Our World

Category: Work

  • October 29, 2025 – On the Road (or in the Air) again

    October 29, 2025 – On the Road (or in the Air) again

    What am I doing today? Well, how does an instant trip to Los Angeles sound to you?

    Had an electrical theft vandalism claim that came across my desk yesterday morning that needed a little extra attention and after discussions between myself and my manager we decided the best thing would be for me to fly out to LA for a few days and do a complex inspection of the damaged location.

    The in office part of my job includes pricing the repairs and replacements required to return the insured to “pre-loss condition” after a loss event. In many instances we use a great bunch of 1099 contractors (electricians) that do the inspections for us. Occasionally there are many unanswered questions or I look at the inspection and have a gut instinct that something is missing that is preventing me from accurately pricing the repairs and replacements. When that happens we usually send a senior tech or one of our Technical Field Managers to gather missing information. In this case I was the most available, and I can write much of the report before I leave the site. Given it is the end of the month it made the most sense for me to travel out and complete this inspection.

    The downside of that is that while I am traveling and doing some field work, the office side does not stop. I have some fantastic co-workers that do try and take some of the load off of me, but the heavy pricing side of things is my evening activity.

    I will be out in Los Angeles for the next few days and be flying back to Denver, CO on Sunday.

    BTW: Why is it about 70 degrees warmer in LA than in Denver? As one of my colleagues said, “Welcome to Southern California”

    Trying to decide what my evening workout is going to be. I guess I am going to attempt a walk on the treadmill — or not.

  • October 28, 2025 – I actually got an office day!

    October 28, 2025 – I actually got an office day!

    Today was what I consider an “office day”, that is a day spent catching up on all the things that I should be doing (and get backed up) when I am out in the field. Spent most of the day working on Commercial Electrical Claim pricing and scope (what repairs are needed to get the insured back to “pre-loss condition”), and other processing support.

    My new Thermal Imaging camera showed up in the Amazon delivery today. I think this one will service my purposes better than the last version that made it about 1.5 years and died. I think the physical connection to the phone is the problem. The new one works via WiFi connection and it won’t have that point of failure. It will also work on either Android or iOS.

    Of course because I have a new tool (toy?) perhaps I needed to test it out on some willing suspects. See if you can identify the dogs in the gallery below. It looks like I will need to calibrate the temperatures the first time I am out in the field.

    On another note, it looks like Winter is almost here. The ski resorts are opening, the first avalanche was caused by a back country skier, and the grass was crunchy when I went out with the dogs this morning.

  • October 27, 2025 – Longmont, CO

    October 27, 2025 – Longmont, CO

    Today was spent with a drive up to Longmont, CO for a solar inspection. When I accepted the appointment I did not realize it involved a drive up a 3.7 mile, almost vertical dirt road with multiple switchbacks, single car width, no guardrails and pretty steep drop-offs. I did stop on the way down in a few places to take a few photographs. This area was part of the 2024 wildfires.

    The fire retardant dropped from the air tankers can corrode and etch both metal and glass if not cleaned off properly in a timely manner. This is becoming an immense problem in all of the wildfire areas. It is a corrosive material.

    This evening I completed yet another continuing education course in the Healthy Homes Series I am trying to finish. Got a ways to go, this is a pretty long series of courses. 2 down 16 to go. Maybe I will have that done by next year.

    It’s going to get cold tonight. The morning low will be 25 degrees. To make this more special it was raining this evening so everything may be a little slick in the morning.

    Here are a few photographs from my travels today.

    And we have another certificate for the collection.

  • 2024-01-27: Cincinnati –> Nashville –> Denver

    2024-01-27: Cincinnati –> Nashville –> Denver

    What a day. Started my day off in Cincinnati doing an inspection of a severely damaged apartment building. Ended up being much easier than I thought it would be so the search was on to find an earlier flight home.

    Was able to find a flight that got me into Denver an hour earlier than originally planned.

    Got to see an awesome sunset on the way to Denver.

    Always amazes me how much moonshine is available in Nashville’s airport.

    Almost home

    Finally on the A train to Perioria Station, where Jesse was there to pick me up.

  • Snow! What happened?

    On the flight out there was no snow on the ground. Now look at it. All the way from Louisville to Denver.

  • No! It Can’t Be! No appointments

     

    Well…. this hasn’t happened in a while. The empty appointment calendar

  • Facebook Post: People just don’t get it

    So, the first claim of my day this morning:
    Insured: So, what are you going to do for a new job?
    Me: I am not sure I understand.
    Insured: When Trump takes office you all will be out of work because he is going to make the insurance companies just pay the claim rather than do these inspections.
    Me: Believe me, if it comes to that I have options…..
    (What else are you supposed to say that won’t get you in trouble?)
    And that set the tone for the entire day. I was told by the office that I was being too “Salty”.

  • Facebook Post: 2024-11-04 My Office

    Christopher Molnar added a new photo.

  • Facebook Post: 2024-10-08 Smoke in Mountains

    This mornings office

  • Facebook Post: 2024-08-01T05:36:13

    Why am I in an airport at O’Stupid AM? Oh, because to fly into Florida js not easy! This is my final flight to Tampa as a Florida resident.