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Jul. 28th, 2009 08:28 pm
Always something
Last night, I told one of my bar buddies I had "rough day" ahead of me. I didn't know the half of it!
It was the workday I was dreading; ironically, that ended up being the least of my problems. The first ugly surprise took the form of a call from my insurance agent, who told me I was "delinquent" on a bill I never received. Apparently, the price she quoted me when I paid the balance in full for our new place over the phone was only an "estimate", and one which turned out $28 short. When I told her I'd pay that immediately, she informed me the charge would be for $117. Huh?
It took ten minutes of wrangling to figure out that amount contained a $10 late feel and the July installment on our renewal (for which we likewise have received no bill), which of course isn't effective until...the end of August. Yeah, doesn't make sense to me either. I had to fight her to get the late fee taken off, I had to fight her to pay only the delinquent amount, I had to fight her to look into why our premiums jumped nearly 9%. At some point, I asked myself, What the fuck does she get get paid for? No matter what I asked about, I was fobbed off with "That comes from the head office." Okay, then, let me deal with the head office. At least if I'm going to fight with someone, let it be with someone who can actually do something.
Long story long, I'm in the market for a new agent/insurance company. Someone who doesn't consider the fax a cutting-edge technology and has actually heard of e-mail would be ideal, but at this point I'll settle for someone who can do their job with minimal competence. Recommendations?
The second ugly surprise was an apology from our crazy neighbour for pruning some tree on the property. Apparently, she got quite a talking-to from one of the landscape committee members. At first, I couldn't figure which plant she meant; once it occurred to me that it must be the gorgeous smoketree in the backyard, I knew I had to get home soon and see for myself.
Every bit as bad as I expected. One entire side was essentially hacked off in the stupidest fashion imaginable. (One branch was denuded of all its growth and yet still left on.) Never mind that anyone with the least clue knows that this is the absolute worst time to do any pruning. I made a point of fertilising the tree and giving it a good soaking, but we're still worried that the shock may, if not kill it outright, at least take even more of a toll on what's left.![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
monshu and I were livid. That one plant has been the source of more pleasure to us than almost any other. Few things around us are has lovely as the look of its purple leaves when lit from behind by the rising sun, and certainly nothing we can view from our porch can compare.
But if we were livid, our next-door neighbour was ultraviolet. He told us how he planted it himself nine years ago and, furthermore, how it had finally recovered from a bad pruning job three years ago--and that assault wasn't even grits compared to this. No one can imagine what Crazy Neighbour was thinking and any one of us would ring her neck if she dared come out of hiding. She really deserves a post of her own; over the past several months, she's gone from "quirky" to "irritating" to "WTFF". Someone needs to stage an intervention, but it damn sure isn't going to be us.
Pile up all these stresses together and what do you get? That's right! A fight with my boyfriend! I guess we were overdue; I was just musing the night before last on how long it's been since he's had one of Those Moods--which is nothing short of miraculous given the year he's had so far. He's so stressed at work that he's planning a week off next month and then there's this heat and humidity--nothing much by Midwestern standards, but hell for a Californian like him. All it took was one false step in a heated discussion of the insurance and BOOM! Suddenly I knew he wouldn't be speaking to me for the rest of the evening.
I think I need some BBC comedy to soothe my soul before I can crawl into bed.
It was the workday I was dreading; ironically, that ended up being the least of my problems. The first ugly surprise took the form of a call from my insurance agent, who told me I was "delinquent" on a bill I never received. Apparently, the price she quoted me when I paid the balance in full for our new place over the phone was only an "estimate", and one which turned out $28 short. When I told her I'd pay that immediately, she informed me the charge would be for $117. Huh?
It took ten minutes of wrangling to figure out that amount contained a $10 late feel and the July installment on our renewal (for which we likewise have received no bill), which of course isn't effective until...the end of August. Yeah, doesn't make sense to me either. I had to fight her to get the late fee taken off, I had to fight her to pay only the delinquent amount, I had to fight her to look into why our premiums jumped nearly 9%. At some point, I asked myself, What the fuck does she get get paid for? No matter what I asked about, I was fobbed off with "That comes from the head office." Okay, then, let me deal with the head office. At least if I'm going to fight with someone, let it be with someone who can actually do something.
Long story long, I'm in the market for a new agent/insurance company. Someone who doesn't consider the fax a cutting-edge technology and has actually heard of e-mail would be ideal, but at this point I'll settle for someone who can do their job with minimal competence. Recommendations?
The second ugly surprise was an apology from our crazy neighbour for pruning some tree on the property. Apparently, she got quite a talking-to from one of the landscape committee members. At first, I couldn't figure which plant she meant; once it occurred to me that it must be the gorgeous smoketree in the backyard, I knew I had to get home soon and see for myself.
Every bit as bad as I expected. One entire side was essentially hacked off in the stupidest fashion imaginable. (One branch was denuded of all its growth and yet still left on.) Never mind that anyone with the least clue knows that this is the absolute worst time to do any pruning. I made a point of fertilising the tree and giving it a good soaking, but we're still worried that the shock may, if not kill it outright, at least take even more of a toll on what's left.
monshu and I were livid. That one plant has been the source of more pleasure to us than almost any other. Few things around us are has lovely as the look of its purple leaves when lit from behind by the rising sun, and certainly nothing we can view from our porch can compare.But if we were livid, our next-door neighbour was ultraviolet. He told us how he planted it himself nine years ago and, furthermore, how it had finally recovered from a bad pruning job three years ago--and that assault wasn't even grits compared to this. No one can imagine what Crazy Neighbour was thinking and any one of us would ring her neck if she dared come out of hiding. She really deserves a post of her own; over the past several months, she's gone from "quirky" to "irritating" to "WTFF". Someone needs to stage an intervention, but it damn sure isn't going to be us.
Pile up all these stresses together and what do you get? That's right! A fight with my boyfriend! I guess we were overdue; I was just musing the night before last on how long it's been since he's had one of Those Moods--which is nothing short of miraculous given the year he's had so far. He's so stressed at work that he's planning a week off next month and then there's this heat and humidity--nothing much by Midwestern standards, but hell for a Californian like him. All it took was one false step in a heated discussion of the insurance and BOOM! Suddenly I knew he wouldn't be speaking to me for the rest of the evening.
I think I need some BBC comedy to soothe my soul before I can crawl into bed.