Sorry no pretty photographs today. Left the hotel in Burlington this morning around 10am after spending most of the morning re-routing my travel since the appointment for a litigation inspection canceled and an additional inspection in Saint Louis, MO was added for later this month, which bumped up against another trip. So….. had to make significant travel plan changes. What a pain the a$$, but par for the course.
So, after I got that done drove South through upper Vermont down to Middlebury, VT. It was snowing and the roads were a little icy. Didn’t have much time to stop and look at any scenery. For some reason Firefox seems to think “Middlebury” is a spelling error. Nope, it is an actual town with a pretty big college.
Anyways spend the rest of the day with my Dad and step-mother. Interesting conversation all around. I made it 20 minutes after walking in the door before politics came up. But, that’s OK, we see eye to eye on most of it anyways.
OK, forgive me, I have to add two photos of Angel Pack Members, Lady and Leona – Happy Birthday at the Bridge. You are missed today. I hope I did right by you both. I think I did, but I wish I knew for sure. You would have turned 14 today.
Some memories are awesome, some hurt a little bit.
Anyways, that’s all for tonight. I will see you tomorrow.
I am a little late in posting today. Today was a vacation travel day. Yeh, I did something I swore I wouldn’t do, I took a few days off and flew to Vermont to visit family. Started Trains, Planes, and Automobiles started off with Jesse taking me to the A train headed towards the airport.
Then a few hours in the airport where I walked all the terminals and got my step count in for the day.
While walking around the B terminal I found the mysterious alien that everyone says is hanging around the airport. He was busy eating Voodoo Donuts today.
Finally got on my flight to Chicago, because everyone loves to travel through Chicago in the Winter. Ended up with a dash between the B terminal and the E terminal. I thought I had an hour or so to make the connection. Nope, by the time I ran across the terminal they were boarding my outbound flight.
At least I got to see some neat walkways on my way. And then we sat there for 45 minutes past our departure time. Pilot came on and said he had no idea why they were holding us. But, I am not complaining because at the last minute my luggage showed up as being loaded on the flight. Ooops…. maybe I was the cause of the delay.
Arrived in Burlington, VT. Was able to get my rental car keys while waiting on my bags. Gotta love small airports when the rental car counter is next to the baggage claim.
And now I am in my hotel room for the evening. It was way too late to drive down to Middlebury, VT to my dad’s house, I would have kept him up way past his bedtime. I will take my time here in the morning and then do the drive South. Of course it is snowing here so I am hoping that the roads will be clear by the time I head that direction. My rental car is a little VW Jetta.
Anyways, that’s a wrap for today, I will see you all tomorrow.
Time to say goodbye to 2025 and hello to 2026. I know, everyone in the world makes a similar post at the New Year.
I finally made some awesome progress on my goals to run/jog/walk all of the Aurora, CO Trails.
And finally I made good progress on my other fitness goals this year. My Garmin tells the story:
My work travels took me far and wide across the country this year. The pins on the map below tell the story.
This afternoon I started my New Year’s Eve technology routine that I have been following for 20+ years:
Clean out all of my inboxes and file all messages in the appropriate 2025 folders.
Move all of my sent mail out of all the account’s sent mail boxes into my 2025 sent mail folder.
Move all of my documents and downloads into my Documents_2025-Dec-31 and Downloads_2025-Dec-31 folders.
Make sure my work logs and expense reports are all completed.
Create my 2026 IMAP folder on the server with my basic sub-folders.
Re-point all of my scripts to the appropriate folders in the 2026 files.
Make sure phones and all devices are up to date.
Do my online postings saying Happy New Year and goodbye to 2025.
Then, I sit back, relax, do anything I forgot about. And make sure my dogs don’t get scared to death from the fireworks.
So, what is next for 2026? I have a few goals, I hate the word “resolutions”, I can share some of them here:
I need to get back into swimming shape. I finally got back into the pool a few months back and I can barely do 1,000 yards. This is from the guy that 3 years ago could do 5 and 10K open water swims.
Need to loose 20 pounds. This may have something to do with the above problem.
I want to do some hiking this year. I live in Colorado, there is so much I haven’t seen or done.
I want to do at least one of the lake series swim events. Not sure which one yet.
See where work takes me this year, but I need to attempt to maintain a work/life balance. Let’s see if I can make some progress on that.
Try to get back into my glass sandblasting work. I think I am also going to invest in a CNC router/laster this year.
I need to finally release my 52 weeks of HVAC that I have promised myself I would do for YouTube every year but never get around to it.
I will probably not set many fitness goals for 2026 other than the swimming and the mountain lake series. I have had some health issues and have decided that I do not want to push myself too much. I want to be able to adjust based on how I feel.
Today started off with dropping the rental car at LAX and taking the shuttle bus (they have a People Mover that for some reason they can’t get working) to the terminals. Car rental shuttles are a curse of the past and should remain there. The positive side of this morning was it took me less than 10 minutes to get through security at LAX.
Finally a nice flight home, then my usual “Planes, Trains, and Automobiles” and I was home.
Of course when I get here the chimney contractor that I had asked to come out and look at our chimney found that the entire inside of the chimney is destroyed and it looks like someone in the past had a chimney fire at some point. Also, it hadn’t been cleaned in about 5-6 years. Yup, that goes along with everything else we have found in the house. I kept thinking they had a fire at some point. I would think you should disclose that stuff on your property disclosures.
Anyways, I am sure this is going to end up with about another $10K worth of repair work. Guess I know where my bonus is going this year.
Anyways, at this point home. No more trips planned.
Today was the last day of work in Los Angeles, I can finally go home! This started off as only being a one day trip out, two days of work, and one day of travel back. Then… the phenomenon of “while you are out there” hit. Turned out to be one day travel out, 4 days of work, and one day travel back. Yeh, I could have predicted that, in fact I did when I packed enough clothing for the extra days.
The claim I had to do today sort of annoyed me. The last technician who was assigned to it backed out of it because of a loose dog in the yard (the worst she would have done is lick you to death if she had even moved), not to mention that to get to the electric meter one didn’t even have to go into the yard. Then, the whole reason a Technical Field Manager was being sent was that the 1099 technician said that PPE (personal protection equipment – read, “Tyvex body suit and N-95 mask”) was needed. On the way out stopped at the local Home Depot and got the supplies. Turns out wasn’t even needed. Yup, house was damaged, but no place as bad as the other technician said. He just didn’t want to do it. Anyways, it’s done.
Got back, went to the grocery store up the street from the hotel. I do that frequently while traveling, especially on weekends, because sometimes the weekend cooks at the hotel restaurants are really bad as was proven again last night. Went up got some really good roasted chicken, cheese, crackers, and fruit for a snack later today. As I was looking at cheese the gentleman working the “good cheese” area offered me a sample of their specialty cheese for the season. OK, I didn’t know it existed but Pumpkin Spice cheese is a thing, and a damn good thing! I didn’t get any as it would have been difficult to bring back to Aurora, but I did find out Ralph’s is part of Kroger and they all carry the same products. Yup, Jesse is going to go find me some Pumpkin Spice cheese.
We all get into routines. When I finish an out of town work trip, I have some of my own routines, I catch myself doing the same thing each and every time: 1) I stop in the first parking lot I come across as I leave the last loss location and re-pack all of my tools in the tool suitcase. I also search under all of the seats and anyplace else where things could have rolled. 2) I make sure that all of my receipts are entered into Concur so that I do not have to deal with them after I get home. 3) Back at the hotel, pack all of the dirty clothes into the laundry back, make sure I have accounted for everything. Get it all into one place. 4) Search my backpack and make sure that there is nothing hiding in there the TSA won’t like and steal. 5) Rest and relax. Tomorrow is a travel day, the airline Gods, the TSA Gods, and the ATC Gods willing.
Time for the remaining part of my “Rest and Relax”!
Finally! Just to say it again: :LA Drivers SUCK!!!
Interesting day today. Started off this morning with a wildfire related inspection in the Pacific Palisades area. It’s sort of depressing, the signs of fire are still all over the hill-sides. We are going on a year in January and most of the demolition has been done. Most buildings that are left have their power back on, and most services have returned. But, the empty foundations serve as a reminder of what is done, as well as what is not done.
Real Estate signs are sprouting all over the place, many people are selling their lots rather than re-building. And it appears the heavy metal contamination is the topic of conversation. Then, to make matters worse, some of the remediation contractors that came into peoples homes to do cleanup may have (for lack of better terms) – half-assed what they did. One home I was in yesterday I still found signs of soot and ash in places that had already been cleaned.
The hills are starting to show signs of vegetation but Los Angeles is going into it’s rainy season so mudslides right now are a real threat as the heavy root system of established vegetation is part of what holds the hills in place.
Look at the burnt mailboxes standing next to the plants that somehow survived.
Then my afternoon appointment was not part of the LA wildfires, but rather a garage fire. I always knew it would happen, but I had met the insured before. I am not sure if he recognized me, and to keep it professional and fair for all, I did not remind him that we had met before. He is someone that I met in the mid 1980’s who made an impression on me when I was involved in the fight for LGBT rights before the rest of the letters were added. We were fighting for people to be alive rather for everything that followed. I did not realize what a life he has made for himself until I nosed around on Google and IMDB when I got back to the hotel. Damn, he also lost a lot in the fire they had, I really wanted to give him a hug he desperately needed, but I couldn’t as I had to remain professional as a 3rd party. But it is so hard to put a value on sentimental loss.
Fire is such a scary thing. It’s why when we moved into our new house the first thing I did was had an electrician come in and replace our breaker panel and install Arc Fault Circuit Interrupt (AFCI) breakers for all the circuits in the house. These breakers are designed to trip and cut off power with any signs of an arc (spark) that can happen with a broken wire, faulty insulation, and critter damage to wiring. They can prevent fires. If you have older (really any) electrical in your house, I believe it is well worth it to try and have AFCI breakers installed. Take it from someone that has seen a lot of damage.
I re-entered the Facebook community today as I stayed away for the month of October, but for November I think I am going to write my thoughts here and share them on Facebook as a link to the pages here. I still don’t trust the Facebook algorithms and AI and I would like to keep control of my posts.
One more day and then I head home. I hate Los Angeles.
Today was another day of inspections in the wild fire areas around Los Angeles, Palisades, and Pasadena. Started the day off in Pasadena, I was running early and ended up near the Pasadena gardens and decided to stop and walk through. The gardens are not in the best of shape but still had some neat flowers and plants. They have different areas for “desert”, “plains”, etc.
Spent the rest of the day basically sitting in traffic. The good part about today was that every inspection I did was a valid loss event. Something to write in my digital diary and in my calendar. It is hard to believe that over a year later the fire damage is still so extreme. I may stop and take some perspective photos tomorrow.
I was done around 3pm and then came back to the hotel, caught up on some paperwork, yes my desk job never really goes away, and then decided to try to get out for some exercise. Found a park nearby and went down in that direction to check it out.
Total distance: 2.29 mi Max elevation: 136 ft Min elevation: 99 ft Total climbing: 196 ft Total descent: -190 ft Average speed: 3.94 mi/h Average cadence: 55 Average heart rate: 108 Average temperature: Total time: 00:37:14
What a wonderful day to be sitting in traffic in Los Angeles, CA. I really do not understand what the draw is to this area and why people want to live here. The traffic is awful! Today I started in Southeast Los Angeles then had to drive the I-5 and I-10 to Northwest of Los Angeles in the Pacific Palisades. Then back to my hotel a near LAX. I think I ran out of curse words.
I will say that the day started off nicely when I walked out of the hotel and spotted one of my favorite flowers, the Bird of Paradise.
The insurance inspections today was one commercial Theft/Vandalism claim of an 80,000 sq foot cold storage warehouse – someone took all the copper including the refrigeration piping and the wiring. The only other thing taken was the video recorder for the surveillance system. Someone knew exactly where that was, and it was not obvious.
Second inspection was a water claim in an apartment complex. Upstairs neighbors had a pipe break and drowned the kitchen of the downstairs apartment. Not good but at least most of the HVAC did not get damaged.
Third inspection was a smoke/fire claim from the Pacific Palisades wildfire last year. That area is still in very bad shape and re-building is not going well. There is ash in everything and the smoke damage is obvious. To make matters more interesting there is a lot of “questionable” claims being made. The trick is finding out what is valid vs what is questionable. Thankfully today none of the inspections I completed were in the “questionable” category.
What am I doing today? Well, how does an instant trip to Los Angeles sound to you?
Had an electrical theft vandalism claim that came across my desk yesterday morning that needed a little extra attention and after discussions between myself and my manager we decided the best thing would be for me to fly out to LA for a few days and do a complex inspection of the damaged location.
The in office part of my job includes pricing the repairs and replacements required to return the insured to “pre-loss condition” after a loss event. In many instances we use a great bunch of 1099 contractors (electricians) that do the inspections for us. Occasionally there are many unanswered questions or I look at the inspection and have a gut instinct that something is missing that is preventing me from accurately pricing the repairs and replacements. When that happens we usually send a senior tech or one of our Technical Field Managers to gather missing information. In this case I was the most available, and I can write much of the report before I leave the site. Given it is the end of the month it made the most sense for me to travel out and complete this inspection.
The downside of that is that while I am traveling and doing some field work, the office side does not stop. I have some fantastic co-workers that do try and take some of the load off of me, but the heavy pricing side of things is my evening activity.
I will be out in Los Angeles for the next few days and be flying back to Denver, CO on Sunday.
BTW: Why is it about 70 degrees warmer in LA than in Denver? As one of my colleagues said, “Welcome to Southern California”
Trying to decide what my evening workout is going to be. I guess I am going to attempt a walk on the treadmill — or not.
Today was spent with a drive up to Longmont, CO for a solar inspection. When I accepted the appointment I did not realize it involved a drive up a 3.7 mile, almost vertical dirt road with multiple switchbacks, single car width, no guardrails and pretty steep drop-offs. I did stop on the way down in a few places to take a few photographs. This area was part of the 2024 wildfires.
The fire retardant dropped from the air tankers can corrode and etch both metal and glass if not cleaned off properly in a timely manner. This is becoming an immense problem in all of the wildfire areas. It is a corrosive material.
This evening I completed yet another continuing education course in the Healthy Homes Series I am trying to finish. Got a ways to go, this is a pretty long series of courses. 2 down 16 to go. Maybe I will have that done by next year.
It’s going to get cold tonight. The morning low will be 25 degrees. To make this more special it was raining this evening so everything may be a little slick in the morning.
Here are a few photographs from my travels today.
And we have another certificate for the collection.
