I’m on the road at 6am today. I need to be at the distributor by 8, meet Toby at 8:30, then head over to Porter Hospital to drop some wine to Lori’s surgeon, then get my hair fixed, (bad haircut, ugh), stop by the mall, and then head over to meet Jagger to pick up a case of champagne, and grab some lunch, and then, finally head up the hill. At 4, Dr. Seibert is squeezing me in as my ear is still sort of plugged up when I lay down. It’ll be a full day, with me getting home around 5 pm.
Yesterday I had my calls and all went well. I squeezed in 2 miles on the treadmill and a few sets of weights before grabbing some breakfast and heading home. Lori is finally listening to everyone and taking it easy. She made it home around 5:30 or 6.
Ty was in Denver and after meeting the guys for lunch, headed up the hill. He showed up around 5. I made him a pizza for dinner. I gave him a pair of boots a week ago that he borrowed for Halloween. I had them made years ago and they are really cool. I looked them up today and they’re $1240 now! I think they cost me $500 or so 15 or 20 years ago. They’re the kind of boots that are handed down from father to son or generation to generation. Glad he likes them. He needs to follow the instructions on how to care for them. I’m happy he likes my stuff. I can’t use it all at the same time anyhow so I’m glad someone appreciates it. The other day he told somebody, “everything I’m wearing I took from my dads closet, except my underwear”! I looked at him, from head to toe, and that was 100% true! Shirt, jeans, belt, boots and coat, were all mine, or should I say, previously mine.
Last, a really good friend of ours, the whole family, passed away on December 7th. Diane, who we knew for a good 15 years, was from Aspen and Virginia. She was the first model selected by the famous Ford Modeling Agency back in the 60’s. She loved the boys and they loved her. She also, and this is not public, worked for the CIA. We loved her and spent a lot of time with her always going over to Aspen when she’d come out for the summer and Spring party season (yes Robi, that’s what they call it in Aspen). Lori and I always say we had the best wedding we’ve ever been to, except for Diane’s daughters. After the wedding on top of Aspen Mountain, she had rented out the entire Hotel Jerome for the reception. I remember drinking some special Swedish liquor with the groom in the bathroom. He was from a prominent shipping family and his parents from Sweden and a whole group of people (all the groomsmen) flew over for the wedding. It was something else, and our whole family went, as she insisted the boys come. She went out of her way at the wedding to spend time with us and the boys when she had all these famous people from all over the World there for the wedding. She was so kind and caring and elegant. In many ways, she reminded me a lot of Mom. In fact, I’d told Mom about Diane often and shown Mom pictures of her, and her pictures on Mom. Mom was quite pleased that I thought Diane and her were a lot alike. Diane in turn was also thrilled, probably even more, to know she reminded me of Mom. They would have really liked each other. Maybe they’ll meet now that they’re both in Heaven! Here’s a picture of Diane in Aspen at the wedding, and one of her with the boys back in 2018. We are saddened and shocked as we talked every few months. We will miss her as in many ways, she was like family. That’s hard to explain or comprehend unless you knew her, but that’s how she was. Rest in peace sweet friend.
This is one of those moments that again, makes you question your own mortality. As we get older, those seem to happen more often. I never really paid any attention to Mom when she’d say things about her friends passing away. Now I understand. It makes Lori and I want to just stop, and spend our time doing things with the kids building memories. As you get older, time is currency, and you need to spend it wisely.
That’s it, time to get going. Have a great day, two weeks until Christmas Eve! Until tomorrow, God Bless.