A Year of Change

Wow, less than a week ago my blood pressure was 140 over 105 or something like that. Yesterday I was 110 over 87! I don’t know about you but this is a dramatic turnaround in less than 7 days. I’ve done a lot of research (thank God for the internet) and one of the wisest decisions I have ever made in my life was to not take the prescribed bp medicine given to me by my doctor. I could go on and on here into more detail but it’d probably take up your entire day. Suffice it to say that your total body health and key to longevity (or living a long time) is 100% related to your vascular health. Inflammation is a guaranteed killer. If any of you are on bp meds, know that there are things you can do (if you really want to) to get off those medicines and live a healthy life. Please do not stop taking any medications you are on without discussing it with your doctor but do know that if you really want to, you can get your life to a point through diet and exercise where you do not need to take a handful of pills each day. Ok I’ll stop as I know I’m not a doctor (although I played one in college several times!) and I don’t want to preach to everyone, but I do feel compelled to let you know about how quickly I was able to change my blood pressure readings after two separate doctors threw 2 different medicines at me within the period of a week, after spending less than 10 minutes with me each time! It’s not easy and has required a total change in lifestyle (haven’t had red meat since getting back from Italy) but I’ve felt better than I have in a long time. Ok ok onto the day.

The yard is full of leaves and the boys were stuffing their shirts with as many as they could making them look like Santa Claus with a full belly. They had piles and piles of them and were throwing them in the air and at each other. It was one of those Norman Rockwell moments to see young kids enjoying the simple pleasure of playing in the front yard with a pile of golden leaves on a crisp fall afternoon. The misses, upon seeing the neighbor put up some halloween decorations, decided to put up even more at our house. It’s always kind of a fun friendly unspoken competition between her and Roxanne (our neighbor) to see who can put up the most decorations on every holiday. Has anyone seen the movie Christmas Vacation with Chevy Chase playing Clark Griswald? That’s what it’s like around here. I just kind of laugh and let her go to work as she enjoys it so much. I love the holiday’s and am thrilled that the misses makes such a big deal about it for our kids as I want them to experience and remember the happy times of the holidays when they get older. Life goes so so fast, we all need to embrace and enjoy every single day.

The misses worked yesterday and then came home and made a great dinner of fresh wild alaskan cod with a salad for us while the boys had some pasta. The oldest still hungry, finished off the cod on his own as he decided he’d give it a try and voila, he loved it! Everyone is still sleeping and it’s almost 6am. I have lots of work today and the misses is going to tackle the house again. Both dogs are sleeping at my feet and it’s time for a cup of coffee.

The misses will be taking over this weekend as I’ll be elk and grouse hunting in the mountains. There’s three of us going and it’ll be a fun time, whether we get an elk or not. I’ll let you know more about this tomorrow. Oh , Grandma Annette sent a remarkable email yesterday that I’ll share a few bits from tomorrow if I remember.

Take care and God Bless,

I landed in San Fran at 7:30am and after a 1 1/2 hour drive to Santa Rosa, a 1 hour meeting and a 1 1/2 hour drive back to the airport, it was wheels up by 1:15. I landed back in Denver at 4:30 and was home an hour later. The misses was making a warm healthy dinner of baked chicken breast and some lentils which we both love.

From what I understand the boys had a great day but Mom was a bit under the weather with a sore throat and a slight temperature. I hope she’s feeling better this morning as she has to be at work by 7:15.

It’s cool out this morning but I think yesterday morning was a bit cooler. It’s supposed to warm up which is too bad as I’m elk hunting this weekend and snow would make the chances of success a whole lot better. The season runs until October 30th so hopefully the snow will arrive in the high country by then. Today I have a bunch of work to do (what’s new) and am so slammed between now and Christmas that I’m not sure how to get it all done. The youngest one has the eggs and frying pan out and wants to make me “yellow eggs and toast” for breakfast. he says “yellow eggs” as he only eats “white eggs” or those without yolks.

Halloween is coming up fast and we need to get both boys costumes lined up. The misses and I will be sporting our new masks made for Carnival in Venice. We managed to find four handmade masks on our trip that are truly works of art. They were pretty reasonably priced too, after I had a discussion with the shop owner, which brought the price way down. Give the misses something as simple as one mask and she’ll build a whole theme party around it. We’ll have to wait and see what she comes up with.

We also have the Museum of Contemporary Art annual gala coming up on the 27th. We have a table for 8 and need to decide who to take. I’m supposed to be back in San Francisco on the 27th for a 9am meeting but am trying to move it so I don’t have to get up at 3am on the day of the big party.

Politics politics, where do you start. About the most honest thing I’ve heard from a politician in a long time came from Senator Tom Coburn, a former doctor, who said all of Washington (the President and the GOP) are afraid to tell the American people the truth in fear of not getting elected. His point was medicare and social security are not sustainable and will need to be changed but both parties are so afraid of alienating the seniors who are the largest voting block out there, so they will not tell the truth. He said Washington needs to stop treating us like children and tell us the truth. Now I think most of us that really think about it know the truth, but there are so many uninformed people out there who are so easily swayed by tv ads and sound bites. To me it’s comical how the people in power can stand up and tell us things that are just not true with a straight face. I mean come on, anyone can find some way to manipulate some fact to say just about anything these days. Think about it, they can’t all be right? Someone is not telling us the truth and I suspect it is none of them that are telling us the whole truth and nothing but the truth as this wouldn’t support their agenda. Anyhow I’m starting to get stressed out just thinking about how dysfunctional D.C. is so I’m going to sign off now.

Hope you all have a great day and we’ll see you tomorrow.

I feel pretty good for 3am and am actually getting used to getting up around now. I need to start sleeping a bit later though as I get most of my work done and still have some free time. Probably 4:30 is the best time to get up.

Well it looks like meditation works. My blood pressure in 3 days has dropped about 25 points on the top number and 10 on the bottom. The body is a pretty amazing thing, I’m soooo glad I decided not to take the medicine the doctor tried to put me on. I heard horror stories from many people including Pa Don who ended up in the ER with a swollen face and was unable to breathe from the very medicine I was prescribed! When it comes to your health, they always say “you know your body the best”. I marvel at how someone who you see for 10 minutes can make life altering decisions for you. Now I’m not saying doctors are bad, I just think you need to take an active role in managing your own health. Oh well, to each their own.

The misses cleaned the house from top to bottom yesterday and it is sparkling. We had teacher conferences with both boys teachers yesterday and they are doing great. I also managed to get the sprinklers blown out as it is supposed to freeze tonight.

Time to hit the showers and grab a bowl of cereal with the clock approaching 3:30. I need to leave around 4:15 for my 6am flight and will be home at 5:30 depending on traffic. So sorry for the short post this morning.

Have a great day and take care of yourself, winter is coming on fast, hope everyone has a warm coat!

God Bless,

It’s 5am and I’ve been to the gym to lift some weights, walked for 30 minutes, stopped by the grocery store to get some cream for the misses coffee, meditated peacefully for awhile and fed the pups. I woke up about 3:30 and decided since I have a 6am flight to San Francisco tomorrow, I might as well stay in the 3:30 to 4am wake up mode. Hopefully this isn’t my new “5am”.

Last might the misses made a great healthy dinner of chicken, lentils with zucchini and turmeric (curry spice) and gold yukon baked potato’s which we topped with non fat yogurt. It was a great dinner and the potato’s were super sweet for some reason. The boys played hard yesterday as usual although the youngest had a rough morning. I left for Vail around 5am and was home by 7:50 and then we all headed off to the 5K run. The oldest finished with a personal best of just over 28 minutes! Now if you divide this by 3.106 (the miles in a 5K) that means he was running under 9 minute miles. I don’t know about you but I’m not sure if I could run 1 mile in 9 minutes much less 3, and I’m in pretty good shape. (if I do say so myself) The youngest and Mom came in about 12 minutes behind him at 41 minutes. Of course the youngest decided to stop, take off his shoes so he could remove his long pants as he was hot, and then walked for a bit as his good friend kept saying “please walk and talk with me”. Finally Mom convinced him to leave his little friend and continue the run. I guess at 7 you’re not as competitive as when you’re 9.

Later in the day we went to a sort of farmers market and bought some huge pumpkins. Each of the boys picked out their own and they both weighed in over 30 pounds. We also bought 40 lbs. of fresh local pinto beans and some just canned jams and jelly. The rest of the day was spent watching a little bit of football and relaxing.

Now to a little bit of politics, have you been paying attention to all the Occupy Wall Street protests all over the World? I hope so as this is not a small thing that is just going to go away by ignoring it, as it has too much momentum. Just look at the 200,000 people in Rome rioting in the streets. Many of them don’t even know why? The main problem I have with this is they should be protesting the governments that are making bad policies and decisions but instead are demonizing Wall Street as it’s a much easier target. I do however agree with a lot of the principals the people are trying to make. The divide in our Country and our World is getting so big that the “have nots” are just not going to take it anymore. When a man has nothing left (no job and no home) and you’ve pushed him to the breaking point, what does he have to lose? If you think about it, this is not a money divide, but rather a power divide. You see we have a small select number of people in power (politicians and government officials) who are making major decisions that impact you and I, that are not based on the greater good of our Country but rather what is in their own best interests. Aren’t you sick of the endless campaigning by everyone in office? I sure am. Think about it, has anything changed in Washington these days since Obama was elected? If you’re honest with yourself, the answer is no. Whether you are a democrat or republican, it’s the same old thing in D.C. as it was when Bush was in office. Now I don’t have a problem with someone working hard and making a lot of money but I do have a problem with politicians and crooked bankers and/or CEO’s who purposely cheat their way to the top on the backs of regular people. It’s not the rich that have caused our problems, it’s the system, and the crooks that take advantage of it. Being rich or making money is not a bad thing. Think about it, what if we all stopped trying to do our best and succeed, then you’d see real problems. Once again, the system is too big which has created too many easy ways for the people in power (politicians and their cronies and lobbyists who are mega companies who have only their own interests in mind) to take advantage of their positions and manipulate the system. It all gets down to the fact that our government is just too big. We need to go back to the day when we didn’t have layers and layers of regulation and roadblocks to wade through in order to get ahead. I think one of the main differences now is that when I was a kid you could look at someone rich and successful and say “if I work hard, I too can have that”. These days I’m not so sure that holds true anymore. Ok, how’s that for a jump back into politics. Hope you all are doing what you can to prepare for the uncertain times ahead. Once again, do not take what’s going on around the World lightly. There are factions that are very organized within these protests that want nothing more than to bring some governments down and unfortunately the crowds are following along with them. It’s the old mob mentality thing, people get worked up in a frenzy and follow along. Be careful and watch yourself as I fear this is only going to get bigger.

Now onto the day, both boys are up and the oldest one is sore from running. Mom’s trying to get the youngest to do some homework which he’s put off for the weekend. We’re going to have some breakfast now so time to run. We hope everyone has a great day and is doing well, God Bless.

I slept last night from about 7 until 4 this morning. I think the misses and the boys watched a movie and came to bed around 9. I could have slept longer but I’m going to run up to Vail and get the truck tabs this morning. The misses and the boys have a 5K race this morning so hopefully I’ll be back by 8.

Yesterday the wife and I managed to tackle the house, at least the kitchen, living room and our room. Uncle T took the oldest along with him to the mall in Boulder where he was Christmas shopping. Wonder if he has his tree up yet? (he’s famous for getting as much out of the holidays as he can which I admire) They then went with Aunt B to their favorite pizza joint called The Oven while the youngest guy played across the street with his  friend. Before all this we went to the youngest ones soccer game where he played great! His coach said all that time over in Italy practicing with the Italian team really paid off! They won 9 to 0. We even felt bad for the other team.

During the afternoon the misses and I went to the Kiyra Yoga center to study meditation with this guy who studies under a famous Guru who now lives in France. Now this might seem funny to you but after coming back from Italy, my blood pressure was still a bit elevated, pre-hypertension they called it. Of course the doctor wanted to throw some medication at me which included a ton of side effects that would then require more meds. After reading up on these, I just said no. So, I immediately have changed my diet and decided in my pursuit of being calmer and not getting upset about things I cannot control, to take up meditation. We’ve been thinking of this for a long time and believe in it but always seemed to put it off for one reason or another. Believe it our not, both the misses and I felt a sense of calm we haven’t felt in a very long time after 2 hours of practice. I won’t go too deep into this but will just say that it really helped us both. Michael (our teacher who is in his 60’s and been practicing for over 40 years here and in India, (I can see Uncle T laughing now!) also taught us a breathing technique that is so effective that you can take your bp, then breathe using this technique, then take it again and see a dramatic drop in your numbers. Anyhow yesterday was the first day I can ever remember when I didn’t lose my cool or get upset at anything. For me, this is no small matter as something would always set me off each day, if even only for a minute or two, that in the long run, was out of my control or didn’t really matter or warrant any reaction, much less one that would get me upset. Ok, I’ll stop now but my motto has always been , “whatever works”. Hey look at it this way, I could be spouting off about politics. (don’t worry Uncle T, I’ll continue to do so, just not today!) I’m actually thankful my blood pressure is up a bit as it has forced me to re-examine how I’m living my life. In the long run, the changes we (the misses and I) make are going to be good for us and the whole family. (the misses sometimes gets more upset than I over certain things but wouldn’t you know it, her bp is 80 over 60!) Ok so remember, tranquillo tranquillo, (italian for relax, relax) time to move on as today we have football!

Time to jump in the shower and hit the road. I hope everyone is well and we are saying prayers for Uncle Bill in Texas and Grandma Dixie who I know is worrying about him. Take care and until tomorrow, God Bless.

I think yesterday was a worse day for the misses and I than the day before. She was really dragging most of the day and I hit the wall around 6pm and fell asleep. It’s now about 4am and I woke up a few times between midnight and when I got up. Hopefully today will be better. I’m going to head out to the gym right after finishing the blog to try to gt rid of this lingering headache I have. Other than that, all’s great!

Not sure what to do about taxes today. I have until Monday on the Federal return but need to send in the State return today. Oh well, I’m sure no one cares about that.

The youngest one has a soccer game at 10am this morning. Finally we get an early game rather than in the middle of the afternoon. Tomorrow I’ll have to drive to Vail to get my tabs for the truck as Tuesday we need both cars since I have a 6am flight to San Francisco. We’ve been in kind of a fog so not much else to say as I can’t remember much from yesterday. Anyhow, hope all’s well and that everyone has a great weekend. God Bless

That’s right, we woke up at 3:15 thanks to the youngest guy and finally relented and crawled out of bed around 4am. The whole crew is up now and Mom just played a game of Go Fish with the boys. Thankfully we fell asleep around 7:30 so we did get some sleep. Today we will try to get back into our normal sleep routine by staying up late so we can sleep later. The young guy is having a rough morning but we’ll cut him some slack.

The oldest guy’s class is having a root beer float party today which they earned by excelling in their studies. Mom and I went grocery shopping yesterday and were determined to stay on the edges or outside of the store. In case you don’t know, this is where the fresh good food is. You get in trouble when you start going down those aisles. Last night we had fresh vegetables and seafood over pasta for dinner, it was good and the boys ate it right up. Mojo seems to now be conditioned to sleeping inside and sleeps right on through the night. Both pups are glad we’re home.

We made it up to see Grandma yesterday between the 6 loads of laundry and need to get down to Uncle T and Aunt B’s today. We have a few small gifts for them we hope they enjoy. There’s nothing we can buy them to thank them enough for taking care of the dogs, someone even cleaned up the dog poop!

Fall is definitely in the air. When we left it was still summer but the cool mornings of October are now here. I need to run up to Vail sometime to get my license tabs for our truck which are sitting up there in the p.o.box. The high up there was 42 degrees yesterday so the snow will be coming soon. We did get the boys nice winter coats while in Italy so they should be good to go. Taxes are due tomorrow, what a nice surprise, I think it’s about $8000, whoo hoo, welcome home! Anyhow we’ll manage somehow, we hope. I’ve decided I just can’t get upset at anything anymore, taxes, bills, the kids, politics, anything, I’m through, zip it, nada, no way Jose, not gonna happen. I just don’t need the stress. I had this epiphany in Italy and realized it doesn’t do any good to get so upset. Thanks to the misses for helping me see this as she constantly pointed out how upset I was getting at things that really didn’t matter. This transformation won’t happen overnight (wish it would!) but I’m really going to try. Life’s too short to get upset over things that really don’t matter all that much.

Mom’s the one on edge this morning as the kids are as loud as they would be if they were on the playground running around with their friends. She hasn’t yet caught up on her sleep as she’s been letting me get to bed early. I think today I’ll try to make sure she sneaks in a nap. The boys are now, at 4:35am, playing keep away from the dogs with some new dog toy from Aunt B. Oh well, not gonna get upset, not gonna do it! I mean what’s 200 pounds of dog and 125 pounds of kids running around the house in the middle of the night anyhow, I’ll tell you, it’s a freakin nightmare!

Anyhow the youngest is bugging me for the computer to play some math games so time to sign off. Hope you all have a great day and have fun plans for the weekend. Grandma Dixie is off to Texas this morning as her brother is not doing well, our prayers are with him and hope he gets better. She and Pa Don were supposed to come visit next week but I think that’s off or at least postponed for now. Please say a prayer for Uncle Bill and Grandam Dixie, it really does help!

So take care, cherish each day and God Bless,

After 19 hours of flying we landed in Denver around 5:30pm. Our ride was stuck in traffic so we sat out on the curb for about 20 minutes waiting to get on our way home.

The first flight at 10:30pm Denver time on the night of the 11th was delayed an hour so we sat on the tarmac for 1/2 hour before our journey home began. Next up was Frankfurt where we had about 2 1/2 hours before boarding for the U.S. We finally got on and settled in only to find we were surrounded by a plane full of Russian women on their way to the U.S. The misses was sitting next to the lady who was in charge of the group. It was made up of 50 education people or teachers that were splitting up into 10 groups of 5 going all over the country to visit how we teach our children. Most if not all of these women had never been on a plane and it was quite obvious. They strolled up and down the aisles for what seemed like the whole flight, even when the fasten seat belt light was on. They clearly had a different way of doing things. At one point I looked over to the misses and said “what stinks” only to find out the lady behind me was taking a sponge bath in her seat! The next time someone wonders why I go out of my way to maintain my elite status (flying a minimum of 50,000 mile per year), try sitting in coach with a bunch of smelly Russians for 9 hours!. We finally landed in the rain in Washington D.C. and cleared customs and were off to our gate for our last flight home. While boarding their was a man trying to check a bag and he was getting no attention from the gate attendant. We were at the front of the line due to our elite status (we get to board first) and after talking to this guy found out he had Parkinson’s. I told him to stay with me and board with us and I would take his bag and carry it on and put it by my seat and then carry it off for him. He was very thankful and couldn’t stop thanking me in his southern Virginia drawl. When he met us getting off the plane he continued to thank me and told the boys what a good man their dad was. I gave him my card after he said he needed a new neurologist as I thought maybe whatever my Mom was taking might be better than what he was, who knows.

Anyhow, home at last and the dogs were super happy to see us. We showered quickly and were all asleep by 7:30pm. The misses, the little guy and I (all prompted by the little guy) woke up at 3. It’s now about 4:30 in the morning. Back to the dogs, it seems Aunt B bought the dogs new beds, dishes, toys and exercised them a bunch. I’m not sure they wanted us to come home! Thanks so much, it’s a big relief when you can go away knowing your pets are well taken care of.

We are going to write up a separate summary of the trip for everyone complete with pictures that will hopefully be done by next Monday. Today will be filled with laundry, cleaning, grocery shopping and work. One thing we have to say is how different, and we think better, everyday life is in Europe. No one watches tv much n’or are they consumed with the every day news cycle like we are here. They pretty much get up and take care of living life each day ignoring most of the drama going on in the World. It seems it’s all about family and being happy and of course good food with fresh local ingredients. What a difference. One other point, everyone is happy living in small spaces that are set up to be very efficient. Kitchens especially are smaller than ours but set up better. Everyone also recycles everything, not much waste. We could all learn a thing or two from them.

It’s now 4:40 and I need to shower and head to the store for some eggs and fresh coffee from Starbucks but am doubtful it will be anything close to the great coffee and milk we had over there. The misses and I are determined to change our family’s diet to include more fresh veggies and fruit in all of our diets. We have to try to get off the chemically stuffed pre packaged foods our country is full of. We’ve always tried to eat well but need to do better. So much of what we eat here is just not good for us. Ok ok, I’ll stop before I go off on a rant. We didn’t miss politics at all and surprise, nothing much changed. Maybe I need to give up all the politics watching all together. It’s just so “in your face” here. I’m going to try though, wish me luck.

Take care and sorry about the inconsistent posting, we’ll get back on track, promise. God Bless,

Today was filled with a morning trip to the market which is a group of merchants that travel and set up in a different town each day. They have everything from clothes to kitchen utensils to shoes and more. The women bought some scarves while the boys and I patiently followed along. Next up was a trip down to the river to let the boys burn off some stored up energy. Then off to lunch where we had amazing food. I had rissotto with scampi (fresh) with truffles which is too hard to describe so I will just say it was great. The misses had some kind of fresh salad also with fresh fish and it was all topped off with some sort of prosecco, lemon and a small splash of vodka blended like a smoothie! What, how do these people work? Oh wait, they close everything down from about 1 until 4:30 each day, what a life.

We then went with Kristina on a road trip to several small surrounding towns to see various castles and historical sites. We are now back at their home waiting for Paolo who is making pizza for everyone to eat along with 1996 Salon champagne. (this is a stupidly sick expensive bottle of french champagne that the misses has never even had) Their oven even has a brick for making pizza on the bottom shelf and he is still out buying special supplies for the pizzas. We hope to get back to our hotel by 10 (it is now 7pm) to pack as in the morning we head to Verona. To our surprise, Kristina is going with us to show us the town and she will take a 8pm train an hour and a half back to Montebelluna where we are now. We told her this was not necessary but she will not take no for an answer saying she must show us Verona. This is a welcome treat as it would not be easy for us to even get there as we are way off the Autostrada or highway.

Anyhow we probably will not get to post tomorrow and the next morning we get on a plane so this will most likely be it until we get home. Hope all is well, we have had a magical time and seen more than money could buy thanks to the generosity of our friends both here in Italy and Slovenia. It has been great but it will also be great to get home. That is the great thing about home, it is always good to get back to!

Take care, God Bless and we will see you all soon,

Ok, thankfully we have great friends here as we would have never made it into or out of Venice on our own. It is spectacular but so crowded and expensive you would not believe it. Picture NY on the most crowded day possible and multiply by at least 5.

We walked for miles and had a great time but were so glad to get out. We took a water taxi (like in James Bond,s Casino Royale) when we left which was amazing. We just finished pasta with tono (tuna) at Paolo and Kristinas house and the boys are watching their first tv in a week. Tomorrow morning is the market in Valdobiadenne and then we are grilling some bistecca (steak) tomorrow night. It seems like we have been gone a month so it will be good to get home but every day has brought something exciting and new.

As I said breifly about yesterday, we went to the top of this mountain where they made fresh cheese (all kinds) from these giant european cows like from the movie Heidi complete with cow bells and all. It also started to snow and was so cold until we drove down the mountain about 1200 meters lower where it warmed up again.

I will try to write tomorrow as the next day we probably will not get to as we are on our own driving to Verona. We then fly out at 10:30pm Tuesday night Colorado time for home and are due to arrive around 5:30 Wednesday night. We will get lots of pictures and send you all a detailed summary of the trip.

Hope all is well and everyone is safe, take care and God Bless.