December 2021

 December 1st – 

Wednesday was a bit noteworthy.  I went up to CLS Euro LLC in the I76/Sheridan area to purchase a BMW motor, manual transmission swap kit, and brake components.  I had gone up the day before but the parts weren’t quite ready for pickup.  When I arrived at the shop I found the parts still weren’t quite ready but that was alright with me as I wasn’t in a rush.  Eventually we had everything loaded into the suburban and I left.  

My next stop was a bit further north to the Boulder turnpike/Sheridan area to pick up our future racecar.  The 2004 BMW 325i had been living at Alvin’s friend’s house (Brian) for the past couple of years.  Brian had originally intended to fix it for a daily driver but found a different BMW (this one AWD) to work on instead.  Brian also had Alvin’s open trailer on hand which was perfect as I didn’t have to drag up our trailer.  

Of course we didn’t immediately load up the BMW and Brian showed off some of his new toys: a giant parts washer and an industrial generator with a motorized boom replete with massive lights (the type one might see used to illuminate night road construction).  

When we did load up Alvin and I were glad to see that Brian had a winch which would make the process much easier.  Unfortunately the little guy didn’t have the power to handle the job on its own.  We had to push quite hard to help the winch get the BMW on the trailer.  

My trip was not done though as I had to pick up a flywheel from the house of one of the owner’s of CLS Euro LLC.  It was part of the manual transmission swap kit but they had forgotten to bring it to the shop for me.  Luckily the guy lived close to the shop so it wasn’t far out of my way to stop by and grab.  

It was almost 8:00 when I finally backed the trailer into our driveway.  Susan helped me offload the car (fortunately its brakes worked just fine) and I pushed it into the garage.  The other parts got to stay in the suburban as I was spent.  

December 3rd weekend – 

We got to sleep in a few minutes to start our anniversary weekend.  The dogs let me be until 7:00 which was amazing.  We were in no particular rush to pack up as our hotel check-in time was 4:00.  Us being us, we still left early at around 12:30.  

The drive was generally uneventful.  This was the first long drive in Jack and the car did fine.  The dogs took time to settle down and Mel never really did.  She spent most of the trip resting her head on the center arm rest with her rump on the seat.  

We arrived to Hotel Colorado early and were able to check-in just fine.  For the second time we were in one of the balcony rooms which was great.  Expensive but the room is so much larger than the regular rooms.  We had some time to burn so took our setting up for the weekend.  

At around 5:30 we walked across the bridge to the Glenwood Vaudeville Revue to eat dinner and watch their show.  The menu wasn’t large but we both found yummy food to eat and imbibed on a couple of bottles of wine throughout the evening.  The performers were our servers and the show was a lot of fun.  There were quite a few children in attendance and, for the most part, they were thankfully well-behaved.  

It was a cold walk back to our hotel but nothing we couldn’t handle.  We watched HBO and hung out with the dogs to finish the day.  

Saturday seemed to begin too early for us.  After taking care of the dogs we tiredly ate breakfast in the hotel restaurant which was yummy.  A funny aside – the waitress told me she liked her coffee black and finally got her husband to prefer it to “candy coffee” after I asked for cream.  I took that piece of knowledge as a slight dig against my character.  Susan and I laughed about it after the waitress left our table.  

After breakfast we brought Bella to the local vet.  When we arrived at our hotel room Bella proceeded to pee something like five times in the first hour.  We were concerned she may have a UTI so Susan called and lucked into nabbing an appointment for the next morning.  

Bella was her hilarious self at the vet.  She has been conditioned to expect treats from everyone and was vocally upset by the lack of yum-yums.  Bella’s urine came back clean as did her basic exam.  We chalked up her behavior to her accelerating dementia in an unfamiliar environment.  The vet also took some of her blood to create an eye drop solution which will hopefully help her left eye to heal better.  We’re glad we took Bella to the vet.  

In the early afternoon we walked across the bridge to eat lunch at the Glenwood Canyon Brewpub.  Susan got tacos and I got fish and chips.  The food was tasty but “heavy” in the way bar-food often is and I couldn’t finish all my fish.  

Our next planned activity was a scheduled visit to Iron Mountain Hot Springs.  Last time we were in Glenwood we were disappointed to find all the time slots to be booked at Iron Mountain so I reserved several weeks in advance.  The facility was largely the same as before though we could see that they are intending to greatly increase the number of pools.  Susan and I hopped between a few pools before settling in one with a perfect temperature for us both.  The time slots are 2.5 hours long and we stayed every minute of ours.  We really enjoyed our time.

After tending to the dogs we went down to the hotel bar to eat dinner.  The lobby was jam-packed with a local Toyota dealership’s holiday party but luckily the bar had a few open tables.  Besides a few overly loud patrons we had a very nice time.

Sunday morning had us our of bed at 7:00 to feed the dogs.  Initially we were going to get breakfast before leaving but I wanted to get on the road to beat ski-traffic and convinced Susan that we should just pack up and go.  I don’t know when the Sunday traffic would have gotten bad but I know that we completely avoided it and made great time getting back to Denver.  The drive home was windy and we arrived home just before the “wind-front” had our house creaking.  We relaxed for the rest of the day which made a great ending to our 23-year anniversary weekend.  

December 11th weekend – 

We got to sleep in a bit on Saturday as our only concrete plans were to take Bella to the vet at 11:00.  We had our coffee around 10:00 and Bella sat on Susan’s lap for the short trip to the veterinary office.  

Bella was her super-sassy-self for the visit.  Her eye is healing alright and we were given some ointment to administer for the next few weeks.  Bella did get some treats which calmed her down for a couple of minutes.  

We were hungry after getting back home so went to Qdoba for lunch and then to Walmart to buy our weekly food stuffs.  Perhaps we should have gone out later in the evening as the store was very busy and the roads had far more traffic than normal.  We strongly suspected people were out doing their Christmas shopping.  

Susan and I did a bit of holiday shopping ourselves at Cost Plus World Market.  Susan found some fragrant soaps to buy for her coworkers.  The store was quite busy and the staff was doing their best to accommodate the rush.  

I have been wanting to learn to weld for quite some time and finally bought a welder.  Nothing fancy (it was on sale at Harbor Freight) but I’m looking forward to being able to fabricate this and that for the race cars.  

For some reason my preferred coffee-cream (heavy whipping cream) has been difficult to buy since COVID became a thing.  We had to go to three different stores to find some in stock on Saturday.  I suppose the holidays are compounding the normal market forces.  Or something.  

The dogs let me sleep in again on Sunday which was amazing.  I was still up and about by 8:00 but that is some serious sleeping in for me anymore.  I played games until Susan got out of bed later in the morning and made us coffee.  

The plan for the day became that we would grab to-go lunch from Chili’s followed by us picking up Kari on the way up to Karen and John’s.  In the early afternoon we made this plan a reality and soon found ourselves up in Conifer.  

We stayed for several hours before stopping back at Kari’s to drop her off and chat for a spell.  Their dogs are so dang cute and full of energy.  Alvin had some rum cake he had purchased in the Bahamas earlier in the week and he, Kari, and Susan all enjoyed a bit before we left for home.  

Not an action-packed weekend but I suppose they don’t all have to be.  

December 18th weekend – 

Saturday was a very lazy day for us.  We both slept in until mid-morning which was very nice.  We didn’t venture out from our property and the most productive thing we did was BBQ brats for lunch and chicken for dinner.  It was a pleasant day.  

On Sunday we had a bit of a turn of roles as Susan got up before me to take care of the dogs and start her day.  She had plans to drive up to Kari’s house and then to Karen and John’s home.  I rolled out of bed a bit before Susan left to do her thang.  

My day began on the couch with the dogs before I received a message from Susan that someone legitimately was interested in the RX8.  This got me motivated to get up and be productive.  

I left to run some errands before finally unloading the BMW parts from the suburban into the garage.  Getting the engine onto a stand was a pain (it always is) and in the process I discovered the oil was not drained.  I didn’t ask when I bought the engine so it was my fault for assuming it would be.  The mess I made wasn’t terrible but could have easily been avoided.  Such is.  

The guy who was interested in the RX8 ended up not showing up.  I was bummed but not terribly surprised.  Selling on Facebook/craigslist is a hassle for sure.  

After Susan and Kari’s visit with their folks they picked up Alvin and went to Pho98 where I joined them for dinner.  The food looked yummy (I mistakenly had already eaten) and we talked about this and that.  We ended up staying longer than strictly necessary as we didn’t realized the protocol was that the patrons paid at the front desk.  Oh well.  We had a nice time.  

Overall this weekend was mixed: relaxing, productive, disappointing, and promising.  

Christmas Weekend – 

On Christmas Eve I was up and at’em at my normal time to take care of the dogs and go to work to hit the gym.  There was no one else there which made the experience nice.  After I was finished, I shopped for some wine and miscellaneous food stuff on my way back home.  

Susan wasn’t up yet so I hung out for a bit before she emerged from the bedroom and brewed us up some coffee.  We munched on leftovers for food and prepped some Christmas dishes in the evening (jello, mac’n’cheese, spinach artichoke dip).  We spent much of day hanging out with the dogs which was nice.  

We were up relatively early on Christmas Day to start prepping the turkey.  We had just purchased a DIY injection kit and Susan whipped up a batch of injection-fluid as well as a baste for the outside of the bird.  I performed the washing of the turkey and we injected, drizzled, and rubbed the turkey with the appropriate fluids.  Then we closed the roaster and moved on to cleaning up the house for guests (always a good time). 

Kari and Alvin arrived before noon to hang out before the turkey was done cooking.  We all probably ate too much spinach artichoke dip while we waited but it was too yummy to resist.  The roaster was taking its sweet time getting the turkey up to the required temperature so we decided to venture out from the house.  

Alvin and I went to the garage to remove the valve cover and oil pan from the BMW motor I had bought for the new racecar.  The motor looked quite immaculate which was a relief as it being in good shape will save us a lot of effort in making the engine reliable.  When we turned the motor over on the engine stand we did make a colossal coolant mess on the floor but it was easy to clean up so not too big of a deal.  

Susan and Kari went outside to water the larger plants around the house and pick a spot to plant Susan’s little office Christmas tree.  A suitable location for the tree was chosen, up behind the retention wall where we park most of the cars.  The watering took longer than I would have believed and the effort had to be paused when the turkey was finally finished.  

As is our holiday tradition the turkey took far longer than it “should” have taken to cook in the roaster.  This time it took over 4.5 hours to finish.  Such is.  

We were hungry when we finally sat down to eat and found the food mighty tasty.  The highlights included the macaroni and cheese (made from Mom’s recipe), stuffing (made from a box with added sautéed veggies), and salad (a nice blend of traditional leavy greens with sunflower seeds added).  Everything else (turkey, rolls, gravy, jello) was pretty alright too.  

One thing different this year was the potpourri we had on the stove.  Susan had been gifted a bag of potpourri items (cinnamon, spices, and a whole orange and lemon) with instructions.  Susan placed the items (the fruit cut up) in a pot with water and the pot on one of the back burners on the stove and we left it simmering all afternoon.  I am usually not a fan of potpourri but found the aroma quite charming.  We all enjoyed the holiday ambience the potpourri brought to our gathering.  I think we may make preparing a pot of potpourri a tradition.  

After the plates were cleared I got to work cutting up the rest of the turkey and cleaning the larger dishes in the sink.  Susan and Kari went out to finish watering the plants and actually planting the little Christmas tree and Alvin fell asleep on the couch.  

After all of were done with our tasks we packed up leftovers to bring up to Karen and John’s home.  The drive itself was nothing of note until we started up Conifer Mountain.  The road was downright treacherous with ice and we were thankful we had snow tires on our car.  Even then I was very cautious.  Younger Max would have been disgusted with my conservative driving but Older Max didn’t mind the pace.  

We had a nice visit and chatted about this and that.  When we felt we could manage more food we each enjoyed a slice of cherry pie Susan had baked earlier.  The instructions for preparing the pie were more complex than I would have imagined was strictly necessary (keep frozen, bake, let sit for two hours, then serve) but the result was a yummy treat.  

Alvin left a few minutes before the rest of us to go to a movie so we took Kari to their house on our way home (she wasn’t interested in falling asleep in a movie theater).  Besides the still crappy roads the journey was uneventful and eventually Susan and I got home to finish off our night on the couch with our dogs.  

On Sunday we slept in a bit before driving the suburban up to Brian’s house to pick up BMW parts.  Initially the plan was to just take what was needed but we ended up loading up an entire motor as well.  Such is.  

Alvin was there to pick up a large generator with enormous lights affixed to its top.  Brian used a forklift to aid the loading of the generator on Alvin’s trailer.  

Soon after we had the engine strapped down in the back of the suburban.  Susan and I didn’t dilly-dally to long before heading home.  Traffic was thankfully light and we made great time.  Things were going fine until I broke to slow down before turning into our neighborhood causing the engine tilted forward and dump coolant on the carpet.  Evidently the straps had repositioned themselves on the trip.  

Susan asked me if we were ever planning on selling the suburban to which I replied “no” and thus we both at peace with the mess.  

We finished the Christmas weekend out lazing away on the couch with the dogs, watching streaming shows and playing games.  It was a supremely pleasant weekend.  

Sometime during the week of Christmas Susan thought she saw a mouse go behind the refrigerator.  She wasn’t positive of what she witnessed but saw the little critter again a few days after Christmas while we were all sitting on the couch.  This was one bold mouse!  That night we ordered mouse traps on Amazon.  

It seemed the mouse came out at the same time each night, right around 8:00.  Sure enough, after traps had arrived and Susan set them up we heard one *snap* a hair before 8:00.  

While we were happy to catch the little bastard, the trap hadn’t quite finished him off and there was some flailing of limbs.  These motions ceased when I flung him outside.  Susan reset the trap in case there were other vermin in the house.  Such is owning a home I suppose.  

New Year’s eve

On New Year’s Eve I went to work like normal.  When NYE is on a Saturday the NYSE stays open and technically the holiday is not observed.  This was my first time experiencing this as I believe my former employers gave us the day off regardless.  No biggie for me.  I enjoyed some of the best morning traffic since the beginning of the pandemic.  

I did leave the office early and stopped by Safeway to pick us up some chicken.  While the roads weren’t busy, Safeway certainly was!  The self-checkout line was horrendously long.  Such is!  

That night we made artichoke and spinach dip and watched streaming TV until close to midnight when Susan flipped over to one of the revolving countdown shows on network TV.  At the appropriate moment I popped the cork on a bottle of champaign and we toasted the end of 2021.    

Some 2021 thoughts

COVID – 

Susan and I somehow managed to avoid catching COVID in 2021.  It’s hard to believe it has been so long since the pandemic began.  We still wear masks when inside public places, whether it is required or not.  At this point we’re so used to the masks that we don’t feel it is inconvenient.  I have read that people think they’ll keep on wearing them in the future after-times.  I wonder if we may as well.  

It saddens me greatly when I read about the unvaccinated making up the vast majority of those who continue to become seriously ill and die from COVID complications.  It boggles my mind.  Misinformation is real but I don’t know what to do about it.  On one hand I want those pushing this crap to be punished but I can’t help but wonder that doing so will enable future abuse.  

I can’t help but try to understand the disconnect.  Is it really just misinformation?  I don’t think so.  I think for some it’s a stance taken that their pride won’t let them change.  I think for some it is a calculated gamble; not getting vaccinated and surviving a pandemic shows strength.  Some decided COVID was no big deal and thus the vaccine isn’t worth getting.  I think some might just hate getting shots and will come up with any excuse to not get one.  I think some feed their ego through being perpetual victims, oppressed by a vast conspiracy and, by saying “no” to masks and vaccines, they are smarter/stronger/patriotic/better/etc.  It all makes me sad.  

I wonder what things will look like when COVID moves from pandemic to endemic.  There are so many dead and so many still suffering from lasting effects.  So many working from home and so many with disappointment in their fellow man (at least I am incredibly distraught).  I do believe some good has come from this crazy time in our lives but who knows?  How much of my positive sentiment is from reasoned thought and how much is from my inner-self identifying as an optimist?  I suppose one can never know.  

2021 as a year – 

I think Susan and I had a pretty good 2021, all things considered.  The dogs are doing alright and the house is still standing.  Oliver has continued persisting and we had a lot of fun racing our Scrappy around the track.  We got to see more family this year and winnowed down our Miata flock to an entirely sensible five in number.  We’ve continued to enjoy the occasional RV-life and our health has been consistently “ok”.