DORA'S POLITICAL BLOG: July 2009

With Murphy's Law - that is!

After being hit with a storm of (huge) hail this past April and hoping our roof would have sustained no damage, we were proven wrong. That lone discovery by the inspector would begin a series of events that few or none would believe unless one personally experienced it all like we have. Sara and I agreed that we may not believed it ourselves had it happened to someone else. Perhaps, more than not, this will remind us both to be more accepting & lenient with other people when they tell us stories that would almost seem too fallacious in reasoning for us to believe.

Let's start with said eventful "storm of hail" back in April.

Saturday, April 11th, 2009: The city of Midland was surprised by an ominous thunderstorm which also included some pretty big hail. Some were the size of golf balls and a few were the size of baseballs. Sara picked some up and stored them in freezer bags and stored them away to freeze. All of which would have made for a good story with "show and tell" antics to display except our fridge of 5 years happened to die on us right when the warranty ran out. So - our tangible part of the hail storm story did thus die as well leaving nothing but water droplets on our kitchen floor and just the semantics to mention in occasions to follow.

The next day we reviewed the damage to the yard and saw signs of probable damage to the roof. So come Monday, we placed a call to our insurance company. An Indepedent Inspector was scheduled and he came over quite promptly in the next few days to follow. My Mom was here during that particular week to keep appts with her Rheumatoid Arthritis Specialists whom has been treating her dermatomyositis. I clearly remember her stay with us because I was being pulled so many different ways in trying to set my own schedule for interviewing roofing contractors, interviewing with recruiters for jobs I had applied for, and in trying to keep my own dr's appts. After interviewing with over 5 roofing contractors, I did narrow it down to three. A good choice I thought until I saw how much more $$$ they each wanted to further obtain from my insurance provider. Not unusual for them to do, but it did worry me a little because of premiums which might increase. Long story short with interviewing & deciding on one roofing company...I chose the one that other family members had picked. The owner was a nice gentleman.

The problems began when my insurance company issued out the checks to both me, as the home owner, and to my mortgage company. BTW - the roofing company was not able to acquire more $$$ for the roof, but I do feel that the amount they (insurance) sent was a good sum as did others when I investigated the matter further. It was actually two amounts to cover 1) the replacement of the roof on our home along with the shutters & some siding on the eaves and on the facade above the brick line and 2) the roof of the storage building/workshop in the back yard.

The mortgage company sent me paperwork and I endorsed the checks to them to place in an escrow acct to begin work. All of this occurred within a span of 60 days. Yes, 60 long days! Our mortgage company was a royal pain in the neck to work with; I believe it was because they had just merged with the mortgage company who had just taken over for the original mortgage company. That's right, this was the third mortgage company to handle our note. To add, they are the worse ones in ways I will not blog about right now.

We are now in mid-June and the roofing contractor has still been unsuccessful in negotiating with anyone at the insurance company (or the mortgage company). I have been in contact with the contractor on a regular basis, and I never did feel nervous about our deal as a contract had been signed so obligations going forward between us were pretty much set in stone. The mortgage company had still failed to send me back more paperwork until we (Sara & I) called and they say that no escrow acct needed to be set up and that they would just issue me out new checks to place in my own personal banking acct so that work could begin. Duh...

Almost a week into the month of July, the mortgage company-issued checks arrive. But to my chagrin, the checks are issued out to not just me, but to the roofing contractor. The checks were underwritten by Chase Bank, but they refused to cash them unless me and my contractor were both in attendance and one of us had an acct with them. I had to wait a couple of days to try our own bank (Bank of America - BOA). In the meantime, I made contact with the roofing contractor and he decided to begin work on Friday (07-10-09) since he would not charge until the jobs were finished. That would give me time to deposit the checks and for them to clear.

Nope...that arrangement went wayward because...

Thursday, July 9th, 2009: "the fateful day does begin with Murphy laughing his ass off at me the entire day"...

1) My bank stated that the way the checks were issued out to me and to a company, we needed the owner to verify things in person along with a rubber stamp to denote his company name. Both of us showed up at the main branch and still "no go" even after the teller took the situation to two big wigs (I will refrain from writing down what I really think they should be called) . They further added that since Chase was the bank on the check, we needed to take it to them. Even though I replied with a rather lengthy & detailed account of what had already happened when I tried doing that a couple of days earlier, they said they could not help me out. I called my mortgage company as well hoping that maybe they had messed up by placing both parties on the checks and maybe they would re-issue them to just me or to the contractor. "No GO" - again! The mortgage company said it was pretty routine to issue checks like that to a homeowner and to the contractor, and for me to try cahsing them again at another BOA or a Chase branch or another bank. I said to the lady (the very, very, very ignorant & sometimes condescending & gleeful witch)...I have already tried that.

Long story short on trying to cash the checks, my contractor went ahead and agreed to open up an acct over at Chase. That seemed to have appeased all the vulture-like, bottom-feeders at Chase. Things were going well except that my contractor did not have his DBA papers. So, that put things in my corner to open up a lone acct which I hesistated in doing since I have been a 12 year member of the banking community over at BOA; a happy and satisfied member -might I add- regardless of current events with the mortgage checks which was the fault of my insurance company and of the mortgage company and not of BOA. Besides, I cringed at the credit check and what it does to one's FICO score. All went well and I was on my way to opening up a "temp" checking acct with Chase so my contractor left me there in anticipation of all things going well with said checks. Before he left, the new accts banker informed me that my Texas D.L. had expired, and he could not do anything until I returned with a renewal document. It was 3 PM so I had 2 hours to drive over to the DMV to renew my dl and to return to Chase.

I stood in line at the local DMV for the required time that the DMV jerks at some point in time - in some secluded meeting somewhere decided would be long enough to drive a sane person mad and a nice person bad! When my time arrived, I was informed that after having my dl data scanned, there was a problem with it. I was denied my dl renewal and only given some screwed up phone number to call to find out what the problem was. After calling the number the DMV person gave me - all the while Sara & I are sitting outside the DMV office under the hot, blazing sun - I get referred to several other offices all located in San Antonio, Texas. Yes, SA, the city I used to adore and to yearn for, yes, they duped me into not just one charge of "FTA" (failure to appear) but two FTA's. Both some sort of traffic ticket dating all the way back to 1993. I did not officially change my address until 1995 so there were at the least 18 months for the city to inform me of said tickets. Not to mention that I was never that negligent to ignore one ticket much less two. I do admit I did get at least 2 tickets (3 at the very most) the entire 7 or more years I lived there, but I always took care to settle them in court as instructed, and I always had the option of traffic school to waive them off for insurance reasons. I deny that they were never settled; I would never have left town knowing of such pending offenses. I know 100% that I took care of business in that regard. As a law abiding and law fearing person, I would never do such a thing.

Now I only have two options. 1) Hire an attorney, which I do plan on interviewing with sometime this week at the earliest time possible, probably one I have worked with in the past. 2) Drive to SA and meet a judge in person and either make him believe that it was their office that screwed up and incorrectly cited me with such unpaid offenses or he will unjustly make me pay the fines. I never do mind paying my debts, but they need to be valid ones and these two traffic tickets are not valid to me. 16 years later they (city of SA) wants to charge me with FTA of two tickets which by law in Texas, makes me guilty because of failure to appear. How stupid. Even if they are not mine or if some drunken city worker accidentally hit the wrong key on some stupid computer keyboard making them go from "paid" to "unpaid", it is going to be difficult for me to prove otherwise. I have no tangible documentation of paying such tickets. It is too long ago for me to have kept any kind of proof. I do usually keep up to 10 years worth of data for obvious reasons but 16 years...come on, give me a freakin' break. Also in the retarded state of Texas, there is no statute of limitations for traffic tickets and it has been noted on various legal web sites and on several blogs that the city of SA has made it a point to go all the way back to the year 1988 to recup money due on unpaid tix.

At the end of this stupid on-going game with the city I used to love, I will either get thrown in jail (as I have more time on my hands lately than $$$-ha,ha) or pay a couple of fines for tix I do not owe on because no judge ever believes a defendant esp when said defendant's fines total to over $400 or $500. Yep, that is how much I am being required to unfairly pay. In a time when money is rather scarce and jobs even more rare, I am being hung out to dry by a city that seems unable to get their act together. Nevermind that in the 16 years prior to this wrongful accusation, I have been able to renew my dl at least 4 times with no problem. I have undergone extensive background checks at least 5 times in my life 1) for the privilege to become a volunteer for Special Olympics 2) for major insurance coverage 3) for my district manager position 4) for the honor of being accepted into the Adopt-a-Highway program to get my family the route in honor of my nephew Philip 5) for obtaining my Texas Insurance License. How in the world did this mess get overlooked that entire time (rhetorical question). Seems nightmarish in reviewing it, but I will get through this. Tougher times have plagued me and my family and through the odds, we have always endured and come out better than okay. Maybe this is another one of those quirky tests which life tends to throw our way from time to time. I have never run away from these kind of tests. Usually they come my way every 10 years. I have only to tighten my belt buckle, grit my teeth, and meet the issues face to face and give it everything I have. I aim to have things settled soon so that my dl can be renewed and so that I can have a clearer picture of where I am supposed to be and doing what the karma gods chose for me to do some 43 years ago - because apparently - I have merely been coasting by on someone else's ship. It's time to climb aboard my own ship for to be at the helm of it so that when rough tides do once again hit the waters of my life, this captain will always be at the ready.