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Week of 20 August 2001 Latest
Update: Saturday, 26 April 2003 08:53 |
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Monday, 20 August 2001 [Last Week] [Monday] [Tuesday] [Wednesday] [Thursday] [Friday] [Saturday] [Sunday] [Next Week] |
| I'm back. Got home last night around 10:15. Of course the
dogs gave me a major greeting and Bob wagged his tail and barked too! They
were all glad to see me. By the time we unloaded the car and caught up it
was eleven. I was pretty tired from four days of being on the move and
getting up early with long days so I headed off the bed.
The trip was phenomenal. Fortunately we had great weather because a good deal of this trip was spent outside on ferries, boats, trucks, golf carts, and islands. And it was HOT. But, absolutely one of the best trips I have ever been on. I am looking forward to telling you all about it. The lighthouses are awesome to see, so more than others. We climbed two in all. The third one the public is usually allowed to climb is closed due some work being done but we were able to take pictures and see it from the outside. This morning I am off this morning for my hair cut appointment and drop off the film. Back home, we will get the laundry sorted and get things back in order after my absence as well as unpack and all that other good stuff. It will take most of the day to get caught up. One of the two manual cameras that I still used has finally given up the ghost. I think it is time for me to get a digital camera of my own and I can still carry one manual camera. I was also shooting a new film speed, 400 rather than 200, so I hope my pictures turned out. That at least made it easy using the manual camera that had gone on the fritz. I just set the shutter speed wide open and shot. With the sun shinning I did not need the meter anyway. I just hope everything else was working. I finished shooting the roll that I had loaded in there and then put it away for the remainder of the trip. Guess I better get ready to head out. I will begin working on the trip page today and have it ready to put the pictures in as soon as I get them back.
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Tuesday, 21 August 2001 [Last Week] [Monday] [Tuesday] [Wednesday] [Thursday] [Friday] [Saturday] [Sunday] [Next Week] |
| Slowly but surely I am getting caught up. I dropped off the
film at the drugstore yesterday morning on the way to my hair appointment.
On the way home I stopped at the pet store and picked up treats for the
dogs.
First things first, I unpacked my suitcase then got started on the house. I had to vacuum the floors to get the massive amounts of dog hair up and at least clean the toilets and sinks. Afterwards I drove over to the drugstore to pick up the pictures. After lunch I sorted them in trip order so I could work on the trip report. But first, I had to go out and mow the lawn. Although it has been very dry some areas of the yard were pretty high. I wanted to go ahead and get the mowing out of the way with everything else I have planned to get done this week. After dinner I started I started on the trip report. Today Bob and I will scan the pictures for me to drop in and I should have it up by tomorrow. I bought a photo album to assemble the pictures, postcards, and other things I picked up along the way into a scrapbook. Tonight is supposed to be clear and cool. I want to go up to Bullington to do some observing. It has been awhile since we were up and I have missed looking at stars and planets. [Top] |
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Wednesday, 22 August 2001 [Last Week] [Monday] [Tuesday] [Wednesday] [Thursday] [Friday] [Saturday] [Sunday] [Next Week] |
| The lighthouse trip
report is up. Hope you enjoy. I have read it over twice but as usual if
you find a mistake or a dead link please let me know.
Yesterday afternoon after working on the trip report for most of the morning I took a break and went out to SciWorks to get in some work on the library project. Bob wanted Chinese for dinner so I stopped on my way home for some take out. After dinner we gave the dogs a good long out than packed up and took off for Bullington. Finally, we had a nice cool, clear night for doing some observing. I actually was able to find several deep sky objects for the first time and I found the planet Uranus. The conditions were almost perfect with the last quarter moon going down around 9:30 or so. We also looked at Neptune and about 20 Messier Objects. All in all we had a good evening and still got home a little after 11 pm. With the days getting shorter we can now head up to Bullington get a couple of good hours of observing in and still be home at a fairly decent hour. Off to the gym and grocery store this morning. This afternoon I have a lot of little projects to get done including organizing all my stuff from the trip, cleaning off my desk, writing checks, etc. I guess you heard about the little accident the dogs had with one of my Lenox birds. Well, those things will happen if you have dogs and play ball in the house. Today I am moving all those figurines to a safer location and will replace them with things that will not break. It is really my fault because I myself have come close to nailing them when I throw the ball and knew they were in danger. I really enjoyed having them where I could see them and the corner shelf was the only place in the den they could be located. The mantel holds my Lilliput Lane Cottage collection. Lots to do today so I best get started. Have a good one yourself. [Top] |
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Thursday, 23 August 2001 [Last Week] [Monday] [Tuesday] [Wednesday] [Thursday] [Friday] [Saturday] [Sunday] [Next Week] |
| Another busy day. I spent all of yesterday afternoon
getting things put away, cleaned up, and organized. At least at this point
I have organized piles of things that need to be finished but my kitchen
table, office, and desk area at least look better. I took short breaks to
check my mail and web sites but other than that worked all afternoon.
I am waiting until dad gets his pictures back before I do my scrapbook. If any of them turned out really good I will scan them and add them to the trip page. By the way, I did have time to read on the bus and in the room a bit. I started out reading From the Wilderness by Walt Larson that I had picked up sorting gift books at the library. I am about half way through and it is fair but not one I would recommend. The reason I am only half way finished is one night I left it on the bus and decided to go ahead and start another paperback I had with me in the room, Skeleton Dance by Aaron Elkins. I enjoyed this one so much I decided to continue with it instead of going back my other book. As many of you know I am newly discovering mystery fiction and this is my first Aaron Elkins. In this one the main character is Gideon Oliver, an anthropologist and his wife Julie who have set off for France to investigate the possible murder of a colleague whose bones have turned up in a Neanderthal cave. Professor Oliver is also writing a book on an incident three years prior that involved another archeologist associated with this same institution faked an excavated find of bones that later were determined to have been stolen from another museum. I believe Elkins won the coveted Edgar Award, a very high honor in mystery fiction, for Old Bones, another Gideon Oliver, which I shall also read. He had also written a couple of golf mysteries with his wife that I want get to eventually. My "to be read" shelf has not become full again. I was down to like three books at one point. After I finish the mystery I will go back and finish the other book. As usual I am writing this post last night since dad and I are playing golf this morning. We had a couple of days of cool weather and low dew points but today is to be back in the 90's and high humidity. This afternoon we are taking the blue truck for its 60,000 mile checkup: timing belt, water pump, etc. Bob will follow me out and we will leave it for Tim to start on and finish up on Friday.
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Friday, 24 August 2001 [Last Week] [Monday] [Tuesday] [Wednesday] [Thursday] [Friday] [Saturday] [Sunday] [Next Week] |
| It doesn't happen often around here but we slept in late
this morning. I had gone to bed to read last night and turned the light
off around 10 pm. This has been a pretty busy week getting caught up from
the trip and I was really tired and sleepy. Just as I was getting to sleep
we had a horrible thunderstorm move in. Next thing I knew I had two dogs,
one on each side wanting to be comforted. The storm was one of the worse
ones we have had for awhile.
Bob came on back to bed shortly after while we had a second storm to move in. By the time the storms were over and things quieted down it was well after 11. I fell asleep for a little while then Bob woke me up snoring and making weird noises in his sleep. I moved to the couch and proceeded to try once again to get some sleep. Next thing I knew Bob was up with the dogs and it was 8:23 this morning. Even they must have been tired to let us sleep in that long. While he took them out I went back to bed and dozed for another thirty minutes or so. After a quick breakfast I jumped in the shower because the heating/air people are coming by this morning to do our six month maintenance check. For those of you who did not know us back when Malcolm was a little pup, Bob caught him in the act one day checking out the toilet paper. This was not a staged picture, trust me. From then on we have had coke cans with pennies in them on our toilet paper dispensers to keep him from messing with the rolls. Finally about three weeks ago I decided he had outgrown this behavior and had removed the cans. Bob said while I was gone last weekend he came in the hall bath to find Malcolm in much the same position having a toilet tissue snack. This morning when I came out of the shower in our bath there was a long drape of toilet paper going from the bathroom to our bed and yes, Malcolm was sitting on the bed with the end of the roll in his mouth happily munching away again. So, that is how the morning has started off. I stripped the bed linens this morning to not only change the sheets but to wash the blanket and the mattress pad. I also need to brush the dogs and do their teeth today. If we get the car back early enough this afternoon I will go over to Reynolda Library and do a couple of volunteer hours. The book sale is not that far off. I hope your weekend is a good one. [Top] |
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Saturday, 25 August 2001 [Last Week] [Monday] [Tuesday] [Wednesday] [Thursday] [Friday] [Saturday] [Sunday] [Next Week] |
| I picked Bob up yesterday afternoon when I finished working
at the library so we could go out for dinner. I spent most of the evening
reading and playing with the dogs. I watched the last part of the Busch
race from Bristol, TN. The Winston Cup race is tonight from the same
track. We are supposed to go up to Bullington to observe. I will take my
walkman and just listen to the race to keep up with what is happening. The
Bristol race is one of the better ones with a lot of action.
Yesterday before I took off for the library Bob and I started building a small system for him to put beside the couch in the den. When I left all he had to do was add the processor, fan, and memory. We left to go pick up the car from the garage and I then drove on over to the library. He called me at the library and said when he tried to turn the system on it was dead. Guess we will work on that this afternoon and he has some projects he wants me to get started on for the poisons book. First thing this morning I am off to the gym for spinning class. Afterward I need to stop at the drugstore and pick up a few things. I finished the Aaron Elkins mystery and started the sixth in the series by Robin Paige. I picked up a reserve book at the library yesterday which means I need to finish this Paige mystery so I can get started on it. Oh, and I forgot to mention that I found a replacement for the Lenox bird that got broken. It came in the mail yesterday.
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[Last Week] [Monday] [Tuesday] [Wednesday] [Thursday] [Friday] [Saturday] [Sunday] [Next Week] |
| Busy, busy day. Yesterday when I got back from the gym Bob
and I pulled out the sofa in the den so he could run cable for the PC he
wanted to add beside where he sits. I do try to clean underneath the sofa
with a long duster but it is hard to get all the hair and stuff that gets
under there. Being a This End Up sofa it is not a piece of furniture you
just move on a whim.
Bob and I ran cable up the attic for the box behind the sofa and up from the basement to his office. While he made connections and got the Ethernet cable run I finished cleaning the area behind the sofa and his table including the paneling while I had good access. Be sure to see his before and after pictures on his page this morning. All that junk came off his side table that I had to find a place for so he could have room for his monitor. This little project took most of the afternoon and by 3:00 it was time for a shower and a break on the couch with my book. Around 4 we cleaned up the other PC project from the kitchen table and tidied up the kitchen. We also decided we were just too tired to go up to Bullington for observing. Plus it was to be real humid which meant it would be hazy.
I fixed salads, bread, and steaks on the grill for dinner than did some work at the computer. The race from Bristol started at 8 and very quickly became a demolition derby. By 10 I was having a hard time staying awake but managed to make it to the end of the race at 11:30. This morning I will clean the rest of the house and then work on stuff this afternoon. Nancy is supposed to come by and help me hang up tie dye shirts to take pictures for the CBCR merchandise page on the web site.
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