A Year of Change

Got a lot done yesterday in Denver. The highlight was having lunch with Jagger. Always great to see him. Meanwhile, Ty worked 15 and a half hours yesterday! We didn’t know he had an event last night. He’s off today until 4, when he goes to work another private event.

At 4, I went to see Dr. Seibert again. This time he put some hydrogen peroxide in my ear and then sucked it all out after it soaked for a few minutes as apparently I had a small scab on my ear drum. It’s still early, but last night and so far today, my ear feels unplugged! Sure hope that was it, as even though it was getting better, it was annoying.

I need to wrap some presents today. Robi’s came yesterday. I’m getting nervous as a few we ordered on line haven’t showed up yet.

Lori had another virtual post op appointment yesterday, and she says she can go to the gym and do Pilates leg exercises. I’m skeptical, but she’s not much of a liar, and when she does, she has a tell, so I always know. All you have to do is look at her directly in the eyes and ask her, and if she’s lying, she’ll start laughing. It’s pretty funny, and cute.

Phoebe fixed my hair yesterday, which she screwed up a week earlier. In typical Phoebe style, she said, “well, that’s the last time I listen to you” meaning she was blaming me, ha. I just laughed and said, “yup, don’t listen to me anymore”. She never thinks anything is her fault. Jag said, “why don’t you just stop going to her”? Smart kid, but I’ve been going to Phoebe for 25 years and 9 out of 10 times she gives me a great haircut. Lori thinks she’s on Adderall or cocaine sometimes, ha. Anyhow, she’s like family, and now I look great!

Warm outside. Looks like 50’s and 60’s in Denver for at least the next ten days. It’s already 60 in Boulder right now at 6:48 in the morning. It was actually colder in Denver yesterday morning at 8am than it was up here.

Two weeks until Christmas! Jag and Ava will be with us, along with Ty. I found Lori a present yesterday and myself a new pair of Chelsea boots from the maker of the ones that Ty confiscated from me. They’re not cheap, but handmade and super comfortable and will last probably longer than me. That’s a scary thought!

Have a great day, be well, stay safe and God Bless.

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 O’Connell, who we knew for a good 15 years. She spent her time between Aspen and McLean 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 daughter Bri’s. 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 so, 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.

Today is dad’s birthday, then in ten days, Tom’s birthday, and then ten days after that, my birthday, 9, 19, 29. Birthdays are no longer that exciting, as now they’re just a reminder of how old I am.

Lori’s wrapping Ava’s presents right now. I need to get on that myself. I bought Lori some clothes but don’t really have her Santa present yet. She’s tough as she doesn’t need any jewelry or nice coats or anything like that. She wants laser resurfacing, but really, she doesn’t need that either. I’m thinking airplane tickets to somewhere warm. We’ll see.

Lori works today. Ty is boarding at Keystone and I have a call at 10am and 4:30. I’ll have another dozen or so sprinkled in throughout the day. I’ll hit the gym first in about an hour. You probably don’t remember, but I always treat the first of December like New Years. This gives me a month head start on any resolution or change I want to make. I’m really trying hard to kick sugar these days. It’s such an addictive drug, and in just about everything.

Looks windy in Denver and the front range today. It’ll be warm all week and they say through the 18th. We’ll take it.

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

Broncos won, Chiefs lost, Colts QB is out for the year, Green Bay won and the Nuggets even won. Icing on the cake would be the Chargers losing tonight.

7 am now. I have my Monday morning call at 10. I’d like to get to the gym and take a stab at the garage and make a quick trip to the dump, time permitting.

Lori, of course, did way too much on Saturday for the party. This meant she did nothing yesterday, so today she’ll probably be back at it. Maybe she won’t! Hopefully she learned her lesson as she was really sore. I think she’ll get an X-ray this morning just to ease her mind, that will tell her she’s still all good. I was not happy. At some point, she needs to follow the doctors’ orders and just stop. I don’t really get pissed off that much, (except at bad NFL calls) but I let her have it. I think she scared herself and will probably now be compliant.

I texted with Jag most of the afternoon during the games. We both hate Chris Collinsworth, who is an NFL announcer. For Christmas yesterday, we bought Ty Morgan Wallen tickets for next May 30th at Mile High. Concerts are so expensive these days. I remember paying $3.50 to see the Rolling Stones in 1972. I still have the ticket stub. Now expect to pay $500 to $1000 per ticket depending on your seats, and that’s even for this country musician, and I have no clue who he is. I asked Ty to play me one of his songs, and still, no clue. At least it’s country and not rap!

Think I’ll head out to the gym. 7:30 am now and if I get going now, I can make it. Have a great day, enjoy the season. Things are going to start moving fast, God Bless.

Last night, after a frantic day, our party was great! Everyone showed up around 5 to 5:30. Mark couldn’t make it as he had some acid reflux thing going on. Shultz is in Florida, James still overseas, and Ben is in Palm Desert California. It was a really fun time. Lori said it was because all of us guys didn’t run straight outside to smoke cigars and we all stayed inside hanging out together. I think this is because Lori had all the food ready right when everyone arrived. Guys pick food first all the time!

Ty was here for the party after boarding on the mountain earlier in the day. He’s super enjoyable as always and everyone loves seeing him. We wrapped up around 9 after the football games were over and we were in bed by 10.

Not much new snow outside, maybe an inch, but the mountain did get a good dose. It’s half clouds, half blue sky outside right now. I think the snow is all over for a week or so. Lori and I are up watching the news and Ty is still sleeping. He’ll be back on the mountain today, good for him.

Harley did much better last night with everyone and all the commotion. She’s chewing on her bone in her bed right now. Big Bronco game today. We’re looking for 10 wins in a row. Here’s a pic of the guys from last night.

That’s it, time to get moving. At least we cleaned up last night. Lots of enchiladas and tortilla soup for leftovers today.

Yesterday we (mostly Lori) worked on getting ready for the party. Ty worked and was home around 5. His friend from college, who is a good kid and a social media promoter/ influencer, was coming up to promote some DJ playing last night at Chasing Rabbits. That’s the hot club in Vail.

Kareem, his buddy, was going to spend the night. During the day, Ty called and asked if a couple girls could freshen up here after skiing as they were friends of Kareem’s. We said sure. By 7:30 last night, they were still in Frisco so they ended up not coming over before going to the club. Ty took off around 8:30 for town.

I woke up around 3:17 am and noticed Ty’s truck wasn’t in the driveway. Being a dad, I called him and he answered with his usual, upbeat, hi dad! I could tell he didn’t drink by his tone. I told him not to if he was driving when he left. I asked where Kareem was and he said about 10 miles behind him. So, Ty rolled in around 3:30am. I asked what happened to the girls and he said, they were a hot mess and left with some guys or something. Then ten minutes later, he opened our door (we had it shut to keep Harley in our room), and said Kareem isn’t coming. Apparently the girls got kicked out of somewhere and Kareem turned around at 3:30am to go get them. I asked if they were going to get a hotel, or what. Ty said, he didn’t know, maybe they’d sleep in their car, ha. Now it’s like 4am. We tried to get back to sleep and eventually did 30 minutes later for a couple more hours. Super proud of Ty for not partying and then driving in the snow.

Speaking of snow, we have about an inch outside. When Ty got home at 3:30, he shoveled the driveway for me! I guess more snow is coming this morning, but no way were getting the foot or more they forecasted. Maybe the ski mountain will, time will tell.

Jag had a great trip. They were going to drive up last night but we told him to just stay home and take it easy for the weekend. We’ll see him soon. He had a great trip. We’ll see what kind of offer he gets and if he’ll accept it. He now has some other people pursuing him too.

Tonight we’re having enchilada’s, homemade tamale’s, that I picked up yesterday afternoon in Gypsum from our sweet older Mexican lady, tortilla soup, and all kinds of sides. Looks like the whole crew will make it, except James who is still in Qatar. He might make my birthday party which will be round two! Lori made her famous Basque Cheesecake, we have Christmas cookies, coconut and pistachio stuffed cream puffs, cupcakes and more. Everyone will show up around 5:30. Marty and Mel might spend the night, depending on the weather.

It’s not that cold out right now, actually pretty nice. Traffic on the news at the tunnels shows I-70 moving pretty well. I think a lot of people were scared off by the forecast. 7:35 am now, time to get moving. Lots to do. Have a great December 6th and Go Broncos and God Bless.

Yesterday at 1, our new cleaners showed up. We weren’t sure what to expect but heard good things from our neighbor. Boy, we had no idea! Marta and her crew of 3 other ladies or girls were here for a little over three hours. It cost a whopping $455, but it was worth every penny!

Our house has never been so clean. I don’t think it was this clean when we moved in. They did everything you could think of. They even took off all the window screens and dusted them while they cleaned ALL the windows inside and out. If we hired a window cleaner on our own, they cost $800 to $1000! The somehow managed to get all the water spots off the boy’s showers, glass and tile. I told Lori, we should just move now. They hand cleaned the oven, (not using the self-cleaning feature on the oven) and all the racks, and just about anything else you could think off. It won’t be this expensive next time as this was a deep clean to get things started.

I was in Denver in the morning. The roads were a little dicey on the way down if you were from out of State and don’t know that when it’s 15 degrees, roads are dry in the sun, and icy and slick in the shade. Lots of rental cars and out of State plates in the ditch, and in the shade!

I got my haircut at 10 and then went to pick up the goodies for the party tomorrow before heading home. I made it here by 1:30 or so.

Snowing in Vail right now, with heavy snow and big winds tonight. We’ll hunker down at home tonight. Might end up with some people spending the night tomorrow. They say 1 to 2 feet with big winds. Hope it’s a dry snow and not real wet. That’s easier to shovel.

That’s it, have a great December 5th, 20 days until Christmas! We have lots to do. Time to get busy. God Bless.

Well, I went o the doctor yesterday afternoon, and my ear is fine, but apparently, I had a little vertigo. Our friend, the ENT doctor, checked my ears and said they don’t look that bad. When he asked how it happened, and I told him how I bent over a few weeks ago, and got dizzy, he said, let me check you for vertigo. I laid back and he twisted my head a specific way, and boy, I was instantly super dizzy. It went away pretty quick when he had me sit up, but Jared (my doctor) said my one eye was jumping around a bunch. He then said, let’s treat this. He had me lay back, twisted my head left and right, then had me wait a minute or so, then sit up, and voila, it was pretty much gone. I was kind of loopy though when I stood up and he said I would be like that for the rest of the day.

I walked out of his office, still sort of loopy, like kind of drunk, and made it to the truck in the snowstorm. I probably should have sat in the truck for 30 minutes or so before driving, but with the snow coming down heavy, off I went. Jared said not to lie flat for 48 hours so the crystals in my right ear settle back into place. This made for an uncomfortable night’s sleep. So, this morning, I’m not really dizzy, but man, my neck is sore!

I’m off to Denver in a little over an hour. I have a haircut at 10 and have to pick up some desserts for the party. Jag’s flight to Chicago takes off around 7:30. He’s at the airport now. He’ll land back in Denver around 6 tomorrow night. Big trip for him.

Ty works from 7 until 10 this morning and then is headed to the mountain. Lori is home today and hopefully will take it easy.

Things are looking up for us, knock on wood. I’m drastically changing things at work and although they are some bumps, (which is expected), it’s needed and going well. We’re like a 24-year-old start up. Most of my Team doesn’t know it yet, but the first week of January, I’m letting 60% of them go, and telling them they need to reapply for their jobs. Part of this is helping them understand that their job next year, is not the job they have this year. It’ll also let me see who can and will do the things needed in the Company’s new roles, in 2026. All my people have been with me at least 12 years (one guy) and the others over 20 years. While I appreciate the loyalty and history, things have changed in the world, and we need to change, to succeed, and I’m doubtful that all of them are still a good fit. It’s nothing personal; it’s all business. I, as the head of the Company, have to do what’s best for the Company, our shareholders and me. Tough times require tough decisions. Before I took over sole control July 1st, the Company wouldn’t make the tough decisions. One thing about me is that I will make decisions. Most are right, (knock on wood), but if wrong, I’m a fail fast guy, meaning I’ll recognize its wrong, and make another decision or pivot fast. Hopefully everyone can adapt and will be here, but if not, it is what it is. What I do know is doing the same thing over and over and hoping for change, doesn’t work.

Time to get moving so I can be on the road within the hour. Have a great day, be well, stay safe and God Bless.

21 days until Christmas Eve, WHAT? Are you kidding me? That doesn’t work for us, it’s too soon. Time to hit the pause button on the month. What? You’re saying I can’t? Holy crap, time to get busy. Might have to call in the elves to help.

Not a whole lot of snow up here, maybe 2 or 3 inches. Hard to tell as Ty and I shoveled last night and there’s really nothing new here at 5:30am. Denver looks like it’s worse than up here.

Ty had a great day boarding at Keystone yesterday. He showed us a video of him going off a jump that was cool and it looked like a great day. He and three or four buddies from Denver had a great time. We cooked up some steaks on the grill when Mom got home from work.

I have a call at 7 this morning and then will head to the gym. Lori works in Vail. She was there all day yesterday which was a bit too much. She needs to take it easy, but we all know she probably won’t.

I need to get plane ticket for Paris in early February. Wine Paris is probably the largest wine show in the world. I can send a guy that works for me, but the owners of my most important estate really want me to come. I’ll see if Lori wants to go. It starts the day after the Super Bowl which means I’d be there for the game. That’s not going to work if the Broncos are in the big game! Don’t laugh, could happen, you never know!

Time to go. Have a great day, stay safe and warm, if you’re in Colorado, and God Bless.

Well, that’s what they say, snow tonight. I’m sure we’ll get some, but how much is the question. Does say 4 to 6 inches down in Denver. I’m not in Denver until Thursday and all should be good by then. Jag flies to Chicago Thursday and is back Friday. I have to pick up some stuff I ordered for our annual cigar party Saturday night.

Ty went to Denver yesterday and is snowboarding at Keystone today. HE stopped and saw Uncle Tommy on the way down. He works tomorrow through Sunday. Lori went back to work yesterday and worked until around 2. Dr. B took x-rays of her neck to make sure all is good, which it is. He did tell her to be compliant though as it takes 3 months for things to settle in. She’s going in again today but will probably head home early again. She also needs to wear tennis shoes, or other flat soled shoes, no high heels! With all the stuff she’s been doing, she’s lucky all looks good.

I’m still waiting on a bunch of stuff to arrive from UPS and Amazon. Seems like things are taking longer to get here these days. I like shopping in person, but there are some things you can only get online. I do have a bunch of wrapping to do. Also need to clean the house for the cleaners who come on Friday. I hate cleaning so I can pay someone to clean!

6:30 am now. Time to saddle up and head to the gym. Have a great day. God Bless