Thursday, April 15, 2010

Astraphobic Enlightenment . . .

Lightning Strike
(Image from Wikipedia)

Cousin Bill tells me that my Aunt Pauline and Uncle Woodrow suffered a lightning strike to their house about a week ago. Some readers might recall them and their Ozark place from En-Uk's big fish story of last summer. Anyway, here are some of the details about the strike relayed from Aunt Pauline by Cousin Bill:
"We're running our legs off trying to get things back in order after the lightning strike on our house. It got the well, the furnace, all lights inside and out, computer, toaster, fire burned the ends of cabinets" -- said she couldn't think of all it got. They're cooking now at the "little house" [on their property.] The [big] house is smoke filled . . . [and they] "have been washing it and everything inside."
But they were very lucky, according to the experts:
"They told us we were within a few seconds of the house blowing up as fire was burning insulation off the gas line -- before Woody got the gas shut off. Knocked the transformer 75 feet off the yard pole, had glass broken, got the phone, light meter, and more."
That's enough to make one astraphobic! More from Bill:
They were asleep when it hit . . . . Pauline woke up . . . saw the fire in the kitchen area and started screaming . . . was finally able to awaken Woody and together they got the fire out. Said Woody has been going all week trying to get things fixed and another week to go. Adjuster hasn’t yet been out.
That reference to a mysterious 'Adjuster' leaves me hanging . . . sounds almost like some marvelous superhero, but I reckon it indicates someone from the insurance company. While we wait to be enlightened on that, let's listen to Aunt Pauline tell us about trying to awaken Uncle Woodrow to get him up and save their home:
I was screaming, "The house is on fire!"

Woodrow was saying, "Oh Pauline, I didn't hear a thing, lay down and go to sleep, you get so excited over everything."
And she got the last word in, too:
"We are thankful to be alive, guess my loud hollering done the trick."
It sounds like it did, and I'm glad that Aunt Pauline's words managed to convince a skeptical Uncle Woodrow and that the house will still be standing when I visit them this summer.

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8 Comments:

At 7:02 AM, Blogger Bill said...

Yep...Insurance Adjuster...and most times they aren't Superheroes! From previous dealings could offer a better description…but, don’t want to offend any readers.

Bill

 
At 7:09 AM, Blogger Horace Jeffery Hodges said...

I'll supply the missing noun: "Supervillain."

There, now, is that so terribly offensive?

Jeffery Hodges

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At 8:14 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

From my experience with insurance adjusters, their job is to try to save the insurance agency as much money as possible, and pay the home owner as little as possible.
If they can rip off the home owner, they get a big bonus, the size of which depends on the settlement.
However, all adjusters aren't that bad, and some try to make a fair assessment of the loss and reimbursement.

Cran

 
At 8:18 AM, Blogger Horace Jeffery Hodges said...

The only 'adjuster' that I'm familiar with is Mr. Incredible . . . definitely the superhero type.

Jeffery Hodges

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At 10:29 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

I'd hold off making any judgements concerning insurance adjusters - that is unless they're bulldoggers equipped with titanium hips and congregations.

One never knows when an extra dime is (or on) order.

I have always wondered though Cran, (and since Dr. Philosopher Hisory of Science Professor Hodges doesn't seem to get the 'self-admitted') Professor of Insurance Adjuster rather the 'nother:

Ever heard Cran, whether "a minister and an adjuster shall twain?"

JK

 
At 10:45 AM, Blogger Horace Jeffery Hodges said...

JK, you'll need to simplify that for my brain . . . but I guess you were writing for Uncle Cran anyway.

Jeffery Hodges

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At 8:55 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

In my experiences with insurance adjusters, if you politely but firmly state what you feel is a fair settlement, they will negotiate with you.
Maybe I set my claims too low, but I have pretty much settled for my original claim, in my few cases.
However, JK may have had other than satisfactory results.
But in my case, the adjuster and minister did meet.
Wasn't it Kipling who made the statement, "East is east and west is west, and never the twain shall meet."? (Whatever that means!).
I don't think he was referring to insurance adjusters.

Cran

 
At 10:54 AM, Blogger Horace Jeffery Hodges said...

Uncle Cran, it's a line from one of Kipling's poems, but he shows that they can meet.

Jeffery Hodges

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