A Year of Change

It’s a bit after 8 and it took me a minute to set up a personal hot spot through one of our phones to gain internet access here in the mountains.

Yesterday we arrived in Vail around 2:45 and proceeded to clean up and get organized. The two boys and Jennifer (Jaggers friend) went straight up the mountain and then down to the river exploring everything in sight. Soon it was 6pm and we were supposed to be over at out new friends Andrew and Amanda’s place for dinner at 6:30. He’s an anesthesiologist and she’s a nurse who live in Denver most of the time. I met Andrew through one of my friends and they invited us all over for dinner along with our mutual friends. Lori had never met him and neither of us had met Amanda. Anyhow when we showed up at their house in East Vail, there was Heidi, our friend who’s also an anesthesiologist who we’ve known for a couple years! She was shocked saying when they said that a guy named Doug and his wife were coming over, she had no idea it was us. Heidi only met Andrew and Amanda and my close buddy Rik and Debra (who were also there) this July 4th. what a small World, and it’s going to get even smaller, read on….

Turns out Andrew was a musician in Seattle when I was in the music business in the 1980’s! We knew all kinds of mutual friends and reminisced about all kinds of places and events. We both decided we must have run into each other hundreds of times. On top of that, they both love to hunt! They go to Africa for work (on a program to help kids) often and have hunted extensively over there. Hence the house was full of African animal mounts from various excursions. He asked if I like to hunt birds to which of course I said yes and he also belongs to The Bluffs, which is the ultra exclusive hunting club outside of Denver. I’ve never been there as you need to be a member but it’s a really nice place. So now thanks to them, I can go whenever I want, whoo hoo!

For dinner we had some fantastic buffalo stew thing (Amanda shot) over some cous cous, but before we had some great cured meats and salmon that they cured themselves. By now you can tell I was having a great time as these guys are right up my alley! Meanwhile the kids we’re all playing outside with their 5 month old black lab puppy who is going away to get trained as a bird dog this Wednesday for 2 months. When dinner was over Jagger asked Amanda if he could clear and wash his plate and she was blown away with his manners saying she’s never had a kid ask to do this! Of course both boys introduced themselves and shook everyones hand when we arrived. We get lots of compliments on the boys always but it’s really my dad who should be getting them as he instilled the shake your hand thing in me, I just passed it on. About 10pm (the time flew) I said we need to go and we all wrapped it up. Our friend Heidi has had a rough year (you might remember her from when Bocelli was in town and she went backstage with us to check on one of his kids feet), as on Memorial Day her dad died, then on Fathers Day, her grandma passed and then she had some weird blood disease where she had to gain weight so they could harvest some stem cells to treat her. She has been really sad but was thrilled to see us and the boys. She hugged Lori and I both a bunch.

So today we’re headed to the farmers market and then to a bbq with a band around 1. Rollie our friend from Denver is up for the party (with the band) as it’s her sons grand opening of his (now legal in Colorado) pot shop! There’s no pot of booze but lots of festivities. So Rollie has a room at the Hyatt Beaver Creek and we’re taking the kids swimming. It’s good to be a kid these days. Lori also wants to get a hike in but we’ll see. Tonight we’re supposed to go to our friends restaurant Ti Amo. I sometimes would bring my Mom the scallopini from there when I am up here.

Well that’s it, kids are stirring and I need to get showered to get them to the farmers market. Hope all’s well, God Bless.

Early in the day, a bit after noon, it hit. The boys and I were on a road trip to Boulder and then around to Longmont before heading south on I-25 to Denver. Coming into town we hit it, hard rain and lightening. We made it home around 1pm and then proceeded to clean up the house.

We were all set to go to the Broncos game and then all hell broke loose. First up Mojo who has lost some hair and chewed his skin raw was losing his fur in other areas and itching badly. We’re not sure what’s going on, dog lice, fleas? We don’t think so but he’s awful itchy so we needed to brush him everywhere and he’ll go to the vet Monday, super. Then I had an emergency at work (in Italy) and was stuck on the phone and Lori had a problem or two at work. So we ended up staying home. Good thing we did as after 10 minutes of football there was a rain delay for over an hour! God were we glad we were not there!

This morning we’ll be packing up to head to the mountains after another conference call with Italy from 9 to 10:30 due to the aforementioned emergency. We’re planning on hiking and swimming and other outdoor activities over the next few days. It’s kind of the last hurrah before school although I do have an industry tasting next Friday in Aspen.

Lori slept in Ty’s bed last night and didn’t wake up with a headache. So it looks like it’s Ty and I in our bed until we can get a new one! Our friends in Vail are having us all over for dinner tonight so that’ll make it easy and hopefully be fun.

Hope all’s well with everyone, take care and God Bless

Today it’s more of the same, a few accounts to see, a little driving and some school shopping for the boys. Lori will be back at it and then tonight we have the Bronco’s Seahawks pre season game! Hope the weather is ok.

Yesterday Jag had his follow up appointment with the orthopedic doctor who gave him a clean bill of health on his wrist. He is supposed to wear the brace on and off and he’ll be sore for the next 3 or 4 weeks but looks great. After that we went to Manning for registration for Jag and then off to Ty’s school to get him all signed up as well. Both boys are excited. We’re really excited for Jag though as it’s a whole new school. They had 8th graders there to help answer any questions. They were mostly girls all decked out in Manning t-shirts and you could see them checking Jag out and giggling. So, here we go, looks like girls will be one of his subjects this year! Don’t anyone say anything to him! It’s not good to tease him at this age and besides that’s one of the pleasures of being a parent!

After that Ty and I dropped Jag at his math study. Turns out he breezed through the homework which was about 6 weeks into his new school year. The only problems he missed were ones where he didn’t read the instructions carefully. Sometimes he just goes too fast.

I managed to get the laundry, dishes and cleaning done on top of my work. You just do what you have to do, right? We even took my Mom a chocolate shake as it was so hot and I took the boys for ice cream after math.

The rest of the afternoon was spent changing passwords on a bunch of my accounts due to the breach of 1.2 billion passwords by some Russian gang. I would suggest you do the same if you bank on line or even use Amazon or any other web site that has access to your credit card numbers or social security numbers. This is one area where my Mom is totally safe as I don’t think she does anything on the net except read the blog and an occasional email. Sometimes it’s good to be old school!

Time to run, it’s trash day and I have to gather up some more wine samples to drop off in Boulder, Lakewood and Longmont today. Hope all is well, take care and God Bless.

I think it’s Wednesday, yea, that’ right. We have so much going on it’s hard to remember. Today Jag has his follow up appointment on his arm, and his math class. Ty has a lot of work in his room and both boys need tennis shoes and some clothes and ah yes, the bed, the damn bed. It still needs to go.

Yesterday Jag and I made it back from Vail around 11:30am. We then decided to get haircuts as Jeannie (who cuts our hair) could get us in right away. After that we picked up Ty (and Ben) from Ben’s dad’s new house. (parents are getting divorced) I keep forgetting to tell you all that when Mojo came home from the groomer he had some hair missing from his back. Within a day he itched or somehow scratched it down to raw skin. There goes a few more hundred bucks plus he needs his shots anyhow.

Meanwhile things are not good around the Country. Lots of people are showing signs of the disease from Africa and no one believes the govt is telling us the whole truth. A Russian gang just stole 1.2 Billion internet passwords, British Air has suspended flights to a few countries and some people in the U.K. are quarantined, Oblama’s approval hits a new low, (I spelled it that way on purpose) , we as a country are paying $7 Billion, that’s right, $7 with a B, Billion dollars in interest on our debt every week, and most goes to China, the Netherlands and other countries that hold our debt, a 2 Star General was killed in Afghanistan yesterday, a Principal was fired for telling students to speak English and on it goes. I could keep citing headlines but I think you get the picture. There’s much worse going on out there but most people don’t want to face the facts.

This is all our own fault to as we’ve become a country full of people that are more interested in the pursuit of self satisfying pleasures (new tv’s, big houses, fancy cars, and other materialistic items) than having a healthy functioning society. This goes right up the ladder to numerous CEO’s and companies that will do anything, even produce harmful goods whether it be food, cars, toys, whatever, for a profit. Now I’m the furthest thing from a socialist but people need to take responsibility. Everyone needs to ask themselves what can I do to make the World a better place, today. This can mean what can I do to make my household, neighborhood or community a better place, I’m not asking you to come up with something that’ll change the World, but individuals do do it everyday. So, let’s turn this mess around one small task at a time. You may think something as small as you buying American or picking up some trash you walk by on the street, or helping a neighbor, doesn’t mean anything but imagine of everyone did one small thing! Ok ok, I’ll stop now. Today I have lots to do to make our household better (and safer) as I’m determined to stock up on some additional supplies that the family (mine and extended) should have, just in case. For all of you living in California, you’re going to have to get here to Colorado for me to help you! I should be able to take care of those living here already. Make plans now just in case you have to leave for some reason, at least keep you gas tanks full at all time, just to appease me, ok?

Take care and God Bless.

I’m writing this Monday night as I need to leave by a bit after 6am “today” (when you’re reading this) for Vail. I hope to be back by 11-11:30 at the latest. I’m so slammed at work and will be probably until at least the first of October. I moved so much wine yesterday I think I have a hernia! It’s probably just a pulled muscle from the gym.

I did manage to get two loads of laundry done, all the dishes washed and kitchen cleaned, made it to the grocery store, stopped by Ty’s school and went to the distributor after the gym at 6am. I also, and this is the worst part, paid another freakin 4 figures in medical bills. Luckily I’m conditioned to this type of stuff as it’d kill a normal person!

Meanwhile Lori was busy saving the world at her office. She too has a lot going on as usual. I think we already need another vacation. I was going to dive into politics but think I’ll give it a pass. This afternoon Ty’s supposed to have a friend over, uggh. Jagger had a good math session and is working on some problems that he won’t get in school until about mid October to get ahed of the game.

Guess I’ll run as it’s 7pm and I need to get off electronics!

Stay safe and God Bless,

Well 2 weeks from today, school starts. So yesterday we printed out each guys list from the computer and headed out to get supplies. $581, two stores and two hours later, we were home. This of course is on top of the $150 in fees I had to pay the County or school district the day before. I still need to go pick up Jagger’s bass clarinet for another $60 a month, buy both boys some school clothes and then, I think, we should be done. I don’t remember having to buy so much stuff when I was a kid. Funny, or not so funny, is our school taxes have gone up every year but so has the amount of things we need to buy, hmmmm. If the govt was a money manager in the private sector, they’d be fired!

It’s now 5am and I’m headed to the gym and then will go straight to the distributor and be back here a little before 8 if traffic cooperates. Jag has his math tutor at 10:30 and I have lots of work to do.

As I said, the reunion was fun, Harry came by yesterday morning to say goodbye before driving back to Colfax, just an hour or so from Grandma Dixie. The weather this week is a bit cooler and tomorrow am I’m off to Vail around 6:30 and hopefully back in Denver by 11 at the latest.

There’s other stuff going on but I can’t think of it right now. We, or I, still need to figure out how to get a new bed for the misses, to help her head but all the school supplies put a wrench in that one. We’re supposed to get rain with lightening for Thursday nights pre season Bronco football game. We’re not too happy about this as it’s no fun sitting in the rain.

Guess I’ll give you all a pass on politics today but the gloves are off tomorrow! Hope everyone had a good weekend and is doing well. It’ll be fall and then winter before we know it. Time to start preparing now, more on this to come. Take care and God Bless.

After a day full of activities, Lori and I headed out to my 40th high school reunion around 6pm. I wasn’t sure what to expect as the 30th wasn’t all that fun. But surprisingly, it was a good time. Lots of people came up to me but I just couldn’t really remember them. Of course there were a few, Patty Boberschmidt, whose little sister and Aunt Robi were super close friends (and Janice just moved back to Denver, Robi, you two girls need to get together!), along with a couple others but that was it. Still though, lots of people came up to me and some I remembered and others, I pretended to. Harry and I of course looked pretty darn good, meaning we were both in pretty good shape, had all our hair and are overall healthy. There were lots of people that were not doing so well. Some had canes, one guy had a walker, others had other disabilities and lots of people were really heavy. One guy asked if I brought my daughter, meaning Lori. Another girl who we see now and then said Lori looks just like her older daughter so the wife had a good night. We stayed for about 3 hours and had a nice time. Dixie, wait till Lori tells you about your friend Tony’s son, quite the encounter.

When we made it home I made a campfire outside for the boys. They had watched a movie while we were gone. Today Lori wants us all to go for a hike but we may end up going school clothes shopping instead. I paid the school fees on line for both boys last night, can’t believe I have to pay for them to go to school! Jagger is in honors english and science according to his schedule. He tested a few months ago but they don’t tell you the score. I’m surprised, but happy, he isn’t in honors math too. I know he’s smarter and knows more than some of the kids in math but 3 honors classes would be a lot. And math is his best subject! Maybe they only put kids in two at a time or something. He also has Eastern Hemisphere Geography, Band, Computer and something else. Should be quite the change. Now Ty is going into 5th grade so he’s close to being one of the top dogs at his school. We wish he was out of that school as the teachers are great but the quality of students has gone way down since they let everyone open enroll. So now we have lots of kids that come from 10 miles or more away from all kinds of backgrounds. It’s sad that all these kids have infiltrated the school but I understand that their parents want to get them in the best school they can but it’s becoming sort of an inner city school. Oh well, only a year or two more for him.

Last, here’s a comment from Annette,

Guess I’ll run, hope all’s well, take care and GB!

Yesterday after a bunch of work in the morning, I dropped the boys at Vinny’s for the big birthday bash. I think there were 8 kids in all. First up they were going to Big Time, a trampoline place. I asked Tracey (Vinny’s mom) how she was going to get them all there and she said, in the camper! They have a small rv/motorhome so I’m sure that was fun for the boys.

I then did some more work until Lori made it home a bit after 5:30. We then headed downtown to Elway’s for dinner. I took along our new chardonnay and asked Adam (the wine director) to put it on the list which he said he would. On the way home we stopped at the new Union Station for a drink with a couple of friends. Finally around 9 or so, we made it home. My phone battery was dead and when I got home I noticed Jag had texted 6 times! He banged this head at the trampoline place and had a bad headache. I called him and he said he was a little better but I told him I’d come get him anyhow. He was one of two older kids at the party and I think was tiring of the little guys a bit.

Tonight is my 40th high school reunion. I hope it’s better than the 30th which we only stayed at for 30 or 45 minutes. I doubt it will be but we’re going anyhow just to see who shows up. Maybe we’ll get some school shopping for the boys in today as two weeks from Monday it all begins, school that is.

Ok now to the serious stuff, today two ebola patients arrive in the U.S. You heard me right, we are actually bringing the disease to our country, what idiot came up with that idea. I mean we could have sent them to one of many military hospitals we have all over Europe but no, we decided to bring them, along with the disease, here. You just can’t make this stuff up!

What else, the Pres is mocking republicans and then he wonders why they won’t work with him. Both party’s are bringing up and voting on bills (immigration, etc.) that have zero chance of passing but do then allow the politicians to then run ads saying “I voted for” or “I voted against” so and so. Man is our system screwed up. And oh yea, Colorado is giving drivers licensees to illegal aliens. That makes sense, (sarcasm)

Do you remember Molly? Today she’s competing in the Iron Man race in Boulder. I guess it’s the largest one in the country except the one in Hawaii. Hope she does well, she stays in touch with Lori on Facebook. She’s a good girl and still thanks us for saving her life when she was much younger and she basically lived with us. I think she’s in medical school now and has done really well.

Guess I’ll go read the paper now. It’s only August and the political ads are already driving me crazy. Hopefully our democrat senator will lose. He’s really desperate as the ads he’s running are just lies but I guess they do it because going negative must work. Another screwed up thing with our system. Hopefully (but I doubt it) people are smart enough to see through it.

Have a great weekend and God Bless.

Here’s two, that’s right, two comments from yesterday, yea!

1. robi says:

   July 31, 2014 at 4:46 pm (Edit)

   Grandma Dix, if you don’t know this eat cherries, they help with gout.

   Reply
2. Annette says:

   July 31, 2014 at 5:02 pm (Edit)

   Unsweetened cherry juice also helps and is less expensive than cherries. No red meat . I agree with you Doug but look at history. It takes the U.S. having their back to the wall before we pull together.

   Who knew we’d have to talk about gout to get two comments? I’m not even sure what gout is but you can bet your last dollar, the democrats gave it to us! In fact, now that I think about it, maybe gout is just a democrat thing. Just kidding Dixie, hope you’re feeling better. I knew about the cherry thing but forgot. I hear it even works better if you mix the cherry juice with vodka!

   Now onto more serious things. Here I am trying to keep the finances in line and last night, I found out we need a new bed AND new couch now! After a careful scientific study, we’ve deduced that Lori’s headache is due to first, our crappy bed, and second, our crappy couch. Now I’ll be lucky if I can get out of this one for less than $2K! beds and couches are not cheap. Oh well, we’ll see why we can come up with tomorrow.

   Yesterday I boxed up a dozen or so cases of wine and ran it down to Fed Ex. Today I need to box up a dozen more and deliver it to some accounts around town and then next week, I’ll hit the road to the mountains to get those folks their samples too. The boys are going to Vinny’s birthday party at 2pm and will be staying until 10am Saturday morning. Lori and I are going to Elways tonight for dinner to see Adam, the wine director, and try to get our new chardonnay on the list. Hopefully she won’t have a headache!

   Time to run, hope you all are well, God Bless and take care.

    

Alright, I’m a bit surprised my post (at least the end of it) yesterday didn’t generate any comments. I’m sure by this point some of you think I’m a little bit over reactive. But I think those of you that refuse to recognize what’s going on these days, are frankly in denial. So, just like the Pres, I’m going to keep repeating myself until you come around. The difference between him and me though, is I’m telling you the truth. How do you like that one! So let’s begin, here’s a comment for you to chew on,

A society that puts equality… ahead of freedom will end up with neither equality nor freedom.” – Milton Friedman

Now if you don’t know who Milton Friedman is, here ya go,

Milton Friedman (July 31, 1912 – November 16, 2006) was an American economist, statistician, and writer who taught at the University of Chicago for more than three decades. He was a recipient of the 1976 Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences, and is known for his research on consumption analysis, monetary history and theory, and the complexity of stabilization policy.

In other words, this man knows what he’s talking about. If you agree with that, then one must conclude that the path the current administration is on (one of equality for all) is flat out wrong.

Next up we have Alan Greenspan, the Chairman of the Federal Reserve for 18 years says, are you ready, here’s a headline from today.

Greenspan Says Stocks to See ‘Significant Correction’

Now what does this mean to you, well Greenspan said U.S. economic growth, along with a tightening labor market, “are indicating that at this stage we will run into upside pressures in the money markets and inflation sooner than most of us had expected.” and,

“The capital stock is growing far less than we would have thought it should at this stage,” Greenspan said. “That, in turn, tells us that productivity is going to have difficulty accelerating.”

In short, this means the market is going down, sometime soon.

Now I could go on but I think giving you two opinions from highly respected economists that served multiple Presidents is enough to chew on for one day. The important thing to note is that they are in 100% disagreement with the policies of the current administration. Hence, who are you going to believe? A former community organizer or a Nobel Prize winning economist and the Chairman of the Fed under 4 different Presidents?

If you somehow still choose the community guy, I’m not sure what to say to you, however if you believe the two gentlemen whose credentials are impeccable, then you must heed the warnings and do all the things necessary to protect what you have and your future.

There now, that wasn’t so bad was it? it was like reading an article in the Wall Street Journal. Now onto the day.

I was off to Ft Collins early and the boys ended up staying at Ben’s until about the time I arrived home. Jagger was off to his advanced math tutor at 1:30 for an hour and Ty was playing away. Too bad playing isn’t a career choice or he’d be all set!

Mom arrived home around 6pm and is still working on the couch. Tomorrow I have lunch with a buddy who buys and sells private jets at Castle Pines Country Club but other than that, I’ll be working on my computer. I have a few extra projects I’m working on so not a lot of free time these days. We also need a new bed, time for a garage sale!

Last, Grandma Dix has a bad case of gout! Say a prayer for her that it goes away as she says it’s really painful! As of last night she was doing a little better, guess it runs in her family.

It’s been raining for a day and a half but I think it’ll stop today. That’s about it, hope you enjoy the posts! I decided since I’m writing every morning I have the right to stick in a thought or two, ha ha.

Take care and God Bless,