Remember the flood? The insurance guy was great. He came, he inspected, he wrote us a check right there. When it turned out we needed more money, he wrote another check. I have nothing but good things to say about Allied Insurance and Max our agent.

Not so, the flood mitigation company. The guy in charge was so nice, so much fun to chat with. When he saw Rose’s Red Sox lunch box, we were friends for life. He promised to solve all our problems immediately. Except, he’d get a step done, and then everything would stop for a week. I’d finally call, because, you know, I don’t like to be rude or annoying or in people’s faces, and I like to be able to trust them to do their jobs, but our tenant was tiptoeing around a ripped up apartment, and he’d say, “That next step hasn’t been done yet? I’ll have the next step guy call you right away.” Wait a couple days and repeat.

He never did get the job done. The last step involved replacing the carpet. This was supposed to happen 12/26 when we were out of town. My mom housesat. The guys came, saw the carpet couldn’t be saved (and why hadn’t someone determined this before we scheduled the reinstall?), and left.

I saw the guy in charge one more time when he came to take a carpet sample for the insurance. He was just as charming, just as professional. I asked for a carpet person recommendation, and he gave me one. (Stay tuned for that disaster.)