Just a bit stressed here!!!

As you may have noticed I haven’t blogged in almost a week. It has been a bad few days for me. Just when I get one trouble behind me something else comes up and smacks me in the back of the head and knocks me down again. I thought I had all my troubles behind me but that isn’t the case.

I really needed a break so this past weekend we decided to take a day off and go fishing. About a mile from the boat landing, my boat died and we had to row back to the landing. I decided to go ahead and finish the work on my cars and one thing after another fought me as I worked. I had problems with tools, parts and even sand gnats. If you aren’t from this area and have never experienced sand gnats they are more than aggravating. They are enough to make the pope curse. And the worst thing about them is they have this knack for attacking you when you are working hard or trying to concentrate. Needless to say they ate me up and I said a few choice words. The local name for them is flying teeth because they are so small that you can hardly see them but they have a bite like a beaver.

The next “wonderful” thing that added to my stress was a “nice” letter from the “good hands people” You know the insurance company that cares about us so much and saves us bunches of money. Well our flood insurance is up for renewal next month. Have you seen the flood insurance commercials where they say that flood insurance is cheaper than you think? Well guess again. Last year our premium was $208.00 a year. This year those same good hands people wanted $4100.00 a year. Don’t you think that is kind of an excessive jump since we made no improvements on our house and have never filed a claim? Yes you read that right 208 >>>>> 4100.

So I called the good hands people, oh who am I fooling it was Allstate and they gave me some story about it being all FEMA’s fault and refused to discuss it anymore. This is the point where I lost my temper and said some things that were not so nice and that I would take my business elsewhere. She said that it didn’t matter where I went, I was going to have to pay that same amount. So we called the people who have our home owner’s policy and they got us the flood insurance for $1100.00. I have to say that I am fighting the urge to call that woman back and tell her off. It won’t do any good so I will simply tell everyone I know not to use them. “You are in bad hands with Allstate” “Raising your rates….. That’s Allstate’s stand”

So what caused the large increase you might ask? Well it was partially (but not totally) FEMA’s fault. They decided that our side of the island which just happens to be the furthest side from the ocean, just happens to be the highest point in the entire county and also just happens to be 99% black is in danger of flooding while the front side of the island which just happens to flood on a good high tide and is 99% white is at a low risk. Something is fishy here. I have not yet begun to fight on this issue. You can expect some letters to fly on this one.

And one last stressful thing has to do with family (children) and I prefer not to discuss it here. Let’s just say it has me totally stressed out and I can see why some animals eat their young and it's not because they taste like chicken.

I am trying to have a good day,
Greg