Merry Christmas - Got Coverage?

My last article on my insurance situation mainly concerned the cars in the house, which happens to be more immediate in terms of need. I haven't heard anything from my agent(who also got dropped) about the cars yet but she did say not to worry about it. My pressing concern, even though I have a little over a year to do it, is acquiring a new homeowners policy with a company that won't cripple my wallet. The state sponsored insurance is for people that lose their insurance and can't find another company to transfer to and is also the most expensive coverage as well. I have to start looking at who is still staying open for business in the state and start getting some insurance quotes. On the other hand, and not a reason to forgo this search, is that my agent said the company I now have may relent during this upcoming period and decide to remain in Florida, which would suit me fine. They're not the cheapest company but they are rock solid and that's worth a few extra dollars a year to me. I had one weather related claim in 9 years and was told it would have no effect on my risk factor with them because it was a freak storm that caused the damage to the pool cage. They were fast and friendly and my check arrived in short order after faxing the docs to them. I want to stay with them but I have to be realistic as well. If I have to change insurers I'd like to have a say in who they'll be and how much it'll cost.

Car Insurance Rug Pulled Out

Years ago I was offered the opportunity to get a Nxxxxxxxxx Insurance policy for my home. I was, at the time, on state sponsored home owners insurance which anyone who lives in Florida knows all too well. With the hurricanes(none for 3+ years) and sinkhole claims most of the major players have pulled out of Florida and others limited their new policies to just a few to sell. I digress, the only condition that I was given was that in order to get this company to cover my home I had to also give them my car insurance business as well, which I had no problem with. Last year I got a letter stating that this company, Nxxxxxxxxx Ins. was dropping all car policies and that a subsidiary of theirs would be doing the underwriting. Okay, I figured that it's still the same company just a subset of it. This year I got a letter stating that that subsidiary was dropping car policies, mine among them, and I had until January to find another provider because they reported to the state that come Jan I wouldn't be covered. Thanks guys, I really appreciate that - NOT! I called my agent and was told that the homeowners policy would probably be getting discontinued as well but not until 2012. If the Mayan calendar is correct I'll have full coverage for the life of the house then!

Semi Tropical Cool Down

I've mentioned on more than a few articles the fact that Florida is getting colder than it used to ever be. Case in point is when you have to make sure the heating system, which is also the air conditioning system, is in prime working order. Just because the fan comes on doesn't mean heat will follow in the breeze. On a given night I'll be on the computer and can literally count the number of times the heat comes on. This wouldn't happen so much if I didn't have a fresh air freak in the house always opening a window for some fresh air. I say if you want some fresh air just go outside and take a long walk. It's a fine line between keeping warm and saving money on the electric bill. We went hunting last week for our electric blanket, which we smartly took with us, mainly because it was expensive and still new. The only down side to using it is that to properly get the right heat from it you need to use it before you get into bed and avoid running it too hot when you do go to sleep. I learned that the hard way many years ago and it left me feeling horrible the whole next day. The 21st is now behind us, the days are now getting longer, and spring is on the way!

It's Florida, Dig Out the Parka's!

When we first moved to Florida the winter temps were in the lower 70's and maybe, just maybe the overnight temps might have gotten a bit cold but nothing like what we've been getting the past 3 years. I have two fully grown orange trees in my backyard and I'm contemplating how long till I have to dig them up and replant new trees. The freezing temps last year combined with the harsh temps we've gotten this year have left the trees decimated. I was running around trying to find my Patriots stadium jacket because I'm outside late at night and my wife just had to find her Sierra Designs Gnar Jacket, whatever that is. The last time I saw that it looked like horizontal air bladders close to the body. She says it keeps her toasty warm while I freeze trying to find my jacket. I think someone may have taken mine because I remember bringing it down from Massachusetts and now it's nowhere to be found, the same with my wife's Gnar jacket. I really miss my jacket especially now when the Pats are winning so much and it had a huge embroidered patch on the back I was going to remove and put on a denim jacket. Great plans but no possible execution of them.

I Just Became a Swinger, Literally.

I, in a bit of foolish chagrin, made the mistake of telling my neighbor across the street that I would be off from work for 5 days this week. Why was it a mistake? Let me start off by saying that they have 3 kids that are very active. Did I say very active, I meant quite active. Well, he got the idea to find a way to burn off a lot of that youthful energy so he went out and bought one of the biggest backyard wooden play sets I've ever seen. This thing has tires, swings, bars, slides, ladders, platforms, and ropes. The only things that were missing were a refrigerator and a television. The best part is who he got to help him build this wooden empire. Me, of course. I thought I was going to get a few days of rest before Christmas and now that's gone. The bright side is that the kids won't be out in the street yelling and bouncing balls while I'm trying to sleep anymore so I guess it's worth the effort for the long term gain.

I Thought It Was a Good Idea.

We planned a garage sale at the house for next weekend while people were home for New Years and my simple signs took a turn for the worse. I made my first mistake by going to the local business store for them to print some flyer's for me. What could be simpler? In retrospect, hind-sight is twenty-twenty. What could be simpler would be if I took a big marking pen and had hand written a simple sign for what, where, and when. Instead I got a 'duffus' that was going to show me how good a sign he could design to "help my business along" and bring in customers. He had my name and phone number on the signs which I decidedly did not want(I don't need the crank calls from the area kids) and explained to him that I wasn't requesting business printing, even though my intention was sales related, but rather consumer printing that I could staple or tape to poles and small sign posts. Just a simple sign with large enough letters to be sign by people driving along in their cars. He was disappointed but finally got my drift. Now if I can get some people to drift my way next weekend that would be quite nice.

Who Wants a Necktie?

I tell you, anniversaries just aren't fair for the guys. Our wives would appreciate(expect) a decent gift in recognition of the wedding anniversary, preferably jewelry or pricey cologne(don't forget the card either) and maybe flowers(roses unless you're a caveman). We go through this tumultuous ordeal and what do we get in return? Sweaters, shirts, after shave, and neckties! Keep it all unless you happen to be the caveman who gets carnations instead of roses to show his undying love and admiration, blah, blah, blah. I guess a daily dose of I Love You doesn't add up to so much when it's anniversary time. Very one-sided ladies. Nobody, not even merchants, put decent time and effort into providing wedding anniversary gifts for husbands that husbands would love to get which would inspire them to be overly generous to their wives the next year in grateful anticipation of a decent reciprocal gift. That was a long sentence! The jewelry starts to become reasonable to us ladies! It's just a thought. The neckties? Unless you want us to tie to to the bed or something with them, keep them at the store where they belong.

Everyone's Getting Snow(except me)

It seems like everyone I talk to, either here in the good ole US of A or over in Britain, is getting unexpected snow! What surprises me the most is that London is getting one of the worst winters in 40 years, and it's not even winter yet! I was talking to a friend of mine in London this morning and he said they got snow, then it warmed and the rain came, then the temps dropped and the rain froze, and then it snowed several more inches on top of the ice. Heathrow and Gatwick airports had a jumbled surplus of jets frozen on the tarmacs and no flights could come in due to lack of space for them to park. Did I mention that I saw some little icicles on my fence the other day? Did I also mention that I'm in Central Florida where you're not supposed to see ANY icicles? That was when the jet stream dipped to just above Miami and we all felt the chill, more so in Europe and the northern states right here. It sort of brings me back to the days when I'd be out in the yard with my Toro snowblower, well more of a snow-sweeper, trying to clear out a path to the car and then clear a bigger path for the cars to the street. I hated that! That's why I moved to Florida, now I have icicles! I hope I wasn't too hasty getting rid of that snowblower.

Cash Spending Accounts

It's the end of another year and what are you doing like a bat outta hell? You're trying to use up all that cash pending account money you've accrued all year. If you don't spend it you lose it but watch how you try to spend it. You can't just walk into a store and buy $500 worth of Advil and expect this to cover it because it's medically unreasonable. If the doctor gives you a 1 month prescription for mega Advil from the pharmacist that would be reasonable for your your CSA (or FSA) to cover since the doctor said you needed that particular Rx. Two of the biggies are contact lenses with needed supplies and prescription eyeglasses(clear single, bifocal, invisible, tinted, Rx sunglasses). Optical labs are inundated with job orders for people caught in the last minute scuffle to get into the doctor for an exam and get the prescription ordered, which is usually paid in advance with, you guessed it, CSA/FSA money. Contacts are a little more tricky than the glasses for time issues as you usually need 2 appointments, one for the exam and one for the fitting. The fitting exam usually runs about $100 on the average and then you have to wait for them to get shipped in from the mfg or supplier, depending on the type of lenses needed. A search on the Internet will usually show you what is, and isn't, eligible for these funds so look first and then make a list and stick to it so you can use all of the funds and not get rejected for ineligible expenses that you won't be able to return later. These purchases have given me a lot of overtime lately and I look forward to more next year before the holidays.

Gotta Clean That Marble Sink.

For some strange and unusual reason my marble double sink in the bathroom turns funky colors on my wife's side but not on mine. I'll use products like krud kutter and others and it will get decently clean except for a slight hue of color that won't budge. I've narrowed it down to baby oil as the offending item. She uses it for her makeup and I don't wear makeup so I don't have the issue. This stuff has discolored the marble sink and counter(I know marble is porous but it was there when we bought the place) and it may take a mild acid to dislodge it the remainder of the color. The topper is that the oil is making the drain black and gooey, which will clean out with a little effort, but it looks nasty. When we do over our kitchen we're going to add granite counter-tops and I think I may get a price on the bathroom sink since granite isn't as fragile and open as marble. I know if you have a marble counter in the kitchen and spill tomato sauce or red wine on it you're going to have loads of fun getting it out of the tiny fissures and pores of the stone. There are professional products available but you better read all the instructions before using them. Yup, granite all the way.

Frustrated While Shopping

Ever since merchants started to not put prices on most of their merchandise it's been my experience, on both sides of the retail store world, that there's a conspiracy to keep us from knowing the real price of the package we just picked up from the shelf. We're reliant on the shelf tags to provide adequate pricing information and then equally reliant that the product on the tag is the product on the shelf above it! I found a Bluray DVD the other day at the big blue retailer that I was immediately interested in because it had the new AND the classic version of The Day the Earth Stood Still, as well as a copy for the computer. I look around and nobody is there and, of course, the disc has no price on it. I used to be a manager for this retailer so I knew they had a remote barcode scanner in the store for shoppers. You think I could find one? That's right, I couldn't. I actually did find an associate that very nicely provided the price with her Telxon(Tell-zon) inventory gun and she was nice enough to direct me to the remote reader, half way across the store and it was out of order(which is typical due to customer abuse I've actually witnessed). The price? $10, which was well worth my inconvenience, especially for a Bluray disc with three movies in it(one of which is current).

Hot Chocolate and Scotch Tape.

Tis the season to be shopping, fa la la la la lala la la! We have a veritable plethora of 'Days' such as Black Friday and Cyber Monday where merchants hope to save their sales year in a steady controlled burst of consumer spending. I've taken advantage of at least one of these days, Black Friday, and got 2-2 terabyte disk drives for under $70 each, hi end sneakers(2 pair) for under $70 total, and 2 pair of hard to find jeans for about $30. Then I stopped before I ran out of money to buy presents for other people. That would be awkward at best with only my stuff under the tree, just for me! There were even rumors about Walmart being open on Xmas Day this year but I think that got tabled till next year. The best part is that often you find once expensive items are now affordable within the time frame the merchants allow. I've seen my disk drives in the store I bought them at but now they're $159, each! Choose your battle and make every dollar count.

Lost Pet Signs.

I'm seeing a greater number of lost pet signs in and around the neighborhood recently, especially after the recent frigid cold front came through. I realize that there are those pet owners out there that believe that "my doggie doodie would never run from the house" but they are animals first and family members second. We are to them a pack where a dominant human is the pack leader, until a new leader steps up. It's the nature of the animal kingdom. People have the mistaken notion that there cat or dog is a person - they're not, they're animals that have no cognitive powers other than sleeping , eating, voiding, grooming, and following the direction of the pack leader. With all the pure bred dogs running around these days you'd probably need a blood sample or hair follicle so you could do dog dna testing to see if the one in the pound that looks like Brutus really isn't a Barney. The newest lost pet poster on my street is for a cat with a $200 reward. Good luck!

A Place to Park Your You-Know-What!

The problem with the holidays is seating. That's right, seating! How many of us have to do the 'visit the relatives' gig every year only to say the same things, eat the same food, remember the same 'fond memories' and eat fruit cake on Aunt Sheila's nice comfy sofa? Take away Aunt Sheila and add your own name(s) to this and you can see what I mean. Either they have one big over stuffed arm chair from the fifties, some hard wooden dining room chairs, a nice contemporary sofa with a pretty floral pattern, a hassock, and if it's really bad a shag carpet. Uggh! Dinner time has everyone, except the kids, at the table while the kids who have been dismissed to the living room have to eat off of card tables and drink out of jelly jars from the sixties that were too cute to throw away a long, long time ago as they should have been(you can only look at Yogi Bear just so much). Ahh, I remember. That's why I moved 1500 miles away, well not really, but I don't drink out of a jelly jar anymore either. I do, however, miss that overstuffed chair. You could fall into it and pass out in no time flat.

What Happened to the PSP?

Sony is taking an additional hit on their PSP3 line for the second straight year and the other companies are making a surge to the consumer. The days of Sony being the top dog are being replaced by the other major players like Nintendo. The Wii is still popular, so long as you don't throw the controller into that $2000 television screen. The Nintendo DS is also coming on strong in the mini market for personal gaming with no end in sight, the kids love it as a lot of adults do as well. Games have also come a long way as well with graphics, memory, and processing speeds climbing exponentially in the past few years. Who knows what we'll have in another ten years, a virtual reality Nintendo DS with a brain jack implanted in the skull for max gaming experience?

Personal Cell Phone Evolution

I haven't decided on what I want to do about moving up to a smart phone, mainly because I'm getting more confused the more I hear about what they can all do. I know things got rolling with the iphone and, unfortunately, it got bundled with a major cell company that's now at the bottom of the cust satisfaction surveys. I haven't dismissed the iphone because there is light at the end of the tunnel. Word is that it will be bundled with one of the top 2 carriers in the country(no.1 isn't available in Florida yet) and that will affect my decision. I'm not crazy about the T carriers smart phone choices and I do like the V carrier's choices, just not their prices for web access and texting. There's a lot of homework to be done with these choices as most of them require a 2 year commitment and if you suddenly hate that new fancy phone then your stuck for 24 months!

Lush Vacations and Warm Islands NOT!

This is the best time of year to go away somewhere, somewhere warm and sunny. Well, it's not to Florida anymore, unfortunately, or I'd be already there. Instead I'm enjoying w cool 50 degree day and looking forward to a 22 degree evening, and I'm in Tampa Bay! I need top have dreams of far away places both real and mythical like belize, antigua, faraway, pergo accolade, rumba toca, bimini, and maybe fiji. I fear fiji is better known as a water brand instead of a real island. People say the earth is warming but you could have fooled me. I know that melting glaciers cool the oceans and moisture in the atmosphere gets cooler in the process but shouldn't the warmer places be even warmer and less moist? Well, Florida in the winter isn't warmer and when it should be the dry season here we get moisture now. The rest of the country is getting moisture now in the white form that I don't wish to experience anymore thank you very much. Well since I can't afford the real islands I think I'm going to go back and plan on seeing the mythical ones instead.

Buzzwords and Catch Phrases

It's interesting how many of today's brand name products have a handy little catch phrase associated with them. I remember the old Datsun ads when I was a mere lad that said, "drive a Datsun, then decide". It was catchy and you remembered it, now you just need to remember what a Datsun is, or was. I guess it wasn't catchy enough to sustain the brand even though it now goes by a different name in the U.S. In the spring time you start to hear about Guinness and that it's not only an Irish stout but also a food along with erin go bragh and welch allyn. Popular soft drinks boast "just for the thrill of it" and "wouldn't you like to be a pepper too?" hit the airwaves fast and often, especially when the warmer weather approaches. Cookies, cakes, television networks, cars, trucks, computers(are you a PC?), and even the halls of higher learning have catchy sayings that when spoken you know without being told which college it is(the Fighting Irish of ....). People have made careers out of these phrases and jingles and the like, not to mention millions in sales for the respective clients, because people remembered the slogan or song and it stuck in their mind when they were shopping and they bought it based partly on recognition of the brand. Are we still the Pepsi Generation?