A Year of Change

Denver is laying off over 1000 people. This is because the Mayor, (who’s a fucking idiot), spent all the city’s money on illegals instead of fiscally managing the city’s budget for the citizens of Denver. So now the people who work for him are going to suffer. Don’t worry though, he’ll be fine! Meanwhile out in L.A., poor Kristin, whose house burned down in the Palisades fire, has now found out she was under insured as the State Farm guy who wrote her policy left a bunch of stuff off. Guess he’s been fired. Also no one there can even think of starting to rebuild for at least 3 years. On top of that, California is saying they have to build some low income (another word for homeless shelter) housing, in the middle of their neighborhood. To be fair, the fire was early January and people’s attention span, or caring about anyone or any tragedy, usually lasts for a week or so, until the media moves on to something else. How about the victims of the flood in Texas last month? Not hearing much about that these days are we. As I’ve always said, the govt. will never be there for any of us. We’re all on our own. I told Lori when the fire happened, Kristin should sell her lot, take whatever insurance money she gets, and move. She and others, believed that people like Gavin Newsom actually cared about her when he came down for his photo op right after the fire, but obviously he could care less now as it’s not in the news anymore. So sad.

I’m off to Denver in 45 minutes to meet up with Jagger and pick up some shirts from Nordstrom that I have to get by today. I also need to pick up a guitar that’s been in for repair in Arvada for a couple months. I should be back by 3.

Yesterday I went through tons of papers in my closet, office and out on the front counter. I then purged old papers from my files and organized the rest into one expandable file to put in the safe. This was a huge job! I also cleaned up the mud room. Today, after I get back, I’ll start working on the stacks of books in my office.

Lori works in Edwards today and Ty works at 8. He and Madi went paddleboarding yesterday on the lake, fun. Jag went to an energy conference in Denver yesterday.

Trump managed to get all the European leaders together for a meeting on Ukraine. No matter what you think of the guy, he’s basically running the free World and making things happen. Dems are tripping over themselves on tv to bash him and come up with excuses and scenarios (basically lies) to try to discredit his pursuit for peace. They’re now the party of war and want the killing to continue. all for political reasons. They’re all broke and their mainstream media machine is hemorrhaging viewers and jobs, and the only thing they have is “I hate Trump”, or “Trump bad”. No Dem can tell you anything they stand for, only what they stand against, which is anything Trump is for. They’re against, free speech, safe communities, closed borders, lower prices, a thriving economy, and any other common-sense issue the majority of Americans are for. Good luck with that! Hard to believe this crap happens in 2025.

Guess that’s it for today, time to shower, grab my gun (since I’m going to Denver), and get on the road. Have a great day, be well, and God Bless

Had a good day yesterday with the boys. Ty took off early to go to the golf store, and Jag and Ava went through his room and purged a bit and then loaded up the car with some stuff. We took them to Costco and signed them up for a membership. Then we went through the store and bought them some stuff for their house. After that, we went to Hovey for lunch, had Jag’s glasses fixed at the eye store next door, and capped the day off with some ice cream. They headed out I think around 3 or so and apparently the drive was brutal.

Lori and I hung out at home and cleaned up a bit. She’s had a headache, we think from the smoke, so we took it easy. Tomorrow I’m headed to Denver. I was going today but decided to wait until tomorrow. I need to get a jump on some sales plans for a few estates in Italy.

Ty stopped by last night but them, went to spend the night with Madi as they both have the day off today. He loves his new clubs saying he can actually hit the ball the exact number of yards he wants to. He’s super happy.

6:55am, time to get moving, have a great day, GB

Fun day yesterday with both boys and Ava. After Jag and Ava made it up, we went to our local, pretty average, Mexican restaurant. Then back at the house, we all hung out. Somehow, cd’s came up and the boys wanted to check out my collection of music I collected over decades when I was younger. I brought in 3 large boxes from the garage which hadn’t been opened in over 10 years at least, and it was game on. They were like kids in a candy store. I have hundreds and many are of old music no longer available or at least, not played on the radio much. Fun for them to go through old music. There are a few that are rare that you can’t get and that streaming services like Spotify don’t have, that I’ll keep. Other than those, they can take and listen to whatever they want. Of course, some arguments over specific cd’s needed to be worked out, ha.

This morning, Ty is headed down to Denver to trade in his golf clubs (irons) for a new set. We told him we’d get him new clubs for watching Harley while we were in France and Italy. After the gym, we’re taking Jag and Ava to Costco to get them some stuff for the house, as that’s what parents do. Then we’ll go through some stuff in the garage and his room and get some things purged.

Blue sky and little to no smoke outside this morning, finally! It’s been a rough couple weeks. The fires are still going but the smoke seems to have dissipated. Good preseason Bronco’s game, even though it was backups playing. Having a strong team across the board, is essential to having a great season. Someone always gets hurt and its next man up.

I’m in Denver tomorrow picking up some shirts on sale I ordered, that came in at Nordstrom. My watch guy, (who we got tickets for he and his wife to go to the concert at the end of June and is forever in my debt), scored us the new 2025 model super rare Rolex, which is the least expensive one made, but the most difficult to get. I’m always on “the wait list” for the rare models, and if I get the call, I can pass if I don’t want it. In some cases, I’ve let other friends buy them if I pass. I’ll pick this one up though and just put it in the safe, as it’s too tough to get and is selling for almost twice as much used as new. I’d like to get two so each boy can have one down the road.

8am now, so time to get moving. Ty is headed out as the golf store opens at 10 and we’re heading to the gym. The kids will head back to Denver later today. Have a great Sunday and God Bless.

Nice outside this morning. A lot less smoke in the air, so it seems. Dinner was fun as Gerry and Marci are always a hoot. After dinner we drove to an art gallery in Edwards as we have a big art festival going on up here this weekend, all over the valley. I read an article at breakfast about this rancher/cowboy that had bought all the old glass negatives of a photographer who traveled the west photographing various tribes, in the early 1900’s. He now reproduces the photographs, from the original glass prints and frames them. They’re really amazing as it’s like looking back into life 120 years ago.

The gallery owner represents Clyde Aspevig, who mom and dad bought art from when he was really young. He’s one of the most revered American landscape painters in the Country. Bill, the owner of the gallery, said he doesn’t get the credit he deserves as he’s still alive, ha. We have I think 7 or 8 of his pieces, some from Mom and Dad and the rest that we acquired directly from Clyde. We struck up a relationship with him some 10 years ago. He lives in Bozeman Montana.

We made it home by 8:30 or so. Jag and Ava are coming up today, so I am skipping the cigar festival down by Boulder. Jeff is going with Shultz in my place. Ty’s off today and Lori and I will head to the gym. Not sure when the kids will get up here.

Lori is cleaning up right now so I should get moving. Have a great Saturday! Broncos are on tonight. Won’t be long until the regular season starts, God Bless.

Great cigar night last night. Ten of us got together and the girls also got together in the house. We made it home around 8. Tonight, we have dinner with Gerry and Marci. We’re going to Makoto, our new fave restaurant here in the valley.

Ty’s already out the door to work and we’ll be following soon to head out to the gym. Tomorrow is the Rocky Mountain Cigar Festival. Shultz gets two VIP tickets and invited me again this year. If Jag comes up, I’ll probably bag out. It’s down by Boulder and is a hike.

The house cleaners came yesterday and while we didn’t remember they were coming it was good to have them here. They’re not very good and I think we’ll stop using them.

I have a call at 9:15 this morning and then will do some stuff around the house. I’d love to take a load to the dump if I can get it together. It’s a little less smokey but there are actually more fires in the State. Our hunting trip might get postponed as there are fires down where we’re supposed to go. I’ll know more today.

Only a couple more weekends left of summer. Could get cooler up here pretty quick, but right now, it looks like the heat is still here. We need rain up here, especially west of Glenwood where the fires are. Nature is doing its thing.

Time to get moving. Have a great day, be well, stay safe and God Bless.

I picked James up at 7am and we headed out for Frederick, about 30 minutes north of Denver. On the way, we stopped at Tommy’s old house as he had one of my old Nextheater DVD/Karaoke machines from a company I had some 25 years ago. He didn’t want it so I grabbed it for posterity. We still made it up to Mile High by a little after 9am.

We were there for almost an hour as I had some new glass put on a rifle that came in a couple months ago and we had to finish our paperwork for our cans. When walking out, a police officer pulled up and walked in. We were still outside my truck smoking one of my little Cuban cigars from Duty Free in Germany, when the cop came back out to get in his car. He looked at me and then looked at James, then back at me and then back at James, and I finally said, “you all good”? He then figured out that in fact, it was James and put his hands to his head saying “oh my God”! He was beside himself and was clearly star stuck. James realized this and walked towards him and stuck out his hand and said “hey bud”. The young cop was still in shock. He said he wanted to go to the concert but had to work, and that his sister had gone, and mumbled some other stuff as he was at a loss for words. James and I kind of laughed as the kid was so worked up. I asked him where he was from, meaning what town, to try to calm him down, and he answered but was still in another World. He finally asked if he could have a picture and James said of course. James never does pictures except for First Responder and children. The poor kid (cop) couldn’t figure out how to turn the camera on, on his phone. Finally I took it out of his hand and said “here, let me do it”. I found his camera and then took their picture. He kept saying “my sister is never going to believe this, you made my day, my year, I mean my life, I can’t believe this is happening”. Now I’ve been with James tons of times when we run into a fan but have never seen someone as blown away as this guy. He thanked us endlessly, (not sure why he was thanking me, ha), shook James hand , shook my hand and kept saying, “I can’t believe this is happening”. I told him, “now don’t pull us over”, and he said, “pull you over, hell, I’ll escort you anywhere you want to go”. We laughed and said that’s ok and thanks. So, James made this guys day with a memory and picture he’ll treasure for the rest of his life. I later told James that that was really nice of him to spend so much time with the kid and apparently I should be more star struck, we just laughed.

We then headed in to Denver to the cigar shop on 6th. My guy Max, is a super cool kid that always has the good stuff hidden for me in boxes up a ladder in one of the walk in humidors. We bought some smokes and then stuck around and smoked one. A guy in there recognized James too and introduced himself but was way calmer than the cop. After our smoke we grabbed a sandwich next door where no one recognized him as they were young kids playing some god awful rap music super loud.

We made it back up the hill by a bit after 2. Today we’re all having cigars as James is headed Cabo tomorrow with Castor (his son) and Addy and her two boys before school starts again. The band plays Australia and New Zealand in November and then Bahrain and Dubai in December so he won’t be around much for the rest of the year. They have lots of practice in September and we’re in Italy the first 10 days of October. Plus he has a small gig in the Hamptons for the kickoff of the Metallica channel on Sirius Xm radio September 1st, cha ching! We’re planning a cigar weekend in Florida end of February or first of March 2026, for our group but that might change as I think they’re going to do 12 shows at the Sphere in Vegas. If so, we’ll all go there instead. Lori and a couple girls are getting together with Addy this afternoon while us guys smoke cigars.

I saw Ty at 3 as he was leaving to go to Madi’s when I was pulling in the driveway. He’s going to the farms to buy produce down in Grand Junction for the restaurant today. He’s come a long way and is essential to the place these days. He’s the bar manager, buys all the liquor and wine and the produce, plus runs the front of the house when working.

Lots of bears out. You need to be careful. Lori saw a small fawn in the backyard last night. It was so young it still had spots on its rear. Lori was going to go save it from the coyotes but I told her leave it alone as its mom is close. She didn’t believe me and went outside and then thankfully saw the mom. Whew, dodged a bullet there or we’d have a baby fawn in the house this morning.

5:30 now and we’re heading to the gym. I have a call with France at 9. Shultz is driving up from Denver around 2 and I’ll meet up with him before we head over for cigars. He wants to get out of Denver early as last time when he left at 2, traffic was horrible.

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

I need to leave at 6:20 to pick up James so we can run down to Denver. With luck, meaning no traffic holds, we’ll be back by noon. Ty is off today and Lori is working in Vail. It’s hot out but didn’t seem too bad up here yesterday. I was in jeans and cowboy boots most of the day. Supposedly hotter in Denver today. Like everything, this will soon change. We’ve had snow in September before! Around the first of September, we’ll be two thirds of the way through the year!

Lots of good stuff happening at work. Knock on wood that I can keep it going. I’m basically transforming the Company into an incubator where I find brands with potential, take over the majority ownership, scale them a little bit and then flip them for 10X or more than I acquired them for. Think of Richard Gere in the movie Pretty Woman. I no longer have any interest in keeping a brand for years and years. The philosophy is to find things that are undervalued, raise their value and then sell them to huge companies that have the infrastructure, money and manpower to build them nationally.

One of my Partners, who only handles financials, left for Italy last night for two weeks. The other (Josh) is part time, since he became a Pastor, so it’s just me running and making decisions on everything. I’ve always basically been running things and pretty much done whatever I thought we should do, but now, I don’t even tell anyone, I just do it.

I’d like to make a few dump runs before the end of the month. Maybe I can get Lori to go through, or give me the ok, to get rid of some of her moms stuff. You’d think we’d learn after paying for storage for Mom’s stuff for years! We’re starting to purge things around here and declutter.

That’s about it. 5:30 am now. We wake up around 5 each morning these days. When you’re up early, you get a lot done and get a head start on things. Good stuff. Have a great day, God Bless.

Check out this pic, even more impressive in person! Ignore my thumb, ha.

Man are we busy but were kind of getting in a groove. I booked our Italy tickets yesterday through my connection at Fly Business Class, which is a broker for airlines of business class seats. They somehow have connections with all the airlines to buy discounted tickets. You’re still going directly through the airline you choose, so the tickets still pop up on your account. In this case, we’re flying Lufthansa, which I prefer, as I get my United miles (it’s part of the Star Alliance program) and the best part is our flight is nonstop from Denver to Munich. Same thing coming home. I hate, and try to avoid, switching planes domestically. Anyhow, we leave September 30th and are home October 10th.

Today I have calls starting at 9am and Lori is working in Edwards. Ty works at 7. Tomorrow James and I are running down to the front range to pick up our cans. We were invited to dinner last night with Gary, Jennifer, Ben and Eleni, but passed. I ate more of Lori’s enchiladas from dinner the night before.

I have a call with France this morning at 9 and then will be working on sales plans for the rest of the day. One of my new projects, which has huge potential, is moving fast. More on this later.

Yesterday the air was a lot less smokey than the day before. Hopefully it’s the same today. I need to run to Denver for a couple other things sometime and am trying to decide whether or not to run down quickly this morning or go later in the week. It’s 5:56aam now so I need to make up my mind. Think I’ll postpone it for a few days.

That’s it for today, hope everyone is well, God Bless.

Here we go, back to work. I’m down 8 pounds so only 2 to go until I reach my pre-trip weight. 5am now so we slept in a bit longer today. It’s cooler this morning but we still have the doors and windows closed as we can’t tell how smokey it is outside.

Marty and Melanie came over for dinner. He bought a new boat while in Montana. He traded in his old one, (barely used), and stepped up to an enclosed cabin, 22-foot aluminum boat that you can even take in the ocean. We spent the evening catching up and making plans for the future.

The smoke is almost gone, thank God. We went to the gym and it’s now 7:15 so I can see outside. No rain up here. Looks like Denver had some big-time rain and flooding last night. We could use some, but not anything that would cause floods.

Ty works at 10am this morning. Lori and I are picking our Italy trip dates today and I’ll get the tickets. We’re also looking at going up to Montana and Idaho, probably in September, to check it out. We just don’t see how we can afford to stay here in Colorado. Our friend Shultz, who’s super conservative and a Republican, told me he’s voting for Bennett for Governor, who’s a Democrat, to stop Phil Weiser from winning. Weiser is a socialist along the same lines as the whack job in New York.

Marty and I are trying to figure out how to retire, keep earning income and pay as little tax as possible. We were talking with Shultz last night who rented an apartment in Orlando earlier this year and is spending at least 183 nights of this year (half the year) down there to get out of Colorado capital gain and other taxes. He’s essentially now a resident of Florida which saves far more money than an apartment costs, even at $3K per month. I’m getting James (the bands) tax advisor to help us navigate the confusing laws and regulations, which seem to change yearly. Paul, their money manager who helped Jagger out a bunch, will hook us up. Tax laws these days are super complicated and there’s things you can do to protect yourself and save a ton of money. Most people don’t realize this and end up paying the government way more than they have to. But of course, the government doesn’t make it easy for you or tell you! More on this later.

Big day today being the first day back to work. I’ve transformed the Company a ton since July 1 and will continue with my plan this morning. I’m moving fast and cutting deals left and right. No time to go slow. So far, knock on wood, things are going better than anticipated. I’m actually pretty good at what I do, ha. Never been one to lack self-confidence.

7:30am now, time to get going. Have a great Monday. By this time next week, we’ll be halfway through August with September and Fall right around the corner. Then lookout, as things will start moving fast and before you know it, it’ll be 2026!

Take care, stay safe and God Bless.

Still smokey up here, and it’s not very much fun. It’s cooler this morning and that’s supposed to help the smoke dissipate over the next couple days.

Yesterday we went to lunch with Ben and Eleni and had a nice time. Later in the day we watched some football and then the Bronco game. During the game, a bird flew into our window. Sometimes this happens as we have a lot of windows and in the afternoon the reflection from the sun looks like a mirror so they can’t tell it’s a house. I told Lori who rushed outside as she’s an animal lover and saver. Within minutes she was caring for the bird and set up a spot on the patio with water and a blanket. I wasn’t sure if the little guy was going to make it as it hit the window hard. It sat up all night long with Lori checking and caring for it. Lori just went out to check on it and put it in a box, and thankfully, it flew away. Yea! That right there makes it a good morning.

Holly made it back from her family reunion in Illinois last night a little after 7, Tom texted. He reminded me that yesterday was the anniversary of Dad’s passing. I’m good with both Mom and Dad’s anniversary, birthdays and many other memorable events, but for some reason block out the anniversaries of their passing. Maybe because it’s not a pleasant memory, not sure, as I’m really good with dates. Thanks for the reminder Tom. Dad was an example of a truly great man that the World could certainly use more of these days.

Today Marty and Melanie and Davy are coming over for dinner. Ty works at 10 as he’s getting in as many hours as possible. We’re headed to the gym as soon as I’m done with today’s post.

Hard to believe it’s August 10th if you think about it. Summer is almost over. It goes much faster than winter, ha. We’re starting a slow purge of all the crap we have in our house so that by next Spring, we’re clutter free. That way, if we still decide to sell and move, things will be much easier. As of now, it looks like we’re leaving Colorado for sure. Lots of people we know are doing the same thing. You can thank the politicians in Denver. People can only tolerate so much and blue States across the Country are hemorrhaging people.

6:38 now. We woke up around 4 something but I tried to stay in bed while Lori got up. I finally got up at 6, so hopefully my sleep clock will get back on mountain time. Have a great day, be well, stay safe and take care, God Bless.