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Photograph of Robert Bruce Thompson Barbara Fritchman Thompson Diary

Week of 18 June 2007

Latest Update: Sunday, 24 June 2007 3:00 p.m.


Monday, 18 June 2007

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As usual, Frances made a delicious meal. She fixed dad's favorite, baked spaghetti along with fruit salad and garlic bread. We watched the final round of the U.S. Open golf tournament. Frances gave us another meal of spaghetti for dinner tonight and it was even better than it was last night.

Over the weekend we watched the first episode of Absolutely Fabulous staring Jennifer Saunders and Joanna Lumley. Saunders is the partner of Dawn French and Lumley stars in their show Clatterford we watched last week. If you like the British version of slap stick humor in the style of Monty Python you will like this show. As with a couple of other British shows we have tried to watch including Father Ted, one of the top rated shows in Britain, we did not like Fabulous. I can't remember off the top of my head some of the other shows we gave a try to and bagged after one episode. 

Over the top with lots of shouting and confusion does not work for us. We watched the first show on the disc than bagged the remaining episodes. When I used to work at the library my readers would ask me about a certain book. It would be one I had read but hated. Instead of saying, this book was awful, don't bother I always replied with "I did not find this book enjoyable because, blah, blah, blah, but you might like it." Sometimes they agreed, sometimes not.

Bob used to love to watch Fawlty Towers but I could not stand it. All they did was run around screaming at each other. But, one episode they showed with a mouse in a cookie can or something like that had me falling off the couch laughing.

I am almost finished reading the Mary Daheim, The Alpine Scandal. Emma is investigating the murder of a local man killed in his chicken house. Everyone keeps talking about what a wonderful, sweet guy he was but someone had to hate him enough to kill him. Daheim's usual cast of characters are all present including her former ad manager Ed, who blew all his money and has to look for a new job, Milo the sheriff who seems to be having some continued health issues, and her House and Home editor.

Summer has returned with hot temperatures today. Although the air quality index was at dangerous levels all day I still went out at lunch for a quick walk.

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Tuesday, 19 June 2007

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Paul came over for a visit and dinner with us tonight. His wife Mary is off on her run around the world representing Dow in the Blue Planet run. Paul picked up take out Chinese for us it being impossible to provide a cooked meal while at work.

I walked the dogs after their dinner leaving Paul and Bob to visit. On the way back home the skies started to turn pretty dark with a brisk wind coming out of the south. It was not long after we got back in the thunder started. We've had a pretty severe storm roll through dumping 1.5 plus inches of rain in about half an hour. Most of the storm has moved on through but the rain is still coming down. We will have to wait for break in the action before we take the dogs for last time.

Last night I finished Alpine Scandal. Today at lunch I started another Anne Perry, Pentecost Alley. This weather system is bringing in some cooler air for next couple of days and will at least clear the air quality up some.

Work is steady with nothing over whelming at the moment. I continue to work on the database  pulling in mystery boxes to see what was sent off site that was not listed in our old database. Lots of fun but very tedious work.


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Wednesday, 20 June 2007

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We are very lucky from the storm last night. Just north of us trees were down in several neighborhoods and lightening struck an apartment building roof setting it on fire. Fortunately no one was injured. About 5000 customers were without power in the surrounding area. I think we ended up with about 1.69 inches of rain. I just mowed Sunday and the grass is already high.

It was gym night. Bob ate leftover Chinese and I fixed a sandwich. We are watching the first episode of The Last Detective. The series stars Peter Davison mostly famous for his role thirty years ago as Tristan in the James Herriot shows. He has done a lot since then, of course. We've watched about about twenty minutes or so before we stopped to feed and walk the dogs. So far, I think it will be a great show. There is a very funny chase scene in the first few minutes of the show. Will keep you posted as we watch more.

The temperatures finally dropped into the low 80's today. It was still pretty muggy this morning but by lunch time the 20 mph winds had blown all that through dropping the humidity and bringing blue skies. I think we have one more day of this before it turns hot again.


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Thursday, 21 June 2007

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Today is the first day of summer. I took advantage of the somewhat cooler temperatures to mow the lawn this evening. I made a pet and grocery store stop on the way home. I waited to mow after we ate a quick dinner. It's about 81 degrees with low humidity. With all the rain, cloudy skies, and cool temperatures the grass was pretty high for having just mowed last Sunday. It would have been really high by the weekend anyway. There is a threat of thunderstorms all weekend starting tomorrow afternoon along with the temperatures going back up into the 90's.

We watched part of the second episode of Last Detective with dinner. I have taken the garbage and recycling out giving me the rest of the evening free to relax and enjoy the show.

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Friday, 22 June 2007

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No update.



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Saturday, 23 March 2007

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Things that go bump in the night! I had gone to bed at my usual 9 pm to read for awhile. Bob remains in the den smoking his pipe, doing computer stuff, and reading. I had just turned out the light about 10:30 when I heard Bob yell, raccoon! He had heard a clatter on the deck. When he pulled the shade on the wood door out to the deck up the raccoon was sitting there on the deck looking up at him. Bob opened the wood door as I came down the hall with the dogs in tow wondering what was going on.

I keep a metal trash can on the deck filled with bird and thistle seed. You may remember me writing a couple  of a weeks ago about finding the lid off one day after we had rain. Half a bag of seed had been eaten, the bag was wet and partially chewed. I thought the squirrels had gotten in the can. Now I know who the culprit was. After I had cleaned up the mess I put what was left of the good seed back in the can and tied the lid down with bungee cords.

The raccoon had chewed the bungee cords in half and was part way down inside the trash can by the time I got to the door. Bob went off in search of something large to whack him but could not find anything. I opened the storm door enough to shoo him off back down the stairs but he was back in about two minutes. Bob wanted to shoot him with the 22 but I was afraid someone would report us for shooting off a firearm in the city. Instead, we got the Raid and Bob sprayed him good. He took off again allowing Bob to go out and put the lid back on. The tied the two ends of the bungee cords back together to tie the lid down. We had no sooner closed and locked the door when we heard clatter, bang, again. He was back. Bob sprayed him again with the Raid then brought the can inside the house.

Our next door neighbor had told me about seeing him around just after dusk often sitting on their bird feeder. This morning when I told her the story she said her husband swatted it with the broom one time. It growled and ran off. I will have to keep the bird seed in the basement from now on. Had I not been afraid he would have been hurt, I would have sent Malcolm out after it. It is a small one, about the size of the very large house cat.

Stephanie and Gerald put together one of those wood swing sets with a play house attached for the kids. Before they can finish it and anchor it to the ground the have to make a level place for it in their yard. Last week some of Gerald's crew dug a trench around the area to make a wall with railroad ties to hold the dirt for leveling off the yard. Last night after dinner Stephanie was out back with the kids. They has just thrown the sod they dug out in the area they are filling in. I ask her if I could have it to use to try to fix a wash problem I have in the back that runs along beside their yard. When it rains hard I get the runoff from both their gutter down spouts and ours from the front plus the back. I can't get grass to grown and I have a small trench area where the dirt has washed. The dogs stayed out to help me work about half an hour putting the sod and dirt down along the washed area.

This afternoon I finished doing the rest of the area, threw out some seed and fertilizer and then watered it down good. Since I had the hose out I used the spray nozzle to clean the back gutter edges and under the eaves like I did in the front several weeks ago. This morning I did the house cleaning, changed the sheets, and washed a load of my work shirts and pants.

Other than getting the ironing caught up I have no other plans for the afternoon except resting. It is a really nice day with temperatures in the high 70's and a nice breeze. I wanted to get most of the sod down last night because it looked like we might get some rain later in the evening as I drove home from work. I wanted to move it before it rained making it muddy and heavy to move. It never did rain last night nor are we to get any rain today as they as predicted earlier in the week.





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Sunday, 24 June 2007

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No golf today. Instead I went over to the folks house about 9 to help dad in the yard. He needed to have all his bushes trimmed back which is something he cannot do himself. We started with the ones along the back fence finishing those around 11. We stopped for a lunch break before doing the ones in two beds in the lower part of the yard and the ones along the side of the house.

We still had the long row along the front of the house. Using the loppers to trim them back instead of just trimming them with the hedge trimmers is much hard work. They were so overgrown some were dying the middle. Every couple of years they need cut way back and let them start their growth over again much like I did mine a couple of weeks ago.

 Around 1 we finished all but the ones along the front of the house. I was getting tired and dad had been out long enough so I told him would finish up next weekend. It will only take a couple of hours. He had a couple of other small things he wants done I can do as well.

It was over cast and cloudy this morning but very humid. As we started the side bushes the sun had come out. It is only 82 degrees but feels much hotter than than in the sun. That is the other reason I called it a day. I shall do nothing else today except rest and relax.

Last night we had our neighbor Kim over for pizza. Between taking care of Jasmine and her mom she gets very little time to herself. She stayed until 9 then we walked her home when we took the dogs out for last time. It was a nice evening for all of us.


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