A Year of Change

Hard to believe it’s November 21st right? I mean forget the relatively nice weather we have when we should or could have a foot of snow. Think about how fast Thanksgiving arrived and that soon it’ll be Christmas. You can’t slow down time. It keeps on moving no matter what you do. It reminds me of the story of a wealthy old man who would give up his entire fortune for just another year. As we get older we all need to try to do more, not less. I think you get the picture.

Up here we’re busy. The boys are certainly living life and we’re trying too. The problem is work, bills and other meaningless things sometime get in the way. You know, responsibilities.

In Denver yesterday I saw Tom briefly at the bank but he was in a board meeting and we didn’t get to talk. I’d like to get the snow tires on Lori’s car today but will go down Tuesday instead. Of course they now say snow Tuesday morning.

I ordered up a small smoked turkey and two tomahawk steaks from Edwards Meat Market yesterday. Those guys are about the best I know of.

Ty spent the night at Preston’s in Vail and Jag will pick him up this morning. Lori and I are headed to the gym and then will clean up a bit around here and watch some football. I have work calls scheduled Monday am and Tuesday afternoon and then might go bird hunting Wednesday am. Thursday there are three football games and I think we’ll all go down to cousin Lee’s for Thanksgiving as they invited us. We’ll know more later.

That’s it, time to go, God Bless.

Been a long week. Maybe a little snow tonight and then some more next Tuesday and next Friday. That’ll be fun for all the Black Friday shoppers if there are any this year. I might go bird hunting if we can get in. Today it’s one more drive for work. I should be home by 2 or 3.

Went to James’s last night as he just got back from 2 weeks in California. They did some huge on line benefit concert. I missed it but it was pretty cool from what I understand.

Preston spent the night with us and Jag had a physics test at 8pm last night. It was a 100 minute test. Strange it started at 8pm but it is 2020. Hope 2021 is much better. Lori had an allergy headache yesterday. Hope it’s gone this morning.

Pfizer is filing for FDA authorization today for its vaccine. Seems to be going well and people will start receiving it in December. People like us, relatively healthy, probably won’t get it until next March of April. Stay healthy! Dr. Faucci said yesterday it’s remarkable and is for real. Amazing Trump got this done in a matter of months. The Dems, especially Joe, said he had no plan for distribution. Well if you saw the General from the Army and listened to him, he has a master plan. We still can’t believe Joe won. From some recent revelations, maybe he didn’t, more to come. Stay tuned.

Time to go, be well, be safe and God Bless.

Last night it was windy up here and yesterday while bird hunting it was windy too. We had two labs who in my opinion are not as good as pointers. They run too far ahead of you and by the time the bird clears them (gets high enough in the air so you can shoot without shooting the dog) it’s 50 yards or more which makes for a super long shot. Anyhow we didn’t see a lot of birds. Warm weather with wind and labs were the cause. I did shoot a couple nice roosters but it wasn’t like I’m used to. Anyhow a bad day of hunting is better than a good day of working!

I’m off in 30 or 4o minutes to pick up Lori’s car so time to get moving. Today is Ty’s last day of school until December. This no Thanksgiving thing boggles the mind. On Thanksgiving you usually get together with people you’ve been seeing all the time anyhow. Hmm.

The keto diet is working well for me. I’m down 4 pounds of pure fat, no muscle. You can tell from the way your clothes fit. I actually enjoy eating like this too. No carbs and virtually no sugar and absolutely no processed foods. All this results in zero inflammation which they say is the root of most disease. if you want skinny ankles, go keto!

Time to go, 30 minutes to hit the road so I’m back by 11. Be well and safe and GB.

3:20 am, up and getting ready to head out to Denver to meet up with my buddy Toby. Need to be on the road by 4:15 or earlier. Then it’s a bit over another hour to Rocky Mountain Roosters where we’ll hook up with our flushing lab and hunt some pheasant. I can’t wait as it’s been since last March since I was bird hunting. Should be done around 11 and home before 3.

I ran down to Denver yesterday to drop Lori’s car and pick up some samples. I was home by noon. Ty and Jag will be at home today working and waiting to let some guys in to fix the AV panel in the garage. It’s suppose to be warm today and was nice yesterday too. Snow Saturday am while we’re sleeping and then it’ll be gone by the end of the day.

Training is going well. It’s hard to only eat lean protein and select good fats like avocados and olives and a few nuts. I’m committed though so it is what it is. Pop quiz! Who always said “it is what it is”? I think we know.

Be well and safe and I’d love to share some pheasants with you if any of you were a bit closer. God Bless.

It’s 5:10 am and I should be out of here by 6. I’m dropping Lori’s car in Denver for the scheduled work. I should be home by noon. Tomorrow I’ll be up even earlier and should be well on my way to bird hunting by this time.

It was nice yesterday, really nice. Lori had to run to the office to transfer some data from one computer to another so I went to workout the same time as Ty since I had to drive him home anyhow. He’s getting stronger and sticking with it. My legs will most likely be super sore tomorrow when hunting. For the past two weeks and the foreseeable future I’m working out with a trainer only on legs. I have the arm part down, ha. My goal is to get my legs as strong, or stronger than they were when I was about 20 years old. We’re planning a Yukon moose hunt next year and I’m starting my training now. We were supposed to go this year but the virus shut down the border with Canada.

Mojo rallied big time. He’s like a puppy again. Lucky for him we didn’t take him in a few days ago. We thought we were losing him then but he must have just had a bug or was feeling under the weather.

Lots going on to prepare for 2021 at work. It looks like Trumps efforts on a vaccine, which he went all in on some months ago, is going to pay off. Multiple companies say they now have one with 90% or above effectiveness. This obviously will be good news for the entire World. If there was no virus he would have won easily. Reading some reports about vote manipulation, the jury is still out on whether he did or not. I think some big news will be coming out shortly so we’ll see. In any case, you have to give him 100% credit for the vaccine which he had produced by the millions in case it worked so there would be no delay. In a week, after the FDA fast tracks it, we’ll know more. Pray for the best. While you’re at it, please pray our townhome sells!

That’s it, time to get moving, be well, safe and God Bless.

The above used to mean one week until school was out and a week or so until a four day weekend but now it just means one week until turkey day. Such a weird year with everyone mostly having already doing school and work from home. Now the Gov wants everyone to work from home anyhow. In Denver the 10pm curfew is back on. The big question is how is everyone now getting sick? It’s not like there’s been large gatherings at football games or concerts or that in the past month everyone started throwing big parties. I think the virus is just working its way through the population and there’s probably no way to stop it or even slow it down. So if you’ve been a hermit not going anywhere for six months, you’re still probably going to catch it. For the rest of us, we’ve probably already had it and are asymptomatic or have been exposed and didn’t catch it. Either way, sooner or later herd immunity should build up. Let’s hope that happens quickly.

Ty has school today and then Thursday and then I think is done for a week with next week being the holiday. Jag is working from home and Lori might have to run to the office today. I have to take her car down tomorrow and pick up a loaner so they can tint her windows and put on a clear bra. They should make clear bras for women!

Today is day 3 of keto for me. I guess it’s really day 2 if you count the entire day. The human body is really amazing in how quickly is changes or adapts to changes in diet. I always say, food is a drug and some food is worse than others. I feel fine so far and am not sluggish which is a hallmark of the first 3 days they say. We’ll see how today goes. I actually feel really good and have more energy and can tell that fat and inflammation are decreasing daily. Interesting. We’ll see how I look and feel in a month.

Tom has his tree up! Robi, what about you? Time to get Ty moving so I’d better go. Jag can sleep in as he’s responsible for his own schedule. A month from tomorrow he’ll be 19, wow. Two months from tomorrow Ty will be 17. Guess that means we’re getting older too. A month and 3 days from tomorrow Tom will be 60! Uh oh. God Bless.

Yesterday we, or should I say Lori, with the help of Jag and Ty, decorated our tree. I think we have more ornaments on it this year than any other year we’ve had a tree. Most all of them are Mom’s. When we were in Minturn we had such a small tree we didn’t even bother to get our nice ornaments out. So this is the first year since Mom passed that we’re actually using her decorations. Each one has a story of its own. It was pretty special to just sit back and watch each one go on the tree. Many of them jogged memories of when I was young.

Later in the day Jag took Ty to Vail to spend the night at Preston’s. Jag will pick him up around noon after he has lunch with Charlotte who is home from the University of Arizona for Christmas break. It’s great all of his group of friends stay in touch.

It was cold yesterday with strong winds but is supposed to be a lot warmer today and even nicer tomorrow. I think we’ll go to the gym again. I’m giving up carbs all the way and doing Keto for a month to get in shape. The worst thing about Covid is all the stress eating and extra calories you consume from just being home all day.

Jag’s glad to be home and we’re glad to have him. It’ll be nice for him to be here for two months. Can’t believe we still have to pay for school next month and for half of this month and January when he’s not there, ugh.

Here’s our tree! Make it a great day and Go Broncos! God Bless! If you look close you’ll see a broken ornament on the right side, ha.

Last night about 8 pm Jag pulled in. He brought along about 20 loads of sour smelly laundry, whoo hoo. Lori made some Asian flank steak for the boys and was glad to have everyone home. Both boys are sleeping and I suspect Ty will be for some time as when I woke at 5 am, I heard some noise upstairs and he was playing a game with a bunch of buddies. When I asked him what he was doing and told him what time it was he had a look of shock on his face and said “oh sorry, I lost track of time”, ha. I remember when I was his age we’d pull all nighters playing the game of Risk or poker. We’ll let him sleep until noon but I’m sure he’ll fall asleep early tonight.

As I said the other day, Jag is now home until January 11th at the earliest as that’s when students can start moving back into their dorms for the January 14th start of second semester.

It snowed but seems to be stopping. I think it started around 3 or 4 am. I’ve already shoveled the driveway. It’s a heavy wet snow. I use two shovels at the same time with one in each hand to get the job done quicker. Our flock of 30 or 40 mountain blue jays are out back digging through the snow cover for food. Update, it just started snowing and blowing again. I love weather, it lets you know you’re alive!

I have some work to do today between football games. Mojo is not doing very well. It probably won’t be long until he’s gone. He has a hard time getting up and moving around. We’re keeping him as comfortable as we can. We might have to take him in next week if he can’t get up, sad.

Lori will be decorating inside today. She bought some garland with lights at Costco yesterday but it’s not battery operated so it’s going back as she doesn’t have a plug on the stairs.

Time to go so we can get to the gym. It just got really dark outside as the cloud cover rolled in. It’s like a wave of wind and snow is blowing in. Up here in the Highlands we can sometimes get stuck in the clouds while just down the hill it can be sunny. I love that.

Stay healthy, safe and warm unless you’re like Robi and Robert in sunny Arizona and then stay cool! God Bless.

Jag’s coming home tomorrow! Guess we’ll make him semi-quarantine from us (meaning keep his distance) for four or five days. Not sure what else to do. We can’t put him in a hotel for a week so we’ll do the best we can. He’ll be here until January 14th when school starts up again.

Preston came over last night and spent the night with us. Lori made Thanksgiving dinner for us last night. It was good. I think we’re having crab and steak for turkey day so this was sort of my early Thanksgiving. I’m about the only one in the family that likes turkey.

Snow tomorrow, all clear and sunny today. Jag needs to get up here tonight instead of tomorrow. Lori and I have work to do on the phone and computer. More kids at Ty’s school with covid but we didn’t get a call saying any were in his class. With one week to go, or two days of actual school for him, they should just shut it down. I do think they go back the week after Thanksgiving break. We’ll see.

That’s it, time to get moving. We need to get our Christmas decorations out and put ornaments on the tree. Be safe and God Bless.

It doesn’t look like much but apparently it was enough snow to close down I-70 between Dotsero and Glenwood. It’s open now. Looks like an inch outside but everything is white.

They say the vaccine is 90% effective. Let me know how it works out for you after you get it! I’m all better today. Zinc, Vitamin C, Elderberry and Chaga tea seemed to knock out whatever was trying to take hold in my body. Jag tested negative for covid and I think he is coming home this weekend, Ty has school today. We’re shocked they haven’t gone to all on line learning with only a week to go until Thanksgiving break.

Lori worked in Frisco and I drove her and picked her up. 120 miles round trip twice. I had to go over there anyhow. We’ll be staying close to home today with the weather.

They say we should have Thanksgiving outside, right. “They” must live in Florida or Arizona. We’re being extra careful but still need to live our lives. A Worldwide study came out yesterday saying lockdowns don’t do any good. This means wear a mask but live your life. I’m waiting for them to come out and say masks don’t do any good. Wouldn’t surprise me.

It’s beautiful up here. Time to go so we can get Ty to school and get to the gym. God Bless and be safe.