Aftermath
Yesterday was insane.
First, I have to thank God that I have the kindest, most understanding employers on the planet. When I e-mailed my supervisor and my three principals (at 6 a.m.!) to tell them that I would be in early in the morning, but would have to leave for an unspecified amount of time in order to close bank accounts, update police reports, and meet the insurance adjuster, I got nothing but pure sympathy and offers of assistance. That was such a blessing!
I also have wonderful friends, both online and real-life. Kind messages and offers of assistance kept pouring into my e-mail and phone all day. God bless all of my wonderful friends!
So I went to bed Thursday at midnight (after calling all but a handful of my credit card issuers), and woke up again at 4, unable to get back to sleep. Tossed and turned for an hour, and then just got up. Checked e-mail and notified my supervisor. Ate breakfast, and was at the office by 7. (That’s a record!) While typing meeting minutes, I called the rest of the credit card people. I have too many credit cards, but that’s fodder for another post.
Left the office at 8:30 and went to the bank. That’s when the madness started. I have three sets of bank accounts. Two in-town and one out-of-town. At one in-town bank and the out-of-town bank, both I and the two kids have accounts. So. On the way to bank number one, I called and had them lock out my accounts until I could get there. Then I called the OOT bank, thinking it would be simple to close the three accounts and open new ones. HA!
To keep a really long story short, I spoke to three people at that bank before I got someone who would close my old account and open a new one — they have to have a signature card for the account, and so what everyone was wanting to do was close the old accounts, send me a check for the money in them along with new signature cards to fill out, and have me send back the new signature cards with new checks for the deposits to open the new accounts. The third person said, “Why don’t I fax you the signature stuff, and we can use those until the originals get to you?” DUH!
Anyway, so I finish that call and head into the first local bank. My account is no problem, but because the kids are old enough to write, they have to sign their own sig cards, and it has to be done in front of a bank officer. So we set up all of my account stuff and I said I’d bring the kids back later. Went to the second bank, realized I didn’t have the checkbook for that account, and had to go to Mom’s to get the checkbook. Got back to bank two and we were getting everything together when my cell rang. It was the insurance adjuster, who’d got to my house earlier than expected. So I arranged to have the bank prepare everything while I went and walked the adjuster around the house.
Went back home, walked through and took pix with the adjuster, and then went back to the second bank. Finished everything there, and went to Mom’s to pick up the kids. (Benefit of homeschooling: you can very easily adjust the schedule when emergencies arise.) Took them to bank one and got their part done. Took them back to Mom’s and had lunch. Went back to my house to get the mail, and met my dad with the contractor who did the work on our house. Talked to them, and then noticed a blinking light on the answerphone. One of the credit card companies needed me to call their fraud department right away — and please have my card handy. So I had to go back to Mom’s for the account info from my files, since I’d shredded the card that morning at the office. Then I drove back to the office and got the faxed information from the OOT bank, filled it out, faxed it back, and called the credit card company. Then the police investigator called.
Finally, at 1:30, I was able to get back to my job! It was such a relief! Anyway, the afternoon was much quieter than the morning, and I did get a good bit of work done. Went over to the house after work and started going through, room by room, listing what’s gone. I finished the three smallest rooms, which were the least affected. Today’s job is the kitchen, living room, and my bedroom. The two other bedrooms will have to be done tomorrow. This is quite a long process. And sometimes quite puzzling.
Taking all of the batteries I can understand. And the box of garbage bags makes sense — it’s probably what they used to carry a lot of stuff out. But I can’t figure out why they took four ten-foot lengths of cheesecloth. And why did they take the bottled water from the fridge?