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Barbara Fritchman Thompson Diary Week of 11 August 2003 Latest Update: Sunday, 17 August 2003 19:14 |
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Monday, 11 August 2003 [Last Week] [Monday] [Tuesday] [Wednesday] [Thursday] [Friday] [Saturday] [Sunday] [Next Week] |
| Thanks to all of you who sent wishes of condolences to me
and Bob in the death of his mom. Her death makes a very large change in
our lives. Everyday, the exception being when I and/or Bob were out of
town, portions of our routine were centered around Lenore. Even before she
moved in with us back in 1992, Bob stopped by the house everyday along
with frequent visits by me with groceries or some other errand that needed
run. After she moved in with us we both took some part in her daily care
for ten years before her fall last year that resulted in her having to
remain in the nursing home.
At that point our daily routine included an hour, more or less of visiting time with very few days missed, at the nursing home. This past two weeks it has been the hospital. That part of our lives is over now and will leave a big hole in our days for many weeks to come. It was well after 11 pm when I got in bed last night. I read for about an hour then turned off the light exhausted but unable to sleep. Bob came back to bed sometime after mid-night, but he too, was not sleeping very well. I think I finally fell asleep sometime after 3 am and woke back up around 5 to go to the bathroom. When the alarm went off at 6:15 I did not feel like I had even been to bed. Tonight will be spent relaxing on the couch, reading, and an early bed time. One of our other friends came by this afternoon with enough ham, side dishes, and biscuits to last us several meals.
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Tuesday, 12 August 2003 [Last Week] [Monday] [Tuesday] [Wednesday] [Thursday] [Friday] [Saturday] [Sunday] [Next Week] |
| Today was more or less back to normal, for me anyway. I
went to work, came home and played with the dogs, went to the gym after
dinner, and just spent about an hour working.
There are still some things I will need to do later in the week like organizing and dealing with Lenore's clothing and other personal stuff. But, for the most part things have been taken care of by Bob or myself yesterday and today. I hear thunder off in the distance so I closed up shop and decided I better get this post up before the storm comes in just in case we loose power. I am reading a Leslie Meier off my TBR pile that I bought while up visiting the Bilbrey's back in the spring, Father's Day Murder. Just like Lee Harris, she likes to name her books after holidays. In writing comparison Meier is not bad but she is not as good as Lee Harris. Meier's character is a reporter for a small town newspaper in Tinker's Cove, Maine. She has four children, two of which are teenagers that give her a hard time. In this mystery she moves the plot to a newspaper convention in Boston. In addition to my mystery I am also finishing up a small book I took with me to read at the hospital the other night. It is non-fiction about life on a small island off the coast of Nova Scotia. As many of you know, this is one of my favorite type of books to read other than mysteries and dog stories, books about living in rural areas, small islands, or similar settings. If you enjoy that type of book I strongly suggest reading the Elizabeth Ogilvie Bennett's Island series. Start from the beginning if you can because they do follow the sequence of events from how the Bennett's first move to the Island to current day which is the mid to late 1980's I think. Ogilvie bases the novels loosely on her own life living on a small island off the coast of Maine much like the setting for the books. [Top] |
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Wednesday, 13 August 2003 [Last Week] [Monday] [Tuesday] [Wednesday] [Thursday] [Friday] [Saturday] [Sunday] [Next Week] |
| I has been a very busy afternoon and evening. I made a bank
and grocery store stop on the way home. While Bob put away the groceries I
went out and mowed the lawn. I was absolutely dripping by the time I
finished from the humidity. I came in and fixed dinner then took the Guys
out to help me with the sweeping up and hauling of the lawn cart to the
curb.
After we finished those chores they were very hot and tired themselves. I have just spent an hour and half or so paying bills, cleaning up my desk, and doing some work. I think I will call it a night and relax on the couch with my book for before last time out with the dogs and off to bed.
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Thursday, 14 August 2003 [Last Week] [Monday] [Tuesday] [Wednesday] [Thursday] [Friday] [Saturday] [Sunday] [Next Week] |
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I had a Friends of the Library meeting this afternoon from 4:30 to 5:30. I then came back by the house and picked up Bob to go out SciWorks. They were having their annual volunteer appreciation cookout. We had the usual hot dogs and hamburgers with all the trimmings and cake for dessert. We stayed until 7. Fortunately the have a nice eating area inside since the humidity is still horrid. But... we have not had any measurable precipitation at our house for four days running. Amazing! As I write this Bob is reading aloud to me the reports of the huge electricity outage along the east coast due a grid failure. I finished up the Leslie Meier last night. Not sure what I will start on tonight. Thankfully tomorrow is Friday. It has been a long and tiring week. I am looking forward to the weekend. [Top] |
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Friday, 15 August 2003 [Last Week] [Monday] [Tuesday] [Wednesday] [Thursday] [Friday] [Saturday] [Sunday] [Next Week] |
| Hot and humid, the dog days of August have finally arrived.
After I left work this afternoon I made a stop at Wal-Mart to pick up a
few things while on the way to the license plate bureau to renew my car
tag. On the way back home I stopped at Eckerd drug to buy some things we
needed I had coupons for. About once every couple of weeks they run a
special on 2 liter cokes for $.79 with a limit of 6. I always try to stop
and get some for Bob when I am in the direction. They also run some really
good two for one specials on their vitamins.
We had a light dinner then I went to the gym to workout on the cardio machines for about 45 minutes. Back home, I checked my mail, caught up on web pages, and worked on contract work. Time to call it a night. I have cute dog pictures to put up, hopefully tomorrow. Just haven't gotten around to picking the ones I want to use yet. Last night I decided to start another Carolyn Hart, Sugar Plum Dead, just in case you can't tell from the title it is a Christmas murder. Hope you have a great weekend. If you live in the northeast where all the power failures are located, hopefully you got your power back on at some point this weekend.
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Saturday, 16 August 2003 [Last Week] [Monday] [Tuesday] [Wednesday] [Thursday] [Friday] [Saturday] [Sunday] [Next Week] |
| I have two new pictures of Malcolm and Duncan up on the
Guys web page if you want to take
a look. Nothing spectacular, just a couple of "cute moments".
As usual, I hit the ground running again on Saturday morning. I did sleep in until about 7:30. After breakfast I made a trip out to Lowe's to pick up some stuff for the lawn. I want to make sure I have my seed and fertilizer on hand when the guy the down the street gets ready to aerate the lawn. I also picked up two camellia bushes and two mums to plant. Last week the president of our astronomy group we belong to e-mail Bob for a suggestion of a shrub or tree the club wanted to purchase for us to plant in our yard in memory of Lenore. I sent her back a couple of suggestions to give her a choice. This morning while I was at Lowe's I saw those camellias and decided to buy one each for me to plant from Bob and I in her memory. She loved those bushes. I gave Priscilla the choice of rhododendron or crepe myrtle, two of her other favorites. Also, while at Lowe's I bought us a new propane tank for the grill. We have one of the old ones that does not have the new cut off making our tank obsolete. It is cheaper to buy a tank and have it filled as needed than to use the propane exchange system available at home and garden centers and gas stations. Since the RV place is just up the road from Lowe's I drove up and had the new tank filled. We still have some gas in our old tank but now I have a backup just in case I run out while cooking a meal. Back home, Bob and I moved Lenore's TV up to our bedroom and her stereo into my office. After that project I got started with the house cleaning. By the time I finished up it was time for lunch. After lunch I went outside to plant the mums in the front and the two bushes in the back. After my shower I settled in my office to get some contract work done. Priscilla called about 2:15 and said she was on her way over with our bush, a very nice rhododendron. I will plant it tomorrow with the camellias. I worked until time to fix dinner then resumed working again after we walked the dogs. Our friend, Steve, called a little while ago to say he was setting up his scope in his driveway later on this evening to view Mars. I think at this point he may be a bit of an optimist since the forecast for tonight calls for cloudy skies and a chance of thunderstorms. I guess we are going to take a ride over and see if things clear up enough by the times Mars comes up around 10pm.
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| Dad and I played golf this morning. While neither one of us
played very well we had a good time just being out. The temperatures were
not bad but the humidity was very high.
Mom had lunch ready for us when we got home. I was sitting and visiting with them for awhile when Frances shows up with one of those under the bed plastic storage boxes filled with all kinds of food like homemade spaghetti sauce, pasta side dishes, boxes of different pastas, a loaf of French bread, and a cute teddy bear dish towel. What a wonderful and unique gift from her and Al. I left around 1:30 to head back home and spent the remainder of the afternoon watching the race, reading the newspaper, and catching up on some other magazines that have been sitting on my side table for a couple of weeks. I grilled steaks for dinner and also partially grilled two pork tenderloins I had thawed out. We can use a couple of Frances' side dishes with those. I will finish cooking them in the pan or microwave when I reheat them for dinner next week. After dinner I came back to my office to get some work done. A thunderstorm is moving in the area so I decided I better stop working and get this post up just in case we loose power.
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