December 2022
Volume 29
The challenges of European travel
Dale slowly disappearing
Renting a car in Colmar, France turned out to be the most exciting part of our trip. Rental cars in France come with manual transmissions and are parked in tall, congested garages with narrow winding ramps. It took 15 minutes for Dale just to figure out how to put the car in reverse and back it out of the parking spot. From there he had to immediately go up and down several tight and winding ramps. Not having driven a manual transmission in over 25 years, Dale still managed to keep the car going forward up the ramps, stalling the engine only 5 or 6 times. Our hearts were racing the whole time as doom seemed imminent. After 30 or 40 minutes, he exited the garage, an expert at shifting gears. We figure this is how the French make sure that only qualified drivers are on the road. The manual transmission was not the only challenge we faced in Europe. The train system there is wonderful but it helps if you speak the language. We We were only lost occasionally got on our first train in Frankfurt, Germany where our plane landed. Not having slept for over 24 hours, we still managed to find the train station. A monthly pass for unlimited train and public transportation use in Germany cost only 9 euros in June! A young woman directed us to the train we thought was going to Trier and we got on. When the train stopped, we noticed everyone getting off the train. We figured it was just a popular destination. However, a stern-looking German conductor came into our train car, excitedly yelling at us to “Mach schnell” while pointing forward to the next train! Cindy yelled to the conductor that “We don’t speak German!” a fact the conductor had probably already deduced. He kept yelling “Mach schnell!” and pointing. We grabbed our suitcases and ran as fast as we could to the train in front of ours. Dale shoved his suitcase into the door as it was closing, and we made it into the train. We had to stand in the crowded train to a town called Koblenz, where there was a transfer we could comprehend to Trier, our destination. The original train we had boarded was actually two trains hooked together, with one train only going part way. People had told us that everyone in Europe speaks a little English, but, Cindy after learning the several times, when we asked ropes people, “Do you speak English?’ they just stared at us. In Paris, however, we did find that people literally do speak a little English. In response to our question, they would say, “I speak a leetle English.” In trying to communicate further, we found out that that was the only English phrase they knew. On one occasion, Cindy lost her wallet and we excitedly asked a worker at the hotel where we had lunch if there was a lost and found. By our excited state he deduced what our problem must be and directed us to the restrooms.
In 2004, Dale’s over-sized thyroid was removed, along with a nerve from his neck which had a benign tumor on it call a schwannoma. In 2018, he had to have his right shoulder reconstructed after a fall on the sidewalk. In 2020, he had melanoma spots cut off his face and chest. That same year, he discovered he had lost 1-2 inches of height. Finally this past January, a doctor removed his prostate gland (along, we think, with all of the cancer). Dale has considered Dale in Frankfurt donating his body to science, but, at this rate, there might not be much left to donate. Despite his disappearing body, Dale harvested over 400 pounds of food from his garden and berry patch this year. He made 70-80 pints of his Rockin’ Salsa, and 24 quarts of dill pickles (using Isabel Muckerman’s secret pickle recipe). In honor of his trip to Germany, he made some senfgurkens or, as they are also called, German dill pickles. His mom Isabel used to make senfgurkens, but did not share the recipe. Dale exercises to keep in shape, including using In Frankfurt church. his grandson Asa for weightlifting which is good Much of Dale’s body has disappeared because Asa always wants to be picked up for making his hands seem one thing or another. inordinately large
Asa rules Asa’s first word was “uh-oh” which he still enjoys saying when he throws food on the floor. When at Grampa and Gramma’s house on weekdays, he likes to go on stroller rides to visit Copper, a neighborhood dog, and some goats on the same gravel road. Often we also push the stroller onto a trail at Rocky Fork Conservation area. Asa loves being outdoors. Dale has taught him how to throw rocks, sticks, and acorns— valuable skills in today’s world. He especially likes going down to the pond to throw acorns in the water. Luckily the acorn drop was quite heavy this year. Cindy, on the other hand, has only taught Asa to use sign language and to talk (he can say about 25 words so far.) Maybe not as valuable as being able to throw things, but useful nonetheless. Even more than throwing rocks and acorns, Asa likes being pushed on the swing while Gramma and Grampa sing songs and play music on the Asa McGuinn phone. His favorite songs include Barbara Ann by the Beach Boys, the William Tell Overture, the theme to the Magnificent Seven, Bad Reputation by Joan Jett, and (his #1 favorite) the Missouri Fight Song. In August, we all went to the campus for the Tiger Walk, a ceremony each year where new students walk through the Columns on the Quadrangle. Asa was entranced by the show that Marching Mizzou put on. That’s when the Mizzou Fight Song became his favorite.
Dylan & Ray move into house
Riki and Marcus adjust to family life
Dylan has lived in the same apartment ever since moving to North Carolina in 2013. Finally, this year, he and his partner, Ray, moved to a house which offers them a lot more room. We visited Dylan & Ray in March and were able to watch the Academy Awards show when Will Smith slapped Chris Rock. That is something we won’t forget from 2022! We also visited the Duke Gardens, the University of North Carolina campus, and the Piedmont Farm Animal Refuge. Dylan still works in the Registrar’s Office at the University maintaining the database and running whatever reports various campus factions want him to create. Technically, he doesn’t work at the office since he gets to work remotely from home, something that he enjoys doing. Ray works for a hospice, where Dylan & Ray among cherry they do grief counseling and other social blossoms at Duke Gardens work with people who have suffered the loss of a loved one. Dylan still volunteers and serves on the board at Piedmont Farm Animal Refuge. He seems to be learning more and more construction skills there every year. Recently the Refuge got its first cows, so he will now be learning some cowboy skills. Fortunately, Dylan and Ray were able to visit us in May, since their 2021 Christmas visit had to be canceled at the last minute when they were both diagnosed with Covid. We were all very disappointed that it had to be ANOTHER Zoom Christmas. In May they got to participate in one of our Murder Mystery parties. We also enjoyed some biking on the Katy Trail along the Missouri River, and some hiking at Rock Bridge State Park. Dylan enjoys weightlifting, painting, cooking, reading, and knitting in his spare time. He and Ray like to go hiking and watch movies together. They also like to travel around North Carolina together with their friends.
Riki and Marcus have been perfecting their parenting skills, getting their house into better and better shape, and making the world a better place in which to live. Riki is able to work most days at home as she designs and sells wastewater systems that help keep the world a cleaner and safer place to live. Marcus teaches Civics and Honors Government Studies at Hickman High School so that the youth of today can grow up to be responsible citizens. He is glad the students are back in the classroom rather than remotely learning from home. He is glad they are back even though he has to do things at the school he never did at home, things like stopping students from smoking weed in Marcus & Riki the restrooms, and breaking up enjoying the good life fights in the hallways. He is a skilled educator and popular teacher, and gives any of his students who come to his house on Halloween a free LaCroix sparkling water. Riki and Marcus made a few trips with Asa this year. They flew to Houston for a few days to visit with friends. More ambitiously, they took a long flight to the Northwest where they traveled the Olympic peninsula. Their favorite part of the trip was exploring the Second Beach tidal pools. One roadside motel on the trip had Marcus, Asa, & Riki barnyard animals that Asa was very interested in. After petting some goats, he wandered down to the emus and reached out to pet one. The ornery emu pecked his hand. Tears were shed but life lessons were learned. Never pet an emu!
Julie and Tyler behead broccoli Julie and Tyler took a big step this year, buying a house in south Columbia in the Green Meadows area. Their house is beautifully landscaped and has a little garden area. In spring a little green plant started rapidly growing in the garden. Having a pet rabbit named Frankie, they were happy that kale was growing in their garden. However the kale started growing a head and, worried the kale was going to seed, they cut off the head that was growing. Dale later identified the plant they had mutilated as broccoli. Luckily Dale grew a couple of kale plants, and so Frankie was able to get some fresh kale throughout the summer and fall. Julie still works at the Thompson Center for Autism and Tyler still works at SuretyBonds. They were busy much of the year caring for their house, painting some rooms in a color they preferred, doing yardwork, dealing with errant squirrels getting into the attic, etc. They did get to do some traveling. They went to San Diego for a get-together with friends. In addition to visiting the famous San Diego Zoo, they kayaked along the Pacific coast where they explored sea caves and encountered sea lions. No sea tigers or sea bears were spotted. While in San Diego a giant tree branch broke off a tree in their front yard. The branch left a dent in the yard but caused no other damage. It took three skilled and muscular lumberjacks (Tyler, Dale, and Marcus) to chain-saw the branch into smaller pieces and put them on the side of the road with a sign that said “free wood.” Tyler & Julie The free wood pile disappeared in just a few days! We occasionally do a Murder Mystery party with our family members, and Tyler and Julie outdo themselves on these occasions. Tyler’s rendition of an old sailor (with costume and authenticsounding seadog talk) will go down in the books as a classic. Tyler as an old sailor
The pleasures of Germany and France
Despite the challenges of European travel, Dale and Cindy had lots of fun there. Colmar, France is in the Alsace region of France where Dale’s maternal grandparents came from. The old town sections of Colmar are reminiscent of the French village in Disney’s Beauty and the Beast. The food reminded Dale of food he had as a boy on the farm with his grandparents. Little Venice in Colmar He didn’t like it as a boy as it is rather gross food that perhaps only adults enjoy. Choucroute garnie is a dish made of sauerkraut and potatoes with 5 or so different kinds of sausages and bacon pieces on top. The bacon is not American bacon, but more like what we call fatback. Dale ate lots of sausage in Alsace and in Germany, but did not gain any weight. Dale also liked the jambonneau (ham hock or, in German, schweinshaxe) which is a popular menu item in Colmar. One restaurant in Trier offered some horsemeat on its menu, but we opted out. Cindy is not a big sausage eater, but did enjoy tarte flambée (a thin flame-cooked pizzashaped dough with cream, cheese, onions and other items on top), Wienerschnitzel, Cindy with Tarte Flambée croque monsieur, and pâté de foie gras. Choucroute Garnie for Dale We also had authentic frankfurters in Frankfurt, Germany, various French pastries in Colmar and Paris, and espresso or other coffee drinks in several cafes. If you order water at a French restaurant, they will bring you rather expensive bottled water. It took us several days to learn how to ask for tap water (eau du robinet) which is free. Also they are never in a hurry to give you the bill. They will let you sit forever at your table after your food is served. They will remove your plates and ask if you want desserts, but won’t ask if you are ready for your bill. They feel this would be rude. We eventually learned that you have to ask for your bill (l’addition) if you want to leave. We got to see several Roman ruins View from our Airbnb’s in Trier which were fun to explore. Balcony in Colmar There were several medieval churches in every city and village we visited. We drove to several old castle ruins in the French countryside that we enjoyed climbing around in. In Trier, there was a street festival with several bands, crowds of people, and lots of beer-drinking. The festival was sponsored partially by Bitburger beer which has the slogan “Bitte ein Bit!” (“Please, a Bit”). In the Alsace region we saw lots of storks on top of churches, and lots of vineyards on hillsides. In Paris we saw a lot of the famous sites like the Cathedral of Notre Dame, the Eiffel Tower, the Champs de Elysee, the bridges over the Seine River, etc. We saw the outside of the Louvre museum but chose not to go inside. Museums get tiring for Dale after 20 minutes, but he can walk for hours out in the open air. We reserved tickets to go up in the Eiffel Tower and so we got to ride the crowded elevator and see Paris from really high up. In Frankfurt, we got to see the place where the Nazis had a big book burning and we also saw a wedding at the town hall where some children did some singing.
Cindy retires Cindy says she has completely retired because she no longer does any work as a speech-language pathologist for Hallsville Schools. However, she may be fooling herself. She still works along with Dale full-time 5 days a week babysitting our grandson, Asa. On top of that, she volunteers weekly at the local Food Pantry where she hands out food to the unhoused and other folks down on their luck. If that were not enough, she also volunteers with Como Mobile Aid Collective, which provides the unhoused of Columbia with various types of support, including lunch three times a week. Cindy has been providing baked goods once a month. Luckily Cindy is still in good health and has maintained her vim and vigor, her beauty and strength, her Cindy, Dylan, & Dale superior cognitive abilities, and, of course, her humility. [PS: Dale is doing alright also, though his vim is not what it used to be.] Before traveling to Europe, Cindy brushed up on her French, which she hadn’t used since her days as an undergrad at CU. However, when it came time to book a flight, Lufthansa airlines had just started a non-stop flight from St. Louis to Frankfurt, Germany. So we ended up spending some time in Germany and unfortunately, neither Dale or Cindy speak any German. Even with all that French studying, it still took about 5 days before we learned how to order tap water to drink and ask for the check in a restaurant. You can imagine how lost we were in Germany!!
Dale and Cindy are winners One of the radio stations in Columbia has a contest every weekday called Quickie Quiz. If you are the first to call in with the right answer, you win a prize. You can only win one prize a month, but there are two of us so we can each win one prize a month. We’ve won: • Several coupons for a McDonald’s Combo Meal and Happy Meal • Two $15 dollar certificates for the Broadway Diner in Columbia • Two tickets to the Ragtag Cinema in Columbia • Three pairs of tickets to the Lyceum Theater in Arrowrock Cindy also called in for another show on the same station and won a set of passes for the True/False documentary film festival. We are not the biggest fans of documentary films, but it was fun going to the three day festival.
Julie, Tyler, Marcus, Riki, Cindy, & Dale