Several years ago we decided to give our house a makeover. We hired a fellow from Liberty Hill to do it. It just seemed so much easier than finding people and going through all of the logistics of messing with several different trades.

Just before that time, Madeline’s dad that was living in a house we owned over at Smithwick passed away. So rather than being jostled around for a month or so, we took up residence over there.

One day I came in early and found out that the hot water heater had gave up the ghost. Rather than tear out to town and get another one or parts to fix it, I called Madeline to tell her what the deal was and we could go to the new Holiday Inn Express in Burnet and spent the night.

I grabbed us both a change of clothes and our overnight kits and head up there. She would meet me later.

When I checked in the person at the desk ask to see my drivers license which is pretty standard. She looked at it, then disappeared to a back room. In a few moments she came back and told me she couldn’t rent a room to me.

I was puzzled and ask the reason. “You live too close to here. Our management has a rule that they don’t rent to people that live close by.”
Of course I wanted to carry this a little farther. “The management has a rule that people only stay close to home if they are up to something. Like selling or doing drugs or there is prostitution involved.”

Needless to even say, I didn’t even argue with her or explain the situation. I drove away and spent the night in Cedar Park, where they either didn’t have that rule or it was far enough away from home.

I thought to myself, there is no way that place can stay in business for very long. Not very long after that the HI-x signs came down and Comfort Inn signs went up.

Some people don’t have good enough sense to operate a business.