A Year of Change

Sounds like a movie, right? Nope, today is Lori’s last day driving to Frisco. Her company will now operate exclusively out of Vail. This is good timing as the Frisco days meant driving over Vail Pass and about one out of every two times in the winter, the Pass would be closed or there would be huge traffic problems due to snow.

Ty’s work has their annual paint ball outing today. They split the restaurant staff into two teams and go out in the mountains and its game on. A couple of the guys, like Ty, are professionals. They have their own state of the art paint ball guns and gear and play often. In the first 30 minutes or so, the amateurs are pretty much out of the game. They play a bunch of rounds though, so those people get to play again.

Ty wrapped up his Halloween costume yesterday after a couple more things came from Amazon. He’s Mick Dundee from Crocodile Dundee. He borrowed a pair of pants and some great handmade boots of mine to complete his outfit and looks really good. I think Jagger and Ava are doing the Ricky Bobby thing. Ty took our Ricky Bobby coats down on Sunday when he went to the Bronco game. Lori and I are just staying home.

Lori needs ENT clearance to make sure both vocal cords are functioning properly and is getting a Dexascan Saturday morning. After that, she’ll be cleared for surgery. We think she’ll have it at St. Anthonys in Lakewood and Dr. B will go along to be there as Dr. Beckman operates. If all goes well, she could be in week after next, maybe even next Friday. She needs to get insurance authorization first.

Cold up here but no snow. Looks like the mid 20’s in Denver. My neck is still bothering me from lifting. My doctor and buddy, who is the top cardiologist up here, told me to stop lifting weights that are so heavy that they make me strain my neck. He says there’s a condition where you can actually rupture your aortic and some other artery that goes up the side of your neck. I always get a headache when doing heavy weights anyhow, so this is welcome news and a good reason to stop any overhead exercises with heavy weight. Hopefully it calms down today. I can feel the muscle in the back of my neck being sore.

5:50am now. Looks like my big deal I’ve been working on for 4 or 5 months is done. Their lawyer sent an email late last night telling my new partner to sign and execute the documents and send them back to me. After I get our existing shareholders to sign off, which should take a week or so, then I’ll get a cash infusion of a few million dollars. Once done, I’m launching our new spirits division and will put my new partner in charge of acquisition and development of spirits. I’ll make him part of the management board but will have him report directly to me on a day-to-day basis. He’s a really good guy that worked for me for over 4 years up until 3 years ago or so. It’ll be an exciting new chapter and a new revenue stream for the Company. Should be fun. Get ready for some cool new tequilas and whiskies!

That’s it, time to go, have a great Wednesday and God Bless.

Snow is here, well, not here, but in the mountains. The news shows snow in Breckenridge. Won’t be long until it’s here. I saw 20 or 30 elk bedded down in a pasture down the road a bit yesterday afternoon.

58 days until Christmas and about 4 days until Lori takes down the Halloween decorations, and we put up the Christmas tree. This time of year, comes and goes fast. Enjoy it while you can. I know Robi has started her Christmas shopping. Tom is probably done, ha.

Lori is in Vail today and has an appointment at 8:45 to decide the next steps on fixing her up. I think tomorrow or Thursday we’ll run down to Lakewood to see Dr. Beckman. We might have Dr. Beckman do the surgery with Dr. Braxton in the OR with them. This way she has the top two spine surgeons taking care of her. Lori did go for her pre-op appointment yesterday to get that out of the way.

Ty made it home around noon. He’s off today but works tomorrow. I was going to go with Davy to take a couple of horses to the ranch down by Gunnison but with Lori’s appointments, I’ll have to skip this trip.

5:40am now. That’s about it. Have a great day, stay safe and God Bless.

Broncos beat the Cowboys yesterday, nice win. We’ve scored 77 points in the last game and a quarter, pretty impressive. We might finally have our offensive kinks worked out. Hope so. It’d be nice to see the Chiefs lose tonight.

Ty, Jagger and I text all game long. Ty face timed me with about 2 minutes to go asking if it was ok to leave to beat the traffic. Being up 20 points, I said of course, go now. He knows I hate it when people leave early, win or lose. He’s a good fan.

Lori works in Vail today and I have a call at 10 and an appointment at 11 in Vail. Ty and Madi will be driving up from Denver this morning. Weather looks good.

Hoping to wrap up my deal that’s 99% done today. All that’s left is to have my lawyer sign off on the documents and then I’ll sign. Hope to get it done today, but you never know.

This week we hope we can start the process of getting Lori’s surgery scheduled and approved. She did get relief for the 24 to 48 hours we were hoping for which confirms that an ADR will help. More to come.

Seems like October has been here forever. It’s been a long month. Soon it’ll speed up and before we know it, we’ll be in 2026. I have a big week of calls to prepare for next year. So, lots going on.

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

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!