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Barbara
Fritchman Thompson Diary
Week
of 21 December 2009
Latest Update: Sunday, 27 December 2009 10:30 p.m.
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Monday, 21 December 2009
As
I suspected the icy/snow section at the bottom of the sloped part of
the driveway gave me problems this morning. I couldn't get enough of a
run and turn the corner to start up the driveway nor could I back down
and get another run. Instead, I shifted into four wheel, drove up the
drive into the street, took it out of four wheel and continued onward.
There were still some ice and frozen snow patched in the neighborhood
but once out on the main roads, all was mostly dry.
Work was a
zoo. With some of the support people out for Christmas I was running in
ten different directions at the same time. Oh well, the day went by
really fast. I did take a quick walk at lunch. Most of the sidewalks
had been cleared though the curbs were piled with snow making crossing
streets a bit tough.
At the gym it was a true nightmare. He has
parking space problems to begin with, not enough for the number of
users. Part of the lot was never finished after he opened the building.
The dingbat the scrapped the lot plowed the snow in long row between
the front row of spaces and the back ones facing each other. Part of
the lot was still covered in the patches of snow and ice. If you parked
in a backside space you had to walk all the way around the wall of snow
instead of straight through to the building. The far edge of the paved
lot is not finished. They could have plowed the snow straight back all
the way to unpaved part instead of blocking the middle of the parking
lot.
The sun melted off some of what's on the lawns but a lot
is still hanging around. Fortunately for us as of today, the weather
folks have changed the Christmas Eve, Day sleet and freezing rain to
just rain.
Tuesday, 22 December 2009
Another day trying to do six things at one
time. After work, I stopped at the grocery store to pick up stuff for
Christmas day and a few things we needed. I like to keep the
shelves and freezer stocked during the winter. We don't get the really
bad winter storms very often that keep us in for days but you never
know. In years past we have had some big snow storms or a really bad
ice storm. It' still a good idea in the winter to keep shelves and
freezer stocked with lots of soup and canned goods plus extra bread,
frozen foods, etc.
Sunny and warm again today but there is still
a lot of snow lying around. If it does rain on Christmas day it should
wash most of it away.
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Wednesday, 23 December 2009
I have three days and one hour of PDO time to
take between now and the end of the year. Today I worked through lunch
and took the 1 hour leaving at 3pm. It was another day of putting out
fires. I don't know when I have been so tired and stressed out after
only three days of work. We are closed tomorrow and Friday.
We
met Frances, the folks, and Al for dinner at Zoe's. Bob got to see all
the neighborhood snow creatures. Most of the snowman's heads have
melted but the larger body areas are still standing. One yard has a
snow duck. All the shaded yards are still completely covered in snow.
One half of our yard is almost free of the snow, the other half still
covered.
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Thursday, 24 December 2009
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Merry Christmas Eve. I left the house this
morning around 9 to go over to Costco. I have a few things to pick up I
missed when we went with Paul and Mary. I did a quick cruise around the
store just looking in addition to picking up what I needed. I think Bob
mentioned on his page about Coke and Costco being at war. Costco
canceled all their Coke products due to a price war. As you might have
guessed, Costco won. I called Bob to let him know they were back.
From
Costco it was across town to our local grocery store to pick up some
things I missed Monday night. Being out and about early I missed all
the traffic. There was hardly anyone in Costo, the same for the grocery
store. I was home by 11.
I have now completed two more tasks on
my end of year to-do list. Bob wants me to start driving the white
Trooper a couple of days a week to keep the battery charged during the
winter months. With no AC, I can't drive it when its warm. It needed a
good vacuuming of the front floors and cleaning of the dash and drink
wells between the seats. I gave it a good clean while Bob removed the
map and eye piece cases from the back passenger side seat. I need it
clear just in case I am driving it to work and need to go pick up mom
and dad for some reason. We left the scope and other astronomy gear in
the far back which also requires the other side of the back seat to be
folded back to fit. I then vacuumed out my car including the very
back still littered with tree needles.
The next job was to
sweep out and clean up the basement. Since the white truck has to
driven once its cranked to recharge the battery I first loaded it with
a cardboard load. Bob road along with me to take the cardboard and to
drop off something at Paul and Mary's. When we got back I swept out the
floor where his truck goes before pulling it back in. Then I backed
mine out to finish sweeping all the leaves and dirt from the last six
months or whenever I organized and put away all the lawn equipment for
the year, tidied up the work bench, etc. Malcolm was down helping with
all this. He really wanted to play some ball but the yard it just too
wet and muddy. We played a little on the driveway.
I've got a
few indoor chores to do. Dinner and a quiet evening at home. I will be
spending tomorrow with my family at Frances and Al's.
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Friday 25 December 2009
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Merry Christmas.
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Saturday, 26 December 2009
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As usual we had another wonderful Christmas
day. Lots of laughs, great gifts for everyone, and good food. The early
morning rain did not turn into freezing rain as predicted. I left here
about 9 to pick up mom and dad so he would not have to drive back home
in the dark. It was pouring rain and so windy when I walked mom to car
under the umbrella she was almost blown sideways off her feet. It pour
rain all day putting 2 inches on top of snow and already wet ground but
it did not wash all the snow away. At least it washed the snow melt off
the driveway and sidewalk. By the time we sat down for dinner it had
pretty much stopped raining but was turning cold again. I left around
6:30. Al was taking the folks home.
Today I sorted and put
away gifts stowing boxes and bags in the work room to be organized with
the rest of the wrapping stuff later. I've deep cleaned our bedroom
moving all the furniture, polishing furniture, wiping down walls, etc.
White
I was up here cleaning Bob sat downstairs manning a load of table top
cloths for the tables in the dinning and living room along with the
blanket and bed spread. He then washed two loads of floor rugs.
In between I had Malcolm out but not to play ball. Way to muddy for
that today. The sun has not been out very much to dry things off
either. It's been in the mid-40's with lows again tonight back down
into the 30's.
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Sunday, 27 December 2009
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I finished the Dalziel and Pascoe, up next, another Sister Frevisse The Maiden's Tale.
We've been watching season 1 of Nurse Jackie.
Oh gosh, what a hoot. It's sort of a cross between ER and House as a
comedy rather than a drama. Strong actors, great writing, etc, etc.
After
the bathrooms, the next worst room in the house to deep clean is the
kitchen due to all the scrubbing. That's the project for today. Clean
and remove all the stuff from the refrigerator and freezer to clean
shelves, scrub down cabinet fronts, clean light fixtures, move
everything and clean the counters, and vacuum and mop the floor. While
I am doing all this the oven is self cleaning itself but I have to
clean the racks. I also need to lemon oil the This End Up pine kitchen
table.
Frances and Al gave me two different sized wire
baskets for organizing small stuff in the freezer. For our freezer, the
small one will fit on the top shelf, the larger one on the bottom. I
can't wait to get those in place to make it easier to store and find
things.
Since we had a very hard freeze last night I had Malcolm
out this morning to play ball before the yard defrosts back into a bog.
Grilled steaks and chicken for dinner.
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Copyright © 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002,
2003,
2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009
by
Barbara
Fritchman
Thompson. All Rights Reserved.