After the long trip back to Columbia from
Rome, we stayed very busy. However, Diane
and I still made time to take on a new responsibility. We trained for several hours and were then sworn-in
as election judges. This year our county
was going to start using new optical scanning equipment to process the ballots. Since several conspiracy theories were
circulating about the new machines, we wanted to make sure we were very
knowledgeable about how it actually worked.
During the August and November 2006
elections, we spent over 15 continuous hours at our polling locations without
leaving the premises. After being up
early and working all day, we were too tired to attend our favorite candidates’
watch parties. Happily, Claire McCaskill
won her primary. At the end of August,
we co-hosted yet another fundraiser for soon to be Senator McCaskill.
In September we took to the road. We drove to Denver to visit our friends Karen
and Joe. They took us to Boulder to
visit the Leanin’ Tree Museum of Western Art (closed in 2017 and the sculptures
auctioned off). For the first time, I
had trouble with the mile-high altitude, feeling listless and lacking
stamina. We drove on to St. George, Utah
(via Dinosaur National Monument and Flaming Gorge) to meet up with a wonderful
National Wildlife Federation group and tour the Great Canyons of the Southwest:
Zion, Bryce and the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. I had visited them all as a young girl with
my family. I had sat on my sure-footed
mule while she took me halfway down the winding trail to the bottom of the Grand
Canyon. At Bryce Canyon, a mere horse
could easily be ridden on the trail that ran between the rock formations called
“hoodoos.” Since I had already seen them
up close, I strolled the rim while Diane walked with the group down into Bryce
Canyon and back up. After the tour, we
drove home through Monument Valley enjoying the scenery which we had seen in so
many Western movies.
Joe looking up at the Invocation sculpture
at Leanin’ Tree Museum
Bird Woman sculpture of Sacajawea of Lewis
& Clark fame
Petroglyphs along a Utah highway
Zion National Park - the three patriarchs:
Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob
Bryce National Park
Me and Diane at the North Rim of the Grand Canyon
Monument Valley
As we settled in for the winter with family
and friends, Yvonne and Gordon Kimber came to Columbia from their home in
California for a final visit before a planned move to England. We had a wonderful party for them and 50 or
so of their friends.
We also returned to a November full of
politics. Diane and I both worked as
election judges and early in the morning on November 8th were thrilled to learn
that Claire McCaskill, who grew up in Columbia, was elected in a very close
race to the US Senate. She squeaked by
Jim Talent with 49.6% of the vote, taking back Harry S Truman’s Senatorial desk
and the 51st Democratic seat in the Senate.
Her mother and Barack Obama both helped her campaign. She was one of the first to encourage Obama
to run for President.
Another November gift was the birth of
Diane’s first great nephew. Joe and Angie’s son Joseph Charles Belanger III (or
Joey-3 for short) was born on November 14th.
My sister Earlene and brother-in-law Vince flew into Columbia on Tuesday
the 28th for a short visit. Friends and
neighbors joined us for some hearty meals, we had lunch with friends and a
memorable walk on the MKT trail as a cold rain soaked us. We had more things planned, but definitely
not the snow that started falling on Thursday the 30th and
continuing Friday to a depth of 16 inches. Unfortunately, Earlene and Vince
were scheduled to leave early Saturday.
Our next-door neighbor, Ken, helped them carry their luggage through the
snow, hiking out to the nearest plowed street where the airport shuttle van
could pick them up. Despite the weather,
we still had a great time, and Earlene made it home safely.
Earlene
waving goodbye
We closed out 2006 with a quick trip to St.
Louis to see two of Charlie Chaplin’s silent films, “The Kid” and “The Idle
Class.” While the movies were shown, the
St. Louis Symphony played the scores Chaplin had composed for these
movies. We also had the pleasure of a
night viewing of the Chihuly ‘Glass in the Garden’ exhibit at the Missouri
Botanical Gardens. We were home in time
to have a New Year’s Eve dinner with friends.
Chihuly at night
Because of our support for her, we received
an invitation to Clair McCaskill’s swearing-in event and decided to go! On January 3, 2007, we flew into Washington
National to begin our visit. After
checking into our hotel, we started walking around the area, encountering
like-minded Democratic women and hearing about the tea party that Nancy Pelosi
was hosting that afternoon. The
following day, she was scheduled to be the first woman elected to lead the U.S.
House. When we got to the party location,
we discovered that they we were expected to bring an invitation or be on a
list. Of course, Diane got us in,
claiming that we had lost our invitation.
We had a good time, standing at one of those high cocktail tables,
enjoying the hors d'oeuvres and drinks.
We recognized several of the high-powered Senators, Congresswomen, and
government officials.
Notable events
Pelosi Tea Party
After a while, I felt Diane’s head on my
shoulder as she leaned into me. She was
fainting! Pretty soon, she was sitting
on the floor and the women with medical backgrounds, including MDs, were
checking her out. She and I thought she
was just dehydrated, but they had called an ambulance and strongly recommended
she go and be evaluated. We complied and
were soon whisked off to an emergency waiting room surrounded by dozens of
other people. I was nervously sitting
next to a man in handcuffs with a policeman nearby. The man was friendly, seemed harmless, and we
chatted, sympathizing with each other about the wait. It took forever, but they finally called
Diane’s name, administered an EKG, said it was normal and we could leave. Back at the hotel, we had room service and
skipped Claire’s party that night.
The next day was when the official
swearing-in ceremony took place in the Senate chamber. However, only close friends and family could
be present there. We went through
security and then to a room in a Senate office building where politicos were
socializing and watching the CSPAN coverage.
The room was full of interesting people, including Barack Obama, who two
years earlier had been elected a Senator from Illinois. He was getting a lot of attention, and we were
excited to see him up close. Claire
eventually showed up in the room, giving and receiving hugs.
Me and Claire at the swearing in reception
The Senator and future President getting
attention at the reception
That night, we had dinner with our flamingo
loving friend, Mary G, who we had met when we lived at the lake. She still worked for the American Bar
Association. Finally, when we got to the
gate at Washington National Airport, we encountered even more notable Missouri
women. They included Senator Carnahan,
the first female Missouri Senator, and Harriet Woods, the first female elected
to statewide office in Missouri (Lt. Governor).
Mary G
Diane with other Missouri travelers at the
airport (Carnahan and Woods seated in front)
After we got home, we went to see the movie
Babel at Ragtag. I have a history
of reacting to blood. There was a scene
where a veterinarian was attending to an animal’s bloody wound at which point I
started feeling sick (just short of nausea), lost consciousness and scared
Diane and my friend Ellen as my whole body started to twitch in the chair. They
started shouting, had the movie stopped and ordered an ambulance to take me
out. This was in the old Ragtag on 10th
St, so the extraction on an ambulance stretcher was a tight squeeze. I was very embarrassed, as by this point, I
had regained consciousness and felt fine, as borne out by all the tests that
were made in the Boone Hospital emergency room.
I was told that no follow-up was needed because what I had experienced
was syncope (fainting) with myoclonic jerks (hiccups of the body).
In February, Diane and I hosted a Chinese
Golden Pig New Year’s party for our Tai Chi classmates and their families. The large group spanned an age range from young
children to senior citizens. Diane did
her usual job of laying out great amounts of tasty food and having a good
supply of beverages. We were pleased to
have the ability to host this part of our family circle.
Hungry Tai Chi friends
I was not adjusting to the ringing in my
ear. I followed up on my allergy
doctor’s suggestion and made a March appointment at the Shea Ear Clinic in
Memphis, TN. They did an assessment of
hearing and balance and then some infusions.
After a follow-up visit, I saw no change in the tinnitus. OK!
This was just something else I had to live with. After seeing the number of senior citizens that
packed the clinic waiting room and taking the treatments, I concluded that this
clinic was a racket built on the desperation of old people and free treatment
using Medicare.
In April, Diane’s salon group went to
Washington, D.C. and I received a special invitation to go along. It was cherry blossom time. We did the usual touristy thing, visiting the
Capital Building and Memorials. One of
the Salon members had been the President of Cottey College in Nevada,
Missouri. A former student was on Nancy
Pelosi’s staff and arranged for us to visit her new office as Speaker of the
House. I appreciated the large bowl of Ghirardelli
chocolates for visitors to sample.
Another Salon member had a previous relationship with the National
Geographic and arranged for us to have a tour of their headquarters.
Salon group after dinner at the Tabard
Inn. From the left, Diane, Helen Washburn,
Win Horner, Jo Manhart, Cathy Salter and me.
View from Nancy Pelosi’s balcony (Diane,
me, Cathy Salter and Helen Washburn)
Columbia had started a visioning process in
2007 to imagine the future of the city. I
attended a public meeting and volunteered to serve on the Citizen Topic Group
for Education, Sub-Topic Group for Quality Education. Our facilitator was Sally Beth Lyon who was
the chief academic officer with the Columbia Public Schools. Over the following six months, we developed
several action plans. I enjoyed meeting
public school and other community members who were active in pre-school and
K-12 education.
Upon entering the retirement years, Diane
and I had found two recliners at the Scandinavian Design furniture store in Columbia. They were a comfortable addition to our
master bedroom and ideal for viewing our TV.
The next retirement purchase was a Yamaha Clavinova baby grand piano in
ebony finish. I hoped to be able to
enjoy playing the piano again. Even
though it was electronic, it had the feel and sound of a regular piano, and it
was also a beautiful piece of furniture.
Even Diane wanted to take lessons.
I knew listening to her practice would drive me crazy, but no worries. The piano had earphones for this purpose
which, when plugged in, blocked out the rest of the sound. Whew!!
I hustled to try to find more clients,
researching avenues where companies wouldn’t already have full-time
statisticians. I investigated the life
science incubators in St. Louis and Columbia.
I was successful with one company in St. Louis being managed by a former
Pfizer scientist. There were a lot of
ex-Pfizer or Pharmacia employees in St. Louis.
I even heard about a group that called itself the “fifth wave” for the
number of times there had been layoffs.
In Columbia, I discovered that the University statisticians really
didn’t want someone from outside the University poaching on their turf.
In early August 2007, we visited the Shaw
Botanical Gardens in St Louis for the special exhibit called Chapungu: Nature,
Man, and Myth. It featured monumental,
hand-carved stone sculptures of animals, families, and creatures of legend
created by artists from the African nation of Zimbabwe. We had first seen some of these sculptures in
2004 at the Denver Botanical Garden.
Sculpture of woman with her children
In August, we drove back to the East Coast
for a family reunion held by Craig and Mary Ann in their new Belle Mead home,
minutes from Princeton. They had one boy
and Mary Ann was very pregnant with twins on the way, so they needed more space
for their growing family. It was perfect
for this large family gathering with ample grounds and a swimming pool with a
diving board and slide. All of my
sister’s grandchildren were there: Denise and Jamie’s two girls and one boy,
Joyce and Chris’s two boys and one girl, and Craig and Mary Ann’s one boy. My sister’s oldest son, Jon, also
attended. Diane and I rounded out the
party, and we were all entertained by the antics in the swimming pool.
Grandchildren
Me with my nephews Craig and Jon
We then drove North to East Stroudsburg, PA
to see Joe and Angie’s two young boys.
Also present were Joe’s sister Tracy, aunt Joyce and, from Columbia,
Diane’s sister, Susan. It looked like
the lure of grandchildren was going to entice Susan back to Pennsylvania.
In October we flew to San Diego for another
Olivia cruise. We arranged to fly in
early and stay with Sue and Carmen the night before the Mexican Riviera cruise
started. I wasn’t too excited about the
itinerary, cruising to Acapulco with a stop at Puerto Vallarta, but there was
the draw of Lily Tomlin, the first night’s entertainment while the ship was still
in port in San Diego. Over dinner at Sue
and Carmen’s, our disagreement about our preferred candidate in the Democratic
Presidential Primary presaged a permanent split in our friendship. I still don’t believe it was the only reason,
but Diane and I supported Hillary Clinton whereas they supported Barack
Obama. After they delivered us to the
docks the next morning, we never saw them again. As is the custom on an Olivia cruise, one day
there was a drawing for future vacations.
Each traveler throws a shoe in the pile and a single shoe is chosen for
each prize. We won a
two-for-the-price-of-one trip to Tahiti in March 2009.
The year 2007 had been the start of
accepting that my work as a statistical consultant was drawing to a close and
it was time to explore other activities in Columbia. I was already starting to think about how I
could do the analysis for the second paper I wanted to publish. From May through October, I sold all my stock
in six companies, part of my stock in five more companies and bought my first
index funds with Vanguard.
I had a new concern. In the evening our usual procedure was that I
set the table for our meal, Diane served it and we both enjoyed one or two
glasses of wine. After I took the dirty
dishes to the kitchen and wiped down the table, Diane put away any leftovers
and loaded the dishwasher. I usually
finished my tasks before her and headed back to our bedroom where we would
watch some TV before going to bed.
However, I was having to wait longer and longer for Diane to join me. I suspected that she was drinking more wine
by herself in the kitchen. After we went
to bed, she often wanted to make love.
However, she was clumsy and did not make it an enjoyable experience. Always before, Diane would not answer a
question rather than make up a story. I
didn’t think she ever lied to me. When I
asked her directly, Diane denied having any more to drink. I wasn’t convinced and that saddened me.