 |
Barbara
Fritchman Thompson Diary
Week
of 14 January 2008
Latest Update: Sunday, 20 January 2008 11:30 a.m.
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Monday, 14
January 2008
We
are back to colder weather again with lots of wind. I park about a
block and half from my building. When I turn the corner to walk up 4th
street the wind was blowing so hard down the street I could hardly make
it up the hill this morning.
I went to the gym from work. The knee is about the same. Somewhere
along the line in limping around on my left leg I strained the calf
muscle. It does not seem to want to get better. Guess I will have to
ask the doctor about that when I go back on Thursday for my follow up.
Bob and I have been watching Cosmos with Carl Sagan. Had I watched
it several years ago before I started doing astronomy I would not have
understood a lot of what he is talking about.
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Tuesday, 15 January 2008
No update.
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Wednesday, 16 January 2008
The weather folks are predicting our first
major event of the year starting sometime tonight and into tomorrow. We
are supposed to get some form of sleet, freezing, rain, or snow.
Depending on when it starts my morning commute may be a messy one. I
have a follow up doctor's appointment at 8:40 which has me leaving home
at the same time I would if I was going into work.
I am now reading a new Susan Conant, All Shots. Conant's character,
Holly Winter, owns and shows Alaskan Malamutes. Holly and her
veterinarian husband live in Cambridge, MA where another Holly Winter
also resides. Malamute Holly gets called upon to look for a missing
Malamute named Strike who has escaped from a young woman who is dog
sitting. Noticing a car in the driveway of a neighbor of the dog sitter
Holly goes up to the house to ask if she has seen the dog. When there
is no answer at the front door Holly goes around to the back where she
looks in the window and discovers the body of young woman shot to
death. She learns this woman is also named Holly Winter. We now have
two alive and one dead Holly Winters. It soon becomes obvious the third
Holly has stolen the other Holly's identities. But, which one? And,
where did Strike disappear to? Conant's mysteries are nice, light
reading.
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Thursday, 17 January 2008
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Getting to the doctor was not a problem. I
put the Trooper in 4 wheel drive when I pulled out of the garage not
knowing what the roads would be like. The driveway and streets in our
neighborhood were covered with a slushy mess of ice and snow. Once out
on the main roads it was wet with slush in places. When I arrived at
the doctor's office a skeleton crew was working the check in desks. The
place I go is a large orthopedic operation with about ten doctors and
MRI machines on the first floor and rehab on the second. Only one
doctor had made it in when they opened at 8. He was seeing anyones
patients who wanted to see him in place of their assigned doctor. I was
told my doctor decided he would open his side of the office at 9:30.
No, I did not call because the roads and the weather was not all that
bad. It was just a cold rain when I got to the office. Anyway, I told
them I would just wait since I was already there. I wanted to see my
doctor so he could evaluate how the knee was doing at this juncture and
ask about the left calf pain. He was pleased with the knee then did
some pushing on my calf. He was pretty sure it was strain but wanted to
send me over to Forsyth Hospital Vascular clinic for a Doppler test to
rule out blood clot since I had just had surgery. He also gave me a
prescription for inflammation. The hospital is only about five miles
from the office. The test was negative. I finally made it work at 11:30.
Next time I have a doctor's appointment scheduled for a morning when
they are calling for bad weather I will reschedule rather than put up
with all the hassle. He will see me in six weeks and gave me permission
to return to regular duty at work with no restrictions.
The weather service canceled the ice/snow warning at noon which was to
run until 4pm. It warmed up enough to be just a very cold rain with
some icing on the trees and maybe bridges. From work I had to go by the
library, grocery store, and drugstore to get my prescription filled.
Tonight and tomorrow morning will be tricky with black ice. There is
still a lot of water on the roads which will most likely freeze
tonight.
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Friday, 18 January 2008
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No update.
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Saturday, 19 January 2008
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The dogs let us sleep in until almost 8:30.
Bob got up to take the dogs out while I snoozed until 9. I am having an
easy day doing things I can do sitting down to rest my calf. I slept
good last night without it bothering me and it felt fine when I got up
this morning. After being up and around it gets sore again. The knee
feels great 90% of the time.
It finally started to snow around 1 this afternoon. They have
downgraded our accumulation totals for less than an inch but more to
the south and east of us. It all depends on which way the moisture goes
when it gets here. I took the dogs out for a bit of romp when it first
started. Twenty minutes or so later it was coming down pretty hard but
is still not sticking to anything. The last time we had anything
remotely like a good snow was four years ago. You can see pictures on
the dogs snow web page.
I have a bird feeder on the deck rail directly in line with where I sit
on the couch in the den. The last few weekends we have had a wide
assortment of birds visiting the feeder. When bright red cardinals sit
up in the green cedars behind the neighbors house they really stand out
as they will if we get any snow sticking to the trees.
Last night I finished up the Holly Winter and started on another
Vineyard mystery. That, along with the Winter mystery, included some
books I had reserved at the library again.
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Sunday, 20 January 2008
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I spent a lot of yesterday afternoon sitting
on the couch reading and watching the snow fall. Although it snowed all
day and again last night we have nothing on the ground. It was too warm
when it finally started to much in the way of sticking. But, it was
pretty to watch.
This morning I slept in again until after 8. The weekly house cleaning
has been completed. Other than a few little projects I want to work on
I will most likely spend the day much like yesterday.
When I mentioned yesterday about the feeder on the deck rail I failed
to mention we have a very large silver maple just beyond the deck
behind the feeder. I get several insect eating birds such as nuthatches
and various species of woodpeckers running up and down the tree as well
as the squirrels. My feed is squirrel proof per say. If they sit on the
feeder where the birds can get the food the ledge goes down closing off
access. Being squirrels the hang from the top and eat upside down. Or,
even with it closed they can reach in and get one seed at a time. I
don't mind them doing that. I just don't like them getting in and
vacuuming all the food up keeping the birds from getting theirs.
Yesterday there was fight between a male cardinal and a pigeon and
later between a male and female cardinal as to who was going to sit
there eat for awhile.
I finished reading the one Martha's Vineyard last night. His books are
pretty short and easy to read. Not sure what I will start today.
The weather is frigid. Right now it is 24 and feels like 11. The high
may reach 30 with the winds continuing to howl until later this
evening. Then we loose the wind and get temperatures down into the
teens.
Tomorrow is a day off for me. I have lots of errands to run, etc.
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Copyright © 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002,
2003,
2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008
by
Barbara
Fritchman
Thompson. All Rights Reserved.