Wednesday, December 9, 2009

More FIRE pictures....

More pictures of our friends Bob and Kathleen Gomez's Motorhome Fire.  Fires are not pretty, but these pictures sure emphasize the mess and problems involved. Since Bob and Kathleen knew Ms Pat was involved in Insurance as an Agent for many years and I had 30 years experience as an Insurance Adjuster, they ask us to give them some assistance. I first took a lot of pictures to substantiate the damages for them and explained what the adjuster would do.  They called their Insurance Co and were advised an Adjuster would be out to inspect the damage Monday.

Here are some pictures in an album of their Motorhome after the Fire.  Note the dripping water and foam drenching everything.  This picture is blurry for some reason but when you look at it in the album, it clears up.
          (click on picture to view the album)

Bob and Kathleen Gomez fire 2009-12-05
I feel so sorry for anyone involved in a fire. It is such a mess. When one is a full time Rv'er, he has gotten rid of most of his "stuff", except for the most important and memorable "stuff". Now they must sort through what is left and determine if it is salvagable or not. Soaked clothes, furniture and many, more personal belongings. What a job!

A few years of handling these type losses was enough for me. I started specializing  in Automobile Personal Injury and Litigation. It was much easier for me to settle lawsuits with Attorneys and direct lawsuits in Litigation than it was to sit down with folks and go item by item through all their prize personal, memorable belongings.  That was a SAD job.   I loved wrestling and haggling with Attorneys.  Sometimes I even beat them in their own game.  That was especially enjoyable.  It wasn't fun and I spent a lot of sleepless nights when we were trying lawsuits and playing Russian Roulette with a Jury, but it paid well so I stuck it out. When I retired at age 57, I was a nervous wreck.  My health was bad.  My blood pressure and every other bad health item was way too high.   I was overweight and I drank entirely too much.

Strangely enough 6 months after I left the business, my blood pressure and weight went down and my general health improved immensely. The Dr told me, "I don't know what you're doing, but keep doing it". I told him that I had just gotten out of a quite stressful job. He said that getting out may have saved my life.

I must say that I always envied people that loved their jobs. I never could figure that out. All my years on the Highway Patrol, I dealt with mostly BAD people and in the Insurance business I dealt with mostly MAD people.   It wasn't fun. If I hadn't been paid for it and needed the money, I wouldn't have done it..:-).   Love my job?  I don't think so.  Are these people for real?

The weather has sure done a 180 down here. Yesterday morning we went on our walk at 6:30 am before daylight and it was 70 deg. We were in shorts and T-shirts.  NICE !  Now we remember why we are down here!!! I see it's "-15" in Custer, SD this morning!  Wow!

It is a GREAT WEEK!!!

Thanks for stopping by and reading my Blog.  I'm getting 150 + hits a day. Bless you all !!  I need ya!

Mike

This Blog is Published every Wednesday and Sunday..

5 comments:

Jerry and Suzy said...

Oh my, we never want to see a fire like that, let alone experience it ourselves. Being out of those types of jobs is what made you the cheerful, always grinning guy you are today. Good for you.

Anonymous said...

Yes there are people out here that liked our jobs. I am one. I cant say that I loved it but It I certainly enjoyed it most of the time. Good pay, travel and doing something that you enjoy doing makes work a lot better.

It makes me sad when I look at the fire pictures and can certainly understand why you didn't like a job like that. I'm just thankful nobody got hurt.

Phil B.
www.joyandphil.blogspot.com

Rick said...

The pictures of that fire are devastating. Fires and floods are always disastrous it seems. I'm one of those lucky people who happened to love my job and I always said it was because I worked with machines(computers) instead of people. After reading your blog today, I kind of believe that more than ever.

Travelwithwhippets said...

I worked as a court reporter doing depositions, and before that spent some years transcribing statements for an insurance adjuster. I know exactly what you mean about it being a sad/mad job! We are coming to Mission in Jan & Feb and I'm really glad to hear it has warmed up down there! We'll be in the RV park section there at Bentsen Palms. Our first visit to Texas and we can't wait. The fire photos are sure sobering and I hope things work out for your friends.

Motty said...

Loved your story!

The photos of this fire are very sad, and I hope we would never have to deal with fires. I heard lately too many stories about RVs that were burnt to nothing in no time.

My wife Patti and I are still working full time and traveling (we work remotely as computer professionals). Not that we like the job itself, but we love the freedom it provides us with time and location.

Motty and Patti
TraveLivingJourney.blogspot.com