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Photograph of Robert Bruce Thompson Barbara Fritchman Thompson Diary

Week of 21 January 2008

Latest Update: Sunday, 27 January 2008 2:30 p.m.


Monday, 21 January 2008

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It has been a very frustrating day. Bob and I took Duncan to the vet this morning for his yearly checkup. When we left I was walking without a limp at all. The knee and the calf felt better. Duncan is fine. They will do the usual blood, fecal, and urine tests but his heart and body are fine except for his back legs and knees.

I took Duncan out front to walk him around so the vet tech could get a urine sample. As I stepped from the walk to the grass my calf popped and went out on me. As far as I remember, I took a normal straight step. This time, unlike when it first went out on me, I could hardly walk on it. I limped back in the house mad as a hornet with frustration. I started out with ice then heat but by noon I was still unable to put any weight on the leg. 

There went my free day to get some running around done and my hair cut plus a quick visit with the folks. I had to cancel my hair cut and have spent the day on my butt on the couch once again. While I enjoy sitting around reading I really had some things I wanted to do today. None of them were important.

I am using a crutch in the house to keep the weight off the leg. Hopefully after a full day and nights rest I can at least get back to being able to walk on tomorrow. If I can't walk, I can't do my job.

Yesterday I started a new Lee Charles Kelley dog mystery. His character Jack Field runs a dog kennel in Maine and trains badly behaved dogs after retiring from NYPD as a detective. Jack is now married to the state medical exam Jamie Cutter. They met somewhere back in one of the early books if you are interested in how the relationship got to where it is now. Jack gets mixed up in solving crimes which usually end up being cases which Jaime has to investigate.


Kelley's books are full of the usual good dog stuff along with his methods of dog training, etc. I enjoy his plots and his characters. There is a scene in this one where I am pretty sure he his poking fun at himself. 



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Tuesday, 22 January 2008

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The knee was much better this morning after a full day and night of rest plus two of my pain pills. I wore my old brace to work this morning. Bob mentioned on his page it was for after my surgery. It is actually the brace the doctor gave me to wear when I first went to him back in September to wear to try to prevent the surgery. I have not been told to wear any type of brace on the knee since my surgery. It did not work in terms of healing the torn meniscus but it provides a lot of support to the pulled calf muscle.

The  weather for this morning was for sleet/freezing rain/rain until midday. We got rain but the temperature remained just enough about freezing to keep it that way here in the city. The outlying areas may have seen some of the frozen stuff. The kids had the day off from school anyway which was just as well as they would have canceled due to the forecast. Hopefully the temps will remain above freezing overnight to prevent black ice in the morning.

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Wednesday, 23 January 2008

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You know you are old when...The offices for the secretaries are set up as one big room with a wall dividing it into two offices with two doors. On each side of the wall are stacking lateral file cabinets. We have frosted glass fronts with our desks along the front, side, and back walls. I share my office with a very nice young, thirty something secretary who works for three very nice attorneys. Today, I started to ask her about a song in reference to a conversation we were having. Instead of asking her if she remembered the song I had to ask her if she knew the song.

I finished the Kelley dog mystery and have now returned to the Vineyard once again to visit with J.W. and Zee. The action starts in the first chapter when J.W. comes home from a morning clam digging with his son to find Zee has shot two thugs, killing one. We quickly find out the thugs are looking for J.W.'s ex wife's husband who appears to be on the run. J.W. has to find out why his ex said he was at their house and why he is on the run.



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Thursday, 24 January 2008

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No update.


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Friday, 25 January 2008

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Last night I finally got back to the gym. I am still wearing the knee brace on the left leg to protect the calf but can now walk pretty much without a limp. Outside on the pavement, especially down hill, I am being very careful. The knee is still a little stiff going down stairs and the calf hurts a little going down hills.

Sometime at the end of last year Bob bought me a new MP3 player, A San Disk Sansa. For some reason I cannot remember it would not work. With him trying to get the book finished by the end of the year he did not have time to send it back until right before Christmas. They sent me a brand new replacement but between my knee surgery and Bob still working on the book we had not had time to get it loaded until this weekend. Last night I finally got to give a try. My Muvo still works but holds only about 2 hours of music before I have to reload. I am very happy with it.

Speaking of music. I listen to mostly 70's rock/70's rock musicians, Celtic, and some light country music in the car and at the gym. At work I play a classical music station. However, I have one musical I pull out periodically to listen to in the car, The Phantom of the Opera which I am currently enjoying again. In 2001 the show finally came to Charlotte, NC traveling to see it with Holiday Tours. Each time I listen to the performance I can still picture some of the events on stage just from the music.

It turned nasty cold late yesterday afternoon with temperatures steadily dropping all day and into the evening with 15 to 20 mph winds. Last night it got down to about 15. I doubt it got out of the 30's today with the wind still blowing but not as bad. It was pretty brisk when I walked to the post office at lunch time.


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Saturday, 26 January 2008

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Greetings on a lovely Saturday. I mostly relaxed this morning doing a few odds and ends until Bob was ready to install the on the door shelving racks in the kitchen. We put one over the door going into the dining room and the other fastened inside the pantry door. I can now move the stuff stored on the pantry shelves to the doors to make more room for the extra rations we stock up on from Costco. That in turn will free up a shelf in the basement for more storage. I am certain we will need it once I can get Bob moving on that promised clean up of the tech room and his office.

Once we finished the storage project we drove out to Rural Hall where a family run lumber company that Bob likes to do business with is located. They were not open but not a wasted trip. We made a stop at the Rural Hall library on the way back into Winston then stopped at Home Depot where Bob found what he needed.

Back home, I took the dogs around back for some play time. Not only do they get in some ball playing I get to strengthen my knee by walking on uneven ground and grass. I am still taking it very easy to make sure I don't twist or fall.

It has warmed up nicely this afternoon into the mid to high 40's. With just a little breeze and lots of sunshine that's short sleeve weather for me.


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Sunday, 27 January 2008

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I take very few magazines anymore for various reasons. The only ones I subscribe to are Vanity Fair and The Bark. Bark does a great dog magazine with great reading if you are into dogs. This month they ran an article about dogs in pop songs. The web site includes a few of the song stories from the article and links to some You Tube videos of a couple of songs from the Beatles, Cat Stevens, etc. which I had never heard. When I tried to play them this morning I could not get any sound.

Up until several months ago the speakers worked. I was listening to the live interviews when Mary was doing her Blue Planet Run and to my XMMS radio on my computer. For some reason the speakers stopped working. BTW, according to Bob I have a book shelf system. I took that back downstairs two years ago after Brian installed the XMMS player on my computer. Anyway. After trying to sets of different speakers still no sound. After a web search he discovered the problem which he describes on his page. I got my nice expensive speakers back and now have sound again.

While he was fixing my sound problems I ironed a load of work shirts and pants. Then I filled the truck with a load of card board to drop off at the fire station on the way to my folks house. I finally got over there for lunch and a nice visit after having to cancel last Monday.

Another fine day with temperatures close to 50 and a breeze. I had the dogs out back to play again.


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