The new normal. We have sown the wind and are now reaping the whirlwind.

Colder and windy.

OYB!

Español!

Made my annual donation to Wikipedia.

PBJs for J.

Good talk with my buddy, Anthony.

Produced my newsletter and took it to the church to get copied.

Put the dog bed in the dryer for Miles.

Glad to have J and K with me today.

Little girls.

Went to the Mission to check on the kids. They enjoyed the art project.

Folded the newsletters and put them in the envelopes.

Beautiful clouds!

Went to the Post Office to print some stamps.

Went to the bank to deposit checks.

Don’t stop. Won’t stop.

I gave a friend of mine from Baylor a coin from Marcus Aurelius. I thought this was interesting.

I had fun playing with my new Shashibo. It’s cool.

Enjoyed Forbidden West!

OYB!

I write something that happened on that day in my One Year Bible every day in the margins. Papaw was my Mom’s dad. We had a lot of mutual interests including rocks, chess, cameras, arrowheads and building. He died while I was holding his hand.

Rainy day.

Trying to get in touch with a friend of mine from when I was a kid. Hopefully, this weekend.

Went to Publix to pick up some medicine for J. It was wet.

Put some pens in my car. I always need something to write with.

Wrote my newsletter.

Adelante!

This type of weather is becoming the new normal. That’s not zesty

Came in second place last week out of thirty people.

Championship tournament now.

OYB!

Watered my indoor plants.

Going to get cooler.

Good talk with Nana. She’s always a blessing. Looking forward to her coming to be with us soon!

Went to the UPS store to drop off a package to Amazon.

Picked up Everly. We went straight to her house to check on the pup.

Deposited checks. Thank you, Father.

Everson has a laptop computer but didn’t have a charger for it. I had him bring it to the Mission, checked on the model number and ordered him one. We got it in today. He was very happy. It only cost $17.00

We brought Ryder to the mission today for the first time. He is so chill! Another family had a puppy too. It was constantly yapping and jumping up and down. Ours was the far superior dog.

The kids did art projects and I gave out gloves.

Don Cheto on the way home. I’m getting big chunks of it now.

Keep going.

I resonate with this Leonard Cohen passage.

Some of Trump’s picks for cabinet are truly bizarre.

Love this family. They’ve been going through some really hard times.

I’m trying a new app called Audio Pen for transcribing short pieces. Not sure how much I’ll use it.

OYB!

Español! I’ll probably come in #2 this week.

I washed my hat with dish soap and soaked it hot water with oxiclean overnight. Looks pretty good!

Reviewing this word.

Released a new episode of Verbal Surgery called, “Push Me, Pull You.”

I ordered a second computer charger for my friend by accident. Opened the package and included a note from Amazon in it. Packed it back up. I’ll drop it off at UPS tomorrow.

One of my favorite YouTubers is a guy named Shaun who is working on regreening part of the Texas desert near Mexico. I’ve found his journey very interesting.

Did some research on donations for this year. There are about six people who have had unusual giving patterns. A check comes every month without fail, and suddenly one month it doesn’t come. I wrote them notes today telling them which check/s I was missing. The mail here has been so bad. Three of the missing checks were from local addresses and were part of my board!

Put the address labels on the envelopes and the index cards with the note in them. I still need to put the stamps on as well as write the newsletter and have it printed. That financial research has been bugging me for weeks now. Glad to knock that job out.

Enjoyed playing Horizon Forbidden West. So beautiful.

Ordered more return envelopes.

I got a new toy called a Shashibo. It folds out in lots of cool ways.

I watched the Jake Paul vs Mike Tyson last night. They finally came on at 12:30 PM till 1:00 AM in the morning. It was overall pretty lame.

Election info.

OYB!

Español!

Heard this word today.

K and I went to FBC Doraville to celebrate their 75 anniversary. The music was pretty good. The entire service went for two hours. Most of that was people yakking about the old days. The Chandler family was about 80% of the time.

El Calvario, one of the churches on campus, gave the current pastor, Bill Kelly, a plaque thanking them for their partnership over the years.

Steady effort.

My friend Dirk Pearce who is a fellow MK, is not doing well. I called his mom Syd today and had a nice conversation. His sister Sherry gave me a contact number that I’ll try tomorrow. I let my friends Alan Duncan, Rollin and Ryan Hooper know what was going on.

Perfect weather.

I think Horizon Forbidden West is one of the most beautiful games ever.

Ordered groceries.

OYB!

Español!

Called my buddy Jon Paul. Trying to set up a time to go to eat.

Blew the driveway and deck. Hard. The leaves were wet and much heavier than normal.

Recorded a new episode of Verbal Surgery called, “Push Me, Pull You.” It’s a good one.

Gassed up my car and checked the oil.

Cleaning my life guard hat with dishing washing liquid and oxiclean. I’ll rinse it out tomorrow. Also cleaned one of my microfibre clothes.

Picked up groceries and put them away.

Good competition this week. Always makes me work harder. Pretty much guaranteed to be in the top three. That’s all I really care about.

I downloaded a word cryptography game. I have to figure out quotes. They give me blanks and a few letters with numbers to fill in. It’s pretty hard.

OYB!

Español!

Cold and drizzly. I usually call this “Europe weather.”

Got some more nail clippers for K.

Got in contact with Pastor Bill to take a look at our shower situation and see what it would take to make it a walk in rather than climbing over the edge of the tub.

Working on setting up a time with my buddy Jon Paul soon.

Worked on the Financial Report for WMI.

Stopped by my office to check on the mail and my ficus.

Picked up the girls at the bus. Didn’t do the mission today. Zero homework because of testing.

Deposited checks. Thank you, Father.

Don Cheto on the way home.

Short chat with Nana. She was expecting to be on a Zoom call so I’ll call her back later.

Won’t stop.

Every new technology disrupts the teaching process.

OYB!

Español!

My buddy Marcus had a bad fall and fractured his back and pelvic bones. Had a good talk with him. Also led him through some visualization processes and had a prayer time at the end.

It’s Ashley’s birthday! Part of her birthday present was Kathy’s old bike. It’s still in very good condition and is well better built than the new ones. That bike would probably cost around $500 now. I cleaned it up, aired up the tires and put fresh oil on the chain.

Oiling everything is so important.

The hardest part was putting the bike rack on my new car. The Honda CRV was very different from the Mercury Marquis. I had to adjust all six of the straps. I ended up using needle nose pliers to get the straps untied.

Jessi, Kathy and I picked up the grandgirls at the bus. We ate at Taco Veloz after going to Chic Fil A and McDonalds.

Ashley turned thirty-six today. That was one of my hardest birthdays. We were in France and when I hit thirty-six I immediately rounded up to forty and I felt like it was the end of my youth and entrance into middle age. I was bummed out for a couple of weeks.

Listened to Don Cheto while I was going to Dairy Queen to get the Oreo blizzard ice cream cake.

When I got back to the house, I took the bike out for a test ride to make sure everything was going well. It didn’t shift into first gear but we never need that one. It’s like for super steep hills.

We had a fun time eating ice cream cake, playing with the puppy and singing to Ashley.

I finalized the contract with Servant Life this evening. They’ll start sending teams our way. Hopefully a lot. Probably a few. I’ve already had one that came last summer. They were from Michigan and got stuck at the airport because of the computer hacking.

I got an email from Patreon about my site there. I thought I had cancelled that years ago! Tried to contact them this evening about the situation.

Push.

OYB!

Had a good conversation with Bradley Isbell about working with Servant Life as one of their ministry sites to send people. We hammered out a lot of small details.

Español!

Years ago, Miles helped me dig up a small Eleaegnus plant from a bush near his house. It’s just started flowering the last couple of years. This year the fragrance of the plant was fantastic! It’s why I wanted it in the first place. Same for Gardenias!

I filled up my gallon jugs of water today. I’m always looking for the best/fastest way to do it. Last time, I filled them up in the bathtub. This time, I brought my Gorilla Cart around and put all the jugs in them and filled them up right by my back door. It was fast, and I didn’t have to carry jugs down the stairs.

I picked up Penelope and Everly at the bus. We went to Dragon Wok to eat, then back home to see the pup and Dad.

Had some fun chats with the kids at the mission. No homework because they are taking standardized tests.

Went to my office to check the mail.

Don Cheto on the way home.

Keep going! I’ll probably make the top three this week.

Español! Came in fourth place last week.

Got my health insurance for 2025 squared away. Good input from Tim Deter about wrangling insurance for Jessi. Productive morning.

Warmer today. Back to shorts.

Watered my plants.

Time to refill all the water jugs. The rest are distilled water.

Fun chat with Anthony.

When I was in Georgetown, a deer broke a branch off of my Mom’s frangipani. I made a cutting from it and have been patiently waiting for the next step. Today, I dusted it with rooting powder and covered it with barely damp long leaf sphagnum moss. Then I wrapped the end with a plastic bag and taped it sealed. I’ll wait a couple of weeks and unwrap it and see how it looks.

Always a blessing to talk with my Mom!

Picked up Everly from the bus. We went to Taco Veloz and got food to go so we could go home and check on the pup. He seemed very happy to see us. Went to Huntley Hills Elementary to walk Ryder and pick up Penelope from Drama Club.

We walked .26 miles.

Penelope was happy to see the pup!

Ryder was fine with Everly carrying him around. Remarkably chill dog.

Beauty on our little stroll.

The kids enjoy “painting” on the Thank You envelopes.

Helped one of my kids order a charger for his laptop.

Listened to Don Cheto. Heard a word that I had forgotten.

Watered my little pink magnolia. She’s really suffered from white powder mildew. I need to be proactive next year. Start treatment early.

Sent a text to Charles Deter (my health insurance agent’s brother!) about helping Jessi with her taxes.

Also wrote Pastor Bill Kelly about getting some work done in my house. We need to check on getting a bathtub swapped out for walk in shower.