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Barbara Fritchman Thompson Diary

Week of 4 November 2000 (Week 45)

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Saturday, 4 November 2000

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How dry is it? The grass is still green but the small patches of dirt that do not have grass have cracks in them, some 1/4'' or wider. That, my friends, is dry! The smoke from the forest fires in the mountains is settling down here in town. The air was very acrid smelling yesterday and smoky. There is a air quality warning for people with respiratory problems. The Winston-Salem Journal this morning said that the city of Charlotte, which is 100 miles away from the fires was being affected.

Bob helped with the leaves yesterday. He did the gutters and blew the worst of the front leaves to the street. I mulched the back and then mowed them up, which actually has become the best way to get them up. 

This morning I am going over to help dad do couple of things he needs done in his yard. Bob needs to do the backup on my system anyway, which means I have a few hours when I cannot access my system. 

I have started reading The Loon Feather by Iona Fuller. Obviously, you can tell from the title it has something to do with Indians. This is one of the books I picked up last year on our bus trip to Mackinac Island. If you have not read my pages before, I try to buy a book or books at locations that I visit as a way to remember the visit. In doing this I have discovered some wonderful authors. It is fiction, told from the main character's voice, and it takes place on the Island and surrounding areas. I will post a full review on my favorites page sometime this weekend.

I need to brush the dogs and trim Kerry's nails before I go to dads, so I better go get started.

Sunday, 5 November 2000

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I did a little work yesterday afternoon but spent most of last night reading The Loon Feather. What an excellent, well written novel, I have a quick review up on my favorites page. 

House work this morning and Winston Cup race this afternoon from Phoenix. I have a huge stack of mail and magazines I need to read through, which I like to do while I watch the race. I will also flip over to the PGA Tour Championship to see how that is going.

Last night for dinner we had beef stroganoff. Tonight we will have leftovers from the chicken and pork night dinners. I will freeze what is left after tonight for a future meal.

Not much else to write about. Hope everyone has had a nice weekend. 

Monday, 6 November 2000

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Well, I am getting a late start this morning. It is 9:00 and I am just now doing my post. I am usually at the gym by now and well on the way to getting my day started. I just could not wake up this morning. Bob got up with the dogs and took them out and closed the door to let me get some extra sleep. I got up at 8:00, but that extra hour seems like about a half a days worth of sleep. I feel much better.

Busy day today. After the gym, I need to take the gas blower to the repair shop, go to the drugstore and the grocery store and run a few other small errands. This afternoon I need to file some stuff and write checks for the week. I did not work on the book any yesterday, so I hope to get in some work on it today, too. 

 We taped Mrs. Brown on Masterpiece Theater last night. Maybe we will watch it tonight. 

Not much else for now.

Tuesday, 7 November 2000

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First of all, for my British friends and readers, I failed to wish them a happy Guy Fawkes day on November 5.  Bob and I have actually attended one of these celebrations right here in Winston-Salem. Or, I should say Walnut Cove, which is just north of us about 12 miles. I had a patron who was from England and we visited her farm a couple of times, one of which was to participate in their annual burning of the Guy. I just love British history.

Speaking of which. We watched the Masterpiece Theater episode that we taped Sunday night, Mrs. Brown staring Judi Dench and Geoffrey Palmer, two our favorites. It was nothing spectacular, but a good overall story of the relationship Queen Victoria had with the vibrant Scotsman, Mr. Brown after the Queen's husband, Albert died. 

Busy day today. For those of you who do not know, my mother-in-law lives with us. Tomorrow is her birthday, she will be 82. We are celebrating a day early by taking her to vote and going to the mall. This may not sound like much to you, but this is a person who gets out maybe three times a year other than going to the doctor. She eats very little and it takes her so long, that we do not try the dinner out thing any more. It is also very hard to get her dressed and take her out so we are combining our vote and shop day into one outing. Now that she has the lighter, smaller wheelchair, it is not hard to push her around the mall for an hour or so, which is about all she can last.

As you all know, Malcolm is still getting into things. I did not get a picture of this nor did Bob get one of me hauling him off to his crate for punishment. I always share my milk that is left in the bowl after I eat cereal. Each dog gets a little slurp. This morning just as I finished breakfast, I got a phone call. While I was in the den, Malcolm jumped up on the table and drank the milk out of the bowl, then knocked the bowl on the floor. With hardwood floors, I don't need to tell you it broke in half.  

And, people say that because we don't have children.....!

Wednesday, 8 November 2000

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It's 8:30 in the morning, the day after the big election, and we still don't know who won. The headlines in our newspaper and all around the country heralded Bush the winner. But, by the time we got up, they had taken the win away and waiting on the Florida vote or something,

It will not stop me from getting on with my day to say the least. I am off to the gym and the pet supply store. The dog fellows are out of food.

We had a nice day yesterday. It only took Lenore and I about fifteen minutes to vote and then we headed to the mall. After doing a couple of things there, she wanted to stop at the Michael's craft store. So, we made another stop there before coming home. We got back home around 1:15. I ate a light snack for lunch since it was so late and then got back to work on the computer, played with the dogs, etc. We had home made pizza and birthday cake for dinner. 

If finished my book, The Loon Feather. It was well written and something different to read. I am also going to stop at the library this morning to return some books. Unless I have something waiting for me, I will select another fiction book from my "waiting to be read" shelf.

I have a non-fiction book about Georgiana Spencer, Lady Spencer, that I am also reading on the side. It is pretty good, very reflective of life in England in the late 1700's, which I enjoy reading. She was a rather interesting person in the social scene of the time. Until I started reading it and realized she was a Spencer, I had no idea she was the Spencer's, as in Diana, former Princess of Wales. I read something about this book in a book club flyer or in a magazine and thought she sounded like an interesting person to read about. I was able to find a copy at the library.

Thursday, 9 November 2000

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It's raining. Yes, folks, we are finally getting some real rain. Not much as yet, but a possibility of rain all day today and this evening. I rained out golf this morning but it is a sacrifice I am willing to make. The forecast is for thunderstorms too, which I hope we don't get. However, a little wind and rain will knock down most of the leaves. The only tree not turned yet are the Bradford Pears, which turn and fall very late here. Once I get through with the leaves and we get some rain, I will put out some late season fertilizer and seed and order a truck load of pine needles to redo the natural areas. That should get the yard nice and tidy for the winter.

Since there is no golf this morning I will do spin class tonight instead. 

I plan to spend the majority of the day working on various computer projects, research, etc. It is time for some tweaking on some of my web pages and maybe moving some things around. Plus, I have not put up a new edition of Cyber Hound News lately. With all the other stuff going on, I have not had time to put anything together. I plant to go back to a monthly update. If you have any suggestions of topics that would be of interest, please let me know. I would like each month to cover a topic of general interest and pull together resources of information.

The dogs will not get much of a chance to be outside and play with the wet weather, so I will take breaks and give them some play time. 

Not much else going on at the moment. 

Friday, 10 November 2000

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Tim (Bob) and Al (me) managed to unclog the bathroom sink which has been running slower and slower over the past few months. After we tried drain cleaners and sink snakes, it was time to go at it from underneath. Bob took off the pipes connected to the trap and what a mess. Completely clogged with gunk. It is a wonder any water was going through at all. We cleaned out the gunk reattached the pipes, and ran water through the pipes for about fifteen minutes. All seems to be running or should I say flowing, smoothly again.

As I mentioned yesterday, I was going to spend yesterday retooling my web pages. A lot of the page changes are minor things. I changed the font size and reworded or added some text to some of my main business page and redid my resume page and my personal introduction page. The biggest changes were in the links column. I have two different columns, one on my business pages and the one on my personal pages. I added a link to HardwareGuys in both. I felt I had too many links in my personal page column with all my trips, my diary page links, the dogs, etc. I decided to make one link to a Travels page and then link from there to the various trips. I e-mailed Marcia and told her I would like to copy her layout on her Meanderings page because I like the way she did hers with the trip and a picture representing each one. I mentioned the old adage of imitation and flattery and promised no royalties.

I did manage to get a partial new Cyber Hound News up. I will finish it today and along with working on some of the other page. Some I do not need to do anything to or don't want to right now.

Let me know if a link doesn't work, you see a glaring grammatical error, etc. I hope to finish all the pages today.

Have a good weekend.

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