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Yesterday I blogged about storm chasing contractors who arrived in my neighborhood in the Binghamton, NY area, with a brightly decorated mobile home and pickup truck, all ready to give the homeowners free estimates - and claiming that "We have determined that the complete cost of [their] services in your neighborhood will be, in most cases, fully covered by homeowners insurance".

Today, I came home from work and signed onto Facebook (the Ultimate Blog Challenge page) and found that several people had tried to comment - and were unable to.  I want to thank them for their time, and for taking more time to post on the Ultimate Blogger page.

One person said in part " However, what those people don't say is that if you use the services, even if the deductible is waived, your insurance costs can go up phenomenally. That's the real cost."  I think that, and a comment that did get onto my blog, cut to the heart of the matter.

What I now want to report is what I learned when I spoke to my insurance agent today.  My homeowners insurance is with a major national company.  My agent said my company does not have any such arrangement with anybody to have deductibles waived if I have such company do storm repair work on my house.  She said the firm I wrote about yesterday might be legit, but she suggested I might want to call the police.


Today, when I came home from work, the mobile home and the pickup truck I saw yesterday were not there.


So now I know I did not overreact.  I'm glad I had good instincts in this matter - and that many people out there experienced what I experienced yesterday.  Irene has been a good teacher.


And, for a minute, I want to address the commenting issue with Blogger.

 I could write an entire series on my trials and tribulations with Blogger.  Let's see, there was the couple of days no one could post, right in the middle of a blogging Blogathon requiring you to post each day.  There was the upgrade to Firefox where I had to switch to a different browser to post. There was the couple of days I couldn't upload photos.  Those - they only inconvenienced me.   But this time I am very embarrassed.  My readers were inconvenienced.  I had people who wanted to communicate with me, and they couldn't.

Commenting is the lifeblood of a blog.  It's the possibility of two-way communication with readers that makes blogging special. (and yes, it does make you feel good - well, usually.)  I'm not sure I solved the commenting problem but it seems a couple of comments have been able to get through.  And I was able to post on my blog after signing out.  If you tried to post yesterday, please see the apology I put in yesterday's commenting section.