December 2024
Volume 31
Dale and Cindy Monkey Around
Making a Difference in Many Ways
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 Yikes! A volcano! 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 really far away. Swingers 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 Monkey quest view of the Pacific Ocean. WithAttack monkey out 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 In the jungle, the mighty jungle 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.
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 Also known as Riki 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 new side 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 bookAsa keeping cool reading 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’s Museum, Powell Gardens, and the Nelson Atkins Gallery. Asa is getting better at hiking. His longest hike without being carMarcus wearing ried is 2 miles. Madison Medallion
Iguana (on right)
Miscellaneous notes • We witnessed the solar eclipse in April at Bob & Janet Muckerman’s house in
Puxico, MO. Luckily it was a sunny day, the best kind of day 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 many of them by 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).