Barbara Fritchman Thompson Diary

Week of 14 May 2001

Latest Update: Tuesday, 14 May 2002 18:03
 

Monday, 14 May 2001

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Around 2:00 I started dinner preparations by setting the table, putting the meat on the tray, and getting the potatoes ready for the oven. Then I set up the deck with some chairs and tables and played with the dogs on the deck until mom and dad arrived around 3:30. We dressed Lenore and brought her out on the deck to join us.

The weather was perfect, temperatures in the 70's with a slight breeze. Just a gorgeous afternoon. Frances and Al arrived about 4:00. The dogs really like it when a lot of people come over to visit them.

I tossed the food on the grill about 5:00 and while Frances did the final preparations in the kitchen. The five of us ate at the kitchen table and Bob and his mom ate in the den. Between dinner and desert mom opened her presents and after I took the dogs for their after dinner walk we had apple pie and ice cream for dessert. Everyone was gone by 8:00 and hit the couch to rest and read until the season finale of The Practice at 10:00.

I am off to the gym and Lowe's this morning. I need to pick up some more gardening supplies and a few more plants for the yard. Bob is taking Lenore to the doctor today for her 1:00 appointment while I stay home to work on the book. I need a break from an almost continual round of doctor visits that I have been carting Lenore to since last fall. For one thing her doctor is also my doctor. I usually go to the doctor maybe three times a year at most and since I go in with Lenore when she talks with the doctor I feel like I have seen him every month for the past year. I also have a doctor's appointment for Wednesday for my physical and just did not feel like going twice in one week.

After Bob gets back with Lenore I will go pick up my lawn mower and mow the lawn this afternoon. With all the dry weather, we are now  almost up to a  4 " deficit, I waited for it to get a little high before I mowed. Plus while Dad's old lawn mower does the job adequately it is not as good as mine and I would rather wait and mow when I retrieve mine from the shop.

I hope everyone's Monday gets their week off to a good start. Thanks for stopping by and visiting with me.

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Tuesday, 15 May 2001

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The forecast for the week is cloudy and cool with the chance of thunderstorms each day. We need this break in the weather desperately. Even if we don't get a lot of rain the cool, sunless days will be good for the grass and plants not to be baking in the sun while not having sufficient moisture. 

I am off to the library this morning to break down the book sale. This afternoon in addition to working on the book I need to also clean up my desk, pay bills, and do some other miscellaneous stuff. 

Speaking of the book. Bob ordered three very old British text books from Leslie H Boland, a used book store in England, on the history of Forensic Medicine and Toxicology for researching our book. They arrived by post carefully wrapped and in perfect condition. I only had time to glance at them briefly but they are pretty interesting.

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Wednesday, 16 May 2001

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Several weeks ago I mentioned to Bob we should make a donation in her honor. Marcia Bilbrey posted the information on her diary page for contribution information. Marcia, thanks for doing the research on this and making it available.

Hard to move on but we must!

I posted a review of the book I am reading Michael Korda's Country Matters. To my knowledge I have never read one of Korda's fiction works of which he is very famous. He must also be special to his publisher since they gave him a motorcycle for his 25th anniversary writing for them. I learned this from reading the book.

The reason I picked this book up is because of the title. He and his wife Margaret buy an old, built in the 1800's old, farm house in up state New York. What started out as a weekend place in the country quickly became their permanent residence as they gradually moved their belongings from the apartment in New York to Duchess County, NY. His funny stories of the all the problems they have run into in trying to make this old house into modern day comfort is hilarious. Check out the review or better yet, read the book. You will not be disappointed. Perhaps at some point I shall try one of his fiction books just to see if they are as good.

Speaking of reading. Tom Syroid posted a link to this article yesterday about aliteracy. I know, everyone does not like to read and I, being a librarian, want people to read. But this article details the sad fact the readers are not taking the time to read these days but instead are watching television, getting their news from an alert page on their computer, or just not taking the time out of their hectic lives. I know I mention in my posts of several television shows I enjoy watching as well as racing and golf events. Nothing wrong with that folks. But, I also often have a magazine on my lap that I read during commercials or while I am watching a golf event. Please, if you are a reader, don't become a non-reader in your hectic day to day lives. Take or make time to sit down and read a few pages of a book or a magazine or the newspaper. I know people with children are busier than every taking them places and doing things as a family. Make reading time part of the family activity during the summer. 

Book Sale. I managed to get most of the books packed up in boxes yesterday. I hauled about ten to Goodwill and a patron who picks up for the Shepherd's Center, a senior volunteer organization, took about ten with him. I left around 11:30 to go to Goodwill and then came on home for lunch and to work at home. This morning I will go over and finish getting some of the junk hauled out to the trash bin and getting the tables and chairs set back up. 

I worked most of yesterday afternoon moving text to book pages until about 4:00 when I was too tired to concentrate. I played with dogs for awhile and then fixed dinner. After dinner I read my book, played with the dogs, and did some minor housekeeping chores until time for NYPD Blue.

YAHOO! It is raining this morning. We had a brief shower yesterday morning then the sun came out off and on the rest of the day although the temperatures remained in the low 70's. The rain is supposed to last at least until noon and then a chance of showers tonight.  

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Thursday, 17 May 2001

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I finished cleaning up from the book sale yesterday morning at the library and hauling off the last of the books to Goodwill. Guess we will not know how much we made until the next Friends meeting but I think we did okay. Now that the room is cleared of junk I shall began collecting stuff for the next sell that will be more likely to get bought and we will not have as much left over. Some of the stuff in that room had been in there for years and needed tossing.

A quick stop at the grocery store and I was home by 11:30. After lunch I hit the computer to get some work done while Bob hit the bed to take a nap. I made good progress on the book taking short breaks to walk the dogs and read web pages. It rained most of the morning but stopped in the afternoon though it remained cool and cloudy.

I fixed spaghetti for dinner and then Bob and I took off for the astronomy club meeting. We had a good turnout but Bob and I left shortly after the evening program started. Another nearby astronomy club president was presenting a program on something Bob and I were not really interested in and I was pretty tired so we came on home so I could watch West Wing live.

It was the season finale. Very good final episode giving a send off for Mrs. Landingham killed last week by a drunk driver and President Bartlett leaving his decision to run again for president up to the very last minute of the show. Keri mentioned on her page that the actress who plays her has been offered a part in another show. Two very fine actors played younger versions of President Bartlett and Mrs. Landingham in flash back episodes to his college days when he met Mrs. Landingham. A brief news tidbit on our local news last night mentioned that West Wing has been responsible for overcoming some of the myths that people have about Multiple Sclerosis. If you don't watch this show, I recommend watching the summer reruns and tuning in next fall.  

Off to bed to read for awhile until I was too tired to hold my eyes open. 

As of right now, the dogs are peacefully sleeping on my office floor. This morning is Gloria's morning to come to bath Lenore. Normally we pen them up in the foyer so they are out of her way going back and forth to the kitchen. But a friend is coming by to pick up some computer stuff from Bob, so I have them penned up back here with me. 

It rained about another half inch last night making our total for yesterday right around an inch. A good start to recovering from our three inch deficit.  This morning it is cool and rainy, the forecast for much of the day. No golf this morning, so I decided I would stay home and work today and go to spinning class tonight. It remains to be seen how the day will pan out. Hope you have a good one.

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Friday, 18 May 2001

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When I was a little girl I have one of those small black transistor radios. We probably had the choice of five or six AM stations that played a variety of music. I would sit on the porch or in the back yard with a book in my lap and listen to the local popular music station playing the hits of the early and mid-sixties often singing along at the top of my lungs. As I grew older I fell in love with live music bands getting my share of concerts at Appalachian State and even graduate school in Nashville. 

My tastes over the years ran from beach music to soft rock, pop country like Alabama, Kenny Rogers, and Larry Gatlin whom I have seen in concert many times back to 70's rock during the 80's to my current interests in Irish, folk, and classical. Most of the local radio stations play a bunch of crap which is why I listen to CD's. There is one local oldies station that plays some pretty good stuff but I can't stand the commercials nor the silly morning radio programs. I do sometimes listen to WFDD the local classical station from Wake Forest University but mostly just play my own stuff.

I had been toying with the idea of starting a music page on my site but was not sure if it was of interest to anyone else. This weekend I shall try to get a page started with my favorites in all the categories I listen to.

On the weather front, it looks like we have gotten over an inch of much needed rain in our rain gauge. Today is to be partly sunny and still cool with a chance of afternoon and evening thunderstorms. 

I am off to the gym this morning to do some weight work after doing spinning class last night. Then I need to run a couple of errands. Not sure if I want to do the Thompson deep clean on the basement this afternoon or work in the yard. I shall decided after lunch. I worked all day yesterday on the book getting pages set up. Now I am doing the research on all the plants and animals  filling in gaps and fleshing out the text material. This for me is the fun part of the work.

Have a great weekend everybody. No big plans at the Thompson's this weekend.

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Saturday, 19 May 2001

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For those unaware of the layout of our house, we live in a typical brick ranch with den, living room, kitchen, dining room, long hall, bedrooms, etc. When we moved in the downstairs had a long finished playroom with a fireplace which we used sometimes.  The remainder of the basement area was concrete for storage and a two car garage. We gutted the playroom and built Lenore's apartment on that end of the basement, leaving a small storage place behind her kitchen and the garage portion. This is where we park the cars plus have the washer and dryer, all my lawn toys, and misc. stuff. When Bob and I were first married we built college style book cases in our other house using cement block and boards. We moved those with us and use them in the basement as storage shelves. 

Twice a year, spring and fall, I vacuum the floor and get the cobwebs out of the corners, along the garage doors and windows and overhead in the beams with the Shop Vac. I put stuff away, organize my lawn toys, and do a general tidying up of the workbench. Things were not really in too bad a shape other than the dirt and dust, leaves, etc on the floor. Now instead of using the vacuum to do the floor I blow it out with the gas blower and just vacuum the other areas. It only took me about two and half hours yesterday to get it all done. 

I worked some yesterday afternoon but by 4:30 or so I was too tired to be very productive. We had Hamburger Helper for dinner mainly because I could not decide what I wanted to eat. After dinner and clean up we sat on the couch and read our books.

I started a mystery that Bob had read and thought I might enjoy, Death at Gallows Green by Robin Paige a husband/wife writing team. This is one of a series in their Victorian Mystery Series. The heroine of the story Kathryn Ardleigh (Kate) has returned to England to live with her two aunts who soon after are murdered and she has inherited their estate. She writes sensational novels known back then as "penny-dreadfuls"  under a pen name and catches the eye of local amateur sleuth and scientist Sir Charles Sheridan. In this novel, Kate meets a shy young woman names Beatrice Potter. Yep, one and the same. You meet several of Mrs. Potters future characters and real life situations as Kate and Sir Charles work to solve the mystery of the murder of a local constable and the theft of her friends mothers jewels. Very, very good reading. I am not much of a fan of mysteries but this one is sensational.

We are off to the Rural Hall Library book sale this morning. I have tons of yard work to do when I get back. It is supposed to rain again this afternoon, so I may not get finished. But, there is always another day.

Enjoy your Saturday wherever you may be. 

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Sunday, 20 May 2001

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As soon as we got home I started working in the yard. I fertilized all the azaleas, planted a bush, trimmed some dead limbs from several trees, pulled weeds, and planted the flowers in pots . With a break for lunch I did not finish up until well after 3:00. It was very warm with temps in the high 80's. Bob had started the tape backup so I hit the couch to read and watch some of the golf tournament. After dinner I had intended to watch the Winston and the qualifying races from Charlotte, NC. The Winston is a no points race but they do race for money. Two preliminary heats are run and the winner of each one of those gets to move on to the Winston. It more or less serves as a tune up for the big race next weekend, the Coca Cola 600.

I sat down to check my mail and knew instantly that something was wrong when I had a bunch of return receipts in my inbox telling me I had tried to send mail to several lists and alert services I am on. I quickly told Bob who was resting on the couch and we shut down Outlook immediately. Bob has all the gory details on his page this morning.  How I was infected I have no idea since I am very careful about opening mail with attachments, etc. 

Anyway, while Bob cleaned and scanned I divided my time between watching part of the qualifying races and helping and watching him clean up the mess. All was cleared up by 8:30 so I promptly sent e-mail messages to all my lists and friends whom I had corresponded with last night to make sure everyone was aware of what had happened

The Winston was due to start right around 9:00 so I grabbed my book and settled in to watch the race. It is a very short sprint type race with two thirty lap segments and then a 10 lap shootout. Just as the racers took the green flag the rain started pouring down in buckets. I switched to the Weather Channel to see if we had any incoming rain since Charlotte is not very far from us. Earlier in the evening we had dodged several storms that went around us or just to the north of the city.

We walked the dogs to the sound of thunder and flashing lightning but still no rain. I went to bed to read and watch the race. They had the track dry by 10:30 and were just getting ready to restart the race when it started to rain again. By this time it was well past 11:00 and I was tired so I turned off the light. They finally ran the race after midnight.

You might say turn about is fair play with the virus thing. Friday night, I was really tired and had just sat down to read when Bob decided to drop an almost full glass of Coke on the floor in front of the fridge when he was getting ice. An hour later I had mopped the floor, the inside of the freezer section of the fridge and the outside of the fridge, moved the fridge and mopped under it and cleaned up all the food that was in the freezer door that had been given a Coke bath.

Last night Bob spent three hours cleaning up my virus mess. The next time he spills his Coke you can bet I will not say one word!!

House cleaning this morning. I want to work on my favorite music page this afternoon and do some work on the book. Have a great day everyone.

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