That's the punchline of a joke my dad used to tell. It seems there were these three guys sitting on a beach in Miami.   The first one says, "Yea, I've really got it made. I had a business up north but one day there was a big fire, the whole building and business were destroyed. The insurance company paid off the damages and here I am retired in Miami. The second fellow sitting next to him says, "Hmm. Small world. Almost the same thing happened to me. Had a different business in New York and one day too, a fire consumed the whole thing. The insurance paid off, and here I am.
The third fellow now shares that he too had a big business, but one day there was a flood and his business was wiped out . Again, the insurance company stepped up and paid him off. The first guy says to the second- "How do you start a flood?"
     That being said, we found out last week in one of our houses, just how that is done. We were in our weekly construction staff meeting at the Habitat office and Brandon, our construction director gets a phone call from the building inspector. He says, "Did you know that you have water running out of both of the doors on your house at 24 Juanita Drive.?"  This is the future home of Marphus Pruitt and was substantially complete, with a dedication set for this coming Friday. The inspector was able to shut off the water from the outside, but the damage was already done. It seems the plumbers had hooked up all of the kitchen and bathroom fixtures and one of their connections to the bathroom vanity did not hold, the 3/8" grey plastic pipe separated itself from the shutoff under the sink and flooded the house from Monday afternoon to Tuesday morning with we don't know how many gallons of water. Completely soaked the 800 square feet of bamboo laminate flooring . Squish, squish, it said, when we went in.
     I've got to hand it to the marketing guys at ServPro. Like it never even happened. This company specializes in cleanup of fires, floods, crime scenes and the like. After speaking with the plumber and confirming that his insurance company would pick up the tab for the damage caused by his mistake, ServPro shows up with their green trucks and completes the demo for us, brings in the fans and dehumidifiers for each room and proceeds to dry out the house.
     It took three days to get the moisture content down to 0% (from 100% on Tuesday).
Brandon has decided that we will not move the dedication up any, so it is still set for Friday. Gonna be tight, but I believe, no, I know that we will make it. The plumber hires a floor guy to install the new flooring and he was going to work through this weekend to finish it-   We'll see tomorrow if he made it or not. Might have to give him a hand.
     Never a dull moment.
     New subject. Had a great visit by a group of 25 or so young Mennonites who dropped by the Lion's Den to sing me some Christmas carols. I was so moved by their singing and was so choked up that I was unable to say more that, "Heaven has come to earth"
       Merry Christmas to all.   Love, Peter