CD For My Computer
Northridge CA. — Earthquake
Medical Transcription
Or Lady Of The Snow
Paris — Texas not France
Seatlle
Sparkill NY
Las Vegas
July
Aunt Eula Mae
Fall and Winter 1994
Medical Transcription
Portsmouth New Hampshire
April Expenses
Home Improvements
Hot Springs Village
Washington DC
Hail Damage
Larry and Nancy
Hot Springs Village Again
Charter Life Underwriter
Junior Achievement1996New CarChanging Groups & Hot SpringsAnother Trip to Hot Springs VillageNew AssignmentCatholismTrip to DenverConnie’s Mammogram and New JobChristmas and No to Australia
1994
CD Drive for my Computer
The following I am sure happened in December of 1993 but because I charged it to my Credit Card, it showed up in January of 1994. I had bought a CD drive for my PC as when I had bought mine most of them did not come with a CD and most of the software was not distributed on a CD at that time. I vividly remember Connie and I shopping in Collin Creek Mall and the sore was called Babbage and it was located just outside Dillard’s. We used to enjoy going to that mall. I spent $487 on the CD drive. I asked one of my friends to come over on Sunday and to help me install it. He and his son came around noon and we installed the CD drive. We tested it by putting a music CD in it and it worked. Later that day around 4 PM, I put a software CD in there and it would not read it. I called my friend, and he had no idea what the problem was. I called the manufacture of the CD and they were no help. They gave me a few things to try but they did not work. I am not sure, but I know I called back at least three or four times, maybe even more. Finally, I get this guy who told me to try something, he said I am not sure it will fix it but I have heard of this happening before. He told me to open my computer and loosen the screws that were holding the CD in by a half to a full turn. It worked, I could not believe it. I was lucky that I ended up talking to that guys. It made Connie very happy because she was tired of me complaining about it for the last five to six hours. Plus she was glad that I did not have to go back to the mall and see if they would exchange it. We would either lose the money or I would start the process again and she did not want to do either so she was happy I got it to work.
Northridge Ca. — Earthquake
It was early January and I was to travel to Northridge California to demo the new Worker Compensation Reporting System for a client. I am not sure but I believe earlier in the week I had been in Seattle at an Insurance company called Safeco on a sales call. After that, I flew to Northridge on Alaska Airlines with a stop in Portland Oregon. Now I made have some of this wrong as my west coast trips are not as clear in my mind as others. Anyway, I arrive in Northridge the week after the earthquake in 1994. The damage that was done to that area is still vivid in my mind. Even though I was not in the part of the city that had the most damage, there was still a lot of damage to where I was at. It was the first time and only time I had ever been somewhere that had a recent earthquake.
I was also in a little place just across from San Franciso. I think we cross the Golden State bridge but I am not sure. Al I remember is how beautiful a place it was. The insurance company we called upon was located more in a neighborhood environment than downtown or suburban retail area. It was such a beautiful location. The thing about this trip was we arrived in San Franciso late around 10 or 11 pm. I was traveling with the salesman and I remember him taking those hill so fast that the car flew and then came down to the road. He was enjoying scaring me and luckily at that time, there were not many cars on the road. I do remember we stayed at a Holiday Inn and we were there for only one night. I did the demo and that afternoon before leaving we stopped at Fisherman Wharf for a meal. I am not sure but that may have been the only time I was in San Francisco.
Medical Transcription
Connie had started back to Collin Community College for her 2-year Medical Transcription course and was loving it. She should have as she was doing so well in it and all of her teachers loved her. Maybe because she was older than most of the students and was dedicated to doing well. I remember her telling me one of the reasons she was doing so well was because she had taken a lot of Latin in high school and especially when it came to drug name which if I remember what she told me correctly a lot of them had their origins in Latin.
I cannot remember her ever getting a grade on a test under 95, and a lot of them she got a hundred. The college was on the quarter system as I see we paid $363.53 for her education that year. She was loved taking those classes and enjoyed learning.
Something must have happened to our VCR that month as I can see we paid to have it repaired.
Our Lady Of The Snow
It was during this month that Connie first started donating to “Our Lady of the Snow” in Belleville, Illinois. She was continued donating to that charity every year and I have continued also. Somewhere in the 2000s and I can not remember exactly when she talked about us taking a trip up there to visit the shrine. Connie and I never made it. But I did eventually go. I have decided to talk about this here since this is a blog about Connie and I and I am not sure I will ever write about 2017. I attended a wedding in 2017 for a close friend’s son. Connie and I were so close to these friends and their children. They are and were special to both of us. They were our best friends. I was made to feel so special at that wedding as I was asked to read the prayers at their wedding and at the receptions I was seated with the family. Connie and I consider them family always. My heart was touched and I will never forget that wedding and how special it was to be included. I am sorry as I digress. What I was going to say was that the wedding took place in the St Louis area, so on a Friday morning, I went to Belleville Illinois to visit ‘Our Lady of the Snow”. I bought a little statue and placed it on the dining room table. That was a hard place to visit as I knew How much Connie had wanted to go there.
I can see in February that we must have had a major problem with our spa as we spent some money getting it fixed.
Paris — Texas not France
In April, I took a couple of days off, and since Connie did not have a class that day we went on a long drive. There was an outlet mall in Sulfur Springs Texas, and we decided to take a ride there. Connie and I both loved to drive, and we enjoy it tremendously. We stopped by the outlet mall and Connie bought some glasses from Libby’s store. After spending some time at the outlet mall, Connie and I decide to take an adventure which we did quite often. We just got on a little road and headed north. I am not sure how many little towns we went through. But we did pass a small little college but I cannot remember the name of it. Finally around 1 PM we ended up in Paris, Paris Texas that is. The thing I remember about it is we stopped to eat there. It was a little hamburger place called Sparky’s. After that, we headed home. With all of our stops, we spent about 7 hours just driving, stopping at the outlet mall, and stopping at Sparky’s for lunch. It’s something we really enjoyed doing. I am going to add another trip we took to Sulfur Springs to the outlet mall and if I remember correctly it was late spring or early summer, but I cannot remember the year. What I remember about that trip was going to Wendy’s across the street from the outlet mall, not because we were hungry but because Connie’s wanted to get Sugar (our sheltie) freshwater. I do remember we end ed up not only getting the fresh water but also eating there. We sat outside and so Sugar could get some exercise. I really miss the two of us just getting in the car and taking off to nowhere.
Seattle
In May of this year, I flew back to Seattle to visit our Safeco account. If I remember correctly it was a one-day visit to do a training class. I then flew from there to Burbank California and I assume it was for our WCRS system, but I do not recall for sure. I do know that I stay at the Hilton Hotel in Burbank. I am not sure what happened this month as I receive a refund for over $700.00 for computer expenses from EDS. I am not sure why. I do know that I bought Connie a Precious Moment for our 24th anniversary.
Sparkill New York
In June of this year Connie, and I made our first trip back to New York since the 1970s. I had been on many business trips to New York. Some of them were close to New York City and some of them were to upstate New York, but this is the first time both of us had been back there together.
We had decided to go visit Connie’s mother, who lived in a little place called Sparkhill, which was about 30 miles outside of New York City. It was a little hamlet of maybe a thousand people at the time. It was in Orangeburg, a city in Rockland County. I believe I have the dates correct as we left on Thursday, June 2nd, arriving at Newark airport in the early afternoon. I did not want to take the interstate highway, so we took Highway 9 to Highway 9W to get there. I do remember us having trouble with the directions and getting lost a couple of times. Remember this is before the navigation system and we had to know how to use a map. We did arrive in the late afternoon and stayed at the Holiday Inn in Orangeburg which was only three or four miles from where Connie’s mother was living.
Connie’s mother had an apartment in Thorpe Village a place for the elderly to retire. It was run by the Dominican Sister. It was a nice clean apartment and Connie’s mother enjoyed all the activities. She even served as the President of Thorpe Village for a couple of years and it seemed to be very will like but all the people there especially the nuns.
I found the area to be beautiful as anywhere outside of New York City was wonderful. We really enjoyed spending time with Connie’s mother and we started a tradition then that we continue every time we went to see her in Sparkill and that was we would take her to Red Lobster as she thoroughly enjoyed going there, especially for their Cheddar Bay biscuits. The Holiday Inn was nothing special, but it was ok. On Saturday we took a drive with her mother. I am not sure where we went but I do know we were going for several hours, just riding, and enjoying the scenery. We took Interstate 87 north. Her mother enjoyed it, as her father used to take the family for a drive every Sunday afternoon and Connie had so many funny memories of those rides. You can read about an incident coming back in “Not Everyone Wants to Talk to You” in “The Funnies”. Here is a link: https://joelbuntley.com/the-funnies/#Talking
Sunday, we went to mass and just had a very relaxing day. That afternoon we went to Piermont on the Hudson which was probably less than 2 miles from where her mother lived. It was fun just walking around the town. And on Monday we headed home. I am not sure, but I believe this is the trip that we got on the plane in Newark around 3 or 4 pm and we sat on the runway for almost 4 hours before the plane took off. I remember telling Connie, that is one of the reasons I hated to fly, as you never knew what could go wrong. It was the start of many trips we would take to see her mother at Thorpe village.
Las Vegas
In July Connie and I took another vacation. I know we started it on a Thursday and returned on a Monday. It was either July 14 – July 18 or July 21 – July 25. It was a pre-charter vacation as we flew to Las Vegas on Funjet. The cost of our trip included airplane fare and a hotel for 4 nights. The cost was $611.90 which at that time was a good deal. We stayed at Treasure Island and enjoyed the hotel. As I mentioned we left on a Thursday morning and we were in our rooms at Treasure Island before 3 that afternoon. We spent the time walking around seeing the sites and just enjoying it. It was extremely warm and if I correctly remember each day, we were there it was at least 100 degrees or more. We tried our luck on the slot machine at several of the hotels. I remember Connie had good luck on the nickel slots at the Luxor which was one of the newer hotels at the time. That night we just relaxed and went to a buffet. Friday morning was a treat for Connie as we were wandering around Treasure Island, who comes walking in dressed just like you see him on TV. It was Richard Simmons, and he was pointing to the carpet telling whoever was following him around that he wanted carpet just like that. He was so full of energy, but Connie and he exchanged a few words and he seemed to be a delightful person. In the afternoon, I took a bus back to the airport and rent a car for 24 hours. After driving back to the hotel and picking Connie up we just drove around some of the neighborhood in Las Vegas. It was nice looking at the city away from all the downtown casinos.
The main reason we rent the cars was to go to see Hoover Dam which we did the next morning. It was a wonderful trip there and to see it was amazing. After all that I took Connie back to the hotel and returned the car to the airport. I then took a bus back to the hotel. That afternoon after I had returned, I remember Connie and I walking up to the MGM Grand (I think) and there was a room of about 10 people playing poker, and there were many security guards around the room. Most of the players seemed to be of Asian descent and we later found out that the minimum bet at the table was $10,000.
Saturday night we wander from casino to casino and went by “Planet Hollywood” but did not stop to eat but later on, we saw Bruce Willis and Demi Moore playing cards at one of the casinos in a private room, but I cannot remember which one. The thing that surprised us, that both of us comment on was Demi, was not as cute in person as she was on TV, by a lot. We were surprised.
We had spent time at the Mirage, which was next door to Treasure Island, watching the tigers that were used in the Siegfried and Roy show at the Mirage. On Sunday morning we spent a lot of time there as they were feeding them and had finished up a big show on Saturday night. By this time, we were getting tired of Vegas and took it easy Sunday afternoon. That night around 8, I was bored so I went out for a walk and found a little casino where that had a $1 blackjack table. I took $10 and it gave me two hours of entertainment before I lost all of it.
I am not sure what we did Monday morning besides packing and get ready to leave. I am sure we spent some time at the slots. Anyway, we took the bus out to the airport around two as our flight was at four We had some time to wait so again I played the slots some hoping to win a little bit but I did not. I do remember one of the people on our flight won about $500 before we left.
It was a fun trip and I have many happy memories of Connie and I enjoying our time there, but we never had the desire to go back. The good thing is we did not lose too much money as we limited our gambling to a certain amount each day. Thank you for the wonderful memories, Connie.
July
Also, in July, Connie and I went to a bagel place that opened in Plano. In Texas, at that time there was maybe a couple of bagel place in Dallas but hardly ever visited. It turns out Connie, loved bagels and I found out so do I. To this day, I will stop monthly and either pick up a few bagels or have a bagel breakfast sandwich as there are a few near me now. I also get new glasses this month.
Aunt Eula Mae
My Aunt Eula Mae Dering passed away on the 26th of August this year, she was 90 years old and would have been 91 in October. She was the last of my mother’s sibling, and since my father was an only child, all I was left with on my side of the family were cousins. Most of whom I had not seen in years. I remember the funeral being on a Saturday and I went into the office to fax a nice statement to be read at the funeral. I faxed it to the funeral home several hours before the funeral. Below is what I wrote:
Eula Mae
Please let me say thank you one more time for all that you have taught me and have done for me. I sit here remembering a lot of good times tonight and you were a big part of those as I was growing up. You were always my special Aunt. I knew I could always come to your house any time of day or night and you would feed me and let me stay there. There is one special thing that I learned from you and that was unconditional kindness to our fellow humans. I never saw you turn anyone away from your house whether you knew them or not, you would feed them or let them sleep there. Your generosity and caring for people made a lasting impression on me. You had a big heart and gave so willingly of what little you had. I just hope someday my heart can be half as big as yours was.
To me, you exemplify what Jesus meant when he said, unconditional love. It didn’t matter who it was you would give them the shirt off their back if they needed it even if you had no idea who they were because all you saw was a person in need.
Every time I think about you my heart will be happy because when I think of you, I will be thinking of Kindness because that how I remember you.
I shall miss you calling me Glen, very few people call me that, but most of all I will miss you. Just let me say Eula Mae as long as I am alive I will remember your kindness and hope that in some way I can pass on some of the kindness and generosity that you show to people whether you knew them or not…
Till we meet again…
I also renew my driver’s license during this month as it needed to be renewed by my birthday in September.
The Fall & Winter of 1994
We had something major happen to our air-condition in September as we spent over $1,200 get it repaired. One thing you learned here in Texas you needed air conditioning. Connie especially as she hated the Texas heat but sacrifice for me. She would have loved to have moved to Colorado, but she realized that it would be too hard for me in the cold damp climate. It seemed in looking back at things she sacrificed a lot for me
We had two garage sales that year that Connie got together and ran, I know it August she sold almost $280 worth of stuff and in October she sold almost $215. Connie was much better at selling things than I was. I am surprised we made that much, even though Connie was good at telling things, she had a soft heart and when she saw a family that she thought was in need, she would just take whatever they offered and then not try to negotiate with them.
Also, during October, I sold the International Gaming Stock (IGT) that I bought a few years earlier and ended up making some money off it. One of the things that we did that month was to buy some doggles, sunglasses for dogs. It was amazing as our Sheltie at the time Sugar really enjoyed wearing them and so did our next sheltie Peaches.
November saw another expense as we paid quite a bit of money to get our washer repaired. I also bought Connie a cookbook for the bread machine and I am not sure why. She must have asked for it because since she did not like to cook, and we did not purchase many cookbooks.
Twice during the year, we had to take Sugar to the emergency animal clinic once in October and again in December. I also spent over $300 at a store called Projection Video and I have no idea what that is about. The only thing I can think of it was for repairing our movie camera. Maybe it was a Christmas present? I am just not sure.
1995
Medical Transcription
This year started with Connie continue to attend Colling County Community College to get her certificate in Medical Transcription. She was loving going back to school. She was doing so well and I think she liked being the teacher’s pet. I think she found it easy for her and maybe it was because of all the Latin she had taken In high school. I was proud of her but did I ever tell her that, I am not sure. It is strange how sometimes we remember things and hope we told the person we loved that we were proud of them.
Portsmouth New Hampshire
On Tuesday, February 7th, Mike my manager, Troy, and I flew into Boston Massachusetts. We were making a sales call and presentation to their technical staff of the Workers Compensation Reporting Service. While we had added seven or eight clients over the past two years, we were still trying to land a major company, one that would be submitting a significant amount of claims. We did not leave Dallas until late afternoon and by the time we got to Boston, it was around 8 PM. It was extremely cold, but I did not realize how cold it was until the next morning when we left the hotel to go to the office at Liberty Mutual. Things went ok that day but we knew when leaving that we needed to have a much better day on Thursday if we had any chance of getting a deal.
That evening we drove over into Maine, for dinner. I was excited about the trip as I was considering staying the weekend and driving up to Portland Maine to see where Connie had gone to school. But that did it happen.
We were in for a shock Thursday morning and we were preparing for our meeting around 9:30. A little before ten the guy we had been working with came in and told us there was no need to continue and we could leave. It turned out the guy that had brought us in did not have the authority and once his boss found out we were there he had done that, he told him to tell us to go home. Evidently, their computer staff was already working on a project to develop software that would do what ours was doing.
So, around noon on Thursday, we were headed back to the airport.
April Expenses
April was an expensive month for things around the house. Connie bought a new vacuum cleaner, based on the cost at that time it must have been a good one as it cost way over $200. The spa room we had built on to the house needed some repairs. After almost nine years some of the windows would not stay up and we had to put a piece of wood in them to keep them up. Even though the room was air-conditioned and heated, we did not run them much as it was expensive. In the winter we would only turn the heat on when we went into the spa, but during the summer, we tried to keep the windows up and only ran the air-conditioned if absolutely necessary. I remember we went to Lowe’s and hired a gentleman to fix them. He had to replace some parts of the frames but after spending almost $400 we were very disappointed with the results and in the future would have to have it done again.
I remember being in the spa when we saw all the little things flying in the spa room. After looking up what they were we found out we had termites. So, we hired Orkin and paid them almost $1,000 to spray the house. They also had to cut out some walls in the house and spray inside the walls, plus we had to sign a contract with them for several years where they would come out so many times a year and inspect to make sure everything was still ok. They did a good job of sealing the walls back up and after Connie had repainted them (which as you know she loved painting) you could not tell they had even done it. I think I may have mentioned how much Connie loved painting before but I do not know if I told you guys that we lived in that house for twenty-four years and she repainted the outside of the house 3 times by herself.
Home Improvements
May was a time for home improvements as Connie, spent over $260 for new curtains and over $285 for home repairs by our handyman Jay. I am not sure whether Connie bought me a new watch, or I bought her one, but we bought a new watch during this month. In June we continue our home repairs or upgrade as we had the guest bathroom floor re-tiled.
Hot Springs Village
July was a significant month for us at that time in our lives. I would soon be 49 years old and we had already started thinking about retirement. I cannot believe we had already started to think about it now that I look back upon it. Our good friends Gary and Carol had bought a piece of property in a community called Hot Springs Village. It was a community about 25 minutes from Hot Springs Arkansas. On the 10th of July Connie and I flew into Little Rock Arkansas, and then drove up to Hot Springs Village. We got there around lunchtime and were so enthralled by the beauty of the place. Now we got to stay free, for two nights if we would go on a tour of the village where they would try to sell us some property. Currently, Hot Spring Village has 11 lakes, I am not sure if they were all there when we first visited, but I do remember the big ones, such as Lake Balboa, Lake Cortez, Lake Desoto, Lake Coronado, and smaller ones such as Lake Pineda, Lake Cortez. If you were a golfer, it was a great place to be as at that time they had about six 18 hole golf courses. Below is the current information about Hot Spring Village from their website.
Spanning 26,000 acres of the Ouachita Mountains, Hot Springs Village is the largest private, gated community in North America and is home to 12 lakes, nine professionally designed golf courses that are available to residents year-round, 15 professionally surfaced tennis courts, fishing, boating, water sports, 30 miles of walking trails, more than 200 clubs and organizations and numerous additional activities for all ages.
Connie and I spent Monday afternoon, just driving around. We found a big indoor pool located on Lake Coronado and since we were not residents, we had to pay extra to go in. We could not believe how big it was and how many people were there. The more we saw the more we loved the place.
Tuesday, we met with a salesman, where they showed us a video. Then Connie got a tremendous shock. When they offered to show us some properties, I said yes and Connie was so taken back, she could not believe I had said yes. I had kept telling her that while we would go, that I would not buy any property at least not on the first trip. I agreed to look as there was no doubt in my mind that Connie really loved this place, and I knew then that she wanted to retire there. So, he took us to see some expensive properties. Connie through her ears was deceiving her when she heard me ask him about getting some less expensive, that we might not build on but would give us the advantages of being a property owner when and if we came to visit. He showed us an area that had very few houses built. There was a piece of property in that area that was only $3,000 so I told him that Connie and I needed to talk about it. There were some advantages, to being a property owner, so I asked Connie if she was sure she wanted to retire her and she said yes. So, I went in and put a $900 down payment on the property and finance the rest of it. Our payments were $27.64 a month plus e would have to start paying an HOA monthly due of $26 a month.
I cannot tell you how in shock Connie was as I never do anything impulse such as what I had just done but was, she happy. She was so happy and still thought she was dreaming because I had done that. She was on cloud nine the rest of the time we were there, there were many places to eat in the Village and we enjoyed them all.
It was a very short trip and in the early afternoon on Wednesday we head back to the airport in Little Rock, for a three pm flight back to Dallas, It turned out that this was a good investment for us as we enjoyed many trips to Hot Springs Village over the next eight years.
Washington DC
In August I traveled to Washington DC, and it was my first time and only time I have been there. There was a national Worker’s Compensation convention being held there. The main salesman and the man that had come up with the idea for our Worker’s Compensation First Report of Injury (FROI) had some connection with the people who ran the state’s worker compensation program. He was able to get us an invite to be part of the State of Florida booth where I would set up and demo our WCRS-FROI System. I left on an early Saturday afternoon and arrived in Washington late afternoon. I just relaxed and took it easy that evening. On Sunday morning, I got up and took a trolley around the city that made many stops. You could get off at any of the stops spend as much time as you want at that stop and get back on the next trolley that came by. There was only one place that I wanted to see in the short time I would have and that was the Washington Mall. I remember walking from one end to the other. From the Lincoln Memorial to the Washington Monument. I stopped and spent some time at the Vietnam Memorial. I was looking for the name of a person I had served with in the 60s, in Germany, whom I had been told was killed in Vietnam. I could not find his name there and I found out in 2013, that he had not been dies of natural causes in the 1990s. The mall was fun, but the most enjoyable part was seeing all the people, especially those who probably just lived in the city, as they were throwing frisbees, playing with their children, and people just enjoying themselves.
I had to be back before five pm as the people for the State of Florida were supposed to have arrived and we were going to start putting up the booth at six pm. I arrived at the convention center and met all the people from Florida. We spent the next three and a half hours to four hours putting up their booth. While I helped them with sitting up the booth, I had to also get everything ready for a demo I would give to people from companies and the state board of worker compensation. It was a lot of fun, getting to meet so many different people. I must say I probably never worked with a group that I enjoyed more than the group from the state of Florida. They included me in everything, I especially enjoyed our evening dinners together at the end of the day. I also remember we took the subway to one of the malls late one evening and did some shopping. The most interesting thing that happened was this guy showed up and wanted me to do a demo for the governor of New Hampshire. He told me he would one day be president. So, on Tuesday, I did a demo for the Governor of New Hampshire, Howard Dean. It turned out he did not become president, but he did run in 2004.
The convention ended on Wednesday at noon, so I helped them take down their booth, and caught a late plane home. It was an enjoyable trip. While we did not expect to make any sales there, we were hoping the exposure would lead to future sales. It was probably one of the best and most fun business trips I have ever taken.
Hail Damage
We must have had a major hail storm come through earlier in the summer, in June as State Farm gave us part of the money to get it repaired, and then after it was repaired in mid-August they gave us the rest of the money. The actual work was probably done in July or early August. State farm ended up reimbursing us $8,155. We also had some major plumbing problems in august as we spent $275 on a plumber.
Larry, Nancy, and Susie
I am not sure why but in August we bought plane tickets for Connie’s nephew, his wife Nancy, and their young child Suzie to come and visit us. Suzie was about five at the time. They lived in Knoxville, Tennessee, but the plane tickets were so much cheaper out of Nashville, that we had them make the two-hour trip to Nashville to save us some money. It was a much better deal. I am not sure if they arrived on Friday, September 1st, or Saturday, September 2nd. But I believe it was September 2nd.
I do remember a few things about their time here. First, on the way back from the airport we stopped at our favorite Mexican Food place in the Colony, called Angelina’s Mexican Food. I do not think any of them was crazy about Mexican Food, Connie and I always enjoyed the place, and it was about halfway between our house and the airport. We had a stereo system in the spa room, and I am sure the humidity in that room caused problems with it. Larry was particularly good at fixing things, but he was not able to fix the stereo system. It still played vinyl record but the radio and tape paler did not work. We bought it in the 80s and it did not have a CD player. For lunch Sunday we went to Island Fine Burgers. On Sunday afternoon we had gone to Garden Ridge and it was early evening around five-thirty or six when we were leaving, and we saw a sheltie in the road running loose. We were able to stop and get it to come to us. It had a tag with an address and a phone number. It was only about 10 minutes from where we were. At that time, I did not have a cell phone, but we looked up where the address was, and we were familiar with the area. We had even looked at houses in that area in 1975 and 1976. We return the shelties to the owners and they were thrilled as they had been looking for him for hours.
Monday was Labor Day and am not sure exactly what we did. We probably cooked out if I remember correctly. I know Connie cooked a couple of nights and she fixed breakfast every morning for all of us. On Tuesday they were flying back in the afternoon. Larry and Nancy really liked Island Fine Burgers, so we went to lunch there before taking them to the airport. I do remember Larry paying for lunch that day.
I have not said much about Susie, but she was probably a typical five years old and she loved playing with our sheltie Sugar. I do know she was full of energy.
Hot Springs Village Again
Later in the month, Connie and I decide to go back to Hot Spring Village to visit the properties we had bought and just to get to know more about the place. I am not exactly how long we were there but I know we must have gone the weekend of September 16th, just not sure if we left on a Friday and spent the weekend there or left on the weekend and spent a few days there. I do remember we found a couple of places to eat that we went back to often during our visits there. One of them was the Pegasus Café. A small place in a little strip mall inside the village. They had the most wonderful breakfast, and Connie and I ate many breakfasts there over the next several years we visited until it finally closed. I am not sure my memory is correct on this, but I believe that Connie loved their breakfast burrito, and it was the best she ever had. Another place we enjoyed going to the Balboa Club. Also, when we went into the town of Hot Spring, we found a place called the Dixie Café which was very similar to the Black Eye Pea that we ate at back in Plano. We would stop there for lunch on many occasions when we went into Hot Springs.
Charter Life Underwriter
There are several stories, that I recalled on the way to earning this designation. Attending classes for two of the hardest courses which were “Estate Planning” and “Tax Planning”. I also remember the many hours of studying at home, sitting at the table, and Connie giving me a soda or a snack to keep me going. One year I spent New Year’s Eve, at the library. Granted it was early in the afternoon. But the story I most recall is that I was studying really hard for a test coming up in early January. It was the day after Christmas (not sure what year but probably 1993 or 1994) when I had this terrible toothache. Connie called the dentist and even though they were closed he came into the office for me. After a quick exam, he determined I needed a root canal which he did not do. He was able to call another dentist who did that procedure and get me in with him that afternoon. I recall, how lucky I felt to be able to see those two dentists that day and get some relief from the pain.
In October, I traveled to Atlanta. For the Charter Life Underwriter convention where I would be awarding the “CLU” designation on the 18th, of October. I had spent the last 5 years studying and preparing for the 10 exams over many topics that I had to pass. EDS paid for all my expenses for this trip as it was a designation, they appreciated in our Life Insurance Division. I stayed at the Marriott Hotel while I was there. It turns out with over 300 people in the division only about 3% of the people had earned this designation and I was proud to be one of them. I do not remember much about the trip. I know I left late on a Saturday afternoon as registration was to start on Sunday. I got in late that evening and was hungry, so I went for a walk and found a nice place and bought some snacks. ON Sunday, I registered and attended a dinner that evening. I also attended several of the breakout session on Monday and Tuesday, I cannot remember if they recognize us as new CLU’s at a dinner on Tuesday evening or breakfast on Wednesday morning. For some reason, I think it was breakfast on Wednesday morning.
Junior Achievement
In November, Connie and I went to Hot Springs Village for Thanksgiving. We left on the afternoon of Wednesday, November 22nd, but before we left something happened. I had taken the 22nd off but we could not leave because I had a commitment that morning at 10. A young lady I worked with and I did a program called Junior Achievement. Her name is Dawn Klapper and we went to an elementary school, one day a week for about 8 weeks to present the programs that had been developed. We taught at Barron Elementary which at that time served a lot of underprivileged kids. Dawn and I had been doing this for several years. I know we had done almost all of the grades, except the 1st grade. Our first time was the 2nd grade and every year we moved up to the next grade.
Backed to what happened that morning, since I had taken the day off from work, I was going to Dawn at the school as we were doing the 5th grade then. But on the way there I was stopped about a mike form the school and given a speeding ticket. What a way to get ready to go on your Thanksgiving trip but with a speeding ticket. After I got home and before we left, I told Connie, I thought the police officer had kept my driver’s license as I could not find it. I even called the police department to have them check with the officer and they assured me that he did not have it and was sure he had given it back to me. Guess what, I found it in my billfold. I must have put it in a place that I do not normally jeep my license.
We got a little later start on our trip to Hot Springs and arrived after dark. Luckily the place we were renting from had out the keys to or rental in a safe place for us, so we were able to get in with no problem This was the first of several Thanksgivings we would spend in Hot Springs Village and we had our Thanksgiving meal at the Desoto Club around two in the afternoon.
I do not remember anything about Christmas that year, but I do know I went to court and agreed to take defensive driving, which made my ticket only cost $50, plus the cost of the course. If I remember correctly if I did not get a ticket in the next six months the ticket would not go on my record.
1996
I am not sure what was going on medically that year, but I noticed we had a lot of medical expenses, in fact, it was almost $2,600. In reviewing them there was no major expense just a lot of little visits to the doctors and dentist.
In January we did some major house repairs. We had Jay Smith our handyman that we had been using for almost 10 years put up a new fence for us and it cost about $1,300 and then we had other things done in the house that were expensive. Connie also had must have done some painting that month as she spent a lot of money at Sherwin Williams.
A New Car
In February we got a new car. Connie, 1987 Pontiac sunbird convertible was getting a lot of miles on it. The check engine light kept coming on and our local repair placed that we used could not find anything wrong with it, but it bothered Connie a lot. So, we decided to trade it for a new car. We ended up buying a new 1996 Saturn. We ended up putting almost $1,500 down on it. The dealership had offered me $1,500 for the sunbird but I ended up selling it to a friend. Bob Brune and I had worked together for many years and he had a place built behind his house where he and his boys worked on cars. I could have probably gotten more for it, but I told him I would sell it to him for whatever the dealer offers for it. I remember it was a nice car. It was blue and I do remember Connie saying she would not buy a blue car again as they showed dirt too easily. Another interesting thing about buying that Saturn was that in 2005 that the gentlemen that sold us that car move into our neighborhood about 5 houses up the street from us.
Changing Groups and Hot Springs Village
Changing Groups and Hot Springs Village
During March, I changed the group, I was working in at EDS. I did stay in the Insurance Division. After three years of trying to sell the Worker Compensation Reporting System (WCRS), the division decided to give up on it. While it seemed like there was a lot of potential, we had been unable to land any big deals. The small ones that we sold did not bring in enough money to support the staff that was needed to keep it running. I went back to the lead technical on the Security Mutual Life Account which I had been on before, but it had been about 15 years since I had supported that account. Before I made that transition, Connie and I took another trip to Hot Spring Village. This would be our 4th visit in less than a year since we bought the property. The drive from our house to Hot Springs Village was about 5 hours. The last hour and a half were off the interstate and was a beautiful drive. By this time, we had our favorite stopping places on the way. We stop at exit 183 (I think) in Texarkana to use the bathroom, get a snack, and fill up with gas. The little gas station we stopped at was across from a large shopping mall. We would usually then get off interstate 30 exit 78 and take the Arkansas Scenic 7 bypass. Which was really AR-7/AR-128. Most of the time as soon as we got off I-30 we would turn right and stop at a Wendy’s for a bite. It just depended on what time we left that morning. It was a beautiful ride and even nicer once we got off IH-30 and took AR-7 toward Hot Springs. Somewhere around this time, we started working with a lady from a rental place called Progressive. From then on, we used them to rent a place to stay when we went there.
I am not sure about the financial activity that happened this month, but I sold several shares of EDS stock and received a $3,000 bonus. For the life of me, I cannot recall, why I received that bonus. I do know that I bought a new PC during this month. Then in April, I got a significant refund from the IRS.
Connie was taking her final courses for medical transcription in May. As some of you know I enjoy genealogy, but Connie not so much. She used to tease me and called it “Digging Up Bones”. She would come up with all kinds of crazy ideas like maybe that was really your grandfather or uncle, maybe someone killed him and took his identity, Anyway, she would tease me some time on the information I found. I had already gotten the War of 1812 records for my great-great-grandfather who fought in that war with Andrew Jackson. This month I received the pension application and records from the Civil war for my great uncle Andrew Buntley.
Hot Springs Village Again
In June it was back to Hot Springs again, as we were enjoying our getaways to there. We had found this great little called the Pegasus, that we really enjoyed and the Balboa Club. There was a place in the shopping center just outside the village called “Forbidden City” that served Chinese food. There used to be one in Plano near us that we went to a lot, but it had closed two or three years before. We went in and to our surprise, it was the same people who had owned the restaurant near us. They had come for a weekend visit, fell in love with the place, and went back and sold their restaurant in Texas and opened again near Hot Springs Village.
I do not remember much about July and august of that year, but I do remember Connie finishing up her medical transcription course.
New Assignment
Sometime later that year, I was assigned to a special group. It was a bunch of our senior people who were to look at the new technologies and go to solve major problems when they developed in the Insurance Division. I am not sure exactly when that happened. I was celebrating my 5oth birthday on Friday the 13th. I found out about it that morning accidentally as someone had left it at the bottom of an email, they sent me. It was scheduled for two in the afternoon in one of the executive conference rooms. I aced surprise because I was as the first person, I saw when I went into the room was Connie. It was a good celebration, but for some reason, I have one regret about that day. Around three-thirty when everything was over, Connie and I walked back to my desk and she asked me to just close my computer, but I told her I want to finish something and would be home soon. She left and I stayed for another hour before I went home. Now that time has passed, I wonder what was so important that I had to stay. I think the reason it bothers me is that I could see Connie was disappointed.
Started Thinking About Catholicism Again
Started thinking about Catholicism Again
The next day on Saturday, Connie and I went to a movie, not even sure what it was and that evening we attended Saturday evening mass. Why I remember that I am not sure, but I think that was the day, I decided I was going to try to make sure I went to mass every Sunday, I had been going quite often but that was also the time, I started thinking again about converting to Catholicism. I had considered it twice before but now I was considering it again. I remember the day that I decided to really think about converting to Catholicism and it was September 14th, 1996.
Trip to Denver
I had been assigned the task of looking at data-warehousing and some of the software available. We had decided on using a tool called “Holos” and the company was out of Denver. On Sunday the 15th, I left for a one-week training course on their software. I stayed at the Inverness Hotel in Englewood Colorado. It was a beautiful setting as I remember taking evening drives and just looking at the beauty of the mountains. While it was a busy week with a lot of new things to learn, I thoroughly enjoyed this trip.
Connie’s Mammogram and a New Job
Connie’s Mammogram and A New Job
During October, Connie’s mother gave me some money to invest for her two grandkids in Tennessee. A scary thing happened that month. Connie had turned 48 in April, so she went for her first mammogram. We went to the Margot Perot Center at the large Presbyterian hospital on Walnut Hill. Several days later we got a notice that they had found something, and we needed to come back in. After returning, we found out everything was ok. A new lady was doing the mammograms that day and when we went back, and they checked her everything was fine. Unfortunately, that would not be the only time, something like that would happen to us as it occurred several more times when she had mammograms.
Connie started a new job in October, for Dr. Umholtz. She was the lady that had done Connie’s surgery in 1992. She knew Connie had been taking medical transcription and she offered Connie a part-time job, as a medical transcription had more than she could do. Connie worked about 5 to 6 hours a day. There were 3 other doctors in that office. She really enjoyed the lady she was working with and they got along great. It was nice to see her enjoying what she was doing. Luckily, she was in an office in the back and did not have too much interaction with the medical staff unless one of the doctors came in to ask for something.
Not sure what was happening, but we had some plumbing bills during October and November. On Thanksgiving, we ate at the Black Eye Pea which was a favorite of ours. We also started taking the LaVilla newspaper out of Hot Springs Village and if I remember correctly it came out weekly.
Christmas and No to Australia
December was an interesting month, as some strange things were happening that month. I remember Saturday the twenty-first well. Around nine that morning I was pulled over for speeding on Jupiter right before you get to exchange. Connie and I were headed into Plano to do something Christmas shopping. I think because it was almost Christmas, the policeman was very generous and just gave me a warning. Christmas Eve was on a Tuesday that year, and I remember going into one of the local electronic stores and buying Window 3.1 for my computer. I started using windows later than my friends. I remember taking it home and installing it.
During December I was offered a three to four-month assignment in Sydney Australia, but I had to turn I down. In November I had started a clinical trial for a new drug called Enbrel for my Rheumatoid Arthritis. Now I did not know if I were getting the real drug or the placebo, but if I took the assignment I would have to drop out of the study. Connie and I decided even though we both wanted to go it would be better if I remained in the clinical trial. So, I turn down the opportunity of a great assignment. The good thing is one of my good friends got the opportunity.
I am not sure what project I was working on that year but do remember for a lot of the year from late spring to early fall, I would get up around five in the morning and go into the office. I was usually home before nine, so Connie and I could enjoy the rest of the weekend.