I always appreciate hearing from listeners!

I thought this was a great shot of my nephew Jacob Cummins and his family.

OYB!

Español! Walked 1.45 miles while I studied.

Jessi and I went to the ENT office to have the post-op with Dr. Hoddeson the surgeon who repaired the deviated septum in J’s nose.

Dr. Hoddeson removed the splints in J’s nose.

The report was very good and Jessi is already breathing way better. The doctor said she would continue to improve over the next few weeks as well!

Listened to radio from Madrid.

The apartment complex construction across from Azalea continues.

Penelope read a book to me about narwales. We listened to whale sounds afterwards.

I contacted my dentist’s office about finishing up my implant.

Helped the kids at the mission with their homework.

Went to my office to check the mail.

Ordered more nasal solution for J to keep the surgical site clean.

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

Gassed up my car and checked the fluids.

Took the garbage can to the street. The recycling only needs to be taken out every other week. The county is very strict as to what can be recycled.

Stuffed the newsletters and put stamps on the envelopes.

We still need to enclose the tax letters before we mail them. Everything else is ready to go. Ashley and I will work on printing the letters and putting them in the envelopes and getting them into the mail on Thursday. I already have the letters in alphabetical order.

Strong competition this week. There are two people in this group that have over 1,000,000 points and nearly a hundred Top Three places. They’re hard to beat. I will very likely come in third, which is fine with me.

Finished #1 last week in the Duolingo Leagues. For years I thought that I was only competing against the Spanish students. Recently, I realized that that’s not the case, I’m competing against the best students of ALL the languages.

Tee hee.

Huh.

OYB!

Español!

Walked 1.10 miles while I studied.

Good talk with my Mom on the way into Chamblee.

Great lunch with my good friend Rob Martin. We go back a long way!

Met John Thomas today with Progressive Insurance. I’ve been with Geico for over two decades. Decided to see if I could get a better deal. Still crunching numbers.

I want to check on subscriptions to things.

Picked up, processed and deposited checks. Also picked up my newsletters while I was at my office.

Everly stepped on something sharp. She put a bandaid on it.

Helped the kids at the mission.

Listened to radio from Madrid on the way home.

Sent an email to my dentist about my implant.

I ordered paper and ink for the tax letters we need to print on Thursday. Taking some extra paper in that I had at my office.

Sent an email to Duolingo about a glitch I’m having.

Looks to be strong competition this week. Always makes me work harder.

OYB!

Español!

Went to Stone Mountain to record a couple of episodes of Anthony’s new podcast for his iLab channel. Always fun!

Walked .92 miles and studied Spanish.

Picked up my groceries.

Wrote my article for this month’s newsletter.

Cleaned my shoes.

Watered my plants.

Produced my newsletter.

Released a new episode of Verbal Surgery called “Vista View.” Excellent!

I reckon I’ll come in #1 this week.

Español!

Walked 1.41 miles as I studied.

Cold morning.

OYB!

I saw the most discrete undulatus clouds ever today. Incredible.

Ordered groceries.

Put some WD40 on the car door hinges.

Jessi got her new Mac Mini M2 in today. I helped her set it up. She needed to be careful because she had her surgery just yesterday! She’s not supposed to bend over or lift anything over ten pounds.

Went to the first New Year Lunar Festival ever at Stone Mountain this evening.

Seemed to be a big success. It was very colorful and I had a fun time. Going to one event costs $39. I got my Annual Pass for only $20 more. I think that’s a great deal. I will probably get the Grandgirls passes again this year. We made a lot of use of them last year, especially during the special events.

Walked .99 miles.

The Lunar Festival was very colorful.

Dance team from Laos.

Love the colored lights on the trees.

I have fun making swishy light patterns by moving the camera with a slow shutter speed. Beautiful! Groovy!

I begin to pull away.

My credit card with the new expiration date came in yesterday. Last night, I spent time changing the card on Amazon.

We are excited about Jessi’s new computer coming in on Saturday!

Today was Jessi’s deviated septum surgery. The doctor said it was one of the worst he’d seen. We got up around 7:00 AM. I woke up around 5:30 AM and didn’t really go back to sleep. I studied some Spanish.

Cold morning.

OYB!

We got to Eastside hospital at 8:24 AM.

After checking in and taking care of the financial and insurance information, a nurse took Jessi back to get her prepped.

K and I went to Golden Corral for lunch during Jessi’s surgery.

She did great!

We got her follow up appointment set for this coming Tuesday at 1PM.

This juvenile Sharp-Shinned Hawk was right outside my door.

After we got home, I studied Spanish and went for a 1.26 mile walk.

Went to Walgreens twice to pick up Jessi’s meds. I had to go back because there was a contraindication with two of the meds. The doctor explained what to do and we are following his orders.

Took a two hour nap after that. I was tired!

Having a strong week because of the competition.

Great to see the new computer on the way for Jessi!

Español!

Walked 1.57 miles while I studied.

OYB!

Finally got my new credit card in. My old one was getting ready to expire in just five days.

Now that I’ve got my new card, I plan on checking out if we can get a better deal with our car insurance.

It was a cold day. The wind made it bitter.

Jessi and Kathy went with me today. We had fun with the grandgirls.

Helped the kids at the mission with their homework. There was a LOT of work to do and the wind made it super cold.

I ended up with Penelope’s little twisty toy. She was sad about that.

Worked hard today. It’s been stiff competition this week. As I’ve said before, my goal is just to come in the top three and to score at least 10,000 xp a week.

Woke up to a completely flat tire, as expected.

OYB!

Español! Walked 1.58 miles while I studied.

Pumped up my tire and took it to my tire guy in Chamblee.

They had to put a patch on the tire. That piece of metal had sliced the tire like a knife, so the usual plug approach wouldn’t work. I was still in and out of that place with a repaired tire in less than twenty minutes!

Had a good talk with my Mom.

A couple of beautiful oil spots on my walk.

Finally dropped off my bag of bags to be recycled.

Went to the bank to deposit checks which I had processed at my office.

It was cold helping the kids at the mission.

Tabias came by to visit me while I was helping the kids. He is a one of my original kids at Azalea. Twenty-six years ago now!

Never too much Ashley!

Listened to radio from Madrid on the way home.

The county is looking at adding speed bumps to our neighborhood.

Beautiful sunset!

This week Jessi gave me all her savings and rare coins to help with the family finances. K and I had been talking about investing in a new computer for her to work with. Apple just released their new M2 Mac mini. It is a real powerhouse for an unbelievable $599! J and I did research on it this evening and then I let her push the button on my phone to order it!

The competition is way harder this week. I would have been 4,000 points ahead of everyone with this score last week.

It was cold last night!

OYB!

Español!

Walked 1.31 miles.

Took my carnivorous plants back outside.

My buddy Anthony had a health scare last week. All the tests came out ok! Sure was glad about that!

I enjoy seeing wildlife in our area. Sharp shinned hawk is one of my favorites.

Had a fun lunch with my buddy Jon Paul and K and J!

Did most of the labels on the newsletter envelopes and alphabetized them so we can insert the annual donation report for their taxes. I still need to buy stamps. We will finish this project next Thursday. I will write my newsletter this weekend and get it printed first of next week if all goes well!

Had a good group of kids at the mission. It was cold, but not nearly as cold as yesterday!

I finished up the homework for the day, said goodbye to my family and was turning the car around when I heard a bad sound, flat tire! Sure enough, it had gone flat while I was working with the kids. Unfortunately, my tire guy had closed just fifteen minutes earlier! Pumped the tire up and drove about half way home. Stopped to see how much pressure I’d lost, filled it back up and made it home safely. I’ll pump it back up tomorrow and follow the same procedure and take it to my tire guy to put a plug in it.

Gassed up my car and checked and added some oil.

While I got gas, I pumped up the tire for a third time then picked up my groceries. The second and third times it only took about ten minutes each because it hadn’t lost all that much air.

Got home and watered the plants in the living room and sun room areas.

It’s a big day for me! Today, I released the 1,000th episode of my podcast Verbal Surgery which began sixteen years ago! This one is entitled “The Answer.” It’s really good!

Lots of strong competition this week.

As foretold, I dominated last week.

OYB!

Español!

Walked 1.07 miles while I studied. Shorter walk because I met up with Bradley and Ben earlier than I expected.

It was cold today, especially with the wind!

I had a great time with my buddies from Birmingham, Alabama! Glad to see them again. They are from Christ Church. We had Indian food together and talked about the plans for the Spring and Summer teams.

Checked the mail at the office.

Penelope did great on her report card! No surprise there.

Ordered groceries.

Helped the kids at the mission. Man, it was really cold outside. I left at sunset.

Working on getting the tax letters ready for the donor letters going out soon. I printed up the labels and will alphabetize them. That makes it easy to find which newsletter goes with which donation letter.

I coordinated with Ashley about when everything needs to be done. We’ll have it printed on the first of February and have the letters ready to go and in the mail by February 2nd. That should be fine. I think the deadline for receiving the letter from most organizations is usually February 15th.

Cold night. I brought my carnivorous plants in.

K and J were raving about this bread they got from Walmart. I ordered some. I’ll pick up my grocery order tomorrow evening on the way home.

Leading the pack again this week.

Powerful thunderstorms rolled through last night around 4:30am. Woke me up.

Wikipedia on unexplained things.

Treating people like trees.

Preach!

Español!

Walked 1.65 miles while I studied.

Nice talk with Ashley.

I’ve been listening to Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young since David died. I was singing along with this today. I never knew all the words! The “we are billion year-old carbon” really got me.

Talked with my buddy Bob Burns in Scotland about music and life. Never too much Bob!

Interesting lichen on the way home.

I was planning on seeing the Lunar Festival at Stone Mountain, but it was closed because of weather. Figured.

Research on the coin show in Marietta.

Watered my indoor plants.

Rained 2.5″ over the last two nights.