I helped Kathy with her classwork last night. Got it all done!

Studied hard this morning.

My eyes are better today thanks to the antibiotic drops!

I did some research on the medicine I’m using. I’m going to see an eye doctor on Friday. Amen. He’s interested in doing mission work so it’s a real win-win!

OYB!

Did some work on my calendar.

Español!

This type of mushroom was blooming all over my yard.

Walked 2.36 miles this morning. Still not feeling great so I tried not to overdo it.

Thirteen hills.

Taking this to filter my drinking water when I’m in Guatemala.

Jessi came with me to help with the kids.

The girls showed me some of their gymnastic moves. They’d fall over and laugh and laugh.

Helped the kids with their homework. Big crowd.

I had a good FaceTime this evening with a group of 1-5th grade boys from Devine, Texas this evening. I told them about our work in the ATL with the international population.

My sister-in-law Ann asked me about Property Tax Homestead Exemptions. Turned out I had put them all in place when I first got my martgage. I showed her how to do the same.

Just keep going.

Heard from one of my church partners about bringing teams this Fall. Amen to that!

Kathy and I have to work on another of her trainings.

It’s less than three weeks away from my trip to Guatemala! Looking forward to that. Lake Atitilan where I’ll be staying most of my trip is at 5,200 ft! Quite a bit higher than the ATL. Being at that altitude should help me prepare for climbing the Acatenango volcano which tops out at over 13,000 ft!

I woke up a lot last night. My eyes were bothering me. I had a lot of mucus in them and they were itchy. Could be caused my this head cold I’ve had. Ashley gave me some meds that Penelope took when she had a similar condition. If it’s not better in a couple of days, I’ll make a doctor appointment to have it looked it.

OYB!

I didn’t study very much and it’s the first day in over six weeks that I didn’t exercise. We had to be at Everly’s school before 10:00AM and as I mentioned before I didn’t sleep well last night.

Tightened up the screws on the front door handle.

Got to the school right on time.

We lucked out and got to spend time with Penelope at the Book Fair. Groovy!

Met up with Everly for lunch. Great to see Miles’ folks too!

Dropped by to see Everly’s class room.

Everly will be going to this field trip soon. She’s very excited about it.

Big rain storm barely missed us at the mission.

Helped the kids at the mission. I’m working with six 2nd graders, plus the middle school and other elementary kids.

I’ve been in touch with David Cooke who is the leader of a missions group in Texas. If all goes well, I’ll have a FaceTime with him tomorrow and the kids.

Trash day tomorrow.

Released a new episode of Verbal Surgery called, “Wild Animal.” GRRRReat!

Even with my eye problem I made a good effort.

Came in top three.

Keep moving forward!

Ordered groceries. First week to use my own bags for curbside pickup.

OYB!

Español!

Hot and sweaty.

Walked 4.72 miles.

I was soaked with sweat.

Twenty-six hills. My record is twenty-nine.

After I work out, I lay all my clothes out to completely dry before I put them in the basket. I drink a lot of water while I’m walking as well as taking an electrolyte chewable tablet. Keeps me going.

Listened to Don Cheto on the way into Chamblee.

Heard from Noah. He helps me on Thursdays. At least he has a couple of times. Honestly, I’m always surprised when anyone shows up.

Went to my office to check the mail and process checks.

Picked up the girls at the bus and took them to Cici’s pizza. It was good. The girls had fun.

Amazon delivered our new camping chairs. I got them to support Penelope while she’s playing soccer.

Everly had a gift for Natalia. She didn’t get to go to her party.

Deposited checks. Thank you, Jesus.

Helped the kids with their homework.

Some just come to play.

While I was putting up the table I noticed this on the ground. Tire killers.

Talked to my Mom while I was driving home.

Picked up my groceries from Walmart. I still have to go inside to get bananas because the stupid app is messed up.

I checked the “recycle” bin to see what was in it. It’s the main reason I started using my own bags again.

Most people just throw their trash in it.

Always enjoy hearing from fans of my podcast.

It’s interesting how after one day I can usually tell how the top three will turn out. It’s all about seeing what they’ve done in the past. Wraith’s language that he’s studying is Arabic! Wow.

I like that the character is hiking in the mountains this month. If all goes well, I should be completing that challenge as well!

My Mom met with a youth director recently. His church is studying Atlanta in their missions time. I’ll probably get a FaceTime going with them soon.

OYB!

Deposited some money into my bank account.

Español!

Walked 3.96 miles.

Walked my hill 21 times.

Lovely weather, but sweaty.

Ate Chinese food with K. Rested.

Prepped my bike.

Listened to music and Don Cheto.

Just keep going. Sigue adelante!

15.40 miles. Any time I go faster than 9.00 mph, I feel like I’m doing great. My ride is tough. I seek out the hardest hills. Climbed over 1,000 ft.

Beautiful clouds this evening.

Ordered some meds for J.

I’ll come in #3 this week. My score would’ve earned me #1 most weeks, just depends on who I’m competing with. Richard scored a giant amount. One of the highest single weeks I’ve seen.

Kathy has a friend of hers doing medical missions in Guatemala. She said that there’s a slight risk of Dengue fever. Not zesty. Very unlikely I’d get it. Still I looked it up.

Solid week of lessons.

OYB!

Español!

Walked 1.45 miles while I studied. Didn’t go all that far today, because I was looking forward to getting a good bike ride in.

Eight hills.

Biked 15.44 miles.

Listened to Don Cheto and to music while I rode.

Enjoyed playing Horizon Forbidden West.

And watching The Rookie.

I’m so far ahead and behind of the next person it’s hard to be really motivated.

Penelope is on a soccer team. Her first game is soon. I figured it was a good idea to get a couple of decent camping chairs to watch her. No way I’m going to stand up that whole time.

OYB!

Watered my plants.

Worked on Spanish.

Walked 3.87 miles.

Walked up my hill twenty-one times.

Ordered more vitamins.

Called Tim Deter to get signed up for insurance for my trip. It mainly covers any kind of medical issue.

Beautiful weather. Lower humidity really helps.

Listened to Don Cheto.

Watered my banana plants. They are doing great!

I chatted with Anthony a lot yesterday about his course. I was glad to see he integrated what I told him to do, mainly to focus on building the business rather than just learning how to teach.

Rode my bike 11.60 miles this evening. Cut my ride short because it was getting too dark. I did all the hardest parts.

Scary. I’d better be on the watch out. It’s one reason why I keep my yard fully trimmed. Snakes don’t like feeling exposed.

I do Guatemala research all the time.

Had a discussion with my buddy Anthony about his new training program. I look at everything before it’s released. I give him ideas about things he should consider.

OYB!

Español!

Climbed my hill fifteen times.

Walked 2.60 miles.

Talked to Tim Deter about my Medicare coverage and about the travel insurance to Guatemala. I gave him the go ahead, we’ll square it away tomorrow.

After our talk, I set up an account on Medicare.gov and paid the premium and made it to debit every month rather than once a quarter.

I was low on ink for my printer. I’m using refurbished/refilled HP printer cartridges from ValueToner. The B/W ink I got earlier this week worked just fine, so I got the color cartridges this time.

They will probably last years. I don’t print very much stuff, but I need it when I need it!

Called my bike guys to see if my new tires were in yet. They weren’t. I wasn’t surprised. Holiday weekend and all.

I called T&G about getting a copy of all the records for K’s Expedition and my Mercury. I’d like to have all that info for our new mechanics. He said that they’d get all the documents together and then give me a call. I’ll just take pictures of every receipt and what they did and keep them in a file on my computer.

Listened to Don Cheto.

Had a nice chat with my Mom.

I ate at Pho 24 for lunch. I had zero bars on my phone. Wow. Didn’t see that coming! So I read segments from Kevin Kelly’s new book of advice. Just down the hill the reception was perfect.

Graffiti at the Vietnamese place.

Hot today.

Helped the kids at the mission. They are doing research on the planets of our solar system.

After the homework was done, I helped air up the tires of several bikes. I explained to them what happens when they skid the tires: it completely wears the rubber off over time. They ruined Everly’s bike like that. I actually put her old bike in the dumpster today. Once the tires are gone and the chain doesn’t work well, it’s not worth fixing. She came down to the dumpster and said good bye to her steed. We had a lot of fun on that bike together.

Always learning new words and slang. Morra and Perro today.

Recorded an episode of Verbal Surgery called “Wild Animal.” Supa coo.

Hardly surprising.

The Rookie starring Nathan Fillion is currently my favorite show. He starred in Firefly which is one of my best shows ever, as well as Castle another all time special for me. He is known for bringing cameos with people from Firefly into his new shows. I watched one last night that included the pilot of the spacecraft in his first big show. It was great to see them working together again!

OYB!

Fun chat with my buddy Anthony today.

Worked out super hard last month. Especially considering the heat!

Checked on my car at T&G this morning. Turned out to only be a loose spark plug wire! Amen. I got some sad news today from the owner of the shop. He’s decided to end the business and leave for rural Georgia. He got tired of all the stress of being the boss. Don’t blame him. Being in charge isn’t for everyone, that’s for sure. Jason has been a good friend and has kept all our old cars going for about twenty years!

Climbed my hill seven times, then got the word that my car was ready. Since I was already sweaty, I decided to walk over to T&G and get my car.

Studied Spanish while I walked. 2.99 miles in all. Didn’t like walking with cars zooming by. Yuck.

Weird looking paper towel on the side of the road.

Jason will be missed. He showed me how to check my transmission fluid before I left. Assured me that I had many years of faithful service with the Mercury left and that he was leaving her in good shape. Amen.

Gassed up my car and checked the fluids. I know how to add transmission fluid when I need it now. He said it hadn’t gone down any since when he had refilled it a few weeks ago.

Called Tim about my health insurance and also travel insurance. We will talk tomorrow I hope.

Listened to Don Cheto while I was driving. Some days I really understand a lot of it. Other days, not so much. Today was a good one.

Hot today.

The apartments across the street are still changing.

Picked up the girls at the bus and took them to the Buford Highway Farmers Market for chicken, mac and cheese and rice. They ate great!

Helped the kids with their homework. I had five second graders today, plus all the middle schoolers. A couple hardly speak any English. It’s why I’m working on Español so hard. I can pretty much understand and explain everything to them in their own language.

Went to my office to check the mail.

Just keep going.

OYB!

Español!

Walked 2.72 miles.

Fifteen hills.

Went in to T&G to talk to Jason about my car. It’s started running rough again.

Ate lunch at LT then went to the Dollar Tree to get poster board for the kid’s projects.

Gave a donation to Wikipedia. I think it’s a great project to support: the world’s encyclopedia.

Left an email with Tim Deter about insurance for my trip to Guatemala. He says it’ll be around $100 or so. We’ll see. Probably a good idea to have that, although it’s something new for me.

Went by the office to check the mail. A couple of checks in there.

Had a good talk with my Mom today. We are looking at dates for her to come visit us in December. Amen. The girls have two weeks off.

Great to see my girls again!

Got some pizza for the kids.

Listened to Don Cheto on the way home.

Water issues in our neighborhood.

Dropped my car off at T&G this evening after getting back from the mission. Kathy picked me up. They should be able to look at it first thing tomorrow morning. Hopefully, it’ll be done in time to go to the mission.

The chip in my card malfunctioned only about three months. That was weird to me. Got a brand new on in from Bank of America this evening. All activated and ready to go.

Incredible competition this week. Wow.

Came in #1 last week. This week I have two people that are super good students. I’ll come in the top three pretty sure.

OYB!

Warmer today, but still beautiful.

Be prepared.

Español. This was something I wrote.

Preparing for the Guatemala trip means that I needed to make sure that K and J can get their groceries.

We have so many spiders these days. Started about two years ago.

Walked 5.10 miles. That’s a record for me.

Twenty-nine times up and down my hill.

Warmed up by the time I finished.

Cleaned and refilled my hummingbird feeders.

Swept my outdoor carpet.

Cleaned and straightened St. Francis.

I have held off feeding my birds for about two months because I was so pissed off about the stupid squirrels. But as Fall is coming, I decided to refill them. I’m curious as to how long it takes the birds to come back. I read an Audubon article about what a hard time birds are having with the climate crisis.

Cleaned the water bowls/baths.

I repotted my Frangi Pani. She has really been neglected. She needed a bigger pot and fresh soil. Hopefully, she’ll be happy. She’s another plant that reminds me of home. That and bananas in particular.

Vacuumed the house. Since I’ve stopped mowing and using only the weed whacker, this is the hardest job on my back.

I always clean it out completely after I use it.

Cleaned the glass door. Smudges bother me.

I’ve enjoyed playing Horizon Forbidden West again. It’s such a beautiful game.

Listened to Hot Chip while I rode my bike. Electronic music always keeps me going. Super up tempo stuff.

I had a shorter bike ride today because it started getting dark. Still nice and warm.

I saw this dead armadillo on my ride. Interesting to think that they’re in the area.

Wow. Usually, if I put that many points on the board I’m creaming everyone. Not this week!