Busy, busy day today. Good day.

Things I did today: set up my new laptop computer that my father-in-law bought me because he's just that cool. Bought an el cheapo cell phone so that I can actually do things which require contacting people without going into the house which makes me fall over. Contacted private insurance adjusters to take a look at our house, the offer that the insurance company offered us, and tell us how they can do better. Set up a meeting with one of the adjusters. Met with the adjuster and talked about what he can do for us, and whether it makes sense to hire him. Set up a meeting with the other adjuster I had recommended to me. Gonna see him tomorrow at eleven. Checked out all the hotels on Rte 1 to see if any of them would be a good place to stay for Lis and me -- our kitty's still at Felis Sidus's house, and we slept there last night, but we didn't want to invade her house TOO much or for too long, not that she really MINDED having us there, but still. Got a $99/night room at a hotel, because insurance will be paying for it, and that's actually pretty much a mid-range hotel in this area -- there are cheaper ones, but most of 'em are more expensive. And this one has free wireless internet, which means that I can actually ACCOMPLISH things from here. And it also has free "conversion kits" for computers with DSL hookups -- a DSL plug at one end and a WiFi antenna at the other, so Lis can get her 'puter on the 'net, too. And it has a free continental breakfast. Which, frankly, is a Big Deal: if we can get a free meal at the beginning of every day, that means we have to spend a lot less on food in general, which should make insurance happy. . .

After I got Lis squared away in the room, I went back to Felis Sidus's house in order to play with our cat, and to show her the pilot episode of Firefly. 'Cause, see, now I've got a laptop with a DVD player. . .

She also showed off that she just ordered herself a laptop -- Lis and I accidentally talked her into it. And as she got to play with my laptop, and watch DVDs on it, I think she's real happy that she's getting one, too.

What I've learned today

So, I talked to the other private insurance adjuster. He's not interested in taking our case -- it's too small for his firm -- but he was willing to chat and give free advice. He thinks it might be a good job to give to the first insurance adjuster we talked to: Ray Ball is a small, independent adjuster, and, since he's working for himself, he has lower overhead and can make a modest profit on smaller jobs. Even so, Winnick thought that the situation looked simple enough that we could probably do an okay job representing ourselves.

The impression I'm getting is that insurance adjusters like going up against stingy, nasty insurance companies. Because they're usually paid based on two things: the amount of the final settlement, and the amount that that final settlement is MORE than the settlement the insurance company offered in the first place. And you can negotiate with them on precisely how they're paid.

But clearly, they get more money if 1) it's a big job, which our fire isn't, and 2) the insurance company's initial offer is VERY low. The offer we got is . . . low, but not VERY low. It's within spitting distance of the bottom end of something that might be considered vaguely close to getting near to almost being possible.

Ray Ball thinks he could probably squeeze a few more thousand dollars out of the insurance company, and can also do a lot of the annoying grunt work of itemizing the OBJECTS that were smoke-damaged, besides just the house itself. But this is pretty late in the process to be bringing in a private insurance adjuster -- it's a lot easier to influence the insurance claim BEFORE the insurance company gets numbers for themselves. Just human nature -- it's easier to influence people before they're looking at something in particular.

As I've said before, though, it's not really the damage to the house, or even the damage to our stuff, that's really worrying me. It's my chemical sensitivity.

I would like to walk through the house at some point, maybe tonight, and document exactly what happens to me, so we can maybe figure out what happened and how. And how to clean it up. Would anyone local like to accompany Lis and me, to be an additional observer and help us track this down? We'd appriciate it.

Something Jmhm said made me think of this. . .

In your opinion, which is more damaging to freedom?

1) A terrorist hijacking a plane and killing everyone on board.
2) A population getting used to the idea that going through a security checkpoint is a normal, unobjectionable part of daily life, and it is a reasonable expectation when traveling that government agents will search your belongings and person.