A Year of Change

Yesterday afternoon, a couple hours after I made it home, Ava and Jag made it home. So great to see them and have them here. A couple hours after that, Ty made it home from work. We all hung out and had a nice dinner together, eating outside. Jag was really tired as I don’t think he slept the night before, trying to readjust to this time zone. They went to bed early, around 8. Ty works at noon today as he has a party he’s working tonight.

Lori and I are headed to the gym and then if the kids want, we might go over to Aspen for something to do. No pressure either way. Sunny and nice up here with temps in the 80’s today.

Lori’s car is all fixed up and good to go. Man, that car drives nice. Porsches have to be one of the nicest, if not the best, driving cars there are, and I’ve had them all.

Time to put out the trash out as our pickup was delayed a day with Memorial Day last week. Have a great Saturday and God Bless.

I dropped Lori’s car and was out of there in my loaner car by 8:30. This put me home around 10:30 in the morning. I’m off at 7 this morning to go swap cars and will be back before noon. It’s a long way to go, but when you have a Porsche, you have Porsche guys work on it. I learned when dropping it off, that our $2400 service was no charge! Apparently, we bought the maintenance package when we bought the car, good move. Lori had a chip in her windshield and Geoff, our service advisor, even had that fixed. So, her 25,000 service is done, winter tires swapped for summer tires and windshield all fixed. We also had her new right rear wheel put on from her last little fender bender that scratched her wheel. I picked it up in Glenwood on Wednesday.

The kids will be up this afternoon. I’ll beat them back up here, I’m sure. they sleep in, as they’re kids, even though they’re 23 years old.

Ty is coming for dinner tonight as he’s working a party tomorrow night. I’d like to get some more of the garage cleaned out today. Warm weekend coming up, 80’s up here.

That’s it, last Friday of May! Bring on June! God Bless.

I’m out of here at 6am to drop Lori’s car. Hope to be back by 11 at the latest, 10:30 would be better.

5:15am now. I set my alarm for 5pm by mistake but thankfully woke up. Lori is home today. We have Orkin and the cleaners both coming.

Jag and Ava are coming up tomorrow. Ty works a party Saturday night, so we’ll all get together tomorrow night. The kids are still getting settled from their trip. Yesterday was spent doing laundry. I think they’re almost over their jet lag.

Time for me to get moving so that’s it for today. Have a great last Thursday of May 2025. June starts Sunday! God Bless.

Yup, today is Frisco for Lori. That makes for a long day. She usually gets home around 7 on these days. I’ll be in Denver this morning and home by 1 at the latest. Looks like patchy storms this afternoon down there. It will be in the 80’s by the weekend.

Yesterday morning I jammed, or broke, my toe. I stood up and hit a chair. It’s the second one in from your little toe on my right foot. Stupid, but that’s what I get for being in a hurry. Not a big deal but man did it hurt last night.

We’re replacing some spruce trees in the yard that apparently are not native to the area. I asked Craig why he put them in then, and he said that’s what the DRB, (design review board) mandated. Think I’ll have them pay for them.

Denver just put in Narcan vending machines. Not sure how to feel about that. It will stop you from overdosing, but if you’re overdosing, how do you get to a police station and buy some Narcan from a vending machine before you die? Seems like this induces people to maybe try drugs, they might not have, knowing if they go too far, they can take Narcan to save themselves. How about just prosecuting drug dealers and stop letting them out of jail with no consequences. There’s a thought! We need to stop accepting and normalizing drug use. Not sure if the politicians know, but drugs aren’t really good for you.

A little cloudy outside this morning, but no rain. Still loving my truck! I should have taken the topper off a long time ago or never bought it in the first place. Luckily Craig, my landscaper wanted it.

Time to get moving so I can get in the shower before Lori. Have a great Wednesday, God Bless.

Here we go, back to work. I’m off around 7 this morning for Glenwood to pick up Lori’s Porsche wheel from when her car was repaired months ago. With me going to Denver Thursday to have Lori’s car serviced, I’ll have them put on her new wheel and take off the scratched one. We’re switching her winter tires out for her summer tires so now is the time to do it.

I think the kids are coming up maybe Friday. It’s going to be around 80 this weekend. Can’t wait to see them and hear all about their trip. They were a little jet lagged yesterday.

Ty is working today and the rest of the week. It’ll start getting busy up here soon as summer is here with the kids out of school and Memorial Day being yesterday. Ty and Lori finished Ty’s room yesterday. It hasn’t been this clean since we moved in four years ago.

We had some good rain on and off yesterday which is good for the trees. Nothing like what they had in Denver over the weekend. Looks foggy in Denver right now and they’re in a ground stop at the airport.

The Governor is at it again, signing a new bill to supposedly protect immigrants. You would have never thought a Colorado Governor would sign more bills protecting immigrants, many illegal, instead of citizens of the State. Our Governor is the worst Governor in the history of the State, and it’s not even close. He’s up there for worst Governor in the Country with those in Wisconsin, Minnesota, Maine and Washington State. These clowns are almost making Newsom in California look middle of the road, which is what he wants, so he can run for President. History will not be kind to these people. It’s mindboggling and flat out disgusting.

Enough said. Almost 6am now so time to get moving. Have a great day, be well, stay safe, (7 more shootings in Denver over the weekend) and God Bless.

Happy Memorial Day. We all know what the day is all about. When I was a kid, it seems that every male relative I had served. All my uncles, grandpa, dad, and just about any other man you knew. Nowadays, it seems the opposite is true. It seems more guys my age, didn’t serve. I think the baby boomer generation, those of us who just missed out getting drafted, didn’t join up. It wasn’t that we didn’t want to, it was just a shift in time when college was the thing to do rather than join the military. I have great admiration for those that did serve. Not an easy decision and to those that served in combat, well, that’s a whole other level of commitment. So, thank a veteran today and be proud of your Country.

Yesterday we, (mostly Lori) started on Ty’s room. Around 3, we decided to run down the street to our local theater and see the new Mission Impossible movie. It was good, as they all are.

We had a little rain yesterday but not much. It’s blue sky and sunny outside right now. The kids made it home safely from their epic trip. Their plane was delayed an hour out of LA, but all good. I think they’ll come up later this week. We need to get Jagger’s graduation announcements sent out. They’re going to need all the cash they can get, ha.

I’m in the retirement mindset these days. Every decision I make, is geared towards that. That’s a shift for me as up until a few months or so ago, I never really considered retiring. To be fair, I’ll always have some side hustle going on, so retirement for us really means having Lori stop working. It’s like a new chapter in our lives, which is exciting and fun. Life is full of new chapters, graduating from high school or college, having kids, getting a new job, moving to a new place, whatever. Retiring is just another in a long list of new things in your life. Exciting.

Time to get moving. Have a great day and get ready for the last week of May. In about 90 days, it’ll be Labor Day and Fall will soon be here. Hard to believe. Then 90 days after that Christmas and the New Year and on and on. Time is precious, don’t waste it! God Bless.

The kids are in Los Angeles and take off at 8:50 PST this morning for Denver. They’ll get in around noon, weather permitting, and then Uber home. All in, looks like about 20 hours of flying to get from Bali to Boulder. They’re at LAX now checking in and getting ready for their last flight.

Sunny and blue sky up here. Marty bought the Airstream yesterday in Salt Lake, good for him. They should be in Burnaby British Columbia by now which is a suburb of Vancouver, sort of close to the U.S. border.

Colorado is so fucked these days. Now taxpayers are paying for what they call, gender affirming care, meaning we pay for sex changes, and that crap, for anyone. Dems also want to outlaw all small farms and ranches in Colorado, supposedly for the people’s own good. Are you kidding me? How did lunatics like this ever get in power. Everyone we know wants to leave. So sad.

Still loving my new truck! I should have taken the topper off a long time ago. Craig is paying me Tuesday and having it installed on his truck Wednesday. Our pork shoulder took forever yesterday. It was a little tougher than the past two, not sure why. No big as we always crisp it up on the stove to make breakfast tacos.

Guess I’ll get moving. Hope everyone is well and having a good holiday weekend. God Bless.

Thank a veteran this weekend. Freedom isn’t free!

The kids are in the air landing in Taipei in about 90 minutes. They then have a couple of hours to get to their next flight which is 12 hours long over the Pacific. They’ll land in Los Angeles around 9pm tonight. Julie, Ava’s mom, got them a hotel by the airport so they can get some sleep before their 9am Sunday morning flight to Denver. I guess there wasn’t a late-night flight from LA to Denver available, but she handled the flights so I’m not sure.

Today I’m cooking a pork shoulder in the smoker. The big job of the day is we’re tackling Ty’s room! This will take all day to get done. I think Lori is making a coconut cake too!

I love my truck without the topper on. It’s like I have a new truck! Lori talked with Nate yesterday about running his practice. Not sure if she’ll make the move or not.

Marty and Mel are on a flight to Salt Lake this morning to look at a 30 foot long 2023 Airstream trailer. They’ll put it up on their lot in Montana until they can get something built and then turn it into a guest cabin. This was my idea of course. After they check it out, they’ll fly up to Canada to see the new grandbaby. They’ll be back end of next week. I’m jealous as I’ve wanted an Airstream my whole life! They’re so iconic. Lori shut that idea down years ago, ha. She had her fill of trailer time growing up. Besides, after the kids’ trip, we now have over 1 million Marriott points meaning we can go and stay anywhere in the World for free. We’re deciding where to go as a family. Bali is definitely in the running but so are places like Portugal or the French Rivera. We have around 800,000 United miles too so we’re sitting pretty good.

Nice and sunny outside with blue sky. I talked with Tom and Robi yesterday. Guess it was overcast in Denver. Toms’ estate sale is going well and Robi made Mom’s famous macaroni, tuna and pea summer salad. Sound funky but it’s so so good. Plus, it brings back memories of when we were kids. We didn’t have a lot of money, but Mom always provided. Another staple was chip beef on toast, or her famous goulash! Those good times seem like yesterday, hmm.

6:30am now. Time to go. Have a great day and Memorial Day weekend. God Bless.

It’s Friday night in Bali and the kids will soon hit the hay and rest up for their 3 flights to get home. They’ll leave for the airport around 11:30 Bali time Saturday morning, which is around 9:30 pm tonight here. They’ve had an incredible time and could stay longer! Good for them.

Yesterday I had my topper taken off the truck as I’m selling it to my landscaper. It’s like I have a new truck! I love it.

Nate, our neighbor and former colleague of Lori’s, is trying to recruit her to go work for him at the Steadman Clinic. Lori told Dr. B, and even Nate told Lori to use this as leverage to get more money if she doesn’t want to make the move. Lori is at least listening as it means around $50K or more a year than she makes now. She loves where she’s at, but you never know.

We need to run now so she can get back and meet with Nate. Happy Friday, time to go, God Bless.

Yesterday the kids took a boat out to a small island off the coast of Bali and went swimming with manta rays. Pictures below from the top of the island where they hiked up to. Really beautiful. It’s Thursday night there and they have Friday before flying home Saturday. Meanwhile, Marty and I went to Grand Junction. Matt gave me a bunch of tools that I picked out and he sold Marty a bunch. I’ve done a lot for him over the years, and he feels like he’s in debt to me for life. I would have been happy to pay his cost, but he wouldn’t hear of it. I didn’t realize the difference between tools you buy at Home Depot and the ones professional’s use. These are so nice, and all precision made. They’re almost like works of art. Fun time as you know how I like anything that’s made well and is high quality. Most of the tools are made in Germany. After going through all Matt’s boxes, we went over to Randy’s and hung out for a while. He has the farm you’ve read about, and I helped him out a bind a few years ago and now get anything, anytime, for life, for free. We both left with a few gallons of fresh strawberries, and some other stuff that they picked that morning. I cleaned the berries when we made it home and had fresh strawberry shortcake last night! Marty says I’m like the Godfather in the movies as everyone he meets that I know, owes me in some way and now does favors for me. I’ve just always tried to help friends out, guess it’s good karma coming back to me.

Memorial Day weekend coming up. We’re just hanging out at home. I was thinking about driving down Sunday morning to pick the kids up at the airport to see them, and save them the Uber ride, but that’s a long drive. We’ll see how we feel then.

Nice and green outside. Everything is in bloom. Metallica just announced two months of shows in Europe from the first of May until July 5th next year. Make it while you can! Seems like they’ve been on the road for 3 or 4 years. I’d personally get tired of it. James leaves this morning for Philadelphia.

Here’s pictures of the island, pretty amazing. What a cute couple Jag and Ava are. Glad they took this trip alone instead of us four parents going which was the original plan. Enjoy, have a great day and God Bless.