Posts Tagged ‘insurance’
Does my insurance cover a collapse?
After I had finished digging out my driveway last weekend, I saw some of my neighbors tossing snow off their decks and I considered whether or not I should follow suit. My initial decision was negative. As predictions for yet another major snowstorm started to bubble up in the forecast, I started to think seriously about the possibility that my deck would collapse.
Now, since I’m not able to immediately lay my hands on the latest epistle from my insurance company outlining precisely what my coverage is, I finally decided on Monday to eat my Powdermilk Biscuits and do what needed to be done. My deck has a southern exposure and with the sun shining that morning, it was actually quite pleasant out there. I got most of the snow off — definitely to the point where there was no longer a danger of collapse — and then a funny thing happened:
All clear -- at least for 48 hours...
I hit wood. A little bit here and a little bit there, and then I started to see the possibility of the entire deck being cleared off down to the wood and I just kept going. The longer the remaining snow was exposed to the strong sun, and the more I kept shaving, the softer the icy/slushy stuff at the bottom got and the easier it got to keep going.
I suspect it is something like this that must happen in order to turn a wimpy runner into an ultra-marathoner.
Weekend Runs
I see absolutely zero possibility there.
I just hope the rec center opens again one of these days. Never thought I’d say it but… I need to run!
But I might need one of those bags one day...
Hoarders opened a new season Monday on A & E, and my hand is up to confess that it is “cannot look away TV” for me. My completely non-professional opinion about these people is that they can be divided into two categories — the ones who live in garbage, and the ones who form emotional attachments to things and are unable to throw anything away — thus… living in garbage. It’s people in this latter category that I find most interesting, possibly because I can relate to them on some level. One guy couldn’t throw junk mail away because it had his dead mother’s name on it, and he felt that if he threw the junk mail away, he was disrepecting his mother.
I’m certainly able to throw junk mail away, but I have to say I’m not sure how long I have to keep the papers my insurance company sends me every now and then to let me know what kind of coverage I have.
I’m pretty sure I can shred my cable bill as soon as I’ve paid it, but how long should I keep my bank statements? Yes, I know about the IRS recommendations and all that, but what I don’t know is how you organize your life so that you can then go back and FIND the bank statements from X years ago and dispose of them neatly once the timer goes off on X years having passed.
I went through the closet in my second bedroom last spring and found a box with old Christmas cards in it. Some went back almost twenty years, and since we’re being honest here, I have to admit quite a few of them were from people that I couldn’t remember any more. Somewhere between “Oh look, John and Mary sent a Christmas card!” and “Who on earth are John and Mary?” it is appropriate to trash these cards — but can you tell me exactly where that line is?
I didn’t think so.
From time to time I go through the cupboards under my bathroom sink and I don’t know how many of the Clinique bags I should reasonably keep. They’re handy little things, but do I need ten of them? Probably not. Having then decided I don’t need ten of them, how do I decide which ones stay and which ones go? What about the little shampoo and lotion bottles picked up from hotel stays? After all, they do come in handy when filling up the little plastic bags to take through airport security these days.
Trash — not trash. It’s not always a clear decision.
Weekend runs
If the weather forecast holds and there is “rain and snow” on Saturday, it will be a clear decision (for me at least) about not running.
My best bet this weekend is for Sunday – The Woods. Since it is an “out and back” run, it can be whatever length is appropriate to the mood. Let’s hope it isn’t slushy and nasty from the “rain and snow” on Saturday.
http://loudounroadrunners.org/maps/woods.pdf