Walmart gets a facelift.

Walk like a penguin on ice.

My Mom made a sketch of where the safety bars are at in her shower. We’re getting a new shower at our house for her. Over time, I’m sure K and I will be glad it’s there!

OYB!

Milder today.

Building a relationship with a new Youth Director.

I repaired the seam for the black bag where I keep my water bottles in my car. Not sure how it got so ripped.

Defrosting.

5″ of snow was equal to about 1.5″ of water in the rain gauge. Interesting.

I put the birdseed I brought home last into my storage bin. I carry the 40 lbs in my Gorilla cart.

I have a little whirly spinner above St. Francis In my outdoor garden. I have to tie a rubber band on the wire to keep it in the proper place. Those bands eventually wear out and I have to put a new one on.

Don Cheto. Curiously, without Don Cheto. The other three hosts run the show when he’s on vacation. It’s not nearly as good as when he’s there.

I put my trash can on the curb this morning. I’d rather do it then than in the dark when I get home.

The carabiner for my keys is beginning to wear out. I’m giving this brand a chance. Looks pretty heavy duty. I like the sound of that.

Picked the girls up and took them home to interact with the pup.

Checked the mail at my office.

Getting input from Bill Kelly about the shower remodel.

Helped the kids at the mission.

I think this looks like the LA fires. I love this shot.

Good talk with Nana on the way home. Lots of things to think about with the move coming. Looking forward to that.

Tough competition this week.

Jar Jar was the worst character in all of the Star Wars canon.

I hope this can help Miles.

Came in #2 in the tournament last week.

Cold this morning. Pretty mild this afternoon.

When I was writing my blog last night, I noticed that there was a consistent blurring on every shot I did with the Canon HS 350. That usually means that the lens is dirty. Sure enough, some of the lubricanting oil that I put on the moving parts of the lens retraction system got on the glass. Cleaned and it took this shot.

OYB!

I heard that my Aunt Marie (she’s my “Aunt” because she was one of the missionary families that I grew up with) is in her last days. She’s like family to me for sure. I wrote Uncle Will J.

Registered Whirlwind Missions, Inc. with the state of Georgia today. It’s a yearly thing.

I also set my email address to receive this notice. Ashley had to let me know this time.

Defrosting.

I finished the tax letters for the Whirlwind Mission donors today. Took about three hours in all to do the research and print the letters out.

I called my car insurance agent again today. No response.

I texted a couple of my supporters today: Jon Paul and Daniel Smith. I needed confirmation on the amount they gave in 2024.

Picked up Everly at the bus. We went to Taco Veloz. Penelope was at Drama Club.

Went by office to check the mail, process checks and water my ficus.

Everly showed me her collection of colored water. Beauty. She and Penelope had worked hard on that.

Picked up Penelope at Huntley Hills Elementary and went to the Mission.

Deposited checks on the way to the mission.

Helped the kids at the mission. Crazy busy.

Everly showed me the snowman they made. She made the biggest ball rolling it around their front yard.

I love the beauty of winter skies. Alto Stratus Undulatis.

Everly colored for me with dry erase markers.

Good talk with Nana on the way home. Lots to discuss with her moving here.

Picking up my groceries this evening took about forty five minutes. LOTS of people waiting.

Beautiful full moon this evening.

I will probably come in #3 this week. The top two are super smart.

Español!

Missed this one.

Cold morning.

OYB!

Español!

Defrosting.

The compression sock with the super magnets looks like it’s going to work to keep the hide-a-key secure. I don’t see that coming off.

I liked the snow men in the winter wonderland.

The plunger in the sink wasn’t working properly. I got under the sink and fixed the device with a rubber band to hold it together properly.

I worked on the tax letters for the donors project. I figured out the best way to do it and got through the letter H.

Recorded my first podcast with the Taskcam DR-05x. I’m still learning the gear. The first time is always hardest. I ended up having to edit the first part of the recording, because it included a level check. I went to an online audio editing program and cleaned it up before I uploaded it. Every piece of the process was hard, but I overcame.

Released “Critischism.” Good one.

I’m supporting a permaculture project in Namibia. I was recognized on the show.

Came in #2 this week. Hard push by another student at the end. Good for him! It makes us all work harder.

My favorite place for wax melts.

Here we go again.

Jessi set up my phone with the Frame O device. You can send it images directly to the unit and then it’ll do a slideshow.

Spent time doing research on the walk in shower situation at my house. This one will be good.

Also looked for safety options for holding on, and shower heads.

Listened to Piolin while I played Battefront II. Always learning words.

Cold. But melting off.

OYB!

I’m working on a way the hide-a-key won’t fall off. I put it in a compression sock and got two super powerful magnets to also hold it onto the metal.

Laundry!

I’m working on the donation tax letters this month for our ministry. I put labels on the envelopes and put them in alphabetical order. When I go do the spreadsheet it should be easy for me to find the envelope for that person.

Español!

For the hottest year on record, we sure got a lot of snow! Nearly 5″!

I enjoyed my view from outside where I study Spanish each morning.

I hope to do a lot more this year. I’m a really weather related exerciser.

It’s weird to see this on my weather app.

OYB!

Español!

I couldn’t believe waking up to this much snow. Unheard of.

Deer tracks!

Deck.

No one dared to drive up our street.

Stayed put.

Footprints melted pretty fast.

Good talk with my buddy, Anthony.

Got my new Tascam DR-05X unpacked and practiced using it. I still need to hook it up to my computer and download a file.

Kathy asked me to sew a handle on to her purse.

I took all the lights off the tree, packed them up and gave them to Jessi until next year. I wanted to put the tree back in its inside location where she can get more light by the window.

Looking into walk in showers.

I have a case for my new digital recorder, but I need another case to put it in as well as the accessories, like cables, batteries and a small tripod.

When I shot pictures this morning it was sprinkling and my camera got a bit wet. Tonight, I got the lubricant out and cleaned all the moving parts.

Push and keep pushing.

Jimmy Carter was my favorite ex-president. I was glad to have met him.

I’m still doing research on the shower remodel. This is one example that Pastor Bill Kelly sent me.

Cold! And heavy weather on the way. Scary. Hope the roads don’t get too icy and the power stays on.

OYB!

I had two guys come and do a shower installation presentation for us. Their product was about $18,000. It was less if we agreed to sign up today. I wasn’t willing to do that. I’m planning on working with Pastor Bill Kelly, but I wanted to make sure I did my due diligence on the project. We are converting my shower into a walk in without the bath tub.

Español!

Pastor Bill’s crew did our roof for us. I’m sure they’ll do a great job on this shower project.

Always great to hear about a team coming!

Picked up the girls at the bus. We got gas in my car and also got up some stuff to snack on if we get snowed in. I added about 1/2 a quart of oil to my car.

Went to Azalea to help the kids with their homework.

Listened to Piolin on the way home.

Studied hard today.

Cold! And could get dangerous on Friday.

OYB!

Español!

Fun chat with Anthony.

Heard back from the Pastor about the shower. I have another company coming tomorrow to check on it as well.

Went to the bank to deposit checks.

I forgot what this word meant.

I had a pizza party for the middle/high school kids. They didn’t really want the toys that we get for the little kids.

Helped with homework.

Keep going.

Sewed a hole in my hat this morning.

We love Ashley’s digital picture frame Christmas gift!

OYB!

Cold morning outside studying Español.

Trying to get more estimates for my shower remodel. Texted the group chat on Facebook for our neighborhood. Also called West Shore Homes. They said they have a guy come by and take a look and give us an estimate on Thursday at 10:00 AM.

Touched base with Pastor Bill Kelly about the shower as well. He is a contractor and came over to my house to check it out in December. He still hasn’t given me an estimate.

Jessi is cleaning out the dining room. I put one of the boxes she was getting rid of in K’s car. She wanted it as a trash can.

Good talk with my buddy Anthony. The audio version of his book “Altar Your Reality: the Art of Self-Hypnosis” came out today on Amazon. Proud of him.

Ordered some powerful magnets. I was shocked that my hide-a-key had fallen off. I decided to put a piece of duct tape over the hide-a-key with 2″ extra on each side. I can then put some of these powerful magnets on that duct tape for extra reinforcement.

Russia is getting slaughtered, but if Trump stops our support to Ukraine, Putin will win eventually.

I got a text from my buddy Jerry Counselman today. He was doing a talk on missions in Georgetown and met my Mom. He helped me out a lot in the early days of Whirlwind Missions. He helped me design the logo as well and do the system of maps I had for where all the missions were around Atlanta.

The girls had a package of clothes delivered to my house this weekend. Their folks said they could open it up when we got home. We had fun unboxing and then they did a fashion show for me.

Helped the kids at the mission. Third graders had a lot.

Good talk with my Mom. Always a blessing. Trying to work on the logistics of getting her moved up here.

Went by my office to check the mail.

Cold night coming.

Push the neurons around.

Going to be really cold. And maybe snow!

I’m not sure I’d want to live to be 117.

Came in #2 last week.

OYB! I liked the Tower of Babel and the AI reference.

Drizzly and dark early morning for me.

Front moving in.

Met the girls at their house around 8:10 AM. Took them to eat breakfast at Waffle House.

Then to Plaza Fiesta. No one was there but they still let us come on in. Girls played there for about fifteen minutes.

We checked out Kid’s Empire which is also in the Plaza Fiesta complex. The girls had been there before.

At the end of our time there, I asked them to race through every single thing and see how fast they could do it in. I thought under eight minutes was pretty fast.

Kept getting colder all day long. And the wind! I saw the wind chill go down to 17 this afternoon.

Lennox mall turned out to be really fun. Everly has her best friend leaving to go back to Mexico. She wanted to buy her some things. We went to the mall and went into a store called Icing. It looked like Claire’s. Not sure if you’re familiar with that but it caters to juvenile girls. Lots of earrings and shiny stuff. They were getting ready to have a major remodel and were having a HUGE discount on everything there. 50% off everything. Buy 3 get 3 free. And the savings were compiled together. The girls got a LOT of stuff for under $20. This is less than half of it here.

I told the girls they had to find their way back to the car. I made sure they took note of landmarks while we were walking in. We went to the very far side of the mall and they got us back. I was sure at the very end Everly was making a mistake as to which door to go out of. She was right. I just nodded my head and thought, “That’s my girls!”

We got some chic-fil-a on the way home. Ryder wanted his cut.

Listened to Piolin and Don Cheto on the way home. Sometimes I really have a hard time figuring out what they’re saying. I’m not used to the voices on Piolin yet. And it’s primarily a call in show.

Ashley had a package delivered to my house.

Went by my office to pick up the mail. I’ll process and deposit them tomorrow.

I should beat everyone pretty easily this week. It really depends on how serious the students are. Some weeks there are some real language nerds and the competition is really hard.

Hopefully, I’ll be in the top three this week. It’ll be close.

OYB!

I rotated my foam mattress 180 degrees. I also washed all of my bed linen.

Hard freeze is coming.

Good chat with my buddy, Anthony. He was enjoying family time over the holidays.

Cleaned and refilled the feeders.

Rained about 1.5″ over the last week.

Besides my bed linens, I also cleaned and folded wash cloths.