Category Rants

So Saturday morning was the cross country meet that I was timing.  I showed up on site about 5:30, the first race didn’t start until 7:45.  I was glad I got there as early as I did, there was a lot to do since this event didn’t have the normal collection of volunteers that a typical race has.

Even before the sun came up I was sweated through my shirt, it was brutally warm and humid, without the sun beating on me yet.

The timing for the event was a challenge.  I had various issues.

One of the most frustrating issues was the physical danger the finish line provided.  Because a cross country meet is run on grass, the finish mats are placed upon grass.  Well the grass at the park was relatively high.  Very early on we saw issues with kids stumbling across the finish mats.  They would not be paying attention to their foot placement as they finished, most likely because they were exhausted, plant their foot right in front of the mat and then catch that same foot as they took the next stride.

We had a bunch of near misses where kids almost fell and a handful that actually did fall.  The one boy went down really hard.  We tried to minimize the problem by weighting down the sides of the mats to keep them taut  but it did not prevent the problem.  To be honest I am not sure how to avoid the issue in the future short of having the finish area grass mowed very low.

I noticed about halfway into the event that a number of kids that had not run yet would gather by the finish line to cheer on the other kids.  Unfortunately some of these spectators got too close to the timing mats with the timing chip that was on their sneaker, inadvertently getting scored for the wrong race.  If there was any good fortune in this, it was for the most case JV runners  got mis-scored which is less critical.  However it still wound up as a big headache at the end when I was trying to figure out why I had so many scoring anomalies.

Finally we had a number of kids that simply were wearing the wrong chip.  The coaches were responsible for making sure their kids wore the correct chip.  There was nothing I could do to prevent that from happening.

It was a pretty stressful morning as I had some other technical challenges to figure out on the fly but in the end everyone was happy.  By the time everything was cleaned up and put away it was after noon.  By the time I was done doing all of the associated work at home it was about 2:30, a long day of timing.

I quickly worked on whatever chore related items I needed to get done, cutting a few corners this week because I was just too damn tired to give a shit.  Saturday night I stopped over at Ali’s to drop some stuff off.  She threw in some pizza we had for dinner.

So Sunday morning I had to get up early once again, this time to drive over to Jeremy’s place to pick up some furniture items he no longer needed, a computer desk and a queen size bed.  In exchange I was giving him my old pressure washer that I no longer needed.

I left my house right about 7AM and pulled into Jeremy’s place a few minutes after 9.  After hanging out and playing with the kids a bit we headed over to the townhouse that they rent out, where the items were located.

When I first saw the desk I grabbed one end and lifted it, the sucker felt HEAVY, too heavy to lift into the truck without mutual hernia risk.  I lightened the load by removing all drawers and doors.  After doing so it was more manageable.  The back of the Tacoma barely accommodated the desk, box spring and queen mattress but we squeezed it all in there.  I used two high strength ratcheting straps to lock everything securely for the long 70 MPH trek back across Alligator Alley.

Jeremy suggested we grab sandwiches before I head back which we did and took back to his place.  I got back out on the road about 11:45.  Obviously I was going to miss the start of the Eagles game but I could listen to it on Sirius en route.  I recorded a how to use a pressure washer video for Jeremy which will be released shortly.

The drive back across the state SUCKED.  The furniture in the back of the Tacoma had various negative effects.  Crosswinds caused a lot of unwelcomed swerving  as I was rolling along.  I needed a firm grip on the wheel at all times.  The stuff also stuck up above the cab of the truck by a couple feet, creating an aerodynamic nightmare.  The truck was working hard to simply maintain the speed limit and the gas gauge was dropping at a rate I had never seen before.  I was quite glad when I pulled into the driveway with the gas warning light on.  I had filled the truck to the very top before leaving, meaning I only got something like 250 miles out of a full tank of 15 gallons.

When we loaded the desk onto the truck I had a brief thought in my head about the usable work area on the new desk.  It kind of looked to be on the small size, especially since I have a 27 and 23 inch monitor.  Well the first thing I did when I got home was put a tape measure on the desk space, it was only 36 inches.  I instantly knew I was f’d.  There was absolutely no way I could make my stuff fit.  I started chastising myself for not considering this before driving across the state.  My thought process was simply “uh that desk looks nicer than my desk and Jeremy wants to give it to me” and nothing else.  I was frustrated, very frustrated.

Well my original plan was to give my existing desk to a neighbor that was looking for one.  I guess the new plan is to see if she wants Jeremy’s desk.  Luckily she did.  Getting the desk into her place was quite the challenge and required temporarily removing some parts of the desk and a closet door so I had space to clear a tight corner.  After much effort we finally got it slid into place.

I did set up the queen bed in the guest room so the trip wasn’t a total fail but damn I was annoyed with myself.

The annoyance didn’t subside after watching the Eagles game.  Wow.  Vick threw 4 interceptions and had the Browns drop another couple should be int’s.  He did not look good at all.  The Birds were very lucky to pull out a 17-16 win against a BAD Browns team.  How bad?  Their rookie QB completed a THIRD of his passes for just over 100 yards and threw 4 interceptions as well.  The Eagles performance did absolutely nothing to convince me they learned a damn thing from last year where they lost a TON of games they had absolutely no business losing.  However if this trend continues, Andy has exhausted his last safety net.

This morning I got a very alarming email, saying my Google Adsense account was disabled!  As you know, my recent good fortune with generating ad dollars via Google, primarily from my YouTube videos has been something I am VERY excited about.  In order to have more of a good thing, a month or so ago I added a small banner ad to the bottom of the posts on my blog and encouraged people to click the ads, thinking that driving more traffic to the ad sites is a win/win.

Well evidently this behavior is frowned upon by Google and is laid out somewhere in the encyclopedic terms of service that they provide.  Somehow they determined that too many of my clicks were coming from the same IP addresses and as a result killed my account.  I have a couple problems with this.

First off, if my blog readers were clicking the ads, the extra clicks could not have been more than a couple dozen a day, it isn’t like I have some bot out there registering thousands of ad clicks.  Second, if this behavior was problematic, why is it outside the scope of reason to send me a warning, saying , “Hey this shit is not allowed, here is your one warning and then you are done”  I think that is reasonable.  As is, my only option is to submit an appeal through their sterile, faceless, email only support system and hope I get connected with someone that is reasonable.

This decision by Google f’s me several times over.  It negates any outstanding money they were due to pay me and stops my generation of any further income via AdSense via the blog OR YouTube.  This snowballs into my YouTube account, removing my YouTube partner status, meaning I no longer generate totally legit ad dollars on my YT videos, which infuriates me.

If my appeal is successful, I can get that reinstated but I think I am screwed out my unpaid revenue dollars regardless which is bullshit.  Unfortunately in their terms of service, you agree that Google can basically say FU at anytime for any reason.  I have no leverage and can only hope my appeal is successful.

Yes, in the big picture those clicks violated the terms of service, although if I actually knew they were a violation, I certainly would not have encouraged blog readers to click away.  I am really bummed out about it.

I think I have reached my frustration limit for a three day period…

I have been very equitable in my treatment of the DNC convention in comparison to the RNC convention.  I haven’t watched a second of it, either.  I read last night Bill gave a kick ass speech.  That’s all well and good.  However at least personally, I have no need to watch a glorified rah rah session from either party to help me make up my mind on anything.

Last night I skipped yoga and instead decided to get the yard mowed.  No, I didn’t feel nearly as refreshed afterward but I did enjoy a similar sense of accomplishment.

Did you ever think, I mean really think, about how ridiculous it is the marijuana is illegal, or, almost any other drug for that matter?  One of the things the Obama administration has done that I am not happy about is a stupid crack down on marijuana use.  It is a HUGE waste of resources.

When I was on the mower last night my mind was wandering, as it often does.  I was analyzing why alcohol, which has the potential to cause the exact same problems as illegal drugs, is legal and everything else is not.  Well it is the same reason that many things in the world are, that’s just what we were told and told and told again.  Alcohol is ok, all other drugs, bad.

Well if you are able to pull yourself out of that haze you realize how stupid this policy is.  Our prisons are stuffed with people arrested on drug related charges.  You and I pay a fortune to facilitate their incarceration.  There is a huge, violent underground dedicated to the production and distribution of these drugs simply because they are illegal.  The question is simply, why?

Why is it acceptable for someone to drink a half a case of beer but they can’t smoke a joint or pop a pill?  The end result is the same.  The individual becomes chemically altered.  Why can’t we simply apply the same rules for alcohol to all drugs? Basically, as long as your behavior on these substances does not negatively affect other individuals, go nuts.  Kill yourself if you want to.  If you start f’ing with other people while in this state THEN we have a problem.

Just think of the positives that could come from such a policy change.  No more illegal drug trafficking.  Huge dollars could be both saved and earned.  No more BILLIONS of dollars spent policing, prosecuting and imprisoning drug users.  Then add in HUGE dollars from taxing the legal sale of these substances.  It would be a huge win/win.

To me green lighting alcohol sales and nothing else is pure hypocrisy. It’s like saying you can only buy Honda’s.

You would think from this rant I was a closet marijuana smoker or pill popper.  Nope, never touched the stuff. Although I think if you chose to align your life around any drug use, including alcohol, you are heading down a path with a brick wall at the end, I fully endorse your right to do so as long as you don’t throw up on my shoes.

This issue, like so many things in life that our society accepts blindly, is revealed as ludicrous once a bit of logic is applied.

I neglected to mention that on Friday I got word back that I had won my battle regarding flood insurance. I will not be required to purchase it. I was dealing with a guy from Fiserv-Lereta, the company that provided my credit union with the erroneous info regarding my flood zone status.  Last week I told him if he could get this mess straightened out I would be happy to send him a case of beer. Well he delivered on his end so I intend to deliver on mine.  I just need to find some Florida branded beer to ship out to his office in California.

My right knee is in pretty bad shape after this weekend’s volleyball action.  As a result I dusted off my trusty knee ice wrap, something I haven’t had to use in a very long time.  I strapped it on last night and left it there for a long time as I was editing more volleyball video.  Speaking of that…

So when I posted my volleyball video from Siesta Key I just dumped the raw uncut video on YouTube which is very easy for me but results in a big, long video that has way too much dead time in it.

So with the video from this weekend’s King of the Beach event I have been doing the tedious job of cutting out the footage between plays.

Last night I was working on the longest file I had.  It was 43 minutes uncut and less than 16 minutes edited.  I spent upwards of 90 minutes cleaning it up.

So I go to publish the file and MovieMaker hangs….  I groaned out loud, knowing I had not done any intermediate saves and that all that work was just flushed.. FCK!  Now I should know better.  I have had MovieMaker barf before when editing big files.  I should have saved along the way based on past experience.  Oh well, hopefully I will have some time to get the remaining 3 or 4 games on tape out there.

I did snip out one funny moment I forgot about after I hit a ball into the net.  Sometimes I get really frustrated when I mishit a ball.  Over the years I have found all sorts of ways of expressing my frustration when this occurs, here is the latest.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z5-gQuWksrQ

I also posted the awards ceremony.  Jeremy (and Mandy) actually took the time to make awards for the event which was a funny way to end the festivities.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ya5n3pCn8g4

Last night I received my new anti-deodorant.  It actually is a brand I heard Howard raving about on his show.  It contains no aluminum which a quick Google search will reveal as a very bad substance to have interact with your body.  I have known about this for eons but never acted upon it.  That is no longer the case.

So last night I watched some of the Eagles pre-season game.  When I tuned in Vick was already out of the game.  I could not believe when I heard for the second game in a row he was knocked out, this time taking a shot to the ribs.

The good news is the ribs aren’t broken.  The bad news is this is a very bad sign for the upcoming season.  Mike Vick has a history of getting injured, largely in part to the way he plays the game, running and scrambling to try to extend plays which opens him up to take additional shots.  Well he is no spring chicken anymore.  When you get older, you get hurt more, not less.  Unless they find a way to keep him on the field the Eagles offense could have problems this year.

Although with that being said, the Eagles rookie QB had a very strong showing against the Patriots, throwing for over 200 yards and a couple of touchdowns.  Still, that was a preseason game.  If the Eagles are going to return to their past success they are going to need to keep Vick upright somehow.

When I walked out to the parking lot last night my annoyance meter instantly shot up when I saw a politician jammed a paddle into the side window crevice of my vehicle and every other vehicle in the lot.  I don’t get it.

The other day on Facebook I commented how one of the local candidates had successfully annoyed me out of casting a vote for him purely because of the ridiculous inundation of junk mail I have received from the guy.  Literally I have seen at least 15 mailings from him.  When paired up with his signage that is literally everywhere it long ago crossed the line from informative to suspicious.

I read this guy has spent upwards of $150,000 on his campaign to take one of the county commissioner seats.  When a guy spends more than double the amount of the salary for the job he is running for it gives me pause.  Obviously there are some big dollars wielding big amounts of influence behind this campaign.

Of course nothing touches Rick Scott spending 60 million plus of his own personal fortune to brainwash the sheeple in the Florida governor’s race in 2010.  Dollars rule the world.

Last night I decided to do an unconventional quick workout, a 500 foot death crawl.  If you are wondering what a death crawl is, click here.

I still receive my free Newsweek subscription that I never asked for.  The magazine has a definite liberal lean so I find a lot of the opinions more or less in step with my general ideas about the world, both good and bad.

This month there was an article talking about the true state of the middle class in America.  As you can imagine, the picture is not rosy in the least.  The article talks about many aspects of the problem including the tremendous and accelerating wealth disparity between the 1% and everyone else.  It even goes as far as breaking down the 1%r’s .

In 2010, the average 1 percenters had their earnings increase 11.6% however the top .01 percent of the one percenters had their earnings jump by nearly double that, 21.5%, in ONE year.  Please keep in mind these are 2010 numbers while the country was still in horrible financial shape (as opposed to just really bad now)

I find hard numbers like this pretty eye opening as they appeal to the logical side of me.  However this number was the most shocking of all, 70 percent, when used in this context.

“Families headed by people under 35 are almost 70 percent poorer today, adjusting for inflation, than they were in 1984.”  HOLY SHIT.

If you can read this line and shrug it off, then you shouldn’t be reading my blog.  That is a staggering stat.  The curve for the rich is the exact inverse of this trend, skyrocketing upward to the point today where the country’s billionaires have the most favorable conditions in history and if you haven’t noticed, they are keeping it all to themselves. Corporate profits are at all time highs, yet the economic conditions for the masses are still pretty awful.  There is no “trickle down”.  Someone fixed that leaky faucet long ago.

First take a look at the official spin on Ryan from the Obama camp.  Obviously it is slanted but not inaccurate.

This article rolls right into my thoughts on Paul Ryan, Mitt Romney’s new running mate.  Ryan is a Tea Party favorite and is a pretty obvious attempt by Mitt to appease the new extreme right of the Republican Party.  Ryan has some pretty radical ideas when it comes to how dollars should be allocated moving forward including gutting Medicare as we know now it.  He also was a big proponent of allowing people to funnel social security dollars into the hopelessly corrupt and rigged financial markets. Seen this yet?

I think picking Ryan as the VP just further cements Mitt as being one of the most spineless presidential candidates ever.  He hasn’t flip flopped, he has somersaulted back from his positions and policies on abortion, health care and economics to whatever his advisers have told him was the most convenient stance to take at the time.

The guy, to me, represents exactly what we don’t need in a presidential candidate, a rich puppet that is having his strings pulled by someone else.  Plus the guy lost to John McCain for cripes sake.  Nothing like throwing a retread out there.

There is a theory that despite appearances, the monarchs of this country would actually be quite content to see Romney lose.  After all, even under Obama, they have flourished thanks to many reasons, including Obama being unwilling to follow through on his campaign promise to kill the Bush tax breaks.  If Obama stays in office the rich will continue to do fantastic while being able to blame the continuing middle class quagmire on Obama, a win/win for them.

If you have a history of blog readership, you know I am not an Obama fanboy either, I am not pleased with a whole bunch of things that have gone down during his first four years in office. Most recently, I am furious that the government decided to not push criminal prosecution of Goldman Sach’s for their deliberate role in the financial implosion.

However in this situation I think there is a very clear lesser of two evils.  Unfortunately with the way our political system is, those are the only two viable choices available.

I had another weird dream last night.

I was in my garage and suddenly found myself confronting a couple that wanted to steal my Cadillac STS (I don’t actually own one).  There was a physical altercation before the couple hopped back in their vehicle, drove towards the back of my property, realized that was the wrong way and spun around.  They headed back towards the front fence line and smashed through it.

I got a partial plate number and was in the process of calling 911 when another car pulled up in the driveway.  In the car was a man, a woman and two teenage looking girls. I was annoyed because I was just dialing the call in to police.  I hung up, walked over to the car and asked what they wanted.

The woman said she heard I was selling my Cadillac.  I told her no I wasn’t and became instantly suspicious that she even knew I had a STS, she had to be connected with the people I just chased off.  I tell her to get the fck off my property.  She flipped the switch into bitch mode and started screaming at me.  I went full Hulk Smash mode on her and told her if she didn’t leave I would drag her out to the street.

The entire time this was going on, the man was just sitting there in the passenger seat.  He sort of looked like he had some sort of mental disability.  However as the screaming continued I noticed the two girls got out of the car and tried to go around me into the garage. I stop my scream fest with the woman to intercept the girls.

I ask them what they think they are doing.  They say they need to use my bathroom and start walking past me. I snag both of them by the arm and pull them back out to the car and tell them to get in.  I again turn my attention to the woman and tell her this was her last chance to leave on her own before I make her leave.

That is when I woke up, I felt like I was ready to fight.  It took quite awhile before I was able to calm down and fall back asleep.

Last night I made an attempt at several different hand balancing moves.  None of them went particularly well. I really need to try to practice those skills more often than I do. The biggest positive is at least I have learned how to fall out of handstand without flopping on my back.

It was a good thing I got the mowing done on Wednesday night because last night was a total washout. It was storming the entire night.  Last night I worked on cutting further into my weekend workload by cleaning Tuki’s cage, doing some laundry and some cleaning.  It seems like I am walking up a hill of sand when it comes to the stuff to do around the house.  If I try to slow down even briefly I start drifting down the hill.

Last night I was watching some of the indoor women’s volleyball match.  The USA team has an outstanding hitter with a totally unbelievable name, Destiny Hooker.  I mean really, did her parents give any thought at all to just how ridiculous those two words sound when placed together?  Come on.  USA won their match at least.

This weekend I may take my new power washer out for another round of high pressure fun.  The smaller shed needs some attention badly.  I’d also like to get a training brick in since I missed it last week due to my alcohol filled, late night of social activities on Saturday.

I have some SSR projects that I have not gotten around to yet.  One of them is treating the weatherstripping with this expensive protectant .  I also have an enhanced windshield antenna that I want to install.  That job will require ripping the dash and various other things apart once again so I have been hesitant to dig into it.   The scars from the radio installation project are still pretty fresh.

I forgot to relate a funny Dunkin Donuts story from last week.

They recently opened a new location in Golden Gate City.  The reason I knew about it was a woman that I am friendly with at my normal location said she was being transferred there to run it.  I told her I would check it out.

So I pull up to the drive thru and order a large coffee.  I pull up to the window and hand over my DD rechargeable gift card and my spiff punch card.  The woman I know was nowhere to be seen.  I am handed back two cards and I start to pull out.

I glance at my gift card and pause.  The card in my hand was black.  The card I handed them was white with different graphics.  What the f?  I pull ahead to an alley and hop out of the still running truck and jog inside.  I was wondering if the clerk at the window intentionally was trying to scam me, pocketing my gift card with a $40 balance?

I tell a girl at the counter that I did not get my card back.  She asked me to describe it which I actually found somewhat difficult to do, even though I pull the thing out of my wallet on a very regular basis.  After some thought I told her it was light colored and had some logos on the front.  The card I was handed was black with a cup of coffee on the front.

She headed out of sight, around the corner to the drive thru area.  After a minute or so she came back and handed me my card.  She said the girl got “confused” and that my card was in the trash.  Really? I mean how confusing could it be?  I hand you a card, you swipe it and you hand it back.  I walked out of there skeptical that I was being told the truth.

I’ll be sticking to my home court DD.

Next weekend I believe I will be heading over to Tracy’s place to hang with her and Randall for a fun weekend.  I’m looking forward to it.

Last night after work I got to meet Bentley, the new puppy my neighbors across the street just adopted.  He is an adorable 8 week old yellow lab puppy.  They had to put down their long time family dogs a few months ago and swore they were done with dogs because of the intense pain when they were gone.  I am glad they reconsidered.  I am sure Bentley will be the source of much love and happiness for many years to come.

Last night I also went outside to survey the screen repairs that will be needed as well as simply replace some dry rotted spline that was hanging out after the pressure washing session.  It looks like I have two side panels that are ripped along the spline plus the one roof panel.  I may tackle the side panels after work this week or tack that on to the weekend work list.

Right now I am on a holding pattern with the bogus, bullshit FEMA flood insurance request from my credit union.  I have a county flood expert corresponding with the bank on my behalf, pointing out the error in their data.  If this works I will be off the hook.  If the bank still clings to their error then I will have to get an elevation survey to prove my house is 4-5 feet above the level of the road.  This entire situation is ridiculous. There are a number of people in my area that are all in the same boat.

So Saturday night I fell asleep at 3 AM.  Last night I found myself waking up at the same time.  I could tell I wasn’t going to be able to just doze off easily so I drug my ass out of bed.   I filled the roughly 3 hours of time with various activities like emptying the dishwasher, watching Freddie Wong videos, doing some race maintenance work, updating the Bar-barian Challenge scoreboard and playing through a few levels in Diablo 3.

I am sure I will pay for my early rise time this evening.  I expect zombie mode to hit me pretty early.

So my contact from the county really is trying to get my FEMA flood insurance issue to go away.  He copied me on an email that was sent to Fiserv that in a nutshell said “Look here dumb ass, he isn’t in a flood zone and here is the proof”   He told me that he was successful getting the requirement dropped for somebody else.  I am crossing my fingers the strategy works in my case as well.

I left work early yesterday to go pick up Ali at the airport.  I went home, grabbed the dogs and headed back out in the van. Of course the dogs were thrilled to see Ali. Luckily after the first couple rocky days out at the house of “incidents”, Nicki settled down for the last half of their stay and was acting normally.

After dropping off Ali and the dogs I headed home since I had stuff to do.

So yesterday was “Support Chik-fil-a day” .  This was brought about by the backlash from a statement their CEO made opposing gay marriage.  There had been a call to boycott the restaurant chain for the statement.  I find this scenario stupid from many angles.

The biggest dunce hat goes on the head of the CEO. As the head of a large business that makes it’s money by selling food to the public, I would think CEO 101 states you should never utter a word about religious/social/political issues.  You will piss someone off and there is nothing to be gained by that in his position.

The call to boycott Chic-fil-a also seems like a bit of an overreaction.  I would be content to trust independent thinking individuals to be able to make this choice on their own if they found the statement to be annoying. (I do)  I don’t need someone to tell me to boycott a business, I just won’t go.

Then finally we have the people that are hiding behind “Freedom of Speech” as a veil to support their opposition to gay marriage.  Puh-lease…   I wonder if they would be so eager to support the CEO’s freedom of speech if he said he supported abortion, of course not…

So it looks like if the world is going to end in a few months it isn’t going to be via Nirubu (Planet X) as some people assumed.  If Nirubu was coming it was supposed to be almost as large as the moon in the sky by this point.  No worries, there are still plenty of ways the planet could still be obliterated…

Did you know you now can collect rewards for doing your searches on Bing?  Check out some of the stuff you can redeem the points for.  Not a bad deal at all.

I am all about getting back end perks for my normal everyday activities using things like my Amazon credit card, my Autozone points account, my DD punch cards and more.

In related news, I have averaged 3 bucks a day in ad dollars from You Tube the last few days, multiply that times 30.

So as promised, I dug into my personal flood insurance caper yesterday and as expected it lead to heaping mounds of frustration.  See if you can follow this long and twisty tale of stupidity.

My first call was to a local county government phone number that was identified as the flood insurance hotline.  This number was supposedly the place to go to get help with problems regarding the new flood maps.  I called twice and got voice mail, I left a message, hoping for a call back later.

My next call was to the credit union, I wasted my breath going into a detailed explanation of why I was not in a flood zone as the woman said that she was the wrong person to talk to.  She said the credit union doesn’t make the determinations, I had to contact FEMA.  Obviously she has gotten a number of complaints as she had the number to call readily available.

So I call the number given to me, talk to a woman, again give my background situation and again am told that she isn’t the one to talk to.  I had to talk to the department that specifically deals in LOMA’s (map amendments).  She gave me the number.

Ok so finally I was talking to the right person.  I explained to him how the bank is telling me I need flood insurance even though FEMA’s own maps say that is not the case.  Obviously whatever data the bank determination is utilizing is out of date.  I asked him how do I go about getting a LOMA to get this corrected?

I could hardly believe what he told me.  In order to get a LOMA I need to go through an application process.  There is a substantial form to be filled out.  I also need to include a copy of my deed and a photocopy of my FIRM panel (elevation/flood zone mapping).  I then have to mail this to FEMA and wait.  He said it can take up to 60 days to obtain a LOMA, if it is granted.

I was flabbergasted.  I think I literally said, “You are kidding, right?”

First of all, I only have 45 days to respond to the banks request for flood insurance, if I don’t respond by then they sign me up for flood insurance automatically at the highest premium rate.  I explained this to the guy on the phone.  He said he understood and that was why their official recommendation is the homeowner just buys the flood insurance and then if they get the LOMA they can USUALLY get their premium refunded.

So the official FEMA stance is I should buy flood insurance that I don’t need, that MIGHT get refunded once this clusterf is sorted out.    I followed up by pointing out the lunacy that I was being asked to jump through all of these hoops to prove that FEMA’s own data was correct, it was insane.

The guy on the other side of the phone understood my frustration, it simply does not make any sense but that is what is required to get a LOMA.  I asked why is it that a federal agency like FEMA can not simply punch in a home address and get their current flood zone information?  He couldn’t explain why, just that it doesn’t work that way.

I knew this guy was just the messenger and had absolutely no power to do anything but direct me into the bureaucratic pile of bullshit.  I told him to send me the form although it was looking like just paying an unnecessary $150 to a surveyor might actually be the least painful of my options, as silly as it is.

So later I got another brainstorm.  The flood insurance form said it was managed by a Fiserv, a huge company that is the back end to many banks.  On there was contact information so I figured what the hell, I’ll call them and ask why they are using incorrect data for flood zone determination.

So I get a guy on the phone and he has a HORRIBLE Indian accent, I could literally not understand him.  Eventually after many tries I conveyed to him what I wanted to find out.  He said he would have the person that handles flood zone inquiries call me back, great.

So I had left my cell phone number as my call back.  I get the call, on the other line is someone with an even more garbled Indian accent.  It was ridiculous.  I told the guy I could not understand him at all and asked him to call me back on my office hard line, which he did.

Talking to him on a real phone made little difference, his english was horrible.  I was so frustrated that I was obviously thrown into one of those infamous Indian call centers.  Trying to communicate what I needed was excruciating, time and again I would ask him what he said and he would simply repeat it in the same garbled english.  I was going insane by the end of the call.

The call was left at they would get back to me which I was 95% sure would never happen.  To be honest, I almost would prefer they didn’t, I despise when companies outsource their phone banks to India.  I am convinced it is a deliberate effort to frustrate customers to the point where they abandon action requests, plus companies love being able to pay pennies on the dollar for Indian phone armies.

So by the end of this series of phone calls I was done.  I realized that when my neighbor warned me that she could not get anywhere trying to sort out the same thing she wasn’t kidding.  I thought I would be able to plow my through to a solution.  Instead I slammed head first into a wall of apathy, paperwork and incompetence.

I had pretty much given in to just paying the money to get the survey.  It was a cheaper option than buying flood insurance I don’t require.  However later in the afternoon I actually got a call back from the local county flood hotline.  The woman I spoke to said they have gotten a number of calls from homeowners in my boat that are being asked to purchase unnecessary flood insurance.

The woman gave me the name of another guy whom has been working on these issues for other people.  So I made my 7th or 8th call of the day regarding this issue.  Finally I got some encouraging news.

The guy I talked to was already dealing with other credit union customers having the exact same problem.  He said he is working with them to get the problem corrected.  He asked for my info and said he would call me back with an update.

Well I was amazed when I got a call around 8PM from him.  He asked for some additional info but he said he was successful getting the designation fixed for another credit union customer and was hopeful he could do the same for me.  I am crossing my fingers.

Last night after work I ran over to Mom’s place to drop off some mail and have the girls visit her.  Mom was nice enough to make dinner for me as well.  It was a good visit.  Mom mentioned something to me about how she would like to replace her fridge with the one I turned off in the garage months ago.  Even though it is 12 years old, it is still probably half the age of what she has in her kitchen.

I told her she should have said something to me right away if she wanted it.  She is going to see if she can get the ok from her landlord to yank out the old one.

I also threw an old spare tv and vacuum cleaner that was taking up space in her closets into the van.  When I got home I sat them both by the road.  As expected, both items were gone when I got up this morning.

Years ago when I was at Charlie’s place we we sat down in front of his sofa which had a coffee table in front of it.  We had some sandwiches to eat.  All of a sudden he lifts lightly on the table top and it smoothly elevates upward and towards us, putting it in a very good position to eat off of.  Well I thought this was super cool and filed it away mentally as a “someday” thing.  Well yesterday was “someday”.

Since the split I have been randomly checking Craigslist to see if I could score a nice deal on a used lift top table.  Well I found such a deal yesterday.  The listing was actually a couple weeks old so I was skeptical if it would be available, it was.

After doing the mandatory CL discount I was quite pleased to score the table I dreamed of for not much cash at all.

I headed over to the sellers place on my way home.  It was an older couple that were quite nice.  The husband especially had a fantastic, open, engaging, friendly persona, something I always desired I had more of.  He is the type of guy that you can’t help but like.

Anyway after verifying the table was in good shape, the husband helped me carry it out to the Tacoma and load it up.  He said he could try to find something for me to cover it with since the skies looked menacing but I told him I would roll the dice.  Well of course you can already guess, I rolled craps.

I drove through varying intensities of rain on the way home.  Luckily for most of it I was moving at highway speeds which provided a substantial wind barrier on top of the table.  The top of the table had some drops on it but nothing severe by the time I got into the driveway.

Getting the table off the truck and inside by myself was a bit awkward and ripe with potential for back injury.  The table wasn’t all that heavy but it was sizeable.  To carry it inside I basically put the table into a psuedo bear hug and squeezed through the doorways.  The dogs were quite interested in the new addition, assuming of course it was somehow intended for them.

The table fits the space pretty well.  The wood grain matches my 50’s style end table, kind of.  But who cares, what matters is it is cool.

I put the table in place and gave it a gentle touch on the top.  It raised up into a great position, useful for eating, holding my beer or sticking my laptop on.  It also is on wheels so it’s very easy to move around if I am kicking back on one of the recliners as well.

I tried out the table during the evening, plopping my laptop on there for some Diablo play time.  It worked out quite well .  Needless to say I am pleased with my latest and greatest Craigslist score.

So yesterday I received a letter from my credit union whom hold my mortgage.  The letter indicated that I was now required to buy flood insurance based on the new FEMA flood maps.  I sort of knew this was coming as my neighbor received a similar letter from Bank of America a couple weeks ago.  I also knew this was utter bullshit.

Depending on your length of readership here and how much attention you pay to my rambling, you may recall that during the tail end of 2011 I attended a workshop regarding the new flood zones.  Basically you went in, gave your address and they told you if you were in a flood zone with the new maps.

When I was there it was explained to me that the initial remapping of our area by FEMA had put our area in zone AH, which would require flood insurance.  However there was additional, more detailed elevation imagery submitted that actually took into account the three to four foot tall mounds of dirt that houses in our area are built upon, which make flooding of the dwelling basically impossible short of an end of days scenario. I was told this enhanced imagery was what the final FEMA determination was being based upon and that showed my house is in zone X, which does not require flood insurance.

My place is where the dot is.  The orange color is zone AH, the yellow is zone X.

I told my neighbors that they should not require flood insurance either but they opted to pay $150 to get an official elevation survey which told them the exact same thing, they don’t need flood insurance.

Well I am not willing to eat an unnecessary $150 expense so I will be making some phone calls today.  I am not quite sure why the banks are working off of old data but I will do whatever I can to “enlighten” them.

My Google AdSense/YouTube “business” is taking off.  After taking considerable time to monetize the majority of my YouTube library I am seeing my earnings this month skyrocket.  Last month I hauled in $18 and change in advertising dollars.  Today, the last day of the month I am right at 31 bucks and expect to finish the month close to $35, I made over $4 yesterday alone.

Yes I know in bottom line dollars we are talking about chump change but if we look at earning curves I am looking at coming damn close to DOUBLING the prior month’s total.  If that curve continues it doesn’t take a mathematician to see where it could be headed.

Last night after I got done making a hard mode attempt at the BB challenge I stepped into the garden to harvest kale for the first time ever.  Kale is something that they don’t sell down here in the local home improvement store vegetable displays.  My kale was started from some seeds I bought out of a catalog.

My kale appears to be doing pretty well although I did notice that it was starting to get munched on by the f’ing bugs that make growing stuff in the summer so miserable.  I need to start spraying the garden again with some insecticidal soap to see if I can keep the bugs from destroying my crop. Kale is a great food, one of the healthiest greens you can consume.

I clipped off 6 or 7 pieces of it and brought it inside for supper.  I threw most of it into the juicer and then used the last two pieces in my spinach wrap. I didn’t eat a piece by itself so I couldn’t really tell you if it tastes good or bad.  I just know it does a body good.

Why the f is George Zimmerman doing tv interviews prior to his trial?  Did he not see see the Jerry Sandusky/Bob Costas interview?  I can not believe his attorney would endorse a tv appearance by his client. Regardless of my viewpoint on the case, which is, Zimmerman acted inappropriately and initiated the conflict, going on tv at this point was a moronic move. “All part of God’s plan?” Yea, that was a brilliant statement…

So the news this morning is exploding with the news of the shooting at a Dark Knight premiere in Colorado.  The description of the events sounds almost surreal, literally like the 24 year old gunman was trying to reenact the role of Bain, the villain of the movie, throwing tear gas into the theater and then using the fleeing patrons as a real life shooting gallery.

The last numbers I heard were so far 15 people have died and another 50 were injured during the attack.  Of course the first focus is the incredible tragedy with the loss of life, as it should be.  Eventually the focus of the story will spin off into various angles including what the hell makes a person totally go off the hook and decide to randomly fire into a crowd of strangers in a theater?

At least in “going postal” cases, there is a clear motive behind a shooting rampage.  Someone got fed up with something, snaps and decides to inflict the ultimate revenge upon specific targets.

In something like this, the pure randomness and scope of the shooting is beyond what most sane people can comprehend.