A Tragedy
Chattanooga
Weekend In Tennessee
Sister-In-Law
A Routine
Hot Springs Village
Trainer
Medical Transcriptionist
J.C. Penny’s Life Insurance Company
The Rest of 1997
Becoming Catholic
Sugar
New Assignment TPA
New Shelties
Enjoying My New Assignment
Confirmation
Heart Scare
Connie’s Fiftieth Birthday
Peaches Our New Sheltie
Acupuncture
Miscellaneous
Hot Springs Village
Marion
New Stores
Breakaway Ministries
Rest of 1998
St Jude’s
January-February
Fort Wayne Indiana
Sparkill New York
New Chevy Blazer
A Big Bonus
A New Assignment
Another Bonus
Father Tim Church
Hot Springs Village Again
The Wart
New Furniture and First Cell Phones
A Good Year
1997
It seems we must have had several weddings to go to this year even though I cannot recall them. The only reason I say that is I noticed we spent a lot of money at the Mikasa store this year and that is normally where we shopped for wedding presents.
A Tragedy
I think it was in January of this year that we found out that our personal physician Dr. Swicegood had committed suicide in December, He was only 46 years old. I will not get into details about this as People who lived here at that time probably know about why he did it. Connie and I knew him as a caring and wonderful doctor and liked him a lot as we found him to be a good doctor and to be a very friendly person.
In February we did a lot of things to fix up the house. We had over $450 worth of marble out in the house, but I am not sure where. We also spent almost $700 on home repairs and then Connie was doing a lot of painting as she spent $70 at Sherwin Williams. Connie really liked to paint.
Chattanooga
In March, I purchased some new glasses and Connie spruced up our linen and bedding by buying some things from Bed Bath and Beyond. I also started preparing for a new assignment. There was going to be a 3-month study at Provident Life and Insurance Company in Chattanooga Tennessee. While the salesman had not sold the 3-month study yet, I was assigned to begin preparing for it. Finally, the deal was sold and on March 31st, I made my way to Chattanooga Tennessee to meet with 6 other people from different parts of the country to start the 3-month study.
March 31st, Connie, and I got up early that morning as I had a 6:30 am flight to Chattanooga to begin the study at Provident Life and Accident Insurance Company. Since Connie was now working for the doctor, we decided I would take a limo to the airport. I was going to do that every Monday morning for the next 3 months. Connie did not want them to know where we lived as she would be home alone. So, she took me to a small shopping center, and they would pick me up in front of the Mexi-Go restaurant. They were to pick me up at 5:15 which would get us to the airport around 6 and give me 30 minutes to check my luggage and get to the boarding area. Remember this was all pre 9-11 when things at the airport were more normal. I remember there was a super shuttle that could have picked me up, but they want to do it at 4:15 because they would make two or three stops before getting to the airport. By using the limo service, I got to sleep a little bit longer, and it only about $3 more. It was $25 to take the limo to the airport.
I usually had the same driver, but the limo serve was owned by some Russians that had relocated to Dallas. All the drivers were extremely nice. That first week I an arrangement for them to meet me upon my return Friday afternoon and take me home. One of the strange things about the trip was that I was still in the drug study for my Rheumatoid Arthritis. I had to give myself a shot twice a week so Connie would pack the medicine in an insulated lunch bag with ice. When I would stop somewhere, I would get a cup of ice and refresh the bag to keep the medicine cold. Luckily, I had requested a small refrigerator for my room so when I got there, I was able to store the medicine ok.
I arrived around 8:30 in the morning and got my rental car. All I had to do was get in Interstate 24 and take it all the way to Chattanooga. It was about a two and one and half hour trip. I did stop in Murfreesboro on the way for a soda and a snack. Murfreesboro. Murfreesboro was where Connie and I had lived after we got married and it where I went to college. The place had really grown, and I could not believe how much. There were all kinds of businesses along the interstate there and even a big new shopping center. As I left with my drink and snacks, I called Connie to tell her how much things had changed.
I arrived at the hotel around eleven-thirty where I would be spending every week for the next 3 months to meet up with the other people that I would be working with. That afternoon we all got together to get to know each other as we had two people from Dallas, two from Lansing Michigan, two from Chicago, and one from Toronto. We went over the tasks we had each been assigned and started developing what the final document we were to produce would look like.
It was kind of strange being here as Connie and I had been here in March of 1973 for my interview with this company. They had made me an offer but then I had a better offer from EDS. The next night (Tuesday) the account manager took all of us how to a minor league baseball game and they were giving away a used car, but none of us won it.
Weekend in Tennessee
At the end of the week, we were all going to leave around noon on Friday, I took a couple of people to the airport because I was not going home. I had decided to stay in Tennessee and to do some genealogy research and just to visit things from the past and then I was going up to Oak Ridge to visit Connie’s sister and her family.
After, dropping off some people at the airport, I drove to Murfreesboro and the campus of Middle Tennessee State University. I spent some time at the bookstore and bought a few things. The only thing I remember buying was a change purse with the MTSU logo on it. Connie used that change purse for a long time. I then drove around to see some of the places Connie, and I was familiar with. I went by the grocery store where I used to work, the first house we lived in, and the apartment we last lived in. Afterward, I head over to Shelbyville, where I had grown up, and took some flowers to my parent’s graves. I then visited some cousins before spending the night at one of the local hotels. I arose early the next morning and headed to Belleville where my father had grown up to visit some relatives and then went to the library in Fayetteville to do some genealogy research. I left there around 11 and went to a car dealership to visit one of my father’s best friends. He had owned the dealership for a long time but had sold it. He still came into the dealership almost every day. Luckily, he was there that day and I got to spend some time with him. He was in his late 80s or early 90s at the time, but it was good to hear some of the stories that he could remember.
Sister-In-Law
Early that afternoon I took a scenic drive to Oak Ridge which got me there a little bit before dinner time. It was strange when I got there. I knew her sister and husband were struggling in their marriage, but I did not realize it was this bad. Neither one of them were talking to each other. Connie’s sister and I went out for Mexican food for dinner, but her husband did not go. It was hard because I knew Danny Connie’s sister’s husband before I knew Connie. I was stationed in Germany with Danny when Connie came over to visit her sister and that is how I met her. I am sure we spent dinner talking about what was going on. If I correctly remember Connie’s sister had left him somewhere and he had to walk several miles to get home earlier that year. I was in a tense situation. The next afternoon, I went to spend time with Connie’s niece and her family. Both Connie’s sister and husband (Danny) were there but still not talking to each other. I needed to go by an ATM before I head back to Chattanooga as it was late in the afternoon on Sunday. Danny said he would ride with me and show me where to go. I then spent time talking to him about their marriage. I was in a strange situation when both separately were talking to me and explain their side of the marriage and what was happening. I then asked Danny if he wanted the marriage to work and he said yes.
I left shortly after that and stop on the way to call Connie because we did not have cell phones then. I had forgotten about the time difference and I called while Connie was attended the Sunday evening mass which started at six. So, I left her a message and drove on to Chattanooga. I had not been in the hotel very long when Connie’s sister called me and want to know what I thought. I told her in talking to Danny, that he wanted to stay married and did not want a divorce and I thought they should try to work it out. They did try and the marriage lasted two or three more years. I am not sure, but she made have held it against me just not sure. I know, later, she felt that Connie and I did not support her. In all fairness, Connie and I were trying to stay out of it and not take sides at all, but I thought that we needed to take her side.
That weekend I found a trove of information about my ancestor at the library and had copied almost 150 pages of information about the little town where my father group up and all the Buntley’ living in the area.
A Routine
The next three months we settled into a routine, Connie would drop me off at the place where I was meeting the limo for the airport at five fifteen in the morning, and then she would come to the airport on Friday afternoons to pick me up. On Friday, I usually left the office around noon and catch a three pm flight back to Dallas. So, we would work at the Insurance company from noon Monday, till noon on Fridays. We usually worked late, so we ended up getting in 40 hours almost every week. We all went to dinner most nights together and while our order was being prepared, I would find a payphone and call Connie each evening.
We wound down our efforts and present our study finding to the account manager who was then to take them to the executive board of Provident and Life Insurance company. I do remember the day before we went out and bought some cake and soda for all the people that were in the area where we had been working for the last three months. The account manager had given us all EDS jackets for the work we had done on the study which would come in useful over time. I still wear that jacket today during the winter. On Friday, June 27th, I left Chattanooga for the last time and flew back to Dallas. This time Connie did not pick me up as I rented a car at the airport that we were going to take on vacation the next day. I was going to take a two-week vacation which I had never done before. The first week was going to be spent in Hot Springs Village. It was interesting as the account manager used to be my neighbor and I am the one who got him an interview at EDS.
Hot Springs Village
On Saturday, the 28th, we got to Hot Springs and had rented a house on the lake which we thoroughly enjoyed. Tim the account manager had told us to take our spouse out for dinner after we got back home and expense it to him. Connie and I ate at our favorite place in the village and our meal was expensive as I think it was about $54. The house we rented was very reasonable for being on the lake as we paid about $417 for the week’s rental.
We had a wonderful time at Hot Spring Village, while we would go many more times over the years, that is probably the only time we spent a week there. There may have been another one, but I cannot recall it now. The other great thing was that when I got back home, I still had another week of vacation in front of me.
Trainer
I took on a new assignment and that was a trainer. I had been developing a course on the system we installed at insurance companies. Since we had an influx of new people, I spent half a day each day for two weeks in August teaching that course. While I do not consider myself a good teacher, I thoroughly enjoyed the experience of sharing my almost 25 years of knowledge with the new people starting out.
Medical Transcriptionist
In August Connie, quit her medical transcription job and I was in total agreement with her quitting. While Connie and the full-time medical transcriptionist worked in the back office out of sight, and she was insulated from the front office personnel and the doctors. The front-end staff was much younger, and they like to party and a lot of them talked about fooling around. After the lady quit Connie knew it was time for her to move on, as she was not comfortable with some of the ladies there. She stayed until they could hire another transcriptionist. Also, one of the doctors had to leave the practice, and I will not go into details about why. It was just not the right place for Connie. I was glad because I had gotten so used to her being home. That was the last time she worked, and it made our life better. No longer where we spend the weekend doing grocery shopping and a lot of small errands, plus cleaning the house, and taking care of the yard, as Connie was taking care of a lot of things and I had the weekend to relax with her. Ur life was better than ever before.
One of the things I regret now when I am writing about our life is all the travel I did and wish I had that time back to spend with her. Knowing what I know now, I might not have taken all those assignments that cause me to be away from home but at the time you do not think like that.
J.C. Penny’s Life Insurance Company
J.C. Penny’s Life Insurance Company
September found me with another new assignment and that was helping on and installation at JC Penny’s Life Insurance company which was in Plano. It was a fun assignment that I thoroughly enjoyed. It came at a time that EDS still had men wearing suits and women wearing dresses or skirts and blouses (no pants for women). I remember Connie and I going shopping and buying some dockers for me to wear at JC Penney’s Insurance company as they had more of a casual dress code. Before I finished that assignment in late November, EDS had changed its dress policy to more of a casual dress code. Before I started that assignment Connie, and I took another trip to Hot Spring Village for a few days. If I remember correctly, I took a Friday and Monday off, so we had a 4-day weekend there.
The Rest of 1997
Connie started right away doing things around the house as I see we paid the handyman we used (Jay) quite a bit of money in September and October. As usual, Connie spent almost two hundred dollars on paint from Sherwin Williams. I do believe she painted the outside trim of the house during this time. We also had some hail damage as we paid for roof repairs due to hail damage in October. Back in August one of the guys I worked with back into my car and cause over $1,000 worth of damage. He did not want to file an insurance claim with his insurance company, so I get three estimates and he paid me the average of those three estimates. I did get the car repaired and it cost me over $1200.
Since Connie, had quit being the medical transcriptionist, she decided to find a new OB/GYN as she had been using the one, she had worked for. Connie ended up going with another lady doctor and her name was Dr. Jaffee and she was her doctor until she retired in early 2015.
In November we redid our wills and may my brother and his wife the executor. I also purchased plane tickets for Connie’s mother but I cannot remember correctly if she came after Thanksgiving and then went to Connie’s sister for Christmas so she could spend time with her kids, grandkids, and great grandkids.
A couple of other things I remember about that year is we stopped taking liquid vitamins. One of Connie’s friend had got us started on it. It was promoted by a Doctor, but we eventually decided that we did not think they were any better than the regular vitamins and the liquid ones cost a lot more.
I just cannot recall much about Thanksgiving and Christmas that year.
1998
Becoming Catholic
I seemed to have forgotten the most important thing that happened in 1997. I started attending a weekly session of the Rites of Christian Initiation of Adults (RCIA) at our local parish (St Jude’s of Allen Texas). This was not my first time attending these classes. In 1975, I attended the session with Fr. Duesman and it was one on one instruction then. In 1987, I attend the RCIA sessions at St Jude with Fr, Tom but did not finish. Finally, with Fr. Bradley, I started in September of 1997 and finish at the Easter Vigil of 1998. The date should have been easy for me to remember but I did not I had to look it up. Easter Vigil was on April 11 of that year. I would always tell everyone it took me three times to become Catholic. I wish I had a good reason why I did not the first time but I do not. I guess I just was not ready at that time. After twenty-eight years of being married to Connie, I converted to Catholicism. To this day, I still thank Connie and her mother as it was because of the lives that they lived that I converted.
Connie attended the RCIA session with me every Tuesday night and continue to a couple of weeks past Easter. I have forever grateful for her support and guidance during that year.
Connie had already become more active in the parish and another lady named Mary did the prayer chain for the parish at that time. Eventually, the parish went to emails for the prayer chain. The parish was divided into neighborhood groups to try to bring people together and make them more involved. Connie and I got involved in the neighborhood group that we were in and became part of a team to set up social events. There were about 6 people on the team for our neighborhood group and it was so much fun working with them and getting more involved with the parish. There were so many activities that we did, such as Bingo Night, Ice Cream afternoon at the park, Chili cook-off, etc. The best part was getting to meet a whole bunch of new people and just enjoy a whole new side of our life within the parish, rather than just attending mass. It was so nice to be involved.
While Connie and I did attend mass often we were not what you would call regulars until 1996, when I decided that I needed something more in my life and I need to support her. Even though I had been attending mass since we got married, It had never been a regular thing, it was just if I had time.
Sugar
During January, we lost our beloved Sugar who was our third sheltie. I remember back in November and I believe it was the Saturday after Thanksgiving when we were in Host Springs Village. We noticed that on Friday night Sugar was not feeling well and when we got up the next morning, she was still not doing good, so we called our Dr. Reeves our veterinarian back in Texas, and told him we were on our way and would try to be there by one as that was when his office closed. We place Sugar in the back of the Sunbird and took off and not stopping except to get gas and go to the restroom. Connie did a lot of the driving and she scared me as sometimes I would look over and she was doing between eighty-five and ninety. But we did not make it in time and ended up taking her to the Emergency Animal Clinic where they kept her till Monday morning and we then picked her up and took her to Dr, Reeves, She did better but in January we lost her. It was the first time we had been without a sheltie since November of 1976. We found it hard and after a couple of weeks we started looking for another sheltie.
New Assignment (TPA)
I had finished my assignment at the JC Penny’s Life Insurance Company in late 1997 and started with a new group. I had been in a Technical Consulting Group of about 10 people and we were assigned out to different areas in the Insurance Division that need expert help. Upon the return from my assignment from JC Penny’s, I was offered a chance to join a new group that was being formed. It was called TPA for Third-Party Administration. We were going to provide not only software support, but we would be responsible for all aspects of processing from a clerical perspective. We would provide data entry, managers, actuary, etc., and process policies that an insurance company wanted to outsource to us.
I had been aware f the group before January, as I had attended a meeting on convert a company to our system. I guess I made an impression on the guy heading this up because I told them they were crazy if they thought this could be done in 100 man-months as I told them it would take at least 200 if not more. I left the meeting and thought nothing of it except that I probably made some people mad.
Upon my return from my JC Penny’s assignment, I met with the guy that had been brought in from the outside to get this started. His name was Bill Zambrano. He asked me to join the team as the lead technician because he appreciated that I spoke my opinion and did not mind going against the grain. The team was really small besides him there was Jeff a salesman, Buzz, and Marcy two people responsible for marketing. So I joined the team as their lead technician as it was one of the better moves, I made in my career.
New Sheltie
In February, Connie was taking some classes at the local high school and I cannot recall what they were. I believe this is the time that we also took some county and western dance classes. I was terrible at it, but Connie enjoyed it, so it was worth it to me.
Toward the end of February, Connie found a lady Donna Crabtree, who raised shelties. She had a sheltie that was pregnant and who had won several prizes in dog shows. We decided that we want to be on the list to buy one of her puppies when they became available. Connie was so happy at the prospect of getting another sheltie. Since she was now home, she had time to devote herself to a new puppy. I have always said if there was reincarnation, I would like to come back as one of Connie’s pooches as she loved them so much. As an example, any of our shelties, had to go to the vet and they were not allowed to eat that morning, hen neither could I at home. She thought it was unfair for me to be eating in front of them. So, on those days, I would stop on the way to work for a donut or small breakfast sandwich.
Enjoying My New Assignment
During this month and March, I was settling in with my new assignment. It was probably one of the most enjoyable ones that I had at EDS. We had software that EDS had used for years, and we had bought a Canadian company call SolCorp that had a life insurance system that they marketed. We were looking for another one, to have more options available depending upon the needs of the policy processing and the skill levels of the clerks we would use. After looking at several we agreed with a company called Life Insurance Data Processing that had been formed by some people from EDS if I recall correctly. We select them because their system was available 24 hours a day. Most systems at that time were what we called batch systems. They were down during the night while we processed the data. This one was online and up for use 24 hours a day. I know we paid some upfront money and agreed to pay them an amount for each policy we processed on their system. While I was learning that system, we were also evaluating new technologies at the time, such as voice processing which is quite common now. Being able to request your loan amount or premium payment over the phone was very new in 1998.
In March, we travel to Providence Rhode Island, and then to Boston to evaluate some of these additional systems as an add-on to the normal processing. It seemed like we were on the road doing a lot of evaluations of software this month. One thing that bothered me happened in May. I was used to getting a nice salary increase but not a thousand dollars a month. My new boss, Bill went to bat for me, after seeing what others were making and convince management that my salary was too low based on my contributions. I will always thank him for that, unfortunately, Bill passed away a couple of years ago.
Confirmation
A lot of things happened in April, but the most important was being confirmed into the catholic church. We had attended the Easter Vigil, so I am not sure what we did that Easter Sunday. I remember going to the “Corner Bakery” for breakfast one Sunday morning and for some reason, I think that was the day. What I found amazing was all the traditions of the catholic church. This was the first time I attended the services on Holy Thursday, Good Friday, and Easter Vigil. It made such an impression on me that Connie and I attended all three of those services for the next eleven to twelve years. While we always attended, Holy Thursday and Good Friday services at some point we switched and started going to the Easter Sunday Service instead of the vigil.
We took several trips to a Catholic store called “Sacred Heart”. I had selected St Philomena as my saint, but it was hard to find a metal made for her. Connie ordered me one and put it on a chain. I wore that necklace for many years.
Heart Scare
April was a remarkably busy month for us. After Dr. Swicegood, we were trying to find a new family doctor. Connie had found one and I went to see one of the other doctors in the office. He was new and had not been practicing exceptionally long. He gave me an EKG during my physical and did not like something he had seen. He had me go get some kind of test at the hospital in Plano and had given me the name of a heart doctor to see and take the test to. It was scary at the time and I can remember being quite concerned. Anyway, the heart doctor said I was not in immediate danger, but he did not know for sure about the future, he told me the best thing I could do was keep my weight down. I guess I was so relieved I cannot remember for sure what exactly he said.
Connie’s Fiftieth Birthday
Because I was doing more traveling, I bought two new suits from Men Warehouse this month and got a new pair of glasses. It was also Connie’s birthday and I bought her a precious moment at Karen’s Hallmark.
The best thing about this month was that it was Connie’s fiftieth birthday, and we went to Colorado on her birthday Thursday, April 23rd. You can read all about that fun trip in “Trips” – “Colorado -1998.
Peaches – Our New Sheltie
This next part, I am a little confused about. Peaches was born on February 26th, of this year. I believe we picked her up around mid-April and then took her back to Donna Crabtree’s place as we had made arrangements for her to keep her while Connie and I went to Colorado. It might have been this way instead because I am confused. Connie and I did not pick Peaches up until we came back from Colorado and we left her with Donna while we went and visited her mother that summer. I am not sure about which way those events unfolded.
Acupuncture
In May Connie was having trouble with her thumb. It was causing her a lot of pain, so she decided to see an acupuncturist. I think her name was “Shelly Yang Tsai”. It was a Saturday and Connie was looking for any kind of relief. We got there about eleven that morning. It was just a little place in a strip mall. It was not decorated that much. I went in with Connie and sit there in this dimly lighted room, with soft music and candles while she stuck needles all around Connie’s thumb and a lot of other places on her that did not make sense to me. We must have stayed in that room for about thirty minutes. The place did not seem clean to me but soon tears were coming from Connie’s eyes. I asked her and she said she was not in pain, but she could not stop the tears as they just kept flowing. Afterward, Shelly came in and gave Connie some instructions about what to do for the next two days. Most of it was things she did not want her to eat. She told us the tears was just negative energy being released. It worked, after consulting doctors and trying different things this acupuncture worked for her. She never had trouble with that thumb again.
Miscellaneous
On May 30th, our 28th anniversary we enrolled Peaches in a class called “Let’s Practice K-9 Obedience”. we attended that class on Saturday morning and one night during the week until July 4th, I am not sure if it worked for training Peaches it seemed like Peaches trained us more than we did her.
In June we started having a gentleman from a professional air filter company come in and change our filters every three months. Connie always had a hard time coughing, etc., and we thought this would help. It was very expensive but after a while, we decided it was not helping that much. I can not remember how long we kept using the service but I think it was between one and two years.
Hot Springs Village
In July, I got a $1000 bonus and I am not sure what it was for but if I remember correctly some of the programmers were working on the year 2000 date problem that was coming up. I think I did spend some extra time with them on weekends providing some direction. We were still going to Hot Springs Village several times a year and we went again in July. I think we spent a whole week there. Also, if I am not mistaken we rented an SUV (Blazer) for the trip. We had been thinking about buying one but we’re not sure, so we thought this would be a good way to check it out.
Marion — Connie’s Childhood Friend
Marion — Connie’s Childhood Friend
Something changed during the month of July, that would start something Connie would do every day for the rest of her life. She made have missed a few days but if she did, I cannot recall it. Her dear friend (Marion) who lived in Florida was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and died in less than a year. But from the day Connie found that out she found a prayer book and she said those prayers every day for the rest of her life. I remember her saying those prayers, why we were driving on vacation when we were on a cruise or a vacation. I am almost sure she had the prayer book with her when she went into the hospital, but I have not found it. It was very worn and rugged after almost 20 years of use.
New Stores
A new very large outlet mall had open close to the airport in a town called Grapevine. The name of the mall was Grapevine Mills and it had open in October of 1997. Connie and I went there I think for the first time in July. It was amazing, if you walked around the whole mall it was a mile and so many stores, I believe close to 200. They were nice stores, such as JC Penny’s and other large chain outlets. We got some good deals there over the years. I remember some of the places we like in there besides JCPenny’s were the Rain Forest Café, Books-A-Million, etc. Real close to the outlet mall was Bass Pro Shop where Connie and I also like to go. We found some nice clothing there and we always enjoyed looking at the boats and we hope to have one someday on one of the lakes in Hot Springs Village.
Also, in that month, there was a new place that opened in Allen called Mimi Garden Café. Connie and I ate their plenty of time over the next 15 to 20 years. I especially remember their breakfast because they always gave you a free muffin with it. They had the best muffins.
In August for the first time, we went to this store in Plano called Mardell it was a Christian bookstore and had a lot of different things besides books. It turned out Connie and visit it a lot over the years. It appears I used the bonus I got to buy a new computer as I see I bought a new computer this month, for almost $1,100 and we had a lot of work done on the house as we pay Jay over $1,000 this month for the house repairs. We also spent another $250 for new sod for our lawn.
Breakaway Ministries
I find myself befuddled by an expense in September of this year. I see we paid Texas Spa Lady $124.99, but I cannot ever recall Connie going to a spa, nor can I ever recall buying something like that for her. In October we purchased a CD from a group of Christian singers at Texas A&M University. It was a CD that we loved and still play to this day. It was such a good CD and I Know Connie and I still enjoyed the song till today.
Rest of 1998
In November, we spent another $315 on house repairs, with Jay. Again, as with past Thanksgiving, since we had bought the property in Hot Springs Village, we spent Thanksgiving there. Connie was falling in love with the place and hated to leave. I was not crazy about the place but found it to be ok. I always planned to move there if that was what Connie wanted. She had supported me forever and it was my turn to live wherever she wanted.
In December Connie was painting again as she spent almost $200 at Sherwin Williams. I remember looking at where we stood financially, and we were in good shape and on track for my early retirement. I had accumulated 6500 EDS shares through the stock purchase program and stock grants.
Connie and I ended this year feeling good about where we were in life at this point.
1999
St. Jude’s
Since becoming Catholic, Connie and I got more involved with our parish. When we move to Plano in 1976, we attended St. Elizabeth Seton parish when it was frost formed and they met in one of the local schools. After moving to Allen in 1980, the same thing happened, as we were here when they begin forming the parish and we met in one of the local schools. I remember attending a meeting on a Wednesday night with my mother-in-law who was visiting, and they were making decisions about the name of the parish, etc. It was an interesting time to be involved in the parish.
Connie and I begin selling rosaries after masses at St. Jude’s. I cannot recall why we did that, we bought at least a hundred or two hundred rosaries for $1 each, and that what we sold them for. It was a growing parish, and it was easy to sell them. We also became involved in the neighborhood groups the previous year, where we met several new people, and some would become lifelong friends. Since Allen was a growing community, Fr. Bradley had divided the parish area into about 6 different neighborhoods so that people could get to know each other. Connie and I served on the activity team for our neighborhood group. It was fun meeting with other people and finding activities that this neighborhood group in the parish could do. We had chili cookoff, picnics, potluck dinners, bingo, etc. and we got to know so many people.
January-February
We had some major spa issues in January, and we spent almost $150 getting it repaired. I am not sure why, but I received over a $5,000 bonus in February. I think this was because of meeting objectives at work. One year, and I believe it was 1998, EDS had all employees, sit down with their manager, and based on the company, the division, and your personal goals you could earn a bonus. I thought it worked well but evidently, the company did not because that was the only time, they did it. I thought it was a good concept as you knew the total of how much bonus you could earn, and you knew what percent of each goal was applied to the total bonus.
We also spent over $500 on Peaches this month. I am not sure, but this may have been when her leg got messed up and she had to have major surgery on it. I thought it was later than this because she was only about a year old at this time, but I am not sure. What I do remember is that it hurt her a lot as she cried most of the night after we brought her home and she had to wear one of those things around her neck so she would not pull the stitches out. While it was hard on Peaches, I remember how hard it was on Connie also. It was a tough time for the two of them. Also, during February, we discover this new bagel place called Benny’s, that we just loved, and we were still going there when Connie got sick. I still enjoy their bagels but now I usually stop by Einstein’s as it is closer.
Fort Wayne Indiana
March of that year found me in Fort Wayne Indiana, doing a study to determine converting policies from one of Lincoln National Life systems to the new Third Party Administration (TPA) system that we proposed. I am not sure how many weeks we spent there analyzing their current system, but it was at least two and maybe three. I know I was there on March 22nd, as I remember being out to eat with the study team on the night that Duke upset the Tennessee Lady Vols in the NCAA regional basketball tournament. I also believe it was that Wednesday, I attended mass at the cathedral in Fort Wayne at noon. Since I had only been a Catholic for such a short time, I felt that since the coming Sunday would be Easter that I should go. I also remember spending several evenings at the Fort Wayne library because they had such a good genealogy section and found out several pieces so information that I did not know.
Sparkill, New York
In April we traveled to see Connie’s mother. I do not remember the exact dates, but I know we went on a Thursday and came back on a Monday. We also stayed at a much nicer hotel this time. We stayed at the Hilton and it was so enjoyable. On Friday we took off for a spin and went to New Jersey as we were looking for a church there called St. Philomena. That was whom I had chosen as a saint that I genuinely liked. I remember Connie, her mother and I finding the church and we walked in around 11 that morning and there were a bunch of parishioners praying the rosary. We found a priest and he was highly informative about St. Philomena. Afterward, we went for another drive and end up at a huge shopping center in New Jersey where we did a little shopping and had an early dinner. If I correctly remember the place, we ate at in the shopping center was Ruby Tuesdays as Connie had fallen in love with their salad bar when we were in Colorado the previous year. As always, we went to Red Lobster as we went there on every visit to see Connie’s mother. She would always wrap up some of their biscuits in a napkin to take home with her. We usually had a good time. I believe this is the trip that we took a long drive as the countryside is so beautiful. Anyway, coming back, we took a toll road, and when we stop at one of the toll booths, Connie and her mother start laughing at me. I guess I got to talking to the lady in the toll booth and lose track of what was going on behind me. After several minutes, the lady said I would love to talk to you, but you are backing up the toll line, so you need to move on now. At least we had a few minutes of an interesting conversation.
The month of April also found us having the carpets clean, Orkin out again for termites. During this month we also met with the person who had done our wills and made some changes to them. It was a lot cheaper than the first time as we only paid about $350.
New Chevy Blazer
I am not sure what the reason was, but I do remember it was on a Friday afternoon, there was an emergency and Connie had to take Peaches to the vet. There was a problem as she could not get the dog crate into the Saturn. It would not fit in the back because the back would not go down and neither would fit in the back seat or the front seat. It was then we decided we needed to trade the car. I was still making payment on it and we had always kept our car for many years after we had finished the payments but not this time.
In May we begin to look at cars, as I had mentioned in one of the earlier years, we had rented an SUV for one of our trips to Hot Springs Village, so we decided we were going to get an SUV. That month we also had to get our air-conditioner fixed. We also hired another lady to help us train Peaches as she really liked to pull us when we were walking her. We ended up hiring a lady from K-9 solutions and that really helped with Peaches pulling on the leash all the time. We continued to look at cars and toward the end of May, we decided we would trade the Saturn in for a Chevy Blazer SUV. We bought it at Huffines where we would buy the next several cars we owned. It was the first time we had ever trade a car before we had paid it off.
A Big Bonus
On June 2nd, we picked up our new 1999 red Chevy Blazer. Connie fell in love with it right away and she enjoyed that car the rest of her life. In June, I received a large bonus. In fact, it was the biggest one I had ever gotten. It was for $11,460; I am not sure how they came up with that amount. It was for a project that I was not even assigned to but had been helping by consulting and providing guidance for the teams working on converting our Equity Plus system to be able to support the date changes we need for the year 2000. I did do this on my own time, and it seems that not only our company, but a lot of companies were providing a big bonus for people working on Y2K.
New Assignment
In June Lincoln National Life awarded us the contract to current one of their current systems to our new proposed TPA. The study team had been looking at determining which system we would use as the TPA as there were three available. The system with which we had the most knowledge was our Equity Plus system, but it was old as it had been originally developed in the 60s, another system that we evaluated was LIDP which we had purchased and a system by SolCorp called Ingenium. SolCorp was a wholly own subsidiary of EDS and that is the system we decided to go with. I would be the lead system engineer for the conversion interfaces back to the Lincoln National system.
Another Bonus
July found me reviewing another bonus of $5, 000 dollars for my effort in the sales of our TPA system to Lincoln National Life. This month Connie and I discover a new place to eat that would become one of our favorites. It was a new hamburger place her in Allen called Burger Zone. Over the next five to six years Connie and I would eat there quite often when we decided we wanted a good burger. Connie became good friends with the owners as they were from Iran. Connie enjoyed talking to them and was surprised to see them running a hamburger restaurant. I am not sure when maybe around 2004 or 2005 they sold the restaurant and moved to Tennessee, With the new owners it did not last much longer.
Fr. Tim Church
In July, the priest at St. Jude was transferred to another parish. Fr. Tim Church was the new pastor at St. Jude’s, and he was the priest there until I lost Connie. We lost Fr. Tim a couple of years later. What was amazing was that Fr. Tim was a married priest, yes, he was a Catholic priest that was married. There were several priests from the Episcopal church that converted to Catholicism during the mid-1990s, and Pope John Paul II gave them dispensation to be Catholic priests. While his kids were grown, we did get to know his wife Linda and she was also such a blessing to our parish. All his children were grown so we did not get to know them. Fr. Tim was a wonderful homilist and we almost always enjoyed his homily. The parish thrived under him and the attendance begins to grow.
Connie and I had also started attending a weekday mass. We usually attended the 6:30 Am mass on Wednesday mornings. Sometimes, I would leave right after mass around 7 and head into work but sometimes, Connie and I would stop for a quick bite to eat.
Connie was also responsible for getting information out for the church prayer chain. They had several people who had signed up for the prayer chain. If I remember correctly it was over a couple of hundred. Connie and her friend Mary then took the list and divided it up into groups of five, So Connie and Mary would get the prayer requests a couple of times a week, and then they would call 5 people then each of those people would call 5 more people. She really enjoyed doing this, but she did have one instance that upset her. She had called a lady who was not home, so she told the lady’s husband the name son the prayer chain. Later she got a call from the lady who was upset and told her to never leave the prayer chain with her husband and to only give it to her. I think the way the lady went about telling Connie this really upset her.
Hot Spring Village Again
During this month we also made a trip to Hot Springs Village and Connie always enjoyed those visits. I remember several times before we would leave the next day, Connie and I would go sit on the bench outside the natatorium which overlooked lake Coronado. All the lakes, golf courses, etc., in Hot Springs Village, are name after Spanish settlers. The first person to visit this part of the country was Hernando de Soto in 1541. Connie always hated to leave, and I remember several times her crying on the way home. We would usually split the drive between the two of us as I would drive us to Texarkana and Connie would then drive the rest of the way home. The problem was if I shout my eyes Connie would speed. I do not know how many times; I would glance over and see the speedometer between 85 and 90. I would tell Connie to slow down but she would tell me that it just looks like she was going that fast because of the angle I had to see the speedometer.
During this month we bought a new mattress and box springs for the master bedroom bed from the “Mattress Firm”. It must have been a good one as we spent over $800 on it.
The Wart
Sometime during this year, something happened that was so unexpected. It must have been about seven years ago that I had a wart cut out of the bottom of my foot. It came back about twelve to eighteen months later and I started seeing a dermatologist for it. He spent a few years freezing it every month and it still did not go away. He then switched to give me a shot in the wart and that went on for several years. Then one day it just fell off, the whole thing in tack. I was amazed at how big it was. Connie had told me it was exceptionally large, and I could feel that I was a big wat but had never actually seen it. I was so glad because those shots hurt. We put the wart in a jar and on my next visit to the dermatologist show it to him. Connie was amazed as it did not come off in pieces but one big piece. He was stunned because when he looked at my foot he could not see where there had ever been a wart. In fact, he even doubted his notes. Even though his notes for all those years said it was on this foot, he made me take my sock off the other foot to see if he was mistaken, He could not find any evidence of a wart ever being on that foot either. Whatever happened, I am not sure, but the wart never came back again.
I am not sure why but in August we started donating to the St. Anthony Bread Line that year. I do know it was Connie’s mother’s favorite charity.
New Furniture and First Cell Phones
New Furniture and First Cell Phones
The rest of the year I do not remember much about. I do know we bought new furniture from Haverty’s in September of that year, but I have no idea what we bought. The main thing we did that month was to go back to Hot Springs Village. I told you Connie loved the place, and we went at least twice a year if not more.
December of this year we bought our first cell phones. I can still remember sitting in the cafeteria at EDS with a Spring salesman and purchasing both Connie and me a cell phone. We also had Jay do some major repairs around the house in December. I am not sure this is the year it may have been earlier, but one Christmas we sent Connie a box containing plastic bags for Christmas. It was a joke among the three of us because every time she would come to visit, she would collect all these plastic bags. We got many a laugh over that for several years.
A Good Year
It was a good year for us, not only financially but spiritually. I know I am prouder of our spiritual growth than I am of my financial rewards. I got three bonuses in one year and that had never happened before, and our EDS stocks were paying great dividends. Spiritually we were becoming very involved at St Jude and the rewards of that were amazing. It was like a whole new life had opened for us.