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Barbara
Fritchman Thompson Diary
Week
of 15 May 2006
Latest Update: Sunday, 21 May 2006 5:50 p.m.
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Monday, 15
May
2006
I
am back. Pictures later this week. We had a great time despite the fact
that it rained the entire time we were gone from Wednesday to Sunday. A
low pressure system much like a tornado moved into the Midwest and New
England area dumping large quantities of rain such as three to five
inches in one day. The temperatures never climbed out of the low 40's.
On Thursday we had a high of 39 degrees with 50 mph winds. Oh yes, it
was nasty. But, we made the best of things and enjoyed ourselves.
We finally saw sunshine yesterday afternoon as we drove into
Tennessee from Kentucky. Then, when we got into North Carolina we hit
rain again. When I called Frances to let her know what time to meet the
bus there were tornado watches and warnings from Winston-Salem and east
and south of here. Fortunately, we did not hit any bad weather as far
as Winston but they may have one they let us off.
Frances had cooked a Mother's Day dinner for us rather than fight the
Sunday crowds. I stayed to eat before driving on home arriving around
7:45. Frances sent some food for him. The dogs and Bob seemed very
happy to see me.
I watched the final episode of West Wing while playing ball with the
dogs and catching up on the newspapers. I then very quickly unpacked
before we walked the dogs.
Tonight I rushed home from work to get the yard mowed before the
rain/storms moved in. It thundered a couple of times while I was
mowing the back but the rain held off until in finished. The low
tonight is to be down in the 40's with highs in the low 70's tomorrow.
Since Bob did the laundry today I have a pile of clean clothing to put
away.
I read one book on the trip, Nancy Means Wright's Vermont series
featuring farmer Ruth Willmarth. The first book Mad Season was fair. The writing
was not too good nor was the plot. I will give her second one a try
later on. Last night I picked up another Hamish Macbeth.
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Tuesday, 16
May 2006
Malcolm and I just got back from walking with Stephanie. We had just
finished dinner when she called because I went to the gym on the way
home from work. I did an hour of upper and lower body weight work. I
like going straight to the gym then coming home rather than doing the
reverse. While it makes dinner a little later I don't have to come and
go out again.
Sorry, not enough time to pick out pictures tonight but maybe tomorrow
night.
Work is busy. Steve is down in our Greenville office for the week. Drew
and I are holding down the fort. Fortunately I wasn't too far behind
after being gone a week. I am still wrapping up the destruction project
plus working on some other ongoing stuff.
I am reading Death of a Glutton in
the Hamish Macbeth series.
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Wednesday, 17 May 2006
No update.
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Thursday, 18
May 2006
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Thanks to Bob for getting my pictures up on
my web page today. I picked out this group to share with you and a
larger group to have printed. One set for me and one for my folks. Bob was
taking care of that via online and Walgreens.
In case you missed last week's post, the folks and I were off to
Holland, Mi for the Holland Tulip
Festival.
On Thursday night after we arrived in Holland we had dinner before
attending a live concert of Frankie Avalon
at one of the large local churches, Central Wesleyan Church. He put on
a heck of a show, coming out in the audience to have his picture made,
walking up and down among the seats, etc. Two of his sons play in his
back up band.
You can see from the overcast skies how dismal the weather still was on
Friday. These first pictures are from Windmill Island, just outside the
city of Holland, Mi. The windmill on the right actually makes ground
wheat. We went up the five flights of stairs through the various levels
to see the interior and how it worked. They were not grinding the day
we were there. This windmill was brought over from Holland and
reassembled on the spot. The picture of the tulip fields was taken from
that deck on the windmill.
The first picture is of a sluice gate at the far end of this complex on
the island. You can see how high the water is in the river. The next
pictures were taken at the Veldheer's Tulip Farm. I braved 40 mph winds
and pelting rain to get these shots of the what was left of the tulips
that withstood the 50 mph winds the day before. Many of them were still
very pretty. The farms was just muddy paths and wet grass which kept
most of our group inside the garden and gift shops.
The sign outside the farm. I did not buy any wooden shoes but I did
purchase a plant and a few other small things. Friday night we
attended a play put on by the local Christian school. They did a 2 hour
program covering Dutch traditions, songs, etc. Adults and kids put on a
great show. Saturday night we stayed over in Renfro Valley, Ky. We saw the
country western show inside this old barn. A lot of famous country and
western stars got their start in Renfro Valley and often return there
for shows.
A picture of the local group that plays there all the time. We went
back to the Sunday morning show called the Gathering. Members of the
audience go up on stage to make up the choir. That's my dad on the back
row, second from the left just behind the microphone. He has a great
voice.
As I said, we had a wonderful time. The only thing we did not get to do
was walk around downtown Holland due to the horrible weather. But, we
ate some great food, saw three wonderful shows, and even saw some
pretty tulips.
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Friday, 19 May 2006
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No update.
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Saturday, 20 April 2006
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After a week of work and playing catch up at
home at night I was pretty much done in yesterday. Thursday night I
went out to dinner with Nancy and Betsy. Last night I walked with
Stephanie and the girls around 7.
This morning I tackled the house cleaning. Two weeks of dog hair, dirt,
and clutter, yuck! It took half and hour to put stuff away before I
could even get started with the cleaning. It has been so busy at night
I still had trip stuff to be put away.
My desk is piled high with mail, catalogs, etc, etc. that were stacked
on the kitchen table. Bob will need the kitchen tabled completely
cleared to give him room when he starts building computers for the new
book. In meantime I can use the space to work on my trip album.
I still have my pictures and trip stuff from last years Vermont trip.
Since I am now taking short trips I bought one of those big magnetic
page albums to put my pictures and brochures in rather than so small
ones for each trip but never got around to putting that trip stuff in.
After I catch up on mail and clean off my desk I plan to spend some
time getting those two trips organized into my album.
Otherwise I plan on spending the rest of the day and evening resting
and relaxing. I feel like I have been on the run for two weeks solid.
We had planned to go up to Pilot Mountain tonight with the astronomy
club for a public observation. Bob and I both decided we did not feel
up to going.
I finished the Hamish Macbeth and started another Dana Stabenow, Kate
Shugak mystery.
We had a little rain over night. We are up to close to an inch and a
half of rain for month which we need. These little showers are just
enough to keep things watered. I shall save the yard work for tomorrow.
Sunday, 21
April 2006
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I did do an update yesterday but forgot to
change the link. The afternoon did not go as planned however. Around
3:30 I started getting nervous about today's weather forecast. I
decided to go ahead and get the mowing done just in case it did
rain/thunderstorm this afternoon. By the time I finished up mowing it
was time to start dinner. After dinner I finished up the desk clearing
and organized my trip stuff but decided to pack it in for the evening.
Bob wanted to watch Firefly. The
pilot was about two hours long which we started watching during dinner
and finally finished after the washing up, dog walking, and the
activities I just mentioned.
We watched the pilot plus two more episodes before heading off to bed
to read.
Dad and I played the short executive course this morning due to the
large tournament at our regular course. The weather all day has been
stunning. Clear blue skies, breezy, and temperatures in the low 80's.
Since I had the mowing out of the way I used my new electric edger then
fired up the gas hedge trimmer. It took half an hour to do all the
bushes and an hour to clean up the mess. I am glad that job is out of
the way for a while.
While I had the red potatoes on the stove cooking for dinner I started
working on my trip album. I grilled steak for Bob and chicken for me to
go with the potatoes. I still have bills to pay and mail to check so I
guess I better get to it.
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Copyright
© 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006 by
Barbara
Fritchman
Thompson. All Rights Reserved.
