I had never been in water quite this hot before. My brother had just bought a home. He was so excited. But he was also something of a numbskull when it came to nit-picky details. He had the deed all signed and wanted to frame it in a shadow box and put it on the wall, like the first dollar he’d ever made, or something. I talked him out of that one and suggested that he get a safe-deposit box. He made excuse after excuse until I finally suggested that he at least purchase a strong box and bolt it down in a corner somewhere in the house, as I’d seen done. Again, time and his business interfered with his carrying out this plan and the deed sat there on his desk, buried under several layers of faxes and correspondence.
I love my brother but, as I said, recognize that there are a lot of things that just won’t get done if he’s left to his own devices. Finally, I suggested that I take the deed and do the strong box thing myself, for him. He was thrilled and handed it over. Now, I’m a pretty detail-oriented guy, so how this next part happened is beyond me. I left the deed in my house, on the floor under my desk. I knew it would be safer there, since the window at my desk overlooks the desktop and is too visible. I would deal with it Saturday.
Well, Saturday is also when my cleaning lady comes (early) and, not expecting the document to be lying there she proceeded to wash the tile floor in my office, which she just pours. I am, as I said, pretty detail-oriented and keep things off the floor so… well, the upshot is that I had a wet, stinky deed instrument in my hands by the end of things. It’s amazing that a wet document drying out is like watching stew come to a boil. It takes for ever. So I called a company on a consultancy basis, to ask how long a wet document drying out is supposed to take and how I could speed the process.
The answer was not favorable. It takes a while… There are firms that can get a wet document drying out faster than the private citizen but I wasn’t sure I wanted to pay for it, until I saw it mushrooming up and becoming a bigger mess than when I started. I thought of my brother and his new homeowner-pride and I caved. I called a company that specialized in wet documents, drying them quickly and safely. The fee was scary, for what it was, but I had messed up and wanted to restore my brother. And if he never found out about this, that was fine, too.
They came, they took, they went through their special process, and it’s ten to one that my brother will every find out. It was the best money I ever spent…
