Cold, rainy day.

Studied Spanish.

K’s truck was running really rough. Took it to T&G.

Brain training.

Downloaded and printed out Ashley’s newsletter. I took it to FBC Doraville for Renae to print out for us.

I also put the check for the roof repair in Pastor Bill’s drawer.

Went to Taco Veloz to get juevos rancheros and a chicken burrito.

I enjoyed hanging out with the girls.

Hard to look friendly dressed like this.

I actually like wearing a mask in the winter. Keeps my face warm.

Pretty consistent schedule.

Ashley and I put a screen protector on Penelope’s new tablet. It’s a Fire HD8.

Ashley gave us a big bag of girl’s clothes. Excellent.

Last night, well after I’d written the blog, I printed up my newsletter for December as well as the labels.

Got this news this morning.

Studied Spanish.

Had a fun chat with an old friend from WTOC-TV days, Avis Coleman.

I continued to put labels on the envelopes. Everything is done now, except for folding and stuffing the newsletter itself. We also included the new 2020 prayer card with this edition.

Recorded a new episode of Verbal Surgery called, “Slightest Height.”

Went for a walk before I was on the air with the webinar.

I always enjoy seeing the wilds in the park. I took a special interest in the trees that had been blown over.

Low clouds.

Beauty.

Fences built in this way are remarkably stable.

Turned rainy.

I really enjoyed being part of the Brazilian “Hypnoday!” My best friend, Anthony Jacquin, was also part of the line up two hours before I went on.

I spoke on how to use your voice more effectively. Taught range and dynamics, then gave them examples. It was a powerful time, indeed.

I wrote the check for the roof replacement/repair. Pastor Bill is a bi-vocational minister. They dd a really good job.

Put the episode I recorded onto my Mac.

Steady dripping now.

I added another edition of Verbal Surgery to my Mac called “Fake Baby.”

Slept well last night.

I received a reminder that I’m on a podcast tomorrow from Rio in Brazil.

Glad for stuff like this: instant conversion.

Word for today. I wasn’t 100% sure that I knew.

Studied Spanish.

Brain Training.

Ordered more masks.

Went to the Post Office to get stamps for the newsletters.

Then on to Stone Mountain! More people during the holidays.

Fun talk with Anthony.

It was my brother’s birthday today. I left him a message.

Got the screen protector for the Fire tablet.

Worked outside my back door today.


I worked on my St. Francis of Assisi shrine. Here’s what it looked like.

Looks better now.

My Kenyan license plate.

While I was cleaning out the shrine, I saw these tiny mushrooms.

Raked the carpet outside my door.

Swept.

I got most of the stuff up with my gloves on. Needed bare fingers for other parts.

Lotsa tools.

Worked with my carnivorous plants. I took moss from some pots and added them to others. Everyone wins.

I love this wide lens on the iPhone 11 Pro Max.

Happy Birthday, Penelope! You’re FIVE years old today! What a blessing you’ve been in my life over the last five years!

I remember these days!

Chilly.

I thought this bit with people doing Jerry Seinfeld’s material was funny.

Studied Spanish.

Gassed up the car. Checked oil. Cleaned windshield.

Did my brain training.

I’m wearing the Muse head band while I’m typing this.

Released an episode of Verbal Surgery called “Multi-Asking.”

Warmed up nicely.

Fun chat with my buddy, Anthony!

Wrote my newsletter using talk to text.

I was glad to talk with my buddy David Morse. He’s like my little brother. His Mom is dying with cancer right now.

Recorded a new episode of Verbal Surgery.

Deposited checks to Whirlwind. Thank you, Lord!

Raccoon got in my food trashcan. It took a crap at the bottom of the barrel. Gross. Cleaned it it and sprayed with ammonia.

I got a new 50lb bag of dog food.

I redid the base area to make it more level and sturdy. I still have to keep the band on the lid.

I used part of a mouse pad to soften the support for my elbow in my car.

I went through many years of financial reports and put them in a separate container.

Studied Spanish. Just keep going.

Did my brain training. I did very well. I haven’t been practicing as much.

Did some work on my insurance. I needed to verify if the changes we had made had gone into effect.

We will be putting money into an HSA to cover the deductible. We also have some additional insurance to keep the deductibles down.

Called my buddy, Anthony. He was working hard on a number crunching project. I sent him this.

I had a fun talk with my Mom. I always enjoy our conversations. I am very thankful for her.

Absolutely perfect weather.

I blew the deck and the driveway.

Cleaned off the glass table.

And the plastic stools.

Scrubbed the glass doors.

Pulled leaves out of the bushes in our front yard.

I like the panoramic shots with the new iPhones.

Everyone started to arrive around 4pm.

Food was really good.

I gave Penelope her birthday present. The fire HD8 came out super highly recommended and was marked down $45 on Amazon’s Black Friday sale. I thought $80 for a device this good really can’t be beaten.

I’ll put this on Penelope’s Fire tablet asap.

WE had a good family get together and did our best to be socially distant. Although not in this picture!

Ordered groceries.

So beautiful.

The grandgirls spent the night Tuesday. Didn’t get a chance to write the blog last night.

I took pictures of painted portions of my house to try and match the color.

Had a great night’s sleep on Monday. Tuesday wasn’t too bad.

Beautiful weather.

Picked up the grandgirls at Global Mall on Tuesday morning.

I thought this was interesting. I used to hunt deer on a ranch near theirs.

Huh.

Tuesday was a great day for us. We started by going to Stone Mountain to ride the Sky Rail. This was a big deal because for years Penelope said that she wouldn’t ride it because she was “scared of heights.”

We had a party! Penelope turns five this Friday, so we’ve been doing extra fun stuff. Our snack was ice cream sandwiches, soft pretzel and popcorn. So good.

The grandgirls had a fantastic time climbing small trees at the top of Stone Mountain. It really was fabulous.

I found these little nodules on the rock interesting. They were minerals of slightly different density than the surrounding granite. Perspective was interesting to me with this shots.

The Membership pass!

We ate pizza, read books and took a nap.

Studied Spanish.

That evening we went back to Stone Mountain to ride the train, go through a Light Spectacle and see the dinosaurs!


The light spectacle even had snow!

The dinosaurs under black light were cool.

Wednesday morning our drier stopped working. I took it to an appliance dealer. I was anticipating buying another but they fixed mine instead.

This little switch had broken off.

One of my jobs is to brush the girl’s hair. Here’s Penelope’s before and after.

They don’t seem to mind the “horse brush.” I’m constantly trying to figure out the best way to get the tangles out.

Finished, at least for today. I’ve got hair conditioner coming to rub into it.

Here’s Everly’s.

It takes a lot of time.
Fixed some trim on my outside glass door.

Moved these packs of shingles to my back yard. They were super heavy.

Once I got the drier repaired and back in place, I went ahead and gave it a quick shot of white paint. Looks way better.

Blew the leaves off the deck and the driveway.

Then vacuumed the house. It was super hard.

Took the girls back to Azalea. We barely got inside before it started down pouring!

Big storm!

Still working on this stuff.

Studied Spanish.

Checked the mail at the office.

Sewed the collar of my shirt.

Productive day.

Woke up and saw a note from my buddy Anthony to give a PDF that he’d written the once over. I took care of it immediately.


I’m looking forward to checking these out.

Studied Spanish.

Heard back about my roof check. Amen.

Always trying to keep all the plans in order.

Still hard to believe the roof is done.

Having issues with my outside weather station. My base station is no longer talking to the outside sensor. I bought a new sensor and the base still does not see a signal. Double bummer.

Recorded an episode of Verbal Surgery called, “Sticky Remains.”

Weird how things will just pop into my mind.

I always have a case for my case.

The roots are buckling this asphalt.

Great talk with Anthony. Always a blessing.

Then with my Mom. Yeah, for that!

Beautiful day.

The girls and I slept in till around 8:00 AM.

We did some school work. Letters and sounds.

I redid the bird feeders and baths. Raked sone leaves. Unkinked my water hose.

Made some potatoes and eggs for lunch.
Had a nice nap. Needed it. Had a lot of interrupted sleep.
Studied Spanish.

The roofers filled the dumper up. They did a nice job. I still need to get up top and shoot some final pictures.

Watered my inside garden. Lots more since the winter plants came in.

Had a great talk with my buddy Anthony.

Worked on eliminating some files on my Mac Air.

Cleaned my stairs.

Watching the Avengers Infinity War.

Studied Spanish!

Released Verbal Surgery “Seek and Hide.”

The men finished up my roof.

They put a new type of ridge on the roof.

They also replaced a board that another contractor had just patched up. I’ll come back and paint that soon.

We parked all the cars on the street.

Picked up the groceries.

Took the girls out for doughnuts. Sad to see this.

I took the girls to Stone Mountain but it was so crushingly crowded we didn’t stay. Penelope was super sad about it. I got the doughnuts at Dunkin Doughnuts then went to the Doggie Park.

They got pretty dirty.

Great examples of zipper clouds.


They had torn or moved this big house by the doggie park. That’s where the girls were playing in the dirt pile.

Beautiful sunset and nature.

Replaced the batteries in the girl’s toothbrushes.

After we got cleaned up, we went to Stone Mountain to see the lights. We just walk around the outside of the display.

I like to set my camera on long shutter exposure and move the camera while I’m taking the picture for some interesting effects.

The grandgirls spent the night with me last night. We finally went to sleep after reading at least ten books and telling stories around 9:30pm.

I’m having trouble uploading pictures from my iPhone to my Mac or to Smugmug. Not sure what the problem is. Finally got it working the next day.

I enjoyed having the grandgirls with me. Picked them up at Global Mall.

We went to the library to pick up more books.

Inside of a fire ant nest.

Then to the park nearby.

They are making great progress on my roof. They got the old shingles off. With the plywood bare it was easy to see where the branches had torn through the roof. They replaced all those areas with fresh plywood.

Put a new type of roof felt. Started putting the new shingles on. My guess is they’ll have everything done tomorrow.

I read the girls books that we’d just gotten, then had a nap with them for about an hour. They slept over two hours.

Miles came and got them. I’ll see them again tomorrow when they come over. We hope to have a big time at Stone Mountain tomorrow. Including the sky rail. Not sure if Penelope really wants to do that or not. We’ll see . . .

Ordered groceries.

Studied Spanish. 365 day streak!