Hartz Kastle on La Cuesta Enchilada

I am back on, gotta stay in touch...

Californians saw through Mercury Insurance's blatant attempt to co-opt our initiave process for corporate greed and blew Prop 14 out of the water Tuesday. I am proud to say I was part of this by my vote. As satisfying as it is to win an arb against these creeps, this one is even better: it goes right into the face of their sleazy CEO, George Joseph. This, and the loss by PG&E in a similar tactic, show that sometimes the California voter does the right thing. I wish they did on the primaries issue, though. Now, back to unpacking!

We are all here in SLO County now, with a bunch of boxes in a garage, a shed, and every room in the house...gradually we are putting up our clocks, mirrors, etc...it is beginning to look like home! Once we got cable for TV and the net, things got a lot more fun, and having a refrigerator is so civilized compared to coolers with bags of ice.  Fortunately the park is having a community sale this weekend so we can maybe turn the things we brought that now look excess into a little cash...what does not sell goes to my buddy Wade at the Goodwill box in Grover Beach....I got to know Wade right away...maybe we can relax in a month or so...

"Panelist(s): ROSIE MCAULEY Decision Date: May 4, 2010 Publication Date: May 4, 2010 Damages Proven: $0.00 Decision 21st failed prove $530.00 damages. Liability was not an issue. Summary of the dispute Wawanesa has accepted 100% liability, but dispute 21st tow bills. What did the Applicant prove or fail to prove? 21st did not explain why "winch" was necessary to tow 21st vehicle. 21st did not provide documentation to support what the additional labor charges were for. What evidence caused you to render this decision and why? Wawanesa provided copies of letters sent to 21st explaining their deductions. 21st applied for their balance with no documentation to support the $530 balance is owed. Once 21st is aware of the damage dispute, 21st should be prepared to explain the disputed charges." As this was heard at a Mercury office, I may assume the Panelist is a Mercury employee, which would make this win all the more sweet....

It is official. I am no longer a wage-slave, I am a pension and Social Security slave...and I love it! My peeps gave me a delightful party last Friday at a co-workers home, much food, drink and fun. And yesterday, my last day, my managers and co-workers gave me a send-off that I will remember forever: great speeches, another potluck, it was wonderful. My bride then took me to dinner at my favorite restaurant: Piatti, in La Jolla Shores. This is the only place for superb veal sweetbreads in three counties. We had a ball. Now my bride and I are in moving mode full-time. During May we will gradually haul all the stuff that will fit up to the new house, which is 1000 square feet smaller than the San Diego abode...so Goodwill is benefitting greatly. I am still in shock, wondering how it will feel Monday morning when no alarm goes off....and how will I get by without Rod, Skeet, and Scott to work and joke with...I am going to have to get a life outside. But, as I often tell my managers, it i...

As of today the interior remodel of our new home in the Central Coast of California is 99% finished, and we can start moving furniture out of our rented storage garage to the house. We expect to be all out of San Diego by mid-May. We tore out the carpet and put in bamboo hardwood flooring in the living room, dining room, and hallway, and put new tile in the kitchen. We have a new wall oven with a giant broiler, and a new gas cooktop where a range used to be. We were very fortunate and blessed to get a great contractor to do the work, he came highly recommended by our realtor and the selling agent, both of whom also live in the same development. Once we are in, we will add french doors to the master bedroom and a deck that will wrap around to the back of the house, where the guest bedroom already has a sliding patio door, but no patio, just stairs to the yard. My co-workers and I are enjoying the countdown to my last days, it seems all 600+ people in my work building have heard about ...

Sergio Arcos has no idea of how much money he has cost Mercury with his foolish vendetta: think of your profit-sharing, dumbass! Just this month alone I have processed ten Mercury demands. Of this, I was able to authorize payment of only three. Missing photos, missing sublets, math errors (both in their favor and in our favor!), ACV weirdness, and charging for noted unrelated damage. What a buncha clowns. For example: their shop notes their insured damaged his trunk lid after we hit his rear. He did not have to damage his lid, he just went ahead and added $523 damage unnecessarily. We are not going to pay this, obviously, thanks to this shop's honesty. So why did Mercury pay it? Because they are dummies. This is also the carrier that thinks privacy laws mean they must black out public VIN's and license plates on estimates and photos sent to other carriers. This is not only insulting, it is stupid. Now, the last time I told the truth about Mercury one of their highly competent m...