A Year of Change

Alright, I’m going to refrain from any politics for as long as I can. Lord knows we’re getting enough of it on tv and as I said before, everyone pretty much has their mind made up and there’s not much I can say or do to change you. So in the interest of keeping all of our readers (all 10 or so of you!) I’m going to try to stay away.

Today it’ll be 100 degrees, man it’s hot. Yesterday was warm as well but the oldest and I beat the heat by getting out early. As soon a we arrived, he was in heaven as he realized we, or rather he, would get to drive the golf cart around to each station we were shooting at. Another highlight was in the parking lot when we arrived, he heard a scream and when he looked over to see what it was, he saw a huge bull snake. He ran straight over to check it out and while he was a car was backing out and actually ran it over. Now if you don’t know much about snakes, this usually doesn’t kill them and it didn’t snuff out this guy either. After coiling up for a bit trying to figure out what had just happened, he scurried off. He loved it but the girl in the parking lot that found him and screamed was creeped out.

We, or he, drove the cart with us and our shotguns down to the first tee or station where we proceeded to blast away at some clay pigeons. We shot for a couple hours and he did really really well. Sporting clays are more difficult than just shooting trap as the little orange discs go in all different directions. I’ll bet he shot a couple of boxes out of his 20 gage which is about 50 shells. His shoulder was a little sore later in the day. We made it home around 12:30 and unloaded the car. I then ran to the store for some burgers for later and the rest of the day was spent playing around the house.

Meanwhile the youngest and Mom went on a hour long bike ride. Today he has a friend coming over and I think he goes to a friends tomorrow, his social schedule is quite full!

The Greeley Stampede rodeo starts this weekend and we might head up but we also have the annual big western show at the merchandise mart. It’ll be a tough decision. We are going to try to get out of town for a day this week and head to the mountains to get some fishing in. The boys are excited and next week the oldest is gone everyday to a camp with Jennifer. Oh yea, Matt my buddy brought me two leather rifle scabbards and said Happy Fathers Day! Man I’m on a roll!

I need to run to get the boys to swim team and have a call so time to sign off. In closing here’s a quote for you to chew on for the day, check this out,

“A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.”

How many of you can do all that? I’ve seen these type of quotes before in various versions but the meaning is pretty much the same. Nowadays it seems no one has a good base of basic skills anymore. I’ll bet our grandparents generation had a much wider variety of basic skills than this generation. In fact, it’s no contest, they had to just to get through the day. Did any of you under 50 ever milk a cow? I’ll betcha Grandma Dix did!

Take care and God Bless,

It was a busy day yesterday that started with us all getting up around 5 to head to the swim meet. Both boys did great either winning a race or two or coming in a close second. It was cold until about 10 but then warmed up. We finished up around 11 and made it home soon after.

The oldest and I decided to go to the sporting goods store to get some shotgun shells as this morning he and I along with Matt (my hunting buddy) and Steve (another hunting buddy who owns a sports bar downtown by the Rockies Baseball Stadium) are all meeting at Kiowa Creek to shoot sporting clays. My Mom is always nervous when she hears anything about shooting. I guess she doesn’t remember Dad taking me duck hunting when I was 12. On top of that, I’m one of the most safety oriented guys you’ll ever meet when it comes to firearms. As I’m sure most of you know, it’s my passion and hobby and our kids have a healthy respect for safety and all firearms.

After we went to a few stores with Matt meeting us, we headed down to Steve’s place for some lunch on him before heading home. The oldest chowed down on chicken tenders, some wings and most of my french dip. We made it home by about 3:30.

Meanwhile the youngest had a play date with his friend from swim team. We all just hung out the rest of the day.

Today as you know is Fathers Day. The day itself is just another day but being a dad is something special as is being a Mom. It’s really the single most important job I have and the one that means the most to me. We have a couple of really good boys and everything we do is with their well being and future in mind. We’re pretty lucky.

As I said, the oldest and I are leaving around 8 for the hour drive to the eastern plains to shoot some clay pigeons. We should be home around noon and then we’ll all do something together as a family. It’s going to be hot today, they say in the high 90’s so we need to get out early. I’m running the sprinklers now as the grass is already getting brown which is not good considering it’s mid June.

The boys just came down to wish me Happy Fathers Day. To my surprise they were holding an old antique single shot shotgun wrapped up! It seems our neighbor, Mr O Connell came over on his own yesterday and gave the boys this antique shotgun to give to me for Fathers Day! Now they didn’t go ask him or anything, he just came over on his own. It’s really old and has a 4 digit serial number but that’s all I can see so far. What a nice gesture from him to think of giving the boys a gun to give to me! The boys always take them trout whenever we go fishing and he knows we like shooting and hunting, I’m speechless! It’ll look good hanging over the mantle in a cabin someday.

I normally try t0 stay away from politics on the weekend but just can’t. You can stop reading now if you like as here it comes. First off, I just can’t get over the President essentially buying 1 million votes with his amnesty program for illegals. He’s even letting criminals stay in our country instead of deporting them. Check this headline out,

Democrats and Republicans sparred Saturday over the part of President Obama’s executive order on illegal immigration that allows some applicants to avoid deportation despite having committed crimes

How can anyone support illegal criminals to stay in our country and on top of that, give them work permits and let them vote? This guy is something else, here’s a list of his accomplishments that are firsts for any President, pretty amazing all the work he’s done!
Whoever said that Obama hasn’t  accomplished anything in his first term?

WHAT AN IMPRESSIVE LIST OF ACCOMPLISHMENTS!…

First President to apply for college aid as a foreign student, then
deny he was a foreigner.

First President to have a social security number from a state he has
never lived in.

First President to preside over a cut to the credit-rating of the United States.

First President to violate the War Powers Act.

First President to be held in contempt of court for illegally
obstructing oil drilling in the Gulf of Mexico.

First President to defy a Federal Judge’s court order to cease
implementing the Health Care Reform Law.

First President to require all Americans to purchase a product from a
third party, a violation of the U.S. Constitution.

First President to spend a trillion dollars on ‘shovel-ready’ jobs
when there was no such thing as ‘shovel-ready’ jobs.

First President to recommend changing our National Anthem as it
portrays and promotes violence and is warlike in its theme.

First President to cancel the National Day of Prayer Breakfast and activities.

First President to initiate a Cash for Clunkers Program to clean up
exhaust that adds to global warming, then extended it because it was
so popular — wasting hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars.

First President to abrogate bankruptcy law to turn over control of
companies to his union supporters.

First President to bypass Congress and implement the Dream Act through
executive fiat.

First President to order a secret amnesty program that stopped the
deportation of illegal immigrants across the U.S., including those
with criminal convictions.

First President to demand a company hand over $20 billion to one of
his political appointees.

First President to terminate America’s ability to put a man in space.

First President to have a law signed by an auto-pen without being present.

First President to arbitrarily declare an existing law
unconstitutional and refuse to enforce it.

First President to threaten insurance companies if they publicly spoke
out on the reasons for their rate increases.

First President to tell a major manufacturing company which state they
are allowed to locate a factory in.

First President to file lawsuits against the states he swore an oath
to protect (AZ, WI, OH, IN).

First President to withdraw an existing coal permit that had been
properly issued years ago.

First President to fire an inspector general of Americorps for
catching one of his friends in a corruption case.

First President to appoint 45 czars to replace elected officials in his office.

First President to golf 73 separate times in his first two and a half
years in office, 90 to date.

First President to pledge complete transparency while campaigning,
then hide his medical, educational,and travel records.

First President to win a Nobel Peace Prize for doing NOTHING to earn it.

First President to go on multiple global ‘apology tours’.

First President to go on 17 lavish vacations, including date nights
and Wednesday evening White House parties for his friends; paid for by
the taxpayer.

First President to have 22 personal servants (taxpayer funded) for his wife.

First President to keep a dog trainer on retainer for $102,000 a year
at taxpayer expense.

First President to repeat the Holy Qur’an and tells us that the early
morning Islamic call to worship is the most beautiful sound on earth.

Ok, a dog trainer on staff for $102,000 a year! I didn’t believe this one in particular so I did a little research and you guessed it, it’s all true. Wow that must be one well trained dog!

Anyhow, you get the point, he’s not who he says he is. You have to peel back the fancy talk (as he’s very eloquent) and really look at his policies and things he’s done. It’s time for him to get a new job. I can’t believe I’m saying this but where’s Hillary?

Take care, God Bless
.

I really don’t know where to start, so I’ll just start. Here’s a couple of comments from yesterday, thanks much, we love it when we get some feedback from you as sometimes we feel like no one is reading. here you go,

1. robi says:

   June 15, 2012 at 3:43 pm

   HAPPY FATHER’S DAY BROTHER!

   Reply
2. Dixie and Don says:

   June 15, 2012 at 9:28 pm

   Thanks for the blog today; yes we do need to pay more attention to our privacy rights. But don’t let the worry control your life. Lor, my love, I forgot to comment on your blog. I must say your old mother is very proud of your language skills!! Be sure that you and Doug keep up on your own kids’ development. because many of these younger teachers do not know the basics themselves (that is comparable to us old dinosaurs!)

   Thanks much little sis and Grandma Dix, you are so right about some of the teachers out there these days. The misses is on top of this having the boys do their daily Bridge Book exercises every week day during the summer.

   Now onto the day. I guess the biggest shocker yesterday (although not much shocks me anymore) is the President coming out and giving work permits to about 1 million illegal aliens that are kids of illegal aliens. Now I get that they were brought here and something needs to be done with them and immigration as a whole, but for him to circumvent the Congress and the rule of law for political purposes is, well, unfathomable. Of course, these people can now vote which is his ultimate intention as all you need is proof of residency which a work permit will show. Just last year he was the one who said he or no one could bypass Congress to do this! Now 5 months before the election with him plummeting in the polls, he pulls this crap. Personally I think it’ll backfire as there’s too many people out there who are Americans or legal immigrants who need jobs. It seems daily he panders to some special interest group trying to buy their vote. I’m just really stunned as there’s nothing this guy won’t do to get re-elected. Even if you support him, as an American, I don’t see how you could support this! It’s nothing against the kids but it should be in a way that doesn’t promote illegal immigration. I’ll bet a ton of illegals are planning on heading for the border to sneak in right now to get in on this, even as I write. Alright I’ll stop on this now as we have to leave for swimming in 45 minutes and I need to shower, eat and finish up, I’m just sick and disgusted.

   The boys had a fun day with the youngest going to his friends and the oldest to the pool for a diving lesson. The lesson was cancelled due to weather so no swimming. We all then headed up to my buddy Matts house who’s in town for 4 days from North Dakota where he took a job with an oil company. He’s one of my military and hunting buddy’s who has the huge bbq, you might remember him from previous posts. Anyhow he smoked up about 100 pounds of meat and sent us home with 3 racks of ribs, 20 pounds of pulled pork, some sausages and jalepeno’s. We froze 5 bags of pork for future batches of green chile but have a lot to eat today. I’ll drop some at my Mom’s.

   Time to run as I need to shower before we go. Hope you have a great day, do something today to prepare for the uncertain times ahead, you’ll be glad you did!

   God Bless,

“The Roman Republic fell, not because of the ambition of Caesar or Augustus, but because it had already long ceased to be in any real sense a republic at all. When the sturdy Roman plebeian, who lived by his own labor, who voted without reward according to his own convictions, and who with his fellows formed in war the terrible Roman legion, had been changed into an idle creature who craved nothing in life save the gratification of a thirst for vapid excitement, who was fed by the state, and directly or indirectly sold his vote to the highest bidder, then the end of the republic was at hand, and nothing could save it. The laws were the same as they had been, but the people behind the laws had changed, and so the laws counted for nothing.” – President Theodore Roosevelt

Anyone see any similarity between the ancient Romans and us today? It’s pretty scary how much alike the we are. Are we all so apathetic that we can’t see our lives changing and our freedoms being taken away from us on a daily basis? Does 30,000 airborne drones snooping on Americans bother any of you? Are you ok with every email, web search, and phone call being recorded? Of course the government says they won’t read anything or eavesdrop on you without a warrant. Do you really believe that those that work do so to support those that don’t? Shouldn’t everyone have to do something to contribute to society? We live in a world of entitlement where people expect things from others and don’t feel they need to do anything in return. If you look back in history, this has all happened before. Remember, like they say, everything is for our own good. I’m really afraid for the world our children will be living in in let’s say 30 or 40 years. It doesn’t look good.

Now onto our life, if you go to Google you can actually zoom in on our house and see pictures of the kids paying in the front yard. I don’t remember consenting to that but according to Google, if we use their search engine, they have the right to do so. In fact, they say they have the right to data mine everything we do. You see that’s how these web sites work. Anything you search on just once triggers a program that looks for any and all similar interests and you start getting bombarded with emails and suggested sites. Let’s say you search for something like pre civil war antique furniture, soon after you’ll get offers from web sites and companies that sell pre civil war antique furniture, try it if you don’t think it’s true. What’s worse is they have created a master file and profile on you. The point is we’re headed down a slippery slope and entering a virtual futuristic world where our every move and thought will be recorded and used for once again, our own good.

Now really onto our life, the kids are getting ready to go to the pool for their swim party day. They get their team pictures taken and then play lots of games and and have fun for a few hours. They’re super excited. Father’s Day is Sunday and the kids have decided that we should all go to Madagascar 3, the new movie out. Last night we watched old home videos of the youngest playing baseball at age 5. It was only 3 years ago but he looked so small.

In closing, the rest of the day will be filled with a bunch of work and some cleaning. The misses needs to take it easy as she’s been doing too much and when she does, her headache tends to creep back up. She of course doesn’t want to talk about it but I need to keep reminding her that it hasn’t even been 6 weeks yet and she still needs to take it easy. She can’t just jump back into life full force and do everything like before such as tons of housework and so on. In fact her life has probably changed for good with respect to what she can and can’t do with her neck and discs in the shape they’re in. Anyhow, we’re still on the road to recovery and need to remember that.

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

I landed last night around 8:45 after a quick successful trip to Houston. When I’m there I always stay by The Galleria which is the high end shopping center surrounded by the high end homes. When I say high end, I really mean high end! There’s so much money down there it’s unbelievable. I guess with it being an energy town that explains it. On the plane home they now have 100 channels of live tv so I watched the premier of Dallas. Everything comes back around, they now have resurrected a 20 year old tv series.

The night before I left we were sitting on the couch and mom was picking things up and grabbed these 2 little blue plastic cups that look like thimbles. She asked the youngest what they were and he replied as if she should know, “Mom those are hats for my thumbs!”. We looked at each other and she said, “silly me, of course they are”. The things kids come up with are unbelievable, and of course hilarious.

Today it’s back to the grind. You can still smell the smoke outside but not as bad as yesterday according to the misses. I need to be in Boulder this morning to pick up a check at 9am and then will be on the computer sifting through 400 emails by 10. I literally get over 200 emails a day. There has to be a way to cut down on this.

The oldest just made it down and I have to run him to swim team so time to run. Have a great day and we’ll see you tomorrow.

God Bless,

Good morning, afternoon, or evening to you all.  The air is much more clear this morning…thankfully.  The fires are still burning….not as bad…and the wind must have shifted because we can actually breathe today.

Yesterday, I was having Uncle T. pick the boys up from swim team while I went to a doctor appointment.  As soon as the mister opened the front door that idea quickly dissipated.  The smell of smoke was almost overwhelming and the sky was more brown than blue….yuck.  After the Mister headed off to the airport I got the kiddos ready for the trek to the doctor.  We made it to the exit in no time…15 minutes…it took 45 more to make it the next 6 miles….I can really understand “Road Rage”or “Kid Rage”, especially with the windows up, the air off (due to smoke) and the sun shining in.  The boys had electronic gadgets to entertain them during the traffic jam and I had white knuckles from the one or two cars that made it through each light change.  I felt like I was in L.A full of smog and brake lights.  I kept thinking of how much my dad hated to drive in L.A., but he would do it anyway to take me to Disneyland….I think he had to muster up patience for driving in L.A. when relatives from Oklahoma came to visit as well.  Boy did he have some spectacularly funny phrases for some of the yahoo’s or yayhoo’s on the road.  I’ll see if he won’t remind me of a few for the next time I have to drive down Colorado Blvd.

After we got home and had a bite to eat the boys and I went to the movies compliments of Gram Annette and Uncle Jim.  We saw “Dark Shadows” with Jonny Depp.  We all liked it and the kiddos are lobbying hard to see “The Avenger’s” today.

I did a bit of cleaning while the boys worked on their summer workbooks.  I kept hearing something like scraping on the roof while I was cleaning and this morning I saw a squirrel  jump from the roof to the tree.  I certainly hope he is not up to any mischief on our roof.  He is a very determined little guy.  He has blatantly snacked on my garden strawberries and has now found his way onto the squirrel proof bird feeder….after many failed attempts.  I think the snake that I had the oldest relocate to my yard for mouse control has gone back to his home across the street…bummer…I’ll have to ask him to catch another.

I’m worried a bit about our lab.  She usually follows us upstairs for bed and she follows me when I go upstairs for a shower.  She stayed downstairs last night and didn’t follow me this morning.  I’m sure it’s doggie arthritis, so I’ll start her on some joint support today and make an apt. with the vet.  She played ball yesterday and the day before, but I am limiting her to 5 throws twice a day.

The boys swam well this morning.  The oldest was moved up to the 11 and 12 year old group for practice and the youngest was told that he is the fastest breaststroke swimmer in the 8 and under.  That had to give both of them a boost and maybe take a little of the sting out of getting up at 6:15.

The Mister should be home around 9 p.m. Hopefully, the kiddos will be sleeping by then.

Take care and God Bless,

LLF

This morning I fly off to Houston and am back tomorrow evening. It’s a quick but important trip. Luckily I have first class both ways which makes it a little bit easier.

Yesterday the boys headed back to the pool in the afternoon while I took a break to head to the gym. It’s a whole different crowd in the middle of the afternoon than at 5 in the morning. The oldest worked on his dives and flip turns with his coach and both boys brought home numerous ribbons from Saturday’s meet, along with a sunburn. The misses shoulders got a lot of sun as well.

We still have fires burning out of control in the state with zero containment. Hope they get it under control.

Lot’s going on behind the scenes but I won’t bother you with it, let’s just say we hope the power of prayer works. Time for me to run as I haven’t packed yet and have a few last minute emails to send.

Hope all’s well and lucky you, the misses will be posting tomorrow.

Take care and God Bless,

Lot’s going on this week, I go to Houston tomorrow, the fire in Ft Collins is now more than 20,000 acres, the second half of our housing taxes are due along with a bunch of other bills including new hospital bills and it’ll be Father’s Day this Sunday. On top of that, there’s more but I’ll leave it at that.

I am super pleased though to let you know Grandma Dixie commented yesterday, here it is,

Thankfully today, it’s a bit cooler out. Yesterday it was hot, somewhere in the mid 90’s and while the oldest and I were on the other side of town (getting him jeans at the cowboy store) it hit 100. This morning it feels like a nice fall morning even though we still have a good 90 days of oppressive heat to come.

The boys swam well. They’ve only been at it a week or so and will take another few weeks to get into shape. There’s actually another meet this morning (going on now) but they have a birthday party to go to today, lucky us!  After the meet yesterday we all went to lunch in Golden.

We have bad fires burning here and in New Mexico. It’s real early for it to be so bad. Hopefully the weather today will help. When you live in the west, fire is one of your main concerns.

I’m going to give everyone a rest from politics today, at least in our country. On a worldwide scale though, we have some serious problems. Spain needs a $125 billion dollar bailout to survive another month or so and Greece is about to have elections. If the people of Greece vote to leave the Euro Zone, look out. To give you some idea of what’s really going on in Greece, check out this blog by a buddy over there who’s just trying to make it day by day. His name is Manos and he sent this on June 6th. Here you go,

Hi guys,

The daily life is still the same.

Things keep going because some divine hand still help us.

You wake up in the morning having no mood at all. And it’s this heat which destroys your brain cells. Today, it’s 34 degrees Celsius. (that’s like 98 degrees)

I’ve kept a small amount of around 250 euros, to buy some final provisions. Mostly meat cans, vitamins, and dried bread. I will store them to my parents’ basement, in order to have alternative escape plans.

The rumor about a power shortage is more and more been discussed around people, and alternative media. (meaning not the mainstream media like our NBC, ABC and CBS)

It’s being said that the Power Company is no longer having the money to purchase coal and diesel.

We don’t have a generator for home use, so in case of a failure, we must consume all refrigerator food first.

My wife bought two big camping gas devices, with many spare bottles of gas. We can cook all meat and veggies, and then share them with the rest of the family.

My shotgun is full and well equipped. I hope I don’t need to use it.

My car had a small steering wheel failure last Friday, and I had to fix immediately. I don’t know if we have to leave the town in a rush.

I tried to find a small hut in the property but nobody sells at all. (he means out in the country)

Prices are so low, that they don’t want to sell their properties for nothing. I’m considering to buy a caravan (trailer) and put it in the biggest olive-field. A small one with 2 beds, light enough to be dragged by my car, costs around 5.000 euros.

Today the stock market is going upwards, but soon enough the final collapse will occur. Spain is going down rapidly.

I’ll keep posting as long as I can. Don’t worry, I’m fully equipped and prepared.

Just take care of yourselves and families.

When the things reach to your neighborhood, you will have to fight.

Your fellow citizens are still living in their utopia. When they realize the danger, they will turn into ruthless beasts.

I pray for you all.

God Bless you, Manos

Now no matter what you think, this is his real life and daily concerns in his country. The point is, it’s not that far away from what could happen here. Their power grid is in real danger of going down, can you even imagine your life without power? Check this out,

Greece’s power regulator RAE told Reuters on Friday it was calling an emergency meeting next week to avert a collapse of the debt-stricken country’s electricity and natural gas system.

“RAE is taking crisis initiatives throughout next week to avert the collapse of the natural gas and electricity system,” the regulator’s chief Nikos Vasilakos told Reuters.

RAE took the decision after receiving a letter from Greece’s natural gas company DEPA, which threatened to cut supplies to electricity producers if they failed to settle their arrears with the company.

Source: Reuters

Now the point of all this is, you have to stop believing nothing can happen to you! I’m not saying what’s happening in Greece is going to happen here, but the point is, it could. We have been conditioned to believe whatever they tell us on the idiot box or in the papers is true. We believe when the stock market goes up on one day, everything is fine. There are too many warning signs out there for us not to be concerned. For example, for the first time in the history of our nation over 50% of the people receive some sort of government subsidy or support to live. Food stamp distribution is at a record high, more people are living paycheck to paycheck and are only 2 weeks away from poverty than anytime in our history. There’s a ton of economic data which is pretty complicated that I won’t go in to but trust me, some really smart guys are very worried. All in all it adds up to a house of cards that can go down at a moments notice.

So now that I’ve made my case trying to convince you that your idyllic life in your little corner of the World is pretty fragile, what should you do about it. First off, believe it, as it’s true! Next once you accept that things are much different than they were even 10 years ago, and also understand they can change at a moments notice, the only prudent thing to do is to take some simple steps to prepare. This isn’t about democrats or republicans or our political system. It’s about the global economy and the coming global recession that will soon arrive.

So all I’m asking is that you take a few simple steps to be in a better position should something happen. Please humor me and do the following even if you think I’m nuts. Here’s what you should do,

1. Stock up on your medications. You do this by refilling your prescriptions every 3 weeks instead of every 4 or when you run out. Over time you can accumulate a good supply. The misses and I have over a years supply (instead of 30 days) of ours by doing this and it was all paid for by the insurance company.

2. Please buy some extra food. Prices are going up and up almost daily so the worst that’ll happen is you save some money. Buy what you eat, we get tuna fish and can goods and lots of condiments like honey, peanut butter, jams and jellies, pasta, rice and beans, etc. that we use all the time plus watch for meat and chicken on sale and then stock the freezer.

3. Keep a little money at home, a few hundred dollars is good but keep in small bills. People will still take the funny paper money even if it’s not worth much.

4. Next, always and I mean always, keep your gas tanks at least half full. Better yet, if you can remember, try to fill them when they are between half and 3/4 of a tank.

5. Last and probably most important is to keep some bottled water around. If the power is shut off for any reason, your water will stop. Without power, the water companies cannot run their machines to get water to your tap. You can go a month without food but only 3 days without water.

There’s lots more you can do but I’m not going to go into that, let’s just start here. Those of you that are older can probably remember your parents doing all these things when you were a child. I’m sure you had a root cellar with extra food and such. These days we’ve ll been so conditioned that if we run out of something we can just hop in the car and  drive 1/4 mile down to the store and pick it up. It’s going to be a real wake up call when you can’t do this anymore.

Oh well, I’ll stop now as I’ve probably lost some of you who have dismissed all this as not possible. I hope you’re right. One last thing, don’t forget about your pets. We practice the same strategy with pet food as we do with gas, we always have a few months extra dog food, which in our case means an extra 100 pounds! In any case, even if you think I’m nuts, just humor me and go out and do what I say. It shouldn’t cost you more than a nice dinner out and if I’m right, you’ll be glad you did.

God Bless,

We were first rousted out of bed at 4am by Lacey the lab and then tried to go back to sleep until 5. We’re supposed to leave in 25 minutes but don’t know how we’re going to make it!

I had to go visit a few accounts yesterday am and then worked around the house. Grandma came over for a hamburger at 5 and we had a nice time. The boys were fine playing outside but finally came in and were not really on their best behavior. The misses and I were pretty cranky so that didn’t help much. Grandma left about 7pm after hanging out with us and the dogs. Hope we didn’t offend her.

We’re moving pretty slow and running out of time. I guess I’ll stay away from politics today but do have to mention one thing our Pres said yesterday. He called a press conference to basically blame everything on Europe and then made a huge gaff saying the economy in the private sector was fine. What, the economy anywhere fine? Of course everyone, dems and repubs jumped on this within minutes and within an hour he was walking it backwards and changing what he said. Also Diane Feinstein, a top dem had a press conference saying she wants an investigation on all the classified material that has recently been leaked. It’s obvious that the White House leaked the info as it only benefited the Pres. Now it might not have been him personally but was his administration. I don’t think they thought this would be such a big deal but to have top dems calling for an investigation is not good. All in all, it was a really bad day for the incumbent. I never would have thought the dems would shoot themselves in the foot as many times as they recently have. Top surrogates (Pres Clinton, Corey Booker, Harold Ford, Ed Rendell) are contradicting the White House position on everything from taxes to how they attack Romney. Class warfare isn’t working and won’t work. When did success become such a bad thing?

Ok, I guess that’s a bit more than 1 thing but wow, lots going on. We’re supposed to be there in 15 minutes and I think Mom is taking our stuff and the boys over and dropping them off for warm ups and then will come back and she and I will head over about 30 minutes later.

Take care, God Bless,