A Year of Change

Night before last around 10pm, Mark had a bear follow him into his garage. He didn’t see it and went inside to get ready to go to bed. Five minutes later he heard a bunch of noise and went to see what was happening. Apparently the bear tripped the laser thing that is on garage doors and opened it when Mark thought he shut it. The noise was all Mark’s new appliances the bear knocked over in his garage onto his car. When he opened the door, the bear was on a piano banging the keys with his paws and eating food. Mark is remodeling his kitchen so he has a ton of dry food on shelves stacked up in his garage. The bear wouldn’t leave even though Mark was throwing shoes and anything else he could find at her. She also had two cubs patiently sitting in the driveway watching the interaction between Mark and their mom. Finally after 15 minutes or so, with a full bag of pistachios in her mouth, she sauntered off. I told Mark, be careful as they’ll be back tonight, meaning last night.

Also that night, a bear attacked a person 3 miles up the road from Mark’s toward Vail. Rangers set a trap for it but I haven’t heard if they caught it yet. It’s early for bears but with no water, there are few berries up in the mountains. Lots of them around everywhere. I know Tom gets them too.

Looks like a big dust storm in Arizona last night spreading Valley Fever which is a storm full of dust and some kind of fungus it picks up from the ground. They said to stay inside as if the spores get into your lungs, it can be fatal in some cases. Sounds like some bad B movie!

Nice up here in Eagle. I’m on the hunt for a solution if the power goes out. I’m leaning towards some large battery banks instead of a permanent large generator. This way I can take them with me when we move and they’ll run the house for 3 or 4 days. If the power is out longer than that, we have bigger problems. This route is way less expensive too.

Lots of crap going on in Denver. I don’t know how people live there anymore. Lots of people are trapped in their jobs, have houses they can’t sell, and lack the funds to go anywhere. That’s an issue everywhere in the Country. God help us if these crazy socialists, which are communists, get in. We’re quietly preparing for the worst. Remember, hope for the best and prepare for the worst.

That’s it, time to go, God Bless.

Man, my neck kept me up all night. Must be from the intense workout I did the day before yesterday. Always seems to go that way the second day after lifting heavy.

Denver was fine. I did go to the warehouse twice as the first time my samples weren’t ready. The second time I went, two hours later, they still weren’t ready! So home I went. I don’t have the time to mess around as I had other things going on. I did manage to run a couple other errands while in town, but would have waited a day or two had I known the warehouse was messed up. This is because recently the company was sold and they’re still working out the kinks from the sale. I did find the best cigar shop in the State over by the distributor. Never knew it was there.

Ty works today. He’s thinking of taking online courses to become a personal trainer. He now has the body for it, the kid is buff. Jag is working away and so is lovely Lori.

The news and forecasters are still saying it’ll be a snowier than normal winter. We’ll see. I’m trying to find a solution in case the power goes out, without spending $40,000 or more. One option would be when the power goes out, just fly to Arizona!

Good rain last night with a few showers still going on. Looks like a rainy weekend, but still in the 90’s in Denver.

Not much else happening. Have a good day and God Bless.

Quick trip to get some wine at the warehouse. As soon as I drop it off, I’ll get out of that cesspool as fast as I can. No point in sticking around Denver any longer than you need to.

Ty went to the Rockies Dodgers game last night. He then drove home pulling in sometime after midnight. He’s off again today before working the rest of the week. Jag and Ava went to our favorite Chicago restaurant last night, Mon Ami Gabi. They had fun.

Lori is working in Vail today and I have some more calls. Almost 6am now and I should be on the road by 6:30 so time to get moving. More 90 degree temps this week but it won’t be long until things change. The news says we’re in for a snowier than usual winter. We’ll see. Not like they’re usually right, ha.

Have a great day, God Bless.

6am now, Ty’s off today and Lori’s making her salad. I’m heading to the gym and then will get ready for my 10am call. I’m glad the last two weeks are behind me. As you know, I had to let Kristin, who has been here for 23 years, go. Good news is that while customers will miss her, everyone understands and is ready to move forward. In the end, it always comes down to money, right?

Looks like Shultz booked a luxury townhome in St. Andrews Scotland for three nights during the tournament next July. You have to get accommodations now as they sell out fast. Right now there are 8 of us, unless the boys decide to go too.

They had more rain and hail in Denver over the weekend. They say this week will be much calmer. I have to run down to the warehouse tomorrow so that’s good news.

Still looking for land or a house in Montana. We have plenty of time as we’re not going anywhere until at least next summer, probably longer. Time to get moving and go to the gym. Have a great Monday, God Bless.

We’re at the halfway point of August. Won’t be long now until the leaves start changing. It’s the best time of year to me. Today we have another great day with 75 degree temps and blue sky. Not sure where all the smoke went, but it’s not here.

A couple days ago our new body comp scale arrived. It’s the Hume scale and Dr. B has had one for about six months. It measure everything from bone mass to visceral fat, lean mass and about 40 other metrics and tracks your progress. Good news is that my metabolic age is 52! That’s a solid number as it says my body is 18 years younger than my actual age. Lori’s is 50 which is also great. Tomorrow I need to take my blood test in the morning and send that off to the lab. It’ll measure about 100 markers as I said a week ago. It looks for things that are out of range so you can fix them before the standard 20 marker test at the doctor says you have a problem. I can see Robi rolling her eyes from here but it’s fun for us to track this stuff. I need to walk about six or seven miles today. I’ll get two in at the gym on the treadmill and then the rest around the neighborhood.

Gareth is having a bbq in Denver today but with the rain in the mountains and the hail in Denver, driving 5 hours to hang out for two or three, isn’t going to happen.

Jag had fun at the Bears game yesterday. The Company suite holds 20 or 25 people. It was his first time going to Soldier Field but now he knows where to go for when he goes to actual games.

7:10am now and Ty’s off to work and time for us to head out to the gym. Be well, stay safe, (tons of crimes in Denver, shootings, stabbings and more, fun!) and have a great day. Oh, Denver now has the dubious title of being the worst housing market in the Country! Not surprising with all the crap the Dems have done to our once great city. Wait until another socialist gets in and gives the Dems a super majority. The President of the Chamber of Commerce says Denver will soon be a ghost town. Minimum wage January 1st down there is $20 an hour! That’s for everyone, barista’s, car wash workers, dishwashers, everyone. That just won’t work. I get it as that’s only around $38K a year, but when you mandate it, businesses will shut down and leave. And people think socialism will work. Hold on, it’s going to be a bumpy ride.

God Bless.

Lori did the blog yesterday as I couldn’t get online with my computer. As she said, I broke my tooth the night before, unbelievable, right? Anyhow, we landed at 8:15 and were at the dentist by 11am. Ryan, our dentist and friend, had me in and out in 40 minutes with a temporary crown. While I was in the chair, he said I’m going to use this polish thing or something like that. It was like a high pressure water spray in my mouth but 5 minutes later, my teeth were sparkling white like they haven’t been since I was in high school! I don’t know what the new technology is but it’s going to put teeth whitener products out of business. I can’t believe the before and after and how white my teeth are. I’ll go back in two weeks and get the crown they’re making, put on for me.

Next up we went across the street and had breakfast with Ty as he was working. Then we headed home. I threw our laundry in and we settled in for the day doing things around the house.

We found a new lot we really like but the lady has it priced too high so we’ll see. We won’t settle as it has to be prefect for us to move to as our new home where we’ll stay for retirement. We love the area, everything is great about it, but we have to find the perfect place.

The Broncos looked great on tv, but maybe Atlanta isn’t that good. Jag is going to the Bears game today in the Company’s suite or box. Ty’s off to work and Lori and I will head to the gym.

It’s nice up here with no visible smoke and cooler temps. Denver has been getting hammered with rain and hail the past few days with more coming this week. Oh, we won the ticket lottery for the Open in Scotland at St. Andrews next July. This is the oldest golf tournament in the World at the birthplace of golf. About 3 of us were chosen for 4 tickets each out of ten of us applying. Gareth, our buddy who sold his event planning company, belongs to some high end house swapping program and is trying to get this ten room castle for us all to stay in. They’ve all been there before and rave about Scotland. Ty wants to go and we’ll see if Jag does too.

That’s it, time to go to the gym, God Bless!

Made it to Montana by 1 p.m., and our realtor, Rick, picked us up and took us out to see the first lot. The lot itself was pretty, but the surrounding properties had quite a bit of yard clutter, utility trailers, and RVs. It was also really windy, and ultimately, we realized it just wasn’t the place for us.

Tyler, Marty’s brother, met us there and gave us some great ideas about positioning the house so we wouldn’t have to see the trailers and RVs, but even with that, it just wasn’t our favorite.

Later, Tyler picked us up and took us to his private club, The Homestead Club. What a spectacular property! Beautiful 20-acre parcels surrounded by incredible Montana scenery. Definitely too expensive for us, but spectacular nonetheless. One of those places that makes you stop and appreciate how beautiful Montana is. ❤️

We also saw another lot on the way to dinner and decided to stop back by after dinner. This one really caught our attention—grassy, surrounded by pine trees, with a pond. Absolutely gorgeous! We’re going to consider this one.

Dinner was a chef-inspired experience where they just kept bringing out food—course after course. Unfortunately, Doug broke a tooth on his very first bite of bread and didn’t tell anyone! He just quietly stopped eating, which explained why he wasn’t eating much the rest of the night.

When we got back to the hotel, Doug let the realtor know the first property was a definite no, but we’re going to consider the second one.

Now we’re at the airport getting ready to board our flight home. We’ll make a stop on the way home at the dentist, where Ryan is meeting us at his clinic to fix Doug’s tooth. Hopefully, that will be the end of our Montana dental adventure!

What a quick but memorable trip. We saw some beautiful country, explored some possibilities, and definitely have a lot to think about.

Have a great day and God bless!

We should land in Montana around 1:30 this afternoon. Then we’re heading straight to the property to walk it and make sure it’s what we want. We’re pretty sure we’ll buy it either way as we’re sure we’ll always, worst case, be able to get our money out of it. They’re not making anymore land! If for some reason we don’t end up building, I’m pretty sure we can flip it for at least $100k profit within a year, maybe more. The plan though, is to build, but that won’t start until next Spring at the earliest. We’ll know more in 24 hours.

Yesterday I stopped at Ty’s for lunch and met a lawyer from Florida who took Ty golfing a few weeks ago. Everyone loves our kid as he’s such a kind, good human. I sent Ty with a few bottles of wine to work today for Rick, the attorney.

We’re back tomorrow morning at 8am so it’s a quick trip. Time to get moving as we fly out of Denver at 11am. Hope everyone is doing well, take care and God Bless.

Well, the wacko lady in Wisconsin, that had a reported 22-point lead, and wanted to abolish Thanksgiving, who was running for Governor, lost. She only lost by 3000 plus votes or so, so socialism is still alive. This woman was against everything. She couldn’t tolerate being around white people (she’s Korean), even though her husband is white and son is half white. She said “whites” make her uncomfortable, yet she still garnered 300,000 votes! WTF! She was also against Christmas, 4th of July, Halloween, and just about any and everything else normal to anyone who grew up in America. Some say they wish she would have won as she’d be easier to beat in a general election, but I’m glad she lost. You never know what will happen in any election, so good riddance.

Same thing in Minnesota on the other side, Mike, “the pillow guy” Lindell also lost. Thank God. There are so many people nationwide with zero experience running for office, or who are already in office, that it’s no wonder the Country is so messed up. There should be basic qualifications required to run for office. At minimum, some kind of litmus test, like have you read the Constitution? I don’t know, we’re in so much trouble.

Ty’s off to work, Lori’s getting ready and I have another big call at 9am. Yesterday was non-stop phone calls and meetings. Pretty wild stuff going on at work. Can’t talk about it, but big changes are coming, and all for the best.

Looks like cooler temps and rain are headed our way. Bring it on. Time to get moving. Have a great day, God Bless.

Seems like we are in a race to get set up to retire before the World gets any crazier. Our loose goal is sometime next year with a desired goal of January 2028. Even writing that sounds surreal. The way things have changed in the Country over the past 5 years, anything can happen in the next 16 months.

As parents, your first duty is to take care of your kids. We’re trying to support both boys best we can to make sure they’re on a good path towards independence, financial security and a good life. Jag is of course doing well but still needs a little help now and then. That should change in January when he gets a much-deserved raise. Ty, for his part, is at least now saving money and looking at his finances in a different way. Then there’s us, we’ve cut 90% of all discretionary spending meaning no big trips, hardly ever eating out and no new major purchases. If anything, we’re selling some stuff. Different times call for a different approach. So, the race is on! Like Ricky Bobby says, if you’re not first, you’re last!

Ty’s off today and he and some buddies are going tubing down the river. It’s so low it’ll be a slow ride. Then he works I think tomorrow through Sunday. Lori is at the office today and I have conference calls starting at 9am my time.

Yesterday I spent a lot of time dealing with the aftermath of letting Kristin, my 20 year plus employee, go last Friday. It was 100% the right thing to do, but still a big deal. When anyone loses their job, it’s a big deal.

6:36am now, time to get moving. Have a great day! Oh, Costco is full of Halloween stuff! Christmas stuff will be coming soon! God Bless.