A Year of Change

Finally it’s Saturday. it’s been a long week. Lori made it California, against my better judgement. Jag and the team beat Vail Christian who has owned them for years and will play again today 2 hours west of us in the Championship game. Ty was in heaven at the mountain with hundreds of snowboarders and even won a pair of $400 googles, while I picked up some more supplies, traded for a new shotgun and started on the garage.

Today Ty will head back to the Burton Open today, Jag will head 130 miles west again for basketball and I’m going with Marty to James’s house to eat pheasant, smoke cigars and hang out later today after I clean the garage and hopefully get a good portion of the house or at least my room done too. I need to go get some more vitamins and gas up both vehicles.

We have one little bump weather wise Sunday night with a little snow but then we’re headed to 60 degree plus weather all next week. It’s been a long time coming and I’m looking forward to it. Lori is of course in Sacramento where it’s in the 80’s. She’s back Tuesday am around 9.

Here’s some highlights on the virus as of yesterday,

• Health authorities in Texas and Oregon report 12 new coronavirus cases in US
• WHO raises threat level to highest level available
• California has 10 cases, on verge of blowing up Statewide
• Scientists Worldwide say this is a pandemic, governments refuse so far to try to save economies
• Oregon reports three cases of unknown origin, risk of community outbreak high
• Washington State reports case of unknown origin
• US coronavirus case total hits a minimum of 63
• US issues travel advisory for Italy
• Oregon school employee tests positive, school closes for cleaning
• London’s worse case plans include turning Hyde Park into a giant morgue
• 4 cruise ship passengers on Hawaii cruise rushed to L.A. hospital Friday night
• 2 community transferred cases in California with no know origin
• Google says employee who visited Zurich office has coronavirus
• France confirms 57 cases
• Amazon tells all 789,000 employees not to travel domestically
• Italy reports 3 deaths in Lombardy; nat’l toll now 21; total cases 821
• British man becomes 6th ‘Diamond Princess’ passenger to die
• Two Japanese dogs tested positive for coronavirus
• Mulvaney says school closures, transit disruptions may happen in US
• Mexico confirms 1st virus case
• Fauci warns vaccine could take ‘two years’ to develop
• Kudlow says “no higher priority” than the “health of the American people
• Toronto confirms another case
• WHO says 20 vaccines in development
• St. Louis Fed’s Bullard pours cold water on market hopes
• Netherlands confirms 2 more
• United cuts flights to Japan
• Bill Gates warns this may be the once in a century pathogen we’ve been worried about
• Advisor to CDC says shortage of tests in US creating a “bottleneck”
• Nigeria confirms first case in sub-saharan africa
• South Korea reports more than 1,000 new cases in under 48 hours
• WHO says virus will ‘soon be in all countries’

Ok, if you read all this, you should realize things are not good. The worrisome thing is the community outbreak cases popping up. This means it’s just floating out there in the air so to speak and being transferred to people from either surfaces someone touched or just from being in close proximity to someone who was close to someone with the virus. Once this happens, it’s game on. Right now you need to question going to any place where there are lots of people, unbelievable.

Things sadly will get worse before they get better. I’ve told Lori not to go out anywhere while in California. She’s taking a 6 am flight home Tuesday morning which will avoid a crowded airport and she’ll wear gloves and a mask on the airplane. She thinks I’m overreacting which is fine. I hope I’m wrong and this thing quietly goes away but it’s my responsibility to prepare for the worst case scenario for our family. Logic and facts support preparing now as things look unstoppable.

So what can you do to protect yourself? As I said before, buy extra food and toiletries, and most of all, get healthy. Take vitamins, eat well, get sleep and wash your hands often. Keep your gas tanks full too as if quarantines come or even if things get worse and the people that deliver things like gas and food to stores where you buy it, decide to stay home, things will be gone quickly. Some places are running out of basic supplies. Costco in Hawaii is rationing toilet paper! So today, go get some things you use daily before it’s too late.

That’s it, pray for things to get better and as of today, you still have time to get ready. Lots of people are still ignoring facts and think nothing will happen to them. That’s human nature. Remember again, watch what people do, (governments, officials, people in power) rather than what they say! Funny that all our Congressmen and Senators are telling us to be calm while they are stocking up for them and their families using the excuse that IF it gets bad they need to be prepared so they can continue to make decisions on our behalf, ha.

God Bless.

Headed to the airport this morning. Then home. Jag has basketball in De Beque which is about 2 hours west. Hunting was fun but not many birds. The place called me at 6 last night and refunded most of our money, nice. We’re hunting a different club next week. My lower back is sore from all the walking. We had lots of fun though, James, Marty and I.

The Burton Open is today. Ty will be headed to the mountain. Jag will leave around 1 or so. Not sure if I can get there today or not after heading to Denver. Time to get moving. It was so nice in Delta yesterday as it was 55 degrees. I hunted in short sleeves. We all said how much we needed that day, what a fun break.

Time to go, be safe, be smart and God Bless.

Up early, again. I’m leaving at 5 to meet James and then we’ll drive to Marty’s and head to Delta to go pheasant hunting. Should be fun but we have a 2 1/2 hour drive to get there.

Yesterday Lori and I worked out after we both worked until 10:30 and then we went down to the house to do some work. We made it home by 4 and then Lori made chili. She makes the best chili with steak, bacon, hamburger and green chilis, no beans. She should enter some competition. It’s that good.

Ty went to play lacrosse after school and Jag had basketball practice. We all met up at home around 5:30.

The virus isn’t letting up. Lori doesn’t think she’ll get it on her trip but we’re concerned. She’ll wear a mask and gloves but that doesn’t mean others will be as careful. We told her she’ll have to wear a mask for two weeks when she gets home on Tuesday.

More later, time to go, make it a great day and may God Bless us all.

5am and 11 below zero, wow. Lori has to be at work at 6:15 for a conference call with Dr. C and an attorney so we’re up early. Jag and his team took down one of the top seeded teams last night in Paonia in their basketball game. Next up is a game at Debeque this Friday at 4:30. That’s half way to Grand Junction. He took an elbow to the head but is ok. I haven’t talked to him this morning.

I was down and up yesterday but it was still snowing. What a winter. Lori is going to California Friday. We’re nervous about her flying as she’ll be exposed to hundreds of people on het two flights, ugh.

Lots going on at work and here at home. Tomorrow we’re going bird hunting so I’ll be up early then too. That’s it for the day, time to go get the dogs fed and stuff. Be good, be strong and be safe, God Bless.

Yesterday we had a white out. You could not see one foot in front of you. This caused another accident as Jag was backing out with Ty to go to school and our other neighbor drove up behind him just when he was and of course, crunch. This time since Jag was the one backing out, we’re at fault, super. Guess I’ll just write a check for this one so insurance rates don’t go up. Then I came down this morning to find that Mojo ate our tv remote, nice. Guess with all the issues in the World I can’t complain about this.

I made it to Denver fine but coming back up it was bad. I guess the tunnel was closed earlier in the day. Lori’s car is all fixed up and good to go. Today Jag has a basketball game in Paonia at 5:30. JV is over for the year.

Lori has a patient coming in tomorrow whose wife is stuck in China and through a protocol she put in place, she discovered he too was in China in January and Thailand two weeks ago. She notified the higher ups and they might cancel the guy tomorrow until he goes a few weeks to make sure he’s not sick and spreading the virus. They’re now having a meeting to formalize a policy after Lori questioned them for the clinic’s response 10 days ago and was told, “we’re orthopedic” inferring no one here will get it. Lori knew this made zero sense so she kept pushing and of course NOW they’re coming up with a policy, ha.

While waiting for Lori’s car I shopped for some fun non refrigerated goods from Tony’s Market and Whole Foods. I found a bunch of comfort foods we don’t have at our stores up here to have on hand. I bough some Beignet mix, good polenta, line caught tuna, good sauces, handmade chocolate and toffee and things like that. If we do end up in quarantine or stores run short on food we’ll have some good stuff.

The Dow (stock market) dropped over 1000 points yesterday due to the virus. We canceled our Company trip to Germany mid March and gave all our employees the option to rent cars if they have to travel rather than fly. The next few weeks in our Country will tell a lot. The smart guys around the World (top scientists) say it’s inevitable that this will spread. Harvard’s top infectious doctor just said 40 to 70% of the World will get it so get ready. Just passing along the facts.

Tom reminded me I stopped writing to the boys which I knew as I sort of ran out of material. Here’s another shot.

Boys, lots going on. Jag, wow, you had your first two accidents in a 24 hour period. The important thing is no one was hurt. You’ll forget this and so will we as in the grand scheme of things, it’s nothing. Ty, you are the King of the Mountain. Mom and I are so proud of how much drive you have to just get up and go outside. You’re always up for skiing, mountain biking, working out, whatever. You worked out last night and are changing your diet away from sugar, on your own, good job! Jag, you toughed it out for more basketball practice and are playing this week even though I know you’d rather be done with it. Way to stick with it, good job. So keep it up both of you, you’re great men and a credit to our family and the World. Your grandma and grandpa (my mom and dad) would be so proud of you as they always were and loved you very very much.

That’s it, we slept in as it’s 7:02 now so time to get moving, God Bless.

Last week of February, wow! This morning at 6 I’m headed to Denver to have Lori’s car windows tinted and a clear bra put on. I have a loaner car waiting for me so I’ll run some errands while they do the work.

Lori and I went down to measure the house for furniture and need to rethink some things as we chose some stuff that’s too big. No worries though, we have a contingency plan as I always do, ha.

The number of cases of the virus in Italy has skyrocketed and is causing me supply issues so I’m trying to work around that but it looks like we will have some issues. The number of people here in the U.S. under quarantine, voluntary or otherwise, is now in the thousands. There are 325 people in Michigan alone waiting to see if they have this thing. Also as of yesterday it has “officially” been declared a Worldwide pandemic. To put it in perspective, the other pandemics the World has seen are the Spanish Flu in the early 1900’s, AIDS and H1N1 and of course back in the 1500’s, the Black Death. This is potentially the worst as we’re so connected as a World and people are still flying around and going about their business as if things are normal. Costco was a little packed at 10 am and looking at peoples carts it was clear some of them we’re taking precautions. The only thing to do now is to prepare to be on your own for a month or two and most importantly, build up your immune system as best you can. We’ve been doing this for a little over two weeks now but will increase it more in the coming weeks. This means taking natural supplements, mainly herbs like elderberry syrup and garlic daily, as well as some vitamins like magnesium and Vitamin C and Vitamin D. We’ll also start taking a blend of 5 mushrooms as mushrooms have unbelievable antioxidant benefits. They even give them to chemo and cancer patients. On top of that, we’ll avoid all sugar (as best we can) and simple carbohydrates. Simple carbs equal simple nutrition. These are the baked goods and cookies and stuff that taste so good. If you’re going to eat carbs, eat complex cards like beans and vegetables rich in fiber. That’s it for today’s lesson, ha. I haven’t seen many comments so I don’t know if you like reading about this or not. I’m putting it out there anyhow just in case it helps one of you a tiny bit as we care about you all.

The boys and Lori and I hung out most of the day. A neighbor backed into Jag in his car (he was in his jeep plowing his driveway) in the afternoon. It crinkled the hood and will need to go into the shop to get fixed. The Sherriff came by later and said if he filed a report, Anthony (our neighbor) would get a ticket as he backed into Jag. So Anthony said he was at fault and called his insurance company. What a bummer though as the car will need to go to Glenwood to get fixed which is an hour away. Jag did all the right things though as we were down at the house when it happened.

School starts today after a two week break. Time to get back at it. That’s it, take care, be safe, think for yourself and God Bless.

I woke to a nice light snowfall. It’s not very cold outside so it’s pretty wet. It’s not supposed to be a big storm, only and inch or two.

Lori and I spent the day in Denver. Furniture stores are such a rip. It’s so hard to find good American made stuff that’ll actually stand up. On top of that, furniture sales people are like car salesman or maybe even worse. With their fake smile and greeting they walk up to you and treat you like your 6 years old! Luckily for us we started at Element in Larimar Square. They have good product lines from the U.S. and Italy to mention a few. We found our couch, a few chairs and a sleeper sofa that sleeps like a real bed for when Grandma Dixie visits. We also found a table and Lori designed some chairs but by the time we made it home we decided to drop those. We’re going back to a less expensive stronger more traditional looking table we found last week. After that we hit a few stores in Cherry Creek only to be disappointed in their stuff. We’re only buying new furniture once as you never ever get your money out of it so we want to be sure we 100% love whatever we get and that it’s solid and will hold up for years. It’s like art, it’s expensive and great but try selling it, ha.

Back to the virus, sorry to be such a bummer. Italy went from 18 to 133 cases overnight, not good. Today I’m making a Costco run and will go deep on some food stuff that we eat on a regular basis and that will last a while. This includes coffee, some staples like rice and pancake mix, and other stuff. I’m afraid we’re getting close to a mini run on some things we take for granted. That’s it for the day on this subject.

Ty was on the mountain most of the day and then went out with Hanna and Ellie for a few hours last night. Jag was in Denver and made it back later to Madi’s and stayed there. Lori and I are purging today. I have a mini stack of trash outside now which will grow by the hour today.

So that’s it for today. Hope all’s well, God Bless.

Saturday! Yea! This morning we’re headed to the gym and then down to Denver. Sonny spent the night and Jag is going to Denver too to see Madi perform at the Beull Theater.

We’re going to look at some furniture as we need to get things on order to have them done in time for us to move in.

Lots going on at work, for both Lori and me. Dr. C comes back Monday and for me, well we have 10 towns in Italy on lockdown. One is a town of about 15,000 people where we make half a dozen wines which are big sellers. They include most of the Bocelli wines and a few others that are critical to national placements. The first death in Italy was yesterday in this town. I learned this morning they might have to shut down the winery for a bit. This is not good news for the people there or for our business.

In 2 weeks we’ll know a lot more. The number of cases will increase nationwide, the only question is by how much. The CDC and Head of Infectious Disease for Mayo Clinic says we now have a pandemic in the U.S. This means they can’t stop it so this is the tipping point which should tell you and everyone else to get ready. Now I suspect most people will do nothing and keep on with their normal lives but some are preparing. Certain supplies on Amazon are sold out. Others are going fast. One of the big issues is people don’t stay home when they’re sick. This of course further spreads all diseases. I’ll leave it at that but if you are concerned you need to prepare as if the stores you visit daily are closed for a month. If you really want to go all in, assume they’re closed for a longer period of time. If or when this thing hits, (pray it doesn’t), grocery and drug stores will be empty, Costco will be closed, doctor offices too except for ER’s and hospitals will be closed, gas stations will probably run out of gas, and on and on. Don’t think it can’t happen here, it can. Time to get serious. The next two weeks will tell us a lot. This means you have 14days to stock up on things you need as once it does go big time, everyone will be rushing to the store at the same time. If it takes longer at least you’ll have a supply of things you use anyhow.

That’s it folks, have a great day, spend the weekend taking stock of your supplies and see what you need. if you don’t want to do that, at least think about things. You don’t want to be at Costco with 10,000 of your closest friends as by that time, some of them could be infected too! God Bless.

We’re all fine, it’s Harley who has an upset tummy. I think she picked something up at doggie daycare yesterday. We’re making her rice for breakfast this morning.

Yesterday we went down to the house to see the fireplaces. They look great. We’re on the fence about using the design firm in Frisco as we might be able to get the same discount from our friend. It all comes down to money, it always comes down to money, right?

Today I’m in Denver picking up some supplies and dry cleaning. It’s sort of like going to town as ranchers did 100 years ago in their wagon to pick up a month or two’s worth of supplies. I have a plan that I’ve been following for a good month now getting a few things here and there focusing on things that are going fast or that will go really fast should things get worse. Of course I had this plan on standby for years in case something like this happened. Bulk food is near the end of the list. Now we’re not going crazy but are getting things like cleaning supplies, some meds and supplements and things that take a little more time to find. We’re also making sure we’re healthy and keeping up on regular check ups with people like the dentist as well. Anyhow to each their own. For any family, if things get really bad, and you can get here, we can take you in, just don’t bring any friends! Just as an fyi, things are not slowing down with Japan and South Korea now approaching full pandemic stage. Our own government’s health officials have said it’s pretty much unstoppable here, and for that matter, everywhere too. There is a breakthrough on 3D mapping of the virus from researchers and the University of Texas in Austin but we’re probably 18 to 24 months at best away from a vaccine, but this is a big step forward. The point is this thing is here to stay like the flu, with little to no protection for the next 2 years minimum. This is not something that will quietly go away in a month or two, let’s be clear about that. So time to set your priorities. Once again, better to have things and not need them to not have them and need them.

Moving on, Madi is in Denver for some performance this weekend. Jag is riding down with her parents to watch the performance on Saturday. Ty went to bed early as he was tired (as he always is) after staying at Sonny’s. He’s studying for his drivers test so he can get his learners permit. Break is winding down and they’re back to school Monday.

No snow last night, yea! Should be in the 40’s or 50’s today which will help with more melting. That’s it, time to get moving, be safe and God Bless.

Yesterday we made a few more changes mainly to furniture but we also tweaked a few light fixtures. We did meet with a design firm that runs about $100 a hour but we do get 30% off all furniture we buy from anyone through them. This alone makes it worth it as includes everything from beds to couches, tables, chairs, bar stools and more. I figured it out and even if we use them for let’s say 20 hours, we’d still save over $9000 from paying retail. Plus we like them and they’re local so if we need anything serviced, there’s that too.

At 7 we went to dinner with Jag and Madi and her parents. They’ve been in the valley since the mid 90’s meaning they know just about everybody. They’re super nice and fun (they both hunt!) and said what a great influence Jag is on Madi. That was nice to hear.

I think I’ll run down to Denver today for a couple errands. I have my check up appointment from my hernia at 9 and can then head down. I should be back by 2 which is about when Lori will be done with work.

Time to continue buying a little extra food each day. This really isn’t much of a prep because I only buy things (food) we use on a regular basis. Another quick tip, keep your gas tank always at least half full. By the way, gas is cheap now, that’s sure nice.

Well that’s about it, time to get going. Ty spent the night at Sonny’s and Jag at Madi’s so it’s just Lori and I and the two dogs. Have a great day and God Bless.