A Year of Change

I made it to Denver around 10 yesterday morning with Ty riding along. I dropped him at Jack’s who would later be riding back up with us to spend a couple days. Then it was off to Arvada for an appointment. I called Tommy who was on the way to the airport to drop Ali to go visit her Mom and Dad in Phoenix. Bet it’s warm down there! Turns out Tom wasn’t feeling well so we postponed cleaning as we’re down to the small closet in the basement and things like the hutch when you walk in the door. We like to go through this stuff together so we can decide what to do with things. Most of it is clutter but some things like old china we just don’t have a home for. Today he’ll probably rest some more so tomorrow I’ll probably end up cleaning instead. We have to get it done!

Jag was tired and ended up falling asleep with Mojo on his bed around 5 pm. I went downstairs and made his bed and we finally coaxed him down there where he fell back asleep and is still sleeping as of 6:18 which it is now. Man can that kid sleep! Lori and I will head out to the gym in 30 minutes or so before coming back to clean up around here.

Lori, Jag and I met with an architect yesterday who’s a good friend of a good friend. We’re exploring building something as we just can’t find anything we like for the money. One thing’s for sure, we cannot continue to live in 1564 square feet with two teenagers and a 100 pound dog. The main issue is with things so expensive up here, we need to go down valley a good 30 minutes to find anything affordable. If we do things right, it can actually be less expensive to build something than buy something, and then you get what you want and it’s new construction. It just takes a good 8 months before it can be done. Colorado in general is way overpriced as everyone wants to live here. Wish we could build a wall between California and the rest of the Country. We’ll see what happens. We did buy a lot in Eagle a couple of years ago but building costs were too expensive back then so we sold it about a year ago. The first step now if we want to go down this road, is to go look for a lot again. More to come.

How about Facebook, wow! I don’t know why anyone is surprised that they have been collecting everything on everyone and selling it. Years ago when their founder came up with the idea he told a buddy he was amazed people would just provide all their info, no questions asked. He even famously said, and I quote, “what a bunch of dumb fucks”! Maybe there’s hope for society after all as guys like Elon Musk (founder of Tesla) has deleted his and his company’s facebook page. Hopefully this will be a wake up call but I suspect most people will overlook this massive intrusion into their lives so they can continue to post a facade of their lives trying to make everyone think everything is perfect in their little World. When they finally realize what they’ve done, and all their info is used against them, it’ll be too late. Again it’s the frog in the boiling water thing. The larger issue is data mining which is being used to shape elections, public policy (laws), our economy and more. Most information you are exposed to is actually not true, yet the sheeple (people who act like sheep) follow along without questioning anything. Guess he’s right, most all of us are a bunch of dumb fucks!

Time to go as Lori just came down, have a great weekend, take care and God Bless.

Last night Jag made it home around 10:30 or 11 and now he needs to get up for basketball. Of course he’s not moving so today’s post will be short. Ty has the day off but has a bunch of work to do and hopefully Lori will work only a half day. I’ll be cleaning at Mom’s with Tom today and tomorrow hoping to make some good progress.

I need to go try to get Jag moving so that’s it for the day. Hope all’s well, take care and GB.

Thankfully this morning I seem to be turning the corner on my cold. It was never a full blown bad mama jama cold but rather one where I could have gone either way. Luckily I think I’m headed back towards feeling better.

Jag visited CU and Mines yesterday as I said and he liked them but I think liked DU better. Ty shadowed at Vail Christian but thinks he likes VMS better. That’s good news as it took me 90 minutes to go get him and then drive to the other end of the valley to get Jag. Lori cut her workout short for a 9 am meeting that was cancelled 6 minutes before it was scheduled to begin. And me, well I took it easy most of the day trying to kick the aforementioned cold.

Today I’m off to Denver and Longmont. Jag has volleyball at Chatfield in Denver from 5 until 8 pm, meaning he’ll get home around 11, ugh, Ty has an after school work program from 4 to 5 and Lori is going to Denver later this morning on her own for a doctor appt. So, we’re all busy busy.

It’s 5:42 now so time to go. It’s going to be in the 70’s today in Denver but snow will be back next week. Hope you all are well, take care and GB.

Today Jag has two more college visits. First up is the University of Colorado and then the Colorado School of Mines. We need to leave in 30 minutes as the kids leave at 7. It’s great they go see these schools now to give the kids an idea of what college is all about.

Ty is going to Vail Christian School today to shadow meaning he’ll hang out with a student all day checking out the school. It’s a good school just like VMS but is a Christian school and costs about the same, ugh.

Lori is working out at 7 and I was going to at 8 but I can’t seem to kick my cold. I have one of those chest colds where I’m coughing up, (or trying to cough up) junk every few minutes. It’s warming up around here and going to be in the 70’s tomorrow in Denver! Snow is supposed to arrive again in a few days but we’re in that pattern where it’ll snow then melt and then repeat.

I’m still tired as I haven’t been getting much sleep so I’m still not caught up, neither is Lori. Tom and I are planning on cleaning for 3 or 4 days straight over the weekend. It’s a big job with a lot of stuff that still needs to be gone through. I need to leave at 6:30 to take Jag so I need to get in the shower too. Time to run, hope all’s well. Take care, GB.

Well, after a precarious drive, I made it to the airport for my flight to Houston. Once there my driver met me and off we went. One of the guys I was going to see is scheduled to go to Italy on the 29th with us on a buying trip. He’s the buyer for one of our larger accounts. After heading to my hotel to pick up some samples, which turned out to not be there, super, I received a call from the buyer. Turns out he had a disagreement with the owner and quit his job a few hours earlier! This means the trip for him is off and of course no need for me to see him. Next stop was my other meeting where we were going to taste the samples that didn’t show up at my hotel. Thankfully this buyer is a good buddy so he’ll taste on his own today or tomorrow, when they hopefully arrive. So there I was, all done by 4 pm. I could have hung out and gone to dinner but I decided, screw it, I’m grabbing a flight home and getting the hell out of Texas. One of the benefits of flying all the time is they let me change my flights around at will. I called the airlines and they happily moved me to the 6:05 in First Class. Two hours after that I touched down in Denver. Once there, being tired, I had to make the two hour drive up the hill. It was fine until I hit the other side of the tunnel where it was snowing hard. Anyhow an hour after that, I was home. Another day with another turn, which is airline talk for a flight somewhere and back on the same day.

Today Jag needs to be at school at 7:15 to make up a science test. Ty has lots to do too and Lori has clinic. It’s snowing lightly but nothing bad. Brian, my Partner, has been in Germany at Prowein, the big wine fair and managed to add about $5 Million dollars worth of new business which is a big freaking deal and a real turning point for us. Things after 15 years are really starting to snowball, knock on wood that all goes well. Lorenzo in Italy is scrambling to explain to all the winemakers why the Texas trip is off. We still have the owner going with his wife but I am not sending our guy to babysit him for 2 days after the buyer quit. I’ll know more on this later this morning. What a nightmare as we pulled in all kinds of favors to schedule this trip over Easter.

Time to get moving, it’s crazy out there, more on that tomorrow, be safe, and watch your backside, God Bless.

It figures that it’d snow a bunch since I have a 10 am flight this morning. There’s not a lot of snow but what is here is frozen and icy. The pass might be worse though so I’ll leave by 6 for what should be an hour and 40 minute drive. I’m allowing an extra hour so we’ll see how it goes. If for some reason the pass is closed or I don’t make it, well then it wasn’t meant to be. It’s always hard to tell as the media always sensationalizes everything, including the weather.

Yesterday Lori and I looked at a house in Eagle that seemed too good to be true. After our friend who is a builder checked it out, it was what we thought it was. It would have been like that movie The Money Pit. Oh well, have to check things like that out.

I was supposed to get in around 6 pm tomorrow but now will land about 10:30 in the morning. Lori has to take both boys to school this morning and tomorrow but I’ll be home to pick them up. Time to get moving so have a great week, take care and God Bless.

St. Patrick’s Day is apparently a much bigger thing than we remember. More on that later!

Yesterday we managed to get to the gym, clean the garage (me) clean the bathrooms (Lori) clean Ty’s room (Ty) and finally the piece de resistance, Jag’s room (Jag). Then Ty headed to town to hang out with some friends before going to see the movie the Black Panther. Lori, Jag and I went out to dinner at Matsu around 6:30. We assumed we’d walk right in and get a seat but as I said earlier, St. Patrick’s Day is a big deal! We only had to wait 15 minutes or so as Martina the hostess knows us well. We ended up at the sushi bar which was nice as it’s not as loud as in the main room. About 45 minutes later (we ate fast as we were starving) we were done. Once home Lori fell asleep in the chair while Jag and I watch a movie. An hour later I went back to town to pick up Ty. The boys then stayed up until who knows when watching tv. When I came down this morning all the lights and tv were still on but they did turn off the sound, ugh. We’d rather have them watch tv than watch crap on their computers.

Today we’ll get some more stuff done around here. The snow is supposed to arrive this afternoon and I’ll need to leave around 6:30 am for my flight out of Denver to Houston. My Tuesday afternoon meeting has been moved up to Monday afternoon so hopefully I should be able to grab an earlier flight home getting me in to Denver around 2 Tuesday afternoon.

Everyone is still sleeping except Mojo who has already had breakfast. Guess I’ll get moving. Hope everyone’s enjoying their weekend, take care, be safe and God Bless.

Boy we need this weekend. All week long we were super tired and just couldn’t catch up on our sleep. Hopefully in the next two days we’ll rest up. Monday I’m off to Houston and the boys are busy back at school and Lori will be at work. It’s sunny today but supposed to snow a bit tomorrow. Winter is winding down though, thankfully.

This morning Lori and I are headed to the gym and the boys I’m sure will still be sleeping when we get back. I think we’ll skip Denver and Moms house today and try to clean out our own garage and basement a bit. I made corned beef and cabbage last night which turned out so so. I followed the instructions and used a crock pot but it just didn’t turn out like it was supposed to. Guess I’m not Irish.

We’re trying to decide what to do with the last half of Spring Break from about April 26th through the 29th. We might go to Moab, maybe Las Vegas or maybe Phoenix, we’ll see. Jag and I were talking and we’re thinking Moab or Arizona and renting a motorhome for the 4 days. I’m in Europe the 20th to the 25th which are the first 4 or 5 days of the kids break but maybe I can get back a day early. A road trip would be cheaper and probably more fun than Vegas! Wherever we go it needs to be sunny!

I have a ton of great new pictures from Moms house. I’ll start posting them in a day or so once I get them on my computer. There are some of everyone and they bring back memories of happy times when we were all much younger. Life seemed so much simpler 40 or 50 years ago. Everyone got along, there was no criminal activity at every turn and people were all kind to each other, even if they didn’t agree politically. In fact, people helped each other! In many ways the World is a better place but in others, especially socially and as a people, it’s just not as good. Someday soon there will be a reset. Not sure what’ll happen but if you believe in God and the Bible at all, things will change. Oh well, not going to go into religion as that’s worse than politics! Anyhow have a great weekend and Happy St. Patrick’s Day! God Bless.

Now I’m not the most knowledgeable guy when it comes to volleyball, but it sure was fun! Each game night consists of three teams that play like a round robin or best 2 out of 3 until they all play each other. This means 9 games total! The first three Jag and his team played Valor Christian from Denver. Then there was like a 75 minute break while Valor played Heritage so Lori, James, Melanie, Marty and I went for sushi! We made it back in time to watch our boys play Heritage. Unfortunately we lost 2 out of 3 but man was it fun. It’s like watching a Will Ferrel movie with the boys dancing around and being as silly as possible. They have little routines they do and are just having a blast. We laughed more than anytime in months watching them. Can’t wait for the next game!

Yesterday afternoon the snow started. It kept snowing until late last night and the pass was closed when we left the game meaning the teams from Denver we played couldn’t get home. Today Jag’s staying home but Ty has a big website project to turn in. I was in Denver helping Tommy clean out more crap in the basement, nothing of note or special was found. Then Tom, Ali and I went to lunch before I headed up the hill to stop and get a pizza for Jag and his buddies before volleyball. We left a pile of trash bags that was huge, probably 30 bags and a bunch of larger items that needed to go to the dump. I don’t think I can get down today but tomorrow Lori and I will spend most of the day there cleaning.

It’s 7:14 now so time to go. Hope all’s well with everyone, have a great day and great weekend, GB.

Well we must have needed it but we woke up this morning at 7! Usually we leave at 7:45 so this means we’re late. (7:28 now) Tonight Jag has three volleyball games at 6,7 and 8. Lori has clinic and my truck is supposed to be in the shop by 10 in Denver for some sort of recall on the seat belt torsion bar.

Yesterday I had a haircut and then James and I cleaned out most of the closets, drawers and cubbies upstairs at Moms. We ended up with about 20 large black trash bags and stacks of things like old stereo speakers, chairs, old briefcases and more. James takes a lot of stuff we don’t want like soap that’s 40 years old and old towels, etc. to give to people in need. Today I hope to get through most of the basement. There’s still a lot of work to do but I’m trying to get all the small stuff out and then the big stuff remaining will go quick. Every now and then I find a gem like yesterday when I found Grandpa’s Baby Book from 1928 with all his baby information like his weight and height, when he sat up, when he walked, what nurses and doctors were there when he was born, the time he was born and more. It’s really fun to come across this kind of stuff. I also found a few old books like Tom Sawyer, Rider of the Purple Sage and another Zane Grey novel, with most inscribed to Ivan Dee for some holiday like Christmas 1934 or a birthday. In Dad’s office closet were some fun pictures of when he was a kid in high school or college all dressed up in a double breasted suit and yes, smoking a pipe! Those are the highlights mixed in among tons of useless junk like 10,000 paper clips, old calculators, used legal pads, old boots (from us kids, ski and hiking) and more. There are a ton of old papers going all the way back to Grandma Miller and Holmes that I need to read through to make sure there’s nothing important. Mom saved everything but if Dad saved something, there was usually a reason behind it.

That’s it, more to come as there’s still lots to go through. Have a great day, more snow tomorrow, ugh, take care and God Bless.