A Year of Change

Today Lori and I are headed to the storage unit to start purging there. We’ll try to get through the boxes and bags of papers and smaller things, leaving the furniture alone. Most of it will sadly end up in the dump, if we can’t give it away.

Yesterday I picked up some eggs and then washed the truck after going to a couple auto parts stores. Ty was home in the morning before heading off to Denver for the night.

Marty had a positive appointment at the doctor. They’re going to do surgery mid-October. He’s thrilled with that as now he can go hunting with us. When he goes in, he’ll be in for four days and then have about 2 weeks of recovery. All in all, great news.

Last night we had a fun dinner with Gerry and Marci. We were home by about 8:30. The food was great, but restaurant food is so salty. We all split a couple desserts which were really rich. Not sure why I had that! Sugar is the worst drug out there. I know I shouldn’t have it, but it sucks you right in.

Busy week next week. I’m in Denver Tuesday, and Lori has her colonoscopy on Friday. Then Saturday Greg and Jae are coming up to pick up some of Dixie’s things from our garage, and some of Mom’s antiques from the storage unit. I have a few meetings during the week too.

Nice and cool outside at 7am. Feels good. Soon it’ll be downright cold. Fall colors are starting to show up. Time to make an appointment to get Lori’s snow tires put on that are in storage down at the Porsche dealer. Ty gets a new windshield Tuesday and Lori’s car gets a new one Wednesday. Jag finally got his car back yesterday.

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

Friday the 13th is not what most people think. It goes back hundreds of years, and a lot of people consider it an unlucky day. One of the earliest events on Friday, October 13, 1307, was when officers of King Philip IV of France arrested hundreds of the Knights Templar, a powerful religious and military order formed in the 12th century for the defense of the Holy Land. (you can click on anything highlighted to learn more)

Imprisoned on charges of various illegal behaviors (but really because the king wanted access to their financial resources), many Templars were later executed. Some cite the link with the Templars as the origin of the Friday the 13th superstition, but like many legends involving the Templars and their history, the truth remains murky.

In more recent times, a number of traumatic events have occurred on Friday the 13th, including the German bombing of Buckingham Palace (September 1940); the murder of Kitty Genovese in Queens, New York (March 1964); a cyclone that killed more than 300,000 people in Bangladesh (November 1970); the disappearance of a Chilean Air Force plane in the Andes (October 1972); the death of rapper Tupac Shakur (September 1996) and the crash of the Costa Concordia cruise ship off the coast of Italy, which killed 30 people (January 2012). You can pick just about any day and find bad stuff that happened, but there you have it.

Today, September 13th, is Marty and Clark’s and Ava’s birthday, as well as Roger’s who is Dixie’s nephew in California. He’s 82 or 83 years old today. Ava is 22. Marty has a doctor appointment in Denver at 3 and then I think he and Melanie are going to dinner. Not sure what Jag and Ava are doing. We’re going to dinner with Marci and Gerry tonight.

Cigar night was fun last night. James is gone the next two weeks with four shows in Mexico City. Most people don’t know but it’s above 7000 feet in elevation! Harder to sing and run around on stage at that altitude.

103 days until Christmas! Normally Tom would be shopping by now but today he’s closing on his new house today and is pretty busy purging! So you can see, lots going on today on Friday the 13th!

Ty is off to Denver this afternoon for the night. He’ll be back tomorrow. I need to run over to Buena Vista to the 1000-yard range to sight in a rifle for antelope hunting. Not sure when I’ll do that. Maybe next week sometime.

That’s it. Good football this weekend. Time to get moving as it’s 7:30 now. Have a great day and a great weekend, God Bless.

These days, I get up early. Usually around 5:30 but was up and making coffee at 5am this morning. I like the mornings. Seeing the sun come up is rejuvenating. Lori is still sleeping.

I was taking Lori’s car in today to get her windshield replaced but rescheduled for next Wednesday. I didn’t want to drive over the pass in the afternoon with the road construction. I have a morning appointment next week. Ty is getting his windshield replaced next Tuesday. Just a way of life in the mountains.

I’m loving my clean garage. More work to do in the basement today. Ty came home for a bit and cleaned his room yesterday. He works today.

Taxes due this weekend. What a joke. We pay and pay and get nothing in return. I’m almost back to my pre-Oklahoma weight! Man, it’s taken a good 4 days to get there. Football tonight. Not sure who’s playing, but it’s still football.

I need to get out to the range for some long-range practice. Could be 400- or 500-yard shots antelope hunting in October. I’ll check with James today as we should probably go before he heads out to Mexico City for the last four shows of the tour. Davy needs to go with us too, as well as Marty, if he’s not recuperating from surgery. I think they’re trying to get him in early next week. He’s so bummed that this has happened. I’m doing my best each day to keep his spirits up. He has some CT scans tomorrow to see what’s happening.

Lori is single handily feeding all the birds in the neighborhood. They’re all the little birds and they also love the bird bath and splash around like little kids in a swimming pool. Won’t be long before the deer and elk are in the backyard eating the grass.

Some school districts are closed today due to anonymous threats on social media. These first popped up a few days ago and are in multiple States. You can tell the person making the threats is foreign born as the grammar in their posts is choppy and incorrect. Seems like a coordinated effort to disrupt things and make headlines. Still, better safe than sorry. What a World. It’s like we live daily in a war zone. Sort of like Mexico has been for decades. Shootings, kidnappings, robberies, assaults, and more, can happen at any time, and anywhere. Nice.

Tom is busy purging too. Think he closes on the new digs tomorrow! Exciting!

5:33am now, time to move and groove. Make it a great day and God Bless.

Today is the anniversary of 9/11. Tragic day in our Country’s history. God bless all those American’s who lost their lives.

Last night was the anticipated debate. Kamala was never questioned by the moderators. It was like Trump was debating 3 people. She did better than I thought she would, but didn’t change our minds in any way. She’s basically a pathological liar. I’m confident that the American people saw this too and are not happy about it. She actually didn’t answer a single question. She kept pivoting to attacking Trump in a condescending way. In the end, I think those that like Trump, still like Trump and those that like Kamala still like her. I couldn’t stand the faces she made all night long, so uppity. Hope Trump wins, or America as we know it, will die.

Yesterday I decided to clean the garage. I managed to get 3/4’s of it cleaned out. The rest is just storage containers stacked to the ceiling. Feels good to get that done. Then it was off to Costco, recycling, the Post Office, and Ace Hardware and City Market.

Lori made it home around 4:30. We’re off to the gym at 6:30am this morning. Then hopefully we’ll get to the storage unit. Have a great day, take care, be safe and God Bless.

Yesterday I took Marty down to have his drain removed. Unfortunately, his drain was leaking or something, so the PA said they need to leave it in for another two to four weeks. He was of course bummed, but I told him to look at the bright side and explained what that was. Hopefully he’ll get some better news today from the doctor.

I left around 11 and was home around 4 or 4:30. I was talking to Tom and said how I really wasn’t up for another drive, but you do what you have to do.

Today I might try to get over to the storage unit to start purging it. We’re getting everything out of there by the end of the month, one way or another.

Yesterday was the 7 year anniversary of Mom passing away. I had it on my calendar but forgot about it at 6am. Of course, I remembered a couple hours later. Hard to believe it’s been 7 years. Tom pointed out how many people have passed away in August. Dad, Dixie, Ally, and others. Not a fun month. All you can do is remember the good times.

We’re sort of at a crossroads of deciding if we’re going to move next year or the year after and just when we should stop working. Marty is really there with his recent health scare. He’s all in on finding property where we can grow vegetables and raise animals as his whole problem came from a bad gut. Gut health is the key to longevity and health. Apparently, your body wants 30 different vegetables a week!

I’d like to make a couple million dollars before calling it a day. I have a plan, so we’ll see how it goes. One thing is for sure, there’s more to life than work. We’ll see what happens.

Have a great day, GB.

Good trip, fun time. Made it back in 9 hours which included about 45 minutes to an hour of stops. We left around 5:15am Oklahoma time, or 4:15am Colorado time. I took a different route up to I-70 in Kansas which saved me about 30 minutes.

The drive was fine, but 9 hours in a car is a long one. We made it home around 1:30 and I think I went to sleep around 7.

It was a great time. Good to connect with everyone and as Lori said, her Mom would have been happy.

I need to drive Marty down to St. Anthony’s today at noon to have his drain removed. Not excited about it, but his wife is out of town. Should be home by dinner time as his procedure is at 1:30.

We’re off to the gym. Not a lot of good food choices in the Midwest. No Whole Foods there. Need to get back to our healthy eating ways. Here’s a couple pics from the weekend. Not sure why they are so grainy. The first one is the gate to the little cemetery, the second, lovely Lori and the third is where the old farmhouse was which was built in the late 1800’s. Lori and Kristin also did a video like we did for my mom which is a montage of her life with pictures and music. Tom and Robi, I’m going to send you a link to Mom’s as I had Kristin resend it to me, just so you have it.

That’s it, boys are fine. Have a good week and God Bless.

We were up early, like around 5:30am Oklahoma time which is 4:30am Colorado time. After coffee and getting ready for the day, we went for a drive before heading out to May (the little town where Dix grew up) and the cemetery.

We made it there a little before 11. Lori read some nice words she wrote off her phone about her mom and then I placed the burl wood box with her and Don’s ashes in the hole we had Darla dig for us. Everyone threw a little dirt on it and then we all walked around the cemetery looking at all the other relatives. As they said in one of my favorite John Wayne movies, True Grit, I think it’s comforting to know where one will spend the rest of the days. Dix, looking ahead, had bought her own headstone so it was in place and looking good.

After a bit, we drove past the remnants of the old homestead or farmhouse. Not much left except a windmill that was still spinning away. We then drove into town and found this lady’s house whose daughter (Darla) dug the hole at the cemetery. We gave her a hundred dollar bill to give to her daughter, who must be in her 60’s. The little town is pretty much a ghost town, but we still found Lori’s grandma’s house. Fun time for her.

Later around 5pm, we took everyone to dinner, all 17 of us. It was a great restaurant run by an Italian who used to have a place in Dallas. Food was great and he’s now buying our wine for his two restaurants in town. After dinner and lots of visiting, we hung out at the hotel. We’re up at 5am (4am Colorado time) and will be on the road shortly.

What a great mini, fast, road trip. Dixie would have loved it. Hope to be home by 3 or so, this afternoon. Great closure for Lori and for the entire Liest family. Happy we made the trip.

God Bless. Pictures tomorrow.

Well, we made it. Took about 9 hours and 15 minutes. We probably wasted a good hour with multiple stops. But we made it here safe.

Upon arriving and checking in, we met with the rest of the crew who came down for the event. Turns out there are 16 of us in total! This includes family from California, Colorado and Oklahoma. Most are direct descendants of Dix’s family so lots of stories. Four of us are not blood related.

After hanging out for a bit, we all went for Mexican food across the street. It was a fun time. This morning we’re off for the cemetery where Dixie’s family bought a dozen plots in the late 1800’s! About half the cemetery’s residents are from Dixie’s family. Everyone is super happy we’re doing this. It’s like a mini family reunion.

After we take Dix and Don’s ashes to their final resting place, we’ll hang out until dinner when we’re all going out. Oklahoma and Kansas are pretty flat and full of corn or fields of other stuff. Couldn’t live here but you have to admire those that do.

It’s been a fun time for Lori and I, and so far, a fun road trip, even though she did work most of the day yesterday. More to come. Have a great day and God Bless.

5:04 now, hope to be on the road by 6am. Last night was our first cigar night since James made it home. Marty is still healing so he didn’t make it, but other than that, we had a good crowd. We stayed until around 7 watching the start of the game.

I pretty much prepped for the drive yesterday. I have a little last-minute packing, meaning throwing some clothes in the truck. Harley will be alone a good 12 hours today with Ty working, but she’s done that before and will be fine.

Ty scored opening game tickets to the Nuggets for $29! He’s down low too, near the floor. Super cool. Jag is coming up next weekend.

Hope to be in Woodward by 3 or 4 this afternoon. Tomorrow we have the service around 11 and then a dinner at 5. If it was up to me, I’d head out after dinner, but we’ll probably wait until Sunday morning to head home.

Time to get moving. It’s 5:20 now. Getting cool, or even border line chilly at night. Won’t be long now until the temps dip below freezing. It’s 37 in Dillon right now!

Make it a great day, GB.

Tonight the season kicks off. To many of us, this means, Fall is officially here. Whoo hoo.

Today I have three conference calls and then need to get the truck ready to take off tomorrow for Oklahoma. We hope to leave by 5 am so we can get through Denver before the rush hour traffic. I still might head down through Fairplay and Pueblo and skip Denver all together.

My meeting with the guys in Texas went well. It was over by 10:30 my time. Glad I did it by Zoom instead of flying down there for the 2 and a half hours.

It’s cool outside this morning. Feels good.

More shootings in Denver yesterday. What the hell is going on. You have to be on the lookout every single moment these days. So sad, I miss the 1970’s. Everyone got along and things were so much better. Nowadays, it seems that some people have zero respect for other people. This means, in some cases, they’ll kill you without hesitation. Don’t be a victim! A sign of the times is when talking to people, the common sign off is “be safe out there”. This is from people you call that you don’t even know, like people from businesses on the other side of the Country. Tells you what state the Country is in these days and how people are feeling. Sad.

6:11am. Time to get moving. Ty will be here Friday and Saturday night with Harley. Jag and Ava are coming up the weekend after this one so we can go fly fishing. Have a great day, stay safe and God Bless.