A Year of Change

There’s a little snow outside, Ty gets back today at 3, Jag is working away and back playing basketball at full strength, Lori is headed to work and I’m working non-stop as usual.

Yesterday in the afternoon Lori and I met Dave our cabinet maker from Evergreen down and the house and went over the final layout in the whole house. It was a busy place with electrician’s, plumbers, guys outside laying gas lines, a few carpenters and Tom, Dave, Lori and I. Things are moving fast. This weekend we need to go approve the layout of the cans (lights) throughout the house. There’s so much to consider such as how closets are designed. Where do the hanging clothes go, shoe cubbies, places for cowboy boots, built in dressers, and more. And that’s just the closets. We’re building bunk beds into the basement wall to sleep 4 to 6 extra people for when guests come. There will be two sets of bunk beds side by side with a full on top and a queen on the bottom of each set. We also have a safe room for valuables with a vault like door hidden by a rolled metal wall that is designed so no one knows that room is even there. I guess you guys now know it’s there! I do have three close buddies who want to pay me $50 a month to store a few valuables for them as they live in Denver and want to have some items safely stored out of the city. Could be a little business, hmm. Lots more going on as well. It’s exciting and coming along fast.

Two weeks from today we’re headed to Baylor so I need to get tickets today. Then a few days later I’m in Seattle for a night and then it’ll be Mom’s birthday. I’m in Denver tomorrow having Lori’s windows tinted and a clear bra put on her car.

We were talking yesterday about all the stuff we have to go through. Not only our stuff but the stuff from Mom’s too. There’s china, crystal glasses, knick knacks, thousands of photographs and more. We have tons of clothes to go through and donate. There’s so much the boys have grown out of. It’ll be good to move as it forces you to go through everything. Once in the house I’ll go through the storage units too as most of the stuff there needs to go as well. It’s an adventure. That’s it for today. Hope everyone is well. God Bless.

This morning Ty is heading out on a hut trip. He’ll hike 4 or 5 miles in with his snowboard strapped to his backpack, spend the night at the hut at about 13,000 feet and then snowboard down from the top of the Continental Divide tomorrow. He’s excited as he does it every year and has a blast. Jag opted out as do most seniors.

I managed to make Lori stay low from about 7pm until 6am this morning. She did work a bit yesterday and is going in this morning again. I had a great meeting yesterday and then headed back up the hill. Both boys had a long day yesterday with basketball and their first day back at school. I dropped by a wrote a check to school for tuition.

Today Lori and I are meeting the cabinet guy at 1. I need to get Ty and all his gear to school by 7:30. It’s 6:30 now so time to get moving. Oh, Iran fired a few missiles at us in the Middle East yesterday, yawn. If we want we could pretty much end things really quick. They say they’re retaliating because we took out the number two bad guy when in fact it’s us that are retaliating against them and in particular that bad guy for killing over 600 Americans over the years. Here’s the kicker, no one, and I mean no one in the entire World is condemning the attack except our democratic politicians and some Hollywood actors. Not a single country, even China and Russia have spoke up, but leave it to Pelosi and Schumer and various so called celebrities to side with the terrorists. Oh yea, don’t forget the presidential candidates as they too are quite upset. Maybe they should move to Iran and run for office over there. Trump could be saving disabled children and the Dems would be against it, wow. Oh well, guess it’s the times we live in.

Have a great day and God Bless.

Today the 2nd semester begins. It’s also Jag’s last semester in high school. Things are going to start moving fast around here.

Last night Lori had a CT Scan at the hospital to make sure she didn’t have a brain bleed. As far as the local radiologist can tell, she doesn’t but a specialist in Denver will read it this morning. We were in and out of the hospital in a record 15 minutes. I couldn’t believe it.

Ty and I worked out hard yesterday. With school today so starts basketball meaning both boys will be home a bit after 6. Ty leaves tomorrow for his hut trip for 2 days. We don’t even have a list yet of what he needs yet. Not very well organized by the school. Speaking of the school, I need to call them today and go over our bill, ugh. Good news about Jag going to college is it’ll probably be cheaper than high school! Let’s hope so.

No snow outside and it’s going to be in the 50’s in Denver. I have a 10 am meeting down there and then will head back up the hill. Lori is going in for a few hours for a couple peer to peer calls. This is where doctors talk to doctors to try to get insurance authorization.

Lots going on at work too. I have a trip to Seattle at the end of the month and need to get our tickets to go to Baylor in a couple weeks too. That’s it as no time to waste, have a great day and God Bless.

Yesterday we accomplished a lot, especially Jagger in his room! I almost feel like posting pictures of before and after but I didn’t get a before picture. He, Lori (even though she should have been resting) and I cleaned the basement and it looks like a whole new place. Meanwhile Ty was on the mountain but he had cleaned pretty well the day before.

Lori has a doctor appointment this morning as things are no better. She says she needs to go to work for an hour but should stay home. No way I can stop her though so I’ll drop her off and pick her up.

We had a little snow last night but just enough to clean off the windshields. We are in a slow steady decluttering mode around here. Should be about 100 days until we move.

What’s going on in the World, well two guys shot a newspaper delivery man and stole his car in Denver, and the Iranian Parliament is chanting death to America and the Dems are siding with the Iranians who have always been recognized as terrorists, hmm.

Ty has a workout with his trainer today and I’ll go when he goes at 1. Then both boys have basketball practice at 4. Tomorrow school starts and I’m in Denver for a meeting at 10 am. That’s about it, hope everyone is well. Lori just came down so time to see how she’s doing, God Bless.

Lori did pretty well yesterday resting. She probably still did too much and thinks she’s going to work tomorrow but she did pretty well hanging out in bed. The boys are a different story. Jag was with his new girlfriend Maddy at her parents ranch. I guess her Mom’s a dentist and her dad works in a bar in Arrowhead. After hanging out there he came home to shower and then headed back out. Oh to be 18 again. Ty came home with me after we met Jack’s dad in Frisco to drop the boys and then we went to the grocery store. He took a nap as he had a full four days and no early nights. Today we’re making some changes around here, or should I say the boys are. Both of them are cleaning their room and bathroom and going through their closets and setting aside anything they don’t wear that we will then donate. If you haven’t worn it in the past six months, it goes. We’ve tried to do this before but I’m holding back all gas money for Jag and any money for Ty until it’s done. We are just not going to live in this mess any more. Someday when the boys read this hopefully they’ll see it as a turning point in their lives.

Two good football games yesterday. A couple of bad calls, especially in the first game but that’s the norm these days. Hopefully the two games today will be just as good. I need to clean a bit in our room too and do some work to prepare for the coming week.

That is it, have a good day. Take care, and watch your back when you’re in public. Sadly this too is the new norm. God Bless.

Yesterday Lori had an MRI to see what’s going on with her neck. Looks like she should have a 3 level fusion in the next few months. This should take away some of her headache pain. Regarding her concussion, she still has it. Good news is Eric doesn’t think it’s getting any worse but did tell her not to come to work on Monday. Looks like she’ll stay home until at least Wednesday. She has another appointment with the concussion doctor on Monday. What a shit show.

Jag took the 3 boys to Edwards last night for a movie and then picked them up around midnight. Today Scott and Jack go home. They had a blast but have been here since Tuesday meaning four nights which is a lot. Ty has two giant hickey’s on his neck from Zoe! What’s with the girls and hickey’s up here? I sure don’t remember that when we were kids. Lori told him no more or she’s calling her Mom, ha. It’s so ghetto. ( uh oh, I probably just offended some ghetto folks!, #ghetto)

Today football is on, finally. Ty has an appointment with his trainer at 8 so I’ll go workout while he is and then we’ll shower and head to Frisco to drop Jack and Scott and go to the grocery store before the games. Tom and I sure love football. I like calling and texting with him during the game, it’s like we’re watching it together. Jag went to basketball practice yesterday and said he had no limitations on his ankle which looks to be healed. I was looking at him as he walked in last night and it looked like he grew!

Trump took out a really bad guy from Iran. A few days ago the head guy/leader over there taunted Trump and America after attacking our soldiers and embassy in Iraq and then this #2 guy had the balls to just walk around Iraq in the wide open flaunting their attacks on Americans so Trump, as he should, sent a nice little drone down with a hypersonic missile and blew the guy up! Good for him as this guy had the blood of hundreds of Americans on his hands for the past 20 years. Now back home we have some celebrities’ and Dems apologizing to Iran! Unbelievable! If Iran wants to start a war, I’m sure the U.S. with all its power will end it pretty quickly. As crazy as they are over there I don’t think they want to commit suicide by bombs. Still no one “wants” war but you just can’t sit back and let terrorists kill us and do nothing. Remember Obama sent them Billions of dollars in cash on pallets in the middle of the night trying to bribe them to stop attacking us. How’d that work out? Back to those Dems and actors, maybe they should move to Iran, right? Lesson here, don’t taunt Trump!

Well that’s about it, January 4th, 2020, wow. The boys go back to school Tuesday. I need to fly to Phoenix for a day sometime in the next week or so. But back to today, football and chili and some rest with a bunch of laundry thrown in. Have a great day and God Bless.

I woke up too early and too fast as Lori received a text from Jagger who couldn’t sleep. Yesterday he applied to a bunch more schools from Columbia to Stanford and couldn’t stop thinking about college. Society puts so much stress on kids these days. He also applied to The School of Mines which is a great school down in Golden. Anyhow you know how when you wake up too fast you’re sort of in a haze or a blur, well that’s me right now.

Yesterday Mojo went to get groomed. We also had the vet give him a shot in his hips as he’s really having a hard time getting up and down. He looks and feels much better he says. The boys were here and there all day until they made it home around 11 last night. I think (hope) they’re going home tomorrow. They’ve been here since Tuesday!

Lori seemed to do a little bit better yesterday but still is not in good shape. Concussions are misunderstood and need to be taken seriously. That’s why I am making her stay home again today.

Looks like I’m off to Italy for 5 or 6 days around the end of February. I decided to take over most of the estate relationships from one of my Partners as he’s been busy working on another segment of the Company and has been dropping the ball. Oh well, more work for me but I’ll do it quicker and better. It does mean a couple trips minimum to Italy every year. We have so many things to do with the changes in the Company. We’re on a hiring spree and will double or triple the number of people we have right now. It’s going to be a big job.

I’m going to go to the gym in a few. Jag went to McDonalds to get breakfast. Lori went back to bed and both dogs are sleeping at my feet. They’re like having 2 additional kids, ha. That’s it, time to go, have a great day, be safe and God Bless.

Today, tomorrow and this weekend, Lori needs to stay in a dark room. This means no work, no computer and really no tv too. We’ll see how that works out as she’s not a very good patient. Yesterday we tried to take it easy but did go see our plumber’s assistant to finalize some of our choices and get back on budget. Then we stopped by Gerry and Marci’s which I didn’t think would be a big deal but it was a chore for her. I realized then how much of a concussion she actually has. We’re going to need to call a lawyer too as there was definitely negligence by the airlines and the passenger that led to her injury. No way the airlines should have let that over size bag on the plane. We need to get a handle on this and get her fixed. Always something.

Yesterday the boys hung out and went sledding. When we came home we noticed Ty’s window open as we drove up and Scott looking like he was lost in a daze. Turns out Jack and Scott both had dab pens and smoked some pot! Ty to his credit didn’t but his friends were stoned, and I mean really stoned. Most kids these days smoke weed and drink but Ty and Jag don’t, thankfully. We called them out gently and told them no more in our house or we’re calling their parents. They were both freaking out and scared but we let them off the hook and explained how and why good choices are so important at their age. It’s more important to use these events as learning situations than just get mad. One of them also came downstairs and made a drink New Years Eve with a mixture of Green Chili Vodka, Tequila and Gin from our cabinet but didn’t drink it as it smelled and tasted awful. Too funny. Lori knew right away as she secretly marks the bottles to see if anyone drinks. Ty got mad at them and told them they were on their own if and when they got caught, which they did when we picked up Ty’s room. Stupid kids, like we were never kids. Ah to be 15 again.

After dinner the three boys went to a movie. I drove them down to Edwards in the snow and had them take Uber home. Jag was going to Ethan’s to spend the night but when I took the dogs out this morning I noticed his car is there so he came home. It’s snowing now and I’m headed to the gym but making Lori stay home.

Hope everyone had a great New Year’s and has some great plans for 2020. Remember though it’s just another day and you can decide any day to make some changes in your life. So get out of your comfort zone, plan a trip, learn how to play an instrument, pick up a new hobby or language, go volunteer somewhere, find a way to help someone or something. As long as you’re waking up and breathing you’re never to old to do something new. That’s it, have a great day, take care and God Bless and now get out there!

Doesn’t seem real does it. As I said a day or two ago, it’s so “future” if you get what I mean. Wonder how the history books will look at us years from now. I’d guess they’d say they (meaning us) weren’t very developed mentally when you look at the way they treated each other. It seems we’re on the cusp of really doing some great things technologically but our ability to deal with them mentally seems far behind. AI for one is a scary thing. We’re pushing the limits of what we’ve always thought was impossible yet don’t have the brain capacity to realize just what we’re getting ourselves into. Politically our system and supposed leaders, who are suppose to be representatives of the people and not leaders of the people, is headed in the wrong direction. You have these elites on both sides which have elevated themselves above the rest of us and now make laws for us but not them. Look at a few examples. They passed Obamacare for the “people” yet they have their own medical plan and don’t have to participate. They have some and want to pass more gun laws for the “people” yet want to be exempt from them themselves. There are many more of these laws they pass that are for the good of society as they say. Wonder how history will look back on these career politicians. I think not kindly.

On to the day. Lori went to see the concussion doctor and sure enough, she has a bad concussion. The doctor sent her home from work and I found out later, told her not to go to the party last night as it would be too much stimulation even talking to people. Of course there was a big mess at work that had to be handled by the end of the year so she was on her computer even though the doctor said no electronics. She was set to go to the party and told me the doctor said to just go for a little bit but around 6 with her head hurting I found out the truth that she wasn’t suppose to go at all. I asked her what’s up and why did she say she could go for a little bit and she said because she wanted to go to the party! Just another example of not thinking clearly. I’m taking her phone and computer for the entire day so if anyone tries to call her, she won’t be answering!

Jag picked up Ty’s friends Jack and Scott in Silverthorne yesterday around 2. I was at Costco getting crab for today. I think they were looking for a party all night but there wasn’t one to be found. Ty’s regular party at the Tivoli was shut down by the parents as apparently some kids were drinking a week or two ago and were caught. Zoe and the other girls were at a “girls only” sleepover and Sonny is in Mexico and Will was at a family thing in Eagle. So the boys went to town and were back early. They went out around 8 to go sledding in the dark with headlamps on and trash bags and a snowboard to ride on. It was cold so that didn’t last long.

Lori and I fell asleep around 10:30 and I woke up at midnight. Not sure when Jag made it home but he’s home safe. Today it’s a lot warmer outside this morning. Big snow is supposed to arrive around noon and continue through tomorrow. I told Lori we’re probably stuck with Jack and Scott until at least Friday.

Tomorrow we’re back at it. We have a big school bill of $26,700 due today that we’ll have to change to a payment plan. The boys school is stupid expensive but worth is compared to what’s available in the rest of the valley. But man is it expensive! We’re thinking of starting a Go Fund me page, ha.

Well that’s it. The blog is 9 years old today! I need to print it out into a book. There’s a lot of memories, happy and sad in the past nine years. Someday it’ll be great for the boys to go back and read this. Boys, when you do, know that we love you both very much and are very proud of you both! You’re the best thing your Mom and I ever did in our lives! Happy New Year and God Bless.

Here we go, 2020, wow. I remember December 31st, 1999 and being with Lori on a beach in Seattle waiting for the end of the World. Remember Y2K? This of course was before we had any kids and even before we were married. Seems like a long time ago and we certainly have lived life to the fullest in the past 20 years. We’re excited and hoping the next 20 are just as fun if not more.

Today I am going to the gym as I didn’t make it yesterday and they’re closed tomorrow. I asked Lori what kind of gym is closed on New Year’s Day, hmm. We did find out Lori has a concussion from the suitcase falling on her head. I think she’s getting an MRI too but I’m sure it’ll just tell us what we already know, she needs another fusion soon.

We went to look at siding yesterday but the place was closed. The basement is coming along well with most of it being framed out and the duct work is almost in too. We met Walter our plumber and are changing a bunch of faucets. We’re using Delta which is really good and one of the least expensive companies out there. The place up here tried to sell us the same thing (basically) at double the cost. Things should start moving fast once the plumbing and duct work is in.

The boys are fine and Ty has his two friends coming up today. I think they’re going to Zoe’s tonight which is close to the Spector’s where we’re going. We’ll probably leave early (before midnight) with Lori’s concussion and pick them up on the way home as no way we’re letting them ride with Sonny or another 16 year old driver tonight.

It’s cold, somewhere like 10 below but warming up later this week. Hope you all have some resolutions ready for tomorrow. This can be anything from quitting something to changing something in your life. Besides quitting sugar I’m planning on watching less tv, getting outside more, and trying to read more books. Now’s your chance, even though it’s really just another day, ha. There will be good football on too tomorrow! Be safe tonight and God Bless.