Woke up early at 5:15 AM. Left by 6 AM. Was over at Doraville by around 6:30. Was on the next train in just a few minutes. Got to the airport around 7:15.

Got through checking my bag and to the E gates in around 45 minutes.

Easy flight to Guatemala. A little over three hours. Tried to sleep, but couldn’t. Too much noise and turbulence.

Met some cool people from Winder, Georgia. Byron was the man’s name. He helped me get around the airport when we got inbound. Got through customs and Immigration. No problem.

Found my bag. Harder than I thought. Lots of blue bags. One of my jobs when I get home will be to paint a gold stripe on my blue bag to make it easier to see.

Got a Coke and some delicious poundcake at Barretto at the airport, while I was waiting for my transport to Antigua. I was about an hour early for that.

Finally, a guy showed up to come and get me and Ann two girls from Chapel Hill, North Carolina. Turn out when there’s just a few people rather than the whole bus, they just take a taxi basically. That was great because it was easier to get out of town.

Traffic was bad but not horrible. But the fumes from all the cars were really bad. By the time we got out of Guatemala city, my head was hurting.

My taxi driver was named Orlando. He made three trips a day from the airport to Antigua. Super nice guy. Had had throat cancer. He seem to be OK now.  I spoke to him for over two hours in Spanish.

By the time we got Antigua, he was telling me how good my Spanish was, I appreciate that.

Got into Maya Papaya which is my hostel in Antigua. Tiny little room. At least it had a little fan. Unfortunately, the electrical outlet did not work. I had to modify my grounded zip strip. I had to break off the grounded plug. I hate to do stuff like that but you gotta do what you gotta do. I had two of those and so I was able to plug-in all the rest of my stuff.

The manager of Maia Papaya tonight was a guy named Dennis super super nice guy. He helped me find a wrench so I could break off the grounded plug on the zip strip. Managed to get all my stuff charging.

Dennis said I should try Copa de la Sopa. I got a veggie quesadilla there. Super good.

I’m looking forward to taking a shower and resting soon.

Guatemala is two hours behind the ATL. That should make me easier to get up in the morning and harder to stay up at night which is fine by me.

I tried to get WordPress to work but could not. No big deal. I’ll just write everything on the notes app. 

I can still upload different pictures every day which will be easy to insert.

A great start to the trip!

Winter weather!

Español!

Fun chat with my buddy Anthony.

Did my laundry.

Fall!

Walked .78 miles this morning while studying. Short because I needed to take Jessi to her doctor’s appointment.

J’s doctor.

I liked this sign.

Walked 1.49 miles in this neighborhood.

Beauty along the way.

Kathy got a big screw in her tire. Called New Peachtree Tire in Chamblee to get it fixed. Worth the drive since it’s always so fast there.

Went by my office to check the mail.

Got K’s truck parked back at Young World. I talked to Mr. Wilson. He’s helping me set up an account for her so I can check her pay stubs.

Not working yet.

Beautiful day.

BIG JOB! I got onto Blue Host and they helped me log back into my blog! So that’s why I’m able to write this here! Amen!

I will now try to update the Guatemala material. Amen and Amen again.

Final Bag packing.

Flight info.

Worked on adding offline maps to my phone and practiced using the info. I did not know that GPS worked without internet access. Cool.

Research on the Guatemala Airport. Needed to recognize where I’m supposed to catch my bus to Antigua. I’m going to be cutting it pretty close. Hopefully the flight will be on time or early.

OYB!

Cooler.

Español!

Walked 3.66 miles. Twenty one hills.

Left all my sticks in my mailbox till I get home.

Got good news from Andrew, the youth director at Roopville Road BC. Bringing a team!

Went by the Varsity Playhouse to drop off some gifts for Rick Beato a friend of mine.

Helped the kids at the mission.

Got an invitation to speak at the missions conference at Peachtree Corners BC.

Checked the mail at my office and watered my ficus.

Gassed up my car in preparation for my trip tomorrow morning. I’ll be leaving my car in the FBC Doraville parking lot. I already talked to the church secretary about it. She said she’d let the cops know it was mine.

Checked into my flight Delta 1840. Also filled out the Guatemala customs form on line. Should help expedite things.

Here’s my flight path.

That’s a DAY!

Such a scam artist.

I practiced using the WordPress mobile app for my blog last night. Never could get the photos to work right, but I can upload the photos to Smugmug and do the text to WordPress no problem.

I contacted Smugmug. They said they didn’t think the mobile app for the pictures could generate the same image location as my Mac Air. There’s a big difference between the first URL and the second.

I also set up my Mint Mobile roaming account if I need cell access in Guatemala. I’m going to do research about using an Esim with a Guatemalan Esim number this evening. Doubt I’ll really need that much data. I can stick to using wifi.

OYB!

Español!

Walk! Kind of chilly this morning. 2.73 miles.

Fifteen hills.

K went with me today to the mission. Always great to have her along.

We ate lunch at Waffle House. Yum.

I had two of my original youth group come and visit me today! Always great to see Jouvens and Tabias. They are like sons to me. They jumped straight in and helped the kids just like the old days.

Went to my office to check the mail.

Doing final prep work on the packing. Weighed in at right at 40 lbs. I have up to 50 lbs.

I sure do appreciate these guys.

If she lets me get much further ahead I’ll be hard to catch.

OYB!

Español!

A big limb fell and crashed some of my plants. Sad face. I worked on getting them into fresh pots.

Also added some potting soil so my banana plants could hold more water.

Cleaned my Gorilla Cart. On Friday morning I’ll haul my suitcase and backpack up to the car in it rather than carrying it up the stairs. Might was well be clean when I do that!

Walked 3.55 miles.

Twenty hills.

Beautiful weather.

Ordered some new insoles. I decided this evening to take my new shoes to Guatemala. I had resisted that idea, but reconsidered. I mean why not take the best shoes I have? I’ll replace the insoles that new New Balance shoes come with with the Dr. Scholls. They’re just better.

I cleaned and got new laces for my older shoes which were the ones I was planning to take. I decided it’s better to have more tread rather than the shoes that were smooth.

Exciting to start seeing notices! Delta wants me at the airport three hours early.

More review of departure times on MARTA. My departure time is 10:30 AM. Should leave the Doraville MARTA station between 6:42 AM and 7:06 AM. Take 41 minutes to get to the airport from Doraville.

Picked the girls up at the bus and took them to Taco Veloz.

We got an Oreo blizzard ice cream cake from DQ. So good.

They had a big time playing with the sticker set that Ash & Miles got her.

Helped the kids at the mission with their homework. Pretty light load today. Not complaining. It lets me help the individuals more.

It’s been great to see Everly making new friends and really fitting in. Fills me with happiness.

Listened to Don Cheto on the way home.

Always trying to figure things out. Especially in regards to subjunctive tenses.

Deposited checks. Thank you, Father! I’m trying to new locations to deposit.

I uploaded a new episode of Verbal Surgery called “Counter Offensive.” Excellent.

It’s weird how I’ve lost interest in recording. I guess once I hit 1,000 episodes I kind of lost my motivation. When I get back from Guatemala I may be more into it. I’ve been exercising and studying Spanish instead of focusing on recording.

Honestly, I’ve pretty much lost interest in social media period. Just doesn’t interest me much any more.

I’m setting up media for my trip. This evening I put together a new Trip gallery called Guatemala. I’m testing out how it works using my iPhone rather than my Mac Air. Still haven’t got the blog to view images properly, but I know I can do text on the blog and upload photos to Smugmug.

Set up Uber.

Added some roaming credit to my Mint mobile line. I should be using wifi almost the whole time.

We’ll see how bad Rosa want to study.

I am not planning on taking my MacBook Air to Guatemala. Therefore, I am checking to see how difficult it is to use the Mobile app.

Came in #2 this week.

Ordered some white paint to make my tennis shoes look better.

OYB!

Español!

Walked 1.63 miles. Short because I went to help K get her truck jumped off and because I met up with Rob Martin at 11:00 AM.

Nine hills.

Beauty weather.

Rob and I have worked together for nearly twenty years. We enjoyed Mexican food and good conversation.

Went to the Post Office to get stamps for the newsletters. Renee did the copies for me before Rob got to the church. Amen.

Deposited checks. Thank you, Jesus.

Went to the mission to stuff the envelopes and put stamps on.

Watered and put more fungicide on my little pink magnolia. She’s had a tough beginning. Hope she hangs in there.

The apartments across the street are called “Lumen at Chamblee.” They just put the name up recently. I think most, if not all, of the exterior work is complete.

I picked the girls up at the bus. They helped me “feed” the mail boxes.

One more job marked complete before my trip.

Took them to the Buford Highway Farmers Market to eat.

I told Everly I was leaving for Guatemala on Friday. She just cried and cried. It’s not a surprise to her, she just doesn’t want me to leave.

Helped the kids at the mission. Pretty light crowd with easy homework. Let me help one of the girls more intently with her math. Lots of Spanish practice.

Listened to Don Cheto. Working with this podcast can be incredibly humbling. Some days I feel I’m really making progress. Others I’m just like, huh?

I take pictures of my One Year Bible when I’m on trips where weight is an issue. No use taking that heavy book when I can just refer to the images.

Usually by the end of the second day I can tell how everything is going to turn out. People normally do about the same amount of work every week. I’ll probably come in #2, but depends how much work I do during my trip.

I thought her comments on writing were interesting.

I’ve been curious about this.

Never good to hear.

I have a lunch appointment tomorrow. I don’t like meeting so early.

OYB!

Español! I focus on the Conversation exercises, particularly Speak.

Beautiful weather.

Walked 3.46 miles.

Twenty hills.

Everly had her party at Sky Zone. She had a lot of fun! Penelope had her best friend Paula there too.

Everyone enjoyed the food and fun.

She had a great time opening her presents!

Watered my plants.

Watered my banana plants.

And roses.

And my other tropicals.

Cleaned and refilled my hummingbird feeders.

Serviced my birdbaths.

Refilled my water bottles. I got more distilled water. Jessi will be taking care of my plants while I’m in Guatemala. She’ll just use distilled water on all the plants. That’ll be easier.

It usually takes me about twenty to thirty minutes to do the job.

I showed J how to feed the raccoons and opossums if she wants to. Not totally necessary to do that.

I left pictures and notes on how to take care of my plants.

As you can tell, I’m very detail oriented.

Got a jury summons in the mail. Filled that out this evening. Not till October 30th. I’ve had to show up to court, but I’ve never been chosen for a jury.

I’ll come in 2nd place this week. Vincent clobbered everybody. Normally, 20,000 plus is WAY out of reach. Just depends on who I’m playing against.

I wrote a friend of mine about my pink magnolia trees. Wish they looked like this!

Sadly, a neighbor cut that tree down. It filled me with great sadness. This song by Tom Waits reminded me of what I went through.

Worked hard this week. Completed another milestone. 1,400 days without missing a day of study.

OYB! I’m in Isaiah now. I’ve memorized all of chapter 40. That’s all of this page and about half of the next page.

Español!

Walked 2.32 miles. Thirteen hills. Not as much as normal because I planned on biking later.

Beauty.

Took my bike into Aztec Cycles to get my new tires on and redo my front brakes.

Preston has been working on my bike for over a decade.

I got a lot of stuff done. The tires were badly needed and should last me years. They are hybrid tires for my hybrid bike. That means that both are designed for street use as well as off road.

Listened to Don Cheto. Normally, there are about five people talking in the control room. They have a super fast conversation. Today, Don told a story about the change of attitude of a mother in the family. I understood pretty much all of it.

Kathy picked me up something to eat while I got the bike worked on. Thanks!

Worked on packing my bag. The backpack will go up Acatanengo volcano with me. It’s loaded with my cold weather clothes.

I think of packing in a modular way. I pack each thing in its own Walmart bag. I fold them up really tightly and then compress all the air out before I tie them up.

I sort everything by usage and put them in different gallon zip log bags. I’m fanatic about organization. Vision and cables.

Water prep and meds.

Tools and sewing.

Camera gear. I’ll shoot with my Canon Elph 360 HS and video with the iPhone 11 Pro Max.

Gift bag and my laundry line. The laundry line is a new edition to my gear. I think it will be super handy. I read a ton of articles about stuff to bring on trips. Most things I already knew, but I still gleaned some new ideas.

I’m also taking a smaller back pack with me as my carry on. This has an inflatable pillow, extension cord/outlets, paper copies of all my reservations in case of phone troubles and of course my passport and inoculation records. I’ll also carry several external batteries and a light jacket.

This side of my suitcase will contain my clothes and bathroom stuff.

I’ll do final washing and decide what clothes and how many changes on Wednesday. Do a final weigh in and decide what things should be left. I could rent a back pack and winter clothes when I get there for pretty cheap if I decide I don’t have enough room or I weigh in heavy.

My phone holder for my car wore out. Usually get a new one about every year or so. The gears are made of plastic and fail eventually.

K, J and I went to Walgreens to get Covid boosters an the flu shot for the year. We had to fill out forms that included address of our doctor.

I walked around outside studying Spanish while I waited for my appointment. Cool little bird nest.

Got pretty warm today here and in Guatemala.

Prepped my bike for my first ride with the new tires.

Listened to Hot Chip and other artists.

Rode 15.18 miles. Pretty hard ride today. Haven’t been biking as much, more focused on walking.

Got an email from my host in Panajachel. Groovy.

Ordered a new case for my iPhone. My old one is worn out.

Wrote and produced my newsletter. I hope to drop it off and get it copied on Monday. Another thing to mark off my to do list before I leave on Friday.

Took a bit of a break this evening. Worked hard on other projects. I’m way ahead of the next guy.

This looks interesting—from the blog of Tim Ferris.

Good times with my best friends. Blast from the past.

OYB!

Ordered groceries.

Español!

A few branches from a couple of my azaleas had died. Broke them off. They look better now.

My gardenia bush continues to delight.

I hope one day my frangipani will flower. It’s my favorite flower of all. It smells similar to gardenia.

Worked out hard today. Walked 4.57 miles. Twenty five hills.

Love my little rose bush.

Always learning and reviewing words.

My new bike tires came in. I called the shop to take my bike over to install them, but he asked me to come tomorrow when he has more help. Seemed reasonable.

I’m doing research on how much battery and cellular data my apps use. Almost all studying Spanish.

Beautiful weather here and where I’m going next week.

Gassed up my car. I used my discount price today. It’s why I get gas at Walmart. Every about fourth tank I get a .10 off per gallon.

Checked fluids.

Ordered a new iPhone holder for my car. They eventually wear out.

Got my groceries.

Jessi will water my plants while I’m out of the country. To make it less complicated she’ll just use distilled water for everything.

Went to Stone Mountain to record an episode of Verbal Surgery called “Counter Offensive.” Excellent.

I reckon I’ll come in #2 this week. Wow. Vincent is off the charts!