It started at about 5:30 when I woke up with wet hair and a wet pillow. This confused me. Did I suddenly start drooling uncontrollably in my sleep? Was it the dogs? OH NO DID KIMBER PEE ON ME IN HER SLEEP???? See, she has this problem where if she doesn't get her meds she wets the bed at night - not her fault, but annoying when it happens. Turned out to be a leaky ceiling and just as I got towels to sop up the mess, A HOLE OPENED UP AND DUMPED WATER ALL ON MY FACE. I ran downstairs mad as a hornet and scrambling for supplies. Vic ran down to the basement and grabbed me some buckets so that at least my bare feet would stay clean. She's really sweet like that.
As if that wasn't bad enough, I looked at my brand new (old) antique mirror I got at an estate sale last week and leaned up against the mantle in my bedroom and noticed that it, too was wet with a giant leaky spot above it. Are you kidding me? After proper bucket/towel/dog bowl placement, I finally had this thing somewhat contained and began making pathetic help me phone calls to Ben's squadron. They sent over a guy whose wife and I connected over a common first name and who Ben had been in Bahrain with and he crawled all around this place to figure out where the water was coming from. Turns out 97 years ago they didn't architecturally plan for this much rain to occur this week. I suppose that's acceptable. Unfortunately, my bedroom now looks like this:
The next task was to call USAA to see if this was a covered event. I have an almost $7k deductible for wind and hail damage and a $500 deductible for other unforseen events. One would naturally assume that rain that has puddled up on a portion of somewhat flat roof and gotten into the house does not count as wind nor would it be hail damage. USAA doesn't see it that way, and in order to make a correct determination, I have to file a claim with the understanding that they will most likely assign it as a wind or hail damage event and charge me that $7k fee to fix a few hundred dollars worth of damage. Isn't that a bit unethical of them to ask me to make a $6500 gamble on an insurance company's moral fortitude? I first got pissed and refused, then called back to make sure I heard them correctly. If I file a claim I am to be charged either $500 or $7000 based on their assessment of the mitigating factor that caused the damage and there is no such thing as having a claims adjuster inspect, determine, and then let you make a decision then on how you are going to handle the situation. Are you freaking kidding me? They are normally great, but this is the most asinine thing I have ever heard from an insurance company and as much as I would love to tell them to take their insurance and shove it, I know my house would burn down the next day and we would be ruined. That's just my luck today.
Thank goodness for my friend Kate, who invited me over for a cup of coffee and a bagel to save me from this madness. I also am glad for Ben belonging to a squadron so willing to help one another out. I got numerous phone calls from friends and squadron members offering kind words and their help and it makes deployment so much better knowing I have people I can count on. Tomorrow will be better. It has to be.
