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Barbara Fritchman Thompson Diary

Week of 1 January 2003

Latest Update: Sunday, 27 April 2003 08:37

Wednesday, 1 January 2003

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We have a warm and wet first day of the year here in the Carolinas. The birds are singing outside my window like it is the first day of spring. Boy, are they in for a surprise. As predicted it was a rather quiet night IN the Thompson house for New Year's Eve. However, the neighborhood began ringing with pops, cracks, and fizzles around 9 pm lasting at least until I turned off the light at 10:45. The dogs were not at all happy.

By the time I made the grocery store and library stop on the way home yesterday it was going on 3 o'clock when I got home. After putting away the groceries I finished taking the lights off the tree so I could get it outside on the curb. Just as I was getting started on packing up the other stuff the library called to tell us an ILL had come in for us. I convinced Bob we should go by an pick it up (they closed at 6 due to the holiday) and grab a bite to eat. We called Lenore to see if she wanted a sandwich. She has that horrible sneezing, congested cold going around. 

After we got back from the nursing home and walked the dogs I worked in the living room getting all the decorations packed up except for my village. Finally around 7:45 I gave that project up to join Bob and the dogs in the den. I finished reading Damsel in Distress by Carola Dunn before it was time for the dogs last time out. In bed, I started reading another Leslie Meier.

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This morning I will go over to visit Lenore and watch the Rose Parade with her. HGTV runs it commercial free. This afternoon I will get the front part of the house vacuum and cleaned up. I doubt I will have to time to get all the tabletop knick-knacks and stuff back in though. No hurry to get all that done right away. I hope you enjoy your day.

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Thursday, 2 January 2003

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I forgot to mention yesterday was Duncan's birthday. He turned eight years old. For a middle aged dog he still acts very much like a young dog. He may not be quite as fleet of foot in chasing squirrels but he has almost run a few down. And, of course, he still enjoys hall ball just like Malcolm does.

I did get all the Christmas stuff boxed up and hauled down stairs to be put away in the closet and basement area. However, after a two hour visit with Lenore and vacuuming and dusting the den real good, I ran out of gas around 3:00. I stretched out on the couch to read and the next thing I knew it was 5:20. We had pancakes and bacon for dinner.

Bob has been fighting the scratchy throat bug all day so I did Lenore's evening visit as well. It will be an early night tonight for sure. 

I have a to-do list as long as my arm of things to do both up and down stairs. Tonight is WSAL meeting. We will just have to meet downstairs with the Christmas stuff stacked all over the place unless I get time to put away this afternoon.

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Friday, 3 January 2003

This afternoon I will tackle the living room and dinning room. Yesterday I moved all the stuff back to the mantle in the den and finished up that room. 

Sorry for the short post but there is not much on the news front. I hope you have a great weekend. 

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Saturday, 4 January 2003

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One of our WSAL members called yesterday to let us the lodge up on the Parkway is available tonight. The weather conditions so far look favorable for some observing so we decided to go ahead and make plans to go up. That is one of the reasons I wanted to get the cleaning finished yesterday. I had planned to get most of it done today but we will need to leave early this afternoon to get up to the lodge before dark and get set up. 

I am off to the gym and visit Lenore this morning. This afternoon we need to get Astro-truck packed plus our food and bedding we will need for tonight. This is our trial run to see how much we will be able to view from the various directions of the horizon for the Messier marathon runs of February and March. 

I am not sure when we will get back in the morning but I will post a report at some time tomorrow. 

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Sunday, 5 January 2003

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After putting on several layers of clothing we went back out so Bob and Steve could do some horizon tests to see what degree of visibility we would have looking east, west, south, and north. After about an hour or so it was time to go back inside and get warm while we waited on the sun to completely set.

What we discovered was the lodge is equal to Bullington on its best night and we actually did not have perfect conditions up there. The skies were clear but the transparency wasn't very good. Yet, I bagged several M objects via binoculars, some of which I already had on my list but it was fun to see them in better skies. M42 was outstanding. Again, with the wind chill we could only stay out about an hour and a half. We went back in for more hot tea and warming in front of the fire. Around 10 pm we went out for one last session but unfortunately some clouds had started moving in from the west. We packed things up around 11 and called it night. I went up to bed around 11:30 to read.

This morning when we left they had snow showers up there with a chance for some light accumulation. We got back home around 10:45. The dogs were very happy to see us.

This afternoon we need to do the laundry and I have some things to do both at my computer and with the house. And of course, the dogs are going to need some attention plus we will need to do a Lenore visit. All in all, it was nice to get away for an evening and get some observing done even though the conditions were a bit rough.

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