A Year of Change

It’s snowing in the mountains and the cold weather is headed this way. Not sure when it’ll arrive but temps will be dropping. I have a wine tasting today from 1 until 4 but I’ll probably wrap up by 3 or so. Here’s a comment from yesterday,

Annette says:

That’s right, today is walk to school day, so the boys will be walking instead of driving. We’re just worried that the government might have shut down the streets or something. I’ll get to the family in a minute but while I’m on the subject, what’s the difference between the government paying security guards or staff to keep people out of places like National Parks or the Grand Canyon or having those same people just do their job? They’re paying them the same, what a joke. The gov is trying to make the shutdown as painful as possible for everyone, can’t you all see this??? They should be ashamed at what they’re doing. Yesterday they stopped paying death benefits to family’s whose sons and daughters were killed in action yet they gave $445 million to public broadcasting! Two days ago they closed of the National Mall in D.C. which is the 1/2 mile long piece of grass between the White House and the Capital Building, by stationing security guards around the grass yet they let a bunch of illegals hold a protest there Monday???  And oh yea, they also closed the ocean, yup, you heard me right, the ocean???? Ok, sorry, back to the family, here’s some comments,

1. Annette says:

   October 8, 2013 at 4:51 pm

   Back from Philadelpha. Good for Ty, tell him I will buy one of his books. Hope Jagger does well in his events.

   Reply
2. Blondie says:

   October 8, 2013 at 11:10 pm

   Why don’t you get Lacey her own crate so she doesn’t bark until you come down and let her out? It seems to work for Mojo!

   Glad Annette is back safe and the crate thing would really bum Lacey out as she hasn’t been in one her whole life except when she was a puppy. She’d think she did something wrong, we just can’t do that to her at her age, but thanks for the idea.

   I cleaned the whole downstairs yesterday which meant moving all furniture and mopping the floors. I put a big scratch in the hardwood when I moved the couch so I had to break out the mayonnaise to fill it in. That’s an old trick that hides scratches in hardwoods. Anyhow still lots to do.

   Time to run as I have a Skype call with Antonio who is in Dubai. He says he hates it as it’s so fake, just a big shit hole (his words) in the middle of the desert. Take care, have a great day and buy some extra food, can’t hurt!

   God Bless.

Today Jag is at the Jefferson County Stadium competing against other schools from around the county. It lasts all day long and I’m not sure when his events are but I’ll try to get over there to see some. Mom of course will be driving a bunch of students at 8am and be there for most of the day. He only has 3 events (the most any kid has) but they’re spread throughout the day. It’s going to be 80 degrees today so water and sunscreen are on the menu.

Lacey the freakin lab woke us (me) again at 5am. I fed Mojo but put Lacey in the crate for 15 minutes so I didn’t reward her for her bad behavior. Not sure what else to do, it’s getting really old as is she, guess I just have to live with it.

Mom was at the office most of the morning and I was on the phone, what’s new. Our next project is to tear up the linoleum in the lower kitchen and replace it with tile and carpet the basement. Neither are that tough of a job but moving everything in the basement will be the challenge. I think we’ll get a storage unit and fill it up with all our stuff down there.

Ty wrote a book at school and is selling copies. After I bought one he’s decided to be an author and write books and sell them for a living, good for him. That’s it, lots to do, time to run, God Bless.

What a shootout, 51 to 48, but the Broncos won which is all that counts. It seems neither team could stop the other and finally our defense came up big with an interception late in the game to seal the deal. Hard to believe how many points were scored, Dallas certainly looks like a contender in the NFC but then again, Tony Romo (their qb) is pretty inconsistent. It was a great win because we had to come back from being down several times which is a mark of a good team. So on we go, at this point everyone will be disappointed if we don’t go to, and win, the Super Bowl.

The misses spent the early part of the afternoon putting up Halloween decorations outside. Our front yard is now decorated in orange and black with black ravens all over the trees, pretty scary.

I have lots to do at work which means I’ll be traveling locally in the state and probably going to NY and a few other places for the rest of the month. It’ll be November before you know it and then I have the mountain tour for our distributor where I go to Vail, Aspen, Crested Butte and Durango for the winter shows. I should be all done traveling right before Thanksgiving and hopefully that’ll be it for the year.

It’s 4:39 now and I was up at 4am with our lab who woke me as I thought she was getting sick. Turns out she was just coughing or hacking. Guess I’ll head to the gym, at least I don’t need an alarm clock. Here’s a comment,

Tom says:

Yup, we had 4 boys sleeping over last night, and to top it off, we’re out of milk! The oldest set up the tent (with a little help from me) to sleep in the backyard last night but decided that the other boys were having too much fun for him to miss out on. So the tent is up but he’s in his warm cozy bed. Mom was happier about that ending anyhow. He and I went to pick up my hunting buddy and friend Matt to go to Cabela’s yesterday morning. He’s on furlough from his new job at Home Land Security and is home for the first time in 4 months. It was great to see him.

Lacy the lab woke us up around 5am by shaking her head. Lori fed her and then came back to bed and I asked if she let her out and she said no. I told her she’d be barking within a matter of seconds but she said she’d probably go back to sleep. I asked her if she wanted to bet and lucky for her, she said no, as right after I asked, the barking began. So, I’m up at 5:15 and everyone else is sleeping. Just another day except it’s Sunday!

The weather is great, nice cool nights but not too cold and the days are pleasant with temps in the 70’s. I might go shooting today but Jag has a game at 3 and the Broncos play at 2:30. We’ll decide what to do a little later, like after the sun comes up! Can you tell I’m not very happy happy happy with the lab of the house?

That’s it, anyone have any plans for Halloween? We’re supposed to go to a party which means I’ll have to dress up as something. Lori loves it but I can never think of anything to be. Might have to go to the old standby of cowboy and saloon girl. (Lori is the saloon girl!)

Alright, time to go, guess I’ll head to the gym, not much else going on, take care and God Bless.

After a quick blast of cold weather (it’s 27 degrees outside right now at 6am) , it looks like Fall is here. We might try to grab my Mom and run up to the mountains this weekend to see the colors changing on the trees. It’s a right of passage here in Colorado when the leaves turn yellow, red and golden before the snow comes. The average date of the first freeze here is October 17th so we’re two weeks ahead of schedule. This seems right in line with the Framers Almanac that says we’re in for a cold snowy winter. Lucky we’re not in Wyoming or the Dakotas as they were hammered with a foot to a foot and a half of the white stuff. I talked with friends in Walden yesterday who were working on the fence and they were snowed in, unable to get on the road to Pagosa Springs which is way down south. Not to worry, winter will be here soon.

They finished up installing the new water main yesterday, at least on our street, and our water is now back on. At first it was brown as it came out of the faucets but seems ok now. We filter all our drinking water through our Big Berkey anyhow to remove all the stuff the water company doesn’t tell you about. All they need to do now is put some new asphalt over the rectangular holes that are filled with dirt on the street. The boys are bummed the large dirt piles up and down the street are gone as they all played every day on them.

The boys had a good week at school. Ty spent the night at Ben’s and Jag and I are headed to Cabela’s this morning and then to the sustainable living show at the National Western Complex. Not sure if Mom’s tagging along or not. Cabela’s is like going to an amusement park as it’s a virtual candy store for young and old alike, if you like the outdoors. We almost went camping this weekend at Steamboat Lake but decided to get the house all fixed up after the construction we had over the past few weeks. We were all excited (except maybe Lori) to go as we knew it was going to snow! I think we’re going in two weeks as next weekend is a Bronco home game so we’ll be here.

Speaking of the bathroom, you should see it, it looks great! Our friend Rik was down from Vail as his wife Debra had her neck fused in surgery Tuesday afternoon, so he was over hanging out with us. Little did he know he’d end up making a few trips to Home Depot with the misses and then helping her put the finishing touches on the job. She has a little more to do, like caulking, but she’s almost done. Rik, who is a contractor in Vail, said she did a really good job and he would have charged $12,000 to do it! It looks really nice. Maybe she’ll post pictures.

Time to hit the gym, hope everyone is well, take care and have a good weekend. I’ll spare everyone from writing about, as Aunt Ali puts it, “the crappy government” but have to say, get ready, harder times are a coming.

God Bless.

In case you missed it, we forgot to post yesterday. This had nothing to do with “losing interest”, we just forgot. We did post a sentence last night saying we forgot!

Anyhow, here’s some comments, (we hoped that some of you would comment), from the day before.

1. Blondie says:

   October 2, 2013 at 11:42 pm

   Why are you writing about the crappy government and economy?…you should go back to writing about the kids and your family like you did when you first started the Blog (A year of Change)! Otherwise, take a break for a month and come back to it when you accumulate some stories:) Just a thought and strictly one opinion but I know what you mean about getting sick of thinking of things to say every day! Let The Oldest write the Blog on the weekends:) I enjoy it but I can tell you are losing interest in coming up with new material….sorry none of us are exciting to contribute much more.

   Reply
2. Tom says:

   October 3, 2013 at 1:31 pm

   We can talk holidays, what are the kids going to be for halloween, whatcha all want for Christmas?

   Reply
3. Eleanor Tafoya says:

   October 3, 2013 at 3:41 pm

   In regards to the smoking dog,you made our day,Bob and I had a good laugh.our life is right now pretty boring,we enjoy your blogs it keeps us informed how everyone is doing,you all have a interesting life we enjoy. Yesterday I took Bob to the store he felt good but when he got home he sat in his chair and fell to sleep while I fixed lunch.Bob  looks like a ex-fighter,two black eyes and a bad cut on his forehead.this all for now have a good day and god bless.

   So, first, mostly I write about the crappy gov as it’s, well crappy and it helps me vent. Whether you know it or not, it does affect your daily life and there are things you should be doing to take care of your family. I’ll leave it at that but I like it. Feel lucky as it could be worse!

   Next up, Uncle T is spot on, we’re late for Halloween! We asked the kids yesterday what they want to be as we know it’ll be a rush. Christmas too is coming fast. I have no idea what they want or what we want. Personally I just want the misses neck to be better.

   Last, sorry to hear about Grandpa Bob, did he fall again? We hope he and Eleanor are doing well.

   Yesterday I was all over the place, meaning all over Denver and Boulder. Meanwhile the misses was at the Colorado Women’s Chamber of Commerce luncheon or something like that with Dr. Rodgers who was receiving an award. Before that she had a conference call with the chemist in New York regarding the skin care project. After that she was off to the office and didn’t make it home until 7pm. Ah the life of a female executive. I know you all have no idea what she does but she is the glue that has been keeping this project and frankly, practice, together.

   Luckily I threw a pork roast into the crock pot so we had some dinner when she arrived home. I had a sales meeting at 4:30 pm across town at the distributor so I took the boys with me. I gave them the option of sitting outside or coming into the meeting and they chose the later. So I started off the meeting introducing the boys to my 20 some sale team saying “this is Ty and he wants a horse, and this is Jagger and he wants to go to Harvard, so let’s get to work!” Everyone cheered and were excited to meet them and promised they’d work even harder to help the boys get what they want. I know most of the team pretty well and they all like me (who doesn’t!) as I’m pretty straight forward, super helpful (I make most of them a lot of money each month by selling wine direct to their accounts that they get paid on) and can talk to them directly, good or bad. So everyone really enjoyed me playing what I call the “kid card” to get them to do more sales. The boys have known some of the guys like Sal in Aspen for almost 10 years. Anyhow 10 minutes later we finished up to a roaring applause and hit the road for home.

   So that’s it for yesterday. Today our water gets shut off at 8am for the day as they hopefully finish up installing the new water main so we need to take our showers early. It’s raining and cold outside, I think summer is officially gone but hope Fall returns for at least a few weeks.

   There ya go, take care and God Bless.

It’s Thursday night and I thought Lori was doing the post and she thought I was, sorry, we’ll be back tomorrow, Friday October 4th.

We’re at that time again where we need some material from all of you. I’m getting really tired writing about the crappy gov and economy. The boys are fine and the bathroom is still a work in progress. I’m busy getting ready for winter, finishing out the year strong at work and still trying to hack away and the endless stream of bills.

If anyone has anything to say, let us know, otherwise you’ll probably get a dose of who cares for a few days until our attitude changes.

God Bless.

Well the gov shut down but so far, I feel pretty much the same, how about you? Also Obummer Care starts today but alas, the web sites re not working and doctors are leaving in droves to avoid the new regulations and reduced salaries that come with it. The big bet is that young healthy 20 somethings will sign up and pay thousands of dollars a year instead of paying a $95 fine next year. Which would you do? Hmmm, good luck with that! Personally I’m glad it shut down. The Dems are going to lose this one as they are standing firm against giving individuals the same one year waiting period as businesses and Congress. I don’t know about you but I’m for us having the same rights as companies that support the O and all those crooks in Congress, on both sides. Of course we are going to have to listen to the Pres blame everyone but himself (even though he was not involved in any negotiations) and spew the endless list of a “parade of horribles” that’s going to happen from children not getting food to old people dying, get ready.

Annette says: