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Barbara
Fritchman Thompson Diary
Week
of 29 January 2007
Latest Update: Sunday, 4 February 2007 2:30 p.m.
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Monday, 29
January 2007
It
turned really cold last night going down into the low 20's. With the
wind chill it was well down into the teens and single digits when we
walked the dogs for last time. I am reading the most recent Jeffrey Cohen,
As Dog is My Witness, although it is a 2005. This is the third book in
his Aaron Tucker series. Aaron aspires to be a screen writer but still
works as a free lances as an investigative reporter. His son in the
book, like his real soon, suffers from Asperger syndrome. Arron finds
himself investigating the murder of a man who is shot while walking his
dog. A young man who suffers from Asperger has been accused of the
crime. Aaron has been asked by the head of the Aspen, Inc. (which is a
real support group for parents of children with Asperger) to
investigate the crime. The series is light and funny. According to his
web site, this is the last Aaron Tucker for awhile He has published a
new book in a new series that I was not aware of until I read about it
on his web site.
We were slammed at work again today. I have the destruction project
keeping me covered up plus helping Drew with boxes. We did three runs
across the street today to bring boxes back to the Record Center.
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Tuesday, 30 January 2007
Drew and I are off site at the warehouse again today and tomorrow. The
destruction review is going really well. With us each working on part
of the list we are getting through the boxes pretty quickly. We went to
my favorite diner for lunch today, The Olde Orchard. They make the best
chicken on sour dough bread sandwich. By the way, Frances, our favorite
waitress said to tell you and Al hello and mom and dad. As you can
tell, our whole family enjoys eating there. I took Marcia there for
lunch on one of their previous visits.
We had planned to go Thursday but the weather forecast is calling for
bad weather, if we get it. Several days before we are to get bad
weather the city starts putting down a water/brine solution on the
major roads in the city. It helps to keep the stuff from freezing and
sticking to the roads when they have to scrape. I noticed on the way
home tonight they had started doing the roads I travel.
It actually warmed up fairly nicely this afternoon back into the
high 40's. Tonight it is to turn cold again and remain so tomorrow.
I've paid the bills and checked my mail. Bob and I are watching the last disc of Veronica Mars of the third season out on DVD.
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Wednesday, 31 January 2007
I made a mistake in my post last night. We
were finishing up the 2nd season of Veronica Mars, not the 3rd. The
current season now airing on TV is the third. I highly recommend the
series. Apparently the 4th season has been up in the air as to whether
or not it will be produced.
Drew and I cleared about 5 pallets of boxes each today. There are
roughly 40 boxes per pallet. Each box has to be checked on the
spreadsheet, contents looked at to see if all or part of the box can be
destroyed, then moved to either the destroy pallet or the keep pallet.
We have one day of work left at the warehouse. With bad weather
forecast for tomorrow we will go to the office instead. I will be
updating the various data bases from the spreadsheets. The boxes cannot
actually be destroyed until I send them the okay. It will take several
weeks for me to work through the spreadsheet making sure all the boxes
on those pallets can be destroyed.
With Veronica finished we are back to watching Jeeves and Wooster episodes.
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Thursday, 1 February 2007
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Well, the weather gods missed it big this
time. The forecast last night went from 1 - 2 inches of snow followed
by anything from a coating up to 1/2 of ice by this evening. It had
snowed a little when I left for work but the roads were mostly clear.
At lunch, it was a cold rain with temperatures hovering just above
freezing. At 2:30 or so this afternoon they canceled the winter storm
warning. Right now it is cold with a light mist. I called Stephanie to
see if she wanted to brave the elements and walk. If Gerald gets home
early enough we will.
We are slammed at work with secretaries closing files by the box loads.
I am tied up with destruction which leaves Drew and Steve to try to
keep up with the closing. I may have to go back off site by myself next
week to finish up if things stay like they are now.
I finished up the Jeffrey Cohen last night. Today at lunch I started Carola Dunn's Fall of a Philander
of her Daisy Dalrymple series. I need to get her most recent title for
our TBR shelf. Daisy has taken her stepdaughter and her friend to
Westcombe for a seaside holiday. In the last book Daisy married her
long time friend, Inspector Alec Fletcher and is now three month
pregnant. Alec will be joining the family on the upcoming weekend. On
the outside, Westcombe appears to be a quaint and innocent seaside
village. She soon learns to be on the lookout for suave and debonair
George Enderby. Although married himself, he considers himself
something of a ladies man with the local women. Things turn ugly when
Alec discovers George's body in a shallow cove.
Daisy tries hard, as usual, not to be involved, but always ends up in
the thick of the investigation. Dunn is one of the best in the cozy
genre. I love her characters, plots, and settings.
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Friday, 2 February 2007
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Damned if you, damed if you don't. The storm went bust, the kids missed a day of school for nothing, and Wake Forest canceled
classes. The last one I find hard to believe since the majority of the
students live on campus. I went to college in the mountains of North
Carolina. I trudged through many a deep snow to get to class. Those
that missed class were out sledding on cafeteria trays on President's
hill loaded up with "antifreeze".
The problem with the school system is, as I mentioned, above. Week
before last we had a day where it started out as rain but turned icy
later that morning. The elementary kids were already on the way to
school. The school system canceled high school classes to keep young,
unexperienced drivers off the road. They let the elementary kids out
early. The schools system was flooded with calls about starting the
school with the bad weather. With a major storm in the forecast they
canceled school Wednesday afternoon rather than wait until the usual
late the night before or even early morning. Had they gone ahead with
school and had the weather turn bad as predicted screams would be heard
from here to the central office of the schools.
Several years ago a young teen was killed on her way to school with
snow falling. Since then, I have seen them cancel school at the drop of
a hat. School bus drivers down here at not used to driving in this
stuff like they are in the snowy climates. I am not saying they made
the right decision but I understand why they did it. We live in
an area that gets major snow storms every five years with little or no
snow in between. Since kids no longer go to school in their
neighborhoods, walking is out of the question.
Otherwise, it was the day from hell at work this morning. One thing
after another with a couple of major problems to work out. Steve had
gone down to our Greenville office for the day. Fortunately by early
afternoon things calmed down.
On the way home I made the usual library (13 books on reserve to pick
up, yahoo), the pet and grocery stores. Now us and the dogs are stocked
up again on the basic necessities, milk, coke, and treats.
We finished up the Jeeves and Wooster series last night. Tonight we are watching a special Christmas Hercule Periot.
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Saturday, 3 February 2007
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I spent the entire morning running errands.
After a quick stop at Wal-Mart for a few things I made my major stop at
Home Depot. I picked up the wall and trim paint plus another gallon for
the ceiling. I also needed a roller, pan, and pan liners having ditched
all my old stuff several years ago. One item on the list was a new
blind for the small downstairs window. As usual, it turned out to be a
pain in the butt. After calling Bob we decided on what we thought was
the correct width. This window is an odd size. It was a small window at
the end of the playroom before we remodeled. When we paneled the
downstairs we had them box in the widow which they did making it an
almost perfect 36 x 36 window. I should of thought to go to a blind
store but instead thought I could pick up one at Home Depot.
When I got home Bob fiddled with the blind but determined it would not
fit. I jumped back in the car to return the blind to Home Depot then
drove the half mile over to Lowe's thinking they would have a better
selection. Not. Back to Home Depot for the next size down in width
which they also had in beige. The first one I bought was only in white.
Nothing comes shorter than 48". Yea, I could had a custom blind ordered
but really did not want to go to all that bother for that window. The
second trip was successful. Bob checked to make sure it would work and
said he will hang it this afternoon.
I will get started on painting the downstairs bathroom ceiling and the
one in the stairway this afternoon. At least these can be rolled as
they are smooth texture. The little hallway ceiling I had painted last
weekend needs another coat as well.
It is cold with highs today only in the 30's and 10 to 20 mph winds.
The long range forecast, if you can believe them, says cold weather for
the next five days or so.
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Sunday, 4 February 2007
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It has taken much longer to paint the walls
downstairs than I thought it would. I have finished the bathroom and
most of the little hallway as well as the trim and bathroom door well
as the little window. That will be it for today. I will not get to the
stairwell until next weekend. I did forget to buy a small roller to do
the doors which made brush painting the bathroom door take twice as
long. The big sliding closet doors I painted the same color as the
walls and I rolled those.
Yesterday when I started working on the bathroom I realize how bad the
walls and doors had started to look down there. Since we do not use
that area all that much I did the bare minimum to keep it cleaned. We
started the build out for that area in 1991 and moved Lenore in May of
1992. Ten years of cigarette smoke and gas heating made things pretty
dingy down there. With the amount of energy I would have to spend
scrubbing down the walls I find painting to be the lesser of two evils.
Once Gerald gets the floor in I will post a couple of pictures on my
page.
I forgot to mention Scott's Lawn came by Friday and spread the pellet
early weed and crab grass treatment. With my inside projects I am glad
I do not have to worry about the lawn.
It is very windy today though the temperatures have risen to the low 40's. Cold air is to move in tonight and tomorrow.
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Copyright
© 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007
by
Barbara
Fritchman
Thompson. All Rights Reserved.