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Barbara Fritchman Thompson Diary

Week of 10 June 2002

Latest Update: Sunday, 27 April 2003 08:39

Monday, 10 June 2002

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We were supposed to leave around 3:45 to go to Frances' for dinner. Lenore was not feeling well and decided she did not want to out. I woke Bob up. While he took his shower I walked the dogs and fixed Lenore something to drink. We managed to get going about 4:15. Frances had a nice dinner of grilled ribs, baked potatoes, and baked beans. Mom and Bob ate in the house but the rest of us enjoyed our dinner on the deck. After ice cream and cake and some gift opening we sat around and talked a little longer before Bob and I needed to head back home. The evening was spent reading and giving the dogs some much deserved attention.

If you live on the left coast you have a solar eclipse event happening today. Over here on the right coast the sun will be setting before the eclipse is completed. 

Off to the gym this morning and a drug store stop. I have several piles of stuff that need attention on my desk this afternoon. The weather had returned to summer like temperatures with highs today and all week hitting close to 90.

Have a good week.

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Tuesday, 11 June 2002

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In preparation for the trip I have a long list of errands and shopping I need to do. I thought I would get started on those today since I also need to shop for Father's Day which is this Sunday. I really do not need much for the trip except a new pair of tennis shoes and some extra socks and underwear. Actually, my old lawn tennis shoes are shot and it is time to rotate one of my everyday pair to that chore and get a new pair to replace them. I also want to stop at the bookstore and look for a couple of good guide books to take along for taking notes on the things we see, etc. 

Bob really hates for me to buy paperback books but some of the mystery authors I want to read are only available in paperback and the library system does not have them. At least with paperback if you buy it and really hate it you are not out a lot of money and you can donate them to the library so someone else can hate them.

It is to be very hot and hazy today with temperatures in the low 90's. Guess I better get going on my errands.  

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Wednesday, 12 June 2002

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Air quality was to be at almost the worst by yesterday afternoon between the heat, haze, and pollution. My allergies have been acting up again this week so I stayed in the rest of the day other than to give the dogs a quick walk. I spent most the afternoon working at my desk until dinner time.

I am reading a new author, Rhys Bowen, author of the Evan Evans mysteries. The library did not have her first one but I have the others in the series beginning with Evans Above. I am starting to really enjoy these mystery authors with a some dry humor mixed in with a little murder and small town characters. Evan Evans is the police constable in the town of Llanfair, a Welsh village located in the Snowdonia mountain range. In Evans Above, Evan must solve the mystery of two climbers who are killed on the same day up on the mountain. And, being a young, nice looking man all the ladies in town are interested in him. Two in particular are Betsy, who works at the pub, and a teacher Bronwin. Poor Evan is trying to solve a murder and at the same time having to worry about  these two women fighting for his attentions.

Speaking of libraries. The state of North Carolina is in horrid financial shape. They have cut all funding on the state and local level governments creating some major problems in the state including here in Forsyth County. The paper this morning outlined the local cuts in services which includes closing one library branch or closing all the branches two days a week. There is also a proposal to make every county employee take one day a week off with no pay. I worked for the county back during the 1991-1992 budget cut process. We lost about 25 positions, some of which were vacant at the time, back then. Most of those positions are still gone ten years later and now they are talking about more cuts in staff/branch services. It makes me very sad to see this happening. But I am also very happy to be sitting here at home writing this journal page and not having to worry about my staff, branch, or myself during these budget cuts.

Another hot, hazy, day with air quality again to be dangerous. I am off to the gym this morning, pet store, and grocery store. Guess that means another day of keeping the dogs indoors most of the day except for an occasional walk.

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Thursday, 13 June 2002

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I did decide to mow the lawn and edge yesterday when I got back from the gym and store. It is very dry but still growing in the shady areas plus the places where I have Bermuda grass get very high since it loves hot dry weather for growing.

It has really been too hot to even cook. Yesterday at the store I bought some potato salad for Bob and Lenore to have with ham sandwiches for dinner last night. After dinner I went out to water the plants and bushes then spent the rest of the evening reading.

I am off to play golf this morning and I have Friends of the Library meeting this afternoon. 

Be sure to look up in the sky tonight just after dusk. The new crescent moon is just to the right of Jupiter with Venus blazing high in the sky just above. Very pretty sight. It was so hazy here last night the little bit of moon there was actually looked red.

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Friday, 14 June 2002

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Well, when I tried to call her my cell phone politely told me my service had been temporarily suspended. That was weird, since we just stopped in last week and bought another $20 card before the last one expired on Sunday. I have local/regional service whereby I purchase additional time every 90 days. The time from each previous card not used rolls over to the next 90 day period when I purchase additional time. 

We drove on to the house. While mom put her shoes on and got her things together to go grab a bite to eat I called Bob and let him know what was going on. Then I called the store where we purchased the phone. After talking with him I put 2 and 2 together and actually got four. So far, each time we have purchased additional time on the phone the guy at the phone store always adds it to the phone for us. Last week he did not. He gave me my receipt and the card like he always has but I did not know he did not add the new time and he thought I knew to add the new time. 

As Bob instructed I went ahead and had lunch with my folks, stopped at the store to pick up my new high top shoes, and then came on home. By this time Bob had also called the store and he too had come to the same conclusion I had. After quickly checking my mail and taking a shower we drove down to see what they would do about fixing the problem. It was clearly a misunderstanding on our part and the guy at the store but it was not our fault I lost my $48 in left over time plus the $20 that had still not been added from the new card. The at the store first called Cingular to tell them what had happened. After a long conversation with them the end result was they would not restore my lost time regardless, no exceptions, period. However, the guy that owns the store who is a Cingular dealer made it good. He entered my newly purchased $20 card then gave me another $50 card for free, i.e. he ate the $50 to make the customer happy. I hate it for him but he did the right thing for us and we are appreciative of his customer service. 

After getting that mess straightened out we came back home. I read web pages and finished checking mail before I needed to leave again to go to the library for Friends meeting. George, the branch manager, had something he wanted to discuss with me before the meeting which starts at 4:30. By the time I talked with him, ran off the agendas and checked out some books we had waiting it was time for the meeting to start. I kept it short finishing up around 5:15. I then came back by the house to pick up Bob to go out to dinner. 

Last night I spent a lot of time playing with the dogs since I was gone so much during the day and of course reading. I started another Dorothy Simpson mystery. I have not been sleeping too well the last couple of nights. This hot, hazy weather has been aggravating my sinus/allergy problems. With a stuffy head and drainage my sleeping has been in fits and starts. After an early last time I headed off to bed to read for awhile and at least get some rest. I turned off the light around 10:30 but was still having problems breathing and I kept coughing. I ended up back on the couch again so I would not keep Bob awake. I finally got up around 1 and took some more cough medicine and fell asleep sometime after that.

This morning it is finally cloudy and a little cooler although still very humid. It rained a little last night but not enough to even get the grass wet under the trees. Malcolm and I are going out to visit Jodi at her farm/kennels this morning. She is the one who took Sophie for CBCR. I need to do the paperwork on the adoption and see how her new BC puppy is doing. She does mind if I bring out my dogs to run around and play and she really likes Malcolm. 

This afternoon I may do some things at my desk and I want to watch some of the U S Open golf tournament. I hope you have a good weekend. Oh, and speaking of weather. John Hope, from the Weather Channel  was very well known for his coverage of hurricanes died yesterday at the age of 83. If you watched the weather channel during a hurricane and John came on you knew it was going to be a bad one. He had semi-retired a few years ago but still came on periodically for hurricane coverage. 

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Saturday, 15 June 2002

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Since it is to be a SUPER night for observing tonight I plan on taking it easy today and rest up for Bullington. 

Last night I finished Wake the Dead by Dorothy Simpson. This is another of the Inspector Thanet mysteries. I am gradually reading my way through the list to the most recent one. In this novel, Thanet and his wife are among a large crowd attending a local fete in Sturrendon on the grounds of MP Hugo Fairleigh estate Thaxton Hall. Late that afternoon someone discovers Hugo's elderly mother, who lives at the estate, dead. It was however, not a surprise since she had recently suffered a severe stroke. Upon examination of the body Thanet and police surgeon Mallard determine she did not die of a second stroke but was suffocated.

Thanet now must determine if someone in the family was responsible or one of the hundreds of guests attending the fete that afternoon. As usual, Simpson's usual cast of characters are dealing with everyday problems of life while trying to focus on the clues to uncovering the motif for the crime. 

 As I said, I went to bed early last night. I read a few chapters of the next Rhys Bowen, constable Evans mystery, before turning out the light. I plan to spend most of today watching golf and reading. Although we did not get any rain with this cold front that moved through it at least cleared the air of the hazy yuck and dropped temperatures back down to the mid eighties for today. 

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Sunday, 16 June 2002

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As promised I took most of yesterday off which included an afternoon nap and watching the U S Open golf tournament. In between those exhausting activities I played with the dogs and  did some minor stuff on the computer. We left for Bullington around 8:30. It did turn out to be another good night of viewing. With a 7 to 10 day old moon up I did some lunar observing while waiting on it to get dark enough to start on deep sky objects. I managed to bag a half dozen or so in both the scope and the binoculars.

It was actually so warm up there that I did not need to put on a long sleeve sweater until almost midnight. Then it started getting damp and cold and I was getting tired. We packed it in and left around 1 am getting to bed at 2. The major stuffiness and congested cough are still with me but I really do not feel all that bad this morning.  

After cleaning house this morning I will spend the day watching the race from Michigan and the golf tournament. I am going over to Frances' at 4:00 to meet up with the folks. We are taking dad to Pizza Hut for a nice relaxing fun Father's Day dinner. 

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