Complications

I've been waiting for the other shoe to drop on a couple of things for several months and yesterday, two shoes dropped. The first was my main sewer line backed up just as I was about to start a mountain of laundry. (Got one load done.) This is something I have been dreading would happen for years because I am a tree lover. As it turns out, the big tree in the front is not the culprit, but it could possibly be the birch trees which have been removed. Actually, until they look inside the pipe, "it could be anything," says my plumber who is digging the hole. They have found the pipe, right smack dab under where the birch trees were (who knew?), but now they need to dig further because they found a join and according to code, they have to be sure the join is secure.

It seems like one complication has led to another, as is usual with this type of thing. I am hoping that they don't find any more.

The other shoe was Downey Savings. They finally bit the dust yesterday and were seized by the FDIC. I don't know how they managed to survive as long as they did. I still had one CD with them which is due to mature next Friday. I had my fingers crossed as the news got worse and worse about them. The plan was to close all my remaining accounts and move to another bank when the CD matured (I also have a small checking account and an empty safety deposit box with them). But I may have lucked out as they were taken over by US Bancorp which has a five-star rating with Bankrate.com and their shares have a five-star rating with Morningstar. All through this mess, as I looked for safety, I have kept telling myself not to jump from the frying pan into the fire. I nearly blew it last week when I was on the verge of opening an account with Citibank but decided to check the headlines about them first.

We'll find out what happens at Downey when the dust settles.