A Year of Change

Big Bronco game today, Nuggets won last night, and Lori’s headache is better. It’s not gone, but it’s better. 6:30 now, and Ty is loading his truck to head out to Denver for the game. He and Madi have a concert at Misson Ballroom after the game and then are staying at the Brown Palace. The Bronco game starts at 2:25.

We’re roasting our turkey today. We might just make turkey soup once it comes out of the oven. Yesterday we took it easy around the house after going to the gym and breakfast. Lori just did the treadmill which was good. She wants to do Pilates today. I ran over to the grocery store for the Great Prescription Drop Off, which is where you can get rid of all your old pills and stuff rather than throwing them in the trash. Throw them in the trash, and they will end up in the water supply, not good. I think when you drop them off, they incinerate them.

Ty’s gone. He’s dropping some of our Halloween stuff to Jagger. Today is also National Pumpkin Day! I think Caden and Vinny are going to the game with he and Madi. That’s about it. Cool last night but no rain. Tonight into tomorrow we might see some moisture. We’ll see, God Bless.

As of yesterday afternoon, Lori was getting some relief. The pain in her traps and occipitals is way down (almost gone), and her headache was down we think 20 to 30%. They told us it’d take a while, maybe up to a week, to get the full benefit from the injections. This morning, the trap and occipital pain is gone, and she feels like her head might be better too. She’s keeping a pain diary so we can track it. Fingers crossed it keeps improving. This 100% validates the issue is structural which means we can fix it.

Ty’s out the door on the way to work. Yesterday morning, after Harley ate breakfast, she went outside and must have eaten some poop as she came in and threw up dog food and poop all over the rug! Of course, this happened an hour before we were supposed to leave for the surgery center. I ran down to the neighbors to borrow their carpet cleaning machine, and we spent the next hour cleaning it up. Harley had a huge bone from Edwards with a lot of fat on it that she ate which probably caused the problem. I pick up her shit almost daily, so she doesn’t eat it, so gross. When we made it home at noon, Lori cleaned both rugs with the machine over and over and now they’re like brand new. The big one is a Persian rug that’s over 200 years old! Harley is no longer allowed on the rug. We bought her two new beds at Costco to keep her off the rug. Looks like no more bones for her either.

Not sure if we’re going to the gym. I think Lori should stay off the Pilates machine for a couple of days and see how things go. We’re roasting a turkey today! We picked up a small one at Edwards Meat Market as a warmup to Thanksgiving.

Looks like I finally have the two big deals I was working on, all done. The first one, I had signed a week ago yesterday and the second one, was agreed to by all parties yesterday, and is due to be signed tomorrow. Next week, we’ll need to get existing members (investors) to sign off on the new investment, but that shouldn’t be a problem. It’s taken me over 4 months, but I finally closed the deal. This is good news for the Company and for me.

That’s about it! Hope everyone is doing well. Big Bronco game tomorrow. Enjoy the nice weather while you can, God Bless.

We made it to Wheat Ridge by 6:30am after waking up at 3:30am. An hour later we were out and had confirmed that Lori’s issue is all structural and nothing neurological. After a quick stop at Edwards Meats, we headed up the hill, arriving home around 10am.

This morning at 9, Lori checks in at the surgery center for a 10:15 procedure that are injections in her C5/C6 discs. Hope she gets relief as that’ll confirm that the pain receptors there are causing the issue and we’ll proceed with getting her two levels of ADR, which is artificial disc replacement. They’re made from ceramic and titanium and are the way to go if you need them. Dr. B and Dr. Beckman, down in Lakewood, (who Dr. B was Chief of Surgery with in Texas and the Army) are the two leaders in the World in ADR’s. So, she’s in good hands.

Lori should be out around 11:30 if she gets anesthesia. She usually passes on sedation, but she might get it this time. The whole surgery (injections) takes only a couple minutes total, but she needs to be super still.

The Dems are saying Trump is destroying the White House, when Trump is remodeling a ballroom, all with private money! He’s even donating! What a joke. How anyone can believe anything, any Dem says anymore, is beyond me. And yesterday the Dems voted again to keep the government shut down and not pay essential workers. Everyone needs to remember this next election!

Ty’s off to work already. I’ll go see him while Lori is in the surgery center. Not sure if Steve is coming up from the Springs this weekend. I’ll call him today. That’s it, tough Nuggets loss last night. Of course, the refs missed a last-minute foul on Jokic and it went to overtime. On to the day, God Bless.

Leaving at 4:30ish this morning for Denver. We’re off to Lori’s appointment at 6:45am. Through her contacts, she miraculously got in in less than 36 hours. In case you don’t know, it takes six months or more to get into a neurologist. The doctor is coming in early to see Lori. That’s the only way she could get in with such short notice. She pulled a big favor on this one.

On Friday she’ll have an injection at the surgery center between discs C5 and C6. I was wrong the other day when I said L. That’s what I had, in your lumbar spine. They will put her under anesthesia for this one.

After the appointment this morning, we’ll probably have breakfast with Jag. He’s been working on a project that’s pretty amazing. He wrote his own app (wrote the code) that analyzes public financial data and trades and identifies trends that then predict moves. It’s hard to explain in detail but he’s on to something. I think we’ll start a company next week as he needs to protect his intellectual property. To his credit and my amazement, he’s found a niche that even AI can’t replicate. More on this later.

This weekend Ty is going to the Dallas game and taking Madi and a couple friends. I gave Jagger all four tickets to the Chiefs game. I have to make sure I split the games up in a fair manner.

The big news of the day is that it’s my little sister’s birthday Whoo hoo! We sent her the best pecan pie we’ve ever had from Texas. She loves it and it arrived yesterday. We send it every year, I think three years going now, maybe four. I have one arriving today! Have a good day sis and happy birthday! We miss you and love ya!

Time to get moving. Hope everyone is well. God Bless.

Not sure why this didn’t post this morning. Here it is, thanks Tom for texting.

Up early to go get Lori chicken at the grocery store. She needs it for her lunch. Then I’m off to the gym before my 10am call with France. Think I’ll squeeze another call in with France while driving to the store.

Tomorrow at 4:30am, we’re off to Wheat Ridge to see a neurologist for Lori’s headaches. Then Friday we have injections at the surgery center. I’m determined to get to the bottom of this crap. She had a virtual visit with Dr. B’s buddy who is also a spine surgeon as he wanted a second opinion. More to come as we figure it out.

That’s it, time to head to the store as it opens at 6am, God Bless.

p.s. tomorrow is Robi’s birthday!

Lori got in yesterday for her scan and it looks like the screw is not loose on her fusion. Instead, levels 5 and 6 were lit up like a Christmas tree. She might be a candidate for an artificial disc. Dr. B needs to study her x-rays more along with the scans. Hopefully we’ll have a plan today.

Yesterday I left for the hospital in Frisco at 5:45. On the way it started to snow and by the time I was driving home over Vail Pass at 7:30, I knew they’d soon be closing the pass. Sure enough, an hour later, it was closed.

My scan, which I paid $99 for, was a calcium scan of your heart to see how much build up is there. As you age, all our arteries get some build up. Some people score in the hundreds or even thousands. Zero means no calcium but the tech said that’s very rare, unless you’re a young kid. My score is 54 which puts me at mild risk for a cardiac event and actually is below what someone of my age averages. So, all in all, good news. Everyone over 50 should get this test. Literally took 2 minutes. Most people don’t, as most hospitals charge a couple thousand dollars for one. More and more places are offering it for $100-$200 dollars if you self-pay. It’s a good thing to do as you can’t tell if you have build up as there are no symptoms. Better than having a heart attack.

Lori is in Edwards today. I did 2 miles on the treadmill yesterday and then foolishly did some chest exercises and of course, my neck and back are a little sore. I need a gym that has more machines than free weights as you’re less likely to injure yourself on a machine. Maybe we’ll join the Westin gym or check out the one here in Eagle.

Supposed to be warmer today. It was nice here at the house all day with sun and blue sky, but in the 40’s and 50’s. Looks like a good week, but don’t sleep on the weather, snow will be here soon.

That’s it, have a great Tuesday. Robi’s birthday is Thursday! God Bless.

Not often these days do you see something that’s never happened before. Well, yesterday the Broncos pulled off a comeback in the football game, that was in fact never done before in the history of the game.

Football, for us fans, is such a game of emotions as we live and die with every game. For 55 of the 60 minutes in the game, it seemed all was lost. Then with a little over 5 minutes left, they did the improbable. They scored a record 33 points in the 4th quarter and won the game.

Minutes after winning, my phone was blowing up with texts from as far away as New York. Driving home from the game, Ty stopped for gas in Georgetown and fans there, 50 miles outside of Denver, were still celebrating. For one moment, we were all on top of the World! You gotta love sports and the Denver Broncos!

Lori and I rested for most of the day. I’m doing much better than she is as she has a fever. Ty’s still kicking his cold too, and has lost his voice from cheering at the game. I did manage to winterize a bit outside by walking the water out of the hoses and putting them away, and of course, had to pick up all the dog crap.

Lori is in Vail today. I’m off for a doctor appointment in a few minutes and will be done by 7:40 or so. Wanted to get in and out early. Getting cool up here, but still nice. That’s it, time to get going, have a great Monday and God Bless and Go Broncos!

Broncos today. Ty is heading down even though he still has a little of the crud. No way he’d miss a game, ha. Not sure if Jag is going as he was with some friends the other night that had the vid. I told him to go buy a test this morning and if negative, and with the game being outside, he should be fine, as long as he’s feeling fine. If not, Ty can easily call up two buddies to go.

Lori and I hung out yesterday taking it easy. I did put on some rubber exam gloves and went upstairs to clean Ty’s bathroom and wash his sheets. It’s like you need to wear a hazmat suit to even step foot into his room.

We missed Tom and Holly’s party. I’m sure it was great. With Lori’s sore throat and cough and her headache, four hours in a car was just a no go, plus it wouldn’t be good to get all those old people sick, ha. She’s in constant pain and we can’t wait until next Wednesday to get the Spec CT scan. Hopefully Dr. B can review it that afternoon and then Lori will begin the process to get insurance authorization for surgery. Being Q4, insurance companies slow down everything as most people have met their deductible, which they hate, as then they have to pay. With luck, the scan will provide a road map of what needs to be done, and she’ll be in getting fixed week after next.

Ty’s on the road already as he needs to be there setting up the tailgate right at 10 when the gates open. I love that he’s all in and enjoys it so much. He showed me this morning he’s even wearing Bronco socks! Good for him. Hope Jag can go too. Lori did send Ty with a thermos of chicken noodle soup.

We have a fire going this morning as we sleep with the window open which cools it down into the 50’s by the time we wake up. Don’t think we’ll go to the gym as we’re both feeling a little weak. Time to take our handful of vitamins and drink lots of water.

Yesterday a handful of billionaires spent $294 million dollars to organize and put on the No Kings protests. I might be wrong, but if Trump was really a king, you think he wouldn’t allow a bunch of No Kings protests, right? We’re amazed how people are so easily manipulated on both sides. It’s like if someone sees something on the net, they automatically take it as 100% true. This is going to be the downfall of society as disinformation, (which has been around for decades), is being taken to a whole new level with AI. You honestly can’t believe anything you read, hear, or even see these days without verifying it as fact, and that’s tough to do too. The net is almost dead, meaning there is more AI and bots than actual humans. Good luck deciphering truth from fiction these days. For us, we’re just doing all we can to stay out of the game and keep to ourselves. Enough said.

Have a great day, God Broncos and God Bless.

Well, he got us. Lori has the crud worse than I do, but we both picked it up from the walking petri dish known as Ty. He went to the doctor yesterday afternoon at 3:30 and good news is his lungs are clear, and the doctor said he’s turning the corner and to just get some more rest. So hopefully this thing is a 48 hour bug or so. Then again, when you’re young, you get over things a lot quicker than when you’re older. I remember when I’d get a bruise when I was young, it’d heal in a day, now they take weeks! Anyhow, we’ll drink lots of fluids, eat soup, take tons of Vitamins and ride it out. Sadly, we’ll miss the Halloween party tonight. Lori’s super bummed as she wanted to see all the decorations. She’s a big Halloween fan.

Ty went to work for an hour yesterday trying to tough it out but didn’t last long. He’s trying again this morning and is a lot better than two days ago and better than yesterday too. I think he’ll be home before noon.

Looks like freezing temperatures in Denver tonight. That’ll be their first freeze of the season. Nice outside but cool in the mornings. No snow yet, but that could happen tonight, especially up high. Lori made some good soup yesterday and we’ll just eat that today. Soup is usually better the second day anyhow.

My buddy Steve who is Group 19 in the Army was coming up for the weekend to stay with us as he used to live here and has the weekends off and is down at the big base in Colorado Springs. With our colds, he’s passing and will hopefully come up next weekend. He’s about ready to head out on a six-month deployment. I asked him where and he said he’d tell me next weekend in person rather than on the phone. He’s like 20 years in and Group 19 is today’s version of the Green Berets. He and Angie moved to Arizona a couple of years ago and is off half the year or so. When he’s sent somewhere, something is up. He trains and commands a bunch of guys, and it seems like they’re always doing some sort of training somewhere in the World. He’s been on training exercises to places like Iceland and Africa and other places you haven’t even heard of. It’ll be interesting to see where he’s headed to next weekend. He always gives me a call and a heads up about anything going down. He’s like our early warning system.

Big Bronco game tomorrow with the team honoring Demaryius Thomas. Our Super Bowl 50 team will be there for the game. Hope we win, we should.

That’s it, time have a great Saturday, God Bless.

Yesterday we headed to Denver a little after 5am. With traffic up Vail Pass, we made it to the dealer around 7:30 to drop Lori’s car for service. Ty called thinking we were still home around 6am to see if Lori could make him breakfast. He still didn’t sound good with his cold.

For the past two days I did everything I could to stay away from him. I washed my hands 20 times or more after touching anything I thought he might have touched. I told Lori, “just watch, he’s going to get one of us sick and then whoever gets it first will get the other of us sick”. Well, I think he got us! Not sure which of us has it worse, time will tell. We both slept from 7pm last night to 6:30am this morning. By the way, Ty lasted about 45 minutes or an hour at work yesterday before he had to come home. We bought all kinds of chicken soup, cough medicine, cough drops, cough syrup and every fluid for hydration, that Whole Foods had. I haven’t seen him yet this morning as he’s in the shower as Lori woke him when we got up. He was supposed to be on the road 10 minutes ago for work. I just have a headache and a stuffed-up nose but Lori has a headache (can’t tell if it’s from Ty or her head), and the cough like Ty’s. We’re downing Vitamin C, Vitamin D and Zinc trying to fend it off. Time will tell. We figure we’ll know by tonight if he infected us with the crud. Lori’s putting chicken soup in a thermos for Ty right now and I just got him some Alka Seltzer cold medicine, the kind you drop in a glass of water, along with some Tylenol, uggghhh! I knew he’d pass this crap on to one of us! Like I said, only question is which one of us get it first! Think I’ll wear a mask! Hope we didn’t give it to Jagger if we got it. That’s how this crap works, a hug here, a handshake there, then it’s everywhere!

In Denver, after dropping Lori’s car, we went to get my haircut. Phoebe, our friend and hairdresser for 25 years, who almost died a month or so ago, had her hernia operation ten days ago and now feels good. She had a 2% chance of living a few months ago. After that, we went to Jagger’s apartment and then the three of us walked over to this fun restaurant for lunch. We had a really nice time. The weather in Denver was really nice. After lunch we walked around his neighborhood for a while and stopped for an ice cream at Little Man Ice Cream, which is hands down, the best place in all of Colorado. We’d eat ice cream (especially Lori) every day, if we lived that close!

Around 1:30 we went to get her car. $2500 later for the 30,000 mile service, we were on the way home. Lori worked the whole trip home on her computer and phone, and we stopped once at Whole Foods for the aforementioned supplies for Ty. After getting home, we hung out until 7 or so when we fell asleep.

She did get approval from the insurance company for her spec CT scan next Wednesday. After that, Dr. B will know what surgery to do on her neck. She could go in as early as the week after next. This is good news as her neck hurts 24/7 right now.

Meanwhile, our friends, who are a young couple that runs the big ranch in Wyoming, and take care of our horse, has a 5-year-old daughter who has had two sort of like seizures, and can’t get into a neurologist. Lori is on the job pulling in every favor and connection she knows. When it first happened, they went to the ER in Walden, up by the ranch, which has to be nothing more than a small clinic. They should have gone straight to Children’s Hospital in Denver, but they didn’t know. Getting in to see a neurologist is probably the toughest doctor to get in to see. Lori is working on it. She’ll somehow get it done as that’s who she is, she cares!

Our new espresso machine is great! Coffee again is really enjoyable. We’d been drinking instant for months. It’s well worth the $1000 it cost.

7am now, that’s it. Have a great Friday and cross your fingers we kick this crap and can fight it off today. We have our costumes ready for Tom and Holly’s tomorrow, if we don’t get any worse! God Bless.