Literal and Figurative Shitty Situations
I mean, it could have been shittier than it was. I was sitting on the couch in my basement, averting my eyes from plumber's crack the other day, with the threat of opening a sewer line in my house and getting sprayed with whatever was behind it.
But I'm getting ahead of myself.
The figuratively shitty situation came first. My disability insurance company called me back to say that they do not, indeed, cover pregnancies. I have a long term policy, not a short term one. The company I have insurance with doesn't even OFFER short term policies.
I was very quiet on the phone, unlike last time, where I screamed at the poor woman who took my call. (Don't worry - I also apologized to her profusely and did my best to make clear that I was screaming at the situation, not her. I know, I wrote about this last time.) The woman I was speaking to apologized multiple times, but I know there was nothing she could do.
I just didn't love that when I told her I bought a new house recently and had budgeted this money into that, she was just like, "I know. I'm sorry." And that was it. I get it. What is she going to do? It's not her fault. But what if I really was in danger of not being able to afford my house now? Heartless companies don't care. I know that now more than ever.
The worst part was that it would, of course, mostly be my fault for not reading my insurance policy through - all 60 pages of it. My dad was over and insisted on reading the policy, saying that I might be being lied to (even though I knew that wasn't the case). Who reads things like that? You should. But be honest with yourself - do you?
Especially when you have an insurance salesman who you've been working with for nearly 10 years, who comes to your house and sits at your dining room table and chats with you about life, the universe and everything, who you think has your best interests at heart, who you think is paying attention to what you're asking for, and it turns out that no, none of that's true.
I wish I had been sold this stupid policy by a guy who comes into my school and sits at a table in the faculty room and I see him once a year. Then I could comfortably talk to him about how badly he messed this up and take my business elsewhere. But no. I have the guy who handles all of our insurances and 403bs, as well as my parents', and who is a genuinely nice person.
But I feel a little over-50-white-manned. (It's a verb now.) When I initially spoke to him about filing this claim, he said, "Women don't get disability just for being pregnant." (Again, I know this is a rehash of the last entry.) I informed him that they do, that literally every woman I work with has collected this. (Which is a whole other reason I'm embarrassed and angry. This should be something I'm entitled to, and I don't get to have it. I should have just signed up with the disability they offer at school for this purpose.) At that point, my rep said, "I don't know. Maybe. I'll have to check for you." And when he got back to me, he said if I was going to be out for 90 days, I might be covered, he wasn't sure. I could also switch to a 30 or 60 day elimination period for a lot more money if I wanted to. I decided not to do that because I am going to be out for more than 90 days. (Good thing I didn't, because even with those shorter elimination periods, this company still only offers long term policies.)
So yes, I should have read the policy and seen that pregnancy isn't covered. But it's this guy's job to know that, and even he couldn't tell me. How did he not read this and find it? Particularly after I asked him to do just that! I felt like because he himself has never had a baby, he just didn't bother to know that short term policies cover pregnancy and couldn't tell me that he wasn't selling the thing I was looking for. And so I've now been paying for something I wasn't looking for, and I'm not saying having a long term policy is the worst thing, but it wasn't what I wanted when I asked you about this four years ago. Part of me wants to take all the money I've trusted to this guy and move it to someone else with another company, but let's be real. If someone who comes to my house isn't listening to what I want, why should some person who I only see in the faculty room once a year?
Insurance. What a racket.
I have to ask around, I think, and find out if getting a short term policy is even going to be worth it. I do know they cost quite a bit of money. If we even decide to have another kid, will I pay less than I'll get out of it? Or would I be better off just putting money aside?
Most of the time I do actually like being an adult. Dealing with insurance is not those times.
Now the literal shit. Sometime in the last week or two, I noticed a not great smell in our basement. We looked at the sump pump and noticed some black goo going on in there, so we poured some bleach on it and thought that would fix the problem. It did stop the smell, but only for about a day.
This week, we got in touch with our home warranty company. It costs $100 to have someone come out and determine what the problem is, and the warranty should cover the actual work that has to get done.
So Wednesday a plumber came over and looked at the pump. He showed me how our house sewer line ends right above the sump pump pit, and that's actually what was leaking. This is problematic because we were getting waste in the pump, which is only meant to pump water. He tried to use a snake to clean it out, but he didn't have one that was long enough, so he said someone would call us later that day to set up another appointment.
As it happened, someone called and came to the house that night. They snaked the sewer line 100 feet, and they still didn't find the blockage. That's all they would do, and that's all our warranty would cover. We had another company come out two days later to check further for the blockage. They were really nice, but I was pretty floored by their pricing. $400/hr with a minimum charge of 4 hours. I had a pretty major breakdown (the plumbers were really nice and gave me the time I needed to think about it) because that seemed ridiculously expensive to me. But they were there, and Jon was having a lot of anxiety about the situation and the smell of poo permeating the house. But should we have done more research on a company? Did he know how much this was going to cost? Had he agreed to this? They said the had a deposit from us, but Jon hadn't mentioned that to me.
No, my poor mom got the brunt of my screaming all of this. I don't know if she's ever seen me have a fit like that, even though they can be pretty regular when it comes to situations that upset me. Jon sees it mostly when it happens.
What's crazy is how irrational I get. I basically don't want whoever's listening to me to say or do anything. If they try to give me advice, it's wrong. I don't want their stupid advice. But if they say nothing, I find myself thinking about why they're not saying anything.
Remember what the name of this blog is.
The end result was we let them do their thing. Jon had known about the pricing. And in the end, they were there for about an hour and a half. I was pretty burned up about having to pay them for more than double that time. But I figure that's probably what pricing in our area is.
At least it's dealt with. Because pretty soon our house is going to be smelling of poo for other reasons. We don't need any extra shit.
But I'm getting ahead of myself.
The figuratively shitty situation came first. My disability insurance company called me back to say that they do not, indeed, cover pregnancies. I have a long term policy, not a short term one. The company I have insurance with doesn't even OFFER short term policies.
I was very quiet on the phone, unlike last time, where I screamed at the poor woman who took my call. (Don't worry - I also apologized to her profusely and did my best to make clear that I was screaming at the situation, not her. I know, I wrote about this last time.) The woman I was speaking to apologized multiple times, but I know there was nothing she could do.
I just didn't love that when I told her I bought a new house recently and had budgeted this money into that, she was just like, "I know. I'm sorry." And that was it. I get it. What is she going to do? It's not her fault. But what if I really was in danger of not being able to afford my house now? Heartless companies don't care. I know that now more than ever.
The worst part was that it would, of course, mostly be my fault for not reading my insurance policy through - all 60 pages of it. My dad was over and insisted on reading the policy, saying that I might be being lied to (even though I knew that wasn't the case). Who reads things like that? You should. But be honest with yourself - do you?
Especially when you have an insurance salesman who you've been working with for nearly 10 years, who comes to your house and sits at your dining room table and chats with you about life, the universe and everything, who you think has your best interests at heart, who you think is paying attention to what you're asking for, and it turns out that no, none of that's true.
I wish I had been sold this stupid policy by a guy who comes into my school and sits at a table in the faculty room and I see him once a year. Then I could comfortably talk to him about how badly he messed this up and take my business elsewhere. But no. I have the guy who handles all of our insurances and 403bs, as well as my parents', and who is a genuinely nice person.
But I feel a little over-50-white-manned. (It's a verb now.) When I initially spoke to him about filing this claim, he said, "Women don't get disability just for being pregnant." (Again, I know this is a rehash of the last entry.) I informed him that they do, that literally every woman I work with has collected this. (Which is a whole other reason I'm embarrassed and angry. This should be something I'm entitled to, and I don't get to have it. I should have just signed up with the disability they offer at school for this purpose.) At that point, my rep said, "I don't know. Maybe. I'll have to check for you." And when he got back to me, he said if I was going to be out for 90 days, I might be covered, he wasn't sure. I could also switch to a 30 or 60 day elimination period for a lot more money if I wanted to. I decided not to do that because I am going to be out for more than 90 days. (Good thing I didn't, because even with those shorter elimination periods, this company still only offers long term policies.)
So yes, I should have read the policy and seen that pregnancy isn't covered. But it's this guy's job to know that, and even he couldn't tell me. How did he not read this and find it? Particularly after I asked him to do just that! I felt like because he himself has never had a baby, he just didn't bother to know that short term policies cover pregnancy and couldn't tell me that he wasn't selling the thing I was looking for. And so I've now been paying for something I wasn't looking for, and I'm not saying having a long term policy is the worst thing, but it wasn't what I wanted when I asked you about this four years ago. Part of me wants to take all the money I've trusted to this guy and move it to someone else with another company, but let's be real. If someone who comes to my house isn't listening to what I want, why should some person who I only see in the faculty room once a year?
Insurance. What a racket.
I have to ask around, I think, and find out if getting a short term policy is even going to be worth it. I do know they cost quite a bit of money. If we even decide to have another kid, will I pay less than I'll get out of it? Or would I be better off just putting money aside?
Most of the time I do actually like being an adult. Dealing with insurance is not those times.
Now the literal shit. Sometime in the last week or two, I noticed a not great smell in our basement. We looked at the sump pump and noticed some black goo going on in there, so we poured some bleach on it and thought that would fix the problem. It did stop the smell, but only for about a day.
This week, we got in touch with our home warranty company. It costs $100 to have someone come out and determine what the problem is, and the warranty should cover the actual work that has to get done.
So Wednesday a plumber came over and looked at the pump. He showed me how our house sewer line ends right above the sump pump pit, and that's actually what was leaking. This is problematic because we were getting waste in the pump, which is only meant to pump water. He tried to use a snake to clean it out, but he didn't have one that was long enough, so he said someone would call us later that day to set up another appointment.
As it happened, someone called and came to the house that night. They snaked the sewer line 100 feet, and they still didn't find the blockage. That's all they would do, and that's all our warranty would cover. We had another company come out two days later to check further for the blockage. They were really nice, but I was pretty floored by their pricing. $400/hr with a minimum charge of 4 hours. I had a pretty major breakdown (the plumbers were really nice and gave me the time I needed to think about it) because that seemed ridiculously expensive to me. But they were there, and Jon was having a lot of anxiety about the situation and the smell of poo permeating the house. But should we have done more research on a company? Did he know how much this was going to cost? Had he agreed to this? They said the had a deposit from us, but Jon hadn't mentioned that to me.
No, my poor mom got the brunt of my screaming all of this. I don't know if she's ever seen me have a fit like that, even though they can be pretty regular when it comes to situations that upset me. Jon sees it mostly when it happens.
What's crazy is how irrational I get. I basically don't want whoever's listening to me to say or do anything. If they try to give me advice, it's wrong. I don't want their stupid advice. But if they say nothing, I find myself thinking about why they're not saying anything.
Remember what the name of this blog is.
The end result was we let them do their thing. Jon had known about the pricing. And in the end, they were there for about an hour and a half. I was pretty burned up about having to pay them for more than double that time. But I figure that's probably what pricing in our area is.
At least it's dealt with. Because pretty soon our house is going to be smelling of poo for other reasons. We don't need any extra shit.
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