A Year of Change

First off, we found out yesterday morning that Grandma Dixie’s brother, Uncle Bill to the misses, had passed away at their home Sunday night. Many of you don’t know but Grandma Dixie, always thinking of others before herself, refused to put her brother into a nursing home 5 months ago, even though that’s what his children wanted to do as it was frankly, the easiest thing to do. Instead she brought him home to her house in California from Texas where he was able to live the remaining few months of his life being with his sister and having the best care possible. I don’t know all the details so I won’t dive into this too deep but from what I understand, thank God for her and shame on his children for not showing more compassion and concern in the last days of their fathers life. I know it’s never easy to take care of older folks but I would suggest to those who have elderly parents who are facing similar situations now or in the future to remember what love and care and sacrifices those same people made for you when you were young! Many years ago it was the elders of society that were the leaders and the most revered and respected but now we seem to ignore or throw them away. Did you ever see a young indian chief? No, it was always the elders with the most life experience who led the tribe. In any case, my deepest sympathies go out to her and also to the misses who was quite upset. Grandma Dixie, once again, put others before her, just like my Mom has always done. I’m proud that she’s my mother in law.

Last night the big storm hit the east coast. Thankfully from what I know, the damage and destruction while bad, is not quite as bad as the tv had said it would be. I say this as I have a partner and an employee who both live in New York City. Both are fine, didn’t lose power and said it really didn’t rain all that much. The wind was bad for a time but it was mostly lower Manhattan that has all the problems due to all the flooding. The low lying areas were hit the hardest and 16 people so far have died. I think the biggest problem is going to be all the salt water that flooded into subways and tunnels and basements as salt rusts and corrodes things and it will be a while before they can get all the water out. Thankfully it wasn’t as bad as all the forecasters thought it would be. With that said, you can only hope that those people affected took the steps to prepare to take care of themselves for a few days until power companies and emergency personnel can get things fixed.

Now to our little corner of the world. The boys came home, whipped through their homework and then did some reading. The oldest has been playing his clarinet and is getting pretty darn good. We’re glad he didn’t choose the drums! He just came down and joined me on the couch while Mom and the younger guy are still sleeping. Halloween is tomorrow so we’re all gearing up for that around here, we’ll post some pictures so you can see the boys.

Same old same old on the headache front, not much else to say there. We were going to Paris November 14 to the 18th but decided to stay home even though we had free tickets and hotel. There’s just too  much going on work wise and we’d still spend $1000 or more on food and chocolate and cheese we don’t have. Instead I will be doing the holiday shows (industry wine tasting) for the Colorado distributor that are in Vail and Aspen. So I’m going to take the misses with me and we’ll spend two night in Aspen while Uncle T and Aunt B take the boys. We’ll leave the morning of the 13th, go to the event in Vail from 1 until 4 and then drive to Aspen where we’ll check into our hotel, have a nice dinner and spend the night before getting up to attend the event the next day from 1 until 4. Then we’ll stay that night, get up and drive home in time to pick up the kids from school. This way we’ll still have a mini vacation that will all be picked up by the Company, gas and food included! It’s not Paris but for those of you who haven’t been, Aspen is pretty darn close in it’s own way.

I’ll be gone most of the day and the misses has a baby shower at noon for our doctor friends daughter and then will also go over some ideas for the doctors office she’s helping remodel. The boys have the “pig race” this afternoon. This is where they earn a mechanical pig for selling all that crap (baked goods, wrapping paper, etc.) that some of you bought a month or so ago. The youngest, with Uncle T’s help and a lot of hard work on his own, sold enough to earn two pigs so he’s giving one to his brother so he can race too! Very nice. Oh by the way, the youngest brought home his school work yesterday and received a 4 on his writing! Now understand, they do not just hand out 4’s every day. In fact, they’re very very difficult to earn so we’re really proud of him. His story was on Maui Hawaii and how much he likes to go there and all the things he does. Great job!

Time to run, it’s almost 7am and lots going on. Take care and God Bless.

Ok, it’s official, the Denver Broncos are for real. We thrashed the Saints last night which was not expected by anyone. The crowd was electric and it seemed it was one of those nights where nothing could go wrong. Now back to the day,

Earlier we were over at the youngest guys friends house with about 6 other couples for a pumpkin carving party for the kids. This went on most of the afternoon and the kids had a blast.

Before that we ran to the store for well, more pumpkins! I think the boys have carved up 6 or 8 apiece so far this season.

Mom’s head was feeling like you know what and my leg was well, you know what. Now the misses is in real pain but for me, hell I’ll get over it. This brings us to the comments from the day, here ya go,

1. Tom says:

   October 28, 2012 at 6:50 pm

   For two people who are health nuts, food wise and work out wise, you both sure seem to have a lot of problems. You need to change to my lifestyle, drinking and smoking and staying up late! I have far fewer problems then you all. he he.

   Now onto Christmas, no I do not have my shopping complete, I’m half way finished! Although, yes I do have the decorations all set to be put up in a couple weeks, it’s the most wonderful time of the year! Hey isn’t that a song! Better get the Christmas cd’s out soon.

   Reply
2. Annette says:

   October 28, 2012 at 8:13 pm

   Tell Clark Griswold I’m really happy he is almost ready for Christmas! Arin’t pheasants an endangered species or something? Go Giants!

   Now Uncle T might have a point and for Grandma Annette, pheasants are not endangered and Uncle T, I think she’s affectionately calling you Clark Griswold!

   I’m not sure of the Giants won, last I heard as it was 2 to 2 in the 10th, I’ll need to check the paper.

   Big storm on the east coast, hope everyone is ok. I can’t remember when the subways were all closed in NY.

   Time to run, the oldest guy needs to go to inter-murals in 10 minutes. I almost forgot, Grandma Eleanor also posted via email so let me go find those…here ya go,
   For some time I wanted to say that  Grandpa Bob and Grandma Eleanor  are very proud of Jag and Ty . You are good parents, you give them space to learn, and experience, opportunity to travel.

   and another one,

   L.d.& amp;family:       Faith and trust go together as one, faith is  reassurance that  what you ask for is going to happen, even tho  we do not see it up a head, never of the less , “never give up  on the lord, be patient and firm in your belief ” . In gods own  time , he will do what’s best for you, we must not rush our thinking,sometimes we are our own enemy.patience  takes time , god has given you  strength  to get  through this. ” how else can  I  say it”.    One day in 1969  I was trying to write poetry , I was getting know where and out of the blue I started to write with which poured  forth  to my mind on to paper, I know now!  That the lord had  a message for me to give  to others.

   Thanks for the comments. And in closing, a friend of mine down the street lost his wife yesterday. He sent out an email and I’ll need to call him today, after his main email, he sent this,

   “There have been many star sprinkled nights and so many promises of spring since Jackie and I entwined our lives.  Together we made our plans and built our dreams.  Jackie has left us.  I genuinely believe that Jesus has called her and that she is in his hands.  Her faith was so deep.  In my loneliness, I cannot help but ask, where are the snows of yester year?”

   Dick G

   To my Mom, you know who I’m talking about here, I think the funeral is next Saturday but I’ll be hunting, Life is short, embrace every day and God Bless

Today we will be doing some demolition around here. I’m not sure what we will start with until I consult with the misses but we’re going to start upgrading some part of the house. It might be new wallpaper or knocking out a wall. Whatever it is, we’ll let you know.

Now this is just a small part of a larger theme. You’re going to read about a bunch of what some might call dramatic changes starting to take place. We’ve decided that it’s time to, as Nike would say, just do it. I don’t know if we’re going to tear down walls, put in a new kitchen, tear up the backyard concrete or move. I just know that things are not going to stay the same. Now this theme is going to extend further than just fixing up or changing the house. No more details as we’re not sure what’s going to happen but you’ll be the first, I mean second, to know.

First off we need everyone to pray for the misses head to stop hurting. I don’t know what else to do but the pain is so bad that most people couldn’t handle it. In fact the misses can’t handle it but somehow takes each minute at a time. We really need some divine intervention. She of course doesn’t like me to write about it as she says it doesn’t help and just upsets some of you so that’s all I’m going to say about it.

Yesterday I walked a good 10 miles while hunting and bagged 20 pheasants. They were pretty big as they’ve been feeding in the corn and milo fields for a few months. There were 5 of us and we had a good time. It was much warmer than everyone thought. I made it home around 6pm.

My bruised heel is killing me from walking all day and favoring this whacks my back out and my other leg and hip as I put more pressure on my other side. I’m all out of whack but am not going to physical therapy no matter what! I can barely walk today and will hopefully be fine by game time tonight. Usually it loosens up as the day goes on. I guess it’s just all a part of getting older but I’m not going to stop doing things as I think inactivity is the worst thing you can do as you get older, just my personal philosophy.

In closing the Giants are up 3 games to zip in the World Series. We haven’t watched any games but do cheer for them as they’re the misses team.

Have a great day, take care and God Bless.

Last night the youngest went with his friend to my high school alma mater’s football game. I was thinking back to what fun our high school football games were and how they were the thing everyone looked forward to all week, every week, during the season when we were kids. His friend’s little sister was a guest cheerleader. (she’s like 5 or so) It was cold so they said they thought they would leave at halftime after her performance. Then, the youngest spent the night at their house. We’ve been invited to go to a halloween party with his parents (our friends) tonight but I’m not sure we’ll go.

Meanwhile the oldest guy’s friend came home with us after school until about 9pm when his parents and older sister picked him up on their way home from the junior high halloween party and auction to benefit the school. They play real well together although the misses and I sometime wonder just what’s going on upstairs. You see they’re at that age where they’re learning lots and lots of things about life. They’re starting to actually talk about girls, as if they like them and so on. Mom is freaking out!

It’s still a little cool today but should be around 45 or so when I’m pheasant hunting this afternoon. I saw my Mom yesterday as she needed a bottle of wine (or two) which I gladly ran up to her. She looks good and is still as sharp as ever. Must be those good German/Wisconsin genes she has.

I did learn that Tasha and her husband and Avi (Tasha’s daughter) will be coming from Hawaii December 19th to the 23rd on the way to St. Louis. My mom said how nice it would be if Aunt Robi could come up so we’ll (Uncle T and I) will have to figure out how to get her up here! So pack your bags Robi, I’l call you soon. It’ll be real nice to have all the kids together with Mom for a few days and then we’ll get rid of her just in time before Christmas so Mom can give more presents to her two favorite kids! ha ha

The misses, once again, did too much yesterday. I had to run to the DOW (Dept of Wildlife) to pick up my hunting tags and then to the distributor and while I was gone the misses was channeling a cleaning company scrubbing the house from top to bottom. Then she wonders why her head and neck hurt, hmmm. Her logic is it hurts less during the day if she’s doing something.

Less than 2 months until Christmas! Uncle T will probably have his lights staged in the garage ready to go up the minute halloween is over. I’ll bet he’s almost done with his shopping too, he’s an early shopper.

Time to run as it’s almost 7 and I need to take my shotgun apart and give it a quick once over before I leave just before noon. Hope everyone is well, take care and have a great weekend.

Note to Gram Annette:  The doggy meds are fine for Lacey. XOXOL

The east coast is supposed to get hammered by a combination of storms they say are historic. They said this last year and it didn’t happen so a lot of people probably won’t take it serious this time. Hopefully it’ll miss land again. Next weekend it says it’s supposed to snow in the mountains where we’ll be hunting which is great news. I could use a new coat but will have to layer up with the stuff I have. Christmas should come before hunting season each year, that would be much more useful.

It’s Friday and the boys are excited for the weekend. We did get a bit more snow last night but not too much. The misses finished cleaning out the spare room and fixed the downstairs bathroom door with some WD-40. She’s pretty handy from time to time.

It seems time is just whizzing by these days. Hard to believe it’s almost November. I’ll be so glad when the election is over so we can all get back to normal. Hopefully we can all get along and heal no matter who wins.

The youngest learned how to tie his own shoes last night. We’re all very proud of him and he’s thrilled too! He just pointed out I have 769 new emails on the I pad, how can one guy get that many? Well it is a few days worth but still a lot. The kids are trying to figure out how to un-freeze the I pad and delete all the messages without having to select each one, so far, no luck but there has to be a way.

I’m excited to go pheasant hunting tomorrow and then we have the big Bronco game Sunday night. My good buddy Luke is going hunting with us and he just got back from British Columbia where he went goat hunting. Looks like I’m going with some guys to the game as it’s too late (and chilly)  for the misses and the kiddos. Hopefully we’ll win, we just have to!

My mom’s too funny. I haven’t seen her in a while but we did talk on the phone yesterday. It’s good to catch up with her, she and I (whether or not she admits it) are a lot alike! This is more and more true the older I get. I won’t go into details but we think very much the same.

The boys are eating breakfast and messing with some game on the I pad. They love that damn thing. Today there’s a new one coming out and millions of people with no money will somehow come up with the cash to buy one. Windows 8 also comes out from Microsoft and looks pretty cool. It’s touch screen technology where you can do things with the swipe of your finger. There’s always something new isn’t there.

Time to run, hope everyone is well, have a great weekend and root for the Broncos!

It’s here, the first snow of the season. We’re supposed to have a break until this afternoon and then more snow through the night.

I just returned from the gym and it’s 6:30 so time for all to wake up. The misses feels a bit better than yesterday but is still, you know, the same. Hopefully we’re half way to her being pain free.

The boys both went to the trampoline gym yesterday after school and Mom tagged along. Today it’s back to a full day of school, thankfully. I have so much going on I can’t even think of what I have to do today. Thankfully the govt hasn’t cashed our tax check yet. I couldn’t figure out why I had some money in the bank and then I discovered why. Wouldn’t it be nice if they never cashed it! Not very likely.

I need to go get my hunting license today as it’s fast approaching. It’d be great if it’d snow like this a week from today or tomorrow as it brings the elk down from the high country and means less climbing for me! Even if we don’t get an elk, the best part of hunting is just hunting. Being up in the mountains on top of some peak as the sun comes up is so peaceful. It’s like nothing else matters. Everyone should experience it sometime.

Time to run as it’s almost 7am. Not much else going on except the endless barrage of political ads hammering us day and night. I don’t think it much matters anymore as everyone probably has their mind made up. We sure do!

Take care, stay safe and healthy and God Bless.

Tonight, maybe, we’ll see our first snow fall of the season. I hope so as it’ll make pheasant hunting a lot more fun on Saturday! Yesterday afternoon when we arrived home from the hair salon and grocery store, we jumped right in and did a quick clean of the house. This pretty much means pick everything up, vacuum and do all the dishes. The misses made chicken sausage and roast vegetables for dinner which everyone enjoyed.

This morning the misses has a doctor appointment at 10am. I think I’ll try to drive her so she can stay on her pain meds. Yesterday was not a good day for her head. Our lawyer sent a few emails and it seems that the therapist who manipulated her neck that first caused her headache, has conveniently omitted or lost or didn’t submit the records that document her hurting the misses neck. Surprise surprise, right. Nothing much surprises us anymore. It’s often hard to find people or companies that will “do the right thing” these days.

The kids halloween costumes are almost done. They of course are both custom made by the misses. We’ll have to send pictures.

Both dogs just came bounding in from their morning play time in the back yard. It’s almost 6am so time to get moving. Hope everyone is doing well, glad to hear from some of you even if you don’t comment all the time. It’s good to know you’re reading daily and enjoying the blog. God Bless.

Today is my little sis’s birthday, whoo hoo! I’m sure she’ll be whooping it up, Happy Birthday Robi.

Yesterday the youngest stayed home with a slight fever and a stuffy nose. In the am I ran down to meet our new attorney for the misses issues after I met with the owner of Applejack. I need to be back at Applejack this morning after I get a 9am haircut. I’m taking the misses with me and leaving her there so she can get an update as well. I’ll go back and get her later as I don’t want her driving when she’s on pain medication.

Here’s a quick comment from Grandma Annette, thanks,

Ok, are you out there? We’re not sure although I did receive 37 new comments yesterday, just none from any of you, hmmmm.

Ok, where do I start, yesterday the misses and I hit the upstairs spare room and cleaned out 6 large bags of trash, 4 large bags of clothes to donate, (she) almost finished up the youngest guys halloween costume, roasted a couple of chickens along with some vegetables, made a cherry pie, washed and put away 3 or 4 loads of laundry, while I cleaned the basement and shredded 3 months worth of old bills and other stuff. So, what did you do?

The oldest left at 9:30 with Jen for Anderson Farms to hit the 3.6 mile corn maze, go to the pumpkin patch, have some lunch and whatever else they do there. The youngest played around here and at the neighbors until we all met up for dinner around 5pm.

This morning I have a conference call and then will head downtown to a lawyer to discuss the misses situation. Meanwhile she has an appointment at noon to discuss the remodeling of a doctor’s office so it’s a busy day.

In fact, it’s a busy week. Tomorrow I have a haircut at 9am and she has an appointment to get her hair colored right behind me at 9:30. Then I have an appointment at Applejack Liquors at 10 and then I’ll be off to Greeley for an appointment. Wednesday is early release at school (12:30) and the misses has a doctors appointment that morning while I have a couple of meetings in Boulder. Thursday it’ll be cold and rainy but I need to find some time this week to double check my rifle and make sure it’s sighted in for elk hunting in 10 days or so, meaning probably a trip to the mountains to a range. Friday it might snow and I have 4 calls set up right now and Saturday I’m pheasant hunting out east about an hour or so from Denver. I think the misses is also throwing a halloween party that night. We’ve been invited to at least two parties that evening as well. Then Sunday the Broncos play the Saints at 6:30pm. On top of all this, the youngest guy seems to have a stuffy nose and a cold and he’s trying to pass it over to me first!

The following week is even worse as I’ll be leaving for the mountains on Friday morning for a few days.

I just yelled up to the misses and the boys as it’s after 6 and the oldest has inter-murals. Both pups are at my feet anxiously waiting for Mom to come down the stairs. They seem to like her best!

Time to run, lots going on as you can see. We need to try to get the youngest well and try not to let his cold spread throughout the family. I’m trying to break the cycle by downing 6 to 8 vitamin C pills a day. Hopefully it’ll work.

So stay safe, stay healthy, take care and God Bless, and don’t be afraid to comment!

Either no one read the post yesterday or everyone is prepared for unknown eventualities. Hopefully it’s the later as we just don’t have enough stuff for everyone! But in all seriousness, do you all believe there’s nothing to worry about like the national debt, the price of food and so on? Or, like most people, do you choose to just ignore it until it’s at your doorstep. I’ll move on but there’s a lot of people a lot smarter than I that are taking steps to protect themselves and their families. Even the government is running tv ads now telling you to have extra food and water and supplies on hand. That didn’t happen when we were kids, now did it.

So yesterday the kids played hard. The youngest went to his friends for the whole day and didn’t come home until after we arrived there for dinner and all went home at 9pm. Meanwhile the oldest was with us until about 4pm when he went to his friends and then went to a Halloween party dressed as a zebra with him and his parents. He said there was a belly dancer there and he and his friend jumped up and danced along with her! We’re hoping his friends mom took pictures!

It was 80 degrees yesterday but only in the mid 60’s today. I’m determined to get the basement clean today and maybe the upstairs spare room. I have to accomplish something today.

This morning at 9am the oldest is going with Jen and her family to Anderson Farms which is a big farm with a giant pumpkin patch. I think they also have a corn maze. I think we’ll send the oldest with Mom’s phone just to be safe. He’ll also be under strict instructions to stay with Jen and do not separate in the corn maze.

Unfortunately it’s right near where they found the chopped up body of the poor little 10 year old girl last week. They still haven’t found the creep who did this and it now seems he, and/or others, are toying with authorities by trying to grab other kids here and there. There’s just a whole bunch of child predators coming out of the woodwork. On top of that, 2 teenagers were shot yesterday morning across town. It’s a really bad violent time here in Denver for some reason. Truth is it’s bad everywhere, we just notice what’s happening here because we live here. As I said a few days ago, all crime is up nationwide for the first time in 20 years. This is because more people have nothing to lose and when you have nothing to lose, you do desperate things you wouldn’t normally do. For example, turns out 2 of the 3 kids arrested for killing 5 people the other night were the sons of a baptist minister! They had no job (and of course no education) so they decided to rob these people and ended up killing them. It’s just sad, really sad. Doesn’t sound like the good ol days now does it.

Ok ok, I don’t mean to ruin your Sunday but it is what it is out there. Personally we try to focus on the good things and ignore as much of this as we can but often it’s right there in your face. Lots of kids, including ours, are scared and very aware of, for example, the predators, as they talk about it at school everyday. Not only do all the kids talk amongst themselves but the teachers (as they should) bring it up to warn the kids. Kids shouldn’t have trouble sleeping because they’re worrying about crime and bad people, it’s just not right, but is the reality we live in.

Anyhow let’s all focus on the beautiful fall day out there and have a great day. We hope everyone is doing well and will have a great day. I was reminded by the boys that Christmas is only about 64 days away! Imagine that, the kids being aware of when Christmas is!

Take care and God Bless.