PERSPECTIVE FROM THE 19^TH HOLE: This is the title I chose for my personal blog, which is meant to give me an outlet for one of my favorite crafts – writing – plus to use an image from my favorite sport, golf. Out of college, my first job was as a reporter for the Daily Astorian in Astoria, Oregon, and I went on from there to practice writing in all of my professional positions, including as press secretary in Washington, D.C. for a Democrat Congressman from Oregon, as an Oregon state government manager in Salem and Portland, as press secretary for Oregon’s last Republican governor (Vic Atiyeh), and as a private sector lobbyist. This blog also allows me to link another favorite pastime – politics and the art of developing public policy – to what I write.

This is one of three departments I run because – no dispute here – I am well qualified on all counts to assume these high-level jobs.

The others are the Department of Good Quotes Worth Remembering and the Department of “Just Saying.”

For now, here are my latest pet peeves.

INSURANCE PREMIUMS VS. CLAIMS: This is a major peeve for me. To put it simply, insurance companies love with you pay premiums, but hate when you file claims.

I say this as a retired lobbyist who represented health insurers in Oregon for about 25 years – and, during those years, while I was not in charge of paying claims, I encouraged my clients to consider claims honesty and expeditiously.

After all, those who had signed up for insurance deserved coverage, as long as those claimed basic reviews.

My wife’s and my most recent experience with insurance dealt with a claim we filed pursuant to a trip insurance policy we bought before traveling overseas. For us, that trip had to be cut short due to an emergency illness.

But, as I write this, it took almost two months to get the insurance payment after we filed the claim. Not to mention all of the hard work on the part of my wife who persevered against an array of insurance adjusters.

We paid an insurance premium. We barely got a check for the claim.

Being an insurance adjuster must be one of the most thankless jobs in America.

GLITCHES IN A NEW GOLF HANDICAPPING SYSTEM: This will be of interest only to dedicated golfers, such as myself.

In what sounded like a solid, international effort, six golf systems – including the United States Golf Association in the U.S. – got together to produce one handicapping system where, previously, there had been six.

Handicapping, by the way, if you don’t know, is a system for posting your golf scores so you get what is called “a handicap.” Then, when your handicap is compared to other golfers who have a handicap, the system allows players of different abilities to compete against each other in a fair manner.

With the one-system change, however, the devil is in the details.

If only for reasons for technology, it was difficult for the systems to be merged into one.

Plus, there was an additional factor, which amounts to my pet peeve.

It was that golfers were “expected” (though, I admit, not required) to past all 18 hole-by-hole scores, then the total – and not just the total.

I don’t any of my golfing friends who will go to that silly extent.

I say just post your total score, produce an adjusted handicap and play on.

U.S. HOUSE AND SENATE GAMES CONTINUE: This last pet peeve will surprise no one who knows how I think about politics.

I wish House and Senate interests would get together to design an impeachment hearing in the Senate, one that honors the U.S. Constitution, not to mention citizens like me and many others who expect better from Congress, whatever the result is from a Senate pre-disposed to support President Donald Trump.

During my career in and around government, process always has mattered.

So far, leaders on both sides appear to have very little regard for process. They are singing from prepared sheets of music, with lyrics that have been written in advance and pay no attention to what the other side says.

That’s not the best we can do in today’s politics, but it is the best we get, which means this is a pet peeve for me.