This is the beginning of a new adventure. On January 5th I got the call that there was work for me in Oregon. Ok, how to get to Oregon from New Orleans in the shortest possible time in the middle of winter! Head into the eye of the storm and pray...really, really hard! And don't ya know it worked. I arrived in Hood River, OR on the 8th ready to work claims on the 9th! Here we go again! [View Full Entry]

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On August 30th, I got the call I was dreading and eagerly waiting for. I got the go to head to Louisiana for Hurricane Gustav. I was originally expected in Alabama on Sunday, they called me on Friday morning. I was in San Jose, CA. I got a reprieve to arrive on Monday. When I finally got to Dallas it became apparent that I would have to drive through the Hurricane to get to Alabama. At that point I was told to hang out in Dallas until things settled out. Then when the storm hit, I was told to head directly [View Full Entry]

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In January of 2008, a strong windstorm hit Northern California and parts of Nevada. It was the first time I have worked from home. It was a fun experience and wonderful to be able to walk into the next room to work. I haven't been able to do that since 2002. Which was the last time I worked from home! The claims from this storm were unique in that they mostly consisted of condo associations with large amounts of buildings in each association. I have never seen the kind of wind damage outside of a tornado or hurricane. It was amazing [View Full Entry]

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In December of 2006 just as Kurt was getting ready to move to Los Angeles with his company, my company called to tell me they had work from me in Seattle. I was ready to go although most of my work equipment was in the RV which I had stashed in Florida for the duration after Katrina. I was very excited to be heading to Seattle because one of my oldest friends lives there and had just had a son with his partner. So not only was I getting work, but I was going to be able to see his son, [View Full Entry]

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In May 2006 when I finally left Louisiana I decided to take it easy heading home and stopped to see the sights. The first time I had ever done that. I stopped in San Angleo to visit my ex-father in law. I stopped in the Painted Desert at sunset. I stopped for 2 days in the Grand Canyon, decended to the depths in the Grand Canyon Caverns, drove across Hoover Dam and stayed in Las Vegas (my first trip) for 2 nights. Then a quick trip through Death Valley and a run around the bottom of the Sierra Nevada mountains and [View Full Entry]

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By this time Katrina had already hit the coast and seeing the writing on the wall as to how scarse housing was going to be I got a loan from my mom and purchased a 1992 Four Winds 29ft Class C RV. My mom and I then drove it to Louisiana, well actually Alabama, as I had to go through orientation with the company before they would let me work for them. While in Alabama, I met a co-worker from Texas who would become my next door neighbor for the next 7 months. We drove back to Louisiana and found some [View Full Entry]

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Kurt and I drove across Country to get my company car from CA to MA. It was a wonderful trip and really did a lot to cement our friendship. If we hadn't made that trip I don't know that we would have survived what came next. The job was a complete disaster. I was not able to handle what I had gotten myself into. Perhaps if I had been in CA where I was surrounded by people who supported me and were able to give me a break from the stress of the job things would have turned out differently. I [View Full Entry]

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After graduation I worked for 2 years as an engineer for the insurance company and in an unexpected turn of events I was helping out a neighbor with her insurance claim and remembered how much I loved the challenge of working insurance claims. Shortly after that I transfered from Engineering to Claims within the insurance company and began two years of working the most amazing claims ever. I cut my teeth on $100k claims. And worked my way up from there. I worked a fire in San Francisco. I worked a pier collapse in San Rafael, CA. I worked an arson [View Full Entry]

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After Robert asked me for a divorce I drove to Carmel Valley from Texas. After much back and forth I ended up taking all three cats even though Q-Tip was unquestionably Robert's cat. That Christmas Roberts parents invited me back for the holidays. It was the last time I would spend Christmas with them both. When I drove back to CA after that Christmas I had packed up all of my belongings that I could sort through and pack from our stuff that had been in storage for a year since we began our cross country adventure. That was one of [View Full Entry]

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1996 It was the first year my dad, Robert and I headed out for some serious adjusting! Our first storm was a windstorm in San Jose, CA. Robert and I left San Angelo, TX in December with three cats in tow. We had to leave Velcro home because she was constantly attacking Luke and Leia. So in our Hundai Sonata we traveled cross country to go live with my parents for the duration of this storm. When we got to California, Robert and I asked my mom to shave Q-Tip because his hair had been driving both Robert and I insane [View Full Entry]

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