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Photograph of Robert Bruce Thompson Barbara Fritchman Thompson Diary

Week of 9 May 2005

Latest Update: Sunday, 15 May 2005 3:45 p.m.


Monday, 9 May 2005

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It was a very busy and tiring Monday at work. I had planned to start working on cleaning out the attic tonight but instead will rest and read. Perhaps tomorrow night. I also have a lot left to do downstairs.

Last night I read about halfway through a new Jill Churchill, A Midsummer Night's Scream, which actually came out late last year but our library system has just now received it. True to form, Midsummer is well written and funny.

It was another outstanding day of weather with clear blue skies, temperatures in the high 70's and breezy at times. Early this morning Jackie and I had to walk a couple of blocks over to an old building which houses the Firms tobacco legislation to label and list the numbers on a large group of boxes going to our off site storage facility. We got back with about 30 minutes to spare before it was time for me to go to lunch. I had to walk down to the bank, so all in all, I had plenty of outdoor walking and fresh air for today.

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Tuesday, 10 May 2005

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I have had plenty of exercise today without a trip to the gym. This morning Jackie and I walked the five blocks over to the building we went to yesterday. We tagged the remaining 403 boxes going to off site storage in about an hour and a half then walked back.

At lunch I walked another five blocks up to Main library to pick up a reserve book. After lunch I made the short trip over to Winston Towers where we have one floor occupied to pick up two boxes.

After dinner I did start on the attic. Yes, it was hot up there but not too bad. Bob stood at the bottom of the stairs to catch and clear boxes as I tossed them to the bottom of the stair. We filled up the living room and part of the foyer in about half an hour but only cleared about a third of the junk up there.

Once I get it cleared I need to sweep off what stays plus the flooring of wood and sawdust. When we had the new roof installed they put in one of those ridge caps which requires sawing an opening all the way across the roof. Of course, all the stuff fell into the attic area. I wish I had known they were going to do this so I could have put down plastic over the small finished area and stuff to keep it clean.

Last night I finished up the Jill Churchill and started an ARC of Denise Hamilton's newest, Savage Garden. I had reviewed her previous work last year for Mystery Morgue. She is more of a thriller type mystery author, which I rarely read, but I like her writing and her main character Eve Diamond. I only managed a few chapters before I almost fell asleep.

As I promised Denise when she sent me the ARC, I will post a review here and on DL when I have finished.

It was warm and somewhat humid today. We may get a stray storm tonight but looking at the radar it looks like most if the activity is south of us.


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Wednesday, 11 May 2005

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Greetings. I have been home, fixed dinner, gone to the gym and the grocery store.

I am reading a non-fiction book at work on my lunch break, A Dog Year, by John Katz. I can read two books at the same time as long as one is fiction and one is non-fiction. This is the type of book you can pick up and put down. Katz wrote a book about his two golden labs, his life as a writer, etc titled Running to the Mountain.

A Border Collie breeder read the book and contact Katz to take persuade him to take a young BC who needed rehomed after failing as a working dog. She was so impressed with his relationship with his dogs, his lifestyle, and his family she felt he was the person to adopt this dog.  A Dog Year follows a year of his life with Devon (already named that when he got him, what a horrible name for a BC). In the first two chapters I read today, he writes about getting Devon from the airport where he is flown from the dogs home in Texas to Katz's home in New Jersey.

I will post more after I have read a few more chapters but I can already tell if you are a dog/animal lover you will want to read this book regardless of what breed you own. I plan to see if I can find his first book at the bookstore or a used bookshop somewhere down the road.


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Thursday, 12 May 2005

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I left work at 4 in order to attend my Friends of the Library meeting. We adjourned around 5:45. As I left the library parking lot heading to KFC for takeout I noticed how dark the skies were getting to the north and west of us. Just as I got home large drops started falling, the wind picked up, and thunder could be heard off in the distance. Since I am still having to park outside the garage I wanted to get the food and library books in before the started pouring. Bob took the food and books while I ran around to the front to bring the yard cart down and close it.

We got about half an inch of rain while we were eating dinner. Since it was still thundering and raining after we ate we delayed the dog's walk until the first storm rolled on through. Looks right now like we may have another one coming in behind the first one.

Work is very busy. I need to finish up the one project I am working on tomorrow so I can go back to adding boxes and contents to our database. In the last two days we have received about 50 boxes to prepare for off site storage.


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Friday, 13 May 2005

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TGIF. It was another very busy day at work. We walked over to 91-2 building to tag another 110 boxes this morning. This afternoon we went over to the WT building to tag 58 boxes. In between I finished up two projects. We have about 80 boxes on the wall for me to start closing on Monday. In the meantime 91-2 is getting another 500 - 800 boxes ready for us to go over and tag for storage.

It has been overcast all day but it never did rain either here or downtown. It was misty and cool this morning when we took our first walk but had warmed up by this afternoon.

I have almost finished the Eve Diamond. Very good book if you enjoy mystery's with a little harder edge to them but still not hard core thrillers.

This is the "put your junk on the curb" weekend. I can't wait to get this stuff out of here so I can start to clean up my house.

Have a great weekend.

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Saturday, 14 May 2005

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Whew! I am tired after a long day of toting stuff to the curb and toting stuff to the curb and toting stuff to the curb! I don't know now many miles I walked today but most of them were on cement. I did get the attic finished. What little is left up there has been organized very neatly. After a short lunch break I mowed the lawn then continued working on the basement.
It is on its way but not finished. I did get the far side where Bob parks swept and reorganized. Also, the other side where the heat/ac unit sits is mostly done. I still have the area where the two chairs are still sitting and the area that goes into the finished area. But, things are looking organized and in the places where I want them. The finished area has some boxes of "stuff" that need sorted and put away.

We have an entire wall of boxes of every size and shape, some filled with packing material and other junk on the curb. Most of these came out of the attic. I hauled off a car load of nicer stuff this morning to Goodwill. Some of the larger items we put out on the curb has already been taken by the scavengers.

That's it for today. Tonight is the NASCAR race from Richmond, one of my favorite small tracks to watch. Tonight was a scheduled public observation for FAS at Pilot Mountain but the weather is not looking favorable. Just as well, I am too tired to do observing tonight.

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Sunday, 15 May 2005

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Pretty much done. For one time the weather actually worked in my favor. I called off golf this morning in order to complete all my cleaning projects. Turns out we would not have played anyway. The forecast was for scattered rain/storms this morning. We don't usually play unless it is 20% instead of 40% plus. It did rain this morning and looked threatening off and on the remainder of the morning.

After doing the regular house cleaning I started back on the basement. I finally had everything cleaned, organized, and the floor swept around 2pm. I spend another hour and a half working on the finished area. I declared "all done" at 3:30. I have a small load of stuff for Goodwill and five bags of packing peanuts for the UPS store.

I also have several boxes of "stuff" which needs sorted and put in drawers that was in the desk Bob is using in his office. Now that the house is finished I have yard work to do next weekend.


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