July 2022

Here's a link to all photos and videos from July, and below is some description of what we've been up to:

Independence Day

We had no major plans for the holiday, other than enjoying the first three-day weekend we've had in a while. We got some sparklers and a couple fountains to light off that weekend in a parking lot. We let Alex hold the sparklers for the first time and he was really excited about that. You can see some fun videos of that. We also went to a local park with a lake and some imported beach sand and did some swimming there. We are still trying to get Alex interested in playing in the water; he now enjoys going to the pool that we regularly go to, but is still apprehensive about other places. On July 4th, we also grilled some food, stayed out of the heat, watched Stranger Things, and went for a walk on the Goshen rail trail at dusk to see if we could catch any fireworks, but saw lots of fireflies instead. Later in the month, we went to a fireworks show at the local park and Alex really enjoyed it; he stayed up and sat through the whole thing and then fell asleep on the way home. 

Landlording

This year, we have been renting our house in Binghamton as a furnished, month-to-property. We had a tenant living there who was on a 6-month job contract, and he moved out at the end of July. I let the tenant have a cat because his 6-month plan was ideal for me, but he didn't clean up all the fur very well (and the cat scratched up one of the couches), so he won't be getting all of his deposit back. Anyway, I listed the property again on Zillow, and found new tenants fairly quickly; they are a newlywed couple with a 5-year old. They plan to move out of state in about a year so this should help give them some flexibility to make that transition. There aren't many places to rent that are furnished with a short-term lease option, so I think continuing to rent this way fills a certain niche in the housing market, plus it lets us continue to use our house as a vacation home more or less. Speaking of which, since the next tenants aren't moving in until August 15, we'll be taking a trip to Binghamton the first weekend in August to hang out there and grab some furnishings. I'll also be making several trips to the house to do some cleaning and maintenance. 

Pickleball and Babysitting

We both enjoy playing sports, but it can be a challenge at this stage of life to be active and find people to play with. We decided to give pickleball a shot, since we have played some tennis and ping pong in the past. We had played pickleball with friends before, but only recently started seeing courts for it at parks here in NY. It is easy to learn, and there are usually communities of people who play it. A while ago, we saw an older group of people playing pickleball at our local park. They were a 50+ group, but we went and talked to them and started to get more information about the communities around here who play. Around here, they mostly use an app called TeamReach to organize. So this month we started playing with a beginners group on Mondays, and hopefully we'll get better. We realize that this activity will be a lot easier if we can get a regular babysitter to watch Alex, because he doesn't really enjoy watching us play (see Becky's note about that below).

Unexpected Influx of Cash

So last year around Christmas, Becky was in a car accident that was the fault of the other driver. It took more than a month to get the body damage on our Prius repaired, so we had do occasional car rentals in the meantime. At the time, our auto insurance (USAA) told us that the other driver's insurance (Geico) would be able to at least partially cover the cost of car rental, so we sent them the receipts. It turned out to no be so simple, and Becky spent many hours on the phone talking to multiple representatives from both insurance companies trying to get a straight answer and some action on that front. Fast forward six months later, and finally she spoke with someone helpful at USAA who pushed things through. We finally received a check in the mail reimbursing for all car rental expenses - about $1800. So that was way more difficult than it should have been, but good news nonetheless. Add to that, the state of New York sent a check for around $1300 for some kind of property tax credit for those under a certain income threshold, and I wasn't expecting that either. So nice to have some unexpected revenue instead of unexpected expenses for once.

July New Things

Rob: I've always had a strange curiosity about abandoned buildings, consequently I've fallen down a rabbit hole of YouTube creators who explore abandoned places - including homes, business, resorts, hotels, churches, and even entire universities. Many of these places are looted and have squatters, but others have been untouched for many years. It's interesting how foreclosures, deaths without kin or will, and other circumstances can result in so many places full of personal and sometimes valuable belongings just being left as they were to sit and collect dust or rot.

Alex: Like last month, one of Alex's favorite activities is still "scrolling" down memory lane, looking at old photos and videos of himself doing his favorite things on our phones. Added to that, as noted above he discovered the joy of sparklers and I'm sure he'll be very excited to do them again next year.

Becky:  As noted above, we needed a regular babysitter to play pickleball (just Monday nights).  I really don't like doing anything without Alex.  He's our guy.  But I thought it might be good to get in just a little bit of a hobby- preferably a sport, so I had to bite the bullet and get a babysitter.  I found someone fairly quickly that the state pays for (we have "self-directed services" through NY state, which pays for a lot of expenses for a child with special needs).  So starting next month we will take the big step of getting out and leaving Alex home (just for a bit).  Alex is pretty easy to babysit and I'll make sure the sitter has lots of toys, games, shows, snacks at hand.  Hopefully all goes well and I don't feel too guilty about it.  I think it will be good, though.