Author: Crowhill Report

We’ve put the house I grew up in on the market. (Or … almost. I think it officially goes on the market tomorrow.)

Pigweed and I (and some friends) just got back from Big Meadows, in Shenandoah National Park. That was fun. One of the trails had a couple nice waterfalls, and one of them had a swimming hole at the bottom. It was cold, but refreshing!

The wildlife is so tame in the park that the deer will walk right past you, and even the birds will come pick around just next to your feet. A raven flew right through out camp, which was cool. All the campsites have bear boxes in which you are required to store all your food whenever you are not in camp.

The weather was lovely. While it was in the 90s in the D.C. area, it was 75 in the mountains, and in the low 60s at night.

We usually end our camping trips with breakfast at a diner, or some mom and pop restaurant, and I almost always get eggs and scrapple. It’s the only time I eat scrapple, which I really enjoy, but know is not good for me.

Pigweed and I tried to listen to Nature by Henry David Thoreau on the drive home. What a load of horse manure that thing is! We’re going to do a P&C episode on it soon.

I try to unplug when I go away, and now I’m slipping back into regular life, and catching up on the latest.

• Cuomo has resigned. I think that’s a good thing.
• An absurd $1.1 trillion bill pretending to be about infrastructure has passed. That’s bad. I hope every Republican who went along with this nonsense is removed from office. In fact, I want everyone Senator and every Congressman removed from office, and all the Congressional staff fired and banned from ever working for the federal government again. (Not just for this.)

Nothing else of great importance seems to have happened, but if I missed something, please feel free to bring it up in the comments.

I may have mentioned that a storm blew off some of my aluminum siding, and I had to file a claim — which is something I have studiously avoided.

For years, we’ve had hail storms that slightly ding aluminum siding, and siding salesman have come by trying to convince me I can file a claim. I don’t believe in that sort of nonsense — the dents were hardly noticeable — so I never have.

But this was actual damage. Not only what you can see in the pic, but some other places where the siding was pulling away.

Allstate claimed they only covered the “elevations” (what you or I would think of as a side) that were damaged, and that they weren’t responsible for color matching. They’d have it painted to match, but if it didn’t match exactly, them’s the breaks.

I thought that was crappy, but it basically worked out like this. They were going to pay me $10K for the stuff they would replace, and the siding company would charge me $15K to re-wrap the whole house in vinyl. I was willing to pay the $5K difference. Seemed fair enough.

After the work was done, and I was supposed to get the rest of my money, Allstate started backing off on what they were going to pay me. (Remember that insurance companies make money by collecting payments and not paying out claims.)

They said they were only liable for the two elevations, and that since we did them in lower-cost material (vinyl rather than aluminum), they were only responsible for a portion of the $15K — that is, the percentage of the total cost represented by the two sides.

That was nonsense for several reasons, the most basic and obvious being that by re-wrapping the entire house, we eliminated the need for painting, which they were going to cover. (Although the quote they gave on painting was way out of line with the market around here.) Also, it’s to their advantage as well as mine that I now have brand new siding.

Anyway, after several arguments with my adjuster, then his supervisor, then escalating to the next supervisor, they finally paid me what they had originally promised, although they never admitted they were wrong. I didn’t care about that. I just wanted the money.

The lesson I learned from this is that you should get as much stuff in writing as possible. E.g., I should have gotten them on record that I was due the $10K if I did the whole house in vinyl. Two different contractors — who work with insurance companies all the time — said that was a sure thing. But I should have obtained written assurance from the insurance company.

Back in March, I said Gov. Cuomo should not resign because of accusations. I still believe that.

Things have changed since then. The case against him is more than just an accusation. It’s less than a legal verdict, but it’s a pretty serious case. Unless Cuomo can effectively counter the findings against him, he should resign or be removed from office.

“Innocent until proven guilty” is a legal matter. That standard applies to whether or not he goes to jail. It doesn’t mean the people of New York have to keep him in office.

ISTM there is a sliding scale of certainty here.

1. Accusations.
2. A competent investigation.
3. A finding in a court.

While there’s a movement to “believe all women” and assume that accusation = guilt, we can’t fall for that. Accusations have to be investigated.

On the other end of the scale, when a man is convicted in a court of law, that should settle things.

We’re in the middle. We’ve had an investigation. Unless there’s credible reason to doubt the sincerity of the investigation, that should be enough.

… that her social media posts were of a sort that would annoy liberals?

BSO fires principal flutist Emily Skala, who was previously rebuked over social media posts

I’m not endorsing whatever she happened to say. Maybe it was completely nuts. Maybe it was just run of the mill conservative stuff. I don’t know or care. What matters to me is that this gun is always pointed in one direction. It’s completely predictable.

If you’re not willing to respect the country you represent, you shouldn’t be at the Olympics. And if you disrespect your country, you should be kicked off the team.

Agree?