November 2021

We had a lot of stressful experiences this month, but also a nice Thanksgiving weekend vacation. Literally, "a vacation from our problems," as Becky likes to say, quoting What About Bob. Here is a link to all photos and videos from the past month.

The Infirmary, part 2

As noted last month, we've been a bit under the weather. That has continued this month for Becky who still has a lingering cough from last month, and Alex who has had other bugs. Following an ear infection and a cold last month, Alex got another cold this month and then a stomach bug. It's crazy how successive these illnesses have been, and so he's missed a lot of school because of it. At one point we did a home COVID test on him that was negative. But with all the bugs he's had in the past couple years he could have already had it at some point. In any case, he turned 5 the same month the COVID vaccine was approved for kids as young as 5, so we'll plan for him to get that soon. Becky and I will be getting our boosters soon too, and with the uncertainty of the omicron variant now emerging, I'm sure a lot of other people will too.

The Heating Oil Fiasco of 2021

Our 1-bedroom apartment in the Hudson Valley is nothing to write home about, but it has served a useful function at a reasonable price for the past couple of years. Our landlord is notoriously unhelpful (as we've learned from a history retold by our neighbors); he prefers to patch things rather than hire professionals to actually fix them or make any upgrades. This reached a boiling point this month when we had heating problems again. 

Like many places in the area, the apartment is heated with oil (e.g., kerosene). That means our ugly basement has an old metal 275-gallon tank that holds the oil and feeds it to the furnace, and when the tank gets low every few months, we call someone to come refill it. After we had the tank refilled this month, it sprung a leak from the bottom -- a slow drip. I only noticed this as soon as I did because I have set up my home office in the ugly basement, whereas we never went down there much before. Obviously this is a fire hazard and a health hazard. To make a long and stressful story short, despite many phone call from us and the building management, it took our landlord a week to get the oil tank replaced while it continued dripping into a pan while a fan was blowing out the basement window. Meanwhile, the neighbors were disturbed by the smells and the loud fan, and when one neighbor shut off the fan so they could sleep, the fumes got bad and the other neighbor called the fire department who showed up along with the police and hazmat on one particular night. More than another week passed before the old tank was removed, and there are still fumes in the basement if the fan isn't on. In addition to the local authorities, the building management has been there taking pictures and asking questions and threatening our landlord with fines. Incredibly, he has been slow to get this problem fixed nonetheless. 

We have been thinking of moving into a better place with 2 bedrooms, and I guess this was the impetus we needed. We looked at one really unique property custom built decades ago up in the hills and forest with all this interesting stonework surrounding the house. After looking at it, we applied and they accepted us and it was ours for the taking, but we decided it was a little too far up the hill, poorly insulated, and remote (you have to drive a narrow dirt road to get there), and with all of our coming and going it would just be a hassle to live there. It would make for a nice summer cabin though.  We put in an application for another property that is more central, modern, and suitable to our needs that we have applied for. We'll see what comes of that.

Thanksgiving Weekend / 5 Years Old

We planned a trip to our house  in Endwell (Binghamton area) for Thanksgiving weekend and to celebrate Alex's birthday. We drove there on Wednesday evening, and opened some presents with cake later after dinner. I sent an impromptu zoom invite to any family that wanted to join us, and surprisingly several did. Many people were kind to send gifts, so I hoped they'd be able to see him open a few of them. Communication was a bit hard over Zoom, but we appreciated seeing everyone. Alex doesn't always show interest or excitement in his new gifts when he opens them, but eventually he warms up to them. Also, sometimes he shows more interest in a piece of a toy for instance, rather than the toy itself. In any case, it was a fun weekend at the house with lots  of new things for him to play with. 

We ended up getting to the house a day later than planned so we didn't have much time to plan a big Thanksgiving meal. Instead, we grilled some pre-marinated chicken breasts from Wegmans (the best grocery store chain in NY, some would say), and made some mashed sweet potatoes and green beans. It was a pretty nice meal that didn't involve brining a turkey overnight. Speaking of sweet potatoes, I wrote an article for KSL.com about how the sweet potato spread from the Americas around the world, and has become more popular in the U.S. during the past couple of decades. It wasn't my most highly-read piece, but I enjoyed writing it because I do love sweet potatoes.

Friday we continued Alex's birthday celebration by going to Chuck E. Cheese. Sometimes he doesn't enjoy the kid rides and games so much as running around and pushing all the buttons. He was probably more excited by our trip to the mall the next day where his favorite blue Cobra $1 ride is always there waiting for him, as well as the Hallmark store with all their Christmas ornaments that he obsessed over each year when they put them out. Apart from shopping, relaxing, cooking, playtime, and a few chores, we also put up Christmas decorations to kick off the season.

Alex's iPad gets a lot of use and abuse, and it bit the dust Friday night that weekend. So we took on the challenge of trying to buy him a new one on Black Friday. Of course, since it wasn't at 6 am, we had no luck at Best Buy or any other physical location. Most places couldn't deliver one for another week or two, but apparently Staples had an unknown stash of iPads in their inventory and were able to deliver one by Sunday. Also in related news of things breaking, while getting an oil change on the Prius, they discovered a ball joint that needed repairs. It took them longer to get a new ball joint than it took us to get a new iPad, so that stranded me in Binghamton for an extra few days after Becky and Alex returned to the apartment to deal with the oil fume situation.

Dave

Sometimes a phrase from a favorite video clip transcends Alex's limited verbal communication, and becomes something he repeats to himself often for no clear reason. That happened with the Dreamworks animated show "Penguins," where a villainous octopus declares his name is "Dave." Now Alex likes to go around repeating that part saying, "Dave? Dave. DAAAVE!" You'll see some of that in the videos this month. Coincidentally, we usually buy Dave's Killer Bread for his sandwiches, since they make  tasty, small, thin-sliced loaves of whole wheat bread sized perfectly for kids. Alex has grown accustomed to that, and being the carb fiend that he is (taking after his dad), he always insists on going to the bread aisle to pick out a loaf if we take him grocery shopping, and then he'll carry it in the car all the way home until we make him a sandwich with it. There are a couple photos of that experience.

Alex's Creative Play

Lately, Alex has begun acting out scenes from an app or cartoon clip on his iPad.  He does this nonverbally, but it's pretty cool, nonetheless. Sometimes he finds a toy or part of a toy and then recalls a scene from an app that reminds him of the toy.  He finds the clip or scene on his iPad and makes the toy move along with the matching scene on his iPad.  

For example, he'll find a wheel, then go to his "Endless ABC's" app and find the scene of a monster riding a unicycle.  While the monster wobbles back and forth on his unicycle, Alex rolls the single wheel back and forth next to the screen.  He does this with cars, boats, planes, and people figures.  He often does sound effects to match the clip.  We think it's pretty creative.  Especially since he can also do the reverse, which is to find a scene from an app and then go dig out a toy to act it out with.  Just another indicator that there's a lot going on in that head of his.  We love when we get a glimpse of it.

Other Outings

We visited a couple new places this month. Alex and I went to Mohonk preserve one Saturday when the nearby Minnewaska State Park had no parking (everyone else was there to see Fall colors as well). We enjoyed walking along some trails and getting cider donuts on the way home. And the three of us visited Lasbon Park and Arboretum in the Westchester area, yet another place with old buildings and beautiful gardens and trees.