Living in Louisville was like a culture shock to us.  We had lived in Chicago, then Los Angeles, and when we came to Louisville we weren't sure how to take the place.  We moved into Mick and Ellen's rental house in Louisville  Bankruptcy had really done a number on them  – and us.  Mick and Ellen had at one time owned eight houses.  They had either sold or rented the houses.  This didn't make them big speculators, like others who advertised that they bought houses.  Mick and Ellen came up theirs slowly.  They heard about them through friends, mostly.  This worked really well for them, until the economy changed and until lending conditions changed.  Suddenly the people who had purchased some of the homes from them and had loans approved, found out that they no longer qualified for the money.  They sometimes walked away and left their earnest money.  This was turning into a disaster for Mick and Ellen.  They were paying the notes on four houses, including their own.  Both were working, too, but it just wasn't enough.  And they couldn't sell the homes.  Then they couldn't rent them, either.  They were on the fast track to financial ruin.  We were already financially ruined.