I was going to make myself a second cup of tea, but decided to have a glass of wine instead. Why? Because I got asked one more time what I felt about the "recovery" from what happened here last year, tomorrow. Actually, if you go back in my posts, it started a few days before doomsday, but the official date Sandy made a mess of a lot of lives around here is October 29, which for me is still tomorrow, as I write this.
Here's how I responded to the question:
"If
you don't have the money to fix things yourself, you're up the
proverbial creek. Insurance is useless, the companies are only out to
rip you off for a huge premium, then deny everything when you need them
to pay for damage, then raise the premium for next year because you had a
claim (which they of course didn't pay, but that doesn't matter). The
fat idiot in the statehouse is running for president, he doesn't give a
darn for anyone who isn't in the 1% and giving him huge campaign
contributions. Everyone else assumes because we live at the shore,
we're rich - well, guess what? I live here because it was the only
house cheap enough for me to afford. And guess what else? This is the
only home I have. Which I can't sell, I can't afford to raise to some
standards noone has really determined yet, and I can't afford to walk
away from, because of what that would do to the possibility of ever
being able to buy another place to live (as in, totally wrecking my
credit). Recovery effort? I haven't noticed any on a level other than
my own sweat and money. And I'm trapped and f**ked over anyhow. Are we
having fun yet?"
Hence the wine. I alternate between feeling remarkably self-sufficient and astoundingly depressed and trapped. The frequency of alternation is some days very slow, and some days moment to moment. Yes, I could get counseling. It is offered for free during times I need to be working to pay for the fixing of the house. If I go to a pay for service counselor, my lousy health insurance doesn't pay anything, because 1. nobody who can actually see me is in the network, and 2. anyone in the network can't see me for at least a few months, and 3. the ones I've called to maybe make an appointment some months into the future find out what plan my insurance is, and tell me, "oh, we're not accepting THAT plan," in spite of it being listed on the website that they DO accept it.
So the insurance system, be it homeowners or health, is totally screwed. I'd like to opt out, please.
I know, that's not an option. I have to pay thru the nose for insurance that does nothing for me at all.
No. I'll be the first to admit, my car insurance came thru when I needed them. And the premium on the new car is not unreasonable. And they gave me a discount when I moved my homeowner's insurance to their company. Which is a TON of bucks cheaper than the old homeowner's policy, which denied I had any damage, after their first assessor decided I actually had a LOT of damage.
Flood insurance was reasonably responsive, too. Unlike what I hear from a lot of the people who used to live around here and no longer do because their houses are still wrecked and they can't get money to fix them. And don't even mention that the house is not your primary residence - then you are required to have it, if you have a mortgage, but it doesn't cover ANYTHING because the house is not your primary residence. How do you figure that???? Who invented that scam????
Mind you, I'm just blowing off steam here, so I can maybe get some sleep tonite.
The flooring for upstairs is maybe I hope being delivered tomorrow, it actually came earlier than expected, so maybe I don't have to pay the handy dudes to sit around waiting for it on Saturday. And maybe they can get it installed and actually finish the bulk of the work in time for Thanksgiving and the following holiday events, which we have a chance of having this year, as compared to last.
Tomorrow evening there is a free feed down at the firehouse, I guess so we can all reminisce about eating free food at the firehouse for close to two months last year. Not exactly a memory I would be anxious to celebrate. If they are having loud rock music, I will skip it. I don't LIKE loud rock music.
They are also planning to have a bonfire on the beach, which I REALLY don't think is such a good idea, with all the things that have been burning down all along the shore. They might wind up burning down those ugly new bigger and bolder beach clubs that weren't going to be allowed to rebuild. Not that I'd particularly miss them, they're just for 1%-ers who don't work for a living, instead tying up traffic so the people who live here can't go anywhere on weekends in the summer. But maybe they in their enhanced sizes might shift a bit of the property tax burden off of our backs. So they might have a bit of redeeming social value, but someone needs to show me that so I can stop hating them so much.
Meanwhile, back at the ranch....I had a pair of cats fighting under my back deck a while ago. Screeching and hissing and thumping under the wooden floor. Probably ferals, we have a ton of those lately. Or maybe they're homeless cats abandoned here when their houses got wrecked and their people couldn't take them to the shelters with them. A lot of the locals are still living in Ft Monmouth and wherever else, they can't come home yet. A year later.
This all really sucks. And people who have been thru disasters, personal or regional, tell me it can take years to get over it. They're not talking about the physical recovery, they're referring to the mental processes. I can believe it. And it will take longer due to the panic-mongering that happens afterwards. Any time it gets cloudy, they predict doom and destruction. So of course, for people who are already traumatized, why not play on their fears and make them totally basket cases?
Meanwhile, we have a fat-assed governor creep who is using us as a stepping stool to being elected president. Folks, he hasn't done a damned thing for any of us, except blow hot air and posture. His wife and his cronies are raking in millions that they have yet to disburse to anyone who needs it (for whom it was supposedly intended). And he has the chutzpah to come here tomorrow so we can congratulate him on how great a job of "leadership" he has done in the past year. I think I'll need a serious barf bag to go to the party tomorrow. Or duct tape, to keep my opinions to myself.
On that note, and having drained my wine glass, to bed I go. It's chilly and cloudy outside, not much humidity, and the hurricane symptoms are dashing themselves on the other side of the puddle this year. I hope the folks over there have a better time of it than we have. I don't envy them a bit.
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