Day 75: August

The heat is wearing me out. I haven't written in a few days as I adjusted to Bailey going back to Texas and the fact that the summer has gone all 1980 on me.

1980 sucked. In Dallas there were 42 straight 100+ high-temperature days and 69 on the year. Insane. My stepfather died at the end of it, and I'll always feel like the heat hastened his death. We buried him on Labor Day weekend. It was every awful thing you can imagine. This heat makes me think of that terrible summer.

I'm a bit discouraged about the job search. The one big hope I have, if I don't hear from them this week I'm going to feel pretty sure it's a no-go, and that will further press on me.

This decrepit house is anything but energy-efficient, and the landlord typically does the bare minimum in maintenance. In the winter our gas bills are outrageous because the furnace is 40 years old. A landlord's not going to give much of a damn if our gas bills are high; he's not going to replace that thing until it gives out.

Similarly with the a/c unit care... he thinks it isn't his problem as long as it's operable. However, tonight we noticed a crack in a wall (that has already been patched at least once before we got here). I've no doubt it's related to the excessive heat (and the fact that he hasn't actually watered the grounds). This house was built in 1939; it's creaky.

The north side of the property is bordered by a masonry retaining wall that's variously two- to three-feet high. North of the wall is neighbor property. A large, 30-foot tree with sits right at the wall boundary and recently broke a four-foot section of the wall. The top, about 3 inches think, simply fell into the yard area in the back. A few weeks after that, part of a block was pushed out. The tree's roots are not to be denied and it is a matter of time before that tree comes down. When it does, depending on how exactly it falls, it most likely will either a) crush a car or two; b) fall into the house, likely completely destroying the rear deck and possibly the roof of our computer room, and perhaps the neighbor's extra room as well; or (best-case scenario) c) falling between the cars and the home, blocking the rear drive and destroying the fence of the neighbor just south of the property.

None of those are really great options. Landlord's rep has been informed of this and seen it, but to date nothing has changed.

A likely prospect is after this ridiculous heat ends and the ground around the parched tree is completely fried, we'll get some hellacious fall rains with heavy winds, and the tree will come down. Suffice to say I will be watching closely.

Of course an even better possibility is that I've landed supremo job, hopefully soon, and hopefully in a location that surpasses this one.

But today I'm not really feeling that. But I will keep plugging.