I never thought that living in the semi-hood would end up being beneficial.Guy from the gas company comes to the door and asks if I would be interested in a free program. Basically everytime you pay your gas bill there's a small amount of tax. That tax goes into some sort of fund. The guy tells me that we qualify for this "low income" program. I tell him that there's no way we qualify. He says "no, it's the whole neighborhood."

Actually he says that it's not all of the apartments in the area but the gigantic 'senior living community' across the street that drops the average income level down. I didn't have to provide any income info at all.So in a couple of weeks they'll send out a crew to put new weather stripping on all doors and windows, seal up all switch plates/fixtures/outlets, service the hot water heater and the AC. He also looks at the door that leads to the back patio. The thing is garbage. I've never replaced it because nobody ever comes in that way except for us and the dog scratches at it. Gas guy tells me "oh, we can replace that for free too."