A Year of Change

Last night was the fourth week of 11 weeks of our local rodeo, held every Friday night. It’s always a good turnout. It’s sort of funny as there’s not a lot of cross over between the crowd that goes to the rodeo and the so-called Vail crowd. We were with Davy and Abby as it was River’s first barrel race. She’s 11 and such a sweet kid. In rodeo, they have events called the slacks, for beginners. This could be for barrel racing, calf roping, whatever. This all happens before the main rodeo and events start.

Here’s Lana, a 14-year-old mare, who is an experienced barrel horse, and then River.

In their run, Lana pretty much went wherever she wanted to, with River holding on for dear life, trying to lead her around the barrels. River was clearly upset when the horse missed a barrel and ran towards us at the gate to get out of the arena. She was almost in tears and yelled, “open the fucking gate”! We told her, “No, go back and go around the last barrel”, which she did. We, Lori, Davy, Abby and I, were laughing at this sweet little 11-year-old, that just told us, “Open the fucking gate’! To her though, it was no laughing matter. She thought she failed miserably, when the truth was that for her first barrel race ever, just staying on this horse, which is an athlete and knows her job, was a big win. We told her how proud of her we were, but she was so upset and crying for a good 10 or 15 minutes, poor kid. Abby wanted to console her, but Davy and I said, let her be upset and tell her good job and that she’ll do better next time. Failure is a life lesson, and she will do better next time. After a bit, she was fine and gave us big hugs thanking us for coming. We stayed for another hour or so before heading home.

Big news of the day is Lori, and I are going to France July 29th. We’ll fly into Paris, then down to Marseille where we’ll spend 3 nights or so at this incredible resort owned by a Swiss family, who also own a vineyard, and the BMC bike brand, which is a billion-dollar company with a team in the Tour de France. After that, we’ll drive over to my other estate, Plaimont. It is 5 hours west and we’ll be there for a couple nights and then fly up to Paris for a few nights. I hooked up Davy’s friend and his wife at the Metallica concert a couple weeks ago and Davy said he was going to call him and try to hook us up at the Four Seasons in Paris. Terry, who I gave the VIP passes to, runs the Four Seasons in Denver. I found a great boutique hotel in Paris for $700ish a night, but if we get comped at the Four Season, we’ll take it. We’d never book it, as it’s whopping $2500 a night! Either way, Lori is super excited. She deserves this trip. Airfare wasn’t too bad, about $5k for both of us, after I used some credits we had, for First Class. We were going to do France on our October Italy trip, but it was just too long of a trip, so after talking with Murielle, my partner in France, and checking everyone’s schedules, I decided to just go now and get my two visits in France out of the way. This is the good part of my job as I’m treated like a Prince and wined and dined and catered to like a rockstar. To be clear, not like James, but really damn well. It’ll be a great trip, and I decided to just go, so Lori could go when the weather is great. October in France is not as fun as July and August, and this was Lori gets to go to Europe twice. I texted Holly and Tom and told Holly that she and Tom should meet us in Paris, as we know she loves everything about France. Not sure if they’ll go, but we’d be happy to have them. We’ll still be going to Portofino and Venice, Lake Como and other parts of Italy, the first ten days of October. It’ll be way less stressful now that we don’t have to go to France on the way. Time to brush up on my French.

Today we’re off to Jeff and Tina’s BBQ in Denver, which starts at 3. We’ll hang for a couple hours and then drive home. Jag and Ava are meeting us, and Ty is bartending the party. Should be fun. Weather looks so so, with storms, hmm.

That’s it for today, time to get moving, have a great weekend and God Bless.

Busy day, in fact, they’ve all been busy lately. I had four calls yesterday by noon. Two with France, one with Italy and one with Seattle. All went well and everyone is excited and on board with my vision and plan to dramatically change things.

We might go to France in a couple weeks. We’re working on the schedules now. Need to make sure everyone is available. At 3 I headed over to the cabin to see the guys. James told us all about the trip to the UK for Ozzy’s last show and other memorable parts of the tour including the Denver shows. Great to see him. He and I are going to Denver next Monday to get our cans for our rifles.

Then at 6:45, Tim and Taylor came over for dinner. We all had a great time and hung out until around 9:30. They’re super fun and close friends.

This morning Lori and I are going to the gym and then it’ll be back on the phone. Tomorrow, we have the BBQ in Denver at Jeff and Tina’s. This is the party Ty is bartending. We’re going to drive Jagger’s car down along with the truck, and he’ll pick it up from us at the party. The party is from 3 until 8. I imagine we’ll arrive between 3 and 4 and leave by 6 to get home by 8 or so.

That’s it, time to get moving, God Bless.

Sometime around 3am we got a little bit of rain. I was up at 2:30 and 3:30 as I fell asleep pretty early. My head was spinning with things having to do with the Company and my calls this morning, which start at 7. I had been leaving Jag’s windows cracked open on his car, so it didn’t get too hot inside, so at 3:30am, I went out and shut them.

I made it to Denver around 8:30am and had a productive trip with stops at Whole Foods, Target, Key Bank, Edwards Meat Market (Tim and Taylor are coming over for dinner) and of course, Cigars on 6th, to see my buddy Max. It was 10:57am and 90 degrees when I left town. When I made it to Edwards, I stopped to get Ty a new pair of tennis shoes for work and then dropped them off to him along with some other stuff he needed from Denver. Once home, it was more time on the phone, which I was also pretty much on for my entire drive.

Four calls this morning starting at 7 and then I should be done a bit after 12 noon. We have cigars at 4ish and then dinner with T & T around 6:30.

I’m mapping out our trip to Europe and am debating whether to skip France on the front end of the trip as right now I have us gone for two whole weeks. This includes 3 nights in Portofino and 3 nights in Venice. Scatter around two-night stays in 3 other places and a couple one-night stops and you get up to 13 or 14 nights pretty quick. While a work trip, this will be centered around pleasure for Lori and I. We’ll be traveling in style and staying at the top 5-star hotels in each city. Think Jeff Bezos with a few lunch or dinner meetings thrown in. Lori deserves the break and if you know anything about me, I always travel First Class. Luisa says I’m like a Prince, ha. More to come. Luisa will accompany us as she’s my right-hand person/executive assistant, that provides me with all the data I need, takes all the notes and coordinates all the meetings. I told her to bring Steve, her husband, who we’ve known ever since they met. The four of us will make a good group. It’ll also be much better for her to have Steve with her than having it be just three of us, as then she’d be like a third wheel. More to come as we get closer.

Jag and Ava are still packing away getting ready to move. Tom crushed it at the bank last quarter which is always welcome! Great job!

5:40am now so time to get moving. Have a great day, be well, stay safe and God Bless.

Here’s a rainbow outside this morning!

Looks like 100 degrees in Denver. Again, cool up here. The doors are open as I write this at 5:44am, Ty’s getting ready to leave at 6, and Lori’s making him breakfast. I had a bunch of good calls yesterday and have two today, one at 9 and one at 5. Tomorrow, I start at 7 and go until around 10, I think. My calendar changes daily, sometimes hourly, so I need to check.

Think I’ll run down the hill this morning and go to Office Depot and a few other stops, maybe the cigar shop. Think we’re going to order a 2026 Suburban. The ordering window opens tomorrow on the 2026, and production starts around the first of September, meaning delivery around mid-October. The new bill that passed allows for 100% deduction of up to $10,000 in vehicle interest on any vehicle assembled in the U.S. That’s a nice perk. There are other benefits for someone my age (notice I didn’t say senior!) such as a few deductions that double and a $6000 credit against my social security. We still pay too much in taxes, but everything helps.

Yesterday we had the alarm company out for our annual testing of the CO2 and fire alarm monitors. All was well. Important to make sure those are in working order, right? Today I’ll set the dates for our Europe trip in October. Looks like we’ll be in France for about four days and then Italy for maybe seven. I’m cramming to get up to speed on my French. Should probably brush up on my Italian too.

Looks like that’s it for today. 6am now so time to move and groove. Have a great day, be well, stay safe and God Bless.

Every Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, from about 7am until noon, I have calls with our Producers in Europe. I need to get up to speed and reset the relationship with everyone, now that we let Brian go. I’m finding out all kinds of things that I thought were handled, that obviously were not. You always uncover some, so called, hidden bodies, when someone leaves a company. I am kind of shocked at the lack of follow through though on some easily handled tasks. No worries as I’m getting things straightened out. I spend most of the afternoons writing up plans and direction for things I learned on the calls. I only have two today, two tomorrow and then four on Thursday. In between my calls, I add a call to one of my employees or a distributor. Things should settle down in a couple weeks, at least from being on the phone all day.

Ty golfed after work yesterday and is working at 7 this morning. I’m going to try to get to the gym, but my first call is at 9. It’s cool in the mornings and hot in the afternoon. No rain or bad weather up here though, so it’s all good. Looks like the front range has been getting some on and off bad weather.

Jag and Ava are packing. Ava’s grandma bought them a really nice couch. We’re in town Saturday for a BBQ at Jeff and Tina’s and the kids are coming too. Ty is bartending the party for $75 an hour! He’ll be there from 2 until 8 meaning he’ll bank $450!

That’s it, hope everyone is well, have a great day and God Bless.

It’s hot during the day, but cool at night. This helps a lot as with our windows open, it helps cool down the house.

Lori is in Vail today and I’m working around the house with a bunch of calls and emails. As you know, I’m in the middle of big changes professionally, which is long overdue. It’s a lot of work and a challenge but going better than anticipated. I always say while change can be good, it’s never good initially as there’s always going to be some bumps and bruises. Personally, we’re doing well. 2025 is a much better year, so far, than 2024. It also is shaping up to be a great year for the boys.

Looks like about 90 days until we’ll be in Europe. I need to lockdown the dates and details asap. Hope to do that this week.

6am now, time to get moving. Have a great week, be well, stay safe and God Bless.

Happy Sunday! It’s the end of our three-day weekend. With the third of July being last Thursday, it feels like it’s been a four-day weekend. Lots to do starting tomorrow.

The title above is not about the store but about eating only whole foods. The majority of the stuff out there is processed in some way or form. Nothing new, I was just looking for a title for the day, ha.

Ty and Will went fishing yesterday afternoon but didn’t catch anything. He said he needs some help, so we’ll go out and see what he’s up to. Jag is coming up sometime this week to get his car. We’ll be glad to get it out of the driveway.

Looks like rain and some severe weather down on the front range. Nothing like that up here.

Good call yesterday with one of my former employees and his partner about joining the Company. Think things might work out.

We bagged the crawfish party as we decided we really didn’t want to go, so we didn’t. These days we’re adamant about only doing things we want. Time is the most precious thing you have when you get older. We do have 24 cupcakes Lori made to take that need a home! I won’t be eating them as they’re definitely not a “whole food”.

6:24 now and Ty’s still sleeping. We’ll be heading to the gym soon. Then I have around 50 emails to go through just to get ready for tomorrow.

The battery on our CO2 alarm died yesterday so the alarm went off for what seemed like an hour, (was probably 10 minutes) until the alarm company explained how to remove the battery to stop it. They’ll be out tomorrow to fix it.

That’s about it, have a great Sunday and let’s get ready for a big week! God Bless.

Yesterday the BBB or Big Beautiful Bill was signed into law. The Dems are up in arms as some estimates (from left leaning biased groups) say it could increase the deficit $3 billion over ten years. To put that into perspective, Biden raised the deficit while in office, $3 billion a year, for 4 years! So, anyone against this and complaining should probably sit this one out. In every bill from D.C. there is good and bad as our system is not set up to vote on single issues by themselves. That’s the way it should be but no one in Congress will vote for that as then they’d never get the crap they want as a tradeoff for their vote. They’d have no power to rip us all off. What we really need is term limits for everyone. Glad the bill passed as it has more good than bad, and most all the scary crap the Dems are pushing is flat out false. If anyone loses medical coverage, they’re illegal and shouldn’t have had it in the first place. People can keep getting food stamps and other benefits, as long as, if they’re able, at least try to go get a job. I could go on, but you get it, so great job getting this done!

Today I have a call at 1:30 then we have the big Louisiana crawfish party at 3ish. We bagged out on going up to Beaver Creek as our friends wanted to go from 5 until 11 meaning we would have had to leave around 4. It was just too much. Robi said she and Robert were going to see the new Brad Pitt movie F1. On a whim, that’s what we decided to do. It was great and we enjoyed it.

Ty went to Clear Creek to go camping but called around 6 saying he was on the way up. I guess the guys were just sitting around drinking and he wasn’t up for that. Good for him. He went and met up with Madi and went to watch the fireworks and then stayed the night with her. Jag picked Ava up at the airport around 9. Her mom guilted her into going to New York to help her brother move. She was gone for a few days.

Nice outside right now. Clear and a little cool. We slept in until around 6:15, which is late for us. Lots going on in our work lives and personally and it’s all pretty good. Hard to believe we’re in the back half of the year already. Time to get moving and get my coffee, have a great second day of your three-day weekend and God Bless.

July 4th is one of the more memorable days I had as a kid. It’s right up there with Halloween and Christmas. My favorite was up at Lake George when we were kids, and a spark flew into the bag of fireworks, and we had to kick the whole bag into the lake! When our boys were growing up, they always looked forward to going to the fireworks stand. That was almost as fun as setting them off. We’d always end up making a second or third trip back for more.

Of course, the real meaning of the day is our Country’s birthday. Everyone, and I mean everyone, should celebrate this. I’ve heard some haters might be protesting. Question I have, is if they hate it here so much, why don’t they leave? No one is forcing them to stay and there are other countries they can go to. A bunch of people nationwide were interviewed, and the general consensus was there so many protests these days that no one pays any attention to them anymore and they really don’t mean anything, just another day by democratic funded anti-American idiots. It’s hard to understand where the mindset comes from that wants to make someone hate their country.

Lunch in Aspen was great. The town was packed. Jim brought along his calendar and they blocked out a week in October and February for us to go to their island in Belize. The pictures are amazing. It’s like some private island some celebrity would own. They’re super nice and picked up lunch saying it was the least they could do for me taking care of them at the concert. We’re planning on going to a show next May in either Zurich or Bologna, depending on which city the band has the most time off in. They want to come with us, we’ll see.

Ty had a great interview with Davy’s mom, Davy and someone else yesterday. If all goes well, he’ll probably start around the first of August, good for him. More to come as things progress, but they really want to train him as a manager and make this a career for him. They offered a great salary and benefits package which include time off every day in the winter to hit the slopes!

Not sure what Jag and Ava are doing today. They should be packing as they need to move in 10 days. Julie (Ava’s mom) is coming out to help and hiring some movers.

We had some rain yesterday afternoon and it’s supposed to rain some more today. After my calls, my travel plans are shaping up. Lori and I will be in France around the beginning of October and then fly to Italy for a week or so. In January, we’ll head back to Italy. That’s all we have on the books right now except for Belize and the concert in Europe next May.

Time to get going. Have a great 4th and celebrate our Country’s independence and birthday! God Bless.

Today we have lunch with Jim and Julie in Aspen at 12:15. I have a 9am with Italy and then we’ll hit the road. At 4 this morning, a raccoon, I think, took the lid off our pail of bird seed outside. I heard it and jumped up and saw him scurrying away, but it was dark, so I didn’t get a really good look. It was too small to be a bear, and we really don’t have bears in the sage brush up here.

Gary and Jen decided, I guess yesterday, to have a BBQ tonight as they just emailed everyone yesterday! Way to plan ahead! I don’t think we’ll be able to stop by, but we’ll see. We’re with them tomorrow night for the 4th in Beaver Creek. Then we have Dr. Joseph’s annual crawfish boil party Saturday. He flies in 300 pounds of crawfish from Louisiana every year. Busy weekend.

Ty rode 5 miles on his mountain bike with Will after work. Will’s one of his best friends who’s back from a semester in Australia and headed back to Bozeman in a few weeks. They’ve known each other since we moved up here and they were in like 7th grade. This afternoon Ty is going over to meet Davy at the store (Gorsuch) as Davy wants to hire Ty and train him to be a manager. Davy says Ty could have a career with him if he wants. Lots of his employees have been there for decades. It will be more money and great benefits. Ty wants to leave the valley though in a year or so. He’d like to be in Montana, but who knows what’ll happen, maybe Davy will open a store up there. I’m sure Ty’s salary would be $75K plus. Darn good money for a 21-year-old.

That’s it, Lori wants to get to the gym before my call, so I need to go. 6:15am now. Have a great July 3rd, God Bless.