A Year of Change

It was sunny, a little rainy and nice and comfortable outside. At one point Lori said it was cold! Perfect mountain weather. No smoke to be seen and we have a hard time telling where the fire is even though they say it’ll take until August to burn out. Ty went back to Preston’s and Jag hung out. Lori and I went to one the doctor’s from the clinic annual crawfish boil. I think he’s from Louisiana and they flew in 200 pounds of live crawfish and brought in a few kegs of beer. There was all kinds of other food too. Lori knew some people and I a few. We didn’t stay too long, maybe an hour. After we left Dr. B and his wife Molly texted saying they just arrived. Too bad we missed them but they’re coming over this afternoon for enchilada’s.

My buddy Steve is closing Falling Rock Brewery in Denver today. It’s a Denver institution across from Coors Field that is wrapping things up due to years of construction screwing with Blake Street and covid. Hard to believe it. Not sure what he and his brother who own it will now do. I spent some fun times there over the years.

We might go to the farmers market in Vail today. It’s a good one and is every Sunday in the summer. Only three days left in the first half of the year. Soon it’ll be kids back to school, Fall weather and hunting season, Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas. Oh yea, Ty will be driving on his own in a few months too and the dreaded snow! Time goes fast, never stops!

We looked at Hawaii tickets last night and it’ll still cost $5k even though we have a free house and car. I’d like to take a family road trip up through Wyoming to Montana too. My buddy says we have to go to the Custer battlefield outside of Billings. He said it’s so eerie and you get this mystical feeling from all the history there. Lori went in 1994 but the boys and I have never been. We’ll see as we’re getting Dixie out here too. Lori yesterday said we should bring her out on the train! That’s a great idea as it’d be fun for her. They have these sleeper cars with private bathrooms and showers and an attendant. We’re looking into that. Kristin is there now with Dixie for about 5 days. Time for some changes.

That’s it, time to get this party started. Perfect weather for the week ahead. God Bless.

What a day, thankfully all things come to an end, including yesterday! It started out fine with a quick trip to Denver. I was back a little after 1 in the afternoon. I knew storms were coming so I was in and out of town quickly. Lori had to run to work for a few hours while Ty stayed home. Jag was working. Around 4 we took Ty to meet Preston in Edwards as he was going to dinner at their house and spending the night. Jag headed out around 6 to go see Katie and that’s where the fun begins. He managed to make it a little past Vail before his right front tire blew out. He didn’t have a jack and the spare on most European cars is a mini spare with a built in compressor and of course this didn’t work. I called the West Vail Shell station and had a truck over to him shortly only to find out that the spare wouldn’t inflate. Our only choice was to tow it so I jumped in the truck to go get Jag in Vail. Once there the guy at the station, who I know, said he’d drive it on the flatbed down to the tire shop in Eagle near us. So about $450 later we have the car in position to get fixed Monday am. Jag and I made it home around 10:30.

Being all wound up I couldn’t get to sleep until between 11:30 and midnight. Then the fun begins. Mojo was up and in and out no less than 20 times during the night! On top of that, sometime early this morning, 4 or 5, he shit in our room! No more sleeping in the house. He’s now been banished to the dog run out back. We can’t go another night with basically no sleep.

Throw in torrential movie type rain while driving to get Jag and it was a fun night. The rain did push out or damp down all the smoke so it’s nice and cool and sunny out this morning. Jag works Monday so we’ll need to figure out how to get him to work while his car is getting fixed. He figures he’ll make about $3K this summer and offered to pay but this episode would easily take half of his earnings. I told him he’ll have plenty of time in his life to pay for unexpected crap that life throws at him. He was super thankful and learned a lot as I used this whole thing as a life lesson to teach him how to handle problems mentally and literally and how to be prepared for things like this and others to happen. No point in letting a tragedy go to waste!

Meanwhile I’m sure Ty had fun. Preston picked him up in his dad’s $300K Lamborghini Urus. I told Preston “nice car” and he said “yea, I can’t believe my dad let me take it”! The boys were all smiles ear to ear, ha. Today we have a crawfish boil at one of the doctor’s from Lori’s office house and then she’s been invited to dinner after that with a couple of girlfriends. They flew in all these fresh crawfish from New Orleans and have this party every year.

Since we sold the Suburban and can go get our check today, my buddy Alec at the Mercedes dealer has a new Mercedes SUV that came in as they, the Mercedes dealer, has offered to give us what we paid for our current Mercedes too! Not sure what we’re doing but having an SUV is a definite benefit.

Here’s Ty and Preston, oh to be young!

Make it a great day, be well, stay safe and God Bless. Doesn’t look like $300K does it? Just looks like a blue car to me 🙂

Off to Denver. Hope to be back by 1. Finally we had some rain yesterday, a good rain too. It looks sunny outside right now with little to no smoke. Thank God. You can still smell some though. Jag had a good day at work and is working again today. He’s working four days a week which to him is a lot, ha. Ty has some work to do around the house today, no skate park. Lori is home and seems to be busy all the time.

We had all the drywall cracks, bumps and dings fixed yesterday. Now we wait for the painters. Not sure what’s going on this weekend. I’d like to finally get one storage unit cleaned out. That’s it, time to move. Be well and God Bless.

Yesterday our builder was up tearing apart a wall that was crooked when built. They managed to get it fixed and the drywall guys come in today. Next Tuesday the tile guys show up and sometime before or after the painters show up too. Window guys from Denver stopped yesterday and replaced a handle that was the wrong color when the house was built. This is all part of the punch list which is a list of things that need to be fixed from when the house was built. With a new house you need to basically wait a year for the house to settle as it goes through a period when wood swells and shrinks depending on the weather. Soil also gets packed down and settles so you always find some surface cracks in drywall and other places. So with it being 11 months since the house was finished, it’s now time to come in and fix everything. The only thing that doesn’t get fixed is concrete. They say in Colorado you have two kinds of concrete, cracked and concrete that’s going to crack, ha. Overall our house is in really good shape but like any new house, a few things need to be fixed.

Lori was in Edwards yesterday. Jag is working in Bachelor Gulch today and Ty is helping him set up for an open house. I guess Ty is making $50! It’s going to be cooler today, nice. That should help the fire fighters. As I said yesterday, most smoke is from Arizona and New Mexico.

Think we’ll try to get our Hawaii tickets today. I’m going to James house tonight to smoke our Big Poppy cigars I snagged last week. First up Lori and I are going to the gym this morning.

The day wouldn’t be complete without some gaffs from Joe Biden. Yesterday he tried to blame guns again for the surge in crime. Think about this, when a cop shoots someone, anywhere, it’s the individual cops fault and they prosecute him or her and then want to defund the police yet when a criminal shoots somebody they blame the gun and let the criminal go! How does that make any sense? It doesn’t. This guy doesn’t even know what the 2nd Amendment stands for. It was 100% written to protect the people from an overreaching tyrannical government yet Joe said yesterday that’s not true and that we people don’t need guns. He then went on to say we’d better get F 15 jets and nuclear weapons to stand up for our rights, wtf? The guy can’t even read the teleprompter anymore without screwing up. Thankfully the Supreme Court is stopping a lot of his unlawful moves like providing reparation’s for black farmers only and not white farmers. This is obviously discrimination. God help us. We have to vote the dems out of power in 16 months. Hope we can hold on until then.

God Bless.

Rain coming? Hope so. It smells like a campfire outside. Not from our fire but from Arizona and New Mexico and their fires. The smoke settles into the valley in the mornings and rises and moves out during the day. Tomorrow and Friday rain is in the forecast. Hope they’re right.

Jag worked yesterday and then cleaned his room in the afternoon. Ty was in Edwards and so was Lori working. I went to Frisco to go grocery shopping. Today Lori is in Vail and needs to talk to Dr. B about her headache. I have a few calls and will head back to the gym.

Crime is up everywhere and people are fed up. The dems are worried and Biden is going to go on tv tonight and blame Trump and guns. The mayor of Chicago blamed AR 15’s yesterday for the 50 plus shootings in Chicago over the weekend even though every single shooting involved a handgun, no rifles. No surprise. People are starting to see through the blame game thankfully. From school board meetings to mayoral elections to local town councils such as in Silverthorne where the mayor tried to stop the town council from saying the Pledge of Allegiance, people have had it. You can only push people so far. It’s time to stand up and be counted for and let your opinion be known. By the way, the town council and audience said the Pledge anyhow. Most people have kept quiet for fear of being a target of the far left. Time for our voices to be heard and stop this crap in its tracks. Even the liberal Bill Mahr on HBO who is, or was, a darling of the left, has said enough is enough. Do what’s right, wake up before it’s too late. These left leaning loudmouths are punks and bullies, nothing more. The only way to handle a bully is to stand up to them and confront them. Be an American!

Ugh, time to go, sucked in again, ha. Be well, stay safe and God Bless.

We’re not in any real danger as of right now as the fire seems to be heading south but there is now some smoke in our area. Winds shift often in the mountains. No rain expected until the weekend up here. The worse thing about living in the mountains is the summer fires. Seems like it’s a regular thing now.

Jag worked until about 5 and is working again today. They want him four days a week or so now. I did about six loads of laundry of the boys yesterday. Man can they go through clothes. Lori is in Edwards today. I think I’ll head to the gym this morning. I also need to get a new phone as mine loses time somehow.

Time to get moving. Stay safe, people are losing it out there. Multiple shootings every day in Denver and crazy shootings across the Country in larger cities like New York and Chicago. Keep your head on a swivel. God Bless.

Here we go, surprised it took this long. We have a fire up at Sylvan Lake. That’s about 20 minutes up the road where Jag went camping a couple weeks ago. Good news is it’s moving south southeast which is the opposite direction of us. It looks to have calmed down overnight. If you didn’t know a fire was up there you wouldn’t know there is one. Hope they get a handle on it today before it gets hot and windy again tomorrow. We’re in no danger but James offered to have us come stay at his house if it’s too smoky. Awful early in the summer for fires.

Yesterday we had a fun leisurely day. We ate way too much and hung out as a family and had a lot of fun. Nothing special, just hanging out. Jag works today and is headed to the gym first. Lori is in Frisco and Ty and I will go to the gym after my 9am call.

Concerts are back at full capacity at Red Rocks, nice. Thing are getting back to normal but watch out as the govt. is pushing a “new variant” which is another reason to control the people. Don’t fall for it! I can’t believe they’re trying to vaccinate all the kids.

Time to move, last full week of June. Get busy, God Bless.

Man am I blessed. I have the two greatest boys in the World and a fantastic wife. The single greatest thing I’ve ever done in my life was becoming a father. I know without a doubt that my boys will make the World a better place. Hell, they already have. So it’s not really a celebration of me but rather of them. For me it’s another day I get to spend with my wife and kids which is all I really want. I’m a lucky man.

Yesterday we went to the gym and then walked across the street to the farmers market and bought some fresh tamales from this local Mexican lady that makes them in her kitchen. They’re obviously the best. Ty came home a day early and Jag went to Denver for me to pick him up. They stopped at Tom and Ali’s to pick up a futon frame and hang out a bit. Lori cleaned and made cheese cake for today. She wants today to be super special and keeps asking me what I want to do when the short answer is, really nothing, ha. Mother’s Day is different, mom’s want things like breakfast in bed, flowers, brunch out at a fancy restaurant, and something else along with presents. I’m good with some coffee and hanging out.

In the afternoon I dropped some wine to the owner of one of our favorite restaurants in Edwards. Then I stopped at another shop before heading home. We’re still trying to kick Lori’s headache and need to find a solution. Today we’re grilling some steaks and beef ribs from Edwards Meat Market. That’s about it. Oh, I do want to post some more stuff we need to get rid of so we can sell it. Old cowboy boots, stuff in the garage, and other junk.

Happy Father’s Day to our dad’s that are no longer with us. They each played such an important role in our lives. One of the main problems with society these days is the lack of father’s in the life of so many kids growing up. Show me a troubled kid on the wrong path and chances are high he has no father in his life. Make it a great day, live life and don’t take any day for granted, they go so fast! God Bless.

Man it’s hard to function properly with not enough sleep. The past two days I had to get up too early or Mojo kept us up too late or worse, woke us in the middle of the night too many times. I slept in, sort of, until 8 this morning. Last night was another night filled with Mojo wanting repeatedly in and out, ugh.

Ty might come home today as he aggravated his ankle so he’s not wake boarding any more on this trip. Of course he’s dependent on his friend Preston leaving a day early from Nebraska to drive them home. Jag went to Lexi’s last night and came home after we were asleep. Lori’s doctor appointment went well, she went to the dermatologist. I dropped her and went to Cigars on 6th where I picked up the last 3 Sluggers which are a special smoke from David Ortiz, the former Red Sox baseball player known as Big Poppy. Then I hit Edwards Meat Market for some steaks for tomorrow and went back to get Lori. We were home mid afternoon with a car load of stuff.

It’s perfect outside now, probably in the 60’s with the high today around 80. I think we’re going to the gym. Lori is dealing with some patient a year younger than Jag that needs emergency surgery I think today. The guy who took Dr. C’s place at Steadman has had a ton of complications which is another word for mistakes so he’s been pulled from surgery, so Dr. Braxton and Lori are the only game in town and have been trying to pick up the critical cases that can’t wait. Meanwhile Lori is trying to manage Dixie’s care as doctors in Sacramento are just as incompetent as they are everywhere. What I mean is they just have incomplete information which can lead to sometimes not the correct decision. Doctors usually see you for 10 or 15 minutes whenever you go to them for care, right? Knowing this, they can’t be expected to know everything including the back story of your health or situation when they only see you for a few minutes every few months or so. That’s why it’s critical to be an advocate for yourself and to take charge of your own care. Do not, I repeat, do not just go along with what any medical provider says. It needs to be a two person decision, meaning the patient and the doctor. You have to give your input and make sure your doctor knows what your body is telling you. They cannot tell everything going on in 10 or 15 minutes. So Lori corrected the doctors in Sacramento a few times yesterday and stopped a diagnosis and change in medication that could have literally caused a stroke! Just goes to prove you don’t have to have the title doctor to make life saving decisions. I’ve seen Lori do this many times over the years. Anyhow we (she) thinks her mom is in a good place for now and getting better.

Enjoy, be well, stay safe and God Bless.

80 to 85 degrees up here today, perfect! Hot everywhere, 128 degrees in Death Valley California yesterday. I made it to Denver by 7:35 for the new windshield and was headed up the hill by 10:30. On the way home a truck cut in front of me coming down Vail Pass and I hit a pothole. The car felt a little funny but I thought it was just the surface of the road. When I arrived home I found a nice bulge or bubble on the left front tire. So for the 3rd time in a week I was off to the tire shop. I had all four All Season tires taken off and the regular tires I had stored in the garage put on.

Then it was off to James house for cigars and guy time in his backyard at Lake Creek. The sound of the water is so nice. There were four of us, Clark and Mark, James and I. At 6:30 I headed to the Pope’s house where the small graduation party for Jag and six friends was going on. Lori and Jag drove over earlier. It was great to see all the kids who are sophomore’s in college now. It was fun for all of us parents to catch up as we used to see each other daily when the kids were in high school. We decided to make a point of us parents getting together more often. We hung out until about 8:30.

This morning Lori has an appointment in Golden at the doctor at 11. I’ll probably go with her. Sunday is Father’s Day. I think the new season of Yellowstone starts. That’ll be fun.

On the political front, Putin ate Biden’s lunch last week. We gave up a bunch of stuff while the rest of the World and us received nothing and Biden made gaff after gaff. The guy has dementia, you can see it clear as day. From his angry outbursts to hand gestures to stumbling and bumbling and mixing up his words. It’s criminal that the dems are using him as a puppet President and sending him out daily to represent us. Hopefully the Country will wake up by November 2022. How are those price increases, the surge in crime, shortages on everything and the continual push to divide us working out for you?

That’s it, hope Ty is having fun. Knock on wood we have no tire issues today! God Bless.