Flooded with Difficulty

Just over a year ago, we were finally able to refinance the house.  Multiple previous attempts had not gone as planned, so it was a thrill when it finally went through.

One of the difficulties we had was with flood insurance.

We bought it 16 years ago, when we weren't even required to have it.  Since then, they've changed the flood zone.

What is supposed to happen is that you get to keep your old zone, and pay that rate, if you already had the insurance.  It's called being "grandfathered in," harkening back to the way some former Confederate states tried to use to keep newly freed slaves from voting by passing laws saying you couldn't vote unless you could prove your grandfather had been registered to vote.

We provided the documentation, and everything went well, and our flood insurance is now escrowed and paid and it's all good.

Except when it's not.

The home equity loan is with another bank, and they have decided to pitch a fit.  First they didn't believe we had insurance, even after we showed several proofs, including that the primary mortgage company had paid the bill.

Now they are upset because of the "discrepancy" between our flood zone risk assessment they had done, and our actual zone on our coverage.  Because we are grandfathered in and allowed to keep the old zone and payment, we are having to do pretzel bends and handstands to show them all this.

Over an hour of calls yesterday got some stuff taken care of, but i need to make more calls today, and our insurance agent has to send a bunch of forms to the gov'mint and get them to certify that we are, indeed, correct in all of this.

In the end, i just hope the home equity bank believes the new documentation, or i'm tempted to flood them with me camped out in their lobby until someone there gets it!


Today is:

Armed Forces Day -- Mozambique

Barnesville Pumpkin Festival -- Barnesville, OH, US (pumpkins are just the start of the fun; through Sunday)

Fairmount Museum Days/Remembering James Dean Festival -- Fairmont, IN, US (celebrating Dean and other famous people from Fairmont; through Sunday)

Ghatasthapana -- Nepal (start of a nine day Hindu festival, the longest and most auspicious festival in the Nepalese annual calendar)

Haustmanuour -- Iceland (beginning of traditional Autumn Month, during which all the summer chores are finished, including livestock rounded up, before winter begins)

International Ataxia Awareness Day -- highlighting the difficulties of living with the many forms of ataxia

Join a Cabal of International Bankers Today Day -- internet generated, and only for people without a conscience

Kamarampaka Day -- Rwanda (Republic Day, marks the 1961 abolition of the monarchy)

Math Storytelling Day -- the brainchild of Maria Droujkova

National Comic Book Day -- internet generated, but go read one, they are fun

National Crabmeat Newberg Day

National Day of Remembrance for Murder Victims -- US

National Food Service Employees Day -- because everyone wants to eat out once in a while 

National One-Hit Wonder Day -- US, remembering those who had only one hit on the rock charts

National Psychotherapy Day -- US (a day to wear turquoise and encourage education about who psychotherapy can help)

National Teach Ag Day -- US (streamed live from CHS Inc. headquarters)

National Youth Day -- Nauru

Old Holy Rood Eve -- OS calendar Holy Cross Eve, the last day to pick blackberries (after this, the devil poisons them because when he fell from heaven, he landed in a blackberry bush)

Preston County Buckwheat Festival -- Kingwood, WV, US (something for everyone at this fun annual event; through Sunday)

RAINN Day -- The Rape, Abuse, & Incest National Network encourages all of us to get involved in stopping sexual violence

Rosh Hashanah -- Judaism (began last night at sundown, through tomorrow at sundown)

St. Cadoc's Day (Patron of the deaf; against cramps, deafness, glandular disorders, scrofula)

St. Finbarr's Day (Patron of Barra, Scotland; Cork, Ireland)

Toad Tempting Day -- Fairy Calendar

Virginia Peanut Festival -- Emporia, VA, US (and you thought all peanuts came from Georgia! come enjoy peanuts and carnival, quilt show and fireworks, the Virginia way; through Sunday)

World Ataxia Awareness Day

World Maritime Day -- UN (this year's theme is “IMO Conventions:  Effective Implementation", chosen to focus on IMO's efforts to carry out commitments made, because making them and then not carrying them out does no good)

World Pharmacists Day -- International Pharmaceutical Federation



Birthdays Today:

Lee Norris, 1981
Catherine Zeta-Jones, 1969
Will Smith, 1968
Scottie Pippen, 1965
Tate Donovan, 1963
Aida Turturro, 1962
Heather Locklear, 1961
Michael Madsen, 1959
Jamie Hyneman, 1956
Christopher Reeve, 1952
Mark Hamill, 1951
Cheryl Tiegs, 1947
Michael Douglas, 1944
Robert Walden, 1943
Juliet Prowse, 1936
Glenn Gould, 1932
Barbara Walters, 1931
Shel Silverstein, 1930
Phil Rizzuto, 1918
Dmitri Shostakovich, 1906
Walter Wesley "Red" Smith, 1905
William Faulkner, 1897
Jean Phillippe Rameau, 1683 (baptismal date, as actual birth anniversary is unknown)
Ashikaga Yoshimitsu, 1358 (Japanese Shogun)


Debuting/Premiering Today:

"Beauty and the Beast"(TV), 1987
"Stepping Out"(Play), 1984
"Winterset"(Play), 1935
"Dorothy"(Comic opera), 1886


Today in History:

St. Ferment is beheaded in Amiens, France, after voyaging there to preach the gospel, 303
The Battle of Stamford Bridge marks the end of the Anglo-Saxon era, 1066
Columbus begins his second voyage, with 17 ships, 1493
Vasco Nunez de Balboa becomes the first European to see the Pacific Ocean from the west coast of the Americas, 1513
The first printing press in the Americas begins operations, 1639
Old Style date; two very accurate clocks are set in motion at the Royal Observatory at Greenwich, England, the start of Greenwich Mean Time, 1676
Ethan Allan, American Revolutionary War hero, is captured, 1775
Benedict Arnold joins the British, 1780
The first all-black university in the US, Howard University, is created by Congress, 1867
Yosemite National Park is established by Congress, 1890
Charles Follis becomes the first black to play professional American football, 1904
Birth of the remote control -- Leonardo Torres Quevedo successfully demonstrates the invention of the "Telekino" and guides a boat from the shore in the port of Bilbao, 1906
Jimmy Doolittle performs the first blind flight from Mitchel Field proving that full instrument flying from take off to landing is possible, 1929*
Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas, is integrated by the use of United States Army troops, 1957
In a referendum, the people of Norway reject membership of the European Community, 1972
Belize joins the United Nations, 1981
The last of the Magdalene Asylums closes in Ireland, 1996
The Vitim event, a possible bolide (comet nucleus) impact in Siberia, Russia, 2002
China launches the spacecraft Shenzhou 7, 2008
The Wildlife Authority of Uganda announces that, since 1999, the population of some of the animals in the country's game reserves have doubled in population, 2010
King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia announces that women will now be able to vote and run in municipal elections, 2011