Draw five, keep on playing
Tuesday, January 9, 2007
Dave and I tend to appropriate phrases.
Years ago, when we first played Skipbo, I ran out of cards so Dave checked the game rules.
“If a player plays all five cards, he then draws five more and continues playing.”
So during Skipbo games, we liked to say, “Draw five, keep on playing.”
We also found that mantra useful at other times — in various situations which made us pause for a moment, wondering what to do. Draw five, keep on playing. Those are good words for life — gather your resources and keep on going.
Another phrase we sometimes repeat comes from an insurance commercial we saw several years ago. This TV ad was designed to show the value of having a personal insurance agent, as opposed to buying a policy over the phone or Internet.
As I remember it, the commercial showed a disaster scene, the aftermath of either a tornado or a hurricane. In the ad, a woman watched an insurance agent arrive on the scene, coming to the aid of her neighbors. Alas, the woman herself had no local agent.
“Who’s going to come looking for me?” she asked, mournfully.
Dave and I appropriated that phrase too. Whenever we find ourselves in a teeny tiny predicament, we joke, “Who’s going to come looking for me?”
Recently, I did find myself in need of assistance. My car, parked unattended along a city street, was struck by another vehicle (whose driver was not injured, thankfully).
A police officer took the report and my friend Becki, driving by, stopped at the scene to offer comfort.
Becki is a perpetual ray of sunshine. She always makes me laugh. And I needed a laugh at the moment.
“You come to all my accidents,” I told her.
She had also shown up at my one and only real accident (my fault) back in 1990. I was crushed (well, not literally) and was angry at myself for having wrecked my beloved Mazda.
“Don’t feel so bad,” Becki told me back then. “It was an accident. That’s why they call them accidents. If it was on purpose, they’d call them purposes.”
And now, for the second time in my life, Becki and I stared at a banged up car of mine.
“Who’s going to come looking for me?” I thought. Luckily, I have an agent who’s always been pleasant and helpful. I called Daryl Polzin at Shelter Insurance.
Polzin took care of everything. He contacted the other insurance company, he made arrangements to have the car towed, and he even asked if I needed a ride.
“You’re my hero, Daryl” I told him. “I’m just doing my job,” he said. And he did it well. A few hours later, Michelle, an adjuster with Farm Bureau, called and said she’d arrange for a loaner car. Brandon with Enterprise phoned and said they’d have a vehicle ready. Andrea at Carstar called a day later to tell me repairs had been authorized and that I needed to sign a form. When I arrived, Andrea helped me transfer belongings from my wrecked car to the rental.
“Don’t worry,” she said, nodding her head toward the shop, “We’ll take good care of your baby in there.” So, my car’s temporarily disabled. A minor accident is just one of those times when you draw five and keep on playing. Which is what I did — I contacted my resource, my agent, Daryl Polzin, who set everything in motion. And should Emporia get hit by a tornado, I won’t need to worry about who’s going to come looking for me.
“Flyover People” is online at www.flyoverpeople.net.
F Cheryl Unruh can be reached at cheryl@flyoverpeople.net.