Tragedy In Perspective

Today is the tenth anniversary of the most horrific event in American History. With nearly 4,000 lives lost from the terrorist attacks we find it hard to imagine that anything worse than that can happen. Truly for families that have lost loved once both from that fateful day and for families that have sacrificed in service to our country since it has been a great burden.

But just for a moment lets look beyond ourselves and see what else has been going on in the world. The earthquake in Japan killed 15,781 people; 4,086 people are missing, and 83,000 people were left homeless. Have we given much thought to that over the last 5 months? What have we done to honor those innocent people? Have we made any donation to those people? Have we had that tragic event play through our heads like our mental playbacks of the airplanes hitting the towers? Are we as a nation putting any time to helping those build new shelters to live in like we are putting our monies to building some new shiny office towers? It is very sad that we are a very egocentric and self absorbed nation. So many other countries dislike Americans, I wonder how much of that has to do with our selfish nature? Now don't get me wrong, I love living here and I am very grateful that I was born at such a time in such a place. To some extent the selfish self serving nature of Americans (myself included) has enabled us to become such a nation of riches. We have some of the highest living standards in the entire world. The danger is that with selfishness runs the danger of self imploding. We do need to be very cognoscente of the historic date of 9-11 and we need to understand that innocent people died because there is an element of people that will do anything to kill us, and we do need to protect ourselves from this element. But, we also need to have perspective.

Suffering is suffering and it doesn't matter if it is a child dying from hunger in Somalia, a family wiped out from a earthquake, or a Dad lost from a terrorist attack on the World Trade Center.

There is plenty of tragedy in the world to go around. The term "God Bless America" is used at the end of every politicians speech, and to that I add "God Bless Humanity". It's time for everyone to become involved in a global effort to to care for our fellow man, woman and child. I think one person can make a difference if they just decide there is more in life than living for oneself. Is there something small you can start with, make a commitment to do something this week, or this month. Just do something.

The Places We Live

The Legacy of Louis A. Laramee

Being that this is the day in the year of 2006 that my Dad passed away, I would like to take just a few moments to reflect on what he meant to me.

When I think of my Dad, I get a very warm sense of what a decent, caring and patient man he was. If any one knew me in my younger days you would understand. I must not have been the easiest child to raise. I did have my moments, but as a teen they were few and far between. My Dad was patient, and very giving towards me. I must have nearly drained his bank account with the number of years I went to college. Yet if it weren't for his patience, I wouldn't be where I am today.

I know that he was a very warm man. Until recently I didn't understand how years later, he still affected others. I had made a comment about my Dad on a popular media site and someone else saw the comment, and made his observation known by saying he was one of kindest persons any one would be lucky enough to meet. Even though this person was young when he knew him, he remembered him well enough to know him by his 1st name.

I knew he was well respected by some very influential people, like my Mom. As an adult at dinner one evening, my Mom said to my brother and I that she "couldn't have asked for a better dad for you two boys". One night, he received a call from a drunk girl that I had dated only a couple of times. She was looking for a ride home from some bar. My dad, never having met this girl went out, gave her a ride home...and shortly after that she ended it. On another evening I brought home my very special girlfriend. He pulled me aside and said, "you can bring her around anytime". I did bring her around, a lot; and when we told him that we were wanting to get married, he said, "You two are perfect for each other, your both immature"! 27 year later the special girlfriend and I are still together.

He was always there for me, in good times and bad times. I can remember from a very early age he was active in supporting me. He was there in the snowbank in the freezing cold watching me play House League hockey. He was the one influential in bringing hockey to the High School level in Mankato, and pushed for the 1st indoor hockey rink there. He was there teaching my how to play golf at the mini par three that was at Hazeltine. In fact I can remember the 1st set of clubs I got when I was a tike. They were the old oversized plastic headed Playskool type clubs with the big plastic ball. All of the father son tournaments that we played in - I guess it should be no surprise that when I walked out of the pro shop with a brand new set of clubs for my graduation present, and told my dad what he just bought me for graduation, he didn't even bat an eye.

In business, he had some hard days, he didn't complain. maybe it was the old school mentality that you don't tell your kids about difficult work days, or your salary, or what your boss is like. But, just maybe there are some lessons to be learned from that as well. There is no reason to burden your kids with that kind of stress; I would call that being gracious.

So once again, as I ponder just what my Dad was like, it makes me want to be a better man than what I am today, and look forward to the future. Can I accomplish the goals I have set for me in areas of my life? If at the end, I have the respect, love and gratitude from my family. I have accomplished the most important things in life, everything else is secondary and trivial.

New Years Resolutions

Well, the time has come once again where we look back and look forward. I don't know why we have the undeniable urge to make all these plans and resolutions every New Years. I must say I am as guilty as any one else in this exercise.
Inevitably I have made resolutions involving all sorts of things that are suppose to make me feel better about myself, or to improve my well being, make more money...blah blah blah.etc.....

So as I must, I will make more resolutions, but I will think of them a little differently this year.

My New Years Resolutions for 2011

1. I will exercise....only when I FEEL LIKE IT.

2. I will work hard at my job.. but not take it too seriously, not be worried about what I don't get done, and not take to seriously when someone else perceives a situation as urgent.

3. I will spend more time being involved with my family and less time being involved with other meaningless concerns.

4. I will not worry about what might happen, and laugh about what does happen.

5. I will not feel guilty about work, exercise, what I eat, or what I don't accomplish. I will not feel guilty about not measuring up to what t.v advertising depicts as what my life should be like.

6. Overall, I will be positive, not negative.

My Top Ten for Simple and Successful Living

1. Do the thing you want to do the least first thing in the day. The rest of the day can only get better.

2. Always have something planned you enjoy, so you have something to look forward to.

3. Go outside and breath some fresh air, go for a walk or do something outdoors. It will improve your mood.

4. Talk to your family, even if they have moved away.

5. Take care of something, or someone, other than yourself.

6. Do something creative, even if your really bad at it.

7. Take yourself seriously, but not to seriously.

8. Treat others with respect, and leave them with a sense of hope

9. Don't be in a hurry, but be efficient.

10. Take a few moments every day as "down time" and think about things.

(Un)Common Knowledge About Insurance

WHAT DO YOU KNOW ABOUT INSURANCE?

If you know me, you know I am a property field adjuster. I have been employed for 22 years in the insurance industry as an adjuster. There have been many, many things that have turned me off of Insurance as a whole. So as Erin Brokovich once said, "I am not a lawyer, I hate lawyers, I just work for them". I know what she means. The items that irritate me in my job are many. Let me start by going over what the general view of the public is of insurance adjusters.

Myth #1. They don't care about the policyholder, they will deny everything or get out of paying what's owed and they only care about the premium.

Truth: Insurance carriers would go broke if they relied only on premiums to make money. The actuality of it is they spend on average $1.08 on claims for every $1.00 they take in. So how do they make it you ask? By investing the premium they take in. If the investment makes money they can make some money. Most of the time they re invest it to better serve their policyholders by buying updated equipment, researching better products and training their personnel. So, if they are to stay afloat, the stock market has to be returning better than 8% in order for your insurance company to be solvent. If they are not going to have success in their investments they won't be around. Guess who will be insuring your possessions if there are no insurance companies? The U.S. Government. (not a good idea huh?).

Myth #2. Agents take care of you when there is a claim

Truth: The agent might show up or ask you how the claim is going, but beyond that, they have nothing to do with claims. If you have ever watched any advertisement for insurance, it seems like the agent is the only person there to help when the tornado hits or the fire destroys the house. The adjuster and the claims department are the only people you will have any meaningful contact with in the process of getting you back to where you were before your disaster.

Myth #3. The contractor has my best interest at heart and the adjuster doesn't care.

Truth: The contractor does provide a valuable service to you. The adjuster will not be the one rebuilding your home, or making any suggestions for changes you may want in your rebuilding. But, let it be known; Staff adjusters are salaried employees, they will be paid whether your roof has hail damage or not. The contractor has a vested interest in replacing your roof. He doesn't make a dime, if the roof doesn't get replaced. So who do you think has a more biased opinion on what might be storm damaged?

Myth #4. The adjuster will be able to give you all the attention you need.

Truth: Insurance companies do not have the resources to give an unlimited amount of attention to every claim. They attempt to have the minimum amount of staff to cut costs. When a storm hits, there are not enough staff adjusters to give fast service (I don't care what they tell you, you might not get an inspection on your house in 24 or 48 hours).

Myth #5. You have all the coverage you need.

Truth: You may have a lot of coverage, everything from Replacement Cost (which only applies if you actually replace the damaged item, otherwise it's paid on face value, or whats called Actual Cash Value) to Additional Living Expense You have a limited amount of coverage for living elsewhere while your home is being repaired if it is uninhabitable. You have limits of insurance on your house, and contents. And, there are many exclusions, limitations, and duties you are responsible for as a policyholder.

Myth #6. People know what their policy states

Truth: Most people don't even know where their policy is, let alone, they have never even read through it. Likely they purchased the policy based on two factors, the sales ability of the agent, and the price of the policy, and not necessarily in that order!

Today's vunacular

Have you ever wondered how certain parts of our common language get started? I have. Today seems to have a certain word that gets input about every 5th or 6th word. The common used word is "like". I don't know where this started, but I imagine it started when someone was actually using this word to describe a similar situation. But, as so many things it becomes over used and abused. and it's like, you know, something that gets passed on through common conversation. But think of this; what if you talked in the same correct way as language is written? Is the spoken word and use of language becoming a lost art?

Now I don't profess to be a great orator, and to be honest, my writing skills have never been my strong point. In fact, English was my worst subject in school. It is unfortunate but it is true, the 1st impression is a lasting one, and when you speak, it will have an impact on how you are perceived by others.