A Year of Change

This morning at 5 when I woke up, I looked outside to see no snow! Watching the news though, Denver has some. It’s hard to tell how much as the news exaggerates everything. I was thinking of going to Denver today but will postpone my trip until tomorrow.

Jag has a huge math test today. His teacher is brilliant at math but terrible at teaching. I don’t know how he ever became a teacher. The majority of the class is failing and after looking at his practice test, I understand why. Jag found a tutor that he went to twice as once things are properly explained to him, he gets it. Sadly his teacher just doesn’t “explain” things well. I’m not very happy as we’re paying a lot of money for his teacher to teach him advanced math and yet we have to pay another guy ($80 an hour) to teach him advanced math. Doesn’t make much sense. Jag gets so stressed out about his grades and is basically a straight A student except in this class. He’ll probably end up with a B or A- but it’s taking too much time and is too stressful. I told him he only has like 30 more days of class until summer and if he doesn’t understand something, just book the math tutor for another session. Jag won’t have to take this teacher again in high school while other kids who dropped out of his class or opted not to take it, will have two years left with this guy before graduation. Next week Jag selects classes for his Junior year and is planning on taking 3 or 4 AP (Advanced Placement or college level classes) classes next year. We suggested he think about that as the kid doesn’t have anytime to just be a kid.

Meanwhile Ty studied hard yesterday for a reading comprehension test today before his parent teacher conference at 5:20. Ty gets “test anxiety” taking tests and this one is timed which adds even more stress. Jag’s conference is tomorrow morning.

Lori has a long day and will have to go back to work after Ty’s conference at 5:20 as she has a deposition with Dr. C. He’s an expert witness in lots of trials and she needs to be there basically as a legal assistant with all necessary data and to interpret for him. She should get paid a whole lot more, ha!

Our friend Michael’s knee surgery went well. He’ll be in PT this morning at 7:30 am. I guess he’s also having an mri on his shoulder.

Facebook sure is in trouble, people are leaving left and right as it now turns out that they track and “capture” every single phone call and text from people who have it installed on their Android phone, not good. Ty deleted Snapchat and Instagram on his own yesterday which is really a big deal! We’re so proud of him for making that decision on his own. Also the so called March for Lives turned out to be nothing more than a staged protest, which was much smaller than reported, that was financed by liberal billionaires who are desperate to hang on to big government and control the people.  Who do you think flew all these kids in to Washington D.C and paid for their hotel rooms and expenses? What’s really funny as these kids that protested to have some of their rights taken away in Parkland Florida, are now upset that some of their rights have been taken away. It seems the school will now only allow clear backpacks and students are upset saying, now get this, why should they be punished because a mentally ill guy with a gun shot up people. What? How ironic is this, they don’t want to have to carry clear backpacks because it violates their right to privacy as “they” didn’t do anything wrong but want all legal gun owners to give up “their” guns because they didn’t do anything wrong. Bwaaaaah ha ha ha. As I said before, it’s easy to lose your rights but almost impossible to get them back.

Time to go, take care, be safe and God Bless.

They say March is our snowiest month and even though it’s been a light winter, this seems to be true. Tonight and again Thursday we’re supposed to get some snow. Throw in a busy week with kids on and off school and a few trips to Denver and the end of the month for getting orders in, and we’re busy. Ty is off today and Jag is off Wednesday. Ty has his parent teacher conference tomorrow and Jag on Wednesday. Our friend Michael (Michael and Jeannie who went to Italy with us and the Bocelli concert with Robi and Robert) arrived last night as he tore up his knee in Jackson Hole and is having an mri in 15 minutes and probably surgery later today.

I was supposed to go to Italy in a few days but am going to cancel. Thank God I managed to get out of this one. I talked with Shelly yesterday on her birthday and she’s doing well. She had some friends over and had a good day. Ali is in Arizona but comes back today, hope she had a good visit with her parents. For our anniversary, we deep cleaned the kitchen, living room and master bathroom. Our bathroom has never been so clean! I think I’m going to wrap things up so I can be the first one in the clean shower, ha!

April is right around the corner meaning mud up here from all the snow melt which also means things will soon be green. When I was in Houston a week ago, one thing I noticed was just how green everything was. It was like Spring down there. Can’t wait for that up here.

Have a great day, take care and God Bless.

Hard to believe it’s been 18 years. I must have wrote about this day 7 times since we started the blog. Words alone can’t express how much I love my wife, but I believe she knows. I always tell people “I lucked out” or “I married up” when talking about my beautiful wife, which is 100% true. I can only hope that we have another 18 years together that are as fun and fulfilling as the past 18. It’s so important not to get caught up in the day to day minutiae that is so easy to consume a moment or derail a day. We’re all lucky to be here and be with someone we love. Don’t take that for granted! Marriage is not always easy but I can’t imagine being alone without my best friend, companion and love of my life. Happy Anniversary Lori!

Today is also Shelly’s birthday! I don’t think she reads the blog but Tasha, if you’re reading, make sure to tell her Happy Birthday from us.

Yesterday after driving around and walking some lots, we dropped Jag at Ethans and they then went to a movie in town until I picked them up at 10. At 9 I picked up Ty and Jack who had been in town since around noon. Today Jacks parents will pick him up around 1.

Not sure what we’re doing today. Hopefully getting a little rest. I think we’ll head to the gym again as we love it. Have a great day, God Bless.

I made it to Denver around 10 yesterday morning with Ty riding along. I dropped him at Jack’s who would later be riding back up with us to spend a couple days. Then it was off to Arvada for an appointment. I called Tommy who was on the way to the airport to drop Ali to go visit her Mom and Dad in Phoenix. Bet it’s warm down there! Turns out Tom wasn’t feeling well so we postponed cleaning as we’re down to the small closet in the basement and things like the hutch when you walk in the door. We like to go through this stuff together so we can decide what to do with things. Most of it is clutter but some things like old china we just don’t have a home for. Today he’ll probably rest some more so tomorrow I’ll probably end up cleaning instead. We have to get it done!

Jag was tired and ended up falling asleep with Mojo on his bed around 5 pm. I went downstairs and made his bed and we finally coaxed him down there where he fell back asleep and is still sleeping as of 6:18 which it is now. Man can that kid sleep! Lori and I will head out to the gym in 30 minutes or so before coming back to clean up around here.

Lori, Jag and I met with an architect yesterday who’s a good friend of a good friend. We’re exploring building something as we just can’t find anything we like for the money. One thing’s for sure, we cannot continue to live in 1564 square feet with two teenagers and a 100 pound dog. The main issue is with things so expensive up here, we need to go down valley a good 30 minutes to find anything affordable. If we do things right, it can actually be less expensive to build something than buy something, and then you get what you want and it’s new construction. It just takes a good 8 months before it can be done. Colorado in general is way overpriced as everyone wants to live here. Wish we could build a wall between California and the rest of the Country. We’ll see what happens. We did buy a lot in Eagle a couple of years ago but building costs were too expensive back then so we sold it about a year ago. The first step now if we want to go down this road, is to go look for a lot again. More to come.

How about Facebook, wow! I don’t know why anyone is surprised that they have been collecting everything on everyone and selling it. Years ago when their founder came up with the idea he told a buddy he was amazed people would just provide all their info, no questions asked. He even famously said, and I quote, “what a bunch of dumb fucks”! Maybe there’s hope for society after all as guys like Elon Musk (founder of Tesla) has deleted his and his company’s facebook page. Hopefully this will be a wake up call but I suspect most people will overlook this massive intrusion into their lives so they can continue to post a facade of their lives trying to make everyone think everything is perfect in their little World. When they finally realize what they’ve done, and all their info is used against them, it’ll be too late. Again it’s the frog in the boiling water thing. The larger issue is data mining which is being used to shape elections, public policy (laws), our economy and more. Most information you are exposed to is actually not true, yet the sheeple (people who act like sheep) follow along without questioning anything. Guess he’s right, most all of us are a bunch of dumb fucks!

Time to go as Lori just came down, have a great weekend, take care and God Bless.

Last night Jag made it home around 10:30 or 11 and now he needs to get up for basketball. Of course he’s not moving so today’s post will be short. Ty has the day off but has a bunch of work to do and hopefully Lori will work only a half day. I’ll be cleaning at Mom’s with Tom today and tomorrow hoping to make some good progress.

I need to go try to get Jag moving so that’s it for the day. Hope all’s well, take care and GB.

Thankfully this morning I seem to be turning the corner on my cold. It was never a full blown bad mama jama cold but rather one where I could have gone either way. Luckily I think I’m headed back towards feeling better.

Jag visited CU and Mines yesterday as I said and he liked them but I think liked DU better. Ty shadowed at Vail Christian but thinks he likes VMS better. That’s good news as it took me 90 minutes to go get him and then drive to the other end of the valley to get Jag. Lori cut her workout short for a 9 am meeting that was cancelled 6 minutes before it was scheduled to begin. And me, well I took it easy most of the day trying to kick the aforementioned cold.

Today I’m off to Denver and Longmont. Jag has volleyball at Chatfield in Denver from 5 until 8 pm, meaning he’ll get home around 11, ugh, Ty has an after school work program from 4 to 5 and Lori is going to Denver later this morning on her own for a doctor appt. So, we’re all busy busy.

It’s 5:42 now so time to go. It’s going to be in the 70’s today in Denver but snow will be back next week. Hope you all are well, take care and GB.

Today Jag has two more college visits. First up is the University of Colorado and then the Colorado School of Mines. We need to leave in 30 minutes as the kids leave at 7. It’s great they go see these schools now to give the kids an idea of what college is all about.

Ty is going to Vail Christian School today to shadow meaning he’ll hang out with a student all day checking out the school. It’s a good school just like VMS but is a Christian school and costs about the same, ugh.

Lori is working out at 7 and I was going to at 8 but I can’t seem to kick my cold. I have one of those chest colds where I’m coughing up, (or trying to cough up) junk every few minutes. It’s warming up around here and going to be in the 70’s tomorrow in Denver! Snow is supposed to arrive again in a few days but we’re in that pattern where it’ll snow then melt and then repeat.

I’m still tired as I haven’t been getting much sleep so I’m still not caught up, neither is Lori. Tom and I are planning on cleaning for 3 or 4 days straight over the weekend. It’s a big job with a lot of stuff that still needs to be gone through. I need to leave at 6:30 to take Jag so I need to get in the shower too. Time to run, hope all’s well. Take care, GB.

Well, after a precarious drive, I made it to the airport for my flight to Houston. Once there my driver met me and off we went. One of the guys I was going to see is scheduled to go to Italy on the 29th with us on a buying trip. He’s the buyer for one of our larger accounts. After heading to my hotel to pick up some samples, which turned out to not be there, super, I received a call from the buyer. Turns out he had a disagreement with the owner and quit his job a few hours earlier! This means the trip for him is off and of course no need for me to see him. Next stop was my other meeting where we were going to taste the samples that didn’t show up at my hotel. Thankfully this buyer is a good buddy so he’ll taste on his own today or tomorrow, when they hopefully arrive. So there I was, all done by 4 pm. I could have hung out and gone to dinner but I decided, screw it, I’m grabbing a flight home and getting the hell out of Texas. One of the benefits of flying all the time is they let me change my flights around at will. I called the airlines and they happily moved me to the 6:05 in First Class. Two hours after that I touched down in Denver. Once there, being tired, I had to make the two hour drive up the hill. It was fine until I hit the other side of the tunnel where it was snowing hard. Anyhow an hour after that, I was home. Another day with another turn, which is airline talk for a flight somewhere and back on the same day.

Today Jag needs to be at school at 7:15 to make up a science test. Ty has lots to do too and Lori has clinic. It’s snowing lightly but nothing bad. Brian, my Partner, has been in Germany at Prowein, the big wine fair and managed to add about $5 Million dollars worth of new business which is a big freaking deal and a real turning point for us. Things after 15 years are really starting to snowball, knock on wood that all goes well. Lorenzo in Italy is scrambling to explain to all the winemakers why the Texas trip is off. We still have the owner going with his wife but I am not sending our guy to babysit him for 2 days after the buyer quit. I’ll know more on this later this morning. What a nightmare as we pulled in all kinds of favors to schedule this trip over Easter.

Time to get moving, it’s crazy out there, more on that tomorrow, be safe, and watch your backside, God Bless.

It figures that it’d snow a bunch since I have a 10 am flight this morning. There’s not a lot of snow but what is here is frozen and icy. The pass might be worse though so I’ll leave by 6 for what should be an hour and 40 minute drive. I’m allowing an extra hour so we’ll see how it goes. If for some reason the pass is closed or I don’t make it, well then it wasn’t meant to be. It’s always hard to tell as the media always sensationalizes everything, including the weather.

Yesterday Lori and I looked at a house in Eagle that seemed too good to be true. After our friend who is a builder checked it out, it was what we thought it was. It would have been like that movie The Money Pit. Oh well, have to check things like that out.

I was supposed to get in around 6 pm tomorrow but now will land about 10:30 in the morning. Lori has to take both boys to school this morning and tomorrow but I’ll be home to pick them up. Time to get moving so have a great week, take care and God Bless.

St. Patrick’s Day is apparently a much bigger thing than we remember. More on that later!

Yesterday we managed to get to the gym, clean the garage (me) clean the bathrooms (Lori) clean Ty’s room (Ty) and finally the piece de resistance, Jag’s room (Jag). Then Ty headed to town to hang out with some friends before going to see the movie the Black Panther. Lori, Jag and I went out to dinner at Matsu around 6:30. We assumed we’d walk right in and get a seat but as I said earlier, St. Patrick’s Day is a big deal! We only had to wait 15 minutes or so as Martina the hostess knows us well. We ended up at the sushi bar which was nice as it’s not as loud as in the main room. About 45 minutes later (we ate fast as we were starving) we were done. Once home Lori fell asleep in the chair while Jag and I watch a movie. An hour later I went back to town to pick up Ty. The boys then stayed up until who knows when watching tv. When I came down this morning all the lights and tv were still on but they did turn off the sound, ugh. We’d rather have them watch tv than watch crap on their computers.

Today we’ll get some more stuff done around here. The snow is supposed to arrive this afternoon and I’ll need to leave around 6:30 am for my flight out of Denver to Houston. My Tuesday afternoon meeting has been moved up to Monday afternoon so hopefully I should be able to grab an earlier flight home getting me in to Denver around 2 Tuesday afternoon.

Everyone is still sleeping except Mojo who has already had breakfast. Guess I’ll get moving. Hope everyone’s enjoying their weekend, take care, be safe and God Bless.