A Year of Change

Jag’s last day of school! He has his final at 3:30 today and then I think is heading up. Ty works at 8 and we’ll head to the gym after dropping him off.

Last night we had cigar night and six of us made it. We took a picture for the video at James party right before a solid down pour moved into the area. It was a good soaker. I picked Ty up at work on the way home. They sure love him. He’s thinking about staying up here and continuing his job as he is realizing he can’t make the money he makes up here, down in Denver. Good for him. I told him if he works until the end of the year, he could bank $15,000 to $20,000 or more depending on how much he saves.

Nice up here in the mornings. I have the garage open again to cool it down. Trash is out at the curb and it’s 6:45 in the morning.

Bronco football tonight! Can’t wait, as it marks the beginning of Fall and the new season. I think Ty works until 5 so by the time we get home, we can grab some dinner and get ready for the game at 7.

Waiting to hear if Jake found any horses to buy at the sale preview last night. I thought about going but it’s a hike and Jake is the one who knows what to look for, I’d just be hanging out. Should know more today.

That’s it, have a great day and a great weekend, God Bless.

Not sure if you saw the news, but Lahaina Maui has been wiped out. Founded by Captain James Cook in 1778, it has been the Capitol of Hawaii, a whaling town with over 400 ships in the bay and a tourist destination for years. We’ve spent a lot of time there and always enjoyed out time. Hard to believe the entire town, businesses, houses, and everything else is gone. It’ll take decades to rebuild. Luckily James house down in Olowalu is ok as of now. He texted me some pictures from there yesterday that I think his caretaker had taken. My friend Jeffrey is on the other side of the island and is ok but his kid had to evacuate his house over in Keahi. It’s been a rough year weather wise, everywhere. Fire is one thing that is hard to prepare for. Up here, we practice fire mitigation by removing brush and dead trees as much as we can. Most of all, people need to be smart as most are caused by man. Prayers for the people on Maui.

Jag has two more days of class and then is done. Of course, we received his tuition bill today as it just wouldn’t be nice to give us even a few days break from paying, ha. Dixie is doing well! She keeps plugging along, just like the Energizer Bunny from the battery commercial.

Lori is working from home today and I have a call at 10. This afternoon we’re all getting together at cigar night to take a picture as we’re all making a video montage for James’ s birthday. It’ll be good to see everyone as it’s been over a month.

Did you know that the Grand Canyon is one of the 9 wonders of the World? Me neither but Ol Joe says so, so according to the Dems, it’s true! You see, everything he says is true, even when facts come out proving he’s been lying. Doesn’t matter though as according to them, he either never said what he said (on camera) or it’s just not true. Reminds me of the Eddie Murphy movie where his wife sees him coming out of a woman’s house and she says, “what are you doing coming out of her house” and he says, “wasn’t me”. She says I saw you but he sticks to his story and says, “wasn’t me”. After saying “wasn’t me” ten times or more, the wife finally says, “I’m so sorry, I guess it wasn’t you”. You see, if you repeat a lie long enough, people start believing it. Especially the liar that keeps saying it, he convinces himself what he’s saying is true. That’s Ol Joe. What a mess, think for yourself people!

Good luck and God Bless.

Yesterday Lori figured out how to turn on the motion sensors on the cameras at Dix’s house. Boy oh boy, my phone was buzzing all night. She gets up and goes to the bathroom and walks in and out of her living room a few times each night, each one sending me a text. Might have to turn that off! We went and visited her yesterday and she’s doing fine. I just looked and most of the motion sensors are the staff checking on her which is good.

Lori works in Frisco today, Ty in Edwards and after the gym, I’m heading over to Glenwood for some errands. Then I’m for sure tackling the basement! Nice up here, mid 40’s this morning which cools down the garage well. Jag crushed his test last night and has his final on Friday at 3:30 and then is done! Sweet!

He has two weeks off and will come up and chill for part of it. Think we’ll go fly fishing a few times.

Ol Joe B is weaving and dodging with all the facts coming out about him taking money with his son. The media is covering for him, but I think too much is coming out, too fast for him to ignore. They’ll probably use this to push Ol Joe out. Looks like $20 million was sent to Hunter for him and his family and was distributed through about 20 shell companies, basically for nothing. Imagine if this was the Donald and his family, hmmm, unbelievable. Oh well, it’s the new World we live in. Would have never thought in America things would be like this. Dad would be shocked and sad at what our great country has become.

Back to our little slice of heaven, thank God we live where we live. Make it a great day and God Bless.

Had a good visit with my friend Art yesterday. He was struggling with depression a year ago and they had him on some heavy meds, but he’s all better now, thank God. I dropped Ty around 9 and then hit Whole Foods before meeting Art. After visiting him and stopping at the bank, I headed home. Today I have a couple stops before getting Ty and bringing him back up to the mountains.

Talked with my good buddy Davey yesterday. They have a big ranch 34 miles south of Gunnison and keep asking us to come down. Davey is my age and Jagger and his daughter Zella went to school together. I think Lori and I will go down in September after we all go to the concert for James’s birthday.

Nice and cool yesterday, in the 70’s. Just about perfect. Lori brought Dixie up yesterday. She seems a lot more lost these days but is hanging in there. It’s good for us to get her out of her place. I want to make sure she gets outside even just to sit and get some fresh air. Yesterday she said it was too cold but that’s good for her. She had some of Tom’s peanut brittle, which she loves, some popcorn and then fresh peaches and cream. We always try to load her up on calories as she’s losing so much weight. I asked her how she’s doing, and she said, “I don’t know what the hell I’m doing”. I told her that’s ok and that she’s up here visiting and then she said, “oh, that’s good”. Every day is a gift for her and us. Believe me, I’d love to have my Mom here, even with all of Dixie’s ailments.

Well that’s it, time to get moving. Have a great day and God Bless.

Yesterday at noon we headed to our local theater to see Oppenheimer. When we walked in to buy our tickets, the kid told us he couldn’t get the projector to restart. There was a power surge 30 minutes before in the area that did something to the system. So, home we went. Lori had been going to clean the pantry so that’s what she did. Every few years we need to go through our stores of food and throw out or donate the older stuff. Of course, as she’s doing this, every five minutes she is telling me, “Stop buying so much food”! Ha. To me, food is an insurance policy. I’ve learned to just say, ok honey, and then I go buy what I think we need. Hope she’s not reading this today, ha.

I’m off at 6:30 to take Ty to Denver. I have to go tomorrow for a meeting, and I told him if he works, I’d take him to see Madi when I could. I’m meeting Art, a buddy at 10 this morning and then will head back up the hill. I think Lori is working from home as Dr. B. is driving back from a family reunion in South Dakota.

I need to order James’s belt today. Our cigar group is getting him this cool $1500 belt made by a guy in Cody Wyoming. We’re all pitching in so it’s not that big of a hit for each of us. Jag is doing well and wrapping up his summer session.

It’s almost 6am and I’d like to be on the road in 30 minutes so time to get moving. Make it a great day, August 7th already, wow. Here we go, God Bless.

Getting up early on the weekends is getting old, ha. Happy to do it though for Ty’s sake. He worked all day yesterday until we picked him up at 5. Sure wish he had his own ride but we’re through buying him cars.

We might go see Oppenheimer today at noon. Yesterday I picked up some pork roasts and Lori cooked one up in the crock pot. We stopped and saw Dixie again and Lori changed her bandage on her arm. When she fell, she tore her skin and it’s too thin for stitches so all we can do is wrap it tightly and hope it scabs over. She did a number on her arm. Her skin reminds me of Mom’s.

Hard to believe it’s August 6th. We have a bunch of things coming up. Marci and Gerry are taking is to Boz Skaggs at the Vilar on the 13th, and on the 19th, we’re at Belly Up in Aspen seeing Keanu Reeves band Dogstar, who are actually really good. He’s just such an amazing guy too. One of the good people out there. Throw in a dermatologist appointment on the 17th and Lori’s car appointment on the 24th and the month will go by fast. Then on the 30th we’re off to Arizona for the concert and James’s birthday party. Oh, we also have the Royal Crown horse sale in Rock Springs Wyoming starting next Thursday. We’re hoping to find a good horse to pick up for the season and will then sell him next year.

There was a hint of Fall in the air yesterday. Tom and I were talking about how it’ll probably be a hard winter. We have no idea, no one does, but the way things have been going, we wouldn’t bet against it.

That’s it, time to get moving, enjoy the day and God Bless.

Luckily Dixie slept through the night. We stopped by yesterday and she was as sharp as she’s been in the last year. We check on her on the camera’s multiple times each day and sometimes catch her walking around without her walker. That’s the problem. She’s usually fine as she can still walk pretty well but she is weak and should have it. Every day is a blessing though so all good.

Today after dropping Ty and going to the gym we’re headed to Breckenridge to visit Toby who is up from Denver for the weekend. We might try to make it to the movies this afternoon but are not sure if the timing will work.

Jagger has one week left of summer school and then a week off before the Fall semester starts. I’m pretty positive he’s the top student in his class. One of his classmates said to him yesterday after class, “I feel like nothing phases you in this class”. That pretty much sums it up as Jag says it’s all logical. He’s sort of like Mr. Spock from Star Trek, ha. Meanwhile Ty is doing great at work. Everyone we know that he runs into tells us what a great, sweet kid he is and what a joy he is to be around. Molly, the owner and Chandler, the manager just love him saying he’s so chill and nothing phases him either. So we have two great kids where nothing phases either of them each in their own way, ha. Ty will be running the farmers market today which he does every Saturday. It’s his long day as he works from 7 until 5.

That’s it, 5:40am so time to get moving. Have a great day, and God Bless.

Middle of the night we received a call, Dix had fallen, and the caregiver couldn’t get her up. That’s how short staffed they are. Lori quickly dressed and drove down telling me to stay home and get some rest. She said she’d call me when she arrived if it was worse than we thought. We can see everything on cameras we put in her place. The medics came and did their thing and then Dixie went back to bed. She asked Lori when she arrived, “did I fall”? Lori said yes. She had a few skin tears on her arm but her vitals and everything else were normal for her. At first, they wanted to take her to the hospital for a CT scan but even if she had a brain bleed, they wouldn’t do anything. So back to bed she went.

We dropped Ty at 8 and were down in Park Meadows around 10:30. I went into Cabela’s and outfitted Ty with new fishing gear. I’m excited he’s into fishing, so I bought him good gear. We then went to Tony’s market, a specialty grocery store we like, before dropping Lori to get her hair done. I then went up to the bank to make a deposit and then stopped at Sportsmans Warehouse for a rod case before heading back to get Lori. We left a bit before 3 and were home around 5. Long day in the truck.

Today we’ll hit the gym after dropping Ty and then we need to clean the house as we cancelled the cleaners yesterday since we were gone. No rain last night and it’s nice outside right now. It was really nice at 3am too!

Have a great weekend, take care, be safe and God Bless.

Good rain last night. Actually woke me up at 12:30am. The weather people call it monsoon season. We’re all good with it as it keeps things green around here and cools everything down overnight.

Today after we drop Ty at work, Lori and I are headed to Denver so she can get her hair done. I wasn’t going to go but decided to drive her so she can work plus I’m picking Ty up a new fishing pole.

Jag was all moved by 8:30 yesterday morning. That saved me like 5 hours in the car. Dixie came up yesterday for some tacos and fresh peaches and cream. She’s doing fine, just getting a little slower and thinner which 92 years old will do to you.

That’s it for today, time to get moving so we can all be out the door in 70 minutes. Have a great day, God Bless.

Jag is renting a U-Haul to move his bed and desk so I don’t have to go down today after all! HE said he and his buddy can do it and it’s stupid for me to spend more than that in gas and time. I also have a call at noon so that helps. Lori works in Vail today and I’ll be working around the house. Ty works today too.

Yesterday they called saying Dixie is nearing, as they said, “end of life”, and wanted to know if we wanted to call hospice. We both said no way. She’s not in any pain, still clear headed for the most part and can get around on her own. Yes she is more frail and losing weight but from what I know, hospice just means we’ll drug you up. We saw that with Shelly who is now doing better. Lori stopped and spent a good hour with her on the way home from work. She likes to sleep a bunch but other than that, is doing fine. Of course she could go to the big hunting ground in the sky anytime, but then again, she could hang around for years. I’ve learned not to bet against her, ha.

Robi and Robert are going to Newport Beach this weekend for five days. We talked for a bit yesterday. Ty went fishing with his buddies yesterday. He bought a rod at Wally World and ended up buying a rod that is too big for our mountain lakes and rivers. It was only $40. I think I’ll buy him one today.

It’ll be cooler up here over the weekend. That’ll be nice. Lori is getting her hair done tomorrow since she cancelled last week. Not sure if I’ll drive her down or not. That’s it for the day, enjoy, stay safe and live life! God Bless.