A Year of Change

Looks like another round, and hopefully the last, of snow is coming. It’s supposed to hit tomorrow night and last through Saturday morning. Ty has a track meet tonight where I think he’s running the 800 and 1600. He’s pretty fast and we hope does well. Lori had a half day off yesterday but had to wait until Jag was done observing surgeries so they made it home like 1 or 1:30.

I cleaned a lot of the basement out yesterday and “dewintered” by taking the insulation off the sliding door to let some light in. It’s funny as I threw away some things I just thought I had to have from my Moms. A couple things that went bye were old brass ashtrays, an old briefcase and some more odds and ends like that that I’m not quite sure why I brought home in the first place. Oh well, maybe I needed to get them here to go through them. I have a dozen or so more boxes in the garage ready to go to storage. We’re getting closer to getting this place all cleaned out.

Jag is sore from basketball and his back seized up from the night before. I went to work out yesterday and am pretty sore myself as my regular trainer is in Spain on a bike trip and I worked out with a different guy who had a different program that worked a whole bunch of different muscles. Oh well, that’s a good thing.

Next week Ty has break and Jag will be back at school. His basketball starts Monday. That means between the two boys we’ll have basketball Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday.

Program alert! A week from today is the NFL Draft! I know no one cares except Tom and I but since I’m writing I can say whatever I want. That’s it, have a great day and God Bless.

This morning Jag has to be at the hospital by 8 am for a couple surgeries. I think one is a hardware removal in the hand or elbow and I’m not sure what the other one is. He’s super lucky to sit in with these top surgeons and getting first hand experience in orthopedics. Ty and I have a workout appointment at 7 and then school starts at 9:30. Lori has a half day today as she’s now taking half a day off each Wednesday. We’ll see how that works as last week she didn’t get out until 3!

We had a snowstorm come out of nowhere yesterday afternoon and the pass ended up being closed around 4 or 5. Jag had basketball last night and had a good time. They work the boys hard. It’s a good group of kids and coaches.

I’m finally recouped from my Monday turn to Chicago and back. It takes a couple days to recover from no sleep as you get older.

Here’s a little teaser for you, tomorrow it looks like we have a surprise coming but you’ll have to wait to wait until then or Friday to learn about it. More to come on that but it’s a big one that’s been in the works for a while.

Have a great day, God Bless.

I made it to the airport by 5:30 and was in Chicago by 9 am Colorado time. As I walked outside the airport you could feel the bone chilling cold with the wind coming off the lake as it penetrated your bones. Even though it gets much colder in Vail, the humidity there makes it a different type of cold.

Larry, my employee who looks like a cross between Ron Perlman and Will Ferrell, picked me up and off to our meeting we went. 3 hours later I was back at the airport and boarding my plane. I arrived in Denver at 5 and was home by 7:15. Lori calls this a quick turn which is flight attendant lingo. Thankfully I was in First Class both ways so it was a pretty painless flight both ways.

Jag cleaned part of his room yesterday. He did manage to get his desk cleaned off which was a major deal as it was really cluttered. Ty received 95% on his assessment tests which are some kind of finals or year end tests, great job!

Tomorrow Jag will be in the OR with Dr. Viola observing some hand surgeries. Tonight though, basketball starts at 6:30. Ty starts next week.

Lori has clinic and I’m cleaning out some more of the basement as well as knocking out some more computer work. That’s about it, lot’s going on. Have a great day and God Bless.

Not a lot of time this morning, or night depending on how you look at things. I’m off to the airport in Denver in 45 minutes or so. Apparently I was snoring for the past few hours as Lori was awake even though I woke up without the alarm. Sorry honey!

I should be home by 7 tonight in Vail. Ty has school and Jag will be cleaning, we hope. That’s about it, tax day tomorrow, ugh. You don’t even want to know what’s due. You just can’t stay ahead of the govt. God Bless.

Yesterday Ty’s track meet was cancelled due to the weather so he decided to stay home while we headed down to Denver. He met up with his buddy Damon who ended up spending the night. While Lori was getting her hair done, which didn’t turn out well, we ran to Boulder to drop a sample bottle of wine. Next up was the mall where Jag got 4 new pair of pants and 3 shirts for what one pair of pants would have cost at Nordstrom! We also hit the basketball shoe store though and that was a different story as both boys needed shoes for Eagles which is the team in the valley they start with in the next week. When Lori made it home and saw her hair in the mirror she was not happy! Apparently there’s some orange or copper colored strands that are supposed to be blonde! Now I don’t see them but then again I don’t pay much attention to that stuff.

It’s snowing lightly but you can see blue sky through the light flakes coming down. This time tomorrow I’ll be on a plane to Chicago as my flight leaves at 6:57. That means I’ll be getting up around 3 am to drive down to the airport. I have a quick 90 minute meeting and should be back in Denver by 5 pm.

Today I think both boys are going to play some b ball while Lori and I clean around here. I have to get the garage cleaned out, again, ugh. Jag’s off all week and we’re planning on getting a lot done. Time to get moving so we can get to the gym. Hope all’s well and that everyone is having a great weekend. We have one more round of snow coming next weekend which is pretty much the normal pattern in the mountains in April. It can snow as late as June but it should be winding down soon. It’ll be in the high 70’s in Denver tomorrow. Have a good day, GB.

Jag wrapped up a week of tests and I picked him up at 2:10 yesterday. He had a free period from 2:10 to 3 so no need to hang out. He now has 9 days off! Ty stayed late at school for track and was due to run the 800 today and the 400 Relay but with the dusting of snow we received last night, I think the meet is postponed.

Lori and I and Jag and maybe Ty are headed to Big D today (Denver, not Dallas) for Lori to get her hair colored. We’ll run a few errands while she’s doing her thing. I worked out hard yesterday and am back down to 208 lbs which is close to my fighting weight of 205. It’s funny as it’s all about diet and not working out to lose weight. Working out is just for balance and strength but has little to do with trying to lose weight.

Mojo is doing well and is sleeping by Lori’s feet after eating his breakfast. We’re still working on our real estate deal as there’s lots to do like surveys and soil reports and more.

On the World stage, there were airstrikes against Syria in the middle of the night. Lots going on but countries are no longer pushing us around as they did in the past. In some way, Trump’s unpredictability has some rethinking how they treat us. China just lowered tariffs on U.S. car imports which no one thought they would do. They were charging us 25% and only getting charged 2% for sending cars to us! Say what you will but Trump’s bluster now has us and the automotive industry on an even playing field. Changing long established policies between countries isn’t easy, even if they are wrong, so hold on to your hats, ha.

That’s about it, hopefully the snow is about over for the year. Have a great weekend and we’ll see you all tomorrow! God Bless.

Ok, the week is almost over, thank God! I’m not going down to Denver today as I’ve been down every day this week and we’re going down tomorrow. Tom and Ali have a lunch then but I have some errands to do anyhow. Slow and steady is our mantra, and things are getting there. We still have things like Waterford Crystal glasses that have no home. I’m going to try to find a good home for them. I’m excited for Shelly to someday go through the  four or five large boxes we put together for her as there’s tons of pictures of her and Tasha when she was little. I also put in a lot of the grandma and grandpa’s pictures as well as a bunch of Dad when he was young and momento’s from her childhood.

Here’s some big news, we’ve settled on a lot to buy where we hope to build our dream house. You might not know it but we bought a lot 2 or 3 years ago and then sold it last year as we had someone build next to us that obstructed our view and the timing wasn’t right. Thankfully we made money on it. I think we have it figured out this time, ha. It’s actually the same as just buying an existing house finance wise but with a whole lot more work! More to come here too but if all goes well we’ll be in by maybe September, but October for sure. It’s in Eagle Ranch which sits high above Eagle looking at the Sawatch Range. Eagle is also like 1500 feet lower than Vail in elevation meaning less snow and warmer. Over the past 5 years, we’ve literally been through every single house for sale in Eagle Ranch and just couldn’t find anything that was a good fit for us. We’ll keep you posted.

There’s a little snow here but I guess the brunt of the storm is in eastern Colorado. That’s good news as like I said earlier, we’re in Denver tomorrow. Time to get moving so I can get Jag to basketball. Have a great weekend and God Bless.

5:30 am, another day and another trip to Denver. It’s like that movie Groundhog Day where the same thing happens over and over. Sure there are a few tweaks here and there but it’s basically the same. We’re making good progress though. Mom always said you do a little at a time to get where you want to go. It’s the old tortoise and the hare thing. Slow and steady usually wins out.

Jag has a big math test today and then science tomorrow. Then he’s off for a week. Lori has clinic and a deposition tonight after work and Ty has track. Snow tonight and tomorrow so they say. We’ll see how much.

I found lots of fun pictures yesterday and a bunch of momento’s for Shelly. We have probably four big boxes of stuff for her. We have James taking the remaining trash out of the attic and basement and will soon start on the clothes left in the house. Both realtors gave us proposals with about the same price recommendation. One thinks someone will keep the house while the other thinks it’ll be torn down. I think we’re leaning towards the local guy.

Here’s a math problem, see if you can understand it. This is Jag’s. I’m totally lost and couldn’t figure this out if my life depended on it. Let me know if you get it! God Bless.

I’m off early this morning as I have meetings in Denver at 9:45, 10:30 and 11. Then I’ll head over to Mom’s for another round of cleaning. I need to be back up here by 4 so no time to waste.

Lori is off to the gym while I get the boys moving. I’ll be going down again tomorrow too (ugh) and then on Saturday, weather permitting. Lucky you all, (except for Tom and I) don’t live here or you’d have to come over and help us. This is a huge job and we probably should have hired someone but it would have cost thousands of dollars plus they wouldn’t know what to keep and what to throw out. James told me yesterday after the “girls” took what designer clothes of Mom’s they wanted, he thought he could have the rest. I don’t know where or how he got that idea and I’m still pretty pissed off about it but what can I do. I did make it crystal clear he’s not to take anything, even an empty box, without specific approval from Tom or myself. It really pisses me off that Viviene (his sort of girlfriend) is walking around wearing Mom’s stuff. Oh well, I need to get over it.

It’ll be 80 in Denver today before snow returns tomorrow night. Hopefully this is the last round but you never know. Most ski areas are shut down or shut down this weekend. Ty has track after school and Jag has his math tutor. He scored 90% on his math which is a big deal.

Robi commented yesterday on her pcitures, here it is,

Well, Tom and I made more progress yesterday. We had James come over for some boxes for the Denver Junior League and a bunch of trash. I found 4 BB Guns in a downstairs closet. Man they made them a lot more powerful 40 years ago. Today we’ll try to get a lot of the basement cleaned out. It’s a big job but someone needs to do it. While I was driving down Tom was at the emissions place getting Mom’s car approved so he could sell it. He did a really great job on the car and I think he got top dollar for it.

Jag wants to go to school early today. He’s skipping the volleyball game in Denver tonight as he’d get home at midnight and he has a math test Thursday. Ty came home an hour early yesterday and slept from about 4 until, well, he’s still sleeping. Jag went to the clinic and met the CEO and had a tour. He’ll be working there for 6 or 8 weeks this summer. I didn’t know it but they have lots of really advanced stuff going on. They’re one of a handful of places in the Country with this robot to test human joints for strength and movement. They put cadavers (dead people) in this thing and test how far a joint can be pushed or pulled in some case until it fails. They also have a lab where they practice surgery on knees, ankles, spines, etc. using all the same gear as in the OR. Next week Jag is in the OR with Dr. C. watching a back surgery, wow! He’s pretty lucky as people from universities all over the World apply to come intern here and Lori slipped Jag right in. They’re already talking about what to do this summer and then what to do that’s more specific next summer once he decides what his interests are. There’s a lot more going on than I knew about, it’s really amazing and once you see it you understand why it’s one of the top orthopedic clinics in the World.

Lori has clinic today and us boys should all get home around 4:30 with Lori probably running an hour or so behind us. We all had a stomach ache yesterday from the fish. Lori and I had the worst of it as the boys really didn’t eat much fish if any. Here’s some fun pictures of Robi I found in the attic! I remember that long dress, what fun. Have a great day, GB.