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Barbara Fritchman Thompson Diary

Week of 16 February 2004

Latest Update: Sunday, 22 February 2004 18:14

Monday, 16 February 2004

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 Here is what we woke up to this morning. The first two I shot before the I left for work around 7 am. The sun was not up yet. In the one of the front yard you can see the glow from the street lights. Bob took the other three later in the morning. It was truly a winter wonderland. The snow was so wet and heavy it just clung to everything.

I had not trouble getting to work. Frances was supposed to have taken dad for his first PT session this morning but he cancelled. It would not do for him to have his leg or feet slip out from under him on the snow/ice and either break something or injure his knee. I am supposed to take him to get his hair cut Wednesday morning but the weather gods are calling for more white stuff to fall again tomorrow.

Speaking of hair cuts. I kept my appointment for this afternoon since it is on the way home anyway. By the time I got off work at 2:30 the sun had melted most if not all the stuff that was on the roads. The trees, in the shade, are still covered as is deck and fence railings in a lot of places. The gym stayed open until 8:30 so I went on to Body Pump class after dinner. 

Last night when we took the dogs out for last time I could not get Malcolm to come in. He just wanted to romp and play in the snow so I stayed out with him for about half an hour letting in run around on the leash. He would take his nose and run along plowing snow then come up with his face all covered. Then he would whip around and take off across the yard as far as he could get on the flexi leash then lay down and look at me as if to say, "okay, let's do that again".  Wish you could have seen him enjoying himself.

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Tuesday, 17 February 2004

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Tom at Microsoft e-mail me yesterday to let me know we would be gearing up for the spring project. I will need as much afternoon/evening time as possible plus the weekends once we get going.

The second round of snow that we were to get today did not materialize. It had been forecasted for us to get an additional 1 to 2 more inches this afternoon and evening. Fortunately the front went east of us giving the coast some snow on their sand dunes.

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Wednesday, 18 February 2004

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Thursday, 19 February 2004

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I never did find the time to put up a post yesterday. I left home at regular time, 7am, to pick up dad and take him to get a haircut. He is doing really well walking outdoors with his cane. Yesterday was exactly four weeks since his operation. After I dropped him off back home I was at work by 8:45. 

I worked an extra half hour then stopped by the grocery store on the way home. By the time we got the groceries put away I had just enough time to catch up on some e-mails before it was time to walk the dogs so we could leave to go to the library dinner.

We had FAS meeting. Bonnie, Paul, and Mary met us for dinner. We didn't get home from the meeting until after 9:30, had to walk the dogs, then play some ball before going to bed. I decided to read a couple of chapters in my book and ended up reading it to the end turning off the light at 11:30. Very long day.

This morning I made it in to work by 7am and stayed until 3:30 to make up the rest of my time for yesterday. Since it was so pretty and warm, 60's, I came home and put out my fertilizer/crab grass prevention then washed a ton of salt off my car. Amazing, I have pictures of snow on Monday and today was outside in my shirt sleeves. Anyway, two long days in a row, guess it will be early to bed for me tonight. I guess I will start number seven in the Stephanie Plum series.

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Friday, 20 February 2004

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We went to one of their favorite restaurants to eat, another Greek owned place. I had a really delicious chicken parmesan dish. I dropped them back off getting home around 6:30. The dogs have been fed and walked. I need to catch up on my mail then call it a day.

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Saturday, 21 February 2004

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Sunday, 22 February 2004

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I had intended to put up a post late yesterday afternoon but time got away from me. After returning home in the morning from 9 am step class I spent a little time playing with the dogs then went to work in my office.

After lunch I again gave the dogs a quick outdoor play time then back to work for me. We had an observing session planned for the evening which meant some preparation time for that. We ate an early dinner, around 4 pm, to give us time to walk the dogs and get to the observing site before dark.

The weather gods once again missed the weather forecast. It was to be very windy, 20mph, but clear until around midnight. Instead, the early part of the evening we had calm winds and clear skies. I had time to get two objects found before the clouds starting drifting in. Then the wind picked up, the clouds blew away but the transparency got pretty bad for finding deep ski stuff.

We packed up and left for home about 10:30. But, it was good to get out again. The last time we did any observing was in late November up at Fancy Gap. The eyes and searching ability get a little rusty  when we are not out very often.

This morning I changed up the routine a bit. The dogs needed Alpo Snaps and Bob needed Coke. The weather forecast for the middle of the week beginning around Tuesday evening looks rather dim with the forecast of more winter weather. I decided to make a quick run out to Wal-Mart this morning instead of waiting until tomorrow afternoon. I also needed to return the small bag of fertilizer I bought last week and did not need. The large bag was enough to do the yard. 

Back from my errands I ran the vacuum and dusted while Bob did the laundry and cleaned the bathrooms for me. 

The race is from Rockingham, NC this afternoon. Rockingham is another small track in NC that more than likely will close after this year. The big track owners took one of the two race dates away for their track out west in the new markets. Several years ago our track in North Wilkesboro was closed to give those two dates to the big tracks out west. Each track on the circuit usually gets two visits per year. Money of course being the root of all evil, out smaller tracks here in NC are not drawing large enough crowds to justify keeping them open. Racing is big business. Big market super speedway tracks have opened in Texas, Vegas, etc where large crowds of 100,000 plus can attend at seat prices from $50 to $75 and up. Oddly enough, a vast majority of the race teams are based right here in NC within a 100 mile radius of Winston-Salem. When, not if, they close Rockingham the only track in NC will be the Charlotte track. It is owned by one of the "big gun" track owners making it protected from being closed.

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