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Barbara
Fritchman Thompson Diary
Week
of 5 September 2005
Latest Update: Friday 10, September 2005 12:10
p.m.
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Monday,
5 September
2005
Happy
Labor Day. The weekly chores are finished, house cleaning and mowing. I
edged and used the blower to clean up leaves and debris. It is very
much like a fall day here in the Triad. Temperatures are in the low
80's, no humidity, and a nice 5 to 10 mph breeze with clear blue skies.
A great day to be outdoors.
Last night we did go up to Bullington. The skies were partly to mostly
cloudy when we got up there but a slight wind finally blew things on
out. While conditions were not great we did get all the objects in
Cepheus bringing out total weekend count of Hershel objects close to
30. I am also working on the Caldwell list, so some of the objects in
found as Hershel's also overlapped on my Caldwell list.
We got home right at midnight.
Frances is flying in this evening from Salt Lake City. She has been
gone a little over two weeks on part of the 28 day California bus trip
with Holiday Tours. Al is driving the trip. She flew out to meet the
trip in Colorado and will come home tonight. Al and the remainder of
the group will be home this weekend.
I am picking up my folks around 4:45 to go out for dinner then to the
airport to pick her up. Dad does not see well enough to drive the
interstates at night.
Guess I go watch some of the U.S. Open tennis match, read, and relax
for the remainder of the afternoon. Hope you enjoy your day whatever
you have going on.
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Tuesday,
6 September 2005
Another glorious day in the Triad with clear
blue skies and temperatures in the low 80's. I walked during my lunch
hour. This evening I was off to the gym for a good 50 minute workout.
I finally finished the Alpine Menace and started another mystery by an
author I picked up at the library. Bob read it first and said it was
good. The author, P.B. Ryan has written three mysterys so far in a
series about a young Irish governess, Nell Sweeney set in Boston in the
late 1800's. I am reading the first book in the series, Still Life With Murder. Nell gets a
job with a wealthy Boston family after they adopt a baby born out of
wedlock by one of their servants. In the early part of the book Nell's
past history is alluded to only as being very bleak of which she is
hiding a deep dark secret. As a reader I am guessing Ryan will
gradually unfold her story along with the plot of the book which finds
Nell helping her mistress prove her eldest son did not commit a murder
he is accused of outside an opium den. The young mans father wants him
to hang guilty or not.
The plot is fast moving, I love the characters, and Ryan writes very
well. The library does not have the next two books in the series. I
shall list them in my little "black book" to look for on future
used/new bookstore shopping forays.
Duncan has been having a spell of less than perfect health. He hurt his
left front leg or shoulder somehow and has been limping off and on
pretty bad. Last Thursday he vomited then did so again both Sunday and
yesterday.
While it is not unusual for dogs to throw up periodically, the
frequency and content has me a bit concerned as it appears he was not
digesting his food very well. He seems to be feeling better today along
with eating a rather decent dinner but the limping has continued.
I will keep a close eye on things and if they do not improve and/or we
have another bout of vomiting I guess I will have to call the vet for
an appointment.
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Wednesday,
7 September 2005
While we are very busy at work at least today
was not a Wacky Wednesday. The weather remains beautiful. All these
clear nights and not able to observe due to Bob not feeling well and it
being work nights. Oh well.
I did the weekly grocery store run on the way home. Otherwise, things
are pretty quiet. Duncan seems to be feeling better though he is still
limping on the front leg off and on.
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Thursday,
8 September 2005
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Upon arriving at work this morning I did the
usual opening of my Outlook mail program. Shortly thereafter up popped
a meeting message reminding me of my Friends meeting. I thought my
calendar reminder program had gone haywire or something when, lo and
behold, it really is the second Thursday of the month. For some reason
I had my weeks all mixed up thinking this being the first full week of
the month it would also be the first Thursday.
I called Bob to let him know I would be late and to ask him if he would
grab my Friends folder from my desk and bring it out to me as I swung
by on my way to the library after work. We had a very long and busy
meeting with the upcoming book sale preparations to finalize and
getting the new branch head up to speed on how things operate. She had
a lot of questions which we ran out of time to handle but by next month
she will be a little more settled in.
My sister called me at work this morning. She had taken her new digital
camera we bought her to the new processing kiosk recently opened by one
of the one hour photo places near her house. I previewed the pictures
quickly the other night when we picked her up and told her most of them
looked like they came out really well. She was so excited to see the
pictures processed from the card to prints and learned how to crop, fix
brightness issues, etc. In addition to the 104 pictures on the card she
had 8 little disposable cameras. I look forward to seeing the pictures
from her trip.
Weather...well, we continue to have cool nights, warm but not hot days
with clear blue skies. It is very dry on the surface which means the
grass is looking a little pale and bare in spots but a good rain will
bring it back to life again.
[Top]
Friday,
9 September 2005
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No update.
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Saturday,
10 September 2005
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Happy 22nd anniversary to Bob. Last night we
had a great time doing some in town observing. We drove around the
corner, so to speak, to the soccer field in the neighborhood directly
west of us where Steve lives. We set up chairs and the scope, grabbed
out binoculars and spend a couple of hours hunting down deep sky
objects and double stars. It was a very clear night though the
transparency went downhill pretty quickly around 11 when we call it a
night. I did a little bit of lunar stuff while waiting on it to get
dark. Most of the objects we have seen before at Bullington or Fancy
Gap but the trick is to find them in the city with local lights, etc.
It was a lot of fun and much less intense. We are, as my boss at work
calls it, in the red zone here at the Thompson Techno Grotto. Bob is on
short deadline to get the book finished in the next five weeks. While
he cannot work all the time, I will try to take over as much of the
small household stuff as I can to give him work time.
This morning was the usual house cleaning chores. We did sleep in until
around 8 after not getting to bed until after midnight. I will help Bob
with the laundry today. He changed the blade in my mower by to the
catching blade. I set the mower down one notch and mowed up leaves and
other debris down at dirt level from mulching during the summer. With
the prolonged dry spell the grass was not very high but mowing it a 1/4
inch shorter cleans it up real nice. Plus, the leaves are already
starting to fall. With the breeze today, they are falling like snow due
in part to the dry weather of late. As you know once leave seasons
starts I feel like I have as many in the house as I do in the yard
tracking them in on our shoes and the dogs fur.
Speaking of dogs, today they get their fall bath and most likely last
one for the year. Hope you have a great weekend.
[Top]
Sunday,
11 September
2005
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Copyright
© 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005 by Barbara
Fritchman
Thompson. All Rights Reserved.