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Barbara
Fritchman Thompson Diary
Week of
20 May 2000 (Week 21)
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Saturday,
20 May 2000
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I had a very nice trip to Knoxville, TN. If you live in the surrounding
states and plan a visit to Tennessee, I recommend a visit to Knoxville. The
bed and breakfast, Maplehurst Inn, where
I stayed was absolutely wonderful. The owners Sonny and Becky Harben go out
of their way to ensure a pleasant stay. The rooms are late Victorian and
very tastefully furnished. They have the house arranged to accommodate
several families or groups traveling together to socialize in the parlor or
the rooms. Several have extra chairs or separate sitting rooms to allow for
visiting. The breakfast was splendid, with a wide variety of fruit, breads,
cereals, pastries and casserole. There is also a large dinning room for
receptions or meetings. Each room has a TV and bathroom.
The Inn overlooks the Tennessee River, which has another wonderful
attraction. The city spent a couple of million dollars on Volunteer Landing.
The walkway runs along the river anchored on one end by a new Visitor's
Center and restaurant and the other end by a train station and restaurant.
Visitors can stroll along the walkway or stop and rest on one of the many
benches along the route. Historical markers provide a picture and story of
various events the took place along the river or the town since it was
founded. They offer train rides and a river cruise.
Nearby downtown is the World's Fair Park, a newly built area of pools,
shops and restaurants built on the former site of the 1982 World's Fair
(which I attended with my sister and had a wonderful time). The city of
Knoxville is trying to revive its downtown area, as most large cities are
doing. I did not have time to get down to the shops and Old City district
but I understand it too is well worth a visit.
As always, I will be catching up on mail and stuff today after being
out of town. I got back about 8:00 last night and was pretty beat after a
five hour meeting and a five hour drive home. The meeting went well and
everyone who attended seemed to enjoy themselves and learn some things in
the process.
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Sunday,
21 May 2000
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Looks like the two baby birds have flown the nest. However, the mom is
back this morning. Maybe she is using the nest to have another
family.
I am glad I mowed the lawn yesterday. We had a pretty big storm last
night. It knocked out the power in parts of the city and blew down some
trees. It is supposed to rain all day today and into tomorrow. We need the
rain. It had gotten pretty dry from the early heat and high humidity and
my yard was starting to look a little brown in spots.
Today is house cleaning and work day. I need to tackle my desk this
afternoon and pay the bills along with web stuff and projects.
The no points, lots of money NASCAR race, the Winston, was held last
night from Charlotte. It is fun to watch and is put on for the fans but I
feel with such tight race schedules this is a waste of sheet metal and
driver's time. Yea, they win a lot of money and it is a tune up for the
Coca Cola 600 next week! But. Why not hold it on Thursday or Friday night
and run the big race that Sunday. Use that weekend for a points race or a
weekend off or something.
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Monday,
22 May 2000
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I have a dozen errands to run this morning
before I get my haircut at noon. I am still plodding away on November
1916 by Solzhenitsyn. It is getting very good now that I am into the
first 100 pages or so. It just requires very focused reading to absorb the
characters and the way the author has laid out the progression of the
story. Believe it or not! Bob is being interviewed by the Wall
Street Journal about dishwashers. You can read the story on his diary
pages [here
and here] about how all this came about. So far early reviews of the book are positive. I am very
excited to be contributing to the changes that need to be made and being involved
in a publishing process. I hope everyone's week gets off to a good start regardless of
the time of day or location you may be reading this from.
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Tuesday,
23 May 2000
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Bob was actually interviewed by the Wall Street Journal yesterday about
dishwashers. Upon my arrival home yesterday from errands he informed me I
would be interviewed today. Hum! Can't wait to see how this article plays
out in the actual paper. It was going to happen sooner or later. Sherry,
the woman that cleans for Lenore has been working for quite a long time
cleaning the downstairs. She was not a very good house cleaner but
she kept the area fairly clean and Lenore enjoyed having her come. She was
also giving Lenore her bath on one of the days she came. We cut her down
to one day per week and hired a trained nurse to come one day a week to
give her a bath and personal care attention. Sherry got more and more
unreliable, often not showing up or not coming on the day she was supposed
to come. When she called again yesterday and was not coming, Lenore and I
discussed it and decided maybe we were wasting her money having her come.
So, I am now going to clean the downstairs myself. I am going to
do a DEEP clean today and get all the areas Sherry never touched, such as
moving a chair or behind things. Once I get it totally cleaned, I can keep
it maintained when I do the upstairs on Sundays or do hers on Monday. It
is not a huge area, but the kitchen and living area needs vacuumed and
dusted regularly. I can actually handle it better now that I work at
home. Bob can help keep the kitchen and bathroom areas clean and I will do
the other room. The bathroom is not used much and will easy. I have a
doctor's appointment this afternoon, so with the cleaning project and the
appointment, today will not be a full "working" day for me. I am
very excited about my web site getting reorganized and am almost ready to
add some more pages. I also need to work on my genealogy stuff before I
make the trip to Pennsylvania in a couple of weeks. |
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Wednesday,
24 May 2000
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I have not made it to the gym this week with other things going on. I
will do the spinning class this morning and go to the grocery store. Then
I am going over to visit my mom and dad and have lunch with them. If it
does not rain this afternoon, Bob needs to clean out the back gutters so I
can clean up the mess that he blows out. I am not sure if we are eating
out or at home tonight. I may just fix something. I worked on my
genealogy pages last night so they would be ready when Bob publishes this
morning. I have several projects to work on this afternoon and tonight. Below
is a picture of me holding a newspaper that Malcolm just shredded about
five minutes ago. This scenario plays itself out right regularly. I will
be working in my office and hear shredding noises in the den. Upon my
arrival I find something that Malcolm had found and is enjoying. The
interesting thing about this newspaper is that he stole it right
from behind Bob's chair while he was in there working. It was an old paper
rolled up to tap Malcolm on the snout with when he gets into things. HA,
HA. Wait until I tell Lenore what happened. Bob is always getting after
his mom for not keeping Malcolm from thieving tissues and tea bags from
her when he is downstairs. He took this right out from under Bob's nose!
Malcolm the thief standing out in the front yard, taken a few days ago.
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Thursday,
25 May 2000
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Short post this morning. I am playing golf and I need to get ready to
go. It looks like rain but I don't think it will get here this morning. We
are supposed to have storms this afternoon.
I mowed yesterday afternoon and Bob cleaned out the gutters. I can work
this afternoon since all the outside jobs are done.
Not much else going on.
UPDATE: 10:15
They LIED! I am now back home having taken an indoor shower and put on
dry cloths. We got as far the third hole when it got dark as pitch and the
rain started falling in buckets. The storm, according to the Weather
Channel and our local news, was supposed to go north into Virginia.
Instead in grew into a full fledge weather system and came right at
us.
I will not usually even go to the course if it looks like rain, let
alone thunder storms, are approaching. There are times when I stayed home
and it never rained a drop. Other times, like today, it gets us. Its not
nice to try to second guess Mother Nature.
The new forecast is 90% chance of rain today. When I left the house at
8:30 it was 30% chance of widely scattered showers this afternoon. Glad I
mowed yesterday. You know the old saying, "make hay when the sun shines".
My web master (aka husband) is doing a second publish so I can do this
update. Isn't he nice.
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Friday,
26 May 2000
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That 30% chance of rain yesterday turned into a tornado like
storm system that swept through the Winston-Salem, Greensboro, and
Burlington causes thousands of power outages from downed trees. Roofs were
blown off and signs blown down. Boy, when the weather man misses it, he
misses it badly.
We only had an 1 1/2 of rain in about an hour and not any damage. The
system fired up right over us and gained strength as it headed East.
Off to the gym this morning. Run a few errands. May stop by the
library. I am supposed to do a home visit tonight in Salisbury. About an
hour from here. I think I will take just Duncan as a treat. He does not
get much alone time with me since we have Malcolm and this is not a good
set up to visit with two dogs.
Bob installed PhotoDraw for me yesterday. I have been working on a logo
for my main page that I will use on my business cards too. I was using
Publisher but we could not convert it to a web graphic very well. It only
took me about 20 minutes to do the graphic and learn the program. It is
much better that Publisher and I will continue to explore and play with
it.
I hope everyone has a good weekend where ever you are.
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