Sunday, April 08, 2007
The post-Katrina refrigerator list
In lieu of the Katrina refrigerator, I offer the 2007 post-Katrina Refrigerator To-Do List:
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- Straighten out escrow account; get refund from old insurance company that was jacking up my insurance to almost $5,000 a year.
- Reform federal and state property and casualty insurance system in next six months before the entire Gulf and East Coast have to be abandoned, possibly leading to regional bank failures.
- Check toilets and under house for leaks to explain simultaneous sudden spike in two seperate water meters on the same property with no visible sign of a leak.
- Find several hundred billion dollars to rebuild the New Orleans Sewerage & Water Board infrastucture.
- Pay flood insurance bill on unflooded house (in spite of the nice letter from my mortgage company telling me I don't need flood insurance. Yeah, right).
- Look into status of Corps levee repairs before hurricane season, especially the defective pumps.
- Put thermal barrier up in attic.
- Reform regional utility system and federal utility law in next six months before we're all ruined by our utility bills due to structure of holding companies that require we pay all of our repairs costs for the entire grid plus compensate Entergy for billing revenue lost for while unable to bill everyone while there was no one in the city. (I am not, Mr. Barry, making this up).
- Get bars for windows in back doors. Update stolen property list from burglary.
- Establish open-source, citizen-controlled crime mapping system in response to murderous crime wave and the virtual collapse of the criminal justice system.
- Landscape backyard (fence, paving, landscaping)
- Test soil in yard for lead and arsenic deposited by the flood.
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Comments:
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I would straighten up the escrow with the insurance company first just to put bars on the windows. If the house isn't safe for you and your family, none of that other stuff will matter much.
Go with the escrow account first. Free up some money for the landscaping, the flood insurance and the bars.
Check to see if the water bill bump is a usage issue or a billing issue. They just started reading meters again so you might have gotten hit with a bump from the difference in the previous estimated bills and the actual usage.
The thermal barrier can wait a month, fix the utility system first. Oh and insurance industry reform probably has to be done while the state legislature is in session, which is soon. (though, this being Louisiana they are likely to find something stupid to distract them.)
And change all your non-dimmed bulbs to compact fluorescents. Buy a couple of different ones and then pick the one who's color temperature closely matches incandescent.
Update the stolen property list before tackling the crime mapping system. The insurance settlement (and or amazing recovery of stolen items by the police hahahahahahah) will make the second task easier.
Only test the soil if you are going to be using it a lot. I read somewhere that there might be plants that help soak up the toxic crap in the ground. (You know, while you are landscaping) Being non-botanical myself (and very happy that my yard currently consists of the strip between the sidewalk and the street and I'm even thinking of putting bricks there) I can't give you the name of the plant, but you are plenty internet savvy, you should be able to find it.
Don't think about the pumps or the levees before jazz fest. June and July are generally quiet.
That's the order, in my opinion.
Good luck with that...
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Check to see if the water bill bump is a usage issue or a billing issue. They just started reading meters again so you might have gotten hit with a bump from the difference in the previous estimated bills and the actual usage.
The thermal barrier can wait a month, fix the utility system first. Oh and insurance industry reform probably has to be done while the state legislature is in session, which is soon. (though, this being Louisiana they are likely to find something stupid to distract them.)
And change all your non-dimmed bulbs to compact fluorescents. Buy a couple of different ones and then pick the one who's color temperature closely matches incandescent.
Update the stolen property list before tackling the crime mapping system. The insurance settlement (and or amazing recovery of stolen items by the police hahahahahahah) will make the second task easier.
Only test the soil if you are going to be using it a lot. I read somewhere that there might be plants that help soak up the toxic crap in the ground. (You know, while you are landscaping) Being non-botanical myself (and very happy that my yard currently consists of the strip between the sidewalk and the street and I'm even thinking of putting bricks there) I can't give you the name of the plant, but you are plenty internet savvy, you should be able to find it.
Don't think about the pumps or the levees before jazz fest. June and July are generally quiet.
That's the order, in my opinion.
Good luck with that...
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