that his daughter flew in from NY to have some work done!)

“That’s amazing. I just picked him out of the phone book.”

I thought that since he was out in the country, he wouldn’t be that busy!

“Well, you have a very good finger!” (an old TV jingle, ?Let your fingers do the walking through the Yellow Pages”?)

When he walked in, he looked to be in early 40’s. I asked his age. 60!!! Amazing! He quickly yanked out the offending tooth and collected his $200. By the way, doc, thank you for the Vicodin.

I have heard that there might be a little racism/prejudice in Dallas. So you will understand my surprise…

As my daughter and I walked to Starbucks, we came upon a beautiful church and school that occupies an entire block!

As we walked by a car with four black women in it, I stopped and asked them what language they were speaking as it was unlike anything I had ever heard before. They responded that they were Kenyan!

The irony was too thick. Right in the center of uber-wealthy, white Highland Park sits a Kenyan church!