I like this quote by Angelus Silesius.

Last night, I was looking into how to manually add data to my Apple Health app. In particular, O2 saturation and heart rate. I’m getting a small device that measures both. It is very highly rated device on Amazon, but it’s not an app. I’ll have to add the information on my own. I don’t consider that a deal breaker, if the data is accurate. The apps I have on my phone just weren’t cutting the heart rate cake.

I had a greatly impacted night’s sleep. I “wrote” my sermon that Ashley and I will give on Sunday in the middle of the night in my head. It’s based on the acronym REACH. I think it will be very good. But certainly didn’t help my sleep.

Practiced Brain Training.

Español.

Released a new episode of Verbal Surgery -655- “Lies and Self Talk.”

We become who we tell ourselves we are! Edit yourself with your inner dialog and feel good, NOW! Just click on the title and groove!

Uploaded to server.

Link on Facebook.

I’m promoting my podcast on Twitter now.

Had a fun chat with my best friend Anthony.

I recorded a new episode of Verbal Surgery called, “Sound of Growth.”

I’m curious as to why one single sprig will grow when the rest are chilling.

I’m enjoying this book. Very interesting. I’ve been taking cold showers for two weeks now. It hardly bothers me at all any more. Toughens me up!

I picked up supplies for the presentation on Sunday with Ashley at Rockbridge BC.

One of the prayers I regularly use.

While I was at the Dollar Tree, I saw this. What’s with the fascination with smiling poop?

I blew my roof and cleaned out my gutters this afternoon.

The last big rain storm we had I noticed that the rain was hardly coming out the gutter spout. Almost all was going over the edge of the gutter. Only one reason for that: completely stopped up. Sure enough the gutters were clogged with leaf litter.

I had to clean most of it by hand.

WAY better now. To have paid all that money and then have them be so clogged up was crazy. If you keep them clean they’ll last a lot longer. The metal doesn’t deteriorate as rapidly.

Helped the kids at the mission. Hardly any homework, so they enjoyed making crafts.

Penelope was enjoying Oreos! Wow!

After the mission, I enjoyed dinner at Taco Veloz with Bill, Deborah and the grand girls.

Went by FBC Doraville to check the mail and pick up some supplies I needed for Sunday.

Got gas on the way home. .14 jump since yesterday. Ouch!

When I got home, I mowed the top part of my back yard. Lots of poison ivy. Really is weird how I go into handling venomous snake mode when I’m dealing with it. I feel especially happy when I can get a big root out like this.

I pull up every sprig I can find by the roots before I mow.

I like to track what I do.

I put the new recording of VS on my Mac. I’m currently nine weeks ahead.

Didn’t sleep as well as I have been.

Brain Training. Go!

Español!

Cleaned and refilled my feeders and water baths.

Watered my indoor garden.

Had a great time with my dear friend Carl Barrington.

I thought his family picture looked great!

I helped fix his recliner chair.

Went to FBC Doraville to check on the mail. Also picked up our bag of Easter eggs!

Had fun helping the kids with their homework.

Penelope helped me pick out the candy for the Candy Throw after the Easter story.

Ashley did a superb job of talking about Easter.

The kids seemed to really pay attention.

Love that the Grandgirls participate in the ministry!

Then the Easter egg hunt! Ours is more like a “gather” than a hunt!

We let them pick up the empty eggs a few times, then gather all the empties together. Over the years, I’ve learned that the best way to do the candy is to throw the pieces to them. It’s a fun game and that way we can throw stuff directly to the children so everyone gets plenty. Putting stuff in the eggs was WAY too labor intensive and the little kids usually got hardly anything.

It was a fun group! We had a great time. And the candy was on clearance–Half Off! Yeah, baby!


Listened to Spanish radio on the way home.

I went to the church to drop off the eggs and our projector and saw the driveway cordoned off! Wow. The pavement had completely given way.

Deposited checks on the way home. Thank you, Lord!

Mowed the grass when I got home. I wasn’t sure how it would go with my hurt hip. Did fine. Amen!

My nemesis, poison ivy, was back! Yanked out as much as I could by the roots. After finishing the yard, I used my special anti-poison ivy oil medicine on my arms and legs and my face to make sure I didn’t have any reaction. Can you spot it in the picture?

Sprayed the plants again with the fungicide.

Blowing is usually the last step.

I thought the yard looked a lot better.

Plus the back deck.

Good work out!

Edited the video I shot at the party.

Admin duties now.

I liked this quote from Xenophon.

Brain Training!

Practice pays off.

Slept.

Practice.

Español.

Went to Westside BC for Easter!

The kids were very involved!

Pastor Ben spoke on, you guessed it, the resurrection!

I’ll never forget my trip to Israel and seeing the Garden Tomb. Fantastic.

We had five of the kids make professions of faith.

My Easter lunch.

Went for a 19.12 mile bike ride.

I could have gone much further, but I decided to come home and mow the grass. When I got home, my hip was hurting too much to push a mower. Didn’t hurt at all when I was biking!

The Yellow River was mighty full and running fast!

Because my hip was hurting, I decided to go to Evergreen and do some hot water therapy. I always feel like a Kardashian when I go there.

I liked these balls.

Added some material to my Twitter feed: my sermon notes!

Rested. Played some Black Ops. Went to eat an Omelet at Metro Cafe.

Admin duties now.

Grandgirls spent the night Friday, so I’m doing my admin duties on Saturday. FYI.

Brain Training!

Resting heart rate and O2 sats.

Powerful thunderstorms rolled through our area Thursday evening, giving us almost 4″ of rain. Whoa.

Español!

Recorded “Penultimate Goal” at Evergreen Lake. It was full!

Saw this car in the parking lot when I went for lunch.

And this on the side of a van. Isn’t that like step #1?

Went to Lowe’s to pick up some paving stones to keep Jesse from tromping in the mud when he parks his car.

I’m sending an email to our supporters (over 900) every week. Two weeks I have our newsletter (one with mine, the other with Ashley) the other two weeks I’m sending a link to one of my podcasts and the other a chapter from Story Tim. They also have an opportunity to donate to our ministry. Please!

Mailchimp is a new program to learn for me. There are always pieces that you have to figure out. I’m getting better every week.

One of my new disciplines is to keep a dream journal. I bought a small digital recorder so I can record what happened, rather than try and write them down. That was waking me up too much. The next day, I listen to the entries and title each dream so I can remember what it was about.

Cleaned my fish tank. Harder than normal, because the light got messed up and I had to unplug and get needle nose pliers after it. All working now!

The grand girls came over around 5:30 pm. I took them to Goodwill and the Dollar Tree. Highly recommend both locations to grandparents!

Penelope said she was putting the cones out “for safety.”


She cracks me up the things she says. This morning, I asked if she wanted milk in her cup. She said, “water.” I asked, “why?” She said, “Because it’s better to hydrate.” What?!

Friday, April 20th

I ran Sleep Cycle last night when the girls had the sleep over. Said I got a 51% sleep quality. I think that was optimistic. It’s just part of the gig! Still a blessing!

The next morning we did cereal.

Penelope had a really big supper. Wan’t very hungry this morning.

After Ashley, picked them up, I started on my normal disciplines.

Listened to Spanish radio.

Roads are still too wet to ride. I’m really careful about that since my last near fatal crash.

Admin duties.

Sleep!

Brain Training.

Español.

Recorded “OUTrest.” Talked with my buddy Anthony in the UK.

Memorizing verses 10/11.

My new favorite place to eat out is Moes for their salad. I tell them what to put on it. Excellent. I got a kick out of this license plate while I was there.

I’m also memorizing these short verses by a Christian named Angelus Silesius.


Wonder how they got so famous?

Helped Kathy get some keys made. It was way more hassle than I thought it’d be.

Got groceries.

Ashley is making a presentation to some possible donors for her horse therapy ministry. Went by the church to get the projector and to the Buford Highway Farmers Market to pick up some treats.

Helped the kids at the mission. Not much homework since they are having the Milestone test this week and next week.

We had another of our mission kids get the “Tiger of the Month” award today!

Listened to Spanish radio on the way home.

I keep trying to make body measurements. Still not sure how accurate they are.

Went for a 10.40 mile bike ride.

Transported squirrel #52 this evening.

Beautiful evening.

Released a new episode of Verbal Surgery -654- “Raise Praise!”

How you talk to yourself and others makes a HUGE difference! Click on the title and GROOVE!

Uploaded to server

Link on Facebook.

Admin duties now.

Good night’s sleep.

Brain Training!

Español! Continued progress!

Had a fun chat with my friend Anthony today. His wife is on a horse riding trip, so he had a little extra time.

I put Ashley’s vacuum cleaner back together after I’d cleaned all the parts.

New Bible memory verse I’m working on.

Went for a 11.82 mile bike ride.

Glorious weather. I’m still not convinced this pulse oximeter is working very well. Though this seemed pretty accurate.

Incredible flowers.


And trees!

Enjoyed my buddy Anthony Jacquin’s webinar today. Fun! The Zoom app seems to do a really good job.

Went to see Shazam this evening. I really enjoyed it.

Admin duties now.

My face feels slightly sunburned after my ride today.

I got a great night’s sleep. Wrote down five separate dreams. That’s a lot for me.

Early morning to be wide awake for me. But always delightful when it involves the grandgirls!

Gassed up my car on the way to McDonalds for breakfast.

Then went to the “Doggie Park” near our house. We are so lucky to have such a variety of parks in our area within just a few miles.

After the park for a couple of hours, we went to another favorite: Dollar Tree!

I put Everly to sleep and Penelope and I had a good talk while we watched Super Why.

Ashley has been cleaning people’s houses. I’ve very proud of her for having the hustle and initiative to do what it takes. I help with watching the girls, so it’s a team effort. I have the fun part!

I also go into “Dad Mode” and try to keep the vacuum cleaner she’s using running properly. There are a lot of pieces that need to be taken out and cleaned regularly, or the machine just really doesn’t do the job. Obviously, you can’t wet down the machine part, but the blower works great.

All the filtration stuff has to be completely cleaned. It’s SO much easier to do it at my house because I have all the hoses and equipment to do it thoroughly and quickly. They don’t have garden hoses with spray attachments at Ashley’s house.

Having all the stuff air and sun dried also keeps it from smelling bad.

I brought two of my four baby banana plants out to the front to get sun. The last banana plant I had outside, the stupid squirrels ate. There are a LOT less of them in my yard and area now. Although it’s a constant battle to keep the population down.

The other two I’ll keep inside under lights. At least for now.

The Wisteria project was a failure as far as the cuttings go. However, the plants that I got that had some roots on them seem to be doing well.

I also brought out the Fasciata bromeliads out front along with the plastic flowers.

Worked on Duolingo this afternoon after the girls had left.

I did one session with the Muse. I’ll do more after I finish my admin duties this evening.

I’m still learning how to use this pulse oximeter. Sometimes it works great, other times not so much.

I am giving up on the fitness tracker I bought. Just hasn’t been working correctly. The last time I worked out it had my heart rate at about 65! There’s no way my heart rate was that low when I was pumping that bike up my hills! Today, I biked 21.31 miles. The tracker said I only went about 1.6 miles. What?! So I’m giving up on it. For $30 what did I expect? There weren’t even any reviews! So talk about a shot in the dark. I really do a lot of research on these devices but didn’t want to spend $150 on one! Especially when even the really good ones have a significant number of bad reviews!

I hadn’t eaten hardly anything today. To ride that far without enough nutrition and hydration beforehand is a bad plan. After my ride, I didn’t feel too bueno.

It was a beautiful day! I just wanted to keep on going!

Full Sun Moon! My Indian name.

Admin duties now.

I’ll probably try to go to sleep early. I’m pretty tired.

100% sleep quality. That sounds great! I also find it interesting how long I snore.

Today, I reached the longest streak I had previously had with Brain Training using the Muse. 28 days. Glad to see a consistency of effort. That’s where the long term progress comes. Best ever result. It’s funny how I see everything as a type of video game. “High Score!”

Studied HORSE Spanish today. I sent Ashley a few of these.

Enjoyed having the grandgirls with me today!

We played with Playdoh at home after hanging out at Chic-Fil-A.

I put Everly to bed but Penelope preferred to watch Super Why and draw with a marker. This is a hotdog in a bun.

But you knew that!
Went for a 12.07 mile bike ride.

I did wear my fitness device, but it wasn’t working properly. It gave me super low numbers. No way I had a resting heart rate with as hard as I was going! Normally, I try to push myself hard enough that I can’t really talk that well between breaths. I quote scripture and poetry for over an hour now. Out loud mostly.
I have a calendar now with a set of email release dates. Today, I sent an email blast to the nearly 700 youth directors who have yet to work with us. About 170 plus open the email.


I have nearly 900 on that list. 680 have subscribed to continue to see things. I think that is great seeing that it was a completely cold call generated list from their web sites.

I’m getting WAY more adept at using the Mailchimp platform. It takes some getting used to!

Admin duties now.

I have an edition of Verbal Surgery that I recorded that I need to put on my computer. I’ll probably release and edition of VS this evening, since the grandgirls are coming over early tomorrow.

I also will add a few more dreams that I had early this morning to my dream journal. That’s been a fun addition to my day. I record the dreams with a small recorder after they happen. Then go back to sleep. I average about three different dreams every night. Usually in the early morning when the REM states are longer.

For the last three days I’ve had what the Brits would call, “ditchy tummy.” Feels burning and nauseous. Especially when I wake up.

I still try to accomplish my tasks, but wasn’t up to going to church.

I slept pretty well.

Brain Training

Español.

Had a fun chat with my buddy Anthony.

We haven’t talked in a while. He invited me to the conference that he and his Dad are doing in Toronto. Since I couldn’t do the Burning Man trip, this was a nice substitute and WAY cheaper. I thought $335 to Toronto was pretty cheap.

And I got an Air BNB for $35/night! Yeah, baby!

I’ve really been enjoying these! WAY better than a t-shirt over my head.

After talking to Anthony, I recorded a new podcast. That always makes me feel better!

Then got groceries.

Got home and worked on booking flight and housing.

Got about 1.25″ of rain.

The Wisteria that I planted that were more mature and had some roots are doing well. The other little plants I was trying to root, not so much.

I saw a male and a female hummingbird this afternoon. I cleaned and refilled my feeders to make them happy.

I remember years ago I had as many as 14 at one time. Now I’m lucky to see a couple. Sad face. But I’m glad at least a couple are back!
Watered my indoor garden.

I’ll be working on a project for Kathy soon.

Admin duties now.

I caught up on Duolingo last night. Did more this morning.

Released Verbal Surgery -652- “Fine Denial” late last night. Learn how to deny the wrong things and feel good, NOW! Just click on the title and GROOVE!

Brain Training this morning.

Español.

Sent a new email to our supporters! Ashley’s part of the newsletter!

I like the sound of both of these.

While I was at the park, I saw these water/pollen trails. Beauty is all around us!

Kathy and I took the girls to Chic-fil-a. We saw Tommy and Katie and their kids there! I think that makes them Penelope’s and Everly’s cousins.

Neither of the girls are feeling too great. Right before Ash and Miles came over to pick them up, Everly threw up all over us. So sad. Ashley said she’s feeling better now.

I trapped and released squirrel #51 today.

Went for a 13.87 mile bike ride.

I’m mostly in the fat burn speed. Perfect really. While staying above 110 BPM.

Kathy scraped the side of Jesse’s car when she was pulling out. Worked on repairing as best I can the side mirror she clobbered and buffing out the slight scrapes on the side. I’ll be able to see it better in the stronger daylight.

Admin duties now. I hope to go to sleep early today since I only got about 5.5 hours last night. Worth it!