Spending Time Away From Home This Summer

Broome County, NY Courthouse

I have not been writing much since July, after my father had his stroke, and then died on August 11th. Being the one he chose to take care of all of his affairs, if he could not, and then after he passed away, has not been an easy task. It should have been. His death was made ugly, due to someone trying to steal what little he had. I am sad that this person was allowed to abuse my father in his elderly years. When I asked him if he wanted me to do something about her, he'd say he could handle it. He could not. And now I realize he was afraid of her.

Stairs I Had To Walk Yesterday!

Through out this process, I have become a much stronger woman. Even though I am older now, 60 years of age, I now feel much stronger than ever before. I had been feeling, due to my knee troubles and walking with a cane, that my time of strength was on the downside. Now, I KNOW, that is not so! Not at all. My strength was renewed. Most of our time has been spent driving back and forth to the city of Binghamton, NY, throughout this time. Learning how to fill out legal papers and file them. Learning how to stand up for what I know is right, no matter what others may so or do. Strength!

Lots Of Construction In Downtown Binghamton!

 
I have learned many things that I never thought I'd be able to do. I filed my father's will in the Surrogate court yesterday. After preparing ALL the paperwork myself, as the Executor. The clerk said I did a good job, after she looked over each paper. It was a lot of work, and a learning process for me and my husband. But we DID IT!!!!! Of course, my father's estate is a small one. And even smaller after someone messed with his things. Now I will be able to work on making them pay it back. I needed every penny to cover any bills he had outstanding, or medical not paid by Medicare.

My Father Was Quite The Gardener!

Now we will be working on cleaning his house up and repairing it to get it ready for sale. I hope I can get this done before winter hits us.I will be making the time to write my blog posts, and visit my blogging friends' blogs again. Thanks for sticking with me!

Copyright © 2012 Kathleen G. Lupole

All Photographs Copyright © 2012  Kathleen G. Lupole

Low Income Housing

I have been searching for an apartment for my son to rent. Holy cow! How does anyone begin to afford to move into one when they are paying rent on the one they are in currently? What if  they have other bills to pay too? I can understand the landlords wanting to make money off the tenants and all. Yet who can afford the first and last month rent, plus security, plus utilities too???? I mean they are expensive!

In a city near us, Binghamton, NY, which includes several other towns and cities in the surrounding area, there is a college, Binghamton University. So the landlords in the whole city of Binghamton, only want college students for renters. That eliminates a lot of citizens of the area. People complain constantly about everyone moving out of the area. Yet they do everything they can to make people have to move out of the area.

Just a few days ago, our local newspaper had an article about a revival in the downtown area, which is not a safe area, no matter what they write in the paper. The owners put a lot of money into remodeling the lofts of the buildings on the main streets in downtown Binghamton. Yes, they are very nice. These apartments are all very high rent and  not affordable for the typical downtown dwellers.

Why can't a city give incentives to landlords to provide apartments for low income families, disabled, singles and retirees without putting a lot of stipulations into the rental agreements? If you are applying for low income housing, you have to give them access to your bank accounts. As well as, sign all kinds of paperwork saying you will never do this or you have never done that. I understand former apartment referrals to check if they ruined a former apartment or something of that nature.

Low income people cannot come up with a huge amount of money at one time to rent an apartment, so they are left out. If they want to share an apartment with others, usually the landlord will not allow that. Sometimes there are ordinances against people living together who are not related Or if they are getting Social Security Income (SSI) or social services income (welfare), they cannot live with other people. If they do their checks and food stamps will be cut. Makes no sense that if they are trying to get ahead and share housing, so they can buy enough food or whatever, the programs keep them on the bottom. It is easy to see why so many are forced into committing crimes to survive. What other choice do they have? It is easy for someone else to pass judgement on others when they have never worn their shoes. 

I think this is discrimination against low income or disabled people. They do not do this to people with money. Money is all it takes to get into any apartment no matter what your history is. It wasn't that long ago when landlords did not want to rent to college students. The reason being that they party all the time. Well, they still party all the time. Landlords look the other way on that, as long as mommy and daddy pick up the tab for the apartments. A college rental house is rented per bedroom to each student. They may pay a few hundred dollars for their room, and the rest of the house is shared with other students. If I had it within my power, I'd invest in some good quality housing for low income people. Make them proud of the place they live, and maybe things would start looking up for them in other areas of their lives as well. After all anyone, myself included, could end up in the same circumstances. You never know!    

 

Copyright © 2012 Kathleen G. Lupole

All Photographs Copyright © 2012  Kathleen G. Lupole

Flooding In Upstate New York

 The Susquehanna at a nicer time!

Self-reliance is never more apparent to me than when natural disasters happen. In my area, of upstate New York, this month, we had tropical storm, Lee hit. With the relentless downpour of rain, the rivers were quickly at flood levels and beyond.  The areas anywhere near the Susquehanna River and Chenango River, and all the creeks, flooded beyond anything I have ever seen in my lifetime around here.

Third Avenue in Twin Orchards

Many people have lost their homes. Or they have to rebuild their homes. Many are tearing out the walls, and trying to repair damage that is not covered by their insurance, because they were not in a flood zone. One area of Vestal, NY, Twin Orchards, is an area I lived in many years ago. The house we lived in has appeared in pictures completely surrounded by water. Makes me sad to to see that, as it was a wonderful house. All the houses on the same street and surrounding area, were so bad that it was days before the residents were even allowed to go back to see their homes. To see if they even had homes! So heartbreaking!

 I read in the paper how one young couple in that area had just finished renovating their kitchen. You know how excited you are when you do something like that? They had no flood insurance due to the fact that in 2006, there was major flooding here too. But they said it wouldn't happen again for 100 years. Something to do with the hundred year flood plan. So some people didn't feel they needed it immediately. Hurricane Irene didn't do this much damage when it came through our area.
 

The Chenango River

Now people are trying to clean up. The mold is very dangerous. Various clinics are offering free Tetanus shots for anyone working in these areas. It can be deadly, and especially for anyone with lung problems. One of the reasons this is so bad is that everything flooded. Fuel tanks, hazardous materials that were stored in houses, garages, vehicles, businesses, and sewage, and all that has gone into the flood water. It stinks! And it makes many people sick to smell it. Many people from other areas have come to help residents. They can't do this alone. Many are elderly, many are young couples who don't know how to do this themselves. And what about the children? Their schools were flooded too.

Most of the residents who had flooding have lost most of what was in their basements. Which is, of course, their furnace, washers and dryers, and whatever they had stored down there. Then people who had worst flooding lost everything on the first floor also. Some people were lucky enough to move some of their stuff to the top floor if they lived in a two story house.

 Home Depot was completely flooded!

Not only are homes effected by this flood, but businesses also. Some have decided not to rebuild and are leaving the area. Taking with them the jobs that are needed so desperately at this time by many triple cities residents. Some of these were in business for over thirty years or more. They have had enough!


According to WBNG-TV, "Miller Farms in Windsor is just one of the many farms devastated by flooding in Broome County. " They had 65 acres of their corn crop destroyed and their insurance will pay for only half of that amount. That is what they feed their livestock with. Mr. Miller had to buy $75,000 worth of corn feed to replace it. Also the fourth cutting of hay was lost due to the water standing in the fields. So this will effect not only the cows' feed, but our food also.

To read more go to: Flooding Ruins Crop For Farms.

Binghamton, NY

So I have been busy getting together a box of clothing to take to one of the donation points. Most of these people have lost everything. Owego, NY has been devastated as well. It is struggling to get back to normal. Normal? I don't think it will ever be normal again.

Copyright © 2011 Kathleen G. Lupole
All Photographs Copyright © 2011  Kathleen G. Lupole

Stocking Up Our Food Supply At MaineSource

 Nice clean store and parking lot!

A big part of saving money for me is growing my own food in our garden. But I can't grow everything, obviously. So the grocery stores are a must for me also. The prices have skyrocketed so much this year that I have to stick to a plan to get through each week. I shop at the discount grocery stores, even though I wish I didn't have to.

 Produce is available in bulk!

For the past couple of years though, I have been shopping at a local restaurant supply store, MaineSource Food and Party Warehouse. It is about 30 miles or so from my home and well worth the drive. If you live in the Binghamton, NY area, you most likely know where it is. In case you don't, it is located at 1018 Upper Front Street, Binghamton, NY 13905-1204. Their telephone number is: (607) 723-8200.

Good buys in the produce department!

Do I save money by shopping there? Yes! I do. Not only that but I am able to get top quality meat, produce and other food and products for a very good price. MaineSource does not have any membership fees so anyone can shop there. Especially with the gas prices, it saves me money by stocking up and not having to drive to the store ten times a week to get something for supper.

 One of the meat aisles!

If you are trying to stock up by buying in bulk then this is the place to shop. They sell large packages of meat, such as ground or roasts of Angus beef. The ten pound bags of chicken breasts are what we usually buy too. You can also get bags of the chicken breast tenderloins, wings, drumsticks or thighs. Their prices are lower or comparable to the discount grocery stores, but the meat is higher quality.

 Rolls of Angus Beef!

The ground Angus beef does not have that greasy feel to it when you handle it raw. The burgers you make from it are incredible! Ask my husband! One large roll is about ten pounds. Two rolls gave us 10 quarts of ground meat plus about a dozen man sized burgers. If you have a freezer, you can put up a good amount of burgers for the future. As you know if you are a regular reader here, I can all my meat.

 So much available here!

Everything is available in large quantities so you can really stock up there. I am not growing tomatoes this year due to the late blight mine had last year. So I bought some of the large cans of tomato sauce which are 6 lbs 10 oz. each. Then I plan on canning them into pint jars. I did that last year and it was great. You can do that with any of the larger cans of tomato products or vegetables. I do it all the time now.

 The dairy case!

Dairy products is one thing I cannot store as I do not have a freezer. But for anyone buying for their freezer they have larger amounts of cheese, butter, ice cream and even frozen vegetables and food. Processed frozen foods are available also. I don't use those types of food so I can't really tell much about them. They have recently added a deli counter and have rotisserie chickens available there too. Everything is so clean and neat there.

 Their bag says it all!

I must tell you how the manager came right to me when I started taking pictures in the store! I think he thought I was taking pictures for some other reason. I assured him that I was a blogger and was going to write a very favorable post about their store. I hope this meets his approval, though I doubt he will be reading it. Didn't seem like a blog reader to me!

Copyright © 2011 Kathleen G. Lupole
All Photographs Copyright © 2011 Kathleen G. Lupole
Updated 2018



This post was NOT an advertisement for MaineSource Restaurant and Party Warehouse. They did not ask me to write this post or paid me in any way. They did not give me free food or anything else. I wish! I am just a VERY happy customer.  ~ kat