A Year of Change

These days going to Denver is like going into a literal war zone. There are shootings every day somewhere in the city. Statistics show this is more common in blue run cities. People down there and in other blue cities must be conditioned to it, otherwise you’d think that’d be enough to vote red alone. We always have our guard up when in Denver.

Yesterday we finally got a couple rifles sighted in. We went to our local range at 9 and there was a turkey shoot going on, so the range was closed until 1. When we went back at 1, they were still going and said they’d be done around 3! We decided to go to the range outside of Minturn instead. After an hour or so there, we had two rifles good to go. Davy shot around 2 boxes through his new rifle and still couldn’t get on paper, so I stepped in and had it dialed in after about 12 shots. Scopes with mil reticles (the reticle is what you see when looking through a scope) and knowing how to adjust it for windage and elevation, is tricky and intimidating. With Marty on the spotting scope watching for my POI (point of impact) and telling me how far off I was on each shot, I was able to dial the scope in. Once you get the scope dialed, you then need to loosen the little allen screws and rotate the turrets to zero and then lock them down. People make it much more complicated than it is. You do need to understand the math behind mil radians to calculate distances. Ranging in mil is what the military uses, most recreational shooters use MOA. Not to pat myself on the back, but I’ve always been a really good shot. Guess I’m just lucky in that way. All good now and the rifle should be right on.

While Marty and I were waiting for the turkey shoot to get over (we didn’t know they would run late) we brought the Christmas tree and set it up for Lori. She and Ty decorated about half of it while I was gone. She has all the garland up on the mantle over the fireplace too. I told her it seems way too early as it’s been so warm up here. Feels more like the first of October rather than a week away from the middle of November. All good though. Christmas comes so fast these days, it’s nice to enjoy it while you can. I even switched on the holiday channel in the truck yesterday.

We’re off to the gym and then I should know if we have an extra buck tag. if so, Marty and I will head down to the ranch in Gunnison and shoot one. I won’t go until after the Bronco game. Might skip it all together as it’s a long drive for a day and we only have one elk tag between all of us. I don’t care about shooting one, I just want some elk steaks and burger.

7:30 now and the football game in Madrid is starting. I’ll watch it on my phone while at the gym. I don’t really want to go, but Lori does. Have a great Sunday and Go Broncos! We need to win this game. God Bless.

Cool outside, but it’s been nice and sunny. No snow for at least the next ten days or so. That puts us past mid-November which is unusual. I’m headed to the range this morning at 9 and then Lori wants to get the Christmas tree in from the garage. That seems way too early as it seems like late September up here. Thanksgiving is two weeks from next Thursday and Jagger gets here a week from next Thursday or Friday. It’ll be 2027 before we know it.

There was a shooting in Lakewood close to where we grew up a couple days ago. A 33-year-old officer was killed by a guy who was on parole, and should have still been locked up. Crazy that the system has turned into one where criminals seem to have more rights than the people. You get what you vote for!

Jag did some big data presentation on where he sees the market going, to a bunch of investment bankers yesterday. I think someone in management was going to do it, but Jagger had put the whole thing together and the President at the last minute said, Jagger, why don’t you just do it! Afterwards, he received a bunch of emails saying great job, from the bankers. He’s on a roll. I think he’s currently training some new hires too.

Ty is off today and we should go get him some new tires today. He wants larger tires, but I’m hesitant on getting any larger ones, we’ll see. Lori is working on setting up her new physician consulting business. She’ll be opting doctors out of Medicare. Doctors can’t afford to take it anymore with the reimbursement from the government being cut even more starting next year. They get something like .11 cents on the dollar! She did it on her own for Dr. Braxton two years ago now, and doctors have been coming to him and her asking how they can do it. Hence, my smart little wife, is starting her own business to do this on the side. This could be really lucrative as there’s a huge demand and no one is doing it.

I did make it to Costco yesterday to fill up five 20lb tanks with propane. It only costs $65 for 100lbs of propane! Wish my truck ran on that instead of diesel. That’s it, time to go, have a great Saturday, be well, stay safe and God Bless.

I think we’re off to Gunnison tomorrow to go hunting. It’s Marty, Davy, me and Castor, James son. Looks like we’ll have good weather. Davy and I were going to the range yesterday but I was jammed up at work, so we’re going at 10 this morning.

Five of us made it for cigars yesterday. Mark has been filling in at the local middle school as a substitute teacher for a couple weeks now. They asked him as some teacher is out for a month. He doesn’t really teach, but is more of a babysitter to the kids. It’s wearing him out as he’s my age and has been the volunteer wrestling coach for a few years, but never did this. He says a lot of kids don’t care much and try to skip out so he writes them up for detention. He had three girls go to their lockers to get some permission form from their parents (they said it was in their lockers) and they never came back until the end of class. He has two more weeks or so of this. A few of us told him not to do this, but he wouldn’t listen, ha.

The knives are out in the Republican party as they try to make sense of the shellacking the other night. The whole government needs to be purged, on both sides. Looks like we’ll be paying double in taxes here in Colorado as the graduated income tax (disguised socialism) passed. Super.

Ty has almost all his stuff in for his trip. He’s waiting on a Visa from Brazil for some island they stop at on the trip. We need to start buying the gear on the list. I’ll send everyone a few things to get him for Christmas!

6:17am now, time to get moving. I need to go fill up five 20lb propane containers today at Costco. I’ll do that after we go to the range. Have a great Friday, God Bless.

I made it to Denver West by 8:45am to drop Melanie’s passport off with Marty. He then drove it back to her at the airport so she could make her 11:40 flight to Canada. Next up I was headed to South Broadway, then out to County Line Road down south, then back to Denver West, Edwards Meat Market, Old Time Pickin Parlor (to pick up a guitar from Glen that he repaired) and then back down to Colorado Blvd. and I-25 to get my hair trimmed. By 12:45 I was all done and headed up the hill. Lots of errands accomplished. Traffic was fine and I was home by 2:30.

Once home the weather rolled in and it became cloudy and cooler. Think today and tomorrow are going to be much nicer. Davy and I are going shooting around 10 this morning and then the guys are getting together for cigars around 3. Ty works today and Lori will be working from home.

Not a good day for the Republicans or Country the other day. To put things into perspective though, in the midterms, Obama lost 53 seats, Clinton 45 and Trump somewhere between 25 and 40. What makes this different is the type of people that were elected and where. Texas is now blue. This is flat out Trump’s fault. The things he says along with the failure of the GOP to properly explain how the economy is doing better, sunk the Republicans. Throw in the war and high gas prices and that was the death nail. People voted blue right down the line as they are tired of high prices, and fuel is the number one place we all feel it almost daily. Many Democrats were swept into office on a vote against high prices and Trumps rhetoric rather than liberal ideas. The Dems feel empowered now and will shoot themselves in the foot over the next two years trying to bring back things the people don’t want. Get ready for DEI again, socialism and open borders. Trump will try to work with them on some things but veto others. In short, get ready for two years of gridlock. The Republicans deserve all of this. They had control of the House, Senate and Executive Branch, yet didn’t pass anything that they ran on. They couldn’t even agree on getting rid of Daylight Savings Time. This shows how dysfunctional the government is these days. Too many elected people have their own agenda. Sadly, this will continue until there are term limits. That’ll be tough to pass as what politician wants to vote to eliminate their own personal gravy train of elite benefits and free flowing cash. I suspect not many. In the end, we’ll all be ok. Washington is so messed up that they can’t get out of their own way. Things are going to get more expensive though. Taxes will go up, prices will not go down, and we’ll all have more useless laws and regulations restricting our rights. Not good, but it is what it is. There’s an old saying, you get what you vote for. Well, here we are and that’s what’s headed our way. Good luck.

6:11am now, time to get moving. Have a great day and stay safe, God Bless.

Roads were good yesterday morning, and they should be the same this morning. I was in and out of Denver by 10:30 am. I’ll probably be down there today until 1 or so. I’m leaving at 7 this morning as I need to stop by Marty’s and pick up Melanie’s passport so she can fly out to Canada at 11:45 this morning. They landed from Montana last night and she decided to go up to Vancouver to see the grandkids today but needs her passport. They were trying to get an Uber driver to bring it from Frisco to Denver. Marty called me last night and when I said I was going to Denver again today, he asked if I could grab it and he’d meet me in Denver West at 9:30. I asked what Uber was going to charge them, bwaaahhh.

We didn’t watch the election results as we all know the Dems were going to pick up seats and take control of at least the House. Don’t know if they took the Senate too. Like I said, nothing will change very much in the short term. On a larger scale, we’re afraid for the Country and where it’s headed. We will be moving out of deep blue Colorado, it’s just a matter of when. No point in talking much more about things now, it is what it is.

The boys are doing well. I’m figuring out how to pay for Ty’s trip. We had the money but I need to figure out how to replace it in our savings. We have a few side jobs bringing in some cash. Our plan is to take it real easy over the holidays and not use credit cards, and then we should make up the $40k or so the trip costs by January. Not sure if we’ll fly down in April to meet him in Antiqua. We’ll have to see how things go.

Time to get moving. Have a great Wednesday and God Bless.

Off to the city this morning, and I’ll be back down there tomorrow, ugh. You do what you have to do. Should be back by noon or 1 at the latest.

Yesterday Lori and I made it to Glenwood only to find the lab at the hospital closed due to an unexpected illness. At least that’s what the sign said. Not to waste the trip, we headed up to Whole Foods in Basalt and then stopped at the hardware store in Glenwood and the AT&T store also. We ordered Lori a new phone that’ll arrive in a week. Her current phone is really old.

Once home we put our stuff away and then took it easy for the day. Ty was off and came home after the gym. I shopped for some gear for his sailing trip and cleaned up in the garage a bit.

Glad the elections are today as then we’ll get a mini break from all the endless ads. No matter who wins, as I said, not much will change in our daily lives for a few years. Sometimes having both parties in power creates a balance and they actually work together. With the political climate the way it is these days, I don’t have high hopes.

Time to go, have a great day, take care and God Bless.

Rain on and off yesterday. Ty went to the game which didn’t look good for most of the day, but once the 4th quarter rolled around, along with torrential rain, we did what we do and won the game! Ty and his buds were soaked but they didn’t care. The Broncos are now in 1st place in our division.

Earlier in the day we had rain up here too. It was cooler than it has been and we might get snow tonight or tomorrow. I think Vail will for sure.

This morning at 8 Lori is getting her blood drawn in Glenwood for her executive health program. It’s the same one I did. She’s not thrilled about not being able to have coffee. They open at 8 so we should be back by 9 or so.

More work around the house and on the computer today. Finally I had a really good month at work last month. Lots of orders came through. Election Day is tomorrow. The best thing about that is the ads are over. I’m afraid the Dems are going to have a good night as too many people hate Trump the man. His policies are great for the Country, the economy is booming, but gas prices and the MSM are too much to overcome. Should the Dems take control of both the House and Senate, get ready for more impeachment and constant veto’s. We’ll basically be at a stalemate for two years, which won’t help anyone. Only twice has the party in power won in the mid-terms so the Dems doing well is expected. If Biden or Harris were in power, we could look like Europe right now! Say what you will about Trump but we are better off than when Biden was in office, no contest.

Time to get moving. Have a great day, take care and God Bless.

Up early. With Daylight Savings time over, technically and literally, we woke up at 4:45am. It’s 5:12 now and we’ve already had our first cup of coffee. I told Lori we should go outside and get the Halloween decorations down before the sun comes up! Think I’ll do that before we head to the gym.

Yesterday we ran some errands and I watched the CU game and yes, we won! It was actually a good game. Lori made chili and did some work around the house. Later in the evening we went down to Nate and Dea’s as they always have an after party for when the kids finish up trick or treating. Dea does baked potato’s every year. It’s like a baked potato party. They’re vegetarians which explains why. Their kids have grown up so fast. Of course, we’ve seen that movie, right!

Good football on today. Really hope we win. Ty will be there doing his best to will us to a win. He’s a pretty good, good luck charm as we win more than not when he goes to a game. He’ll drive up after the game. I’m doing some more work in the basement today.

5:20am now and time to get those skeletons off the side of the house. On to Christmas! Have a great first day of November and God Bless.

When we were kids, Halloween was THE holiday, right! You’d start working on your costume weeks, if not longer, ahead of time. School would be a blast and the night itself was epic. On the street, word would get out quick, of which houses on the street had the best stuff. Full size candy bars were the holy grail, and all the candy was safe! By the end of the night, you’d have a half a pillowcase or more full of candy and then at home the bargaining would begin. We’d each dump all our loot out and then start trading of haggling with each other. This is where the real skill would come into play. We were lucky enough to have our neighbors, the Rossi’s, always make things like homemade cinnamon candy apples, the red kind, with a hard red cinnamon shell covering a nice crisp apple. The sweet of the rock-hard candy paired with the apple was hard to resist. Mr. Rossi would set up a makeshift food cart in front of their house and serve real food like hot dogs and hot chocolate, with mini marshmallows, (it always was cold or snowed on Halloween) and had some drinks under the counter, like hot coffee and a nip of this or that for the adults. The streets were full of hundreds of kids. Families from other neighborhoods would drive over to our street, Applewood, to bring their kids. We were a destination neighborhood for trick or treating. Speaking of trick or treating, lots of houses would make you do a trick before giving you a treat! Those really were the good old days.

Only a few more days of political ads. We’re numb to them now as I think most people are, yet they still play non-stop 24/7. They must think they can still change people’s minds. All the Dems have is “we’re not Trump”. Man are we in trouble as a Country. Speaking of countries, dozens around the World are telling their citizens to prepare. Some are even mentioning the word they never use, “war”. It’s been a long time since there’s been a direct conflict that would cause issues on our own soil but so-called war these days will be nothing like those of the past. It’ll be an infrastructure war where the food will stop being delivered to stores, or the internet goes out, or worse case, all power goes out. I’m sure we’re all numb to this doom and gloom talk, but it is a possibility. Ask yourself if the power went out today, for an extended period of time, even one week, how would you make out. Remember without power, water stops flowing, toilets only flush once, gas pumps can’t pump gas, grocery stores are closed, ATMs don’t work, heat and a/c are gone and all electronics, for cooking (your oven, fridge and freezer are out without a generator), and communications (cell phones) are gone. This could happen and many governments say it will, it’s just a matter of when. The government is prepared for this very thing. That should tell you something right there, and remember, they will not be there to help you! You will be on your own.

It’s already raining up here and the mountains are supposed to get lots of rain turning to snow between now and Tuesday night. Ty’s in Denver for Halloween tonight and then the game tomorrow. I finally made it down to the basement yesterday to clean and go through all our gear. It was a good start, but I have lots to do.

That’s it, time to get moving. Have a great day, be well, stay safe and enjoy the day. Funny as we’re now the ones (used to be our parents), that’ll be looking forward to seeing the little kids dressed up tonight. We don’t really get kids up here but will go to the neighbors to see the girls dressed up. We need to get some candy as we’ll get some kids for sure.

Addendum:Halloween has always held a special place in our hearts. Jagger and Ty grew up celebrating Halloween in Applewood Knolls, in the same neighborhood where Doug, Uncle Tom, and Aunt Robin grew up. So many generations of memories, traditions, and neighborhood friendships are woven into these streets.

From childhood trick-or-treating and pumpkin carving to the costumes they dreamed up and wore over the years — cowboys, Tyrannosaurs’, zombies, Angry Birds, the Invisible Man, a headless butler, video game characters, hippies , and Harry Potter…there was never a shortage of imagination!

Tonight

October brings back so many of those memories. Pumpkin carving, a big pot of chili, and neighborhood parties.

It’s amazing how quickly the years pass. The little boys who once ran through the streets in their Halloween costumes are all grown up, but the memories remain.

Don’t forget to set your clocks back tonight! Tomorrow it’ll be dark by 4:30 or so, and November will be here. God Bless.

Here’s Lori as the Queen of Hearts!

Lori made both these costumes!

And these too! Epic! What fun.

Today we’ll be role playing as plumbers. Ty’s shower is draining really slow. We suspect (hope) it’s a lot of hair built up over the years. I need to go get Drano this morning at Ace Hardware.

Ty’s getting ready for work and Lori is making him breakfast. Lots to do today around the house. Yesterday we went to Costco, Walmart, City Market and Village Market. You have to go to a bunch of different stores to get all you need these days.

Halloween tomorrow. Not sure what we’re doing, if anything. I think Ty has a party to go to and so does Jagger. We’ll go down the street to see the Nate and Dea’s kids as they always have a baked potato party after trick or treating.

I just learned Ty is headed to Denver for a party tonight and to stay with some girl. He might be back up before the game on Sunday, otherwise we’ll see him Sunday night. I’m trying to log into my Broncos account again. Every month there’s some issue. I think it’s because I have too many ticket accounts. Thankfully I have a Broncos ticket representative I can call who always helps me out. Just a pain and frustrating.

Trash day so time to get going. Have a great day and God Bless.