Monday,
1 September 2003
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Happy Labor Day everyone. We took a little trip out of town
over the weekend up to the Fancy Gap lodge to do some star gazing. Friday
night turned out to be off and on clouds but the intermittent clear skies
gave us a change to view Mars. I also got a couple of NGC's. The seeing
went from fair to awful several times during the night. I finally gave up
around 1 am on Saturday morning and went to bed. Saturday started out
clear but by mid-afternoon clouds and storms rolled in. Tom and I took a
trip into Fancy Gap and then down the mountain to Mt. Airy to pick up food
for Saturday night dinner.
When we got back to the lodge they had lost power. Fortunately, it was
restored around 3 pm. Obviously, we are used to moving around in dark conditions,
so not having power is not an issue when it comes to fixing food or
reading by flashlight. The main problem would have been no toilet
facilities for the 8 people inhabiting the lodge.
It poured buckets of rain as storms came through the area periodically
all afternoon and evening. I spent most of the day reading and napping. It
was nice to just relax and recharge the batteries.
We got up Sunday morning, cleaned the lodge, and took off for town
around 10:00. The dogs were very glad to see us. We left them at home to
guard the house. Our neighbors, Steve and Mimi, came down to let them out,
feed and water, etc for us. We will do the same for them when they want to
go out town like we did when Mimi was in the hospital having Sean a few
months ago.
Sunday afternoon we unpacked. Bob slept all afternoon while I watched
the race, played with dogs, and did little organizing chores.
This morning I am off to the gym for Body Pump class. I hope to mow the
lawn this afternoon if it dries out. We had several big storms roll
through yesterday afternoon with more of those torrential down pours that
have been the mainstay of our weather the past 8 months. I also have
contract stuff to do and other small chores.
I hope you enjoy your day off if you have one.
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Tuesday,
2 September 2003
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No adventures on the way to my rescheduled dentist
appointment this morning. I was finished and at work by 10 am. I worked
until 4 pm to start making up my time. I will probably work until 4 every
afternoon to this week to make sure I get my time in before Friday and not
have to stay too late on Friday afternoon.
By the time we had dinner, cleaned up, and walked the dogs it was after
6 pm. I came back to check e-mails and then worked until about 7:30. Once
I publish this post it will time to knock off for the night and get in
some reading before bedtime.
My post for yesterday included a brief report on our trip up to the
lodge at Fancy Gap if you happen to miss reading it.
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Wednesday,
3 September 2003
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I am glad I had those few days over the weekend to recharge
my batteries. This week it is back to normal for me; a long, full day at
work, come home, play with the dogs, fix dinner, and back in the office
for another two to three hours of work, answering e-mails, etc.
By 7:30 or 8 pm I have put in at least 10 or more hours of work sitting
in front of a computer. I usually save my post as the last thing to do
before I close up shop for the night.
I am not sure if I mentioned what I am reading. I finished up the Hazel
Holt mystery at the Lodge. Now I am reading the last Lee Harris I have
left in her Christine Bennett series. I know she has a new series coming
out this fall. I am not sure if she has dropped this series or will write
on both. This became one of my favorite series to read so I hope she is
going to continue it.
Other than work not much else to report. Kerry seems to still be doing
okay. He is not falling nearly as much as he was last week. However, he
hates being penned up in the foyer. Very often at night when we put him in
there after last time out he charges the gate and knocks it down. This
morning he did it at 5:45 in the morning. Fortunately it was almost time
for me to get up anyway. But, it is rather annoying in that it scares the
hell out of Duncan since he was taught at an early age to be afraid of
baby gates. That, combined with the noises Kerry makes trying to get up on
the hardwood floor, keeps Duncan scared to death most of the day. I cannot
figure out why all of a sudden this has started upsetting Duncan.
Oh well, time to go play with the dogs and spend some time relaxing
with my book.
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Thursday,
4 September 2003
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I forgot when I wrote my post for last night that I actually stayed up
Tuesday night reading until almost 11 so I could finish the Lee Harris. It
wasn't until after I finished up in here and went out to get my book to
read I remembered. I decided to grab the new Donna Andrews off of my
non-library TBR shelf, Click Here For Murder. This is the second
book in her series staring Turing Hopper, an Artificial Intelligence
Personality (AIP) set in Crystal City, outside Washington D.C. I only read
about 60 pages before turning off the light last night but I really did
not want to put it down.
We had a pretty bad thunderstorm early this morning, around 3:30. It
woke me up coming in and of course, Duncan heard it. He came up on the bed
between Bob and I for safety.
We had another pretty bad one this afternoon about 2 pm. From the 10th
floor of my building you could really see the clouds forming, streaks of
jagged lightning, and then the rain started pelting the windows. It was as
dark as if it were 8pm rather than mid-afternoon. Fortunately the worst of
it had blown through by the time I got off at 3:30.
We ate an early dinner so I could make the 5:30 spinning class at the
gym. The remainder of the evening was a carbon copy of the others. Work
until 8 then knock off for the night.
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Friday,
5 September 2003
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The weekend is upon at last. I had several errands to run
on the way home with the last stop being the grocery store. By the time we
got the groceries unloaded and put away it was time to start dinner.
After dinner I checked my mail and worked for a little while but plan
to knock off early and call it a day/week.
After that major storm came through yesterday it has turned a little
cooler with highs today only getting a little above 80. It is supposed to
cool down tonight after the sun goes down.
Have a great weekend whatever your plans may be.
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Saturday,
6 September 2003
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It has been a very productive day around the Thompson
Techno Grotto. I started off this morning vacuuming and dusting the house.
While I vacuumed Bob mopped the kitchen, den, bathroom, hall, and foyer
floors behind me. We put the dogs downstairs while all of this activity
was going on.
After we finished up in the house I mowed the lawn then came in and
took my shower before fixing lunch. While the temperatures are very cool,
high sixties to low seventies the humidity both in and outside the house
was horrible.
After lunch I spent the remainder of the afternoon at my desk sorting
paperwork, check mail, and working on contract stuff.
If the weather clears enough we are supposed to go up to Pilot Mountain
for a public observation tonight. Right now things aren't looking too
promising with Tropical Storm Henrico sitting off the Florida coast.
Thankfully, Fabian missed us, man it was a big one.
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Sunday,
7 September 2003
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We did end up going to Pilot Mountain last night to help
out FAS with the public observation. We spent most of the evening trying
to spot the moon and mars as they played peek-a-boo in and out of the
clouds cause by tropical storm pulling off the SC/NC coast. I would guess
we had around 300 to 350 people show up to look through our scopes.
Around 11 pm we packed up and came home. By the time we played with the
dogs and gave them a final time out it was around midnight when I got to
bed
I got this morning around 6:45 to go play golf. It was a really nice
fall day with temperatures in the low 70's and a breeze. Mom had lunch
ready for us when we got back home. Frances came over and joined us for
lunch as well.
I guess I got back home around 2pm. Since it was such a nice day I
decided to go ahead and lay out some landscape timbers I had stacked up in
down back around my red bud tree in the back yard. I cannot get grass to
grow in and around the tree due to the yard being so sloped causing it
mostly to wash away. I did have some nice sized rocks around the tree with
mulch.
The new area is about 16 x 16. I moved the rocks around another tree
for now. I still need to dig up one corner of the area does have some
grass to sod another area and smooth out the ground so the timbers sit
flat. This fall, I will fill it with mulch.
I grilled ribs for dinner. After dinner I did the usual check mail and
work until about 7:45.
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