From the Tin Can...

This little trailer we live in is just that... a tin can. I'm pretty sure it's older than I am and it has no insulation at all in the walls, which is why I can sit 4 feet from the AC on full blast with a high velocity fan in front of that blowing straight on me and it's still so hot in here, some days between about noon and 7 or 8 in the evening, that even that blowing wind won't evaporate the sweat off Melinda and I which means there is no sleep during that time no matter how sleepy or tired. The trailer itself has the potential to be a fairly nice place to live with a good deal of work, but then again, if you were going to spend that much money it would be easier to just get a newer trailer. Landlady offered to sell it to us for only $1000 but there are problems with that.

We'd still be paying rent for the land it sits on; it would require much work and money to make it come up to code even, not to mention be efficient and comfortable; the amount it would cost to put wheels and tires and all the required stuff on in to move it would be more than another trailer; then there would be the problem of having some place to move it TO. Most trailer parks I know of would never accept a trailer this small and old, so that is a gone idea and when we eventually MUST move from here, it will be bye, bye trailer. Landlady would probably also sell us the little piece of land too if she could but her husband had a codicil in his will that none of the land she was left may be sold, period. The wishes of dead people often outweigh the needs of the living.

Landlady has already been told she will get zip on rent again this month, the third month in a row. On the up side, we are told our application for rent assistance was approved and a check (presumably for the first two months behind we were) will be sent to the landlady, though that could take up to 30 days. Fingers crossed that the Pubbies don't manage to kill that program before the check goes out. At least the final payment on the computer is made, so we will have that to help next month. We already gave up burial insurance, satellite TV, and now without a computer payment, it should be a little easier.

The power bill alone for this month is $232...that's more than the rent. Hopefully, we will be able to shut down the air a little next month if it will cool off. For those who don't know, I have been declared 100% PERMANENTLY disabled by my heart doc, and I have a defibrillator in my chest. With my disability check and Melinda's income when she was working, we did reasonably well, but since she lost her job it's ONLY my check and that don't go very far. She hasn't heard anything from the truck stop restaurant where she applied to be a cook. I'm always torn between trying to be supportive and encouraging and being, what I call, realistic. Of course it's possible she might get a job somewhere, she does keep trying, but I won't hold my breath.

Now, we're trying to work on the grass. Landlady says the insurance people will inspect next month and they may drop her coverage with the grass as high as it is. I didn't think it was such a big deal myself, even the highest grass is no more than 4 or 5 feet and you can still see the propane tank if you look closely. All you have to do is wait till winter and the cold will make it all go away. It's probably no more than 50 feet from our porch to the storage shed, but it was all I could do to walk that far in that kind of grass, much less trying to push a mower through it. We managed to get it fired up and I made a few swaths across the yard and then almost fell out. Made it back to the porch and got inside but poor old heart was chugging like the Orange Blossom Special and I was getting nauseous. Melinda has managed to get 90% of the front yard done, but rain is coming. I hate seeing her work that hard especially because she is not in all that much better shape than I am. I see pickups with big rider mowers on trailers going by on the road all the time. Would be very simply for someone like that to either cut the grass or at least let me borrow the rider. I enjoy mowing when I have a powerful rider to mow with. I would do that if I had the mower and knew of someone who needed their yard mowed. I'd do it just for fun, of course, not charge them a cent of money. *sigh*

I think it's time to try applying for Section 8 housing assistance. As with all things that has pros and cons, but two of the pros I think of right away: wouldn't have roaches running through your food while you try to eat or over your face while you sleep, and very unlikely have any kind of yard mowing or other such maintenance, plus, at least with the one I've seen so far, the power bill is included in the rent. I'm not really a huge fan of being in a tiny apartment, especially smashed up in the middle of dozens of other tiny apartments, perhaps with small humans creating havoc all about, but all things have a tradeoff or cost. There might be some chance of getting an actual house or decent trailer on Section 8 but we will just have to see. The big drawback is most such places would not allow "pets", though they are typically far less destructive and troublesome than the small humans... I won't leave or sacrifice my boy Tucker...I'm no Abraham.

Coming shortly, a look into the bigger picture.

TRB