A Year of Change

Today is Black Friday, the day everyone is stuffed, (from yesterday) and Annette’s birthday! Lori thought yesterday was the 29th for some reason. So, again, Happy Birthday Annette!

First up, Lori’s turkey was probably the best turkey I’ve ever had in my life. It was for sure the best turkey she’s ever cooked in her life! And that’s her saying that. It was juicy, with crispy skin and every single piece was cooked to perfection. She found some new recipe where she timed it to the minute and covered the whole bird with cheesecloth after basically drenching it with butter, after it reached room temperature. She also stuffed it with an apple, an onion, celery and some herbs. Check it out,

Now that’s one perfect 15-pound bird! It was so good. Glad we have a bunch of leftovers. Ty hung out with us until around 7:30. He’s been raiding my closet daily for jeans and my western shirts. I bought him a bunch of new shirts for Christmas from the place where I get mine online so I can stop the theft! I just have to hide mine until December 25th.

Today we have the CU game at 10am! Think we’ll walk a couple miles in our zero-degree temperature instead of driving to the gym. I know Annette wishes she was here as she just loves the cold! It lets you know you’re alive! It’s really not that bad; I’ve already been out in shorts and a t-shirt putting out the trash. Trash Day should be tomorrow with the holiday, but you want to put it out just in case they decide to double up today to get caught up.

It’s one of those morning where the sky is the bluest of blues up against the whitest of white blankets of snow. We had to chase the deer away from our bird feeders most of the day yesterday as it’s not really that good for them. They love sunflower seeds though, as do the wild birds. I need to get a taller bird feeder pole so the deer can’t reach it. Lori threats them like her new pets these days. You can see the empty bird feeder behind them. The white spots in the photo are our living room lights reflecting themselves through the sliding glass doors, not clouds.

And here they are again as they come up to the window looking for Lori with some carrots! Beautiful morning outside. We’re so lucky to live where we live!

Just saw on the news that they’re still running ads for covid vaccines! They must think everyone is stupid. People have died by the hundreds of thousands around the World from what has proven to be a faulty vaccine, and they want you to get more. All this has done is stop people from getting good vaccines, as now they don’t trust any shot the govt. tells you to get. What gross mismanagement by the government. Someone (Fauci) should go to jail. We don’t even get the flu shot anymore. Haven’t for five years now. Change is a coming, bring on RFK.

Have a good day, 3 more days of the holiday weekend. Be well, stay safe and God Bless.

If you’re reading this, not matter how you feel about your life, you do have a lot to be thankful for! No doubt about it. Many people don’t have things we take for granted every day. If you have your health, a warm bed, and food daily, you’re ahead of most of the people, not only in this World, but now in our Country too. It’s easy to feel sorry for yourself and dwell on what you don’t have. The trick is to be thankful for what you do have. Then you’ll realize you really are one of the lucky ones. Enjoy the day and do something for someone who has less than you. You’ll feel good, I promise.

Yesterday I shoveled from about 6 to 7am. It was a wet heavy snow. Once I had it off the driveway though, I was good to go. Throughout the day, it warmed up enough so all the roads and sidewalks, if they were plowed, ended up dry. Lori and I headed out to get a few last-minute groceries and then came home. Ty was here cleaning his room before heading to Denver with Sonny, for Jude’s birthday. He’s raiding my closet daily as he’s now a cowboy, all decked out in a hat, boots, western shirts and jeans. Nice to see him move on from his rap stage, ha. He’ll head up this morning and be here by noon.

Lori says we’re watching Christmas movies all day long. I’d rather watch football, but I can go with Christmas movies if it makes her happy.

Today is Annette’s birthday! Happy Birthday Annette! Hope you have a great day. Lori says she and her sister Jean are going to the movies. Fun. We almost went to see the new Gladiator movie yesterday but didn’t make it.

This weekend, Sunday, is December 1st! Hard to believe. We all know, life goes faster the older you get. What a cruel joke. I remember when we were kids, it seemed like it took months for Christmas to actually arrive. Savor each day and memory.

Quick dose of reality and a public service announcement. Crime is skyrocketing, especially in the cities, but it’s now everywhere. Be careful! When our new President gets in, we’ll see the tide turn. Some idiots, like the Mayor of Denver and some other liberal cities, have vowed to protect criminal illegal aliens, and in the case of Denver, even deploy the police to stop Federal officials from arresting and removing criminals. Think about that! How are these people still in office and who votes for them in the first place. What part about criminal illegal aliens says they deserve anything but a one-way ticket out of the Country. Thank God President Trump won. Every single State in the Country shifted to the right, but the Dems still don’t get it. Oh, and in California, 23 days after the election, 2 House elections have magically changed to favor the two democrat candidates by less than 20 votes, by counting disputed mail in votes. Third World countries can count their votes in a day, but California takes over 3 weeks. Anyone else smell a rat here? And the kicker is their Governor, that joke Newsom, just bought a $9.1 million dollar mansion with funds from a company that was formed two days before the transaction closed. Don’t you wish we all played the game by the same rules as the politicians? Show me a rich politician and I’ll show you a crook. I’ll stop now but could go on and on but don’t want to go any further down the rabbit hole and ruin the spirit of the day.

Time to get moving and head to the gym. Our turkey is going to take about 3 hours according to Lori. It’s beautiful outside but I think around 15 degrees. No worries, we’re used to it. We need to run up to Davy’s on the way to the gym to feed and let Juno (their bulldog) and Tux, their cat, out.

Have a great day, enjoy your family and friends, and again, be thankful for whatcha got! God Bless.

The snow started coming down yesterday morning. I think it just stopped an hour or so ago. Not too bad here at the house, maybe a few inches of new stuff, but nothing like up valley. Vail and Copper got 20 inches! I think Lori is staying home today as there’s only one new patient coming in today. Last night, it was taking almost 3 hours to get from Georgetown to Dillon. That’s normally a 20 to 25 minute drive.

I picked up our turkey yesterday. Casey, my buddy who owns the local meat market, gave us our turkey on him. That was nice.

Jag was golfing yesterday when I texted him and Ty was hanging with Sonny who is back from Montana for Thanksgiving. He’s skating through college as he doesn’t get his inheritance unless he gets a diploma. Guess he’s taking the easiest classes offered.

That’s it, time to go shovel. Have a great Thanksgiving Eve and God Bless.

Here comes the snow. Not really down at the house, but just about everywhere else east of us. Vail, the Pass, Frisco, the tunnel and more are all getting 3 or 4 inches an hour. Lucky the kids went down last night. Their plane took off around 7:30 which put them in Orange County a little after 9pm.

Lori is in Vail today and supposedly in Frisco tomorrow. I don’t think she’ll make it on Wednesday, if the weather forecast is correct. I’m getting our turkey today just so I don’t have to go get it tomorrow. We have several invites on Thursday but are planning on just hanging here at home. Hard to believe it’ll be December next week.

5:40am now. Just a dusting outside. I’ll head out to the gym in an hour or so. Lots of deer down here in the yard. They look pretty well fed and healthy right now which is good. They need to bulk up before the worst of winter hits. I always buy carrots at the store for them as a treat. We’re hoping for a mild winter! Just a little over two months until pitchers and catchers report for Spring Training! See, there’s always a bright side!

God Bless

Broncos beat the Raiders! Great game and great outcome. Our new quarterback seems to be the real deal and the long-awaited answer to our QB issues here in Denver. Lori, Davy and I watched the game here at the house.

After the game, Jag, Ava, Ty and Will had the Asian hot pot for dinner. We have a dusting of snow outside but are expected to get up to two feet in parts of the mountains by Wednesday. Lori is going to try to switch her Wednesday Frisco patients to virtual appointments. Looks like tomorrow night into Wednesday morning is supposed to be when most of it hits.

After my conference call this morning, I’ll head out to the grocery store and get everything we need for Thanksgiving. Wednesday morning I’ll pick up our turkey. Guess I should call and see if I can get it tomorrow.

After the gym yesterday morning, Lori put up fresh garland and lights on our 5 steel beams on the front porch. That took about 90 minutes. All I had to do was hold the garland up as she tied it on top of the beams. It looks nice.

The kids are all sleeping still at 7am. Jag and Ava have a 7pm flight out of Denver and Ty will head to Madi’s sometime this morning. He works tomorrow. I need to Fed Ex a box today to Wyoming. Hope it gets there on time. I think as long as I ship it today, I’ll be ok.

Three real workdays left in November. I could use another week. A week from today we’ll be in December, hard to believe. Have a great week and if you’re in Colorado, go get your Thanksgiving stuff today! God Bless.

Well, CU lost, but we’re hoping the Broncos win as early in the season, the Broncos lost when CU one, so we think, in our made-up logic, that the universe owes us one.

We left for dinner around ten to five and made it to Vail right around 5:30 or so. Lori always asks for the table hidden in the corner which is this little kind of cubby behind the stone fireplace. We’ve obviously known people there for ten years, but the front desk or schedulers always seem to change from season to season. Still, she managed to get us our table. See the kids below. Lori says she’s going to start tickling them, so they smile as they always look so cool when getting their picture taken. At least Ava always smiles! We love her.

We had a really fun dinner and took our time, like they do in Europe, making the dinner a good two hour event. After dinner, Ty went to see his good friend Will from junior high and high school, who flew in yesterday from Bozeman for Thanksgiving. Ty wanted to borrow a pair of my cowboy boots before we went to dinner, so I loaned him this nice pair of Lucchese grey goat skin ropers. They fit perfect after I stuck a pair of insoles in them for him. He was beaming as they looked cool. Lori said, “you know you’re never going to see those again, right”? I told her, “yea, I know”. I realized this was for sure true when he called after we all made it home and he was with his friends, asking “dad, what kind of boots are these again”? I told him and could hear the guys in the background saying things like wow, and sweet. No big deal, I like giving things to the boys. I used to think, oh I should hang on to that or those, but then would see whatever it was, in a closet or somewhere a few weeks or months later, and realized it wasn’t getting used. Funny how some things we acquire in our lives we think are so important or cool, that turn out to be just things. If I have anything that can make either of my boys happy, I’m thrilled to give it to them. It’s like the “thing” fulfilled its purpose of making someone happy or excited, twice. I’ve given them clothes, old watches, knives, even a guitar, and am thrilled to be able to do so. Plus, they’ll always remember the moment someday when I’m not around. And truthfully, these “things” are just things and don’t mean as much to me anymore. My motto is, if I haven’t used or worn it in six months, it’s fair game.

On the way out of the restaurant, this lady who was younger with her husband and two young kids, who had been starring at us, stopped us and asked Ty, “my husband is wondering what kind of pants are those”? Ty looked down at his jeans and said, “they’re a brand called Purple”. They’re one of his favorite pair of pants I bought him for Christmas a couple years ago from Neiman Marcus. They’re black and have brass zippers down the entire legs on the outside of the pants. This couple, though young, you could tell were tourists as she had a mink on with leather pants and he a new wool western patterned overshirt with what looked like a brand-new hat from Kemo Sabe in town. She said “oh, thank you so much, he loves those, they’re great”! I then stuck out my leg, pointed at my jeans and said “Wrangler”! They burst out laughing and the guy said, “oh I have those”. Funny little moment. I flashed back to 15 years or so ago when the boys were as young as their kids. See, there’s another example of how I’ve come full circle, the kids are wearing designer stuff now, which I used to like, but now I’m back to my $60 Wranglers, that if I must say, I look really good in, ha. Thought about telling the guy, save yourself a bunch of money and time and stick to the Wranglers, but then realized everyone has to go through the stages of life. That’s part of the fun!

Nice weather this morning. Snow is expected this afternoon. Jag and Ava brought up a bunch of food from the Asian market in Boulder as the kids are doing a hot pot for dinner with Cristal champagne. This is where you boil some kind of broth and then cook certain foods in it like a fondue. I think Davy is coming over to watch the game with me as Abby and the kids are headed to her parents’ lake house in Michigan for Thanksgiving. Remember I mentioned a couple weeks ago, her maiden name is Ford, as in the Ford Motor Company. I’m sure it’s a cool, lake house, or mansion. Davy needs to work but might fly up next Wednesday to meet them and then come back Saturday, depending on how busy the store is.

That’s it, time to get moving. Enjoy the day and life. Life is good, appreciate it and Go Broncos! God Bless.

Fun time yesterday. It started around 1 in the afternoon when we went down to Gorsuch to meet Davy and look around. He’s been wanting us to come into the store and do some shopping. He told me anything we want; he’d sell it to us at his cost. Lori looked around like a kid in a candy store and found things like an ice bucket and martini shaker from London, along with some crystal glass Christmas trees, a huge glass and silver centerpiece for her dining room table, some silver utensils, and a couple other things. Their stuff is top of the line and over the top. The martini shaker was $500 alone! Davy told me the easiest thing to do was to settle up later, so I said ok. When Alexandrea packed up all Lori’s stuff, she asked how to pay, and Alex said, it’s all a gift from Davy! She told me this and I told him no way, this is too much, but he wouldn’t listen and told me, you guys do so much for us and are such great neighbors, we want to do something for you! Lori is over the moon of course. Davy told her to come back and look for some more stuff. I’m sure she will. Davy and Abby are such great friends, and we’re thrilled to have them as our neighbors.

We headed home and Ty arrived 30 minutes after us. He hung out with us and loaded up on a couple of bags of food from our pantry and freezer and soon headed out. Jag and Ava arrived an hour or so later. We watched some tv and visited with them until around 9 or 10 when we all went to bed.

This morning we’re headed to the gym and then I might run to Glenwood as Jag needs a new phone and is eligible for an upgrade. The CU game starts at 1:30 and then we have sushi dinner at 5:45. Ty will meet us there after work. The sky is pink again this morning. Snow coming tomorrow and Tuesday into Wednesday. The kids fly to California Monday night so they should be ok.

Time to get moving, 6:48am now. Hope everyone is well. Next week is going to fly by and then it’ll be December! God Bless.

It’s the weekend. Jag and Ava are driving up this afternoon. Ty works today but we’ll see him after work. Jag and Ava are here until Monday when they fly out to San Clemente.

Tomorrow after the CU game we’re all going to sushi at Matsuhisa in Vail. Should be fun. Jag and Ava both drew tickets in the student lottery to the Big 12 Championship Game in Dallas, if CU gets in. Hope they win this weekend and next. My buddy Shultz, if CU is in, will have a big media event/party in Dallas, with Coach Prime and Miss Peggy, and said Jag and Ava would of course be more than welcome to come.

Last night, we had cigar night, and I brought 2 large pans of Lori’s enchiladas. We decided our annual Christmas party is going to be on Saturday December 21st, which is also the Winter Solstice. If you don’t know what that means, it’s the shortest day of the year and also the first day of winter.

I was in and out of Grand Junction fast yesterday and home by 12:30. Brad hooked me up with 10-, 12- and 20-year-old Pappy’s. Lori says let’s keep them but it’s like $5K worth of whisky that cost me about $500. I also ended up with half a dozen other cool bottles and two more bottles of 2012 Cristal Champagne, all for about $1300.

Pretty morning up here with a rose and pink colored sky as the sun rises over the peaks. The cleaners came yesterday so the house looks nice. Carmen, our cleaner, is having a hard time keeping employees, so she shows up each week with a pretty much useless girl who doesn’t have a clue. We might stop using her or just have her come alone and do bathrooms and floors.

Time to get moving. Have a great day and great weekend. Snow coming in a few days! God Bless.

Yesterday I sped down to Denver and dropped off a load of whisky. My buddy Brad texted me that he has another 10 year, a 12 year and a 20 year, Pappy Van Winkle for me. So after a quick gym trip in about 30 minutes, I’m headed to Grand Junction. I’ll spend about $500 bucks for what’s about $5K worth of whisky on the open market. Too good of a deal to pass up as this stuff is essentially unobtainable.

Lori made enchiladas for our cigar night tonight to celebrate the clean sweep of the Executive Branch, the Senate and the House. She said she’d do this for us guys if we swept all three branches of government. Everyone is super excited.

Ty is going to the Cleveland Browns game which is on Monday Night Football. Should be a fun time. The NFL said yesterday they have no issue with the Trump Dance celebration. Smart move as I’m sure 90% of football fans voted for the big guy.

We’re a week away from turkey day and 33 days away from Christmas! I finally called little bro Tom yesterday as we haven’t talked since October. Robi and I made a pact late October to not call and see how long it’d take for him to call us. Well, I gave in yesterday and said screw it, I’m calling. Short story is he’s doing great and is super busy with the new house. The big news is, hold on… he might get married in in the next couple weeks! Whoo hoo, super happy for him. I told him is he’s happy, we’re happy. He’s my bro so I’ll support him in anything he wants to do, but I also told him I’ll still going to be looking out for him as that’s how I’m wired. We’re so happy he has someone to do stuff with and is out there living his best life, congrats!

6:25 am, we slept in, so time to get moving. Make it a great day, God Bless.

Not sure what the temperature is outside, but it’s cold, by most people’s standards. Not sure how cold it is here, I think the news just said zero, but it’s 15 in Denver. It’ll warm up over the next few days. I shoveled a few times yesterday to keep the driveway clear. Because of the messy roads, I drove Lori to work.

Not sure what’s going on today. I might run to Denver to move some of the whisky I bought. I’ll decide after I go to the gym. Can always go tomorrow too.

Ty is cooking a lot trying to gain weight. He’s bummed he can’t snowboard for six to eight weeks as he needs to let the tear in his back heal. Jag and Ava are doing well and coming up Friday.

Lori works in Vail today. Harley had us up early again, about 4;50, which is ten minutes or so before we normally get up.

Time to get moving, almost 6am. Have a good day. Only ten days left in November! God Bless.