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Barbara Fritchman Thompson Diary Week of 1 July 2002 Latest Update: Sunday, 27 April 2003 08:39 |
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Monday, 1 July 2002 [Last Week] [Monday] [Tuesday] [Wednesday] [Thursday] [Friday] [Saturday] [Sunday] [Next Week] |
| Wow, can you believe it is already the first of July.
Don't forget postage goes up $.03 today, bah!
If you are a golf fan, player or viewer, I hope you watched the final round of the Senior PGA tournament yesterday. What a great finish as an unrecognizable former PGA tour player took one of the best in the game, Tom Watson to a five hole playoff. The quality of golf played in the final round plus the extra holes was something to be admired. Tom Pooley, who only won twice on the PGA tour won not only his first Senior event but one of the greatest events on the tour. I really enjoyed watching the match play as the two of them made shots and putts that were just incredible to stay head to head. And, as it should have been, Watson lost on a birdie putt by Pooley. We spent the remainder of the evening reading, as usual. Today is Body Pump at the gym. This afternoon I take Lenore for her follow up visit to the neurologist for a report on all those tests I drug her around to last week. The forecast for the entire week is to be hot with some chances for thunderstorms almost everyday. And, just in case you are new to my diary page since my last long trip, don't despair. I leave a daily log of where I am supposed to be and what I am doing for Bob to post for me. It will not be long since I am using the descriptions from the tour book but gives you something to tune in for if you wish. I will spending this week getting last minute odds and ends tied up before I leave and making sure Bob and the dogs have everything they need while I am gone. Have a good Monday! [Top] |
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Tuesday, 2 July 2002 [Last Week] [Monday] [Tuesday] [Wednesday] [Thursday] [Friday] [Saturday] [Sunday] [Next Week] |
| Hot and sultry. The dog days of summer have hit hard on
us here in the Piedmont on top of our drought situation.
I have a mile long list of errands to run this morning before noon. Then I am stopping over at our friend Bonnie's house for a quick visit to take a look at a flower she has when it came into bloom. From there it is on to SciWorks for a brief training session on the library materials. That will pretty much take care of my day. Otherwise not much on the news front. I did finished the most recent Dorothy Simpson mystery, Dead and Gone. I have noticed as I have been reading these that she gets better with each one she writes, though they are all good. I think this last one was one of her best with a very surprise ending. To fill in the gap before I leave I have been reading a couple of Farley Mowat books that have been sitting on my "to be read" shelf. I often buy books that will sit on my shelf for a year before I finally get around to reading them. I bought these after reading a newer book of his The Boat Who Wouldn't Float. After reading his hilarious account of the purchase and attempted sailing of an old fishing boat around the coast of Newfoundland, I had to read some of his earlier stuff. Most everyone is familiar with his classic Never Cry Wolf. The two I am reading now are non-fiction as well. The first one is more of a young adult book, Owls in the Family, a hilarious account of how two owls came to live with him and his vast menagerie of animals. The one I started last night, The Dog Who Wouldn't Be, I a little longer but still suitable for any age from young adult on up. In this book he talks about his beloved dog Mutt and how he came to live with the family. This one was written before the owl story. Mowat, the son of a librarian, lived for years on the prairies of Saskatoon in Canada as well as other Canadian cities later in life. He is a wonderful storyteller, very very funny, and easy to read. He reminds me a lot of Gerald Durrell, the famous naturalist, who lived all the world with a large menagerie of less than common pets. If you like funny, non-fiction stories along this line I highly recommend both of these authors.
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Wednesday, 3 July 2002 [Last Week] [Monday] [Tuesday] [Wednesday] [Thursday] [Friday] [Saturday] [Sunday] [Next Week |
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SciWorks has a huge project they want some help from the volunteers to organize. They are in the last few months of a major building campaign adding new classrooms, public eating area, and office space for the staff. With all new areas to move into and brand new storage space, the project is to get all the classroom materials stored in trunks and boxes organized/consolidated into subjects and locations for easy retrieval. Eunice, who is helping me with the library project, and I spent a couple of hours yesterday surveying the where all the materials are and what the staff would like us to do. We have a couple of younger volunteers who are going to help us along the way. They cannot start this project until their summer camp is over and the final construction is complete which is early August. It looks like a really fun project and one that Eunice and I will enjoy sinking out teeth into. The library project is near completion and will be temporarily put on hold while we get this done. It should only take a month or so to get everything organized. I got back home from errands and SciWorks around 3:15. Bill had arrived for a visit so we did Chinese takeout for dinner. I spent the evening finishing up the Mowat book before heading off to bed. Another full morning of errands today. Gym, library, pet store, and grocery store. This afternoon I need to brush the dogs and perform other assorted tasks. [Top] |
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Thursday, 4 July 2002 [Last Week] [Monday] [Tuesday] [Wednesday] [Thursday] [Friday] [Saturday] [Sunday] [Next Week] |
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Happy 4th of July to everyone who lives here in the United States. Whatever your plans are for today I hope you have a good time. Here at the Thompson Techno Grotto we do not have any special celebration plans. Tonight the dogs will not be very happy when the kids in the neighborhood start setting off firecrackers and other popping noise makers. Yesterday when I got back from my morning errands and ate lunch I decided to go ahead and mow the lawn and edge. I was going to do it either today or Friday. But, can you believe this, I decided since it was going to be cool yesterday afternoon than today and tomorrow to go ahead. By cooler I mean 91 degrees with a heat index of 94 rather than today and tomorrow's high of 94 with a heat index of close to 100. We did get about 4 tenths of an inch with a storm last night. We were very fortunate in our neighborhood as other areas around the city had trees and power lines knocked down. This morning's paper announced a large portion of NC will be declared a disaster area due to large amounts of crop loss from the now on-going four year drought. This morning I am cleaning house. Yesterday after I mowed the lawn, took a shower and cooled off, I changed the bed linen. I think this afternoon I will watch some of the tennis from Wimbledon and the first round of the PGA golf. I bought Bob some potato salad yesterday at the store. For dinner tonight I think we will have hot dogs for our good ol' American dinner. I of course will eat potato chips with mine. I am not really much of a hotdog fan eating maybe five a year at most.
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Friday, 5 July 2002 [Last Week] [Monday] [Tuesday] [Wednesday] [Thursday] [Friday] [Saturday] [Sunday] [Next Week] |
| Today is the big day. I will lay out my clothes this
morning then pack the suitcase this afternoon. Bob is taking me over to
my parents house after dinner where I will spend the night. This way he
can have the truck with the AC while I am gone and not have to unload
astro-truck if he needs to go somewhere. You may wonder why I waited to
pack until today. For one, I can pack for a trip in anywhere from thirty
minutes to a couple of hours depending on how long I will be gone. The
second, and more important one, Duncan knows what a suitcase is and what
it means. He gets very upset and mopes around because he knows I am
leaving. I try to minimize his worrying until the last minute. Malcolm
is not sure yet what is going on but is learning.
Speaking of the dogs, they had a horrible time last night. The kids behind us started popping off firecrackers just about the time we were taking the dogs for last time, around 9:30. After we finally got them to go to the bathroom they both made a bee line for the front door. Once inside, the kids started shooting of bottle rockets or some sort of noise maker that whistled before it when pop, pop, pop. Duncan was scared out of his wits. I had gone to bed to read but got back up to sit with him and Malcolm on the couch. We turned on some classical music to help drown out the noise a little and calm them down. At one point, Duncan was so frightened he tried to dig his way under the toilet in our bathroom. As a matter of fact, he ended up sleeping in there last night, something he has not done in years. I have few loose ends to tie up at the computer and other assorted tasks to complete before I leave tonight including writing my post for tomorrow. It is to be another scorcher today. Highs in the mid nineties with a heat index over 100 degrees. We had some pretty severe storms all around us last night but we escaped both the storms and the rain. I think more of the same is on tap for today.
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Saturday, 6 July 2002 [Last Week] [Monday] [Tuesday] [Wednesday] [Thursday] [Friday] [Saturday] [Sunday] [Next Week] |
| We will be up at 5:00 to get the car loaded and ready to
leave the house by 5:30. It takes about 45 minutes or so to drive down
to the travel agency in Level Cross where the buses depart. They have a
fully fenced locked gate where travelers can safely leave their cars.
The bus is due to depart Level Cross at 7:00 am. I am sure we will be making a breakfast stop very shortly after departure. As with any long trip the first day is a full day of just riding to get to the heart of our trip. With stops for breaks and lunch we should get to our evening destination of Louisville, KY for dinner. Don't forget Bob will be posting my daily journal for me with short descriptions of where I am or what I will be doing each day. Talk to you when I get back. [Top] |
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[Last Week] [Monday] [Tuesday] [Wednesday] [Thursday] [Friday] [Saturday] [Sunday] [Next Week] |
| We head for Wisconsin Dells, Wisconsin passing through
farmlands of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin. Tonight we have a boat
tour of the Upper Dells.
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