A Year of Change

I decided last night to stay home and get up early to drive down this morning for my flight. Only problem is, my alarm never went off! I managed to wake myself at 4:30 am and was on the road from Vail to Denver by 5. About 7 minutes into my drive, I realized I forgot my wallet! I called Lori and asked her to find it and by the time I made it back to the house, she was standing down on the road with Mojo, in her pj’s, with my wallet and toiletries. I made it to DIA by 7am and am now on my flight with about an hour and 5 minutes to go.

Yesterday Ty had a so so day as his teacher forgot it was his birthday. Ty, being too nice, didn’t say anything. His Mandarin teacher remembered and had the entire class sing Happy Birthday in Chinese to him. I told him we’d have a do over on Saturday when we have his party.

Lori’s car needed a part from Michigan to fix the taillights so by buddy gave me a loaner for the week which I left with Lori. Good to have friends in the car business.

Jag played an incredible game last night. He must have had 6 or 7 blocks while guarding guys taller than him again. He was also 4 for 6 in shooting and was fouled a few times but didn’t get the call. Next game is Friday and then again on Saturday. We go to Walden next Monday!

I have a 10:30 am meeting and then another at 3:30 and then dinner at 7. Lori is still swamped. I don’t know how she gets done what she gets done. She and we, all need a break! I do know that! GB

Today Ty is 13 years old, whoo hoo! Hard to believe that both our boys are now teenagers. As you all know, Ty is a great kid that cares for others more than himself. He’s always concerned about how other people are being treated. Today is his special day. We’re all so proud of him!

I’m off to Denver to get Lori’s car fixed and with luck will be back up here by 10 or 10:30. Then I need to pack and work a bit before Jag’s basketball game at 4pm. Then I’ll drive down to the airport for my morning flight. Lori’s sore all over from too much work, especially her neck. She has to slow down and take a break.

Guess I’ll run as I need to be on the road by 6:15am and it’s now 5:39. Again Happy Birthday to Ty! Hope all’s well, God Bless

I should have gone to Vegas a few days ago. I thought for sure on Saturday both home teams would win and that yesterday both road teams would win. Turns out, that’s just what happened. The only thing that could have made the weekend better was having the Patriots lose but I also am not a fan of Houston’s QB, so either way, that was a good game too. Yesterday though, was a the best day of football with two games that were thrillers and went down to the wire. With Green Bay beating Dallas with 3 seconds to go, you couldn’t have scripted a better finish. Next up with the Chiefs (who I hate) losing to Pittsburgh, in epic fashion, the day was great. Next up is two games next weekend and then the Super Bowl 2 weeks after that. Go Pack!

I was going down to Denver this morning to get Lori’s car fixed but will do that tomorrow instead. So that means I’m off to Denver tomorrow morning, then back up here for a basketball game and Ty’s birthday and then I’ll drive down to the airport tomorrow night, after dinner, for my early morning flight on Wednesday. Not looking forward to driving to Denver twice but it is what it is.

Lots to do today for both Lori and I. Jag gets to sleep in as his school starts at noon and then he has a ball game at 5;30. With today being MLK Day, it’s a service day at school. Jag and the other basketball players are tutoring the lower school this afternoon on b ball. Not sure what Ty is doing but it’s something.

Not much snow up here but I guess they have a little in Denver. I’m going tomorrow instead of today as I have too much work to do to get ready for my trip, not because of the weather.

Time to get my lovely wife up and moving. Her arm is slowly getting better. Dixie sounded a bit better last night and might go home today, but we’re not sure. At least she sounds stronger.

That’s it, time to run, again, Go Packers! God Bless

Yesterday we had another good game. Turns out once again, Jag ended up guarding an upper classman who was also a starter on their Varsity squad. Jag held him to only 1 basket and some free throws. Also once again, he was hit, this time in the mouth, and had a little bloody lip. This time though it wasn’t with an elbow, as this kid just smacked him with his fist. It was during the game and the refs missed the call but Jag called him out and said something like, “knock it off” to which the kid replied “fuck off”. Now hearing this, whether right or wrong, Jag said the same back to him and it was game on. On the next possession Jag and this kid were bumping and elbowing each other hard all the way down the court. I yelled to him from the stands to let it go but the ref had already called a foul on Jag. Things settled down and he could have handled his verbal response a bit better but good for him for standing his ground, against what was once again, and older and bigger kid. I told Jag the trick is if you’re going to bump and elbow, make sure you’re on offense as then usually the other guy gets called for the foul. For the rest of the game, Jag was in the kids back pocket not letting him even get the ball much less get a shot off. We won by about 20 points. Next up, our Varsity team crushed them 70 to 44. We watched a bit and Jag enjoyed seeing one of our guys who is sort of a mentor to Jag, who was the same age as this kid, dunk the ball in his face a few times. With Jag being the tallest on our team, he ends up having to guard the other teams best player who is usually an older, bigger kid who plays down to Junior Varsity. In the long run, this will make Jag a better player but is tough on him. The coach said if he had five Jaggers, we’d be undefeated. I don’t know about that but I do know Jag is becoming a stronger player every day and is getting better in all facets of the game. Tomorrow we have another game and then Tuesday another and then they’re in Hayden or Meeker on Friday, and someplace else on Saturday. We are 1 and 0 in the conference, whoo hoo! We did stand back to back to see who is taller and as of yesterday, we’re exactly even. I told him to watch out though as I’m still growing too! Ha

Today Lori and I both have some work to do and need to go to the storage unit to get my suitcase and take down our Christmas stuff. We’ll also hit Costco. Then we have the two good football games. Go Pack!

Dixie spent the night in the hospital again but is doing much better. They don’t want to send her home until she has 24 hour care, so her and Lori and Kristen are trying to figure that out. They have a great place that’s like an apartment, a few blocks from her house although she may just get someone to come into her house to help out each day. In any case, she needs some extra care.

I leave Wednesday am for Vegas and then will fly to Seattle from there on Thursday, and then will fly home Friday, landing in Denver around 7:30 pm. Then I’m home for a week before heading to New York for dinner on the 31st. On that trip I land at 2 in the afternoon, go to a dinner meeting, catch some sleep and fly home at 7 the next morning, ugh. Then the next week I do the same in Houston on the 7th and 8th.

So time to run, Go Packers and God Bless you all.

This is about the first weekend or for that matter, the first day, we can both relax. It won’t be full on rest though as we found out late last night Dixie had been taken by ambulance to ER. Lori finally managed to get in touch with her and she seems ok but needed to stay the night. It seems even though her cardiologist put her back on her medication last Monday, she hasn’t started it yet as she hasn’t been able to get into the Cumiden Clinic to monitor her. Bureaucracy at its best.  I told Lori last night, we need to just go get her. If she’s on oxygen, it doesn’t seem to matter if she’s here or there. We’ll talk to the doctor on Monday to verify and know more. Lori was going to try to go this morning and come back tomorrow but there were no flights. So, as I said, our anticipated night of relaxation was interrupted with a bang.

Jag’s friend Zach spent the night and the boys need to be at school by about noon for a 1 o’clock game. They all (the whole school) skied yesterday until about 3 pm. I managed to get in and out of town in good time and was home by about 2:15 including a stop for groceries. There was a big hunk of ice hanging under my back rear fender which I kicked off and when doing so, kicked the little wires that connect to the drivers side rear tail lights and disconnected them. So, on Monday, snow permitting, I’m off to the dealer in Denver early to get the lights fixed as I can’t leave Lori with a car with no blinker or brake lights when I’m gone next week, ugh.

It’s sunny out now and I think is going to be that way all day. We need to call the hospital and check on Dixie and Lori’s on the phone right now with Annette. Then, if she’s ok, we need to have someone pick her up and take her home. Hope she got some sleep. She had a bad cough and cold and said she couldn’t find her words so we’re not sure what’s going on. They did chest xrays and labs so we’ll see what’s up. She needs to get on her meds. It’s super frustrating as one doctor doesn’t talk to another. Mark my words, you have to 100% take charge of your own care, especially when you get older, and demand that the doctors and such do certain things. For example, Lori told the nurse in ER, “I want it on the record that she not be released until you notify me”. When you say certain things, they have to, by law, do certain things. Otherwise they do what they want to do and while most are good people in the medical profession, you’re basically just a number on a chart. Oh well, the motto here is, stay out of the hospital and stay healthy! God Bless.

This morning at 10:30 I have a sales meeting which only lasts for 15 minutes. Going down to Denver and back for such a short amount of time is a lot of driving but this is the first sales meeting of the year and my only chance to see the Colorado sales team until next month. In our business, getting the sales people at the distributor focused on your products is a necessity. After a quick stop to say hi to my Mom, I should be back up by 2 or so including stopping at the grocery store in Frisco.

This morning on the way to school we’re picking up Jag’s friend Zach who is staying with us for the weekend. His parents are taking Zach’s little brother Ryan, to Crested Butte as he has a mogul (skiing) competition. He’s only like 10 or so but up here they already compete. Their family is leaving at 5 am which is about 15 minutes ago and we’ll get him around 7:20. The kids also have Ski Friday meaning the whole school goes skiing around 11am for the day. What a life, huh.

With Zach coming, we had to clean the house, which was long overdue anyhow. It always takes some kind of event or people coming over to get us motivated to really clean up around here.

Lori wrapped up work at 7pm last night. She’s sure working hard. Yesterday though, she did offer 2 girls jobs and they both accepted and are thrilled. They’ll start in two weeks, which will give her two weeks to train them before we’re gone for a week. Once she gets through the training, she’ll have a much stronger team and hopefully then won’t be working as much. I told her last night, she’s so good at her job as she approaches it as if she’s an owner while others act only as employees. People notice too. Dr P., who the clinic is named after, and the other surgeons refer to her as a “monster” meaning she can and does, do anything to get the job done. Even Dr. C’s wife told her yesterday “we’re so lucky to have you”! Lori replied, ” well I signed up for a job and you just have to do what you have to do”.

Anyhow, that’s kind of our motto. We plan on retiring within 5 years or so and plan on doing so in a good position so we are both “powering out” with our ultimate end goal in mind. Time to run as it’s 5:28. Have a good weekend, there’s good football on tomorrow and Sunday, Go Packers and God Bless.

Yesterday started off ok but in the afternoon a squall came in with blowing wind and snow. It was so bad, the pass was closed instantly and then even though the highway was open, you couldn’t see where you were driving. I picked Ty up at 4:20 and then headed home but stopped at the grocery store first. When we came out, it was blowing so hard we couldn’t see to find our car. Once we found it we decided to go straight to get Lori as I figured Dowd Junction (which are the curves between Vail and our exit) would soon be closed. So we went to the hospital to get her and Jag was at basketball practice. He had to go to his friends house as we couldn’t get back at 6:30 to get him. Turns out 2 other boys were also stuck at Zach’s house. Finally it let up around 7:30 or 8 so I headed out to get Jag around 8:30. It took me an hour to get him and get home including stopping for gas. His basketball coach never made it to practice which none of us knew or I would have just grabbed him at 4:20 also.

We had some more snow last night and I think are in for another 9 inches today. Tomorrow is Ski Friday for the school so it’ll be a great day with all the snow. Not sure if the pass is open or not.

Lori’s other surgery scheduler, who has been on maternity leave, quit yesterday! This was sort of a shock but not really. It’s just the timing which is bad. Good news is she can now train two people at the same time and in the long run, the team which be much stronger.

We’re all off to school and work early today. Dixie has Sharon (Don’s daughter) and Paul (her husband) coming to stay during the kids Winter Break, so we’re going to Hawaii. Jag lands back in Denver on February 10th with the school, from Hawaii, and we’ll turn right around and get back on a plane at 6 am February 11th and go right back to Hawaii. It took me about 3 1/2 hours on the phone with United and Marriott to finagle a virtually cost free trip using 300,000 Marriott points and some vouchers from United from when they bumped us from our flight coming back from Europe last summer. It took me about 10 years to earn 300,000 points but I just decided, what am I saving them for! I have a distributor there I need to meet with, so the Company can pay for our rental car. So all in all, I managed to use every trick and angle I could to make it happen. With Lori and I both really having no Christmas vacation, I told her yesterday driving to work, that I’ve decided we’re just going. I called Dixie to see if she wanted to go but she said she better stay home as Sharon and Paul have already bought their tickets and will be there for 2 weeks. Lori is going to fly out in a couple of weeks to go see Dixie before they arrive. We’re still going to try to all go to California in March to see her as the kids get another break around the end of March or first of April. The weather in California will be much better then anyhow. So, t-minus 30 days until we are on vacation! Time to get in shape, ha. This was the only time to go as Dr. C leaves on the 10th of February to go to Japan with the U.S. Ski Team. So it’s perfect timing, and we can’t freakin wait!

Time to run, take care, have a great day and God Bless.

We all have lots to do at work, school and at home. Yesterday was a long day which included work, phone calls, homework and basketball. Jag played really well. He guarded a Junior who was really good and for the most part, held him in check. After the game, the guy told Jagger, “you really annoyed me out there, I couldn’t do what I wanted to do at all”, which is a big compliment. The guy did score a few times on Jag but was frustrated for a lot of the game. Anyhow the game wrapped up at 7pm and then we went to pick up Lori at work.

Even though the election is over, here’s an interesting take, since the dems and other sore losers keep talking about the popular vote. Well take a look at this thanks to my brother Tom,

Trump won the popular vote in 31 states to Hilary’s 19 and in DC.  62%, to her 38%.

Trump led in the total popular vote if you totaled states except California.

Hillary won California 5,860,714 to Trump’s 3,151,821.  61.6% to 33.1% exclusive of the other candidates.  Thus California gave Hillary the popular vote for all states as claimed by the Democrats and their media stooges.

But deduct her California vote from her total national vote leaving her with 54,978,783, and deduct Trump’s California vote from his national total, leaving him with 57,113.976, he wins in a landslide in the other 49 states, 51.3% to her 48.7%.

So, in effect, Hillary was elected president of California and Trump was elected president of the rest of the country by a substantial margin.

This exemplifies the wisdom of the Electoral College, to prevent the vote of any one populace state from overriding the vote of the others.  Trump’s Campaign Manager, Kellyanne Conway, whose expertise is polling, saw this early on and devised her strategy of “6 pathways to the White House”.

This meant ignoring California with its huge Democrat majority and going after the states that would give him the necessary electoral votes to win, FL, NC, MI, PA, OH, and WI.

At its lowest point since the civil war!  Could this mean the end of the Democrat Party?  When the afternoon of January 20, 2017 arrives, the Republican Party will have:

1)  The Presidency.

2)  A majority of the House of Representatives

3)  A majority of the Senate.

4)  Almost two-thirds of all the governorships.

5)  Total control of the statehouses in almost two-thirds of all the states.

And in the near future, Republicans will be able to add:

6)  A majority of the Supreme Court.  The above has never happened  before in American history.

Think about that and let it sink in for a moment.  And it’s all because  of one reason:  Barack Obama’s forcing his extreme far-left agenda on an unwilling country by executive orders, left wing judges, and obsequious bureaucrats.  It’s important to pass this on.  With the demand that we do away with the Electoral College and take the popular vote being pushed by the media, etc, all Americans need to know that the

The Electoral College is working exactly as our Founding Fathers intended.

Good stuff and for those of you still upset, well I’m pretty sure the rest of the country would be thrilled if you all moved to California and you could even make Hillary your President. Who knows, she might just be an upgrade from Jerry Brown!

God Bless you all and God Bless America

The pass is closed as it was last night and we have some new snow. Today we also have basketball at 5:30. First up is the girls game at 4 and then Jag’s at 5:30, then it’s the varsity. This morning though, we need to get to school early as Ty wants to meet with his math teacher as he doesn’t understand something. The other day I was checking his grades which are pretty good with all A’s and B’s. This is a step up for him and when I told him how well he was doing, he said, “hmm, the tables have turned”! It was much funnier if you heard the tone of his voice.

Lori worked late, as usual and will do so again today. We’ll probably pick her up after Jag’s game so that means around 6:45. I have calls starting at 8:30 this morning so time to get moving. Here’s a close up of our resident sheep herd above the school. I stopped and honked the horn to get them to look and one even came down towards the truck, very cool! GB

Here we go, the first full week of January as last Monday was a holiday, sort of. They say a lot of snow is coming but it’s not here yet. We do have a lot on the ground but it’s not snowing now. Lori finished unpacking her office yesterday and today is the first official day on the 4th floor. Don (her doc) is also back from his 3 week vacation. We don’t even know how we’d handle a 3 week vacation!

Time to get the kids moving and I have a bunch of calls today. I just booked a bunch of flights for various trips over the next 6 weeks. I’ll be in Vegas, Texas, Seattle and probably New York. I might have to go to Hawaii for business too! If so, I’ll definitely grab the family as we all need a beach break.

Time to run as we have lots to do. Have a good week and stay out of trouble. GB