DaleandCindyMonkeyAround
Dale has always dreamed of seeing monkeys in the wild, so we flew to Costa Rica in February. We had no luck finding monkeys on the first part of the trip but did get to climb up pretty close to the Arenal Volcano, zipline through a jungle, and hike over several hanging bridges. We encountered the deadly Fer-de-Lance viper, the psychedelically toxic Blue-Jeans frog, a pack of wild peccaries, and innumerable tropical birds, but no monkeys. Finally, while on a nighttime guided hike looking for frogs in the jungle, we caught a glimpse, through the binoculars, of some howler monkeys, but they were reallyfar away.
Making a Differencein ManyWays
After searching the highland mountains and the cloud forest, we crossed the Crocodile Bridge over the Rio Tarcoles. It was full of crocodiles on the day we crossed it a good sign we thought! We were heading to the coastal region by Manuel Antonio National Park. Shortly after settling into our room at Hotel Costa Verde, we stepped out on the balcony to enjoy the view of the Pacific Ocean. Without warning a white-faced capuchin monkey jumped down on our balcony and scared us back into our room. We had found the monkeys at last (or they had found us)!
The next few days we saw capuchins, squirrel monkeys, and howlers. The capuchins are notorious for stealing things from people. There were gangs of them near the beach waiting to steal bags of chips, purses, and iPhones from beachgoers. Amazingly we were able to outsmart the monkeys! Besides monkeys we encountered lots of iguanas, a few sloths, and even an anteater.
Miscellaneousnotes
• We witnessed the solar eclipse in April at Bob & Janet Muckerman’s house in Puxico, MO. Luckilyit was a sunnyday, the best kind ofday for a solar eclipse.
• In June Dale and college friends Richard Fuerst, Cris Heffernan, and Xavier Herman had a 50 year reunion. Gatehouse Apartments, where the group once lived, and the bar known as Ford’s Theater, where the group drank at more than once, have both undergone name changes and remodeling since the 70s.
• Cindy volunteers regularly with CoMAC (Columbia Mobile Aid Collective), a group working to provide unhoused and marginalized people in our town with food and other care. Cindy goes out weekly to give food to the unhoused and she now knows manyofthemby name. She also crochets neck warmers for them.
• We saw Hamilton at the fabulous Fox Theater in St. Louis this year. We also saw a concert with John Mellencamp, Bob Dylan, and Willie Nelson. These guys are way past their prime but then so are we.
• Chase, our 20-year old cat, died this year.
• Cindy read 28 books this year. Dale only read 16.
• Dale harvested 442 pounds of vegetables this year. This includes 10.5 pounds of chanterelle mushrooms and 23 pounds of delicata squash. New this year were sweet corn(33 ears) and brussels sprouts (9.5 pounds).
Riki has been working almost 20 years now for Environmental Dynamics International (EDI). Starting as a humble assembler while in college, she went on to work in the Application Engineering department after getting her Biological Engineering degree. She now leads a whole team of people. EDI featured her in a cool Facebook post in March. She got to go to New Orleans this year to meet with other wastewater systems leaders. Wastewater engineers are undoubtedly the unsung heroes of the modern world. Riki also used her formidable water engineering skills last year to put in a new automatic drip irrigation system in their yard and thereby expand her garden to a newside of the house. Riki had been working from home since the pandemic, but this year she painted and remodeled her home office into a big kid’s bedroom for Asa. Asa is now 3 1/2 and out of diapers, and he has become an expert on trucks and Paw Patrol. Asa likes going to parks and playgrounds with his Mom and Dad, and especially likes going to Grandma and Grandpa’s playhouse. He is also getting smarter and can put together puzzles and say phrases like “Dare I say….” His favorite foods at our playhouse are ice cream, jelly beans, and candy corn.
Marcus has had to do a lot of bookreading this past year as part of the James Madison Fellowship Program. Despite this and his workload as a teacher at Hickman High School, he still finds time to work on improving his baking skills by trying ever more challenging recipes. Inspired by the Paris Olympics, he made croissants for the first time. Columbia Public Schools instituted a student cell phone policy, and Marcus reports this has made it better for both the students and the teachers. Last spring, Marcus was recognized as a teacher who brings support, encouragement, and hope to students with the Worley Street Round Table Teacher of Hope and Progress Award.
He and Riki got to visit with friends and family in Galveston this year. They let Dale and Cindy take care of Asa for 4 days. It was a good time for all. They also went on some family trips to the KC zoo, the Children Museum, Powell Gardens, and the Nelson Atkins Gallery. Asa is getting better at hiking. His longest hike without being carried is 2 miles.
Family Explores Life in Big City
Marcus had to take summer courses at Georgetown University in Washington,D.C.,aspartoftheeducationrequirementsoftheJamesMadisonConstitutional Scholar Fellowship which he won last year. We didn’t want him getting too lonely in the big city, so the whole family (Dale & Cindy, Riki & Asa, Dylan, and Julie & Tyler) visited him there. This was no big deal for Julie, who had to go to Washingtontwo other times this year for trainingand/ orconferences. Forthe restofus, however,it was prettyspecial.Daletends to avoidbigcities.
Portrait of a Cow by a Young Weaver
Last year we reported that Dylan was working on cowhand skills. They extended their cowhand skills this year to the art world. At a fundraiser of the Piedmont Farm Animal Refuge, one of their cow paintings sold at auction for $900. Another of their paintings (of a chicken) went for $500. Who knew there was a market for farm animal portraits! Besides using their artistic talents for the animals at the refuge, Dylan contributes many hours to the farm. They helped build a pole barn, did electrical work on a laundry shed, did site planning for a future pig area, and are currently building an area for a group of animals that seldom gets enough attention
Big city life is different than life in Columbia, Mo. From the rooftop patio at ourAirbnb, we wereabletolookdownandseedozensofratsscurryinginthe alley. Theyreallycome out as the sungoes down!Lots ofpeoplewere speakingforeignlanguages, and we got to eat strange food atEthiopianandCambodianrestaurants. AsareallyenjoyedridingtheMetrotrainto gotoand fromdowntown.Thestrangelightingeffectsmadehimconcludethatthetrainwasalsoarocket.Thehighpoint(literally)ofourtripwaswhenwewentuptothetop oftheWashingtonMonument.Wesawlotsoftheotherfamousmonuments,memorials,andmuseums. Asa got so sick of museums that he burst into tears when he saw the lunar rover! We were really blown over by the number of food trucks serving sub-standard and junk food in the city. It’s a wondersomanyratscansurviveinsuchaplace. DaleandCindydrovetoD.C.and wereabletorecuperatefromthe big city by going to Shenandoah National Park on the way home. They did not see any rats there, but did see an owl, which was probablykeepingtheratpopulationundercontrol.
Dylan’s work and dedication was recognized with the Volunteer of the Year Award from the refuge.
Dylan works as a Tech Specialist in the Registrar’s Office at the University of North Carolina, but still seems to find time for hobbies like painting, piano, exercise, reading, and movie watching. They have already learned one Bach song on the piano, and have only 300 years of music to still work through. Dylan also enjoys the outdoors, and went on a 3day, 20-plus mile backpack hike on Mount Mitchell, the highest mountain east of the Mississippi. At one point they heard a noise at their campsite, and saw a bear passing by. This year they expanded their fiber technology skills. Already adept at knitting and spinning fibers, Dylan decided to try their hand at weaving. After touring the George Washington University Textile Museum in Washington, D.C., they bought a loom and are now busy experimenting with various designs, materials, and techniques. They recently wove an ikat. An ikat is not one of those cat photos you see on your iPhone. It is a fabric art which involves dyeing certain threads in the right places to create an image when woven together.
Stuckon I-70 with the Hawaii Blues
Julie went to Washington, D.C., twice for work and once on the family trip, and still didn’t see the National Zoo pandas! The pandas are back again, and she is plotting a revenge visit in March.
Earlier in January, when it was -2° here in Missouri, she and Tyler attended a work conference in Hawaii. They had a great time, but the most memorable part of the trip was hitting an ice storm on the drive back. They got stuck for 7 hours on I-70! Tyler just finished relieving himself into an empty bottle when traffic finally moved. When they got to Columbia, the ice build up was so bad on side streets that they parked at a shopping center and walked slowly over the icy terrain to their house. By the time they got home, they had been awake for 25 hours!
Julie and Tyler also did some recreational travel. They went to Gen Con 2024 in Indianapolis where they joined 71,000 other tabletop game enthusiasts (i.e., nerds). Their favorite game was a model United Nations game.
Tyler was Homeland Security. Julie was the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Together they saved the world from nuclear meltdown! It was so much fun, they played again, as Russia, at midnight.
Tyler still works as a Customer Care Rep at SuretyBonds.com where he now knows more about bonds than James Bond himself. In addition to being a Training Specialist at the Thompson Center for Autism, Julie is studying to become a Speech Pathologist. Most of the courses are online but she did spend a week in Eau Claire, WI as part of the program.
In his spare time, Tyler has been working on landscaping his yard. He wants to turn it into a native plant paradise. Julie took a wood fire pottery class that involved stoking a kiln for 8 hours on an 80°+ day. On the bright side, the kiln hit 2000° so at least something was hotter than the stokers were