It's Funny How Life Works

East Greenbush, NY

Do you believe in fate?

A year ago we're all at the Annapolis boat show. We love that place! It may be crowded, but we're from upstate NY - you never get to see so many sailboats, nor do you get to meet so many people with the same interests! Our kids love to jump from boat to boat, and we love honing in on what boat we're going to purchase for our big trip.

So we're at our hotel on Sunday morning - our second day of the show. It's a windy, rainy day, like so many boat show days tend to be. I'm watching the news and they are talking about the record breaking rain storms occuring in the northeast.

Now, we've never had a problem with the basement of our house before, but I called up one of our neighbors anyway. "Brett - could you go take a look at our house and make sure everything is OK?" He lets us know that he'll look at our house in an hour or so.

We go to the boat show. We're wandering around when Brett calls. "Dude - how did you know??" he says. "What?" I ask. "Your basement is totally flooded. You've got 10 inches of water in it and everything is floating around!"

Now I'm a pessimistic kind of guy. I immediately get upset and frustrated. "We have to go right away!" I say to my wife, Kristen. "Why don't we call the insurance company and have my parents look at the house" she replies.

I'm OK with that. We remember the name of the insurance company. It's Sunday. I try calling them about 10 times, and get hung up on by the automatic system about 11 times! At least that's the way it seemed. A myriad of buttons pushed, dozens of minutes of hold music, and I get hung up on. I swear I'll never do business with this home insurance company again!

I reach Kristen's brother (her parents are nowhere to be found). He'll head down right away. Our neighbor, who had his basement flood before, gives us the name of a place that can pump it, dry it and clean it. I call them up. "We'll be over soon" they say.

We decide to grab some food before we try the insurance company again. I was so frustrated and I needed a break. We had a wonderful brunch, and then I go try to call again. 5 more times, 30 more minutes, nothing. Kristen says "Let me try", so I do. One call, she's on the phone with the company.

I'll post more tomorrow!