December 2025
Volume 32
Dale and Cindy reach new heights
Make room for Hazel
After Cindy had knee replacement surgery in January, the doctor told her that she would need to exercise her knee for it to heal. As everyone knows, knees get lots of exercise from mountain climbing, so we went on a trip to the Alps in May. In Salzburg, Austria we visited a fortress, visited the church where Mozart was baptized and later played the organ, and did the Sound of Music bike tour. We even kissed at the Gazebo where Liesl and Rolf kissed—which is very useful in knee recovery. From Austria, we headed to the In our Austrian clothes Dolomite mountain range in Italy. On the steps where they The nice thing about mountain-climbing in the Alps is sing Do-Re-Mi in the that they have cable-cars and gondolas to take you high Sound of Music into the mountains. Another nice thing in the Italian Alps is that they serve Italian food in the towns and have old churches to visit, both good for the knees. Our next stop was in the Bavarian region of Germany. The Germans provide a cable car all the way up their highest mountain which is called the Zugspitze. This is good because the Alps are really steep mountains. Our next stop was the Swiss Alps. We stayed in the village of Lauterbrun- In the Italian Alps nen, which is in a valley that has 72 waterfalls. Ten of the waterfalls are inside a mountain. We On the Zugspitze had to go in caves to see them. The Swiss people have lots of cows and cheese, and are known for their strong knees. The final “leg” of our tour took us to Chamonix, France where we got to go inside a glacier and on top of a 12,605 foot tall mountain called the Aiguille du Midi (or Eye of the Needle). Thank goodness for cable cars! The Alps are so steep that the Alpinists, as they call the mountain climbers there, need all sorts of ropes and special shoes and harnesses to climb the ice and snow covered mountains. Tightrope in Swiss Alps
Hazel Nicole McGuinn was born on October 20. Riki had been scheduled for a Caesarian at 10 a.m. on that date, but they called her at 5 a.m. asking where she was. They had changed the scheduled time the day before, but had forgotten to tell Riki and Marcus. Cindy and Dale rushed over to pick up Asa to get him fed and to school, and Riki and Marcus rushed to the hospital. On the good side, Riki didn’t have to wait long to get to the delivery room. Hazel came into the world at 8:38 a.m., 8 lbs. 13.7 oz, and 21.5 inches. High speed delivery Marcus teaches Government at Hickman High here in Columbia, and Riki is still bio -engineering at Environmental Dynamics. In addition to teaching,
Inside a glacier
Miscellaneous notes
• Cindy still volunteers regularly with the Como Mobile Aid Collective. Once
a week, after helping prepare the food, she loads up the car and drives around town passing out lunches to the unhoused. • Cindy read 25 books this year. Dale only read 17. • Dale harvested 473 pounds of vegetables this year. A wet spring helped produce 15 pounds of chanterelle mushrooms, 18 pounds of chicken of the woods mushrooms, and 36 pounds of blackberries and raspberries. Amazingly, Dale also got 42 pounds of cherry tomatoes from just two plants. • Cindy was lucky again this year to win True/False (documentary) Film Festival passes. This year, we started using the Letterbox App to keep track the films we watch. Dale has watched 70 films so far this year, Cindy 57. • Dale didn’t lose any major body parts this year, but did lose two teeth. They were getting loose in the sockets because there just wasn’t enough bone to hold them in tightly. The dentist yanked them out easily.
Asa, Marcus, Riki, & Hazel
Marcus is also taking classes to complete the James Madison Fellowship program that he started in 2023. He will finish in August. It will be his 2nd Masters Degree, his first in History and Political Science. Asa had to start a new pre-school Hazel in September because his old one was closing down. He did really well getting used to the new school. In addition to becoming a big brother, Asa has started learning video game skills from his Dad and is getting better and better. He also learned to ride a balance bike and is taking swim lessons. Asa can cast a fishing lure really far now, but he doesn’t like using a lure with hooks. Riki, Marcus, and Asa traveled to Omaha in February to see the art museum, the children’s museum, and the zoo. It was super cold at the zoo, but 4½ yr old speedster they had the indoor exhibits all to themselves. The fruit bats and pygmy hippos were great. In summer they traveled up to Door County and Madison, WI where they saw lots of lighthouses. At zoo in Omaha