For the last fifteen months my hand has been injured and I have been using talk to text to do my blog. Tonight, I’ve started just typing again! It’s taken a long time to get back to nearly normal. I’m still doing physical therapy every day. I do hand stretches, massage, and squeezing exercises hundreds of times a day.

I’ve also cut my use of social media back to nearly zero. Facebook has just become too toxic for me.

I’m always happy when I’ve started a book I’m enjoying. I’m reading Entangled Life by Merlin Sheldrake. It’s about mushrooms. It’s one of my favorite subjects! He’s a real poet and a fantastic biologist. Here are some pieces from what I’ve read so far.

Studied Spanish and did my brain training. Sometimes the lessons are really difficult. So instead of trying to test out of the whole thing, I’ve been taking my time and doing all the lessons.

Released a new episode of Verbal Surgery called “Onward Through the Fog.” It’s a great one.

Did my brain training.

Got a notice from PNC Bank that they had approved the check for repairing my roof. That’s going to help a lot. I should get it in the mail soon.

I’ve read a lot about CBD oil. I decided to try some. I got it specifically for Kathy, but she doesn’t like to take pills and thought the oil smelled bad. So I’ll be taking it. I think it’ll help where I’ve injured my hip.

It’s been months since I’ve turned in a mileage report, mainly because I was just traveling so little due to the lockdown. So I turned in four months worth today!

I got ready to go to Stone Mountain to record and my car gave me a low tire pressure warning. Sure enough my front left tire was about 20 pounds low. I went ahead and aired that up. I highly recommend getting a small air compressor to leave in your car. It’s really helped me out a lot. Rather than having to take off the tire and take it somewhere. I just pump the tire up, drive it there, and let them deal with it! My tire guy’s in Chamblee. I also got to check the office take care of business stuff as well.

I gassed up my car and checked the oil.

I added nearly a quart.

When I went by the church to check the mail, I noticed that they were redoing the roof of the church. The same guys will be working on my house most likely.

I got in touch with my friend Steve who is a coin dealer. He’ll be coming to the coin show in Marietta on the 11th. I’ll go with my friend Selma and see about selling the coins that she has. She said she’d give our ministry half the proceeds so I hope he’ll give us a good deal!

Then went over to my tire guys to let them fix the leak.

One of the new things that iOS 14 has is a Translate app. I figured out how to go from listening to Harry Potter in Spanish to that app. I hit record and say the words I don’t know and it comes out with the English translation. That’s a great way to learn new words.

I stopped by Walmart on the way home to pick up my groceries. I love curbside pickup! I’m in and out of that place in less than five minutes. What?! And it’s FREE!

I got a big bag of dog food to feed the raccoons and opossums and other animals in my neighborhood. I enjoy watching them at night with the red light I keep on. I carried it to my door in my Gorilla Cart and then scooped out about half of it so I don’t have to lift something so heavy.

Picked up some sticks.

Checked the oil in Kathy’s truck.

Blew off the back porch and driveway.

Cleaned out my the vacuum filter in my little vacuum.

I vacuumed my house with my big vacuum cleaner and then cleaned all the parts.

Then cleaned the rest of the driveway.

Cleaned and refilled all the bird baths and feeders. I also took down all but one of the hummingbird feeders. They’ve headed back South, maybe all the way to Costa Rica!

Rode my bike 5.88 miles. It was a little chilly, so I didn’t push it.

Grand girls spent the night last night. We slept pretty well.

Had a good time with them this morning.

Met up with Jesse and Kathy at the park.

We had fun on the swings and play things.

Everly is really enjoying the little tea set I got her.

I am still working with Penelope on words using “at.”

I took them home since Miles is feeling better.

Helped the kids with their homework.

Went by my office to check the mail.

Listened to Harry Potter in Spanish on the way home.

I made a grocery order for tomorrow afternoon.

Studied Spanish. I stopped testing out each level because of the difficulty. I’m starting to do individual levels again to make sure I really understand and memorize each piece.

Miles was sick yesterday. The grand girls spent the night with me last night. We slept pretty well.

They had fun playing with Legos.

It’s great to see them love each other.

They brushed their teeth and their hair.

They picked out their clothes.

Then we went to Stone Mountain to one of the lakes.

We had a fun time having a tea party.

Then played in the woods.

We saw a gray heron that look like a dinosaur.

Had a fun talk with my buddy Dan Smith from Baylor.

We came home and watchied Camp Cretaceous on Netflix.

We did some homework. Penelope wasn’t super enthusiastic about it but she did it.

I studied Spanish. I’m working on reflexive verbs in the past tenses which is pretty complicated.

Met up with a grand girls this morning Global Mall. Beautiful sunrise this morning.

Always great to see Ashley.

I got all the newsletters done last night. Penelope and Everly help me get them in the mail.

On the way back from the post office we saw the white goose that has been with the Canadian goose. That was always fun.

We had fun with grand girls day it was rainy so we stayed inside pretty much the whole time. We enjoyed playing with all the gifts that we had.

Went to Walmart picked up the groceries then went to Kroger to get Kathy’s medicine and came back and we did some more studying.

Miles has a sore throat and is not feeling well so he’s got to get a Covid test to make sure that he can’t infect the apes that he works with at the primate center. So until that happens the girls will be spending the nights with me. I always love having them with me. Doing my homework now with them beside me it’s always fun.

I was reading about the flu shot today. Everyone needs to make sure they’re getting that, this year in particular.

I studied Spanish. I’m on level five and it gets more and more difficult all the time. That’s good! That’s when I’m learning!

Did my brain training.

I went over to see the Blackmons. They have some coins that they were sharing the proceeds of the sales with me. I will help them find a coin dealer to get a good price.

Had a good chat with my buddy Dash Landers today.

I took the newsletter over to the office to be printed out. I made calls while that was happening.

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

Came home and cleaned the back porch and the driveway.

Cleaned my bed sheets.

I painted the trim next to my shower. Looks better.

Watered my plants.

Listened to radio from Madrid and Harry Potter in Spanish.

Rained about an inch yesterday.

I saw this sign for drive-through prayer I thought was interesting.

I rode my bike 8.99 miles.

I stamped and stuffed the Newsletters this evening. I’ll get those in the mail tomorrow morning.

I watched the Netflix documentary The Social Dilemma. Profoundly disturbed me. Enough so that tonight I announced on Facebook I was leaving social media. Which is kind of ironic. I also made a new search engine rather than using Google. I don’t know how it’s gonna make me feel, but I know that it was really hurting my friendships with people that didn’t agree with me. That’s not good.

Last night, I edited the video that I shot for my team yesterday. I sent them the thank you email that included links to that video on YouTube as well as the pictures that I shot.

Studied Spanish and did my brain training this morning.

I did some research on how best to clean my Mac air. Used a lint free, slightly damp cloth. Gave it a good scrubbing.

Changed the air filter in my air conditioning unit.

I had a good talk with my Mom. It’s always fun to connect with her.

Also got to talk my buddy Anthony in the UK.

Listened To Harry Potter in Spanish.

I produced my newsletter and printed it out.

Printed all the labels and all the envelopes ready to go. I still need to get stamps for them. That’s a tomorrow job.

I have one of our supporters that wants to give me some old coins and split the profits with her. I looked up a friend of mine who has a coin shop in Augusta. He usually comes to a coin show in Marietta once a month. It’ll be easier for me to wait for him to come to that.

Productive day.

Tim A. Cummins
770-490-1668
Whirlwindmissions.org
Whirlwindtim@Gmail.com
Timacummins@ Twitter & Facebook
VerbalSurgery.com. Podcasts

Studied Spanish and did my brain training.

Had a great time with my team from North Gwinnett Church. Our first team since the pandemic! They did a fantastic job at Azalea Place and New Peachtree Apartments.

Went by my office to check the mail and to the bank to deposit checks.

Then to Everly‘s third birthday party. Great time was had by all! Super fun.

Took our family photo for our prayer card!

Released a new episode of Verbal Surgery “Messed Up Hand.”

It’s awesome!

Tim A. Cummins
770-490-1668
Whirlwindmissions.org
Whirlwindtim@Gmail.com
Timacummins@ Twitter & Facebook
VerbalSurgery.com. Podcasts

Foggy day this morning.

Sunrise almost looked like an eclipse.

Enjoyed seeing Ashley.

Had a fun day with the grand girls.

Penelope enjoyed brushing her hair.

Took them to Goodwill to go get some toys. I sprayed everything down with alcohol before I put it in the cart.

We took the stuff home and washed everything again.

We had pizza and chicken strips for lunch.

We had a pre-birthday party for Everly who turns three years old on Saturday. I’ve so enjoyed having those little girls around. Everly picked out an Oreo blizzard cake from Dairy Queen. Ice cream cakes are the bomb.

I put eight candle on the cake, three for Everly and five for Penelope even though hers is not until November. More fun to blow out more candles! They both had a turn.

We got her first camera. I think she’ll really enjoy it. We put it all together and set it up. Then wrapped it up for her party for tomorrow.

Penelope labeled it!

Got notification that the claim check was received and they will soon send me my check. That’s a big step towards getting the roof fixed.

I got a very alarming phone call this evening from a neighbor of my sister-in-law. She said that my sister-in-law had hit her head and was bleeding profusely. Exact statement was “There’s blood everywhere.” So I went into emergency mode and rushed straight over to her house to see what was going on. She had fallen and got a cut on the back of her head. Under close inspection even though there was some blood it was hardly life-threatening. So I cleaned her up and put antibiotic salve on it. Then got an ice pack and got her in a chair so that she could lean back on that to give the wound some compression. By the time I left several hours later, the bleeding had almost entirely stopped.

While I was at her house, I changed out her air filter.

Studied Spanish and did my brain training this evening.

I have my first team since the pandemic coming to work with me tomorrow. Biggest difference is that Ashley won’t be helping me as much any more. Sad, but you gotta do what you gotta do.

Tim A. Cummins
770-490-1668
Whirlwindmissions.org
Whirlwindtim@Gmail.com
Timacummins@ Twitter & Facebook
VerbalSurgery.com. Podcasts

Released an episode of Verbal Surgery called “The Action” early this morning.

Went to Global Mall to pick up the grand girls. Beautiful sunrise.

Always great to see Ashley.

On the way back to the house, we stopped at a little strip mall. They have a fair going on there right now. They also had a prenatal clinic. I enjoyed talking to the girls about what it was like before they were born. They enjoyed the pictures.

We went over to Always Fresh to see Kathy.

My bank has an ATM at their building. Deposited checks.

The girls helped me make pancakes. They were good.

Went to the Dollar Tree to pick up some presents for them for the birthday party this Saturday.

Got some balloons.

It’s official now!

I let them play with some of them.

Penelope worked hard on her studies.


Here she’s writing some of the letters she knows. Great to see progress!

The girls crashed out on the way back to Azalea.

I got balloons for their house as well.

Studied Spanish while they were napping.

I’m enjoying iOS 14. I like tweaking the new home page. The apps library I had pretty much already done on my own.

I’m still trying to learn some of the girl’s names that are from Bangladesh.

Helped the kids with their homework.

Penelope joined us and did her workbook.

Listened to Harry Potter in Spanish.

Went by first Baptist Church Doraville to check the mail at my office.

Got groceries on the way home.

Tim A. Cummins
770-490-1668
Whirlwindmissions.org
Whirlwindtim@Gmail.com
Timacummins@ Twitter & Facebook
VerbalSurgery.com. Podcasts

I am memorizing a piece by the Persian poet Rumi. Many times I will break the piece down into a codeword per line and then memorize those letters in forms of words. It’s a fast way to trigger and memorize big chunks of text.

Enjoyed being with the grand girls and meeting with Ashley this morning.

Had a good time at the park with the girls and with Kathy today.

Penelope draws Pop Pop!

Like the thumbs up and the toothy grin!

Vulture!

I’ve been teaching the grandgirls a song I created to learn the days of the week. Today, Penelope sang it by heart. That was very exciting. I’ve developed songs for her address and for her mother’s phone number as well as the days of the week. It really has been astonishing how fast they can memorize things if it’s in the form of music.

She’s also understanding the patterns of counting now. So that’s great.

I ordered Everly’s birthday present today. She wants a camera. Of course it has to be pink!

Went to Azalea to help the kids at the mission. It’s pretty much nonstop trying to help four or five kids at the same time for two hours. It’s very tiring, especially when I have to explain a lot of stuff in Spanish. Takes a lot of mental processing to do that.

Hard to memorize names sometimes.

I liked this sculpture. Of course her little sister demolished it moments later.

The little rocks in front were supposed to be a safety fence to protect it. Yeah, right.

Went by my office to check on the mail.

I’ve been astonished since the pandemic how the traffic in Atlanta has been reduced by about half. It normally would take me at least 45 minutes to get home from work. I can almost always do that in less than 25 minutes now. It really is incredible.

Listened to Harry Potter in Spanish on my way home.

Studied Spanish. It’s hard at more advanced levels, but it pays off!

I injured my right hand about 15 months ago. I tore muscles in my forearm, bicep, shoulder and back related to my hand. I’ve been very aggressive about my physical therapy. It’s been the most debilitating injury I’ve ever had. In the last couple of weeks, I’ve been able to type using my little finger. It’s incredible the sense of pride I have to see where I am now compared to where I was. Thank you, Jesus.

Beautiful clouds today.

Tim A. Cummins
770-490-1668
Whirlwindmissions.org
Whirlwindtim@Gmail.com
Timacummins@ Twitter & Facebook
VerbalSurgery.com. Podcasts