Friday, September 29, 2006
I should update this more often…
And I really would, if I had more time. It’s not that anything is getting accomplished, really, but time seems to just fly by faster and faster. I’m getting back to at least one post a month, though, so cut me some slack.
September has brought nothing but cooler weather and a massive struggle with the insurance company who insured our trailer. Our trailer is still dead, of course, and probably languishing in the wrecker’s yard in Montana, but whatever. My biggest concern lately has been… no, wait. ONE of my biggest concerns lately has been trying to get the idiots at the insurance company to just process my damn claim already. They fixed our vehicle really quickly, which was great, but seemed to have absolutely no concept of what to do with the trailer. The trailer is an RV, and doesn’t depreciate like a car, so they couldn’t fuck us out of too much money, but they dragged their feet on everything. I went through six different agents at the company and no one really understood what to do with me. Because I’m intelligent, and know they’re going to ask me for information, I tended to have it sent to them already before they even asked, and then because they couldn’t tell me what to do, they didn’t tell me anything at all.
It was frustrating to say the least. I finally got a hold of some guy in Calgary, actually (because the company is based out of Onterrible and seems to just be a giant call center and not an actual insurance company with people doing insurance work, just answering phones), and he helped me figure out what the trailer was worth. It was right around what I was expecting, so I was glad of that. But getting the call center people to cut me a cheque? That was another story. I still don’t have it, and hate The Personal Insurance Group. They suck. Don’t use them. The cheque is in the mail, so they say.
And we lost some contents in the wreck, too. About $3K worth. Rob and I had worked out an estimated value on everything and submitted that hoping for an easy reimbursement. They could check some of the things, or all of them, really, and realize that we weren’t trying to screw them over, but they did not do that. They demanded we replace absolutely everything that was lost and then send them the ORIGINAL receipts. Yeesh. So we did. We spent a whole weekend shopping, and I’ve had enough of that now to last me a few years, and replaced everything. Except for a pair of shoes and a garbage can (because we can’t find a locking garbage can anywhere…). I sent them the receipts. But then they couldn’t figure out which receipts were for which items on my original list of items lost. Like that makes a difference? It should not. It should not make a difference at all. All of the receipts were for items lost, and the receipts said what items were purchased to replace, you’d think the insurance people could figure out what was what. They couldn’t. I had to go through the list with them, item by item, number all the receipts and cross-reference all the items on the list by number as well.
They haven’t processed all of that yet. They’re still working on it. I’m not willing to give up, though, and will continue to badger them with whatever time I can spare. I did have to call the department manager to ask why I deserved not to be called-back, or if I was called back by the agent handling my claim, he could not call me at my office number, which is where I am during the daytime, but he could call me at my home number and leave a message, making me angrier and angrier. Our agent is only in the office until 3p Toronto time, so that means 1p our time, and damned if you can get him on the phone during business hours, so I leave him messages when I’m in the office, and then he calls me at home, so we danced around like that for a while.
So much hate.
On a brighter note, though, Rob has found a job, so that means we’ll be able to heat the house this winter. He’s going to be repairing deficiencies for a new home builder here in Calgary. Yay!! He gets to do something he enjoys and be inside and be paid for it, so I guess that’s a win. I was getting pretty worried there for a while that we were going to run right out of money. We’d have to start selling dogs to support our lavish lifestyles.
We’ve also decided to adopt Millie, which is a huge relief to me, since that was really sort of up to Rob. I mean “really sort of” because my heart would have been broken if we had given her up, but at the same time, I had to leave it up to him because he gets so stressed-out about the dogs. Millie is such a great addition, though, that I think it’s better we keep her. She calms the Beau-Dog down. Beau is so snippy about protecting his food… but he’s been a bit better since she’s come into our lives, and he lets her take food right out of his mouth, so that’s kind of a good sign. If he can let her do that, he should be able to learn not to panic about the other dogs being nearby when he’s eating…
The animals are really the bright spot in my days these days. When I come home from work, they’re always milling around and happy to see me, and they’ve been pretty snuggly lately, which makes me smile. Rob bought a little remote-controlled car yesterday, and ran it all around the house, and Beau just loved it. Cooter didn’t, or he didn’t like Beau barking at it, so he kind of freaked-out a little. And it didn’t please the cats at all. They don’t like strange things that run by themselves and make noise. But Beau does!! He loves things that make sounds!! Noisy toys are his favourite. We had a ball that would talk and sing and make sounds if you whacked it against a hard surface, and Beau was forever wandering around, winging it against the floor so it would talk. The batteries ran out, though, and I think they ate the cover off it. We have another toy that does something similar, but it wiggles and vibrates if you hit it as well as making noises (laughing, singing, talking) and Beau’s gone through the batteries on that, but the toy is still intact so we can just get new batteries for it.
We’re planning on going hiking this weekend for a day trip, which should be nice. It’s hard to travel with the dogs without the trailer, so we’ve been mostly just working around home on the weekends. The garden turned out really well this year, and I have a bunch of tomatoes out of the deal. The apple trees out-did themselves this year, with the trees in the front yard coming ripe in August, and now the huge tree in the back is ripe. There are dozens of apples all over the yard, so it’s kind of funny to watch Cooter and Millie battle over ONE apple that they both want. I’ve made some apple recipes, but need to do more. And I’m giving as many apples away as possible.
We’re restructuring some things around at work, which will hopefully result in a lighter workload for me. It has really been too much since I took on the two new properties in April, so I’m looking forward to being able to relax a little. The evening meetings are getting really tiring now, especially with the new season on TV and me missing too much stuff! So hopefully, I’ll also be able to focus and write out some funny stories about the dogs and cats, and get back to working for a living instead of living for the job.
September has brought nothing but cooler weather and a massive struggle with the insurance company who insured our trailer. Our trailer is still dead, of course, and probably languishing in the wrecker’s yard in Montana, but whatever. My biggest concern lately has been… no, wait. ONE of my biggest concerns lately has been trying to get the idiots at the insurance company to just process my damn claim already. They fixed our vehicle really quickly, which was great, but seemed to have absolutely no concept of what to do with the trailer. The trailer is an RV, and doesn’t depreciate like a car, so they couldn’t fuck us out of too much money, but they dragged their feet on everything. I went through six different agents at the company and no one really understood what to do with me. Because I’m intelligent, and know they’re going to ask me for information, I tended to have it sent to them already before they even asked, and then because they couldn’t tell me what to do, they didn’t tell me anything at all.
It was frustrating to say the least. I finally got a hold of some guy in Calgary, actually (because the company is based out of Onterrible and seems to just be a giant call center and not an actual insurance company with people doing insurance work, just answering phones), and he helped me figure out what the trailer was worth. It was right around what I was expecting, so I was glad of that. But getting the call center people to cut me a cheque? That was another story. I still don’t have it, and hate The Personal Insurance Group. They suck. Don’t use them. The cheque is in the mail, so they say.
And we lost some contents in the wreck, too. About $3K worth. Rob and I had worked out an estimated value on everything and submitted that hoping for an easy reimbursement. They could check some of the things, or all of them, really, and realize that we weren’t trying to screw them over, but they did not do that. They demanded we replace absolutely everything that was lost and then send them the ORIGINAL receipts. Yeesh. So we did. We spent a whole weekend shopping, and I’ve had enough of that now to last me a few years, and replaced everything. Except for a pair of shoes and a garbage can (because we can’t find a locking garbage can anywhere…). I sent them the receipts. But then they couldn’t figure out which receipts were for which items on my original list of items lost. Like that makes a difference? It should not. It should not make a difference at all. All of the receipts were for items lost, and the receipts said what items were purchased to replace, you’d think the insurance people could figure out what was what. They couldn’t. I had to go through the list with them, item by item, number all the receipts and cross-reference all the items on the list by number as well.
They haven’t processed all of that yet. They’re still working on it. I’m not willing to give up, though, and will continue to badger them with whatever time I can spare. I did have to call the department manager to ask why I deserved not to be called-back, or if I was called back by the agent handling my claim, he could not call me at my office number, which is where I am during the daytime, but he could call me at my home number and leave a message, making me angrier and angrier. Our agent is only in the office until 3p Toronto time, so that means 1p our time, and damned if you can get him on the phone during business hours, so I leave him messages when I’m in the office, and then he calls me at home, so we danced around like that for a while.
So much hate.
On a brighter note, though, Rob has found a job, so that means we’ll be able to heat the house this winter. He’s going to be repairing deficiencies for a new home builder here in Calgary. Yay!! He gets to do something he enjoys and be inside and be paid for it, so I guess that’s a win. I was getting pretty worried there for a while that we were going to run right out of money. We’d have to start selling dogs to support our lavish lifestyles.
We’ve also decided to adopt Millie, which is a huge relief to me, since that was really sort of up to Rob. I mean “really sort of” because my heart would have been broken if we had given her up, but at the same time, I had to leave it up to him because he gets so stressed-out about the dogs. Millie is such a great addition, though, that I think it’s better we keep her. She calms the Beau-Dog down. Beau is so snippy about protecting his food… but he’s been a bit better since she’s come into our lives, and he lets her take food right out of his mouth, so that’s kind of a good sign. If he can let her do that, he should be able to learn not to panic about the other dogs being nearby when he’s eating…
The animals are really the bright spot in my days these days. When I come home from work, they’re always milling around and happy to see me, and they’ve been pretty snuggly lately, which makes me smile. Rob bought a little remote-controlled car yesterday, and ran it all around the house, and Beau just loved it. Cooter didn’t, or he didn’t like Beau barking at it, so he kind of freaked-out a little. And it didn’t please the cats at all. They don’t like strange things that run by themselves and make noise. But Beau does!! He loves things that make sounds!! Noisy toys are his favourite. We had a ball that would talk and sing and make sounds if you whacked it against a hard surface, and Beau was forever wandering around, winging it against the floor so it would talk. The batteries ran out, though, and I think they ate the cover off it. We have another toy that does something similar, but it wiggles and vibrates if you hit it as well as making noises (laughing, singing, talking) and Beau’s gone through the batteries on that, but the toy is still intact so we can just get new batteries for it.
We’re planning on going hiking this weekend for a day trip, which should be nice. It’s hard to travel with the dogs without the trailer, so we’ve been mostly just working around home on the weekends. The garden turned out really well this year, and I have a bunch of tomatoes out of the deal. The apple trees out-did themselves this year, with the trees in the front yard coming ripe in August, and now the huge tree in the back is ripe. There are dozens of apples all over the yard, so it’s kind of funny to watch Cooter and Millie battle over ONE apple that they both want. I’ve made some apple recipes, but need to do more. And I’m giving as many apples away as possible.
We’re restructuring some things around at work, which will hopefully result in a lighter workload for me. It has really been too much since I took on the two new properties in April, so I’m looking forward to being able to relax a little. The evening meetings are getting really tiring now, especially with the new season on TV and me missing too much stuff! So hopefully, I’ll also be able to focus and write out some funny stories about the dogs and cats, and get back to working for a living instead of living for the job.
