A Year of Change

5:30am and I Love Lucy is on tv! I love that show. We find ourselves watching the good old shows like Andy Griffith, Hogan’s Hero’s, Lucy and others from when we were kids. That’s good tv!

This morning I’m off to Denver and Boulder. I hope to be back by 3 at the latest. Ty’s first day of school was great while Jag had an outbreak of poison ivy yesterday from Boulder Creek. We think Ty has a little cold as he had a runny nose last night. Don’t worry, no covid, just a cold.

I found a used desk yesterday for $120. Nice find. It’ll do just fine. Our bbq starts being built end of next week, thank God. Oh, get this, our water bill is $3082 for 3 months! Now $1200 of that comes from our builder as they used a lot during the final stages of construction but $600 a month is still a lot of water! Today our landscaper will dial back our sprinklers to every 3rd day or so rather than 3 times a day. Our grass is in now so we can stop watering so much.

Lori worked from home yesterday and will do so again today. We’re getting things put away which is good as we still have a lot in storage.

Guess I’ll get going. I have a lot of trash to put out this morning. Last weekend of August. Fall is a coming! God Bless.

You can feel it in the air, Fall. It’s that one day that comes each year. The inflection point when you can feel a slight chill in the air. Soon we’ll be bird hunting, then we’re off to Idaho for elk. After that Halloween will be upon us in a wink and then Thanksgiving and Christmas with a bunch of birthdays sprinkled in. My favorite season by far.

Ty’s first official day of school starts at 8:20 this morning. I was in Boulder yesterday dropping Jag some things and a a few hundred dollars worth of food I picked up upon my arrival. He can eat which is good. he’s working hard and a lot. This weekend he has friends coming down from Vail to visit. Most of his friends schools are closed. I was down and up by about 3.

Here’s a picture of Jag’s dorm room, notice the open book! Small rooms but at least he has a room of his own with a shared shower and toilet. He also has a view of the courtyard. I took him his space heater (bottom left) as the air conditioning runs throughout the building. Robi, you’ll notice my 30 year old prized poster of Mick!

Our freezer is halfway full of beef and waiting for elk hopefully in a month. Lori and I continued to go through boxes from storage. The photo’s are priceless. I’ll be sharing some in the coming weeks after we get a bit more organized.

We’ll meet with Chris our stone guy this morning to hopefully get our bbq going. It’s brutal not having a bbq. I also have a management call from about 9:30 until 11. Then we’ll go get Lori’s desk in Frisco.

The smoke is almost nonexistent up here. I was at James’s house last night for our weekly get together with a few other buddies. One guy we know pretty well was there, Travis, and we were both surprised to see each other as I didn’t know he knew James. Ty and his son are in the same grade and he grew up in Appleton Wisconsin about 40 minutes from Shawano, Mom’s home town. We’ve always had that Green Bay Packer connection. Good to reconnect with him.

I’d like to get some more out of storage today but we need to put some more stuff away first.

That is it for the day. Do something for yourself today, you deserve it, God Bless.

This morning at 7:30 the painters are showing up. Great timing. That’s sarcasm. Lori has clinic, I’m supposed to be off to Boulder and Ty has new student orientation at 10 in Eagle. We’ll need to figure it out.

Yesterday we brought in a whole bunch of more china and figurines of Mom’s from storage. Every box is a surprise, ha. Also a lot of personal things. Lots of stuff is going away. We gave some to some friends and donated some kids books to the local elementary school.

Ty went to the dentist and had a cavity filled. Jag is working hard and thinks school will soon be shut down due to the lack of social distancing. Question, did anyone really believe 10,000 incoming freshmen would stay in their dorms, not hang out and wear masks whenever out, especially at night? I didn’t. So we’ll see what happens. Guess we’ll know in a week or so.

Not as much smoke up here but still have smoke. Lori’s unsure about our new bed. Painter’s just showed up so time to go. be well, safe and healthy, God Bless.

In a week it’ll be September, wow. Hard to believe it’s almost Fall. As you get older, time goes by fast. Jag’s in college, Ty’s a junior in high school and Tom’s almost 60 years old! ha.

Before then though I have a lot to do. This week I need get in a bunch of orders and clean more out of storage. I’d like to get one unit completely empty as that’d save some money. Last night we unpacked some more stuff. I’m glad I saved so much from Mom’s as I’m finding some really fun things from her childhood books to a small book of her favorite photos. Of course I’m all over it! I also found grandpa’s wallet with receipts from a boarding house in 1911 and a newspaper clipping of Mom’s grandma’s 95th birthday party. There’s lots more fun stuff like that plus numerous sets of china and other knick knacks. Not sure where to put them all. Some stuff we just let go but having a second chance to decide what to keep is helpful.

Ty starts school tomorrow and I’m going to see Jag to drop some more things that arrived for him. Today my good friend Matt is driving over a side of beef from a rancher in Montrose. We split the cow and booked it about 3 or 4 months ago and it’s only $3 a pound! We had mostly steaks, stew meat and hamburger cut. I could have sold my cow 10 times over for two or three times the price. Decided to keep it as meat prices have skyrocketed with Rib Eye’s about $20 a pound! In a month or so I’ll hopefully bring an elk home from Idaho too. Then we should be good for a year if needed.

Lori’s off to work and I have a few workmen coming over to fix some things. The most frustrating thing about building a house is the little crap you have to fix after you move in. It’s hard to get guys out as they’ve moved on to the next new house. Anyhow it’s slowly getting done.

Colorado is crushing Covid. We have the lowest positively rate and hospitalization rate out there except for really sparsely populated States like Wyoming. Now kids are getting it as they don’t really social distance. Good news is they really don’t get sick. Hang in there, we’ll beat this thing.

Have a great day, make it a great day! Do something to get ready for Fall, you can thank me later, God Bless.

Today Jag has his first class. He’s also talking with Admissions to add economics or finance and some business classes to be on a pre-law track. He’s second guessing engineering a bit with the majority of the classes now on line. He’s leaning more towards an entrepreneurial track.

We picked Ty up at Cherry Creek and headed to Boulder to take Jag some more things and then go to lunch. We went for pizza at one of our favorite restaurants. Then we headed home and arrived around 6 pm.

Mojo is not doing well. He’s not eating much and pretty tired. He’s just old and winding down. Lori starts school today too. Her first class is 6:30 to 9:30 tonight. Ty officially starts tomorrow with his first in person class Thursday. He’d rather be going to Cherry Creek High in Denver with his best friend Preston but that’s not going to happen.

I have one week to go in the month. Hard to believe a week from tomorrow is September 1st. Things should be changing around here weather wise pretty quick. It’s still smoky but they say they have some control over the fire. The smoke we’re getting is from California. They just announced I-70 is open through the canyon. This is huge as it’s been closed for 10 days or so meaning a 3 or 4 hour detour. Great job fire fighters.

Crazy times, crazy World. This will end. Remember the Spanish Flu took two or three years but it too did end. Hang in there, God Bless.

Here’s a reminder for all you Biden fans that expect your free stuff!

We’re headed back to Denver and Boulder in 2 hours. At 11:30 we’re meeting Ty who is driving back from the lake in Nebraska and then we’re heading to Boulder to have lunch with Jagger. He’s doing really well.

Yesterday we made two trips to storage and came back with two truck loads of containers. The things we found are priceless. Most of it was from Mom’s including tons of cut glass, photos, memorabilia and more. Brings back memories. We also hit Costco, the furniture store and more. The front room looks like an antique store crossed with Neiman Marcus as we’re still going through things.

It’s super smoky this morning even though they say the fire is partially contained. Must be from California as half of that State is burning.

We went to Marty and Melanie’s for dinner. I ran to James’s first to see my buddy Rob who was visiting. He makes their whisky thanks to me as I hooked him up with the band to get the job. He’s a good guy.

Time to get moving so we can walk and feed the dogs and get on the road. Hope everyone is well. September is right around the corner, wow. God Bless.

It’s surreal having Jag go off to college. It hasn’t really hit me but Lori took it like a mother would, not good, ha. We made it down by 7:45 after waking at 4am and loading both cars. Upon arrival he had to have another covid test and then we checked in and then headed to his dorm. He checked in there and then I took the first load up to his room with him. Lori or I didn’t need a test but only one of us could go up at a time. The rooms are small! I came down and then Lori went up with another load and I headed to Target to buy some more supplies for him. By the time I made it back, they were pretty much done and with a two hour limit to move in it was time for us to go. We hit Whole Foods before leaving Boulder and then headed home. We’re super excited for him and proud as well. With Ty in Nebraska we were all alone.

We made it home in 2 hours which was surprisingly quick and then rushed to the storage unit to grab some boxes before we waited for Craig our landscaper to come over. I unpacked the boxes outside due to the dust and carried in the books I decided to keep and made a pile of four boxes to donate to the local school. Today we’ll get some more stuff from our other storage unit and go through them too.

We’re off to the gym before getting back to work. In a crazy way Lori and I decided we’ll be ok when the kids are gone, as long as they’re close and come visit. It’s part of life, right?

We still need some furniture but will take it slow as things are so expensive. You’d think with the mess going on stores would have huge sales, nope.

Here’s a couple pictures from yesterday. Jag texted a few times last night as he was out with new friends already. Good for him. I did tell Lori she doesn’t look old enough to have a kid in college, right! God Bless you all, be well and be safe.

8/21/2020, 4am, Eagle CO, 60 minutes to launch. Destination, Williams Village, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO.

Time to get moving. All gear is staged at the front door to be loaded. We should be in Boulder by 7:30 am if all goes well. Then Lori and Jag will load gear into the dorm while I go buy food.

Yesterday Jag and I went to Denver to meet Ty for haircuts and a few other errands. On the way home we picked up our new truck. Ty is off to Nebraska today with Preston and his family for fun on the lake. We’ll meet them in Frisco on Sunday to gather him up.

Lori passed her Accutest placement test for college with a 281 out of 300! She starts her EMT classes on line on Monday.

Everyone else is fine. Time to get moving, be well, safe and God Bless, Go Buffs!

It’s a bad year for fires. While we’re in the middle of it, California has something like 365 fires burning as of today. In general, the west is burning. Intense temperatures with no rain are causing the problem. We did have some rain yesterday but that sparked a few new fires as with rain comes lightening. With all going on in 2020 this fits right in. Some say it’s biblical. Fires, pandemic, famine, social unrest, all we need now is floods and those will come in a few months when the rain and snow comes to all the barren hill sides stripped bare from the fires. Hold on, there’s more to come.

I took my buddy James for his injections yesterday morning at the surgery center in Frisco dropping him off at 8. About 2 hours later he was ready to go home. All went well. Later in the day after dropping Ty in Silverthorne to meet Preston I went back by to check on him. He’s doing fine but as steroids wear off you do feel a little flush. Lori will check on him today as I’m in Denver with Jag and we will meet Ty for haircuts.

Tomorrow am early we’re off to Boulder. They had six cases of Covid at CU so we’re hoping he doesn’t get sent home as soon as he arrives. He of course is negative but we’re afraid if the school has too many positive cases they’ll send everyone home.

I have to run by Minturn on the way down as I need to drop a key for the carpet guy and pick up four barstools to drop off at Jeff and Tina’s. On the way home we’ll stop at the Chevy dealer and return our loaner truck that we’ve had for a few days and pick up our new truck as it’s all ready.

The Dems and their convention are a joke. Everyone thinks Biden will win in a landslide and he could, (as too many people are that stupid), but I hope Trump squashes him like a bug. Biden is an idiot. Say what you will about Trump but he’s not senile. We happen to be surfing channels last night and heard Obama’s voice and had to mute the tv as just hearing his voice was painful. What a sad situation we’re in. It’s hard to understand how in 2020 the two choices we have for President are Trump and Biden. Since we need to pick one though, Trump, even with all his idiotic tweets is the only choice. Now time to move on.

I need to get moving. Jag and I need to leave in an hour. Lori is sleeping in as she has a test today and gets to work from home. God Bless.

I’m leaving in 40 minutes to drive my buddy to Frisco for neck injections. Lori got him in and he needs a ride. He’s not one to ask people for help but I’m happy to do it.

Tomorrow it’s off to Denver again and then Friday we leave early for college in Boulder. They do have six cases of the virus down there so we’re holding our breath hoping they don’t just shut it down.

We had our final appraisal yesterday and have a few things getting fixed today. Lori is also working in Frisco today so maybe I’ll see her this morning.

Time to go, be well, God Bless.