A Year of Change

I wonder if we all realize what’s happening in our Country right now. I think most of us are too comfortable or conditioned to bad things happening to even notice the what’s going on out there. This is just the beginning, you will feel the pain of our hapless politicians and President. I know this rubs some of you the wrong way but if you really think about it, our President is in way over his head. I’m not defending Bush at all as God knows he had many faults but at least he was a leader, even if you think he led in the wrong direction. This President sits on the sidelines and plays mediator rather than taking charge of the situation. There’s certainly a crisis of confidence in this President. Now we have a Super Committee or Super Congress made up of 6 democrats and 6 republicans. I’m telling you, our founders are rolling over in their graves. mark my words, we’re headed down the wrong path. Hold on, it’s going to be a bumpy ride.

Now to football, both boys played well but it was the older one who really excelled. He’s really taken to being a pass rusher and does it with calculated rage. He’ll line up over the opposing player not more than a few inches from him intimidating him before the ball is even snapped. On a couple of plays he ran in so fast he scared the quarterback who actually just fell down to avoid him and end the play. He’s quite a disruptive force out there. We arrived home around 9pm and had our second dinner of the day and then after a quick shower for both boys, headed to bed. It’s now 5:45 and everyone’s still sleeping. Mom works at 8:15 and were down to one car for a week so we’ll all be driving her this morning. I’m going to take a break now and run to the gym but will resume the post in an hour or so, stand by…..

Ok I’m back, Mom’s now up and it’s 6:37am. Both boys are still sleeping and she’s cleaning the fish bowls. Every channel on tv is either showing riots in England, the stock market crashing here in America or some other sort of not very inspiring news for the day. I’ve got some work to do this morning but I think I’ll try to get the boys to a park or maybe the pool today. Mom, being the great Mom that she is, did get the boys some water time yesterday. Once again it’ll be in the mid 90’s, again. They’re showing 36 degrees in Leadville and 43 in Fraser, both up in the mountains. Looks like the season will soon be changing. I can’t wait for fall as I said before. I hope the winter is not as cold as the summer has been warm. If so, it’s going to be a cold one.

Time for me to get in the shower as the boys will be up soon. We hope everyone is doing well and having a good summer. I need to print some of these posts today so the misses can send them to Grandpa Bob for his birthday on the 12th. I don’t know how anyone can do without a computer these days. We have 4 and another one on the way! I think we’d all go into withdrawals if the internet went down. (thought I was wrapping up for the day didn’t you?) Can you imagine what would happen if we had an EMP (electro magnetic pulse) hit? This last happened in the 1860’s and for those of you that don’t know what this means, anything having to do with electricity would shut down. Imagine life with no power, no cars, (except those pre 1974 with no electronics) no way to pump gas, water or heat, no trucks delivering food, it would be life changing to say the least. I mention this as right now we’re experiencing intense solar storms unlike anything our planet has seen for a long time. Here’s a report from yesterday from the Australian Space Agency (our government chooses not to let you see this information, hmmm)

IPS FLARE ALERT – PART C
PRELIMINARY FLARE DETAILS AT END OF FLARE
ISSUE TIME: Tue Aug  9 18:44:18 EST 2011
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Approximate Flare Start  :  09-08-2011 0800 UT
Approximate Flare Maximum:  09-08-2011 0804 UT  at Flux X 7.0
Approximate Flare End    :  09-08-2011 0842 UT
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Follow the progress of flares on the IPS Web site
http://www.ips.gov.au Click “Space Weather” Click “X-Ray Flux”
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Australian Space Forecast Centre
IPS Radio and Space Services

You have to have a little bit of a science background to understand what this means but in simple terms, solar storms coming from the sun or space are erupting like we haven’t seen in over a hundred years and then flying through space hitting our planet. We (the World) has had disruptions in various satellites and communications but so far we’ve managed to keep this from affecting everyday life. No doom and gloom here as this happens every hundred years or so. I mention it now as this is the main theory by astro physicists of what going to happen between now and then end of 2012. In the 1860’s it wasn’t that much of a disruption because the World wasn’t so dependent on power. Nowadays everything we do or use or consume is somehow connected to the use of power. Hope it doesn’t happen and you could say this is like a potential huge earthquake, or in other words, if it happens it happens, nothing you can do about it. The difference here is we can predict this (where we can’t predict earthquakes) and the brightest minds in the World are warning and preparing for just such an event.

Oh well, just thought I’d share, not much you can do about it (well actually there is and you can protect yourself somewhat pretty easy if you choose to) but it is something everyone should be aware of. Every government on the planet is preparing and paying attention, maybe we should too. My main point is that our leaders or government decide what to tell you and what not to under the guise of it being for your own good. After watching the mess they’ve made of the economy, I don’t know how anyone could trust them to take care of anything relating to our lives. I certainly don’t.

Ok, I’ll stop now, promise. You just need to understand that when things go bad, the government will not be there for you. All these politicians will be running for their private jets and worrying only about themselves, don’t be fooled. Enough said, don’t want to freak anyone out. Besides we’ll always be here for any family, you’ll just need to get to us! God Bless,
Mom here….don’t be too alarmed…I am used to this, so it is all second nature around here.  But….better to be safe than sorry. Oh…by the way…the Mister is a pretty smart guy…not the “Survivalist” some of you may think he is. Just a good Boy Scout.

A side note…the youngest scored a touchdown and the eldest scored the first safety that his team has ever seen.

Also, Gram Annette….if we ever get an Ikea kitchen (Very affordable) Grandpa Jim will have to come to Denver to install the D#@! thing. Keep us posted on his health please.

For those of you that want to post a comment….there is a “leave comment ” to click on at the bottom of the post.  The word is in pale grey letters, so it is a bit hard to see.  Click on that….put  your email address in the appropriate box, write your comment and click on “Submit”. There you have it.  Have a great day and once again God Bless..

LLF

Here we go, another week has begun. Yesterday we opened the box to begin to put together our Ikea dresser for the little guys bedroom and were floored. The instructions were not clear or understandable and it was obvious this was going to be an all day project. We decided to have a cocktail and see if that would change our outlook. Well, no such luck, we could not understand which dowel was which among all the other parts. So without hesitation we hit the computer, found a better dresser for the same price at American Furniture Warehouse, called them to make sure it was already assembled and when the answer was yes, loaded up the car and off we went. Today we’ll be taking the two boxes requiring two Swedish craftsman back to Ikea. One added bonus was while picking up the new dresser, we also found a large inexpensive ottoman that the misses has been wanting for a long time. She’s thrilled with it now that it’s sitting in front of the couch.

The morning started off with us showing up at our friends home at 9am to take the boys tubing and water skiing on his lake. The boys started off on the tube being pulled around the lake by the ski boat. They had a blast! After this, the oldest decided to give water skiing a try. We borrowed some skis from a neighbor on the lake and after getting him geared up, he was set to go. Mom jumped in the lake to get him positioned right and ready for take off. Joe (our friend), hit the gas and off we went. His first try didn’t result in him getting up but on try number 2, he was up! Now none of us adults remembered to tell him to stand all the way up so he remained in a crouched position as if he was almost sitting on the back of the skis. Joe joked that now his butt was really clean. So our big guy on try number two, was water skiing! The little guy was also going to try but we couldn’t find any skis small enough for his little feet. Joe and his wife invited us to stay for lunch be we passed as we had a lot to do. The boys had a blast also playing with their 18 month old daughter and she was thrilled to have two boys to play with as well. We stopped at the grocery store for more food (almost a daily ritual) and Mom made yummy lasagna for dinner. To our surprise, both boys gobbled it down and the oldest even had seconds on salad! It was nice to have dinner together as the last two nights we weren’t able to all eat at the same time.

Today our car goes into the shop for probably the whole week. I have calls starting in 45 minutes and need to shower first so we can head straight to Ikea when I’m done. We need to be back by 11am to drop the little guy at his school teachers house for the first of his two weekly refresher sessions before school starts. We have great relationships with our teachers and they’re always more than willing to spend a little time with the boys. He’ll spend an hour each Monday and Wednesday for the next two weeks getting a head start on his studies. He’s working with the oldest guys 2nd grade teacher (who’s great) and we’re all hoping this will be his teacher for the coming 2nd grade year!

Time for me to run as we’re burning daylight! I had a pretty revolutionary idea that I think can transform our business and the wine business in general, that I’m excited to get going today. Can’t give you any details but I’ll let you know if it works. Still hot here but now with no rain so we’re running the sprinklers daily. The dogs and fish are fine and school starts two weeks from today, woo hoo!

Oh and thanks Grandma Annette for your comment via email, too bad we didn’t get it before we went to Ikea on a weekend!

Take care, God Bless and have a great day,

Ok, yesterday we went to the new Ikea store and I have one thing to say about it, DON’T GO! Upon our arrival we were met with loads of police and what appeared to be the parking staff from the concerts up at Red Rocks. Roads were blocked off and we were directed down streets that were turned into one way freeways to various parking lots. After walking about 3 blocks just to get to the store, we were met with a Q (or line) that was at least 500 people long. This line snaked around corners and up two escalators before finally letting you into the store. I managed to circumvent most of this by getting us on an elevator that went right to the entrance. Once in you had to follow the path through all the departments no matter where you wanted to go. In other words, if you were looking for the kitchen department, you still had to walk through bedrooms, bathrooms, office, etc. to get to your department of choice. This was all in the showroom level which is the top level. While here if you see something you want, you write down the item, aisle and bin number. (more later on what you do with this info) You can then go to the lower level and actually put things in your cart. The one thing that made this all the more difficult was the unbelievable crowd. It was like nothing I’ve ever seen, worse than any concert, airport security or line I’ve ever been in my whole life. Once through this part of the store (lower level), the path you can’t get off of, leads you to a giant warehouse where you look up your items (that you selected in the showroom) by aisle and bin number and load your boxes, (by yourself) of furniture (that is not assembled) onto another cart (now we have two) and head for the checkout. Once through checkout which was not so bad, you push your cart out to a huge line waiting to get on freight elevators to go down to the main level to get out of the store. Are you kidding me, you pay then get in another line to leave? And on an elevator! Unbelievable. Anyhow we finally make it to our truck after pushing one cart (we consolidated) 3 blocks through a mass of people trying to get into the store.

By the time we loaded up the truck we were all tired, hungry, had to use the bathroom and just overall cranky. You could have sent us to war and whoever we would have faced, we would have won! We decided we couldn’t make it all the way home so we stopped for some mexican food downtown on 7th and Grant. Sitting outside on the patio under the cool water mist machines along with a couple of margarita’s and 2 Mr. Pibbs (soda’s) soon brought us back to the land of the sane. After refueling we headed home and stopped on the way to pick up the little guys new bed. We then unloaded all and Mom put the bed together while I unloaded the rest of the truck. After this we loaded up again and headed to Target for some last minute touches to the room. We couldn’t find any limes (for drinks, not the room!) so we headed across the street to Mom’s store and noticed it was now 7pm! Where had the day gone? We rushed home to give Bunkie his shot and then Mom made some quick taco’s for dinner. The little guy slept in his old room with his brother as we didn’t quite get his finished. The misses and I sat down and watched the new version of Planet of the Apes on tv (nothing else on) with another margarita. By now it was almost 10pm and time to get some sleep.

This morning we’re going water skiing at 9am and it’s 8:10 now so I need to run. The boys are super excited to ride on the giant tube behind the boat. It’s still hot here, mid 90’s, so this will be a nice break. Mom’s off to give the dog his morning shot and I need to jump in the shower. Two weeks from tomorrow school starts, it’s coming fast. Hope ya’ll have a great day, God Bless and if you’re in the stock market, nothing you can do except ride it out at this point, good luck!

After about a  hour delay my flight finally took off at 6:10 pm pacific time. This put me home at 10:30pm. The only saving grace was I was upgraded to first class. I walked in and couldn’t believe that I was in the right house! It was sparkling from top to bottom, in fact I don’t think it’s been this clean since we moved in about 10 years ago. The final touch was the boys play room that was completely cleaned up and all the little guys clothes were hanging in the closet. The only thing missing was a bed. I think today we’ll pick up his bed from our friends and see if we can come up with a couple of cheap desks to round out the decor. He’s super excited to have his own room.

Yesterday when I was talking with the kids, the oldest one told me the people down the street didn’t pay for their house so all their stuff was out on the front lawn. Turns out the neighbors about 3 houses down were evicted and the bank (or whoever they hire) just put everything out on the front lawn. I drove by this morning and it looks like a junk yard. The misses thinks the city will come clean it up but I wouldn’t be so sure of that. It’s a shock to see this in our neighborhood but many cities such as Detroit have whole areas that look like this. Wait a minute, the oldest just said there’s a big truck down there picking up all the trash! Hope this is true and not just some people looking through the junk trying to salvage some stuff.

Don’t know if anyone noticed but the stock market dropped over a 1000 points this week! Guess they don’t have the same confidence in our economy turning around as the President does. Standard and Poor (the credit rating agency) also downgraded the U.S. for the first time in our history, from a AAA rating to AA+. The Obama administration tried to convince them not to do this as it is not beneficial to his re-election efforts but the truth is, we deserve it. Maybe this will finally shock the politicos into some meaningful action.

I think today we’re going to head to the new Ikea store and check it out. They’re really reasonably priced and we just might be able to finish off the kids rooms cheap. Personally, I want a bread maker. I can’t get any milk cows to offset the price of milk but I figured out that making our own bread will save over $60 a month. Now this doesn’t sound like much until you do the math and figure out it’s $720 a year! Plus the bread will taste better. We’re also getting lots of tomato’s and zucchini out of the garden these days so we’ve been eating good veggies.

I need to clean up my office this weekend to match the rest 0f the house, the misses has inspired me. Time for breakfast so I’m going to run now, hope all’s well and that everyone has a great weekend. Take care and God Bless,

I arrived in Seattle around 10am local time and the sun was shinning. Our office is right on the beach and it seemed that the entire city took the day off to enjoy the weather. My day was consumed with meetings while Mom and the boys back home in Denver were cleaning out the playroom to turn it into the little guys new bedroom.

From what I understand , he’s super excited. I’ll land around 8:30 tonight and we’ll pick up his bed tomorrow. He told me on the phone last night he wants an Angry Bird bedroom. For those of you that don’t know, Angry Birds are the new hot computer game out there.

I don’t have much else to say as I wasn’t home so today might be the shortest post of the year. If anyone has anything to add, please comment, otherwise, have a great day and we’ll talk tomorrow.

God Bless,

Well yesterday evening I found myself stuck at football and Mom was still at work and I realized that I hadn’t picked up my dry cleaning and they were soon closing at 7pm. Once again, Aunt B came to the rescue. She jumped in her car and drove to the cleaners to get my clothes so I had something to wear this morning, thanks again!

It’s 4am and my flight is at 8:15 or so. I’ll land in Seattle around 10am west coast time and be there until 4 tomorrow afternoon when I head home. I’m making some radical changes to all facets of the company, the way I pay people, the way I buy wine, who’s in charge of what, etc. Should be a fun time. (that’s me being sarcastic)

Most of my day yesterday was spent on the phone with the boys upstairs. It’s no surprise that with no exercise, they were bound to go at each other a little bit. It’s tough when I have to plant them in front of the tv for hours on end. I did manage to get them out around noon for a bit and we picked up the new movie on dvd named Rio. This bought me a few hours of uninterrupted work in the afternoon before we needed to get ready for football.

Football was fun for both boys but the older one and his team played a team that looked like they were professionals. Those kids had to be older than 9 and 10. They were throwing the ball 30 and 40 yards and made our kids, who were undefeated this Spring, look like junior varsity. I found out that the quarterbacks dad played at the University of Colorado which accounts for his talent, but overall they were just in another league. Oh well, it’s good for kids to face some adversity and not just sail through the season without being challenged. I think they beat us 14 or 21 to nothing but we’ll get a chance to play them again in a couple of weeks in the championship. It also didn’t help that we only had 6 players (5 play at a time) as a lot of our kids are out of town on vacation. Our guy still played hard and seemed more determined the more his team fell behind and played harder as the game went on. It was great to see him toughen up as the game went on when it would have been real easy to lose hope and fold. We were proud of him.

Today and tomorrow Mom’s going after the house and the little guys new room upstairs. I don’t envy her because it’s a real mess. I tried to clean up yesterday (it was clean for about 2 minutes) but by the end of the day, it was pretty messy. I still have 60 or so boxes of wine strewn around the house which doesn’t help. I got paid yesterday, and today it’s pretty much all gone! Amazing how quick it goes these days, at least the bills are pretty much paid until September 1st. Wow, just saying September 1st is shocking!

Two weeks from Monday the boys start school, summer’s winding down fast. I think this weekend while I have a little cash left, we’ll go get the kids a few clothes. Aunt B and Uncle T dropped off a pair of jeans for each boy the other day, thanks again! I’m personally excited for the arrival of fall. You might remember from an earlier post that fall is my favorite season of the year. The changing of the seasons is a magical time. You can mark the day on your calendar when the first hint of fall rears its head. You know what I mean, that morning when you walk outside and the air suddenly has that cool feeling to it rather than the heat of summer. Then of course we have Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas which are all more magical when kids are in the house. We need to savor every day we can with the boys growing up so fast. Before we know it, it seems they’ll be in college. Man does life go fast. This should be a lesson to us all not to waste anytime on little petty things that bother us. For example, it’s now 4:41 and the alarm upstairs just went off! Looks like I didn’t get the switch turned off into the right position when I woke up. Everyone woke up for a few seconds but are hopefully going back to sleep.

Well time for me to find something to eat and jump in the shower. At least I have first class both ways courtesy of United. Looks like I’m headed to Spain around the first week of November for a quick 4 days on the ground. I need to renew my passport since it’s now expired. We’re watching for some cheap fares to Hawaii because I need to make sure I hit my 50,000 flight miles by December 31st to keep my elite status. We have enough Marriott miles to stay for free, we just need the plane tickets.

Check out this quote for the day, hope you like the quotes and that they spur some thought. Take care, God Bless and have a great day,

“When half of the people get the idea that they do not have to work because the other half is going to take care of them, and when the other half gets the idea that it does no good to work because somebody else is going to get what they work for, that is the beginning of the end of any nation.” – Dr. Adrian Pierce Rogers

Yesterday the boys went with me to my guitar lesson. The oldest has been begging to learn how to play for awhile so I let him take my lesson while the little guy and I watched. He did really well and will start his own lessons next Wednesday. I gave him a choice, play tackle football or take guitar. He chose guitar because his Mom told him he’d get brain damage if he played football. She really doesn’t want either boy playing tackle football at this age! I wanted to make sure he was going to listen and take it seriously before I committed to lessons. He’s a real quick learner and has an aptitude for music. He did great with violin until his teacher went all loopy on us and he grew out of his violin. The littlest one, of course, also wants to learn how to play, not just from watching his brother, but for a long time as well. We’ll see how it goes.

Tonight both boys have football and we’re hoping we don’t get rained out, again. Mom works until 7pm so she’ll miss most of the youngest ones game and get there just in time for the big guys game. We’ve had terrible luck this season and have had at least 3 games rained out. The boys and I managed to get the house cleaned yesterday and cook a chicken for dinner. They say we need to be prepared for West Nile Virus, the disease carried by mosquitos, since this will be the month they all emerge. I guess I’ll put bug spray on the boys tonight.

Grandpa Bob went to the doctor yesterday and it turns out his heart is just fine. I think he’s still going to the cardiologist in a few weeks but he has the all clear from his regular doctor. This is great news and we’re all relieved.

Tomorrow I head to Seattle until Friday night. I have a lot of work to do today to get ready for my meetings. I think my calls start in about an hour or so. The boys are pretty well behaved when I’m working. They watch some tv but also get out their workbooks (to get ready for school) and play outside. I should be finished up sometime early in the afternoon. Yesterday their long awaited “air soft” rifles arrived. These are a type of gun that shoots 6mm round plastic pellets that all the kids have. I was lucky enough to have a friend who owns a gun shop for law enforcement, get me a couple of them at cost. We took them up to Grandma’s so they could get in some trigger time with their new rifles. The boys love them and have been waiting for about 3 weeks for these to come in.

No politics today, I’m giving myself (and you) a break. It’s all just a big joke anyhow. None of them in D.C. have a clue. It’s funny how everyone not in office can see what needs to be done but those in office can’t. They all ran out of Washington as fast as they could for their 5 week vacation at our expense, back home. They should all be paid on commission somehow. Ok, I’ll stop as I guess I’m talking politics, it’s just that it’s so frustrating.

I guess I’ll hit the showers before everyone wakes up. Mom goes in at 10:30 so she can sleep in for awhile. The laundry is done and I did the dishes before writing this morning. Here’s your quote for the day, enjoy,

“Your net worth to the world is usually determined by what remains after your bad habits are subtracted from your good ones.” -  Benjamin Franklin

Chew on that one and have a great day!

Well wouldn’t you know it, yesterday after I wrote about the lack of manufacturing in America the Dow rose 130 points on the potential debt deal agreement but then plunged 270 points when weak manufacturing numbers came out. Seems Wall Street agrees with me that the loss of manufacturing jobs in our Country is not a good thing. Now I’m not a visionary or anything as this is pretty easy to figure out, what’s troubling is that none of the politicians in D.C. can figure it out. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised as they’re all too busy trying to get re-elected instead of trying to solve our problems.

Onto the day, yesterday we decided to take our first stab at cleaning out the playroom to make way for the little guys bedroom. The closet was the first challenge and if blue jeans are worth anything at all, we’re rich! I must have 25 or more pair of jeans from when I was younger (and skinnier) that are in great shape. We threw a bag of stuff away and filled another one for ARC, the charity. Clothes and toys are strewn all over the upstairs hall and with Mom working today and tomorrow, it’ll probably stay that way for awhile. The rain is supposed to return today in a big way with heavy rain beginning this afternoon and lasting until this morning. They say we could get as much as 2 inches in an hour!

It’s now 7am and everyone is still sleeping. I’d better wake the misses as she needs to go give the dog a shot and get ready for work at 9:30. She had a pretty rough day yesterday as things seemed to be piling up and overwhelming her. I need to get her a spa day or something after I get back from Seattle this weekend. She needs some kind of break after the roller coaster of emotions she went through last week with her dad. He went to the doctor yesterday and turns out he’s fine. They did give him a referral but after checking out his heart, I guess he has the all clear sign. I’m sure she’s relieved getting this news.

We managed to get to Target yesterday to purchase the boys school supplies. It came to almost $300 for a bunch of pencils, glue, notebooks, and all kinds of assorted items needed for school. I don’t remember my Mom having to go buy anything when we went to school. My school taxes go up every year but so does the list of things we need to buy, doesn’t make much sense, does it.

I can’t get my car in until next Monday so it’ll be fixed hopefully a week from Friday. The misses is excited to get going learning how to work with leather. I think anytime you can do or make something with your hands, it’s a good thing. You’d better get your orders in now for pillows, place mats, mirrors (made with leather frames) coasters, chaps, purses or whatever you can imagine that’s made out of leather. I’m sure with her creativity, she’ll come up with some really neat things once she learns how to do it. She has a few other creative projects going on as well but they’re top secret so I can’t reveal just what they are! Some of you might be getting one of them for Christmas!

Not much else going on except a huge huge month for me at work. Say a prayer that everything turns out ok or I might need to lay off a person or two. I’m meeting with a potential new hire in Seattle (from Texas) this week and if I come to terms with her, it’ll put more pressure on me to lay off an admin person (someone not directly connected to revenue) unless I have a huge month.

The little guy and Mom are both downstairs now and the oldest is still sleeping. He did wake up long enough to yell at his little brother for coming in and turning on the light to look for something. He’s turning into a teenager right before our eyes.

Time to run as we need to get breakfast going. Hope you all have a great day, winters coming fast so get out and enjoy the warm weather, no matter how warm it is. If winters anything like summer, you’ll be begging for this heat in a few months. Take care and God Bless.

Hard to believe it’s already August. Before you know it, we’ll be smack dab in the middle of the holidays. But before we get there we need to focus on this month. School starts on the 22nd which is the most pressing issue. Around here August 1st kicks off a new routine to get the kids in “school mode”. Each morning we will be doing some school work and each night (on weekdays) the boys will be going to bed at the time they will when school starts. Over the next few weeks we need to get some new school clothes, supplies and register at school. This week the misses is cleaning out the boys play room and we’re turning it into a room for the little guy. He’s excited to finally have a room of his own. Oh yeah, also no more sleeping with Mom and Dad starting last night. (he’s fine with this and I’m sure we’ll be past any issues here in a few days, I think Mom’s the one I need to convince to sleep without him more than him with her)

I’m in Seattle Thursday and Friday and we’ll have to juggle cars this week because we’re down to one. I took our Suburban in yesterday to the insurance adjuster and they found the whole right rear side had been smashed from the accident. I didn’t notice this as it’s hard to see unless you compare it to the other side but now that it was pointed out, it’s pretty dramatic even though subtle. The estimate is about $2000 and thankfully the other drivers insurance company has accepted fault. We don’t have rental car coverage because we dropped this portion of our policy to save some money.

Yesterday morning we headed up the hill to the saddle shop where the misses worked on some designs for pillows, coasters and other neat things made out of leather. She’s decided to intern with our friends and get some experience working with leather. She’s really excited about this as it’ll let her creative side come out. We were back in the city by 12:30 and the boys played down the street on a slip n slide (the piece of plastic you hook the hose up to and then slide on) to get some relief from the heat. Grandma came over for dinner and we sat around and read some stories Grandpa Bob wrote in 1946 about his memories of his first 16 years of life. They were great and sounded like something out of a Jimmy Stewart movie. We had a nice dinner and visit and then started to wind down for the day. Everyone was asleep by 9:30 or so, I don’t remember as I faded pretty quick.

Don’t really want to dive too far into politics today but it seems nothing is “Made in America” anymore. I recently watched a documentary about all the manufacturing jobs we’ve lost in the past decade or two. Take a look at the bottom of your coffee cup, I just did, guess where it’s made, you got it, China. The documentary is named the China Question if anyone’s interested. I’m too young to remember but I’m sure some of you (my Mom’s age and the rest of you from that generation) remember the day when factories here were humming and we made most of what we bought and consumed. We’ll never get back to being the country we once were until we start making things here instead of outsourcing everything to other countries. The problem we have here is we’ve created an environment that is not business friendly. We have too many regulations and all want so many days off, too high of pensions, etc. Why would a company want to pay for something to be made here when the price is 3 or 4 times as high? Too many regulations (some good, some terrible) restrict companies from being competitive. My company even buys wine racks from China. They custom make them to our specifications 80% less than the best price we could find in the U.S. What are we supposed to do? Pay 5 times as much and most of the time get a product that’s not as good? The government needs to loosen the regulations and lift the restrictions and costs on business and the American worker needs to take more pride in his or her work as well. I’m not saying all workers are lazy or have no pride in their job but these days it seems nobody cares about their job much, they’re just putting in time. We’re so tired of buying something only to have it break or be defective as soon as we get it home. We need to get back to the days of great innovation and production like in the 50’s and 60’s before we’ll ever dig ourselves out of this mess. I’m happy to pay a bit more for a product made in America, if it’s a good product. I’m not willing to pay more for an inferior product. Pass all the debt increases you want, this doesn’t solve the problem. All this fuss has been about just allowing the government to spend more money we don’t have, great!

Ok I’ll stop now as I’m sure you’re all tired of hearing about this as much as I am but I think it’s important to look at why we’re in debt and where all our money has gone. Most of it’s gone to China, enough said.

Anyhow let’s all have  great day and week and we’ll talk tomorrow, and when you can, buy American! God Bless,

Last night we went over to my friends house for their annual summer party that features a firework display to rival any you’ve ever seen. He lives on a lake and each year all the homeowners get together and hire a professional firm to put on a show just for them. The evening starts off with all the homes having parties and bbq’s , a band was playing by our end of the lake and there were pinata’s, ice cream made with nitrogen, tons of food and a huge lake for the kids to play in. We invited our friends and their two kids to join us so the boys (3 of them) took off right away upon our arrival. First they found a paddle boat that you sit in and power with your feet. This occupied them for hours as they paddled around the cove. Next our oldest kindly asked one of the neighbors if he could borrow a fishing pole and wouldn’t you know it, in less than 5 minutes he pulled out a 5 pound bass! We convinced him to let it live and put it back which he did but he was beaming for a while. All the kids were of course wet from lake water within about 10 minutes after our arrival. We didn’t bring swim suits but what do you expect when you put kids and water together. There were lots of nice people, many who I knew as we’ve been going to this party for years. All in all a good time was had by all.

Today the misses and I are back on the “program”. That’s our word for no more bad food, adult beverages (yes we had a few last night and in California), lots of exercise and an overall re-focus on getting in shape. As you can tell if you’ve been reading all year, this is a common theme. The older you get the more of a struggle this is each year. I’m going to try to head to the gym when I’m through writing this but Mom will have to stay home as the littlest one is still sleeping and the boys had their friend Max (who went to the party with us) spend the night. Later this morning I need to run up to my friend the saddle makers house. We’re making some coasters for our friend who has the ranch in Saratoga Wyo.

We also need to think about getting school supplies for the boys before the stores get too picked over. It doesn’t look like it rained while we were gone so I’ll probably start the sprinklers this morning. My Mom is coming over for dinner, (yea) and we feel fortunate that she squeezed us into her busy schedule! (just kidding but she always does seem to be busy) I think I’m going to try a new way of cooking some steaks I read about in a magazine on the airplane. We also need to clean the house, again, which we kind of need to do every day.

I’m going to run now so have a great day and God Bless. Oh Grandma Annette in California told the misses she reads the blog everyday and Grandma Dix does too and said she’d pretty much say what Aunt B said about family so you two get a pass as I think you’re not sure how to comment. We’re still looking for Uncle T, Aunt Shelly (are you out there?) Aunt Robi, Grandma and some others. Send a note. Also Halloween is 2 months from today! Tomorrow is August 1st, WOW! Winters coming fast people, get ready.