[Snakeadelic]

Other.

People's.

Children.

Thanks to my downstairs neighbor, I am now severely allergic to smoke. As in, if I get over-exposed, I may lose the ability to breathe. My awesome biker neighbor is extremely concerned about this.

There is a 3,000+ acre wildfire burning just a little bit north of where I live. Official firefighting policy, as announced last week, is "we're building miles of firebreaks to protect high-value private properties. Everyone else, wait for rain." Which, at this time of year, should be here around about MAYBE mid-September.

All three of my allergy meds are failing. My MD's options are limited to advising me to get out of any fire-prone area until autumn, which is going to be a tad bit impossible on my budget (currently about $275 a month once my bills are paid). I would have to go to my old stomping grounds, northwestern Oregon or the Puget Sound area, to make this happen. My health insurance will not go with me. At least three of my medications are illegal to mail.

Yesterday, biker neighbor was trying to respond to a hard, urgent knocking on his front door. He thought it was my roomie trying to get me emergency help. He fell on the hip he's probably having replaced in September, also nearly ripping a 2-inch strip out of one of his tattoos in the process. To clarify: he was already walking with a cane and spent most of the rest of yesterday in bed. And the 2-inch strip that DID get ripped out of one of his arms missed his favorite ink by about 2 millimeters.

It was some f*kkin jerk kids who don't even live here. They came up and cop-knocked my door too. They run around with the spying, tattling 7-year-old who calls the downstairs apartment with the awful neighbor 'home' now because she's spent more time there in her life than with her actual mother. This whole group of kids are now stealing things, throwing rocks at windows, teasing pets, and treating our concrete-and-steel staircase as a playground when there is an ACTUAL PLAYGROUND open for their use right across the street.

My biker neighbor thinks his getting hurt is going to be sufficient to get the new management team off their asses to inform parents that even guests' children ARE NOT to be unsupervised on the properties. Seeing as how that hasn't worked yet in the 10 years I've been here, I'm flat out of optimism.

I have a referral from my MD to see an immunologist to find out if there's anything medically possible to keep me safe during fire season. If I'm lucky, I might get to see her by Christmas. With nothing but breezy, dry, 90-degree days on the foreseeable horizon weather-wise, nobody thinks I have nearly that long.

The only kid we're sure isn't involved, ironically, is the older of the 2 who actually DO live in this building--he's currently super-mega-grounded and hasn't been allowed to play with the problem kids in almost 2 weeks.