A Year of Change

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.

We made it to Denver on time but then of course, our flight to Cabo was delayed. Finally around 1pm we landed in Baja Mexico. You walk out of the airport and there are bars in the parking lot, ha. Our driver was there in about ten minutes and off to the JW Marriott we went. Upon arrival, we joined a line of 25 spine surgeons and spouses waiting to register for their room. It didn’t take too long and our room is great. The whole resort is great!

While I was waiting in line, Lori went down to the conference registration and picked up our badges. Then we walked around the resort and went down to see and hear, the waves crashing on the beach. There’s just something about the ocean that makes you feel alive and helpless at the same time. Next, we decided let’s get into our swim suits and go back to the pool. After an hour or so there, we showered and headed to a reception for all the attendees. There must be as many reps from surgical companies that make hardware like implants and other stuff, as doctors, trying to get doctors to use their stuff in clinical trials and surgery. We met up with Dr. Braxton and Molly (his wife) and they insisted we join them and a few people for dinner.

At 5:50 off we went to this farm to table place that was only ten minutes or so away. If you didn’t know better, you’d think you were being abducted or going to some bad drug deal in a movie. It was down this dirt road past sketchy buildings and broken down concrete homes that people live in. You finally turn into a gate that is an oasis in the middle of the hills. Our driver had to check in as we pulled in. It was a huge complex with live music, shops, gardens and tables everywhere outside serving fresh food.

With us were two guys from Denver, Jim and Troy, who were from a spine implant company out of Louisville by Boulder. Then, Dr. B, Molly, Lori and I and a nice young doctor who was from Rush Medical Center in Chicago. He and Dr. B talked about cases all through dinner and he asked Dr. B to look at a specific case today, that he was struggling with. Watching all the surgeons from around the World (I met the head of Cedar Sinai from LA) respect Dr. B, tells you he is really that great. He’s like a rock star here and when anyone asks him if he can do this or that, he says, “you have to ask Lori”. Several times he introduced Lori as his boss, ha.

We made it back from dinner, without being abducted, by 9:30. We slept great and are off to, you guessed it, the gym. Dr. B presents at 10:50 this morning. Then we’ll hit the pool for some more sun and waves. The ocean is under a Black Flag warning meaning don’t go in the water as the rip tides will suck you out if the huge waves don’t kill you first!

Oh, during dinner, Molly, who was across from me, suddenly tapped me on my chest and pointed to her throat as she was choking! I jumped up and was going to Heimlich her but her throat cleared. Dr. B was in the bathroom and she laughed and said, “oh my God, I’m choking and I asked the only non-doctor at the table to save me”! I was up and ready, but all was good!

Beautiful here, the humidity, warm weather, clear skies (no smoke like back home) and best of all to me, the endless sound of the waves crashing on the beach, are great.

Time to get moving, have a great day. More tomorrow.

Here we go. 4:40am now and we’re up and moving. I’m hoping to get some rest and recoup over the next 72 hours. Been a long time since we’ve had any sort of vacation. We need to be headed out in 50 minutes or so.

Yesterday was a blur. Lori was going to be home at 2 but that turned into 5:30. I had a crappy day at work with some drama but fixed it all. I’d like to just stop working all together but it’ll be at least another year.

Time to get moving, more tomorrow from Baja, God Bless.