A Year of Change

I woke up at 5:12 am and looked outside to see snow! Thought we were just getting rain last night. Turns out once I was in the car and a few miles down the road it was just rain. Driving home from the gym it was still snowing here at home. Looks more like December outside rather than April. Oh well, it should melt by tomorrow.

I was in Denver yesterday and home by noon. Then Lori and I went down to the house to walk through with the hardware guy to pick out all the drawer handles for everything from kitchen cabinets to dresser drawers and bathroom vanity’s. We also had to let them know which doors we wanted locks on.

Around 5 I went to James to hang out for a couple hours with Marty. He’s got a set up in his garage that’s unbelievable. It’s a complete shop with a welder, metal saws, drill presses and more. He made up three shooting benches for us three to shoot at his ranch. I think we’re going a week from this weekend. We also are planning a fishing trip and might go up to Wyoming to look at a pheasant ranch.

I made it home about 7 which was an hour into the NFL Draft. About 30 minutes later the Bronco’s picked a great wide receiver. Can’t believe the guy fell as far as he did. Round 2 and 3 start at 5pm tonight. It’s fun to watch. It’s kind of the highlight of the Spring for Tom and I.

Not sure what’s going on today. We were going to Denver to get our hair done but our friend can’t do it today. We’ll see what’s going on after another cup of coffee. That’s it, make it a great day and Go Bronco’s! God Bless.

Finally a diversion. Today is the NFL draft. It actually seems like it came up quicker than in years past. Maybe it’s because all the days seem to run together these days. Anyhow at 6 tonight it starts, whoo hoo.

Lori and I went to Denver and had a nice time with Jeff and Tina for a few hours outside in their backyard. She made a great salad with grilled asparagus and salmon, yum. It was just nice to see some friends. They’ve been home for like two months! The boys stayed home with the dogs.

I’m off to the bank in Denver this morning to sign some papers. I’ll then turn right around and head home. It’s warming up up here and in Denver. It was pretty green in Denver with flowers starting to bloom and green grass everywhere. We dropped four masks to Tommy he asked for. We didn’t see Ali as I guess she has COPD (didn’t know that) so she can’t chance being close to us Tom said.

Guess I’ll go. I think the Governor is up here today to open Eagle County. He should just stay in Denver and not make this a big deal as I’m sure now we’ll get lots of visitors from Denver coming up this weekend, idiot.

Be well, be safe and God Bless.

We’re off to Denver today for a social distancing bbq lunch at Jeff and Tina’s. We were going down last weekend but decided to wait for better weather. We’ll all stay six feet apart in their backyard and hang out together for a few hours. Consider it a test run for the new normal. Meanwhile the boys will stay here at home with the dogs. We invited them but they declined.

Lori’s doctor tried to get her back to work yesterday but apparently the clinic needs to reach some threshold before they bring back anyone. Lori felt good though knowing her surgeon was fighting for her. We’ll see what happens later this week as they’re supposed to open up our County a bit.

I don’t know about you but I’m sick of watching people from the news broadcast from their homes. These people have all been quarantined for months and could easily do the news from the studio. Guess it wouldn’t create the same drama.

It’s 8 am as we slept in. We were headed to the gym at 5:30 but Lori wouldn’t get up, even though she said she wanted to! Dogs have been out, boys are sleeping and I have a few trash cans to empty and put out before we go.

Lots of States are debating how to reopen. It’s clear many in the Country have had enough. One things for sure, the economy has had enough. I mean something has to give. We just can’t go on forever staying locked down. It’s a slippery slope but this thing could be with us forever from now on. It might not go away, ever. Knowing this we just need to figure out now how to live with it. They’re now saying a second wave could come this Fall or Winter that could be worse as it’ll be coupled with the seasonal flu. So sadly we need to think about how to now live with this shit. Just saying. Personally I think life’s going to be much simpler. In many ways we’ll go back in time a few decades in the way we live. We’ll see. Exciting changing times we now live in. God Bless.

Looks like Eagle County will officially reopen this week. I guess we’re leading the State in having curbed the number of new cases. We’ll see how it goes. We’re still supposed to social distance and wear masks, I think, but some stores and businesses will reopen. More to come in the next few days.

Yesterday Lori and I went to the hardware store. Not a hardware store like Ace but one that sells handles for everything from doors to cabinets to refrigerators and more. It was a bit overwhelming. Before then I was on calls most of the day from about 9am until 3.

Today it’s going to be warmer still, yea! We found out yesterday that Moose, Harley’s best friend and James and Francesca’s dog, had to have his front leg amputated! He fell on some stone steps and shattered his elbow. Moose is a German Shepherd too. They took him to Denver but after four hours of surgery they couldn’t fix it. We might take Harley over to visit him. Dogs know and remember each other and have relationships just like people. Very sad on top of all this crap.

It’s 5:20 and I’m headed to the gym. That’s it for now. The NFL Draft is in two days! Finally something to look forward to. Make it a great day and God Bless.

Today is weed day or something like that. Don’t think there will be a lot of get togethers unless all those people are too stoned to know they’re not supposed to get together. Ha.

It’s warming up this week. Hopefully it’ll stay warm once it gets here. The boys are off and so is Lori so I’m the only one working right now. Sort of weird. I have a Zoom call at 9 and slept in so time to go. Hope all is well, be safe, God Bless.

Last night we had a dusting, nothing to shovel but enough to cover the windshield of the car. Enough already, bring on the sun. Today they say we’ll be in the 60’s. Yesterday I was fighting off the start of a cold but through echinacea tea, elderberry syrup , zinc and vitamin C, it looks like I dodged it. No need to get sick these days.

Crime is way up in the cities. Every morning on the news I see a couple of shootings in Denver. Breaks ins are way up down there too. Keep your doors locked, even when home. Sad I even have to say that.

Lori worked yesterday even though she’s not working, ha. We’ll see how that goes. There are a couple protests in Denver today to open the economy back up. These have been going on across the Country as some local governments have taken things too far. The mayor of New York has asked people to take pictures of people who are not social distancing and turn them into the police. What? Sounds like Nazi Germany to me. Tattle on your neighbors, wow.

Eagle County is pushing to reopen as we’ve essentially stopped all new cases and have the highest testing rate in the entire country. We’ll see. We’d still need to practice some social distancing in some way which we probably will for years to come. It’s a new World and in many ways I don’t think this will be totally over until there’s a vaccine which could be a few years away. As I said a few days ago, hundreds of thousands around the country are out of food. Things are going to get worse economically before they get better. This is going to be the real challenge as many small business are already out of business and others will not make it. This is going to cause huge issues. On top of that, even as we sort of get a handle on this, it will come back probably in the Fall in a different fashion. Kind of a shit show.

The boys are well. Lori is trying to kick her headache still and the dogs are fine. Mojo needs a bath and his nails cut bad. We’ll try to get him in this week. I hope the stay at home policy get relaxed up here for the kids so they can all go on a hike or something. It’s just not normal for 16 and 18 year old’s to be trapped in their house all day for weeks.

Take care, be safe and God Bless.

Well yesterday another bomb dropped as Lori was furloughed from work. Hopefully in a few months she’ll be called back. Her top nurse was also furloughed. This starts today so not much notice, nice. They didn’t think this through very well as revenue will actually go down without Lori and others in her position at work. That’s what you get when you sell out to a venture cap firm back east. Oh well, we’ll do the best we can, just not the best timing.

This thing affects everyone. We did learn that Eagle County leads the nation in testing and Lori said they only have one patient in the entire hospital and they’re not in ICU. They’ve even sent nurses to Denver to help out. Looks like rain on and off for a few days. We’ll go down to the house later this morning after Lori has a team wide Zoom call. Funny as I thought she was furloughed, ha.

I was in and out of Denver pretty quick yesterday. The boys are fine. Spring Break is next week, ha. School is cancelled through the end of the year, surprise surprise. We’re trying to figure out when and how we can drive out to see Grandma Dixie in California. We’ll have to drive straight through as there are no hotels. We need to figure out what to do with the dogs also. That’s it, time to get moving. Be well, stay safe and God Bless.

That’s short for the snow is over! Yea! I’m off to Denver around 7:30 or 8 and then after a few stops will head back up the hill. Good news is there’s never any traffic jams these days. Yesterday after working for most of the day, Lori and I went to the gym. Nobody is ever there and we have our own key so we are social distancing. A close friend of my buddy Toby was released from the hospital yesterday after having the virus. Toby said he looked bad. Sunken dark eyes, 30 plus pounds lighter and extremely weak was how he described him. He said he couldn’t believe they let him leave. The point here is that this thing hits some people really hard while others not so much. We pray we’re all those people it won’t hit too hard should we get it.

Looks like we’re headed for a soft reopening of places around the country. Thank God as we’ll take anything we can get. Lots of people will be too scared to really venture out for a while so it shouldn’t be too crowded. The PPP program is stalled as the Dems are wanting to add crap to the vote to extend the bill to help small businesses. Luckily our Company has been approved and the money is set aside but in typical democrat fashion, Nancy Pelosi is holding the funding up until the Republicans agree to add some of her pet projects, which as of right now, they won’t. Last time it was $25 million for the Kennedy Center, wonder what useless add on it is this time. I don’t understand why people don’t stop this crap. How about votes where you cannot add any crap on? Oh well, typical Washington.

The boys are well, bored a bit, but well. I’m stopping at Tommy’s today to drop him some more masks. I think he’s renting them out or something as a side business. Just kidding of course. We wanted to drive to Arizona but there are no hotels open. It’s in the 90’s down there and Robi offered to let us stay at her house but that’s too much to ask with four of us. We thought about going to see Dixie but that’s about twice as far as Arizona. We’ll have to wait on that until things change a bit as we can’t take any germs to her at 89 years old.

Guess I’ll go. I am picking up some home made ham salad from Edwards meat market today. Mom sure loved it as I’d get her some whenever I was down there. I’m dropping some wine to the staff at North Valley Bank too. They’re good people and I was dropping some to a guy Tommy introduced me to anyhow so I decided to take enough for the crew. Hope everyone is well. This isn’t over so don’t get too complacent. In fact, you need to start thinking about how your life is going to be going forward. As I’ve said, things will never be the same as they were even six months ago. God Bless.

Ok, no doubt about it, money is tight. We have taxes, high school, college and more and we both took pay cuts. Yesterday I waited for Fed Ex and drove down to Denver and back only going to the drive thru at the bank to deposit a check from Texas that arrived from a few things we sold. So today we are officially accepting donations to the Jagger Fugate College Fund. Feel free to send them on over!

We had snow, not a lot, but snow. I already shoveled the driveway and it seems to have stopped now. It’s a wet snow as it’s not very cold out. Last night we had a Chinese hot pot dinner. This is similar to fondue but with a different broth and all kinds of food. The boys loved it. We did get Jag’s car back. That cost $4,000! I could have turned it into the insurance company but then my rates would have gone up, especially since it was his car, so we just paid it. We stopped at the house on the way home and they were painting. Things are moving along daily.

For 18 days Vail Health hasn’t had a patient on a ventilator and for 5 days, no patients in ICU. They’re even sending nurses to Denver to help out. This is good news and it tells us that social distancing is helping. There’s lots of speculation out there about what things will look like in the Fall and even next year. Some are predicting a resurgence of the virus in the Fall. Others are saying the virus is now mutating much like the flu, meaning different vaccines will be needed each season, and others telling us that this new way of life or some form of it, will be the new normal for some time to come. I don’t think anyone really knows what’s going on as new information comes out every day and it seems their story changes with each new bit of information. I personally think we’re not out of the woods yet and if there is a lull in the action (cases), you should replenish your supplies as best as possible. If I had the cash, I’d buy a place in Wyoming and put some cattle, chickens and get a garden going asap. Sadly I do think we’ll never get back to life exactly the way it was before all this. Oh well, we’ll see what each day brings.

Back to college, while I do think college will start in the Fall, I think it’ll be with kids distance learning from home, especially in the beginning. I don’t think in 100 days give or take a week, things will be stabilized enough to have full classes of kids on campus and stadiums full of fans going to football games. I’m wondering about our Pro football games!

All we can do is try to stay safe, stay prepared, think for ourselves and wait and see what each new day brings. So, make it a great day and God Bless.

Here’s a few pictures for Robi!

We’re down to two colleges, both costing about the same. We hope Jag chooses CU as it just makes so much sense on so many levels. I’m worried that the school, or any school, won’t have a normal beginning to the school year. There are good signs all around though. Numbers appear to be leveling off and they say many have peaked in many of the hard hit areas. Starbucks reopened in Frisco for drive through and inside. This alone almost makes the World right again! Let’s hope for the best but not take our foot off the gas, meaning let’s keep being smart and continue to wash our hands, social distance and avoid large crowds. Maybe then we’ll soon get past this thing although life as we knew it will probably never be the same. So, overall, a bit of good news for the day.

Yesterday I made a run to Denver and will have to make another hopefully this afternoon. I’m waiting on a check from Fed Ex. More snow is headed our way tomorrow. Can’t believe it. We’re done with it and ready for Spring. Ty and Jag are doing well. Lori and I are off to Glenwood to pick up Jag’s car in about 45 minutes. That’s about it for the day. Oh, some grocery stores are limiting how much meat you can buy. Many meat packing plants and cattle and hog operations have been interrupted due to the virus. Hope you have your T-bones in the freezer! Be safe and God Bless.