After a day full of activities, Lori and I headed out to my 40th high school reunion around 6pm. I wasn’t sure what to expect as the 30th wasn’t all that fun. But surprisingly, it was a good time. Lots of people came up to me but I just couldn’t really remember them. Of course there were a few, Patty Boberschmidt, whose little sister and Aunt Robi were super close friends (and Janice just moved back to Denver, Robi, you two girls need to get together!), along with a couple others but that was it. Still though, lots of people came up to me and some I remembered and others, I pretended to. Harry and I of course looked pretty darn good, meaning we were both in pretty good shape, had all our hair and are overall healthy. There were lots of people that were not doing so well. Some had canes, one guy had a walker, others had other disabilities and lots of people were really heavy. One guy asked if I brought my daughter, meaning Lori. Another girl who we see now and then said Lori looks just like her older daughter so the wife had a good night. We stayed for about 3 hours and had a nice time. Dixie, wait till Lori tells you about your friend Tony’s son, quite the encounter.

When we made it home I made a campfire outside for the boys. They had watched a movie while we were gone. Today Lori wants us all to go for a hike but we may end up going school clothes shopping instead. I paid the school fees on line for both boys last night, can’t believe I have to pay for them to go to school! Jagger is in honors english and science according to his schedule. He tested a few months ago but they don’t tell you the score. I’m surprised, but happy, he isn’t in honors math too. I know he’s smarter and knows more than some of the kids in math but 3 honors classes would be a lot. And math is his best subject! Maybe they only put kids in two at a time or something. He also has Eastern Hemisphere Geography, Band, Computer and something else. Should be quite the change. Now Ty is going into 5th grade so he’s close to being one of the top dogs at his school. We wish he was out of that school as the teachers are great but the quality of students has gone way down since they let everyone open enroll. So now we have lots of kids that come from 10 miles or more away from all kinds of backgrounds. It’s sad that all these kids have infiltrated the school but I understand that their parents want to get them in the best school they can but it’s becoming sort of an inner city school. Oh well, only a year or two more for him.

Last, here’s a comment from Annette,

Guess I’ll run, hope all’s well, take care and GB!

Yesterday after a bunch of work in the morning, I dropped the boys at Vinny’s for the big birthday bash. I think there were 8 kids in all. First up they were going to Big Time, a trampoline place. I asked Tracey (Vinny’s mom) how she was going to get them all there and she said, in the camper! They have a small rv/motorhome so I’m sure that was fun for the boys.

I then did some more work until Lori made it home a bit after 5:30. We then headed downtown to Elway’s for dinner. I took along our new chardonnay and asked Adam (the wine director) to put it on the list which he said he would. On the way home we stopped at the new Union Station for a drink with a couple of friends. Finally around 9 or so, we made it home. My phone battery was dead and when I got home I noticed Jag had texted 6 times! He banged this head at the trampoline place and had a bad headache. I called him and he said he was a little better but I told him I’d come get him anyhow. He was one of two older kids at the party and I think was tiring of the little guys a bit.

Tonight is my 40th high school reunion. I hope it’s better than the 30th which we only stayed at for 30 or 45 minutes. I doubt it will be but we’re going anyhow just to see who shows up. Maybe we’ll get some school shopping for the boys in today as two weeks from Monday it all begins, school that is.

Ok now to the serious stuff, today two ebola patients arrive in the U.S. You heard me right, we are actually bringing the disease to our country, what idiot came up with that idea. I mean we could have sent them to one of many military hospitals we have all over Europe but no, we decided to bring them, along with the disease, here. You just can’t make this stuff up!

What else, the Pres is mocking republicans and then he wonders why they won’t work with him. Both party’s are bringing up and voting on bills (immigration, etc.) that have zero chance of passing but do then allow the politicians to then run ads saying “I voted for” or “I voted against” so and so. Man is our system screwed up. And oh yea, Colorado is giving drivers licensees to illegal aliens. That makes sense, (sarcasm)

Do you remember Molly? Today she’s competing in the Iron Man race in Boulder. I guess it’s the largest one in the country except the one in Hawaii. Hope she does well, she stays in touch with Lori on Facebook. She’s a good girl and still thanks us for saving her life when she was much younger and she basically lived with us. I think she’s in medical school now and has done really well.

Guess I’ll go read the paper now. It’s only August and the political ads are already driving me crazy. Hopefully our democrat senator will lose. He’s really desperate as the ads he’s running are just lies but I guess they do it because going negative must work. Another screwed up thing with our system. Hopefully (but I doubt it) people are smart enough to see through it.

Have a great weekend and God Bless.

Here’s two, that’s right, two comments from yesterday, yea!

1. robi says:

   July 31, 2014 at 4:46 pm (Edit)

   Grandma Dix, if you don’t know this eat cherries, they help with gout.

   Reply
2. Annette says:

   July 31, 2014 at 5:02 pm (Edit)

   Unsweetened cherry juice also helps and is less expensive than cherries. No red meat . I agree with you Doug but look at history. It takes the U.S. having their back to the wall before we pull together.

   Who knew we’d have to talk about gout to get two comments? I’m not even sure what gout is but you can bet your last dollar, the democrats gave it to us! In fact, now that I think about it, maybe gout is just a democrat thing. Just kidding Dixie, hope you’re feeling better. I knew about the cherry thing but forgot. I hear it even works better if you mix the cherry juice with vodka!

   Now onto more serious things. Here I am trying to keep the finances in line and last night, I found out we need a new bed AND new couch now! After a careful scientific study, we’ve deduced that Lori’s headache is due to first, our crappy bed, and second, our crappy couch. Now I’ll be lucky if I can get out of this one for less than $2K! beds and couches are not cheap. Oh well, we’ll see why we can come up with tomorrow.

   Yesterday I boxed up a dozen or so cases of wine and ran it down to Fed Ex. Today I need to box up a dozen more and deliver it to some accounts around town and then next week, I’ll hit the road to the mountains to get those folks their samples too. The boys are going to Vinny’s birthday party at 2pm and will be staying until 10am Saturday morning. Lori and I are going to Elways tonight for dinner to see Adam, the wine director, and try to get our new chardonnay on the list. Hopefully she won’t have a headache!

   Time to run, hope you all are well, God Bless and take care.

    

Alright, I’m a bit surprised my post (at least the end of it) yesterday didn’t generate any comments. I’m sure by this point some of you think I’m a little bit over reactive. But I think those of you that refuse to recognize what’s going on these days, are frankly in denial. So, just like the Pres, I’m going to keep repeating myself until you come around. The difference between him and me though, is I’m telling you the truth. How do you like that one! So let’s begin, here’s a comment for you to chew on,

A society that puts equality… ahead of freedom will end up with neither equality nor freedom.” – Milton Friedman

Now if you don’t know who Milton Friedman is, here ya go,

Milton Friedman (July 31, 1912 – November 16, 2006) was an American economist, statistician, and writer who taught at the University of Chicago for more than three decades. He was a recipient of the 1976 Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences, and is known for his research on consumption analysis, monetary history and theory, and the complexity of stabilization policy.

In other words, this man knows what he’s talking about. If you agree with that, then one must conclude that the path the current administration is on (one of equality for all) is flat out wrong.

Next up we have Alan Greenspan, the Chairman of the Federal Reserve for 18 years says, are you ready, here’s a headline from today.

Greenspan Says Stocks to See ‘Significant Correction’

Now what does this mean to you, well Greenspan said U.S. economic growth, along with a tightening labor market, “are indicating that at this stage we will run into upside pressures in the money markets and inflation sooner than most of us had expected.” and,

“The capital stock is growing far less than we would have thought it should at this stage,” Greenspan said. “That, in turn, tells us that productivity is going to have difficulty accelerating.”

In short, this means the market is going down, sometime soon.

Now I could go on but I think giving you two opinions from highly respected economists that served multiple Presidents is enough to chew on for one day. The important thing to note is that they are in 100% disagreement with the policies of the current administration. Hence, who are you going to believe? A former community organizer or a Nobel Prize winning economist and the Chairman of the Fed under 4 different Presidents?

If you somehow still choose the community guy, I’m not sure what to say to you, however if you believe the two gentlemen whose credentials are impeccable, then you must heed the warnings and do all the things necessary to protect what you have and your future.

There now, that wasn’t so bad was it? it was like reading an article in the Wall Street Journal. Now onto the day.

I was off to Ft Collins early and the boys ended up staying at Ben’s until about the time I arrived home. Jagger was off to his advanced math tutor at 1:30 for an hour and Ty was playing away. Too bad playing isn’t a career choice or he’d be all set!

Mom arrived home around 6pm and is still working on the couch. Tomorrow I have lunch with a buddy who buys and sells private jets at Castle Pines Country Club but other than that, I’ll be working on my computer. I have a few extra projects I’m working on so not a lot of free time these days. We also need a new bed, time for a garage sale!

Last, Grandma Dix has a bad case of gout! Say a prayer for her that it goes away as she says it’s really painful! As of last night she was doing a little better, guess it runs in her family.

It’s been raining for a day and a half but I think it’ll stop today. That’s about it, hope you enjoy the posts! I decided since I’m writing every morning I have the right to stick in a thought or two, ha ha.

Take care and God Bless,

Yesterday I made it down the the Springs and back by 11 or so and even stopped at the grocery store to get the fixins for my famous turkey and beef chili. With it raining in the afternoon, chili was a good choice. Both boys spent the night at Ben’s and Friday is Vinny’s birthday party that’s also a sleep over and both boys are going!

Today I’m off to Ft. Collins and need to be there by 9am. Meanwhile Lori will be back at it, saving the World for plastic surgery and making her patients beautiful. I need to finish packing up wine so almost time to go. It’s a cool Colorado morning with rain that’s supposed to get heavier by the afternoon. I’m ok with it as fall is my favorite season anyhow.

As far as today’s title, we were going to Steamboat the weekend after this but last night our friend Karen called and the guy whose house we were doing the wine dinner at, had his appendix burst! Hence the party’s off! We’re fine with this as we could use a break anyhow. I do still need to make it up to Steamboat sometime before the 25th of August to show some new wines but now it’s on my schedule.

Send in those pictures of your preps! Here’s a few headlines for the day,

Congressional Report: Ebola Bio Kits Deployed to National Guard Units In All 50 States

This is a scary one not to be ignored as it could be a game changer with no notice. Hopefully the odds are it won’t reach us but better safe than sorry. Here are a few more headlines related to this,

Doctor Quarantined in Canada…

Airline halts flights…

Looks like it’s moving around the globe!

Hotel California: L.A. Officials To Send Homeless To Internment Camps: Will Be Implanted With RFID Chips

Now here, the gov is taking homeless people to “camps” for their “own good” and then (this is the scary part) implanting them with chips like we do our dogs to keep track of them. This is a slippery slope people, look out.

And my favorite,

OBAMA: Muslims built ‘the very fabric of our nation’…

Are you kidding me? How can this guy say this? And one more

UPDATE: Border agent pointed loaded gun at Boy Scout for snapping picture…

Apparently a troop of boy scouts were coming across the Canadian border and one kid took a picture only to be held at gunpoint and then the whole troop was detained and searched for hours. I guess terrorists are now using boy scouts, pretty clever of them.

God Help us! Have a great day, God Bless.

Not only did my little sister send a comment yesterday but she’s the first to send a picture of her extra food and water and supplies in case of an emergency! Way to go! She texted it to me so I don’t have it here to post but it shows a small closet full of food, water and other necessities to hold her and Robert over for a few weeks or so. I’m really happy to see that and frankly wouldn’t have thought she’d be the first to send in a picture or even have put some stuff aside. I guess the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree or something like that since we’re brother and sister!

So this morning I’m off to the Broadmoor in Colorado Springs for a 9am meeting. I should be back by 11 at the latest which is good as we’re supposed to get some hard rain starting this afternoon that’ll last through tomorrow. Yesterday we had a few tornados out by the airport and it was pretty dark when I was leaving my meeting across town at 3pm. I did manage to sell $100,000 worth of our new chardonnay which could be a game changer, keep your fingers crossed.

Meanwhile Lori was working away at the office and the boys did some work around here. Jagger was particularly helpful cleaning up the house and finishing his workbook of math problems that is 108 pages long. I’m postponing his work session with his advanced math tutor until tomorrow and Thursday as I have this meeting this morning.

Here’s a scary one, two Americans have ebola in Africa and Liberia has closed its borders. It’s now in Lagos which is a city of 21 million. If, and it’s easily possible, it gets on a plane through an infected person, look the you know what out! Then everyone will be in danger as in our modern world, things like this can spread within days if not hours. Frankly I’m surprised nothing like this has happened before. Another good reason to be prepared.

Time to run as I need to get some coffee and get the samples together to drop off at my meeting. Have a great day and watch your top knot! God Bless.

(In the Old West, people would say “watch your top knot” to mean “be careful” because if you didn’t take care, Indians would scalp your top knot and kill you.)

I think we’ve figured it out. If we leave the mountains at 6pm, we’ll miss the traffic! We made it home in just under 2 1/2 hours which is as fast as you can go, and that was with rain over Independence Pass and Leadville. We cleaned up and unpacked a little and then hit the sack.

Yesterday we all went up to the top of Aspen Mountain. They had bungee jumping, a rock climbing wall, an obstacle course and more for the kids to play on. There were lots of people enjoying the sun and a bluegrass band up there. Billie and Greg said they wanted to take us to lunch and I thought we were going to the buffet in the ski lodge but no, we walked around the corner into the exclusive Aspen Club of which Greg was a founding member about 15 years ago. He paid or “donated” a pretty penny but apparently now it costs 5 times that to get in. Without going into the price, let’s just say you could buy a house for the fee. Anyhow the brunch was maybe the best I’ve ever had, and I’ve eaten in some nice places. They had king crab, oysters, lamb, muscles, pancakes, prime rib, snow crab claws, an array of desserts you couldn’t imagine, and much much more. After this we took the gondola down and then drove down valley as they wanted to show us this old railroad train care by Woody Creek, sitting on a few hundred feet of track, that friends of there’s (who we’ve met several times over the past year) wanted to get rid of. Greg thought it would be a great place for us to turn into a condo or something,  but it needed some work.

We then made it back to the house after taking a drive through the backroads to see some of the other parts of Aspen. It only took about 15 minutes to load up the car, say our thank you’s and goodbyes, and then we were off for home. So, from now on, instead of rushing out in the morning, we’ll wait until the end of the day.

Today we slept in until around 7 so we need to get moving. Lots to do this week and next, and the next and then the kids re in school. It’ll be snowing before you know it, hope all’s well, God Bless.

That’s how high we were in elevation at the party yesterday afternoon. Of course it started to rain, hard, just after the party started, but you expect that when in the mountains. We saw lots of friends including Helen and Teddy. (you might remember Teddy the little dog from months ago when he stayed at our house) Finally around 3:30 we headed down the steep, rocky, dirt road back to town.

The boys were hanging out after going into town to their favorite store and restaurant to get some Mongolian Beef. Before we knew it it was 4:30 and Greg’s daughter Stacey, along with husband Alex and two kids, had to rush to the airport for their flight back to San Francisco. After that we all decided to go to a great restaurant called L’H’osteria. I’ve done business there on and off for years and the owner called me this week as he needed a chianti for his list, so we thought we’d kill two birds with one stone, some business and dinner wrapped into one.

After dinner we had to stop by an art gallery where Greg and Billie have bought most of their Warhol’s. We made it in right at the end and of course Albert, the owner, was glad Greg and Billie showed up. We’ve known Albert for a bit over a year through them. Anyhow I was intrigued by a small Picasso hanging in the back. It wasn’t a whole lot larger than a pack of cigarettes and was only $85,000! There were some fun Miro’s (Joan Miro) and a really neat contemporary piece by an artist from London named Damien Hurst. Ty really loved this one as it was a collage of actual butterfly wings. The artist raises his own butterfly’s in London and this was a piece he just finished. Apparently he is one of the most important artists of our time. This was only $295,000! Well needless to say, we didn’t buy anything, ha ha. It was fun to see these masterpieces in person and hold them and learn a bit more. During dinner a few of Greg’s friends came by the table and of course also at the art gallery and each time, Jagger stood up and went over and shook their hand and introduced himself. This one lady who invented the self sealing envelope, was particularly impressed with our young man. At the party we made some new friends and turns out one guy bought his first wife out of a food company her dad left her, (for $100 million dollars) and then turned it into a $1 Billion dollar company. I learned all this on the way down the mountain after we had exchanged cards. Well anyhow the company is Pace Picante Sauce, we love that stuff!

Today there’s a big art show in town and booths everywhere and the downtown corridor is blocked off. I think we’ll take the kids up the gondola to the top of the mountain. We were going to rush out of town  and get home by noon but I think we’ll leave more around 4 and hopefully miss the traffic. Billie really wants us to come up for a party called the Beatles Bash Thursday night and then stay until Saturday for Ride the Rump. The first is a 60’s dress up party (right up the misses ally) and the second is a scavenger hunt on bicycles all around town the kids can ride in. We’re not sure though as my 40th high school reunion is later that day. We could do both, hmmm. We just might do it though as Greg and I are working on some business deals too, we’ll see.

That’s it from Aspen, God Bless!   Here are photos from the Limo Bus and Aspen:-)

Today’s title is brought to us by our most loyal commentator, Annette. Thank you Annette for your comment from yesterday’s post. I’m kind of shocked that yours was the only one. I guess (hope) some don’t know how to comment as I really don’t like to think that everyone in our family that reads this, is one of those who chose to ignore what’s happening in our Country, (you know, head in the and type).

I know you all come on here to read about the kids and other fun family stuff but sometimes I just need to vent to try to make sure you’re listening. However when you don’t comment, then I feel the need to keep pressing the issue. I have a deal for you, everyone go out and buy a months worth of food and water and send me a picture of it, and I’ll stop! There you go, problem solved. Of course I reserve the right to post my disagreements with the administration when they do something really stupid (which is almost daily these days) but I will try to refrain from pissing anyone off.

So, onto the day. I was off to the sales meeting, Lori was at work and the boys played here and at the neighbors. Jagger has been doing preparatory school work to get ready for 7th grade. Next week I have him set up with Linda the math tutor for twice a week for the next three weeks. I need to get Ty a bridge book so he can start getting ready also.

Today we’re off to Aspen for a party and some business, we’ll be home then tomorrow, hopefully a little after noon. That’s about it, let’s see some comments, good or bad, bring em on! God Bless!

The thing to do is try. Failure is of no importance; Giving up however is another matter.

Ok, what are you doing today? Are you shopping for a new tv? Going to dinner with friends? Getting ready to go golfing or boating this weekend, or something else that seems normal activity for ones life in our economically sound, crime free, inflation proof country.

I’m sure you see where I’m going so if you want to stop reading now, go ahead. My point is, yes, we have to live life, we can’t live everyday in constant fear of the World falling apart, I get that. But on the other hand, wouldn’t it be prudent to take one day a week, or even 2 or 3 hours a week, to prepare yourself for hard times ahead. This could be the loss of a job, a major illness, a terrorist attack or a trucker strike. I could get really detailed here and post up some government studies that show scenarios of what they think is going to happen this year, or next or the year after. My point is, the govt. is preparing (that’s such a bad word as it conjure up thoughts of crazy survivalists) so why aren’t you?

Many people smarter than you or I are taking the threat, whatever it may be (economic, terrorism, climate change, food safety, etc.) very seriously. We’re getting to the point where you just can’t ignore where we’re headed anymore. Some of you are maybe older and think “well, nothing’s going to happen here or to me, the govt will take care of things”. Well guess again. The other day I mentioned the 67 year old veteran who was arrested for asking city council members to speak up at a meeting, are you kidding me? Oh well, if you’re still reading, maybe there’s a little hope for you as most people in our country just stick their head in the sand at this kind of talk. If you feel you can’t do anything or don’t know what to do, give us a call. Something as simple as having 4 five gallons of water in your basement and a half a dozen bags of rice and a few cases of canned food along with 3 months worth of pet food, can go a long long way. Alright, I’ll stop now, but do yourself a favor and just think for yourself for a minute. Who will take care of you when everyone needs help.

Now to the day, the boys played hard while I spent most of the day at the phone store getting a new phone. Mom made it home around 6:30 and was straight off to bunko as the neighborhood girls started a club last night. I didn’t get a chance to talk to her to see how it went but I’m sure she had fun.

This morning I have a sales meeting and then this afternoon I’m taking the boys to a VIP event at the football stadium where they get to meet and play soccer with the players from Manchester United Football Club (soccer) from England. Now the Denver Broncos have 3 million face book like and these guys have like 60 million! They are the most popular sports team in the World. The sales manager at the chevrolet dealer gave me the tickets along with field passes. Tomorrow is the game against Roma (the team from Rome Italy) but I gave those tickets away as we’ll be in Aspen. It should be fun, I’ll try to take pictures.

Now before we go, read this, another example of our out of control whoever they are,

A Boy Scout troop from the nation’s heartland is demanding answers and a U.S. senator is expressing outrage after a group of scouts was detained by federal agents and one child allegedly was held at gunpoint.

Jim Fox, the leader of the Mid-Iowa Boy Scout Troop 111, said the incident occurred earlier this month at a checkpoint along the Alaska – Canada border. The scouts and their leaders were on a 21-day trek from Iowa to Alaska – a trip that had been three years in the planning.

As their vans were moving through a checkpoint into the United States, one of the scouts snapped a photograph. Agents stopped the van and ordered all the passengers to get out. They told the underage photographer that he had committed a federal crime.

“The agent immediately confiscated his camera, informed him he would be arrested, fined possibly $10,000 and ten years in prison,” Fox told Des Moines television station KCCI.

During the search, one of the scouts tried to retrieve a bag from the roof carrier. When he turned around, Fox said an agent had a loaded pistol pointed at the child.

“He heard a snap of the holster, turns around, and here’s this agent, both hands on a loaded pistol, pointing at the young man’s head,” Fox told the television station.

The scoutmaster wrote a detailed account of the incident on his Facebook page. He said he tried to watch the agents search the van but was ordered to return to his vehicle. An agent followed him and told the youngsters “that the next one to leave the van would be handcuffed and detained.”

“The agent in charge informed me of the potential charges against (the) scout and informed me it is a violation of federal law for any American to take a picture of a federal agent or any federal building,” Fox wrote.

Fox said he and another member of the troop were interrogated by agents – forced to answer questions about their background.

They also wanted to know why the Boy Scouts were hauling “excessive amounts of lighters, matches and knives.”

Oh, for goodness sake, people. (Sorry, I’ll try to refrain from further editorializing.)

After a lengthy delay, the scouts were released without any charges being filed.

“The boys were unnecessarily frightened and intimidated,” Fox wrote. “When do we Americans decide enough is enough? The TSA and border guards are a valuable asset to the safety of this country, but to have such Gestapo tactics against a teenage scout is uncalled for.”

Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, agrees.

“It’s outrageous that a border patrol agent would point a gun at a boy scout just for taking a picture,” he told the television station. “It just doesn’t make sense.”

The senator’s office said they are looking into the matter.

Robert Hooper, the scout executive for the Mid-Iowa  Council of the BSA, told me they, too, are upset and disturbed by the allegations.

“The guys were in scout uniforms,” he said. “I would like to know what caused this to happen. It does sound pretty extreme.”

Indeed, it does. It’s not like they were attempting to cross into the United States illegally.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection said they’ve had a chance to investigate – and they can’t find anything out of the ordinary.

“CBP takes any allegations of wrongdoing very seriously,” read their official statement. “CBP’s review of this group’s inspection, including video footage review indicates that our officer did not un-holster or handle his weapon as stated in the allegation. The review revealed nothing out of the ordinary.  We have reached out to the Boy Scout troop for additional information in reference to the allegation.  The video footage has been referred to CBP Internal Affairs for further review.”

So, what we have here is an old-fashioned case of he said, he said – or to be more accurate – the Boys Scouts said, the feds said.

In cases like this, the quickest way to determine who is being truthful is to look at the video. So I emailed U.S. Customs and Border Protection and officially requested a copy of the video.

My request was denied.

I also asked for a copy of the statute that criminalizes Photography 101. I’ve yet to receive a reply.

Fox is still fired up over how his scouts were treated – and I can’t say I blame him.

“This was an illegal search and intimidation of Americans returning to their home country,” he said.

So let’s review, good readers.

While hordes of illegals are stampeding across our southern border unimpeded, federal agents along our northern border detained and harassed a group of law-abiding American Boy Scouts.

I wonder what kind of merit badge they’ll get for that?

It’s now 5am, see what you get when I get up at 4:30 (thanks Mojo!) so guess I’ll head to the gym. Hope all’s well, God Bless.