A Rainy Day

 A few months ago I noticed that a life insurance policy was taking money out of my bank every month, and it seemed to have started around the time I had my hysterectomy. I know, that’s been a year and a half, so you know how good I am at paying close attention to my bank. Shhh. Well, anyway, I didn’t remember signing anything so that I could have life insurance, but thought maybe I had while I was out of it during that period of time. Anyway, thinking it might have been one of those things that the Credit Union sends out every once in a while with the option for cheaper life insurance through their connection, I asked them to cancel it.

http://tribune.com.pk/story/887603/annual-report-2014-life-insurance-industry-in-private-sector-surges-35-8/

They didn’t know what it was, said it wasn’t them. They suggested I find out who it was, but I couldn’t remember, so I just told them to cancel. Since I’m fairly irregular about checking my messages in my bank, this conversation lasted a few months. It wasn't a big deal to me. Everything else looked fine in the bank.

Now, a few weeks ago I get this letter from the company I have my eye insurance through saying the bank had rejected their withdrawal. And, uh, what was their name?

http://www.totalben.com/Documents/vision.html

Yes, they were held under a life insurance company. Uh-oh. On the plus side, I probably had noticed their withdrawals earlier than that few months ago, like when they changed hands and started being under a life insurance company. Phew. I'm not that bad at checking my accounts. And another plus, I’d been meaning to cancel them anyway. I used to have all of my health insurance through the National Association for the Self Employed (NASE), but a year and a half ago, or something like that, the health insurance company quit on me, stopped doing business for people who'd started in Virginia. Never mind that I live in Colorado now, I started in Virginia, so bye bye Heidi. We're not covering you any more.

NASE still had my eye insurance and accidental dismembership or something like that, though, and since I wear glasses, I've kind of needed them. Still, with the fees for NASE plus the eye insurance and other insurance thingy, I was paying a lot more per month than I really needed, especially since NASE membership didn't really do much for me. My self employment, well, it's not like I'm a start-up company or have employees or anything. I sell Avon very occasionally and proofread from home.

https://thenounproject.com/term/cancel/542176/

Anyway, so I just needed the impetus to get it all cancelled and find eye insurance somewhere else. So, since my eye insurance was essentially cancelled anyway, I went looking for how to cancel my NASE membership and finally succeeded this week. Yea! And guess what? Today was the last effective date.  So, last night I actually went online and applied for some vision and dental insurance, so that’s in process.

Now, coming to day, it seems pretty good timing because I kind of need new glasses, like right now.

Okay, backtracking just a little more again. (Don't worry; we're almost there!) My glasses frames have been annoying for quite a while in that since I had the lenses replaced a year ago, one of the screws has never been able to hold the lens in very well. I'm constantly tightening it. So, today, after church, it came loose again, but the lens and the screw popped all the way out shortly after I started driving home. Since I couldn't screw it back in while I was driving, couldn't even find the screw at first, I just kept driving and figured I'd take care of it when I got home. I'm not blind, fortunately.

But as I continued driving, the rain came down heavier and heavier so that it was pouring when I got home. I reached in back and grabbed my umbrella, put my church bag and purse on my arm, and then held my lens, my frames, and the screw (which I'd fortunately found on my chest), in one hand and the umbrella and my keys in the other. Can you guess what happened next?

As I stepped up onto the curve by the driveway, my lens fell out of my hand into the gutter with rapidly moving water. I saw it and tried picking it up but it slipped out of my hand and then I lost sight of it as it moved its way down the streaming gutter. Well, I tried a little to look for it, but in the pouring rain, in a dress and heels, and with my hands full, plus no glasses to see well, my efforts were somewhat hopeless. So I went inside to unload and then came back out to feel around in the gutter at all the junctures where it might have gotten caught.

I felt and saw nothing all the way to where it drained into the canal, including between the two high fenced yards with only the gutter between them. I walked down this stretch, trying to balance on one side or giving up and just walking in the gutter, feeling the ucky, grimy water ooze into my nice church shoes and between my toes.

Still, after all that, no lens. But I will add, just so you know, we're not a terrible neighborhood. In addition to their one neighbor cop, we have another cop a few more doors down, and their other neighbor is a nice man who's outside quite a bit--our personal neighborhood watchman, and he offered to help.

https://www.pinterest.com/pharesmckinzy/blame-it-on-the-rain/

Anyway, my dad and mom both came out and tried to help me find the lens, too, but with no success for a while. Then as the rain let up a bit, my dad finally found my lens on a little sand bank maybe 10 feet downstream from where I'd dropped it. Yea!

But the story isn't over yet. We still had to get the lens into the frames. My dad has a bunch of screwdrivers and he got some tweezers and started working on it. But then, while I was in the bathroom, the screw fell on the floor. All three of us looked and looked, and we used a heavy-duty magnet all over the floor. And in the end, no screw.  Insane!

http://imablog.net/archives/2015/08/broken-glasses.html

Luckily I have a pair of backup glasses with only a slightly outdated lenses,
Or should I go with the duck tape look?

Wow, what a crazy day! Let’s just hope I get that eye insurance approved and soon!


What life lessons do you think can come from this?


--all images except the one of me are from Creative Commons license search through Google, with respective sites noted below.