Hurricane Matthew – The Postlude
by Bingle on Oct.08, 2016, under Richard Bingle Family
While our house in Orlando survived the winds, the house in Viera did not fare nearly as well. Most of the shingles were ripped off of the back of the house that faces north. The house will need a new roof.
My brother-in-law and I went out to the house this morning to take down the shutters and do something about the roof. We had arranged to meet with a roofer today so once we got the shutters off we decided to take a break (it was hot work) and wait for the roofer’s advice before we tried to cover the roof ourselves. Thankfully, the roofer was able to cover the roof with a tarp and tar paper (properly) for us so that we didn’t have to get up on the roof ourselves. Unfortunately, it wasn’t free, although the roofer said that it could just be added to our insurance claim. Yes, we have hurricane insurance on that house, but the deductible is substantial. Oh well, at least now when we re-list the house for sale we can say “brand new roof!”
— Rich
Hurricane Matthew
by Bingle on Oct.07, 2016, under Richard Bingle Family
Didn’t get much sleep.
At about 1:00 a.m. (right before it was to hit the Melbourne area) the forecast track and strength of the storm was updated to about a bit farther offshore and from a category 4 to a category 3. This means that the winds out in Viera likely didn’t exceed 80-90 mph. Winds here in Orlando eventually ramped up to probably 40-50 mph.
No apparent damage here at the house in Orlando (but it is still gusting). Word from my buddy out in Viera is that he had no apparent damage either and would let me know probably later today if there was any damage to the folks’ house, but technically there is a curfew in place until Saturday morning.
— Rich
Hurricane Matthew – The Prelude
by Bingle on Oct.06, 2016, under Richard Bingle Family
The local news has been doing hurricane coverage pretty much non-stop today as Hurricane Matthew is projected to skirt the coast of Florida as a category 4 storm overnight tonight.
I spent Tuesday afternoon and evening and all day Wednesday trying to get the hurricane shutters up at the folks’ house in Viera. Apparently during the estate sale, the cleanup, or the house being on the market, all of the specialty bolts and wingnuts for the shutters disappeared. After a ton of running around out on the coast I managed to get 75 wingnuts and 100 substitute bolts. Unfortunately, I ended up needing closer to 100 wingnuts, so ran out with two windows left. I managed to buy the last 1/4-20 nuts in Brevard County to get one of those two windows covered, but was still not able to get the garage window shutters put up. That window faces east and breakage would mean that the wind would get into the garage and cause potential roof damage. Hopefully the house insurance includes hurricane coverage! Guess I should be happy that I was able to scrounge the parts I did to get the majority of the shutters on.
Here in Orlando we’ve got our two Mazda’s, most of the patio furniture, the garbage/recycle cans from next to the house, and our grill in the garage. The rest of the patio furniture is in the kitchen and pool bath. The van and Intrepid are on the driveway. The Mazda6 and the van are gassed up. Got some cash. We have basically a boulder resting against the double door at the front of the house (Charley blew hard enough to cause that door to almost open despite being locked) and the door is taped up to prevent any water from blowing in. Being this far inland we never invested in shutters or plywood for our house (even after being hit with Charley, Frances, and Jeanne in 2004).
Now we wait…
— Rich
Girls get new do’s
by Ashley on Jun.04, 2016, under Alyssa Bingle, Amber Bingle, Ashley Bingle, Karen Bingle
Most people who know our family know how we tend to eschew haircuts and grow our hair long. I cut my hair for the first time when I was 14, Amber waited until just before she went off to college at 17 and so it made sense for Alyssa to want to cut her hair too. After all, she has the thickest hair in the family and it was getting to the point she kept it up in a bun (a bun almost as big as her head) for most of the time.
Because her first haircut is somewhat of a special event she made sure that we would all be home for the excitement, and cut it off between Christmas and New Years. Mom wanted to shorten her hair up too, and with them both getting their hair cut I decided that 9 years was long enough between trims that maybe I was due to shorten mine up as well.
Shorten for me turned out to be whacking 19 inches off, which was nowhere near Alyssa’s 29 inch donation. Mom shortened her hair by 16 inches and after all of that Amber ended up joining the trend and was able to take off 13 inches to donate as well.
We sent all of our hair to the Pantene Beautiful Lengths program, which makes free wigs for cancer patients.
I am still getting used to my shorter hair, it has taken different people a while to notice the change, but I mostly notice how much shorter it takes to dry. Alyssa really enjoys swishing her hair around her shoulders, and how she can brush it back from her face and not have to reach to put it behind her back. She says it’s much nicer not to worry about it getting caught on a doorknob. Amber managed to surprise some of her friends at school with her new ‘do, and I got comments from the little girls at my church, but Alyssa got the best surprised reaction of all. (Makes sense since hers was the most drastic change.) We went to visit our cousins and one of them was admiring her new hair, had Alyssa turn around so she could see the back, and her mother thought she was reading the back of Alyssa’s shirt, until she suddenly realized, “Your hair! It’s gone!” And it is gone, an entire 6 ounces of hair is missing from her head, but everybody agrees that her short hair is adorable. She has even been able to replicate the pigtails she used to wear all the time when she was little.
KareCare
by Bingle on Feb.17, 2016, under Karen Bingle, Richard Bingle Family
Pretty much anybody who would visit this website already knows, but figured I should post something here as well…
Karen was diagnosed with Stage III Pancreatic Cancer on December 10th.
The cancer is currently inoperable and she has begun aggressive chemotherapy treatments in an attempt to shrink the tumor to the point that surgery is possible, as surgery is the only long term hope.
We would appreciate your thoughts and prayers as we battle this disease.
To get the full story and keep up-to-date on her progress you can follow her fight at her PostHope site. You can even sign up on that site to get notified of any updates she posts.
— Rich
Trails Forever: Smoky Mountain Service Learning
by Bingle on Feb.03, 2016, under Amber Bingle
Amber will be participating in a service learning project over spring break. See her support site for details.
2015 Christmas Cruise
by Bingle on Jan.24, 2016, under Richard Bingle Family
We took a family cruise over Christmas. Out of the 100+ “professional” pictures taken, we bought five.
Marjorie L. Bingle 5/18/1930 – 12/12/2015
by Bingle on Dec.12, 2015, under Jim Bingle Family, Marge Bingle
Tonight my Mom was re-united with my Dad, this time forever.
Between the grief of losing my Dad earlier this year, struggling for years with health complications due to a failing liver, and being alone for the first time in her life, Mom’s overall health had rapidly deteriorated the last two months. It was hard to see her wasting away physically and withdrawing mentally.
I am thankful that Don was able to visit with her last month, that Chris and Belinda were able to be here these last few days, and that family was with her at the end.
I love you, Mom!
James D. Bingle 7/20/1930 – 4/3/2015
by Bingle on Apr.08, 2015, under Jim Bingle, Jim Bingle Family
On Good Friday I received word that my father, James Bingle, had passed away while being treated for pneumonia in Prescott, AZ.
Dad had many challenges over the last several years. Several small and a couple of larger strokes, valve replacement surgery and complications afterwards, sleep apnea, a bad reaction to a blood transfusion, diabetes, a pacemaker, multiple falls. Many of the things he had once spent hours doing were no longer possible or enjoyable.
On April 3rd his fight came to an end and he entered into the presence of his Lord and Savior.
I love you, Dad!
Halloween 2014
by Bingle on Jan.31, 2015, under Alyssa Bingle, Amber Bingle, Ashley Peters, Karen Bingle, Richard Bingle, Richard Bingle Family
Years ago we figured out that a certain number of days after Halloween Target would have their 90% off sale and we would go and pick up some costumes for “dress-up” clothes to play with at home. This was helpful as the kids got older as we used them to supplement their ideas for costumes (which were needed to be out of the house somewhere else if people decided to ring our doorbell).
As time progressed, and Target changed their sale policies, the family has still been able to be creative with their costumes, involving various amounts of time in preparation and thrifty use of materials in their construction. This fascination my family has nurtured these many years has amused me, as it has now expanded to include dressing like a pirate (rewarded by Krispy Kreme’s free dozen “golden rings” for doing so) on Talk Like A Pirate Day (as mentioned in a previous post), and I get to maintain my support, encouragement and “only dress up if I have to” position. So I am pleased to share the efforts of my family for Halloween 2014.
Rich has now established a reputation for wearing Halloween costumes to work and tries to encourage others to participate by figuring out what exactly he is even if they are not willing to dress up themselves. Can you guess what he is?
Ashley, now that she has graduated and entered the employment world, crafted a costume that required less guessing than her father’s.
Amber acquired a wonderful stick early in the semester, which inspired her creation. She found out later it only made sense to certain age groups who were familiar with the Lion King, but she enjoyed spouting off movie quotes which may have been relevant even if they didn’t know who she was.
Alyssa and Kirsten (her cousin) attended our church’s youth group’s party as ninja’s!
Gypsy only likes dressing up for a moment at a time. In other words, she likes to figure out the appropriate way to remove her costume as quickly as possible!
And finally, Alyssa, Rich and I continued the tradition of avoiding being home (and my other favorite tradition of receiving discounts) by dressing up for Booritos at Chipotle.
~Karen