AUTHOR: Scott G DATE: 1:11:00 AM ----- BODY:

I hate insurance companies..

In the end everything worked out ok with ours, but not without some worries. Our estimate was for damages totaling $3712 and we got a check in the mail for $3212. I had spoken with the adjuster and was told I wouldn't have to pay a deductible or surcharge since it wasn't my fault. The letter with the check said they were still investigating liability and the deductible was being held until then. Immediately I call and ask what's going on. Apparently they wait weeks before investigating the accident when they said they already did all that stuff. The lady calmed me with "The deductible check was sent out yesterday" and two days later I got it. I can't complain too much now since it all worked out, but when Deb came in and told me at work that we got shorted $500 my heart sank. We really don't have a lump sum sitting around. I hate to say it, but we live paycheck to paycheck and we pay our bills. I'm thinking about getting another job. The one I work now was starting to get better and then it got worse. I'm stuck on the "self scanning" machines half of my week this upcoming week. I need to do something, but I want to wait and see if we get a loaner car while ours is being fixed. If not, I'm not walking to TWO jobs. I've just recently gotten an idea for the content of my site. I'm going to try and write some short stories and put them in here. I can't think of an easier way to post multiple stories without editing html often. I used to love writing imaginative stories in school and I've felt that after school my imagination has suffered and at one point it seemed to have disappeared. I feel it coming back, at least I hope so. I just need some starting points. Teachers would pose questions or topics and I'd go off wildly from there. In this case I need to make my own starting points and go off on my own again. I need to develop even more confidence in my writing too. I know there aren't a million people that read this, but I write things knowing that one person on any given day will stumble across what I've written and take a few minutes to read some of it. If I'm not confident enough to write it knowing people *might* read it, then I'll end up writing nothing. It's a pretty big step even having this blog, I'm not a very public person. Sure, in person I'm friendly and outgoing, but I don't bear my every thought to everyone. Tonight at work went well, but I'll find out just how well it went when I go in tomorrow or if I get a call in the morning. I closed the service desk alone for the first time and lottery balanced perfectly. I counted the cash by hand accurately and didn't make any mistakes. I was out of there by 10:10, which I think is pretty good. I'm starting to find some hidden gems on the internet. Streaming video at accuweather.com is very interesting, and pretty good quality. I just watched a 7 minute clip that went into depth about weather patterns over long periods of time and most of it made sense. Some of what they showed looked sketchy at such a small size, but it was still interesting. I like when I'm home and it's storming out. I go to Accuweather and look at the local radar and animate it to see it going over my area. It's pretty cool to look at, gives you a sense of perspective. Speaking of a sense of perspective, I'm understanding how some Charter internet (my ISP) users felt on DSLReports.com about lower upload speeds. To be honest, I took for granted the fact that I had a 768K upload and could transfer files to my ftp in a blink. All that came to an end earlier today when I rebooted the cable modem and saw it throttle down to 128K. That's pretty big difference, but now I have a reason not to share on Kazaa. I used to feel guilty and share my files, now I won't. Besides.. the RIAA is targeting individual users now, sharing "hundreds" of files. I have 325 on this computer. Like I need to be in a lawsuit right now. As if I didn't have enough worries about money. I'm not sure why I'm writing so much tonight. I'm just content sitting here with the music feeding me as I write. It's providing such great background music that I can't really hear myself type and I keep going. Maybe that's why I never type so much, I can't stand the sound? Who knows.. but if this keeps up I'll have a blog no one has time to read. Deb's working long hours tomorrow (1:30 to midnight) and I have just a few. I feel a little bad that she'll be there forever and I'll be in and out in the time she's working. Ah well.. she volunteered to work someone else's shift who was trying to get it off. She's got a bit of me in her now. I've worked long hours for the money (time and a half on Sundays) many many times. Right now Deb's reading old e-mails and she was asking me questions about e-mails I sent one or two years ago. Like I know what I meant on that day so long ago. I don't even know what she's talking about, and if I did.. would it matter anyway? I'm not one for looking back in time much. I like looking forward. Not to the bills I'll have to pay, but to things that'll happen later in life. One of those things is kids. I really want a house and kids. I see kids now as something I'm going to have and something I can easily deal with. It used to be "Oh, I could never handle those duties". Now it's clear that I'll be the greatest Dad. It's in my heart, that how I know. In my heart I want to be the best father. I'll teach my kids right from wrong and let them make their own decisions to a point. I don't mean letting them go off completely on their own at a young age, but in the end.. it's up to them. You can't be with your kids 24/7 and at some point they'll be faced with decisions. How they do with them is all up to how you raise them. If you raise your kids poorly and don't teach them how to make informed decisions for themselves.. they'll falter when it comes time. If you teach them right, nine times out of ten they'll do right. Of course there are still kids who let pressure get to them and make wrong choices, but you can work through that too. One thing I'm not going to be is one of those "because I said so" parents. One that'll answer their kids requests by just saying "because I said so". I'm going to tell my kids why I made the decision. If it's about getting the latest greatest toy, I'll tell the truth and say we don't have the money. I felt that being told these things, and having a real reason associated with answers helped me growing up. I knew why I wasn't getting that toy I wanted. If you tell a kid "because I said so" they resent for you unknown reasons. They see you as being a hard ass but not why. Isn't the child entitled to know why? I think so. It makes sense to me. Anyway.. I'm going off on odd topics now and I need to stop. Until next time... --------