A Year of Change

36 hours down, 36 hours to go. I’m right in the middle of my 72 hour water fast. This is where you have only water for 72 hours. Not sure who knows about this, but fasting like this has been around for thousands of years. After 24 hours, your body goes into autophagy. This is where the body essentially starts eating itself. In fact, autophagy in Greek translates to self eating. This is super beneficial as the body breaks up and eats diseased cells, mainly attributed to Alzheimer’s and a number of cancers. Here’s the technical info if you’re interested. If not, skip the next paragraph.

Autophagy (or autophagocytosis; from the Greek αὐτόφαγος, autóphagos, meaning “self-devouring”^[1] and κύτος, kýtos, meaning “hollow”)^[2] is the natural, conserved degradation of the cell that removes unnecessary or dysfunctional components through a lysosome-dependent regulated mechanism.^[3] It allows the orderly degradation and recycling of cellular components.^[4][5] Although initially characterized as a primordial degradation pathway induced to protect against starvation, it has become increasingly clear that autophagy also plays a major role in the homeostasis of non-starved cells.^[6] Defects in autophagy have been linked to various human diseases, including neurodegeneration and cancer, and interest in modulating autophagy as a potential treatment for these diseases has grown rapidly.

Anyhow, surprisingly, I’m not that hungry. I’m super alert and focused and am also down 4 pounds in the first 36 hours. And that’s not water weight as that’s all I’ve had! They say you should do this once a year. Some people do it a couple times a month, or fast for longer, like ten days! No way I could do that, as 72 hours, while so far, isn’t that bad, is enough. So, more water only until dinner time tomorrow night.

Today we’re off to Denver to see Phoebe to get haircuts. I’m also dropping some wine at my lawyer’s office and have a few other stops while Lori’s color is getting done. Tom made Christmas cookies and if we have time, we’ll stop and grab some. We talked for 20 minutes or so yesterday to catch up, glad he’s doing well.

Hope to be home by 3. Not sure if we’re having cigars tonight or not. I personally haven’t smoked a cigar since the Halloween party on October 26th. I just decided to take a break. No particular reason, just on a whim.

Ty’s off today. Jag is working hard at school. Lori had an impromptu meeting yesterday and after continuously complaining about not yet getting her bonus, they miraculously said they made a mistake last year on coding some procedures and owe her $30,000. What really happened is that Dr. B. thought she was going to quit and went in and yelled at the CEO and I think threatened to leave the practice himself if they didn’t take care of Lori. So, in a matter of an hour, they found this missing money. Hmmm. We’ll of course take it, but she shouldn’t have had to wait this long or have this go on this long. They’re also working on a $50,000 raise for her starting January 1. They’d better figure it out as she’s worth way more than that (numbers prove it), and they can’t lose her, or it could (I think would) sink the practice, as Dr. B would not have the patients and revenue without her. It’s so frustrating that people aren’t appreciated until they threaten to leave, or in many cases, do leave their job. Dr. B. saw this coming as Lori sent an email over the weekend with her concerns and frustrations, and that finally got everyone’s attention. I actually wrote the email for Lori to help her get her points across. It was honest, yet critical of everything and everyone, including the CEO. We didn’t know, but Dr. B forwarded the entire email on to Chris the CEO! Well, that stirred things up, and in the end solved things and I think will actually make the company stronger, as he’s now going to be taking Lori’s input on things. Truthfully, Lori would make a better CEO than this guy but that’s not the job she wants. I’m super glad they finally realize and understand what they have in her, as she really is amazing. If we moved to New York or somewhere, she’d be making hundreds of thousands of dollars a year. Tough day for her, but all’s well, ends well.

Time to get moving, have a great Thursday and God Bless.

As mentioned yesterday, I have a 10:30 meeting this morning in Aspen. I’ll leave at 9 and should be home before 1 this afternoon.

Yesterday I was in Denver by 7:45am and met Jag around 8:30. Then it was off to Arvada before picking up my truck a bit before 10 and getting out of town. I was literally on the phone from 8am until probably 2, with a few breaks here and there.

Should be in the 40’s today. Maybe a little snow next Sunday and Monday. Lori is in Vail today and Ty’s working. I did get into the gym yesterday afternoon for a quick workout and then and stopped to see Ty on my way home.

A friend of mine in Texas called last night and let me know he sent one of my Colt Single Action Army pistols back to me via Fed Ex. These are the type of pistols they used in the Old West. Think cowboy guns. Paul is the only guy left in the Country that has and can legally make and sell ivory grips. Ivory was outlawed years ago to protect elephants, but Paul’s supply was grandfathered in. He is about 2 or 3 years out, if he’ll even agree to make a set for you, but I met him through one of the old timers in the industry and he finished up mine in a little over 3 months. He’s around my age but is known Worldwide for his work. It should arrive tomorrow. Can’t wait to see it.

50 more wolves are set to be released in Colorado. Unbelievable. How about Joe B jetting off to Africa and giving them $1 Billion dollars of our money, (remember all the gov’s money comes from taxpayers) for food security and rebuilding communities. Funny that North Carolina is still waiting for federal funds to rebuild from the hurricane. Double unbelievable.

That’s it for today! Hope everyone is well, time to get moving, make it a great day and God Bless.

Great game last night. So happy Ty goes to them as I remember how much fun they were when I was his age.

I’m up early and out by 6 for Denver. Ty works at 7 (he made it home at midnight), and Lori around 8, so it’s a busy morning. After I drop my truck, I need to go meet Jagger as he left some notebooks here over Thanksgiving that he needs. Then I have a call with Arizona at 10:30 and one with Wisconsin at 12:40. Tomorrow I have a 10:30 meeting in Aspen and then should be home by 1.

Hope everyone is well. Have a great day, take care and God Bless. Go Broncos!

This week temps should be between 40 and 50 up here. That’s warm and should melt some snow. Yesterday afternoon was nice. It was almost “lay out in the sun” weather for Lori. Instead, she did some decorating out front.

Tonight in Denver is the big game. Monday Night Football! I’m meeting Ty on my way to Silverthorne to drop him his Broncos jersey and a Broncos sweatshirt of mine to wear tonight. He’ll be driving up after the game as he works tomorrow. Hope we win! Starts at 6:15 tonight.

I’ll be on the phone most of the day working on closing the year and on my new project. This month I’ll be speeding things up on both. Lori is working in Vail today.

Big news last night is Biden pardoned Hunter, nice. To be fair, I’m not sure he even knows what’s happening these days. His mind is clearly gone. It was most likely Jill. Everyone knew they would do this. It’s just their statement on how they were so conflicted and how Hunter was unfairly targeted and on and on. This is the true definition of gaslighting. They should have just said, we’re pardoning him because we can. Trying to make a case for it only makes it worse. Let’s see, tax evasion, the laptop, hookers and guns, cocaine in the White House, lying to Congress and the FBI, and on and on. Give me a break. The only one unfairly targeted was Trump. This will surely ruin Biden’s legacy, as if it needed anymore help. Dems though will justify and even praise it. Trump now though can basically pardon whoever he wants and look just fine. We all know, Joe hasn’t been running the Country for years. What a joke.

6:15 now, time to get going. Make it a great day, December 2nd, hold on tight. God Bless.

We’re in the 4th quarter now. One month to go left in 2024. Lots going on, a bunch of birthdays, Christmas and New Years Eve. Big news of the day yesterday was Tom got married! We’re all a little sad we were not invited to the wedding. It was an informal thing at the courthouse, and we would have drove down, but obviously his choice. We wish him the best and hope it’s all he hopes it’ll be. Congratulations little brother! We’re looking forward to spending some time with you and getting to know Holly over the holidays. Make sure to tell her, welcome to the family.

Lori and I had a nice time in Aspen. We made it there around noon and hit a few of our regular stores. We stopped at Whole Foods on the way home for some groceries and had a nice drive. Not too much traffic and the town wasn’t too packed. We met a nice black couple from Detroit at Ralph Lauren. The guy came up to me and said how much he liked my hat and asked me where I got it and also wondered where I found my sweater. Chris in Texas makes my hats and my sweater was an older vintage piece I’ve had for years. He asked Adrian (one of the salesmen) at Ralph Lauren if they had any vintage stuff like what I was wearing. They have a few things, way overpriced, spread around the store. I told Brandon (the guy) I guess I have a house full of vintage stuff! He laughed. I gave him my email and phone number and said if he wanted to email or call me, I’d hook him up with my hat maker in Austin Texas and my belt and buckle makers in Wyoming. He had asked if I got my hat at Kemo Sabe, which is a store that sells new, but distressed looking hats of their own brand to tourists for $1000 an up! He was telling me that they walked in, they gave him and his wife each a big glass of whisky, and before he knew it, $2000 later, he was walking out wearing a new hat! I laughed and told him, yea, that’s how they work. It’s funny to see these people who come from all over, mostly back east, but from other countries too, that want to play dress up like a cowboy, and will spend thousands of dollars on stuff no self-respecting cowboy or local would be caught dead in. His wife had on this mink fur hat that looked like a big furry helmet. Lori told her how cute it was (she’s nice in that way) and later told me it had to cost $4000 or more. I almost told the lady, don’t wear that out at night as someone might shoot you thinking you’re an animal, ha. It was a nice hat, but just looked, well, very Aspen. They were a super nice couple though and were very appreciative of me offering to tell them where to get the stuff actual cowboys wear.

I was walking around in jeans and a sweater not zipped up as it was in the high 20’s or maybe the 30’s. It’s easy to tell the tourists as they’re usually decked out in all kinds of designer clothing, complete with logos, and always bundled up like they’re in Antartica! I’m always looking around thinking, those people sure must be hot! Guess I just get used to the weather living her as I don’t really get cold much. Lots of big furry hats and gloves, paired with fancy coats with logos so big, they look like walking billboards.

Once we made it home and settled in, and we watched a couple of Christmas movies. One Magic Christmas and The Holiday. Surprisingly, Lori doesn’t remember seeing either of them, even though I’m sure we watched them numerous times over the years. One Magic Christmas is one of the most heartwarming movies of all time with a great message. If you haven’t seen it, get on it. You can thank me later.

Davy, Abby and the kids landed in Denver at 2:15am and made it home a bit after 5 am this morning. Jag and Ava made it home yesterday too. Guess the airport was pretty crowded.

Ty works this morning and then is off tomorrow and will head down for Monday Night Football! Hope we win. Time to get moving and head to the gym. Use it or lose it. Savor the holidays as they’ll go fast! We’re in the home stretch now. Here’s last night’s sunset, God Bless.

After the gym this morning, we decided we’d take a run over to Aspen. Jag loves this cologne from Louis Vuitton, and we get his bottle refilled once a year. Speaking of Aspen, how about this! Four South Americans (nice way of saying illegal immigrants) were busted breaking into a high-end watch shop by breaking into an art gallery and then breaking through a wall into another adjacent business and then breaking through their wall to get into the watch shop. They were caught in Vail and are now awaiting a hearing tomorrow. Up here, we have cash bail only for these guys. Not like down in Denver. They’re part of a criminal gang that comes to all parts of the U.S. on temporary visas for the sole purpose of robbing some place, (business or residential) and then they run back to their own Country. Glad we caught them. Just goes to show you, no place is safe anymore thanks to the Biden Harris administration’s policy. We now set our alarm at night when we sleep, put The Club on our cars in the driveway, and are always close to something that goes bang in case we’re ever broken into. Man, I miss the 70’s. Bring on President Trump!

Yesterday also marked the 160th year anniversary of the darkest day in the history of Colorado. The Sand Creek Massacre on November 29th, 1864, was when the army slaughtered men, women and children without warning or reason about 180 miles southeast of Denver.

At dawn 160 years ago, Col. John Chivington led 700 cavalry troops in a surprise attack on peaceful Cheyenne and Arapaho Indians along Sand Creek.

Even though Cheyenne Chief Black Kettle raised an American flag and a white flag to signal peace, Chivington and his men galloped into the camp and killed 230 Indians, two-thirds of them women, children and elderly.

That attack has been described as “an atrocious massacre” and an “act of barbarity.” One writer said it was impossible to believe men could “butcher and mutilate human beings as they did.” Hard to believe what humans can do to one another. One of my favorite movies since I was a kid is Soldier Blue with Candace Bergen and Peter Strauss. You can still watch it on Netflix or Prime. Good movie and has to do with this sad part of history. Check it out, it’s entertaining too. Just a bit of history and my way of not forgetting these people who we displaced and annihilated from their ancestorial home a century and a half ago. Of course, the government justified it back then being for the greater good, just as they do these days when they want something. You think we as people would learn, right?

It’s pretty outside, much as it was a hundred years ago or more. The pink sky is rising above the snow-covered ground and the animals that call it home, are waking up to start their day. As you know, we have lots of birds and elk and deer and yesterday Lori saw either a fox or coyote run across the backyard.

We need to feed Juno and Tux and put out our trash along with Davy’s and Dea and Nate’s on the other side of us. They’re all out of town until tomorrow. When Lori went up to Davy’s yesterday, she discovered their breaker had tripped off as the house was 53 degrees. She managed to get it fixed, (she’s a fixer) and it was 64 when we went back up later last night.

I found some cool things for the boys for Christmas yesterday. Most of my shopping is on-line these days. I ordered something really special (can’t say what as Lori reads this!) for my lovely wife about six months ago. I’m probably more excited about it than she’ll ever be, but it’s really cool. I’m pretty sure she’ll like it. I am the best shopper in the family, ha. I’ll even shop for myself and then give stuff to Lori to wrap and give me. Also found something really cool for my little sis, but can’t give any clues.

That’s it, 7am now and time to get going. Last day of November, enjoy and God Bless.

Today is Black Friday, the day everyone is stuffed, (from yesterday) and Annette’s birthday! Lori thought yesterday was the 29th for some reason. So, again, Happy Birthday Annette!

First up, Lori’s turkey was probably the best turkey I’ve ever had in my life. It was for sure the best turkey she’s ever cooked in her life! And that’s her saying that. It was juicy, with crispy skin and every single piece was cooked to perfection. She found some new recipe where she timed it to the minute and covered the whole bird with cheesecloth after basically drenching it with butter, after it reached room temperature. She also stuffed it with an apple, an onion, celery and some herbs. Check it out,

Now that’s one perfect 15-pound bird! It was so good. Glad we have a bunch of leftovers. Ty hung out with us until around 7:30. He’s been raiding my closet daily for jeans and my western shirts. I bought him a bunch of new shirts for Christmas from the place where I get mine online so I can stop the theft! I just have to hide mine until December 25th.

Today we have the CU game at 10am! Think we’ll walk a couple miles in our zero-degree temperature instead of driving to the gym. I know Annette wishes she was here as she just loves the cold! It lets you know you’re alive! It’s really not that bad; I’ve already been out in shorts and a t-shirt putting out the trash. Trash Day should be tomorrow with the holiday, but you want to put it out just in case they decide to double up today to get caught up.

It’s one of those morning where the sky is the bluest of blues up against the whitest of white blankets of snow. We had to chase the deer away from our bird feeders most of the day yesterday as it’s not really that good for them. They love sunflower seeds though, as do the wild birds. I need to get a taller bird feeder pole so the deer can’t reach it. Lori threats them like her new pets these days. You can see the empty bird feeder behind them. The white spots in the photo are our living room lights reflecting themselves through the sliding glass doors, not clouds.

And here they are again as they come up to the window looking for Lori with some carrots! Beautiful morning outside. We’re so lucky to live where we live!

Just saw on the news that they’re still running ads for covid vaccines! They must think everyone is stupid. People have died by the hundreds of thousands around the World from what has proven to be a faulty vaccine, and they want you to get more. All this has done is stop people from getting good vaccines, as now they don’t trust any shot the govt. tells you to get. What gross mismanagement by the government. Someone (Fauci) should go to jail. We don’t even get the flu shot anymore. Haven’t for five years now. Change is a coming, bring on RFK.

Have a good day, 3 more days of the holiday weekend. Be well, stay safe and God Bless.

If you’re reading this, not matter how you feel about your life, you do have a lot to be thankful for! No doubt about it. Many people don’t have things we take for granted every day. If you have your health, a warm bed, and food daily, you’re ahead of most of the people, not only in this World, but now in our Country too. It’s easy to feel sorry for yourself and dwell on what you don’t have. The trick is to be thankful for what you do have. Then you’ll realize you really are one of the lucky ones. Enjoy the day and do something for someone who has less than you. You’ll feel good, I promise.

Yesterday I shoveled from about 6 to 7am. It was a wet heavy snow. Once I had it off the driveway though, I was good to go. Throughout the day, it warmed up enough so all the roads and sidewalks, if they were plowed, ended up dry. Lori and I headed out to get a few last-minute groceries and then came home. Ty was here cleaning his room before heading to Denver with Sonny, for Jude’s birthday. He’s raiding my closet daily as he’s now a cowboy, all decked out in a hat, boots, western shirts and jeans. Nice to see him move on from his rap stage, ha. He’ll head up this morning and be here by noon.

Lori says we’re watching Christmas movies all day long. I’d rather watch football, but I can go with Christmas movies if it makes her happy.

Today is Annette’s birthday! Happy Birthday Annette! Hope you have a great day. Lori says she and her sister Jean are going to the movies. Fun. We almost went to see the new Gladiator movie yesterday but didn’t make it.

This weekend, Sunday, is December 1st! Hard to believe. We all know, life goes faster the older you get. What a cruel joke. I remember when we were kids, it seemed like it took months for Christmas to actually arrive. Savor each day and memory.

Quick dose of reality and a public service announcement. Crime is skyrocketing, especially in the cities, but it’s now everywhere. Be careful! When our new President gets in, we’ll see the tide turn. Some idiots, like the Mayor of Denver and some other liberal cities, have vowed to protect criminal illegal aliens, and in the case of Denver, even deploy the police to stop Federal officials from arresting and removing criminals. Think about that! How are these people still in office and who votes for them in the first place. What part about criminal illegal aliens says they deserve anything but a one-way ticket out of the Country. Thank God President Trump won. Every single State in the Country shifted to the right, but the Dems still don’t get it. Oh, and in California, 23 days after the election, 2 House elections have magically changed to favor the two democrat candidates by less than 20 votes, by counting disputed mail in votes. Third World countries can count their votes in a day, but California takes over 3 weeks. Anyone else smell a rat here? And the kicker is their Governor, that joke Newsom, just bought a $9.1 million dollar mansion with funds from a company that was formed two days before the transaction closed. Don’t you wish we all played the game by the same rules as the politicians? Show me a rich politician and I’ll show you a crook. I’ll stop now but could go on and on but don’t want to go any further down the rabbit hole and ruin the spirit of the day.

Time to get moving and head to the gym. Our turkey is going to take about 3 hours according to Lori. It’s beautiful outside but I think around 15 degrees. No worries, we’re used to it. We need to run up to Davy’s on the way to the gym to feed and let Juno (their bulldog) and Tux, their cat, out.

Have a great day, enjoy your family and friends, and again, be thankful for whatcha got! God Bless.

The snow started coming down yesterday morning. I think it just stopped an hour or so ago. Not too bad here at the house, maybe a few inches of new stuff, but nothing like up valley. Vail and Copper got 20 inches! I think Lori is staying home today as there’s only one new patient coming in today. Last night, it was taking almost 3 hours to get from Georgetown to Dillon. That’s normally a 20 to 25 minute drive.

I picked up our turkey yesterday. Casey, my buddy who owns the local meat market, gave us our turkey on him. That was nice.

Jag was golfing yesterday when I texted him and Ty was hanging with Sonny who is back from Montana for Thanksgiving. He’s skating through college as he doesn’t get his inheritance unless he gets a diploma. Guess he’s taking the easiest classes offered.

That’s it, time to go shovel. Have a great Thanksgiving Eve and God Bless.

Here comes the snow. Not really down at the house, but just about everywhere else east of us. Vail, the Pass, Frisco, the tunnel and more are all getting 3 or 4 inches an hour. Lucky the kids went down last night. Their plane took off around 7:30 which put them in Orange County a little after 9pm.

Lori is in Vail today and supposedly in Frisco tomorrow. I don’t think she’ll make it on Wednesday, if the weather forecast is correct. I’m getting our turkey today just so I don’t have to go get it tomorrow. We have several invites on Thursday but are planning on just hanging here at home. Hard to believe it’ll be December next week.

5:40am now. Just a dusting outside. I’ll head out to the gym in an hour or so. Lots of deer down here in the yard. They look pretty well fed and healthy right now which is good. They need to bulk up before the worst of winter hits. I always buy carrots at the store for them as a treat. We’re hoping for a mild winter! Just a little over two months until pitchers and catchers report for Spring Training! See, there’s always a bright side!

God Bless