I think it’s Wednesday, yea, that’ right. We have so much going on it’s hard to remember. Today Jag has his follow up appointment on his arm, and his math class. Ty has a lot of work in his room and both boys need tennis shoes and some clothes and ah yes, the bed, the damn bed. It still needs to go.

Yesterday Jag and I made it back from Vail around 11:30am. We then decided to get haircuts as Jeannie (who cuts our hair) could get us in right away. After that we picked up Ty (and Ben) from Ben’s dad’s new house. (parents are getting divorced) I keep forgetting to tell you all that when Mojo came home from the groomer he had some hair missing from his back. Within a day he itched or somehow scratched it down to raw skin. There goes a few more hundred bucks plus he needs his shots anyhow.

Meanwhile things are not good around the Country. Lots of people are showing signs of the disease from Africa and no one believes the govt is telling us the whole truth. A Russian gang just stole 1.2 Billion internet passwords, British Air has suspended flights to a few countries and some people in the U.K. are quarantined, Oblama’s approval hits a new low, (I spelled it that way on purpose) , we as a country are paying $7 Billion, that’s right, $7 with a B, Billion dollars in interest on our debt every week, and most goes to China, the Netherlands and other countries that hold our debt, a 2 Star General was killed in Afghanistan yesterday, a Principal was fired for telling students to speak English and on it goes. I could keep citing headlines but I think you get the picture. There’s much worse going on out there but most people don’t want to face the facts.

This is all our own fault to as we’ve become a country full of people that are more interested in the pursuit of self satisfying pleasures (new tv’s, big houses, fancy cars, and other materialistic items) than having a healthy functioning society. This goes right up the ladder to numerous CEO’s and companies that will do anything, even produce harmful goods whether it be food, cars, toys, whatever, for a profit. Now I’m the furthest thing from a socialist but people need to take responsibility. Everyone needs to ask themselves what can I do to make the World a better place, today. This can mean what can I do to make my household, neighborhood or community a better place, I’m not asking you to come up with something that’ll change the World, but individuals do do it everyday. So, let’s turn this mess around one small task at a time. You may think something as small as you buying American or picking up some trash you walk by on the street, or helping a neighbor, doesn’t mean anything but imagine of everyone did one small thing! Ok ok, I’ll stop now. Today I have lots to do to make our household better (and safer) as I’m determined to stock up on some additional supplies that the family (mine and extended) should have, just in case. For all of you living in California, you’re going to have to get here to Colorado for me to help you! I should be able to take care of those living here already. Make plans now just in case you have to leave for some reason, at least keep you gas tanks full at all time, just to appease me, ok?

Take care and God Bless.

I’m writing this Monday night as I need to leave by a bit after 6am “today” (when you’re reading this) for Vail. I hope to be back by 11-11:30 at the latest. I’m so slammed at work and will be probably until at least the first of October. I moved so much wine yesterday I think I have a hernia! It’s probably just a pulled muscle from the gym.

I did manage to get two loads of laundry done, all the dishes washed and kitchen cleaned, made it to the grocery store, stopped by Ty’s school and went to the distributor after the gym at 6am. I also, and this is the worst part, paid another freakin 4 figures in medical bills. Luckily I’m conditioned to this type of stuff as it’d kill a normal person!

Meanwhile Lori was busy saving the world at her office. She too has a lot going on as usual. I think we already need another vacation. I was going to dive into politics but think I’ll give it a pass. This afternoon Ty’s supposed to have a friend over, uggh. Jagger had a good math session and is working on some problems that he won’t get in school until about mid October to get ahed of the game.

Guess I’ll run as it’s 7pm and I need to get off electronics!

Stay safe and God Bless,

Well 2 weeks from today, school starts. So yesterday we printed out each guys list from the computer and headed out to get supplies. $581, two stores and two hours later, we were home. This of course is on top of the $150 in fees I had to pay the County or school district the day before. I still need to go pick up Jagger’s bass clarinet for another $60 a month, buy both boys some school clothes and then, I think, we should be done. I don’t remember having to buy so much stuff when I was a kid. Funny, or not so funny, is our school taxes have gone up every year but so has the amount of things we need to buy, hmmmm. If the govt was a money manager in the private sector, they’d be fired!

It’s now 5am and I’m headed to the gym and then will go straight to the distributor and be back here a little before 8 if traffic cooperates. Jag has his math tutor at 10:30 and I have lots of work to do.

As I said, the reunion was fun, Harry came by yesterday morning to say goodbye before driving back to Colfax, just an hour or so from Grandma Dixie. The weather this week is a bit cooler and tomorrow am I’m off to Vail around 6:30 and hopefully back in Denver by 11 at the latest.

There’s other stuff going on but I can’t think of it right now. We, or I, still need to figure out how to get a new bed for the misses, to help her head but all the school supplies put a wrench in that one. We’re supposed to get rain with lightening for Thursday nights pre season Bronco football game. We’re not too happy about this as it’s no fun sitting in the rain.

Guess I’ll give you all a pass on politics today but the gloves are off tomorrow! Hope everyone had a good weekend and is doing well. It’ll be fall and then winter before we know it. Time to start preparing now, more on this to come. Take care and God Bless.

After a day full of activities, Lori and I headed out to my 40th high school reunion around 6pm. I wasn’t sure what to expect as the 30th wasn’t all that fun. But surprisingly, it was a good time. Lots of people came up to me but I just couldn’t really remember them. Of course there were a few, Patty Boberschmidt, whose little sister and Aunt Robi were super close friends (and Janice just moved back to Denver, Robi, you two girls need to get together!), along with a couple others but that was it. Still though, lots of people came up to me and some I remembered and others, I pretended to. Harry and I of course looked pretty darn good, meaning we were both in pretty good shape, had all our hair and are overall healthy. There were lots of people that were not doing so well. Some had canes, one guy had a walker, others had other disabilities and lots of people were really heavy. One guy asked if I brought my daughter, meaning Lori. Another girl who we see now and then said Lori looks just like her older daughter so the wife had a good night. We stayed for about 3 hours and had a nice time. Dixie, wait till Lori tells you about your friend Tony’s son, quite the encounter.

When we made it home I made a campfire outside for the boys. They had watched a movie while we were gone. Today Lori wants us all to go for a hike but we may end up going school clothes shopping instead. I paid the school fees on line for both boys last night, can’t believe I have to pay for them to go to school! Jagger is in honors english and science according to his schedule. He tested a few months ago but they don’t tell you the score. I’m surprised, but happy, he isn’t in honors math too. I know he’s smarter and knows more than some of the kids in math but 3 honors classes would be a lot. And math is his best subject! Maybe they only put kids in two at a time or something. He also has Eastern Hemisphere Geography, Band, Computer and something else. Should be quite the change. Now Ty is going into 5th grade so he’s close to being one of the top dogs at his school. We wish he was out of that school as the teachers are great but the quality of students has gone way down since they let everyone open enroll. So now we have lots of kids that come from 10 miles or more away from all kinds of backgrounds. It’s sad that all these kids have infiltrated the school but I understand that their parents want to get them in the best school they can but it’s becoming sort of an inner city school. Oh well, only a year or two more for him.

Last, here’s a comment from Annette,

Guess I’ll run, hope all’s well, take care and GB!

Yesterday after a bunch of work in the morning, I dropped the boys at Vinny’s for the big birthday bash. I think there were 8 kids in all. First up they were going to Big Time, a trampoline place. I asked Tracey (Vinny’s mom) how she was going to get them all there and she said, in the camper! They have a small rv/motorhome so I’m sure that was fun for the boys.

I then did some more work until Lori made it home a bit after 5:30. We then headed downtown to Elway’s for dinner. I took along our new chardonnay and asked Adam (the wine director) to put it on the list which he said he would. On the way home we stopped at the new Union Station for a drink with a couple of friends. Finally around 9 or so, we made it home. My phone battery was dead and when I got home I noticed Jag had texted 6 times! He banged this head at the trampoline place and had a bad headache. I called him and he said he was a little better but I told him I’d come get him anyhow. He was one of two older kids at the party and I think was tiring of the little guys a bit.

Tonight is my 40th high school reunion. I hope it’s better than the 30th which we only stayed at for 30 or 45 minutes. I doubt it will be but we’re going anyhow just to see who shows up. Maybe we’ll get some school shopping for the boys in today as two weeks from Monday it all begins, school that is.

Ok now to the serious stuff, today two ebola patients arrive in the U.S. You heard me right, we are actually bringing the disease to our country, what idiot came up with that idea. I mean we could have sent them to one of many military hospitals we have all over Europe but no, we decided to bring them, along with the disease, here. You just can’t make this stuff up!

What else, the Pres is mocking republicans and then he wonders why they won’t work with him. Both party’s are bringing up and voting on bills (immigration, etc.) that have zero chance of passing but do then allow the politicians to then run ads saying “I voted for” or “I voted against” so and so. Man is our system screwed up. And oh yea, Colorado is giving drivers licensees to illegal aliens. That makes sense, (sarcasm)

Do you remember Molly? Today she’s competing in the Iron Man race in Boulder. I guess it’s the largest one in the country except the one in Hawaii. Hope she does well, she stays in touch with Lori on Facebook. She’s a good girl and still thanks us for saving her life when she was much younger and she basically lived with us. I think she’s in medical school now and has done really well.

Guess I’ll go read the paper now. It’s only August and the political ads are already driving me crazy. Hopefully our democrat senator will lose. He’s really desperate as the ads he’s running are just lies but I guess they do it because going negative must work. Another screwed up thing with our system. Hopefully (but I doubt it) people are smart enough to see through it.

Have a great weekend and God Bless.

Here’s two, that’s right, two comments from yesterday, yea!

1. robi says:

   July 31, 2014 at 4:46 pm (Edit)

   Grandma Dix, if you don’t know this eat cherries, they help with gout.

   Reply
2. Annette says:

   July 31, 2014 at 5:02 pm (Edit)

   Unsweetened cherry juice also helps and is less expensive than cherries. No red meat . I agree with you Doug but look at history. It takes the U.S. having their back to the wall before we pull together.

   Who knew we’d have to talk about gout to get two comments? I’m not even sure what gout is but you can bet your last dollar, the democrats gave it to us! In fact, now that I think about it, maybe gout is just a democrat thing. Just kidding Dixie, hope you’re feeling better. I knew about the cherry thing but forgot. I hear it even works better if you mix the cherry juice with vodka!

   Now onto more serious things. Here I am trying to keep the finances in line and last night, I found out we need a new bed AND new couch now! After a careful scientific study, we’ve deduced that Lori’s headache is due to first, our crappy bed, and second, our crappy couch. Now I’ll be lucky if I can get out of this one for less than $2K! beds and couches are not cheap. Oh well, we’ll see why we can come up with tomorrow.

   Yesterday I boxed up a dozen or so cases of wine and ran it down to Fed Ex. Today I need to box up a dozen more and deliver it to some accounts around town and then next week, I’ll hit the road to the mountains to get those folks their samples too. The boys are going to Vinny’s birthday party at 2pm and will be staying until 10am Saturday morning. Lori and I are going to Elways tonight for dinner to see Adam, the wine director, and try to get our new chardonnay on the list. Hopefully she won’t have a headache!

   Time to run, hope you all are well, God Bless and take care.

    

Alright, I’m a bit surprised my post (at least the end of it) yesterday didn’t generate any comments. I’m sure by this point some of you think I’m a little bit over reactive. But I think those of you that refuse to recognize what’s going on these days, are frankly in denial. So, just like the Pres, I’m going to keep repeating myself until you come around. The difference between him and me though, is I’m telling you the truth. How do you like that one! So let’s begin, here’s a comment for you to chew on,

A society that puts equality… ahead of freedom will end up with neither equality nor freedom.” – Milton Friedman

Now if you don’t know who Milton Friedman is, here ya go,

Milton Friedman (July 31, 1912 – November 16, 2006) was an American economist, statistician, and writer who taught at the University of Chicago for more than three decades. He was a recipient of the 1976 Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences, and is known for his research on consumption analysis, monetary history and theory, and the complexity of stabilization policy.

In other words, this man knows what he’s talking about. If you agree with that, then one must conclude that the path the current administration is on (one of equality for all) is flat out wrong.

Next up we have Alan Greenspan, the Chairman of the Federal Reserve for 18 years says, are you ready, here’s a headline from today.

Greenspan Says Stocks to See ‘Significant Correction’

Now what does this mean to you, well Greenspan said U.S. economic growth, along with a tightening labor market, “are indicating that at this stage we will run into upside pressures in the money markets and inflation sooner than most of us had expected.” and,

“The capital stock is growing far less than we would have thought it should at this stage,” Greenspan said. “That, in turn, tells us that productivity is going to have difficulty accelerating.”

In short, this means the market is going down, sometime soon.

Now I could go on but I think giving you two opinions from highly respected economists that served multiple Presidents is enough to chew on for one day. The important thing to note is that they are in 100% disagreement with the policies of the current administration. Hence, who are you going to believe? A former community organizer or a Nobel Prize winning economist and the Chairman of the Fed under 4 different Presidents?

If you somehow still choose the community guy, I’m not sure what to say to you, however if you believe the two gentlemen whose credentials are impeccable, then you must heed the warnings and do all the things necessary to protect what you have and your future.

There now, that wasn’t so bad was it? it was like reading an article in the Wall Street Journal. Now onto the day.

I was off to Ft Collins early and the boys ended up staying at Ben’s until about the time I arrived home. Jagger was off to his advanced math tutor at 1:30 for an hour and Ty was playing away. Too bad playing isn’t a career choice or he’d be all set!

Mom arrived home around 6pm and is still working on the couch. Tomorrow I have lunch with a buddy who buys and sells private jets at Castle Pines Country Club but other than that, I’ll be working on my computer. I have a few extra projects I’m working on so not a lot of free time these days. We also need a new bed, time for a garage sale!

Last, Grandma Dix has a bad case of gout! Say a prayer for her that it goes away as she says it’s really painful! As of last night she was doing a little better, guess it runs in her family.

It’s been raining for a day and a half but I think it’ll stop today. That’s about it, hope you enjoy the posts! I decided since I’m writing every morning I have the right to stick in a thought or two, ha ha.

Take care and God Bless,

Yesterday I made it down the the Springs and back by 11 or so and even stopped at the grocery store to get the fixins for my famous turkey and beef chili. With it raining in the afternoon, chili was a good choice. Both boys spent the night at Ben’s and Friday is Vinny’s birthday party that’s also a sleep over and both boys are going!

Today I’m off to Ft. Collins and need to be there by 9am. Meanwhile Lori will be back at it, saving the World for plastic surgery and making her patients beautiful. I need to finish packing up wine so almost time to go. It’s a cool Colorado morning with rain that’s supposed to get heavier by the afternoon. I’m ok with it as fall is my favorite season anyhow.

As far as today’s title, we were going to Steamboat the weekend after this but last night our friend Karen called and the guy whose house we were doing the wine dinner at, had his appendix burst! Hence the party’s off! We’re fine with this as we could use a break anyhow. I do still need to make it up to Steamboat sometime before the 25th of August to show some new wines but now it’s on my schedule.

Send in those pictures of your preps! Here’s a few headlines for the day,

Congressional Report: Ebola Bio Kits Deployed to National Guard Units In All 50 States

This is a scary one not to be ignored as it could be a game changer with no notice. Hopefully the odds are it won’t reach us but better safe than sorry. Here are a few more headlines related to this,

Doctor Quarantined in Canada…

Airline halts flights…

Looks like it’s moving around the globe!

Hotel California: L.A. Officials To Send Homeless To Internment Camps: Will Be Implanted With RFID Chips

Now here, the gov is taking homeless people to “camps” for their “own good” and then (this is the scary part) implanting them with chips like we do our dogs to keep track of them. This is a slippery slope people, look out.

And my favorite,

OBAMA: Muslims built ‘the very fabric of our nation’…

Are you kidding me? How can this guy say this? And one more

UPDATE: Border agent pointed loaded gun at Boy Scout for snapping picture…

Apparently a troop of boy scouts were coming across the Canadian border and one kid took a picture only to be held at gunpoint and then the whole troop was detained and searched for hours. I guess terrorists are now using boy scouts, pretty clever of them.

God Help us! Have a great day, God Bless.

Not only did my little sister send a comment yesterday but she’s the first to send a picture of her extra food and water and supplies in case of an emergency! Way to go! She texted it to me so I don’t have it here to post but it shows a small closet full of food, water and other necessities to hold her and Robert over for a few weeks or so. I’m really happy to see that and frankly wouldn’t have thought she’d be the first to send in a picture or even have put some stuff aside. I guess the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree or something like that since we’re brother and sister!

So this morning I’m off to the Broadmoor in Colorado Springs for a 9am meeting. I should be back by 11 at the latest which is good as we’re supposed to get some hard rain starting this afternoon that’ll last through tomorrow. Yesterday we had a few tornados out by the airport and it was pretty dark when I was leaving my meeting across town at 3pm. I did manage to sell $100,000 worth of our new chardonnay which could be a game changer, keep your fingers crossed.

Meanwhile Lori was working away at the office and the boys did some work around here. Jagger was particularly helpful cleaning up the house and finishing his workbook of math problems that is 108 pages long. I’m postponing his work session with his advanced math tutor until tomorrow and Thursday as I have this meeting this morning.

Here’s a scary one, two Americans have ebola in Africa and Liberia has closed its borders. It’s now in Lagos which is a city of 21 million. If, and it’s easily possible, it gets on a plane through an infected person, look the you know what out! Then everyone will be in danger as in our modern world, things like this can spread within days if not hours. Frankly I’m surprised nothing like this has happened before. Another good reason to be prepared.

Time to run as I need to get some coffee and get the samples together to drop off at my meeting. Have a great day and watch your top knot! God Bless.

(In the Old West, people would say “watch your top knot” to mean “be careful” because if you didn’t take care, Indians would scalp your top knot and kill you.)

I think we’ve figured it out. If we leave the mountains at 6pm, we’ll miss the traffic! We made it home in just under 2 1/2 hours which is as fast as you can go, and that was with rain over Independence Pass and Leadville. We cleaned up and unpacked a little and then hit the sack.

Yesterday we all went up to the top of Aspen Mountain. They had bungee jumping, a rock climbing wall, an obstacle course and more for the kids to play on. There were lots of people enjoying the sun and a bluegrass band up there. Billie and Greg said they wanted to take us to lunch and I thought we were going to the buffet in the ski lodge but no, we walked around the corner into the exclusive Aspen Club of which Greg was a founding member about 15 years ago. He paid or “donated” a pretty penny but apparently now it costs 5 times that to get in. Without going into the price, let’s just say you could buy a house for the fee. Anyhow the brunch was maybe the best I’ve ever had, and I’ve eaten in some nice places. They had king crab, oysters, lamb, muscles, pancakes, prime rib, snow crab claws, an array of desserts you couldn’t imagine, and much much more. After this we took the gondola down and then drove down valley as they wanted to show us this old railroad train care by Woody Creek, sitting on a few hundred feet of track, that friends of there’s (who we’ve met several times over the past year) wanted to get rid of. Greg thought it would be a great place for us to turn into a condo or something,  but it needed some work.

We then made it back to the house after taking a drive through the backroads to see some of the other parts of Aspen. It only took about 15 minutes to load up the car, say our thank you’s and goodbyes, and then we were off for home. So, from now on, instead of rushing out in the morning, we’ll wait until the end of the day.

Today we slept in until around 7 so we need to get moving. Lots to do this week and next, and the next and then the kids re in school. It’ll be snowing before you know it, hope all’s well, God Bless.