Save me!

Friday, June 13, 2008

I am finally validated! This morning a client told me I gave good directions! I almost fainted from the shock! I'm the person who has no idea what direction they are going on five of the six interstates in our metropolitan area. And honestly, the one I do know, I have to stop and think about it before I can even say if I am going East or West. And basically the only way I know is for me to ask myself if I'm heading towards Memphis or Oklahoma. Sad, huh? And that isn't even the interstate I travel everyday! The scary part is I have to give directions to clients ALL THE TIME. It's a miracle they don't curse my name as soon as they walk in the door.

And on an even scarier note; as if I needed another reason NOT to watch Fox News. The idea of hearing this man speak to America as a political commentator makes me gag.

The battle

Friday, April 18, 2008

As if the tornado damage wasn't enough we now have the insurance company ripping us a new one.

Apparently, we do not have a replacement policy, only an actual cash value policy. Let this be a lesson--go read your homeowners policy right now. You need both.

The agent who sold us the policy said we had both. The adjuster said we didn't. Depressingly, the adjuster was right. So now they are paying us half of what they estimate it will cost to repair all of our damages.

Who the fuck knew you could depreciate the cost of labor? You can in Arkansas. Believe me I've already checked with the insurance commission. So basically they can screw us all they want and all we can do is smile and take it.

This tornado has taught me two things.

1) I'm truly blessed to have all that I have-family, shelter, insurance, etc.

2) You should have complete comprehension of you insurance policy-what is has and what it lacks.

Ok and maybe a 3rd.

3) You can add, "and there it was coming over the hill like a freight train," in a hickish accent to ANY conversation and I will laugh my ass off.

Lucky

Monday, April 07, 2008

Thursday night was a very lucky night for us. R & I were in the living room just before 9:00 p.m. when we saw that there was a tornado warning for the next county. R got up and said we needed to take the animals and head to her sister's. I honestly thought we should wait it out but I said nothing and just helped get everyone out the door.

We stepped out the door to tornado sirens. We traveled to her sister's who lives a mere 1 1/2 mile from us.

We watched the television at her sister's; constantly vigilant to hear about any rotation. No news channel was breaking in with severe weather updates so we assumed all was clear. One news channel said the storm was in an area well past our home so we prepared to head back. Just as we were preparing to leave we got a call from a close friend asking if we were ok. She said she heard on the news that a mobile home park near our home was hit by a tornado. We of course knew nothing of this.

We gathered the animals and headed home. We turned on our road but we were stopped short just two homes away from ours. Power lines and downed trees were blocking the road. We couldn't even see our place because of the trees. We could smell something burning. The people gathered in the road couldn't see any further than we could.

We had no idea if our home was even standing. Needless to say I freaked the fuck out.

After making several inquiries into the condition of the neighboring streets we decided to go the back way to our house. It was probably the most agonizing few minutes of my life. We finally made it to our home to discover it was in fact still standing and while there was some damage, it was in pretty good shape.

We checked on neighbors and assured the firemen we were ok. We decided to stay elsewhere due to reports of the possibility of more severe weather headed our way and we wanted to wait until we could asses the damage in the light of day.

We checked into a local hotel with the animals. We spent most of the night watching the news to see if we were going to be hit by more bad weather. I think we slept a few hours.

We were back at the house early Friday morning. The damage looked worse in the light of day but compared to the damage of others in our area we were incredibly lucky.

We didn't lose a single tree unlike many of our neighbors. We lost only one big limb. A big limb that ended up on the other side of the tree instead of landing on my car as it should have.

Our insurance adjuster was out Friday afternoon and she said we should be expecting a check this week.

The video of the tornado being used by local and national media was taken at a dealership less than three miles from our home.

The mobile home park that was severely devastated is maybe a 1/4 mile from us.

We could have been hit so much harder than we were and truly so many things should have gone differently such as leaving the house when we did to coming back when we did.

We were truly lucky in all of this.

Good

Saturday, April 05, 2008

Well, just a quick note. We did get hit by the tornado. Luckily we had ample time to take cover so we are all ok.

Our home took some damage. We are estimating about $5,000-$6,000 worth of damage. We won't know a final number until next week. We were truly lucky in all this.

I'll have a better post next week. Right now we are downright exhausted and we still have a bit of clean up and damage mitigation to do.

Lucky

Wednesday, February 06, 2008

We made it through the bad weather unscathed.

Unfortunately many of our fellow Arkansans and Mid-Southerners did not.

The last count I heard was 24 dead across Arkansas, Tennessee & Kentucky.

Updated: According to this story there are 48 dead throughout Arkansas, Tennessee, Kentucky & Alabama.

We truly were lucky in this.

We watched the squall line get closer & closer until it was on top of us and our satellite signal went out. Even though it looked big and massive the worst part was way North of us and our portion of the storm lasted a mere five minutes and we escaped with no damage at all.

Many people were not as lucky.

Many thoughts and prayers for those around us who weren't as lucky as we were.

Fostering love

Tuesday, January 29, 2008

This story makes me ill.

Arkansas' foster care system is seriously broken. There is a desperate need for good (major emphasis on the good) foster parents. There are way too many kids in facilities and group homes because placement can't be found in the foster homes we have now.

Kids are being shipped all over the state to foster homes or facilities in far away counties because it's very, very hard to find placement for kids especially in the larger counties.

And yet this group wants to deny unmarried couples living together (read: gays & lesbians) the right to foster/adopt children.

Forget that there is a major need.

Forget what's in the best interest of the children.

Forget that a lot of us are more than capable of providing care for these children.

According to this group you should ignore all these things and focus solely on "a 'homosexual agenda' in Arkansas."

The article states, "there is an agenda at work in other states that's being driven by the homosexual community, an agenda that uses children in foster care or waiting to be adopted. He said his group doesn't believe children should ever be used by a particular group to advance an agenda."

First, what the fuck is a homosexual agenda?

Seriously. I'm not being purposely obtuse; I just don't fucking understand what a homosexual agenda is.

Second, isn't this group doing exactly what it is accusing this homosexual agenda of?

Aren't they just throwing around a bunch of vague accusations against some alleged group in hopes that the people of Arkansas will vote to deny gays and lesbians yet another right in this state?

By doing this aren't they using the children in foster care to further their own goals?

The news this morning said that this initiative would ban over half the people in Arkansas from fostering/adopting.

Wow.

What a great way to ensure there is a permanent foster home shortage.

What a great way to keep this system utterly and hopelessly broken.

Save me

Monday, November 19, 2007

I am so not looking forward to the barrage of campaign ads that will soon be appearing on t.v. and radio. I get so sick of the lies and mud that get flung about during these ads and along the entire campaign trail.

However, this morning I heard about an ad put out by Arkansas' own Mike Huckabee. With that being said I hereby bring you my 1st WTF?! moment of the day:

Huckabee's first ad

I have to say it is the goofiest campaign ad I ever remember seeing. On one hand, it is so bizarre it makes me question Huckabee's sanity. On the other hand, I'm sure it will generate a lot of traffic to his website, which is the ad's goal.

Anyone else think it's weird?
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On an unrelated note, my hometown, Memphis, ranked #8 on the (controverted) list of most dangerous cities in America. You can find the list here. Arkansas only represented with Little Rock, which was #13.
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On yet another unrelated note, Mondays suck.