A squirrel recently beaned me in the head with a chocolate chip cookie. He was sitting on a run of conduit that runs above my back deck. It was about a 15 foot drop from the squirrel to the deck, and my head just happened to be in the middle. I shall believe this as it's more comfortable than believing that the little bugger was aiming for me. Regardless, he had led the way in developing a little squirrel/pigeon commune in the rafters. It was time to either invest in helmets or call pest control.

Once the pest control fellow was finished with evicting the local fauna, the conversation turned (as it often does in my line of work) to evictions of another type.

"My girlfriend just divorced from her former husband," went the story, "and she's currently still living in one of the four houses that the owned together. She's on the mortgage. He has opted to file for bankruptcy, stop paying his mortgages and wait for the lenders to foreclose on the homes. I'm worried for her - how long does she have before the sheriff puts her out on the street? Her court date with the bank is this week."

I naturally figured this question is probably in the minds of many people, so I figured I'd take it on in public.

First of all, this is called "strategic default" - deliberately choosing to lose your home through non-payment when you could actually afford to keep it - and it really pisses me off. (more…)