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Barbara Fritchman Thompson Diary Week of 13 October 2003 Latest Update: Sunday, 19 October 2003 18:39 |
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Monday, 13 October 2003 [Last Week] [Monday] [Tuesday] [Wednesday] [Thursday] [Friday] [Saturday] [Sunday] [Next Week] |
| Hi, I'm back. Although I really did not go any where. I
just decided to take the weekend off from posting. I had a full weekend of
things to do and get done. Friday I left work for Wal-Mart. By the time I
got home it was time to fix dinner. After dinner I checked my mail and
spent the remainder of the evening on the couch reading and relaxing.
One thing about my job is how extremely taxing it is mentally. That topped with the contract work by Friday I very often mentally exhausted. It was nice to take a few days off and other than reading let my brain take a rest. Saturday I was up early again, 6:40 to drive over to Greensboro for a fly ball tournament to sell CBCR merchandise. The weather was damp, windy and cloudy but it never did rain. I packed up there around 3:00 to head back home. Bob helped me unload the car then I fixed dinner. I spent part of the evening watching the race from Charlotte and catching up on my magazines. I went to bed around 9 to watch the remainder of the race but couldn't hold my eyes open past 10. Sunday it was up early again, 6:45, to play golf. We played the first six holes in the fog. It was not pea soup variety but just thick enough to make it hard to see long distances until the sun came up high enough to burn it off. After lunch with mom and dad I came home, read the paper, and cleaned house. After I finished up in the house I fired up my lawn vacuum to get the leaves off the driveway and part of the yard where they were laying thick then mowed. After I mowed I washed my car removing the mud I brought home from the field on Saturday. We had leftovers for dinner then I came back to check my mail before crashing out on the couch until bedtime. Today was rather routine with work, no holiday for us, dinner, gym, mail check, and journal page. I finished up the Laurie R. King mystery and started one that I need to review for Breakthrough Promotions. Guess that gets you all caught up on things here at the Thompson Techno Grotto. Have a great week. By the way, this is week 42 of the year. That leaves only ten weeks until the end of the year. Yikes, where did 2003 go?
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Tuesday, 14 October 2003 [Last Week] [Monday] [Tuesday] [Wednesday] [Thursday] [Friday] [Saturday] [Sunday] [Next Week] |
| It was one of those cloudy gray days where it looked like
it wanted to pour down rain but never did. We had a very brief light rain
just after dinner around 6pm. Then as I was sitting back here checking my
mail after going to the gym it started pouring for about ten minutes then
stopped.
Things are very busy and intense at work as we prepare for the upgrade at the end of the month. There will be a lot of work to do before and even more to do after. I mentioned the review copy I am reading last night. The title is The Ice Curtain by Robin White. I am pretty sure I read one of his earlier works, Siberian Light. As you can tell from the titles, his books are set in Russia. Ice Curtain deals with the rough world of diamond mining in Siberia. I was not sure I was going to like it as first but after several chapters I found myself getting hooked into the story line. Although I do not read thrillers this one reminds me a lot of the Julie Kaewert books dealing the nasty side of rare book publishing. Gregori Nowek arrives Moscow to meet of with his friend and Siberian Delegate Arkady Volsky to attend a meeting with the state diamond chairman to demand that his miners in Mirney get paid. When Volsky is killed outside the chairman's office Nowek goes to Mirney to find out why his friend as framed for stealing billions of dollars worth of diamonds and then killed. Some one is sending the diamond to the black market rather then the cartel who controls the diamond industry all over the world. Fast paced and intriguing characters keep the book moving. Sup plots include Nowek's concert violinist father who needs someone to care for him and a beautiful woman Nowek meets in Mirney and falls for.
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Wednesday, 15 October 2003 [Last Week] [Monday] [Tuesday] [Wednesday] [Thursday] [Friday] [Saturday] [Sunday] [Next Week] |
| Bob
posted a full discourse on his page today about Kerry. I actually do
not think the decision is a very hard one. While he does remain extremely
active for an almost 16 year old dog I am not sure his quality of life is
all that good. As Bob mentioned, we had hoped he would die in his sleep
but I fear that will not come about before his body fails him first.
The constant roaming and hissing noises while lying down I think are all a part of his failure mentally. He has a hard time walking around both in doors and even outside in the yard. I do think he is some pain physically which may be the reason for all the constant movement. When Lenore lived in the Brian Center there was an Alzheimer's patient who rolled up and down the halls in a rolling type seat, swearing at the top of her lungs. I think Kerry has reached this same point in his life. Unfortunately our society does not allow us to humanly put humans down that are in that condition but we can do that with our animals. While I hate to play God and make that decision for Kerry, I think the time has come to let him rest in peace. He has lived a long and full life with a lot of changes for one dog. We are getting ready to take the dogs out and then head out for dinner and our FAS meeting.
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Thursday, 16 October 2003 [Last Week] [Monday] [Tuesday] [Wednesday] [Thursday] [Friday] [Saturday] [Sunday] [Next Week] |
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It was farming day at the Thompson Techno Grotto. The guy came this morning to plug my yard. I left work at 2 to get a head start on the things I wanted to get done this afternoon before it got too late in the day. I wanted to move the edging bricks around the small natural area I have in the back. That area is something akin to a sink hole. Several years ago a portion of that corner of the yard completely caved in. I had to order a truck load of fill dirt to get it filled back in. Now a small area in the yard just in front of the pavers has sunk a little making it hard to hold the mower and turn the corner. I pulled the pavers out even with the higher part of the ground then back filled in behind them. The other big chore was creating a large square area under my red bud tree where the grass refuses to grow. I outlined where I wanted the landscape timbers to go then dug the little bit of grass and dirt up inside and used it fill in some other bare spots. After all this I put out my seed and fertilizer. We had left over pizza for dinner while we watched NYPD. For some reason West Wing did not tape last night so I missed it. After I get finished checking my mail I think it will be time to settled in for some rest and relaxing.
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Friday, 17 October 2003 [Last Week] [Monday] [Tuesday] [Wednesday] [Thursday] [Friday] [Saturday] [Sunday] [Next Week] |
| Exhausted again! This morning it was all I could do to get
up when the alarm went off. I managed to make it through the day but felt
like I would fall asleep at my desk as well as having very little energy.
I guess the last few weeks of nonstop going has finally caught up with me.
I came home from work, walked the dogs and then settled down on the couch to watch ER. When the show started running they ran a crawler that they were running a rerun and would run a new show next week. HUH! Bob asked if anything was going on and I said not that I was aware of. Instead, we watched the first two episodes of Angel, one during dinner and one after. When I came back to check my mail I had a message from one of my readers. Apparently, West Wing was also a rerun, meaning I did not miss it Wednesday night. Due to the baseball playoffs NBC ran all reruns rather than waste a new episode. GREAT! Many thanks to my reader for letting me know. I plan to rest and relax tonight. I did finish up the review book last night. Not sure what I will start next. Hope you have a great weekend.
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Saturday, 18 October 2003 [Last Week] [Monday] [Tuesday] [Wednesday] [Thursday] [Friday] [Saturday] [Sunday] [Next Week] |
| No update.
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[Last Week] [Monday] [Tuesday] [Wednesday] [Thursday] [Friday] [Saturday] [Sunday] [Next Week] |
| Another busy Saturday. Frances and Al had us over yesterday
for brunch around 9:30. Afterward, while Bob worked on their PC dad and I
drove out the lawn and garden store. I needed to pick up some bushes for
the front of the house. By the time we got back Bob was finished
installing the Mozilla upgrade and setting up some files.
I guess we got back home around 1. I cleaned up my office then helped Bob in the reorganizing of Astrotruck. After that it was shower and nap time. We ate an early dinner then headed up to Pilot Mountain for an observing session. We had one of the best nights in almost a year. Not a cloud in the sky, no dew, moderate temperatures in the mid 40's and no moon. Bob and I bagged some more objects on our Hershel list. We left Pilot around midnight, walked the dogs, played some ball and I was in bed by 1 am. Back up at 6:45 to play golf on another absolutely beautiful fall day. Deep blue skies, it started off chilly but warmed up once the sun got higher. Mom had lunch ready for us when we finished up. When I got home Bob blew out the front gutters while I gently raked the worst of the leaves off the grass without disturbing the seed and fertilizer. We then read the paper before getting the weekly house cleaning done. Bob had finished the laundry by the time I got home. While he cleaned the bathrooms I vacuumed. After my shower I took a rest on the couch to watch the race from Martinsville and took a short nap. Needless to say it will be an early bed time tonight to get in some reading before I fall asleep.
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