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Barbara Fritchman Thompson Diary

Week of 20 May 2000 (Week 21)

 

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Saturday, 20 May 2000

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I had a very nice trip to Knoxville, TN. If you live in the surrounding states and plan a visit to Tennessee, I recommend a visit to Knoxville. The bed and breakfast, Maplehurst Inn, where I stayed was absolutely wonderful. The owners Sonny and Becky Harben go out of their way to ensure a pleasant stay. The rooms are late Victorian and very tastefully furnished. They have the house arranged to accommodate several families or groups traveling together to socialize in the parlor or the rooms. Several have extra chairs or separate sitting rooms to allow for visiting. The breakfast was splendid, with a wide variety of fruit, breads, cereals, pastries and casserole. There is also a large dinning room for receptions or meetings. Each room has a TV and bathroom.

The Inn overlooks the Tennessee River, which has another wonderful attraction. The city spent a couple of million dollars on Volunteer Landing. The walkway runs along the river anchored on one end by a new Visitor's Center and restaurant and the other end by a train station and restaurant. Visitors can stroll along the walkway or stop and rest on one of the many benches along the route. Historical markers provide a picture and story of various events the took place along the river or the town since it was founded. They offer train rides and a river cruise. 

Nearby downtown is the World's Fair Park, a newly built area of pools, shops and restaurants built on the former site of the 1982 World's Fair (which I attended with my sister and had a wonderful time). The city of Knoxville is trying to revive its downtown area, as most large cities are doing. I did not have time to get down to the shops and Old City district but I understand it too is well worth a visit.

As always, I will be catching up on mail and stuff today after being out of town. I got back about 8:00 last night and was pretty beat after a five hour meeting and a five hour drive home. The meeting went well and everyone who attended seemed to enjoy themselves and learn some things in the process.

 

 

 

 

 

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Sunday, 21 May 2000

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Looks like the two baby birds have flown the nest. However, the mom is back this morning. Maybe she is using the nest to have another family. 

I am glad I mowed the lawn yesterday. We had a pretty big storm last night. It knocked out the power in parts of the city and blew down some trees. It is supposed to rain all day today and into tomorrow. We need the rain. It had gotten pretty dry from the early heat and high humidity and my yard was starting to look a little brown in spots.

Today is house cleaning and work day. I need to tackle my desk this afternoon and pay the bills along with web stuff and projects.

The no points, lots of money NASCAR race, the Winston, was held last night from Charlotte. It is fun to watch and is put on for the fans but I feel with such tight race schedules this is a waste of sheet metal and driver's time. Yea, they win a lot of money and it is a tune up for the Coca Cola 600 next week! But. Why not hold it on Thursday or Friday night and run the big race that Sunday. Use that weekend for a points race or a weekend off or something.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Monday, 22 May 2000

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I have a dozen errands to run this morning before I get my haircut at noon. 

I am still plodding away on November 1916 by Solzhenitsyn. It is getting very good now that I am into the first 100 pages or so. It just requires very focused reading to absorb the characters and the way the author has laid out the progression of the story. 

Believe it or not! Bob is being interviewed by the Wall Street Journal about dishwashers. You can read the story on his diary pages [here and here] about how all this came about.

So far early reviews of the book are positive. I am very excited to be contributing to the changes that need to be made and being involved in a publishing process.

I hope everyone's week gets off to a good start regardless of the time of day or location you may be reading this from.

 

 

 

 

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Tuesday, 23 May 2000

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Bob was actually interviewed by the Wall Street Journal yesterday about dishwashers. Upon my arrival home yesterday from errands he informed me I would be interviewed today. Hum! Can't wait to see how this article plays out in the actual paper.

It was going to happen sooner or later. Sherry, the woman that cleans for Lenore has been working for quite a long time cleaning the downstairs. She was not  a very good house cleaner but she kept the area fairly clean and Lenore enjoyed having her come. She was also giving Lenore her bath on one of the days she came. We cut her down to one day per week and hired a trained nurse to come one day a week to give her a bath and personal care attention.

Sherry got more and more unreliable, often not showing up or not coming on the day she was supposed to come. When she called again yesterday and was not coming, Lenore and I discussed it and decided maybe we were wasting her money having her come. So, I am now going to clean the downstairs myself. 

I am going to do a DEEP clean today and get all the areas Sherry never touched, such as moving a chair or behind things. Once I get it totally cleaned, I can keep it maintained when I do the upstairs on Sundays or do hers on Monday. It is not a huge area, but the kitchen and living area needs vacuumed and dusted regularly.  I can actually handle it better now that I work at home. Bob can help keep the kitchen and bathroom areas clean and I will do the other room. The bathroom is not used much and will easy.

I have a doctor's appointment this afternoon, so with the cleaning project and the appointment, today will not be a full "working" day for me. I am very excited about my web site getting reorganized and am almost ready to add some more pages. I also need to work on my genealogy stuff before I make the trip to Pennsylvania in a couple of weeks.

 

 

 

 

 

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Wednesday, 24 May 2000

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I have not made it to the gym this week with other things going on. I will do the spinning class this morning and go to the grocery store. Then I am going over to visit my mom and dad and have lunch with them.

If it does not rain this afternoon, Bob needs to clean out the back gutters so I can clean up the mess that he blows out. I am not sure if we are eating out or at home tonight. I may just fix something. 

I worked on my genealogy pages last night so they would be ready when Bob publishes this morning. I have several projects to work on this afternoon and tonight.

Below is a picture of me holding a newspaper that Malcolm just shredded about five minutes ago. This scenario plays itself out right regularly. I will be working in my office and hear shredding noises in the den. Upon my arrival I find something that Malcolm had found and is enjoying. The interesting thing about  this newspaper is that he stole it right from behind Bob's chair while he was in there working. It was an old paper rolled up to tap Malcolm on the snout with when he gets into things. HA, HA. Wait until I tell Lenore what happened. Bob is always getting after his mom for not keeping Malcolm from thieving tissues and tea bags from her when he is downstairs. He took this right out from under Bob's nose!

eaten-newspaper.jpg (44875 bytes) malcolm-yard.jpg (85421 bytes)  Malcolm the thief standing out in the front yard, taken a few days ago.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Thursday, 25 May 2000

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Short post this morning. I am playing golf and I need to get ready to go. It looks like rain but I don't think it will get here this morning. We are supposed to have storms this afternoon.

I mowed yesterday afternoon and Bob cleaned out the gutters. I can work this afternoon since all the outside jobs are done.

Not much else going on.

UPDATE: 10:15

They LIED! I am now back home having taken an indoor shower and put on dry cloths. We got as far the third hole when it got dark as pitch and the rain started falling in buckets. The storm, according to the Weather Channel and our local news, was supposed to go north into Virginia. Instead in grew into a full fledge weather system and came right at us. 

I will not usually even go to the course if it looks like rain, let alone thunder storms, are approaching. There are times when I stayed home and it never rained a drop. Other times, like today, it gets us. Its not nice to try to second guess Mother Nature.

The new forecast is 90% chance of rain today. When I left the house at 8:30 it was 30% chance of widely scattered showers this afternoon. Glad I mowed yesterday. You know the old saying, "make hay when the sun shines". 

My web master (aka husband) is doing a second publish so I can do this update. Isn't he nice.

 

 

 

 

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Friday, 26 May 2000

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That 30% chance of rain yesterday turned into a  tornado like storm system that swept through the Winston-Salem, Greensboro, and Burlington causes thousands of power outages from downed trees. Roofs were blown off and signs blown down. Boy, when the weather man misses it, he misses it badly.

We only had an 1 1/2 of rain in about an hour and not any damage. The system fired up right over us and gained strength as it headed East.

Off to the gym this morning.  Run a few errands. May stop by the library. I am supposed to do a home visit tonight in Salisbury. About an hour from here. I think I will take just Duncan as a treat. He does not get much alone time with me since we have Malcolm and this is not a good set up to visit with two dogs.

Bob installed PhotoDraw for me yesterday. I have been working on a logo for my main page that I will use on my business cards too. I was using Publisher but we could not convert it to a web graphic very well. It only took me about 20 minutes to do the graphic and learn the program. It is much better that Publisher and I will continue to explore and play with it.

I hope everyone has a good weekend where ever you are.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


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Copyright © 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004 by Barbara Fritchman Thompson. All Rights Reserved.