The kids are out of school today to celebrate Martin Luther King Jr. #1 son has only been excited because it means he doesn't have to go to school. This morning he woke up & he was confirming there was indeed no school today. Here's the conversation:
son#1: "No school today. It's Martin Lubber King Jr day."
me: "That's right."
son#1: "We love Martin Lubber King Jr."
me: "Yes we do. You do know he's dead though right?"
son#1: "He is?"
me: " Yeah he lived quite awhile ago. What DO you know about Martin Luther King Jr?"
son#1: "He was a President?"
me: "Nope--a preacher."
son#1: "Well, Martin Lubber King Jr wasn't allowed to do things other people were. He wasn't allowed to eat Doritos like the other kids. He couldn't even eat any Classic Lays. He had to eat the black* and green* ones. They were very mean to him. And now, because of Martin Lubber King Jr, I can eat the yellow Lays or any other color if I want. But I don't like the sour cream and onion. And I'd be sad if I had to eat them and not the Classic Lays."
me: "Yeah he wasn't allowed to do a lot of the same things other people were because of the color of his skin. Martin Luther King Jr was someone who fought for civil rights."
son#1: "I know. I said I don't have to eat the sour cream & onion if I don't want to."
me: *sigh*
*black Lays--BBQ
*green Lays--Sour Cream & Onion
Monday, January 19, 2009
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
So Are the Days of Our Lives
I have plenty to be thankful for today, but instead I'll just give you the drama we had around here last week.
What you need to know beforehand is Hubbo was in a car accident March of 08. One rainy night turning into our subdivision, someone rear ended him. He was fine, we took pictures but unfortunately I had to spend a lot of time hounding Progressive (the lady that hit him's insurance) that we wanted to get our car fixed, not total it out. And we did accept a settlement from them, got our car fixed & moved on--after much hassle.
After Christmas we realized we never got our card in the mail saying we needed to get our car tag for 09 on the car. Hubbo comes home worried one night thinking it has to do with his car accident. I start to worry. I called tag agency in our town thenext morning and they said just bring in insurance card. Then I start to worry that maybe the non-English speaking lady didn't understand the issues. It IS complicated. So I wait & call back after lunch. SAME LADY. She runs my license plate # & says it's junked, can't drive it, can't sell it, can't get tags. "Park it, you no drive anymore."
I called our State Farm agent because I knew she spoke English & I could explain everything to her. She checks with someone, comes back & says get Progressive to give us a letter saying it's repaired/salvaged, take it to OK Tax Commision & get new tag.
I call Progressive girl Amber we worked with before, she says she doesn't know. Calls a tag agency they work with, says it IS junked. Can't get title, drive it, tag etc. Say I COULD call Tax Comm & explain & see what they say the options are. But offers if we have to get rid of it b/c we can't drive it, they'd pay us $479 for salvage & come get it. Said we can't even trade it in when we go get a new car/mini-van. Lovely. The car looks brand new. No dents, no cracked glass anywhere. We've BEEN driving it since March of 08!
So I just called Tax Commision they say IF, Progressive made a mistake on the percentage of totaled (60-79% is salvage, over 80% of the value of the car is junked--ours 81% ) car, then send a letter saying that to us. We could then take letter & car to tag agency, they inspect car, give new tag. Otherwise, if Progressive says it's STILL 81% then it's junked & we can't drive it when tag expires at end of Jan. Even though it runs, no duct tape, has heat/air and looks fine.
We've been waiting to get a second car until after we find a house. We've been searching for the house since May. We knew if we got a second car beforehand, it'd be on our credit and with our student loans (thanks Harding!) on there, we don't need ANY help weighing on our credit to get home loan. So now it looked like barring a miracle, we'll HAVE to get a new car before the end of January. Again, barring a miracle or $10-15,000 somewhere dropping out of the sky...I was thinking 2009 was off to a rocky start for us.
Okay---so the next day I spent the entire day on the phone AGAIN. This time I got some higher up people and made some progress.
I got ahold of The OK Insurance Comm. who sent me back to the OK Tax Comm. There I got ahold of a nice woman that told me that this all didn't sound right, and she asked to call in a higher up. I said BE MY GUEST! I'm not sure how high up she went.
I was on hold a good 5 minutes. Kent (the higher up) comes on the phone and already knows the story. Which I thought was nice of her not to make re-tell it for the millionth time in two days.
He says he understands completely because in Nov of 2008 a law was passed being more specific about what "junked" means in our state. So NOW, he at the Tax Comm had big problems because in two months he had accumulated two huge stacks of cases from Progressive Insurance. He said they were cases like ours where the cars were not totaled & if repaired, were driveable but couldn't get tags because they were labeled junked. That those should be given a letter to get a "Salvage for Title". With that we can't sell the car, but we can get a tag & drive it. Which is all we wanted!
Kent hadn't been able to get ahold of this Rebecca from Progressive that signs off on them all in two months. No one at Progressive wanted to give out her extension number. Apparently she gives a 1-888 number but no extension which he says is the polite way of saying, "Just TRY & get ahold of me." Kent said if I could get ahold of Rebecca at Progressive, we could all talk & he thought he could make her see the error of the way they were doing things. He was anxious to work with me since it meant clearing off stacks of cases off his desk. And he'd been trying to catch her for two months.
Thanks to my sister-in-law, I got what I thought was Rebecca's number but turned out to be Amber's at Progressive--the agent we'd been working with for a year now. Amber DID however, call Rebecca & she and Kent did a three-way conference call.
Kent explained he had all these cases with Rebecca's name on it and he wasn't able to get ahold of her for two months now. She said, of course, I sign off on all claims from OK. (Did I mention she's in OHIO?) Kent said they were very defensive at first, not wanting to accept any blame. He explained the law, explained the piles of cases on his desk. How, if it was their teenagers car that was not TOTALED, but repairable and then driveable, then you can't label it junked. People need to get back on the roads!
Rebecca had a light-bulb moment and gasped, "I have to send out an emergency memo to ALL agents in OK correcting how we do things!" Then Kent nicely pointed out she could write US a letter of correction telling the tag agency to give us a Title for Salvage so we could get a tag, OR, he Kent, could send a memo out to HIS whole state of Oklahoma saying that Progressive won't cooperate with them, so we won't issue tags or titles to their customers.
*Someone pointed out to me they had already seen a sign like that at a tag agency in OK recently.*
Guess what? Rebecca decided that it was more benefical to start with our case to declare a correction. Amber called me shortly after apologizing & stating the letter will be mailed out directly to our house & confirmed our address. Kent mentioned to them he didn't need it sent to him, to save time, send it directly to us. And Amber said if I didn't get it by the 19th to let her know. Kent also said, he was giving me his personal number so when I got the letter, take it to a tag agency and show them the letter & have them call him directly. He would log on to the computer & make sure they issued me a tag and title for salvage NOT JUNKED. WHEW! God answered the prayers!
I feel vindicated, and validated that it was common sense that this wasn't right. And to be honest, I'm thrilled that that it worked out for us, but think about the other people who's cases have been sitting on Kent's desk for two months? I just had to worry for 2 days, I'm hoping it helps them out too. I'm just thrilled it's over since I think it took some years off my life & I'm pretty sure gave me some gray hairs.
What you need to know beforehand is Hubbo was in a car accident March of 08. One rainy night turning into our subdivision, someone rear ended him. He was fine, we took pictures but unfortunately I had to spend a lot of time hounding Progressive (the lady that hit him's insurance) that we wanted to get our car fixed, not total it out. And we did accept a settlement from them, got our car fixed & moved on--after much hassle.
After Christmas we realized we never got our card in the mail saying we needed to get our car tag for 09 on the car. Hubbo comes home worried one night thinking it has to do with his car accident. I start to worry. I called tag agency in our town thenext morning and they said just bring in insurance card. Then I start to worry that maybe the non-English speaking lady didn't understand the issues. It IS complicated. So I wait & call back after lunch. SAME LADY. She runs my license plate # & says it's junked, can't drive it, can't sell it, can't get tags. "Park it, you no drive anymore."
I called our State Farm agent because I knew she spoke English & I could explain everything to her. She checks with someone, comes back & says get Progressive to give us a letter saying it's repaired/salvaged, take it to OK Tax Commision & get new tag.
I call Progressive girl Amber we worked with before, she says she doesn't know. Calls a tag agency they work with, says it IS junked. Can't get title, drive it, tag etc. Say I COULD call Tax Comm & explain & see what they say the options are. But offers if we have to get rid of it b/c we can't drive it, they'd pay us $479 for salvage & come get it. Said we can't even trade it in when we go get a new car/mini-van. Lovely. The car looks brand new. No dents, no cracked glass anywhere. We've BEEN driving it since March of 08!
So I just called Tax Commision they say IF, Progressive made a mistake on the percentage of totaled (60-79% is salvage, over 80% of the value of the car is junked--ours 81% ) car, then send a letter saying that to us. We could then take letter & car to tag agency, they inspect car, give new tag. Otherwise, if Progressive says it's STILL 81% then it's junked & we can't drive it when tag expires at end of Jan. Even though it runs, no duct tape, has heat/air and looks fine.
We've been waiting to get a second car until after we find a house. We've been searching for the house since May. We knew if we got a second car beforehand, it'd be on our credit and with our student loans (thanks Harding!) on there, we don't need ANY help weighing on our credit to get home loan. So now it looked like barring a miracle, we'll HAVE to get a new car before the end of January. Again, barring a miracle or $10-15,000 somewhere dropping out of the sky...I was thinking 2009 was off to a rocky start for us.
Okay---so the next day I spent the entire day on the phone AGAIN. This time I got some higher up people and made some progress.
I got ahold of The OK Insurance Comm. who sent me back to the OK Tax Comm. There I got ahold of a nice woman that told me that this all didn't sound right, and she asked to call in a higher up. I said BE MY GUEST! I'm not sure how high up she went.
I was on hold a good 5 minutes. Kent (the higher up) comes on the phone and already knows the story. Which I thought was nice of her not to make re-tell it for the millionth time in two days.
He says he understands completely because in Nov of 2008 a law was passed being more specific about what "junked" means in our state. So NOW, he at the Tax Comm had big problems because in two months he had accumulated two huge stacks of cases from Progressive Insurance. He said they were cases like ours where the cars were not totaled & if repaired, were driveable but couldn't get tags because they were labeled junked. That those should be given a letter to get a "Salvage for Title". With that we can't sell the car, but we can get a tag & drive it. Which is all we wanted!
Kent hadn't been able to get ahold of this Rebecca from Progressive that signs off on them all in two months. No one at Progressive wanted to give out her extension number. Apparently she gives a 1-888 number but no extension which he says is the polite way of saying, "Just TRY & get ahold of me." Kent said if I could get ahold of Rebecca at Progressive, we could all talk & he thought he could make her see the error of the way they were doing things. He was anxious to work with me since it meant clearing off stacks of cases off his desk. And he'd been trying to catch her for two months.
Thanks to my sister-in-law, I got what I thought was Rebecca's number but turned out to be Amber's at Progressive--the agent we'd been working with for a year now. Amber DID however, call Rebecca & she and Kent did a three-way conference call.
Kent explained he had all these cases with Rebecca's name on it and he wasn't able to get ahold of her for two months now. She said, of course, I sign off on all claims from OK. (Did I mention she's in OHIO?) Kent said they were very defensive at first, not wanting to accept any blame. He explained the law, explained the piles of cases on his desk. How, if it was their teenagers car that was not TOTALED, but repairable and then driveable, then you can't label it junked. People need to get back on the roads!
Rebecca had a light-bulb moment and gasped, "I have to send out an emergency memo to ALL agents in OK correcting how we do things!" Then Kent nicely pointed out she could write US a letter of correction telling the tag agency to give us a Title for Salvage so we could get a tag, OR, he Kent, could send a memo out to HIS whole state of Oklahoma saying that Progressive won't cooperate with them, so we won't issue tags or titles to their customers.
*Someone pointed out to me they had already seen a sign like that at a tag agency in OK recently.*
Guess what? Rebecca decided that it was more benefical to start with our case to declare a correction. Amber called me shortly after apologizing & stating the letter will be mailed out directly to our house & confirmed our address. Kent mentioned to them he didn't need it sent to him, to save time, send it directly to us. And Amber said if I didn't get it by the 19th to let her know. Kent also said, he was giving me his personal number so when I got the letter, take it to a tag agency and show them the letter & have them call him directly. He would log on to the computer & make sure they issued me a tag and title for salvage NOT JUNKED. WHEW! God answered the prayers!
I feel vindicated, and validated that it was common sense that this wasn't right. And to be honest, I'm thrilled that that it worked out for us, but think about the other people who's cases have been sitting on Kent's desk for two months? I just had to worry for 2 days, I'm hoping it helps them out too. I'm just thrilled it's over since I think it took some years off my life & I'm pretty sure gave me some gray hairs.
Tuesday, January 06, 2009
Ten Things Tuesday
2. My house is clean, dishes all done, dinner in the crockpot and laundry in the washer.
3. Three-fourths of the Christmas decorations are put away. The tree may not make it back to the garage. It's on it's last legs. Getting rid of it, sounds so much more appealing than restoring it at this point.
4. The weather is still cold. I know, I'm in the minority but I'm happy with winter as long as no power is lost & roads are safe.
5. Book club was wonderful last night. I needed that. Apparently Ms. Evelyn that I sat next to last night, let us in on the fact that the man who calls to tell you your books are in, has a sexy voice and great diction. (Evelyn is 84 years old and I think her memory is better than mine.)
6. I'm loving my birthday present. It's been a sanity saver the last couple of weeks. And to be honest, it's all mine, no one elses. Not many things fall into that category when you're a mommy.(Hubbo got me an iPod Touch)
7. I'm thankful for Facebook so I can keep up with family members & friends that don't live close by.
8. I finally got pretty close on a recipe that Hubbo wanted recreated from his youth. Tasted pretty good too. If you know Taco Time restuarants, I think I have a pretty good Crisp Meat burrito recipe. Although I'm still fooling around with which cheese is best.
9. Sounds weird but I'm so pleased son#1 isn't obessed with his Nintendo DS he got for Christmas. I was hoping he wouldn't turn into that kid that runs into you in the store because they aren't watching where they are going.
10. One of my resolutions this New Years is that my knitting projects this year, will be only be what I want to knit. and the majority will be for ME! I'm thankful for that--truly!:)
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