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Barbara Fritchman Thompson
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Barbara Fritchman Thompson Diary

Week of 1 September 2003

Latest Update: Sunday, 07 September 2003 19:56

Monday, 1 September 2003

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Happy Labor Day everyone. We took a little trip out of town over the weekend up to the Fancy Gap lodge to do some star gazing. Friday night turned out to be off and on clouds but the intermittent clear skies gave us a change to view Mars. I also got a couple of NGC's. The seeing went from fair to awful several times during the night. I finally gave up around 1 am on Saturday morning and went to bed. Saturday started out clear but by mid-afternoon clouds and storms rolled in. Tom and I took a trip into Fancy Gap and then down the mountain to Mt. Airy to pick up food for Saturday night dinner. 

When we got back to the lodge they had lost power. Fortunately, it was restored around 3 pm. Obviously, we are used to moving around in dark conditions, so not having power is not an issue when it comes to fixing food or reading by flashlight. The main problem would have been no toilet facilities for the 8 people inhabiting the lodge. 

It poured buckets of rain as storms came through the area periodically all afternoon and evening. I spent most of the day reading and napping. It was nice to just relax and recharge the batteries.

We got up Sunday morning, cleaned the lodge, and took off for town around 10:00. The dogs were very glad to see us. We left them at home to guard the house. Our neighbors, Steve and Mimi, came down to let them out, feed and water, etc for us. We will do the same for them when they want to go out town like we did when Mimi was in the hospital having Sean a few months ago.

Sunday afternoon we unpacked. Bob slept all afternoon while I watched the race, played with dogs, and did little organizing chores.

This morning I am off to the gym for Body Pump class. I hope to mow the lawn this afternoon if it dries out. We had several big storms roll through yesterday afternoon with more of those torrential down pours that have been the mainstay of our weather the past 8 months. I also have contract stuff to do and other small chores.

I hope you enjoy your day off if you have one. 

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Tuesday, 2 September 2003

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No adventures on the way to my rescheduled dentist appointment this morning. I was finished and at work by 10 am. I worked until 4 pm to start making up my time. I will probably work until 4 every afternoon to this week to make sure I get my time in before Friday and not have to stay too late on Friday afternoon.

By the time we had dinner, cleaned up, and walked the dogs it was after 6 pm. I came back to check e-mails and then worked until about 7:30. Once I publish this post it will time to knock off for the night and get in some reading before bedtime.

My post for yesterday included a brief report on our trip up to the lodge at Fancy Gap if you happen to miss reading it. 

 

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Wednesday, 3 September 2003

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I am glad I had those few days over the weekend to recharge my batteries. This week it is back to normal for me; a long, full day at work, come home, play with the dogs, fix dinner, and back in the office for another two to three hours of work, answering e-mails, etc.

By 7:30 or 8 pm I have put in at least 10 or more hours of work sitting in front of a computer. I usually save my post as the last thing to do before I close up shop for the night.

I am not sure if I mentioned what I am reading. I finished up the Hazel Holt mystery at the Lodge. Now I am reading the last Lee Harris I have left in her Christine Bennett series. I know she has a new series coming out this fall. I am not sure if she has dropped this series or will write on both. This became one of my favorite series to read so I hope she is going to continue it.

Other than work not much else to report. Kerry seems to still be doing okay. He is not falling nearly as much as he was last week. However, he hates being penned up in the foyer. Very often at night when we put him in there after last time out he charges the gate and knocks it down. This morning he did it at 5:45 in the morning. Fortunately it was almost time for me to get up anyway. But, it is rather annoying in that it scares the hell out of Duncan since he was taught at an early age to be afraid of baby gates. That, combined with the noises Kerry makes trying to get up on the hardwood floor, keeps Duncan scared to death most of the day. I cannot figure out why all of a sudden this has started upsetting Duncan.

Oh well, time to go play with the dogs and spend some time relaxing with my book. 

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Thursday, 4 September 2003

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I forgot when I wrote my post for last night that I actually stayed up Tuesday night reading until almost 11 so I could finish the Lee Harris. It wasn't until after I finished up in here and went out to get my book to read I remembered. I decided to grab the new Donna Andrews off of my non-library TBR shelf, Click Here For Murder. This is the second book in her series staring Turing Hopper, an Artificial Intelligence Personality (AIP) set in Crystal City, outside Washington D.C. I only read about 60 pages before turning off the light last night but I really did not want to put it down. 

We had a pretty bad thunderstorm early this morning, around 3:30. It woke me up coming in and of course, Duncan heard it. He came up on the bed between Bob and I for safety. 

We had another pretty bad one this afternoon about 2 pm. From the 10th floor of my building you could really see the clouds forming, streaks of jagged lightning, and then the rain started pelting the windows. It was as dark as if it were 8pm rather than mid-afternoon. Fortunately the worst of it had blown through by the time I got off at 3:30.

We ate an early dinner so I could make the 5:30 spinning class at the gym. The remainder of the evening was a carbon copy of the others. Work until 8 then knock off for the night.

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Friday, 5 September 2003

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The weekend is upon at last. I had several errands to run on the way home with the last stop being the grocery store. By the time we got the groceries unloaded  and put away it was time to start dinner.

After dinner I checked my mail and worked for a little while but plan to knock off early and call it a day/week. 

After that major storm came through yesterday it has turned a little cooler with highs today only getting a little above 80. It is supposed to cool down tonight after the sun goes down. 

Have a great weekend whatever your plans may be.

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Saturday, 6 September 2003

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It has been a very productive day around the Thompson Techno Grotto. I started off this morning vacuuming and dusting the house. While I vacuumed Bob mopped the kitchen, den, bathroom, hall, and foyer floors behind me. We put the dogs downstairs while all of this activity was going on.

After we finished up in the house I mowed the lawn then came in and took my shower before fixing lunch. While the temperatures are very cool, high sixties to low seventies the humidity both in and outside the house was horrible. 

After lunch I spent the remainder of the afternoon at my desk sorting paperwork, check mail, and working on contract stuff.

If the weather clears enough we are supposed to go up to Pilot Mountain for a public observation tonight. Right now things aren't looking too promising with Tropical Storm Henrico sitting off the Florida coast. Thankfully, Fabian missed us, man it was a big one.

 

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Sunday, 7 September 2003

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We did end up going to Pilot Mountain last night to help out FAS with the public observation. We spent most of the evening trying to spot the moon and mars as they played peek-a-boo in and out of the clouds cause by tropical storm pulling off the SC/NC coast. I would guess we had around 300 to 350 people show up to look through our scopes.

Around 11 pm we packed up and came home. By the time we played with the dogs and gave them a final time out it was around midnight when I got to bed

I got this morning around 6:45 to go play golf. It was a really nice fall day with temperatures in the low 70's and a breeze. Mom had lunch ready for us when we got back home. Frances came over and joined us for lunch as well.

I guess I got back home around 2pm. Since it was such a nice day I decided to go ahead and lay out some landscape timbers I had stacked up in down back around my red bud tree in the back yard. I cannot get grass to grow in and around the tree due to the yard being so sloped causing it mostly to wash away. I did have some nice sized rocks around the tree with mulch.

The new area is about 16 x 16. I moved the rocks around another tree for now. I still need to dig up one corner of the area does have some grass to sod another area and smooth out the ground so the timbers sit flat. This fall, I will fill it with mulch.

I grilled ribs for dinner. After dinner I did the usual check mail and work until about 7:45.

 

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