And then it snowed...

This photo of my walk and a buried car kind of  went viral
after I tweeted it. Like Jerry Lewis, it was popular in
 France, for unknown reasons.

March is traditionally a fickle month in most places, and upstate New York is no exception. In fact, the fickle weather around here often extends into April, and at least once we've had over 20 inches of snow in April. But anyway, back to March, specifically this March, which lived up to it's reputation. The month started off warm; we were in the 60s on March 1, but then the roller coaster began with lows near zero bracketed with highs in the 50s. On the 14th, the big snowstorm came. Big, even by New York standards. The snow began falling around 4 in the morning, then fell heavily for most of the day, ending with 31 inches, and all time record for Binghamton in a 24 hour period. A few more inches fell the next day leading to a storm total of nearly 3 feet. Unfortunately, the timing of this was during my graveyard shifts and that led to some interesting climbs up to Mt Ettrick and the Binghamton Regional Airport where our office is located. Also, it cut into my daytime sleeping as the struggle to maintain an open driveway and sidewalks were a non stop effort.

 "Troy" and I taking a much deserved break. 

My trusty snow blower was up to the task thankfully, or I would still be digging. The electric start malfunctioned, may be a solenoid but just two pulls and it fired right up. It has a 24 inch "bite" and normally that's more than enough but with 3 feet of snow. I had to keep backing off as snow fell over the top of the machine and into the motor. It took them 2 days to plow our street, and Binghamton schools were closed for three days leading to the firing of the Public Works commissioner and his deputy. That seems a bit harsh, since it was a record event but I guess someone had to pay for the road conditions and the mayor certainly isn't going to fire himself so,,,

All in all it was a great snowstorm, very pretty and frankly needed. This will give us a nice cool and wet start to Spring, as opposed to a warm and dry start that can lead to wildfires and water shortages down the road. It is probably is not enough to cause any real flooding concerns, unless we get heavy rain. So far, we've had perfect melting weather, melting some during the day, and freezing everything up at night. Ski resorts and skiers got a nice late season bonus too.

On the home improvement front, the guest room is pretty much done. We selected and I installed a ceiling fan. I was happy to find a solid attic floor joist exactly where I wanted to hang the fan and am confident the fan will never fall. Interestingly enough, the fan blades are no longer attached by machine screws and washers, but snap into place on posts with rubber grommets in the fan blade. I'm a bit apprehensive but the Hunter Fan Company must know what they are doing, right? Now it's time to turn the room over to Cindy so she can work her magic cleaning and decorating. We need to pick out some "window treatments" too so any guests we have can have a little privacy. By the way, it's Katia and Natasha's favorite room as the windows face south and west giving them plenty of warm sunshine.

I was at it again in the bathroom...wait...that doesn't sound right. What I mean is I worked at caulking the tub and other repairs. The shower wall pulled away from the room wall so I purchased, for the lack of a better description, tub glue, and glued and clamped the wall back in place. Also, the plaster walls near the base of the tub near the floor were falling apart, literally,  so re-plastered and painted the wall with a nice semi gloss paint that will better repel the water. Finally, I caulked around the top of the tub wall where my tall frame was causing water to splash and *perhaps* leak down into the kitchen. Since then, we've been dry on the kitchen floor so hopefully I've fixed that problem. If so, I can go ahead and repair the ceiling in the kitchen that has become water stained.

Security

I'm going to ramble a bit in this blog, so bear with me please as I veer off the home improvement topic and more into the lifestyle side of our life. This blog has been spinning around in my head for some time, and was activated once again as Cindy and I discuss security at our home.

First, a little background. Most of my blog readers are local, and are familiar with the Binghamton area. However, I do have an international audience, with several readers from France and Russia, for example. I'm not sure how or why they read my blog, but grateful for this, and it gives me the opportunity to expand on the town in which we live. Greater Binghamton is typical of the "rust belt" cities of the northeast United States. In my lifetime, heavy manufacturing fled overseas, leaving behind empty factories, and the sturdy but small homes these blue collar workers lived in. The homes are typically in the urban core with small yards, small rooms, and are simply not the kind of home current urban professionals are looking for. They are sprinkled all over the west side of Binghamton where we live, and have mostly been converted to rental property for students or low income renters by absentee landlords. I've mentioned this in previous blogs but it is true that Binghamton real estate is truly schizophrenic with mansions next door to shacks.

We (Cindy) saw the potential behind these overgrown bushes.

To be clear, Binghamton is not lost, and seems to be improving. There are still a lot of defense and aerospace based tech manufacturing with BAE, Lockheed Martin, and even vestiges of IBM. The local health care industry is booming, as is Binghamton University, which continues to expand adding class rooms and offices downtown, and is building a new pharmacy school nearby in Johnson City. However, for the most part, the highly paid workers associated with these employers prefer the affluent suburbs in Vestal and elsewhere. This leaves even the nicer and larger homes within the urban core empty. Now, some opportunists like Cindy and I see the potential of these homes and grab them, but even as we did, we found that we were bidding against an out of town bidder that wished to convert our property to student housing.

The security team on duty.

Now, to the point and the topic. This jumble of housing types and prices brings an impressively diverse population. Professionals like Cindy and I are in the mix, as are college students. The low price housing has attracted an influx of big city refugees looking to flee the crime and a crushing cost of living. As a matter of course, following these unfortunates is a darker element of gang activity and drug sales. With that comes property crime and isolated violence. So far, we have had our car broken into, and strangely found a valuable coronet and case on our side yard. My rotating work schedule leaves Cindy alone some evenings and overnights, which makes her nervous. Now, with out going into details, we do have a rudimentary security system in our home. It involves lighting, video cameras. and two cats. We probably should upgrade.

So what type of system should we get? If you've ever looked into purchasing a home security system you know that the sky is the limit. At the high end are wired, professionally installed and monitored system with cameras, fire detection, and sensors at every entry point. I think we will go to the middle ground with a self installed system that has motion detectors and wireless connectivity. You can add fire detection, a piercing alarm and a cell phone based dialer if you wish. The idea will be to help Cindy feel safe when she's home alone, and also protect the house when no one is home, without spending a fortune. Here's a handy list and review of security systems currently available from reviews.com. I'll be sure to update this blog as we move forward with our decision.

Beer and sausages mandatory, Funny hat optional.

In other news...we had a lot of fun the Hayes family for parade day. Both Mike and Steve marched in their FDNY uniforms with Mike Sr and the Johnson City Fire Department. We met for breakfast sausages at Downs Ave Tavern before the parade, then after a quick warm up and hydration session at the American Legion we headed over the Seton Catholic Central for bagpipes and a beer or two. Good times.

Coming up in future blogs: It's March but it's not Spring and Finishing off the Guest Room.