I was reading about dialects this morning and did some study on Jamaican pidgin English.

Rainy with thunderstorms all day long. We’ve had 3.5″ of rain so far today.

OYB!

New week with a new group of 30 people in Duolingo. I’ve been #1 twice at the very beginning of the competition. Funny.

I usually do two lessons and two stories. Takes me about thirty minutes. I also do reading and listening drills with the TV and Audible.

I’m still trying to figure this Y or J sound thing.

Jesse and I had a fun and delicious lunch at El Torreros. On the way out, I saw this scene with two screwdrivers. I had just watched the Mitchells vs the Machines where having screwdrivers was a key part of the movie. Funny how stuff shows up.

Ordered groceries to pick up tomorrow.

The major parts of the storm may miss us this evening.

Have enjoyed playing Last of Us 2. It’s a very interesting and well written video game.

I enjoyed studying this morning.

I read this on Kevin Kelly’s Cool Tools newsletter. Pretty much everything he puts value into, I do or at least check out thoroughly.

I like the sound of this. This is the next step, convincing people to get it.

I thought this was a good test and the results seem accurate.

I also installed this on my Mac Air and ran it.

Nothing too bad was wrong. Amen. No malware. Just some programs that I don’t use that much on my laptop.

Studied. Of course.

Today was my best friend’s birthday, Anthony Jacquin! What fun we’ve had together.

Just cloudy at our house.

Checked on some packages I’m expecting.

Here are the results from the tests I took.

I’ve become fascinated with Barred Owls recently. We have a pair near our house, although my crows do not like them at all.

Jesse’s car had an issue where you couldn’t turn the key in the ignition. Did some research and it worked like a charm.

Ordered groceries.

Sometimes I have to do some research on the game I’m playing.

Today in Last of Us 2, they went on a trip to the Dinosaur Park in Wyoming for her birthday. It had been shut down for years.

I’m playing a video game called Last of Us 2. Some of the puzzles are pretty hard.

Español!

Office work. Edited the current donor list. We have supporters die from time to time. Their children rarely want to keep the tradition going.

I had a great talk with my friend Caruso in Italy. He’s always fun.

In this shot, I’m showing him my Canon camera Elph 360.

A friend of mine’s grandmother is fighting cancer. I made her a recording and today left her a voice mail.

Good talk with my Mom.

And my buddy Anthony.

Beautiful day.

I did figure this problem out.

Lovely bike ride.

Rode 5.93 miles. I’m trying to take it easy while my arm heals. Some exercise is good for injuries.

There’s a surprising amount of upper body work out in biking.

Every evening, I upload all the pictures I took with my Canon camera onto my iPhone. Then I upload everything on my phone to my Mac. Then upload to my Smugmug server. At that point, those images could be seen from any spot on the globe with internet.

Uploaded a new edition of Verbal Surgery “Off/On.”

A couple of friends of mine were talking about Sammy Davis, Jr. I liked this shot.

I remember having this system.

Interesting.

Looking forward to having my Mom in town. Sorry to hear that she’s dealing with shingles right now. Lord, heal my Mom and help her not scratch.

Estudio Español.

Love my girls!

OYB!

They had Lucky Charms cereal this morning. Cereal gamefied.

Everly came to sit with me and eventually just closed her eyes and took a nap.

Penelope came over but never took a nap.

They enjoyed making things from play dough. Mainly food stuff.

They also like these building blocks. This is a potty. Plus.

I trimmed this last week. Now I’m repotting.

Beauty.

It was great to have the girls this week. I’ll see them again on Tuesday morning bright and early!

Studied Spanish. Por que no?

Interesting what I see.

Picked up my girls!

They make some cool stuff.

Trimmed bangs today.

After I trimmed their hair, I left the clippings near the seed for the birds to use in their nests. It’s very soft and warm.

Ordered groceries. The system had trouble later in the day.

The girls helped me do the labels.

Folded and stuffed and into the mail stream.

They enjoy playing with the sprinkler in the drive way. It wasn’t very sunny so they didn’t do it very long.

I made brownies after they had lunch.

I got the confirmation, but the rest of the communication from Walmart was zero.

I helped the kids with their homework.

Checked on Walmart for my groceries. I never did get a text or email confirmation about my order. I tried calling them. Finally, I was able to get through to a human who told me that my order was indeed ready but that they had had a lot of problems with their system.

Picked up the mail. Processed the checks. Deposited into Bank of America. Amen.

Got the groceries.

Put the dried dog food I use for the raccoons into my storage trash can.

I liked this.

Love my girls!

Studied Spanish. If you want to make progress, that’s what it takes.

Everly wanted her friend’s little sister to have the trike.

Now that I know about these Nanday Parakeets that somehow have made it up from Florida, I look for them at the same super high power pole.

I told the girls that it was time for little geese “goslings” to be showing up. Then I saw the little ones with their parents today!

I always get kind of excited when I discover a poem that I want to memorize. The poem Earth Day by Jane Yolen is one of them. She wrote the poem for Earth Day.

I usually write the author a quick note just to say how much I love the piece and that I am committing it to memory.

So I went on her website and left an email for her.

As I’m learning it, it occurred to me I should record it and send her my recitation of it. Because I can tell you, I will WAIL with this piece.

OYB!

Jesse and the girls and I went to Fernbank Science Center. We had a splendid time. I ordered the tickets on line.

The girls had fun building things until it was time to leave to go see the museum. You reserved a time to visit. We chose 11:00am. You could stay as long as you wanted. It didn’t seem crowded at all.

We had a beautiful drive over to Fernbank. All the yards are so gorgeous.

I liked this polypore before we even got in the building.

So cool.

We had pizza and hotdogs with chips and an ice cream bar. We split all the food up. The girls eat better that way.

We spent a good bit of our time outside this trip.

They had a display of super high resolution bugs that was amazing.

Not quite the same.

They had some cool dinosaurs.

Fun, interactive exhibits

I’ve really been into owls lately.

I’ve always enjoyed seeing the fossils in the staircases.

We loved the outside stuff. It was still cool enough to be fun. Soon, it’ll be too hot to enjoy it.

We split a cold Coke when we got back.

Warm!

A lot of the time the internet wasn’t good in the museum. I’m sure we walked over 3.2 miles.

There was a LOT of Poison Ivy growing out there. The girls are getting better at being able to identify what the plant looks like. Here’s a good puzzle of which one is the bad one?

Picked up the newsletters at my office. Also watered my Ficus, picked up my wireless microphones and transmitter, and put some new instruments in the Golden Boxes of Jam

Got stamps for the newsletters. I was hoping to get some labels done this evening. Not going to happen.

The machine had some type of problem and was only able to print the single stamps. I got fifty single stamps rather than sheets. Took a LONG time to print.

They ran out of these.

Gassed up the car. Checked fluids.

Cleaned and refilled bird baths.

Setting up gear in preparation for doing the labels.

That’s funny.

Español!

Cool morning!

OYB!

Beautiful!

The girls have enjoyed the dolls.

Got the tube so I could fix Penelope’s bike.

So many tiny flowers. I hate to mow them. I know many species depend on them.

They really are such great friends. It’s gonna be hard on us to get along without Penelope.

Put my banana and bamboo plants outside again.

Here’s the the post trim picture of the mail box.

Took the girls to the Library Park.

She didn’t quite get the whole “it just fills up water bottles” thing.

I’ve taught them how to make a “camping cup” with their hands. I let them drink out of my hands when I filled it up here.

Produced my newsletter. I wrote it yesterday, but was too tired to lay it out.

The girls were tired, too.

Helped the kids at the mission. They had a lot of homework.

After I finished helping the kids with their homework, I turned my attention to repairing the tube in the back wheel of Penelope’s bike.

It’s interesting to me how I use cameras. Sometimes I’m in arty mode. Sometimes, I’m in archival mode. What happened? Similar to being in news mode. Sometimes, it’s to record the process. These shots helped me put it all back together after I’d installed the tube.

We stopped by my office to check on the mail.

OYB!

I put a new shaver in the rotation. Gillette Pro-Glide.

View from my front porch. I study Spanish there a lot.

And drink my kahawa.

Español!

Rode my bike 10.20 miles.

Always something beautiful to see.

Saw these on the side of the road. They are putting in a septic tank. These are for the water to go into the septic field.

Gorgeous!

Moved all the plants back outside. They stayed in for the cold snap and the hail storm.

My pink magnolia tree was beginning to cover up the mail box sign. Trimmed that.

Can’t believe I neglected to get a completed project shot.

Cleaned and refilled all the bird baths.

Swept the detritus outside.

Went to Stone Mountain to write my newsletter and record and episode of Verbal Surgery called “Mufflers and Megaphones.”

Called my Mom! Always great to get in contact with her.

Oliver Sacks was a brilliant neurologist. I’ve loved his thoughts on nature and gardens.

Kathy’s Birthday! Woot!

Studied. Can you guess?

I’m on a lesson with past tense irregular verbs. Always good to review the tricky parts.

Beautiful.

OYB! Always new insights.

We are preparing to paint Jesse’s office. She’ll use my table to put her gear on.

Watered my plants. This is what it looks like without the Canon “vivid” filter.

Great to talk to my buddy, Anthony!

Good chat with my Mom. Looking forward to her visit next month!

Squirrel taxi. I’ve transported over 160.

Rode my bike 5.86 miles. I had to cut my ride short in order to get my groceries.

Beauty.

Rained 2.25″ yesterday. That’s a lot.

Picked up groceries.

The grandgirls spent the night Friday night, so this blog post is a double edition! Twice as nice, JACK!

I’m really not sure what I would tag. I rarely lose things. You?

Hard to believe the cold snap. I strained my arm getting all my plants back inside the house. I sure wasn’t going to chance hurting them.

Continue to load my brain with Español every single day.

OYB!

The girls love their Barbie dolls, especially Everly.

On Friday, Kathy took the results of her online class to her employer. They were impressed she’d gotten it completed so rapidly.

I get stuff done, too!

While Kathy went to her orientation, the girls and I rushed over to the Dollar Tree and loaded up with gifts and party stuff for Kathy’s birthday.

I taught Penelope some cutting and wrapping skills. Not easy to figure out scissors.

I’ve realized a simple fact: Candy is a powerful motivator. I just waved a Hershey bar and suddenly Everly was amenable to having me trim her nails.

I ask them, “Do you want to earn a treat?” Then start having Penelope read words and Everly practice counting. I used to do this a long time ago, but Jesse made me feel bad about it. But I’ve seen how effective it is, and I’m all about efficiency and speed.

We took K over to El T for Mexican food.

Guess what language I ordered in?

On the way to pick up the girls Friday morning, I saw a dead opossum in the road. It filled me with great sadness because I was pretty sure it was one of the animals that visits my feeders every night. I realized it was the circle of life. It’s just the way it is.

I told the girls that soon we would see vultures and crows visit this road kill. Sure enough, on our way back from eating lunch we saw three vultures and at least five crows fighting over it.

I tried to get a video of this one crow that would yank the tail feathers of the vulture while it was trying to eat. It reminded me of watching animals in Africa.

Huge difference in the temperature in two days.

We enjoyed an ice cream treat in celebration of K’s birthday. We really don’t need an excuse to get ice cream.

Everly slept through it! After that treat, we picked up food from Always Fresh to take to K’s sister Ann, then went to Goodwill to check on a bike for Penelope. She’s outgrown her little one. No bike, but some great Barbie dolls that both the girls enjoy, including a super cool jet airplane.

I bet that plane cost every bit of $50 when it was new. I got it for $5. We all enjoy looking at the dolls.

I used to play with GI Joes. I remember our fondness for blowing them up with firecrackers. My brother and I liked the realism.

It rained almost all day long Saturday.

One Year Bible!

While we were outside, the grandgirls and I heard a Barred Owl. We always get excited by that! I got my blue tooth speaker, a megaphone and used my iPhone to play some videos of their calls. Of course, we all practice doing our best to copy the calls, too.

We sort of sounded like hoarse roosters. Everly said, “Pop Pop, you’re playing it so loud!” I told her, “What neighbor is going to think I have a speaker playing owl calls?” She couldn’t come up with an answer for that.

The rain let up and I immediately got out my bubble gear. We had fun.

Everything interests me. Not sure what kind of eggs these are, but they’re tiny. When I first saw it, I thought it was a super tiny mushroom. That’s one reason I like my Canon Elph on macro mode. It’s like a microscope.

Kathy took the girls for a walk while I cleaned the house and organized all their stuff in preparation for Ashley to pick them up. Wow. Did Kathy ever let them get dirty! No idea how I ended up being the “clean” grandparent, but I am. No way I would have let them get soaking wet and muddy, but I’m positive they had fun. And it wasn’t cold.

Ordered groceries.

I think this looks cool.

I released Verbal Surgery “You Beauty” this evening. It’s excellent!

Super powerful thunderstorms rolled through late this afternoon. Can’t believe I just had my roof done and we have a hail storm! Hopefully, there wasn’t any damage!

I left my car out of the garage so Ashley could get all the girl’s stuff in. I start hearing the hail and rushed out to get it inside.

Didn’t look like it was damaged.