Two 100% night’s sleep in a row. Never seen that before that I remember.

I thought this was funny.

We went to Fernbank Museum last week. They had an exhibit on the Mayan culture. I did some research on where that was. Primarily Guatemala. There is research saying that the Mayans crossed the Gulf of Mexico and went from Florida into Georgia and that some stone mounds here are very similar to the ones the Mayans built. Including the winding snake iconography.

These are quotes from Luise Calment who died at 124.

Fabulous weather.

Sí, Señor!

OYB!

When I got to my recording spot at Stone Mountain, I saw a huge Oak tree had been blown over.

I really enjoy poetry, but I wasn’t digging the two sets of daily poems I was receiving, Turns out the poems I’ve memorized are on a lot of “Best Poetry” lists.

Recorded an episode of Verbal Surgery called “Lost and Around.” Excellent.

Called my Mom. For some reason, she didn’t hear me when I was leaving a message.

Miles watched the girls today. I enjoyed a restful time.

Had fun playing Last of Us 2. Such an intense story. Wow.

I was planning on biking today, but my right hand and forearm is still having issues with pins and needles sensations. I decided I should let it rest. I’ll be back on the bike soon enough!

Perfect!

I’m looking forward to getting on the bike more this month.

Español cada dia.

I’ve had a change of strategy on Duolingo. Instead of going through all 9 units in Level 1, I’m choosing to go up each lesson to the 5th level in every Unit. I’ve done all the first five units up to level 5. Now I’ll work on doing that for Unit 6.

OYB!

My bird feeder was on the ground this morning. My guess is a raccoon climbed the wire and broke it. I put everything back together again.

Cloudy, but no rain. We got 5″ in the last two days!

Grandgirls!

Went to the bank on the way home from Global Mall. As you’ll read later, I went by the bank to deposit more money this evening!

Another 2.5″ of rain yesterday.

I put my new PA through its paces. Tested every input to make sure it functions. I’m really only going to use the one XLR channel with my two wireless mics as well as the Bluetooth mode to talk with my phone. It sounded really good.

I scrubbed and put this old backpack in the wash. I’m planning on using it for mic cables and miscellaneous gear. I like to have it together and protected.

I got the girls doing karaoke. They had a blast.

Interesting caterpillars.

Love my girls!

They always like to cook me things with play dough.

I knew the boxes would be a big hit. Now that I was sure that the PA worked, I could let them have fun.

I was glad that Kathy got to spend some time with them today. They’ve had a great time with the doctor set I got last week.

Paid bills. That includes a $2,000 check to pay down my Master Card bill. I still haven’t been completely reimbursed for some expenses correctly with our payroll company.

Checked on the kids at the mission. They are still doing testing and all the kids are required for now to leave their computers at the school. So that means not much homework for a big. I still enjoy talking to them.

Ashley got home a bit early. Always fun to see her. I pumped up their basketball.

Went by my office to check the mail and water my ficus. Also added some more topsoil.

Deposited checks at the bank on the way home.

Gassed up the car. Checked fluids.

Edited our latest donor list. One of the letters kept bouncing. I decided enough was enough and deleted that donor from our list.

This is good news.

Español!

Ni loca!

OYB!

This morning, I got to my car and although the carabiner was attached to my belt loop, the key ring was gone! That’s not zesty. Checked the bed first, then pants, then car, then my recliner chair, and EUREKA my hand felt glasses.

I pulled them up and they were the ones that Kathy has been missing for weeks if not months!

Then I checked the other side and found my key ring. Amen!

Just a few minutes late for when I usually get there, still early.

It has really been raining! We had 3.5″ yesterday.

Penelope and I ate fried eggs and toast. Everly went for Special K cereal.

There was a time, before that pandemic that I wouldn’t know how to fry ad egg. Or just cook in general.

I actually had two Walmart orders today. Normally, their system lets it add on to the previous order. Today, I had to start a separate list. No big deal. I just let the guys at Walmart know to look for two orders.

While they play, I study Spanish. I do a lot of things out loud. They don’t seem to mind it.

I set up a little play station for the girls in our car porch.

Blew the area before we left on Safari.

I put the bike rack back on my car. The rear lift gate doesn’t work well anyway. I was planning on putting a new bike for Penelope on it. Usually, the Perimeter Goodwill has quite a selection of bikes and toys. Today, hardly anything. I was really shocked.

Mileage log. Getting back to normal, slowly.

Cloudy and rainy all day long. Sometimes, it was really coming down!

We went to Goodwill first. It was quite a drive and the girls were very good.

We did find a couple of “soft” toys and a two “hard toys.” Even THAT distinction has to be taken account when working with the girls.

Then to Plaza Fiesta! Man! it’s been a long time since we’ve gone through that! We were hoping the big inside playground would be open. Alas, no.

Went for cupcakes and chocolate cake. One of the best slices of Hershey’s chocolate cake I’ve ever had. The girls enjoyed their treats, too.

We got a couple of books at the walk in library at Plaza Fiesta.

Lots of photo ops.

Amazon delivered the new sound system today. Our old PA wasn’t working properly. Kept shorting out the main volume knob. This new one cost only $150 and should really help the ministry. I always follow Amazon reviews.


I really love all this PA stuff.

Amazon also delivered my new shoes! I get a new pair about every two years. The tread gets worn smooth and then they’re a slipping hazard. My old pair will serve as my biking and yard work shoes. I was amazed at how well I kept my old pair looking. I regularly scrubbed them with Ajax and kept them white. But not like this!

This is actually a learning time clock. If you push it’s left foot, it’ll tell you the time. Everly picked it out.

Got the groceries.

Released a new edition of Verbal Surgery “Attention Intention.” It’s an instant classic!

I have this little joker that I put on my Mac to remind me that today Verbal Surgery is due.

I was reading about dialects this morning and did some study on Jamaican pidgin English.

Rainy with thunderstorms all day long. We’ve had 3.5″ of rain so far today.

OYB!

New week with a new group of 30 people in Duolingo. I’ve been #1 twice at the very beginning of the competition. Funny.

I usually do two lessons and two stories. Takes me about thirty minutes. I also do reading and listening drills with the TV and Audible.

I’m still trying to figure this Y or J sound thing.

Jesse and I had a fun and delicious lunch at El Torreros. On the way out, I saw this scene with two screwdrivers. I had just watched the Mitchells vs the Machines where having screwdrivers was a key part of the movie. Funny how stuff shows up.

Ordered groceries to pick up tomorrow.

The major parts of the storm may miss us this evening.

Have enjoyed playing Last of Us 2. It’s a very interesting and well written video game.

I enjoyed studying this morning.

I read this on Kevin Kelly’s Cool Tools newsletter. Pretty much everything he puts value into, I do or at least check out thoroughly.

I like the sound of this. This is the next step, convincing people to get it.

I thought this was a good test and the results seem accurate.

I also installed this on my Mac Air and ran it.

Nothing too bad was wrong. Amen. No malware. Just some programs that I don’t use that much on my laptop.

Studied. Of course.

Today was my best friend’s birthday, Anthony Jacquin! What fun we’ve had together.

Just cloudy at our house.

Checked on some packages I’m expecting.

Here are the results from the tests I took.

I’ve become fascinated with Barred Owls recently. We have a pair near our house, although my crows do not like them at all.

Jesse’s car had an issue where you couldn’t turn the key in the ignition. Did some research and it worked like a charm.

Ordered groceries.

Sometimes I have to do some research on the game I’m playing.

Today in Last of Us 2, they went on a trip to the Dinosaur Park in Wyoming for her birthday. It had been shut down for years.

I’m playing a video game called Last of Us 2. Some of the puzzles are pretty hard.

Español!

Office work. Edited the current donor list. We have supporters die from time to time. Their children rarely want to keep the tradition going.

I had a great talk with my friend Caruso in Italy. He’s always fun.

In this shot, I’m showing him my Canon camera Elph 360.

A friend of mine’s grandmother is fighting cancer. I made her a recording and today left her a voice mail.

Good talk with my Mom.

And my buddy Anthony.

Beautiful day.

I did figure this problem out.

Lovely bike ride.

Rode 5.93 miles. I’m trying to take it easy while my arm heals. Some exercise is good for injuries.

There’s a surprising amount of upper body work out in biking.

Every evening, I upload all the pictures I took with my Canon camera onto my iPhone. Then I upload everything on my phone to my Mac. Then upload to my Smugmug server. At that point, those images could be seen from any spot on the globe with internet.

Uploaded a new edition of Verbal Surgery “Off/On.”

A couple of friends of mine were talking about Sammy Davis, Jr. I liked this shot.

I remember having this system.

Interesting.

Looking forward to having my Mom in town. Sorry to hear that she’s dealing with shingles right now. Lord, heal my Mom and help her not scratch.

Estudio Español.

Love my girls!

OYB!

They had Lucky Charms cereal this morning. Cereal gamefied.

Everly came to sit with me and eventually just closed her eyes and took a nap.

Penelope came over but never took a nap.

They enjoyed making things from play dough. Mainly food stuff.

They also like these building blocks. This is a potty. Plus.

I trimmed this last week. Now I’m repotting.

Beauty.

It was great to have the girls this week. I’ll see them again on Tuesday morning bright and early!

Studied Spanish. Por que no?

Interesting what I see.

Picked up my girls!

They make some cool stuff.

Trimmed bangs today.

After I trimmed their hair, I left the clippings near the seed for the birds to use in their nests. It’s very soft and warm.

Ordered groceries. The system had trouble later in the day.

The girls helped me do the labels.

Folded and stuffed and into the mail stream.

They enjoy playing with the sprinkler in the drive way. It wasn’t very sunny so they didn’t do it very long.

I made brownies after they had lunch.

I got the confirmation, but the rest of the communication from Walmart was zero.

I helped the kids with their homework.

Checked on Walmart for my groceries. I never did get a text or email confirmation about my order. I tried calling them. Finally, I was able to get through to a human who told me that my order was indeed ready but that they had had a lot of problems with their system.

Picked up the mail. Processed the checks. Deposited into Bank of America. Amen.

Got the groceries.

Put the dried dog food I use for the raccoons into my storage trash can.

I liked this.

Love my girls!

Studied Spanish. If you want to make progress, that’s what it takes.

Everly wanted her friend’s little sister to have the trike.

Now that I know about these Nanday Parakeets that somehow have made it up from Florida, I look for them at the same super high power pole.

I told the girls that it was time for little geese “goslings” to be showing up. Then I saw the little ones with their parents today!

I always get kind of excited when I discover a poem that I want to memorize. The poem Earth Day by Jane Yolen is one of them. She wrote the poem for Earth Day.

I usually write the author a quick note just to say how much I love the piece and that I am committing it to memory.

So I went on her website and left an email for her.

As I’m learning it, it occurred to me I should record it and send her my recitation of it. Because I can tell you, I will WAIL with this piece.

OYB!

Jesse and the girls and I went to Fernbank Science Center. We had a splendid time. I ordered the tickets on line.

The girls had fun building things until it was time to leave to go see the museum. You reserved a time to visit. We chose 11:00am. You could stay as long as you wanted. It didn’t seem crowded at all.

We had a beautiful drive over to Fernbank. All the yards are so gorgeous.

I liked this polypore before we even got in the building.

So cool.

We had pizza and hotdogs with chips and an ice cream bar. We split all the food up. The girls eat better that way.

We spent a good bit of our time outside this trip.

They had a display of super high resolution bugs that was amazing.

Not quite the same.

They had some cool dinosaurs.

Fun, interactive exhibits

I’ve really been into owls lately.

I’ve always enjoyed seeing the fossils in the staircases.

We loved the outside stuff. It was still cool enough to be fun. Soon, it’ll be too hot to enjoy it.

We split a cold Coke when we got back.

Warm!

A lot of the time the internet wasn’t good in the museum. I’m sure we walked over 3.2 miles.

There was a LOT of Poison Ivy growing out there. The girls are getting better at being able to identify what the plant looks like. Here’s a good puzzle of which one is the bad one?

Picked up the newsletters at my office. Also watered my Ficus, picked up my wireless microphones and transmitter, and put some new instruments in the Golden Boxes of Jam

Got stamps for the newsletters. I was hoping to get some labels done this evening. Not going to happen.

The machine had some type of problem and was only able to print the single stamps. I got fifty single stamps rather than sheets. Took a LONG time to print.

They ran out of these.

Gassed up the car. Checked fluids.

Cleaned and refilled bird baths.

Setting up gear in preparation for doing the labels.

That’s funny.

Español!

Cool morning!

OYB!

Beautiful!

The girls have enjoyed the dolls.

Got the tube so I could fix Penelope’s bike.

So many tiny flowers. I hate to mow them. I know many species depend on them.

They really are such great friends. It’s gonna be hard on us to get along without Penelope.

Put my banana and bamboo plants outside again.

Here’s the the post trim picture of the mail box.

Took the girls to the Library Park.

She didn’t quite get the whole “it just fills up water bottles” thing.

I’ve taught them how to make a “camping cup” with their hands. I let them drink out of my hands when I filled it up here.

Produced my newsletter. I wrote it yesterday, but was too tired to lay it out.

The girls were tired, too.

Helped the kids at the mission. They had a lot of homework.

After I finished helping the kids with their homework, I turned my attention to repairing the tube in the back wheel of Penelope’s bike.

It’s interesting to me how I use cameras. Sometimes I’m in arty mode. Sometimes, I’m in archival mode. What happened? Similar to being in news mode. Sometimes, it’s to record the process. These shots helped me put it all back together after I’d installed the tube.

We stopped by my office to check on the mail.