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Barbara
Fritchman Thompson Diary
Week
of 27 October 2008
Latest Update: Sunday, 2 November 2008 10:40 p.m.
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Monday, 27 October
2008
The odyssey of our dead chipmunk
continues. I showed a girl at work Bob's picture of our dead critter.
She noted at once his weird tale. It has no hair and/or looks very wet.
The chipmunk has some fur on his tail so I am wondering if this is a baby and/or it was sick.
I
have almost finished the Kate Ellis, as in maybe 30 pages, which I will
knock off tonight. The Plague Maiden brings together the murder of a
local vicar and a missing girl from 1991 with the threats to a local
supermarket chain wanting to build a new store on the site of what is
discovered as a burial pit for victims of the black plague.
Ellis's ability to interweave the ancient with the modern plus
keep three murder investigations going is remarkable.
Colder weather has returned. Down in the high 30's tonight and very windy tomorrow. It was fairly windy today.
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Tuesday, 28 October 2008
We have early voting in our county. I decided
I would give it try this year with the anticipation of long lines on
election day. Election day will also be very soon after my knee
surgery. I doubt I will be able to stand in line for an hour or longer
to vote.
The Board of Elections is housed in the county
government building located a couple of blocks from where I work. I
took an early lunch hoping to avoid too long a line. Thus far the lines
at the early voting locations have also been long with up to three hour
waits to vote. The line was fairly long when I arrived. I had 40 minute
wait to get to the table where they were taking names and giving out
registration sheets.
We vote by punch card system on voting day
but early voting machines are touch screen. After it was verified I was
a registered voter I received a sheet with my name and address,
precinct, etc. along with several bar codes. What takes the extra
time is waiting while a voting attendant activates your machine,
punches in your precinct, and shows you the voting process. All in all
the entire process took about 50 minutes.
I went into work
half an hour early to allow for the extra voting time on my lunch.
Allowing for walking to and fro and picking up a salad on the way back
it was just about an hour and a half.
On the way home I made a
quick library and grocery store stop for a couple of things I forgot to
pick up last week. The yard being covered in leaves I cranked up the
lawn vacuum. I took a little over an hour. I finished up just as the
sun was setting behind the trees.
Last night I started reading
another Tapply, Brady Coyne, The Spotted Cats. I manged to get a
chapter or so read today while standing in line waiting to vote.
We are under freeze warning tonight.
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Wednesday, 29 October 2008
No update.
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Thursday, 30 October 2008
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I had my knee surgery yesterday. My appointed
time was 11:30 but when we got there they were running behind. I did
not go into surgery until 2:00. We finally got home around 4pm. The
surgery went well. I was awake talking to the doctor and watching on
the monitor. He had some pretty major cleanup to do but all went well.
The
dogs, especially Malcolm is confused with me being home and not going
out to walk them or play. Today is actually still the first full day
after surgery. Bob, of course, is helping me get around until I am more
stable on the leg. Lots of rest and reading.
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Friday 31 October 2008
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I finished reading the Tapply, finally. They
are not very long but I had trouble staying awake yesterday long enough
to read a chapter. As with the last time I had this procedure I did not
sleep well the first night. It will be 48 hours since the surgery coming up
at 3 this afternoon. I slept better last night and am doing pretty good
today. I have to wear the ice pack and ace wrap through tomorrow but I
did take a shower this morning. I am up, walking around the house, and
doing my leg exercises.
Bob went out to early vote. He had
an hour wait to get to the door than about two more to get in to vote.
He bagged the early voting but did stop at the library on the way home
to pick up some reserve books. One of which is a new Mitch and Desiree
by David Handler, The Sour Cherry Surprise. I will start that one this afternoon.
I
am, of course, confined to barracks. Have not even stuck my nose out
the door since I got home Wednesday afternoon. The weather has
been cool but beautifully clear. It is to be in the sixties today and
70's tomorrow. Perhaps I will sit outside for a few minutes on the
front porch chair at some point.
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Saturday, 1 November
2008
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Another beautiful fall day. I been out on the
porch a couple of times this afternoon. Thursday evening I called the
neighbor down the street who had a lawn service business. I don't want
to let the leaves lie on the grass for several weeks, especially if it
rains. They mat down in the grass which is not good for the established
grass let alone the newly seeded that is just coming up.
He has
sold the business but said he would be glad to do my yard until I can
back to doing it myself. He drove his lawn tractor with the bagger down
the street late yesterday afternoon. I heard him out front just as we
were about to sit down to dinner. He did the lawn and driveway and
natural area just beyond the deck. The front natural areas can wait.
This
afternoon I can stop the ice though if I need to use it I can and take
off the ace wrap if I wish. I may leave it on to project the strips.
Otherwise it is walk, sit, and read. If you have not read the David
Handler's you might want to give them a try. He is an excellent writer.
They are not cozy, more along police procedural type. In addition to
Des and Mitch, Handler always has an interesting set of regular and
feature characters to add to the flavor of the book.
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Sunday, 2 November
2008
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I sat on the front porch most of yesterday
afternoon after I finished yesterday's update. Just as I went outside
to sit down our neighbor Jim walked over. Several nights ago we saw the
City water department truck in front of their house. Jim and the city
guy were bailing water from the water meter in his driveway. Jim said
they had to get a part but would be back to fix it in a couple days.
Yesterday he noticed water running down the curb and thought it was his
meter again. Instead he traced it to ours and had just come down to
take a look. Sure enough our water meter hole was full of water. I
called for Bob to come out. While he and Jim bailed water I called the
City. They said they would send someone out.
Later that
afternoon Frances was coming by to pick up something I order for dad.
While I sat outside enjoying the warm temperatures, high 70's, Bob was
down visiting with Jas about her high school biology. Bob's next book
will be home biology lab. I had my leg propped up on a short stool
while I sat out front. Malcolm was sleeping by the door with his nose
up against the glass and Duncan was asleep on the rug behind him.
Periodically I would get up and take a walk down the sidewalk and back
to exercise my knee.
I finished my book and came inside to check
to time. I was surprised to see it was almost 4:30. I came back inside
to get another book and sit with my knee up and iced since I had been
up on it most of the day. Frances and guy from the City showed up about
the same time. I was just showing Frances the new kitchen when the
doorbell rang. As I was talking to him Bob came walking back down the
street from Kim's.
The City guy originally told Bob he would
come back this morning to replace the meter valve. Frances stayed a few
more minutes then took off for home. The guy from the City ended up
replacing the water meter right then instead of coming back. We were
only without water for about half an hour which during most of that we
were eating dinner.
This morning I am doing light stuff around
the house with breaks in between. I should be able to go back to work
tomorrow. The living room is pretty much organized and ready for
Christmas decorating. The dinning room is still a cluttered mess but it
will not take long to get it back to an organized state.
It is another pretty day to spend sitting out on the front porch reading.
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Copyright © 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002,
2003,
2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008
by
Barbara
Fritchman
Thompson. All Rights Reserved.