Randy Travis
Misty
Sugar
May
Lorrie Morgan
July
American College
Fall & Winer
Precious Moments
Misty and Sugar
March
New Car
The Abbey
Virginia Beach
Display Case
Frist Cruise
The Fall
November and December
1990
Randy Travis
It was in late December of 1989 or early January of 1990 that Connie and I went to see Randy Travis at Reunion Arena. The place was packed with about 18,000 people. His open act was Alan Jackson who later became a star himself. It was about a three-hour show and we just loved it. After almost 20 years of marriage, we had settled into a comfortable routine, so this was something different for us. In January Connie bought a new TV for the kitchen.
In February we sponsor Michelle as she was going to do a St. Patrick Days race. That was also the moth that I bought a new computer from a company called Clone Computers. I remember it cost over $1,700 which was a lot back then. The technology was changing so fast and the old computer was over 3 years old. It was exciting because it had a 20 or 40-megabyte hard drive which was big back then. I also bought a new printer at Software House. I am so glad that Connie worked on a PC at the office as she was always great about letting me upgrade our computers. It seemed she never forget back in 1984 when I went in to help her at work on a Sunday afternoon and did not even know how to turn the PC on. She just liked teasing me about that.
Misty
During the spring, our sheltie Misty was still having eye problems and we were seeing a doctor in Northwest Dallas who had a specialty in eye problems for dogs. He was awfully expensive but that did not matter to us. Misty was not going to get any better and had extraordinarily little sight left in her eyes. She was fine at home as she knew her way around. We were incredibly careful to not move things around and sit in the same places as we did not want to confuse her.
Sugar
Two events occurred in May that I can remember. Connie’s mother came to visit and spent a little over two weeks here. Dr. Reeves called and said he knew of someone who had a sheltie for adoption and wanted to know if we were interested. Of course, Connie said yes. We went to visit these people out in the country, and they raised shelties for showing. They were a really nice couple who still had dogs for showing but they had one that was now retired, and they thought he would be better in a good home. Her husband was getting elderly and was no longer able to walk the shelties. The interview went great and they called us a few days later and told us we could adopt the sheltie named Sugar.
That Friday night after we had gotten off work, we went over to their place a little after 7 and picked Sugar up. The next morning Connie and I got up early to take her for a walk and she jumped up on the pretty narrow sidewalk curb. She did every time we went for a walk. Then the strangest thing happened, she barked, and it was like she was hoarse, and you could hardly hear her. When we got home, we called the people up and they assured us everything was ok. It turns out that hey cut the vocal cord in the show dogs. We were totally in shock as we had never heard of that. They also gave us papers on her mother and father and all the prizes that they had won.
May
On Saturday, May 30th, which was our 20th wedding anniversary we did something special, we attended another wedding. As I talked about in earlier blog page, Connie had become a good friend with Michelle and her brother got married on the same day as Connie and I but only 20 years later. He was a policeman and a genuinely nice guy.
At the end of May, I sold some GME Stock because I was getting ready to exercise some options to buy more GME stock at an exceptionally good price. As I had mentioned back in the mid-’80s after EDS was sold to GM, they gave us money and a new class of Stock called GME. The president of EDS was going to make more money that year than the CEO of GM. Anyway, he gave away his stock options to be distributed among the employees. The number of shares you received was based on how long you had been with the company. Between the time of the stock option and when I was able to exercise them, they had split twice. The original cost for the option was about $25, so now the cost was a little over $6.00 and we had 4 times as many shares. I am not sure why, but I think I sold part of them to buy other shares to hold.
Lorrie Morgan
In June, Connie had jury duty. We were always amazed at how the selection process worked in being called or a jury. It seems Connie was called three or for time to every time I was called. I am not sure whether it was my idea or Connie, but we bought tickets to see Lorrie Morgan. We had enjoyed the Randy Travis concert so much we thought we would try this one, but it just could not compare to Randy Travis.
July
In July around 11:30 AM, I was out back trimming the hedges when my little finger got caught in the hedge trimmer. It was bleeding pretty badly but Connie took charge and got the bleeding to slow down tremendously and since I do not like the sight of blood especially if it is my own, she was able to keep me from fainting. She wrapped the finger extremely well and took me to PrimaCare. Since I was bleeding, they took me right away, gave me a tetanus shot, and stitched up my small finger. I am glad I got it fixed as I was flying to Binghamton NY the next day for business.
We also bought some new furniture in July and I am not sure what it was but I think we bought a new couch and love seat for the living room and moved the old one into the TV room.
Also in July, we went to the Improv a comedy club in North Dallas and I think that was the last time we went as both of the comedians there that night used a lot of foul language and we just did not think you had to use that language to be funny.
American College
That summer I signed up to begin taking courses offered by ‘The American College” to earn a Charted Life Underwriter. It would take me 5 years to complete the course. It was 10 courses, and I did two a year with the test in the spring and fall of each year. Connie was incredibly supportive of me during this time. I got a TI BA-II calculator for the courses I was getting ready to start. One of the first coursed I took was “Financial Planning” and the calculator came in handy. I think Connie bought it for me.
August found me, along with 3 or 4 other people go to an Insurance company in Des Monies, Iowa to look at a company insurance system and estimate the cost of converting it to ours.
Fall & Winter
That fall we attended an art show at one of the local hotels and bought a painting, that still hangs in the house. Now, I am not sure what we ever liked the painting.
In September, I traveled to Jacksonville Florida for a business trip. I remember Connie and I picked up Debbie C. at her house and then Connie took us to the airport and picked us up on our return. I remember the account manager was kind of on the thrifty side and we did not have the best accommodations.
In October, I traveled to our account Fort Dearborn Life in Chicago Illinois for a week. One of the reasons I remember that trip is I took the train from downtown right to the airport on a Friday afternoon and the train was packed.
I remember going to the Allen Café on a Sunday morning in the spring or fall and I think this was the year. There was a lady out there talking strange things. She was talking about religion but what she was saying did not make any sense. I did not know if she was crazy or on drugs or what was going on. After we had ordered Connie, ask me did I notice her eyes, and I had. She said I have never seen anyone before with such weird-looking eyes. We never saw the lady again, but that incident left an impression on us. I have no idea, why this incident stays with me but I think because Connie was upset about the encounter and thought the lady may have mental issues.
There was this one place that we really like to go to, and it was a place called Tippins. They opened in Plano in the late 1980s and they had the best pies ever. We would always get one at Thanksgiving and Christmas and there were times we would just go by and get a cup of coffee and a piece of their pies.
That December we started a tradition that continued until about 2012 or 2013 and that was buying a sheltie calendar from a company called Keynote specialties. I still have all the calendars from around 2000 till we stop buying them. Their picture of the shelties were just wonderful. It seemed our roof always need repairing and that December was no different as we had to have it fixed. If I had half the money that Connie and I spent on roof repairs, I would be rich.
Connie received her usual Christmas bonus from Steve and Michael of $250.
1991
Precious Moments
Luckily, I started using a program called Money Counts in September of 1988 which was later bought by Quicken, so I have those financial transactions to help with my memory. Going back and looking at this information definitely triggers some of my memories.
Connie had started collecting Precious Moments and in January of that year. Since I had both hips replaced and used a cane one of the first, we bought if not the first was of a guy using a cane and walking a dog. I know I also bought her a Precious Moment for her birthday and sign her up for the precious moment club in May.
Speaking of Precious Moments, I cannot believe it as I was looking through some old USB drives that I had stored a lot of information on for an old resume to see if I could remember what I was working on in 1990. I could not find it but guess what I did find and that was a list of the precious moments that I bought Connie in 1990. What a coincidence. I have listed them below.
| Occasion | Title | Place | Price |
| Connie’s Birthday | Love Is Sharing | Accent Gifts | $29.70 |
| Mother’s Day | To My Favorite Paw | Coulter’s | $32.40 |
| None | Blessed are They That Overcome | Coulter’s | $23.76 |
| Anniversary | Puppy Love is From Above | Family Bookstore | $54.00 |
| Father’s Day | Something Missing When You Are Not Around | Family Bookstore | $28.08 |
Still hanging in my home office
In February, we had a major expenditure, in that we spent $740.00 at Highland Super Store. I am not sure what we bought but I think it may have been a new washer and dryer but that just a guess. I also moved into a new office in February and Connie I went to one of the big malls here in the Dallas area. It was called the Galleria it was the higher-end mall in that the stores there were more expensive than the one you found in most malls. They had one of the best indoor skating rings in the area and some of the shops were definitely out of our price range but we always found in the eating areas something that we would like but would normally not get. It was in that mall that I found a picture of the Neuschwanstein castle in Germany. Connie bought it for my new office at work and it has always hung in my office ever since
Misty and Sugar
During the spring there were a lot of things going on. The saddest of them was or Sheltie “Misty” who was a rescue dog passed away. Of all the shelties that we had; she was the most loveable. She just loved being with us and wanted to go everywhere we went. So about 18 months after we lost Brandy we lost, Misty. Her eyesight never got any better but luckily it did not get much worse. It was so hard on us. Luckily, we were able to be at the vet and hold her paws when it happened. It was such a sad day. Now I was glad we had adopted the other sheltie “Sugar’.
One of the things that I forgot to mention earlier was Dr. Swicegood. He was our family doctor that we started seeing in 1988 and he was a great doctor and Connie and just thought the world of him. But I will tell you a little more about him later.
While Connie had the “Precious Moments” that she collected, I was still into collecting mint set as I would order one each quarter. Eventually, I would have mint sets from the 1950s to the current year.
March
In March, I had received a $1000 bonus, but I cannot remember what I did to earn the bonus. One of the things we did with it was buying a piece of unfinished furniture for about $228.35 that Connie painted yellow and is in our kitchen. It was a kitchen chest replace one that we had from the 1970s. We used the other one in the garage.
In April, I took another CLU course from the American college, as you could take the test in April and Oct, so I tried to take one every six months. We also join Sam’s Club for the first time, we never did belong to it for long. We would usually join for a year and then we would let our membership lapse and join again five or six years later. I think we joined three or four times. Connie was doing a bunch of wallpapering that month because she bought some from King’s Wallpaper in April and May. Last year was the last year we had to exercise our stock options, so Connie and I sold some at a high price because my option price was not about seven dollars. Because of that, I had a huge IRS bill of almost six thousand dollars that was due on April 15th. That was one of the largest amounts I ever paid but not the largest.
New Car
I bought a new Oldsmobile toward the end of April from Crest Oldsmobile in Plano. I traded in my 1985 Oldsmobile Calais for a 1991 Oldsmobile Cutlass. When I traded the old car, it had 99,700+ miles on it. Back then dealing with car dealers was such a hassle and Connie did not want to get involved in it, so it was on a Saturday night that I signed the deal.
The Abbey
The next town over Frisco had a church that was built in 1902, that had been converted into a restaurant. Connie and I started going there especially if we were looking for a place that was different and had good food. Sometimes a bunch of us from work would go thee for lunch but we needed more than an hour because it just took longer. Eventually, they took the 2nd, floor which I am not sure what it was used for before to a dinner theater with plays where the audience interacts with the cast. The last time we were there was with our good friend’s Brett and Valerie, and I believe that was in 2008. There were a bunch of us from St. Jude that went, and I remembered it so well because I had a pink shirt on. Since I am color blind to certain colors, Connie picked it a lot of my shirts. I did not know it was pink until some of the guys started teasing me about it.
I also had to take a business trip to Binghamton NY to the Security Mutual account there.
Virginia Beach
In May I went to visit my brother for a weekend as it had been a long time since I had seen him. Since I as into coin collecting at the time, I took my niece and nephew mint set for their birth years. It was so nice to connect with him again. There was a company called Schwinn, and I think it still exists, but they would drive through the neighborhood and bring frozen items for sale. We started ordering from them and probably ordered something every month for years. They had good meat.
Display Case
In June, Connie decided it was time to buy a display case for her “Precious Moments”. We looked around quite a bit and finally decided to order one from Fingerhut. As usual, I am not the best person to put things together, and this one you had put together. To this day that case is a little shaky and we have another more sturdy smaller one that has a more in it.
First Cruise
In July we had some new neighbors, move in and Connie bought them a nice cake for a place called “The Best Bakery in Texas”.
The main thing we did in July was to take a cruise and you can read all about it, along with some videos in Trips. You can view it under “Trips” — “The First Cruise — 1991” and the videos under “Trips” — “First Cruise Video Clips”.
I got a call from an account manager on Friday afternoon at about 3 PM. We were supposed to leave for the cruise early Saturday morning. He wanted me to cancel my vacation because of a big project. He told me he would pay for it later if I would delay it, but I did not. I had been around long enough to know there was always a big project going on.
The Fall
Not much happen in August but In September, Connie had a lady paint a picture of our current Sheltie, “Sugar”. We just happened to be strolling through an area where they had farmer market and there were artists there that weekend doing paintings. Connie could not resist and since it was a farmer’s market and we had Sugar with us, we got a painting of her. That month we also bought a Sheltie t-shirt for Connie, it was one you designed yourself. It still in the closet but quite worn, I do not think it was in shape to wear for the last 10 years, but Connie could not bring herself to get rid of it and so far I have not been able to get rid of yet either even though it probably not wearable anymore.
I am not sure what happened, but our carpet must have been dirty as we spent over three hundred dollars getting them cleaned. In October, I think that is when we bought a new sofa, love seat and chair from Hagerty’s and we still have those today and they look almost new. We were quite easy on our stuff.
November and December
The last two months of this year were very expensive for us, I ended up buying new glasses and they cost me over three hundred dollars, but I always bought two one was regular and the other was sunglasses. It was also time for new suits, and we found a special deal at a place called TC Liquidations. I got two new suits for just over three hindered dollars. I usually bought two suits at a time. I remember when I was in school working part-time at a grocery store, I always wanted a nine to five job where I wore a suit and had the weekend off. I had gotten that but not necessarily the weekend off. And after all the years of wearing a suit, I was ready to ditch them, but it would be almost another 10 years before that would happen.
In December, we had a new gas fireplace installed with Marimac glass surrounding it. Connie had wanted to do that for a long time as she was tired of burning logs in it. We also had some major room damage earlier that year and decided it was time to get it fixed. We got an entirely new roof, as they replace the wood shingles with the more common one’s everyone use. It turned out the fire department was encouraging everyone to move away from the wood shingles. Around Christmas time our dishwasher went out and we bought a new one from Circuit City. In looking back at the year, I did not realize how many expenses we had in the last two months of 1991.