A Busy Day...

Above, the payoff for a good day's work.

Yesterday (Saturday) was a busy day. It was of the good kind.

I spent most of it in the field handling new claim assignments that I received, starting in the morning. First, I had to make a cold-call on a claimant in Hollywood as we don't have his telephone number to get his statement on an accident. Unfortunately, he was not home.

Per procedure, I left our "cold-call letter" at his door. Maybe he'll give us a call. It doesn't matter to me, I get paid regardless.

Then, I had to go to El Monte to take statements from a couple who were involved in an accident in which the California Highway Patrol were unable to make a determination on who was at fault. The couple, of Chinese descent, made good witnesses on their own behalf. All we do is take their version and present it to the insurance company we work for and let them decide on liability. Also, I had to take photos of their vehicle damages. It is one of those claims where each side blames the other (each claims the other merged into their lane and hit their vehicle).

After this, I headed back to the San Fernando Valley. It was relatively smooth sailing until I got into The Valley and U.S. 101 was congested. I got off the freeway and took the surface streets home. The surface streets also had heavy traffic. It is getting worse and worse to drive in Los Angeles. It used to be that the weekends were easier to drive in instead of the work week days. Not anymore. I think the weekends are worse. It's a good thing I know a lot of shortcuts.

After unloading my equipment, I had to head over to the bank. One ditsy woman almost backed into me as I was walking to the bank from my car.

It is just plain and simple, there's too many people in Los Angeles.

I had about a couple of hours to kick back and relax before heading off to Malibu for my other job. Tomorrow begins my weekend. But I have to write up the summaries on the two statements and upload the photos and send them and the summaries to our main office in San Bernardino.

If a police report is ready tomorrow in the city of Vernon on another claim, then I will have to go there to pick it up. That's the life of a field adjuster.

It is good that business seems to be increasing. If I had plenty (and reliable) work coming in, I wouldn't have to need the "parachute" job of patrolling Malibu. At least there's nice scenery there.