Update on Fire Aftermath

Actually there is no real update, and I am counting days since the fire on Day 0.

After the initial two weeks of hurry up and get over there to disarm and arm the alarm (electricity restored on Day 3), and lock things back up, besides making sure if they've removed a board from a window that it's replaced (not always done), nothing has happened in the past two due to waiting for the insurance company.

They have been to the house twice already - on Day 2 (ok to hire electrician to turn on power), and on Day 25 to confirm the adjuster's assessment on Day 2 regarding future structural work to restore.

Their initial structural adjuster on Day 2 talked about smoke in the hollow walls all the way up to the second floor. (I realize how lucky we were to catch the fire that quickly due to that tidbit about balloon construction used for over a century) 

Before any approvals can be given to do more than cut peepholes in the wall, another insurance company rep needs to inspect the house.  He has an appt for Day 35.

Even if I try to see it from their POV (point of view), this seems inefficient.  Let's say their initial person dispatched has no authority other than to say 'yep, it was a fire', the second one should have some assessment ability to report back to them and begin the approval process.

Also, I am using their chosen restoration contractor.  Do they distrust this company so much they need to do this many reinspections?  

There's also my sarcastic angle.  I was told this week I will be out of my house 6 to 12 months.  If they send two guys a month out to my house to stick a dry sponge in their peepholes that long, will they eventually come out clean?   When that happens, they say 'No further work needed other than some spackle and paint'?

I've also let my not-so-nice side out of the cage to talk on the phone since I'm 'definitely not satisfied' with the ability to utilize my loss of use coverage through a company that specializes in short-term disaster, emergency, corporate, and government leases for temporary furnished housing.

At first I was not sure how long I'd be out of my house, and I realize a dog-owner with cats would be difficult to place.  However, I expected at least ONE phone call or email for me to list preferences, quantity, or any dealbreakers at some point because I was told they would call me on Day 1.  They didn't.  They didn't call for many days.

This morning I rec'd a response to my 'not satisfied' ranting - Day 30.  I'm told expecting any query regarding my preferences would be premature because they need insurance company approval first.

Am I supposed to empathize with these bureaucratic buffoons because I know what it's like to have a place to live with all the comforts of home, including my pets?  But apparently since my life is not their life, these numbnuts prefer to dick around for a month.

Meanwhile my dogs have been sleeping outside for a month.  They made it to their golden or senior years without ever doing that for even one night.

Due to my reliance on these companies at this time, I am leaving their company names absent from this blog post, but I intend to edit them in later once I get a sliver of deplorable service out of all these slower-moving-than-a-glacier incompetents.  Future updates may reflect an improved level of service, but at the moment I'm not classifying the insurance company or temporary housing specialist as efficient or able.

January

I realized I haven't posted in January.

I'm still on the hunt for a full-time job so I'm online quite a bit, but not having fun.  My imagination is taken up with picturing myself in different places, utilizing related skills - some of which I'm quite good at - and what the possible wage would be and what that means.

Since my last blog post, my daughter came home from college and then returned.  While she was here, she also worked part-time with me at my second job.

So now, it's me and the animals again ... along with Vanna, Thanos, and some Neferseshotep in the back of my head.

St. Francis Feline Fellowship

I also blog for a cat rescue group, and since this is an update on why I'm not churning out the word for National Novel Writing Month - I've done some mud mucking besides bleaching the crap out of things.

On Saturday (or Caturday), a group of SARA volunteers with power troubles that barred our normal adoption afternoons went down to Union Beach, NJ to help St. Francis Feline Fellowship.

Union Beach, N.J. on Raritan Bay is a community hard-hit by Superstorm Sandy.  Even two weeks later, not all traffic lights are operational on Route 36.  One of the banks has a truck set up in their parking lot as a mobile banking center.  There were signs flashing alongside the road with info on where to get food, water, and ice.

NJ.com and News 12 have both picked up that Union Beach is a community that needs rebuilding.  From Tomas Dinges of NJ.com:

The night of the storm the wind-driven tidal surge swept into homes with violent force, crashing through locked doors and carefully sealed windows and tearing through living rooms, hallways, bedrooms and kitchens.

Walls ripped from foundations and two-story houses sheared in half. Brook Avenue and Front Street became roads of ruin, with homes like Stenquist’s reduced to concrete and wooden rubble.

Between 200-300 were knocked off their foundations or rendered uninhabitable, authorities say. More than 100 houses are simply missing from the tightly knit community of 6,200 that lives in the tiny town of one square mile.

Houses that weren’t obliterated were flooded, the water cresting at eight feet, then draining away, taking with it anything that floated.

St. Francis Feline Fellowship is located at a residence that still exists.  Repairs are needed to the residence, and while I was out there Saturday, FEMA came by twice to take pictures and notes.  Even though that'll help later, the primary home insurance adjustor has not visited.  The second step is the flood insurance, then FEMA's assistance will be last. In addition to the house, Sue's car was floated onto the front porch and considered totalled.

In addition to the personal loss, Sue realized that the storm surge was higher than it had ever been in Union Beach.  She stated her house never had this kind of flooding.

There is a cat sanctuary on the property.   It was recently built, and has an interior section with heat and air conditioning.   Feral cats were being sheltered in it, including a cat that was at my house for two years waiting for a sanctuary spot to open up.

Sanctuary - didn't think to take a pic till I was taking a break

Sue evacuated as many cats as she could from the sanctuary that night, in the dark and in chest-deep water.  They were crowded together on a high shelf, needing her help to reach somewhere safer.  Grabbing feral, scared cats is not easy, and even though Sue has practice handling difficult cats, the only thing that mattered was getting the cats out of this shelter.  Not a single cat was injured or lost.

Shelf, after I cleared out everything else

What I worked on Saturday was getting the sanctuary shelter cleared out, cleaning it, and getting it ready for the cats to return to their normal home. 

Out of the cat supplies, a great deal was lost.  Any soft furniture was waterlogged, cat trees with particle board bases was considered totaled, even if it did not come apart because of possibiilty of mold or mildew, blankets and towels were saturated with mud, and full bags of dry cat food had become wet.

There was a second small building that was used for recovery for any ill cats or those needing surgery, including spay/neuters.  There were more materials lost from that building as well. 

St. Francis Feline Fellowship needs donations - there is a donation button on the web site.  It's also 501(c)3, like Summit Animal Rescue.  It might seem odd one rescue group pointing at another, but St. Francis is similar to SARA, but also different.  Sue does more TNR, socializing cats that may seem unadoptable, and will sanctuary a limited number of ferals that have nowhere to go.

I have no hands-on experience with TNR work, and I've only socialized a few somewhat feral kittens.  Morticia's, currently a resident in Sue's sanctuary.

Morticia

Updates

Healthwise, I had a week of earache.  Better now.

After August 31st, I did not keep writing full steam ahead with Neferseshotep because there were some things bothering me in what I already wrote.  Part of what I rewrote is the excerpt I had up on the blog, so I've updated that (on the Neferseshotep tab, up on top).  More conflict - even though neither character is voicing it.   Would a good comparison be two guys giving each other fist-crushing hand shakes while exchanging pleasantries?

I plan to outline the sequel for The End of the World Sucks in October, then write it during November (National Novel Writing Month).  I have a couple of small ideas already, but I'm trying to concentrate on Neferseshotep, which may be published after the Sucks sequel because it's not as simple so editing may be more time consuming.  My Egyptian priest presents deeper problems than Vanna's quest to stay alive.

This weekend I had my first book signing at a golf outing for Summit Animal Rescue.  I was already signed up to volunteer for an indoor position, and another volunteer in the group has written a children's book about cats ... long story short ... I'll be working the sales table with magnets, t-shirts and the books for the day.  

Coincidentally, I only found out last week that one of my neighbors has also written her first book.  She is going the traditional publishing route, has a publisher, and is about to receive some cover art to look over.  I didn't get much more info than the proposed title and she's a member of the NJ chapter of Sisters in Crime.

I think it's fantastic that others are actually doing something rather than thinking - 'One day I'm going to write a book...'   I do need to get my act in gear so we can crosspost info.  I'm missing facts since I'm unable to come up with decent search results through Google.   Sorry - I was doing yard work, and unprepared for books to spring up in the conversation so didn't have 'I'm an author' business cards handy. 

Last week, I had been reading about authors paying for reviews.  From writing fan fiction for so long, I know the read -> review rate is low.  Less than one review for every hundred page views, and that includes troll reviews from sockpuppet accounts that seem to have a thing for me.   So I was thinking that four reviews on my book after only two months wasn't dreadful based on the quantity of sales because I was slightly ahead.   I was also pleased with them because they were reviews with substance.

As you can see from a previous blog post, I kept my costs low to self-publish.  I'm not at a breakeven point yet, but I'm creeping towards it. So I'm wondering if I could buy 50 5-star reviews on Amazon for $999 - what does that get me?  That's a lot more books that I would need to sell. Will 50 rave reviews sell them for me?  What are these reviews going to say, if the reviewer doesn't read the book? 

Anyone can come along and give it a poor review still.  Also, I would write an angrier review if I felt I was duped into buying a book.  The Amazon rating system might let the angry/disappointed review disappear off the page, but all anyone needs to do is click on 1 or 2 star reviews to find it. 

While downloading some free Kindle books, I succumbed to the temptation to search for my book.  One of my reviews was gone.  Since I hadn't taken a screen shot of it I have to rely on my memory, but I think it was a verified Amazon purchase.  Only having four, I did note that one was not a verified purchase, but that one's still listed. 

It might be that I have some sort of mental disorder, but I did wonder about the one review that was not an Amazon purchase.  It's not even about uncovering who it is, they can keep their anonymity.  I'm curious about how they read my book - the one Nook copy that was sold belongs to someone I know who does not have an Amazon account.  The paperback either needs to be purchased through Amazon or me, and they can't get one from me until I have a book signing.  Could someone have made a purchase through Amazon and thought so well of my book they loaned it to someone, and then that second person's so taken by it, they jumped on Amazon to leave a review?  That seems ridiculously optimistic of me.

So now that I've admitted I think about 'how'd that happen?'  over little things, I was curious what happened to that missing review.    Why would someone take the time to write a review, and then delete it a month later?  I emailed Amazon to see if it was Amazon or the customer that removed it.  Customers can do whatever they like, but if it was Amazon, I'd like to know why so I can dispute it if the reason is not sufficient.  I got a scripted reply back that Amazon can only discuss it with the reviewer.  That doesn't answer my question.

But then, I received a new four-star review.  It's a good review, and since it's four stars I have a little variety on the page.  Hooray for four stars.