The Laws of Poverty

Today has been hot.  So was the day before that and the day before that.  I have been saying for most of the summer that it hasn’t been that bad this year.  Our highest electric bill (to cool 1280 sq feet) was $320.  Compared to the $497 bills from last year, when we had no air whatsoever, I can’t complain.   The predictions say 1oo degrees or better for the rest of the week here in the Kudzu Jungles of northern Mississippi.  In a trailer it’s like living in a toaster oven.  Window units don’t make a dent in this kind of global warning induced heat.    I covered every window in the house with aluminum foil yesterday.  It helped.  A little. Signals from the aliens can’t get thru anymore.  Housework is best saved for the evening hours. 

I found some pics that illustrate the dilapidated condition of my trailer.  Though it is embarassing to post them, I feel that I must.  Most of the damage depicted here is from water leaks that occurred under the floors.  Leaks we were unaware of until the pressed wood and the carpet soaked up the water like a sponge and started to expand, mold and then fall apart.  I’m amazed that no one has fallen through the floors.  I keep waiting to wake up one morning and find our furniture underneath the trailer.   

This is only a small portion of the damage that we are unable to fix.  Maybe when I start my job, we’ll be able to try again.  Knowledge is an issue as well as neither David nor myself are skilled in any kind of carpentry.   Unfortuantely, it always seems that we don’t have one or the other – time or money.  Damned if you do and damned if you don’t.  One of the primary laws of poverty. 

 Bear in mind also that our entire trailer park was built on what used to be a landfill.  In my mind, I’m thinking, this just isn’t good.  No residential establishment of any kind should be built atop what used to be a garbage dump.  Of course, I knew none of this when I moved in here.  I was just looking for a safe (it is safe compared to most places – I don’t have to lock my doors at night) place to raise my kids.  And it really doesn’t matter anyway because there is no where else in the entire county that I could afford to live.  It’s kind of like an aesthetically pleasing slum.

Our lot sits at the bottom of a very long hill.  Natural erosion is causing the blocks to shift out from under the back end of the trailer.  One good strong straight line wind would be all she wrote.  Our home has no structural integrity whatsoever.  you can actually feel it move back and forth in a heavy thunderstorm.  It scares the hell out of me.  I used to love storms.  Now they are just panic attack fodder.