Stacked deck, new crop, frustration

Last night we got our first taste of our home grown asparagus, the spears are still rather small at this point but that is because the plant is only going on it’s second year.  It tasted like asparagus, imagine that. 🙂

Yesterday we got a letter from our home owner’s insurance.  The letter said that they were contracting a company to redo the windstorm inspection on our home.

Several years ago as an effort to give homeowners some relief from outrageous insurance costs, the state sponsored free surveys of people’s homes to determine their ability to withstand hurricane force winds.  If your home met certain requirements after the survey you qualified for a discounted rate on your homeowner’s insurance.  Our house didn’t qualify for the top end of the discount level but it did qualify for some discount.

Well of course this letter is a huge red flag for me.  The insurance company is paying someone to reinspect homes because they don’t trust the inspection done by the state.  Of course it is quite easy to see the true intent.  They want these paid mercenaries to disavow the original inspections so the insurance company can in turn charge a higher rate.

This pisses me off, greatly.  I plan to be calling my agent today to raise hell about this.  I am generally displeased with what we are paying for insurance, especially car insurance.  We carry both home and car insurance under Allstate for some mysterious “umbrella discount” which seems to be vaporware in real dollars and cents.

If this new inspection results in a significant change in my home owner insurance I will be actively seeking alternatives.

I had another frustrating phone conversation with mom late yesterday afternoon.  She places a disproportionate amount of weight in things that don’t merit it and precious little in things that are crucial to her well being. Yes the old adage of “you can’t help someone that doesn’t want to help themselves” has come into play here for a long, long time.  However I think I would be skirting my responsibilities to just stand by like an innocent, ignorant bystander and watch it continue without trying to do something, anything to make her see the light. Of course mom hates when I point out the issues with her decision making and typically will try to just exit the conversation instead of talking about it.

Mom has told me in the past she has done a lot of feeling sorry for herself since she was laid off and she realized that has to change.  Well her attitude yesterday had no hints of change, just a stuck in granite resolution that she is helpless to make things better.