A Year of Change

It’s only been day 2 or 3 for most of us sheltering in place. So the question is, how are you doing? I did make it to Denver but kept my distance from everyone. I hit the dry cleaner, the grocery store, the meat market and the book store. I also had to stop at the bank. I took hand sanitizer with me everywhere and kept my distance from everyone.

When I made it home I headed to the gym to workout. As I think I mentioned they gave me a key so I could go in alone and have the entire place to myself! This is a really big deal if you know me as no way I can go two months or whatever it is without working out. The best part is that I can sing as loud as I want and no one hears!

We still don’t have Lori’s test results back but I now know she has the virus. She walked up the hill and was winded pretty quick and decreased lung capacity is one of the major tells. Good news is they say your lungs will come back from cardio. Her temperature is gone and they also say that when it’s gone for 72 hours she’s past the contagious stage. Of course all of this is so new that you just don’t know what to believe. Good news is she can breathe and never reached the point where she needed to go to the hospital. Praying that the worst of it is over. I told her that when they call and say “you have it” you can hopefully say, “no I had it”. There are multiple strains though so you don’t want to catch a different strain after you have had it.

The boys start Distance Learning today. Jag stayed home all day while Ty went for a bike ride by himself. Here’s one important thing, get outside! Your immune system needs sun. Up here and in Denver we’re supposed to get snow tomorrow and Friday. It’ll be a quick storm but it is snow. I think Denver is getting hit much harder than we will up here.

So anyone planning on reading a book? I bought a new one. Maybe we should start a virtual book club. Anyone in? That’s it, stay home, stay safe and God Bless.

Me alone at the gym!

Today I’m off to Denver to get some work done on the car. I hope to leave there by 9 or 10 and head home. When I drop the car I’ll head across the street to Whole Foods and see what’s going on. We still don’t have Lori’s test back but I’m sure she has the virus. Praying none of us get it. Guess we’re 6 or 7 times more likely too with a positive case in the house, super. I’ll stay at least six feet away from everyone.

I spent my 5th night on the couch. In the morning I did drop off 5 masks to Lori’s nurses at the hospital. How’s that for irony, we’re supplying the hospital with N100 masks. Ty was outside at the skate park for most of the day. Lori called his two friends mom’s to let them know she was tested before we let him go. I guess Zoe arrived home from Israel last night. Ty is pissed off as we didn’t let him go over to her house. He doesn’t really understand the whole quarantine thing. Thankfully Jag does.

I need to sneak into my room to shower and get going while staying at least 6 feet away from you know who. Hope everyone is holding up ok. This is just the beginning. Things are going to get a lot more uncomfortable before they get better. Pace yourself and dig out some good books. The Govt. wants everyone to stay home for 15 days. If we can all do this it’ll go a long way to stopping this thing. After making my bank run and getting the car fixed we’ll go into total lockdown. San Francisco as of midnight last night ordered all residents to stay in their houses until April 7th. That’s basically Marshall Law. If we don’t stay away from each other I think this will happen nationwide.

Boys, we’re living through history. They’ll write about this in books someday. We’ll get through this. Sorry you have to go through this. It shouldn’t be happening in this day and age. Again, know we love you both, God Bless.

P.s. as a bonus, if you look back to yesterday I pulled a bunch of pictures of Jag so he could use them in his senior picture for graduation!

Here we go, as Bob Dylan said, the times they are a changing. Yesterday I had a brief talk with the boys. Things have been moving so fast we really haven’t stopped to address the elephant in the room. Life has changed. It probably will be different for some time to come. So as a family, I said some things that needed to be said. I’m sure we all know what’s going on but I thought it important to not only stress the seriousness of the situation but also let them know we’ve never seen anything like this in our lives and it’s all new to us too. As I thought, they get it. The tough part is not going anywhere and basically self isolating ourselves from everyone.

Eagle County where we live has been hit pretty hard. So have 3 other counties that have ski areas. This of course is because so many people travel here from everywhere. In any case, it’s bad everywhere and is clearly a pandemic and worldwide problem. Our plan is to keep Lori away from the rest of us until we get her results which hopefully come today. I think she has it but even if true, we think she’s over the worst of it and getting better. Her fever seems to have almost gone away and her cough is mostly gone too. Of course we’re not sure as there’s no history with this so no one really know. That of course means I slept on the couch for the 4th night in a row. Hope it’s not 10 more nights!

As far as work, two surgeons in the clinic have shut down for 2 weeks and I think Lori’s will too. She moved all surgeries this week yesterday. In my Company, in a few hours we’re having a Company wide conference call where I’m installing a travel ban for everyone. Many States, rightly so, are shutting down all restaurants and bars as well as movie theaters, bowling alley’s, gym’s, and just about anything else you can think of. Our three cars are gassed up and shelves stocked. I might make a quick run to the grocery store for some cooking oil, coffee creamer and any meat I can get. I have plenty to last months but would prefer to keep using food from the store before we have to rely on our stores. I will wear a mask for the first time.

As part of my talk I told the boys every company in the Country or World is figuring out how to deal with this and how to stay in business. This is true for us too and we have no choice but to have a 20% pay cut for everyone. We are keeping everyone and continuing to provide health insurance. The smarter move would have been to lay a few people off and cut more expenses but that’s not the human thing to do. I also pointed out there are families trying to figure out how to get food every day as many don’t have the funds to go out and buy a bunch to have on hand. Luckily as you know if you’ve been reading this daily, I’ve been buying seriously for over a month.

So there you have it, life has changed. Lori says her mom is bored as I know the boys and most of us are. Say a prayer as prayer helps! Also practice social distancing.

Update, the stock market opened and immediately closed within 5 minutes as it dropped 10% which triggers a shutdown. Wow.

Boys, strange times these days. You’re both handling the way I would expect, with maturity, strength and understanding. No matter what happens, know we love you and this will pass. Keep faith in God always and you’ll be ok. Love mom and dad.

Alright, we’re all stocked up, everything is cancelled, we’re not supposed to congregate in even small groups, so what do we do? There’s no where to go, it’s risky to go to a friends house, as you don’t know where they’ve been, and I’m sure the gym will soon be closed. Guess we’ll have a lot of time to purge around the house and get in some good movies and books. At least we don’t have toddlers. Can you imagine trying to occupy a bunch of little kids?

Lori is still living upstairs alone. I see her maybe 2 or 3 times a day when she comes down for food or coffee. I make sure to stay a good 6 feet or more away from her. She’s still convinced she doesn’t have it, I’m convinced she does. So we have a stalemate. No matter who’s right, better to error on my side, right?

Ty’s girlfriend Zoe is coming home from Israel, I think today. We had a big company conference call yesterday and will put in a travel ban tomorrow and be cutting everyone’s salary between 15 and 20% on April 1st. Our thinking is to keep everyone employed and continue to provide medical insurance but with less money coming in, less needs to go out. I could just cut 2 or 3 people and leave everyone else alone but that’s not the right thing to do. I do have one girl I was letting go on Friday but unbeknownst to her, the virus saved her job!

Antonio was at a dinner on Thursday with a rep in Seattle who came down with the virus Friday morning. Not from him but the place he stays has now told him he needs to get his own place as the guy has older parents. Jody in Florida just returned two days ago from being on the road for 2 weeks. His wife wants him to go get a hotel and quarantine himself even though he has no symptoms as she’s diabetic. She even took the kids and went to a friends house until he could get some stuff. He found a VRBO for $800 for 12 days. Funny thing is I don’t think we’ll know a whole lot more in 12 days than we do now. So people are all freaking out. maybe I should be more but I’m taking it one day or one hour at a time.

The news just said people who were tested Wednesday are still waiting for results. Lori of course was tested Friday so that probably means a few more nights on the couch. It’s getting old and it’s only been 3 nights.

I did workout yesterday but think I’ll skip the gym today. Might run down to the house. If Lori wants to go we’ll be taking two cars. My neighbor said he’s thinking of going to Fiji for two months. I told him good luck getting there and if by chance he does, the virus will beat him there. Think I’ll work on the basement room full of stuff from Mom’s house. Oh yea, all the ski areas closed down too. Not sure what is actually still open. Hopefully gas stations and grocery stores. I will top of the gas tanks of both cars today.

That’s about it, be well, be smart and be safe. God Bless.

By my best guess we’ll know on Monday whether or not Lori has the virus. I guess if I come down with it before then we’ll also know too. Last night was my second night on the couch, not good for sleeping. Ty and Jag stayed at friends as it was easier for me to keep them away from Mom and keep her isolated. She spent most all of the day except for about 5 minutes in our room.

At 12:30 she headed out alone to get tested. The way she tells it she pulled up and was meet by a police officer who then verified her appointment and id. Then she pulled forward in her car to a spot with a big sign that read “Stay In Your Vehicle”. So she sat there until someone finally came out. Guess they were all decked out in a hazmat suit with a helmet and googles and face shield. They swabbed her and gave her some papers and sent her on her way telling her go home and stay there until she receives her results. So now we wait. Luckily up here there are not the huge waits as in Denver.

She does have some symptoms such as a tight chest and headache but feels ok, so she says. She’s still convinced that she just has a bad cold but I told her we can’t take that chance. Again if it’s as contagious as the news says it is, I either have it now or have had it and didn’t know it. For all we know Ty could have had it too.

At Whole Foods yesterday am it was packed by 8:30. One of the employees told me they were already sold out of their days worth of some foods. Some shelves were bare. By the time I left at 9 there were 3 times the people as when I arrived. And this is in Frisco. I practiced my best social distancing skills pretending everyone smelled, ha.

I have a call with my two partners that I founded the company with today. We’re looking at 25% pay cuts across the board and even letting a couple of people go. In hard times hard choices need to be made otherwise everything could go down. You just don’t know what’s going to happen. One thing is people do drink in good times and bad but getting it to them is the trick. I’m installing a “touchless” way of selling and delivering wine to customers asap. We’ll sell to stores via on line offerings and help direct them customers that will want our wine delivered to their homes. Lots to do but I think I have it figured out.

I’m headed to the gym. They disinfected and cleaned the entire place last night so this morning all should be clean. I’m deciding when I have to stop going and start working out from home but for this morning anyhow, I can go workout. Lori says she’s going, not.

That’s it. First time in our lives the President has declared a National Emergency. This gives the govt. unbelievable powers to do basically whatever they want. I think the last time this happened was like World War 2, if then at all. Dems are still playing politics with Sleepy Joe saying the first point of his plan to stop the virus is to stop racism, WHAT? This guy has Alzheimer’s for sure. When you’ve lived with it as we did with dad it’s pretty easy to identify. I think Pelosi and the House did agree with the administration on a new bill that provides free testing and paid leave which the Pres said he was authorizing a week ago anyhow.

That’s it, time to beat anyone else to the gym. Be safe, be smart and don’t overreact and you’ll hopefully be ok. Do pray though, trust me as that always helps and there is a God! So may God Bless you and all of us. Now go make some pancakes!

Well yesterday Lori was sent home with a cough, headache and fever. She will be tested today to see if she in fact has the virus or just a nasty cold. I slept on the couch and we kept her isolated from all of us. She did come downstairs once and I told her get back in your room! Hoping none of us get it. Ty seems much better and will go to school today. We thought she was getting tested yesterday but they called when Lori was driving down and told her to come tomorrow.

As I’m sure you know, all professional sports have suspended their seasons, restaurants and all conferences are cancelling, concerts are being cancelled although Post Malone did play the Pepsi Center in Denver last night. Schools in multiple States are closed and on and on. Hope you are stocked up a little. if not, GO TODAY! You can’t eat money. Each day it’ll get worse with more and more people infected and less and less food and things available.

The stock market is in free fall. Even gold dropped $60 (which should have gone up) and has lost about 15% in a matter of days. Some say ride out the market, I know lots more people way smarter than me getting out now, which is why the market is dropping so much. Yesterday was the worst day since October 1987. It’s now down 28% since its high a few months ago. To each his own. Lori said we should buy Apple stock and I told her no way as we’re no where near the bottom. We’re officially now in a Bear Market meaning a 20% drop from the markets high.

James and I had a good day hunting bringing home 26 birds. We bagged pheasants, chukar and quail and had a blast. No coronavirus out in the middle of the woods. They’re in the freezer now and will be good eating.

I need to get both boys moving. I suspect they’ll close school next week as most all in Denver are at least shut for a couple weeks. Time to go to get the boys moving. be safe, be strong and have faith, God Bless.

Well Ty still has his cold, Lori seems to be getting one, Jag is not having fun at school and I’m scrambling to get wine here from Italy. Even though Trump is shutting down all European travel, our wine can still go. For a moment last night it looked like he was banning cargo too as he doesn’t speak to clearly but thankfully he’s not. I didn’t think so as it would have crushed the World economy.

I’m headed out in 30 minutes with James. Marty is sick too so it’s just the two of us hunting today. As I said yesterday, things are ramping up. Expect cases to double every day or two going forward so things ae going to get worse for sure. I might have already had this thing for all I know. In any case, social distancing, our new word, is soon going to be the norm.

It’s 4:19 now so time to get moving. Hope everyone is well. Think for yourself and have faith in God. God Bless.

Cases are rising and things are getting worse. Ty was home with a cold while the hospital has a few new cases, two in ICU. Trying to find out if they were the care givers of the earlier patient. Today I’m sure it’ll get out as it’s hard to hide guys walking around in hazmat suits. Luckily Lori is off today.

Through my research it looks like this thing can be spread just from people breathing. I can send anyone the study from the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy from the University of Minnesota or you can take my word for it. Point is, people that are asymptomatic meaning they don’t show symptoms, can infect others (you!) from just normal breathing. This explains why groups of people are getting it at conferences and meetings. I couldn’t figure out how large numbers of people at the same meeting were catching this. Now it makes sense. So again, social distancing, meaning avoiding large crowds is the key. And yes, face masks do help!

Soon local officials will pick up on this and cancel all large gatherings. Many are doing so already. The NBA, NHL and other pro sports leagues are starting to keep out fans. We had numerous colleges go to on-line learning yesterday from Harvard to Middlebury and others. I expect the kids school to get cancelled by next week or two at most as well as most in Denver too. Projections say hospitals will get creamed by the end of the month.

New York deployed the National Guard around New Rochelle and set up a mile wide containment zone. This is due to 70 people at a conference all getting it from one man. Just what I was talking about above. Hard to believe soldiers would be used to keep people in place, wow. Hope they prepared. It’s like some bad movie.

Again, you still (hard to believe) have time to prepare. Apparently lots of people think this is all going to go away on its own or some miracle cure will show up next week. I wouldn’t bank on it. When I shop these days I go early. I was in Whole Foods at 8:05 yesterday morning and was one of only a handful of customers. Crazy times. Today I’ll go for a couple bags of dog food.

Sorry to turn the blog into a daily report on the pandemic but hopefully it helps some of you. Now onto the boys.

It was a normal day with Ty at home and Jag at school. Both boys are moving slowly as I’m trying to get them ready for school. Lori is at the gym and I’m going around 9 am. We’re putting aggressive supply chain management in place in Italy. Ty’s girlfriend Zoe is stuck in Israel as they shut down all international travel. Hope she can get home in a month. If it were my kid, I would have had her come home over a month ago, or not let her go in the first place. There I go drifting back into the mess. Guess it’s time to go. Be safe and God Bless.

Sounds like the name of a King, Tuesday the 10th! Another day in the battle known as life. The boys are doing well working on lots of things. Ty felt a little ill last night after lacrosse and went to bed early after his trip to DU. He loved the school. Meanwhile Jag went to the top restaurant in the valley and sold himself to the chef and now has an internship at Spendido. Very cool.

Lori has new rules at the clinic. If any doctor or employee gets on any plane, they have to quarantine for 14 days! This is new as before it was only for patients but now all employees, even if they just flew from Eagle to Denver which is like 30 minutes, they must go into lockdown. No messing around up here.

Pearl Jam cancelled their Denver concert this weekend but no word yet on the Eagles. Robi commented it’s a good time to throw more money into the stock market. She’s a lot more brave or aggressive than me! Our floors are done and on the way from Italy. This is great news as we were a bit worried but they are letting commerce commence even though the entire Country is now on lockdown. All 60 million people, wow. Good news is our wine is now moving again.

Looks like 4 more confirmed cases here. Not sure where. Lori has clinic and I have to go to Denver for a few hours. Lori just told me I’m her best friend, how nice is that to hear! She of course is mine too. Time to get moving. Oh, is Joe Biden crazy or what? It’s not funny as it’s so similar to watching dad when the first signs of dementia kicked in. What’s funny is the Dems are all getting behind him trying to prop him up to be President. What a mess. Say what you will about Bernie but at least he’s all together mentally.

Time to go, 6:45. I’m almost 100% back to normal and feeling well. Hope everyone is doing well. Glad to hear Robi has lots of dry beans in the cupboard. Make it a great day and God Bless.