Archive for 2016
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.
-
Ahoy, Ahoy!
Welcome to Bingle.org! This is the place to go for what the extended Bingle Clan is up to. Take some time to look around and browse the gallery. -- Rich
Gallery
Random Image
Random Album
