A Year of Change

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.

Today markets are imploding across the globe. Oil is crashing and the dollar is tanking. I’m installing emergency stop gaps at my work on all payments to foreign producers. I just can’t agree to such wild, abnormal swings in the Euro due to public panic. It’s too late to buy gold (maybe not!) and the markets and the World GDP are forecasted to lose 2.4 Trillion dollars from its economy. The Dow future markets are down over 1200 points mainly on oil crashing to $27 a barrel. Some say ride the markets out, others say get out now. Guess it depends on how old and brave you are.

Cases and deaths are up everywhere as this is now officially out of control. Robi, sadly I’m sure by the 28th the concert will be cancelled. There’s talk here of banning any gathering over 1000 people. I’ll be shocked if it’s not. The govt. says stay off cruise ships as we can no longer help you and do not fly unless you absolutely have to.

On the home front we topped off supplies yesterday and will continue each day with hard to find items. I’ll get some more macadamia milk today which has a long shelf life and is really good. Also getting some extra vitamin D and cold medicine and dog food.

Ty is off to DU for a college tour this morning and Jag starts lacrosse today. Lori will be back at work and I’m purging the garage. Hope you all are well and getting ready. Things will get worse before getting better. This is a fact. Good luck and God Bless.

All good things come to an end and so did our basketball season. It was a great run with the boys going farther than any team from VMS in history. The boys should be proud.

After the game we went to lunch on the way home with Marty and Melanie, and Tom and Jennifer Ebner. This is our crew from the Stones concert. I have a stuffed and runny nose but my sore throat is gone.

Today they locked down all of Northern Italy, 16 million people. This is not good for work so I’m scrambling to get as much wine out of there that I can. It’s in lockdown until April 3rd. This is the first major quarantine of people outside of China. Wake up as it too could happen here. We’re headed down to the house this morning and will make a quick stop at Costco to top off supplies. I’m sure toilet paper and wipes are all gone but we’ll add some canned chicken and tuna to our stash. At this point you cannot have too much. They say we have 8 cases in Colorado which means we probably have 40 or 50. We know of “some” up here that haven’t been reported due to decisions made by people in power not wanting to panic the public. Don’t believe for a minute that you’re getting the whole truth from the govt. Again, watch what they do, not what they say. Word has it, due to the shortage of test kits, we’ve tested less than 2000 people in the whole country! This is way less than we should be able to test or than we need to test. It’s like pulling teeth to get tested, at least up here.

So things are going to get weird, trust me. Go to the store today and buy as much stuff, (food and toiletries) as you can. You are running out of time. No time to wait any longer. Also as soon as you read this, go so you beat the crowds. Social distancing, meaning staying away from groups of people or crowds will soon be the norm.

Good luck and God Bless.

They did it again, the basketball team won 50 to 47. If they win today at 1 then it’s down to 8 teams in the State to determine the championship. Great win.

Seems we have another case up here of the virus. The news doesn’t know yet but it was a case that tested positive at the hospital. They sent the person home but some providers were exposed. Thankfully Lori wasn’t one of those that received a call but did get the email from the hospital late last night. In any case, no hiding from it now as “officially” we have 8 cases in the State but we all know we have many more.

We’ll be back in Clear Creek at 1 for the game today. Jag isn’t getting the playing time he’d like as it seems he challenged one of the coaches which didn’t go over well. He needs to work on letting things go even when he knows he’s right and someone else is wrong. This has happened with a teacher too. Teachers and coaches and people in positions of power don’t like being called out publicly when they’re wrong. Jag knows this and is working on it but I get it, it’s hard to sit on your hands and be quiet when someone is so obviously wrong. Oh well, a life lesson in the screwed up way of the World. Maybe he’ll get to play more today.

Ty came home at 10:30 after a long day at school and lacrosse. Jag is going to play lacrosse too when basketball is over. If we lose any game, it’s over as we’re down to single elimination games.

I’m still kicking my cold and Lori is fighting one off. Our colds are head colds and sore throats which are not related to the virus in case you’re wondering.

Boys, it was a good week considering all going on in our lives and the World. You’re both doing great as usual. Try to take things in stride and don’t sweat the little things. Remember if you’re not going to remember it in 6 months, it’s not that big of a deal.

Take care and be safe, God Bless.

Super, the virus is here. Hell we could already have it. Today they announced 2 confirmed cases, one down in Denver and another up here in Frisco that has now been transferred to Denver. What isn’t public knowledge yet is that we have a confirmed case at Battle Mountain High School which is Jagger’s girlfriends school. The AP Art Class had gone to Venice Italy and returned a few weeks ago. This means those kids and anyone they came in close contact with, like friends, parents and siblings, have all ben exposed and walking around the valley for 2 freakin weeks! One of Lori’s nurses husband is a Vail Police Officer and they just texted that the health department is testing 30 people tonight. Costco is now running out of all the things we bought a few weeks ago. Grocery stores are getting wiped out too of certain items. They did move the basketball game to Evergreen tomorrow night which doesn’t make a lot of sense as lots of people will go down for the game and if one of those is infected they then will infect Evergreen. So there you go, it’s here.

Not much we can do but wait and see. I’m in Denver tomorrow and then I guess we’re going to the game unless more info comes out tomorrow. Today I was also in Denver picking up last minute supplies. Good move by me. The hospital, starting tomorrow, is screening everyone who enters, no exceptions. Patients and employees. The walk in urgent care has been shut down. Sounds like a movie.

I pray we’ll be ok. I think we should but you never know. Point is if this can find it’s way to our small mountain town, it can find its way to you too. So get ready while you still have time.

It was warm in Denver today, very nice. I hope to be up by 1 at the latest so it’ll be a quick trip. Time to go, be safe, be well and be strong, God Bless.

James, Marty and I left at 4:45 am and made it to Kiowa Creek by 7:30. 30 minutes later we were hunting over dogs flushing pheasants and crushing it. We took 25 birds in a super successful day and were done by 10:45. It warmed up nicely and we had a great time. We all made some great long shots and our dogs were great pointers. I don’t think Dennis, our guide, new who James was until we were leaving. It’s nice for us and especially for him when people don’t recognize him. We did stop at Café Rio in Denver West for lunch and the guy at the counter froze in the middle of making our tacos and said “I’m sorry man, I just recognized you, I’m a big fan”. Of course he wasn’t talking to Marty or I and James was nice and that was it.

After we made it home we went over to James and cooked up some pheasant for dinner in an Instant Pot which is like a pressure cooker. They turned out great, sort of like a really good chicken soup. Anyhow we’re going back next Thursday to squeeze in another hunt before the season ends on March 31st. It’s kind of our new thing as it’s a blast and we’re having lots of fun.

Back to life, we have a potential virus case in Frisco about 40 minutes away. I myself am Kicking, or trying to, my cold. Today I’ll take it easy with a some driving but that’s it. Tomorrow I have a 9:40 sales meeting in Denver before the big game at 7 pm. Lori’s back is out and she’s getting a sore throat too. I guess the school is expecting 400 people for the basketball game tomorrow, wow.

Time to get moving, California declared a State of Emergency, not sure what that means to anyone other than a talking point to the news. Everyone should have already been on alert. Oh well, time to go, have a great day, GB.