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Week of 6 August 2001 Latest
Update: Tuesday, 14 May 2002 18:03 |
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Monday, 6 August 2001 [Last Week] [Monday] [Tuesday] [Wednesday] [Thursday] [Friday] [Saturday] [Sunday] [Next Week] |
| I trust everyone survived their weekend okay. We had a
rather busy day yesterday. I needed to do a deep clean on Lenore's room so
Bob put her in her wheelchair and rolled her out to the kitchen. It is
very hard for me to do a really good clean with her in the room and not a
lot of space to work around in.
I moved everything off the tops of the dresser and tables and dusted real good, swept under and behind her lift chair and moved the tables to vacuum real good. Bob decided that if we moved her potty chair to the other side of her chair it would make getting her in and out of the room much easier. Also, by doing this it gave us access to the small drawer in that table to store some of the stuff she was using on a rolling cart. Now it is much easier to get in and out of the room to take food and drink and makes the room look much less crowded. That took around and hour and half and I still had the remainder of the house to clean. I dumped all the stuff from the hall and bathroom that went in Lenore's room on the floor and finished vacuuming and dusting the other part of the house. After I finished I went back in and finished sorting out her stuff and headed for the shower. It was well past noon by the time I was finished. After lunch I checked my mail than Bob started the main backup. I sat in the den and played with the dogs until time for the race to start. For dinner we had grilled BBQ pork ribs and Filet Mignon with pasta salad. After dinner I decided to go ahead and mow the lawn. It was pretty high from all the rain we had last week and I was supposed to mow today anyway. Not knowing what hurricane Barry was going to do once he got in land and the forecast for temperatures to be in the high 90's today, I decided to go ahead and get that job out of the way. It was pretty warm last night even at 7:00. The other reason I went ahead and mowed the lawn is because I have a dentist appointment this morning. I was afraid by the time I get back this afternoon it may be raining either from thunderstorms or the out rain bands of Barry. After the dentist I have to stop at the pet store and the drugstore on the way home. Have a good week. I shall leave you with a bit of humor http://www.toiletmuseum.com. No, I did not go in search for this. It actually appeared on the weekly Netsurfer Digest last week.
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Tuesday, 7 August 2001 [Last Week] [Monday] [Tuesday] [Wednesday] [Thursday] [Friday] [Saturday] [Sunday] [Next Week] |
| Some of the hot and mugginess that the Midwest has been
suffering through is slowing coming in this direction. We have heat index
warnings for some areas of over 100 degrees today with the temps and the
humidity. This of course is normal weather for us the month of August.
School starts tomorrow which means we will have to learn the bus schedules
again to know when we can be out with the dogs. Gosh, when I was growing
up we did not start school until after Labor Day.
I worked all afternoon yesterday on the poisons book getting right much done. We had ham and cheddar cheese sandwiches for dinner with baked beans. The weather forecast was for it to be clear both here and at Bullington. Bob decided he wanted to stay here and see what we could observe from the front yard. Not Much! Between the trees, the haze, and the lights, there just was not much to see. This winter when we have clearer skies and planets to view it will be much better. But for now, if we want to do any observing we will have to go up to Bullington. Of course, the moon did not come up until very late and it was just too muggy to stay out wait for it to make it above our tree line. The lenses were fogging over from the humidity too. On nights when the moon rises early we can set up in the yard. After we packed everything up it was close to eleven o'clock. I read in bed for awhile before I turned off the light. I am working at home this morning then meeting Betsy for lunch at 12:30. After lunch I am going over to SciWorks to volunteer for a few hours. This morning I need to pay bills and tidy up the office a bit. Let's see. I think I mentioned I started the fifth book the Robin Paige mystery series, Death At Rottingdean. The real life feature character in this mystery is Rudyard Kipling and Prince Edward VII makes another appearance. The crime is smuggling in the small village of Rottingdean. Lady Katherine and Charles are vacationing in this seaside town to get away from the fast paced life of London. The murder of two coast guards quickly ends their vacation plans as Charles is appointed by Prince Edward to solve the crimes. Another wonderful book in the series, I highly recommend these to anyone who likes Victorian mysteries. [Top] |
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Wednesday, 8 August 2001 [Last Week] [Monday] [Tuesday] [Wednesday] [Thursday] [Friday] [Saturday] [Sunday] [Next Week] |
| The work on the library at SciWorks is progressing nicely.
I picked up Chinese for dinner on the way home. Although it was clear last
night we did not go up to Bullington for the simple reason it was too hot
and hazy. Between the humidity and temperatures the lenses would have
fogged over and the haze would have made it hard to see anything.
After doing a few after dinner chores, played with the dogs and read until bedtime finishing my Robin Paige mystery. This morning I am off to gym and grocery store. The heat from the Midwest is slowly making its way South. It is to be over 100 degrees today with the heat and humidity. While the heat does not bother me all that much I shall opt for staying indoors and working this afternoon. The dogs are not getting much in the way of outdoor playtime with the temperatures this high. Speaking of dogs. Border Collies are wonderful dogs but because they are so smart they are often afraid of things they do not understand. Yesterday I finally remembered to drag my photography tripod out of the corner to put in astro-truck. I am going to use it to mount my binoculars on to make them steadier for observation purposes. At any rate, I had the tripod laying on the floor behind my chair so I would not forget to take it downstairs. Malcolm came into my office, looked at the tripod, immediately went into his BC crouch, and starting barking at it. He did not know what that horrid thing was laying on the floor but he decided it was something to be wary of. After a minute or so he started backing out my office, barking the whole time and keeping an eye on the tripod. Finally he laid down at the door and just stared at it but would not come in my office. Duncan was a little shy of going near it himself but did not bark at it. [Top] |
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Thursday, 9 August 2001 [Last Week] [Monday] [Tuesday] [Wednesday] [Thursday] [Friday] [Saturday] [Sunday] [Next Week] |
| Other than the weather there doesn't seem very much to talk
about these days. Yep, it's hot almost everywhere in the country right
now. I did have the dogs outside to play before it got too beastly for
them to be outside running around.
And, I am writing this post Wednesday because dad and I are going to play golf today. It is to be hot again but not brutal until late in the afternoon. We will be teeing off by 8:00. Also riding in the cart you get a good breeze and being around all the grass and trees with not as much concrete makes it a little cooler. We normally finish up well before noon even on days when it plays slow. This afternoon I have Friends of the Library meeting. Bob and I will head over the library around 4:00 and then go out to dinner. It is supposed to cool off some this weekend with some much needed rain. Keep your fingers crossed on that. Saturday night is the Perseids Meteor shower at Pilot Mountain with the Astronomy Club and SciWorks holding a public observation. Not sure how the weather is going to pan out for that. And last but not least, I have had some very nice e-mails this week on my book reviews. Thanks to all of you who read my page and my reviews. And, please feel free to e-mail me whether you agree or disagree with my view on a particular book. I welcome other people's opinions and suggestions of other authors to try. [Top] |
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Friday, 10 August 2001 [Last Week] [Monday] [Tuesday] [Wednesday] [Thursday] [Friday] [Saturday] [Sunday] [Next Week] |
| After I prepared my Thursday post on Wednesday night we
decided to watch Schindler's
List. It was a very long movie and we did not get started until almost
eight o'clock. By the time we watched the movie and took a break in the
middle to walk the dogs it was 11:30. Since I had to get up early
yesterday to play golf I did not feel like updating my page before I went
to bed.
I have seen maybe a handful of WWII films depicting the plight of Jews and the concentration camps. This one, like all the others, was hard to watch but was an excellent movie. Dad and I both played a pretty good round of golf yesterday. Dad seems to be playing better each time we go out making it more fun for him. The heat was really not all that bad in the morning. By the time we finished, around noon, it was starting to get pretty hot. After I dropped him off I headed back home. After my shower I caught up on e-mail and stuff until time to go to my meeting and dinner. Wednesday afternoon the handle on the hall toilet broke. We stopped at Lowe's on the way to dinner to pick up a new one. Bob installed it when we got home. For the latest in most boring photograph on the web be sure to check out Bob's picture of the newly installed handle complete with large paper clip to hold it in place. The old handle did not need a clip because it was just a little bit longer. We opted for this handle model because it was made of all metal instead of plastic this requiring a bit of engineering.
After the toilet handle installation we walked the dogs than I went back outside to water the plants and bushes because of this recent dry/heat spell. It took about an hour and by the time I was finished I was soaked from sweating just standing holding a hose. The heat and humidity was twice as bad last night as it was yesterday morning. I spent the remainder of the evening reading and trying to cool off before it was time for bed. [Top] |
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Saturday, 11 August 2001 [Last Week] [Monday] [Tuesday] [Wednesday] [Thursday] [Friday] [Saturday] [Sunday] [Next Week] |
| Yesterday ended up being a two shirt day after I had taken
a shower. After I wrote yesterday's post I took a shower and headed off to
run some errands and do a couple hours of volunteer work at SciWorks.
After a quick stop at the bank and license plate bureau to renew my tag, I
made it to SciWorks about 10:30. I spent most of the almost four hours
working on organizing and moving the books with call numbers. I was
already hot and sweaty from doing that despite the fact that I had on
shorts and short sleeve top.
With the horrid humidity and temperatures my car was like a sauna when I left. I had to make one more stop at the drugstore before going home. By the time I got home my shirt was pretty much done for so I put on a dry t-shirt. It was almost three by the time I had arrived back home. I was going to do some work but for some reason got real tired all of a sudden. I took a nap and woke up around 5 to start dinner. Just as I had sliced the meet to brown the power went off. Bob called the 800 number to see when it would be back on. Estimated time was 7:30. I bagged what I was cooking and grabbed sandwich and salad stuff from the fridge. We had chef salads and ham sandwiches for dinner. The power came back on around 6 pm. We cleaned up the kitchen, walked the dogs, and I did some work at the computer. Then I read until bed time. Today, Bob wants to tear down meepmeep, and put in some more memory since we seem to be having connectivity problems. Tonight is supposed to be a pubic observation for the astronomy club but the weather does not look very promising. There is a chance of thunderstorms today and tonight. Last night we had several rounds of lightning and thunder but it never did rain. [Top] |
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[Last Week] [Monday] [Tuesday] [Wednesday] [Thursday] [Friday] [Saturday] [Sunday] [Next Week] |
| Full day of work at home and I did get many things done.
First I helped Bob vacuum meepmeep before installing new memory and a
processor which took about an hour or so. I then began the assault on the
mountain of stuff on my two desks. I sorted out a pile of catalogs
and stuff for the recycling bin, organized mail and filed away papers for
most of an hour.
After a shower and quick dog outing I took a break for lunch. After lunch I cleared up some CBCR merchandise stuff, wrote checks for some catalog orders and ordered some books from the Barnes and Noble web site that I have not been able to get at the library or the local bookstores. Both my desks are now tidy and organized again and my backlog of "things to do" is caught up. Around four I decided to take a break and read until time to fix dinner. The thunderstorms had started to roll in about 4:30 so I fixed dinner just in case we lost power again. The astronomy club observation was, of course, cancelled, as the rain and storms were building over the mountains. We had a pretty good rain/storm from 5:30 to 7:00. We were finally able to take the dogs for their after dinner walk between storms. I spent the evening reading and finishing a book I had started the day before, Parting Gifts by Charlotte Vale Allen. I have read many of her works over the years favoring mostly the ones written in the 1980's. I actually discovered her when I picked up Marmalade Man on a book sale table one time, which I think is one of her best. My all time favorite is Time/Steps. Parting Gifts is one of her better ones. I have a review posted on my favorites page if you are interested. House cleaning this morning. The race today is a road race from Watkins's Glen, NY.
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