Give us back our oil and I’ll stop.
Brendan
3662
And changing topics swiftly, our li’l fucker is getting grommets installed tomorrow. Poor little dude has been struggling with ear infections that just laugh at anti-biotics.
I think I’ll accept that job offer on Friday.
In other news, we have been in a short term lease of a property in a nice neighbourhood except for one rundown house next door. We didn’t know when we rented the place but there are always strange looking folks in and out at all hours. Lately we have had to listen to some young, emaciated, snaggletoothed meth head woman screaming hysterically at her boyfriend who we think owns the place. These altercations always take place out in the street.
Tonight was a real duzi though. She was wailing about him beating her and how he was going to jail for dealing and not going to NA. The cops oitched up and she spun some tale to them which obviously didn’t impress them since they left her standing and crying outside the gate.
Fucking drug addicts. I can understand smoking some pot or doing the odd line/disco biscuit on a night out but how the hell do yoy end up being such a pathetic mess?
Juste
3663
Your oil? Ugly Danish, i fart in your general direction! Your mother was a hamster and your father smelt of elderberries!
If that is, what I think it is, then they’re a fucking miracle of modern medicine. Simple procedure, hurts (but nothing like constant ear infection) and then BOOM! Healed. Motherfucking Jesus, didn’t work that fast.
(our 4-year old just lost hers and it’s been years since she suffered ear infections)
Shadarr
3665
I had one of those when I was four. I don’t really remember having it, but I do remember when it came out. Freaked me right the fuck out because I was all “How did I get a screw in my ear?! Mom!”
ZekeDMS
3666
I had those as a kid, due to inner ear buildup. Didn’t even hurt that I recall, any of the times I had it done, and it was a few. It drastically cut my inner ear infections, and I was REALLY prone to 'em due to sinusitis.
Nothing has actually “happened” yet but I made the call to find out about becoming a live kidney donor. Been on my mind for a few weeks. The recipient-to-be is my sister-in-law. Anyways, I’m feeling pretty good about my decision to at least start the process. Things will happen next to screen me as a match for her and/or a viable live donor candidate. Seems there is even a sort of kidney exchange program where, If I’m qualified to be a donor but not a match for her I can be matched to others in the exchange program willing to donate but not a match for their intended recipient. But if we can make a chain involving two or more willing donors all the recipients get new kidneys. Whee! But yeah, I’m feeling good about this. Like, good enough to not to want to back out if shit gets real.
That’s pretty cool - especially the chain thing.
I’m a bone marrow donor, but so far nobody has needed my marrow.
JonRowe
3669
It was all well and good until he showed me his badge.
Jojo
3670
Corporate stupidity abounds! We refinanced our mortgage recently, and got a lovely rate. Unfortunately, the lender insisted that the cost of our homeowners insurance be impounded in escrow, so that they could pay it - because homeowners just can’t be trusted to pay their own insurance. Very irritating, but OK.
The loan closed approximately 3 weeks ago, and the homeowners insurance was up for renewal on Nov 28th. I called my insurance agent yesterday, and discovered that of course, the idiots at the lender had not paid my house insurance. Awesome. I spent yesterday and today playing phone tag as the lender tries to blame the title company, who blamed the lender, and frankly I also blame my insurance agent for not calling me to tell me it had lapsed.
This afternoon it became clear it was not going to be sorted out quickly, so I called my insurance agent to tell her that we would just pay it, and they could refund us when the loan company finally got their act together, because I don’t like the idea of having an uninsured house. But it turns out she just opened the mail and found a check from the lender. Hurray! Except they had made the check out to themselves. WTF.
She said she was going to call the underwriter to make sure coverage doesn’t lapse, and we are covered whilst the corporate mouthbreathers get their act together (OK she didn’t call them that, but that’s what I would have done).
I’ve never heard of this practice and I don’t understand it at all. I would never want some other entity taking my money to pay a bill that I am responsible for. They could easily require you to maintain the insurance as part of the financing contract without forcing themselves to be a middle man with your credit rating at risk. Fuck that!
kerzain
3672
Unfortunately because the lender typically has more money invested into a house than the ‘homeowner’ they have to look out for their own best interest (since many home-owners can barely manage to make a house-payment on time much less an even more obscure insurance payment). If the house explodes and it isn’t covered the bank knows it will be the one left holding the bag when the home-owner stops making payments on the pile of rubble.
It sucks for people who are intelligent and good with their own money, but the housing markets (and arguably the entire economy) wouldn’t be in the positions they are in if it wasn’t for boundless financial irresponsibility (which applies not only to people, but obviously corporations too, or Jojo wouldn’t be in this mess).
Exactly, it’s unfortunately a reasonable thing to demand in today’s housing market. Waving a contract at the homeowner as they walk away from their miniscule equity share of the burnt-down house isn’t going to get the bank their money back.
That, of course, doesn’t excuse them from screwing up the payment.
Yes but contractually obliging the home owner to have insurance covers them should the house burn down and the homeowner let their insurance lapse. I simply wouldn’t trust a third party to make payments I’m responsible for.
If the bank screws up and the insurance lapses the homeowner’s credit takes a hit and you know the bank will sue the owner on top of that to get what it can from the debt they owe should it burn down whether they have insurance on it or not. In fact they’ll likely sue for breach of contract due to the lapsed insurance (as it’s likely in the financing agreement regardless) that the bank itself failed to pay. It just seems like a recipe to screw the homeowner with no consequences to the bank should they not make a payment.
Another option would be some sort of sliding insurance where the bank insures the percentage of the house they own themselves and the homeowner covers their portion with sliding rates as the homeowner pays off more of the house. Then each is covering their own and if the homeowner let’s it slide they don’t get to make a claim while the bank is able to cover it’s loss entirely and would still hold the borrower to their debt. That actually sounds like a really good option, I wonder if that sort of thing is even possible. Probably is but I doubt any bank would go for it, they’d much rather the homeowner pay to cover the bank’s possible loss rather than pay it themselves. Same goes with PMI, why is the borrow paying to insure the bank’s potential loss?
kerzain
3675
I agree completely. I owned a house a few years ago and about two years after we bought the house our loan was sold to another bank. The new bank didn’t renew our insurance on time and the first we heard about it was when we got a letter (from the same bank…) telling us that the entire balance of our loan was due immediately because they were notified by State Farm that we allowed our insurance to lapse (we received notice from the insurance company itself a few days later).
We got it all straightened out, but I was… frustrated, to say the least. Although I can sympathize with a bank when a homeowner defaults, I don’t like them forcing stuff like this on me.
I was a first time home buyer at the time, so we had all sorts of restrictions regarding insurance and homeowners warranties. Although each bank has its own policy on the matter, typically people with more money (or equity) and longer good credit histories can negotiate out of mandatory insurance management by the bank. It’s less likely when doing a refi, but it isn’t always impossible. It’s just something most people are stuck with at one time or another.
Griddle
3676
Tonight I found a thing of pure awesome, Cinéma vérité. I always liked raw footage, but this movie Manic is great!
Covers them how? You can’t squeeze blood from a stone.
Unfortunately, the bank isn’t secured anymore than they are in a foreclosure: the homeowner is contractual obligated to pay their mortgage, but when they walk away, all the bank is left with is whatever fraction of equity (if any) the homeowner left behind. A house burning down is even worse- NO equity is left behind.
The real solution frankly is for banks to severely increase their lending standards (basically demand more down payment) such that a homeowner will never find it worthwhile to walk away or let their insurance lapse.
Such is not the case, though.
kerzain
3678
Tonight I found a thing of pure awesome, Cinéma vérité. I always liked raw footage, but this movie Manic is great!
I enjoyed Manic, and Zooey Danchel was in it which is pretty much the only reason I saw it (I’ve had a crush on her since watching her sing in Elf).
It’s also just about the only thing I’ve ever seen Joesph Gordon Levitt in besides 3rd rock from the sun, and he did a surprising great job in this movie.
Tell me about it. My husband’s company just fired the salesman in charge of their largest customer account. That customer does things its way or it will walk. The new management is all from the same business school, and they’ve been hiring their cronies from their last (failed) business and firing the people who actually know how this business is run. They’re bean counters in charge of a manufacturing plant. They were going to outsource their military contract to their China plant until someone pointed out that this was not possible.
Sheesh!
In other news, my souvenir of Thanksgiving is the most awesome oven rack burn I’ve ever sported: about 6 inches of the effects of a rack heated to 450 degrees. Yes, I’m wearing those special burn bandages. The skin seems to be doing well, but it’ll take at least 6-12 months for the scar to go away.
Houngan
3680
Hey, look at me!
After 7 years I put a real resume out with my real contact info. I had a call within 15 minutes for a job in the same city for 35% more money. After a bit of hemming and hawing, I took the job and start on the 21st.
My brother, OTOH, had been at his job for 18 years, and finally said “Enough!” and moved to Memphis to work for FedEx. However, the entrenched folks were backstabbing and undercutting and he hated it, so I was going to try and find him a new job in Louisville.
Today he got a job back in Lexington, where his family and life are already entrenched, for the same pay as the old job, so score! No moving, same schools, same house, same pay, better job!
H.
