Thanks to everyone for your replies. I'm restraining myself from answering too many posts because I'm afraid I'll get carried away and say too much. I even went back and deleted as much as I could. I deleted the opening post. But when people hit the quote button to quote me, I can't delete that.

Perhaps the untold part of this story can be completed in another thread at some later time. It could be helpful to me and perhaps helpful to others who might otherwise get caught up in the same situation.