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Barbara
Fritchman Thompson Diary
Week
of 24 April 2006
Latest Update: Sunday, 30 April 2006 3:30 p.m.
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Monday, 24
April
2006
I
forgot to mention that in addition to the yard work yesterday I also
cleaned up the basement and washed the car. How exciting, you say. I
pulled both cars out and used the electric blower to blow out six
months of dust, dirt, and debris since last fall's cleaning. It looks
much better once I do the clean up and get things organized.
Today was a good Monday at work. Not much going on except for a few
file searches. Our new guy seems to be picking up things very quickly
and fitting right in.
We are watching more episodes of As
Time Goes By.
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Tuesday, 25
April 2006
Our neighbor Stephanie and I have been
walking at night around the neighborhood. We usually go between 8 and
8:30 and walk for about an hour. Last night Bob followed us part way
because Duncan wanted to come along. I finally took Duncan and
Stephanie took Malcolm. I knew it was a mistake but I could not
convince Bob that Duncan cannot make it on that long of a walk. His
heart is strong but his body is not able to handle it especially as
muggy as it was.
I barely got him home before he passed out me. We cut back around the
block so I could drop both dogs off then we continued on for the
rest of our walk.
When I got back home Bob and I started watching the last episode of As Time Goes By while I cooled
down. About five minutes later Duncan got a big drink of water and then
promptly threw up all over the floor from being so overheated.
Tonight I went straight to the gym from work to take the 5:30 and 6:00
upper body and lower body sculpting classes. After we ate a quick
dinner we walked the dogs then stood outside and talked to Stephanie
and the girls. As soon as her husband Gerald arrived home from work we
took off on our walk minus Bob and Duncan. We had to cut the walk about
15 minutes short due to a storm that is trying to move in. We are under
severe thunderstorm watch until 2am. We were supposed to get bad
weather this afternoon but it never did materialize. There is a
big storm just north and west of us on the radar that should nail
us in another hour or so if it holds itself together by the time it
gets to us.
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Wednesday, 26
April 2006
I got so excited this morning when I looked
out on my new thistle feeder to see an Indigo
Bunting sitting on the seed tray munching away. There was another
one eating on the deck but a squirrel came bounding up and scared it
off. The one of the feeder stayed for a long time. He looked just like
the one in the picture I provided a link to. It is the first time I
have actually seen one let alone had one at my feeder.
After a very busy day at work I drove by the house to pick up Bob
on the way to the library. He and I helped pack up the remainder of the
book sale books into boxes to be hauled off the a couple of
organizations who will come by and pick them up. I think we made
something close to $1900.00.
From the library we drove across the street to the shopping center. I
made a quick run into the pet store to pick up treats for the dogs then
parked at the Lowe's Foods end. After eating at the Chinese restaurant
I ran in to do the weekly shopping while Bob waited in the car.
I still have several things to get done before bedtime so I best wind
this up. We had a nice steady rain off and on all day. I forgot to
check the rain gage but am sure we have had at least half an inch
or more. I don't think the high made it out of the 50's.
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Thursday, 27 April 2006
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Friday, 28 April 2006
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Saturday, 29
April 2006
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Greetings. If you read Bob's page
you know we went up to Fancy Gap Thursday night. This time we had the cottage as opposed to the
lodge. This was our first time staying in the cottage which is just up
and over the hill from the lodge. The advantage for us is being around
the corner blocks a street light down the driveway which interferes
with our observing. Steve originally book it for just Friday and
Saturday night. The forecast on Thursday was for a clear night Thursday
and cloudy for the weekend.
As soon as I got home from worked, changed, and the dogs settled we
took off making a fast food stop along the way. Bob and I both decided
we would rather come back home at 1 o'clock in the morning, sleep for
four hours, and then get up at our regular time for me to make it work
as opposed to going to be up there at 1, getting up at 5:30, driving
home, and then me going to work.
We got home at 2 am Friday morning and went straight to bed. Steve and
Mimi had let the dogs out around their usual time on Thursday evening.
Unfortunately Malcolm barfed on the floor just as I was getting to
sleep around 2:45. After we cleaned up the mess and went back to bed I
guess I got about 3 hours of sleep from around 4 to 7. Steve and Paul
slept over to drive back in to town on Friday morning. It is only an
hour from our doors to the lodge/cottage.
I was fine at work until about 3:30 before I started loosing energy. In
the meantime the forecast for Friday night has improved enough we
decided to pack up food and supplies, go back up to the cottage for
another observing session. Bob and I stopped at the little diner for
dinner before driving on up. Unfortunately the conditions around 9:30
when it was dark enough to start observing were pretty poor.
We went to bed and slept from around 10:30 to 12:30 when we got up to
check to see how the skies looked. They had greatly improved by this
time. While the conditions were not nearly as good as the night before
we did manage to locate another 10 or so objects on our lists bringing
our weekend total to around 25 or so. At 3:15 Bob was getting tire and,
once again, the conditions had deteriorated. Bob and I went in to bed
but Paul stayed out for awhile He said this morning the skies improved
about half an hour later. Steve was not able to come back up Friday
night.
We got up about 9:30, sat around talking and eating some breakfast,
before decided we may as well come back home. Bob and I both have too
much to do to sit around up there all day. I need to mow, wash and iron
work pants, clean house, change the bed linens, etc, etc, etc.
Plus, two nights of on again, off again sleep searching for deep sky
objects will wear you down pretty quickly. I need to get the majority
of my work out of the way today in order to have at least Sunday
afternoon to rest and relax in order to be able to function at work on
Monday and make it through the week.
We made it back to Winston around 12:30. The dogs were really glad to
see us. The cottage is much smaller and not nearly as nice. It serves
our purpose well for observing as long as we have just our small core
group of observing.
Lots to do so I best get started.
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Sunday, 30
April 2006
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I was fine yesterday until I mowed the lawn
after which I "hit the wall" from lack of sleep and rest. Driving up
and back twice to Fancy Gap, on and off sleep, and the physical aspects
of observing finally did me in.
After I mowed I decided to try and catch up on my e-mails. Ha! I
couldn't even focus on the computer screen. I promptly went out to the
sofa where I sat watching the golf match until time to fix dinner.
Afterwards we watched three episodes of As Time Goes By before walking the
dogs for last time. I went to bed at 9:10, read four pages of my book
until 9:15 and turned out the light. I slept pretty hard until about 7
this morning then dozed off and on until 7:40. Methinks I am getting to
old for that type of activity.
This morning I did the usual weekly house cleaning before heading over
to my folks house for lunch. I was too tired to try golf and so was
dad. After planting flowers and mowing his lawn he needed to stay home
and rest today as well.
After returning home I took the dogs down to play with Oscar and Trudy
while I waited on the dark load of cloths to dry. I have now ironed
about ten pairs of pants and a couple of blouses. The NASCAR race from
Talladega has been delayed due to rain. So, I did get caught up on my
mail, paid some bills, and did a few other assorted tasks. Now, I will
read, rest, and watch the race/golf for the remainder of the afternoon.
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Copyright
© 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006 by
Barbara
Fritchman
Thompson. All Rights Reserved.