A Year of Change

Happy Easter, Celebrate the holiest of holy days. Never forget God’s only son gave his life for you!

Yesterday we had a great day. We all met in Georgetown a little after 11am to celebrate Shelly’s life and lay her to rest. Once we all arrived, we walked up and down the streets until we found what we think was the church she was married in. Coincidently, a man walked out of the building next to the church, who was also married there some 60 years ago! After learning our older sis was married there, and that we were looking for a place to lay her to rest, he told us go ahead and spread her ashes over there on the church grounds. We saw a big tree and walked up there where Tasha, her daughter, my niece, placed half her ashes under the tree. The other half will go to Maui, where Shelly lived most of her life, later this summer. Tom told the man the story and her name and the man said he’d make sure they say a prayer for her in today’s service. Robi then had a special song on her phone to play, and we all stood around celebrating our older sister’s life.

Next up was lunch for ten of us at a local place down the street. We had a nice time and by 1:30 were all headed home. We told Jag and Ava to just go back to Boulder as they both have a lot of studying to do with finals coming up. We brought their Easter baskets, and some cupcakes Lori made the night before. They were eating them as soon as they got on the road!

Lori and I were home about an hour later and I watched the second half of the Nuggets game. Mark came over after the game was over as he was picking up his wife from the airport here in Eagle. We watched some more basketball and then he found out they cancelled his wife’s flight, and she was stuck in Dallas. She’ll now arrive around 8am this morning.

Today we have 5 giant lamb shanks to cook. They last a long time in the fridge, so all is good. Ty is hitting the mountain today as it’s the last day of skiing for the season. We’ll do some cleaning here around the house and get ready for work and the 70 plus degree weather coming up this week.

That’s it, Happy Easter, enjoy the day and God Bless.

Here’s a couple pics for fun.

Top pic is Ty is on the left, then my younger brother and new wife, Lori and I, with Tasha in front, Robi, my little sis in front of Jagger, then Ava and Bobby, Robi’s husband. Bottom is us and Ava.

In a couple hours, we’ll be out of here, headed for Georgetown. Jag and Ava are picking up Robi and Bobby at their hotel in Golden and meeting us there. Tom, Holly and Tasha will drive up on their own. Ty, Lori and I will drive down from here. We’re all meeting at 11 and then having lunch.

Last night, Davy, Abbey, and the three kids and Violet’s friend, came over for dinner. Davy walked in and dropped an Orange Fanta pop, which broke and splattered all over the floor in the entry way. We promptly cleaned it up and then had a nice dinner. Abbey is not happy with Davy these days. They’re having a few issues, and she wants me to talk to Davy, ugh. He always asks me for advice and while I try to tell him what to do, it’s not really my business, nor am I an expert, ha. After dinner Abbey texted Lori thanking us for being such good friends and asked if I’d talk to Davy. She’s super pissed at some things he did, and he needs to clean up his act. The kids are great kids and so much fun. Everyone was gone by 8ish, and we were in bed by 8:30.

7am now, slick roads in the mountains, so says the news. Lots of people headed up here for the last weekend of skiing at most of the areas. Glad I got my new tires the other day.

Nuggets and Avalanche are both on today. Hope both win. Jag and Ava are coming up for the night after lunch. We’re having lamb shanks for dinner. I probably won’t eat breakfast or lunch today. I splurged yesterday since we had everyone over for dinner. Lori made cupcakes for the kids, and they’re the best cupcakes you’ve ever had. I had two! Throw in a couple cookies and you would have thought it was like my birthday or something.

We only have a dusting of snow outside again. Nothing to talk about. We’re looking forward to seeing everyone. Have a great day, be well, stay safe and God Bless.

Up here we have only a slight dusting of snow on the grass. Nothing on the roads or even my truck. Overall, I think we dodged todays little April storm. Now over in Georgetown it’s a different story. The highway, I-70, is closed in both directions. Traffic is stopped at Georgetown going west and it’s shut down at Silverthorne going east. This will probably be the story for most of the day but by tomorrow morning, all should be fine.

I think Abbey and Davy are coming over for dinner. They’ve been arguing a bit with each other, so says Davy, which is common when money is tight. Just like every business in the entire Country, and probably the World, things are down for his family’s stores. This of course causes problems as you usually have more money going out than coming in. This then causes arguments about what to, or not to spend money on. I remember telling James a few years ago, everyone has shit. Doesn’t matter who you are, or how much money you have, everyone has shit.

Big news of the day is yesterday I went to Glenwood and had new tires put on the truck! They cost $2022 which is a lot, but factory tires on most cars, (except Lori’s Porsche), are crap. I managed to get 32,000 miles out of my original tires, but they were shot. With the snow in Georgetown, I wanted to get them on before tomorrow’s little drive.

Ty golfed yesterday and had a blast, although it was windy. He’s back at work today. We’ll go to the gym and then go see him for breakfast. Today I reached a milestone. I officially weigh 199.8 pounds! I can’t remember the last time I weighed under 200 lbs. Had to be sometime in high school or college. I thought I’d be much skinnier, ha. Apparently, I have ten more pounds or so to go. I must have been carrying a lot of extra weight I didn’t need. When you’re tall, I think you hide it easier. Overall, I feel good. Still dealing with a strained thigh muscle but that’s getting better. Lori has a bit of a backache, but she’ll be fine. I remember Mom always telling me, “Doug, getting old is hell”. But considering the alternative, I’ll take it.

That’s it. Robi and Bobby land in Denver around 11am. Can’t wait to see them tomorrow. Have a great day. Before we know it, it’ll be May! God Bless.

So they say. They could be wrong. Wouldn’t be the first time. Only time will tell. There you have it. We’ll see tomorrow.

Mark, my buddy who was the GM of a bunch of 4 Seasons Hotels around the World, and I, called Jagger yesterday to give him the low down on Bali. Jag has already done a lot of research on the island, but Mark shared the ins and outs you only get from being there. Should be a once in a lifetime trip.

Ty worked yesterday. I stopped for breakfast after going to the gym. He’s off today and golfing down here at our course in the neighborhood. I ordered up new tires for the truck and might run down to Glenwood today to get them put on. They didn’t have any appointments available, but do take walk ins. If I don’t go today, I’ll be first in line at 8am tomorrow morning.

A homeless man in California won $1 million in the lottery. Experts say it’ll last him 3 weeks with their taxes and cost of living, ha. We’re still pissed off at our tax bill. We need a flat tax in this Country, and we need it now.

Almost 7am so time to get moving. Lori wants to go to the gym. Have a great day, be well, stay safe and God Bless.

Today we can breathe, sort of. Tax Day is over. We managed to pay everyone we needed to yesterday. So sick of it. I was talking to Crystal at the bank who said her husband wants to move to Arizona. She loves her job though and won’t be going anywhere soon. Seems most people I know are thinking of leaving Colorado. Living here is just not economical anymore. You don’t notice as it’s a few dollars on everything you do and buy. If people were told, hey, you owe an extra $8000 a month for the privilege of living here, people would leave. They just don’t realize how much things are now costing.

Rain and snow Friday and Saturday here. They say over a foot on Vail Pass and around six inches here. Lucky we didn’t turn on the sprinklers. Hope they’re wrong, and that we can get down to Georgetown.

That’s about it, time to get moving. 5:50am now. Be well, stay safe and God Bless.

Don’t get me going. Luckily, we can pay what we owe today. It’s just sad that when you save all year, a little bit here and there, that it all ends up going to the govt. We are now paying more in quarterly taxes and raised Lori’s withholding by another $1400 a month. So that means another $3400 a month out of our pockets and into the governments, and sadly, we get less from them, than we did 20 years ago.

I’m out early this morning. It’s 5:07am now. Hope to be home by noon at the latest. Ty made it home fine. He did some laundry and recouped a bit before heading to Madi’s. He works today. Both he and Jagger finished up their taxes and we got them turned in. They’ll both get around $1K back.

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

Ty takes off from Bozeman around 10:30 this morning and should be in Eagle by 2:30 or so. Yesterday he hit the mountain for the last day of the season at Big Sky. He had a great trip and I’m sure will go back again next year.

We booked Jagger and Ava’s hotel in Bali yesterday, so they’re all set for their trip on May 13th. They’ll be gone 11 days and we’re so jealous. We were going to use points, but it wasn’t as expensive as we thought, so we just paid for the room. After their trip, we should have about 1 million Marriott miles, so we’ll be going somewhere.

I’m off to Denver in 30 or 45 minutes and should be back by 1 or so. I also have to run down tomorrow am to pay taxes, so two trips in two days. Looks like a rain and snow mix Friday and Saturday, ugh. That’s right when we’ll be in Georgetown with everyone to spread Shelly’s ashes. As I said yesterday, maybe they’ll be wrong. Time to go as it’s 6:03 right now. Have a great Monday, God Bless.

Yesterday, Ty and six buddies loaded up and headed up to Billings for the PBR, (Professional Bull Riding) rodeo. Billings is a couple hours north of Bozeman but not a bad drive. They all spent the night and had a blast as far as we could tell. He kept us posted with videos of bull riders, and bulls, doing their thing. Our youngest is ready to move to Montana and be a cowboy, he’s all in.

I found a really cool place, sort of like a mini-Yellowstone, for a couple million dollars! The house was built in 1890 but has been totally remodeled. We could do worse in retirement than living on a little spread and having one of our boys working the place, ha. Check it out,

It’s 40 minutes out of downtown Bozeman which is nothing, has water and enough land for a garden, some cows and horses. You never know!

Yesterday the guys, Mark, Clark and Ken, came over to smoke a cigar and watch the Masters Golf Tournament with me. This turned into a 5 hour hang as I was finishing off the pork roast and then we all had sandwiches Lori made for us. It was also Day 30 of my one meal a day thing and I celebrated with breakfast and dinner. I’m only up a pound, which is surprising.

Looking like maybe a little rain and cool temps when Tasha, Robi and Bobby get here. Too bad as it’s been really nice. Who knows though, weathermen are usually only right, at best, half the time.

7:11 now! We slept in a bit this morning. Not sure if we’re going to the gym or what. I feel like I climbed a mountain yesterday as we did a lot. After a Costco run, Lori cleaned out the front garden beds and we cleaned up the back. Today we’re doing some inside cleaning as it’s supposed to be a little cooler. Looking outside right now though, they might be wrong.

That’s it, time to get going. Have a great Sunday and God Bless.

Today we’re smoking another pork shoulder. I’m starting the smoker as soon as I’m done here, and then we’ll go to the gym as I don’t open the lid for the first 90 minutes. That’ll give us time to go work out and get back.

Ty’s having a blast. We finally heard from our accountant last night and we owe and extra $35K on Tuesday. So frustrating, as it seems this happens every year. We’re upping our quarterly payments about $7500 and Lori’s withholding to offset this, so it hopefully doesn’t happen again next year. Is what it is, no point in dwelling on something we can’t do anything about right now.

It was 76 degrees up here yesterday! One more warm day, today, before a mini cooldown tomorrow. No snow or anything, maybe a little rain shower.

That’s it, time to go fire up the smoker! God Bless.

Ty’s having a blast. Last night they went to the rodeo. I thought it was the night before, but it was last night. Ty found a new belt, (he needed one bad), and bought a bolo tie! He fits right in up there in Montana. He loves Bozeman, but then, what’s not to love. Not sure what his plans are today. We’ll keep you posted.

Long management call yesterday. We accomplished a lot, but it seems like I’ve been on the phone for 15 hours the past two days. Unfortunately, we’re going to let two people go. One has been with me over 20 years, but she’s just not that productive as the way people buy wine, and what they buy, has changed. In the end, it all comes down to math. Still, it’ll be tough.

Lori is working 10 to 12 hours a day as she has over 50 surgeries backed up that she needs to schedule. Looks like a warm day with temperatures hitting 80 for the first time this year. I’m down to 200 pounds. I’m actually eating a bit more, but it seems my body jumped over that plateau where I was stuck for a few days. Only one more day to complete my 30 meals in 30 days program. Think I’m sticking with it as I’m not really hungry and pretty much in a groove.

Time to get moving. My back is getting better each day. Think I’ll go to the gym with Lori this morning and take it super easy. Probably a mistake but I need to exercise. Easter is here next weekend!

Time to go, hope everyone is doing well. Have a great day and God Bless.