I continue to do well in the Duolingo leagues. Duolingo is the world’s largest language learning community.

I’ve been checking the weather on Acatenango regularly. That’s the 13,000 ft. volcano in Guatemala I’m planning on climbing in October. It’s the rainy season now.

Kathy has been taking this medicine as a sleep aid for a long while. We been reading about the risks of it for dementia. I ordered her some melatonin which is supposed to be safer.

OYB!

Español!

Kathy helped set up the psychiatrist appointment for Jessi. I got the information for her to call.

True.

I walked up the Pitty Pat hill twenty five times today. A new record. I studied Spanish the entire time I walked. A win-win. Makes walking a lot less boring.

It was really sweaty.

Lots of little sticks.

I talked with Mint Mobile today. I wanted to get reimbursed for an order that I made by mistake. I also got the insurance for J’s and K’s phone set up.

I also had an issue in June when the girls and I rode MARTA. I bought three tickets but it only printed out one. They are working on reimbursing me for that. Then I got a Breeze card and put a round trip ride on it to get to the airport and back in September. She told me that wasn’t on there, so she put in a request to get those trips put on my card in about a week.

While I was on hold, I’d work on sewing up the case for my jumper cables. I didn’t completely fix the case because the cables are really heavy and I figured it would just bust out the stitches again. At least it’s better.

Part of my medicare insurance includes $30/month of medical supplies. J and K went through the catalog and picked out stuff we needed, like that melatonin. I also got pain meds and vitamins. They give you $90 every quarter. Pretty cool.

Talked to Jason at T and G to get my oil change scheduled for tomorrow morning. K picked me up over there on my way home. That’ll get that worked on before lunch. I just leave it in their parking lot over night.

Had a nice chat with my Mom on the way into Chamblee. That’s always good.

Worked with the kids at the mission.

Listened to Don Cheto on the way home.

There’s one lady in this group that may give me some competition. She scored more points than me last week. We’ll see. I put in excellent effort today. She’s #5 this evening.

I thought this was cool.

OYB!

Lovely.

Español!

Great talk with my buddy Anthony today.

Walked 2.19 miles. That’s 12 hills.

Biked 15.70 miles.

After I work out, I always dry all my clothes before I put them in the hamper so they won’t stink.

Kathy and I went to Chinese food for lunch.

I repotted this pony tail plant. I think she’ll really be happy now. She was really top heavy and the wind would blow her over.

I had to add drainage holes to this pot. Why they would leave those out I have no idea.

Fortunately, I had all the materials I needed.

We’ve been fortunate to have a lot of rain so far this Summer. This week has been dry. It’s supposed to be super hot in the days to come. I watered all my outdoor plants.

Tea roses.

I also repotted this fasciata.

Trimmed the shrubs along the front of my house.

Watered my deck plants.

Took a shower and got some clean clothes on then went over to Stone Mountain to record “The Real Stuff.” Excellent!

Watered the orchids and violets in my Green Room.

I’ll come in #1 again this week. Dominated.

I had a good chat with my buddy Anthony today. Always fun!

OYB!

Walked 1.33 miles. Seven times up the hill. Just a good warm up before my bike ride.

Beautiful weather.

Listened to music and Don Cheto while I was riding. My ear constantly seems to be getting better. I’m picking out bigger and bigger chunks of what’s being said.

Biked 15.60 miles.

Another strong end to the week.

Interesting!

OYB!

Español!

Kathy has taken over the couch on the front porch, so I’ve relocated to the back porch, which is also beautiful.

Walked up and down my hill (which is steep!) twenty times this morning. Total of 3.68 miles.

Delightful outside.

Had a good lunch at El Torerros. Later slept for over an hour.

Prepped my bike. That includes checking the air pressure in the tires and giving the frame a wipe down with WD40.

Listened to music and Don Cheto while I rode. I almost started too late. It was nice and cool, but got too close to dark for my liking.

Total of 14.62 miles. Not sure why sometimes the same route comes up as slightly over 15. Bizarre.

Released Verbal Surgery “Billion Dollar Baby.” this evening. Excellence.

I figured she’d fade. Happens a lot on the weekend. It’s all about consistent effort.

Always learning and reviewing.

OYB!

Español!

Walked 2.09 miles. Would have gone farther but my neighbor started mowing, so I decided to do yard work as well.

Worked on trimming the front yard. It wasn’t nearly as hard as the back yard, but still needed cleaning up a bit.

Walked another .94 miles.

After I finished trimming, I blew the driveway and garage.

Looks better.

Not too hot today.

Had a nice chat with my Mom. Glad her knees are doing better. Amen.

I got my Primerica life insurance cancelled. They were going to increase my premium by about $300 a month. I already have my new policies in place.

Cleaned off my window. It has some residue on it from a sticker that one of the workers at Azalea had put on it.

I took the last of Ashley’s lime cake home for J and K to enjoy. It was really good.

Ashley’s vacuum wasn’t working. I took it all apart and cleared out a couple of hoses to fix it. It was really jammed up with stuff. These little styrofoam pellets were driving me crazy. Everly was a good helper with that job.

Had a table full of kids. They are pretty much all camera shy. Helped with reviewing for a science test and with some papers some of the kids were writing.

I’m also teaching English with one of the moms.

One of the kids I talked with using Newton’s second law and how that relates to soccer.

Listened to Don Cheto.

Picked up some food for J.

Started the procedure to return the wifi extender back to Amazon.

OYB!

Español!

Beautiful clouds!

Walked 2.79 miles while I studied.

Once I finished walking up and down my hill fifteen times, I finished trimming my back yard. I had fun listening to music while I worked.

Like the last couple of days, I split the time between picking up limbs and hauling them to my recycle area and cutting the plants.

The back yard was very overgrown.

I kept stomping my feet really hard on the ground to scare away any snakes. That’s my main motivation for keeping my yard trimmed up: anti-snake. Another reason I feed opossums and raccoons. Both of them kill snakes.

I ended up working over two hours and walked another 1.31 miles.

The last little bit of the job. Amen. It was surprisingly cool today. What a relief!

Finished product. Every year the monkey grass continues to spread out. Keeping it trimmed helps the grass by getting rid of the weeds that starve them for light.

In this picture, you can see where I take all the sticks and limbs. Eventually, the mycelium will make them all disappear. It’s amazing. Same thing for all the leaves. Over time, they produce rich soil.

I set a fifteen minute timer to take water breaks. That made a big difference in feeling better. That and being so much cooler today.

The lower humidity made a big difference.

I worked on canceling my previous life insurance today. I left two messages for the agent to cancel it. Never could get through to him. Hopefully, tomorrow he’ll leave a message and say it’s been done. I’ll keep trying.

Deposited a check. Amen.

Dropped off the wifi extender at the UPS store.

Helped the kids at the mission. There were a lot but most of them are camera shy.

I took the training wheels off a bike of one of the kids. He just took off riding! Impressive!

Keep pushing. I doubt Cathy will be able to keep up. At least not by comparing it with her work last week.

OYB!

Español!

I saw this beautiful Luna Moth on my walk this morning.

I was checking my progress a lot this morning. Each lap up and down the hill is .18 miles. I do a lap in about four minutes. I accidentally turned off my progress twice. My actual distance was 3.24 miles in 1:24 hours and climbed 18 hills.

I then turned my attention to yard work. I used my weed whacker and got limbs out of the yard. Seems like I split my time pretty evenly between those two tasks.

It was pretty dense work.

Walked another .90 miles.

Looking better! Probably about another 1.5 hours to finish it up.

I decided to store my cords and whacker under a protected area to get all the stuff out faster tomorrow.

It wasn’t as hot today, but I was still absolutely soaked with sweat. I set a timer to stop every fifteen minutes and drink more water.

Some showers blew through around lunch time. I really enjoyed Mexican food today.

Had a nice chat with my Mom today. Always good!

Deposited checks. Thank you, Lord!

The condos across the street continue to make progress.

Helped the kids at the mission. I figured out how to do the eighth grade math. I was able to explain it to Crystal.

I worked on teaching Penelope how to tie her shoes yesterday. Today, she was able to tie the bow knot! Very proud of her. It’s not easy.

Don Cheto on the way home.

Went by my office to check the mail. Got money in from Christ Church. PTL.

Now that’s intense.

Just keep going. Came in #1 this week.

OYB!

Español!

Walked 1.88 miles. Up and down the hill 10 times.

Slightly over 1″ of rain over the last couple of days.

Cleaned and refilled my hummingbird feeders.

Trimmed some trees and shrubs.

Got the weed eater after the yard. I’m so glad I’ve quit mowing. So loud. So dirty. So much pollution. And not really that much faster, if at all.

After all the storms we’ve had there are always a ton of sticks to pick up. I think I did four full wagon loads.

Blew the deck and driveway.

Yard looks better after a trim.

Lots of leaves on the driveway.

Walked another 1.26 miles with the weeder. Over three hours of strenuous exercise. My pants and socks were completely soaked. I try to drink a lot of water while I’m doing it.

I agree with the excessive heat. It’s a new world we’re living in.

Downstairs where I live, my bedroom doesn’t get much lower than 80 degrees even at night. Fans make a huge difference.

Ate curry for lunch at Masala, then got the girls around 2:30 PM.

Helped the kids with their homework. Man, the 8th grade stuff was really hard to figure out. I finally discovered this which helped me.

Everly was very proud of her new earring collection. They are the clamp style.

Listened to Don Cheto on the way home.

Went by my office to check the mail.

Processed the checks to get them ready to deposit.

Filled up the car on the way home. Went into Walmart to pick up some meds for K. She’s on antibiotics now.

Beautiful clouds.

Went by the ATM to deposit the checks and it was GONE! That’s not zesty. Looks like they may be bricking it over. I hope they replace it. That location was super convenient for me.

Usually by the end of the first day I can tell how much competition I’ll have. I expect to come in #1 pretty easily by the looks at what the other folks have been doing recently.

I tried to get going as early as possible today.

OYB!

Español!

Walked up and down my hill 2.21 miles today. I was a sweaty mess. No shirt again. Just too hot.

Walked up the hill 12 times. I didn’t do as much today because I knew I was going biking soon after.

Prepped my bike for a ride. Checked the tire pressure on both. New tube seems to be doing fine.

Listened to music and Don Cheto.

It just kept getting hotter. This is what it was like when I biked.

Went a long way in spite of the heat.

Working on getting reimbursed for an order I made in error.

This is what it was like around 4 PM.

Ate pizza with K this afternoon.

Just keep pushing.

OYB!

Español!

Pushed myself hard walking today. I decided, “Why am I walking miles on relatively flat road? I need just to focus on this hill.” And my hill is steep.

I went up my hill 24 times without stopping.

The thick sticks represent 10. I did one more after I took this picture.

I went shirtless because my body couldn’t cool down with my completely saturated shirt on. Almost my total track is shady. Amen.

I studied Spanish the whole time. It makes the work go by fast.

Always learning new words. I was hearing this word used like a girl.

Ate lunch with K then went to Aztec cycles to get my flat tire fixed. They couldn’t find a hole, but I wasn’t going out with a tube I couldn’t count on. It’s been working just fine and then suddenly went flat? Gimme a new tube.

It was hot today. Humidity was tough.

I was planning on riding my bike but the radar stopped me. I’m not going out with this bearing down on me.

May come in #1 this week. I wasn’t really expecting that.