As expected, I came in third. As I’ve mentioned before, Duolingo only counts how many times you’ve been in the top three. There’s not much motivation to push myself that hard.

This is one of my goals for my Guatemala trip. Climbing this will be quite an adventure. If the weather isn’t good, I doubt I’ll even try.

I bought my tickets today! Woot. September 29 – October 12. About five months to prepare. It will be very physical. Backpack trip.

OYB!

Español!

This is weird to me.

Walked 1.44 miles.

A little chilly this morning.

Does this hold any sway any more?

Good chat with my Mom. Always a blessing.

Checked the mail at my office.

Had a fun lunch with my buddy Rob Martin. We’ve worked together for years.

Deposited checks. Amen. One of the checks had a problem, the ATM couldn’t read her handwriting. I tried the other ATM. It gave me the option to put the amount of the check and then it was fine.

I have a bag of clothes in my car. I call it the Summer Store. I went through everything with the girls to make sure it’d still fit. Hot weather’s a coming.

Penelope was hungry for Vietnamese food.

As I was driving with Rob after lunch, I spotted this gigantic gorilla in the back yard of a shop. I was stunned. The owner told me it’d been there over three years. He rents props for movies.

Mr. Biggar let us take a quick look through his place.

I recorded an episode of Verbal Surgery yesterday called, “Pocket Change.” So good. I downloaded it onto my Mac this evening.

Stay close. It’s actually the lady in 4th place that will probably win. She’s the high scorer from last week. We usually make about the same amount of points every week. Rarely way more.

I did a podcast about change this morning and read up on change in our bodies.

Spanish podcast.

OYB!

Beautiful day.

I had a good chat with my buddy Anthony. He’s always good for a laugh.

Español!

I walked 2.02 miles around the Stone Mountain Inn area.

You can sure tell the new sprigs!

Preach!

I washed off all the siding in the garage and front porch. Lots of pollen on it.

And the pavement.

Rinsed off K’s car.

I blew the pavement as well.

That was a big project.

Vacuumed the house thoroughly. I repaired the power cable going into my vacuum cleaner. Covered the split with electrical tape.

A much harder job was cleaning the carpet. There were a lot of stains. We are clumsy oafs.

The hardest part is the deep scrub. I mix up Oxyclean and hot water, pour it onto the carpet and then scrub it in with my stiff broom.

I listened to some podcasts while I was working on the carpet. I didn’t like this very much.

Takes less than 2 hours to do the actual carpet machine.

It’s hard for me to believe just how much dirt comes out of that carpet. It’s like pure mud.

After I finished the job, I clean all the pieces carefully.

Drying out the carpet.

I ordered a new sheet for my bed. I need to clean the comforter.

To my shock I noticed a crack in my glass protector for my iPhone 11 Pro Max. Replaced it this evening.

I did a great job putting on the new one.

OYB!

Español!

Walked 1.60 miles.

Gorgeous weather.

Spanish podcast.

Very windy today. There’s a burn advisory. While on my bike ride I had to tell a man to put out his fire.

Biked 5.96 miles.

Picked up my groceries.

There are probably 200 bags here. Took them to recycling, but people (stupid!) had thrown trash in there. My guess is everything is just dumped.

Released Verbal Surgery -1013- “That Much Work.” Excellent.

Started roughing out the details of my trip to Guatemala in October. A lot of people depend on me. Not sure how smoothly this is going to go. I think that Ashley, our neighbor at Azalea would be able to watch the girls.

Recorded “Vision Collision” this afternoon.

I figured I’d come in #3. I don’t expect anyone to beat me out of that spot.

Kathy loves this show.

Sorry to hear about this.

One of my favorites to listen to in Spanish. Always looking up words.

Went to the UPS store to take back an air pump.

OYB!

Español.

Walked 1.29 miles.

Took the rest of the plants outside. Put on the nozzle for the hose. Watered them all.

I listen to several podcasts.

Recorded a new podcast called, “That Much Work.”

Cleaned out an organized my trunk. Took out all the winter clothes. Put in the summer gear and pool stuff.

Cleaned my bike with a rag with WD40 on it. Pumped up my tires to 60 psi.

Went to Moes. Pretty good. Healthy.

Perfect weather for biking. I went 7.87 miles.

I’m enjoying the beauty of Far Cry 6.

Don’t stop.

I got a bad stain on one of my short pants. I scrubbed it but it still looks bad. They turned into work pants now. Went ahead and ordered a couple more pairs.

I’m enjoying playing Far Cry 6. One of the most beautiful games ever.

I’m looking into possible reasons that my phone dims when in bright light. The biggest user of battery power is when I’m doing Duolingo at top speed. I’m usually doing exercises in the bright light. Maybe it’s a combo of reasons.

OYB!

Español!

Kathy, Jessi and I went to Roswell this morning. We had an appointment with the audiologist about J getting a hearing aid. Very informative.

I saw this on a truck.

Walked 1.24 miles.

I liked this tree bark.

My good buddy Matt Johns came by to see me this afternoon. Always a blessing!

Never too many bubbles.

Good to have the family together.

Checked the mail.

Push.

I was a Netflix early adopter. I haven’t had DVDs in years. I don’t buy games on discs any more either.

Glad my old phone got there safely. Sadly, I’d say my new phone has similar issues. I’m beginning to think it’s a feature imbedded in the iPhone. Perhaps power saving.
My old phone got REALLY dark. This one just gets dimmer when I’m in bright light.

OYB!

Went for a 2.01 mile walk. Gorgeous flowers!

There are some significant hills in my neighborhood. I live on one of the steepest. This one may be even bigger than mine.

Edited the video I shot on Monday. Sent their youth director an email with the photo gallery and YouTube links.

It finally got warm enough for me to take my plants back outside. It’s a big process. I have to use the dolly. Many of the plants are very heavy.

Blew the deck and took the inside plants back out.

Cut all the insulation away from the western exterior faucet. I have a proper one for it this winter. Unfortunately, the nozzle was messed up. Ordered two new ones. My other hose nozzle doesn’t have the “soak” setting. I really miss that for watering plants.

Cleaned and refilled the hummingbird feeders. I’ve only seen one male for sure. It’s still pretty early.

This is a news program in Spanish. I’m getting more and more words every day.

I repaired the handle for the table I use for the after school program. Fortunately, I fixed it before it completely tore in two.

I took the grandgirls to Taco Veloz. Everly saw this little beetle by the window. I thought it was cool.

Deposited checks. Amen.

Helped the first and second graders with their homework. All the rest of my kids have the Milestone test for a couple of weeks and don’t get any homework. Fun to have Ashley around.

Every day, the El Faro podcast has a different word. It’ll be the theme of the show. Today’s was Cuenca.

Got gas and checked the levels in my car.

I like having the plants back outside. They’re great indoors, too! It’s just so dark for them inside.

Swept my carpet outside.

Moved into third place. The week is still young.

One of my favorite Spanish exercises is reading sentences out loud.

OYB!

Español!

Walked 1.44 miles.

I put all my equipment back in my storage room. I had pretty much done everything yesterday, but I still had the rug taped to the floor along with a couple of power cords. Put all that up and made sure that all the chairs and tables were in order.

Leave no trace.

Checked the mail.

Poison Ivy is a real problem. It certainly has torn me up! I texted the manager at Azalea about

I brought tables and chairs back in from the front porch.

Keeps going up.

Something was going on. Weird parking to make sure he can’t get away.

Took the grandgirls to Keswick (we call it “Goblin”) park.

Poison Ivy is exploding everywhere.

It’s fun to have fun. I like them to do athletic things.

The First Graders were the only ones who had homework. That includes Penelope!

Keep pushing. I expect to get third place this week if all goes well. The top two are very tough.

Cool.

The team was a complete surprise to me last night. I didn’t think they’d confirmed.

Today was good training to see how long it takes to set up for The Show. Took about 1.5 hours from leaving my house to having everything set up at FBC Doraville. This was the “light” version since I didn’t put up the curtains and I showed the slides on the wall. Someone had taken down the two loops of wire I had in the ceiling for hanging my screen. Replaced them.

OYB!

Paid a bill.

While I was setting up for The Show, I was pumping up the big globe and the little compressor burned out. Bahd luck. Ordered a new one immediately.

The team drove up from Pike County. Over 1.5 hour drive.

Donated to Wikimedia.

I enjoyed working with this team from Cottage Hill BC, Mobile AL.

After eating lunch and going on Safari at the Buford Highway Farmers Market, we went to Azalea to have a fiesta with the kids.

Picked up the grandgirls and got them something to eat.

Everyone had fun.

They seemed to pay attention pretty well.

I’ve made a lot of the top three. Lots of good students last week. This week looks similar.

Here are the top twenty people that I’ve competed against.

I rested today.

I thought this was cute.

OYB!

Español!

Cloudy and damp.

Walked 1.42 miles.

Ordered more handkerchiefs.

Tiny beauty.

Listening to podcasts from Spain. As I get better, understanding becomes more fun.

Lots of hard competition.

Glad I got this figured out.

Perfect weather.

OYB!

My Mom fell yesterday. I gave her a call this morning and we had a nice chat.

Swept the kitchen.

I looked through my stuff and found my orange maracas. It has a terrific sound. I’ve had it since the very start of my ministry here in the ATL.

I got to the church early so I could study Español.

I am going to use my iPhone to stream internet through my projector.

I got my big globe out this morning. Still leaking a little air.

Prayer and eating schedule for Ramadan.

Had a fun group from Christ Church today.

Masala for lunch.

We went by the mosque in Clarkston but didn’t get out. Most of us were wearing short pants and that’s just not cool over there. Especially during their holiest week.

Then to Azalea.

Listened to radio from Spain.

Edited the video I shot.

Posted all the pictures.

Wrote a letter to Ben with links to the gallery and video. I mark the team complete when that email goes out.