A Year of Change

The day began early with Mom cleaning here and then down at L.O.L’s house. It ended at 8:30 after the boys football games. We did make it to the gym around 8:30 after I had a few calls which was a good break for the misses and I. It was hot and kind of sticky yesterday and the mosquitos were out at dusk which is when the football games were played.

The youngest was up first and it wasn’t 5 minutes into the game before his team was down 21-0. It was just one of those nights when all the balls bounced the wrong way. The other team intercepted 2 passes and ran for touchdowns on consecutive plays. It was too bad as that was too big of a hole to dig out of. In any case, they had a great season and the pizza, trophy, medal and goodie bag full of candy more than made up for any bad feelings anyone had. We had to laugh as at the end the little one came up to us and said ” Dad, they kicked the S word out of us”! These were his exact words, he didn’t say the actual word, but said the “S” word.

Next up was the oldest ones games. There were three teams up for the championship so they played a round robin format where each team played two games so they all played each other. Both games were close but in the end the oldest ones team won both and was crowned champions for the second season in a row. In the spirit of full disclosure, the one team that I think might have beat them was unable to play, but you never know and since they weren’t there, a championship is a championship. The oldest one, like everyone on the team, played a pivotal part in the game. Last night he was more of a force on defense than offense as the games were more low scoring in this format. He made numerous key plays either sacking the quarterback or forcing him out of the pocket with his signature mad rush while screaming at the quarterback. This tactic seems to really bother the opponents all season long. I don’t think they’ve ever had anyone rushing at them that they actually physically feared. On offense, he had a couple of good runs when he had the ball. On one play he was briefly open for a long pass which just about made it to him but the defender of the other team ran into him and actually cut his legs out from under him as he was in the air going for the ball. It was clearly interference but the worst part was when he landed he twisted his ankle. Play was stopped by the referee while we all rushed over to him as he was rolling in pain on the ground. I took off his shoe and sock and his ankle was a little swollen so I helped him up to the sidelines to a round of applause from all the parents and his teammates. As soon as we made it to the sidelines, his coach asked if he was ok and he said “yeah, put me back in”. I laced up his shoe tight as I could and he was back in the game within minutes. I’m sure today he’ll be a little sore. In the end as I said earlier, the boys had won both games and were crowned champs once again. We were all happy for them. There’s only 1 player on this team that he previously knew, which was good as he now has a whole new crowd of friends from another school. I think it’s really good for the boys to socialize and meet new people through sports and activities while growing up instead of just playing with the same group each year. Even at their young age, there’s a lot of drama and posturing going on such as clicks, bullying, etc., so it’s great he’s branched out to a new crowd which actually seems a little bit older and more mature than his class at school. I think this is because his team has a number of kids that are a year older than him but he fits right in.

We all arrived home around 8:45 after Mom stopped to give Bunkie his evening dose of insulin. The boys went to bed pretty quick and are still sleeping. Mom works today from 8:15 until 5pm and she’s walking around this morning pretty tired.

It’s now 7am and the misses just made me some eggs. I almost forgot, my Mom called yesterday afternoon and gave each boy $5o for new school clothes. They were eager to spend it so we headed off to Kohls for some new duds. After much negotiation in the store, we made it out with $250 worth of new stuff. It could have been worse, but as we were checking out the man in front of me told the young kid that he was 55 years old. I asked why this mattered and he said that if you’re 55 or older you get a 15% discount! Now hearing the word “discount” I promptly said “and I’m only 54” in my best tone of disappointment. To my surprise, the young kid said “I think you’re 55” meaning we too were getting the discount, yea! (more on me being almost 55 in the coming days) Now I’ve never seen my age in print or given a, wait I can’t bring myself to say it, oh well, here goes, a SENIOR DISCOUNT! This is quite alarming and I’m going to have to make some radical life changes now that I’m actually that old, if it’s true. First I think I need to have a battery of scientific tests to make sure I’m really that old, something like carbon dating. Personally I think I’m pretty sure my Mom, my drivers license, my birth certificate and all other documents out there are actually part of a big conspiracy as I’m really in my mid 40’s! Must have something to do with Obama or China or the democrats, some sinister master plan to make me think I’m older than I am! I’ll get to the bottom of it and keep you posted.

Well time to run, I need to hit take a shower and get ready for the day. We’re out of milk, again! We’d better think seriously about getting that cow and putting her up at Grandma’s, maybe we can get her one for Christmas! Hope you all are doing well, have a great day, remember winter’s coming on fast. God Bless you all, here’s a quote for the day,

“Do the best you can, with what you have, where you are.” – Theodore Roosevelt

Today is the last day of the summer football season and both boys have their Super Bowl games. The little guy is up first at 6:15 and then the oldest has two 20 minute games as part of a 3 game round robin to determine the championship in his age group.

Before I get into the activities of yesterday, today is post #23o meaning there’s 135 days left in the year! Soon the holidays will be here and then we’ll be talking about Spring fast approaching, WOW.

Mom worked until 3pm yesterday and I had to stick the boys in front of the tv for most of the morning while I had calls with NY and CA. They say we get our car back this morning but we’ve been told that before. We’re still waiting on a check from the insurance company as even though the other drivers company has admitted fault, they’re now disputing the extent of the damage. Typical big company bull, they’re quick to take your money but when it comes time for them to pay out, they’ll fight tooth and nail not to meet their obligation.

It seems cooler out this morning, falls coming fast. Mom did get the boys to the pool for an afternoon swim when she got home from work. We’re still eating leftover ribs from Sunday night when everyone cancelled on dinner. Hopefully we’ll run out soon.

We stopped by Grandma’s for a few minutes and she called later commenting how much the little guy has grown. You know how when you don’t see someone all the time and it’s more obvious if they’ve grown, well that’s what my Mom noticed. We too see it and he has had a growth spurt this summer. Both boys have super long legs. I’m sure we’ll need to buy some new jeans and shoes in the next few months.

Obama continues his “everybody’s at fault but me” bus tour and now he’s headed off to Martha’s Vineyard for a 10 day vacation. I don’t know if I’ve ever had a 10 day vacation. Personally I think all of Congress should be back at work along with the President. He’s just so arrogant, I can’t even stand to watch the man on tv anymore. Sorry to all you Obama supporters but even you have to be questioning if this man’s in over his head. I mean how long can you blame George Bush? Sooner or later you have to take responsibility for what’s going on. I’ll stop now as I feel myself going into a 2000 word rant.

I hear the misses stirring, maybe she can take over and write some. Whoops, it was the little guy who just came down. Mom’s still sleeping. I have a call with a potential employee in CA in about 10 minutes so time to wrap it up. I just went up and roused the misses so I’ll ask her to take over and write a bit. I’m sure most of you would love to hear from her. Have a great day and take care of yourself. Here’s Mom,

Good Morning. The youngest boy is sitting here next to me and I think he should still be sleeping by the tone of his voice. Yikes, it could be an interesting morning.

The makeover plan today is as follows…exercise the dogs, the boys and myself…hang and put away the four folded loads of laundry, clean the bathrooms, dust and chase dog hair with the vacuum. After all that fun I am headed to L.O.L.’s to clean for 2 hours.

I promised to take the kiddos to the pool some time today since the storm clouds moved in quite rapidly yesterday and spoiled their fun.  The youngest wants to have a sleepover at our house with one of his friends tonight. I am on the fence because I work tomorrow morning at 8:15 and this little friend has a voice that may actually be louder than both of our boys put together. This presents a problem for the Mister since quiet is what he needs for his a.m. call.  I’ll try to put off the sleepover until Friday night..wish me luck and a backbone in my negotiations with the 7yr old.

Well off to start the day and complete the makeover tasks…if the tasks are in print they must get done!!!

God bless to all,

LLF

Last year on August 16th at about 1am in the morning, my dad passed away. I thought a lot about whether or not to write about this today. I woke up last night about 1:10am out of a deep sleep and looked at the clock. Funny as this was close to the exact time I received a phone call a year ago telling me my dad was gone. It’s been a tough year and all of us have missed him. The most vocal of all of us has been the little guy who often comments that he wishes Grandpa was here or that Grandpa would have liked that or that he wonders what Grandpa is doing. I know too my Mom misses him and it hasn’t been an easy year adjusting to this void in her life. With all that said, life goes on and we all have to continue to live. Easier said than done but if you knew my dad, that’s what he’d want you to do. For me, it seems so unfair that this man worked all his life putting others first and when the time came for him to relax and enjoy himself, he didn’t get the chance. I think this is a lesson for us all to live life to the fullest and follow your dreams. I for one don’t want to be sitting around when I’m 80 saying I wish I did this or that. Remember no one is ever on their death bed saying “I wish I worked more”. So do me a favor today and take a few seconds to think about my dad, and then think about your own life and what you want to do. It doesn’t matter how old you are or how much money you have, if you have always wanted to do something in your life, do it now, before it’s too late!

Now onto the day, yesterday I received a great book in the mail from Grandma Annette. It is about the rise and fall of the Comanche Indian tribe. I haven’t read it yet but thanks. The best part of this was she included a note saying how she and her sister read the blog everyday and that they feel they are getting to know us so much more through reading what’s going on each day in our lives. This right there makes this all worth it. I also had to laugh as she said she “doesn’t blame us for not wanting to live in California”. She goes on to say she and Grandpa Jim “totally agree with my politics having been in small business”. She’s pretty smart! Next she writes (and this is pretty profound as well), that she doesn’t think “anyone in politics ever read any history like the Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire”. In closing she says she’s sure “we will be gone but I fear for your kids”. Now the misses and I couldn’t have summed it up better. You see, it’s all about (or should be), the next generation and the future of our kids. They deserve a fair chance at life like we had growing up. Those of you older than the misses and I had the best chance. Our generation (the baby boomers, I hate that label!) also had a pretty good chance but not quite as good as our parents. However our kids, if we keep going as we are, will face a World full of debt, poverty, lack of food, clean water and civil unrest or lots of wars. I don’t think anyone can dispute the fact that we as a society are not headed in the right direction. The standard of living continues to go down and down as the years pass. This doesn’t mean all is lost, it just means we need to get our priorities straight. Hope we can, for our kids sake.

Yesterday the boys had a blast. First in the morning they hung out with me and then went to lunch with Uncle T and Aunt B. Next they went down the street and played with some of their friends and then they all headed to pool for 4 hours of pizza, play and swimming. They were worn out by the time they got home and are still sleeping. Our car is still not ready so I need to wake them in about 20 minutes so we can all take Mom to work. The misses and I had a chance to visit with my Mom for a bit in the afternoon. She gave the misses a bunch of white Polo shirts she no longer wears, yeah! Wish they fit me!

Lots to do today, again, so time for me to go. Hope you all are having a great week. It’s still 90+ degrees here with no end in sight. Hope its not too hot where you all are. Take care, stay healthy and safe and God Bless, and whatever you do, sit down today and think about your dreams and then go after them!

Here we go, 1 more week until school starts. This time one week from now the house will be full of activity. In fact if everyone is still sleeping (as they are now) we’ll be running late. This is also a big work week, and on Saturday we have a function/party up in Vail that the misses and I are going to. We asked Uncle T and Aunt B if they wanted the boys for a sleep over this coming weekend. If not, we’ll just drive down from Vail around 9pm and get home about 11. On Friday night we go to the ice cream social at school. This is the annual event where the kids find out who their teacher is for the upcoming year. To finish out the week, we have both boys championship football games Wednesday and the little guy starts soccer Thursday. There now, that doesn’t seem like too much, does it. Oh wait, let’s throw in the little guys work sessions with his new teacher (she told us early she has him in her class, yea!) today and Wednesday and I get my haircut tomorrow with both boys in tow. There has to be something else, I just can’t think of it right now.

Well yesterday was full of some yard work, an extra lesson for the misses on our Vitamix (more on this later), 3 loads of laundry, taking the dogs for some exercise and a swim at Grandma’s and 5 racks of ribs. We had invited Grandma a few days ago, (who couldn’t make it), the L.O.L. down the street (who is always up for an invitation but also passed after committing because she wasn’t feeling well) and our friends who took the boys tubing (who also had to cancel at the last minute as their 2 year old became ill). So, we had no company for dinner and 5 racks of ribs. Guess what we’ll be eating all week?

Now onto our Vitamix. I don’t know if any of you know what this is but it’s a food processor, blender and all around cool machine that does just about everything. The kids are eating tons of vegetables and not even knowing it. You see Mom secretly mixes cabbage and squash in with oranges and ice and a little vanilla and half and half to make the best orange sorbet/smoothie drink you’ve ever had. Then in a matter of minute, she throws some tomato’s, cilantro, pepper, a 1/4 of a bullion cube and a few other things in with a few cups of hot water and presto, you have the best tortilla soup you’ve ever had. (she does throw in some black beans, corn and tortillas at the last minute) This thing is so powerful that it will actually boil water after a few minutes due to the friction created by the speed of its blades. I guess your garage door opener is 1/2 horsepower and this thing is 2 1/2 horsepower to give you some idea. It’s built like a tank and we picked it up at Whole Foods so we got a huge discount on it. No matter what it costs, if it gets the kids eating veggies, it’s worth it. You can also make bread dough, ice cream, grind meat, like your own hamburger, and just about anything else you can think of, (I think it even does laundry!) it’s very very cool. They say nothing goes to waste. As an example, after you have chicken for dinner, you throw in all the bones with a little water and make a broth to pour over the dogs food, how neat is that!

I hear the misses stirring upstairs so she’ll be down soon. Oh yeah, she works Tuesday and Thursday and gets her hair done Friday (more to add to our week) and thankfully has a gift certificate from our friend at the salon that showed up in the mail the other day. We’ll also get our car back from the shop today. We were supposed to get it Friday but it didn’t get back from the alignment shop in time. I need to give it a thorough cleaning once it gets home.

Warren Buffet is saying in an op ed today how it’s time to have “shared sacrifice”. Now this is fine if you’re Warren Buffet, I mean how much money does this guy have? But I think the rest of us have “shared” quite enough. Even so, I know we’re all going to have to share some more to get us out of this mess, I just wish that our shared money would be used efficiently instead of wasted which the government is so good at. In fact, I don’t ever remember a time when we weren’t sharing by paying taxes, high gas prices, buying our own school supplies, and more. Ok ok I’m drifting into politics so I’d better stop now. I know there’s a fundamental difference in opinions between people and the two parties, one party thinks we can spend our way out of our problems and the other says we can’t continue to spend money we don’t have. Now this might not be totally fair if you subscribe to the first school of thought so to simplify, one is for big government and the other for small government. I personally think the goal should be to make government as inconsequential as possible in our daily lives. The government can’t run anything well, look at their track record,  they’re just not set up for it. Think about it, what has the government ever taken control of that worked? They’re too big and have too many layers these days to run things properly. Alright I’ll stop now. I probably won’t change anyone’s mind anyhow.

We hope everyone is healthy and happy and enjoying life. Fall is coming and then winter will soon follow, get your house in order! It’s only 135 days until Christmas, wow! Take care and God Bless,

Michelle Bachmann, give me a break. First of all, relax, there’s no way this woman will win the nomination. The bigger issue is why is there so much interest or importance put into what 10,000 voters in Iowa think. Is Iowa and these 10,000 voters in the straw poll supposed to represent all of America? Now there’s nothing wrong with Iowa but I hardly think that a bunch of farmers (not stereotyping but you know what I mean), living in the midwest should have this much of a say in who will be nominated for President. Oh well, that’s our system, now onto the day.

It’s 4am and I couldn’t sleep much last night. The morning paper isn’t here yet and it’s still dark outside. Yesterday I ran up to Boulder to pick up the vegetables as you know. I stopped by my Mom’s and shared some with her and was home by 10am. The boys were intent on going fishing so we loaded up the truck and headed for the hills. After a 30 minute drive or so we were up at Mt Evans and soon after had poles in the water. It didn’t take long for the boys to start pulling them in. Within a couple of hours we had 4 nice trout and were headed home. Each boy took two fish to different neighbors for their dinner. We then had each guy jump in the shower to get the fish smell off their bodies. The oldest took his fish to the O’Connells. They’ve lived in the same house since I was a kid and I went to school with one of their daughters. They’re always real nice to the boys and Mr. O’Connell invited the oldest in to show him what he was working on in his basement. Turns out he does a lot of wood carving and also builds remote control airplanes. This of course was very exciting to our guy who couldn’t wait to tell me. Apparently he also has a lot of cool guns, I’ll have to see if he has any he wants to get rid of!

The rest of the day was spent with about 6 kids (ours included) riding their bikes, scooters and anything else they could find with wheels, up and down the street. All of us parents stood around outside watching for cars and ushering the gang to the sidewalk whenever a car was coming up or down the street. Mom whipped up some tortilla soup in the Vitamix for dinner and we then watched a movie about Custer and the battle at the Little Bighorn together. Soon it was time for bed and everyone hit the hay after a long day of fun.

Today we’re supposed to take out friends (who took the boys tubing and water skiing last week) to our pool for a couple of hours so their 2 year old can go swimming. Wouldn’t you know it, today is the one day it’s supposed to rain. We’ll have to wait and see because our pool will shut down at the first sight of lightening.

They’re showing the teen curfew in Philadelphia on the news right now. Not sure how much of an impact it’ll have. Also yesterday the authorities cut off cell phone service to a whole section of California to prevent people from communicating where to get together to protest something. The bigger issue here is not why the government (local authorities) did this but that they can! To me it’s amazing that our rights can be infringed upon so quickly under the guise of it being in our best interest. Now I’m not for teenagers running wild in flash mobs in Philly but to create a law with the stroke of a pen saying no one under 18 can be out after 9pm is pretty scary. Authorities shutting off cell phone service to a whole area in California to prevent a peaceful protest is much worse. This violates our right to free speech, doesn’t it? The ACLU is already all over this one. Scary times we live in these days, watch out for more and more restrictions or changes to our lives, they’re coming, mark my words. We’ll be told all these new laws or restrictions to our freedom are for our own good. You can look back through history and find times where this has all happened before. I’m not going to dive into all the particular situations throughout history where “things have been done for the peoples own good” (Germany in the 1940’s, hmmmm), but I’m sure you’re all smart enough to know, these type of things are usually just the opposite and in the long run, not for our own good at all. You can’t penalize everyone for the bad acts of a few. Personally I’m more concerned with our government doing things in the future that relate to our economy or banking systems like limiting the amount of your own money you can take out of the bank at one time if things get much worse. It’s happened before and can happen again.

I had to laugh as yesterday Obama went on tv asking for you and me to call our congressmen, really? I mean, wait a minute, you’re the President and you want ME to call these guys? Do you think they’re going to listen to me more than you? I mean, come on Mr. President,  you CAN get them on the phone can’t you? They WILL take your call, right? You’re the President, you’re supposed to be the leader, why don’t YOU call them? He did say one thing I agree with and that was that “we deserve better”. Well, finally I agree with something he said, and since we do deserve better, why doesn’t he just quit? I mean the buck stops with him, right, after all he’s the President. Here we go again with him blaming everyone else, congress, the tea party, the weather, broccoli, anything he can think of except him. Sorry to any of you Dems out there but this guy is so out of touch it’s laughable. He’s in way over his head.

Ok this is what you get when I get up at 4am. The misses isn’t down here to keep me out of politics. It’s now 5:15 and still dark. I’d head to the gym but I have some kind of stress fracture in my left foot that’s been killing me since I worked out two days ago. The misses and I really want to get on some kind of program to gain a lot of muscle. You see, when you get older, you start to lose muscle as you age. In fact, your muscles peak around your late 20’s and then head downhill. It’s important as you get older to keep as much muscle as you can. I’m sure all of you older than I can confirm this.

I’m going to go see if the paper is here yet and feed the dogs. It’ll be at least another hour and a half before anyone is up. I guess I’ll clean up the kitchen too. Hope everyone has a great Sunday. One more week of summer for the kiddos and then it’s back to school. Can you tell Mom and I are counting the days? Take care and God Bless,

This morning I’m off to Boulder around 7:30 to meet up with a friend who runs an organic farm outside of Boulder. On Saturdays he takes his weekly harvest and sets up shop at the famers market. Most of his income is from selling to select high end restaurants who want fresh local produce. He also sells “shares” each year to about 100 families who then get a box of veggies each week. We’re lucky enough to get whatever we want, whenever we want. Today’s load will be carrots, beets, squash, cabbage, lettuce, garlic, tomato’s, and whatever else is in season. There’s nothing like the taste of fresh vegetables plus we have the peace of knowing there’s no pesticides or chemicals on our food. I hope to be back home before 10am so we can then go do something as a family.

Yesterday we ran some errands that included a stop at the leather wholesale shop. The misses is learning a new craft and as it turns out, so are the boys. The place was kind enough to show the boys some pointers and send us home with a free bag full of scraps for them to work with. On the way we stopped at a place that sells headstones and also secured a few pieces of broken granite for the boys to use as their work bench. (you need to have a firm stone surface under the leather when you’re hammering in your patterns) Both boys spent the afternoon outside making various leather pieces with different patterns. They look pretty good for never having done anything like this before. I remember doing something like this too when I was a kid in Cub Scouts, or maybe it was Boy Scouts.

The guys are dying to go fishing so we’re going to try and fit this in this week. The mosquito’s are finally coming out so we might wait a few weeks as the cooler weather is coming in. Yesterday afternoon the boys were playing basketball and unknown to them, there was a wasp nest in the tube on the basketball hoop! Every time they hit the basket, they were pissing off the wasps inside. Before you knew it, the little one came running in saying he think he got stung by a bee. Sure enough on the back of his head, he was stung. I went outside, climbed a ladder and shot a few doses of wasp spray down the tubes and watched them fall out the other end. Needless to say, basketball was done for the day but we’ll be good to go this morning.

We had king salmon last night for dinner and the oldest one finally really likes fish! The little guy would still prefer to eat pizza for every meal but he too is coming around. We’re trying to get more veggies and better food into the boys as they need the protein for their growing bodies. We also got them a quick “doo update” (haircut) to get ready for school. They look like young men these days and Mom is fearing her little boys will soon no longer want to hug or snuggle with her. I’m sure they’ll both want to continue to jump in her bed or curl up on the couch with her for years to come, but I know what she means. Before we know it, they’ll be driving!

Everyone’s still sleeping, the dogs have had breakfast and I have had 2 cups of coffee. It’s almost 6:45 and I need to leave in about 45 minutes so I’m going to run now and jump in the shower. Hope you all have a good weekend, take care and God Bless,

Time’s going fast, it’ll be Labor Day before you know it and then the cooler weather and snow will be here. Lots going on around the World, once again if you had been in a coma for 20 years and woke up to see London burning and the stock market crashing and Texas in the middle of the worst drought in centuries, you’d think you’re watching some disaster movie. It’s hard to believe that in 2011 all this is going on. Keep saying your prayers as we’re living in fast ever changing turbulent times.

Onto the day, lots of work around here. The boys chipped in cleaning up the yard while Mom did her best to keep the house from slipping into a huge mess. The oldest one sure is getting to be a big guy and a big help around here. You can almost see him maturing daily in the way he acts and the things he does. The little one is also following suit but it’s not quite as obvious as we saw the older one go through this transformation a few years ago. In any case, we’re sure proud of both boys, we must be pretty good parents!

Today we’re deciding what to do, we might run out of town for a day or two to avoid the heat that is still lingering. This morning I have a lot of work to do (what’s new) and our car should be ready to pick up from the body shop. We’ve had a few instances this week where we really needed two cars but thanks to advance planning, we worked around it. We sure love our diesel truck, it’s a great vehicle to have. Thankfully we bought both our cars at zero interest. (I think no one should buy a car unless they get zero interest!)

The little guy just came down and I think I hear Mom upstairs. The oldest guy has taken to sleeping in these days. We’ll need to get him to bed earlier in a week or so or break this habit as school starts a week from Monday. (we mention this a lot as we’re counting the days!)

I’m trying to stay away from politics but Obama just said on the news that there’s no need to call back Congress from their summer vacation. I just don’t get this? Seems to me if you have problems as big as we have, no one gets vacation until things are fixed. If I was running the Country as a Company, things sure would be different or I’d be out of a job! Don’t bank on the government all of a sudden having a kumbaya moment, it ain’t gonna happen people! (I did that on purpose because Grandma Dixie loves it when I use proper english!)

Mom’s now downstairs and it’s 7:20. Oh yeah, today is Grandpa Bob’s 82nd birthday! Yesterday Mom sent him the first 2 months of the blog as he doesn’t have a computer and has never read any of them. I would have printed out more but it took me a long time just to print the first 60 days. I did make 3 copies so we’ll have 2 left. At the end of the year I’ll be making at least 2 complete copies (1 for each boy) for them to save. I’ve asked a few of you if you wanted a copy and to my surprise, you all said no! I guess once you’ve read it, you’ve read it. I just thought it might be fun to revisit the whole year at once. But no problem, it’ll save me a ton of paper and toner. If anyone does want a copy, be sure to let us know.

I think I’ll go now otherwise I’ll drift back into politics which is too depressing to even think about. Sometimes I wish we could all just go back 50 or 100 years to a time when everyone got along. Now we all know, that’ll never happen so let’s just keep plugging away trying to do the best we can. It’s not the American people who have a problem, it’s our elected officials. I believe people are generally good, it’s just that desperate times sometimes make rational people also desperate.

Ok ok, I’ll stop, time for breakfast anyhow. Have a great weekend and enjoy life, it’s too short as it is, God Bless

It’s a lovely morning here in Colorado. The sun is shining, the birds are chirping, the flowers are still blooming and the butterflies have discovered our front yard….hurray!!

I finished the youngest munchkin’s bedroom and he spent his first night in his new bed…we will have to have a party. While the boys were at football last night I disassembled  the twin bed that resided in big brother’s room, carried the pieces to the basement for storage and proceeded to clean and reorganize our eldest’s room. I scrubbed the floor,  removed a plethora of stickers from the walls…no easy task…stickers are not my favorite…especially when they are stuck on walls!!! Anyway both kiddos have a nice, decluttered room to “Hang out” in…and I am determined to dive into the three closets that remain.

I need to make breakfast, so enough about me…I am handing off to the man of the house to fill you in on football…and maybe a bit of politics…enjoy the day.

Dada da da! Tonight is the first Denver Broncos football game of the 2011 season. Yeah I know it’s only pre-season but it’s football! I know my little brother is excited and my Mom is too. We’ll have to cook up something special for the occasion. Last night the boys and I went to football and the little guys game was up first. They only had 5 kids show up (lots of kids are on vacation) so they had to play every down as they had no substitutes. The little guys scored a bunch. The highlight was a 100 yard run for a touchdown! You should have seen him running the length of the field with everyone chasing him. When he finally got to the end zone, he flexed both arms in celebration. He’s scored a lot this season but always wanted a long run. You can’t get much longer than the entire length of the field.

Next up was the oldest ones game, he had 6 players show meaning only one reserve. Once again he was a force on defense but it was his play at quarterback that shinned. He threw a long touchdown pass and a bunch of other shorter passes to his teammates. Both boys have come a long long way since the season began.

Earlier in the day, the little guys teacher (we found out the older ones 2nd grade teacher will be the little ones teacher this year, yeah) took both boys to the book store for 1 1/2 hours of study. Mom and I ran an errand downtown and on the way spotted our close friend and his two kids on the side of the freeway with a flat tire. We of course stopped to help. His wife was working  (she too works at Whole Foods) and he was headed to his office with his kids in tow. They’d just be hanging out at his office for the day. Now thinking that’s no way for a kid to spend one of the last days of summer, we offered to take them with us to our pool. He said he’d let us know but about 15 minutes later he called and said they’d love to go. We picked them up on our way home and took them with us and had them for most of the afternoon.

After football we headed home for a quick snack and then bed. We all slept in, me until 6:30 which is way out of line. It’s much cooler this morning, you can feel fall in the air. No politics today, I’m too tired. I did hang out with my Mom for 45 minutes yesterday, she’s pretty funny these days and enjoying life which is great. Everyone worries about her but she’s doing great. I also ran into her at the store a little bit later. The stock market dropped another 500+ points yesterday, get used to it, it’ll be awhile before all this mess is over. You can’t clean up a 30 year problem (we’ve been living beyond our means as a Country for that long!) overnight. Ok ok, I’ll stop, that’s it for today. Here’s a quote for ya’ll, enjoy,

“Always do right; it will gratify some people and astonish the rest.” – Mark Twain

Take care and God Bless,

 

I can’t remember the last time the high temperature was in the mid 80’s around here. It’s a welcome change. Yesterday the boys and I ran up to Vail which consumed most of the day. It was in the mid 70’s and although we hit a little road construction, it was a great trip. We arrived home around 2:30 in the afternoon and then ran some errands before picking Mom up from work at 5. (remember we only have 1 car all week)

The misses had invited L.O.L. and her 86 year old life long friend Marvin, up for a glass of wine. Both of them are very together mentally and physically. Marvin and I were talking about interest rates and the impact of the Fed on the markets as well as how much politics have changed in the past few decades. I was listening to Alan Simpson from Wyoming the other day. He is one of the former senators our President chose to come up with a non political assessment of what to do to get us out of our problems. This was known as the Bowles Simpson Commission. They came up with a lot of great concreter solutions that was going to be painful for both parties. If followed, it would have installed serious reforms that would have prevented the credit rating downgrade, plus put us on the right track to getting out of this mess. Unfortunately the President decided to ignore the recommendations of the very bipartisan commission he put together, hmmmmm.

Anyhow my point here is that Senator Simpson made a great observation. He noted that when he was in the Senate, Senators would debate issues on the Senate floor and work with each other to solve the issues of the day. He says now, all meetings are held behind closed doors and then the respective leaders of each party make blanket statements for everyone. What ever happened to individual lawmakers hashing out the issues, first of all in public, and second of all, one on one. He said he didn’t always agree with democrats like Ted Kennedy but he knew if he shook his hand and had his word, it meant something. Today lawmakers don’t even talk with each other, they only talk amongst themselves in private sessions and then issue blanket non negotiable statements or positions to the other party. I don’t think this is how our government is supposed to work. I wish someone would stand up on either side and just make a decision on their own instead of just following along with the party line. Under this system, I guess just about anyone is qualified to be a new legislator, I mean you just go to Washington and vote the way your party votes, pretty easy huh?

Oh well, to me it’s all disgusting. They just don’t get it. I think the American people do, it’s just the people in Washington that don’t. I have to get off this subject for you and me as it’s just too depressing.

Today the oldest starts his guitar lessons and then we have football for both boys at 5:15. These are make up games replacing some that were rained out a few weeks ago. I’m still on the hunt for a bread maker but we’ll have to wait a bit until we can save up some cash.

Everyone’s still sleeping and it’s now 6:30 in the morning. I’m going to grab some more coffee and read the paper (only the sports section) and then hit the showers. My Mom said she read the post twice yesterday to digest the scientific garb I threw at you all. As the misses said, no doom and gloom, just one of the things we should be talking about instead of outlawing gold fish as pets in California. Thanks Mom for reading!

Hope everyone’s doing well, I think I’ll turn the writing over to the misses for a few days. She’s off work now until next week. I told her to tell them she has to have a substantial raise or she’s going to need to quit. I personally think they’ll give it to her. One of our old babysitters stopped by last night to say hi (Sara) who now makes $12 to $15 per hour babysitting! No way the misses should make less than a 23 year old babysitter, it’s just not right.

Alright, time to go, be glad you don’t live in England and have a great day, God Bless,

I wonder if we all realize what’s happening in our Country right now. I think most of us are too comfortable or conditioned to bad things happening to even notice the what’s going on out there. This is just the beginning, you will feel the pain of our hapless politicians and President. I know this rubs some of you the wrong way but if you really think about it, our President is in way over his head. I’m not defending Bush at all as God knows he had many faults but at least he was a leader, even if you think he led in the wrong direction. This President sits on the sidelines and plays mediator rather than taking charge of the situation. There’s certainly a crisis of confidence in this President. Now we have a Super Committee or Super Congress made up of 6 democrats and 6 republicans. I’m telling you, our founders are rolling over in their graves. mark my words, we’re headed down the wrong path. Hold on, it’s going to be a bumpy ride.

Now to football, both boys played well but it was the older one who really excelled. He’s really taken to being a pass rusher and does it with calculated rage. He’ll line up over the opposing player not more than a few inches from him intimidating him before the ball is even snapped. On a couple of plays he ran in so fast he scared the quarterback who actually just fell down to avoid him and end the play. He’s quite a disruptive force out there. We arrived home around 9pm and had our second dinner of the day and then after a quick shower for both boys, headed to bed. It’s now 5:45 and everyone’s still sleeping. Mom works at 8:15 and were down to one car for a week so we’ll all be driving her this morning. I’m going to take a break now and run to the gym but will resume the post in an hour or so, stand by…..

Ok I’m back, Mom’s now up and it’s 6:37am. Both boys are still sleeping and she’s cleaning the fish bowls. Every channel on tv is either showing riots in England, the stock market crashing here in America or some other sort of not very inspiring news for the day. I’ve got some work to do this morning but I think I’ll try to get the boys to a park or maybe the pool today. Mom, being the great Mom that she is, did get the boys some water time yesterday. Once again it’ll be in the mid 90’s, again. They’re showing 36 degrees in Leadville and 43 in Fraser, both up in the mountains. Looks like the season will soon be changing. I can’t wait for fall as I said before. I hope the winter is not as cold as the summer has been warm. If so, it’s going to be a cold one.

Time for me to get in the shower as the boys will be up soon. We hope everyone is doing well and having a good summer. I need to print some of these posts today so the misses can send them to Grandpa Bob for his birthday on the 12th. I don’t know how anyone can do without a computer these days. We have 4 and another one on the way! I think we’d all go into withdrawals if the internet went down. (thought I was wrapping up for the day didn’t you?) Can you imagine what would happen if we had an EMP (electro magnetic pulse) hit? This last happened in the 1860’s and for those of you that don’t know what this means, anything having to do with electricity would shut down. Imagine life with no power, no cars, (except those pre 1974 with no electronics) no way to pump gas, water or heat, no trucks delivering food, it would be life changing to say the least. I mention this as right now we’re experiencing intense solar storms unlike anything our planet has seen for a long time. Here’s a report from yesterday from the Australian Space Agency (our government chooses not to let you see this information, hmmm)

IPS FLARE ALERT – PART C
PRELIMINARY FLARE DETAILS AT END OF FLARE
ISSUE TIME: Tue Aug  9 18:44:18 EST 2011
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Approximate Flare Start  :  09-08-2011 0800 UT
Approximate Flare Maximum:  09-08-2011 0804 UT  at Flux X 7.0
Approximate Flare End    :  09-08-2011 0842 UT
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Follow the progress of flares on the IPS Web site
http://www.ips.gov.au Click “Space Weather” Click “X-Ray Flux”
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Australian Space Forecast Centre
IPS Radio and Space Services

You have to have a little bit of a science background to understand what this means but in simple terms, solar storms coming from the sun or space are erupting like we haven’t seen in over a hundred years and then flying through space hitting our planet. We (the World) has had disruptions in various satellites and communications but so far we’ve managed to keep this from affecting everyday life. No doom and gloom here as this happens every hundred years or so. I mention it now as this is the main theory by astro physicists of what going to happen between now and then end of 2012. In the 1860’s it wasn’t that much of a disruption because the World wasn’t so dependent on power. Nowadays everything we do or use or consume is somehow connected to the use of power. Hope it doesn’t happen and you could say this is like a potential huge earthquake, or in other words, if it happens it happens, nothing you can do about it. The difference here is we can predict this (where we can’t predict earthquakes) and the brightest minds in the World are warning and preparing for just such an event.

Oh well, just thought I’d share, not much you can do about it (well actually there is and you can protect yourself somewhat pretty easy if you choose to) but it is something everyone should be aware of. Every government on the planet is preparing and paying attention, maybe we should too. My main point is that our leaders or government decide what to tell you and what not to under the guise of it being for your own good. After watching the mess they’ve made of the economy, I don’t know how anyone could trust them to take care of anything relating to our lives. I certainly don’t.

Ok, I’ll stop now, promise. You just need to understand that when things go bad, the government will not be there for you. All these politicians will be running for their private jets and worrying only about themselves, don’t be fooled. Enough said, don’t want to freak anyone out. Besides we’ll always be here for any family, you’ll just need to get to us! God Bless,
Mom here….don’t be too alarmed…I am used to this, so it is all second nature around here.  But….better to be safe than sorry. Oh…by the way…the Mister is a pretty smart guy…not the “Survivalist” some of you may think he is. Just a good Boy Scout.

A side note…the youngest scored a touchdown and the eldest scored the first safety that his team has ever seen.

Also, Gram Annette….if we ever get an Ikea kitchen (Very affordable) Grandpa Jim will have to come to Denver to install the D#@! thing. Keep us posted on his health please.

For those of you that want to post a comment….there is a “leave comment ” to click on at the bottom of the post.  The word is in pale grey letters, so it is a bit hard to see.  Click on that….put  your email address in the appropriate box, write your comment and click on “Submit”. There you have it.  Have a great day and once again God Bless..

LLF