My Summer Hasn’t Been So Hot So Far

Not Hot Summer Part 1: Leg Gone

If you’re one of the dozens—Fine!…less—regular readers, you’ve undoubtedly noticed that I’ve broken my weekly Monday postings because…to put it lightly…June was a ROUGH month. 

Three days after Memorial Day, I was given an option: go out with a friend to my beloved Whistle Hop or stay in and clean my apartment before a weekend trip so that it would be spotless upon my return. I’ve now learned at the ripe age of 38 to always go with the irresponsible choice because in attempting to change a lightbulb to illuminate my now freshly vacuumed living room, I fell off of a stool and landed with all my weight (and readers, I’m not a slim man) on one foot, barefoot, on my newly mopped tile entrance way. The result? A severely bruised heel. 

Have you ever had a bruised heel? Or even heard of one (I hadn’t…up until May 30, 2025. Well, let me tell you: they are not fun and very painful, and I was fully on crutches for three weeks afterward (also not fun: crutches) that’s transitioned to a heel pad with a major limp that I’ve been told might not be fully functional till the end of July. Good times. 

While I’m definitely on the mend, I can’t (or rather, shouldn’t) do anything “high impact” until at least July 18th, so that means my summer thus far has been tennis-less, mostly hikeless, and my workouts are decidedly not up to my satisfaction. I also had to forgo a Beach Boys show at the Salvage Station, which is actually listed in the dictionary under ‘First World Problems.” 

While one might think being essentially homebound would up my writing output, the reality is that being on crutches is so god damn exhausting and makes everything so god damn slow—I’m genuinely not looking for a pity party, but I wasn’t expecting needing to set aside like…an hour to make breakfast and do laundry—that I was just finishing my workdays and going to bed at like…8:00 PM. I also spent a ton of my downtime laying on the couch with my foot elevated, which, spoiler alert, isn’t great for typing. 

As of this writing, I am mobile for all intents and purposes. 

Not Hot Summer Part 2: Job Gone 

Two weeks to the day after my foot mishap, I logged onto my work’s annual Thursday all-hands meeting expecting a pretty par-for-the-course presentation. Instead, I got to check the unexpected-mass-zoom-layoff section on my summer 2024 bingo card. 

It was, as I just mentioned, completely unexpected. Looking back, of course, maybe I should have picked up some signs, but if you’d asked me on June 12 whether I felt secure in my job, I would’ve said 100%. I’ve always gotten good reviews, had (what I thought anyway) a good rapport with my manager, and recently got a small pay bump and promotion in the spring. My ego’s solace was that I truly believe it was a business decision; layoffs are, unfortunately, just part of working in tech (and in marketing), and I was in good company—my colleagues who were let go were some of the ones I respected most and in my eyes anyway, all excelled in their roles. 

So…that’s how my summer started: one leg and no job. As much as I love this blog and have been consistently posting for the better part of three years, I felt I needed some time to take a few breaths, figure out my next moves, and prioritize finding some work. 

As of this writing, I’m still very much a free agent (if you have any leads, please feel free to send them my way), but I feel sorted enough to return to the regularly scheduled posting. 

So, to put it lightly, my summer hasn’t been that hot. Metaphorically, that is. Temperature-wise, it’s been roasting.