Before your advice above, I stumbled upon a fix. Evidently, if you try to index a folder located in iCloud, there will be problems.
I know that is well documented. And, I knew so before my issues surfaced. Again, I must have been sloppy.
Here’s the thing - why did the error present in this way? I only removed the iCloud folder because I noticed it while searching for the folder containing Applications (there was none).
Great news - once the folder was deleted from the database, problem solved. Your help was key.