Always great to see my girls! First day to use the Mercury. She drove a lot better than the PT Cruiser for sure.

Went over to T&G to get the tag off the PT Cruiser.

Got an adaptor for my iPhone for power/audio. The Mercury doesn’t have Bluetooth connectivity.

Strong storms with a lot of rain blew through. Miles got off work and picked up Everly around 1pm. No mission today because of the weather.

Español.

Filled up the container for the bird food and swept off the outdoor carpet.

I saw a dead raccoon a couple of days ago on the side of the road near my house. Really made me sad. I was pretty sure she was one of “mine.”

Cancelled the registration for the PT Cruiser with State of Georgia.

Organized and repacked the Mercury.

I went through everything in the front compartment of the Cruiser, organized it and will put most of it in the Mercury. For being such a large car, there really isn’t much storage space inside. The trunk, however, is huge.

Dropped off the financial report to my Treasurer’s house along with some dog toys for his pup.

Took Everly to Hot and Cold. We missed going to eat there because that’s when the Cruiser died.

Gassed up the Mercury and checked the fluids.

Cleaned out all the leaves and junk that had gotten into the engine and around the door seals.

Went to Walmart to get some RainX for the windshield wiper fluid as well as some underwear for me.

The power went out at Walmart when I was there. Took a while to get checked out since the self check out was still rebooting. Walked .58 miles.

Didn’t know what this meant. Literally means Dry Hit.

Put the RainX in the fluid reservoir when I got home.

Put some white silicon on the cracked metal for the sheet rock edge. Wasn’t good planning to have that right beside the shower.

Looks better and is now water proof.

Got the paper work (on line of course!) done for the Kars 4 Kids donation of the PT Cruiser.

Talked to the tow truck guy a few minutes ago.

Always more to learn.

Preach!

Native American wisdom. I really needed to read this today.

Wow.

I’m part of “The Session.” It’s a 24 hour marathon of Hypno presentations. I look forward to doing my part!

I see this a LOT. When Penelope packed her bag to spend the night with us last Friday, she had EIGHT t-shirts in her bag along with four stuffed animals.

I’m working with our treasurer to make sure that this is delivered properly. He’s moving in with his daughter.

It’s weird how many nights I think I slept a lot better/worse than what Sleep Cycle says.

OYB!

Español.

Worked on labeling the envelopes.

Edited the donor list.

Went by the UPS store to return two items to Amazon. I had to send two different boxes. They went to two different locations.

I talked to my mechanics today about the PT Cruiser. They said that the timing belt had broken. That meant that the oil seals, water pump and timing belt all had to be replaced. It’s a big job, around nine hours! That would cost around $1,500. THEN, after all that was done, they could tell what else had gotten messed up! The pistons and valves often get ruined with this particular break down. I asked them what they would do, they just shook their heads. “It’s a long shot that it’ll work, Tim.” PLUS, the car has been consistently over heating on a daily basis. “Oh, that will still happen, Tim.” Enough is enough. I decided it was better to invest that $2,000 plus on something that wasn’t old and had nearly 200,000 miles on it. There were many things I didn’t like about that car, but overall it did the job. RIP, PT Cruiser.

Called Geico to cancel the insurance on the PT Cruiser.

The Barrington had given us their Mercury Grand Marquis that is 25 years old a couple of years ago. Jesse has been driving it. It still runs very well. I had my car guys look it over again, then took it home to give it a good cleaning. Jesse keeps the interior looking really good, The outside, not so much. Cars left outside never look great unless they’re washed regularly.

I took all the stuff out of the Cruiser and put it in the Mercury. Looking good!

Blew the roof and gutters. They weren’t too bad. With all the rain coming they needed to be working great.

It’s pretty high up on the north end of the house.

Job well done.

After the roof was blown, I went down to the driveway to clear them all off.

Blew the deck.

Cleaned off the driveway where the Mercury had been parked.

Cleaned the screen and keyboard on my Mac. Best to use a damp rag with no chemicals.

Palabras.

Made some calls about my car conking out. I’m in the asking business.

I decided to add an update to the newsletter with the news about the car. Always best to let our supporters know what’s going on. They often really come through with help! I cut these up and put them in the envelopes.

Of course I always put in the donation envelopes!

Long, hard day. But productive!

It’s amazing how relieved I am to not worry about that Cruiser over heating every day! It’s one thing to have me inconvenienced. It’s totally different when I have the grandgirls with me!

I’m still processing my experience with AAA yesterday. I gave them the lowest score possible in about six categories. The driver wasn’t bad, however.

Vincent Van Gogh is one of my favorite artists. The museum dedicated to him in Amsterdam is fantastic. His self portrait.

Ann was having problems with her car. It wouldn’t start. I went to my car, which was in the parking lot of my mechanic, to get my jumper cables. While I was there, she called and told me that she had managed to get it started. Amen.

OYB!

Español.

I did some repairs on my bathroom sink. Re-attached some of the formica and put more silicon around the cracks in the low areas.

Wrote my newsletter and produced it.

Printed the labels. I’ll put all those on the envelopes tomorrow.

I ordered more of the return envelopes from Amazon.

Released a new episode of Verbal Surgery called “Jimmy Jackpot.” Get lucky and check it out!

Gorgeous high level clouds.

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

Palabras.

Had a good chat with my Mom.

I boxed up a couple of things to send back to Amazon. I’ll drop it off at the UPS store near my house tomorrow.

I love shows like this, especially with Les Stroud. He really goes WAY out into the bush.

I enjoy seeing shots of Penelope’s class and what they’re doing. Here they’re learning about meditation.

With the meditation monkey.

I can’t believe I never knew this. A word can be feminine and take a masculine article because of the two vowels. Spanish is a deep language.

Funny.

Español!

I’m constantly impressed with clouds.

Whenever the grandgirls spend the night, the two days merge. This was Friday’s sunrise.

Picking up Everly. She was mad because she didn’t have the right helmet.

We went to another neighborhood and park in Lilburn for a bike ride. This park was too steep to ride on comfortably.

I had to carry her bike up the steps. I told her she wouldn’t like riding in this area, but three year olds have to experience it for themselves.

Ordered groceries.

Cleaned and refilled my hummingbird feeders.

Picked up Penelope and went back to the Buford Highway Farmers Market to eat a late lunch.

She rested.

I practiced ear training.

Continues to be steamy.

They ate great.

I loaded the girls up and took them by the office on the way to my house.

We went to Evergreen for a swim. It was fun.

Going up or down?

Harry.

Dropped the girls off after our swim and went to get the groceries and pizza. The clouds were absolutely fantastic.

Can you see the purple on both edges? And green around the purple on the left?

OYB!

Progress!

We all slept well last night. I worked on their hair this morning.

We went back to the park with Penelope and Kathy. P’s bike tube burst so that made her unhappy. I’ll fix it for her next week.

I love these!

After our bike ride, we decided to got to Snellville to eat lunch. My car died in the left turn lane.

That began a six hour marathon of waiting for the tow truck. That’s not zesty!

I called 911 and the police blocked traffic and helped push my car into this abandoned parking lot.

I waited for hours. The tow truck guy was by himself with another twenty cars to tow.

Palabras.

Glad I had an external battery for my phone!

They were more than an hour later than this.

We followed the tow truck back to T&G.

Pretty sucky Saturday all in all.

Cool!

Jesse had problems with the Mercury today. I looked up the solution and fixed it.

Español!

Like living in a terrarium.

I did really well on the melodic test of Perfect 4th and Perfect 5ths. I studied these two for about two weeks.

Now I’ve started working on Harmonic Intervals for Minor 6th and Major 6th.

Here are the songs that those intervals correspond with.

Sweet girls!

Beautiful sky this morning.

Had fun at the park with her.

Lots of mushrooms are blooming.

This was by far the longest that Everly has ever ridden. Very proud of her.

I’m making a collection of the lichens that I find that have fallen from the trees. I find them fascinating. I’m putting them with my other plants indoors. They are actually a symbiotic relationship of four or five plants working together. Incredibly complex!

Gassed up the car, cleaned the windshield, and checked the fluids.

Ashley was having a problem charging her computer. She’s trying one of my chargers now. I’m pretty sure that was the problem.

I opened the Salon de Pop Pop today! Brushed and braided Everly’s hair.

Trimmed toenails and fingernails.

And trimmed her bangs.

She’s still a bit sick. She had a nice nap on the way home and while we were waiting to pick up Penelope.

Yo he visto esta palabra antes.

Picked up Penelope, let her change clothes and we went to the Buford Highway Farmers Market to bath chicken nuggets and mac and cheese with white rice. Everly ate veggies.

She knows I’m vegetarian. I don’t really push her to just eat veggies, but I do push her to avoid sugar and overly processed foods. We do have treats, but not a lot.

Helped the kids with their homework. Practiced speaking Spanish with them.

Harry!

Went to my office to get the mail.

Mighty warm this afternoon.

Big mushrooms in my yard.

This is good news. Hopefully, people will continue to get vaccinated.

I’m still working on Perfect 4th and Perfect 5th intervals. I passed the harmonic interval test. Now I’m working on the melodic intervals which I think is actually easier. You learn the intervals by songs that use them.

Love my girls!

Everly asked me how many bones we have. Her guess was three. Teehee. I guessed two hundred which was pretty close.

I thought this was funny.

Nearly a full Full Sun Moon.

We left Global Mall and headed to the park.

The Pileated Woodpecker is one of my favorite birds and is the size of a crow. I heard a couple of them while Everly and I were hiking on the bike trail in Lilburn.

It’s a really cool park. We had a fun time.

Been really wet. Mushroom weather.

Beautiful little streams.

I teach Everly some basic tracking skills. Raccoon prints.

I like her to practice climbing.

Everything looks so lush and reminds me of Kenya.

My little partner.

Español.

Hot today. Staggering humidity.

Cool.

OYB!

Everly and I went to Ann’s house to help her with some errands. Today, that meant primarily getting the garage door squared away.

The dogs make a mess in the house. I had to pick up a bunch of crap and then clean off the rug they mess on.

Then over to pick Penelope up.

Everly is still kind of sick. Runny nose and coughing. She got a good nap in.

Nueva palabra.

By the afternoon it was really cooking.

The girls always love beans and rice from Taco Veloz.

Some showers blew in. I let them go past before taking out the tables to work on school assignments.

Helped the kids.

Penelope’s art.

Cool black clouds in front of white ones.

Beauty.

Released Verbal Surgery “Stand Back.” So good.

Español! I got behind today because of the safari to the zoo. Had to push hard to catch up.

Beautiful full sun moon!

Love my girls!

We have a Zoo membership and it’s fun to spontaneously go see the animals!

We had a great walk and a fun time.

We got pizza on the way home. Then took a nap before getting Penelope.

She had a stuffy nose and was coughing today. We didn’t stay at the Zoo that long. Didn’t want to push her too hard.

She fell back asleep in the car.

Penelope had fun with the little car I bought her.

And loved the chocolate ice cream. We are both messy eaters.

Helped the kids with their homework.

Beautiful clouds.

Harry!

Deposited checks.

Took the trash and recycling to the street.

Want to live longer? The research says do these things! From Eric Barker’s newsletter.

This is not zesty.

I feel like this many times.

She looks tired.

Preach.

So true.

My lawnmower was running super rough. First thing to try is a new spark plug. We’ll see what happens.

OYB!

Español!

My neighbor is making an igloo from gallon jugs. I took my distilled water containers to her house and dropped them off.

Till practicing ear training. It’s hard, but I’m getting better.

Hot today.

Went to Stone Mountain to record an episode of Verbal Surgery. I actually redid an edition from yesterday that I wasn’t satisfied with.

One of my goals for today was to help Ann, Kathy’s sister.

Palabras!

I love my banana plants.

I went into Walmart today to pick up some supplies. Normally, I do everything curbside. I liked this sign.

Got more plates.

Harry, cada dia.

Went to the bank to deposit checks.

Had to get the serial and model numbers off my lawnmower to get the spark plug I needed.

I went to Ann’s house to help her with a number of things. Started off by making PDFs of documents. Had to figure out the software of the printer. Wasn’t too hard. She needs the email address which she should be able to type in and just hit sent.

She’s still recovering from knee surgery. I took out all her garbage and recycle and put it at the street. It was heavy.

Found some folders so she can do some organizing of her files.

Her upstairs and downstairs TVs were having issues. Fixed both. Not a big deal for me, but for most people it would’ve been pretty hard to figure out. Problems with clickers, wiring and inputs.

I enjoyed the Brain Pickings newsletter this morning on Albert Schweitzer and Bach.

Cool drawing.

My buddy Anthony is going to Cornwall with his family. I was surprised by how similar the beach he is going to is to Tybee Island.

OYB!

Little over 1.0″ of rain yesterday.

My San Pedro cactus is starting a new growing tip nearer the light.

Español!

With the rain comes mushroom fruiting bodies.

Gassed up my car and checked fluids.

Made calls to my Mom, Anthony and Amit.

I went to Lenox Mall in Buckhead to get the money back from the hat I ordered on line which was too big. I was hoping to exchange for one that fits. They were all out. Drove through heavy weather. One idiot nearly side swiped me. Honked and he missed me by inches. Wow.

The place was PACKED! Huge difference from Northlake Mall that Everly and I visited last week.

This sign kind of weirded me out.

Harry!

Watered my plants.

Uploaded my recording of Verbal Surgery from this morning to my MacBook Air.

Picked up groceries.

I find this fascinating.

These are Penelope’s sight words for the week.

Anthony invited me to participate with this. I live to hear myself talk.

Español!

OYB!

Palabras!

I’ll work on this some more this evening.

Cool and rainy. I made the right choice to start with working at the mission.

Went by my office to check the mail.

Loved this art by Penelope.

Spent about 20 minutes brushing and braiding Penelope’s hair. I try to do it as soon as I see a problem so it never takes too long. Ashley does a good job keeping it straight, but she worked this morning.

So sweet.

GREAT to have my team from N. Gwinnett Church here today!

Pho 24 for lunch.

Also visited Asian Square and China Town.

Want to eat this?

Harry!

Released a new episode of Verbal Surgery called, “Whatever It Takes.” My overwhelming humility keeps me from going on and on about how good it is.

Worked on getting the refund for my hat going. I plan on taking it to Lenox Square mall to get a replacement or get my money back.

It won’t take long to get to the mall.

Edited the video I shot of the team and uploaded all the pictures I shot. Then sent the “Thank You” email with all the links to the team leader. That means the team is completed in my mind.

Ordered groceries.