One of my favorite places on Earth. This saddens me.

Progress!

OYB!

Español!

This morning as I was studying Spanish, I watched a Sharp Shinned Hawk carry a dead squirrel to the tree across from me. Seconds later, two vultures sat in the tree nearby, my guess was hoping it would drop the squirrel. It didn’t.

Miles came over with the girls this morning to go out do eat at Hot and Cold and then a trip to the Yellow River Wildlife Sanctuary. Fun!

While I was there I saw my friend Beth Gomes who is one of the Whirlwind Missions board members. We had a good chat.

Just keep going! I didn’t make my normal progress. Spent quality time with the family which always is a priority!

Watched the first episode of The Last of Us, one of my favorite video games ever and a super powerful show. Wow!

My credit card expires at the end of the month. Called my credit union to find out when my new car will arrive. They assure me it will be soon.

Deposited a check to my personal account (I use the app for that) and checked on balances.

Processed checks and got them ready to deposit to the ministry account. I take paper checks and run them through the bank ATM.

New words.

Checked on weather for tomorrow.

OYB!

Perfect weather.

Español!

Walked 1.87 miles while I studied.

Checked on my carnivorous plants outside.

Listened to radio from Spain.

Recorded a new episode of Verbal Surgery called “100%.”

Ate lunch at the German Bakery.

Filled up my tap water gallon jugs.

Cleaned all the bird baths and refilled with water and filled seed feeders.

Released a new episode of Verbal Surgery called “Simple Thimbles.”

It still amazes me how this identical score could put me in third place last week when I totally dominate this week.

I haven’t been feeling super great. Tired a lot. Sleeping more.

OYB!

Started out drizzly, turned out beautiful!

Jessi has her surgery on the 27th. This morning I made phone calls to her ENT doctor’s office scheduler as well as the Eastside Hospital to get all the pre-op work done. Everything looks green for go!

I got a letter from one of our faithful supporters this week. Gave him a call because he’d been in the hospital several times recently.

Español and 1.10 mile walk.

Listened to radio from Madrid.

I saw some very rare cloud formations this morning. They’re called Kelvin-Helmholtz clouds. They look like waves. I’ve only seen them twice in my whole life.

I liked the shadows on these boards.

Grandgirls had fun climbing a tree.

I bought pizza for the girls. Got an extra one to share with the mission kids.

Interesting shot of the sun.

The same time last week I had this same score and was in third place. This week I dominate. One would think I would coast with a lead this big. That’s not the way I operate. Nor do I push myself extra hard when I’m behind.

OYB!

Had a good chat with my buddy Anthony.

Español!

Took J to her laser appointment.

I was supposed to have a lunch meeting with my friend Phil Kitchin. He had a family obligation come up. We changed it to next week.

Cloudy and turned rainy this evening.

I had a good chat with my buddy Matt Johns. We used to work together a lot. He’s been doing ministry in Arizona the last seven years. He got some random email from a collection agency trying to scam us for money.

Always good to see my girls!

Helped the kids at the mission. I put up the table underneath the porch area of the mission.

Listened to radio from Madrid while I drove home in the rain. Tired me out. Stressful.

Dominating this week.

I enjoyed watching Star Wars VII last night. The Force Awakens is really good.

I found out that there’s an interesting exhibition about Star Wars really near to the mission. I’ll probably go there soon.

Fun talk with my Mom this morning! Happy Birthday, Nana!

OYB!

Cloudy and rainy. No walk today.

Español!

Had a great meeting with my buddy Todd Harrison and a couple of friends of his that are working in Egypt.

Black toilet?!

Listened to radio from Spain on the way to Chamblee and back home.

I enjoyed being with the grandgirls and helping the kids with their homework.

The apartments across the street from Azalea continue to rise. I liked this obelisk section which I assume will be for a stairway.

Picked up checks from my office, processed and deposited them.

Cleaned and refilled all my feeders when I got home this evening.

This is one of those weeks when I doubt I have any real competition for #1.

I always enjoy Eric Barker’s newsletter.

MLK Day in MLK’s city!

Doing better this year.

Did well last week.

Walked 2.54 miles while I studied.

I taped the rug in our kitchen so it doesn’t slide around.

Lots of tree work going on in our area. Trees are being blown over at an alarming rate. Most of this was proactive, however.

Listened to radio from Spain.

Went to Walmart to pick up some candles for J and some Valentines candy for K.

I don’t see much competition this week. Usually it’s the people that score a lot of points every week that work hard that week. It’s unusual for someone who normally scores under 1,000 points to suddenly do 10,000 points worth of work. Although I have seen it happen.

I’ve started watching the last three movies in the Star Wars canon again. I’m shocked at how little I remember of the movies.

Learning how to use AI can be a lot of fun! And a great way to find out new things.

The power of music!

Cold morning.

OYB!

Español! Walked 1.84 miles as I studied.

Ordered groceries.

Fun talk with my buddy, Anthony.

K and I are trying to find new places to eat. First World problem.

Listened to radio from Spain.

Helping K find some cream for her dry hands.

Picked up groceries. Also got some Japanese food and filled up my car.

Kevin Kelly (one of my heroes!) wrote a terrific article on AI art this month in Wired.

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

Released an episode of Verbal Surgery called “Just Right” Another winner!

Came in second place in the Duolingo Diamond League Finals this week. Great competition.

Super cold this morning with the wind chill! Yow! Surprisingly, it was colder this morning than it was late last night. Just depends when the cold front blows through.

Always learning new words.

Progress!

OYB!

Español!

I recorded my 1,000 episode of Verbal Surgery today called, “The Answer.”

I calculated that if you listened to one after another straight you would be listening for over three weeks without stopping! What?!

The neighbor’s tree fell and hit his house and deck. Today I saw that it also hit his car. Ouch.

Listened to radio from Spain.

I had heard this word but never was exactly sure what it meant.

I’ve done well this week but doubt I’ll beat the #1 guy. I just like to come in the top 3.

Crazy weather!

In the winter it’s typical for me to do a whole lot of nothing physically. Glad I’ve been walking instead!

I’ve really been enjoying Star Wars Rebels as well as Bad Batch. They are both the brain children of Dave Filoni. What a great writer!

OYB!

Español!

This is the third time in two days I’ve gotten this message. An hour ago, I decided just to do the regular 15 minutes and it worked fine.

Cold weather blowing in.

I bring my carnivorous plants in when it gets below freezing.

Walked 1.10 miles. Forgot to hit start. Oops. The wind was really cold.

Had a good talk with my brother Jim. I’m hoping to do that more regularly in the future.

I went to Marietta to visit my friend Lester in the hospital. He had a stroke. I stopped in to Sabor do Brazil for lunch before going to see him.

I always take pictures of where I park to make sure I can find my car.

Lester seemed to be doing way better than expected. Thank you, Father!

Listened to radio from Spain on the way home.

It was a pretty long trip.

More study when I got home.

Sad news this week of the death of one of my favorite guitarists ever, Jeff Beck. I got to see him play twice. Both times he was great! Loss to humanity.

I’m afraid we’re going to get a lot more of this “super-rare” weather.

One of my favorite Japanese words.

Stamets is a hero of mine.

Always learning. I was pretty sure I knew this one.

OYB!

Español!

I got this message twice today. Cost me over 2,000 points. In the grand scheme of things it’s meaningless, but it still irritated me.

If you’ve been following my blog, you may remember that I took pictures of this leaning tree that looked like it was ready to fall. Well it did. Barely hit this house, lucky for them.

Mild today. Very powerful thunderstorms blew through later.

Walked 1.81 miles while I was studying.

Listened to Spanish radio.

Repaired the collar of one of my shirts.

I haven’t been taking vitamins for the last several months. After reading an article, I decided to make more of an effort to make sure I’m getting what I need.

This happened to me twice. Not zesty.

This is what the full blown storm looked like as it passed over Atlanta. Wow!

It left the whole sky a weird fire color. Incredible!

The whole sky was awash with color. Fabulous.

Just keep going. I should have been way ahead of the other folks. Oh, well.