Cold morning!

OYB!

Called Don Maloney this morning. His Model T club collects toys for kids at their Christmas meeting. They’re giving them to Whirlwind Missions this year! Amen!

I studied Español outside on my porch as usual this morning. It was brisk.

Found out why I couldn’t get through to my Mom yesterday.

After a breakdown of communication through texting, the heater guy came over to my house around 2:30 PM.

Turned out the capacitor for the fan was dead. He put in a new one and everything worked perfectly! Only wrinkle is he replaced a 6w capacitor with a 5w one. Seems to be working fine, but might have to be swapped out with the more powerful one eventually.

Went to Stone Mountain to record an episode of Verbal Surgery called, “Cold Snap.”

I liked these comparisons.

Interesting!

How long can Russia keep this carnage up?

Pretty mild today! Cold air is coming.

OYB!

I was supposed to have the heater repairman come over today, but he got sick. I called another company instead. He’s coming tomorrow. Pastor Bill gave me his name and number.

Did some car insurance research. I’d read that if you tell them that you’re over 65, no DUI, no tickets and no wrecks in the last three years you should get a really big discount. I called my Progressive agent to see if there’s any truth to that.

ATT came over today and moved their telephone wire over to the new pole.

Tightened up the screws on our front door handle.

Sent a text to my brother in law.

Fun talk with my buddy Anthony.

Put the lights on our Christmas tree. She grows all year long. Nearly a foot last year!

Blew the leaves off the driveway.

Left my Mom a voice mail.

Don Cheto.

I got a new clicker for Penelope that turns the volume up and down and turns the TV on/off. She was SO happy.

Took J’s comforter to Azalea to wash it in the industrial size machines. Dried it for 1.5 hours. It’ll still get more drying at home.

Put a new plastic case on my Mac Air. The old one developed a crack and a couple of days ago came off. New one now.

I usually check with the church secretary to see if I have mail in my box.

I liked these oak leaves.

I ate at Pho 24 today for lunch. Lots of tagging there. Most of it by the same guy.

Took the girls home for a snack and to check on the pup.

Went by the church to check the mail.

I liked these at Publix. I went there to get us a Key Lime pie.

Went to Azalea to help the kids with their homework.

Cleaned up the mission before I left.

I’ll return his call tomorrow morning.

Helped Jessi with her taxes. I went through about fifty documents, figured out the ones we needed. We still ran into some questions that we weren’t sure about. I sent the docs to a tax man I know.

Good competition.

Sent a note to my friends the Blackmons thanking them for giving me gloves for the kids. I gave a bunch out today to the older boys.

Been super cold, down in the 20s! I turned my space heater on. If I keep my room above 60 I feel fine.

I’ll be up early tomorrow in case the Heater/AC people get here at 8:00 AM.

OYB!

Not sure what was going on with K’s phone. Probably stupid Mint Mobile. Get what you pay for I reckon.

Español!

Cleaned out the ice that was in the bird bath. Refilled with water so they could drink.

Topped off the feeders.

Good chat with Anthony.

K and I picked up the girls at the bus and took them home.

Helped the kids at the mission. I have a kindergartener that just barely speaks English. It’s exactly why I study Español every day.

One of her N words was “nest.” I had to look up the Spanish word for it: Nido. I was close, but not quite right.

The boys like to play games.

I took a group of boys outside to see the ISS, but unfortunately it was too cloudy. Bahd luck.

Gassed up my car and checked the oil.

This is the Finals of the Duolingo Tournament. Everyone pushes harder this week.

OYB!

Really cold. I still studied Spanish outside, however.

Good chat with Anthony. Colder here than in the UK.

Went to my treasurer Jon Paul’s house to get the Amazon reimbursement checks signed. I only cash one when I really need it.

Went by my office to check the mail. Letter from NAMB showing the amount of donations.

Picked up the girls and brought them home.

Late last night I remembered that the manager of Azalea told me that it wasn’t necessary to drip the pipes. She said they’d never had a problem with that. So I immediately turned off the dripping faucet when I got to the Mission.

Went to Azalea with PE and Ryder. Helped the kids with their homework.

Everly outgrew this bike. I gave it to one of the kids today. She may very well leave it at the mission for other kids to ride. That’s typical. Pumped up the tires and checked the chain.

I enjoy looking at the decorations around the Mission.

Beautiful Moon!

If I’m at the mission at the right time, I’ll show the kids the ISS tomorrow!

Just keep going.

Came in #1 this week in the Semi-Finals of the Duolingo tournament. The competition seems very tough this week. Hopefully, I’ll be in the top five.

Year end report.

Got an email from a guy who I talked with years ago. Looks like I’ll have lunch with him and his Pastor next week.

Our heater isn’t working that great. It’s heating but the fan isn’t blowing the air much.

Cold.

OYB!

I met with my banker Kaberi Besu at PNC at noon. She has helped me out a lot over the last few years. She explained to me exactly how much I ended up paying this year. I wasn’t sure the exact amount because they just sent me a big check to reimburse me. She also gave me the good news that our house will be completely paid off August 2026. I’ve been paying every other week and that accelerated the end date. Originally the mortgage would’ve been paid off in April 3030! That’s nearly four years early. I thought that was pretty good.

Not sure what happened to this. I sent their letter to our health insurance agent.

Apparently, there was a massive data leak at Bank of America. I had to change the passwords on the Whirlwind Missions and my personal account. What a hassle. Once I got the mobile app working again, I ordered some more checks for Whirlwind Missions, Inc.

I let Jon Paul and Ashley know about the change.

Mileage for the month. It sure was nice to have a break from driving over the holidays.

Frigid weather on the way. Yow!

Good talk with Nana.

Everly colored a picture for me. She also made a little book and read it to me.

Went by the church to check the mail. Nothing there, which was kind of surprising.

The girls put up the tree this weekend.

Picked up Penelope after Drama Club.

I set up Penelope’s new monitor. Got her a new Roku clicker that also adjusts the TV’s volume for her on the way.

Ashley brought us a form to fill out for K in case she wants to renew her driver’s license on line. The DMV in Gwinnett County is really good.

Went to Azalea to check on the kids. They don’t have much homework if any. I gave some gloves out and dripped the sink to run overnight. In fact it’ll probably run constantly for the next five days.

I set the mission back up after the Thanksgiving party.

Picked groceries and put them away.

I’m getting a new case for my Mac air. Ironically, the case usually cracks when I’m trying to put it on. It never actually hits anything.

Interesting graphs about Duolingo. I’m glad that Spanish is the #2 language. It’s a very good course.

Push.

Did some research about K renewing her license soon. Apparently, she has to have her eyes tested, which is what I had assumed.

I asked Ashley her advice. She told me they were booked for over a month.

I’ve enjoyed watching this movie “Nandor Fodor and the Talking Mongoose.” It features a poem by Yeats that I like.

Tweaked my Jedi video game.

Baylor beat Kansas Saturday night 45 to 17. That’s six in a row. Didn’t see that coming.

OYB!

Good talk with my buddy, Anthony.

Made PBJs for J.

Set up an appointment to talk with PNC bank about my mortgage tomorrow at noon. Sent my banker an email, though I’m not sure I’ll see her tomorrow.

I’ll come in an easy #1 this week. Next week is the finals.

This guy is such a grifter.

I downloaded iOS 18.1.1 last week. One of the additions is the ability to change where the app icons can be placed. I’ve redone the screens to make the apps easier to access.

Cold!

OYB!

I thought that the heater in our house might not be working properly. I changed the filter. That seemed to help. I will call these guys back and cancel if it continues to work.

Good talk with Nana about her upcoming move to our house. Amen.

Good chat with my buddy, Anthony. He was waiting at the airport to pick up his son and his son’s girlfriend.

Ordered an extension cord for Penelope’s PS4 set up.

I finished typing up the Amazon reimbursement project. I did 2024 and 2023 today. Also summed up the totals. I still need to print them out and write the checks so I can take them to Jon Paul to sign.

I’ll come #1 this week.

I deposited the disbursement check I got from PNC bank from my mortgage overpayment. Amen.

I’m always learning something new about my iPhone.

Made PBJs for J.

OYB!

Español!

Cold and getting ready to be even colder.

Went to the GoodWill in Stone Mountain and in Snellville looking for nice monitors for the PS4 I gave Penelope for her birthday.

I had to figure out how to power the TVs up, how to connect them to some type of input and find an HDMI cable. I basically took over that section of the store, plugging things in, finding cables and checking out how they worked. A man came over to help me. He actually works on fixing TVs! So he gave some good input. It was nice to have someone to bounce ideas off of. It didn’t have a price on it so I talked to one of the warehouse guys and told him that the rest were about $25 but this one was smaller than those. He came back with the TV after about ten minutes with a brand new price tag of $15.99. What?! So I had two guys do me a solid today. I’m usually the guy helping someone else out. It was nice to have the shoe on the other foot!

I gave it a good cleaning with a washcloth with a damp soap/water mix when I got home. That made the screen look like new again.

Went to Stone Mountain to record a new episode of Verbal Surgery called, “The Unknown.” Excellence in audio!

Hard freeze is on the way. I put on protectors for the two outside faucets.

Put the TV I got from GoodWill back in my car and covered it up.

Adelante!

This show looks like it could be fun.

Good idea.

Talked with my buddy Anthony this morning. His Dad just had a heart attack.

OYB!

Español!

Cold weather is coming. I brought my carnivorous plants back inside.

I haven’t been reimbursed for business expenses that I’ve entailed with Whirlwind in over five years. I’m working on cataloging the expenses and totaling them so I can get reimbursement checks.

The bulb in my desk light broke today. Ordered another one as well as more printer paper.

My roses in my front yard are looking lovely.

We had a great time at Ashley’s house today. She cooked a lot of food. I appreciate her having us over. Miles and the girls were doing great! I gave Penelope my old PS4 and the VR head set for it.

We had fun playing Apples to Apples.

Keep going.

I’ve been doing research on walk in showers.

Banksy is one of my favorites. I’ve seen several of his works in London and Jerusalem.

More scams all the time.

I downloaded a new section of Horizon Forbidden West called “Burning Shore.” It’s made specifically for the PS5 and just looks incredible. They have a photo mode that you can use to tweak the exact picture that you want.

OYB!

Everly enjoyed playing with the Silly String.

Set up K’s phone so she could tell where I am.

Ashley was having a problem with her Jeep. I called AAA to tow her car to Garmon to have a looked at it.

They showed up at her house in less than ten minutes! What!?

Español!

Ashley had decorated the house for Penelope’s birthday and Thanksgiving tomorrow.

Gassed up my car and checked the oil. I added about 1/2 quart.

Refilled the quart container.

Went to my office to check the mail and process checks. Thank you, Father!

Deposited the checks.

Ordered more Scotch tape. It’s one of the most useful tools ever.

Wrapped Penelope’s birthday presents.

Push.