Good morning!!!!

[toppop52]

MKR, first of all, I kid around a lot and the longer you read the drivel I write you will understand. Secondly, we were ALL high risk at that age. Heck I rolled my car at age 16 with the Chief of Police behind me...thankfully I went over 50 years thereafter without an accident. You can read all about it...
Lastly, we are all having fun here. This is not Unfriendly Politics. We meet for coffee each morning and some of us drink it all day...

Casualty Property insurance companies went through a competitive phase, and it would not surprise me if it kept repeating itself, where companies want to increase market share, they lower rates, the loss ratios go up (no surprise) and then they wildly overreacted with huge price swings and cancellations. They made me feel bad about myself as an agent; I was abusing my neighbors by handing them bills that were ridiculous and they trusted me. So I left the industry and concentrated on the life and financial services part, plus a long stretch in the title insurance back office business. So I hear you MKR, yes it was about the money; the problem was the industry didn't know how to manage itself and really jerked around its clientele. Ask any small business owner back then with a gas station or contracting business or worse a roofer or tree surgeon. They were loved one year and thrown out the next and it had nothing to do with their losses.
I have been an independent insurance agent for many years and worked all sides of the street, including spending a year teaching every insurance policy word for word to trainees in a corporate training environment. Every word...so I have lived and breathed this stuff all my life, seen what the three piece suits in Hartford CT would do with a wave of a new regulation to create havoc out in the market place. Insurance companies know how to say no very well, they do a poor job of saying yes and frankly meaning it.

And after looking at auto applications for over six years in Washington DC/suburban VA/MD in the 70's, I quickly learned that folks just do not tell the truth. You learn to be a bit cynical as an underwriter because those who gamed the system learned early on talking about all those tickets put one in the Assigned Risk or the most expensive policy.
so folks conveniently forgot those tickets and it was up to me how to pass judgment. And I tried to be fair. Really was like a doctor assessing health risk; i.e. how many risk factors do you have? Risk is normal; it's how much that is the issue. And no driver thinks they are a bad driver...

And when I looked at my friend the police chief and asked him if he thought my car could be fixed, after sliding upside down on the pavement for about 150 feet, he looked at me, shook his head, groaned, and was probably trying to figure out how to explain this to my father, who was head of the school board and very involved in town. My brothers and I never got into trouble so this was pretty unusual. I was hustling to get home, out too late on a Cinderella license (though I was coming from work so the local cops looked the other way for working teenagers) and slid on a turn on a small country road, hit the culvert which flipped the car on its roof. Three stitches in my head when the roof came down and hit the dash. Oh was I lucky. And I remembered that day, as an underwriter, knowing that all of us were going to have a bad day sometime. My job was to make sure the folks who had too many bad days were charged more so others could pay less. That was the theory...

ok, I'm going to try to be a little less jesty in my posts with new folks; this is not working out well and most of you know I mean to offend no one.

Having met you Drew, I know you are a gentle soul, a pain in the @$$, but a gentle soul! :laughing::drink:
I know what you mean about rates, I was a weekend adjuster for Nationwide when I was around 18, for one summer before the service. I worked in a body shop during the week, so I saw both sides of it.
Funny that most companies wouldn't blink an eye at 327/350 h.p. Chevy II, that was quicker than a Hemi Belvedere, but the Hemi guy paid 2-3 times as much for premiums.

 

[toppop52]

50's and rain, going to 60's and rain until mid afternoon.
Don is right, without the personal stuff this thread would have stopped years ago.

 

[mostly_gas]

Good morning all. 54F this morning going to 71F, clouds are gone except for a few stragglers, winds calm. 4 days rain in the 10 day forecast. Putter jobs and consulting, just realized haven't submitted March bill yet . low wind in forecast till Friday .

 

[farmer2009]

32 this morning and headed to 61 today. Currently 53.

Birds showed up early this morning and I'm just now getting to post. I'm changing water meters and going digital in all barns. Then it's take care of birds and clean the control rooms.

Need to go get a battery for the old IH and the four wheeler. Then wash the decruster although that may wait till tomorrow.

 

[Eric Salop]

This thread without TMI is just a weather report.

Indeed. Good morning, as I have read it for the last year or so, has life and good natured humour written right through it, without any malicious content.

TMI on this forum, JMHO.
hmmm, just read this. Ok, you're right.

I was about to reply - (Drew, stop reading for a moment, I will let you know when you can start again)


Drew, it's not Ok. Please don't ever stop being yourself, many of us here like you just as you are.


These words are not enough. The say it all, but I feel I need to add more - in a way that possibly some others may not understand, but I think that's a small risk worth taking. You see, I wouldn't want Drew to cry if he read that line above, as he is both sensitive and quite probably one of the nicest men in the the world. So I would add " - in small doses", or a similar disparaging remark about ex-insurance salesmen, that would hopefully bring a smile. Is that still allowed - can we continue to be randomly serious and frivolous ?

Ok Drew you can start reading again.

 

[RedNeckGeek]

Did a tour of Antelope Canyon. Great place for photos. RNG, if your trip to Page missed this. You need to try it again. It was cool in the Canyon.
View attachment 464383
Another travel day. Driving to Moab, UT.

Spent a lot of time in Utah's Color Country, Ron. Never heard of Antelope Canyon, though. But now it's on the list, thanks to you! :thumbsup:

 

[Eric Salop]

Did a tour of Antelope Canyon. Great place for photos. RNG, if your trip to Page missed this. You need to try it again. It was cool in the Canyon.
View attachment 464383
Another travel day. Driving to Moab, UT.
Good Morning All.

Thanks Ron, I have seen pictures of the Grand Canyon from high up before, however nothing as remarkable as your last two.

 

[Eric Salop]

Hope frivolous is still allowed, as I took a picture of that old Ford campervan this morning.

 

[RedNeckGeek]

Good Morning! 56F @ 9:00AM. Cloudy this morning. A few showers developing during the afternoon. High 73F. Winds SSE at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 30%.

+1 on keeping the frivolities of life and personal idiosyncrasies in bounds on this thread. Not much humor or irony in a weather report.

Reminds me of a recent upheaval in one of the clubs I belong to. Some new folks, one in particular, ascended to the Board of Directors and proceeded to make changes that either ignored the Bylaws or changed them all together. That pretty much alienated the founders and much of the membership, but the excuse was "it's time for a change". The majority responded by giving the lot of them the boot during the next election, the refrain being "we joined this club because we like the way it is, and if you don't perhaps it's time you go start your own club". :2cents:

Errands in town today include purchasing the Vanagon (and divvying up tasks on the punch list), dropping off a mountain of clothing and a dinette set at a charity thrift store for local folks with developmental disabilities, purchasing gear oil for the new flail (which BTW is mounted on the tractor and ready to go, less side shift), and finally snagging the power cables for the remote winch setup for the tractor.

Hope everyone has a good 'un!

 

[RedNeckGeek]

Hope frivolous is still allowed, as I took a picture of that old Ford campervan this morning.

Love the patina, Eric. But I wonder: Can two sleep comfortably within without swallowing one of little Alice's pills? :laughing:

BTW, here's a pic of that new diamond in the rough:

 

[daugen]

ya know, without reinventing the wheel too much, all prior small block jokes aside, how about an engine from a wrecked Porsche?
while there's no replacement for displacement, in a limited space, better find a turbo.
Of course that would mean new pistons, but that's pretty easy on one of these.
By the time he's done, RNG will have a nice AMGagon.
I can't imagine that drivetrain is all that beefy and happy with big torque increases though...

RS, you have kittens to entertain you and fish to soothe you. Oh, maybe you don't have any fish any more. You'll have to prove it...
I thought the eye to eye stare down of the cats to be interesting. Most animals don't seem to like that, maybe a dominance thing. And those two cats were
staring at each other and saying "yeah, you blink first buddy"

A nice gentle rain out. Grass seed staying put so far. But I have such an itch to go plant those strawberries. I left them outside in the rain, but they were
calling to me when I was unloading the groceries "hey fatso, get to work, plant us".
They are on the agenda for tomorrow. Two trips foodshopping has worn me out. And I passed on the corned pig lips.

 

[MossflowerWoods]

... This thread without TMI is just a weather report.

Boy ain't that the TRUTH!

And Thank God for it. MANY days in the past this thread & its tolerance of TMI (much of it mine), was the only ray of sunshine I had...

Drew, please do not change a thing. None of the rest of ya neither...

Be well all,
David

 

[toppop52]

Love the patina, Eric. But I wonder: Can two sleep comfortably within without swallowing one of little Alice's pills? :laughing:

BTW, here's a pic of that new diamond in the rough:

View attachment 464407

That flat four Subaru should fit nicely!

 

[toppop52]

Drew, I thought about a Porsche engine the other day, the older ones would bolt right in place of the VW power plant. Like I say, if some is enough, too much is just right!

 

[txdon]

Hope frivolous is still allowed, as I took a picture of that old Ford campervan this morning.

View attachment 464406

Looks like you are camping on the Big Island's lava field. Say Hi to David S while you are there.

 

[Kyle_in_Tex]

Hope frivolous is still allowed, as I took a picture of that old Ford campervan this morning.

View attachment 464406

You might need to take 2 of those pills from Alice... Remember Alice?

Might also consider a complete restoration again....

 

[murphy1244]

You might need to take 2 of those pills from Alice... Remember Alice?

Might also consider a complete restoration again....

Watch out for officer Obie.

 

[daugen]

no way, that's a Matchbox toy. Look at the hinges on the rear door...
too funny. Yeah, it looks like it's going to fall off the edge of the world or is that a piece of slate?
and watch that van closely. Isn't it rocking? More pills...

 

[txdon]

Drew, you are going to confuse Eric on which pills to take.

 

[Kyle_in_Tex]

Watch out for officer Obie.

You caught my reference!