You can have it all your life and never use it...

by Michael S. Kaplan, published on 2013/09/11 07:01 -04:00, original URI: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/michkap/archive/2013/09/11/10446546.aspx

A person can spend their whole life having some particular type of insurance without ever using it.

That is the subject of today's blog in this SiaO Blog you are reading. If that isn't what Danny Ocean might refer to as your brand of vodka, then feel free to skip today's blog on this SiaO Blog, and you can skip today's blog in this SiaO Blog (as you can always skip any blog on any blog in this SiaO Blog isn't what Danny Ocean might refer to as your brand of vodka if you like, without fear of punishment.

I am not you, and there is no fault in failing to think something is interesting merely because I do, after all.

Now that I think about it, perhaps this whole section can be copied and pasted into my Blog's common shared disclaimer page!

But alas, I digress (not an uncommon problem those of you who are regular reader of blogs in this SiaO Blog would readily attest or swear to under oath if ever testifying under subpoena in a court case related to this SiaO Blog).

I have had renter's insurance for every single one of the last ~765,864,000 seconds I have rented apartments for the last ~1,536,048,000 seconds I have been alive on this earth.

For the record if anyone is {a} intensely interested in knowing why these numbers are approximations, {b} not smart enough to be able to figure out either on your own or asking somebody smarter than you why these numbers are approximations, and {c} not too embarrassed to admit that you aren't smart enough to be able to figure out why these two numbers are approximations, then.you'll have to ask why they are only approximations in the comments.

The reason you might be trapped in this somewhat embarrassing situation is {a} I'm not interested in explaining a mind-numbingly obvious issue and {b} I am kind of interested in mildly shaming someone! 😏;-)

Popping the stack back to the original point of today's blog in this SiaO Blog: the simple fact that I've had renter's insurance that I have never used despite having had it for decades and even having had several valid claims I could've made like stolen radios and a broken hot tub.

Until Wednesday, September 4th, 2013, when I finally had something happen that will cause me to use my renter's insurance.

I rolled into the bathroom on my iBOT 4000, slid onto the toilet, peed, slid back onto the iBOT 4000, and rolled into the bedroom.

Unfortunately, the toilet started overflowing as it were stopped up, even though the last several trips to the bathroom were pee only with a square or two of toilet paper.

No big deal, this has even happened before (when the handle doesn't come up all the way) but this time it wasn't the case.

But it was still overflowing and soon the rug outside the bathroom would be soaking as well.

But the person on call was thirty minutes away, which is like thirty months when the carpet is getting soaked.

Anyway, now they are going to replace all the carpet in the apartment, something they had been refusing to do previously.

Maybe I won't bother with the renters insurance after all. The new owners should have to spend some money here...

There was a point to this blog, something about the downside of insurance - to win, you have to lose. It's seldom worth the trouble. Better to make the Avalon Bay suits pay for the new carpets. They deserve it.

By the way, I don't put health insurance in that category. Especially when it's Premera Blue Cross Microsoft. But that's a story for another day, too!

I'm gonna stop now, no more future blog ideas, especially when I changed my mind about the idea I had this time and thereby wasted everyone's time.

Everyone should know how to shut off the flow in their toilets (granted, you in particular may not be physically capable of this). Simply take off the lid of the fixture and pull up the float (which may be a horizontally positioned sphere, or more modernly a vertical cylinder), and the water will stop running. If not, the valve is busted, and you have a more serious problem than a mere stoppage and overflow. Most often, however, the problem is simply that the valve proper, which is a rubber stopper at the bottom of the tank that is connected to the float, has come unseated, allowing water to continue to flow into the bowl. Wiggling it with one hand while holding up the float with the other will usually fix the problem.

As for clogged toilets, many modern fixtures are installed with insufficiently wide waste pipes, or with insufficient ventilation of the waste pipe. The waste line normally contains air while the toilet is not in use, and that air has to go somewhere, or the water won't be able to go down the pipe. Either of these problems can cause chronic toilet clogging; in my apartment building, it's bad enough that doing number two will almost invariably clog the toilet. We keep a plumber's helper handy, and in bad cases, summon a handyman with a snake. (I bought my own snake at one time and promptly broke it; I don't think I have the necessary combination of power and lightness of touch.)

I once heard a nice way to describe warranties and insurance... They're like betting!

You bet the auto insurance company $n that you will get in an accident and the company says "You're on."

So you've been betting your renter's insurance company for years that something will happen, and now, well, you finally won the bet!

Insurance is the biggest scam ever created. You pay all this money to a company to insure you and when you need to make a claim they fight tooth and nail to deny it. I went without car insurance for about 10 years....saved myself about $15k. Insurance should work like: I will pay nothing till I make a claim, then you have a right to charge me the arm and leg for insurance. This ass-backwards approach of today is ridiculous. Charge me all this money for a "just in case" scenario... I still have yet to file a claim with any insurance carrier. Tell me again why we need insurance?.... Not the best analogy to use when you think about it.