Wednesday, April 23, 2008

The guy that just dropped in yesterday

There is a ton of nuance in all the different things that I am responsible for in my job, but in the end, you can break it all down into three different overall Categories: The Looking, The writing and the Getting their. I am simplifying it and I know that a few insurance people read this blog so I am not trying to offend, It can take years to be able to be good at this gig, because obviously there are a ton of other things to be aware of, and know about, and in fact, the State makes you get a special license because they don't want just anyone doing it, but ultimately it really does come down to these three things. Adjusters have to basically do the following, they have to: 1) Look at it, 2) write about it 3) Get their.
-
Ultimately looking at it requires you to get their first, if you have a large territory, the getting their can take a lot of windshield time. The windshield time is what sucks the most out of everything. Especially in South Florida. A drive to West Palm can take over an hour, and that's if you don't have bad traffic. If there really was teleportation like in Star Trek this would be a truly awesome gig. For one, I could live in Gainesville, because the writing it part can be done anywhere, its the looking at it part that requires me to be down here, so that I don't get killed on the behind the windshield part.
-
-Anyways I was working out of my office today doing the writing about it part, with the window in the background, and a rope drops by, I figured it was for either a hanging, or a window washer, and sure enough a few minutes later a fellow just dropped in on me:

- I talked to him and asked him if I could take his picture but there was a language issue. Neither of us spoke Russian. I was able to communicate what it was that I was going to do by grabbing the camera and holding it out in such a way that basically through sheer body language and the natural force of my facial movements said: "Hey Mister, I think your job looks like a lot of fun? do you have to drive around allot? Don't you wish there was such a thing as a teleportation device like in Star trek? How do you get to be a High Rise Window Washer? Ever drop in on someone and peek through the window and they happen to be doing it? Did you start out just washing windows on the ground? How cool is the rappelling part? I mean Obviously I can see you rappelling, and it looks like fun, I guess what I am really asking is if I can wash the rest of the windows on the floors below me?"


-

I said all that, and then his body language said: "Yes Bill, you may take a picture of me and I know it looks like there are only three parts of my job, Getting to the High Rise, The actual Cleaning of the windows, and the cool ass rappelling part, but there is a lot more to it then that."
-
His body language also told me he didn't know who William Shatner was. (this came up because of the Teleportation question and he was all like Dude, I never watched Star trek, I am only twenty something and that show was cancelled before I came of age, plus, I don't speak Russian) . Then, I told him He is the guy from the Priceline commercials and he immediately knew who I was talking about. Its another sign of being old when you make a reference to an old T.V. show and the youngster you are talking with doesn't even know about it.
-
Thanks to the South Florida Daily Blog for linking to this post That is so awesome Rick. I love it when you do that! http://www.southfloridadailyblog.blogspot.com/




2 comments:

Anonymous said...

"their" --> "there"

Bill From Gainesville said...

Yes there are two words that sound the same but are spelled differently and have two different meanings Its such a small thing that Yes, I will sometime forget as I am just typing to use the correct one. I have found that the one with the I in it is usually the correct one to choose so I did make a mistake. Glad you are so dilligent Anon. Keep up the Excellent Editing!