MYOB

I'm not trying to bust on those of you who might actually like celebrity gossip. I have never been interested in the daily lives of those poor people. It may be that I did a lot of my growing up in LA where, yes, you do see the occasional celeb running around. I actually went to school with that chubby kid from Goonies. LOL it's sad I can't even remember his name. He was a super funny/cool dude to hang with who always wore crazy ball caps with clapping hands and weird faces on them. I never treated him like a celeb. He was just another kid I went to school with.

I was reminded of peoples need to see what the people on TV are doing in real life when I was in Tunica recently. There were a bunch of high rolling players in the same poker room I was in, and any time they were in a heated hand, play at my table stopped. I guess it's the glamour or the prestige that these rich/famous people have that draws us normal folk into their daily lives. When you put yourself in their shoes, it has to suck. L (my wife) and I were on the back porch smoking (yea we fell off the wagon) and discussing it the other night because she is a People/US reader.

"Don't you have to get a persons permission to publish their picture?" I ask because she used to take lots of pics in college.

"No." came the reply, "Once people become celebrities or politicians, their image becomes a matter of public interest." Now I can see the argument for the politician because they hold a public office but not for a person who just happens to make movies. The movie is for public consumption. Any other images are my personal life and none of the publics business.

I said "Imagine if we were a celebrity couple. We couldn't even sit here on the porch of our 3 acre property without some asshole snapping shots of us."

Every time you went to the grocery store to buy milk you would feel the need to get all glammed up. You would have to be careful in everything you did in order to avoid some paparazzi taking a picture of you and writing an article that put what you were doing out of context. Imagine if you were on the toilet in an airport and some moron was shoving his camera under the stall and firing off pics of you as you drop your bloomers. Driving down the street at night with flash bulbs going off in your face would be a challenge. I don't think I could take it. I would go ballistic at some point and hurt someone. It would suck to have all that wealth and feel like a prisoner because some freak wants to know what you had for breakfast.

The big blind is how much??!!!

Whew! It's been a fast moving couple weeks for me. Sorry for the lack of posts but I Just arrived back from a "guys only" trip to Tunica, MS. I had a great time. For those of you (LOL like someone is making the counter on the page go up besides me) who have never heard of Tunica, try to imagine about six casinos in a cow pasture and you get a pretty good picture of the place. It sounds awfully back woods, but I was actually impressed with the rooms, the casinos, and the prices. I originally had not planned on going on the trip for financial reasons, but I ended up changing my mind when one of my friends got me a buddy pass. Sixty dollar round trip tickets rule! The main reason I went was to test my metal against real poker players and see if I could hang. It just so happened that the WPT (World Poker Tour) was wrapping up the week before and the WSOP (World Series of Poker) was in full swing while I was in town, so there were some HUGE names out there. While I didn't play with any of the truly big boys, who were playing $500/$1000 no limit games in the same poker room I was in, I did play with some damn good players. It was a humbling experience for me. The learning curve was huge and I gobbled it all up. I lost a bunch at first and made a comeback in the end. Overall I went home lighter in the pockets but it was a blast.

Quit whining ya friggin Geek!

Could it be I already have run out of blog ideas? Not a chance. I've been really busy this week and haven't made time to blog. I want to try to perk up my blog a little bit. I finished reading the last few posts and it seems to me that, if I were reading this as a stranger, I would think this Glenn dude is nothing but a whiner. From this post forward I'm going to try to be on both sides of the fence instead of just pointing out things the seem to piss me off.

Lets start with my favorite activity. Flying planes. There is nothing like it. The freedom you experience in a 3D environment is incredible. The views are always breathtaking. It puts things in perspective while you're up there. You remember how small you are and how big the world can be. It's a roller coaster where you control the direction of the track. Like those negative Gs? You know the feeling when you're in a roller coaster and the car goes over the top of that little crest in the track? In a plane just just push the stick forward and...Presto, negative Gs. Pull back on the stick and get shoved into your seat. Flying makes the trip as fun as the destination. See something you like? Just point the nose in that direction and check it out. Even a slow plane will cruise at 100 MPH or so. Try doing that down the interstate and see what happens. Just hanging out at any small airport is Zen for me. Watching the planes take off and land. Mentally judging the landings of the pilots as they perfect their skills. Talking to the old pilots who perpetually seem to hang around the lobbies of flying schools and maintenance shops. It never gets old hearing the old salts talking about barnstorming, crop dusting, war stories, or just lessons they learned through the years. They are the ones you need to listen to. There is a saying in aviation, "There are old pilots. There are bold pilots. But there are no old-bold pilots." There is much to learn from the old timers. Flying is a complete assault on the senses. The sights, smells, feelings, chatter on the radio, and the challenge of mastering a stiff cross-wind landing. Anyone who can drive a car can fly a plane. The skill in piloting comes from absorbing all the intricacies of the act. The learning process never stops. You learn from books, other pilots, and experience. It's one of those activities where you can never know too much and never be too humble. You learn to respect mother nature and her fickle moods because she is always in control. You're a guest in her playground and she can be as sweet or bitter as any woman. I can't wait until I take the airplane I build with my own two hands to the air for the first time. Just thinking about it fills my wanderlust and brings peace to my being.

YOU WILL RESPECT MY ATHORITAAAA!!!

I almost was arrested yesterday. It was a normal morning. I'm in my car jamming out to some tunes trying to psych myself up for another day of tedium. I am the second car in line to make a left turn at the stop sign on to a one way street near a busy intersection. The white behemoth Suburban in front of me slides half way into the street in front of me and stops to let a few cars in the far lane of the one way street go by before he makes his turn. As he is making his maneuver I wait patiently at the stop sign. I'm looking to my right in anticipation of taking the first available opportunity to go. I see the Suburban make his turn. Nothing appears to be inbound from my right. I do have a small blind spot (I'm used to it because it's there every day) from the "DUI class" sign sitting on the sidewalk. When the way is clear, I tromp the gas in my little turbo powered terror and shoot out across the road behind the Suburban. As soon as I shoot out I see the damn cop who just happened to be in the blind spot behind the sign. The cruiser was a fair ways down the road. As soon as I completed my turn the blue lights came on. "Shit!" I exclaim to myself. I pull over immediately thinking the officer is going to get me for improper lane change because I shot across two traffic lanes in my little left turn maneuver. Looking in my mirror I see a female cop calling in her traffic stop from the Crown Vic. She saunters up to my drivers window and asks me the standard question.

"Do you know why I pulled you over?" I have an idea but I don't want to give her any ammunition so I answer with a snipey.

"I have no idea."

"You failed to stop at the stop sign." came the reply.

WTF?!? I replay the events in my head and realize I had no choice but to stop at the sign while Suburban boy decided he wanted to jostle his monster truck into traffic.

I say "I apologize officer, but I absolutely did stop at the sign."

"Sir you did not stop. I'll need your license." No please from her, she could tell I was pissed.

I whipped out my paperwork and gave it to her. I was already raving mad that the bitch pulled me over in the first place. Now I find out that she is making up the reason she did so and to top it all off I've just been ranting about over priced insurance on this blog. I'm going to be late for work and fucking steaming to boot! Someone tell me exactly what the fuck the damn cops are doing in their cars when they pull you over and it takes 15 minutes to write 3 lines on a damn form. After what seems like an eternity, the wench finally comes back with my license and my ticket.

"Sign here." she points to the prescribed spot, "Understand by signing that this is not an admission of guilt."

NO SHIT ITS NOT! My brain is screaming to blurt out. I somewhat get myself under control and refrain from spewing obscenities at the lady. I was not, however, able to keep mouth completely in check.

"Thank you for wasting my time and increasing my insurance rates for nothing." comes out of my mouth as she is half way to her car.

"You better cut it out or I'll arrest you!" she retorts.

Before I can stop myself, "For what? Jay-walking?" flies out of my pie hole.

"Obstruction!" comes the answer.

I can only come up with two reasons she gave me that ticket.

1 - She had to tap her brakes when I shot out in front of her.
2 - She was PMSing and needed a victim to take her frustrations out on.

I really dislike cops because there have been too many times they have pulled me over for no other reason that I can discern other than to harass me.

HEALTH

Part three of my insurance rant is a short one. All I have to say is that health insurance artificially inflates the cost of health care. When you go to the hospital and they charge you six dollars for an aspirin you know that money has to go somewhere. If you didn't have insurance you would be screaming bloody murder if they tried to charge that much. The only reason it costs so much is because people think "my insurance is covering it" and let it go. I feel for those that go bankrupt trying to pay over inflated medical fees. It saddens me to think some people have to choose between health and wealth. I'm lucky to have good, relatively cheap, health care.

HOME

To continue my insurance rant I must give a little back story. About three years ago my mother died of cancer. It wasn't unexpected, she had been suffering for around two years. We were all there to say goodbye when she went. It was the saddest day of my life. My little brothers, and my step father, who my mother had divorced several years prior to her death, were still living in my moms house. After she died, my step father was (more or less) put in charge of getting her affairs in order and continuing on since my mom had no will to speak of. We (us kids) decided that it was best for him to take over since he had seemed to redeem himself by sticking it out though the worst time of their often rocky relationship. So basically, he was to inherit the household. My mom, in spite of being the major bread winner, never had much money to put together. There was very little to divide up as far as money. It barely covered her burial. The only thing of real value she had was the equity in the home which still has several years worth to close out the mortgage. So my 26 six year old brothers and my 57 year old step father were to continue on without my mother there to mother them.

It turns out that all three really needed mothering. My step father was always a sort of um...flake. He was basically a big kid in a grown mans body. He was the last person who we should have put in charge of the situation. He was the least of three evils though. The twins were, in my opinion, a drain on my mom even towards the end. The worst of the two (I'll call him Twin1) never held down a job longer than two weeks in his life, and spends as much time in prison as out for drug related issues. The better of the two (Twin2) has a solid job as an electrician but spends all his off time in party mode. Twin2 just never grew up. In fact, up until the time of her death, never even had a checking account. He would just give my mom the money for his car payment and insurance premiums and she would write the checks. After my mother died, my stepfather inherited all these duties. I turns out he wasn't very good at keeping up.

About 6 months after my mothers death, Twin2 came home to a house that was a little more vacant than the one he left. He didn't notice it at first, but eventually wandered into my step fathers room and found it cleaned out. At first he thought it was Twin1 who went through and stole stuff for drugs as he had done in the past. After looking around, he found that it was all step fathers stuff that was missing. The safe my mom kept in the room (to keep Twin1 from stealing things from her purse) was left open. In the safe he found several opened envelopes all containing bills. Evidently, my step father hadn't been keeping up with his end of the bargain. All of the bills were unpaid. Good ol step dad had cut bait and run. This threw one hell of a wrench in the works.

None of us have ever heard from step dad again. We know he's still around because the mail delivered a couple things to the house since he left. A speeding ticket from Las Vegas and a tax form from a daily labor type work place in Arizona. Meanwhile, on the home front, there were some BIG problems. It turns out that step dad was several months behind on the house payments and hadn't paid Twin2s car note in a couple months either. My older brother and I were there to help financially as much as we could to bail Twin2 out. The problem was we couldn't help even though we wanted to. The mortgage company absolutely would not tell us how far behind we were in the payments because the house was still in my dead mothers name. We eventually called a lawyer (another group of scum-bags but I'll save that for a later blog) and all agreed to sign the property over to Twin2. We helped Twin2 when we could, and eventually he got back on top of things. I was secretly proud of Twin2 but I never got around to telling him. If he survives this next test I will definitely give him a good pat on the back.

OK now that the back story is filled in, let me get back to why I hate insurance companies.

They talk a big talk when they're trying to get your business by telling you that they're trust worthy and pay all their claims quickly. The truth couldn't be any further from the their hype. They will do everything in their power to get away with paying as little as possible and often nothing if they can get away with it. That's why they have fast claims adjusters. They get that dude out there as fast as they can to give you what you might think is a fair settlement in order to catch you off guard. Often they can seem as the white knight when you're in a situation where you have lost everything. The truth is they are just trying to catch you when you are at your lowest and get away with the minimum. So beware people. I speak from experience.

About a year ago, my moms house caught fire. Thank goodness a neighbor saw flames coming from the garage window or there is a good possibility Twin2, who was sleeping in his bed at the time, would be dead. She managed to bang on the front door till he woke up. By this time, the fire had spread from the garage to the dining room. It was already far beyond control. The fire department was already on the way but the interior and the roof of the stout brick ranch was pretty much gutted when they got there. Fast forward to the next day when my brother called the insurance company to tell them of the situation. They were very sympathetic. There would be an adjuster out to survey the damage the following day. The next day my brother is at the shell of a home that was my mothers only fiscal contribution to her four children. Reduced to ash were the personal pictures and other memories that were sentimental to us all. He waits patiently with the same smoky clothes he had on the day before because they are all he has. His cell rings (luckily he left that in the car) and on the other line is the insurance company. "We're sorry Mr. Twin2 but we are unable to process your claim because the policy was not in your name. No adjuster will be coming to your house today." The policy was still under my moms name covering the house that was now in his name. They weren't going to pay. We have to call the scum-bag (lawyer) back and here we fricking go again. Eventually the insurance company caved and agreed to pay the claim but now there are other issues. The damn company keeps sending checks out in the wrong name and now the contractors that are rebuilding the house say there might not be enough money to get the place done. Luckily my brother is an electrician so he's going to save a bundle by doing the electric himself. It looks like he might just make it after all. But not because the insurance was so easy to work with. Fucking thieves!

Auto

Auto insurance is required by law in every state. Liability insurance covers the other guy if I get in a wreck. Does this not seem stupid to anyone else but me? Shouldn't I be covering myself if I'm driving down the road in my car? Oh yea, I can buy that coverage too? Well why should I have to buy that coverage if the other guy has liability insurance? Oh, you mean he might not actually have insurance and still be driving around in a car? So let me get this straight...I have to have liability insurance by law but I also have to have additional coverage to protect myself and my assets in case the other guy doesn't abide by the law. It seems to me that if everyone just insured themselves and not the other guy there wouldn't need to be a law.

Here's a little food for thought. Lets say you get in a minor fender bender. Your insurance deductible is $500. The damage appears to be around $1000 which it will be if you scratched the other guys paint anywhere. What should you do?

A) Report it to your insurance company.
B) Just pay the damage out of your own pocket.

If you picked "A" you're an idiot. By the time you paid the deductible and the increased premiums in your insurance, you'll go way over the $1000. Lets not forget that your company may drop you as a customer just for being a higher risk driver.

Now lets recap the auto portion of our little lecture. I pay insurance to cover the other guy and myself. If I never use my benefits, I still continue to pay. If I ever actually need my insurance I better make damn sure I've nearly totaled the other dudes car before I call my company. After I call my company, they will drop me as a client because I'm a high risk now. Fucking thieves!

Preying on human nature.

I estimate that I've paid over thirty thousand dollars on something I've never used. There are some serious crooks in this world but few can legally, or illegally for that matter, take as much money from you as insurance companies. When I throw in all the premiums I pay (auto, home, medical), more of my hard earned income goes to insurance companies than income taxes. These people are stealing from the good people of the this country. Think about it. Insurance companies prey on human fear to steal your money.

The next three posts will be AUTO, HOME and HEALTH portions of my insurance rant.