A Year of Change

By about 10 am I heard from Uncle T who said my Mom’s cataract surgery went well and she was home. I guess it went so well she’s thinking of getting the other eye done in 2 weeks! Wow, amazing things that can be done today.

Both boys were home sick with me today, whoo hoo, and not in a good way! I too was sick but had to work regardless. I was off to the Ford dealer before 7am to get some diesel additive the truck needed. Lori left for work (not feeling well but going too) by 8:30, leaving me with both boys. They did pretty well considering they were not feeling well and were home inside all day.

Finally around 3pm I knocked off for the day as I just couldn’t keep going. I cleaned up and threw in a couple chicken breasts for the misses and I for dinner.

On the World stage, they (the World Health Organization) says we’ll have over 100,000 ebola cases by December, super. Next up is another beheading by the bad guys overseas, and last, 11 commercial jetliners have disappeared from Tripoli’s airport after being taken over by militants. Wonder what they’ll do with those, hmmmm. I could go on but that right there is enough to chew on for the day. I know many of you are still in denial thinking none of this will affect you personally, and I hope you’re right, but I think you’re wrong. Too many people living in denial is a major contributor to the problems we have in society today. If everyone were to stand up and say “stop”, things could change. But alas, most are far too concerned with their new tv or fancy clothes to realize what is happening right in front of their eyes. I’ll stop now as I’m sure some have already tuned out for the day. Oh well, a guys gotta try!

Proverbs 27:12: “The prudent see danger and take refuge, but the simpleton pass on and suffer for it.”

Have a nice day, God Bless.

That’s how many here at the house have a cold right now! Jagger, Lori, Ty and I have sore throats and stuffy noses, and everyone is well,  just a little tired.

We were up early and Ty arrived home around 8:30am from the lake. He was beat from 3 days of boating, camping, bike riding and general playing. Sunday night after I picked up Lori I had a sore throat but it didn’t take full hold until around 10am in the morning. Jagger soon followed in the late morning and Ty in the afternoon with the same sore throat and runny nose while Lori brought up the rear with it hitting her at 7pm. Lori was still tired and she and I basically watched movies all day on the couch. She did get up and run to the grocery store for us all, and then threw a chicken in the oven.

My Mom is going in for cataract surgery this morning, hopefully that’ll go well! We talked to Bob (or Lori did) and he seemed in good spirits as I could hear in the background. As my Mom always says, getting old is hell!

Today we’re all back at it, the boys at school and Lori and I at work. Hope you all are doing well, take care, God Bless and Happy September.

Lori arrived home physically and emotionally exhausted last night about 5pm. Jag and I made it down from the mountains by a little after 9am and then cleaned up and did some laundry. Then he and I went to a movie as Ty is staying one more day up at the lake. By 7 the three of us had some food and then we started to wind down.

Today we’re just going to take it easy and try to get back into our normal routine. I guess everyone must be really busy as we haven’t heard much from anyone. I hope you all had a great weekend. Time to run, God Bless.

By about 6pm last night, Lori had her dad all moved in to his new place. I guess the place is ok but has a small crappy tv. Bob needs to get his tv and some clothes from Eleanor’s so at least he has a decent tv to watch. Luckily he recently bought himself a new one! Maybe it’ll feel a little more like home once he gets it in his new place. Thanks very much to Eleanor for all she did for Bob as she cared for him for a long time. I know Bob and everyone appreciates it.

Jagger and I headed to the mountains around 8am to beat the traffic. We ran around the hills for most of the day and then had dinner at TiAmo. We both had a really good time. Meanwhile Ty is out at the lake having a blast as I talked with him early in the morning.

Today Lori gets home at 5pm, we’re all excited for Mom to come home. It’s been anything but a restful time for her. I’m glad she has Monday to decompress. She not only had lots to do, all in a matter of a few days, but also had to stay strong emotionally around everyone. We’re really proud of her as it has not been easy.

That’s about it, hope everyone is having a good holiday weekend. Take care and God Bless and everyone say a prayer for Bob!

This morning Bob is moving from the hospital to a new home. I guess it’s an assisted living center that’s pretty darn nice about 5 minutes away from Dixie. This is great news and all thanks to Lori. Today she worked her butt off with the case manager and medicare of California and a completed a bunch of other things I don’t even know about, to get Bob accepted into a place where he’ll be looked after and treated well. Hopefully the drive over will be smooth and then she can get him settled. I think Eleanor is coming over Sunday so she will bring some of his clothes. Hopefully Lori will get some rest tonight and then feel better tomorrow when she’ll fly home. One funny story, I was talking to her as she came out of the hospital in a rush to go to the bank to get a copy of Bob’s bank statement for Medicade when she said, “oh my gosh, someone stole my rental car”! Turns out, thankfully, it was in another row or something but for a moment, she thought it was gone. That would have been the icing on the cake after all we’ve been through lately!

Meanwhile back at the ranch, Ty is off camping at the lake with Vinny until Sunday and Jag and I are headed to Vail today for a quick trip. We just decided to get out of town for the day. It rained again yesterday, hard. This has to be the wettest summer on record. Tomorrow I have another fantasy football draft for my second league, wish me luck. I’ll need to cut it short as Lori gets in around 5pm. We’re hoping to win the lottery tonight and will keep you posted.

No comments from yesterday, well, that’s ok. I just hope that inside you think about what’s important in your life, as there are no do-overs! God Bless!

Today I want you each to ask yourself, what’s really important in your life? The obvious answer is health, family and friends and hopefully not your house, car, or some tv show. But let’s take it a step further. Think about what really is the most important thing to you. For me, it’s more like making sure my kids are raised to be good young men and teaching them all they need to know to make their way through this crazy World. Then being a good husband and making sure my wife has a happy life and also being a good son to my Mom. Of course none of this can be done to the best of your ability without first believing in God and living your a life as a Christian. If you don’t believe in God, you’re really missing out on something. So I might sum it all up as the most important thing in life is believing in and living your life by God. I know Bob, whose going through a tough time right now, has comfort knowing that he has his Lord and Savior watching over him. I’ll leave it at that as I try not to preach too much (maybe I should) but I would challenge each of you to look deep down inside yourself and look at your relationship with God. Trust me, the stronger your relationship, the better off you’ll be, now and in the future!

Now to the day, I dropped Lori off at the airport for her flight to Sacramento and then headed home for a brief stop before heading back out to the distributor. This morning I have a bit of fun as I have a training session with a couple of former Navy Seals. It’s an AR session which is what the news and democrats mistakenly and repeatdely call assault rifles. It’s just me and these two guys so it should be fun and I should learn some new tactics. Then I need to interview two guys to hire, one for Chicago and the midwest and the other for Florida and the southeast. We’re also looking for a new person in Texas so we’ll have some new faces on the team soon!

Both boys are fine, we watched a fun movie last night and then went to bed a little after 9pm. It was a rainy day yesterday and cool for the most part and we’re supposed to get some more rain again today. I think the boys and I might head up to the hills tonight or tomorrow to get out of town and keep the house clean for when Mom gets home. We figure we have the best chance of keeping the house clean if we’re not here!

Bob of course was happy to see his little girl, in fact he started crying. Today she’ll be busy doing some of his banking (paying his bills, re-routing his mail and finding out just where he’s at financially) and then trying to find a place where he can go to get some care and rest. She said his spark came back after she was there for a bit. The boys and I called on speaker phone to say hi but I think he misunderstood as all he said was “boys, remember and think about your old grandpa sometime” and then bye. He doesn’t hear so well and has had hearing aids for a long time. This morning Eleanor is going down to see him as I think she said her daughter is taking her down. I know she tried to call Lori a few times yesterday but Lori’s cell phone battery was dead. It took me forever to get ahold of her! Dixie was also there, in fact she arrived at the hospital the same time as Lori which was good. Lori finally made it home to her Mom’s around 8pm or so. I heard Dixie and Don in the background and it sounded like they were gently disagreeing about something which is great as that means they’re both doing well. In fact, Lori said Don is driving again which is really great news!

That’s about it, hope you all are well. Take care and God Bless, and even though I say that daily, it’s not just a saying!

Today Lori is off to California hopefully to find an assisted living situation for Bob. She’ll be gone until Sunday and hopefully get everything taken care of. Bob’s not doing well as he has some issues where he needs to have his pain managed. She did manage to keep him in the hospital which is good so hopefully his insurance that takes care of the part medicare won’t, will kick in. A lot of “hopefully’s” in the first paragraph! Say a prayer.

This morning Ty has track tryouts at 7am. They only take 12 kids and he hopes he’s one of the faster ones, but I think there’s like 100 kids that are trying out. Jagger has settled in nicely at school as has Ty. Tonight the Bronco’s play their final preseason game against the Cowboys tonight.

That’s about it, I need to go rent Lori a car. Take care and God Bless.

I was up at 5:30am but fell back asleep until around 5:45 before I jumped out of bed and showered to get on the road by 6:30am for Vail. The drive was peaceful and beautiful, someday hopefully we’ll be living in the mountains!

Meanwhile Lori was getting the boys ready for school and herself for work. She took both boys around 7:45 (I called her) and then was off to work.

I had three meetings between 8am and 10am and then was on the road for home by 10:40. Here in Colorado driving an hour and a half to Vail is like driving across Los Angeles so it’s really not a big deal, and besides, the view is a whole lot better!

I wrapped up my big pre sell with $735,000 worth of wine sold this month nationwide which is a pretty good showing all things considered. When I made it home I cleaned up the house, did the dishes and laundry and then it was time to go get the boys. Soon after that it was 6pm and Lori was home.

She jumped right on the phone to get in touch with the hospital to see about Bob. They wanted to send him home but I think she talked them into keeping him for a nights stay. The problem is he has no place to go! He has some insurance for 3 months in a facility but unless he’s in the hospital for 4 days, he doesn’t qualify and the doctors won’t admit him for 4 days! Eleanor is not strong enough to take care of him, even though she wants to, so he can’t go back there, unless we can arrange for some help to come in! So we have no idea what to do. We might have to drive out and get him and bring him back here to stay with us, not many other options we can think of. Maybe the Pres and his new Obama Care can help, fat chance.

Today I have some computer work and then we have a dinner with friends from Aspen at 5:30. Tommy and Ali offered to watch the kids which is a big help, thank you! During the day we need to both get a bunch of work finished. I think we’ll head to the mountains this weekend. Our friends in Aspen have offered up their house as they’re in Tahoe, but it’s a long drive, and we also have friends in Vail with lots of room who want us all to come stay. Lori and I both just need a few days off with some time to relax, think and re-energize. If I had the cash, I’d check us into a hotel with a pool and a spa. Next week I guess she’ll be going to California to try to get her dad into a home if he’s not there already. In any case, she’ll need to go to take care of everything otherwise we’re bringing him back here and then we’d both go, unless we can get him on a plane. She was on with the case worker last night trying many times to talk them into keeping Bob there for 4 days but it doesn’t look good. I’ll find out more what’s going on today.

So that’s us and all our drama, hope you are all well, take care and God Bless.

Last night, or early this morning, it rained really hard down here, but in the mountains, the high peaks were dusted with fresh snow. It’ll dry out they say by the weekend. Here’s a couple of comments,

1. Blondie says:

   August 25, 2014 at 1:36 am

   We enjoyed some of your wonderful veggies from the farmer’s market last night:) Tom cooked them for Grama and us! Thanks:) Also, I was telling Tom that you are such a good dad to have entertained the kiddos all summer…bet they had a blast! Dad’s weren’t so hands on back when I was a kid….glad things have changed! We are available to watch the kids Wednesday night if needed:)

   Reply
2. Annette says:

   August 25, 2014 at 4:17 pm

   Was your wine ok in American Canyon? One of the old historial winerys lost barrels and bottles and it shifted the building!

   No word on our wine yet and glad you enjoyed the veggies. We’ve been eating them for 3 days now and will can up a bunch of tomato’s and Colorado peaches this weekend. We’re hoping to get 20 jars of each.

   Bob is not doing that well and is supposed to go back to the hospital today where they can manage his pain and take care of him. Lori is frantically trying to get in touch with his doctors to find out what the hell is going on. She’ll have to go out there soon, probably next week.

   The boys and I are fine and I’m off to Vail in 40 minutes for an 8am meeting. Time to run as I’m late, hope everyone else is well. Take care and God Bless.

Today Ty woke us all up early. We had a nice breakfast of omelets with all the fresh veggies from the farm I picked up yesterday and then it was time to get busy. My fantasy football draft was scheduled for 1pm so I had to get moving.

First up I headed off to Costco with Jagger where we picked up some stuff for my Mom and a few staples we needed like 20 lbs of coffee, some double A batteries, toilet paper and a few other items. (I get nervous when I have less than 300 rolls of tp!) Then I needed to get ready for my draft. It’s our 18th year for the 12 of us guys. We’ve lost and added a few guys over the years but for the most part, we’re all here. We have one guy who is in the Dominican Republic (for 5 years now) teaching kids and the others are mostly in Washington State. While I was doing all this, Lori, with limited help from Ty, was cleaning his room. Then she had a wild idea, let’s paint it! Jagger had a baseball game but he still can’t really run all that well and since next week there’s no game (due to Labor Day), we decided he could skip this one and have 2 weeks to heal well.

More fresh veggies for dinner and then it was bed time. Lots going on this week. I’m in Vail Tuesday am until around noon when I should be home. Lots of computer work today. Lori has a bunch of stuff going on and Wednesday we have dinner out. The boys have lots to do too and I just remembered, Ty has today off! Hopefully he won’t mess up his room in one day!

A bit of good news, Ty gets a free ski pass this year as he’s in 5th grade and all 5th graders in Colorado, get a free pass. So it’s only Jagger and I that need a pass which will be $1000! We’re still waiting for our crowd funding checks from you all. I got a feeling we’ll be waiting for a bit but we are getting the kiddo’s up skiing this year.

Hope Bob is doing better, Lori is trying to figure out when she can fly out but she’s kind of waiting to see what’s going on. That’s it, take care and God Bless.