Tuesday and Wednesday, days 7 and 8, I had dental appointments in the mornings. See day 1 notes last post for all the dental details. After the root canal on Tuesday I went home, and as I was driving down the street the neighbor's cat wandered out right in front of me, oblivious, as was her owner just on the sidewalk. I stopped right behind the cat, waited a moment, then gave the horn a quick beep. The cat scattered out of the roadway and I pulled into the driveway. Next thing I know, this neighbor was coming down my driveway, flipping me off and swearing up a storm. I started yelling back that her cat was in the damn road, but my mouth was still numb so didn't say a whole lot more other than to get the hell off my property. This is the same neighbor that slashed my tire right after we first moved in, in 2009. She's trash that's come into money and acts like she's the baddest bitch on the block. We've never been friendly and we never will be.
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| We have dashcams in both cars now, more security for us. |
I told the story to my wife and showed her the dashcam video. My wife said that's it, we need a doorbell camera. I spent that day and Wednesday researching and we bought a Ring doorbell and I got a Ring spotlight camera with solar panel for the back. The doorbell camera I installed last weekend, and the later-arriving solar panel and spotlight camera were installed on the house this morning. I must say, having the extra security feels pretty good. Otherwise, I didn't do a whole lot on these dental days.
Friday, day 10, I had to go into work. Ahead of time I had requested a certain client for a community outing, and we spent all day out and about, only going back in time for him to catch his bus. I did not want to lose my vacation vibe yet, especially with a three day weekend after.
Kate had to work the weekend due to the holiday, so we missed my niece's high school graduation on Saturday, day 11. Also on Saturday I planted 24 more sunflower seeds. I'll plant 12 to fill in around the yard here and the other 12 I'm going to make some cages for and take them to work, we'll see how they fare there. I originally planned on all 24 going to work but that seemed a bit ambitious and would take more of my own resources. Twelve is much better than the two (of 3) I grew at work last year. We'll have to find out if the critters out there will behave. This new batch of seeds just popped out of the soil on Wednesday so should be ready to plant very soon.
Sunday and Monday, days 12 and 13, were mostly rest and relaxation as far as I can remember.
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| A great view of the back. The actual view extends about 25% further up and down, this pic is the size of my phone screen. |
No fire pits on this vacation. I had a couple opportunities but mostly it was too windy or I was too tired. Last night would have been perfect too, but I was beat, and tonight is too windy again. So far this year I've only had the one fire on the Spring equinox. Let's hope I have another before the Summer solstice and before the mosquitoes emerge.
* * Hail * *
Also happening during this time, our auto claim for hail damage got settled. The insurance company totaled my wife's van as the repairs would cost more than it was worth. The settlement was for blue book value if we signed the van over to them, or the lesser trade-in value if we wanted to keep it. Well, even used cars are much more expensive these days, so my wife opted to keep the van rather than hurriedly shop for cars and invest thousands more dollars, possibly tens of thousands. We'll have to get the windshield replaced, but the dents will stay. Final payment should be in our account by early next week.
The house claim has also mostly been settled. Now I will have to fix the basement window, find someone to replace the roof and gutters, and we have to decide if we will have the window flashing replaced. I am not planning on replacing the siding as those dents are not as noticeable and when we do replace some siding we'll do the whole house and maybe something a little different. There also may be a few window screens to replace, and I think that's about it. Once all is done and receipt copies uploaded, this will be done, too. Repairs are happening rapidly all over this side of town, but I've been more patient. All will be done long before winter.
And within the last two weeks we had our insurance premiums due for house and cars. They did go up, but I'm not sure if the claims had anything to do with that or not. What do you think?
7 comments:
Apparently insurance premiums have generally been going up although my car insurance went down this year.
What a horrible neighbour, it’s always a pain when neighbours turn out to be nasty and the extra security sounds like a good investment.
Once they totaled the van I called and had that insurance changed to liability-only, so in the end it will be less. Just started making calls today, I have an appointment after work every day the rest of the week, 3 roof quotes and a dental visit.
I feel exhausted just reading that! CCTV is worth its weight in gold. It comes in handy for all sorts of things - including proving that delivery drivers who say they've delivered a package haven't. It's also a great deterrent.
We had a similar nasty near-neighbour down south. Gypsy blood and the only people she respected were others of a similar background. The sort of people I always call 'pots of money but no breeding'. Not sorry to have left her behind.
- BW
Claims usually push up premiums (at least in the UK), but it's often the 2nd or 3rd year after that is affected more. And, ratings are usually done on a small area, so if others around you have claimed, all your premiums go up, so it would probably have made no difference if you hadn't claimed, yours would have gone up anyway.
- BW
First contractor just left. I was impressed with what he said he would be able to get the insurance to pay for, above what they want to pay for initially. Dentist tomorrow, then another contractor on Thursday and Friday. If I'm not pleased with these 3 then I may make more calls, but we'll have to see.
Mere minutes of hail and now months of fallout. Why does everything have to be so complicated? (A: Money, of course.)
Hope you have found a contractor you find acceptable. From bitter experience, I'd say beware the guys who promise something they cannot definitely deliver (eg No 1) - unless they put it in writing so you have some comeback when their verbal claims aren't borne out and you end up with costs to cover that you weren't expecting..
- BW
There is that risk as a supplemental claim will be required to get insurance to pay for what was missed on their assessment. I need a contractor, but also one that is a good advocate to my insurance company to get them to account for more actual damages, to put it simply.
I never played this game before, I'm figuring out the rules as I go.
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