A Year of Change

We spent yesterday around the house after the gym. I cleaned up the mud room and some outside. Lori did the same in the kitchen and living room. We might go into Vail today for the farmers market and lunch, we’ll see. We slept with the window open last night but had to close it this morning as the smoke settles in at night.

I forgot to mention the other day that when Lori was going to the grocery store, a girl or woman, probably 35 years old, stopped Lori on the way into the store in the parking lot. She looked at Lori from a distance and said, “oh my God”! Lori not knowing what was going on said “are you ok’? The girl then said, “yes, I just hope I age as beautifully as you”! Lori replied, “ah, thank you”. When she made it home, she said she didn’t know whether or not it was an insult or a compliment, ha. I told her it was definitely a compliment! Too funny.

My buddy, Jim, who is one of the few, and best guys who makes handmade boots from scratch, the way they made then a hundred years ago, is almost done with two pair of mine that he measured me for last October. One pair is French calf and the other chocolate giraffe. I’m excited to get them as they’re like wearing slippers. Check them out, here’s a pic from Jim’s Instagram. He still needs to sew the rest of the sole and put on the heels, but we’re getting close.

It takes a year or so to get a pair from Jim, but they’re worth the wait. He’s a member of the TCA. Traditional Cowboy Artists, which you might remember from a previous post. When I pick up a pair, I order another so I’m always in the que. Smart decision.

Ty works at 10. Been a nice 3-day break. Lori and I will be back at it tomorrow. Dr. B leaves Wednesday for a conference in Hawaii. We were going but it was only four days long which is too short of a time for flying all the way to Hawaii and back.

Hope we get some rain. Have a good Sunday and God Bless.

Happy 4th! Hope everyone has a great day. Celebrate America and your freedom. Don’t let haters or those on the far left take away from the greatness of our Country and what it stands for.

The average life span for great civilizations throughout history is around 250 years. That’s not always true as most historians say the Roman Empire lasted for 503 years! I’m hopeful America too can stand the test of time.

Last night we went to Gary and Jens. It was nice and Lori’s cheesecake, of course was a hit. We left around 7:30 or 8 and came home. Ty made it home from golfing right after us. There was bad rainstorms in Chicago that uprooted trees. Jag sent pictures.

Today I have a huge bone in rib eye to throw on the grill along with a flank steak and some hot dogs. We’re just hanging around the house. Ty has the day off.

Have a great 4th, Happy Birthday America and God Bless the USA!

It’s less smokey this morning up here. Denver was fine, and pretty clear. I dropped my guitar with Glen to repair the bridge which pulled up a little bit due to how dry it is. Glen started building guitars in the 80’s and is the only guy to go to in Colorado for high end guitar work. He’s at the Old Town Pickin Parlor in Old Town Arvada.

The worst part of the day was the drive home. It took me an hour to go from Evergreen to Idaho Springs. I made good use of the time by making phone calls. Once I made it to the Express Lanes, it was smooth sailing all the way to Eagle.

This afternoon at 4 we’re headed to Jen and Gary’s for a party. Gary is a few years older than me and Jen must be in her early 40’s. Gary went over the front of his bike and smashed 7 ribs. He had to go to Denver to have some plates put in his chest. I think the town is having fireworks at Nottingham Lake in Avon tonight but we’ll be home way before they start. We love Jen as she’s such a sweet girl and beat cancer. Gary is nice, but sometime hard to take in large doses. He was the engineer for Beaver Creek back in the 70’s and made beaucoup bucks from that project. They actually met in DIA (the airport), when he approached her. Lori made her cheesecake to take.

Work is tough cash flow wise right now as we’re selling more than we can afford to make. It’s a good problem and we’ll get around it, but it’s tough stretch. In my new spirit or philosophy of not worrying about work every waking minute anymore, I really don’t care. How’s that for a personal transformation! It’s a challenge not to care, but I’m working on it! Ha.

Jag had a half day yesterday and is off today. Most places are closed today. Not sure about banks. Our office and Lori’s are closed but I’m sure Lori will still get calls.

Time to get moving. Have a great holiday weekend. The news just said half of America doesn’t know why the 4th of July is a holiday, God help us. Enough said, God Bless everyone and God Bless America!

Ty went camping, in the smoke, Jag went sailing after work, with some of the guys from work who own a sailboat, Lori worked from home all day long and was slammed and so did I. I’m running a guitar down to Denver to have the bridge repaired and am meeting Shultz who brought me some cigars from the Fuente Cathedral in Tampa.

Jag is in a really good spot at work. They all love him and know how brilliant he is and the older guys are all appreciative of his value and include him in everything. They’re not stupid and know how much he’s helping the Company and their personal wealth as well. He has a good support group of mentors, even though he’s smarter than most of them. The sky is the limit for him.

It’s still smokey but not as bad as it was. They say there’s not much relief in the next ten days. Wish we were in Montana or better yet, Hawaii. Europe, where we have to go in a few months, is really hot and dry.

Time to get moving. Hope all’s well, Have a great day and stay hydrated, God Bless. Go USA Soccer! Amazing game!

More socialists won last night here in Colorado. Good news is Michael Bennet lost the primary for Governor. He’ll stay in the Senate as he was too chicken to give up his seat when he decided to run for Governor. We voted cross ballot so we could vote against him. Sadly, Colorado is gone. Looks like there’s no turning back now. It’s become the New York of the west. Hard to believe the State I grew up in has turned so far left. Lots of people I know are making plans to move out.

We had a break from the smoke yesterday, but it settles in at night. Hopefully it’ll clear out a bit today. My truck looks brand new after being detailed. I washed Lori’s car, filled her gas tank up and reactivated her Sirius XM radio as the free trial ended.

For work, I had a few calls and have another one today at 9 this morning with France. Europe is having a worse heat wave than we are right now. It’s been way over 100 degrees in France and Italy and not everyone over there has a/c. A politician in France blamed global warming on air conditioners in the U.S., ha ha. Looks like it’ll be over 100 degrees, and in some places over 110, over the weekend in parts of the Country. Looks like the 90’s here for at least the next week.

Marty and Melanie took off for Montana around 3 or 4 this morning. They’re driving up for a couple days. We were going to go but it’s too long of a drive and too much of a pain to fly for only being there for 2 or 3 days.

The U.S. plays in the World Cup today at 6pm. We should win but you never know. Almost 6:30 am now so time to go, have a great first day of July and God Bless.

Mother Nature is doing her thing. You knew it was just a matter of time. Interesting that Montana is the only western State with no fires. Idaho only has a small one. The Southwest is on fire. Arizona, New Mexico, Utah and Colorado are burning bad. It doesn’t look like any relief is in sight either. It’s calm outside right now with not a single leaf on any tree moving. That though will change by the afternoon as that’s when the winds pick up. Fire and wind make for a bad time.

This morning I’m dropping off my truck to get it detailed. Lori will follow me and I’ll then drop her off at work and pick her up this afternoon. Ty’s working again getting as many hours as he can.

Yesterday was my first day of my self imposed big shift at work. While in Mexico I decided to stop taking things so seriously and delegate more. I’m promoting Luisa and giving her a bunch of my duties along with a few other people. I decided I’m going to stop being the guy that has to do everything, it’s just too much and I’m over it. There’s more to work in life and I’m at that point. I feel like I lifted a huge weight off my shoulders by making this decision. In the end, it’ll all be fine too.

I was in and out of Denver by 9:30am and home by 11:30. Had some good phone calls yesterday and have one at 10 and another at 2 today. After I drop Lori I’ll head to the gym.

Pray for rain, but I don’t see any headed this way anytime soon. It sure would help. God Bless.

Thankfully we came home Saturday as we were pretty wiped out yesterday. Ty worked, we went to the gym, then met Ben and Eleni for coffee, before coming home and doing some stuff around the house.

In the afternoon, Lori got sucked into a new series and binge watched the whole thing, all 8 shows in the series. I joined in after the first couple episodes.

I’m off at 6 this morning to get the truck serviced. I’m still going back and forth on whether or not to trade it in for the Mercedes that they offered me $16K off on.

It’s still smokey up here. The smoke clears up during the day when the wind blows but gets thick in the evening when it settles down. I saw people golfing, running and biking outside which isn’t very smart with all the particles in the air. Some people have little to no common sense.

I should be back by noon or 1 at the latest. The big holiday weekend is coming up. Hope the smoke clears out, God Bless.

Took 9 hours to get home. As soon as we boarded, Lori got a notice on her phone that our Denver to Eagle flight was delayed two hours, ugh. Rather than chance it, as it could get cancelled all together, we sprung into action and booked a car to drive us from Denver to home, and cancelled the last leg of our trip. Once we zipped through Global Entry, we were in the car within ten minutes.

Our driver Sam, and his girlfriend started the company last November. On the way up the hill, Sam got a call and found out that one of his drivers didn’t show and his girlfriend was going to have to go to Red Rocks to pick up a group in one of his new cars at 8pm. She was nervous driving the new BMW X7 they just bought. No way was he getting us to Eagle and back to Red Rocks by 8. I said, let us call our son and see if he can pick us up halfway. We called Ty and asked him to meet us in Frisco. He said of course so problem solved.

By the time we made it to the house, you could see the red glow of the sun setting through all the smoke. It smells like a campfire outside and we’re keeping the windows all shut. Lori asked this morning, where can we go to get out of the smoke! Not sure, maybe south to Arizona but it has to be 115 degrees down there by now. Marty and Mel want us to come up to Montana for the 4th as they’re headed out on Wednesday or Thursday. We’ll see.

Great 72 hour trip. Seemed like a week or ten days! I’m itchy this morning from my sunburn healing. We’ll head to the gym and then are meeting Ben and Eleni for coffee as they’re leaving for Idaho tomorrow. So are our neighbors, Dea and the kids.

Good to be home. Hope the smoke clears out but I don’t think it’s going anywhere anytime soon. Have a great last Sunday of June! God Bless.

Buenos dias! What a nice trip. Seems like we’ve been gone two weeks, not 72 hours! Yesterday we had more beach and pool time along with good food, relaxation and a couple good books. It’s 5:30am now and Lori has to be down at the conference at 7 for Dr. B’s presentation and then she’s done. Our driver picks us up at 10:30 for the airport.

It’s good we came. Lori put a face to a lot of the people she interacts with often and Dr. Braxton was thrilled she was here. He showed her off to everyone they met. All the doctors brought their spouses so it was good I came along.

Our flight leaves around 1:15 and gets in to Denver around 5:15. I’m sure it’ll be early. Then our flight to Vail takes off at 7:30 and lands at 8pm and we should be home by 8:15. We’re that close!

The beds and pillows here are the best of any Marriott. So is the staff. Everyone is so nice and attentive. I’ve been in a lot of Marriott’s and this one is by far the best as far as staff goes.

Best thing is Lori gets reimbursed for the trip. It’s called CTE or Continuing Education. So, all in all, the trip was free!

That’s it. It’ll be good to be home. Dr. B is staying until Tuesday as he has his brother and other family flying in and is extending the trip. They’re having a sort of mini family reunion.

Have a great Saturday and until tomorrow, Adios amigos and God Bless.

Yesterday we were up and at the gym as I said. After that we hit the pool for 30 minutes before getting ready for Dr. B’s presentation. I sat through half a dozen surgeons 8 minute talks and it was really interesting. I have a whole new understanding of the spine and what goes on with peoples issues from listening to the talks and the panels. All speakers used videos to explain things and I actually understood a lot of it. This is from hearing Lori for the past six years. Dr. B is the man, that’s for sure.

After his talk, it was back to the pool. We thought we had a handle on things not getting too much sun, but we were wrong. This morning, we’re both fried. No sun today. We’ll go to the pool but will have to sit in the shade under an umbrella. Dr. B speaks again around 11am.

Great food here. We had a nice dinner last night and I found some Cuban cigars at the hotel and had a smoke while Lori was in her meeting yesterday afternoon. We had a reservation for dinner at a fantastic restaurant tonight but cancelled last night as we’re both kind of over big meals. The fish tacos at the pool are great, so we’ll probably have those today.

We’re headed home tomorrow. Cabo is great and best of all, close. It was only a 2 and a half hour flight. Fun trip and feels like we’ve been gone a week! The ocean is great but not sure I could live on it. Too hot and humid. More tomorrow, GB.