Insurance--We Are Believers

            Never leave home without it.  In fact, don’t get out of bed without it. 

My mother spent the month of April 1943 on bedrest, hoping to prevent my birth from occurring before their insurance kicked in on May 1.  It turns out, I waited until May 31 to make my appearance.

             During college, both John and I had medical coverage through the University of Colorado.  The Wardenburg medical center was on campus and included not only urgent care but also regular doctor’s appointments and a small hospital.  Shortly after we married, I went to work for CU in the News Service and received medical insurance for both of us.  By the time I quit, John was a policeman for the City of Boulder and his insurance took over for both of us.  We may have had to pay extra for maternity coverage.  I don’t really remember.

             When we purchased the funeral home in 1976, we quickly arranged health insurance for us and our one employee.  Through the years, our medical insurance covered foot surgery,  treatments for Eric's asthma attack and both boys allergy shots, childbirth and miscarriages.We had continuous medical insurance from then on until John retired from active ministry in 2003 at the age of 60.  When our son Eric was in college, he developed appendicitis and had to have surgery.  That expense was covered.  At about the same time another family member’s son needed the same surgery.  They didn’t have health insurance and it cost a whole lot.

             When John retired from active ministry in 2003 at the age of 60, we had to pay for our own health insurance until we turned 65.  It was costing us $11,000 a year to insure two people over the age of 60.  Making those payments was a real stretch but we didn't want to worry about some major illness or accident wiping us out.  We knew it was worth it when my mother was hospitalized with pneumonia and ended up in intensive care.  Her ICU bill was $81,000.  Thank heaven she had insurance.

              We have had car repairs, RV repairs after hail in Texas and a tire blowout in New Mexico.

             When we returned from an RV trip we found our basement flooded.  The hose feeding one of the toilets started leaking and we had over 3 feet of standing water.  The final bill after the water was gone, the sheetrock replaced and all the mold cleaned up, damaged hardwood flooring replaced, plus drying out books, photos, negatives and lots of other items, our insurance paid $50,000.  Without insurance, I am sure we would have paid only for repairs to the house and given up on all the personal property.

             We make sure our house, our truck and our RV are insured.  So is the rental property we own in Colorado.  In October 2018 we stood under our carport in Arizona and watched hail assault our Airstream, our truck and our house.  Insurance has paid $3,200 for repairs to the house, $3200 on the truck and $24,000 to repair the Airstream. 

             Do we believe in insurance?  You better believe it!

This Isn't What We Came Here to See

Rain, sleet, snow, temps in the 30s and 40s.  And we're not in Colorado, Minnesota or the northwest.  We are in Arizona!

The rest of the country--with the possible exception of Florida--has bone-chilling cold with snow.  Here, we have had over 2 inches of rain.

The road in front of our house had running water.

This retention pond was really full.

A drainage ditch had running water.

Usually we can walk down the path that is underneath of center of this lake.

The Superstition Mountains had more snow than we have seen in all our winters in the Valley.

This is another walkway--full to the brim with happy ducks floating around.  They may be the only folks here who are happy with the weather.

If this area gets much fuller, the nearby houses will see flooding.

To the left rear of this photo, you can see the shuffle board court.  I hope the pucks float.

Crossing Missouri

If you combine rain

a lot of green

some limestone walls

and many, many cows

and throw in the giant Mississippi River and it tributaries

you will have a good idea what our trip across Missouri was like this week.

We have seen a lot of cold weather and cold rain over the past week or so. The wind and cold and rain began while we were in Tulsa. We cancelled our plans and reservations to go to Branson because of the threat of more rain and flooding in that area. The rain you see on the first photo above was falling Saturday in Tulsa.

Of course it takes a lot of rain to bring out all the green fields and leaves we saw as we crossed Missouri.  Coming from Colorado and spending our winters in Arizona, all the green is a delightful change.

We had no idea Missouri had so many cattle ranches.  The fields we passed as we drop east on I-44 were full of cows.  Maybe we were driving in Mooosouri!

The limestone hills and walls seen in this part of the country are so picturesque.  Of course the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers get most of their water from snow melt and rain. 

We also saw a farm that had camels as we drove east.  Our GPS doesn't understand that Missouri names county roads with the letters of the alphabet.  When it told us to turn onto Missouri MM we were told to turn on "mo millimeter."  We really laughed at that.

We also saw a sign on the back of a septic tank pump-out truck that read, "Yesterday's Meals on Wheels."

We get most of our weather news from the internet, so we surprised when we saw on the local news while we were in Springfield, MO, that there was a lot of flooding east around St. Louis.  In fact I-44 was closed at Lebanon due to flooding.  When I call the Missouri Department of Transportation on Tuesday morning before leaving Springfield, it was suggested we drive north to I-70 and take that road in to St. Louis.  The detour added about 100 miles to our drive.  We are now just east of the state line and the Mississippi River in Cahokia, Illinois, for a few days.  It rained most of the day and will do so again tomorrow.  We hope we don't have to figure out too many more detours.  But the good news is we haven't been caught in rising water and have traveled safely.

More flooding

Colorado has had lots of rain and when we arrived at Chatfield State Park a week ago, the campground was accessible only from the east entrance to the park. But after the recent rains ended, the entire road through the park was open and we were able to drive to and from the west entrance yesterday, even though the water did encroach on the pavement.

This morning, however, when we drove toward that entrance, the road was flooded and closed. So this afternoon, we walked down to the flooded area to see what was going on.

Fences were under water and walking paths had become wading paths.









I don't think this sign means much today. Maybe near the end of the summer.

It wouldn't be a good idea to park here right now.

The Platte River was flowing across the road. It was probably about 24 inches deep where the road is at its lowest point. This bicyclist had ridden through the flowing water and said it was up to the top of his tires. He rested awhile on our side of the river, then turned around and rode to the other side. Another cyclist came up behind us, watched for a while and turned back the way he had come.

These people and dogs were having a good time in the water. It's amazing what some young and stupid people will do to have fun.  Even some who aren't that young, just stupid.  There was a current as the water crossed the road.  If someone had fallen off the roadway, they could have been washed quite a ways into the lake.  I hope they were good swimmers.