Barbara Fritchman Thompson Diary

Week of 30 July 2001

Latest Update: Monday, 28 April 2003 07:02
 

Monday, 30 July 2001

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The race yesterday from Pocono, PA turned out to be a barn burner at the end. Early in the race Jeff Gordon and Ricky Rudd were running away with it leading out front for most of the early laps. But several late cautions and some pit stop strategy put Rudd and Gordon in the back of the pack with fifty laps to go.

That put Bobby Labonte and Dale, Jr. at the front of the pack with some cars who did not stop for gas or tires. Bobby passed Dale with two laps to go and hung on to win the race. I managed to snooze off and on through the early part of the race but stayed awake during the last half reading my book during the commercials.

Frozen Prago lasagna and garlic bread for dinner. We watched the end of the golf match while eating. One of the young kids on the tour won giving him a two year exemption on the tour. Nice to see the young kids making a name for themselves.

After dinner Frances showed up. She does not have a computer at work yet and wanted me to help her write a letter of introduction from herself to prospective clients. I also had some local information on nursing homes and senior services in a file that I gave her. After she left I read until time for bed.

Off to the gym this morning. Home this afternoon to work on the poisons book and laundry for Lenore. If the the sun comes out and dries things up a little I may mow the lawn.

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Tuesday, 31 July 2001

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By late afternoon the skies had really started to clear. The Weather Channel forecast clear skies by 9 pm. We called our friend Bonnie and made preparations for heading up to Bullington. We left a little before eight. As we were driving out the interstate I was beginning to get a little skeptical seeing a rather dense cloud formation off to the west. We were hoping these would continue drifting west instead of south. 

We arrived just as Bonnie did and got set up. The moon was up at about 3 quarters full and Mars was out. Alas and alack, by 10:00 dark clouds started to roll in. At first there were just a few really odd looking white and dark swirls of clouds around the moon. It created quite a strange effect looking through binoculars and the big telescope. However, not long after major clouds started drifting in and by ten o'clock we had complete cloud cover. We packed up the scopes and then just sat out under the dark skies talking until about 11. Hey, some people have friends over for dinner to talk and enjoy their company. Instead, we drive 25 miles and sit outside on a concrete pad in the middle of a tobacco field under the "stars" or in this case clouds for our social evenings.

Off to run a couple of errands this morning and go to the grocery store. We only need a few things plus the regular weekly items like juice and milk. This afternoon I am doing volunteer work at SciWorks. If it is clear tonight we will try our luck at Bullington again. 

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Wednesday, 1 August 2001

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Several people stopped in today to chat and told me how grateful they are that someone is finally working on the collection. Fortunately for me whoever started the work a couple of years ago laid a good foundation and I can just pick up where she left off.

By the time I got back home from SciWorks it was time to start dinner. The weather gods predicted it would be partly cloudy early than turn cloudy with a chance of rain at Bullington. We were going to observe from the back yard but our forecast was not much more promising. I told Bob it was just as well because I was pretty tired anyway and perhaps it would be clear tomorrow night.

Instead I paid bills and cleared some things off my desk that needed attention. My sister came over around 8 to have me help her do a second letter. It only took about half an hour to get it done. We walked the dogs than off to bed to read until I cannot stay awake any longer.

Of course since I am playing golf this morning that means up and out by 7:30 which means I wrote this last night. 

Catch up with you tomorrow.

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Thursday, 2 August 2001

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I have put up a review of The Bronze Horseman on my favorites page if you are interested. 

The weather liars did it again. Forecast for yesterday was to be mostly sunny. It looked a little cloudy by the time dad and I got to the golf course at 8 am but a lot of mornings it has looked that way. We teed off the back first. The humidity was horrible with not even a hint of a breeze. The temperatures were down in the high seventies though. We finished the back and started on the front side. It kept looking darker and grayer. Not the kind of dark like a thunderstorm but the gray dark like rain setting in. It began to sprinkle lightly on the fifth hole and by the time we got to the sixth it was coming down in steady drizzle. We pulled out umbrellas and rain ponchos and kept on going. The bottom fell out as we were playing the eighth hole. I tried to tee off on nine but my hands the grips were so slippery that it was almost impossible to hold onto the club. By this point the course was starting to flood in low places and on the greens.

We picked up and headed for the car. We got drenched just trying to get the clubs in the car and our shoes changed. We went on to lunch at the cafe even though we were half soaked. It poured while we were in the restaurant and we had to wait about five minutes after we finished eating for it to slack up enough to get to the car.

I dropped dad off and came on home. My golf gear is spread out all over the basement floor drying. When I got home this side of town had just a light drizzle, not even enough to soak the pavement under the trees. After getting my shower I worked on the poisons book for awhile until time to fix Shepard's Pie for dinner. After dinner we decided it was too cloudy to try to set up for observing so I finished my book.

Every once in a while I have a night where I absolutely cannot sleep. Last night was one of those. I turned off the light around 10:30 because I was tired. After tossing and turning for an hour I got up and went out on the sofa. Usually I can fall asleep out there without any problem. At 3 am I was channel surfing with the sound off on the TV to see if that would put me to sleep. I think I finally dozed off about 4. I heard Bob and the dogs moving around at 7:15. When he got up with the dogs I tried to go back to bed and sleep but couldn't so I got up. I am sure it will catch up with me somewhere down the line today or tomorrow.

This morning I am off to the Main library again. I have exact dates of when the Astronomy Club appeared in the newspaper from 1947 to date. I am going up to take a look at the articles and see what the content is. This afternoon I have to take Lenore to the foot doctor and then Bob and I are going to the library and out to dinner. If it turns out to be clear we will most likely go up to Bullington to observe.

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Friday, 3 August 2001

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Off this morning to the gym and the library to work on gift books. Not sure what is on tap for this afternoon. 

I started a new book, Barbara Delinsky's The Woman Next Door. Delinsky is good light reading a little on the romantic side but not the junky romance. If you like light but well written novels I recommend her books. So far this one is not starting out as good as some of her others but is not bad. I shall reserve judgment until I am finished. That is the other thing about her books. They read fast if you are looking for something that is easy to pick up and put down as you have time.

Sorry for the short post. Just nothing else much going on to prattle on about. I hope everyone has a good weekend.

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Saturday, 4 August 2001

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Yesterday afternoon when I got back from the library I did a couple of loads of laundry, one for Lenore and one small load of my spandex exercise shorts. Otherwise I just worked on the poison's book some and tidied up some CBCR stuff. We had salads and leftover Shepherd's Pie for dinner.

It was too cloudy to do any observing so I settled in last night with some classical music and my book. By bedtime I only lacked about fifty pages to finish so I read in bed until about midnight.

To me this was not one of Barbara Delinsky's best efforts in storyline and characters. The book did improve as I got into but I was still a little disappointed with this one. It may be that I could not sympathize with the characters enough to get totally into it or this one just did not appeal to me. I was always careful when I discussed books with my patrons if I did not like a particular author or one of their books to allow for my indifference rather than the authors. To me everyone's own individual tastes decide who they read and why.

In the case of The Woman Next Door Delinsky just did not have that depth to her characters or the plot line like she usually does. The main characters Amanda and Graham are struggling with a fertility issue that causes a wedge in their marriage and their relationship with his Catholic family. A young widow is pregnant after her older husband dies and the other women in the block all  suspect their husbands as being the father because the were all over helping her do things in the house about the time she would have become pregnant. There are some issues with teenagers, peer pressure, and parental pressure to be the best that brings the entire storyline together to somewhat of an anticlimactic end. 

The problem with the entire story is my personal lack of desire to have children, the fact that I do not distrust my husband as these women did for their various reasons, and I do not have teenage children. As a teenager myself I was never put under that kind of pressure other than to do the best that I can, try as hard as possible to succeed, and be proud of myself in my accomplishments. My parents never held overly high expectations of me that would cause me to crack under the pressure as some parents do with the children. I have seen it many, many times not only when I was growing up as a teen and but now as an adult.

So, the reason I may not have liked the book was more of the fact that I could not connect with the characters rather than the storyline itself. I usually enjoy Delinsky's books and this may just be one that did not work for me. So, go ahead, give it a try if you are interested to see what happens in this small cul-de-sac of four houses with four completely different families lives all intertwined. It is very short, it only took me two days to read it. 

I think I am now ready to pick up a couple of mysteries again.

Not sure what I will do today. Most likely work a little and spend some time playing with the dogs. Malcolm needs to get a little more running and exercise in. He is a much happier puppy when he does. I have been gone this past week so much and so busy I have not had enough time to devote to having him outside playing and getting tired out.

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Sunday, 5 August 2001

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After dinner I started a new Robin Paige mystery, Murder at Rottingdean, the fifth in the series. It was too cloudy again to do any observing so we walked the dogs and I went off to bed to read for awhile.

Bob got up with the dogs around 7 and I slept in until almost 8. After reading the paper and writing this post it is now time to tackle the house. The race this afternoon is from Indianapolis and does not start until 2:30 so I have plenty of time to get things cleaned up before race time. Bob will do the laundry. Another exciting Sunday at the Thompson's.

Thanks for stopping by for a visit. See you tomorrow.

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