A Year of Change

Looks like we had rain last night, not much, but at least it was some. Should be a week of on and off moisture which we’ll take.

Ty went to Denver yesterday and will be back this morning. I think there was some show he went to. Jag is doing well and we now have some apartments where there is no bidding and will pick one today.

Yesterday afternoon I met with Davy and Huebert who is his Davy’s family’s long tome friend from Austria. Paolo from Austria was also there. They asked me weeks ago to meet with them and look at a new knife sharpener system that uses RHC of 95 and ceramic rods to sharpen knives. I was skeptical, but these things work. I took up a bunch of mom’s old kitchen knives that have to be 50 years old and super dull, and with 3 or 4 swipes, they were as sharp as a surgical blade. For those of you that don’t understand metal hardness, RHC 95 refers to Rockwell Hardness Scale which rates the hardness of metal. The toughest knife made is 65 RHC, so 95 is capable of sharpening any knife easy. Anyhow, I gave them a bunch of feedback and advice and will be helping them out in some capacity.

Huebert, who Davy’s family has known for over 20 years, is quite the character. His family’s farm in Austria hosted the crew and actors when the movie The Sound of Music was made in the 60’s. He was also a longtime family friend of Niki Lauda, the most famous Formula One racer of all time. Huebert was involved in F1 and also with the past six Olympic Austrian Ski Teams. He lives in Austria and has a ranch in Ruidoso New Mexico. Anyhow, they’ve invited Lori and I to Austria where they promise to treat us like a king and queen, when we go over in a few months to see the people I need to see in Slovenia and France and Italy. Davy and Abbey will go with us, and we’ll probably go early this summer.

Some whack job tried to kill the President again last night. He was a game designer who went to Cal Tech and had a master’s in mechanical engineering. He developed games with shooters and a bunch of killings. Anyone see a pattern here? Hmmm. Trump denounced political violence, on both sides, and said he won’t let it deter him from doing his job. I don’t know how you can’t respect the guy as they’ve tried to kill him at least three times and he still puts himself out there. Biden would have been locked in his basement, never to be seen, after the first attempt years ago! I’m sorry, but you never saw people on the right trying to kill Obama or Biden. The left is unhinged and crazy. Enough said.

Off to the gym we go. Have a great day, be well, stay safe and take care, God Bless.

We have about a week, maybe six days, to find Jag an apartment. One we hope to get was supposed to let us know by last night, but so far, we haven’t heard. Jag is looking at some more today. If we don’t find one, he’ll need to either move into an extended stay hotel, or he might stay in the Chairman of his company’s place, which I’m sure is a multi million dollar pad close to the office.

Yesterday I had to terminate one of my employees. It of course wasn’t fun, and I feel bad for my guy. How I feel is irrelevant as it’s nothing compared to how he feels. He was shocked even though everyone in the Company, that I informed afterwards, saw it coming. Hopefully he’ll process over the weekend and next week will be doing better.

More of the NFL Draft today and the Nuggets play tonight. We’d like to purge Ty’s room, but he wants to go camping to the sand dunes in southeastern Colorado. We told him it’s not a great day today and tomorrow, weather wise, but 22 year old’s are basically fearless, or maybe I should say clueless, ha. We’ll see.

Time to get moving, have a great Saturday and cross your fingers we find an apartment this weekend, God Bless.

Today Ty paid off his truck! He bought it in October of 2024 for $51,000 and here we are about 18 months later, and he owns it outright! This is a really big deal! Congrats.

I’m wrapping up a big week and have to let a guy go today. These are brutal conversations but necessary. Imagine losing your job that you’ve had for almost 15 years. Sadly, these days, performance is what matters. It’s just business.

Ty’s off to work and we’re late heading to the gym so time to go. Have a great Friday and GB.

Let’s see, today we have two playoff games, basketball and hockey, and the NFL Draft! The Rockies even play too! Thankfully they play in the afternoon.

We’re getting two new screen doors, or should I say, one new one and one repaired. The estimate came in yesterday, $3400! I decided to put in a claim as even though I have a $1000 deductible, it’ll save me $2400. Hopefully they’ll be fixed within a month as the window company is booked out 2 or 3 months for windows. Unbelievable how expensive stuff is these days.

Ty works at 8. Lori and I are going to head to the gym in ten minutes or so. Time to go so have a great day, GB.

Off to Denver this morning for a quick meeting and oil change at 8am. A good friend is in Denver staying on Lookout Mountain with friends and is driving back to Utah this morning. He and his wife will drive down to the car dealer, where I’m having my oil changed, to visit with me. He’s literally the most respected, sought after, custom rifle maker in the Country, and one of the top 3 or so in the World. It’ll be good to see him. It takes about ten years, if you know him, to get a rifle.

Yesterday I sat in Frisco for two and a half hours getting Ty’s windshield replaced, ugh. What a great dad I am. I had to drive his truck over too. Lori and Ty both work today.

5:30am now so time to get going. I should be on the road in 20 minutes. Have a great day, God Bless.

We’re passing on the apartment we thought we were getting. Time is running out as we need one by May 1st! We’ll get it done somehow, as that’s what we do.

This afternoon I have to go get Ty’s windshield replaced in Frisco. I had him scheduled for Thursday, but he picked up a shift, so I moved it today as he said he was off. Of course, after I pulled strings to get him in today, he picked up a shift for today too, ugh. Oh well, I’ll grab his truck at 1 and be over there by 2 and my guy Ben will get it done while I wait. I need to be home by 5 for the screen door guy who is coming by.

I handled my business with one employee yesterday and it was brutal. We might have come to a compromise where she’ll stay on straight commission, but I’ll cover her health care. She’ll have to do some other work for free for me to do that. I’m talking to her again this morning. Then I have to call another employee and just let him go. Not fun.

Better get going as it’s 6:45am now. Have a good Tuesday and GB

This weekend, the Nuggets and Av’s won their first playoff game, and the Rockies, beat the World Champion LA Dodgers 2 out of 3 times! Crazy, the Rockies that is. The Dodgers only have six losses this year and 2 of them are to us! Nice, you gotta love sports. Nuggets play the second game tonight at 8:30! I hate the late games. So does Tom.

Ty picked up a shift today. It’s slow up here as it’s the mud season. That’s the time between when the ski area shuts down and Memorial Day weekend. Not a lot going on in town.

Lori is crushing it at work, what’s new. Today I have to break the news to a couple employees of their new status and see if they want to stay. If it was me, I would stay, at least until I found something else, but I don’t really let emotions into my decisions, especially when it comes to money. We’ll see.

We might have an apartment in Chicago, or should I say Jag might. I think we do, as the realtor texted Lori yesterday saying congratulations. I think now it’s just a formality and some more paperwork. It’s almost as bad as buying a house.

I’m off to Denver this morning for a quick meeting. I have another one tomorrow but will do it on Zoom. That’s it, time to go, have a great day, GB.

Big day yesterday. Ty drove home from his concert in Boulder the night before and was here a bit after we made it home from the gym. Jag viewed three apartments and walked 9 miles in the process! The Nuggets won, and unbelievably, the Rockies handed the Dodgers only their 5th loss of the year! I think Jag is going to get this one apartment even though it’s not perfect. The only thing we’re not crazy about is there is no in unit laundry. Other than that, it’s great.

Today I have to get into the basement and do some cleaning. Tomorrow I’m running down to Denver for a couple errands. Warm weather is headed our way. Should be in the 70’s all week.

Big day at work tomorrow. I’m repurposing several people, which is a nice word for eliminating their salary and putting them on straight commission. I’m also shrinking territories. I’m sure they won’t be happy, but they haven’t been paying for themselves on salary. Every company I know has flat out just reduced their workforce. These people should be thanking me for having an opportunity to keep their job, as it’s a tough market out there. Sadly, I don’t think they’ll see it that way. I get it though, as getting laid off, which again, I’m not really doing but it’s close, is a tough thing. Both people have been with me over 15 years. Tough times call for tough decisions. The World has changed. Of course, I’m the guy that has to do it as I’m the Managing Partner and my other Partners aren’t qualified to do it and would say the wrong thing and fuck it up.

Hard to believe it’s almost May! Tomorrow is also 4/20, National Smoke Weed Day! Be careful on the roads!

Time to just finish the regime in Iran. Just wipe them out and let’s move on already. Oil dropped to the mid $80’s per barrel, but of course, gas stations haven’t lowered their prices yet.

Ty’s off to work and we’re headed you know where, (the gym). Have a great Sunday and God Bless.

We had snow yesterday, maybe 3 or 4 inches, but it didn’t stick to the pavement, so no shoveling required. The highway was a little dicey in the morning but was fine by 2 or 3 in the afternoon. It was cold though, so our landscaper went up and down the street turning off everyone’s sprinklers. It was too late to blow them out, (they just turned them on a couple weeks ago), but he didn’t want them running in the below freezing temps. Should be 55 to 60 today and in the 70’s by Monday.

Ty and a girl he’s known since freshman year of high school, went to a concert in Boulder last night. They stayed at the Marriott right there in Golden. From the bill, they checked in around 10:45pm. He should be home by 11 or so this morning.

Jagger has a bunch of apartment torus set up today. It’s our goal for him to find a place today to get that off our plate. Lori’s been doing a lot of searching online to help out.

Orders at work are getting bigger and bigger on our new products. What used to be a good order, say $100k, has now amped up to $400 or $500k! This puts a strain on us production wise as the upfront costs are much larger. It’s a good problem to have though, so while tough, I’m not complaining.

We’re headed to the gym and then will do some stuff around the house. The Nuggets play this afternoon, I think at 1:30. It’s the first game of the playoffs. Hope we win, we should.

Have a great day and weekend, God Bless.

We dropped Lori’s car around 8:30 and headed out to run our errands. Around 10:30 we met up with Ty at the mall as a watch I ordered for him that he’s wanted forever, finally came in. We decided to buy both boys watches last August. It just takes a while for the right ones to become available. He’s super happy and deserves it as he’s doing really well. We’re happy to get them both their first real watch as they should have them forever. It’s kind of like a rite of passage for a man. We started looking for Jagger’s over a year ago and it finally came in last August, but we didn’t tell him about it until Ty’s came in. I’ll get Jag’s sized next week and send it to him then.

Turns out the warning light on Lori’s car is just a glitch in the software system of Porsche GTS models. When the car gets above a certain altitude it triggers an alert that sends a signal to the light on the dash, but it’s a false alarm. Would have been nice to know that before we drove down, ha. My buddy did wash Lori’s car and filled it was gas for her, and we had to go down anyhow, so it is what it is. They had a couple really nice used cars down there at good prices. First, a 2020 Panamera GTS with 8000 miles, and then a 2013 911 S Cabriolet with 22,000 miles! Both are super clean cars with low miles, and I’d love to have either. A guy can dream.

Ty’s going to a concert in Boulder tonight with some girl. Jag went to a retirement party last night for some co-worker. Ty’s off to work and we’ll head to the gym soon. Lite snow just started up here. We’re supposed to get a few inches with the front range getting the worst of it. Looks like next week will be a warm week.

More shootings in Denver and all across the Country, mainly in blue States and cities. It’s common place in Denver these days. You have to have your head on a swivel down there. Crazy and sad.

Time to go! It’s recycle and trash day. Have a good day, be safe and God Bless.