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Barbara Fritchman Thompson Diary Week of 6 September 2004 Latest Update: Sunday, 11 September 2004 19:22 |
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Monday, 6 September 2004 [Last Week] [Monday] [Tuesday] [Wednesday] [Thursday] [Friday] [Saturday] [Sunday] [Next Week] |
| Happy Labor Day. I intend to do very
little laboring today. I slept in until 8. Read the paper, ate
breakfast, and headed out for an early trip out to Wal-Mart to
try to beat the crowds. Be sure to check out Bob's page
to see his a picture of his little gift I bought.
Here, I wrapped the towel and sock around his snout and
nose while he was focusing on his tennis ball. He actually just sat
there with his eyes covered up. The second book in the bloodhound series by Virginia Lanier, The House on Bloodhound Lane, features a blind bloodhound. One of Jo Beth's litters had a blind pup. She brought it into the house as her companion while training him. If you are like me when reading series, you will want to read these in order. She does relate events in this book back to the first one. Enjoy your day whatever you may have planned. [Top] |
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Tuesday, 7 September 2004 [Last Week] [Monday] [Tuesday] [Wednesday] [Thursday] [Friday] [Saturday] [Sunday] [Next Week] |
| As promised I spent yesterday afternoon
and evening reading and watching tennis. Consequently, I managed to
finish the bloodhound book last night. Of course, the blind dog saves
the day. Having just recently seed a blind dog in action when we
visited the one Lori was fostering, I am well aware of their abilities.
With no sight, their hearing I imagine they are very much like humans
developing an even stronger sense of hearing to make up for their lack
of sight.
Next up, I will read the last and most recent book in the Jane Austen series. I will be very busy at work this week. The other person I share database monitoring with is on vacation this week. There is no way I can come close to clearing them but will turn my attention to more important ones. We have several types of tickets that come though. One type needs our approval in order for the addition or changes to be made to the database. Those are the most important ones and need to be cleared first. The second, and one that generates a lot of tickets, are changes that are made to the database but just need reviewed. I will get to those as I have time. Frances is marching northward at a very slow speed. It rained a steady but light rain all day. The heavy stuff along with winds and possible tornado activity is to come in tonight and tomorrow. If you live north of me, watch out, she is on her way. So far the tennis in New York has had beautiful weather. That may change starting tomorrow night or Thursday unless Frances turns more toward the northwest.
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Wednesday, 8 September 2004 [Last Week] [Monday] [Tuesday] [Wednesday] [Thursday] [Friday] [Saturday] [Sunday] [Next Week] |
| It could have been worse. Other than
loosing power here at home for a couple of hours and about 3 1/2" of
rain so far, that is about all we got from Frances. West and east of us
had some major flooding. We were under tornado watch until
mid-afternoon.
When I left the gym this evening we were still getting some light rain which I think is supposed to continue through tonight but it should all be cleared out of here by tomorrow.
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Thursday, 9 September 2004 [Last Week] [Monday] [Tuesday] [Wednesday] [Thursday] [Friday] [Saturday] [Sunday] [Next Week] |
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Totally surprised! I had Friends meeting this afternoon so I did not get home until almost 6pm. Bob told me I had to see what he had been doing at my PC all day in my office. I immediately assumed he had been working to install Xandros and had software boxes and/or hardware sitting around to show me. Instead, sitting on my desk was a large blue and grey box that had a picture of a car radio with a CD player. He had bought me a NEW CD Player for my car. For the last year or so I have had only one front speaker that worked. Several months ago, the other front speaker started going in and out. The radio works but has horrid static regardless of the station. I listen to CD's in the car most of the time anyway. He TOTALLY surprised me by ordering a new one for my anniversary present. More on that in a minute. He actually tried to come up with a scheme to install it in my car but has been too busy between handling the roof problems and getting his chapter finished. Tomorrow is our 21st wedding anniversary. It really does not seem like it has been 21 years. Honestly. Anyway, I have a busy day planned for tomorrow. I am leaving work at 3:30 to get some errands run on the other side of town. Bob and I were going out to dinner at our favorite, nice restaurant. Instead, the forecast for now is leaning toward fairly decent skies. If so, we will forgo the nice dinner to get a chance to get out and do some observing. It means I may not have time to get a post up for tomorrow depending on how things go. Time to go watch the men's tennis. [Top] |
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Friday, 10 September 2004 [Last Week] [Monday] [Tuesday] [Wednesday] [Thursday] [Friday] [Saturday] [Sunday] [Next Week] |
| Happy 21st anniversary, Bob!
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Saturday, 11 September 2004 [Last Week] [Monday] [Tuesday] [Wednesday] [Thursday] [Friday] [Saturday] [Sunday] [Next Week] |
| We ended up eating at the Chinese place
last night to save time. It was still up in the air when we went to
dinner as to whether or not we would go out observing. It turns out we
did not go due to conditions not being favorable for doing deep sky
stuff. Today has been business as usual. I went to the gym for the 9am spin class then came home and cleaned house. After lunch I took the dogs down to visit and play with Emma while I caught up on news from Steve and Mimi. After I brought them back in I started in the yard. Hurricane Frances blew down a lot limbs in the yard. After picking up sticks I mowed. While all this was going on Bob installed a new hard drive on my machine and switched me over to Xandros. By the time I had taken my shower he had me up and running with some house cleaning chores left to do. I am publishing this entry with Mozilla Composer. After I finish and publish Bob will show me how to check my mail and help me set up my rules again. If conditions are favorable for tonight we may try to get out to do some observing. This morning the forecast was very promising. As usual, by mid-afternoon it has deteriorated again in terms of clouds and water vapor.
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Sunday, 12 September 2004 [Last Week] [Monday] [Tuesday] [Wednesday] [Thursday] [Friday] [Saturday] [Sunday] [Next Week] |
| By late yesterday afternoon the
forecast had once again deteriorated to less than favorable conditions
for doing deep sky observing. However, Steve called around 6:10 and
said he thought the field we use west of Winston might be pretty good.
We decided we might as well follow him out and give it a try. While
conditions were not great, Bob and I did manage to get 10 objects on
our deep sky binocular list. Since both of us were pretty tired anyway, the advantage to doing binocular stuff is being able to spend most the evening sitting down in a chair, looking up objects in the Deep Sky Observers Guide and finding them in the binoculars. No a lot of walking around or bending over an eyepiece at the scope. We packed up and headed home around midnight. By the time we got home and walked the dogs it was a little past 1am when we got to bed. I was up at 6:30 to play golf. It was a glorious morning weather wise with cool temperatures. I did not stay for lunch afterward because Frances was having us all over for dinner tonight. I came home to help Bob install the radio in my car. After getting the speakers hooked up we ran into a SNAFU with the wires that connect the radio to the car. Bob discovered he would have to solder them or use wire crimpers. We did not have the correct size wire connectors at home. After showers and gathering of necessary gear we headed off to Frances and Al's with a stop at Lowe's on the way. At Frances', Bob removed the old and installed the new hard drive then installed Xandros. He then discovered their Internet connection was down with Roadrunner. That prevented him from getting some final things done in setting them up with mail and Mozilla. Frances and Al prepared a wonderful Mexican feast with all kinds of tacos, enchiladas, bean dip, rice, and other goodies. We left their house around 5:15 so Bob could come home and finish up the radio. While he started crimping wires I fed and took the dogs out. We finished up the crimping and went to install the radio. NOT. What Bob had crimped was the adapter which did not fit the radio, which he discovered inside the radio box with a different adapter.BLAH! I told him just to bag everything for the night and we could start all over tomorrow. He and I are both tired and he was very frustrated with the fact that nothing seemed to go right on any of the days projects. [Top] |
