A Year of Change

It’s here, the first day of school! As I said, for Jag, he’s off on a 3 day camping and stand up paddle boarding trip and Ty, after one day at school, goes camping and rock climbing tomorrow. Both will return Wednesday night.

Dr. C has a big surgery day today and will finish up around 10pm tonight. Tomorrow he is in Denver at a trial as an expert witness. Lori was on the phone over the weekend talking to some concerned patients. Spine, neck or back surgery is a big deal and part of the reason people come to Dr. C is that they’re treated with extra special care. Lori doesn’t have to talk to them on Sundays but understands how they feel as she went through it herself. She’s really good at making patients feel comfortable and letting them know what to expect. By the time she’s off the phone with them, they’re all calmed down as most of them are as she says, “nervous nellies”, which is totally understandable. Dr. C only testifies for 45 minutes or so but Lori charges the law firm $18,000 for his time plus travel expenses as it’s in Denver. It doesn’t matter if he is there for 5 minutes of the whole day, she charges for the entire day as it takes him out of the office. This sounds like a lot of money but he would make more if he stayed here and was in surgery. Good to be a doctor!

Yesterday everyone was getting ready for the week. Laundry, book reports, grocery shopping, packing and more, consumed most of the day. I did take Mojo up the hill early as I said. So here we go, back at it. Before we know it, it’ll be September, then Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas and a bunch of birthdays.

Hope you’re ready as it’s coming fast. 5:15 now and lots to do so time to run. I drop Ty at 8am and then will take Jag and his friend Zach down to the rest area near Edwards which is the meeting point for the Upper School trip. There’s 9th, 10th, 11th and 12th graders on his trip as he’s now in High School. We were talking last night that we cannot believe we have a kid in High School. Talk about life flying by, good God. Have a great day and may God Bless you and watch over you and your loved ones.

Hard to believe in about 10 days it’ll be September. There will be snow on the ground before you know it.

Yesterday I took a nice quick drive to Rifle and was home by 10:30. Today I’m going nowhere. I think I’ll take Mojo up the hill at 6am as I’m trying to hike or workout a bit each day to stay in shape for hunting which starts two weeks from yesterday. My left knee is sore whenever I squat but I’m hoping it’s just a lingering soreness from working out a few days ago. In any case, even if it’s messed up, I’ll go hunting and deal with it when I get back. Hopefully it’ll be ok until I go and get back.

Tomorrow Jag leaves on his 3 day camping, stand up paddle board trip on the Colorado River. Ty has school, although it’s a get to know ya day, and then he leaves Tuesday for a rock climbing, camping trip near Breckenridge. Both boys better get their stuff together today.

Lori survived the week which included a bunch of personnel (employee) issues and other problems which seemed to pop up daily. She really is good at what she does, even though she and I aren’t always sure of what she actually does.

It’s 5:45 and the sun will come up by 6am. Mojo woke me a little after 5am to eat. I purposely am not feeding him for an hour or so as if I do, he’ll think he can wake me whenever he wants to eat. Not a good message to send! Guess I’ll run, oh wait, Hillary is recruiting illegals to campaign for her, the Governor of Virginia has restored voting rights to 13,000 felons (are you kidding me!) and she now says if she’s elected President, her foundation (if you can call it that) will stop taking donations from foreign governments. But wait, the foundation that takes 60% of those donations says they will still take them. You see, their so called foundation, is a web of smaller groups that all take money from people wanting influence from her. Why on earth else would all these governments and certain people give her money? There is no reason, unless they were getting something in return. Surely no one is stupid enough to believe that if Hillary wasn’t running for Pres., that anyone or any govt would give her a dime! Remember according to her, when she and Bill left the White House, they were flat broke, ha ha. If it wasn’t such a lie, it would be funny. But now, through some divine intervention, they’re worth over $100 Million dollars. Hmm, how did they earn this? Think about it people. Anyhow God Bless and God help us if Hill wins.

Even though it rained a bit yesterday and the day before, today we’re due for a nice sunny day and about 70 degrees. That’s a perfect day up here.

Yesterday I ran some errands in the morning and then dropped Jag at school for his paddle board camping trip orientation. After it was over, he went to Zach’s which is walking distance from school. I then picked him up at 4 when Zach went back to school for soccer. Jag, since he’s playing basketball, is passing on soccer but will do cross country running. That’s a tough sport!

I’m going to run to Glenwood this morning at 7:30. It’s about 45 minutes west and I should be back by 10. Lori wrapped up her week with more of the conference which she said was pretty cool.

Two days until school for the boys, but the first 2 or 3 days is a trip. We need to go through the boys gear this weekend and make sure they’re all set to go. I’m telling them it’s up to them to get all their stuff together but we’ll step in and make sure they have everything as we can’t let them go out into the wilderness unprepared. Time to run so I can take Mojo for a quick walk before I leave at 7:30. Have a great day and God Bless.

I don’t know about the city but up in the mountains, the first signs of Fall are here. The cool mornings along with a dusting of snow forecast this weekend on the high peaks mean the seasons are changing. As you all know, Fall is my favorite season of the year.

Today, thankfully, I am not, I repeat, am not, going to Denver, yea! I have a call at 12 noon for 30 minutes and other than that will catch up on computer work. Jag has a school meeting at 1 so I’ll need to run him down there after lunch. The boys found out who their home base teacher is yesterday and who all is in their home base class. Both boys lucked out and are very happy with the selections. The school does a pretty good job of putting the kids together that are friends. This is good in one sense but does promote the little clicks that do exist, even up here.

I’m going to hit the gym this morning as it’s been a few days since I could get there with all my trips to the city. The boys need to get their stuff together for school this weekend. Ty already has his backpack all packed up and both boys are working on some book reports about what they read over the summer. When was the last time any of you read a book? I’m reading 3 books right now but had to make a conscious effort to get back to reading as it’s easy to turn on the boob tube instead of picking up a book.

Lori walked through the door a bit after 8pm last night as there’s a big stem cell conference up here with the top researchers from all over the World here working on this exciting field of medicine. She’ll be late again tonight as she has lots going on. She also has been going through a few little issues with her girls as one of them needed a reminder of who is in charge around there. After a year you’d think the girls would know what’s going on! It’s all good, just a few growing pains as people tend to resist change, especially when it’s not their idea.

I’m cooking a big roast today in the crock pot and will try to get some cleaning done around here. Hope everyone is well and getting ready for Fall. Winter will be here quick, get ready! God Bless.

Here’s something funny, or stupid (from a Presidential candidate) for the day. God help us!

At 6am today (Thursday, I’m cheating and writing this Wednesday night), I’m off one more time to Denver. I need to be at the warehouse by 8, Lone Tree by 9 and Arvada by 10. Then from 10:30 until about noon I’ll probably go to the sporting goods store, my favorite place.

Yesterday (Wednesday) I drove to Ft Collins and made it there by 9am. I saw 3 accounts before heading back around noon. I was home by about 2:30. Lori and I both had headaches all freakin day. It’s getting cool up here and I love it!

School starts next week. It’s the last weekend of freedom, good name for a movie. I’m tired and it’s only 8:30 but time to go. Hope everyone is well, take care and GB.

Hold On! 4:34 am, I woke up early to a full moon. It’ so bright outside it looks like someone left the lights on! I need to load up some wine I need to deliver (the stuff I picked up at the airport the other day) to the warehouse and then once there, unload it and load up 50 different cases that I’ll unload a couple hours later. So, time to get moving, it’s great to see the sunrise, you should wake up early to see it every now and then as it’s worth seeing. Have a great day, God Bless

It’s 5am and I need to leave by 6:20 or so to be in Ft Collins by 9am. 4 or 5 stops later I’ll be done which with a little luck will be around 1pm.

It’s hard to believe school is 6 days away. This morning Lori needs to be at work by 7am and then will leave after a quick 15 minute meeting to take Ty to the orthodontist. They say a temperature change is coming and you can feel it.

I made a New England Clam Bake on the stove last night in my new one piece cooker from Cabela’s. This thing was like $40 and you can just throw anything in it, and an hour later have a great meal. It basically cooks everything with steam. It sure was good, I think it’s a keeper.

Guess I’ll run, have a great day people. Grandma Dixie is doing well In Hawaii I guess as I heard Lori on the phone with her last night. Aloha and God Bless.

The forecast is much cooler with rain this weekend meaning Fall is 0n the way! I couldn’t be happier.

Yesterday Ty and I took off around 6:45 am hoping to be at the airport 2 hours later. Little did we know it’d take us 90 minutes to go what should normally take us 30. There was an accident on I 70 that caused the big delay. Finally we made it to the airport around 9:45 which threw off our entire schedule.

We did manage to get Ty a new computer, 2 pairs of shoes, some dress pants and shirts, some jeans, a sweatshirt and causal shirts and school supplies. It was a good Ty Day. Finally we made it home a little after 5pm. We planned on being home 2 hours earlier and stopping at my Mom’s but had zero spare time. Today I’m off at 7am for Longmont and Boulder and then tomorrow for Ft. Collins. For those of you not from Colorado, those are both 30 minutes to an hour outside of Denver.

Jag had his school physical and is healthy as expected. It’s now 5:43 and I need to get to the gym for a workout before leaving at 7 so time to run. Hope all’s well, GB

We were busy around the house here most of the day but Jag went rafting down the Colorado with Zach and his family. The water level is low as this time of summer there’s a less runoff than in late Spring. The water is also a lot warmer! He and their family made it home around 7pm after a long day on the river.

Meanwhile, I did lots of laundry and Lori and I made a run to the storage unit as I’m sending some elk antlers to a buddy back east who makes the World’s best custom grips for revolvers. I have a ton sitting down there I’ve been hanging on to for years. I offered to send him some. He’s making me a set of grips out of Bighorn sheep horns, It’ll take months but I can’t wait!

Grandma Dix is in Hawaii according to Lori. I think she arrived last night and will be there for 2 weeks! You go Grandma!

Lori is like a fireman at work, as every day she’s putting out fires! I do the same at my work but her fires are a little more dramatic as they involve medical care.

Today, and for the next two days, I’m on the road. I’ll be in Big D twice and Ft Collins once. This is the last week for orders for our big pre-sell. I’m taking Ty with me today to get some new school clothes and probably a computer. I also need to go to the airport to get samples. Jag will go with Mom to work to get his high school physical for sports at 8am, and then she’ll run him back home. School starts next week!

I was going to go to the gym this morning but overslept. I’ll try to get there this afternoon instead.

It’s 6:02 now so I’d better get going as I’d like to get on the road as soon as possible. I have about 10 stop today. Lots of shootings in Denver on the news, Geez, what the hell is going on. I hate going to the city anymore. Have a great week, we’ll talk to you tomorrow, GB

I left for Steamboat around 7am and was back by 10. Both boys were still sleeping, of course. After we woke them, we walked down to the farmers market which we can see every Saturday off our deck. We just did a quick walk through and then headed home. It was a nice walk. Lori and I then took off for Costco as I needed to drop some wine samples and we needed a few things. That took a good 90 minutes as we stopped at a stand on the side of the road that our older friends Richard and Diane run selling fresh vegetables and homemade canned food. We’ve been waiting for their garden to come in as they’re canning up a bunch of stuff for us. Think of canned food (in mason jars) like your grandma used to do. We chose green beans, corn, applesauce, carrots, peaches and a few other things. While there we did take home some fresh salsa, corn and green beans. Food is so much better when just picked from a small garden rather than from the store.

Then we hung out at home. Jag decided to go to Zach’s where he spent the night. The new family joining the school, whose dad is the lead singer for a famous band called Metallica, was over and Jag and Zach were hanging out with the new 9th grade girl joining their class. I don’t know her name but am sure I will hear more about it today. I might take all the kids zip lining today down by Wolcott, if they get up early enough. Meanwhile Ty stayed home and played his game online with 3 other friends.

Today we’ll rest and do something with the kids, like zip lining! Hope everyone is well, it’s nice up here, really nice, just like God’s Country, GB

This morning at 7, Ty and I are headed out to Steamboat. I was going to go all the way to the ranch but that’ll have to wait a few days as I have a meeting that came up back in Vail at noon. Maybe I’ll head over tomorrow.

Yesterday I managed to get a lot of work done, as well as give the front closet and kitchen a deep clean. I must have thrown away 20 pair of old shoes, along with 20 pounds of dog hair from the front closet. We had one pair of Ty’s cowboy boots that he grew out of so fast, they still looked new. I couldn’t bring myself to throw them out so I put them in Lori’s car. Later we decided to have mexican food for dinner and we have the best mexican food ever, right down the street. You know it’s good when 99% of the people eating there are mexicans! Any how it occurred to me to ask the girl at the counter if anyone had a son who wears size 6 (Ty’s now a size 8!). The wife cooking (it’s a husband and wife owned restaurant), said in broken english, “yes my son is size 6”. So I went out to the car and grabbed the almost new pair of Twisted X (that’s the brand) boots and brought them in. You would have thought she won the lottery she was so excited. I’m sure this kid will be wearing the nicest pair of boots the family owns. It was good to pass them on to someone who not only needs them but appreciates them.

Today we’ll clean some more and maybe take a hike. Monday and Wednesday I’m back in Big D and at the end of the week, our presells are over. It’s getting cooler each day which is great although it’s still hot during the day. It’s now 6am so I’d better get moving. Hope all’s well, have a good weekend, no, have a great weekend, and God Bless.