Many seniors use it to supplement social security, meet unexpected medical expenses, make home improvements and more. A reverse mortgage is Government-Insured by the Federal Housing Administration (FHA), a division of the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). The Home Equity Conversion Mortgage (HECM) is a reverse mortgage program which enables you to withdraw some of the equity in your home.

More information on government reverse mortgages can be found here. It’s always important to thoroughly investigate this type of mortgage and get the advice of a qualified and trusted financial advisor or attorney not affiliated with the company brokering the loan.

The local craft store is already prepped for Halloween. Triple digit heat and I’m staring at cinnamon scented autumn leaves and jack-o-lanterns. I can’t stop rolling my eyes because I know I’ve got at least 2 more sky-high electric bills from the “run the air conditioning or face uncertain death at the hands of irate family members” season.

We went shopping at Target about a week after 4th of July and the kids groaned when they saw that the “seasonal” aisle that had once held mosquito repellent and barbecue accessories now held pencils, pens, rulers, lunch pails and backpacks. At least our local store takes parents shopping with kids under consideration. The “seasonal” aisle is in the back of the store, that way when the kids make a break for it you have an entire store to catch them before they can hit the parking lot and get mushed by a minivan in their panic induced escape attempt.

The upside is that while trying to catch my little escapee (the second grader) she passed an end cap with princess bedding and became distracted which meant she narrowly avoided plowing into a lady holding glass vase. Lucky me, I managed to find the bath pillow I’d been wanting while I caught my breath.

As it sits now, I’ve got 3 weeks to school starts and for once I’m almost looking forward to it.

As a last resort, they call in Ramsay to try and save them from going under. I must say, some of the things he finds are thoroughly disgusting. It isn’t surprising to find that it’s necessary to resort to drastic measures to get them on the right track. It can be heartbreaking to watch what the owners deal with on a day to day basis, feeling loyalty to their employees, but knowing everything may be a lost cause. It’s also, heartwarming when they find the answer and are able to turn their business around and make it the success they were hoping for. Believe me, after you watch this show, you may find yourself looking around at things you never paid much attention to before.

- Guest Post by Lewis Beck

My youngest caught a trout and immediately made me set out getting a bucket and “saving it”. It survived and we put it in our koi pond where it made all of the other inhabitants its bitches (those who weren’t eaten). I had to segregate it from the general population in a separate barrel where it lived out its days until it got too hot. I didn’t even get a picture of her with the fish.

The older daughter was late in coming and I sure was glad to see her pole take a dip. It was a surf perch and not too bad of a catch. I got pictures and started to take the hook out when the darned thing started giving birth and dropping its babies all over the pier. I didn’t even know that they did this. Katie didn’t talk to me for about 2 hours.

Fortunately, she’s a chip off the old block, now she brags that she is the only one in our family to catch “five fish at once.”

We are planning future trips and it looks like it will be a great summer.

This is the first year we’ve been ahead of the heat wave. We spent the weekend prepping our air conditioning units, cleaning the coils, clearing the area and we checked our attic for leaks in the vents. Living in Bakersfield where temps can easily soar above 105 in the summer and there are no breezes of which to speak, it goes without saying that you are going to be dealing with air conditioning and working overtime to pay for the electricity bill.

Currently, we live in a newer home with decent insulation, dual pane windows and as much energy efficiency as one can expect from your average home builder. Since we don’t have a custom home we didn’t have a whole lot of say in the matter. Our air conditioning intake units are positioned on the side of the house where they are in the summer sun for at least 8 hours a day; that means our units are working harder to cool hot air. If they had just been placed on the opposite side of the house they would have had shade the majority of the day.

Our plan is to install A/C misters similar to the products at www.coolnsave.com or AC Mister. Next step is to put a reflective solar shade above the units to block the blistering summer sun.

We are fortunate that our house has a great north/south exposure, but the next step is to do some solar screens on the exterior and possibly one to two awnings (both for aesthetics and shade) as well.

We don’t have any hard proof (read: too lazy to research this) of climate changes in Bakersfield, just long term Bako-residency memories, but it sure seems like grandma and grandma used to say, “at least it’s a DRY heat” and we’re not convinced that’s entirely the case for 100% of the summer anymore.

Eventually, we might make a move toward the expense of a solar attic fan or a whole house fan and evaporative cooling system which would greatly reduce our air conditioning use as long as we experience dry heat. If the humidity creeps up evap coolers aren’t of much use around here as most people know.

For more energy saving tips check out this great article by Mr. Electricity.