December 2020
Volume 27
Julie and Tyler Meyer, now legal, see many changes
2020 was a tumultuous yet propitious year for Julie and Tyler. Julie continued working on her master’s degree in Public Health, and was doing volunteer/“intern” work at the Boone County Health Department when a job came up there. She gave notice at the Thompson Center for Autism, and went to work for the Health Department. She built a database for the Department and now assists with COVID contact tracing. All those years of playing the Pandemic board game finally paid off!
Tyler was also affected by the COVID virus in his food service supervisor position at the University Hospital. Resources at the hospital grew sparse, good help became difficult to find, and bad help became difficult to fire. Finally Tyler knew it was time to look for work in other directions and gave notice at the Hospital. Tyler and Julie had become engaged in March. They found, to their dismay, that wedding planning during a pandemic was futile. They had seen a close friend’s wedding plans crumble as the pandemic rolled on. They decided to “elope” and made a plan to marry in Moab, Utah at Arches National Park. Dale and Cindy had gotten married 36 years prior in Key West at the Southernmost point of the continental U. S., so there is a tradition in our family of eloping in odd places. Fate, however, tried to stop the elopement plans when, on Friday the 13th of November, Tyler had a bout of eosinophilic esophagitis, a condition in which inflamed cells in the esophagus prevent food from being swallowed. After hours of trying several methods to get food unstuck from his throat, he headed to the emergency room at 3 a.m. where an expert in esophageal matters resorted to an endoscopy to correct the problem. Tyler and Julie were able to head out a few days later for Utah where, with the blessings of the Latter Day Saints, they were legally married. They adventured several days in Arches and Canyonlands Parks before heading home.
Dale aging and foraging
When Dale measured himself this year, he found himself two inches shorter. Unsure if this was just normal aging shrinkage or something more ominous, he decided to discuss it at his annual physical. Dale saw a physician’s assistant who was merciless in discovering potential problems in him. A bone scan revealed a slight bone density loss in one hip, but not enough to explain the tragic loss of stature. A urologist and a dermatologist checked for potential problems on both his outermost surface layers and innermost recessed cavities. The urologist went deep but couldn’t put his finger on any definite problem. The dermatologist, however, was much luckier and found two areas of skin to scrape off for biopsy. The scrapings showed signs of stage 0 melanoma, so Dale had them excised. He now has nice scars on his face and chest. He was starting to get wrinkles on his face, but, when the doctor excised the spot on his face, he had to pull the skin together to cover up the hole from the excision, and that took away a few wrinkles. Dale considers himself a lucky but shorter man. Dale was still able to spend some time outside of the doctors’ offices. He took up foraging for mushrooms and other wild edibles, an excellent sport for 2020 as social distancing is part of the strategy. It turned out that the woods around us were prolific with delicious Chanterelle mushrooms. He also found Chicken of the Woods (which tastes like chicken), Slippery Jacks, Boletes, and Lion’s Mane (which tastes like crab). By a stroke of unexpected foraging luck, straight-line derecho winds blew down several trees on our roads and property this year. This not only gave Dale an excuse to use the chainsaw, but it also blew down a large grapevine which later ripened with many easy-to-gather wild grapes. Dale collected 5-6 pounds of grapes and made wild grape jelly.
Riki and Marcus stay healthy
Both Riki and Marcus worked quite a lot at home this year so as to avoid the foul humors of the plague. Environmental Dynamics, the wastewater company where Riki works, was sold to a Canadian company which brought some positive changes to the company. Luckily Riki did not have to learn Canadian or move there.
The transition to working at home was not too hard for Riki, but was more challenging for Marcus. He spent a lot of time in the summer learning to teach a virtual civics education outreach program sponsored by the Missouri Bar Association. The schools couldn’t quite decide whether to go virtual or not until the last minute. Columbia Public Schools did go virtual, and Marcus was ready but found it disheartening to see many of the students not doing as well as they could have. Marcus’s efforts at staying healthy included taking up cycling, often pushing the pedals 14-17 miles a day. He also got exercise by working on his bullwhip technique and by a few highly competitive matches on Dale and Cindy’s officially lined badminton court. Not to be outdone, Riki wore out another pair of running shoes by running 422 miles (so far) this year. She also took up bird watching and has identified 31 different bird species. She can even recognize a redshouldered hawk just by its call. Riki and Marcus also spent time working on their stay-at-home cooking skills. Renown for her cookie-making, Riki went in pursuit of the perfect macaron—the holy grail of cookie makers. She experimented with exotic flavors: tiramisu, pumpkin cheesecake, s’mores, and, that most ancient and exotic of all flavors, Fruity Pebbles. In other baking news, Marcus’s experiments in breadmaking included sourdoughs, fruited breads, and nicely shaped loaves. Despite the pandemic and their desire to stay healthy, Riki and Marcus did dare to fly down to Houston to visit some friends this year. They were careful not to breathe any more than necessary while on the plane, and they stayed healthy.
Traveling in the days of the plague
Though we had to cancel a big trip to France, we were still able to make it to the city of Paris. It was quite a thrill driving right through the middle of Paris, Missouri on our way to Hannibal where we toured the Mark Twain sites, the lighthouse, and the Rockcliffe Mansion. This gilded age mansion serves also as a bed and breakfast, and we want to sleep and eat there on a future visit. We are hoping they will let us wear the old-timey clothes they have there. Hannibal was not as busy as usual but a leather-clad women’s motorcycle gang from the wild plains of Iowa was staying at the same hotel we were at. On that same trip we drove down to Louisiana, Missouri where we talked to a wealthy lady who gave us a tour of an old lumber store that she is remodeling as an event venue. She hopes to revive the town. She was about the only person we saw in Louisiana.
On a separate trip we travelled to Marceline, Missouri, a town famous for being the boyhood home of Walt Disney. We toured the museum, a park which had some old trains, several shops, and a famous barn. There are very few tourist spots in the world which have a famous barn, so we considered ourselves pretty darn lucky. We were also lucky enough to meet the real Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck. They are getting old but are still pretty sharp at cards. As we all know, Donald gets really mad when he loses and blathers all sorts of nonsense. We hope to go back when things return to normal and the town hosts one of their annual Disney events which draw guests from all over the world. On an earlier trip, we travelled to Echo Bluff State Park in the Ozarks region. While there we drove and hiked to various sites including Alley Springs and Mill, Blue Springs, Blue Hole Springs, and Prairie Hollow Gorge. Among the more remarkable sites was a urinal in a Salem gas station that was flushed via a foot pedal. It gave a whole new meaning to the phrase, “Give it some gas!” We also saw an albino skunk while staying at the Echo Bluffs Lodge. Why it was staying at a lodge we will probably never know. One of our most interesting trips was just to downtown Columbia in the early stages of the pandemic when everything was shut down. It was like being in the Twilight Zone. The streets and the campus were empty. We were able to stand in the middle of Broadway and take pictures. Some places are actually nicer without people in them.
Cindy
Cindy started the New Year with an earnest resolution to spend more time with family and friends. Ha! Talk about a jinx! That, plus using the Voodoo doll she purchased in New Orleans to put a hex on Trump’s re-election, probably caused the pandemic. The year started auspiciously. In January, Cindy won tickets on a radio show to Swan Lake. In February, we had our family Oscars party and a delicious Mardi Gras feast. Then March struck! Gone were the Before Times, as we fondly call those pre-pandemic days. School closed! There was massive confusion in the special ed world with approximately a gazillion e-mails a day containing ever-changing updates about what to do. By the end of the school year, though, Cindy had a sweet home office set up with a standing desk and extra monitor, not to mention the big screen TV, fireplace, and home gym in the basement. All that was missing was a window, but she did have a door so,—Hey, not bad!* By the end of the school year, Cindy was very experienced with Zoom meetings. As the Fall semester now goes on, she’s also becoming more experienced at teletherapy, which can be a bit dicey with the 5 and under crowd. Sometimes all you can hope for is to have the kid’s face in view and to be able to hear them over the background noise: things like siblings telling them to “Shut up!”; salesmen trying to talk grandma into buying an over-priced vacuum today for 0% interest; mystery voices in the background telling the child what to say; dogs barking; cats crawling; TVs blaring; and a million other things going on. Cindy’s most memorable teletherapy moment occurred when a kid ran off-screen, then returned with a wad of cash, only to be soon followed by his mom frantically yelling that she’d been looking all over for that wad of cash! —Hey, good times!* Outside of work, while the rest of the world used their time at home to bake bread and put on the COVID 15 (pounds), Cindy and Dale were dieting and seeing a lawyer to update their Last Will and Testament and Family Living Trust. No wonder spirits were low at times!! However, the hard work and expensive lawyer fees paid off, and now a thinner Cindy and a shorter Dale are ready to return to traveling and adventuring once the After Times get here. Also, thanks to the extra time at home Cindy built a very effective deer fence around her perennial garden, read 20 books (so far) this year, AND became quite the mask sewer! *Editor’s note re: “Hey, not bad!” and “Hey, good times!” Please note that Cindy did take up the study of Canadian in case Riki had to move there.
Dylan making books
Dylan still keeps the University of North Carolina running smoothly through his work in the Registrar’s Office. This year Dylan found himself deluged with requests for new types of reports so as to enable the school to offer safe but efficient teaching during the plague. Luckily he has been able to work from home where he gets help from his two cats, Mushroom and Gerd. As if making reports for the university were not enough, Dylan has also started literally making (i.e., printing and binding) books. The books are on a variety of useful subjects such as Dialectical Behavior Therapy Skills and Zen Buddhism. He works with a group called Food Not Bombs which distributes the books as well as food to needy community members. Dylan also still volunteers at the Piedmont Farm Animal Refuge where he serves as a board member. In addition to planning fund-raising events, he helps build farm structures, makes friends with lots of animals, and contributes artwork. Check out the photo section of the Piedmont Farm Animal Refuge Facebook page. A different “Fan Art Friday” animal is featured each week. Feel free to contribute a copy of your artwork. Dale and Cindy have been contributed art (or, at least, artistic efforts).
Goat drawn by Dylan
In his spare time, Dylan explores Carolina’s woods and hills, draws and paints, knits fancy hats and scarves, and perfects vegan recipes (including experimental ventures such as making acorn flour and cheese, and homemade tempeh and tofu). Because of the pandemic he has not been able to go to the rock-climbing gym, but he has developed a weigh-lifting routine so that he looks not only artistic but also muscular.