Sinking is a curious sensation.

Sinking can mean a few things - and no matter what the circumstance when I felt ”I was sinking,” it has always had its own unique feeling, sensation, or physically tangible definition.  And there is something definitely tangible about sinking.  No matter how you feel it or use the phrase.

One of my favorite “sinkings” is jumping from the side of a pool into the deep end, and slipping down – the water rushing past – my hair furled out above me.  But then the sensation that immediately follows is sweet.  Try it.  You suddenly switch from downward flight to hovering for a second in the water.  Then comes the “incredible feeling of lightness” as you softly lift up, your hair now floating around you like a gentle cloud.

I am trying to have a perky “chin-up” approach to this sinking.  I don’t know if it will have a turnaround or be anywhere as gentle coming up from.

“Appreciation and Conservation of sinkholes is essential to ensure the future of Florida’s fresh water supply.”

 

I came across that sentence today while learning about sinkholes.

It is from http://aquat1.ifas.ufl.edu/guide/sinkholes.html

Ironically, I know that it’s true, as ever since I took a class in Florida ecosystems in the tenth grade, I’ve known that sinkholes, like alligators, had their essential places in Florida. (By the way – I have strong feelings about the need to protect alligators and how people should just leave them alone, even if it did eat your poodle. Which, also by the way, makes me think that you may have not been respecting the danger that alligators can be in any body of water in Florida. It’s how I feel – they were here first)

That science class created a long time fascination for the aquifer below this state and the sink holes that spring from them.  I’ve known that they have been “naturally” occurring here for a long time, but I also have known that how we treat the aquifer, build canals, and just suck out tons of water for golf courses and the like, has an effect on what seems like just a random freak of nature – sinkholes.

Just this past September I had wanted to attend a lecture on sinkholes they were offering in St Petersburg. (I had to work that night.)

And of course, I am “Ms. Conservation of the Ecosystem Minded”.

So I had to smile when I read that fact.

 

The comment was shortly followed by the statement:

“Unfortunately, their bad reputation for property destruction frequently over shadows the vital role sinkholes play in Florida’s natural environment.”

Hmmm… property destruction…?

Sinkhole Insurance

I checked my policy and it seemed that I was paying for the extra rider that covered sinkholes.

(I’ll tell you more about those laws and stuff later.)

So I called my insurance company and left a message. I held my breath for a few days waiting for them to return my call.  On Monday I realized that I had left the message on Wednesday and it was now Monday and, of course, because of the weekend, that felt like a long time to wait.

I called again and got the same message about please leave a message with your name etc., if you are filling a claim.  I searched the insurance company’s website and saw you could have a live “chat” with an agent.  I tried that only it kept crashing.  I called back and left my information again – telling them this was my second call.

The next day I received an email from an agent saying she had tried to be in contact with me on the chat, but I closed it down too soon.  Guess what I found on her email?  You betcha – a fax number and now I at least had an email address that appeared to have a person at the other end.  I wrote a letter saying I was concerned about my home.  Now that I decided it might be a sinkhole and that I needed to act – well, it seemed like there might be some “urgency” to the situation.  You hear all the time about sinkholes that “suddenly open up” and swallow a house or two.

I didn’t hear anything the next day so I sent the email and fax again – but on Thursday, a week after my first call, I received a fax, an email, and a phone call from three different people in the company.

It was the phone call that helped the most; the fax said I had no claim entered, the email said I did, and the live person said I didn’t, but she would now get the information she needed. The agent was very apologetic about the glitch that had been causing all her incoming calls to go to voice mail, the glitch that wouldn’t let her open her voice mail, and the glitch that forced her to spend time listening to each call before she could respond to any.

She explained to me that as she had started the claim (per our conversation) I would get a call from a local inspector.  He would make an appointment to come out and look at the house to decide if it really was a sinkhole.  It seems sometimes it could “just” be your house settling for example.  She said I would only have to worry if it wasn’t a sinkhole and the damage I was seeing was caused because my house was built on, say, a garbage heap that had begun compacting through decay and erosion.

I didn’t think I was living on a garbage heap.  I did wonder how many more glitches there would be.