A Very Good Day

Yesterday was a very good day. I wasn't able to accomplish all I had planned but that was only because I had created an unreasonable plan. I was still a very good day. One main element was a ride my sweet husband and I took. Our youngest son, who will be 20 in a few days, is back home for a time to make some bucks for school. He went with us.

We simply rode for about 2 1/2 hours - south to Mustang, west to Cogar, took the somewhat winding "Puppy Road" to Hinton, north to Rt 66, east thru Bridgeport, El Reno & Yukon, then south to our home. It was colder than we had anticipated though we had dressed very warmly. The sun was hidden for most of the trip and the surrounding countryside was to often blackened by previous fires. But, it was a good ride.

Riding, even in the cold, is such a great way to focus on today - the here and now. The sights, the fragrances, the play of light on the trees and grasses. It is easier, on a motorcycle, to feel a part of one's environment than it is in an enclosed vehicle. And, as the description of my blog states, life is all the more fulfilling when you are with those you love.

On our way back east along Rt 66, the sun came out of the clouds an made the world golden-hued. I was listening to music and would occasionally banter a bit with Matt. Nick was wired in to hear us, and they had their own music, but he could only communicate with movements and gestures (all were socially acceptable!)

When we pulled up at home, our dogs were ecstatic we had returned. Dogs always make homecoming something special. The only pictures I have are the ones in my head.

A very good day, indeed.

Share with me some of your good days.

Blizzard on the Gulf Coast

As many of you know, I am employed in the insurance industry. I have been watching, with horrified fascination, the legal environment in the after-math of Katrina. As expected, the Blizzard of 2006 is not snow but lawsuits, especially class-action lawsuits. And the only real beneficiaries will be trial lawyers.

I need to be very clear about this - what happened along the Gulf Coast and futher inland in those states was, and remains, a tragedy. I speak with people on a daily basis from Texas, Mississippi, and Louisana who have lost everything. I do think, as a society, we should do what we can to help. But...

I heard on the Glenn Beck Show some "highlights" from Mayor Nagin's remarks at a celebration for Dr. King's Day. Though there are many, many, points which could be made, I want to comment on a combination of two. He said God was mad at America -that He had sent the hurricanes because of that, then later said New Orleans would be majority African-American because it was what God wanted. Glenn then said if there was anything God was trying to say through all of this it was, "Move to higher ground!"

As I said on another blog soon after the storms, if you live in areas subject to hurricanes, you live with the threat of flooding - buy home owners insurance and buy flood insurance. If you can't afford those coverages, and you have a choice - move. Many of those filing lawsuits are living in those high-risk flood areas because they want to live close to the water. Fine, but you have to take the bad with the good.

Instead of using common sense, these residents, including Sen. Trent Lott, are filing lawsuits to force the insurance companies to pay for losses that were not covered, that were clearly excluded in the policies they purchased. Flood and wind-driven water (storm-surge) for coastal homes are not just a possibility but a certainty. Insurance for certain loss exposures is either incredibly expensive or unavailable. An annual premium, even a large one of several thousand dollars a year, would not be adequate to insure a coastal home if storm-surge were a covered peril. Simple math - a total loss on a $2m home (including personal property, loss of use, etc...) would be $2m-$3 m on structure (replacement cost) plus at least $1.6m for the other coverages, not including scheduled personal property - a total approaching $4m. Imagine the premium were even $20,000 per year - it would take 200 years of premium to break even on one home - in a flood zone, the loss is exponentially astronomical. Now, if the homeowner wanted to pay $200,000 premiums per year for 20 years, well... That is why the insurance industry is only in the flood business as a conduit for the government and that is why the government limits the amount of flood insurance that can be purchased.

We have to put aside the emotion and find a way to help those affected without exacerbating the potential for a repeat disaster by forcing insurance to pay for uncovered, uninsurable risks.

Ah, so that's the password to update my blog...

Actually, I cannot lie; I've known all along what my password was. I have simply not updated. Not because there is no news - news I got, time, well, that is at a premium.

I have no new pictures but hope to have some soon. My sweet husband will soon be buying a new camera so I hope to share some fresh pics. Unfortunately, it may be picutures of charred landscapes and the smoldering remains of buildings unless we get some serious rainfall.

Please, don't give up on me. I will write again but for now I must sleep. Tomorrow is work - then, tomorrow evening my friend, Cindy, and I are going to the Bon Jovi concert. We are co-workers and, many would say, partners in crime. :-) She won the tickets for selling the most policies in the first half of the month and I get to go because, well, I was her moral support. I wasn't the top seller, but I am in the top ten. It's funny, really. We are both old enough to remember when they were popular the first time around. I will be taking a camera so, if I can figure out how to use it and if any are worthwhile, I will share.

My thought, before I sign off is an interesting quote one of my bosses shared with our agents -
The dictionary is the only place where success comes before work - Mark Twain.