January 2022

Here's a link to all photos and videos from January, and here's some what we've been doing:

New Year's Day Walk and Other Cold Outings

December was fairly mild, but temperatures really began to plummet as we got into January.  Down to 0 F some nights in the Hudson Valley, and even lower in Binghamton. So we didn't go outside too much. New Year's Day though was warmer, so we took a long walk on the trail along the Hudson from Denning's point to Long Dock Park, a walk we've done often before. It was a foggy day, and many others were out doing the same thing. 

January was also the month when we finally saw some real snow. We had three snowfalls of at least a couple inches. After one of them, we tried sledding at a park again, something Alex has shown some interest in doing for at least a few runs. 

Motorcyclepedia and Other Warm Outings

On cold nights, we sometimes go over to the church and let Alex run around. In the gym, we tried out his Razor Crazy Cart he got for Christmas. He has short attention and is not as interested in it as we hoped, but over time he might come to appreciate it more.

We went bowling, and let Alex use the plastic ramp for his turns. With that advantage he was competitive with Becky and me as we struggled to get to 100 even with the bumpers. As usual, we also made a few trips to various shopping malls in the Hudson Valley, where Alex continues to be excited to ride the escalators up and down, over and over again. One mall also has a big arcade and we like to go there and play Mario Kart and other games. 

A new place we visited this month was the Motorcyclepedia museum nearby over in Newburgh. I noticed it on Google Maps one day and thought maybe we should check it out since Alex likes all vehicles. We visited on their discount night and were about the only people there. Old motorcycles, odd motorcycles, movie motorcycles, a huge collection of Indian motorcycles -- in total they had more than 650 motorcycles, so there was  a lot of interesting bikes to look at. My nephews who are really into motorbikes would really enjoy it. What Alex liked most though was this weird old "kinetic sculpture" that lights up and moves a bunch of pulleys around when you press a button. I'm sure we'll go back.

Still Missing Our Prius

As noted last month, Becky got hit from behind while driving a couple days before Christmas and so we have been down one car. Due to employment shortages I guess, the insurance and repairs have all been painfully slow. There was some rear end damage that the body shop estimated would cost up to $7,000 to repair. The car is a 2013 Prius with maybe 175,000 miles, so maybe it could sale for around $10,000 or so. In any case, the insurance company seemed to think it is worth less than that, and wanted to total it, but Becky talked them out of it because we don't want to shop for a new car and they wouldn't be giving us the full value. And so we have just been waiting on the repairs and driving rental cars when needed in the meantime  while hoping for reimbursements. The Prius had some rust issues that were repaired under warranty a few months back, so it's been out of commission a lot lately leaving us to rely on our trusty Subaru, which has even more miles on it.

Moving to the Country

As noted in November, we had a fiasco with our apartment heating oil leaking in the basement and needing to get the oil tank replaced. We had the heating oil tank refilled in January when it got low, but it came spilling out the top because they didn't install a valve properly when they replaced it. So once again, we had oil smells and neighbor complaints and building management filing reports against our landlord and clean up to deal with, as our landlord continues to make himself scarce as much as possible when these things happen. All of this is to say that our resolve to find a better place to live in the Hudson Valley was strongly reinforced this month.

Our resolve was rewarded. As we checked the local listings, something popped up that caught our attention (here it is on Zillow). Not an apartment, not really a house either, but a pastoral old farmhouse/barn that was turned into a living space and is actually quite ideal. It is owned by an older couple who live on one side of it, and they are renting out 1500 square feet on the other side that includes two bedrooms, office space, and storage space. It's a few miles away over in the nearby small town of Montgomery. We went over one Saturday to look at it and spent some time chatting with the friendly couple who are leasing it, and they really seemed to like Alex. They are renting it at a very reasonable price, and seem more interested in finding the best tenants than making the most money from it. It costs 18% more than our current place, but has 50% more space. We filled out an application on the spot. I'm sure many other people did too since there is an inventory shortage in the real estate market here. So we were very excited when they called us back a week later to let us know the place was ours if we wanted it. We plan to start moving in Feb. 1, and move out of our apartment by Feb. 15. We went back there to sign the lease and drop off the rent and deposit, and Mary (the owner) was sweet to greet us with a Curious George book and plush animal as a gift for Alex. I think we'll really enjoy not just renting from them, but getting to know them as well.

Favorite Things

This year I am starting this new installment where I'll note some of our favorite things each month - things like shows, books, podcasts, etc. that we are enjoying and might recommend.

Alex: "Merry Madagascar" on Hulu. Alex has really been into the Penguins of Madagascar lately, and loves this short Christmas spinoff cartoon we found on Hulu. There's some video of him busting a gut to the "I like to move it move it" song and other things.

Rob: "Ungaurded" Scottie Pippen autobiography. Pippen was one of my favorite basketball players to watch in the 1990s. In this book he tells about his upbringing in large, poor, southern family with a dad and sibling that had disabilities; then his unlikely path to the NBA; and also his perspective on players and some of the big games from that era. It's also sort of his response to  some things in The Last Dance documentary. He has no reservations in mentioning how certain individuals with the team (such as MJ) are both great and terrible in different ways at the same time, which I found interesting.

Becky: Cooking with fish. Becky's been trying some new recipes with halibut and talapia, making fish tacos and other dishes with complementary sides. We have a Mayo Clinic cookbook we picked up at a thrift shop a while ago that has some recipes that have turned out well.