Dear Shirley,
As a rule, I don't sit around fingering my insurance policies. But ever since your house burned down, I have been paying some attention to what kind of a homeowner policy I have, and what would it provide in case of a fire.
I guess I always figured my insurance agent would drop by with a check to cover damage after a fire. And I guess that isn't quite how it goes.
You have to show proof of what you had and what it is worth. You have to bargain with people who handle claims.
Now, if I had to flee from this house in the face of a fire, I wouldn't have the foggiest notion of my possessions and what they are worth. I cannot close my eyes and think of what is in the closets and drawers around this house. We have all been scouring our picture books to try to find anything that shows the inside of your house. I was glad we found a couple of photos from inside your house when we were visiting cousin Erling in Brookings, S.D., on Memorial Day.
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We e-mailed them to the people helping you with claims.
Meanwhile, it is good advice for any homeowner to go around and take pictures of everything of value in the house.
You need to know the model numbers and other pertinent information about appliances, television sets, computers. And you need to keep those pictures somewhere outside of the house!
You always think that happens to other people. My State Farm agent Kevin Kouba said he handles a few fire cases each year. And after a fire, adjusters want documentation.
Welcome June
Meanwhile, the precious days of June are here -- the days we wait for all winter. I was driving down South Washington Street and saw a license plate that said "SNOMORE" Tuesday afternoon. It seemed a little out of season. Another cozy one I saw was SEWNLUV (so in love) on a red Chevrolet. I saw ALWAYZ on a Thurderbird, and SING4U on a Subaru. Others floating around are TWINS 2X, MUSIC X4 and KITYCAT on a blue Dodge Neon. Oh, and I saw 40 LOVE. Another was BNTHERE. I especially liked WHO WHO.
Summer Performing Arts classes are getting started once again, and Anne is here from Bismarck. She will be with me until after the Fourth of July. This is the seventh year she has come up to stay with me and go to SPA. It was 12 years ago that Jack, the first of the grandchildren, started coming for SPA.
Now he is 20 and has a summer job at the Boy Scout camp near Park Rapids, Minn.
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In June I look for the peonies to bloom, the rhubarb to shoot up and the grandchildren eating macaroni and cheese in the kitchen. I pulled all my rhubarb the other day, and as I was chopping it up, I was thinking of the time you bought some in a Tucson, Ariz., market. You took it up to the checkout counter, and the woman asked where you got that red celery.
Well, you either hate it or your love it.
I am going to try a recipe for rhubarb bars from our Calvary Cookbook. And rhubarb will be simmering on many stoves around here with the annual Rhubarb Festival coming up June 12 at University Lutheran Church.
I hope your life is slowly getting back to some sort of order after that terrible fire. We all keep saying the important thing is that you got out OK. Love from your sister Marilyn savoring the beginning of summer along the west bank of the Red River that runs north.
P.S. I haven't heard from the Queen of England lately. She never writes. She never calls.
We are the same age, and you would think she could have sent a card on my Memorial Day birthday. I guess she is busy with her Corgi dogs.
Reach Hagerty at mhagerty@gra.midco.net or by telephone at (701) 772-1055.
