A Year of Change

Looking outside this is the first “real” snowstorm we’ve had so far this year. It’s not so much the amount as we only have 5 or 6 inches so far, it’s the wind and the fact that we’re just in the beginning of this storm. It’s supposed to snow through Sunday or into Monday. Lucky Lori isn’t flying out today as the tunnel is closed right now and she wouldn’t be going anywhere. They say tomorrow will be actually worse but we’ll see as the weather guys have been right for a few days so I’m betting their wrong tomorrow. I was up at 5:30 to go workout with Stacey my trainer but she just called and said she has a sick little girl. Just found out Vail Pass is closed too. Looks like a great powder day on the slopes.

The boys are working hard preparing for Finals Week. Mojo is outside on the deck where he likes to be and Harley is at my feet. Aspen was nice yesterday and I was in and out in good time. It’s also Friday the 13th, whoo hoo. Just finished shoveling snow so we can get the cars out and the plow in. Now it’s time to get the boys up!

Have a good day, be safe and be happy, God Bless.

Well, another successful jaunt. I was gone for 32 hours with the mission to secure about $100K in orders but came back with $400K, BAM. Not to pat myself on the back but so when the kids read this many years from now, your dad was really good at his job, ha.

My meeting started at 9 and by 10:45 we wrapped up with a good plan for 2020. It took an hour and 45 minutes to get back to San Francisco but we were in no hurry as my flight was delayed an hour. Hans, my guy in California and I decided to stop for a quick lunch on the waterfront at Waterbar, one of our top accounts. We had a dozen oysters, Dungeness crab cocktail and a roasted lobster before he dropped me for my flight. On the way home I had a guy next to me hacking away with a bad cold or something. So for the next hour and 45 minutes I sat with my head turned to the right to avoid him. Hopefully I won’t get sick. We landed at 6:30 and by 9 I was home.

Today I’m off to Aspen after working out. I need to get some laundry and grocery shopping done too as with Lori’s schedule and the kids, there’s not a lot of time for her to do any housework.

That’s it for today, time to get going. Lot’s to do as it’s December 12th! When we were kids this was the start of St. Nick Night where we’d put a shoe outside our door for 12 nights waking each morning to see what tiny gift Santa brought us. If you were bad you could get a piece of coal but Mom would use a stick or a rock if she wanted to send a message as there wasn’t any coal. I think once or twice she did use a bbq briquet. Luckily we usually received a small piece of candy or a dollar or an orange. Mom was great at always thinking of us in her own small way. She never missed an opportunity to try to make us happy, especially during the holidays but year round as well. Not sure if we’re still doing that here with the boys almost 16 and 18. Hard to believe they’re that old! Life goes fast, God Bless.

5 am in Santa Rosa California. I woke up on and off from 2 or so as I went to bed around 9. I have a small headache from working out on Monday which kept me up a bit. My flight was uneventful and on time.

Ty won his game and scored a few times including a buzzer beater at the end of the game! Mojo was fine and I dropped Harley at daycare to make it easier on her and Lori. My flight is at 2:19 but maybe I can make an earlier flight as my meeting is over at 10.

Here’s some big news, yesterday we finalized our joint partnership with a German company we call RM for short. This is a strategic partnership where they invest money over a 3 year period and then have first right of refusal to buy us at a minimum price. It’s much more complicated than that but that’s the short story. We should receive our first million dollars today. Before anyone gets excited, that goes into the company, not our pockets, ha. Anyhow we’ve been working on this for close to a year and now it’s done.

It’s warm here, like Spring with rain showers. I don’t know how people live here or why they would live here. Oh well, that’s it, time to go, have a good day, GB.

This morning I’m leaving around 10 for the airport. My flight to San Francisco is at 1:30. I’ll be home tomorrow at 5. The news of the day was Jag rolled his ankle playing ball. His x-ray was negative so he’ll heal up in a couple of weeks but he has a swollen sprained ankle and is on crutches and wearing a boot. Always something. At least he doesn’t have to worry about studying from late night games in Keensburg this week. Ty has a JV game here tonight at 5:30. Lori will go.

I had all the carpets cleaned yesterday and in the middle of the night Mojo somehow moved everything we had used to barricade him off the stairs and came up. We had to coax him downstairs just to be safe. His back legs are not moving well at all. I’ll pick up some pills at the vet for him before I go. He’s been on CBD but I guess it’s not working as well as we thought it was.

Lori has clinic and has to go early so she can return the ice machine she borrowed for Jag by 8. I just took the dogs up the hill. It was cold in gym shorts. It’s 6:50 now so time to get the boys up and moving. They could sleep through a rock concert. A week from today Jag is 18, wow. Time to get moving, have a great day and God Bless.

It snowed a bit more and looks pretty outside but it is only 4:32 in the morning so kind of hard to see. I woke up and headed downstairs to get coffee only to step in a pile of dog shit from Mojo. Not the hard nice kind either, enough said. It was also on a few stairs giving us about 5 different places to clean up. Unbelievable.

Last night I found out one of my Partners, Josh, is sick with the flu. Knowing this and now with having the clean up and hopefully get carpet cleaners out here, I’m skipping Seattle. Plus I need to wait for the plow to get out of the driveway. I should be leaving in 30 minutes for the airport but will instead just fly to San Francisco tomorrow for my Wednesday morning meeting. Must be God’s way of telling me not to go, ha.

Yesterday afternoon we headed out to get our little tree. The snow was deep and we found a cute little Charlie Brown Scotch Pine that’s about the same height as Jagger. It’s small but really feels like Christmas. Lori and I were at Home Depot and thought about getting a fake one but she texted both boys and they were adamant about going and cutting one. This made us both happy as there is a Christmas Spirit after all! While trudging through waist deep snow Ty found a pan, a plate, a bucket and a half a bottle of Makers Mark Whisky buried in the snow. Not sure how he found it, maybe he stepped on something as it was buried deep. Must have been from someone who was camping or something.

Today is Dad’s birthday, Happy Birthday! Dad was born in 1928 so he would have been 91. He passed away on August 16th, 2010. We sure miss him and Mom of course too. Hopefully they’re having a fun day upstairs.

The dogs want food but they’re not getting it for another 30 minutes or so as after they eat I walk them and cannot walk them in the dark. It’s a big week at school as next week is Final’s Week. That’s it, have a great day and God Bless.

Ok, maybe not enough to put the title in Caps but it snowed. We probably have 3 or 4 inches of the light fluffy stuff. Skiing should be good today. We’re supposed to get more this afternoon and tonight and I have to leave for DIA at 5:30 am tomorrow morning so bring it on, ha.

I’ve learned that as my Mom always said, it is what it is. No point getting upset about it as if I miss my flight, I miss my flight. This wouldn’t be a good one to miss though so I’m hoping the roads are plowed in the morning. Lori and Jag are going down today for a photo shoot. They are leaving around 11 and should be back by 5 or 5:30.

Yesterday’s basketball game unfortunately wasn’t as good as the one the day before. Our team couldn’t get their shots to drop. It was just one of those days. Shots would swirl around the rim and roll out. The other team also had a few great 3 point shooters and our guys would continue to leave them open shots. After the first 5 minutes it was 15 to 6 and we just couldn’t crawl back. Good news is these games don’t count towards league standings and we play them again in January and can beat them if we play our game. Jag continued to play well and has the best basketball IQ on the floor. He’s like a coach on the floor and is actually a better coach than our coaches, ha. We’ll get them next year which is about 23 days away!

Jag’s best friend Lexi received an email and she was accepted to Middlebury in Vermont. Lori, Jag and I went to Matsu for sushi as Ty was at Bol which is our high end bowling ally with friends. We had an alert to shelter in place last night around 10 pm due to some police activity in Minturn. Turns out it was some domestic thing or something. The day before a U Haul from Las Vegas got into it in the Walgreens parking lot where a guy was killed. Apparently he wanted to die by suicide by cops or something. Shit happens everywhere.

Lori and I went down to the house and made a few changes. We were going to have our living room tv next to the fireplace but it just didn’t work so now it’ll have to go above the fireplace. If we can get the boys up we’re going to get our tree this morning, we’re running out of time. Have a great day, God Bless.

Last nights basketball game was great. Jag’s definitely the star of the team and yes we won. The Championship Game is at 3:30 today. Had we lost we would have been playing at 11 this morning. We have a pretty good starting five but our bench isn’t deep at all. A couple times during the game the coach took Jag out along with two other starters and we had no one in who could score. This will be an issue going forward as the boys have to have a break for a few minutes during the game. They just can’t run up and down the court without getting a few minutes rest here and there. The coach though needs to do a better job of managing the team and deciding who and when to give a guy a break. We’ll be playing Vail Christian today unless they were somehow upset last night in their game after we left. Not bad for a school that’s known Statewide as a premier ski racing school!

After the game we headed to TiAmo for Lori’s team dinner with everyone on her team and their spouses. It was a fun dinner but we were out until about 9 or so. This morning we’re headed to the gym and then going down to the house to check out a few things. Then we’re going to cut our Christmas tree before the game. Ty is meeting a bunch of friends at the mountain sometime this morning.

Now for the BIG news of the day, Happy Birthday Mojo! He’s 13 today, whoo hoo! He’s such a good dog and has been such a huge part of our lives and the kids growing up. He’s getting old as 13 is old for a big dog. He has sore back legs and hips but still manages to crawl up on the couch to sleep and walk up the mountain. CBD helps him a lot. If you think back to pets you’ve owned you can associate things that happened over the years just like you can with your kids. I still remember clearly driving Mojo home about 12 years and 10 months ago from Highlands Ranch where we picked him up.

So that’s it, time to get moving, we have a busy day and a busy week. Lot’s going on. Hope everyone is well, take care and God Bless.

School’s almost over for the year. Seems like we need more time. Also doesn’t really seem like the holiday season yet. Hopefully that’ll change and everyone will get in the spirit soon. The problem is we’re all so busy that no one has time to get into the spirit. When we were kids is seemed like it took forever for Christmas to get here. I remember those advent calendars that we’d watch daily as we counted down the days until Santa arrived. How things have changed.

Today I might have to run to Denver but am hoping to avoid it. Jag’s basketball game starts at 4:30 so I’ll pick Lori up around 3. Ty has lots of work to do as does Jag. It’s warm up here and a lot of the snow has melted. Ty wants to switch from basketball to the telemark team. We’ll see. Lori’s head still hurts, not sure how we’re going to fix it this time. More surgery is probably the answer. Time to get the boys moving as it’s a bit after 6:30. Have a great day and weekend, tomorrow is Mojo’s birthday! God Bless.

Christmas is 20 days away! Wow! That means somewhere between 110 and 125 days we should be moving, double wow! Time goes fast, hold on tight.

Today we have more of the same, work, school, dogs and more. It’s snowing lightly outside with big fluffy feather like flakes. Not much will stick as the ground is warm.

I had a good tasting yesterday here in town. I connected with 5 key guys or accounts that will do substantial business with me this season. I hung out from about 1 until a bit after 3 and then Lori and I went down to the house. The shower and bathroom are framed as are the new windows we wanted put in along with the front porch and more. It’s coming along fast now and Lori had to finalize all the plumbing fixtures yesterday. It’s all “dried in” meaning no weather gets in anywhere. The windows are covered in some sort of plastic.

Next week Lori and I are both traveling. After I get back from Seattle and San Francisco Lori goes to get Dixie in Sacramento. Then the fun starts. The boys will have Finals Week and then we have Jag’s 18th birthday, wow! Not sure what to get him.

We’re trying to declutter or downsize around here by slowly getting rid of stuff we don’t want or need. Last thing we want to do is haul a bunch of junk we don’t use down to the new house. It’s sort of a chance for a fresh start. In the next few weeks we should start hearing back from some colleges Jag applied to. As I said earlier, time goes fast. God Bless.

That’s my diet for the next 5 days, nothing but chicken, eggs and vegetables. Time to lean out before the stretch run between now and the end of the year. Robi put her tree up! Nice. It’s Mom’s old tree so that makes it special. We’ll go cut ours Saturday. Jag has a photo shoot Sunday, a basketball game Friday and I leave Monday for 56 hours. We have a ton of stuff going on. Jag had a scrimmage last night and was the high scorer. He has a nice soft touch around the basket and great court awareness. He didn’t play last year due to his hand surgery so we hadn’t seen him since he was a sophomore. The team needs to work on getting the ball to him as that’s the biggest challenge. He’ll have a good year the way he’s playing.

Lori is off today and I have a tasting from 1 to 3. I skipped Aspen yesterday as I had too much work to try to get done before I leave next week. Not much else going on to talk about, time to get Ty moving. Have a great day and God Bless.