Of All the Places I Thought I Would Never Live. . .

The great Kansas rectangle does its work again. And we return this weekend to the Sunflower State. I had taken a temporary job in July in Tulsa working under the same parent company umbrella of my dad's company in Colorado. I had hopes of turning my two month Okie exile into a career in Colorado, but alas those hopes were dashed (for the time being) upon the rocks of practicality. Colorado is still the long-term goal and realizable, but the company (and myself in my better moments) think it would be great if I could learn the business and get some solid experience apart from the supervision of my dad. Even the owner's son when at my age he decided to come aboard began in the company at the parts counter in Commerce City, Colorado before moving his way into operations in the headquarters at Wichita. The plan, then, is to spend a few years working hard for the company in Kansas--I am going to train for about two months in Wichita before moving on to a new location in that great World City, Salina. In all seriousness, it is a wonderful opportunity and a tremendous blessing. 

One quick story. I found out only yesterday that Wichita for two months was a go. I had been hoping for a break in between Tulsa and whatever was next, accustomed as I became through graduate school with regular and lengthy vacations. But yesterday I found Wichita was on and I was to start there Tuesday after the holiday weekend. This deflated my vacation prospects, but I took that in stride. It was good to grow up, good to not have a break in income, etc. But it also meant that I had to find a place to live in Wichita, preferably furnished lest I be forced to move our stuff twice in two months, starting in six days. This was considerably more stressful. 

I spent the bulk of the afternoon yesterday trying to find something and came up almost entirely empty. Deals that looked good were not good and everything that would accommodate our needs was well over $2,000 per month. When I got home I was stressed out and feeling sorry for myself. My wife, levelheaded as she is most of the time, suggested a website we have used in the past to find vacation rentals. Destination hotspot that it is, Wichita has three such homes available. Two were vastly more expensive than I could afford. The other was booked until the middle of September. 

I decided to call anyway, figuring we could live out of suitcases for 10 days if we needed to. Less than an hour after I requested more information, the owner of the home called me back. That morning the maid who cleans this property informed her that the man who had been renting was no longer there. She emailed him and he responded that he had in fact moved out. The owner told him that if she could find someone to take over she would stop charging him. And then she got my email. She called me to size me up and it turns out she has gone to church for years with the owner of the company and knows him and his family well. She gave us a discounted rate and we can move in this weekend. My hours of depression and melancholy dissipated and I was happy for the opportunity to move for this company, believing again that this was the right decision for our future. You can choose to believe that this is coincidence, or you can choose to believe it to be Providence. For my part, I pick the latter.

Off we go.