Of Updates on my Kitchen fire and other things~~~~

Well Darklings,

Yesterday the insurance man came by and he and my friend Hank the contractor went over things, all I could do was hover and make a comment or two or express my personal concerns.

Because the washing machine and the stove was already in the house when I moved in, it was hard to determine a value of replacement, the dryer was no problem I had the bill for that and it wasn't that old.

They factor in depreciation as well, which is a bit dis-heartening, but its just to give you enough money to get the basic things, not all the "whistles and bells".   It was also discovered that the walls in the basement laundry room will have to be replaced since they were sheet rock.

The cost of the work to fix up the kitchen will be covered as well as the clean up which is good, so it will go into a fund and then bills submitted will be paid out of that fund to avoid any fraud.  Hanks' been through this process before and said for me to not worry.

Today Hank assigned a two man team to start clean up and repairs and he covered the old stove that was outside with a plastic tarp to discourage scavenging.  The burn wood that was out side has been removed already.

The workmen are Hispanic and I had fun with one of them, he got confused as to where the downstairs bathroom is, the portajohn had not arrived yet, so I see him in the hall and he's looking at the mounted Lion's Head.   Now one of my sister's friends have rigged "Kitty Kat" to roar either by stepping on a stair tread, or if you get to close to the head it breaks a circuit, and Sis had set it up for the latter. 

Out of curiosity He gets close to the Lion's head and triggered Kitty Kat to roar, I saw him jump nearly 10 feet off the ground, he stares at it then I come up behind him without him knowing and said "Oh I'm sorry if Kitty Kat frightened you, he usually warns strangers to be careful"   Well the poor man nearly fainted and said in his best Spanish his apologies, I showed him where the downstairs bathroom was located.

Later I heard him say to his co-worker about what Kitty Kat did and that La Senora must be very brave to deal with El Diablo.   Needless to say they were very happy when the Portajohn was in place.

Hank just came by to see the progress and if the damage was more extensive then planned.   He privately told me that his workers are now afraid to go into the rest of the house except the area's to work on, they think its haunted.  I asked him if he thought it was,  he just grinned and said "I'm planning on bringing my little grandkids here for Halloween, if you can get Kitty-Kat to roar for them and if they can take a tour of your house when you have it decorated, it will be a kick for them."   He said he knew where to find a stuffed swordfish like the one in the Addams Family  "All I have to find is a manikin leg and a flipper"  I have a feeling he's getting into the 'spirit' of the house.

Louise has checked the rest of the house for soot and it did get into the breakfast nook, and a bit into the dinning room,  she said she'll have her daughter come with her tomorrow to help with cleaning the soot, but I told her that I have a cleaning service as well, she said that what is in the kitchen and the breakfast nook is beyond the cleaning service.   So we came to an agreement on it and I'm glad that she can help me, if there is other cleaning problems I'll talk to my cleaning service and we'll go from there.

I'm going to be carefully saving a lot of submitted billing.

Doyle is going to treat all of us to dinner tonight, but we also figured that we can buy Deli things that can be heated in the microwave and a lot of salads as well.  Tomorrow we'll check the plates and glassware to see if they need to be washed,  Doyle bought a hot plate to heat water for dish washing and face washing, my neighbor has been generous to allow us to use their shower until our gas line is turned on.  Hank said that will happen tomorrow, once the new gas line is installed in the kitchen with its new shut off valve.

So Hot Water by tomorrow evening.  We'll all be very happy.

I just found out that the deceased Boston Bombers body was buried in a Muslim cemetery in Virginia thanks to the efforts of a Christian woman, many people are not happy about that.  It is their feeling that such a person to willfully cause such harm should not be entitled to a proper burial, for fear that others will create him to be a martyr.  Only in sick minds would that happen, but then there are sick people out there.

The mummified head that was found in an Oakland recycling center is being treated as a homicide but where it came from is a puzzlement until the deceased can be I.D'ed, which could take some time.

The two women who were burned in the Limo fire, one has been release and the other's condition has been upgraded to good. 

My sister has shown me photo's that she received via e-mail of her grand daughter's prom picture, so beautiful and she and her date and their friends went to the prom with an adult escort in a white stretch Limo, so beautiful and so elegant, all had a wonderful time.  Sis had tears in her eyes, yes they do grow up so quickly.  And we received word that Sis's other daughter is expecting a baby in October maybe around October 31st.  That would be such a "hoot!" if that were to happen, but babies will come when they want to come.  Sis is excited, another grandbaby to spoil.

Oakland has now had three police chiefs in as many days, I sincerely hope the current one stays the course, but It all depends on the Mayor and the Mayor's office letting the Chief do what he can to implement the recommendations as suggested in the Bratton report, and not interfering as she has been doing.  I did not vote for her as I felt she would not be effective and I was right.

I am having a laugh about the newly designed eastern span of the bay bridge and their support bolts problems,  I said to Doyle that the design was too radical for that location and I felt that something would go wrong and I was right again,  as much as I hate to say it I will never feel safe going over that new bridge, something inside of me says its going to 'fail'.   Am I being morbid?  Of course I am.  The old bridge only failed at the one spot that the early bridge designers said was the weakest spot the rest of it held up.  Now they are building a new bridge where everything can fail.

It is just like these so-called yachts that are racing in the America's cup races, they are NOT yachts but catamarans, and I've seen them tip on a turn on one pon-toon, catamarans are not for racing not with over size sails that make the catamarans top heavy and can over balance them.  And it seems that the Americas Cup has a rule in which the winner of the previous race can state which type of boat should be raced and the idiot has suggested these designs which were designed on computers not on proven water conditions, no wonder they've had several boats smashed and broken and one of their sailors drown.  I feel that rule should be changed so that people on the Americas cup board should make the rules of what type of boat and certain limitations, not those that hurt and kill people.  Maybe the wife of the sailor that drowned should sue last years winner for making such dangerous suggestions and the Americas Cup for allowing it.

Doyle says at least its not like NASCAR or the Indy 500 where parts of the car could go into the stands and hurt people.  I won't argue with him, he's in deep enough trouble.

Doyle will be home for the next few days which is good, he can co-ordinate with his friends about what to do with the old washer and dryer.   Sis has the phone number and address of the shop that sells restored vintage stoves, tonight after dinner we'll measure the space and then measure the old stove and get an idea of what will fit.

My next posts will be about other things that I have been planning to write about, until another day, now I'm going to first pick up Belladonna, she has been at the Doggie Hotel far too long, she'll think her Mommy abandon her.

Later Darklings