A Year of Change

The guys are in Indianapolis for the big race today! Not sure where they’re staying but they drove down yesterday. I told Jag to make sure the four of them emulate the movie Fandango, rather than the Hangover! They’re all good guys though, so no worries, just my joke.

Back here at home, we’re cooking up a bunch of racks of baby back ribs. Marty is coming over and all of us, Lori too, are going shooting at the range this morning. Scott is still here with us until tomorrow. Yesterday the boys went for a bike ride, then to the gym and then into Vail last night. Not sure when they made it home but it wasn’t too late as I saw Ty’s truck around 12:30am when I turned off the lights.

Lori and I were driving back from the gym yesterday and said to each other that if we flew in here to look at property, we’d say no way. Of course that’s just from the street view of some of the places you see. Point is, there are areas in every place that need to be updated. There’s a lot of mish mash in every town. We still can’t get over how green and lush it was up in Montana. I forgot to mention how many drive up coffee shops were all over the place! That’s a big plus, right!

We booked our boutique hotel in Chicago for next week. We fly out this Thursday and are back around 6pm Saturday night. Lori found a couch for Jag yesterday and I think it’ll be delivered Friday. He’s taking the day off.

So sick of the political ads. The worst one says, “Trump put kids in cages and they died”! Unbelievable, that was Obama, wow. There’s another one with Ron Reagan, former estranged liberal nutcase son of Ronald Reagan, saying join this anti-religion and atheist foundation. He closes the ad saying, and this is a quote, “I’m ready to burn in hell”! Unbelievable. I wouldn’t throw that out into the Universe if I was him. Might just come true. Crazy times these days. All the more reason to get to a red State.

That’s it, time to get working on prepping the ribs. Have a great Sunday, God Bless.

Fun trip, quick, but productive. It’s amazing how much you can get done in 25 hours. That’s how long we were on the ground in Montana. We love the area and now have a good grasp on the whole area between Whitefish and Bigfork, which is where we want to be. As I said yesterday, it’s so green and lush up there. Here, we’re literally in the high country, where there, you’re in this incredible valley that stretches hundreds of miles and is full of lakes, rivers and mountains. It’s pretty amazing, plus it’s way more humid that Colorado. Even in only 24 hours, your skin feels better compared to here at home. We’re checking out a few other pieces of land we previewed. We’ll find something, just needs to be the perfect place. On the plane, I signed the docs to void the Buy/Sell contract and so did the seller so we get our earnest money back. Should get it back Tuesday when the banks open. More to come.

Jag and the guys are off this morning to the Indy 500! Ty’s buddy from elementary school, Scott, came up last night. They’re going mountain biking today, along with Caden who is coming up this morning. Lori is supposed to get her hair done today but might go tomorrow. She goes to Glenwood.

Should be a nice three day weekend. 6:45am now and we’re off to the gym. Here’s a few pics of a lot we like and one of the homes we can build. Have a great weekend, God Bless.

Look how green it is!

We made it to the airport with an hour to spare before our flight. The flight up was uneventful and easy. Glacier International Airport is small and chill. Within ten minutes of deplaning, we had our rental car and were off to see the lot. We made it there in about 15 minutes. We walked around and it’s a great lot with great dirt. The only issue was, we could hear trucks on the highway a mile and a half or so away. So, being decisive and making swift decisions, we called our realtor and told him, we’re out on this lot. The rest of the day was spent searching for our replacement new future home site. We’ve narrowed it down to two or three, which are actually better, and a little bit less expensive. Once we drove around and became familiar with the area, it was easier to narrow our search. It’s hard to do it off of a computer, unless you know the area. So, in the end, all good.

Whitefish is beautiful! The lakes are amazing and everything is so green up here. It was 70 degrees yesterday and will be just as warm today. There’s so much water up here compared to Colorado. It’s like we live in a brown high desert of sage brush and dirt. Here it’s lush and fuller of life. The valley is like an oasis in the middle of a couple of majestic mountain ranges. It’s one of the most beautiful places there is.

Today we’re driving around to see a couple more areas. We’re focusing on the north side of the valley up by Whitefish as that’s the best area.

Jag’s buddies flew in last night around 10. They all stayed at Jag’s on-air mattresses. Ty is taking care of Harley.

Our flight is at 2:30 this afternoon so time to go so we can continue the tour. Have a great Friday, more to come on whichever land we go with. When we get things all done, everyone is invited up and you’re going to love it. Easy flight from Denver too, about an hour and 35 minutes.

Take care and God Bless.

We should be in Montana by 1pm. When we land we’ll head right over to the property to check it out. After checking things out for a while, we’ll head up to the Lodge at Whitefish where we’re staying. I found a great Mexican restaurant we might go to for dinner. We’ll play it by ear. That’s a weird saying when you write it down!

Ty’s at home with Harley. Lori was on the phone with Jag most of the night as he was moving stuff into his new pad. It’s super cool and the location is even better. We can’t wait to see it next week.

It’ll be a short trip as we fly out at 2 on Friday and will be back in Denver by 4pm. We’ll take pictures and post probably tomorrow.

Hope we like it! If for some reason it’s not for us, I think we can make a nice profit by holding it for a year. Have a great Thursday! GB.

Lots going on. Jag drove to some warehouse about an hour from his place yesterday afternoon, to pick up his new bed. He said it was super heavy, but he managed to get it up the stairs into his apartment. Lori is ordering a couch and rug she found online. The apartment is pretty large and if you remember, was just remodeled and is like new. Can’t wait to see it in a week or so. Lori and I are going to stay with him to save money. We’ve started our new crash course on saving money.

I was in and out of Denver pretty fast, leaving town by 10:30am. I couldn’t believe it as when I came around the corner by Red Rocks, it started snowing! Denver was hit pretty hard. This side of the tunnel was pretty much sunny most of the day. Next week looks like it’ll be warming up into the 80’s. Any moisture now is a good thing.

Ty wants to train for an Ironman. The way he’s committed to his new lifestyle, I’m sure he’ll do it. He does need an expensive road bike and they’re like $10,000 so I don’t know how that’ll happen. It won’t be coming from mom and dad. (see the aforementioned crash course on saving money!) I told him to start a Gofund Me, ha.

Denver is so messed up these days. The evidence of this is every political tv ad by Dems are only about how bad Trump is. I guess they think this is a winning message. I see it as a sign of a politician who has zero ideas on their own and will just spend the next few years bashing Trump. Think about it, all the Dems have is “Trump bad”. I can’t think of a single idea they stand for. That’s their biggest issue. You have to separate the man from his policies. It doesn’t matter if you like Trump and the crap he says, (yea a lot of it is crude), as you need to look at all he has done and how it’ll benefit yours and America’s future. You really think we’d be better off with Kamala? Give me a break. Part of the reason we need to get out of Colorado is that it looks like our loser Senator, Michael Bennet, will be the next Governor. This guy was a school employee who was appointed by Hickenlooper and is nothing but a Dem party lap dog. He’s literally done zero to help the citizens or State of Colorado. He’ll just continue destroying this once great State. So sad.

A little cloudy up here this morning but no snow. Time to get moving. Tomorrow we’re off at 11am to Montana and back Friday afternoon. We’re going up to preview the property and make sure we like everything about it. We’ll be on the ground up there for about 25 hours, so it’ll be a quick trip.

Big hockey game tonight, go Av’s! God Bless.

Off early to drop some wine to my connection at AEG so I get tickets for Bocelli at Red Rocks in September. I have a few people that want to go so I need to take care of the guy with the tickets. I’m not sure of the date but I’ll probably be hunting.

I should be back by 2 at the latest and then need to finish up the paperwork on the land in Montana. I had it all done yesterday and then the internet went out, and of course, all my work was gone! Unbelievable. All good though. We do need to put down a bit more cash than we wanted too and thought I might need a float for a month, but I figured out a solution.

Last night we went to our neighbors son’s Eagle Scout ceremony. It was over 90 minutes long! We had no idea it would be that long. Happy to support Ethan, but it was almost comical how long it was. It was longer than any wedding we’ve ever been to.

Jag moved some stuff into his new apartment. He’s using Ava’s car which they’ve had in storage since they moved to Chicago. It had a lot of their stuff still in it waiting for the new place. Ava is still struggling with some personal issues she’s dealing with in California. We feel sorry for her and are not sure when she’s coming back, I think a couple more weeks. Guess she’s not really liking her new job either. Today Jag will order a bed and then it’ll get delivered Wednesday. He tried some out yesterday after work. Lori has a bunch of stuff being delivered from Costco too. He loves the neighborhood as it’s where they were when they moved there. It’s the nicest area in Chicago, close to downtown yet, far enough away. Great restaurants, shops, nightlife and more. We’re excited for him, finally!

Time to go, have a great day, God Bless.

Last night, after days of negotiations, we went under contract on 5 acres in Montana! It’s a great piece of property that coincidently is on the same street as Kate and Todd. I’ve known Kate for 20 years when she worked for our distributor in California back in the day. The coincidence is that I just hired her March 1st to lead our national account team! Talk about a small world. They are still in California but bought one of the 5 acre lots (there are ten total), in this area, six years ago. They’ve already built a barn and are working on building their house. She’s been helping me out with questions about the area for a couple months, but neither of us had no idea anything would come up on her street as all the lots have been sold for years. We’re super excited and couldn’t pass this up as it’s close to everything, yet away from everything. We can have cows, goats, horses, whatever we want, and even wood burning fireplaces. Those have been illegal in Commie Colorado for decades.

We should close June 19th if all goes as planned. We still need the appraisal and stuff like that, but everything looks good. It’ll be our mini farm or ranch up in beautiful, free Montana, right next to Glacier National Park and Whitefish. We’re 20 minutes to major shopping and the airport, yet off the beaten path. Flathead Lake is the largest freshwater lake in the Country and is 15 minutes away. You can literally see 25 feet down it’s so clear. Marty and Mel bought a lot last year on the lake about 40 minutes south of us and have a brand-new boat, so that’s good too. He put an Airstream on it and is planning on building too.

Here’s a quick little video from Saturday. Lori and I are flying up Thursday and back Friday, to check it out. It’s hard to see the great views with the clouds and rain. Whitefish and Kalispell are great towns and is a great area, they say the prettiest place in Montana. The airport is great with direct flights everywhere, like Denver and Chicago, and is nice and small like ours here in Eagle.

Check it out, my realtor turned his phone sideways at the end, ha.

The plan is to build next year but if we change our mind, we should make $100-$150K on the lot as it’s in one of the most desirable areas up there. We could probably sell this summer and make that much if we wanted to! We have the low down on all the neighbors from Kate, and everyone is great and most importantly, thinks like us!

I have a lot to do today. I have to wrap up the financing, have a lot of work and need to have another meeting with Paulo from Austria before he flies out tomorrow. Lori should be getting the keys for Jagger today for his new apartment. We’re flying there a week from Thursday until late Saturday night to help him get set up. It’ll be a busy two weeks.

Time to get moving. Have a great Monday.

Had some good rain last night. Should get some more today and tomorrow before it warms up. Ty went to the Rockies game with three girls, atta boy! He spent the night in Denver and will be coming home this morning. I was going to Denver tomorrow but will postpone going until Tuesday, due to 3 to 6 inches of snow at the Eisenhower Tunnel.

Jag went out with some friends last night. Good for him as he’s been studying a bunch for another SEC test. The kid is now underwriting deals which is unheard of for someone who has been there for only a few months. He’s so on top of things and amazes management every day.

Not sure what we’re doing today. I do have to meet with Davy and Paulo either today or tomorrow. The slow cooked beef ribs turned out great as always! There are a bunch leftover in the fridge and Lori will use them to make tacos for Ty for the next few days.

Lots of other stuff going on. A little work for both of us yesterday and a few fun things too. More to come next week. Happy Sunday, God Bless.

Well, Lori might have to have her tonsils taken out! This usually happens when you’re a kid, but she might need to have this done in a few weeks. Right now she has a tonsil stone which is a calcified bump on her tonsil. She’s gargling with salt water and using a water pick to try to dislodge it, but if that doesn’t work, out they’ll come! It’s a 20 minute procedure but I guess, according to our ENT doctor, the recovery is about two weeks! He told Lori, she won’t like him anymore if she has that done, ha. We should know in a week or so if she needs to go in.

Looks like some rain coming in for the next few days. This is good news. I was going to Denver Monday but might put it off until Tuesday, we’ll see. We went to Costco yesterday and today I’m slow cooking some beef ribs. They take about 8 hours but sure are good.

Ty golfed again yesterday. He’s off today. He went to the gym on the way home last night around 9pm so he wasn’t home until around 11.

Lori and I are headed out to the gym and then will be cleaning the house. That’s it for today, have a great Saturday, we’re halfway through the month! God Bless.

Nice and sunny outside. Should be a good Friday around here. Ty’s off to work and Jag’s doing well. I think he gets the keys to his apartment today. I think I mentioned a few days ago that right next door to him is a 3 Star Michelin restaurant. We looked it up and it’s like $1000 a person so we won’t be going there anytime soon. I’m not sure any meal can be worth $1000 a head. I think that’s without drinks too!

Lori has her new research project under way. I heard her on a call yesterday and the guy on the phone said she’s way ahead of all the other surgeons and hospitals in the study. It’s for some kind of new revolutionary type of artificial disc. Lori identified the project and put the entire thing together on her own. Good news is she gets all the money from it, as she did all the work and coordinated everything with the hospital and her practice. I think she gets $29k for just the start-up phase, meaning for getting site approval and putting it all together. Good for her, she’s pretty amazing at what she accomplishes. She not only figured out a way to help people through medical advancements, and increase Dr. B’s profile, but also how to get herself paid for doing it. Her whole goal was to do something extra to make more money, that would also benefit everyone and fit into her existing job. She ought to be making a million a year for all she does. This should make her a couple hundred thousand over the two-year study, which we’ll put right into savings.

Lori has a doctor appointment at 11:30 and I’m going over to Ben’s to look through a ton of old books. We had lunch with Ben and Eleni yesterday and they’re cleaning out the house as they bought a new one in Coeur D’Alene Idaho. They want us to move there bad. Ben’s a longtime friend whose dad was the Ambassador to South Africa I think under Reagan. They also have a house in Palm Desert. Ben met Eleni through us and our cigar group. His dad had three libraries in various houses all over the World so before he throws all these books away, I want to go see if there’s anything I want. He’s a super good guy and friend. His dad was also one of the founders of Vail.

7am now and it’s trash day so time to get moving. Have a great day, be well, take care and God Bless.