By Marjorie Klise
Speaking of orchids and onions…oh, yeah, we weren’t really speaking of that. But it is such a good way to clearly show the difference between good and bad, pleasant and unpleasant.
So, here is my summer onion:
My fence goes down. Hit by a car? Blown by the wind? No matter. It is down. So, I called my insurance agent and, yes, I have replacement insurance. He calls the adjustor. The adjustor looks and calls with a value (less than 1/5th of what I paid for it over fifteen years ago). Since the price of lumber and labor will have gone up over the years, I object. I go out looking for bids. It is a busy time for
carpenters who do custom work and I am late getting on their schedule but several come. Most want to put in a pre-fab fence. I want replacement. I make more calls. Finally, I have only one bid. So I call my agent again to seek some help. “Does he have a contractor I could contact…this must happen often in his line of business?” His response, after consultation with the ‘experts’ in the office, was “to try the Yellow Pages.” (As if I had been calling names and numbers off the police blotter). And then he added that “if you put in a claim, you know your premiums will go up.” Was that a threat? I give up. He wins. I don’t get a replacement fence. Really big ONION experience.
On the other hand we have to concentrate on the Orchids in our lives:
My gutters badly need a serious cleaning, and they are also showing age and wear, so I call my roofer. He comes out to the house. He doesn’t send an apprentice or an adjuster. He comes within 48 hours. He looks carefully, offers several ideas and finally, he suggests that another company could do a good job and cheaper. And they probably could get to it sooner. HE calls the company. HE gets the bid. HE sets up the appointment. And I am ready to go. MY hero! My ORCHID.
How do we live our lives? As Orchids? As Onions? I am trying really hard to forget the ‘smelly’ agent and enjoy the ‘fragrant’ roofers in my life. Life is too short for the negatives to take up so much room.